Friday, February 23th | Getting Back on Track

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And you knew that would happen. I'm Johnny Kalantis. And you're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Absolutely nothing less. Hashtag Jon through the pen. Here we go. I got it. I'm not going to cut this out. Jackson, leave all this in. You can leave us a good five-star review on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere that you get your podcasting content from. Absolutely nothing less than five stars. We're going to leave some links in the description.

Wait for it so you can do just that. This has gone off the rails. Let me take us to the word of the Lord to try to get us back on track. The verse of the day today comes from Jeremiah 2, verses 12 and 13. Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid. Be very desolate, says the Lord, for My people have committed two evils.

They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. We like to put a lot of God's wrath on the Jewish people because there's a lot of it there. There's a lot of God's people forsaking Him, turning to idols, disobeying Him. He says, committing evils in the sight of the Lord, forgetting His grace and His goodness. It feels good for us as Christians to say, man, look how terrible Israel is.

Look what they've done. Look at how God has forgotten them. We forget that we are God's people.

We have been grafted in. A lot of these sins that we think are just for them, I think we mentioned it earlier this week, this idolatry. We forget that we are just as guilty, if not more so, because we actually mask ours, and we refuse to repent because we refuse to acknowledge that it's even there. It says the Lord disciplines those whom He loves.

A father disciplines his children that he loves, and we see that a lot in God's anger towards Israel, but ultimately their ultimate restoration as well. This Super Bowl wasn't a game. This was people who like Taylor Swift and people who don't like Taylor Swift, which is the most bizarre sentence I think that anybody could say about American sports. The Super Bowl this year was Taylor Swift fans versus non-Taylor Swift fans.

Swifties versus non-Swifties. And I was like, she's not on the field at all. She's in the stands, but people care more about her being in the stands watching this game than about the men playing football.

After the halftime show, I remember you being like, all right, guys, basketball court is open. The room was empty. Nobody watched the Super Bowl.

There was one student. No, I didn't see any of the third quarter. No. I didn't let us know what your Super Bowl party was like if you watched the game or if you were just there for the food or the ads or Taylor Swift. 252-582-5028 or you can visit us online at clearytodayshow.com. Stay tuned. We'll be right back. What's going on, listeners? My name is Jon.

And I'm David. And we hope you are enjoying the podcast thus far. You know, we really appreciate how many of you download the podcast every day. But we also want to remind you that we are first and foremost a radio show. Clearview Today is actually syndicated through the Truth Network. And we just want to let you know right now that in addition to hosting the all-time best Christian talk show of all time, hashtag Clearview Today, hashtag Clearview Today, the Truth Network also, as it turns out, has an extensive library of Christian programming. We really love everything they're doing at the Truth Network because the whole goal is to encourage, challenge, confront, and uplift listeners with the life-changing truth of Jesus Christ through Christian talk radio. And listen, we know we are not the only show wanting to expand its audience. So if you have a vision for your show or for your ministry, why don't you consider syndicating your show through the Truth Network because they rely on decades of experience of self-syndication with a full array of features for your long-form or short-form content. Make sure you visit the Truth Network online today at truthnetwork.com or you can give them a call at 336-759-0363.

Again, that's 336-759-0363. Well, John, are you ready? I was born ready, my friend. Let's hop right back in. All right. Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028. That's right. We're here today on this beautiful Friday morning in the Clearview Today studio with Dr. Abbadan Shah, who is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and host of today's show.

Dr. Shah, first things first. I need to confess. Oh, this is hard. At the Super Bowl party, I tried the cupcake sandwich, the cupcake hack.

You cut the cupcake in half, you put one on top, and then you eat it. You remember we talked about it yesterday? Yeah. How did we go? I had three. I don't know if you had any of this, but one of the students, I think it was Riley, made, it was literally chocolate dip, and it was just grand crap curse, and the dip was like molten chocolate. It was like whipped chocolate cookie dough kind of. Do you remember that sketch show All That on Nickelodeon, the chocolate show where just everything was made? That's what it was like, and I bit into it. I was like, this is too much.

