Bob Weppler: Hello, family.
Bob Weppler: Please open your Bibles to page 1079.
Bob Weppler: 2 Peter.
Bob Weppler: Peter wrote this letter from prison.
Bob Weppler: He was in Rome.
Bob Weppler: It was somewhere between 64 and 68 A.D.
Bob Weppler: Tradition has it that Peter was martyred at the hand of Nero, Emperor Nero.
Bob Weppler: He writes this letter a short time after the first letter that he writes, 1 Peter.
Bob Weppler: So why the urgency?
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 114.
Bob Weppler: Since I know that I will soon lay aside my tent, as our Lord Jesus Christ has indeed made clear to me, he knew he was about to be martyred.
Bob Weppler: In the Gospel of John, chapter 21, our Lord describes in detail how and approximately when Peter would experience physical death.
Bob Weppler: Peter writes the same believers he wrote to in 1 Peter.
Bob Weppler: Exiles.
Bob Weppler: Exiles from northern Asia Minor.
Bob Weppler: This is modern-day Turkey.
Bob Weppler: The region had both Jews and Gentiles.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 1-1.
Bob Weppler: To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Bob Weppler: So he's writing to Christians, but he's not just representing himself.
Bob Weppler: Notice the word ours.
Bob Weppler: Peter is writing on behalf of the apostles.
Bob Weppler: The recipients of his letter had become Peter's flock.
Bob Weppler: We know from the book of Acts that Paul planted these churches in Asia Minor.
Bob Weppler: But at some point in the past, Peter had assumed responsibility for them.
Bob Weppler: The apostle wanted to get one last message across to his faithful.
Bob Weppler: What did they need to know?
Bob Weppler: What was the most important thing for them to know?
Bob Weppler: His believers were being persecuted.
Bob Weppler: We know that from 1 Peter.
Bob Weppler: So he wrote 1 Peter to encourage them to endure their suffering.
Bob Weppler: He wrote 2 Peter to expose false teachers and instruct his readers how not to be seduced by their deception.
Bob Weppler: 1 Peter emphasizes the eminency of Christ's return as a means of encouragement.
Bob Weppler: 2 Peter, dealing with scoffers, emphasizes the reasons why Christ's return had not yet occurred.
Bob Weppler: 2 Peter is a farewell speech, a swan song of Peter.
Bob Weppler: Much like 2 Timothy is a swan song of Paul.
Bob Weppler: 2 Peter is an instructional letter.
Bob Weppler: It's structured in four parts.
Bob Weppler: Part 1, verses 13 through 111.
Bob Weppler: The importance of growing in holiness.
Bob Weppler: And lastly, part four, verses 3-1 through 313, the importance of trusting God's promises.
Bob Weppler: Notice in each part that Peter is looking forward.
Bob Weppler: Before we open God's word, let's go to him in prayer.
Bob Weppler: Heavenly Father, we just ask that you illuminate your word for us this evening, that your precious word is understood, interpreted, and most importantly applied to our lives.
Bob Weppler: In your Son's name we pray.
Bob Weppler: Amen.
Bob Weppler: So part one the importance of growing in holiness.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 13.
Bob Weppler: His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.
Bob Weppler: By these, He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.
Bob Weppler: There is so much theology in this passage.
Bob Weppler: But what jumps off the page here?
Bob Weppler: We read it twice.
Bob Weppler: Given us.
Bob Weppler: By these he has given us.
Bob Weppler: Given us what?
Bob Weppler: Given us everything.
Bob Weppler: The one who has given us everything has called us.
Bob Weppler: This is the effectual call to salvation.
Bob Weppler: We didn't earn it.
Bob Weppler: It was given to us.
Bob Weppler: We are incapable of sharing in the divine nature unless the Holy Spirit is given to us.
Bob Weppler: He wants the believers to know that God has chosen them.
Bob Weppler: In the two verses we just read, we move from justification to sanctification.
Bob Weppler: Justification is a one-time event when God made us alive by giving us the Holy Spirit.
Bob Weppler: Sanctification is a process, a lifelong pursuit, a process of becoming holy, becoming like Christ.
Bob Weppler: We share in the work with the Holy Spirit that indwells us.
