Stay Steadfast - 2 Peter 3:17

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. We're going to be addressing verse 17, their beloved of Christ in chapter three. This is going to be the third command, the third imperative that the apostle through the spirit of Christ gives in this final section of this chapter.

And in that verse, 17, we are called initially the saints of the first century and, of course, also asked to take care. Take care that we will not be carried away by the deceitful error of the false prophet and that we may lose our own stability. It is that exhortation that is found there in verse 17 of chapter three, the one that we are going to be addressing the third imperative. There is going to be one more imperative given to us in that section. And that is what is found in verse 18 when the apostle is going to call us to grow, but grow.

He has called us to be diligent in light of the second coming of the Lord in verse 14. And then He also called us to count the patience of the Lord as salvation in verse 15. And then in verse 17, the one that we're going to be addressing this afternoon, He is going to give us this warning to take care Take care that you're not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. The same power, beloved of Christ, the same power, the same strength and the same urgency that the apostle had when he was calling us to be diligent in presenting ourselves as righteous and holy in the day of the Lord, there in verse 14, The same strength and the same urgency that the apostle has in verse 15, when he calls us to count or to consider the patience of the Lord as salvation, is the same strength, is the same power, when he is calling us to take care, to be aware. that we may be carried away by the error of the false prophet.

And he says, lose our own stability or lose our own steadfastness. I hope that you can see there the seriousness of the warning that is given to us by the spirit through the apostle Peter, that saying to Christians, to the church, that implicitly speaking, there is a danger. that there is a threat that Christians can be carried away or can be led away by the error or by the deceitfulness of false teachers and lose, he says, their own or our own stability, lose our own steadfastness. That is the exhortation and the commandment that we're going to be meditating upon there in verse 17, just simply to take care that we are not carried away by the deceitfulness or by the error of the false prophet and lose our own steadfastness or stability. And as we always do, beloved of Christ, we're going to be reading all chapter three to get the context once again of the things that the Spirit of God says to us through Peter.

And then we're going to be addressing the truths and whatever the Lord has for us in verse 17, as we approach to the conclusion of this letter that the Spirit of God gave to the Apostle Peter. So I'm going to invite you now, giving you a thought about what we're going to be addressing in verse 17, to read carefully. Chapter 3, thinking in the context of this that we're going to be considering there in verse 17, and paying attention to each one of the words, so that the word that is going to be preached may be not only understood, but by God's grace, I hope, also empowered in our souls. So, beloved of Christ, 2 Peter chapter three, let's read together, paying attention to each one of the words with reverence and in faith and asking the Spirit to help us. Chapter three.

This is now the second letter that I'm writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I'm stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing. following their own sinful desires. They will say, Where is the promise of His coming?

For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlooked this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God. And that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged, with watered and perished. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept. until the day of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly.

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that we the Lord one day is 1000 years and 1000 years as one day. The Lord is not as low to fulfill his promise if some of you count his loneliness, but his patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. And then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed or burned up. Since all these things are dust to be dissolved, what sort of people are you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved and the heavenly bodies will met as they burn.

But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for this, Be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters in which he speaks. letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures.

You, therefore, beloved, knowing these beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. That is the reading of the word of God and beloved of Christ, the burden of the apostle for these churches of the first century and the burden of the apostle in the spirit for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ under the new covenant. is that we will be aware of the existence and the reality of false teachers.

In chapter 2, this burden of the apostles started that there shall be false teachers among you, just as there were false prophets in the old covenant people of Israel. That is the burden of the Spirit of God. through the apostle Peter for the church, that there is going to be people, that there is going to be men and women who are going to be preaching and teaching things that do not correspond to the truth of the Word of God. And as he explained to us in chapter two, all the things that these false teachers do against the church and their hearts and their desires. In chapter three, the apostle focused his attention on one of the attacks of these false teachers to the church.

And that pertains to the second coming of the Lord. I have said a number of times that believing in the second coming of the Lord is fundamental part of our faith. Faith is the substance and the conviction of things that we have not seen and things that we hope for. So part, essential part of our faith is that we await and that we understand the matters that pertain to the second coming of the Lord. That's why these false teachers who are sent by Satan and in the power of Satan want to bring doubt when it comes to the things of the second coming of the Lord.

Because by weakening our faith when it comes and it pertains to the future, then Satan through the false teachers is and are weakening our faith and weakening the church. In light of that attack to our faith, the apostle presents in chapter three a defense of the second coming of the Lord and explains what is going to take place on that day. This is going to be a day of judgment. This is going to be the day of God, the day of the Lord, the day of eternity in which the old heavens and earth will pass away and through fire will come the establishment of new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells. The apostle does not want us only to apprehend that reality in our mind, but he desires that the reality of the coming of the Lord will impact us in the present.