Sometimes you're eating, and you're in a Super Bowl party, you're eating can get to a place where it's unchecked. Did you have any of the, very nice, dude, very nice. I'm just going to let you go with that one, because that was a clean segue. I appreciate that. That is the name of the message that we're referencing, but today we're beginning a brand new series here on the Clear V Today show related to a series that you preached recently, Dr. Shah, that has been tremendously impactful both in our lives, in the lives of those at our church, and far and wide in our community. People are talking about this series. Yes, and I've shared with you guys that I believe that this series marks a shift in a good way, a shift in our church, our church's life, our way of thinking. It's good, it's positive, it's Christ-honoring. I believe we're going to look back to this series as the time where we not only grew deeper in our relationship with God, but also we had a renewed sense of leadership, vision, hope, purpose, God's presence, all of that.

So this series was very helpful to me. What brought about the desire to do something different, or what brought about the desire for that shift, do you think? Well, I was thinking about it last fall, that as we get into the new year, which is 2024, and this is the year we're going to be in our new building, still a few months away, I wanted people to start growing in their Christian life. I wanted to grow in their Christian life, but I wanted people to be able to grow in their Christian life and not just grow randomly or without any course and action, but grow with a purpose, grow with tangible results, like an app, you can track your growth. And I thought about many passages in the Bible where it talks about growth in the Christian life, and the one that stuck out to me was 2 Peter, where Peter tells the believers to start adding to their faith, virtue or excellence, to excellence, knowledge, which is wisdom and discernment, to knowledge, self-control, to self-control, perseverance, to perseverance, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness, love.

Start adding these things to your faith. And I felt like if we can track our spiritual lives on this spectrum from faith to love, we can see where we are. One, we have to be very honest with the biblical truth, like this is what it means. This is what it means in its context.

This is what it means in its entirety. This is also what it means in light of the rest of scripture. So it's not like we're taking this passage and just coming up with an odd theology. No, it needs to ring true across the Bible, yeah?

So it needs to be true to the word, the word of God, but then it needs to be quantifiable. Well, I love, I agree 100% wholeheartedly, and I love that you did point that out, that it has to be biblical, it has to be found on the Bible, because I feel like, and maybe I'm wrong on this, but I feel like a lot of Christians, maybe even I would say the majority of Christians, will use spirituality and almost like a pseudo-holiness to mask laziness, because at the end of the day, I don't want to keep track of my spiritual disciplines. I don't want to think and mark down how encouraging was I today, how virtuous was I today. I would rather just say, listen, God doesn't want me to do that, just grow a little Bible. Yeah, it's not about what you do is what's been done for you.

And I get that, I totally understand what they're saying, but that's not what is being said here. It's an imperative, add to your faith. Virtue, to virtue, knowledge, to knowledge, self-control. So you have to do something.

It's not just about the cliche, which is it's already been done. Yes, my salvation is done. In fact, everything that I need to live the Christian life from faith to love has been done for me, has been given to me. But now I am called to work out what has been worked in. And so many people have that frustration when you think about growing in your faith, growing in Christ.

I understand that I need to do that, but what does that look like? How do I grow in Christ? Do I just try to mean it harder? Do I try to just love God more? But I love that this is a quantifiable thing.

How are you doing in these areas? And that one leads to the other, they build off of another, this list that Peter gives us. The word is seritis. Sounds like a disease, but it's not.

It's a rhetorical device. Seritis means building on each other. So you build on faith, you build excellence. On excellence, you build the next quality.

And on and on you go, till finally it's love. Well, I love the whole purpose behind the series as well, because it's the perfect balance between biblical and theological, but also with very, very real application. And it seems like a lot of preaching sort of wavers between those two extremes, where it's like super theological, but I can't really apply it, or it's really, really applicable, but it's still kind of surface. And I think a lot of preaching has become that, one or the other. If you want to talk about just applicable, think about Rick Warren.

Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, I can say that. He's done some great things, and his book, Purpose Driven Life, has touched so many. Prior to that, there was the Purpose Driven Church. These books have impacted church life. They've impacted millions of Christians across the globe.

So I do want to give credit where credit is due. Having said that, he popularized a form of preaching that I don't think in the long run has helped the church. I followed Rick Warren for several years. I studied his book, I studied his messages, I studied his church growth conferences. I mean, I've listened to some of his tapes, each one 20 times.

That's how much time I've spent on that. But one thing he would always emphasize was topical preaching. And what he would say is that when you study the Bible, or preach the Bible, or teach the Bible, just find the topic and just go anywhere in the Bible, find the verses that are relevant to that topic, and use them. So that's topical preaching.

That's what he would say. So think about the word love. Go everywhere in the Bible, find the word love, or the concept of love, and build a message around it.

You could sort of Frankenstein yourself a sermon. And there's a point that he has, of course, because he would often say, well, if you have a problem with that, then you have a problem with systematic theology, because systematic theology is simply doing that. It goes everywhere and finds a verse or a passage that talks about that particular subject. But is that the gotcha that he thinks it is? Is it feasible to say that we do have a problem with systematic theology, if that's the case? Or is he mistaken? No, I think he is, I hate to say it, he's dumbing it down, because yes, in a sense, systematic theology does do that. But systematic theology is also written by people who are well versed in, hopefully well versed in biblical theology.

Some are not, I think. Some are so rigidly bound to their system that they don't take the time to examine, is that verse really saying that? Is that passage really saying that?

They're so bound by that dogma that they don't take the time to really study that passage in its context. But most systematic theologians are very good exegetes. So for him to say, just go and find all the passages on, say, self-control and preach on it, that's topical preaching.

But no different than systematic, and I would say I disagree with that. Then there's another extreme, which is just deal with theology, guys. Just teach theology.

That's what people need. That's the cry of the hour, teach theology. And I think that depends on your audience. If your audience is so tuned in and so advanced that they're ready to take in what you're giving them, this highly nutritious but tasteless food, you say, are you calling theology tasteless? I'm just making a point here.

No, it doesn't have to be. There's some great theologians who are powerful preachers. But if you're not careful, the person who is newly saved and young in their faith will just, in time, just drift away, or very quickly drift away because they cannot eat what you're putting in front of them. So those are the two extremes. And so then the temptation is to say, let's do 50-50, 50 of this, 50 of this, and we've got a good series. But I think what sets this OnTrack series is it's 100 percent of both.

You know what I'm saying? It's not compromising one to make way for the other because you can and should have all of both if you really know the passage and you've studied it well. Yeah, it took some time for me to study it.

After the first week, once I decided and I talked to you guys about it, I was like, okay, I think I can do this. I know the list of virtues. Then I was like, oh, wait, I've got to read on 2 Peter a little bit more. Well, that's what I was going to—why 2 Peter? Because 2 Peter seems like one of those kind of weird esoteric books that I don't really think about very often.

Yeah, somewhere there with Jude. Yeah, at first I thought, okay, no big deal, I can do this. And then when I began to read it and I realized the complexities in that book and how different authors have disagreed with each other and how even the doctrine of eternal security is disagreed over in 2 Peter, then I was like, okay, do you think this was a good idea?

Maybe not. So I spent those first couple of weeks really digging in and diving deep to understand the core of what Peter is talking about. Who are his opponents? How is he trying to counter them? Is he telling his readers that those false teachers are lost? Is he telling them that if they were saved at one time, now they can be lost? Does that mean they can be lost too?

I mean, there's so many things. And it's also you have the disadvantage of most people in academia, they have months to craft their arguments and write their books and draft it and send it to you. I have Saturday coming full speed again. Yeah, you have seven days. A week is moving like a freight train.

