Hello friends, thank you so much for joining us yet again at another episode of Everlasting Truth, where we give you everlasting truth in an ever-changing world. My name is Caleb Osteen. I am the privileged pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Live Oak, Florida. And I am so grateful you would take some time to allow me to share the Word of God with you today. And for those of you that have been listening to the broadcast for a little while now, thank you so much. I hope it's been a blessing and I hope it's been a help to you. And if it has, we would love for you to share that information with us that we can know that it's been a help. Ministry is one of those things that God is the one that has to do the work, and oftentimes it's in a way that you don't even know that God is working. A lot of preaching and things that your pastor does, or that other ministers do, they do it all by faith, which means they do not know if if it's going to affect somebody's life, if it's going to affect somebody's heart. And oftentimes they don't get to see the results. Sometimes we do, but in many ways we don't. So I said all that to say this, if this program has been a help to you, then please correspond with us and let us know. that it's been a help to you. That would truly be an encouragement to us, so you do that. If you'd like to reach out to us, there's a couple different ways you can do that. One way is, of course, you can look us up on Facebook. Just go to Calvary Baptist Church, Live Oak, Florida. Our Facebook page will pull up. Feel free to send a message in there. It'll come directly to me. Or you also could feel free to reach out via phone. That phone number would be 386-688-7969. Let me say that again, 386-688-7969. And of course, if you would like to mail us something, then you can do that at the address 10886. FL that's Florida FL 51 Live Oak, Florida 3 2 0 6 0 let me give that address one more time 1 0 8 8 6 FL 51 Live Oak, Florida 3 2 0 6 0 we'd love to hear from you Now, let's go ahead and move on today into the text that we'll be examining. For those of you that have been here the last few weeks, we took several weeks diving into Matthew chapter number 23 and talking about what it means to be a Pharisee. We spent quite a bit of time on that text. It is the most explicit, in-depth, descriptive passage that we have on Jesus dealing with some of his greatest enemies, the Pharisees. We finished that study up last week, and so this week we begin something new and something fresh. And I believe that the Lord would have us spend a little bit of time in the first chapter of the book of 2 Peter, the first chapter of the book of 2 Peter. And so without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and read you a few verses here. And then this study will also take a little bit of time. It's not going to be a one day deal. This is going to be something that's going to probably stretch out over several broadcasts to deal with this. But what a text this is in front of us. If you've been born again by the blood of Christ this morning, then you have a desire And you have a will to be pleasing before God. You've got a will to be fruitful and to want to serve Him and to be what He desires you to be. And you want to be in the will of God. And let me say, if you don't have that kind of desire, if you don't care about being in the will of God, if you don't care about being right with God, and you're not seeking that and striving for that, then you probably need to go get saved. Because when you get saved, the Bible says Galatians 4.6, he sends forth the spirit of his son into your heart, crying, Abba, father. He said in Romans chapter number eight, he said, you've not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, father. So when you get born again, you get adopted into the family of God. He becomes your father. And guess what? You want to be in your father's will. You want to please your father. You want to do what your father desires you to do. You want to have fellowship with your father. And we know that the only way we can have fellowship, 1 John chapter number one, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. And so for every believer, their ultimate goal should be fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ and with the Father and with the Spirit. And the way that that happens is by walking in the will of God, walking in the light, walking with Him hand in hand. That's what fellowship is, isn't it? When you're able to get close to somebody and they're able to get close to you. Yeah, and that's what we should desire. And here, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, Peter lays out such a clear, concise, and simple yet challenging list of things that we ought to be doing. But if we do these things, Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, not of his own volition, but as God leads him, makes us this promise. And he says that if we'll do these things, that these things will make us that we are neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now isn't that what you want to be? Fruitful? You don't want to be barren. You want to bring forth fruit to the God that saved you, and to the God that loved you. And Peter would also write, and he would say, this God, he said, whom having not seen, yet ye love. And if you love this