Knowing and Growing – 2 Peter 1:1-3, 3:17-18, 1 John 5:20
2 Peter 1:1-3 · Vern Peterman · Mar 26, 2017
Knowing & Growing, No. 12
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926551511404

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're finishing up the quarter here in which we talked about knowing the Lord. We've not exhausted everything that's possible out there. There's actually more in the New Testament. As we've mentioned, the Old Testament about knowing the Lord. But we're going to... We're going to move on from the Knowing the Lord section in next week, where we're going to proceed through what God's doing in the life of the believer.

We taught that in 2011, but we're going to be making some modifications to it. As always with these things, we're updating things and looking at how can we improve it, etc. In this particular one, We're going to be looking at three passages as opposed to what we typically have one so 2nd Peter 1 1 2 3 and the 2nd Peter 3 17 and 18 so the beginning three verses and the ending two verses of 2nd Peter and then 1st John 5 21 verse so we'll be looking at that those passages. Oh one thing to point out on Resurrection Sunday which is April 16th also called Easter.

We will not be having electives. We decided not to do that just because it typically tends to be a heavy, you know, family time. There's a lot of, you know, food preparation, getting ready for company and everything else that just kind of packs it out. So anyway, we're going to give that a try this year and see how that works for people. So on the April 16th, no electives.

So I'll try to keep that in in front of you here. All right, so here what we have is 2 Peter verses 1, 1 through 3. And what I've done with these is used a New American Standard updated. A New American Standard was initially done back in the late 60s, early 70s, and then they did an update on it in around 1995. I've So anyway, they didn't update on it. What I've done here is use that as a base, but then add notes and in some cases make modifications.

When I do that, if I make major changes and include other contexts, I'll call that expanded and explained. This is more minor notes. And when I translate, I tend not to go for the smooth English. but rather to carry across the original Greek text and then explain that if necessary.

So anyway, with that, we've got 2 Peter 1, 1-3, and it goes like this, Simon Peter, a bondservant, that is a voluntary slave, and an apostle, a special messenger of Jesus Christ. To those who have received a like precious faith as ours, and I modified that slightly from the New American Standard, by the righteousness of the God and Savior of us, Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ is the God and Savior, that's the meaning of the text.

Grace, that is keres, the standard Greek greeting. So what would the Greeks say to one another when they greeted one another? Charis, the Greeks. Then correspondingly, you've got it right there. What would the Jews say to one another when they greeted one another? Shalom, right? So this was the standard Jewish greeting. And so what's interesting, Peter here, and as a matter of fact, Paul in a number of places as well, does the same thing. And interestingly, the pattern is grace first and then peace.

And we'll talk about that in a minute here. So be multiplied to you in, so that, so not in the Greek the deep, so the definite article is not there, deep experiential knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, seeing that his divine power has granted, and that's in the perfect tense, we'll talk about that, to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true, deep experiential knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and excellence."

So this is the modified version of 2 Peter 1 through 3. So this is the beginning of Peter's second and last letter. We only have two of them. By the way, did Peter probably write other letters? Yeah. And that's something to ponder is that, for example, we have 1st and 2nd Corinthians. Reading the other letters, it turns out that at least that's 2nd and 4th Corinthians, if we had everything.

So what does that tell us about what's revealed in Scripture? Scripture is not everything that these guys ever wrote. What it tells us, however, is that God selected certain things to be revealed to us and to be included in Scripture and had other things excluded. Alright, so we got that.

So here's Peter. You can imagine this is Peter, the same one we read about in the Gospels and early in the book of Acts as we're going through now. He walked with Christ on earth for a few years, witnessed a number of amazing things, even witnessed astounding events, sometimes along with James and John. Peter is recorded as having spoken boldly and wisely in the first half of Acts, reflecting a radical change in character.

And we're seeing that this morning. He's talking to a lot of the same guys who voted to have Christ crucified, right? In the passage that we're looking at today in the main service, in the 10-15 service. He was so scared about the guys who were the servants in the household just a few months before that he said, no, I don't even know this guy. Now he's speaking boldly. So this guy has been radically changed.

