Keep Growing

If you would open your Bible to the last verses of 2 Peter chapter 3, I have uh mixed emotions today as we come to the end of this study.

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

Uh in uh in the OCD realm of my brain, there is an a sense of accomplishment.

Uh I have finished another book and that feels good.

Uh but on the other side, I I just wish we could spend more time here.

I look at it and I think, you know, there's some there's some text I probably could have went deeper in, got more out of, or there's some subjects I would just like to revisit and spend some more time on.

But the good news is that the Bible is all God's Word.

And so the next text that I preach from next week will be just as much God's Word as this is.

And so we trust His sovereignty in these matters.

If you have your Bible open in front of you, would you follow along as I read 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 17 and 18?

2 Peter 3:17

He says, You therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to him be glory, both now and forever.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, we are so thankful to have a copy of your word before us today, that we have your inspired, infallible, inerrant, preserved text for us.

So that when we read the words from this page, we hear your voice.

Father, I pray and ask that you would help us to receive this final message from the Apostle Peter.

It is as much relevant today as it ever was.

The dangers are just as real and the potential is just as great.

And so, Father, I pray and ask that you would just help us to keep growing, that there would never be a time in our life when we stop growing in our walk with you.

And I pray that in Jesus' name, Amen.

This is the final word of Peter's last letter.

And as we know that the Bible is a book made up of 66 books, and even though those are individual books written by different authors, it has one true author, which is the Holy Spirit, and there is this unity to Scripture, and there are parallels that are there.

And so as I was coming to the end of the letter of Peter, I was reminded of the final words of Moses to the people of Israel.

Let me just kind of fill you in.

In Numbers 27, God informed Moses that he was soon to die and that he would not get to lead the people into the promised land, these people that he's led through the wilderness for the past four decades.

The heart of Moses is seen in his response to the news in the following verses.

Moses did not ask God to change his decision.

There's no plea of saying, no, Lord, please let me just take them in, let me conquer the first city, let me cross the river.

There's no plea to change his decision, nor did he plead his own case on his behalf.

He didn't say, Well, Lord, you know how trifling these people are, and you've been mad at them before, and I got mad and I lost my temper that one time at the rock, and he didn't make any defense for himself.

Instead, he made a request for those people.

And his request was, God, please give them a godly leader who will lead them into the future.

And then God allowed Moses to make one final address to the people of Israel before he died, and it's recorded in the book of Deuteronomy.

The name Deuteronomy actually means second law because it's somewhat of a repetition of what Moses has said.

But know that it is his very last address.

He has the news.

He's going to die.

These are the people he's led for 40 years.

The last time they were at the border of the Promised Land, they failed.

And his heart is that they will keep going and that they will be successful.

And so in Deuteronomy, he makes his final address.

And when we read Deuteronomy, we find that everything that Moses said was to help the people of God to keep going and to keep growing.

That's his heart.

Likewise, God has revealed to Peter that he's going to die soon.

If you remember, 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 13 through 15, Peter says, Hey, the Lord revealed to me that I'm soon to put off this tabernacle, and it's my desire to stir you up that you keep these things in your remembrance long after I'm gone.

2 Peter 1:13–15

And so I see this parallel between Peter and Moses, where Peter knows that this is his last address to the people of God.

And so what we find in 2 Peter is his last address to the people of God whom he has been shepherding for the last 30 years.

And he wants them to keep going and to keep growing.

This is summarized in those last two verses of the letter that we just read.

Over verse 17, you could write, keep going.

And over verse 18, you could write, keep growing.

Keep going, he says in verse 17.

Let's just break it down.

Let's just take it word for word.

He says, therefore.

Well, that's a conjunction that connects this verse to the previous verses.

It's saying, because of that, this, therefore.

And so those previous verses are about the promise of the second coming of Christ.

So therefore, keep going, because Christ is coming back.

But if you remember, those previous verses weren't just about the second coming of Christ, it is also talking about that prolonged period of difficulties that they will experience before his return.

And so, because Christ is coming back, but also because it may be a while and it may be tough, I want you to keep going.

Beloved, he says.

Therefore, beloved.

We previously noted that it's not just a term of endearment, it's a term of identification.

It is first and primarily used in the Gospels in reference to Jesus Christ as the beloved Son of God.

And then after the Gospels, it is only used in reference to believers.

And so what Peter is writing here is being written specifically to Christians.

