How Should We Then Live?

A number of years ago, the telephone company that serves New York City reached an arrangement with the power company Connid in New York City that if there should ever occur a drain on the power grid that was going to shut down the power in New York City, that the phone company would voluntarily switch to its own generators and thus conserve power and possibly help with any power overload in the city. So that actually did happen on a very hot summer day a few years ago and so the switch was thrown and the generators at the main station at the phone company geared up but because of the power drain with that from their own generators, the phones went down from the phone company. Phones that serve us 4.5 million domestic customers, 470,000 international calls were disabled that day. All the network communication for LaGuardia Airport, JFK Airport and Newark Airport were shut down, stranding 85,000 passengers designed for 1200 flights that day. It was an absolute mess. For six hours the alarms at that main control station in Lower Manhattan went off unheated. You know why? The people who were supposed to be running that equipment were away at a one day training seminar on how to manage emergencies. When I read that I thought you know that reminds me of myself. Sometimes it reminds me of a lot of believers, it reminds me of the church. How we love our seminars and our conferences especially when it comes to prophecy. Wow how we love to learn more about prophecy. We have our questions answered pack more knowledge up there so that we can impress people with how much we know about the future. And the fact that we are designed to help and serve a hurting world and provide God's power and love to them somehow escapes our attention. We know more but we don't live it. We have sought in this series of messages on prophecy to emphasize the fact that if all we do is pack our heads full of knowledge we miss the whole point. And so at the end of this series I wanted to vote a whole message to that theme. What the impact of prophetic truth ought to be on our lives. If all we do is gain more knowledge about the future at least that does us no good. And most it is extremely harmful to our spiritual lives. So this morning with apologies to Francis Schaeffer in the title of his well-known book the title of our message this morning is how should we then live. And actually I get that title from Peter. Peter in his second epistle chapter three asks that very question about the very topic we've been considering for the last few years. So I invite or last few weeks it seems like the last few years. Last few weeks at least. So I invite your attention to second Peter chapter three. While you're turning there if you can do this look at the screen as well. How many of you can find second Peter and look at the screen also. What we've been doing is considering the timeline of prophetic events as we understand them from the Bible beginning with the rapture continuing at the judgment seat of Christ for believers the tribulation time of seven years upon the earth. Christ's second coming to the earth to set up his millennial kingdom of thousand years on this earth followed by the great white throne judgment which issues in the judgment of all lost people unsaved people in the lake of fire for eternity. The last time we were together we saw the last prophetic theme heaven. And the idea of the new heavens and new earth from Revelation chapter 21 and 22. Now Peter talks about those themes and he'll refer to all of this expanse of prophetic truth under the term day of the Lord. And what Peter does in second Peter three says in the last days there will be some people that will be scoffers and they will deny that Jesus is really coming back. Now scoff at that and talk about prophetic truth as being inconsequential or that Bible you can't trust that about the future. And what Peter says is what those people fail to understand is two things. Verse eight God doesn't reckon time like we do just because it hasn't happened yet in two thousand years. God doesn't reckon time. Eternity heaven does not mark time like we do. In fact in the Lord's thinking a day is just like a thousand years, a thousand years just like a day. Don't make that exact equivalent. That's not the point of the verse. Point of the verse is that heaven doesn't mark time like we do here on earth. And then Peter says and don't mistake God's patience for being slow to fulfill his promises because God's patience in delaying is coming is simply so that more people might come to repentance. Jesus says it's his desire that all come to repentance. And then he says this in verse 10. This is where I'm going to begin reading. Verse 10. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. Don't mistake it. The day of the Lord will come. Day of the Lord in the Bible is that period of time which is marked by God's intervention in human history. If you study the concept in the Old Testament and the New Testament you'll find sometimes it refers to the tribulation time. Sometimes it refers to the day, the one day of the second coming. Sometimes it refers to the millennium. Sometimes it refers to eternity future. All of that is the day of the Lord. It's the time where God steps into human history, takes over and runs his program on planet earth. That's the day of the Lord. And Peter says that is coming. It's going to start like a thief. It's going to catch people unexpected and unprepared. But it will come. Don't mistake the putting of it off for God forgetting about it or for it not being true. It will come. In fact in the original language the New Testament was written in the Greek language, the verb is put first. In the Greek language if you want to emphasize something you put that word first. And the verb is the first word in the sentence