He makes reference in 1 and 2 Peter to things that he has seen and experienced earlier. Peter didn't write a gospel that we have, but he includes, for example, what is known as the Mount of Transfiguration, where here's Christ, and he sees Christ with Moses and Elijah. And then he starts proposing, hey, let's make some tents. Hey, let's go camping.

So anyway, so here's Peter, a radically changed man, and then Second Peter 1.1 has what is known as a Granville-Sharpe construction, which conveys that Jesus is God and Savior. A Granville-Sharpe construction is a construction where you have a definite article in the Greek, not in the English, in the Greek, two singular personal nouns, connected with and. The Greek is chi. So you'll have that and Granville Sharp had several different exceptions that he wrote in there that people often overlook. By the way, Granville Sharp, quick story. The Declaration of Independence reached the shores of Britain.

How fast did it get there? They couldn't telegram it or they couldn't You know, send it via fax or email. They had to ship it, right? Took a few weeks to get there. When it hit the shores, immediately the command came down, okay, order munitions and order ships and order troops. We're going to take on the Americans. Guess who was in charge of ordering munitions? Granville Sharp. He said, I refuse to order munitions to fight against the Americans. And they said, well, you will have to step down. He says, and that I will.

Isn't that something? It's that guy that developed this point of Greek grammar. He developed this point of Greek grammar, and it's taken a while for it to get sorted out, but there are about 80 places, and this is one of them. where that particular construction without exceptions, because it's not an impersonal noun, it's not a plural, that specific construction is found in the New Testament. This is one of those places, and it is one of those places that says Jesus is God and Savior, and He is identified by both. So is Jesus deity? Yes? I've got the New King James, and it simply says, in the knowledge of God and of Jesus. Right. Which reads totally different. Yes, and that's not correct. So is this one that you have, is this exactly how it came, the NAS? This is reflected with the New American Standard.

Let's see, in deep experiential, let's see, let me look at it. As a matter of fact, I even reordered it for the Greek, by the righteousness of the God and Savior of us. That's the Greek order. Jesus Christ. But the Granville-Sharp construction, this says this. And as a matter of fact, the Greek says explicitly this, what I've just translated.

Is this what's in print in the Bible, or did you re... This is rearranged from the New American Standard. But yeah, the New King James is not correct on that. So is this how it actually reads? This is a literal translation, and even the order is changed to reflect the Greek text.

And so that by the righteousness of the God and Savior of us, and that's what the Greek text says, comma, Jesus Christ, and so I put in there in the bracket, Jesus Christ is the God and Savior. And both of those are intending to convey the same individual. Yes? So, the article is there, which is the God and Savior, both singular... Both singular personal nouns, right? Singular personal, okay. Right. And then connected with me. Suppose I said, you know, this is your seat and the pew. Am I intending to say that those are the same thing? Is that where you're sitting in? Right? Is it a pew? So my intent would be that I mean the same thing. And in context, you would understand, yes, I mean the same thing. But those would not satisfy a Granville Sharp construction. Why? Well, it doesn't satisfy it because it's impersonal. So impersonal doesn't work, so that's the thing that Granville Sharp wrote. I've looked at it in detail, including his original document, or at least the transcripts from it. All his details and exceptions were just excellent. I can't find any flaw in it. Yes?

So how many of these are there? About 80 of them in the New Testament. About 80. And often, not always, often those Granville Sharp constructions point to Christ as being God, Deity. And we'll point out another one in the text. Yes? The English Standard Version and the Roman Christian Standard Version also have Our God and Savior. Yeah, and that is correct. And that's the same thing as the numerical standard. Yes, and the only thing I did was switch to the Greek order Savior of Us. But the idea is still carried across correctly. So I've tried to be a little closer to the Greek, but still, our God and Savior, I consider that an acceptable and true translation. And this is big.

Titus 2.13 is another big one that talks about our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And again, Granville Sharp Construction says he's deity. It's taken over a century for all Greek scholars to kind of come on board with it. For a while there was quite a bit of discussion, it wasn't settled. There were some big Greek scholars who were reluctant and then finally came out with it of earlier generations.