God, and if you love this Christ, then you're going to want to be pleasing to him, and you're going to want to bring forth fruit for his kingdom. That's why Jesus said, by their fruits ye shall know them. If somebody don't want to bring forth fruit, guess what? They're not of him. But if you're of him this morning, you want to bring forth fruit. Peter's going to help us figure out how we can do that. Let's go ahead and get into the text. We're looking at 2 Peter, chapter number one. We'll read verse number one, and we will probably go right on down verse 10 or so, maybe a little further. We'll see. Let's, however, let's pray before we do this. Let's ask God to help us here this morning. Our Father, Lord, I want to thank you for the text you've allowed us to walk through already. Lord, your word is a spiritual thing. Father, you said the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They're spiritually discerned. Lord, we want to compare spiritual things with spiritual. And God, we need your spirit to reveal this to us. God, we need you to open our eyes. I'm praying, Lord, that you would open my eyes to teach this, and I'm praying, God, that you would open the eyes of every listener. Lord, that this word would challenge them, convict them, and confront them, comfort them. God, you said your word is quick and powerful, and it's sharper than any two-edged sword. God, let it do the work that only you can do through it today in our hearts. Please, God, help these people and help me. Your will be done. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Amen. 2 Peter 1, verse 1. Your Bible says this, Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ." Isn't it good that God is righteous to save us? Paul makes that argument in Romans 3. He says that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. And he says, Peter says something similar in chapter 1 verse number 1. He says that we've obtained like precious faith through the righteousness of God. God is not unrighteous to save sinners. God is perfectly just when he saved you. You say, well, how can God be just to save sinners? I mean, after all, isn't God holy and aren't sinners unholy? And doesn't God have to punish sin? How can he be just? because God did punish sin. The only difference is, is He punished it in the person of Jesus Christ, and not on your account. Jesus raised His hand unwillingly and said, Father, I'll go. And He went up Calvary's hill, and He took my sin, and He took your sin, and He bore it upon Himself. And he who knew no sin became sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. You see Psalm 103 does not say that God does not deal with our iniquities. Psalm 103 says that he has not dealt with us for our iniquities. He went to Christ and he poured his wrath out on Jesus and therefore God is not unrighteous and overlooking sin. God is perfectly righteous to forgive you and I this morning and he forgives it because all of his righteous anger and his righteous wrath and his judgment and his justice was poured out on the Lord Jesus Christ and he took it in our place. Praise God for the Savior. Praise God for the character of God this morning, that He can be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. I'm glad that I serve a God that's able to forgive my sin. I'm glad I serve a God this morning that's able to look at my crimes and still forgive me, but yet I'm also glad that I don't just serve some crooked God who just lets crime go. Hey, you won't have to worry about murderers and adulterers and thieves and all that kind of stuff in the kingdom of God. Because Paul would write first Corinthians chapter number six, and he would say that none of those things would inherit the kingdom of God. Why? Because God is just and he's righteous. And when we get to his kingdom, there will only be justice there. I'm glad we don't have a crooked God. Hey, if God was crooked and he just let everything into his kingdom, how much of heaven would that really be? It'd be a mess. It'd be just as bad as it is down here, wouldn't it? But it's not going to be that. And you say, well, I used to be a fornicator, and I used to be an adulterer, and I used to be this, that, and the other, and a drunkard, and all these kind of things. So does that mean God's not going to let me in? Well, if that's still you, then yeah, you're not coming. But Paul writes these words here, and he says 1 Corinthians 6, 9, he says, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. So if you are still currently, right now, one of those things, you're not a child of God, you're not a born again, blood bought child of the father, but rather you're a fornicator, you're an idolater, you're an adulterer, you're all these kinds of things. If that is who you are, then no, you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God according to the word of God. Now there may be times that you fall into sin, but that sin is not who you are. You see, these people he's writing about in verse number 9 and 10, they are characterized by their sin. These are not children of God who occasionally stumble into sin. These are people who are identified by their sin. Does that sound familiar to you today? I don't mean to be political, but it's really not a political issue. It's a biblical issue. But people all over the world today want to ask the question, can