That it is that we do not only acknowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ will come and that the old heavens and earth will pass away and that the new heavens and earth will be established, But that truth, part of our faith, will change us, impact us and prepare us for the coming of the Lord. That's why in the power of the Spirit, and as He writes these letters to these churches and to us, in verse 14, He calls us initially to be diligent in the present time, to be holy. As we are awaiting for the coming of the Savior, we are to be diligent, not slothful, not lazy, but diligent, giving ourselves unto the things of Christ, so that when He comes, we will be found abiding in Christ with confidence and not ashamed when the Lord Jesus comes. The apostle continues to exhort us and to commend us that the patience of the Lord in His coming is to be counted presently by the church as His salvation. That is, that every day that passes and the Lord is not here, the heart of the Christian is to consider the delaying of the coming of the Lord as part of His saving decree and His saving desire for the people of the church.

until every elect will be gathered from every tribe, every corner of the earth, every language and every tongue. Every day that passes is a glorious manifestation of the saving patience of the Lord." And this was not only the burden of Peter, but as we are told there in verse 16, this was also the burden of the apostle Paul, that when he wrote about those matters, there were certain things that are difficult or difficult or hard to understand. because those are to be understood with the illumination of the Spirit and in faith." Then the apostle, with the same strength and in the same power, now is going to conclude that letter with the summary of what he wanted to communicate to us and to the church.

That is that we will take care. Presently, He has spoken to us about the future reality in verse 1 of chapter 2. He says, "...there shall be false teachers, just as there were false prophets." That there is going to come a time in which it is now and it will continue to happen that there will be false teachers.

And the real church, the brothers and sisters who are genuinely in the faith, are to genuinely and seriously take care and be aware, lest they are taken and carried away by the deceitfulness of these teachers, who is wicked error according to the words of the apostle Peter here. That is the power and the strength. And the reason why He is calling us to take care and to be aware is because we know this beforehand. You have it there in your text. It says, you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care.

That is that we are to seriously and in reality be aware of false teachers and the possibility that your soul, my soul, our souls can be taken and carried away by their error because we know something. What do we know? Chapter 2, verse 1, we know that there is a reality of false teachers. Just as there were false prophets under the old covenant, there shall be false teachers among you. There is a reality, not only a reality of the existence of the false teachers, but also a reality that many will follow their pernicious ways.

Chapter 2, verse 2, that he has already said to us that many Christians will follow their destruction. He has already warned us that in the last days, as we read there in chapter 3, verse 4, they will come as coffers and mockers, that they will mock the Word of God about matters of the past creation and the flood. And more importantly for the apostle in chapter 3, that they will mock the second coming of the Lord. He's warning us of all of these matters. So he says, knowing all of these things beforehand, take care, not abstractedly, not in an intellectual way, but rather take care, be vigilant, be aware, lest you be carried away and taken by the error, by the lack of truth, by the deceitfulness of the teaching of false teachers that will be within the context of the church.

That is the simple teaching of that verse 17, beloved of Christ. And I need to warn you because there is a sense in which our theology and our conceptions in our mind can sometimes prevent us from receiving the warnings of Scripture. This passage is very true. And it's very clear that real Christians can be carried away and lose their own stability. That is, in certain words, that they can stumble or that they can fall away because of the error and because of the deceitfulness of false teachers.

The apostle is not speaking careless words in which he knows that there is a preserving and keeping of God in eternity past because he has loved us, and yet he speaks words carelessly. No, he does not do so. He speaks words that are real and a warning that is to be taken at what he says, the value that is written precisely there. So it is a warning. It is a warning because it would be very prideful of us to think that we are away from this warning that is given to us in verse 17.

That this is never going to happen to us. That this is never going to happen in our church. That error will never make it through these doors. That the people that speak to you will preserve until the end and that we are not false teachers. It will be very, it will be very prideful of us.

to think that this warning does not apply to us, but it only applies to certain people that we see on TV and that just have a very different doctrine to us. As if having our system of theology is that which protect us from the errors that the scripture clearly prophesies that there will be in the last days. Beloved of Christ, I don't know how to present that wording to you and to make it real to your bones and to your heart, other than with the words of the apostle, or better, the high apostle, the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 7. If you come with me to Matthew chapter 7, in that chapter in which the apostle speaks of Jesus Christ, the high apostle according to Hebrews chapter 3, the Lord Jesus Christ speaks in the context of the last day, and also false teachers. This warning that we have mentioned so many times, and that we have quoted and recited so many times, but now I just want you to see it with your own eyes.