Okay, but I would give another example is Titus 2.13, but again there are about 80 of them, and many of them, not all of them, many of them identify Christ as deity.

Yeah? I was just going to say, that's kind of interesting because that sounds sophisticated Greek. I don't know if that's a better word to use. And Peter definitely wasn't a Greek scholar, I wouldn't think. Well, no, not really, but let's look at verse 3. Seeing that his divine power, does that say he's deity? Right? Yeah.

It's interesting that Peter would be able to write that. And you think about it, this Peter guy, here's a guy who acts commonly, especially verbally, as a spokesman for the apostles. You know, if you say, who was the spokesman of the original twelve? He's the guy. Often it was the spokesman of the apostles.

And so the question is, did Peter believe that Jesus, with whom he walked, whom he saw resurrected, Christ appeared to Peter individually, according to Paul. Personally and individually after he was resurrected. That guy, did Peter believe that this Jesus whom he walked with and talked with and ate with, did Peter believe that Jesus was deity? Yeah, there's no doubt, even talking about His divine power. So people who don't believe that, and that includes, for example, the Jehovah's Witnesses, right? You see, Jesus was a man. The Father is God. Jesus is a man. The Holy Spirit is a force.

And so, for them, they have to dance around these things. And I've seen their stuff, looked at all their references and everything else. I have their writings back to the late 1800s. Even back before they separated from the Seventh-day Adventists. And if you read their stuff, they have to dance around the actual facts. Oh, and by the way, until they came up with their own translation a few decades back, they used the King James, which had this right. Okay, so anyway, so let's move on here.

So, both Peter and Paul were prone, as they were both prone to do, they agreed with the customary Greek greeting, keres, grace, and the customary Jewish greeting, from the Hebrew, shalom, peace. Jerusalem is actually Yeru, shalom, habitation of peace. So this greeting, their shalom, is the standard greeting. Did Peter and Paul simply mean what the Greeks and the Jews meant by those words?

Or did they mean more? Ah, yeah, I think you guessed right. And why would... They would use the greeting, and use both of them, and they would mean more by them. Why? They had a different understanding of what Christ had done. Yeah. The thing about this, the first one is grace. Did they understand grace? Right at the outset? No. especially as Paul was Saul standing by all the coats while the rest of the Jews stoned Peter, stoned Stephen. So these guys had a lot to learn, but they did learn it, didn't they?

So when they wrote grace, they meant something much bigger than the standard Greek reading. And by the way, grace was otherwise used as a favor you would do for a friend or relative for which you didn't expect anything in return. That was the standard pagan use of the word outside of, hi. And so did grace mean more than that?

While we were yet sinners, while we were enemies, Christ did what for us? A little favor? A little favor you do for a friend or relative? No. Were we friends or relatives? No. No, while we were enemies. Christ, this is grace way beyond the pagan definition. Let's talk about peace.

Here's Jerusalem, habitation and peace. When we were in Jerusalem just a little over two years ago, they told us that Jerusalem has been attacked and rebuilt somewhere around 40 times. Is that the habitation of peace? When will it be the habitation of peace? When Christ comes again. That's it. And not until then. We had plans March of last year. We were putting together plans for going over to Jerusalem. Why did we cancel them? There were too many stabbings and shootings going on around there, around Jerusalem. The habitation of peace was not terribly peaceful.

So as you look at this, here's grace and peace, but they meant much more. By the way, we could ask, why is it that Paul and Peter are found so often, I haven't looked to see that it's every case, but so often with grace first and then peace? Why that order? It's hard to have peace if you don't have grace. Ah, yes. So this is the thing. Peace is not really possible without grace first. So the sequence is not just accidental, and you don't find them just swapping the two from time to time, or randomly. Grace first, then peace. Why? Why do you need the grace first? And Carol's right, it's hard to have peace if you don't have the grace first. But why that?