Bob Weppler: Reformed theologian and author Jerry Bridges wrote, To be holy is to be morally blameless.
Bob Weppler: The word holy signifies separation to God and the conduct befitting those separated.
Bob Weppler: That's hard.
Bob Weppler: That's why it's a lifelong pursuit.
Bob Weppler: Lifelong.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse Oh, how does Peter instruct his readers to become holy?
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 15.
Bob Weppler: Make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affections, brotherly affection with love.
Bob Weppler: For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Bob Weppler: The person who lacks these things is blind and short-sighted and has forgotten the cleansing from past sins.
Bob Weppler: Failure to diligently pursue these qualities, such as these, produce spiritual amnesia.
Bob Weppler: A believer lacking these qualities will live in fear, doubt, and anxiety.
Bob Weppler: Verse 110 is the bullseye Peter has been shooting at in verses 5 through 9.
Bob Weppler: Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things, you will never stumble.
Bob Weppler: And he will never lose his salvation.
Bob Weppler: Some call that perseverance of the saints.
Bob Weppler: That believer will never stumble into fear, doubt, and anxiety, but instead have total assurance, total assurance of eternal life.
Bob Weppler: Peter needs them to know this.
Bob Weppler: Very important.
Bob Weppler: But there's more.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 11.
Bob Weppler: For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be richly provided to you.
Bob Weppler: Peter is pointing forward here.
Bob Weppler: For those who do these things, eternal riches await.
Bob Weppler: Amen.
Bob Weppler: Part two.
Bob Weppler: The importance of trusting God's Word.
Bob Weppler: Verse 112 through 121.
Bob Weppler: God must be known, otherwise he won't be trusted.
Bob Weppler: Four times in the first eight verses, Peter uses the word knowledge.
Bob Weppler: The word or a derivation of the word is mentioned a total of 16 times.
Bob Weppler: Where does a Christian acquire knowledge of God?
Bob Weppler: The scriptures.
Bob Weppler: This is an allusion to Psalm 119-105.
Bob Weppler: Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Bob Weppler: Peter is exhorting his flock to grow in the faith so that they will never walk in darkness.
Bob Weppler: And he's given them the method of how to achieve this.
Bob Weppler: Knowing God, knowing God by knowing his word.
Bob Weppler: Instead, we were eyewitnesses to his majesty.
Bob Weppler: This is a transitional verse in the letter.
Bob Weppler: He turns his attention to a problem.
Bob Weppler: False teachers are the problem.
Bob Weppler: But Peter has the solution.
Bob Weppler: But he must first defend his apostleship.
Bob Weppler: We just talked about this.
Bob Weppler: In verse 17, he appeals to the transfiguration, a foreshadow of the coming eternal kingdom.
Bob Weppler: Again, he is pointing forward.
Bob Weppler: The Lord Jesus Himself chose Peter, John, and James to witness this monumental event, an event which clearly proves that Jesus is God the Son.
Bob Weppler: Denial of the deity of Christ, denial of his second coming are the cleverly contrived myths being propagated by these false teachers.
Bob Weppler: Peter poses a challenge to his readers.
Bob Weppler: Who are you going to believe?
Bob Weppler: Me?
Bob Weppler: Or men who never knew Christ?
Bob Weppler: The apostle now appeals to Scripture again.
Bob Weppler: The absolute necessity for his believers to trust God's word.
Bob Weppler: Verse 20.
Bob Weppler: Above all, you know this.
Bob Weppler: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet's own interpretation.
Bob Weppler: Because no prophecy ever came by the will of man.
Bob Weppler: Instead, men spoke from God as they were carried by the Holy Spirit.
Bob Weppler: You know this, Peter exclaims.
Bob Weppler: God is the author of the scriptures.
Bob Weppler: You know this.
Bob Weppler: Don't trust man-made myths that deny the deity of Christ.
Bob Weppler: Trust the divinely inspired men that wrote the Bible, who spoke for God.
Bob Weppler: Peter understands that if the people could trust the prophecy spoken of in Scripture, it would not only provide a defense against the false teachers, but it would also motivate them, motivate them to holy living.
Bob Weppler: The greatest defense against false doctrine is knowledge of true doctrine, God's Word.
Bob Weppler: We now move to part three, which is the entirety of chapter two.
