2 Peter 1:3 – According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

2 Peter 1:4 – Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

2 Peter 1:5 – And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

2 Peter 1:6 – And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

2 Peter 1:7 – And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

2 Peter 1:8 – For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:9 – But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

2 Peter 1:10 – Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

2 Peter 1:11 – For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Hello readers, thanks for reading, and back with a new blog today. Today’s blog is from 2 Peter and particularly from the part quoted above. What a book, and I’d recommend reading it. Three chapters, won’t take you long, and even better if you can read the first epistle with it. 2 Peter is one of my favorite books in the Bible. These are Peter’s last words, these are the important things he has to say to people claiming to be Christians.

One of the primary themes running through this book is “remembering”. It’s important to remember what the Bible says, to learn the lessons from what has gone before, because these lessons prove God’s word, and prove that God is who he says he is and does what he says he will do. He can be trusted. Even greater than Peter’s experience at Mount Transfiguration, Peter says… we have a more sure word… because the Bible is the most sure thing we’ve got. He’s saying, we’re not just telling you experiences… we’re telling you the Bible. Peter preached out of the Bible at Pentecost, and never looked back.

Peter cared for the people he was writing to. We often like people who don’t really care for us, and can’t stand someone that truly loves us. Someone that cares for you tells you the truth and points you to the scripture. That’s HOW to care for someone. And that’s what Peter is doing, just read verses 12 to 15. This is what he wants you to know, and what God wants you to know before he dies. Because ultimately, although Peter wrote this, this is the word of God to you today. This is the word from the living God.

Remember guys, remember. He’s stirring up their remembering because it needs to be stirred up because we go stale and start drifting into the wrong thinking… into error. Remember what you’ve been told and taught, and who told you and taught you. Did you get it from the Bible? Peter points them to the Bible.

But why is remembering so important? Because times aren’t different now. The Bible isn’t irrelevant or out of date… the Bible would be irrelevant if our times were so different it couldn’t relate to what we are dealing with today. And Satan wants you to believe times are so new and different now that the Bible is irrelevant and superfluous to your needs. Satan wants you to think you don’t need to pay any attention to it as it has no power to relate, much less determine your life. But it has the same power it had in the beginning where God said “let there be light” and there was light. God’s word is the truth.

Peter says in 2 Peter 2:1 “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you”. Case and point. Back then there were false prophets… and in like manner they’ll be around today. And they are. So the Bible is directly relating to you. Balaam is referenced… and he was thousands of years before Christ was born in a manger. Times haven’t really changed have they. Same man, same sin. And the Bible’s never out of date because it’s author is never out of date. God’s more up to date and “hip” than you. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. He’s there in Genesis 1 and he’s there in Revelation 22. He can’t be out of date because as he said to the Jews who constantly disputed his word and power and authority… I am. Stop disputing, denying, doubting and disobeying… and start believing.

Anyway that’s not really what this blog is about, because this blog really is about a very basic topic. Do you even know what salvation is? Do you know what the gospel is? Do you know what the Bible is all about? Do you  have the wrong idea of what Christianity is? So you may call yourself a Christian, yet have absolutely no clue what it’s all about. And MANY are in that case. Their Christianity isn’t built on the truth of God’s word. They have an imitation, they have a counterfeit… as counterfeit as the snakes that Pharaoh’s magicians produced to combat Moses’ rod that became a snake. Your Christianity is magic… not Holy Spirit. And magic is based around distraction and deception and illusion. And that’s all you’ve got.

Because in these verses we are going to see two categories of people. There’s the true believer growing and maturing in the faith. Growing and being fruitful because their life is based on a real knowledge of Jesus Christ, and they’re spiritually alive and fruitful and they’re those who enter into the kingdom. But there’s another category… and this is the category we have to make sure we are not in. Peter tells us to give diligence to make sure we are not in this category. And that’s the category of the blind, lost, barren, unfruitful professing Christian. The one who’s Christianity has no salvation from sin, there’s no purging, no illumination of sight and understanding, no true knowledge of the Jesus he or she claims to believe in. You should grow as a Christian, but for many there is no growth, there’s nothing added to their faith because the faith has no foundation in the truth of God’s word. The faith has no solid rock. You can’t grow if your journey never started in truth with the Spirit of truth.