What if it's up to you Do you get an invoice for what God has done for you? And so that's the thing, grace is absolute, utter, total grace. And we use the figures of speech, we'll say mountains and fountains of grace, right? We use the Niagara Falls of grace, just massive, overflowing grace, because that's exactly what we need. And without that, stingy grace isn't going to get it done. Here's just barely enough grace for you. No. So we have wealths, plural, of grace.

Alright, so now, he wrote twice in this passage of a deep experiential and personal knowledge in this passage. Isn't that interesting? Why would he do that? He's starting off the letter, why this deep personal knowledge, right at the outset, twice, in the first few verses. Did he write in such a way, I mean you're correct, but did he write in such a way that he says I have it and you don't? No, and notice as he wrote, to those who have received a like precious faith as ours.

So here's Peter who has had the awesome privilege of walking personally with the Lord. And even the Lord, you know, Peter, do you love me? Feed my lambs, right? And variations on that three times. And essentially putting Peter back into service after a really hard stumble. in which Peter and the Lord met eyes, there at Annas and Caiaphas' house. By the way, not too far from where he spoke in Acts, that we'll be looking at here, just walking distance.

He doesn't make his knowledge something special and different, instead he writes it like, you guys have what we have. So this is amazing. Now, how can His divine power, and who's His? Christ's divine power, who is God and Savior, His divine power grant us in the perfect tense everything pertaining to life and godliness. Let's ask about this, what He has granted us.

Is that something that He might say, you know, you guys, I'm not so sure about you, you guys are a little flaky, and so I'm going to take it back. Is that what this means? It isn't, is it? What does the perfect tense say? We use a lot of words to say what they pack into a little verb. A completed past action, ongoing results, on into the present and on into the future, implying permanence, unless the context says otherwise, and it doesn't say so otherwise here. So he's granted us and it's permanent.

It's not, you know, you guys, I'm not so sure about you guys. I'm not sure I can trust you. You guys are a little weird sometimes. Some of you stumble badly, you know, and Bernard, you're really bad, you know, and so we're not going to, I'm not going to follow through with this, or I'm taking it back. That's not what he said, did he? Have you ever known somebody who at one point in time claimed to be a believer and then decided, ah, I'm pitching this. Have they been granted these things?

Yep. Yep. Could they return to a walk with the Lord? Yep. With everything that he granted them? I've known people that it's happened to. Nancy and I knew a fellow in Carson City. I saw him not too terribly long ago, sat down with him. He says, for seven years I walked away from the Lord. His wife, by the way, just kept right on praying for him and remaining faithful. And then after seven years, he came back.

Did he lose something during that time? He lost fellowship, he lost all the enjoyment and benefits of that. Did he lose anything in his position? No, he did not. So our friend Rick didn't lose a thing in his position, wasn't touched. And you may know somebody who has done that, I do. In their position they've lost nothing.

Yeah, Pat? That's basically what Peter did, generally. Yeah, I don't even know him, right? And so did the Lord say, well, sorry, Peter, you just X'd yourself out. Instead, He came personally. Personally back to him and put him back into service. And so did Peter take that? Or did he say, ah, no, Lord, I've really blown it so bad, I just, you know, can't do this. Is that what Peter did? No. And that's what we're seeing in this book of Acts.

As I look at it, I am amazed and astounded and comforted. to see this guy who saw the Lord eye to eye after the Lord had told him in advance, you're going to blow it, Peter. And the Lord turns around after his resurrection and restores him to service. Feed my sheep. To me, that's comforting, because there are ways in which I can and have blown it, and the Lord comes back and says, you know, we're back in fellowship, get serving. That's what I had in mind for you. So, what is Peter writing about here? What's he writing about? They've been granted, and this is everything about our position and everything about our sufficiency and adequacy in Him.

And it's not reversible. We can't blow it. In terms of my position, I can't blow it. I can't mess it up. So what's he writing about here? This is everything pertaining to life and godliness through the deep spiritual and experiential knowledge of Him. My position is untouchable. I can't blow it. I can't mess it up. And by the way, can somebody else mess it up for me? No. Nobody else can mess it up for me.

