Please open up your Bibles to the book of 2 Peter. And we have now reached the final words of 2 Peter, as you have tracked with me through the various months. But now we've reached the end. The last words that Peter wants to direct towards the church, an encouragement. So we'll start at chapter 3, 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 14. This is God's Holy Word. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless, and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you. as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of Scripture. You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware, lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and forever. Amen. As for the reading of God's holy word, you may be seated. Let's pray for the Lord's blessing. Gracious Father, we need your Holy Spirit, Lord, to illumine our hearts and our minds, to see clearly what is here in this passage, what it has to teach us, Father, to live before you more faithfully, to exalt Christ in our life, to purge sin in our hearts, Father, only your Spirit can convict us and draw us closer to the refuge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Be with your servant now as he seeks to be faithful. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. People of God, when in your life do you feel a sense of urgency? Maybe if you're running late to work, or if you're taking a test of some kind, or during an important sports game, if you play sports. Notice that each of those scenarios are dictated by time. When we feel the clock ticking down, we become more focused. We become less distracted. Our priorities are aligned to meet our one goal, to finish the race or to do well on the test. And what about sickness? What about when we are faced and dealing with conditions such as diabetes or congenital heart failure or perhaps even a terminal disease? Or perhaps we know somebody who's dealing with those things. In those circumstances, we are more convinced of our mortality, that our time here in this life is in fact short. Typically in those moments, we realize that our time is limited. It can change our perspective of how we view our life, focusing on what truly matters. In this final chapter, Peter is helping us to shift our perspective to seeing the big picture of God's plan. He's been teaching us to know how to live in light of the imminent return of Christ. Even though the Father has been patient He has a countdown. He does have a clock. And it is ticking. And only He knows when Christ will return. And when that clock stops, everything will change. But until then, grow in the grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Because, congregation, this is my summary statement that you see before you in your bulletin, because with the peace of the gospel, the peace that we have in Christ, we endure the world's deceptions and the twisting of Scripture. by embracing the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ found in His Word. We'll also break this message into three points that you also will find in your bulletins. First, we'll talk about growing in diligence and trust, growing in stability, and finally, growing in grace. Growing in grace. So first of all, in verse 14, he says, looking forward to these things. This is still in connection with what he said previously about the coming new heavens and the new earth, that big cosmic picture of God's judgment that's going to purge all of sin once and for all. He's going to expose sin for what it is and perfectly cleanse it. But until then, as we wait, this is how we are to live, Peter says. He says to be diligent, to be found by him in peace. Be diligent. This is a word that Peter uses multiple times in his letter. It's an emphasis for us to have a call for action. It's a call for action. In chapter one, Verse 5 uses the same word but also for this very reason giving all diligence add to your faith virtue and Then he goes on to the list giving all diligence and again in verse 10 therefore brethren be even more diligent to make your call and election sure and For if ye do these things, ye will never stumble." And again in verse 15, moreover, I will be careful to ensure or be diligent, or I will be diligent to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my departure or decease. These are words that Peter is speaking basically on his deathbed, knowing that his death is close by. Be diligent, make every effort Make it your aim, your priority. So where are we to be diligent in? We are to be diligent to be found by Him in peace, to be found by Him in peace. This peace is the same word that I use to greet you to God's house. This is the same word that the apostles used to greet the church in their letters. Grace and peace. Peace that is given to all those who are reconciled to God. This is why Peter calls the church his beloved. That we are identified as God's elect who have been purchased by the blood of Christ and made righteous by faith in Christ. We are not regarded as those who are part of the world or with the false teachers that we are set apart. This peace keeps us from being worried whether or not we've done enough to be saved by God. No, we have been freed from the condemnation of the law and we have been free from our slavery to sin. So Peter now says to live in that true freedom by loving God, by pursuing right living, or in other words, righteousness. That we are living out who we are in Christ. Knowing this peace is knowing that we are slaves to Christ and no longer slaves to corruption. That Christ doesn't just remove our guilt, he breaks the hold of our sin over