In verse 21, in chapter 7, it says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. by the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. On that day, many, that is Christians, will say to me, Lord, Lord, they would not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

But then he continues, and this is what I want to share with you. Everyone then who hears these words, Everyone who hears this word, just the same heart of the Apostle Peter there in chapter 3, knowing these things beforehand, knowing these things beforehand, the Apostle says in the Spirit of Christ, here in Matthew is the Lord saying, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because he had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

What a fearful reality that in the day that the Lord calls us to give an account before Him, if He comes or any of you die, that when you present yourself before Him, you are one of those people of... Chapter 7, verse 21. Lord, Lord, didn't we attend Cornerstone Baptist Church? Didn't we do all of these things in church? Didn't we sit on those chairs so many days?

Didn't we do that and that and that and that and that? And that He will say, Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness, of inequity. Because when those words were spoken to your soul, you were like the man who considers himself to be sufficient and did not take the word seriously, as the Lord calls us to do, building the house in the sand and not in the rock, because we consider ourselves enough and sufficient and standing firm in the faith that we will never fall. So, beloved of Christ, with my heart and my desire to your soul, just as for mine, that we take in faith and by the Spirit, that which is very clearly stated there in 2 Peter 3, to which I'm going to invite you to return, because that is the exhortation and the commandment given to us by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Peter. How are we going to approach and how are we going to understand this text that we have in front of us?

How are we going to try to hear these words of the Spirit of Christ? How are we going to, by faith, apprehend this these sayings of our Savior. How are we going to understand these things deeper and better, so that we will not be only hearers of the Word, but that we'll be also doers of the Word. And that we will not be like the natural men, observing and facing the mirror, and then just simply walking away. But that we will be like the faithful men, who observes into the law of liberty, and abides in it, and is not only a hearer of the Word, but is also a doer of the Word.

How are we going to do it? I'm going to present to you, beloved of Christ, three simple things. Three simple things that will help us understand the exhortation and the commandment that is given there in verse 17. The first thing that I want us to do is just to consider the general consideration, or just better, the theology of the topic that is in the text implicitly, which is the steadfastness of the Christian. There is an implicit theological reality and that is that the Christian is to walk their life in a steadfastness and not to lose their own stability.

So the first thing that I want us to do is just to consider. from this text and consider from the New Testament the teaching from the Spirit to us of what it is to be steadfast or to be stable in our faith and opposite to that, what is to fall or what is to stumble or what is to lose our own stability using the words of the Apostle Peter from this verse. I want us, first of all, to consider the steadfastness of the Christian and the possibility of losing our own stability so that once we consider generally that, then we're able to get into the warning that is given to us by the apostle. Then we will try to understand the warning. Once we understand biblically what is to be steadfast in our faith and what is to stumble or to lose our own stability, then I want us to understand better and deeper the warning.

Because you will not understand the warning if you do not know what you can fall from. Right? It just simply makes sense. There will be never a warning that it will make sense for the mind of a person if the person simply does not understand the danger and the thing that is at risk or threat. So the second thing that I want us to do is just simply meditate and understand the exhortation of the apostle a little bit deeper and better.

And then the third thing that I want to do is just very briefly, because that is going to be the following sermons, just to address the remedy or the cure to avoid losing our own stability, which is clearly given to us there in the first statement of verse 18. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. First thing, general considerations about steadfastness and losing our own stability. Second thing, understand the warning, take care that you will not be carried away by the deceitfulness of false prophets and lose your own stability. And then thirdly, just simply meditate upon the remedy or how to avoid that we will lose our own stability.

Very good. Let's do the first thing, beloved of Christ. And let's just simply think about these words that are implicitly given or explicitly given to us there in verse 17. That we will not lose our stability. Or in other translation, that we will not lose our steadfastness.

The Christian life is a life that is expected to be of steadfastness. And you can see here in the language that the apostle uses, steadfastness or lose your own stability. This is the allegory or better the imaginary that we are walking in our Christian life. And that we are to remain either steadfast or that if something happens, sadly, as in verse 17, that we can lose our own stability. That is that the life of the Christian is a Christian walk in which we either remain steadfast or that we lose our own stability.

And this concept of this idea, it is not only here in this verse, but it's very clearly given to us in the introduction of this letter. If you come with me to chapter 1, the apostle has already spoken extensively about this concept, implicitly speaking, of the steadfastness or the stability of the Christian walk. If you go there to verse 10 of chapter 1, After the apostle has spoken about the virtues that we should have added to our faith, it says there in verse 10, Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall or you will never stumble. That is that if the Christian lives his or her life with the qualities that he has described, then the Christian will never stumble or will never fall.

