Sermon: Since You Know

Encourage you to open your Bibles tonight to the book of two Peter chapter three, page 1019. If you are using one of the pew Bibles in front of you

as we come to God's word tonight, would you please join me in asking for his help?

Father, as we come to you, we need you. We need you to grant us understanding and knowledge if we are to benefit from your word, and so would you enlighten our eyes and our minds that we might see marvelous things in your word? Would you increase our knowledge of you? Would you help us to live more and more in light of that knowledge? Christ's name we pray, amen.

Our passage tonight is two Timothy, two Peter, sorry. Uh, chapter three starting in uh, verse 14 and through to the end.

Therefore beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him as he does in all his letters, when he speaks in them of these matters, there are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own

destruction as they do the other scriptures. You therefore beloved knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Tonight we come to the end of second Peter concluding our fall series through the book and here Peter takes a few verses to reflect back on what he has written and to look ahead and encourage toward the future. He summarizes and reminds his readers of much of what he has already said and he urges and exhorts them and you to faithful living in this present world. We are going to consider this passage tonight in three sections.

We are going to look first at verses 14 and 15, A call to diligent holiness in light of certain hope.

Then in verses 15 through 17, we are going to look at a call to stand on the scriptures despite difficulty and distortion and finally we will look at the end of verse 17 into 18, A call to be growing in grace to the glory of God. First, I want us to consider a call to diligent holiness in light of certain hope. Peter begins his closing remarks by referencing back to what he has just said. He has just written about the fact that despite

what some people were saying, the Christian can be sure that God will fulfill his promises. There is a day coming, it's referred to as a day of judgment in verse seven of chapter three, the day of the Lord in verse 10, the day of God in verse 12. This day is a promise of judgment and justice of salvation and a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness will dwell. Peter continues his line of thinking from verse 11

by pleading with his beloved readers. Since you are waiting, expecting looking for these things for this day that is coming, since you know these things to be true, be diligent. He has already encouraged diligence a number of times in this book. In chapter one verse five, he says, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, your virtue with knowledge and then lists a whole number of other qualities. It's the same verb that is translated be diligent.

In chapter three and a little later in chapter one verse 10, he says, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, and Peter uses this verb again in verse 15 of chapter one. This time of himself, I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able to recall these things at any time. Peter has repeatedly called his readers to diligence and has held himself to the same standard and this time he is urging them to be diligent, to be found

when Christ returns without spot or blemish and at peace. This is not an appeal to be perfect morally. Peter is no under under no illusion that that perfection like this is possible. It is not an effort to earn merit from God, but it is the proper response and participation for what God has done and is doing. Ephesians five tells us that Christ loved his people and gave him himself up for them so that he might sanctify them, cleansing them by the washing

of his words so that he might present them to himself in splendor without spot Or wrinkle or any such thing that they might be holy and without blemish, Jesus came and died for his people so that you might be found without spot or blemish.

Peter is encouraging you to be diligent in pursuing that which God is pursuing in you.

This is a call to live lives of faith, repentance, and new obedience to trust God for the washing away of sins through Christ. To find refuge in Christ and to seek more and more conformity to Christ.

Jesus is going to come back and it matters how God finds you on that day. Will he find your sins covered by the blood of Christ at peace with God, at peace, with your consciences at peace, in your circumstances, at peace with men because of your faith in Jesus Christ? Be diligent toward these ends, diligent in faith, diligent in repentance and diligent in holiness.

This is what Peter is calling us to. We don't know when that day will come and so Peter continues to urge you. Don't squander the time before Jesus returns or presume that you'll always have more time later to take your life or your faith seriously count the patience of our Lord as salvation. Here Peter is returning to the idea from chapter three verse nine. Many in his day had it wrong thinking that the delay of the day of God meant that it wasn't going to happen.

Peter says, no, it is coming make use of the patience for salvation. The reason that it is delayed, the reason that he is waiting is so that some might call upon him.

Want to pause for a minute here and speak to those who might be here tonight who have not put your trust in Christ. Perhaps you have grown up in the church and been putting off taking it seriously thinking you'll get to it later. Maybe you just walked in tonight for the first time. God is waiting, is being patient to give time for some to turn to him in faith before he returns. Take advantage of that patience. You don't know how long it will last.

Turn to him today

Peter is calling us to be diligent in our faith, to be diligent and holiness in light of the certain hope of the day of God.

Turn our attention now to our second section, the end of verse 15 through the beginning of verse 17 and here we hear from Peter a call to stand on the scriptures despite difficulty and distortion. In chapter one, Peter appeals to the prophetic word and to the very great and precious promises of God to confirm what he is writing. Here he does the same thing with a unique and perhaps surprising spin as he appeals to the teaching

of the apostle Paul. Peter is saying, you don't have to just take my word for it. Paul agrees with me. This is not the first time you have heard these things. Paul told them to you as well.