It’s so important to get the basics right, to get the foundation right. The problem with all this Christianity today is that it’s not about the Bible and what the Bible says. Many people’s Christianity isn’t about  repentance and salvation from sin. That’s why there’s no repentance of sin nor salvation from sin in their life! Their Christianity isn’t about half the stuff the Bible says, if not most… their Christianity is a product of picking and choosing the parts they like. Their Christianity doesn’t reflect hardly anything the Bible says at all. Most Christians don’t have a Christianity that reflects what Peter was talking about in these three chapters. There is a modern saying where you say “yeah I’m all about that”. Well many Christians today aren’t “all about” the Bible or the God of the Bible. They don’t like that Jesus Christ. The people didn’t like “that” Moses either, they rathered the Aaron version of leader who let them do all their sin, rather than the Moses that came back and said who is on the Lord’s side and ordered the wielding of the sword.

It’s because they’re building on the wrong foundation. If you are building on the wrong foundation, everything else is doomed. And that’s really the problem here. People have the wrong understanding of God, the Bible, Christianity, the gospel, salvation. And it’s mostly willful ignorance, if not all. Because today there is no excuse, you have such a golden opportunity to read the Bible and obey it. God has made it so easy. Nevertheless, their Christianity strongly differs to Biblical Christianity. So many Christians today even don’t know or need God’s word, they can live fine without it. Because what they’ve got isn’t the real thing. But to grow as a Christian you MUST have the foundation of truth to build upon. How can you grow in a saved life if you’re not saved? And that’s what Peter is saying… they’ve forgotten it’s about being saved from sin. Their Christianity isn’t about that. It says in the Bible… Psalm 11:3 – If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? If you’re not building your Christian life on the foundation of the truth of God’s word, the foundation of repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ, if your life is not a new birth based on an incorruptible seed… you’re lost… you’re blind… and you’re in trouble.

Why are so many Christians blind today? Jesus came to give sight to the blind. How can you claim to know Jesus Christ yet live blind, do blind, speak blind, think blind, want blind? Anyone can call themselves a Christian. And they do. Shamelessly. Without any fear of God. I’m a Christian. You’re a Christian. Everybody’s a Christian. Yet there’s no Biblical faith to begin with, and no virtue, no knowledge, no temperance, no patience, no godliness, no brotherly kindness, no charity.  See, what Peter is describing here is Christian growth and maturity. That happens when you abide in Jesus Christ practically in your life day to day, as the Holy Spirit dwells in you and changes you by faith. You can only grow as a Christian with the new birth in place. Most Christians don’t have that, and that’s the problem. Ye must be born again. Is there any evidence of a second birth in your life? Or you’re the same old person and you’ve just gotten better at hiding what you really are and looking the part and fitting in. Peter knows there’s people fitting in. He had a mate called Judas Iscariot who he thought was a top bloke and a good Christian and trustworthy guy… turns out he was a traitor, had a devil and had fooled him the whole way.

Before those things that you add to your faith… Peter talks about adding this to this to this… it starts with divine power and a divine nature. It takes divine power to partake in the divine nature. Only God can rebirth you. Religion automatically is eliminated in this step. A Christian trusts in the living God who must fulfill his promises or we’ve got nothing. We partake in the divine nature by way of being born again. Why do so many Christians lack a divine nature… they lack holiness, virtue, patience, temperance, godliness, knowledge… there’s nothing too divine about their thinking and living.

