In this sermon, Pastor Babij teaches from 2 Peter on how believers can grow in the assurance of their salvation: by diligently performing good works, praying, and studying the Scripture. Pastor also reminds believers of Jesus’ imminent return and of how the knowledge of Jesus’ soon coming ought to inflame believers’ passion for their Lord.
Full Transcript:
Let’s take our Bibles and turn to 2 Peter. This is probably going to be in two parts when I return to this after Resurrection Sunday. Today in our passage of Scripture, we need to remember who is coming. Christians should add to what God has already given to us. We are to proceed and grow in what He has given us. I’ve already mentioned by way of review the seven qualities that we are to grow in: moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. These are the qualities that help to form the image of Christ in our Christian character.
I asked last week why not all Christians are fruitful and why so many continue to stumble. How can we live now to ensure the rich and rewarding entry into Christ’s Kingdom. God of course did not say that all Christians would be fruitful no matter what. He also did not say that we would never stumble once we believe and start to follow Christ. So the goal for the seven qualities is found in verse 8 and that is to be more useful if these qualities increase in our lives. We will also be more productive and that means that the qualities of Christian character are not to be added to our lives to ensure some quality of practical productivity, but that our character may be like that of Jesus Christ. The productiveness and effectiveness that God wants in our lives is our increasing ability to think like Christ and the attributes that are communicable in our lives, and to act like Christ with those same qualities.
Now what is the verdict for those who don’t have these qualities increasing in their daily growth of pursuing Christ’s likeness? Well that means that you are disobedience to the goal. In verse 9, there are two negative things if you are not growing and don’t have these qualities. It shows that you are blind and shortsighted. The idea is that these people only see what is in front of them and thus are blinded to the true reality. If they lack these qualities, it shows they have a bad memory. They forget where and from what Christ has rescued them. Of course, if you see in the passage in verse 9, they have forgotten their purification. They have forgotten their cleansing as moral and spiritual cleansing that was done for a believer by the finished work of Christ.
Why did they forget this? Something was going on in their present reality that caused them to forget what happened in the past and these people were really returning back to their former way of life living like the world. They were ignoring that their sins have been cleansed by the blood of Christ and that they actually can say no to sin and put it to death. They failed to grow in their knowledge of Christ. They failed to focus on others and have now stepped into the darkness which means you’re not walking in the spirit and therefore when you’re in that state, you are useless, unfruitful, and lack assurance. They shut their eyes to the truth and have become careless to spiritual things which actually hinders their spiritual growth.
Now Peter assumes in this condition that these people are believers that have gotten off track and moved away. If this takes place for the whole of a Christian’s life, and it shouldn’t, then of course they have to examine themselves. Peter is writing to remind the recipients of his letter that this condition is not a reality in their life yet, but can become one very soon if they stop pursuing these virtues.
If the influential false teachers have their way by misrepresenting and maligning the truth and get real Christians to listen to them and follow their ungodly ways, it will make that Christian more and more forgetful of the truth and rob them of their assurance. That’s why he serves in 2 Peter 1:10:
Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.
Now remember we see here that God is calling us in the inner call of salvation where we are moved in our hearts to believe the gospel. We’re chosen and selected by God and not only are we to examine whether we are actually called but also chosen. It doesn’t say that you are choosing Him, but that He is choosing you. We have to make sure we practicing these things so that we don’t stumble.
The promise here is that when you pursue these qualities, you have the assurance of salvation. This is translated never at any time will you stumble. It doesn’t mean that you will never sin, but it is used as a military term that means you will be able to keep up with the troops without being left behind. It means staying close to the conquering Christ as you grow in your knowledge of the Lord. He is the One who leads us who are called and chosen by God in and through the battle of life, on to victory, and into the Kingdom of God.
The second promise is that we would have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom in verse 11 where it says:
For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
That is actually a great encouragement to us by Peter through the Spirit of God that this life is actually preparation for the Kingdom of God. But it is never implied that we earn a place in Heaven because we keep these qualities. Heaven is all of grace and all because of God’s mercy and choosing us and His electing love. However, some who take the human side of salvation seriously by giving every effort to increasing these qualities will have a more glorious welcome into the Kingdom than others will.