here. So actually to understand this verse in the way it was actually written you have to talk like Yoda. Come the day of the Lord will is how Yoda would say it. Come on you star wars fans you know that. Come the day of the Lord will. It will come. It is coming. Don't mistake it. It will come. That's the emphasis of what Peter is saying. The day of the Lord will come. And then Peter asks this question. Verse 10 he says the heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything done and it will be laid bare. I really would like to camp here for a while. Last time in the message on heaven I said we'd talk about this more when we got the second Peter. Please forgive me for not doing that. There are six reasons why I believe that this destruction of the earth does not mean it will be annihilated and boom out of nothing a new heaven and a new earth will be created. There are six reasons why I believe it's different from that. And if you wanted to debate that or talk about that afterwards I'd be glad to do that. We don't have time right now. And I don't want to fool your head with more knowledge anyway. That's not what this sermon is about. But one of the reasons why I don't believe that is because Peter uses an illustration of the kind of destruction he's talking about earlier in verses 5 through 7 when he says the world before the flood was destroyed by the flood. And it was not annihilated. It was dramatically changed by the flood. It was reshaped by the flood. It was judged by the flood but it was the same earth. Just looked a lot different after the flood. And so that's what's going to happen in the future except it will be done by fire this time. So Peter is saying in verse 10 that the elements will be destroyed by fire. Heavens will disappear with a roar, the roar of fire. Earth and everything in it will be laid bare. And that is the literal meaning of the Greek word. It will be exposed. It will be judged by the fire of God. Now here's the question, verse 11. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? Peter is not content for us to know what's going to happen in the future. Peter is not content for us to have knowledge about prophecy. Peter is going to emphasize if the day of God is coming, if the day of the Lord is coming and it is, if there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth where we will live and there will be, how should we then live? How should that impact us now? What difference should it make in your life and in mine? And Peter is going to answer his own question. I like that. Peter is a good preacher. He will ask the question that he answers it. And I'm going to do that this morning. He will ask the question, then he will answer it and you'll give us four answers to the question. How should we then live? What kind of people ought we to be? In answering that question, Peter gives us four characteristics that should mark our lifestyle in light of eternity. In the light of the coming eternal state, Peter says there are four characteristics that ought to mark your lifestyle, mark my lifestyle. And they are as follows. Number one, godly living. You see what he says there? Verse 11. What kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives. So his first part to the answer is godly living. By the way, holy living has to do with conduct, being pure and set apart to god conduct to another. Godly living has to do with the heart relationship with god. Those two are complimentary. One has to do with the external development of set apart living. The other has to do with the development of the heart on the inside. Godliness. Character that becomes more like Christ. So he says you ought to be living holy and godly lives. Okay. What does that look like, Peter? What does it mean to be godly? We use that word a lot, but what does it mean to be godly? What does it mean to live a godly life? Well, Peter is going to tell us. Three things he says will characterize a godly life. If you are living a godly life, it will work its way out in at least these three ways. First of all, in our relationship with god, it will look like an eager expectation for eternity. An eager expectation for eternity is the way godliness looks in our relationship with god. It means that we are living in the light of eternity. Now, look how Peter develops this. Verse 12. Well, let's pick up the train of thought at the end of verse 11. You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of god and speed it's coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire and the elements will melt in the heat, but in keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Three times and three verses, you heard me emphasize it. He uses that expression looking forward to. In relationship to god, godly living is characterized by looking forward to. By an eager expectation toward what? The rapture? Well, it's included. But beyond that, Peter says, what are we looking for? Verse 13. We're looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells. The ultimate goal of the believers heart and earnest expectation. What we look forward to is eternity. It's an eternal existence in the new heaven and new earth where righteousness is at home. Where as we saw last time when we talked about heaven, there is no pain, no sorrow, no weeping, no mourning, no death, no curse, no sin. New heaven and new earth, righteousness is at home and that's what every believer should look forward to. And by the way, this looking forward to the word is not just well-standing at the window of the kind of saying, I guess it's going to come. The kind of ice when it does. No, no, this word looking forward to means literally an eager expectation and anticipation of what is to come. It's the same word that is used several times in the Bible. For instance, Luke chapter 1, where the people of Israel are outside