Getting close to the end here, 2 Peter 1, in verse number three, the Bible says this, 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. His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Just to think about that statement for a minute. Everything that we need, God has provided. And God continues to provide. There's a lot of things in my life, as a young person especially, there's a lot of things that I just thought I was fully persuaded and tried to persuade my parents that I need them. It's funny to me to watch the littles at my house, Peyton and Parker and Chloe, and so many things that they think that they need right now at three, four, five years old, that we as parents, I need a Popsicle. You really don't need a Popsicle. Nobody needs a Popsicle. It's more things that we want. And as we grow, as you get to be teenagers, you know, when I was, got to be in junior high, I told my parents, you know, I need this pair of shoes for basketball. No, you just need a pair of shoes for basketball. You don't need this pair of shoes for basketball. You want that pair. And it just then, you know, you get to be 16, I need a car. Well, you really don't need a car. Mom and Dad have a car, they can take you where you need to go or whatever. I need this or I need that. As we get into our adult life, we think that there's things that we need. It's kind of like saying, I'm starving. Are you really starving? Or are you just maybe a little bit hungry? I haven't eaten in an hour and a half, I'm starving. That's what teenagers, you know, Dad, it's been 30 minutes since my last meal, I'm starving. But there's something about when we begin to realize, the older that we get, we realize the things that we can do without. The things that we do need or don't need. There's nothing wrong with wanting things, with having the desires of our heart and all that. But what do we really need? And then you look at a verse like this where he says that according to his divine power have given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. God has given us everything we need for life and he's given us everything we need to live godly. now whether or not we do that's up to us but he has supplied everything that he has called us to do he's given us the capacity to do it a lot of this again you'll see a A lot of this goes along without giving away what I'm preaching in the main service. This goes along with some of those things. The key words in the book, first of all, the forms of know, whether it's know, known, knowing, used nine times in just this short three-chapter book. First time it's used, chapter 1, verse 12. Most significant time, chapter 2, verse 21. Let's look at that real quickly. 2 Peter 2 verse 21 says this, For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. It had been better. And can I say something that's still true today? To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. He says, it'd have been better for them if they'd have never known than to know and to turn their back on it. Talking about backslidden Christians or Christians that have turned their back on God, the danger of that, you can read that whole passage and find out more about that. But he says, it'd have been better for them if they had never known in the first place. There's a certain responsibility that comes with knowing. I talked to somebody this week about, and I've mentioned this before, the idea of being a dumb parent. My wife and I both have prayed, and she started it and I kind of picked up on it after a while, but before we ever had children, we would pray, Lord, please don't let us be dumb parents. You say, what do you mean be dumb parents? Parents that are ignorant of what's going on with their children. And there's two things I've had a lot of parent meetings with with with parents of teenagers and said look a lot of parents today Really honestly don't want to know what their kids are doing especially parents of teenagers They don't want to know what their kids are doing because if I don't know that my kids are in trouble or doing wrong Then people just look at me and say all that poor parent. They don't have a clue what's going on They don't know they don't have a clue what their kids are doing Yeah, that's bad but not as bad as if I know what my kids are doing and everybody knows that I know what my kids are doing and I'm not doing anything about it because Then everybody says hey that they know what their kid is doing. They're letting them do it. That's a bad parent He says to have known and Not done anything about it. So we like, you know, we like to have that plausible deniability Oh, I didn't know. How was I supposed to know? And the person, the individual I was talking to about this was talking about some of the things that their parents allowed them to do as an adult now, their parents allowed them to do as a teenager, that they kind of had a don't ask, don't tell policy. Gave them as much information as they had to have, but don't give me any more information than I need to have because then I'm responsible for it. We have all of the information, and by having all of the information, guess what that means? That