In fact, some will be saved only as one who escapes the flames. We talk about the bema seat of Christ in 1 Corinthians where Christians will be judged not for their sins but for their works and how they lived their lives. 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 says:
Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Peter is admonishing and exhorting believers to not live as though by fire, but with gusto. Live with all energy and effort to pursue the things in the Word of God, and in doing so reap great benefits and encouragements. One of these encouragements is that we can be assured of our salvation and of eternal life. We don’t have any doubt about it because God has done a work in our hearts and we want to serve Christ. Those desires don’t come from the flesh, the world, or Satan, but from God Himself.
It was Yogi Berra who was a manager, catcher, and coach of the New York Yankee. He used to come up with these quotable short sayings. He didn’t mean to be quotable but what he said ended up being repeatable that are still known today. He said things like, “It’s not over until it’s over,” and “When you come to a Y in the road, take it.” Christians are actually left with that decision every single day of their lives, to figure out which path they’re going to take. Are they going to take the low road and live according to the flesh? Or are they going to take the high road and live by the Spirit.
The more we make the decision to stay on the path where we are walking in the Spirit, the more victory we have over our sin, the world, and the deceptions of Satan. Salvation comes to us by grace alone, through faith alone, by Scripture alone, and in Christ alone. All who believe in Christ are given the gift of life guaranteed by God. However the path taken from salvation to heaven will not be the same for every child of God.
Some will take the low road, maybe more often than they should. The believer who takes the low road lives life with no assurance. they lack visible editions to the seven qualities to their life, they can’t see spiritually and are blind. During their journey in this world, they stumble along the rocks and get bruised. They are bleeding travelers and can’t see far off. They have spiritual myopia with eyes half open and cannot see spiritual truth. So Christians who lack diligence or who are idle in their faith have no right to assurance at all.
Some will take the high road, and this is the motivation of Peter, to stay there. Those will take the high road, they will possess in their practice evidence that they are diligently and visibly adding to their faith. They also know they are called and elected and will demonstrate that by a holy life. Individual behavior is proof or disproof of a true calling and election of God. Also they will abound and will have more than enough in this life and will always be thankful. Their joy and thankfulness overflow because God lavishes upon them more than they need and that’s why they can live joyfully and with gratitude even in a bad situation, because they praise God.
Also, they will not be barren or unfruitful but will keep moving forward and producing fruit. They will never fall because they can’t see. They make a steady progress in the Word of God. They have and look forward to have an abundant entrance in the Kingdom. The world becomes dim and the Kingdom of God becomes more of a desire in their hearts.
Christians who do not lack diligence and who are not idle in their faith have every right to assurance. So then the exhortation is if you will have spiritual success in time and divine congratulations in eternity, then take the high road so that you don’t have to stumble and fall in the Christian life. The Scriptures do promise to those who will apply diligence in developing seven vital qualities in their lives will have an effective and an abundant Christian life and plenty of assurance. So Christians who are faithful in this way are welcomed into the glory of Heaven in really a spectacular fashion, and of course the one thing we will want to hear is, “Well done good and faithful servant.”
So all that leads up to what we’re looking at this morning. You don’t have to stay on the low road, the call for the high road is open to all. The one question you may have right now is where do you start? Well, 2 Peter 1:5 says you must apply all diligence. It also says in 2 Peter 1:10:
Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.
It starts with giving all diligence. Here is a call to serious consideration which forbids you to waste time pursuing lesser things and being idle in your Christian journey. So as we see here, your attitude towards growth is to bring into the relationship alongside with God every ounce of determination that you can possibly muster. Then we continue to practice being diligent every day of our lives. Even if you fall off the wagon, you need to get back on it.
Why is diligence so important? Because all the recipients of this epistle are reminded that they live in a world where they are many dangers. There is the danger of being led astray under the influence of teachers who do not believe in truth. In fact, they go as far to believe that immortality would not incur divine judgment. 2 Peter 2:10 says:
Especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties.
So these are the dangers before us. Peter is not only admonishing, encouraging, and exhorting them, but also the one way we can keep diligent is that we have to be reminded so we don’t forget. We have to be reminded of something we already know. You make think that’s redundant, but that’s what learning is. We have to be reminded of it over and over again. This next part of the text has two major points. The first includes the implications of remembering. And the second is the informants of remembering, which I probably won’t get to today.
In 2 Peter 1:12 it says:
Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.
In the text we see a father’s concern for the well-being of his spiritual children to remind them of what is truly important in their lives. After his death, they will be able to easily remember what he taught them and how it is beneficial to their lives. In order to stay on that high road where we are continually increasing in our godliness, we must always have in our remembrance the certainty of Christ’s return. That’s the ultimate remembrance, that Christ is not only a knowledge that we need to be growing in every day but He is also coming again.