I can't blow it. My position is untouchable in the heavenlies. I'm blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places no matter what I do. However, my access to all those ways in which I've been blessed spiritually in the heavenly places in Christ, my access to everything I've been by His divine power granted, my access is through what? My deep experiential knowledge and walk with it. That's how I access it.

To use an analogy, suppose I said, you know, I've got a safety deposit box down at the bank for you, and it's got about $100,000 in gold bricks. What are you going to look for as the access to those gold bricks? You're going to be looking for, you know, where's this place and where's the key, right? You're going to be looking for the key.

What he's saying is, you have all this and it's there. Where's the key? There's nowhere else to go. It's in fellowship with, in a deep knowledge of, deep personal experience and knowledge of Christ. That's how you get access to it. That's the key. Yes. It's been earned. It's made available. It's been granted.

When I was going through seminary, you know, a lot of people will, you know, poo-poo seminary and probably most of them ought to have that. But I can remember just, and I was already at this point in time, at least a candidate, not knowing that I was coming here to Holly Hills, but I was translating the Greek of 1 John 3, 1 and 2. Behold what quality of permanent love. Why did I say permanent?

He has given unto us, because given is in the perfect tense. So this isn't love, you know, Vern, you're good enough that you got it. Vern, you know, you blew it, and so I'm sorry. You're not a child anymore. I'm pulling it back. You're not in the will, right? Yes.

But isn't this the whole world according to John 3.16? I mean, when he went to the cross and he died, and he did his work on the cross, which was complete and finished, it was for the whole world. He did that, now what did he do? Has everybody in the whole world been granted these things? They have access to it. Okay, so let's look at it, we used the analogy last week of, we said, Tetellussi on the cross, paid, it's all paid, perfect tense, right? So, we used the analogy of, here's everybody in the whole world who is stuck in this prison cell, right?

And you're not getting out unless you pay the four trillion dollars, which nobody has, right? Not even, was there 118 billionaires in the Middle East? And they're all oil billionaires. And how many of them have four trillion dollars? Who's eight? None. So none of them has enough to pay that amount.

So that's why I set that up high enough. So now, somebody walks in and says, guess what? There's money in the account for every single one of you and I've got checks in my hand. All you've got to do is take the check, turn it over, sign it and turn it at the door and you walk out of here. You walk out of here and you can just take off and you're home free. The money is in the account for every single one. There's no oops or not quite enough. It is totally adequate for every single person. So what happens is it is made available for every single one. But not everyone takes advantage of it.

Some people take that check. It's all paid, right? The money is in the account. Somebody takes the check and they'll say, I'll put it in my pocket and think about it when I get older. Somebody else says, you know, this is a bunch of hooey, and I'm just going to rip this thing up. And they take it and tear it up and it's gone. Somebody else just says, this is a worthless piece of paper, and they drop it on the floor and stroll around inside the cell.

So that's an important distinction to be made, that it is all paid But those who are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and who have, we have, the forgiveness, the redemption, the forgiveness of sins, those who have that are only those who believe. Only those who believe. It says through the experiential knowledge, so what qualifies as we're supposed to experience something? Yes, yes. Let's talk about this. We've made the distinction between relationship and fellowship.

The classical illustration I use, because Randy doesn't mind, is Randy is my son, he is always my son. But it's possible I could do something to disturb fellowship If I were to do something that was rude or insulting or somehow problematic with his family, he might say, you know, Dad, we love you and, you know, and he'd call me Dad, but he'd say, you can't come over for a few weeks until we cool off. We're just really, you know, upset about what you did or didn't do, you know. If I were to do something, you know, that bad, it would break fellowship. with him and with his family, even though he says, you're still my dad, and I would say, yeah, you're still my son.

The fellowship, the day-to-day fellowship needs to be there. Let's talk about something else that's very closely related. Are Nancy and I having fellowship when we're having good, normal, healthy interactions with one another throughout the day. Yeah, that's fellowship, right? But let's ask this question. If Nancy goes to the store, is our fellowship broken? No, going to the store and us not being necessarily face-to-face doesn't mean the fellowship's broken.