Why? Because the Christian is living a life in which there is the possibility of falling, or it is the possibility of walking that path in a steadfastness and stability. You can see clearly how the apostle has that thought in the continuation there in verse 11. I'm just feeling that this microphone is not helping me so much. It's like breaking sometimes.

No? Okay. Verse 11, it says, for in this way, it says in verse 10, you know, that you will never fall. Verse 11, for in this way there will be in the future richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I don't know if the word that you use in English is imaginary or allusion or illustration, whatever word you use in English.

But you can see how for the Apostle and for the New Testament, the life of the Christian is one of walking towards something. We walk in the Spirit. We walk in the light. We walk in the truth. And we are walking towards a destination, this inheritance that is kept and reserved for us in heaven.

And when the apostles speak about our life, they speak about us being steadfast or either falling away. That is a condition of our walk. that what the apostle has in his mind. Now, beloved of Christ, I want to point your attention to the fact that steadfastness is not only something that is meant to happen in the Christian life, or falling is something that could happen, but rather that steadfastness or stability, beloved, is an expectation of your Christianity. Being steadfast and stable in your walk is an expectation.

The Bible does not expect that you fall. The Bible warns you so that you will not fall. But the expectation of the Christian life is that the Christian will be steadfast and that they will be stable in their walk. That's why we're called from verse 5 of chapter 1, it says, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and true knowledge and with virtue and knowledge and self-control and steadfastness and godliness and brotherly affection and love. We are to add, beloved, to our faith all of those virtues and all of those characteristics.

And then from there, the apostle says that if we do so, then we will not fall because we are fruitful and we are giving glory to the Lord through our lives. Implicitly is the reality that we cannot or perhaps we may not have these virtues and hence be unfruitful and fall. The only thing that I'm just trying to say here, beloved of Christ, is that steadfastness in your life and in the life of every Christian. and stability in the life of every Christian, in my life, in your life, it is not something that could happen. But it's rather the expectation of the apostle and of the New Testament.

The exception to the rule is when we lose that steadfastness and when we lose that stability, hence the many warnings of the New Testament. We must acknowledge that because if it is an expectation of the Christian that we will be a steadfast, and if it's an expectation of the New Testament that we will not lose our stability, that means that God has provided everything that is needed for us to be a steadfast and for us to not to lose our own stability, which is the whole point of Peter in verse three. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory or by his own glory and excellence. The expectation of the New Testament is that the Christian will be steadfast and not lose their own stability. Why?

Not because you are strong. Not because you are smart. Not because you have power. Not because you have read the correct books. Not because you have turned this church to that church.

Not because you have this brother or that sister. Not because you are so nice and beautiful or whatever. but because He has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. That is, that steadfastness and being stable in our faith, that awkward word, stable, steadfast in our faith, is not only an expectation, but is a possibility because God has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Let me know with your face if you understand what I'm saying, beloved of Christ.

Very good. Thank you so much. Because the second thing, or the third thing that I have to say now about this steadfastness, beloved of Christ, is that we should never boast of our steadfastness. We should never boast of walking and being firm. We should never walk if, by His grace, He has granted His Spirit so that our faith might be supplemented with all of these virtues, knowledge, and steadfastness, and godliness, and brotherly affection, and love.

If the Lord, in His might and in His workings, grant us all of those things in our faith, we are never to boast on that. Because the Bible is very clear in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. that if you think that you are firm, take heed, lest you may fall. all throughout the Scriptures. The expectation for your soul is that you will be steadfast, that you will not lose your own stability, and that you will never boast in your walking with the Lord, that you will never derive any type of satisfaction from having this or that, but rather in humility, always acknowledge that if the Lord is working in any way in your soul, and you're walking steadfast and firm and stable, is because his divine power has granted to you all things that pertain to life and godliness.

But at the same time, the Bible is very clear. If you think that you are firm, take heed lest you fall. Why? Because falling or stumbling from this steadfastness is not only a warning, but it's also a reality. And that is the second thing that I want us to meditate about.

And perhaps, if the Lord allows me and gives me the light and the words, then explain to you deeper and better this concept of falling or stumbling. You see there clearly, right? I feel that my words are just bricks coming out of my mouth. You see clearly, beloved of Christ, that in chapter 3, the warning, right? That we can lose our own stability.

It is implicit there in the text. This is a warning. I don't know if that affects your soul and pierces your heart. It certainly does mine almost on a daily basis that the fact that apart from the Lord, we are completely gone and we are just completely given to our own unrighteousness. Now, how are we going to understand this losing our own stability and losing our steadfastness?