us. replacing our affections to our lust, our lust for our idols, with a deep-rooted trust and love for Christ. He moves on. To be diligent, to be found without spot or blemish. Now, these words are judicial terms. When you stand before a judge and you wait for him to determine whether you're guilty or whether you're innocent. to be found without spot or blemish. This is also the same words that Peter used against the false teachers. These are people who are with spots and blemishes. They are guilty. They are unrighteous in how they live their lives. Now in direct contrast to those false teachers, he calls us as a church to be found without spot or blemish. So wait a minute, Peter begins with peace and now he goes on to saying that we are to be found without spot or blemish. How do those two relate? I mean, are we to reach a certain level of holiness before we know we are saved? I mean, how can Peter expect us to be spotless? None of us are spotless. None of us can be without blemish. I mean, it's not why we believe that we are justified by faith alone. But to understand what Peter is getting at, you have to understand what Peter has already been saying in his entire letter. So we're gonna go through a bird's eye view of Peter's letter starting at chapter one. So he calls us to be holy because of these reasons. To be holy, starting in chapter one, Verses 1 and 2 says that we are slaves to Christ because we have been given his righteousness. Verse 3 says that God has equipped us with the power of his transforming grace to live godly lives. So right there, that is the basis, that is the foundation, that everything Peter calls us to do is in light of that truth. The Apostle Paul says that we are new creations, and therefore our lifestyle is going to match that. Now moving on to verse four in Peter's letter, he says, God has equipped us with his precious, exceedingly great and precious promises. Through these, again in verse four, that we may be partakers of the divine nature. meaning that we are conformed to the likeness of God, to the likeness of Jesus Christ, pursuing righteousness. Now verse eight, he says, we are to be holy because we are not going to be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're not going to be ineffective in our day-to-day life as believers if we truly are following Christ. It's not that we won't fall short. It's not that, uh, that we're going to have, uh, issues or struggles with our own life, but nonetheless, there's still going to be growth as incremental as it is, as maybe perhaps baby steps, as it may seem, it's still growth. it's still producing fruit. Loving God more, loving our neighbors more, growing in his word more, which transforms with the work of the Spirit how we view our world and how we make our life choices as we mature. Moving on to verse nine, chapter one. We are to be holy because we are not blind to what Christ has done for us. that we have not forgotten that we have been cleansed from our old sins because of the grace of Jesus. We haven't forgotten of what we have been saved from. Verse 10 says, we are to make, we are to be holy because we are to make our calling and election sure. We're not saved by works, we're saved to work because of Christ or what he has provided already. We're saved by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone. To use the words of Martin Luther. Now moving on to chapter three. Well, not a particular verse, but just in general. Chapter 3, the world as we know it is going to be purged with fire, the fire of God's holiness, as we touched on last week. That's why we're called to be holy. We are not to be attached to this world and the gifts in it to the extent that we are discontent with the truth that God is going to return, is going to come back. Because how we live now, how you and I live now, reflects the treasure of what lies in the next life. So Peter is not, well, we're not expected to become sinless in this side of glory. 1 John reminds us of that, that we're not going to reach a point of becoming sinless, but we are to reach for it. Peter is using this language of awakening us to pursue righteousness. And now he moves on, going back to our passage, verse 15. Chapter three, verse 15. And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. Peter is reminding us why God hasn't returned because He is patient. He is patiently waiting for His people to be saved. Every moment that goes by, every second that goes by that Christ hasn't returned is a moment for salvation, for others to come to Him. But there is also a sense that Peter can be referring salvation to us, independently. Peter often, well not often, but he has used the term salvation to point to a general sense of salvation. 1 Peter 1.5, look in your own time, he says this, the hope of the resurrection is guarded by God's faithfulness until our salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time. So in other words, the more we know Christ, the more we know his word, the more we aim to please him. As Peter calls us to be diligent, to know God's peace, to strive to please him with our lives, he also calls us to grow in our stability. That's where we're going to move on in our second point, to grow in stability. As a way of confirming his own message, Peter refers to another apostle in order to build a sense of trust and authority with the church that he's speaking to. Peter now goes to Paul, saying that he, that is Paul, affirms in his letters what Peter has been saying in his letter. You see what I'm saying? So he uses Paul as a way of confirming Peter's message. So one of those examples of Paul, there are