Truth is not contrary to faith, but it is contrary to false faith. And this is why persecution exists against the Christians. Salvation, love, religion. Should these not be based on truth or feelings? No, they're feelings.
I just feel like it's so. You've just stepped out of what Jesus said. Those who worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth they go together.
You cannot have one part of it. Well, I'm in the spirit, brother. You better also be in the truth or else it's not the right spirit. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 2 Peter.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Keeping Sight of Christ is the title of today's message as Pastor Rick teaches through 2 Peter chapter 1. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Here is the assurance of the believer.
He's saying if you're going to be shortsighted and blind, you're going to lose your grip, but you're supposed to enter in. Entrance has been supplied to you abundantly to the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. The assurance of the believer, it is magnificent. I will be in heaven. I guarantee you that because of Jesus Christ.
That's why. That's how the writers of the New Testament wrote and spoke about their own salvation. There was this not, well, I hope I get there. There was this assurance that they had. I will be there because of Jesus Christ, number 1, and because of surrendering to Him, number 2.
It takes 2. He's not going to force me into heaven. John's Gospel chapter 1. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in His name.
I have received Him. It is plain speak. When God says, you shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. He did not say by every Greek word, by every Hebrew word. He does not say that you have to be a scholar.
He has the masses in view. Just live by the word of God. Just know you'll be in heaven. That your sins can't keep you out of heaven so long as you cling to Christ. And that's why He alone is worthy because only He could pull this off with us. John's Gospel chapter 1.
John the Baptist answered them saying, I baptize with water, but there stands one among you whom you do not know. It is He who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to lose. This is the Christ we have.
This is the one that brings us an invincible salvation so long as you want Him. I'm emphasizing that because that's what love is about. Love is an act of the will, agape love. Fileo and stroge loves, family loves, these are acts of emotions, acts of, you know, other things playing on, but agape love is an act of my will. I choose to do this.
I choose to love regardless of what the other one is doing on a spiritual plane. Otherwise, we could not pray for our enemies. And only Christ, like we meet in the Gospels, can so be this way. And John knew it. He says, I'm not worthy to untie His sandals.
This is how great He is. What a powerful verse. Maybe sometime this week as you're going about your activities, pause and think about that.
Whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to lose. To keep the proper perspective healthy and sure. Because they were losing sight of this. Their identity was fading away, some of them. And the false teachers weren't helping. The persecution was not helping.
So they had to look for help in a different place. And that would be heaven. Verse 12, for this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. For this reason, this reason of salvation, because of this concern for those losing sight of salvation and those who might later lose sight of it. It is our salvation, supported by His divine power as we covered in verse 3.
This reminds me, when He says, for this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things. It reminds us of Samuel when the people said, Samuel, you're our judge. But we want a king.
We want a king like the other nations. And at the end of it, Samuel says, he's one of those great, large figures of scripture. Moreover, as for me, Samuel says, far be it for me that I should sin against Yahweh in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way.
They had given up on Samuel, but Samuel would not give up on them. That's agape love. Agape love did not begin in the New Testament. It comes from God. It's always been.
It's like fire. It's there, but it must be discovered. Philippians chapter 3 verse 1, Paul said, for me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. I know you've heard this before, and that's what Peter is saying. I know you've heard me say this before, but I'm not going to stop saying it because it's that important. And if I stop saying it, you might lose sight of it, and then there will be trouble. When Pastor Chuck, Chuck Smith, told the last 10 years or so of his life at the big pastors' conferences, I think at every single one he would say this, having begun in the Spirit, do not seek to be made perfect in the flesh.
And he was constantly reminding the pastors to stick to the word, to the basics of scripture, to the basics of the faith. Don't depart from this stuff. Don't go learn something new. Don't try to create, you know, make it exciting. You can't paint gold and expect it to still be this valuable thing. You just ruin it that way. He would say it over and over and over and over. I never got tired of it.