This is very important, what I'm going to say. So if you're not paying attention, please try to do so. Very important. How is this that we lose our steadfastness? What is the meaning of it?

What is to lose our steadfastness or our stability? Now, let me just say this to start. When the Bible speaks, Sorry. Beloved of Christ, your attention once again. OK.

When the Bible speaks, brothers and sisters, When the Bible speaks about us losing our steadfastness, or falling, or stumbling. You know, all of those words. You've read the Scriptures, of course, many times, right? And you hear these words. Stumble, fall away, lose your steadfastness, depart, deviate.

All of those words that speak from the Christian deviating or moving from the path that they are supposed to walk in. When the Bible speaks about that, it speaks about different reasons for which a Christian can lose their steadfastness or lose their stability. Many reasons. The first one, not the first one, but the first one that I'm going to present to you, it is lack of faith. Think about Hebrews chapter 3, verse 12.

Take heed, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, departing, deviating from the living God. And then he continues and he says that those who have been rescued by Christ are to endure and to be steadfast until the end. The same thought is carried into chapter 4 of Hebrews, saying in Hebrews chapter 4, that just as the rebellious generation of the wilderness fell in the wilderness because of their unbelief, it also caused us to take heed that we may not fall as they did because of lack of faith. So, lack of faith is a reason for us to lose our stability or to lose our steadfastness. Of course, lack of faith is the substance and the reality that which produces sin.

Remember Romans chapter 14? Sin is that which does not proceed from faith. Because the action of committing sin also makes us lose our own stability. That is the whole point of Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, when he's comparing us to the Israelites. They sinned in a horrible way.

Those things took place and were written for your instruction, that you will not sin in the same way that the people of Israel did. Why? Because it's not only lack of faith in an abstract way, but lack of faith will manifest in committing unrighteousness and sin. We can lose our steadfastness because of lack of faith, and we can lose our steadfastness or stability because of sin. Not only that, the Bible speaks about trials, the passage that our brother mentioned in 1 Peter 1, verses 6-9.

It speaks about trials that test the genuineness of our faith, which is more precious than gold, though it is tested by fire. Right? Trials are supposed to test that the faith of a person is genuine. And if the person does not have genuine faith, that person will fall, will depart from the way. Why?

Because now a genuine faith will be for the glory and honor at the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, beloved of Christ, lack of faith, sin that is committed, trials, All of these things are things that can make a Christian lose their own stability or their steadfastness. But there's more things, right? Think about first Peter, chapter five, when the apostle says of Satan, he calls in a roaring lion, right? That is seeking somewhere to devour.

These are not just romantic words saying, you know, like Satan is just like a lion. It's just roaring there. He's not going to do anything. No, because in the next verse he says, stand firm in your faith. Because Satan can be used as an stumbling block for the Christian.

Not only lack of faith, not only sin that is committed, not trials, but also Satan is used to sift, I think is the word, right? The Christian, to test the faith of the Christian. And when many professing Christians are tested through all of these things, they are proved not to be Christians and they stumble and they fall. Not only that, beloved of Christ. Money.

1 Timothy chapter 6 from verse 9 through 11, in which the apostle is giving instructions to Timothy not to be like the false prophets. And you remember that famous verse that the root of evil is the love of money. Those who desire to be rich. He doesn't even say the rich. Those who desire to be rich.

Falling temptation in the snare of the devil and they can swerve away or they can deviate or fall. The love of money, which can be summarized for the love of things that are passing away, is also an instrument that tests the steadfastness or the stability of a professing Christian. Money. Things that are passing away. Not the rich, the one that has a lot of money, but just the desire to be rich.

The desire to have money makes a person stumble and makes a person lose their own stability. But there is another one. And this one is actually very, perhaps there's more, but these are the only ones that I found. There's another one that is, this one is actually very, very sad. There is someone that can make us stumble.

Someone. Think about that. Who is a someone that will be very sad that makes us stumble? Who? Yeah, that is our brothers or sisters.

Unloving brethren, according to Romans chapter 14. Remember? Unloving brethren who make use of their freedoms to go against their brethren who have a weaker faith can be a cause of stumbling for the one who has a weaker faith. That one is just really sad, right? Unloving brethren, spiritual pride.

That's why I told you never boast. If the Lord does something in your life, never boast. Come on your knees every day because pride, it is natural in us and it will destroy us. to see ourselves as superior to our brothers and sisters, and in our hearts, create a wall of indifference, as if we were more mature than my brothers and sisters just somewhere there. And loving brethren can be a stumbling block in the walk of a brother or a sister.