many, this is not the only one, but one example can be found in 2 Corinthians 5.9 when Paul says, Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well-pleasing to him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what has been done, whether good or bad. So in summary, Peter and Paul's message of holy living, while waiting for Christ's return, they complement each other. There is a uniformity to the message of the apostles. And this is a way of defeating the views of the false teachers. And I find this interesting also that Peter did not feel a sense, a need to defend or convince the church that Paul's letters were in fact God's word. Remember, we're still in the first century. The 66 books of the Bible have not been collected and recognized up to this point. Now, the first 39 of the Old Testament, yes, we can say that with certainty. But the remaining 27, they're still being written. They're still being circulated. And perhaps Paul, some of Paul's letters, and John, the apostle John was most likely still writing his letters at this point in time. But all of the letters that was recognize or are available to Peter, that's what he affirms. Now, we don't know exactly what, you know, all the letters that Peter knew about. We can only make an estimated guess. But nonetheless, he still recognized Paul's letters as God's word. And he also recognizes another thing. that some things written by Paul are hard to understand. He's recognizing that there are some complex parts in Scripture to interpret. Not everything in Scripture is simple. But notice that Peter doesn't say that because there are certain parts in Scripture that are difficult to understand, well, now it's up to us and whatever we feel is the right interpretation. No, he actually says the opposite, to be quite frank. There are wrong ways to interpret the hard sayings of scripture, even to the point of leading someone to destruction that will lead them to damnation. Peter describes these false teachers as ignorant, unstable, who twist not only Paul's words, but other portions of Scripture as well, so that it can fit their agenda. Peter is trying to affirm that these false teachers are twisting Paul's words, perhaps his words when he talks about grace, that we're no longer under the law but under grace, so that they can say, well, we don't need to conform to God's law anymore, God's commandments don't bind us anymore, we live as we wish, we live under the grace of God, using God's word as a license to sin. basically is what they're doing. We noticed that previously in chapter 2 and other areas when Peter directly directs his attention to the false teachers. So there are wrong ways to interpret the heart sayings of Scripture. But that's why whenever we come across a difficult passage, We don't just isolate it in that one passage. We see what other passages say about that teaching. We use scripture to interpret scripture. So if we isolate one passage that says one thing and make a doctrine out of it, but it doesn't line up with everything else that scripture says, then we know that we're on the wrong path. And anyways, I can go more into that, but just to clarify that for you. But just because there are certain passages in Scripture that are difficult to understand, doesn't mean all of Scripture is difficult to understand. We understand that Scripture in its general, the general reading of Scripture is in fact easy to understand the message of salvation. I remember Jesus promised, they said to the disciples in John 16, when he, he says this, when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will tell you things to come. Now he is directly speaking to the disciples who will become the apostles. But now that we have the spirit, Dwelling in us, now that we have the Spirit in us, to dwell in us, we have the Spirit to lead us in truth as well. So that we can understand the message of salvation of the gospel. So moving on to verse 17 now. Peter says this, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. Always be on your guard. Now that you have been warned, Peter is essentially saying, now that you've been warned, now that you've been reminded of the privileges that you've been given, now that you understand where your knowledge comes from, Do not be deceived. Do not be carried away by false teachings and lies that will lead you away from the gospel, from Christ. And Paul has a similar exhortation in Ephesians 4 when he says God has equipped the church with these shepherds, apostles, prophets, evangelists, all those teachers to build up the church. These teachers are to promote the knowledge of the Son of God so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and the schemes of man. Also Paul says in Ephesians 4, we must be like the noble Bereans who took nothing for granted when they heard the Word of God preached, even when they heard the Apostle Paul. I mean, if anyone, you can perhaps, maybe not relax, but just take whatever he says as truth, it would be the Apostle Paul, but the Bereans did not do such a thing. They heard him preach and they looked through the Old Testament Scriptures to see what he said was true. Test everything by the word of God. Because Peter understood that we as Christians, we face enemies, both physical and spiritual. We battle against the world, we battle against the flesh, and we battle against the devil. Our world wants us to be like one of their own, following their rebellion in the name of freedom. removing God from our lives so that we can live according to our definition of justice, of love, of happiness. Our old nature loves to find comfort in our sin and our