Unsaved, we are by nature the children of wrath, the children of disobedience. We are sinners by birth and by nature. It comes naturally, it’s in us. Most people’s Christianity has no root in Genesis 3, because they don’t even believe Genesis. But Genesis 3 starts the sin story. And that’s what Jesus came for. His very name means “he shall save his people from their sins”. When you say salvation what is that? Salvation is about being saved from something. Saved from what? That’s what you need saving from. Not saved from poor self esteem. Not saved from financial difficulty. It’s about being saved from your sins. But so many Christians live in sin and love their sin. They think they have liberty, they talk about love and grace and so on… but they’ve missed the boat already just like those who missed the boat with Christ because they didn’t want to go out into deep waters or go through a storm. Many Christians today have forgotten something. They’ve abandoned what true Christianity is, after all, they abandoned God’s word long ago for different Bibles. How can you get different Bibles but not get a different Jesus or different salvation or different gospel or different Christianity? Their Christianity isn’t about salvation from sin, they’re not even interested in being delivered from their sin… because they love their sin.

So the problem is many people don’t grow as Christians, because their Christianity was never about salvation from sin. Not just that, it was never based on the truth of God’s word. It was never about repentance. It was never about conviction of sin. It was never about the drawing power of the Holy Spirit to God. There was no agreement and acknowledging of the truth about one’s own state and God’s holiness and purity. There was no seeing the crucified Lord, who died on the cross and shed his blood for our sin, because innocent blood was the only way to pay our unfathomable sin debt. There was no new birth, and there is no divine power present to deliver them from their sin.

God doesn’t honour lies. There is no darkness in God or with God. No lie is of the truth. And their blindness was never healed. See, if you’re saved, you shouldn’t be blind. Jesus healed the blind and he will heal your blindness so you can see things, so you can see yourself and the world around you clearly, so you can see things for what they truly are with God’s vision. So many Christians live in lies and love lies, because they never received the Spirit of truth. It takes the power of God to be born again. Christianity isn’t a dead religion. It’s believing in the living Saviour, and the Christian life is trusting him, trusting he will keep his word, trusting he will save you, trusting he’ll deliver on his promises, trusting in him with each step every day in life. Trusting his grace and sufficiency.

Peter is talking about people who never experienced the divine power of the new birth, who never partook of the divine nature. See, Christians today don’t partake of truth, of what the true God offers them. There was no growth because it was all false. It was never about being purged from sin. If you love your sin, you don’t want to be purged from it. Peter’s going to talk about dogs going back to their vomit and sows going back to their wallowing in the mire. You see, that’s their nature, a dog will do what a dog does. And an unsaved sinner will do what an unsaved sinner does. They’ll always go back to that old vomit. They were never changed. That’s why they went back. They still have a nature for it, and an appetite to do it.

So they say they’re Christian, they believe they’re Christian… but they lack everything the Bible says you should see, know, say, think, be. Could this be you? Are you blind even today? There were a whole heap of religious people that Jesus encountered who were stone blind. They thought they knew, they thought they were pretty good, they thought they knew God, but they were blind. Why does Peter say hey, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. What’s he saying? Make sure you’re actually saved. Make sure you’re not a fake Christian. Make sure you’re not blind and still unpurged, unwashed from your sins, and unsaved.

And hey, you know the grace crowd of Christians today? Consider this verse in 2 Peter 2:19 – While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. See, you may be a Christian that loves being promised liberty. Grace, grace, grace, love, love love, liberty, liberty, liberty. I’m free! Well maybe you’ve never been set free. Because you’re a slave of sin. You’re a slave of lust, of pride, of selfishness, of evil thinking and speaking, of lying, of rebelling, of envy, of bitterness… yeah that’s more like us than those characteristics of a maturing Christian that Peter described in the first chapter. See there’s the promise of liberty, hey I’m under grace, I’m a grace Christian, I’m in the new covenant… but just wait a minute… are you really? See you don’t know what’s what, where’s where, and who’s who. That’s characteristics of a blind person. Shut your eyes and walk around… you got no idea. Are you blind?