Romans chapter 14 is the whole thing there that calls us to be loving to our brothers and sisters, and not to consider ourselves first, but to consider our brothers and sisters, that we will not be a stumbling block. And of course, the other reason why we can lose our own stability and our steadfastness is lack of truth or false teachers which is what we have here many reasons many ways in which christians can lose their stability in which christians can stumble in which christians can fall away and one of those the one that we have here is false teachers and it's not the false teacher is the lie that the false teacher preaches, right? That which carries away the Christian or the professing Christian to lose their own stability or to lose their steadfastness. All of those are general considerations. But now, beloved of Christ, your mind with me.

Because these Stumbling or this losing the steadfastness or losing your stability is something that can be done either temporarily or permanently. Right? We have examples and the Bible clearly teaches that a person can fall or stumble and lose their steadfastness or stability either temporarily, that is, that they fall and then they are recovered and restored and they continue to walk in the way of righteousness, or that a person falls completely or stumbles or, you know, loses their own stability. And even in the end of the days, these are the ones that are proof not to be genuinely in Christ. Which one of those does Peter have in mind?

I think that he has both because of something that we're going to see later. But he's considering those Christians who can be carried away by the deceitfulness of false teachers and lose their own stability either temporarily or permanently, temporarily, are those who are going to be rescued by the hand of the Lord. Imagine if that happens, right? You think that the Lord will allow that one of his children will remain in a place where there is doctrine that is not only awful, but clearly contrary to the truth and the character of the Lord Jesus Christ and even against the gospel? I don't think that this will happen.

This person will die very soon, or this person will allow to be removed from the context of all of these horrible things. That is temporarily, temporarily. But there are people who are professing Christians who are taken or carried away by the deceitfulness of false teachers permanently. What a terrifying thing, right? What a terrifying thing that this can actually happen.

But beloved of Christ, how are we going to understand this losing stability? Now, I've told you that it happens. There are many sources of many reasons of why this could happen. And this could be permanently or temporal. But why would a Christian, and this is the most important thing that I want to share with you, why would a Christian lose their own stability.

Why would a Christian, being steadfast, lose and be removed from the steadfastness in which they are walking either temporarily, in this case temporarily only because he's a genuine Christian, because the one that is removed completely is not a genuine Christian. But why would a Christian be removed or fall from this path of steadfastness and lose their own stability? This is the most important thing. All of these reasons that I have just mentioned to you, lack of faith, and sin that is committed, and trials, and false prophets, and money, and even unloving brethren, and so on, and so on, and so on, they only have power to move a Christian from their way to lose their stability just because of what there is inside of the Christian who is being led astray or carried away. that it is that basically and ultimately the falling or the stumbling is a personal situation matter.

The issue is not that there is false prophets who are prophesying and saying all of this horrible things and lies. The problem is that there are people who will not endure sound doctrine, who will accumulate unto themselves teachers that will speak unto them according to their own passions. Right, Timothy? Because of the itching ears, they accumulate unto themselves people that will do and say the things that they want to hear, because ultimately, the departing from the truth is a matter of the heart of the person. That is in the case of the false teachers.

But in the case of sin and unbelief and in the trials and all of these others, is a matter of the heart also. Beloved of Christ. the fact or if we fall into a trial and we respond unrighteously during the trial and we do not remain in our faith, but rather we fall from our faith. The reason why we fall from our faith is not because of the trial in and of itself, but rather because of the substance that is within us. Because if our faith that is within us is proved and tested to be genuine and with goal, it will go through the fire.

It will go through the difficulty. Our departing from steadfastness, our departing from stability, is always a matter of the heart. Always a matter of the heart that moves us from the way of righteousness into a way of unrighteousness. Let me point you to this, because I don't think that you're understanding what I'm saying. To James chapter 1.

Please come with me to James chapter 1. And let me just show you this. This is perhaps a verse. or a section that speaks of trials and temptations, right in general, trials and temptations and difficulties. From verse 2, counting all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, and so on, and so on, and so on.

But look with me carefully here from verse 12. Now, after James has spoken about trials and the difficulties of it and asking for wisdom and faith and so on, in verse 12 he says, Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial or temptations, perhaps you may have there. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. And then he continues, let no one say when he is tempted, you know, under the trial, under the temptation, let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil. And he himself stents.

No one, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then, this desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it's fully grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of life, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

Right? As we sang in Great is Thy Faithfulness. Each person. It doesn't say the church, right? It's an individual matter.

Each person is drawn away and enticed from their own heart. From their own heart. And that is what is going to produce the commission of sin or the commission of unrighteousness. Namely, that is what is going to remove a person from being steadfast and walking in the righteousness of the Lord and walking in the light and walking in His way to lose their own stability. to lose their own stability.