idols being like the rest of the world. And the devil, because he is raging against the Beloved of Christ, seeking to devour their faith with discouragement, with persecution, with false teaching, by corrupting them. by corrupting the leaders of the church, among many other schemes. Scripture is our only refuge from these enemies. And now we arrive at the main theme of Peter's letter, verse 18, to grow in grace. How do we guard ourselves from having a false assurance, from believing in the wrong doctrines? How do we know that we will not lose our stability and fall away from the faith? Grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, if anyone wrestled with his assurance, it would be Peter. The same Peter who vowed that he would never, ever deny Christ the night before he was crucified. And yet three times, just as Jesus prophesied, he rejected him before men, before the night was done. If you were to see Peter on that night, you will see a pitiful man. He wept bitterly, the passage says. perhaps even having some dark thoughts about his own salvation. But how did Jesus restore Peter? He asked him three times, Simon, son of Barjona, do you love me? And Peter says without hesitation, of course, Lord, I love you. You know that I love you. then feed my sheep. Peace, assurance comes from knowing Christ and embracing his love for you. The depths of the love of God in the gospel is what will ground you when everything else in your life seems unstable. The relationships that you have, the goals that you have for your life, the job that you have that you hope will bring you to places. When everything else seems unstable, the love of God is what will ground you. Wherever you are spiritually, wherever trial you are dealing with, whatever temptations that you are faced, knowing Christ and His word will sustain you through it. Grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. He is not only the Lord who reigns in victory, in power and authority, He is your Savior who purchased you with His own blood. There's a quote I'm gonna bring from Charles Spurgeon. J. I. Packer uses it in his book, Knowing God, in his opening chapter. These are the words of Charles Spurgeon. He says this about God's Word. He says, the knowledge of God humbles the mind, expands the mind, and provides comfort for the deepest needs of the soul. Oh, there is in contemplating Christ a balm for every wound. Do you wish to lose your sorrow? Would you like to drown your cares? Then go plunge yourself in the Godhead's deepest sea. be lost in his immensity, and you shall be refreshed and invigorated." People of God, the gospel is simple enough for a child to understand, and yet it is deep enough to cause even the greatest theologians, the greatest Christian minds through all of history to drown in its depth and in its glory. As we approach the day of God's return, the clock is ticking. How would this impact the way you live? The way you talk to your spouse, the way you talk to your children, your siblings, the way you approach your parents, your job, your school, your relationships with your friends, your coworkers, your neighbors, in the highs and in the lows, how would you approach those things in light of this reality. Everything around you is temporal and is going to be renovated and purged with fire. People of God, behold Christ. Behold his word. Behold his love for you on the cross and his exaltation as he sits in victory at the right hand of God. Behold the keys of death. Behold His faithfulness that He will never fail to keep His promise to the Church. Behold His grace that will sustain you until the day of eternity. To Him be the glory. People of God, He is worthy of your obedience. He is worthy of your trust and your confidence. One day he will return and everything will be made right. He will shut the mouths of scoffers and vindicate his people from injustice. And I'll end this with a quote from a hymn that I've grown to love by the Sea of Crystal. It says, out of tribulation, death and Satan's hand, we will be translated at the Lord's command. The lamb victorious, be the praise alone. Beloved Christ is victorious. He will be glorified. Grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And all of God's people said, Amen. Let's pray. Father, awaken our hearts to see scripture as a treasure that anchors our soul, to recognize your times of blessing, but also to recognize your times of hardship. Father, you know our hearts. You know where we are at spiritually in our maturity towards you. You know what lies ahead of our lives. You know the days that we have to live. Father, we trust you in each and every one of those days. That not only are you sovereign over it, but you are working in us. You are molding us, shaping us, to be like Christ, to love Him, to trust Him, to grow in the grace and knowledge of His Word. But Father, we often want to take the comforting route, when Lord, at times, that is not what is best for us. You know your priorities, but your priorities are for us to be conformed to the image of Christ, And when the hardships come, we know that you will sustain us because you are there with us. You are there with us and you are for us. What we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, that nothing can separate us from your love, not depression, not anxiety, not persecution, not losing a job, not difficulties in school or troubled relationships, not heartaches. Nothing, Lord, can separate us from your love. Father, help that to be the anchor of our hearts and souls as we go before you in our life. Father, we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.