Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. This is part four of a message first preached on october twenty second, twenty twenty three. It's part of a series on Second Peter titled live as people who remember.
To hear the whole message and other messages from this series, Visit WWW dot dot delight and grace dot com. And Peter here is saying that Paul said the same thing, right? And Paul wrote things, and some of the things he said were hard to understand. And I'm guessing Peter is writing to these people who fled from Rome because of the Great Roman fire in 64 AD, and now they're all scattered out through Asia Minor. Peter is writing those people.
They came from Rome. Who wrote a letter to Rome? The Roman Church. Paul did. I bet they were confused about Romans 9, 10, and 11.
They say that's hard stuff to understand. Peter writes this about ten years later after the Roman letter was written. From Paul Romans 9, 10, and 11, there's difficult stuff in there. For example, Romans 9, 22 to 24, look at this. He says, What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles.
And you know exactly what he's talking about, don't you? All the Calvinists in here are saying, Yeah, I do. No, you don't. You know why I know you don't? Because look what he said in Romans 11, verse 33.
Romans 11:33. Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable. are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. God's ways are way above our ways. And Paul did his best.
even under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. to try to describe God's ways. But listen, you and I are not God. And his ways are way above ours. God is not indifferent.
He is not distant. He is carrying out His purpose. Which is why we must study, diligently study His word. Diligently study what God has revealed to us. He is carrying out His Spirit.
If we're not diligently studying, we will become, like the writer of Hebrews says in 5:11, we've become dull of hearing. Do you know when you become dull of hearing, it's when you become comfortable and complacent. become dull of hearing. God is carrying out his purpose, and what is his purpose? It is leading people to himself.
God's purpose is leading people to Himself, which is why we are called to diligent study of God's character and purpose. And therefore, whatever we see going on, Even the stuff we don't understand. God is carrying out his purpose of leading people to himself. And DJ mentioned that verse from John 10 this morning. John 10 says, I have other sheep.
Jesus knows who every one of his sheep is. They've not all come into the fold yet and he's still calling them. He's still fulfilling his purpose. That's why we are called to a diligent study. And so the second point under perceive and engage life circumstances through an accurate understanding of God's character and purpose, accurate is why it requires our diligent study.
But also It requires our humility. This is the last point today. It requires our humility. There's some people What do they do? They take hard sayings and they twist them and they distort them and they do it for self-promotion.
They manipulate the meaning. Twisting is the word that Peter uses here.
So they manipulate the meaning as if they have received some kind of enlightenment and therefore they approach it with arrogance. And if you don't see it the way they see it, they come at you with all kinds of arrogance and say, well, you just don't understand the Word of God, or you don't know God. Listen, when we're discussing and dialoguing family matters about theological frameworks, if I hear anyone in this congregation talking to someone else and saying, well, you believe that because you just don't understand God, I'm going to be on your case. We need to give each other latitude to have varying perspectives on these issues. Because I've heard it before, and those people who champion the doctrines of grace often do so very ungraciously.
Humility. There are those like the false teachers that. In the polemic that Peter rants against the false teachers, he says, No one understands. It's like people will say, you know, these men who believe that they have received enlightenment. No one understands the way I do.
So let me help you, Cha-Ching. right because you need their help because you don't have the enlightenment they do so They're going to get rich off of your need and your dependency upon them. That's what false teachers do. And they do it to their own destruction, he says it in the text here. Why is it to their own destruction?
Two reasons. One, because God does not share his glory with anyone. And two, because If we take the word of God and twist it, and it results in bad behavior, that's tantamount to taking God's name in vain. Evil behavior done in the name of Christ is taking his name in vain. There are many who do that, and the false teachers do that.
And so he says here in verse 16, look at the end of verse 6: There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction. They're ignorant and unstable because they have not committed themselves to diligent study of the Word of God with humility. That makes one Ignorant and unstable, they twist to their own destruction as they do other scriptures.
So here he's calling Paul's writing scriptures. What are the scriptures? They are sacred writings for the church. It's not just another letter. This is literature.
This is literature. And it's historic literature written by a real person to real people in real time. This is historic literature. I've got news for you. It's not just literature.
It's the inspired Word of God. Sacred writings for the church, and it comes with apostolic authority. as divine revelation.
So you and I are to put ourselves under its authority. We are under the authority of the Word of God. We are not over it. We are under it. We are to bring our lives up to the call and the standard of the Word of God.
It is our authority. And that is why we must approach it with humility. Ponder anew what the Almighty can do. We sang that this morning. Ponder anew what the Almighty can do.
So, just as a review, we are productively waiting. For the day of the Lord. When Jesus comes. productively waiting for that. Christ To become like Him.
What does productively waiting look like? Pursuing Christ to become like Him, number one, and number two. perceive and engage. Life circumstances through an accurate understanding of God's character and purpose. That requires your diligent study and it requires your humility.
That is how we actively. Wait. productively wait. for that day. The world needs this from us, folks.
There are other sheep. Who need to see Christ? They need to see Christ. In us. Not just in this room.
They need to see Christ in us tomorrow at three o'clock. Friday at 7 o'clock. In our cubicle. In the field. on the shop floor.
Productively waiting. For that day. Would you stand with me, please? Thank you. Father You have made it possible for us to live true and free.
Through the person of Jesus Christ. I pray, Father, that you would find us to be living as people who remember. that we would live true and free. that we would delight ourselves. In you, delight ourselves in your Son, the Lord Jesus, and pursue Him.
to become like him. Rescue us, Father, from the pagan way of thinking that we have to do stuff. appease you. Enliven within us, Father, the beautiful, profound truth of the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ. And as we pursue Christ, as we are transformed.
Through your light and your self-disclosure to us, through our diligent study and our humility, Father. as we follow Christ in his steps. May we live the gospel with joy, with confidence. With expectation. Father, work in our hearts this morning.
to draw us to yourself and may we rise up. and be the church. The church beautiful. that you have called us to be. Following Jesus.
and pursuing him. Amen. You've been listening to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. To hear this message and others, check out WWW dot delight and grace dot com to discover how to live by grace, Tune in with us on weekdays at ten AM.
Okay.