And now, there are so many more things that I have to clarify because I might be putting unnecessarily, and I'm not going to do that of course, a burden upon your shoulders. Because that burden will be that every time that you're seeing that you're losing your own stability and then you're losing your steadfastness, right? I don't know if you thought about that. But if I just leave it like that, every time that we sin, every time that our heart is actually enticed and drawn away, then we will be losing our own stability, and then we will be losing our steadfastness. In a sense, it happens, but there's something that we need to understand.

And this is, if you're not paying attention to me, I said it before, please pay attention to this. Because now I'm going to take you to 1 John. Now, I'm going to explain these matters and these doctrines by God's grace and if He gives us and gives me life when we get into 1 John. But let me just show you something that is very important for your Christian life, brothers and sisters. Very important for your Christian life.

And it's found from verse 5 through verse 10 of the first chapter of John. So I have said to you, let me just simply just put clearly the things that we have just said here. Beloved of Christ, if you give me your attention. we have said that the expectation of the New Testament is that the Christian will not lose their own stability, but rather that they will be steadfast in their walk. Why?

Not because they have the ability to be steadfast, or not because they have the ability to be stable, but rather because His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. And hence, therefore, we have received all of these things, and we are able to be steadfast and not to lose our own stability. However, because of sin in us, there are things and situations that will draw a Christian or carry a Christian into losing that stability or losing that steadfastness. Lack of faith, sin that is committed, false teachers, unloving brethren, money, and all of these things that we mentioned. All of those ones, they can take a Christian either temporarily or permanently.

This one is not a Christian. But the root cause of the removing from steadfastness is always a matter of the heart of the person who is losing his or her stability his or her steadfastness. It's a matter of the heart. Is the heart of that person the one that is drawn away by whatever unrighteousness is and then losing their stability? Having said that, now we come to 1 John 1 5-10.

What I'm going to tell you is something very important. I'm going to define now biblically what it is to walk in steadfastness continually. Because the expectation, beloved of Christ, the expectation for the Christian is that we will sometimes be steadfast and be stable. Is that the expectation? No.

The expectation is that we will always be steadfast, and that we will always walk in stability. Or in the words of John, that we will always walk in the truth, or that we will always walk in the light. That is the expectation, and everything has been granted to us for us to do so. However, as we know, not only from Scripture, but from our own experience, that is not the case, right? That is not the case.

What are we going to do if the Bible expects us to live in a particular way, but the clear reality, not only experientially, but also from scripture, is that Christians do not live up to that expectation? Let me just answer that question from here, from John chapter 1, from verse 5 through verse 10. Walking, let me just perhaps just paraphrase it first and then we will get into the text. Walking in the light, this is perhaps the best thing that I can give you on this day, beloved of Christ. Walking in the light, walking in the truth, does not mean that we do not sin.

But walking in the light, even, you know, I'm fearful just by these words that I'm saying, but walking in the light and walking in the truth is, first of all, that we walk actively in righteousness, that that is the norm of our lives, that we walk in righteousness. And when unrighteousness happens, that we deal with unrighteousness in light of the righteousness of Christ. I don't know if that makes sense, but let me just paraphrase it once again, or say it once again. Walking in the light. Walking in steadfastness.

Walking in stability. Walking in the truth. Walking in the light. Walking in the spirit. Walking in the Lord.

does not necessarily mean that we do not sin because the Bible speaks that we do sin and we do sin, right? But rather always walking in the light is that we actively and mainly and primarily we do walk in righteousness, that is that we don't sin. But when we sin or when unrighteousness happens, we deal with it and we respond to it in accordance to the light of the righteousness of God. I'm going to tell you that where we fail is that when righteousness happens, we do not continue to walk in the light. There is a certain way in which the Christian can respond according to the light of God, even when they commit a sin.

Let me now just read it and then just point to certain truths. Verse 5, in chapter 1 of John, it says, This is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Right? That is the message. Now he says, If we say if we Christian says that we have fellowship with him who is light while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth or we are not walking in the stability of righteousness, right?

we do not practice the truth but then he says but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of jesus his son cleanses us from all sin verse eight pay attention to this If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But now it says, verse 9, if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. First thing that I have to say about this text. This text is speaking about the Christian who has sinned and is now being convicted with the light of God that is convicting that person of the sin that has committed. And the righteous expectation of this Christian is that he will not say, I have no sin that is going against the light that is convicting them.