I love it. It's scripture. But I have watched so many men who were part of that assembly lose sight of it. It happens.
And therefore, we should be on guard rather than arguing things that really have nothing to do with anything. Repetition is one of the ways we learn. How else do you get the multiplication table, for example? Through repetition. I think about troops marching. You know, there's a discipline that is created that I don't think I would have ever gotten hold of had it not been for those long hours on the parade deck, out in the sun, being yelled at, being forced over and over and over to do the same thing.
It created a discipline. And the scripture says to us, you know this is a fact of life. Stop pretending reality does not exist for you.
So Paul says, it's not tedious for me to tell you, and it shouldn't be tedious for you to receive it. Truth establishes faith. Well, what else does? Lies? Falsities? That would be paganism. That would be idolatry. That would be false beliefs.
That would be the cults. Truth establishes our faith, our belief. Again, John's gospel. Jesus said God is spirit. Those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Should we worship Him with falsities? In spirit, not with idols, but also in truth, with deeds, with actions. Matthew 16, Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. He got it.
You're the Christ. He wasn't going back to, he knew he got it. He understood.
He connected everything. And then he went on to stumble shortly after. What a lesson for us all to have God, because Jesus said to Peter, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, Peter, but my Father in heaven. To have God reveal something to us and then to puff up after is not the pattern given in scripture.
Humility is something we are to put on like a garment. John's gospel, chapter 9, verse 38, then he said, Lord, I believe, and he worshiped Him. Jesus gave him a sight. Jesus said that he was the Christ. He said, I believe it. See, truth belongs to faith.
Otherwise, what are you left with? Knowing the condemnation scripture lays on falsehood, we must remain intolerant of lies. When I say intolerant of lies, I don't mean necessarily of the people that are caught up in them, but the lie itself. Knowing that the deadly philosophies of men creep into churches and wipe them out while retaining the name church.
It's sort of like putting a Red Cross sign, you know, the hospital sign, outside on the tent, but inside are the very things that kill and destroy and people come looking for medical attention and they are destroyed. That's what happens with apostasy, with apostate churches. They retain the name church, but inside they are killers of souls and they build these bastions of falsity. Don't you dare come against them because they are the learned ones. They've departed from the faith.
There is one side to truth concerning God and it is found in Christ and faith is not contrary to truth and truth is not contrary to faith, but it is contrary to false faith and this is why persecution exists against the Christians. Salvation, love, religion. Should these not be based on truth or feelings? Oh, they're feelings.
I just feel like it's so. You've just stepped out of what Jesus said. Those who worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
They go together. You cannot have one part of it. Well, I'm in the spirit, brother. Yeah, well, you better also be in the truth or else it's not the right spirit. Charles Spurgeon said, I have preached God's truth and Spurgeon was hounded. Charles Spurgeon, one of the great preachers of the 1800s, 3500 of his sermons still exist.
You do well to read as many as you can. I think I'm up to about 300, but he was hated by so many of the established church members. The newspapers went after him, drawing pictures of him like a monkey because he would not submit to letting Darwinism we know as evolution now or evolution of the species. He would not stand for that creeping into the church.
He's in no place. It's not true. It's a lie and they hated him for it and he writes, I have preached God's truth so far as I know it and I have not been ashamed of its peculiarities that I might not stultify my testimony, ruin his testimony. I have cut myself clear of those who error from the faith and even from those who associate with them. He says, if they're into lying about God, I'm not into them.
If they're into tolerating those who are lying about God, I'm not tolerating that. I think this is the New Testament way. Certainly is the Old Testament way. I think this is right because what happens is when we begin to get too chummy with those who harbor heresies, they begin to nibble on us until we begin to not be disturbed by the heresy and then the next thing you know, we're embracing the heresy and then we are espousing it. It's that process that Satan is counting on because it works but it doesn't have to work. Verse 13, so Peter says, knowing these things, he says, yes, I think it is right as long as I am in this tent to stir you up by reminding you.