means we're responsible for it. I'm responsible for what's in this book. That's why when you talk to young people or even adults that say, well, I'm this way because of the way that my parents brought me up. And the reason that I don't act right is because my dad didn't hug me enough when I was a kid. Or my mom, she wasn't there because she was gone working and my mom wasn't there for me when I was growing up and it's her fault that I'm this way. As soon as you're old enough to make decisions for yourself and you're old enough to read and understand the Word of God, there's something called personal responsibility. At 39 years old, I'm too old. Now, I'll say all the time, I act a certain way or I picked up a lot of character traits of my father. And I might act a way or do, you know, my sense of humor or the way that I act, the things that I say, you know, a lot of different things that I could say, well, I got that from my dad. But that's not an excuse for bad behavior to say, well, you know, my dad did that, so I do that. I know what the Word of God says. And there's responsibility that comes with knowing. The next word we see is the word knowledge. That's used seven additional times. Beside other forms of the word know, the word knowledge is used seven times. First time, chapter 1, verse 2. Most significant, chapter 3, verse number 18, which says this, But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to him be glory both now and forever. Amen. Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What does that say? We need to know him. Remember we talked about last last year knowing him and making him known the Necessity if I'm going to make him known I have to know him first if I'm gonna tell you about somebody I have to know about them in order to be able to tell you They say oftentimes one of the best ways to get a person to learn something is to make them teach it Why because if I've got to teach it to somebody else then I've got to know it well enough to teach it Oftentimes I've seen preachers and in different situations ask somebody to take on a role of Responsibility in the ministry is teach a Sunday school class and you have a man say well I can't teach a Sunday school class. I don't know and I don't know the first thing about it I wouldn't know what to say. I wouldn't but it's amazing how if you take somebody like that and Put them in a position where they have to teach somebody, then what are they going to do? Oftentimes that person is the person who will do the most studying and preparation because they don't feel like they have all the answers and know it all. And so they're going to study and they're going to do everything they can to prepare. But what happens is in their studying and in their preparation, they're also learning. In order to make Him known, I have to know Him. But He says to grow in grace, which we get through Him. And in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the more that I get to know Him, the more that I know what I ought to be, the more that I, you know, the more that I realize where I need to be with things, the more that I realize what a sinner I am and how much I need the grace of God. The importance of that knowledge, you see, between those two things, 9 plus 7 is 16 times forms of the word know or the word knowledge are used just in these three chapters. What do you think Peter's probably trying to get across? There's some things that we need to know. As a Christian, there's some things that you and I need to know. We need to know where we stand and why we stand there. We need to know what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. We need to know what the Word of God says. We need to know what God has done and what God's going to do. We need to know the past, present, and future of the Word of God. We need to know these things. Why that's what Peter addresses in this passage in this in this book. The theme is the believers responsibility in time of apostasy Aha, now we understand why do I need to know? Because there's apostasy coming there's men that are going to try to dissuade you from what you believe and where you stand and if you don't know and why you believe it and what you believe, that apostasy can and will creep in. You see it all over the United States of America today. Why? Because you have a bunch of weak and watered down churches that don't know what they believe and why they believe it. And so somebody comes in and begins to question that and people don't really know. And so they say, okay, let's change it. Paul's or Peter rather says look you must know because the apostasy is coming Written in AD 67 shortly before Peter's death Simon Peter is the writer. It was written to Jewish Christians and to be applied to every Christian of every age, everywhere. Most likely written from Ephesus. It's written to those Christians, but again, like the entire Bible, the applications, there's no mistaking that there's a myriad of applications for us today in our society. I mean, you can read every verse of 2 Peter and say that applies today. That applies today. It's the 61st book of the Bible, 22nd book of the New Testament, three