It is fairly unclear what exactly Peter is referring to here because there are so many things in Paul's writings that he could mean.

He could be talking about the patience of God in judgment referring to Romans two, four where Paul writes, do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

He could be referring to Paul's teaching about the day of the Lord in Second Thessalonians or he could be referring to any number of places where Paul addresses salvation or obedience these matters which Peter has been speaking about, but whatever he is specifically referring to, it seems that some people were pitting Paul and Peter against each other claiming they were teaching different things, perhaps even using their confrontation from the Book

of Galatians as evidence, but Peter will have none of that division.

He calls Paul his beloved brother and he makes it clear my teaching is consistent with Paul's on all these matters. I agree with Paul and he agrees with me.

He then makes a concession, which perhaps you'll find somewhat encouraging. I found it a little bit encouraging. Some of the things which Paul writes are difficult to understand.

Not every section of the Bible, not all the doctrines of scripture are easy to comprehend. Some are difficult,

but notice Peter doesn't disregard these sections nor say they are unimportant. Just because they're difficult doesn't make them untrue or unworthy of our attention. In fact, it is all the more vital to be careful because it is these portions that are so easy for the ignorant and the unstable to distort. Peter spent the entirety of the second chapter of this book Warning against False Teachers and now he returns to the topic again.

Again, we we don't know the specifics of what of Paul's teaching was being twisted. Perhaps it was his teaching on grace being used as a license to sin as we see in Romans undercutting the call to holiness. Maybe it was something related to the return of Christ in the last days. As Paul addresses in two Timothy two where he writes that Jaman aeu and file have swerved from the truth by saying that the resurrection has already happened.

Regardless of the specifics, there are some who will twist God's word and it will be to their ruin and to the ruin of any who would follow after them.

This has always been the reality with God's word. There are those who would seek to pervert it. This is as old as the Garden of Eden. When the serpent first sought to introduce doubt about the word of God, did God really say it's the approach the same devil used with Jesus in the wilderness taking God's words and turning them to mean something else? There will always be those who will twist and call into question what God has spoken.

What is remarkable about these verses however, is the way Peter now includes Paul alongside the other scriptures. This is an incredible assertion for this. Early in the New Testament period, the same authority which Peter Peter has appealed to when looking back at the prophetic word of the Old Testament scriptures, he now gives to Paul as well and through that to his own teaching, they're all in accord with one another.

He is saying the only way to divide is to distort the teaching of one or the other.

Peter wants you to hear the scriptures can be difficult in places, they may be distorted at times, but they are dependable for your life and here Peter again encourages his readers to let their knowledge direct how they live. Since you know that some will twist God's word, take care, be on your guard. Don't be deceived, don't be carried away. Peter is calling you to stand on the scriptures despite difficulty and despite distortion.

Then Peter turns his attention to his final exhortation,

a call to be growing in grace to the glory of God. He has just said, don't be led astray by error but grow in grace and knowledge. This idea of growing in knowledge book ends Peter's letter in chapter one, verse two, Peter begins by praying that grace and peace will be multiplied to his readers in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Now as he concludes, he urges them to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord

and savior Jesus Christ. This is Peter's desire for the Christian, his longing that they would grow in the knowledge of God.

Let's to think for a minute this, this is not only the end of second Peter of this letter. Earlier in the letter he says that he is being diligent to remind them of the things that are true so that after he is gone they will remember them 'cause as he says in verse 14 of chapter one, God has made it clear to me that the putting off of my body will be soon.

So this is his conclusion to the letter, but it is also the conclusion of what he expects will be his ministry and as he wraps up his letter and his life and his ministry, this is his focus to pray for and to encourage believers to grow in the knowledge of God.

As I have studied through this week, there are about three or four different sermons that I have thought I was maybe gonna preach. There is much more in these few verses that we could profitably examine much closer uh, but what I want us to do with our time as we wrap up second Peter, I want us to linger here on this final focus of Peters and zoom in on the idea of the knowledge of God and of Jesus our savior. Want us to consider six observations about the knowledge

of God and of Jesus from these parting words of Peter. First, the knowledge of God is a personal knowledge.