So what'll happen is we might say, well, I've got to go work for eight hours, or I've got this job I've got to do. I've got to go out and shovel snow for two hours or whatever. I may have some task. I may even have to stand there while the plumber goes and takes my plumbing apart and fixes it, right?

And by the way, we've had things like that happen too. So at times like that, when we're mentally preoccupied with something here, does it automatically mean that we broke in fellowship? No, it does not mean that. And so when Nancy goes to the store, if we have had a fellowship and a relationship up to that point, and she heads off to the store, we're still in fellowship, right? She's not going to the store saying, you know, boy Vern, I'm really mad at you and I'm, you know, ticked off and I'm going to go shopping for a while to cool down. So that's not going on.

So here, when we look at this in answer to your question, it's a distinction between relationship and fellowship. A relationship with the Lord is unbreakable. It cannot be removed, damaged, diminished. That's our position. Our ongoing conversation with Him, where we're talking to Him, where we're getting direction from His Word, where we're beholding the Lord through His Word, that ongoing relationship with Him we call fellowship. That is the means by which we have access. Those who don't have a relationship have no chance of fellowship. If you don't have a relationship, you have no chance of fellowship.

Now, why can I not call up the Queen of England and say, hey, I'm going to be over in London for a while, how about if I stop in and have tea with you? I have no relationship with her, there's no basis for it. I actually heard of a fellow who was a college president in Washington State. who had actually written to the Queen asking to have time with her. And he got a very polite letter back saying, we have no relationship, right? And so we're not going to have fellowship. I'm using some different terms than she used, but it was the Queen's secretary basically saying, not happening, right? Because there's no relationship, we're not having fellowship, and that includes you're not coming over here for tea.

Have a good day. So would you say that holding the Lord through His Word would be fellowship? Yeah, one of the things that we talk about, we say our equivalent terms for the same thing, and we bring up earlier on, is walking in the Spirit. is having ongoing fellowship with the Lord. Beholding the Lord through His word is a means of ongoing fellowship with the Lord. Abiding in Christ is ongoing fellowship with the Lord. So part of what we're doing here when we talk about knowing the Lord is we're saying in our position we have a basis for fellowship. We have a relationship with the Lord. We have a basis for fellowship. And without that basis for fellowship, there isn't any fellowship.

Just like I can't just invite myself for tea with the Queen. Going in and out of Heathrow probably a half a dozen times now, flown right over the place where the Queen lives. That doesn't give me a relationship with the Queen. Isn't that amazing? It would be so hard to develop a relationship with a queen or a king or a president of the state or a leader of a country, and it's so easy just to believe in God. Here's the astounding thing.

The Queen of England wouldn't give me the time of day. Probably Donald Trump would not give me the time of day if I asked for time, right? He's got way too many more important things to deal with. And probably I could pick up a lot of different names and whatnot, and not a chance. I would have zero chance of just stepping into those people's lives and having some kind of relationship.

But all I have to do is believe that Christ died for my sins, was buried and rose again. And I get to run into the throne room of the God of the universe and say, Papa, and run into his lap. What privilege. So this is why the Apostle Paul would write letters like Ephesians to these people, most of whom had just barely enough to survive, and he'd talk about wealths of mercy and wealths of grace, and we have the adoption of sons. I mean, it's just an unfathomable privilege and wealth, and all you've got to do is believe. This is phenomenal, right? The adoption of sons, that's for emperors.

I get it. All I did was believe. That's it. That's what grace is, right? If I were to say, you know, I'm going to go run into the throne room of the Queen, and just run in there and say, hey, Queenie, old baby, old buddy, old boy, what's going to happen? I'm going to get shot or sliced up or something, right? Not happening.

But I get to run with familiarity, papa, into the throne room and talk to the father any time I want. And his schedule is always clear for me. He never says, I'm sorry, I don't have time and you didn't make an appointment. Never. We always have that access. Always. That's why we'll sing the song, He's always got time for you. He always allows us access. Okay. We don't have anywhere near enough time to cover the rest of this stuff. So, let me read 1 Peter 3, 17 and 18.