chapters and 61 verses long. The purpose of the book is this. In Peter's first letter, he was writing to encourage the recipients and to hearten them amid persecution and suffering. So they're going through difficult time. The first book is to say, hey, let me encourage you, let me give you some things to kind of help you keep your chin up a little bit. He had learned that false teachers among them were teaching false doctrine. So he sent this short letter to remind the readers to ground themselves more firmly in the full knowledge of truth in Jesus Christ and thereby to reinforce their faith. Against false doctrine What do we do if I know? Okay, let's just say that I build a house and I'm on the coast of Florida and I build this house to the very best of my ability and it's a well-built house Now Everything's going along fine, but then I watch the weather forecast and they say next week there's going to be a hurricane and my house is right smack dab in the middle of the eye of that hurricane. Even if it's a well-built house, if I know there's a hurricane coming, what am I going to do? I'm going to shore things up. I'm going to do everything that I can, whether it's to, whether it's to block off the windows. If I had built wind or if I had built shutters, maybe steel shutters or something that would cover my windows up, I'm going to close those all up. I'm going to, I'm going to prepare for an assault on that house. Same way in battle you've built a fort you're inside the fort and all of a sudden you see the enemy on the horizon What do you begin to do you begin to bar the doors and reinforce things and add extra guards? Why because it wasn't built. Well, no But because I understand that there's an attack coming Peter, that is second Peter. He says, hey, there's an attack that's coming that maybe even has already started in some ways. And he said, we need to shore things up. You need to make sure that there's no cracks in the wall, no weak spots, no potential spots where the water can come in from that hurricane, if you will. You have to know that you know, that you know, that you know. The Bible says, study to show thyself approved unto God. Study, study, study. Work, work, work, work, work. Why? Because attacks are coming. That's why it's important. Every day this week, at least once with one of my children, my three older children, at some point every day this week, I had a talk with one of them about knowing what you believe in a particular area and why that's important. Knowing where you stand. because they are already and will continue to be under attack. A.J.' 's going to college. Lord willing, for the first year, he's gonna be going to Bible college. But can I tell you, as somebody that went to Bible college, there's attacks at Bible college. I had my first year at Bible college, I had two roommates, both of them were, one was a fresh, or one was a sophomore, one was a junior. Can I tell you something? Both of them, by the end of the first semester, got kicked out of college. for things. One of them had things, unbeknownst to me, had things hidden in the ceiling tiles that I didn't know about, that somebody found out about, and turned them in, and it was stuff that they had no business having at a Bible college or anywhere, really, if you're a Christian. Another one got in trouble for sneaking off campus with a girl and getting into trouble. Hey, that's at Bible College. I thought everybody at Bible, I'm telling you, it was, when I went to Bible College, I thought, really, I grew up in a small town and went to a good church. It never really been. We didn't go when I was growing up to a lot of big youth conferences and things like that. And so when I went to Bible college, I thought, man, everybody there is called to be a preacher or a preacher's wife or a missionary. And everybody there is going to read their Bible six hours a day. And they're all just going to be out sewing in every spare minute that they have. And I'm going to be a spiritual dwarf in the face of all these great spiritual giants that are college students. Can I tell you something? They're college students. They're 18 19 20 year old kids. Just like every other 18 19 20 year old kid Bible college isn't all that it did is revealed what was already there in the hearts of the young people there were some that were sold out to God and Literally did you know went so winning or reading their Bible or studying every spare minute? They had but that wasn't the majority of the kids that were there It doesn't matter. We're in a good church here, but can I tell you, we're in a good church that's full of sinners. There isn't a perfect person here. I mean, David Cash is close, but other than that, no, hey, we're all sinners. And when we understand that the importance of us knowing what we believe and why we believe it and what the Bible says, The divisions are this, these three really, chapter one, two, and three. Believer's sure foundation, knowledge of the Bible. If you're gonna have a solid foundation, you need to know, and I need to know the word of God. Believer's solemn warning, knowledge of the apostates. Hey, one of the best ways to