There are a lot of ways to get the Christian life wrong. It can be mistaken in a lot of ways. Some think that to be a Christian means a certain moral code or following a certain set of rules. Christian certainly will obey certain commands and look a certain way, but that's not what makes someone a Christian. Others will say that it is an ascent to a certain set of facts. Again, a Christian will certainly ascent to many truths

that is not also what it means to be a Christian. To be a Christian means to know Christ. Consider some of the words of Jesus. I am the good shepherd from John 10. I know my own and my own know me just as the Father knows me and I know the Father to be his is to know him and to be known just as the father and the son know one another. We in John 17, this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent

what is life abundant and life eternal. It is to know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent

the knowledge of God and of Jesus is not simply to know certain things about God or to act a certain way. It is to know him personally and intimately. The knowledge of God is a personal knowledge. Second, the knowledge of God is a given knowledge. You cannot know God if he does not reveal himself to you. You see this in verse 15. Paul wrote about these matters according to the wisdom that was given him. Paul, despite his best efforts in his youth,

could not work his way to knowledge of God on his own and neither can we. We need him to reveal himself to us, to give us understanding and he has done that. He has given us this knowledge through his creation and especially through the scriptures. As Peter reminds us earlier in the book, the Holy Spirit carried men along as they spoke from God and it is the same Holy Spirit that continues to be active in giving us understanding

of the same scriptures which he has inspired.

What this means is that since he is the one who has given it, we can trust what Peter writes in chapter one. His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. He is the one that has given the knowledge.

He is the one that knows what you need And so you can know that there is nothing you need to know, which he has not made known in his word. The scriptures are sufficient.

You need him to know him, but what you need to know he has provided. He has made himself known as creator, as sustainer and provider as redeemer and Savior. He has made known his infinite, eternal and unchangeable nature. He has shown forth his wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth as well as his mercy, love, patience, and kindness.

This is especially important as we remember earlier where Peter had said, some of the things that are written are difficult to understand.

We need his help to understand. We need his help to understand a being that is beyond our comprehension. We need his help to understand that which is outside of our experience.

The knowledge of God is a given knowledge. Third, the knowledge of God is a stabilizing knowledge. If you look again at our passage, you'll see that the ignorant and the unstable twist the scriptures to their own destruction, but Peter's plea is that knowing this beforehand, you would take care so that you do not lose your own stability.

Knowledge of God is like a solid rock, a safe refuge. It is firm and unshakable. This is what Jesus teaches in parable form in Matthew seven and Luke six, the one who hears and practices God's word is like a builder building on a solid rock. The one who does not is like the builder building on sand. When the rain and the storms come, one is stable and the other crashes and great is the destruction of it. The knowledge of God is a firm foundation on which

to build your life. If you would like to be stable, not blown by every wind that comes, seek to know God, knowing that God rules over all things, knowing that he is for you and with you, knowing that he did not spare his own son, but gave him up for you, knowing that he will return and bring you to live with him forever and ever. When the trials and troubles of life come at you, you will not be Moved. You will be at peace.

In this world, the knowledge of God is a stabilizing knowledge

For The knowledge of God is an illuminating knowledge.

In chapter one, Peter has said that we have a prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place. The Psalmist puts it this way in Psalm one 19, your word is a lamp to my feet in a light to my path. The knowledge of God shows you where to go and how to live. It illuminates what you are to do and where you are to go. You see this multiple times in our few verses tonight,

since you know that Jesus is coming back, be diligent since you know that people will twist the word of God, take care and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What you know gives you insight into how to live what you believe will lead to how you behave. This knowledge is not simply an intellectual ascent, but the knowledge of God involves wisdom and understanding that will be lived out.

If you believe, as some did in Peter's day that there is no coming day of judgment, then you will live doing what you want, how you want. But if you know that there is a day coming, if you know that the promises of your God will come to pass because he is faithful, then you will live in holiness with that day in view.

Does your way of life reflect on knowledge of God? Are you quick to repent and to forgive knowing that God in Christ has forgiven you or are you exacting with yourself and others? Does your heart overflow with gratitude knowing that everything you have is a good gift from your good father or are you prideful for what you have that others do not bitter or resentful about that which you lack

true knowledge of God given through His word will illuminate the way and will help to guide you down the joy filled path of obedience, righteousness and holiness.

The knowledge of God is an illuminating knowledge. Five. The knowledge of God is a glorifying knowledge.

In one Corinthians, Paul will warn about a knowledge that puffs up that is not this knowledge that Peter is talking about. The knowledge of God here leads to the outbursts that Peter erupts with. To end the letter to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. Knowing the king of kings and the Lord of Lords, the one who made all things and rules over all things, who has no beginning

and no end, who knows a word completely before it is on your tongue. Who knit you together in your mother's womb, who is the source of all joy and truth and love and peace and goodness whose promises have never failed to come to pass, who rose from the dead defeated sin is seated at the right hand of God on high.

There is no other response to knowing this God, but to praise and worship and glorify him for who he is and for what he has done. He is worthy of all glory and praise today and every day forever, ever, and the more you know him, the more you will know that to be true. The knowledge of God and of Jesus is a glorifying knowledge.