the temple in the temple court looking for Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist who's gone into the holy place to offer the incense and he's stayed in there longer than he should. And the Bible, remember that's when he saw the angel prophesying the birth of his son. And the people outside are eagerly expecting him to come back, watching for him to come back. Same word. It's the same word that's used in Acts chapter 3 and verse 5 when Peter and John are walking into the temple and there's a lame man at the gate of the temple and he's there because he's there every day asking for handouts, asking for alms to help support him. He's a beggar. And Peter, the Bible says, looks at him and says, look at me. And verse 5 says, the man looked expecting to receive something from him. It's that word expecting that's the same word here. Eagerly anticipating, expecting that something's going to happen. The same word that's used in Acts chapter 10, verse 24, when Cornelius has sent for Peter to come and explain the gospel. And because he is so anxiously awaiting the arrival of Peter, he has gathered his whole family to hear the gospel. You get the idea? This is not just a, I kind of look forward to heaven, don't you? No, no. It's not that. This is an eager expectation, a keen anticipation of what's going to happen that changes your life. It changes the way you look at things, the way you feel about things, the way you live out your life. In relationship to God, godly living is an eternal perspective. It is an eager anticipation of eternity of what it's going to be like in the new heavens and new earth. That's what godly living looks like in relationship to God. But godly living also has another perspective. And that is in relationship to the unsaved. In relationship to unsaved people, this is what it looks like for a sport team. It looks like a pure testimony. He says, so then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless. Let's stop right there for just a moment. When the Bible says that we are to be found with certain character, the idea is normally, most often, the idea is that we are to be found by others. It has to do with your testimony. It has to do with how other people view you. It has to be with what you look like in the marketplace and in your neighborhood and in your workplace. Your lifestyle should be one, the Bible says, that is characterized by an effort, every effort to be found spotless and blameless. No spot, no dirty spot of sin on you. Blameless. The idea of no just accusation can be brought against you. Even if people accuse you, it doesn't stick because there is nothing there. Now, it doesn't mean you are going to be sinless. Notice Peter says, make every effort to be found this way. All of us are going to slip up from time to time and fail. But we are to make every effort that our testimony before a watching world that we are found by them to be spotless and blameless. To have a pure testimony. It was an open and hostile preacher by the name of Bud Robinson that always used to say to his congregation, I don't care how high you jump in church as long as you walk straight when you come down. There is a lot of truth to that. It doesn't matter what you do in church as long as you walk straight when you come down. When you hit the ground, walk straight. Make every effort to have your life spotless and blameless and be found by others in this world to have a pure testimony. But Peter also says, godly living, not only looks like that in relationship to God and relationship to unbelievers, but also in relationship to believers. Relationship to other believers, it looks like this in the verse 14. And also to be found is the identity found at peace with him. Now this is where I think the NIV has kind of gotten the translation wrong here. So with him, really should be found earlier in the verse. It comes earlier in the Greek. It means literally to be found by him to be spotless, blameless and at peace. I think the peace has more to do with peace with others, not peace with God. That's taken care of. Peace with God's taken care of when you get saved. What Peter's really talking about is peace with others. And so I believe he's focusing upon our relationship with other believers. The spotless, blameless being found that way is more with unbelievers. At peace is more with believers. The idea is that in our relationship with other believers, we should be at peace with each other. We are not to have friction, hard feelings, bitterness, unforgiving spirits, unresolved anger, intolerance for others who may have differing gifts, differing focuses in their lives and ministries. We're not to be that way to have peace with one another. Satan will use anything he possibly can to destroy that. Anything he possibly can to disrupt the peace and unity between believers. We weak almost every day. Satan is at work trying to destroy the peace that God wants between believers so that the church can move forward like a mighty army, rather than bickering siblings. Peace, that's what God living looks like in relationship to other believers. So Peter says, if you really believe in the new heavens and new earth and that there is coming a day and you will be there and that will happen for every believer. If you really believe that, it ought to make a difference in the way you live. It means you ought to live a godly lifestyle, a godly lifestyle. Secondly Peter says it ought to have another impact upon us. The second characteristic that should be true of living in light of eternity. How should we then live with spiritual discernment? I'm going to use those words to characterize what he says in verses 15 and 16. I think it fits well. Spiritual discernment. Let me explain what I mean by that. Desernment is the ability to see things properly. Spiritual discernment is the ability