homosexuals enter into the kingdom of God? Well, the Bible makes it very clear in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, as well as other places in the scripture. Romans chapter number 1. You can go to the Old Testament and get the same idea. Homosexuality is a sin. And I want you to notice that these people are identified by their sin, are they not? These are not people who are trying to live for the Lord Jesus Christ and yet they stumble and fall into sin and they repent and they get right and they move forward for the glory of God. Hey, we all do that. We all stumble. We all fall into sin. He said in 1 John 1, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. He said if we say that we've not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. So of course we sin. But here's the difference in the child of God and that crowd. That crowd is identifying themselves by their sin. They're not identifying as Christians, they're identifying as homosexuals first. They're identifying as transgender first, and then they want to be a Christian with that. But for those that are identified by their sin, it marks their life. It is their characteristic. It is who they are. Paul makes it abundantly clear in chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost of God, he makes it clear that the unrighteous and those characterized and identified by their sin will not inherit the kingdom of God. You say, well, I heard a pastor tell me that homosexuals were going to be in heaven and they were still going to be homosexuals. They weren't going to have to repent and be born again and change from that vile lifestyle. Well, God knew people were going to say foolish things like that. And that's why he said in the same verse, verse number nine, be not deceived. neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor covetous." And he goes down the list. He said, they're not going to enter the kingdom of God. Don't let any man deceive you. He said, well, I used to be one of those. So how has God just to let me go to heaven? Well, number one, have you placed your faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you came to Christ in a heart full of faith saying, yes, I know that I'm a sinner. Yes, I know that I deserve to go to hell. Yes, I know that I should not have been living that way. I know that I've done wrong. I know I don't deserve your grace, but I believe that Christ died in my place. I believe he was buried, and I believe he rose again on the third day. And you come to God with that faith and a heart of repentance that says, I don't want to be this any way. You may not have power to change yourself. You may not have power to cleanse yourself. The Bible says, can the leper change his spots? No. Can the Ethiopian change his skin? No. There are things that are outside of our control, and it's not about fixing and cleaning yourself up when you come to Christ. It's about wanting Him to clean you up. And anybody who's repentant and truly been born again, they came to God with sin that had power over them, but they said, Lord, I don't want it to have power over me anymore. I want you to have power over me. And all throughout the Bible, Paul writes himself as a submissive servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, that God has power over him. And if you've come to God with that kind of heart saying, Lord, I'm repentant. I don't want this anymore. I want you. Lord, I believe that Christ died for that sin. He was buried and he rose again on the third day. Let me just say this. If that is what you have done and you've been born again by the grace of God, praise God for it. If that's happened. You're now identified as a child of God. You're not identified as a fornicator, an idolater, an adulterer, all those kinds, even though that may be what you did in the past. That's not what identifies you. These people in verse number nine and 10 that don't inherit the kingdom of God, they are identified this way. And Paul makes that clear in verse number 11 of 1 Corinthians 6. He says, and such were some of you. Such were some of you. Hey, if you were to go down the list in verse 9 and 10, I would be in the better half of the things mentioned in that list. But I'm going to heaven this morning. Why? Because such were some of you. past tense, but then he talks about what we are present tense. He says, you were that. He says, but ye are. Watch. You were an adulterer. You were a fornicator. You were an idolater. And somebody that's listening this morning just needs to praise God for the fact that, yes, I did used to be that. I did used to live that way. I was that person before, but I am washed. And who I am is not who I was. And who I used to be is not who I currently am now because the grace of God has been brought to me in the person of Jesus and his blood has cleansed me and washed me and I'm not the same person that I used to be. Let me ask you this. Can you say that? Can you say I'm not who I used to be? Let me ask you, listener, can you go back in your life when you first got saved and remember who you were just before then? Remember the sin that you were living in? And let me ask you this morning, are you that way anymore? Is that who you are? Are you still identified that way? The people still see you the same way that they see you live in the same way, or they see a changed man or a changed woman or a changed boy and a changed girl. Who do they see? I'm so glad I can look back in my life and I can see a change. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. I am so grateful for that today. And you want to know why you got that? By the grace of God. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." I'm glad God's done a work in me and that I'm His workmanship. And if that's you this morning and you used to be that, but you're not anymore, you need to praise God. You need to say, Lord, thank you that I'm not who I used to be, because here's the thing. If you're not who you used to be, five years from now, you're going to be able to look back on where you're at right now and guess what? You're going to be able to say five years from now, I ain't what I used to be today either. Because that change is going to continually happen. And he said in Philippians 1 6, he said, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work and you will perform it to the day of Christ Jesus. Hey, just like God changed you in the first five years, you got born again. God's going to change you in the second five years. And just like God sanctified you in the second five years, he's going to do it in the third and the fourth and the fifth and the sixth, right on up until the time that you go to meet your savior. Man, isn't that a blessing? Isn't that a privilege? Isn't that good to know that God's not gonna give up on you? God's not gonna leave you to your own devices. He's the good shepherd, and he said in John chapter number 10, he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And he says, and those that the Father has given me, he said, I have lost none of them. but the son of perdition that the scriptures might be fulfilled. Jesus works in his sheep, and he changes his sheep. And so these people in verse number 9 and 10 of 1 Corinthians chapter number 6, they've not been changed. They're still the same that they were. They used to be idolaters, and they're still idolaters. They used to be fornicators, and they're still fornicators. They used to be adulterers, and they're still adulterers. You see, he makes a difference in our identity. Verse number 11, and such were some of you, but ye are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. That's how God is just, to forgive us. Isn't that what he said? Back to 2 Peter chapter one, verse number one, he said, we've obtained like precious faith through the righteousness of God. God is right to forgive me and you. because he's changed us, because Christ bore our sin in our place. We have been changed from glory unto glory, and we will continually be changed from glory unto glory. When God begins a work, he continues that work, and I am so grateful for that truth. I'm so grateful that I'm not who I used to be. And as he continues to change, we'll continue to look more like him. I'm grateful for that. We kind of ran a rabbit here this morning, but I believe that's the rabbit the Lord wanted us to run. So maybe it wasn't a rabbit at all. Maybe it's what God wanted us to hear today. Now tomorrow, Lord willing, we'll pick up and we will move on through second Peter chapter number one. I didn't intend on sharing that with you today, but I believe the Lord did. And I believe he's got a plan and a purpose for it. Friends, God is righteous. He's so righteous. He's righteous in everything that he does. He said in the book of Exodus when he was speaking to Moses, and I believe it's Exodus 33, he says he does not clear the guilty. He doesn't just let their sin go undone and undealt with. but rather he deals with it. So how can God be righteous to forgive our sin? And isn't that what John said, 1 John 1, 9? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin. How can God be just in forgiving us if he has to deal with sin? because he did deal with sin. He just didn't deal with me for it, and he didn't deal with you. And friend, if you're lost this morning and you've never been saved, he don't have to deal with you. There's one in whom he's already dealt with on your behalf, Christ Jesus, the righteous. He stepped up before that Christ, holy God, whom you and I offended. And he took all your judgment. He took all your condemnation. He took all your wrath. And he said, Father, put it on me. And he hung his arms wide open on Calvary's cross. And he sat there while people mocked him. And he sat there while people ridiculed him and laughed at him and scorned him. And they plucked the beard from his face. And they put the nails through his hands and the nails through his feet. And they planted a crown of thorns. And they placed it there on his head. And they stripped him naked of his clothes. And he hung there openly, an open shame. forsaken of the Father, crying out, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was forsaken of the Father so that you could become family with the Father, so that you could become a son of God. He took the wrath of the criminal. so that the criminal could become the child. I'm so grateful for that this morning, aren't you? Thank God for the gospel of grace. If it wasn't for that, we'd have no way in. Friend, I hope this has been a help to you. We will pick back up tomorrow, Sunday, and we will begin to move through 2 Peter chapter number one. God bless you, and we'll see you then.