Six and finally, the knowledge of God is a growing knowledge. This is where Peter has ended encouraging you to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Peter knows that no one has arrived at the full knowledge of God. Everyone can grow in this knowledge needs to grow in this knowledge and should strive toward that end. There is no place for complacency in the life of a Christian. One author commented that it is like riding a bike

unless you keep moving forward, you will fall off. There is no standing still. The difference here that Peter acknowledges is you are either being carried away or you are growing

with Peter. I encourage you, grow in the knowledge of God. Whatever your current knowledge of God's power, I promise it can grow. Same with his wisdom, his responses to prayer, his patience, his faithfulness, his justice, his glory. You could grow in the knowledge of salvation, providence, creation, law and grace, heaven and the triune nature of God. Three persons in one Godhead. Knowing God is a never ending pursuit.

You will never plumb the riches of its depth nor scale the glories of its height. So o continue to grow in your knowledge of God,

As Peter concludes his letter and ministry, his final exhortation is to grow in the personal given, stabilizing, illuminating, glorifying knowledge of God and Jesus.

I want to take a minute and encourage you as you head into a new year to do the same, to ask yourself the question, is this the aim of your life? Is this the desire that you have, the the highest and burning desire that you have for yourself, for your kids or your grandkids, for your spouse, for our church? Is this what you are praying towards and working towards that at the end of 2026, you will know God more than you do today.

Is that where you are headed? Is that the direction that you are seeking to move? Are you putting things in place to try to help that to happen? Because it will not just happen, it will require you to be diligent. It will require you to be careful, careful to avoid certain things. It will require you to be intentional and it will require you to plead with God to do that work in your heart and mind.

I don't know that uh, this pursuit is more difficult today than it has been in other times. I think every generation has to fight the fight of faith, but there are unique challenges in each age, and I want to take a minute to especially urge you to be diligent in our day, maybe especially to those of you who are younger. There are so many things in our digital world that are clamoring for your attention. The promise of the satisfaction

of victory can pull you into any number of games. The curiosity of what news has happened in the last hour or what people are saying about last hour's, news can draw you to check and recheck for new updates. You don't have to be disciplined or diligent to scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll longer than you might think possible. None of these things may be bad in and of themselves and the tools can be useful, but I am concerned, I see this in my own heart that I am

far too often used by these things more than using them for a good purpose. I'm concerned that our desire to remain connected and in touch may too often be a detriment to our staying connected and in touch with our God. You have to be astonishingly disciplined, diligent, and intentional to pursue growth in the knowledge of God, and I want to encourage you to make that effort to make every effort to be diligent and grow in the knowledge of God.

How? How do you do this? It's no secret. We saw it in our passage tonight. We saw it throughout the book of second Peter. It's the same ordinary means of grace that God has been pleased to use to grow his people for centuries. Devote yourself to the scriptures. Devote yourself to God's word, to knowing and conforming to his word, asking him to help you be intentional, to seek and grow in the knowledge of God through what he has revealed about himself.

Maybe for that you, that is just staying the course. Maybe it is starting a plan to read through the Bible here at the new year or just recommitting to a regular time and place to sit down with God and his word. The word of God will be twisted by some and called into question. Did God really say that I should keep my eyes from worthless things and only think about the things that are excellent and noble and praiseworthy and pure?

Isn't there some way for me to turn this and and think about this in a way that seems like maybe it is praiseworthy? Did God really say that my words matter, that I should be careful how I speak of others, that out of the same mouth should not come praises to him and curses or course language? Did God really say that I should be diligent to pursue holiness and growing in the knowledge of him while I eagerly await his return?

Yes, he did, and it may look foreign in our world, maybe even foreign in our churches sometimes, but this is what he has called us to, and despite the fact that the scriptures can be twisted, they are the firm foundation on which you can stand and from which you can grow.

This week I was reading, uh, the resolutions of Jonathan Edwards when he was a teenager. He, he wrote 70 resolutions regarding how he wanted to live his adult life and here is number two, eight, resolve resolved to study the scriptures so steadily and so constantly and so frequently that it becomes evident, even obvious to myself that my knowledge of them has grown.

Next time we meet, the calendar will have turned to 2026. Many people will be making New Year's resolutions. There's nothing inherently magical about December 31st or January one, but a new beginning does provide a good opportunity to take stock of our life and what direction you want to be moving in in this next season. As you head into a new year, whether you make resolutions or not, I would encourage you to consider how you,

like Edwards can devote yourself to the scriptures, to growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to diligently living more and more in the gracious light of that knowledge. This is what you are made for and it is the best thing that you could pursue. Would you pray with me?

Father, would you help us to know you and would you help us to want to know you more and would it be true that if you, Terry, and we gather here again the last week of December, 2026, that we would know you more than we do right now, that our knowledge of you, our affection for you, our delight in you, our obedience to you would all be stronger, would all be a little bit further down the path Because you have done a work in our hearts and minds

and we have been diligent to seek that. Would you do this work in us by your grace and for the glory of your great name, Christ's name we pray. Amen.