to see what is most important spiritually and focus on that, which means you will let some other things go. But you will choose to focus on that, which is spiritually most important. That's exactly what Peter focuses on in these two verses. Notice, first of all, what he says in verse 15, bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation. Now what that means to me, what that says to me is this. What I believe Peter intends by that is this. In God's work, we need the spiritual discernment to recognize what's most important. What's most important? What does everything else contribute to? What Peter is saying is the one reason why Jesus delays his coming in God's plan and purpose. The one reason is salvation. And he's described that back in verse 9. When he says, the Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, some understand slowness. Instead, instead, he is patient with you. And it's in the context of these scholars who say the Lord's not really coming back. Is he? Hasn't happened in 2000 years? You mean you believe that stuff still? And Peter says the Lord's not slow concerning his promise. Instead, he is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. The main thing in God's work is to see other people come to know Jesus. Now I know there are those who will differ with that. And I completely, fully, if there's anyone in this room that understands the variety of gifts and ministries and infacies in the body of Christ, I certainly understand that. My spiritual gift is not evangelism, but I have a passion to come to know, to have people come to know Jesus. I believe there's room for the the the ministries of teaching, the ministries of exhortation, the ministries of serving and helps and all of those giftedness gifted areas. There are reasons and places for everybody in the church that has different gifts, but all of them contribute in the big picture to the church being strengthened so that we might reach more people for Jesus, that more people might get saved. That is the one reason the Bible identifies that Jesus is not come back yet, is so that more people can get saved. And so if my gift is teaching or administration or whatever, that gift is to help the body of Christ grow so that we can reach more people for Christ. And my ultimate deepest passion ought to be to see people come to know Jesus is Savior. You see, that's what God's work is all about. That's why Jesus is delaying is coming, tearing is coming. So that's the focus in God's work is people coming to know Jesus is Savior. If we ever lose that focus, we've lost the focus that God has on His work for people to come to know Jesus. I've heard people say I've had people tell me the purpose of church services is not for the lost. I understand that. I understand that the main purpose of church services is to edify, build up the body of Christ, but yes it is for the lost too. And I hope that whenever lost people come here, they hear the gospel and they know what it means to be saved. And even the teaching and the edifying of believers that goes on in this place is for the ultimate purpose of us being better equipped to go reach the lost and to help them come to know Jesus as their Savior. That's our ultimate goal. That's why Jesus is not come back yet. And if we have spiritual discernment to recognize what's most important in God's work, that'll be it. That'll be it. But secondly, there's also a need for spiritual discernment in relation to others, in relation to others. I want you to see how Peter talks about Paul. His relationship with Paul is a beautiful example of the kind of relationship and the spiritual discernment we ought to have to focus on the right things with others. Look at what he says in verse 15. He says, bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation. Just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. Isn't it wonderful how affectionately he speaks of Paul, our dear brother Paul? And he talks about the wisdom God gave him to write his epistles, the scriptures that we have in the New Testament. Could I remind you that Peter and Paul didn't always get along so well? Could I remind you what Galatians chapter 2 describes for us of an instance in Antioch where Peter had come up from Jerusalem and really made some serious errors in what he was doing. You can read all about it in Galatians 2, but my take on it is that before Jews came he was eating ham sandwiches with the Gentiles and when the Jews showed up he put down his ham sandwich and went kosher because he was afraid of the Jews and Paul rebuked him to the face. Paul tells us in Galatians 2 publicly, rebuked Peter and said, you're denying the very gospel that you and I both believe that there's no distinction between Jew and Gentile. You're denying that by your actions. Now you know what? Peter was willing to put that aside later. He never held that against Paul. You don't sense any bitterness or resentment or like Paul trumped me on that one. It's our dear brother Paul and the wisdom God gave him. I love that focus. It's a focus we all ought to have toward one another. But he also kind of got replaced by Paul in the book of Acts. If you follow the book of Acts in the first 12 chapters or so the highlight figure, the main figure is the gospel spreads among the Jews is Peter. And then all of a sudden in chapter 13 the focus kind of shifts to Paul in the ministry to the Gentiles and Peter kind of fades off the scene. But much later Peter with no self-centeredness at all, no desire for prominence or position is willing to speak of the person whom God used greatly as our dear brother. You see what that means is the kinds of things that could have come between them, Peter did not let come between them. The kinds of things that could come between us, we cannot let come between us. We may be different in the