Three times in this one paragraph, he says, remind you, remind you, remind you. This persecution and the false teachers, they might cause the believers to trade safety and acceptance for truth. Well, I don't want to be crucified or burned at the stake or killed with the sword and so they might think about going back on their confession or they might feel like, well, I've got to be accepted by those who say that they're the smart guys.
I want them to accept me and say, recognize me and say, I'm smart too because I agree with them but if they're calling me all sorts of names because I won't line up with what they believe, then maybe I'll, I want to change sides. So Peter's warning them against this. Jesus told his disciples that the Holy Spirit would bring all things to their remembrance. The Holy Spirit would do this.
This is how we have the New Testament. It is a spiritual deal. His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life.
I believe in his divine power, which is why sometimes I get frustrated. God, you've got the power, why don't we X, Y, Z? My plan is good but not good enough because Christ has called me to be crucified with him. My ambitions, my insight, my way of doing things, nail it to the cross. He must increase, I must decrease.
There's nothing complicated about that. John's Gospel Chapter 14, Jesus said, but the Helper, that is the Paraclete in the Greek, the Comforter, the one who comes beside us, but the Paraclete, the Helper, the Holy Spirit, he says that too in case they're not getting it, whom the Father will send in my name, he would teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I have said to you. We need to be stirred. We need to be inspired.
So looking at this verse last night, I don't know, around eight o'clock, I come down and get some cookies and milk because it makes us like, you know, spinach for Popeye. And I'm saying, you know, just there's nothing here. I'm not seeing anything. Not that it's not there.
I just can't find it. I'm not inspired. And you know, this is how it's supposed to be. This is how you bring out the pickaxe and begin chipping away for what God has there. And I got to thinking about Peter, he knows he's going to die soon and he's fully inspired. He's not moved by it. There's no qualms about being crucified. He's focused on what he is supposed to be doing.
That to me is inspiring because there are so many things trying to pull me away from being inspired, from seeing the value of me being committed to what I believe in. John chapter 14 verse 17, the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive. Why not?
Because they don't want him. But as many as receive them, he gives the right to be children of God. You who were once in the world, you've received him.
You're no longer part of that group. The world, by definition, metaphorically in scripture, are those who have not received him, who are rejecting him. He says because it neither sees him, so he personifies it, nor knows him. But you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. Don't sell short the Holy Spirit in your own life. You don't have to speak in tongues.
You do not have to do miracles. You have to believe. You have to know Christ. You have to agree with him. You have to cooperate at least mentally with everything he says. If he says those who worship me in spirit and truth, that's how it has to happen.
If you say no, no, there's another way, then you're not cooperating. But if you say I receive it, he said it, and I believe it. The spirit of truth, John 15, 26, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me. He magnifies Christ. The Holy Spirit is not, if I can say it this way, in our eyes, the Holy Spirit is not self-centered. He is Christ-centered. He points us to Jesus. That is his role.
He magnifies the Lord, and we see this happening in the book of Acts, that Christ is magnified, the church is multiplied, it is the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. Verse 14, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus showed me. Right on the horizon, he could see his death approaching. That word for shortly, in other words, it won't be long now.
I must put off my tent. That's a metaphor for his physical body. Believers believe, believers believe that no other book has access to the mysteries beyond the grave except the scripture, except the Bible. What happens to me when I die?
I am not going to look at the Koran for that answer. I'm not going to look at the books of the Mormons or anything the Jehovah's Witnesses have to say or any other religion out there. I'm going to Christ and his word. And when Jesus said, he who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. He shall never die. I believe that because he backs it up with so many other things.
He says, I must put off my tent. He knows where he's going just as the Lord Jesus showed me. He believed what Christ told him. Peter's the only person in the Bible promised to not be raptured because he was told he was going to be martyred.