get to know what's false is to be very familiar with the truth. If I know the truth, I've said it many times, the best way to teach somebody to spot counterfeit money is to train them with the real money. They don't take bankers and train them with counterfeit money. They train them with the real thing so that when they have something come across that's not, they'll recognize it because they know what the truth is. Love the fact that if somebody's reading or if my kids read something if we're in a store and looking at greeting cards And you read a passage scripture. I love the fact that most of the time my three oldest kids will recognize dead That's not King James Why? Sometimes it's in the structure of the word. Sometimes it just a lot. Maybe it's a familiar passage But whatever it is, they know why because I've trained them into what all these perversions of the Bible are no. I because they know what the truth is, they know what's right, and so they'll recognize when something's fake, when something's not right. Then lastly, chapter 3, believers satisfying hope, knowledge of the second coming. You know, one of the things that gets us through, we can know the truth and we can know the apostasy, but knowing the apostasy can be very discouraging if we don't know the end, if we don't know the outcome. but knowing that even in the midst of the throes of a horrible battle, in the midst of, you know, if I was in that house in the middle of that hurricane, things look to be pretty overwhelming, but if I knew before it ever started that I was gonna come out all right on the other side, there's something about that that says, hey, I can endure this. I can endure this. The importance of knowing and having the knowledge of the second coming. Let's look at the outline here, Roman numeral one, the knowledge of the Bible, chapter one, the gift of knowledge. And I just, for time's sake, I'm not going to have time to delve into these a great deal, but the gift of knowledge. Letter A, first of all, number one under that, through divine conversion. Simon Peter talking about his name that was given to him after his conversion. And we talked about the meanings of his name last week. Through divine calling, he is called to be what? An apostle. God called him to be that. He wouldn't have been an apostle had the Lord Jesus Christ not called him to be so. Jesus called him to that. And then through divine communion, like precious faith, he talks about there in verse number one, through divine control. through divine contentment, that peace that he has in verse 2, through divine control, the power in verse 3, through divine charge, glory and virtue in verse 3, and through divine company, that being nature in verse 4. And then letter B, under knowledge of the Bible, you have growth of knowledge. First the gift of knowledge and now the growth of knowledge. Add to your faith. Familiar passage add to your faith chapter 1 verses 5 through 11 add to your faith separation, which is virtue Study that would be knowledge self-control that being temperance Suffering that would be patience Spirituality in godliness Service brotherly kindness and sacrifice That being love. Down in verse 7. That's charity that we see in verse 7, but that sacrifice of love, a sacrificial love. We've mentioned that in our study on biblical principles, the idea of a sacrificial love, that being charity. Then letter C is grounded in knowledge, grounded in knowledge, by what he had seen and heard, verse 17 of chapter 1, by what he had studied and heeded, verse 19, and by what he had searched and held, verse 21. Notice those things. What influenced him being grounded? First of all, what he had seen and heard. You take a young person or a new Christian, what's going to ground them? What's going to help them to stand fast? First of all, what they see and hear. What they see and hear where? Right here. Right here. and other places. A young person, what they see and hear in their home is what's going to ground them, what's going to keep them standing fast. You take a young person that comes to church and they hear the preacher preach and then they go home and mom and dad have roast preacher for lunch, can I tell you something? When they get out of their home, you're going to find a young person that's not well grounded. Why? Because it's a combination of what they see and what they hear all around them. So what they've seen and heard keeps them grounded. What he has studied and heeded. There's something about, for all of us, studying for ourselves. It's important, yes, for me to study, to preach, and all these different things, but you know, if the only studying I ever do is for the sermons that I preach, I'm not gonna be well-grounded. We need to study. I told dad, dad asked me this morning when I was talking to him, he said, what you preaching on this morning? And I told him the passage I was preaching out of. And he said, well, let me tell you. He says, when you get over, I'm preaching in John chapter 14. He says, when you get to chapter 15, you need to focus on this. And when you get to chapter 16 and he's driving in his car, I know he's not looking at his Bible. Why