way we do things and the focus and giftedness and so forth that God's given us. But we shouldn't let that come between us. Paul and Peter had very different ministries both given by God and Peter didn't focus on those things. He focused on the fact that we're brothers and God's given him wisdom to do what he does. That's the right focus. That's spiritual discernment. When we begin to compete with one another for attention, time, popularity, whatever it may be in the work of God, we have lost our spiritual discernment. We're on the same team. We're all seeking to do the same thing, maybe with different emphases, but the same thing in reaching the loss of building up the body. But there's also to be spiritual discernment in handling the word. We need the focus on the right things, not only in our relationship with God's work and not only our relation with others, but also in handling God's word. Notice how Peter develops this in verse 15. He says, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him, verse 16, he writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand. I am so glad, Peter said that. Have you ever found some of Paul's things hard to understand? Some of the things Paul says and his letter to the Romans and his letter to the Ephesians and other letters that kind of hard to understand some of them, hard to grasp. If you don't believe me, read Romans 9 sometime, kind of hard to grasp. A lot of people stumble over those things. Here's what Peter says. The things that are difficult to understand. He said, now listen, I didn't say this. Peter said this. He said, which ignorant and unstable people distort. Literally twist. The Greek word was used of twisting a bone till it breaks. Ooh, that hurts. Ignorant people who just don't really know the scriptures very well, or unstable. Emotionally, mentally, spiritually unstable, looking for an audience, looking for something to get people to follow them. People take those hard to understand passages and twist them to fit their own agenda. And he says, as they do the other scriptures to their own destruction, he's describing pretty much every cult and false teaching that's ever arisen. What you'll find is false teaching usually is built on obscure, hard to understand passages that are twisted and distorted to mean something they were never intended to mean. And what Peter is saying basically is there's a lot of stuff about Paul's writings that I don't even understand. He was an apostle. So don't think yourself too high. You know, he was an apostle, and there were some things he didn't understand about Paul's writings. But he said, basically, I'm going to focus on the things that are understandable, that are clear, and I'm not going to twist the things that are unclear to fit my own purposes. Please be careful with the scriptures. Please be careful with the scriptures. There are some folks who are just carried away with every new wind of doctrine that comes along. Every little thought that seems new and novel, and wow, did anybody else ever know this? That ought to be your first clue that it's wrong. If 20 centuries of Bible scholars and godly men of God have failed to see something, you're probably not seeing it right. Okay, so be careful. Don't take obscure texts. There are three texts in the New Testament that appear to teach that baptism contributes to salvation. There's a whole denomination built on those three verses. Right? Denying the rest of scripture, which makes it clear in scores of passages that there's nothing we can do to contribute to our own salvation, taking obscure texts and twisting them. They shall take up deadly serpents. I'm not even going to go there, but you know, that's a twisting of scripture. That is not what Mark was talking about, purposely taking up serpents to prove your faith. Not at all what he was talking about. But there are people who take obscure, hard to understand passages and twist them to make their own point. Peter says, don't do that. Focus on that, which is clear, understandable, pray for wisdom and insight of the spirit to understand better the scriptures that are difficult to understand. Yes, continue to study and ask for the spirit's enlightenment in those areas. Yes, but focus on the things that are understandable, build doctrine on that. That's what Peter's saying. So we need spiritual discernment in God's work in relation to others and in handling the word of God. Spiritual discernment is a part of what it means to live in a light of eternity. Really believe Jesus is coming back. We're going to focus with spiritual discernment on the things that are most important. Focus on those things. Thirdly, Peter says, in light of eternity, you ought to be characterized by godly living, spiritual discernment, but also guarded faithfulness. Again, those two words are purposely chosen to describe what Peter's talking about in verse 17. Notice what he says. Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. Okay, says you've already been warned about false teaching and you've already been warned about the coming of Christ and the day of the Lord. You've already been warned about that. So if you're going to live in light of that, he says, be on your guard. Guard something. What are you to guard? You are to guard your faithfulness. At the end of the verse, when he says so that you do not fall from your secure position, the way that's translated in the Yavite, it can sound like that you could lose your salvation. That's not at all the meaning of Peter. I really prefer some of the other translations in this regard. The ESV says so that you do not lose your own stability. The New English translation says so that you do not fall from your firm grasp on the truth. The King James and the New American standard both say so that you do not fall from your own steadfastness. The idea is not