Yeah. You have seven days to research the book, research the topic, the theology, the doctrine, craft it out, like think on it, then craft it out. You have to do that in seven days. And then once that seventh day is done, it starts over for the next sermon. Right.

That's crazy. Right. So, but the reward is tremendous. And we have seen the reward of the series where people's lives have changed.

Yes. Because as you know, Peter is not just talking about godly living or spiritual life or growth in Christ. He's also talking about all things that pertain to life and godliness, which means your everyday life and your spiritual life are both included in this letter.

So I felt like what better series to do at the start of the new year and at this juncture in our church's life than this one, where we can examine our spiritual life, definitely primary, but also our personal lives, whether it is losing weight or working out or eating better. And I was going through that time as well in my life. So I was like, this can apply here too. Yeah, true. Perfect timing. I mean, I didn't plan out that way, but it became a great help to me in my personal eating habits and diets and all that.

Stretch it around that idea of keeping track of things in your life, like a tracker that you would have on your phone, like a calorie counter or workout app or something like that where you can log your progress. And can we just appreciate for a second that this is Peter that we're talking about? So many times I feel like Peter gets reduced to a good old country boy.

Yeah, loudmouth Peter. But just like you said, Dr. Shaw, there are scholars who have been writing about this and studying this for years, and this is the same Peter that's giving us these deep, deep theological concepts that help us grow in our faith. And his motivation was that he was seeing his death coming. He could see the end near, and he was seeing believers getting off track, and he had to address it before it was too late. He says here several things he says here.

Let me just read this one. In 2 Peter 1, verse 13, he says, Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. So he knows his death is coming, and these believers are going off their deep end, off the deep end, and he has to say something to that. It's such a complete picture of Peter, too, because I think in his time with Jesus, we often see him, I don't want to say being selfish, but we often see him just acting without thinking. Impulsive.

Being very impulsive, which is just a very self-centered, I guess, trait, but then the full picture of how Jesus uses him, because here at his death, we see that transformation, where he's like, with my last few breaths, I want to help you. Let me warn you. Let me warn you. Let me help you. Let me get you back on track.

Why? Because they were stumbling. In 2 Peter 1, 10, it says, If you do these things, you will never patil, which is stumble or make a blunder. 2 Peter 2, 15, They have forsaken the right way, gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. The word therefore, gone astray, is planau, which is to wander away. 2 Peter 3, 17, 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. Here you have two Greek words. First is the word ekpessete, which is from ekpipto, which means fall off or lose one's way.

And the second is the word sunapaktentes, which is coming from sunapago, translated, be cared off along with, or being led astray. And there's tons of Christians today who, even if they won't admit it, are being led astray. Yeah. We live in a world that is actively seeking to undermine Christianity and to lead Christians off the beaten path.

That's right. Now, in this book, in this letter, Peter is asking some important questions. And I want us to ask the same questions to ourselves. And the first question that he is asking, or he's posing to those who are reading, is that can you see the power of your desires? Because the false teachers are giving in to temptations.

And he's asking them, can you see the power of your desires? So in 2 Peter 1.4, he says that through these, you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. The word is epithumia, found about four times in this little book. 2 Peter 2.10, especially those who walk according to the flesh and the lust of uncleanness and despise authority, they are presumptuous, self-willed. But the word I want to focus on is from the previous sentence, which is lust of uncleanness. Again, epithumia. 2 Peter 2.18, for when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh. And then 2 Peter 3.3 is knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days walking according to their own epithumia, which is their lust.

So the first question, I believe, that Peter posed them and is posing us, can you see the power of your desires? Like if you're at a Super Bowl party and you see a table just absolutely flowing with cupcakes. Full of treats.

And you've got to try the cupcake sandwich because of the radio show. You know what you should have done? What's that? Not even gone in that direction. Just flee. Flee. Flee like David. Not David.

Joseph. Just flee from the temptation. But I wandered over.