You know why the sin of idolatry back then was so great? Because it is so great. Always was and still is. It was rampant back then, and it is today. Making Jesus and salvation and Christianity to be what it isn’t… that’s idolatry. See, Jesus is defined by what the Bible says. If you change the Bible, you’ve taken your graving tool and made some alterations, you’ve done some nip and tuck to your supposed Saviour. You love shaping that idol to suit you juuuust right. That’s idolatry, and it’s worse than it’s ever been. Jesus did say many false Christs would arise and would deceive many. That’s happening today. Jesus said don’t go after them… stick with the tried, tested and true. And idolatry produces all these false concepts of who God is and what God requires of you, what’s right and what’s wrong. And as the Bible says, my people love to have it so. You love it. You’ve got a false Christianity because you’ve chosen that. You prefer darkness over light, you’d rather stay blind than see clearly. Don’t interrupt my selfish life of sin! You’ve forgotten, Christianity is about being purged from sin! That purging involves repentance, forgiveness, washing, cleansing, sanctification, purification, glorification. Any of these kind of things in your definition of Christianity?

So when this blog is about… do you know what God, the Bible, Christianity, salvation, the gospel is all about? It’s because for many people, they really have no clue. Nothing they do and say stacks up as soon as you open God’s word. It’s all out of balance, something’s not right… and in fact horribly wrong. They claim to be Christians just as shamelessly as their teachers promise them grace and liberty. But they’re in bondage and the servants of corruption. Why are so many people barren and unfruitful? Boy there’s a lot of barrenness. What is being barren? It’s empty, devoid of life, without reproductive capacity. How many Christians are barren. They have no strength, no truth, no light, no salt… nothing. There’s nothing to their Christianity. You have no capacity to lead someone to Jesus Christ because you’re lost yourself. You’ve got no spiritual life, there’s no well of water within you. How can you minister life to others if you haven’t received life yourself?

Peter is describing what a Christian should be. There should be growth in your life. As in, true growth… because of the Holy Spirit in you… and your life is built upon the foundation of God’s word. You go from a little child, to a young man to a father in the faith spoken of in 1 John 2. Where’s the growth and fruit and life? Where’s the truth? The salt? The light? Because it all started with a false conversion, you became a Christian, but it wasn’t never about being purged from your sin. Your blindness was never healed.

So the Bible says that if those things be in you, those qualities and character of a true believer mentioned in verses 5 to 7… you’ll never be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Do you want to know Jesus Christ? That’s the ultimate in life. God said to Abraham, I am thy exceeding great reward. When did Jesus stop being our reward? People don’t know him. They say they know him, but in their works, in their lives, in their speech, in their thinking… it all betrays the fact they’re destitute and bankrupt in knowing him. But if you’re saved, born again, established upon truth, you’ll grow in him and through him, and as you do, you’ll know him more. See, Job knew God a lot better after what he went through then before. I’ve heard of you, but now my eye seeth thee. Jacob, because he obeyed his parents, experienced the revelation of God to himself. God’s not going to reveal himself to you outside of his word, and outside of you believing and obeying him in your life. Jacob honoured his parents, and God knew he wanted more from life that this world couldn’t offer him, God sees our hearts. Do you want to grow in knowing Jesus Christ? You want to know him more? And when youknow him more, your life won’t be barren. No. It’ll radiate his life. Because you can’t be up on the mount and your face not come down shining. Ask Moses!

People say they’re Christians, but they don’t know Jesus Christ, and they don’t grow, they don’t have these things in them, because they don’t have him. You can’t come to him how you choose and your way. You’ve gotta get in God’s word and get to know him, read about him, and he will reveal himself to you if you’re true with him. Not like Joseph’s brothers. They come to him saying we be true men! Hey, Joseph knew what kind of men they were. Were they true? No. They were a bunch of murderous, envious, wicked liars. There was no revelation of Joseph to them until they got honest about something they thought they’d buried and solved in lies. The problem is you think God is like you. Buddy, he ain’t. He’s not like you. You don’t know him. Your imagination creates a very poor image of him. And that’s why there’s barrenness and no fruit on your tree. All leaves and no fruit… and we know that that kind of tree is very unsatisfying to Jesus Christ. He cursed a fig tree for that reason, and when you should have fruit and carry the promise of fruit, you instead bare no fruit of the Holy Spirit at all. Our entire Christian walk is dependent upon a vital relationship to Jesus Christ. So who is Jesus Christ? Do you know who he is? An idol can’t save you, has no divine power, can’t give divine life to you. Get the real thing, be the real thing.