Bob Weppler: And that is the importance of recognizing false teachers and their false teaching.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at verse 2.1.
Bob Weppler: There were indeed false prophets among the people.
Bob Weppler: Just as there will be false teachers among you, they will bring destruction.
Bob Weppler: I'm sorry, they will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, and will bring a swift destruction on themselves.
Bob Weppler: Many will follow their depraved ways, and the way of truth will be maligned because of them.
Bob Weppler: They will exploit you in their greed with made-up stories.
Bob Weppler: Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.
Bob Weppler: Just as Israel dealt with false prophets, so too Christians will deal with false teachers.
Bob Weppler: In this section, Peter describes the false teachers in detail, but he doesn't spend much time on the specifics of what they are teaching.
Bob Weppler: What is motivating these teachers to cleverly contrive these myths?
Bob Weppler: Take a look at verse 2.3 again.
Bob Weppler: They will exploit you in their greed with made-up stories.
Bob Weppler: Go down to verse 14.
Bob Weppler: They have eyes full of adultery that never stop looking for sin.
Bob Weppler: They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed.
Bob Weppler: They exploited people through their lies.
Bob Weppler: Peter needs his readers to know that these men will be judged.
Bob Weppler: So he appeals again to the scriptures.
Bob Weppler: Verse 2, 3.
Bob Weppler: Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.
Bob Weppler: The apostle now moves on here to give three examples from the Old Testament in verses 4 through 9.
Bob Weppler: His first example speaks of the judgment pronounced on the demons who followed Satan's rebellion against God.
Bob Weppler: His second alludes to the time of Noah, when God wiped out sinful mankind.
Bob Weppler: And lastly, he recalls God's judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.
Bob Weppler: But Peter also reminds his readers that the Lord will deliver the godly, represented here by Noah and Lot.
Bob Weppler: There is always a remnant.
Bob Weppler: In verses 12 through 19, Peter spares no words in his rebuke against these false teachers, describing their depravity in stinging accusations.
Bob Weppler: Verse 12.
Bob Weppler: But these people, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed, slander what they do not understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed.
Bob Weppler: Verse 15, abandoning the straight path and have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Bozor, who loved the wages of wickedness.
Bob Weppler: Verse 17, these people are springs without water.
Bob Weppler: Verse 18, they seduce with fleshly desires and debauchery.
Bob Weppler: Verse 19, they themselves are slaves of corruption.
Bob Weppler: What Peter is describing here are men who do not walk with Christ.
Bob Weppler: They walk in the pollution of the worldly system.
Bob Weppler: This system is Satan's spiritual realm, a system that is in opposition to God and rebellion against his kingdom.
Bob Weppler: These false teachers claim allegiance to Christ, but despise his lordship.
Bob Weppler: They know the true path, but have chosen the corrupt path.
Bob Weppler: Motivated by personal gain, they create their own self-willed interpretations of Scripture that contradict God's word.
Bob Weppler: What does the future hold for them?
Bob Weppler: Take a look at verse 20.
Bob Weppler: For if, having escaped the world's impurity through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated.
Bob Weppler: The last state is worse for them than the first.
Bob Weppler: For it would have been better for them to have not known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy command delivered to them.
Bob Weppler: It had happened to them according to the true proverb.
Bob Weppler: A dog returns to his own vomit, and a washed soul returns to wallowing in the mud.
Bob Weppler: To a Jewish mind, there is nothing lower than a dog.
Bob Weppler: The apostle cites Proverbs 26, 11 as a graphic, ugly picture of false prophets, false teachers.
Bob Weppler: These men have purposefully and deliberately chosen to teach a false gospel.
Bob Weppler: Peter makes it very clear that these unrighteous, wicked men will ultimately experience the most severe punishment.
Bob Weppler: The most severe.
Bob Weppler: Verses 3-1 through 313.
Bob Weppler: The importance of trusting God's promises.
Bob Weppler: Trusting his promises.
Bob Weppler: So this letter is Peter's last will and testament.
Bob Weppler: In this final section, he speaks like a pastor, a pastor who is pouring out his heart to his congregation.
Bob Weppler: He has just terrified them with his words in the previous chapter.