does he know all those things? Why? Because he studied that. He spent 45 years of his life studying those things. This will be a real help to your church people if you make sure that you hit this when you get to it I'm not telling you what because I'm gonna steal all the stuff that he said and I'm gonna use it all but you know There's something about why does he why is he grounded in those things because he has studied them Because he studied them but studying something and not heating it You know if I have all the information, but I don't apply the information if I don't heat it It's not gonna do me any good So it's what we have seen and heard, what we have studied and heeded. And then lastly, what we have searched and held. To search something out, but then to hold on to it. To take it, by held, what do I do? When I'm holding something, I'm claiming it as my own. There's one thing to listen to somebody else and to pay attention to them, to heed to them. But when I have searched something out for myself, I've put my own effort into it. and then I've held to it. I'm holding on. Why? This is no longer my dad's Bible. This is my Bible. I believe in this book for me, not because somebody else told me that I should. I believe in this book because I believe in the God that wrote this book I believe in the Son of God that this book is about. I believe in the Holy Spirit that inspired this book. I believe in the Word of God. For me, I hold to that. There's nothing you can say that would ever change my mind about the King James Bible. Nothing. I've had a lot of discussions with people. Many people have had a lot more discussions than I have about it. I've never heard one thing that's even dissuaded me a little bit about the Word of God. Why? Because I hold to that for myself. And when we get to that point, when we've searched it out and we hold it for ourselves, when it becomes personal to me, that makes the difference. That's what will allow us to endure those attacks, those assaults. Roman numeral 2 chapter 2 knowledge of the apostates chapter 2 Their condemnation chapter 2 verse 1 through 9. Hey, they're headed for trouble understand people that are apostate what they have in store for them not good the infiltration there are there among you we see in verse 1 the iniquity their damnable heresies in verse 1 the influence many shall follow we see in verse 2 the insincerity their feigned words feigned or faked words verse 3 the indictment damnation in verse 3 the imprisonment reserved. They have a place reserved for them. Verse four and the innocent, the godly verse number nine, their character. So you see their condemnation, then their character chapter two, verses 10 through 16. First of all, their self will and rebel rebellion versus 10 and 11. They're sure judgment and reward, verse 12 and 13. They're sinful ways and results, verses 14 through 16. And then lastly, their claims, verse 17 to 22. They promise fullness, but they are empty. They promise freedom, but they are enslaved. And they produce failure. They are excluded. It's important to know those things to help us be aware of what's going on with the apostates. A lot of times, as good, independent, fundamental Christians, we get discouraged because of the followings that the apostates have. We say, well, look it, they're doing wrong, they're teaching people wrong, and look at that. We need to understand what their end is. It ought to break our hearts. to see that they have believed a lie and they are teaching a lie. It's the knowledge of the second coming. Beloved, be mindful, verse 1-7. Beloved, be not ignorant, verses 8-10. Beloved, be diligent, verses 11-14. And Beloved, beware, verses 15-18. Just some miscellaneous things, comparison between the two, 1st and 2nd Peter. 1st Peter warns of a roaring lion, persecution from without. 2nd Peter warns of a deceiving serpent, false teachings from within first Peter the theme is grace second Peter the theme is knowledge Peter wraps it up in second Peter 318 where we are urged to grow in grace and knowledge So first Peter theme is grace second Peter the theme is knowledge and of second Peter. He says grow in both of them Do we need to grow in grace? Yes, absolutely. We do but do we need to grow in knowledge you better believe that Both are essential. Simon is the name given at his first birth, speaks of the old man. And Peter was the name that was given at his new birth, speaks of the new man. Matthew 16 and verse number 18. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I do thank you for today. I thank you for this passage of Scripture. Lord, I thank you for knowing 2,000 years ago what we would need in 2016. Lord, you knew what we would face because there's nothing new under the sun. The same battles that were faced, Lord, back at the beginning of the New Testament church, sometimes in different forms, sometimes in different ways, but are the same battles that we face today. God, I pray that you would give us knowledge and wisdom and help us to grow in grace and knowledge. We love you. I ask that you bless our service in just a few minutes. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.