He says in verse 12 that the believers have been established in the truth. Peter is assuming that his readers are on the high road. Peter wants his readers to stay right there because he knew himself what it meant to fail the Lord Jesus Christ. Actually the word established was the same word that Jesus used of Peter when He predicted his failure and promised restoration. If you turn back really quickly to Luke 22:31-34 it says:
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!”And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.”
Peter failed but the Lord wants him to know that He prayed for him. When he was out of it, he was able to strengthen his brothers. He was able to do this by the implication of remembering which retains our increasing godliness. We have to be prodded on to godliness on a regular basis. The word strengthen means to set up something so it remains immovable. He wants his hearers to be immovable in what they already know and not go backwards. A second implication of remembering is in 2 Peter 1:13-14, where remembering arouses our passions. Peter wanted his readers to remain immovable in the truth and that becomes important for our text. The truth is already available to his audience and the teaching is of the prophets and apostles that has already been given to them.
Now why did Peter remind them not to be negligent in something they already knew and were firmly established in. There are two reasons for himself as a father to his spiritual children. The journey in life is short. Look at verse 13:
I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder.
Now remember that our lives is that of travelers whose tents will be packed away one day and no longer needed. So you must live for a sure destination, the Kingdom of God. While you are heading there, redeem the time because the journey is short. The second reason would be that death is sure. This remembering is going to rouse their passions to go on and live in light of dying because he says in verse 14:
Knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
The reasons for his persistent reminding of the truth to his hearers is that the journey is short so you got to get it and death is sure and we’re all heading there. Repetition is a sound way to teach. The consistent repetition of a thing until it becomes a part of us is the heart of all learning. Parents, how many times do you have to remind your children of something they already know? Maybe 5, 10 times a day, or for years until they get it. For example, you tell them two times a week to take out the garbage but when you go there, it is still full. Of course if there is disobedience you have to take care of it very quickly.
I don’t know really anybody who has a photographic memory and who doesn’t forget. Most of us forget! So there is a knowledge which is so crucial for our well-being that we cannot afford to forget what we have been learning from the Word of God. If there is one area of knowledge that we need to be reminded of again and again, it is our need for spiritual truths and for truth itself from the Word of God.
The Apostle Peter as he nears the end of his earthly life, writes 2 Peter for the purse of reminding his readers for the need of spiritual truth and what God has said in His Word so that it sticks to them. If you look in 2 Peter 3:1-2:
This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.
This is where he brings together the Old and New Testament. See Christians need more than low tack adhesive, as used in Post-It notes. We need, as mentioned in the first message, Gorilla Super Glue adhesive so that we are learning from God’s Word will permanently stick in our minds. He is reminding them so that their passions for truth are aroused. The more you are in the Word of God, the more you get passionate about truth.
In 2 Peter 1:14, Peter knew he was going to be martyred shortly and that he would vacate his earthly tent. It says:
Knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
But if you notice, Peter doesn’t show a sign of fear in this statement. It’s because he was established in the truth and wanted the same for his hearers. He wanted them to know that death wasn’t something to be feared, but correctly understood. It is an entrance way from this world to the Lord Himself. See the resurrection of Christ had slain the fear of death in him. Just like King David says in the famous Psalm 23:4:
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Death was just a blip on the radar for David and Peter. He wanted the same for those who listened and received the truth. There’s another implication of remembering and it’s found in 2 Peter 1:15. Remembering actually reinforces our readiness, it says in this verse:
And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.
In other words when you are in the valley or on the mountaintop, when you are alone after your parents and mentors are gone you will be able to carry on because you will establish the truth and pass it on to others. People don’t need new truth today, but only to gain a clearer understanding of the eternal truth God has already revealed in the Word of God. So what is important for us is to be able to navigate the winding road of life on a strong foundation of objective reality while on our journey home to Heaven. Why is that important? So that the real substance of the eternal truth of God sticks in our minds. Peter knew there will be heavy-duty false teaching right around the corner as there is today. Teachers mock at the idea of a powerful heavenly Christ who could strengthen His children for present godly living no matter how botched the circumstances are. 2 Peter 2:1 says:
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
So falsehoods are everywhere and are dangerous and destructive. They are distracting and blinding and deny essential truths. Falsehoods are controversial and don’t lead to godly living. Falsehoods rob assurance and strength to be effective, productive children of God in this world. So Peter did not want his disciples to be carried away by the tide of false doctrine and those who propagated, why? So believers will lose their foundation and their footing in the truth, and fall victim to false teaching. It says in 2 Peter 3:17:
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness.