So the Bible has three audiences it is the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God.

And so when you're reading a book of the Bible, you need to know who the male is addressed to.

If you're reading the Old Testament, primarily addressed to the Jew.

Reading the New Testament, primarily addressed to the Church of God.

But there are some portions that are addressed to the Gentile world.

This is addressed to Christians.

And so I would ask, are you a Christian?

If you are a Christian, then this word is for you.

Don't read it like the newspaper.

Don't read it like a history book.

Don't read it like a textbook.

Take it personally.

This is written to you.

This is for you.

This is God's revelation for the New Testament believer.

Take this personally.

Peter is writing to you, put your name in there.

You, therefore, he is saying, beloved, take it personally, take it seriously.

Take it seriously.

There's a warning in verse 17.

There's an admonition in verse 18.

I can't read it as if I am just as if I'm just auditing the class.

This is the assignment.

This is serious.

I need to keep going.

I need to keep growing.

I need to beware of something.

I need to aim for something.

He goes on, he says, seeing that you know these things beforehand, well, that just means that we have been given advanced notice.

That we are going to face some difficulties in this period between the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ.

We're not caught off guard.

We're not blindsided.

When the world condemns us or condemns one of our beliefs or wants to marginalize us or alienate us or criticize us, treat us as if we are ignorant and unlearned and radical.

Don't be caught off guard by that.

That is what we were told would happen between the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ.

We know that it's not going to be a cakewalk to follow Christ.

You know, I didn't know what a cakewalk was.

I knew that it was something that was easy.

My wife taught me what a cake walk was a few years ago at Trunk or Tree.

She said, let's do a cake walk for the kids.

I said, okay, what's a cake walk?

And she said, well, let's get you, we'll get cupcakes.

And then the kids walk around while you play the music and stops, and some person's on this spot, then they get cake.

Well, you know what I found?

Every kid got cake.

Where's the competition in that?

So I say to you, following Jesus isn't a cake walk.

It isn't that it's all going to be sweet, that everybody's going to get the same reward.

There will be challenges.

There will be obstacles.

There will be temptations, right?

Sometimes there's an obstacle that is placed in our way that we've got to figure out how to get around, how to get over, how to get under.

But there are other times when there are temptations that tempt you in your weakness that will draw you away.

We've got to be aware of those.

We've also got to be aware that there's going to be hecklers along the way.

It doesn't help, does it?

You ever watch the football games and the people who sit behind the goalposts and they'll have things and they'll just kind of like shake them back and forth.

They're trying to distract the kicker.

They're trying to distract that kicker from scoring the goal.

There are going to be people along the way, along with the obstacles you face and the temptations you have to fight, there are going to be people who are jeering at you.

People are going to be mocking you.

People are going to be scoffing at you.

And so we are aware of that.

But then he goes on and he says, be aware.

And this means that we need to keep our eyes wide open and our head on a swivel.

In Ephesians, it says we are to walk circumspectly.

And that simply means that we are looking around as we go.

We've got to be on the lookout for these things.

I would say to you, don't be careless and don't be aimless.

Careless is walking through the world as if you don't have a care in the world.

There's no enemy, there's no attack, there's no temptation, there's no obstacle.

Man, you're setting yourself up for a hard fall if you go carelessly through life.

But there's also the danger of being aimless.

Well, I'm careful as I go.

I'm just not intentional about where I'm going and the direction I'm going and the pace that I'm making.

And so we are told here that we're to be aware and we've got to be aware of these things, and we've got to be careful, and we've not got to be aimless.

Why?

What's the danger?

What's the big deal?

Why is he hammering down on this?

Well, he tells us in the next phrase, in the next clause.

He says, lest you be led away with the error of the wicked.

Well, that sounds bad.

Okay, if I'm not walking around, if I'm not paying attention, if I'm not heeding the warning that I've received in advance, I could be led away with the error of the wicked.

What is the error of the wicked?

Well, I can tell you that it's not nebulous and it's not nefarious.

By nebulous, I mean it is not this generic, undefined, universal appellation for any and all error, but rather it's specific.

And so it's not like the overprotective mother who makes her child afraid of everything.

Oh, I might be led away by this, and I might be led away, oh, that's an error of the way, and that's an error.

That's not how it's meant.

It is not just undefined and nebulous.

It is specific.

But I'd also tell you that it's not nefarious.

In other words, it's not going to look like the worst of the worst sin that you could commit.