He was destined to die. He knew it and had no worries about it. He did ministry the way he had always done ministry.
He brings it up to them. The early church should have known, and they may have, many some did, that there'd be no rapture so long as Peter was around. But both Peter and Paul, while life was in them, they constantly warned the church about the false teachers coming in. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers.
They will heap them up. I don't like what you're teaching. I'll go to another church, and I'll support that church. Never mind what the Bible says.
I want to like what's being taught. And if I don't like it, I'm going to vote against it with my feet. I'm going to leave and not come back. False churches are supported by false believers. Verse 15, moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease.
You read these three verses, and you keep saying, am I reading the same verse? Because he keeps saying this reminder thing to me. Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder.
Done. Check that off your list, Peter, because we're reading this reminder this morning. Always mindful of future generations.
Acts chapter 2, verse 38, Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, that you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call. So he's always looking down the road. He sees his ministry as something that is going to continue after his death, and it has. He says of these things, after my decease.
These things are the virtues that avoid shipwreck. The word he uses for decease there in the Greek is Exodus. It's the same word used on the Mount of Transfiguration when Peter, James, and John were there watching Moses and Elijah speak to Jesus about his departure. Luke writes, well that Greek word is the same, is Exodus, signifying the death. And so Peter is not saying of these things after my death, he's saying of my exodus, of my departure. Because when Jesus said he who believes in me shall never die, Peter happened to be one of those that believed him. Luke chapter 9 verse 31 speaking of this appearance, who appeared in glory and spoke of his decease, that's that word, same word, which was about to be accomplished at Jerusalem. So Elijah and Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration speaking with Jesus about the crucifixion, his departure from this life. And I just saw a thing, you know this is how the world likes to undermine faith.
Did Jesus really die on the cross? Well, why would I even entertain such a, that's like saying did the sun really come up yesterday? Why would I even entertain?
Why would you even ask such a question? Couldn't you have phrased, if you wanted people to watch what you had, could you not have phrased it in the context of truth instead of doubt? Then another one about the apostles, things about the apostles you never knew.
Well who's you? Because I know them, they're written down. And I just watched the first three seconds and that was it, you know, next, because they just start injecting these falsities and people gobble them up because they're not schooled in the scripture. They don't care what the scripture has to say, it appears. Well anyway, after Peter's slow martyrdom, the saints would read this because he went up in courage to serve his Lord and they were probably a little brokenhearted over this. I remember when he wrote that and after, you know, getting news that Peter had been killed for the gospel, Paul had a similar experience. When he was going to Jerusalem and they said don't do it, the prophet stepped forward and said the man who wears this belt will be arrested.
Don't go to Jerusalem, it's not good for you. And they were weeping over Paul's determination. And Paul answered, we're told in Acts 21, what do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart?
I love that. You're breaking my heart, I mean watching you all cry over me, it's secondary. You're just going to have to cry because I'm going to Jerusalem. So he says, what do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart for I am ready not only to be bound but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus? Man, if I could just have a thimble's worth of this courage, of this energy to not only die for Christ but to live for Christ. That in death, whatever mode it may be, I will glorify God. But what about in life? That in life, whatever its course may be, will I glorify Christ. Sounds nice, doesn't it? But it doesn't come easily.
You have to work for it. Peter reminded them of their duty to themselves and to Christ. They received it. How do we know? How do we know that as Peter wrote these things, as Paul wrote these things in John and Jude, how do we know the Christians received them?
Because they kept their words in circulation. That's how we know. We have it.
It's preserved by hard work of men in the Spirit of God. That's all we have time for on today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. You've been listening to Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia as he teaches through the book of 2 Peter. If you'd like to listen to more messages from this series or if you'd like more information about this program, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never have to miss a program. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast app. What a great way to keep God's Word with you wherever you go. We hope you'll tune in again next time as Pastor Rick continues studying through the Scriptures right here on Cross Reference Radio.