He did not want them to fall into their own steadfastness. One thing that could cause them to fall is their own weakness of the flesh and also being introduced to false teaching and letting it into your thinking. Unprincipled teachers deny Christ in their sensual ways and they don’t have moral restraint. It says in 2 Peter 2:2:
Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned.
Unprincipled people deny Christ in their teaching. You have to examine what they are saying and what they are not saying. These false teachers take the truth lightly so that it is slandered and twisted and misused. These are the things that he is bringing to the attention of his hearers. The implications of remembering this retains our increasing desire for godliness and rouses our passions and reinforces our readiness against false teaching and against our own weaknesses that we have in our flesh. Also there are reliable informants needed to undergird our memories and our thinking. The informants for remembering are in 2 Peter.
Let’s go back to 2 Peter 1:16-18. The first informants are the Apostles themselves. The Apostolic witness and experience inform us of what is true in the Word of God. The second informant is the prophetic Word, which informs us how to live. In verse 16 it says:
For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
He is saying that the Apostles have experience of truth and reality. They did not follow cleverly devised tales like myths, legends, and fables. It is opposite to the word logos which means word or declaration. It is also opposite to the word aletheia which means truth. He says that the people were established in the truth and the other things are not established in the foundation of truth or authority, and have no importance for producing godliness and stability.
Now these fables were far-fetched stories, usually of a religious nature about the nations steeped in pagan practice. There are also Jewish fables, in the Talmud and the Apocrypha, which was written after Malachi and before John the Baptist. Some determine that as Scripture but we know it is not considered Scripture because God did not speak through a prophet for 400 years after Malachi. The Apocrypha is filled with all kinds of stories, some of which are historically true but it doesn’t mean they are Scripture. They can be considered a type of legend.
I heard a beautiful legend of two Hebrew brothers who live side by side. One was single and one was married. The single brother said one day that as he was single and had all these things, he was going to give some goods to his brother because he has a large family and a lot of needs. The married brother said that as his brother was single and didn’t have a family, he would bring goods to his house. They both decided to do it on the same night and met on the way and embraced. Now of course that is a great story, but it’s only a story. It has no power or authority.
Peter is saying to us that these people were clever in devising tales, myths, etc. This is not the only place you find this particular admonition in Scripture as to what not to follow. We also see it in 1 Timothy 1:3-4 where Paul says:
As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith.
It says it again in 1 Timothy 4:7:
But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.
Don’t even waste your time giving your life to those things that are not true! Don’t let them slip into the place where they are somehow equal to the authority that Scriptures have. On the last day Paul even said to the people in 2 Timothy 4:4:
And will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
Titus 1:14 says:
Not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.
The myths are the opposite of where Paul wants them to go. Also false teachers scoff at the teaching of the prophets and apostles that Jesus would come again. That is something Peter brings up in his epistle. The false teachers are mocking that Jesus will return because they don’t see any signs of it yet! These false teachers have taught that the Incarnation and Resurrection and the coming Kingdom were just mere stories and not to be taken too seriously. They say they don’t see any evidence of resurrection today or life after this world. These stories are continuously repeated and take root. They become destructive in the lives of people. It destroys faith and doesn’t help it.
False teachers are so locked into their present pleasures that they thought of God’s future coming Kingdom as just a blur to their greedy hearts and corrupt desires. Their minds were clouded to the second coming of Christ. To them, it seemed like a made up story. So Peter calls out their error as those who secretly introduce destructive heresies. They bring it in the back door and from the side, and places you wouldn’t expect. It sounds right and if you don’t know the truth, you get hooked.
That’s why Peter is reminding them that it isn’t what you ought to think about. In fact, 2 Peter 1:16 says:
For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So he is saying that he received the way, the truth, and the life because as Apostles, they experienced the power of Jesus Christ. It is by this power the creation was called into existence. It is by this power that demons flee, diseases disappear, and ungodly people are made pure. He is saying that he has experienced Jesus’ awesome power and was given an unforgettable invitation into the mystery of Christ’s person and got a preview of God’s eschatological return in glory. So he actually uses the word here for the coming of the Lord Jesus as the word parasya, which is the arrival of a visiting king or someone who has incredible majesty and authority. He is saying here that he was given a genuine, authentic picture of the second coming of Christ. Let’s look again at 2 Peter 1:16-18:
For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”— and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
This was the Father’s witness of the character and work of His Son. This was no dream or vision. It was a genuinely authentic experience. Peter wants the readers to know what happened. Let’s quickly look at Mark 9:2 because he is talking about the Mount of Transfiguration, where something took place. See Jesus took His disciplines to a secluded and private place on top of a mountain so that He could be alone with His inner circle of disciples. The verse says:
Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them.