Because we we can do that sometimes.

Sometimes we take this approach where we're worried that everything is going to lead us to.

And then there's other times that we think, well, it's only that really bad stuff, that line that I would never cross.

And we do that to ourselves.

Well, I, you know, I'm not what I'm supposed to be.

I'm not following Jesus like I should, but I would never cross that line.

The strange thing about those imaginary lines we draw is that they keep moving outward as we move outward.

What used to be a line for you some time ago now is moved further ahead.

And so I'm telling you, it's not it's not nebulous, it's not nefarious, it's specific.

It is the error.

Here's the error of the wicked that can lead us astray.

It is the error of thinking and living like Jesus is not coming back.

That's the error of the wicked.

That's the error that Peter has been warning us about since verse number three.

It is that you and I, as believers, are living in this world and we have two mindsets.

Either we are looking and watching for the Lord to come back, or we're living like he's not coming back soon.

And that's the error of the wicked that we're in danger of falling into, although the return of Christ may take a while.

Right?

Historically, it's been almost 2,000 years since his first coming, and his second coming has not happened yet.

It has been a while.

And it may be a while longer, but the second coming is to be viewed as imminent.

That is, it could happen at any moment.

If you notice, anytime you read about the second coming of Christ in the Bible, it is always spoken of as if it could be at any moment.

Is it not?

Just listen to that.

Jesus talked about it more than anybody else.

I was reading about it this morning in Matthew 23 and 24.

And he's telling them, it could you come at an hour when you do not expect it.

Like the thief in the night, like the returning master.

And we hear these words like, watch, look for.

We are told that we are supposed to be looking for it because it can happen in the twinkling of an eye.

So I'm telling you that the danger or the error of the wicked is when we start living as if Jesus isn't about to come back.

When is Jesus coming back, you might ask?

I don't know.

But it could be today.

It could be today.

That's how God designed it.

Jesus said, no man knows the hour or the day in which I come.

Why?

Because God wants us to live with that urgency and that anticipation.

Can you imagine how far afield we would go if we had the date Jesus was coming back?

Oh, we don't have to live for the Lord today.

I can slack off today.

Can you imagine what church history would look like if Jesus had said, I'm coming back in the year whatever.

Sometime past the year we're in.

2026.

What would that have done to first century Christians?

Second century, 10th century, 16th century.

I'm just telling you, that's how we are wired as fallible human beings.

And so God is coming back.

And he didn't tell us when, because he wants us to be ready all the time.

And then he goes on to say, fall from your own steadfastness.

That means to fall out, to fall down or to fall off.

So the dangerous outcome, here it is, the dangerous outcome of losing sight of the imminent return of Christ is that you will fall out of faithfulness.

That's the great danger we're being warned about in verse 17.

Led away with the air of the wicked.

When I lose sight that Jesus is coming back, then I will fall out of faithfulness.

It is the danger that Jesus described in many of his parables about when the master goes away and he delays his return and the servants begin to neglect their duties and indulge their lusts.

That's what happens when we lose sight of the fact that Jesus is coming back.

But thankfully, Peter doesn't just sound the warning.

He goes on to show the way that we can keep going.

He's saying, keep going, keep going, keep going.

Don't be led away, don't fall off, don't back off, don't fade out, keep going.

How do I do that?

I want to do that, but you know all the obstacles that are out there.

You know all the proclivities that are in me.

You know how difficult.

How do I achieve the goal to keep going?

And he tells us in verse 18, keep growing.

That's how.

Notice that it begins with a disjunctive conjunction.

Yeah.

It is that little word but.

And I point this out because what it indicates is that it is used to show an alternative.

Right?

The conjunction in verse 17 was therefore.

That's saying, hey, look back to what was just said, and now this is what you need to do.

When we start with this little word, but it is telling us that there's an alternative.

Instead of that, instead of being led away with the air of the wicked, instead of falling from your steadfastness, here is the alternative.

Instead of falling, grow.

It is growing.

How do I keep going?

Well, the best way to ensure that I keep going through the difficulties and all the challenges is that I actually am going to keep growing.

If I stay on that track, that protects me from falling.

And so we have that little indicator there.

The next word is grow, but grow.

Now I need to tell you some grammatical references about this.

It is a verb, means action, right?

It's present tense, happening right now.

It's in the active voice, it's an imperative, and it's in the second person.

That means it's addressed to you.

I tell you that because it indicates three aspects of growth.