Bob Weppler: He now points believers to their future, their assured hope, hope of what God has promised them.
Bob Weppler: He begins chapter 3 with a greeting.
Bob Weppler: Dear friends, we see this greeting repeated three additional times in the verses to come.
Bob Weppler: Most Bible translations take that instead of dear friends, they use beloved, beloved.
Bob Weppler: As we look at this last section, let's substitute beloved in place of dear friends.
Bob Weppler: I think you'll feel the heart of Peter more.
Bob Weppler: So let's look at verse 1.
Bob Weppler: Beloved, this is now the second letter I write to you.
Bob Weppler: Scoffers will come in the last days, scoffing and following their own evil desires, saying, Where is his coming that he promised?
Bob Weppler: Ever since our ancestors fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.
Bob Weppler: Here Peter refers to the false teachers as scoffers.
Bob Weppler: Can't you just feel their arrogance in this passage?
Bob Weppler: Where is his coming?
Bob Weppler: All things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.
Bob Weppler: So many prophets have spoken of the coming of a new day.
Bob Weppler: The day of the Lord.
Bob Weppler: Did they miss this?
Bob Weppler: The prophesied day of the Lord is a day of judgment.
Bob Weppler: A day of judgment.
Bob Weppler: Peter needs the flock to know that this is no time for complacency.
Bob Weppler: But the prophets are not the only ones speaking.
Bob Weppler: Look at verse 1 again.
Bob Weppler: I want to stir up your sincere understanding by way of reminder so that you recall the words previously spoken by the holy prophets and the command of our Lord and Savior given through your apostles.
Bob Weppler: Did you pick up on the and in that passage?
Bob Weppler: Peter is not only appealing to the Old Testament, he also is appealing to the available writings of the apostles.
Bob Weppler: These writings record and explain the words of the Savior Himself.
Bob Weppler: The New Testament is now starting to come together.
Bob Weppler: It's about 35 years after the Lord has ascended.
Bob Weppler: Take a look at verse 15.
Bob Weppler: Just as our dear brother Paul has written to you, according to the wisdom given to him, he speaks these things in all his letters.
Bob Weppler: Paul's two letters to the Thessalonians, highly end times focused, were likely written at least a decade prior to Peter's letters.
Bob Weppler: To refute skepticism about Christ's return, Peter reminds readers that God has faithfully kept every promise since the first day of creation.
Bob Weppler: In verses 5 through 13, Peter presents a three-in-one world.
Bob Weppler: The past world, the present world, and the future world.
Bob Weppler: In the past, the unrighteous were rightfully judged.
Bob Weppler: Water destroyed civilization, and the wicked perished in the flood.
Bob Weppler: But Noah and his family found favor and were saved.
Bob Weppler: By grace, through faith.
Bob Weppler: In the future, God will destroy the unrighteous through fire.
Bob Weppler: But believers will be saved by grace, through faith.
Bob Weppler: Take a look at verse 7.
Bob Weppler: By the same word, the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly.
Bob Weppler: Look at the words Peter uses in verses 10 through 13.
Bob Weppler: Heat.
Bob Weppler: Amidst this cataclysmic language, Peter also speaks of assurance and hope.
Bob Weppler: It sounds a lot like a prophetic book.
Bob Weppler: Take a look at verse 8.
Bob Weppler: Beloved, don't overlook this one fact.
Bob Weppler: With the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
Bob Weppler: The Lord does not delay his promise, as some would understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
Bob Weppler: He reminds his flock that the one true God that they worship is an eternal God who is patient, who wants all to come to repent in faith, saving faith.
Bob Weppler: He wants all to share in the promise.
Bob Weppler: The unrighteous will be destroyed, but those who find favor, those who are declared righteous through the blood of Christ will be saved.
Bob Weppler: Verse 13.
Bob Weppler: But based on the promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells.
Bob Weppler: Amen.
Bob Weppler: Peter implored his believers to know the Holy Scriptures, to trust the words spoken of by the prophets regarding the second coming.
Bob Weppler: Such as these spoken words of Isaiah.
Bob Weppler: Isaiah 60, verses 19 through 21.
Bob Weppler: The sun will no longer be light by day, and the brightness of the moon will not shine on you.
Bob Weppler: The Lord will be your splendor.