But people lack these things because they’re blind. There’s never been a healing of their sight. See, I talk to some Christians just in my life who can’t see. It’s not because they can’t can’t, but beceause they don’t want to. It’s too inconvenient and doesn’t suit them to see. They don’t see by choice. Jesus came so you could see. You not seeing is an indictment upon you, not on failure on God’s behalf. You can have light, you not having it is so because you don’t want it because you love darkness. But boy, they think they can see, just like the people that opposed Jesus Christ… those religious people who claimed they knew God and served God. But they were blind. And they lacked all those things. Do you lack virtue? Knowledge? Temperance? Godliness? Charity? You’re lacking those things because you don’t know Jesus Christ because your entire Christianity is built upon lies.

There’s no purging from their old sins. Because they’re aren’t old sins. They’re current and well developed and practiced and crafted and catered to sins. They’re treasured sins. They’re favorite sins. We get about as fat on sin as Eglon, the fat kind of Moab. Only when the dagger went in did the dirt come out. You want the dirt to come out? Stick the sword of God’s word in. Right in the belly, that belly that has a great appetite for worldliness, for lust, for pleasure and craves to be gratified and demands it so… and lives in dominion over your soul and life and future and potential perpetually until you decide you want something done about it. Maybe you’re still the same old, blind, truth rejecting sinner. Just even more deceived than your regular one because you think you are a Christian. But you’re fooled.

It’s time to do some diligence to your own salvation and make sure you’re not living a lie. Purging is a strong word in the Bible. Our sins are purged by the blood of Christ. Washed away. So where is the repentance of sin? The acknowledging of the truth about ourselves? But instead we are offended and we say don’t judge me. See, we’re not growing in the knowledge of Jesus because we don’t like that Jesus. We prefer the one who’s ok with our sin and loves everybody despite how rotten they are. See, you don’t like THAT Jesus… the one with the Holy word, who gives his Holy Spirit, who says be ye holy for I am holy.

It would be impossible to honestly read Peters two epistles and not question yourself. There’s so much in them. And we fall so far short. And Peter’s saying… hey, God didn’t spare the angels, he didn’t spare the old world, he didn’t spare Sodom and Gomorrah… and he won’t spare you. Either you get saved and get saved based on truth and be a Christian based on the truth of God’s word and the true Lord Jesus Christ… or you’re done. See how he talks so much about false prophets and teachers in chapter 2… because they produce the false converts and false Christians. They produce those who think they’re Christians, who throw around religious words and know the jargon… but who are blind, lost, vomit eating. Who are unwashed, unpurged, unredeemed, unsaved.

What have you forgotten? These verses mention forgetting and lacking. Christianity today has forgotten about salvation from sin, about the purging, about the repentance, about the honesty, truth, light, judgment of God. We’ve rathered a poor imitation version of the real thing, because we love our blind sin so much. You can’t see past your sin. Sin blinds us. It blinds us to Jesus Christ, it blinds us to the death it’s taking us. It’s time to wake up and examine ourselves, see whether we be in the faith. Is this all a joke? Do you want to settle for a life of lies? The folly of fools is deceit… that’s Bible. Deceit is gonna be the death of you.

Why are you lacking? Why are you lacking the real thing, real salvation, really knowing Jesus Christ, really making a difference in life? You’re lacking because you have a Christianity that’s not based on the foundation of the truth of God’s word, it’s not based on the drawing power of the Holy Spirit of God… and you’re blind and in sin all while believing and living a lie… while thinking you’re a Christian! Read the Bible, see what’s what, let God speak for once in your life and let him be the authority that he surely ultimately is. He will order you life, he won’t make you ashamed for trusting and hoping in him. Believe on him today and be saved, he will save you from yourself, from the lies, from the fake garbage that engulfs us all, and he’ll save you from your sin and make you very fruitful as you grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. The incorruptible God has an incorruptible word that grants you an incorruptible salvation and an incorruptible hope… trust in that God today.

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