What are these three aspects of growth?

Well, first, growth is imperative.

That's what I know from this verb.

But grow.

It's imperative that you grow.

Growth is commanded.

We are commanded to grow as Christians.

Remember, I told you, take this personally, take this seriously because it's addressed to you.

You have been commanded to grow.

I have been commanded to grow.

It means that growth is required.

It is not just one of the tracks in the Christian life, it is the required course for all Christians.

Sometimes we look at the commands in Scripture and we think that those are electives that we get to choose from.

Be evangelistic, be faithful, be forgiving, be growing.

Well, you know what?

I'm not that mature in my faith.

I'm not growing.

I'm not a student, but you know, I'm pretty good at telling other people about Jesus.

Listen, these are not.

Electives.

This is an imperative.

It is a command.

That little verb also tells me that growth is possible.

If growth is commanded to every Christian, then growth is possible for every Christian.

That's good news.

That means that nobody is incapable of growing.

And sadly, we as Christians sometimes want to disqualify ourselves.

Well, I could never do that.

I could never teach.

I could never witness.

I could never know my Bible the way so-and-so knows their Bible.

Hey, I'm telling you, this little verb tells us that everybody can grow.

You can grow.

It reminded me of Oprah's favorite things.

Y'all remember Oprah's favorite things?

And she's like, you can and you can and you can and you can.

We could go around the room today.

Every believer in this room can grow.

It doesn't matter what your literary skills are like.

Doesn't matter what your attention span is.

Doesn't matter what your education is.

Doesn't matter what your profession is.

Every Christian can grow.

And then growth is continuous.

Again, I told you about that little word.

It is in the present tense.

And that means always happening.

You can always grow.

You can always grow.

We are programmed to look at the nature around us and know that there are growing seasons and there are dormant seasons.

We're getting ready to enter into the dormant season, or we've actually already entered into it.

And I think we tend to think that our life has to be that way.

That there are periods when we grow and then there's other periods when we don't.

But this word tells us that growth can be continuous.

You might say, Well, I grew yesterday.

You can grow today.

I grew when I first got saved.

Well, hey, you can grow now.

And what is great is that no matter how much you have grown, there's potential to keep growing.

You will never outgrow your potential.

There is always potential for you to grow more.

And so, some of you saints who have spent your life studying the Bible and have grown so much in your knowledge of the Lord, I have good news for you.

You can keep growing.

You can keep growing till Jesus comes back.

You've not hit the ceiling.

You have not topped out.

That is such good news.

He goes on, he says, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Let me tell you, growing grace does not mean that you earn more of God's grace by the way that you perform in your Christian life, because that's not grace.

Grace is God's unmerited favor, which means that it is a gift that is initiated by God and given unilaterally by God and is by no means earned by anything that we do.

Grace all comes from God's side.

He's the one who initiated it.

I didn't initiate it.

It wasn't my prayers that brought it down.

He's the one who gives it unilaterally.

It is not some sort of transaction where I'm giving him something and he's giving me something.

He unilaterally makes the decision that he is giving me grace and it is unmerited, it is undeserved, it is unearned by anything that we do.

So to grow in grace does not mean you're getting more grace.

You got all the grace you're ever going to get, and it's inexhaustible.

To grow in grace means that we grow in our understanding, appreciation, and operation of God's grace.

Let me break that down for you.

There is so much more to God's grace than we understand when we first get saved.

Isn't there?

So much more.

I would liken it to our understanding of what our parents did for us as we grow older and we mature.

As kids, we didn't understand the depth of their love.

As kids, we didn't fully understand the depth of their care, their sacrifice for us.

I remember coming to that realization in my life in early adulthood.

I didn't realize that my mom could have left just like my dad.

I didn't appreciate all the sacrifices that she made to be able to provide for me and my brother, the basic necessities that we needed, the things that she went without for.

But boy, as I got older and I matured, I realized what that woman sacrificed for me.

And I have a deeper understanding of that.

That's how grace works.

You got all that grace you're ever going to give, but you didn't understand it all.

But you will and can understand it more if you grow in grace.

Subsequently, we did not appreciate it as we should.

As we grow in our understanding, we grow in our appreciation.

That's how it works.

That's how it worked with us and our parents.

We appreciate what they did more when we look back at it through this lens of maturity and understanding.

And the same is true.

When you and I grow in our understanding of grace, we're going to grow in our appreciation of grace.