The word transfigure is the Greek word metamorphosis. It’s actually a passive form of the word meaning wrought by the Father. It was the glorification of the physical body of is humiliation. The best way I heard the transfiguration described is that God changed Jesus’ for by allowing His pre-incarnate glory to shine through His human features as a foretaste of His coming exultation. One day we will see Christ in His full glory. He is teaching His disciples that all of this is in light of the coming of Christ, that the event of the Transfiguration enabled the disciples to see Jesus’ power, glory, and true nature. This foreshadows the two comings of Christ: the first coming in His humiliation and death and the second in His glory and power. In Mark 9:3 it says:
And His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.
His garments are described as white and glistening as nothing else can be produced on Earth. Fab, Tide, Oxyclean, nor Bleach can do it. Jesus had a super Heavenly whiteness that was never seen before. What the disciples saw was the glory of Christ, which is often connected with brilliance and brightness. This was such a significant event that all the gospel writers say something about it. Three of the writers present a narrative of the Transfiguration whereas the gospel of John does not present then narrative but sets forth the glory of Christ in John 1:14:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The glory assigned to each part of creation is not inherent glory, but reflected glory. We’re baked dirt therefore we have no glory that comes from inside of us. Whatever measure of glory we receive comes from outside of ourselves. The reason why human beings have any dignity at all is because God has assigned dignity to us. It is not inherent. The glory of Jesus is inherent glory, not like the reflected glory that was shown on Moses’ face in Exodus. The glory and light they witnessed around Jesus was not falling on Him from above but seemed to be coming from Christ Himself. He was not reflecting light, but producing it.
God’s glory is His own and proceeds from within the very nature of His majestic deity that was shown on that mountain. The deity of Christ burst forth from within Him, showing forth His glory in a very magnificent and majestic way that Christ is the brightness of the glory of God and it comes from within.
This causes the disciples to ask who is this man. In fact this light will shine in the New Jerusalem which does not need the sun. It says in Revelation 21:22-23:
I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.
Jesus is the One who will always display for us the incredible glory of God. Now getting back to Peter, there’s something that he is stressing to his hearers. However great and historic and reliable our experience was there on the mountain, no matter how awesome and extraordinary the experience was on the mountain, there is something still more reliable. False religions are often intertwined with spurious unverifiable visions and voices with Satan as the puppet master. Satan is the counterfeit of new prophetic visions and teachings, which he repackages as the Word of God.
See Peter wants to confirm to his readers something more sure than authentic experience. He says that if they don’t believe his experience, he has an even more sure witness than that. That of course is Scripture itself. So next time I’m going to lay that out because the second informant for our faith is the prophetic Word. The Scripture is sure that it is reliable. In 2 Peter 1:19 it says:
So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention.
This is what we have, as we wait for Jesus to return to see His glory, the Scriptures will inform and establish your faith and will cause you to be strong. And every day you will grow in the Lord. The Scriptures are reliable and are life-illuminating, they are truth-revealing, and they originate from God and are trustworthy. If you ignore or neglect God’s Word, you become prey to your own laziness, blindness, and all kinds of religious false teaching. So as we await the coming of Christ, stick close to the Word of God for all your guidance and holy living. The Scriptures will not let you forget that Jesus is coming. Are you ready? Have you been living on the low road? Well it’s time to take your salvation seriously and put effort into your spiritual development and stay on the high road and keep your eyes and mind focused in the truth.
Lord, I thank You so much this morning for another opportunity to be in the Word of God and share with Your people in this way. I pray that the Word of God would be used in our lives in the same way it was used in the audiences that read Peter’s letter. In the same way, we want it to be used in our people of faith that are not tossed to and fro by any wind of doctrine but that are established in the truth. Don’t allow our pride to get in the way when we hear things, and let us always be receiving the truth and examining everything through Scripture.
I pray that as we do that, Lord, we would anticipate Your coming again in all Your glory and power. I pray this in Christ’s Name, Amen.