eternal security. It's talking about the kind of secure position that means you are faithful. You're faithful to Christ. You're stable in that. You have a firm grip on that. There are two ways that Peter talks about. We should maintain our faithfulness. We should guard our faithfulness. One of them is in regard to doctrine. In regard to doctrinal error. You see what he says there in verse 17, that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless. The word error seeming to emphasize not only lifestyle kind of error, but even doctrinal error. Guard your faithfulness as far as what you believe is concerned. What your doctrine is. Don't ever think you are immune to false teaching just because you've been saved for a long time or because you have a pretty good grasp on your Bible. Again, some people are enamored by every new thing that comes down the pike. If I could please just say this and even if I can, I'm going to please be careful about what you read on the internet. I'm not an anti-nerd. I'm not anti-technology. I use the internet a good bit, but not very much for theological study. The reason is this. There is some value to books that have stood the test of the editorial process and companies that screen them before they ever go to print. There's some value to that. There's a lot of stuff that's cranked out on the internet that comes out of somebody's basement that has no idea what he's talking about. Be careful. Be careful to screen what you're hearing. I get several emails a week from either people in our church or other people asking me theological questions. More and more, what I see happening is people who picked up some hair-brained idea of the internet and it's totally out in left field as far as scripture is concerned. Just be careful. Now there are a lot of reputable sources on the internet, but it's just like Wikipedia. Make sure your source is credible. Make sure it's credible. And there are ways to test that. I know I'll get 50 emails this week about that. Guard your faithfulness doctrinally. Don't be enamored by all the new stuff. Secondly, guard your faithfulness in regard to sin. In regard to sin. The error of the lawless can also refer to those who are lawless as far as they're teaching about how to live. And so don't ever feel like you are above sin. Maybe you've been saved 30, 40, 50 years and you feel like you've got a pretty good handle on what it means to live the Christian life and you've got a pretty good knowledge of the scriptures and you feel pretty secure in your knowledge and in your spiritual walk and where you are, be careful. You're ready for a fall. That's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10-12. Look at this verse. So if you think you're standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. And you what Proverbs says, don't you? Proverbs 16, 18, Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. It's when we think we've got everything together and we've finally got a grasp on what it means to live the Christian life that you're about ready to fall. So be careful. Be always on your guard. You can never let your guard down against sin. We all have a sinful nature. Not a one of us in this room is above sin. Not a one of us in this room. And so we all have to be careful. Be on our guard against sin. So if you really believe in eternity, in a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness is at home, then you're going to guard your faithfulness, doctrinally and as regards sin, then quickly. Peter says there will be a fourth characteristic that will mark your life in light of eternity. And that is steady growth. Notice verse 18, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to him be glory both now and forever. Amen. Steadied growth. We expect that of our plants. We expect that of our children. We expect that of our minds that there should be steady growth. And certainly God expects that of every one of his children. Steadied growth. And the verb here is present, present tense, which means keep on growing. Don't ever stop. Keep on. You never reach a point where you don't need to grow some more. So keep on growing. Now would you quickly notice with me that Peter mentions two kinds of growth, two areas of growth. He says grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grow in the grace of Christ first, then grow in the knowledge of Christ. Grow in the grace of Christ means literally to grow in those graces of Christian character. Christian graces. It's kind of the fruit of the spirit and other character qualities that the Bible talks about that represent the Lord Jesus in this world. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, weakness or gentleness, self-control, fruit of the spirit. What he's saying is the older we get, the more we mature in Christ, we ought to become more loving, more joyful, more gentle, more kind, more self-controlled, more faithful and all of his other character qualities. It's really sad when believers who've been in the Lord a long time are getting less so in any or all of those areas. Grow, grow in grace, but also grow in the knowledge of our Lord. And that's not just head knowledge. It means the kind of knowledge of our Lord that you're getting to know him better. And so you confide in him more. You walk with him more closely. You understand the way he moves and works and leads and speaks through his word in your life. And so you're getting to know him better. It's kind of like marriage. The longer you live with your mate, the better you get to know them. You can anticipate their moods, their responses, everything about them. The longer you're with the Lord, if you get to know him better through his word, it'll be the same way with him. And so we're to grow in the graces of Christian character. That's that which is external and outward and observable to