You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be imperative, you must be, on guard on your guard, so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men, and fall from your own steadfastness. But grow imperative, by the way, is growing an option? It's an imperative. But grow imperative in grace and knowledge, and I took out the definite article in there, in grace and knowledge of the Lord of us and Savior Jesus Christ. Is that consistent with what he said in the first few verses, that Granville Sharp rule?

Yeah, it is consistent. The Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. So, one of the things we point out in the middle of the page, unprincipled men, is 2 Peter 2. Seventh, and so he's mentioned it before. So he's given us earlier insight into that.

He told the believers to be on their guard, be alert and on your guard. Those are recurring themes in the New Testament, starting with the Gospels, going through Acts and on into New Testament letters. Be alert and on your guard, be alert and on your guard, be alert and on your guard. Jesus said it, Paul said it, it's in the letters, Peter said it, you know, be alert and on your guard.

So what does he mean by that? Don't sleep? By the way, Proverbs 6.4 says don't sleep. Don't sleep or you'll get slumbered eyelids. What is he meaning? We're supposed to run hyper all the time and sleepless? Spiritual insomniacs. Blink, blink, blink. What does he intend by that? similar to sober, isn't it? Yes, this is be sober and be aware. Don't just go around spiritually unaware, is the warning there. This says to be carried away.

Similar to that, it's not the same word, is in Colossians 2.8. See to it, imperative, that no one takes you captive, and that means captive by pirates or thugs, through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of man, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. So, instead of that, what does he say to do? And I'm shifting on to page 3.

There are several critical things to examine about the word grow in 2 Peter 3.18. Grow, oxano, imperative, and the active voice. So, is growing an imperative something that just God does? No, you actually have a part in it. That's one of the reasons why we take more time. We're going to actually revisit several of these passages.

We're going to take more time as we go through what God's doing in the life of the believer, starting this next month. And here's what we do. We start off with introducing something like being conformed to the image of Christ, being transformed, growing.

We take those words and we say, here's what this means, one week. Next week we say, here's God's part. And now knowing what God's doing, here's our part. And we say, this is what scripture says is our part. And so we look at that deliberately in that sequence.

Why? The tendency for people not understanding what God's part is and our part is, is to either Say, let go and let God, and I don't do anything, God does it all, and I just kind of lay there and let Him do it. Or, the other is I start trying to take over what God's already doing. See, both of those are a problem, right?

And so knowing what is God doing, what is my part, knowing what God's doing, and understanding being conformed, being sanctified, being transformed. Understanding those things and knowing God's part, it leaves me in the perfect place to do exactly what scripture says is my part. Nothing more and nothing less. I can have precise understanding, instead of going to the unbiblical extremes, where I don't have anything to do with this. God controls my growth. I have nothing to do with it. I don't touch it. It's all His to do. Is that what the Bible says? No. On the other hand, God doesn't say, here's your to-do list. Let me know how it goes when you get here. That's not the biblical teaching either, right? So that's how we're going to look.

What is being sanctified? What's being conformed? What's being transformed? What's growing? Understand what those things are, understand God's part, and in view of God's part, here is exactly what Scripture says our part is. Isn't that great? We can rest in everything that He has done and is doing, knowing what He has done and is doing. Right? Isn't that super? Alright, we've run way out of time. Other thoughts, comments, questions? Exasperations because we ran out of time? Okay.

So anyway, I would invite you to read through the rest of it. We'll start next Sunday on introducing what God's doing in the life of the believer. And it's really cool. I get excited about it. We last taught it here in 2011. And we're going to be looking at it again with some modifications, not just cookie cutter doing the same thing.

Alright, let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at these passages, as we see these things. As we turn a corner here in the topic of our study, we thank you that you intend and have provided everything for us to know you, to walk in a deep personal knowledge and fellowship of you. And what's astounding in this first passage we look at, Peter did not say that he had any special place above where we are, but rather that we have the same position as he, and the same opportunity as he. That's really amazing to ponder. We thank you for that position, and we thank you for the opportunity you've laid before us. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.