Bob Weppler: Your sun will no longer set, and your moon will not fade.
Bob Weppler: But the Lord will be your everlasting light.
Bob Weppler: And the days of your sorrow will be over.
Bob Weppler: All your people will be righteous.
Bob Weppler: They will possess the land forever.
Bob Weppler: They are the branch I planted, the work of my hands, so that I may be glorified.
Bob Weppler: What a beautiful picture.
Bob Weppler: So let's summarize Peter's letter.
Bob Weppler: Let's draw some conclusions of our own.
Bob Weppler: Peter's death is imminent.
Bob Weppler: In his final exhortation in verses 314 through 18, he provides a recap of what he's just instructed them.
Bob Weppler: He reminds his flock to be on alert for lawless people.
Bob Weppler: People he describes as untaught and unstable, to be on alert for unrighteous men who will twist the meaning of both the scriptures and Paul's letters.
Bob Weppler: In verse 17, he reminds them that they are stable.
Bob Weppler: His believers, they are stable.
Bob Weppler: They have the firm foundation of Old Testament scriptures, as well as the letters of Paul.
Bob Weppler: But they must grow.
Bob Weppler: They must grow in the knowledge of God.
Bob Weppler: Just as he urged them at the beginning of the letter, he closed with what he believed was the most important thing for them to remember.
Bob Weppler: Verse 18, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Bob Weppler: Reformed theologian and author Curtis Braun wrote, A false teacher is one who holds to unrepentantly and persistently teaches and preaches a false gospel that damns men's souls by attacking, twisting, misrepresenting, adding to, or leaving out essential components of the gospel.
Bob Weppler: Or essential components of the bad news of sin, death, and hell.
Bob Weppler: A false teacher could also be one who teaches the true gospel, but lives a life in contradiction and opposition to the gospel, and thus blasphemes the gospel through their life.
Bob Weppler: False teachers are damned, and they damn those who embrace their false doctrine.
Bob Weppler: That's a tough passage right there.
Bob Weppler: Tough quote.
Bob Weppler: Peter's letter speaks directly to us.
Bob Weppler: What have we learned from this letter?
Bob Weppler: We need to know the Bible.
Bob Weppler: We need to be doctrinally stable.
Bob Weppler: The more we know and trust God's Word, the more easily we will recognize false teachers and their false message.
Bob Weppler: The less likely we will be fooled by them, or even worse, fleeced by them.
Bob Weppler: They prove text, they twist God's word to propagate their agenda and glorify it.
Bob Weppler: They tickle the ears of the unstable with promises of health and wealth.
Bob Weppler: Name it and claim it.
Bob Weppler: They have no interest in feeding the sheep with the pure milk of the word.
Bob Weppler: Doctrinal stability will prevent the sheep from being led astray.
Bob Weppler: Doctrinal stability will help believers to discern if the message, if the messenger is glorifying God.
Bob Weppler: Equally so, doctrinal stability will give us a greater confidence to share the gospel.
Bob Weppler: Peter reminds us that the Lord that we serve is patient, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
Bob Weppler: Sounds like a call to evangelism.
Bob Weppler: We are the means to his eternal end.
Bob Weppler: We are commanded to make disciples by sharing the gospel.
Bob Weppler: God does the rest.
Bob Weppler: The day of the Lord will come like a thief.
Bob Weppler: Peter warned us.
Bob Weppler: Paul warned us as well.
Bob Weppler: He said, like a thief in the night.
Bob Weppler: Today is the day of salvation.
Bob Weppler: Today.
Bob Weppler: Let's pray.
Bob Weppler: Father, we look at this book and as we meditate on it and study it, we recognize the horror of false teaching that is so abundant in our culture.
Bob Weppler: Whether it's legalism or easy believism, there are false gospels everywhere, Father.
Bob Weppler: And we just we lift every one of those souls up to you who are being taught on Sunday mornings with a false message.
Bob Weppler: And we just pray, Father, that the gospel somehow gets to them and that they are saved.
Bob Weppler: Father, as we go out into the world, give us the strength, give us the strength to apply these wonderful words that we have learned tonight to our lives.
Bob Weppler: We ask this in Jesus' name.
Bob Weppler: Amen.