other people. We're also to grow inwardly in the knowledge of Christ. That's the inward likeness to him in our character. It's like a tree. This is balanced growth. It's like a tree that we can see the external growth. The branch is getting bigger each year, more leaves, more fruit on that tree. What we may not see is the root development underground. Growing in grace is the branches and the fruit. Growing in the knowledge of Christ is the root system that grows down deeper into him. Balanced growth. Balanced growth. But there are four means of growth. Now just mention them quickly because you're familiar with these. The same things that it requires to grow physically are basically the same things it requires to grow spiritually. Although Peter doesn't develop this, I think they can be supported from the Word of God. In order to grow, we need nourishment. We need food. In order for a baby to grow, it needs food. Lots of it frequently. We need food. What does Peter say in 1 Peter 2, 2, desire, the pure milk of the world, word that you may grow there by. Our food is this book. It's the Word of God. In order to grow, you've got to feed on the Word. Secondly, in order to grow physically, we need exercise. Doctors and other people tell us that the reason babies swing their arms and kick their legs so much, that's the way they exercise. That's the way they begin to develop muscles and coordination until they can begin to crawl and then they can begin to walk and then they begin to destroy everything. In those stages, they're developing muscle activity and strength and coordination. The way we develop and grow ourselves normally is through exercise. That means obedience. That means we not only feed on the Word, we burn it, we grow, we exercise it. We get some muscle out there and do it. We live it. Then thirdly, to grow, everybody needs communication. You have to learn to talk. You have to learn to communicate with other people to grow normally in a well-developed way. In order to grow spiritually, we need communication with our father, prayer. Then fourthly, we need social contacts. Take a baby away from all social contact early in its life. Allow it no human contact and it will not develop normally. There's a lot being discovered about the bonding process with infants on the part of the parents. That's why the whole birthing process has changed a whole lot over the years. I can remember when our Amy was born 36 years ago, they hardly let me in the hospital. Much less close to where the action was. I was in some hallway way down the other end of the hospital. I kept going back to the nursery to find out if she'd been born yet. Finally, on one of those occasions of going back to find out whether or not she'd been born, I saw them clean and wash a little baby put that baby in a bassinet. When I saw them put a label, the name King on that bassinet, I knew my daughter had been born. That's the way I found out. Well, it's much different today, isn't it? There's a recognition of the need for the bonding of both parents early on that human contact and touch is so important. And we need that to grow spiritually. We call it fellowship. The bonding and the touch of other believers in our lives. And I know you hear me say this a lot and hear our other pastors talk about it a lot too, but if all you do is come to Sunday morning church, you're not getting the kind of fellowship you need to really grow properly. You need to be in some kind of group whether it's a viable fellowship or a small group or a ministry like the choir or the praise band or something that that you can get to know a smaller group of people and you can begin to touch each other's lives and bond together in Christ. Almost. I don't know the figures exactly, but I would say almost 100% of the people who stop coming to Johnston Chapel and use this as a reason. I just can't get to know people. There's too big. Almost 100% of them never made an effort to get into some group where they could get to know people. This service and the service that proceeds it is not designed to do that. This is a preaching service and a worship service. It's designed to open up the word of God in a preaching context and there's plenty of that in the scriptures. There's plenty of room for that in the scriptures, but you need something more than that to grow properly. You need to get into some kind of group where you can begin to touch other people's lives and other people's lives can touch yours and you can grow through fellowship. It's not just the word and prayer and even even exercising and obedience. It is also the fellowship of God's people that's needed. You need that. You need that. Let me ask you this in closing. In view of eternity, are you living this way? In view of eternity, are you living this way? Since there is a new heaven and a new earth and we will be there someday. Is it impacting the way you're living now? Godly living? Spiritual discernment, focus on that which is important. Let the other things go. Guarded faithfulness, steady growth. Are you living that way? Let's pray together. Father, help us to live that way. Help us to realize that you want our knowledge of prophecy to do more than just fill our minds. You want it to change your lives. So help us to focus whenever we learn something from the Bible on the question that Peter asks us. What kind of people should we be? How should we then live? Every time we learn something, Father, help us to ask ourselves, okay, how should I live in a light of this? And may Bible truth change our conduct? Lord begin that work today in someone's heart. If my heart is the one that needs it more today, begin that work in my heart, Lord. Begin that work in someone else's heart where we take what we've learned and we translate it into life. Our lives glorify you in this world. We ask in Jesus name.