When we sing songs about God's grace, it's going to touch us, it's going to move us.

Perhaps it might bring us to tears because we appreciate that grace so much more than we used to.

And then as we grow in these areas, we begin to operate from a basis of grace, realizing that we live and stand only on the grace of God.

That's what it means to grow in grace.

You grow in your understanding, your appreciation, your operation.

We come to realize that there's nothing that I have earned.

There's nothing that I do.

I am not a self-made man.

It is not the work of my hands.

It is not the hours that I put in.

That is not what I am standing on.

I am only here because of the grace of God.

If it were not for God's grace, there would be no genetic material that made me up.

If it were not for God's grace, there would be no planet earth.

If it were not for God's grace, there wouldn't be oxygen in the air, and there wouldn't be lungs in my chest.

If it were not for God's grace, there wouldn't be any intellect in my mind.

All of it is God's grace.

And as we grow, we'll growing Christian, we'll be living a grace-based life.

However, we cannot grow in the grace of God if we do not know the knowledge of Christ.

If we don't grow in the knowledge of Christ, we can't grow in grace.

Knowledge, as it's used here, has two aspects.

There is intellectual knowledge and there's intimate knowledge.

Let me just quickly explain that and we'll wrap it up.

In John 8.31, Jesus said to those Jews who believed on him, If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

This is what I call intellectual knowledge, and it comes from the Word of God.

Right?

I can read the Word, I have comprehension, I can know the Word in my head.

And we need to have intellectual knowledge.

We need to know how our Bible is put together.

We need to know what it says.

And we get that growth in intellectual knowledge when we read and study and spend time in his word.

And so if I'm going to grow in grace, I've got to grow in the knowledge of my Lord.

If I'm going to grow in the knowledge of my Lord, I've got to grow in the knowledge of his word.

I've got to read it, I've got to study it, I've got to memorize it, I've got to be in places where it's being explained to me.

That's how I'm going to grow in the knowledge of the Lord.

But then there's another aspect to this knowledge.

John 14, 9, Jesus said to him, Have I been so long time with you?

And have you not known me, Philip?

This is what I would call intimate knowledge.

This isn't the knowledge that he got from reading a book.

This is the knowledge that comes from spending time with the Lord.

And so if we're going to grow in the knowledge of our Lord in order to grow in grace, then we've got to spend time in his word, and we've got to spend time with him.

This aspect of knowledge is seen in the marriage relationship that Peter described in 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 7.

1 Peter 3:7

Perhaps you remember this verse.

He says, Likewise, you husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife.

Hey, James, let me ask you.

Did Teresa come with an owner's manual?

Did James and Cleo give you a notebook, a file folder that explained to you how to know this woman?

Yeah, yeah, it would be helpful, wouldn't it?

Would be helpful.

You know her because you live with her.

You know her because you've spent your life with her.

That's a part of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In December, Melissa and I will celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary.

That means that I have lived with that woman for over half my life.

Over half my life.

I have lived with her.

I was 25 when we got married.

And I know her better today than I did then because I have oriented my life to spend time with her.

We got married.

You know what I did before we got married?

I rented a house.

And when we got married, she and I moved into that house.

We had never lived together before.

I didn't have any of that knowledge.

I didn't know.

I didn't know how big the bathroom counter needed to be to accommodate all of the accessories, but I learned I didn't know that I would have to have my closet in a different room because she needed both of the closets in our room for her clothes.

See, she's not here today.

No, what I'm telling you is I oriented my life to spend time with her.

We moved in together, we made our life together, we make our schedules together.

I get to spend time with that woman every single day.

And I have for the last 27 years.

And because of that, I get an idea of what Peter is saying when he says, Dwell with them according to knowledge.

Hey, I know my wife, not because I read a book about her, but because I live with her.

Because I spend time with her.

This is what Peter is talking about when he says, Grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Can I ask you, have you oriented your life to spend time with Jesus?

Like you oriented your life to spend time with your spouse.

Have you oriented your life to spend time with Jesus?

You see, not only does this growth benefit me, but it glorifies him.

Which after all is our created purpose.

It is the absolute greatest thing I can do with my life, is to bring glory to Christ.

The very final word that Peter says is to him.

Both now and forever.

Amen.

How do I bring glory to God both now and forever I keep going and I keep growing.

And that keeps glorifying Him.

Would you bow with me?

We bow our heads for joy.