I was like, well, let me fix the baby a plate. I'll just have a little nibble. It's powerful desires. You should listen to what James says in James 1.14. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his... By his own desires. It's not in the cupcake.

It's not the cupcake's fault. It's your own desires and you're enticed. And when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is fully grown, it brings forth death. Isn't it interesting that in this tiny little book, 2 Peter, the word for lust is mentioned so many times. True.

Seems much like our world today. Well, it is one of those things like we can laugh about it, but even the power of... Or even the inability to not control your own stomach. If you can't control that, your own sweet tooth, think about what greater temptations you'll fall prey to. You know what I mean?

Yeah, it's a joke, but it's also harboring something much darker, which is we all have the propensity to be led astray, no matter how strong of a Christian you think you are. That's right. Now, here's the second question. Know the power of your desires, but the second question is, who are you listening to in your life? Wow.

Right? Peter's listeners were listening to these false teachers who were promoting these desires, these epithemia. 2 Peter 2.1. And Peter compares to the Old Testament false prophets. He said, but there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destructions. So, who are you listening to?

That's another question. Well, it's funny because I feel like Christians often don't even realize that they're listening to the wrong people. You know, if someone's talking about God, they're probably pretty good, so I'm just gonna listen to them. And they have a stage, they have a platform, they have a microphone, so, you know, they clearly are smarter than me. I think a lot of people don't even clock that they're listening to someone.

They're like, oh, nobody tells me how to live my life, I'm the boss of my own life, I do what I want. But all of us are influenced by the world around us. All of us are influenced by the people that we associate with. You become like the people you surround yourself with.

Yeah, think about this thing we stare at and give most of our lives to every day. Teenagers on TikTok are calling themselves influencers, meaning they influence people, and they do. People are listening to these young people who have never even, some of them are still in high school.

I mean, what happens when I click to see a person's content? I'm now following them. Yeah, because they're speaking into my life, for good or for bad. And I don't know if even they understand the true power of speaking into other people's lives like that, speaking your morals and your convictions into someone else's life.

Yeah, that's correct. So we talked about seeing the power of desires in our lives, and then we talked about seeing false teachers in our lives. But then there's another question, which is, are you living by your new nature in Christ?

True, true. Are you living by your new nature? Because you should be. In 2 Peter 1-3, it says, As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature. So God has given us His divine nature. And we're going to focus on that a little more later on, but all I want to say is, are you living by your new nature in Christ? Because that's very important in fighting against this temptation. Yeah, and it's hard to answer because so many times we want to say that I did it, I achieved it, I overcame. Maybe with God's help, but I overcame. Rather than saying it was Christ who overcame, I'm the vessel that He used to overcome this obstacle.

But He's the one that did it. On our own, we are naturally bent toward an unchecked life. We are naturally bent toward a life that is out of proportion and given into desires, but it's not just us. If we are saved, if we're believers, we are just like you said, Dr. Shah, partakers of the divine nature. It's Christ in us. Yeah, and we'll focus on what it does not mean maybe later on in another show, but here all I want us to know is that we are connected to Christ. That's where we are partakers of the divine nature because fully God became fully man.

That's right. If you enjoyed today's episode, write in and let us know. We'd love to hear from you. Or you can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. Don't forget you can partner with us financially on that same website. Become part of our Clear View Today Show family as we seek to impact the nations with the gospel of Jesus. John, any thoughts you want to leave our listeners with this weekend? Just make sure that you find yourself a church family. If you're in the area, in the Triangle area, I know a great one. It's called Clear View Church right in Henderson, North Carolina.

Spoiler alert, that is where the Clear View Today Show is filmed and broadcast from. This week we are going to be going through this series. We're going to especially be talking about the new nature in Christ. God doesn't just save us and leave us to live our lives.

That's not what we want. Just hope you make it. We'll see you at the end.

No, he gives us that nature. We're going to talk about that a little bit on Monday's episode. That's awesome. Hope you guys have a great weekend. We love you guys. We'll see you today on Clear View Today. God bless.