But rather, the expectation of the Christian is that he will confess the sin. That is, that he will be in agreement with the light. And then when he is in agreement with the light that has exposed the unrighteousness, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cease and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So that person has sinned. But the way that that person has dealt with the sin that has committed is according to the light of God.

Because God loves us so much that He has sent His Holy Spirit to convict us of sin. That every time that we walk away from righteousness, He points us to the way of righteousness. And the way that the Christian is to deal with that is following the conviction of the light. Does it make sense? Now, the problem is when the Christian is in sin and is convicted of sin and continues in sin.

That person has lost his stability. Now that person is walking away from steadfastness. Now that person is now in sin. That person is now in unrepentant sin. That person has lost stability.

Now that person will sin and beget sin and produce more sin and more sin. Now if that person is a genuine Christian, the Lord will come and rescue them and bring them back to the path. But if that person is not a genuine Christian, then that sin is just simply taking that person away, and they will lose entirely their own stability. How is the Christian to respond to the light of God according to what we have here? According to what we have here, when the light of God convicts us of sin, we are to respond in confession.

But there's something deeper than that. Faith. Because remember, that sin is something that does not proceed from faith. So if your sin is pointed by the light of God, then the natural response of the Spirit in us will be responding in faith. That is, that we trust the conviction of the Spirit, and with the same trust, we receive the forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And once we receive the forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, then the burden is taken. And then we can keep walking in the light, my beloved of Christ. I'm broken and saddened to say that, you know, that even before me, before me, I had souls that when they sinned, struggled to receive the forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is lack of faith. Because now you're trying to fix things on your own.

You're trying just to, whatever sin that you committed, now you're trying just to push a little bit harder. You made a mess there. Instead of receiving forgiveness from the Lord, you want to go and try to clean the mess on your own. And then you're deriving satisfaction from yourself, because now you need to clean whatever mess you have created, and that is what gives you satisfaction, and that is not genuine repentance. you will fall again into the scene and you have already lost your steadfastness and you have lost your stability.

We are called, beloved of Christ, to be steadfast. We are called not to lose our own stability because of the great power that the Lord has given us that grant us all things that pertain to life and godliness. And even when unrighteousness comes our way, we have a way to respond to it that will keep us and preserve us walking in the light. That's why the apostle goes and continues and says in chapter two, and if anyone sins, We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He himself is the propitiation of our sins, and not for ours only, but for the whole world.

The apostle is trying to bring peace to the Christian who is sinning, which by the way, he's not addressing here a problem of a person who says, I don't sin at all. He's not addressing that problem. He's addressing the problem of the Christian who is convicted of sin in a particular moment and says, I have not sinned. That's why he puts it there in verse 10. If you read it, he puts it in the verb.

In verse 8, it was in the noun. Sorry to bother you with that. But in verse 10, he puts it as a verb. He says, if we say we have not sinned, as a verb, We make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Why?

Because when the light of God convicts us of sin, and we say, no, I have no sin, you're telling God that he's a liar, because he's the Spirit of God, the one that is convicting you of thy sin. And the conclusion is that the word of God that is supposed to bring you into agreement with God and the light is not in you, because you are making him a liar, because you are self-righteous, denying that you have committed a sin. The person walks away from their stability and they lost their own stability. Beloved of Christ, the warning, if we return to the computer there, we're just in the same page. 2 Peter chapter 3 is calling us to take heed.

that we will not be carried away by false teachers. No so much because of the false teacher. There's going to be false teachers there. But it's because of the deceitfulness of our hearts. I wish you were able to read the Spanish.

Pedro Norel is reading in Spanish. In the Spanish version, it's just so clear that it's, be vigilant of yourself. Take care of yourself, of yourself. Take care of you, because the deceitfulness can carry you away. It's not like the false prophets come to take a genuine Christian, and the Christian is saying, no, do not take me, do not take me, do not take me.

No, they accumulate unto themselves false teachers that speak the words to appease and satisfy their itching ears. Why? Because there is a problem in their heart. Now, that is the case with the false teachers, but this happens in our daily life, beloved of Christ. Remember, lack of faith, sin, trials, tribulations, and loving brethren.

All of these things are stumbling blocks that can move us from our steadfastness. You have been called. I have been called to walk in steadfastness, not to lose our own stability. That means that we never sin? No, it does not mean that.

It means that we actively want to desire to never sin, But when we sin, we deal with unrighteousness in light of the righteousness of Christ. That is, acknowledging and knowing that He has paid for our sins, and in paying for our sins, He has given us the Holy Spirit that convicts us of our sins, that brings us into path of righteousness with Christ, and that when He says, I forgive you, He does mean that He has forgiven us, because He was not the propitiation. He is. the propitiation for our sins. He's interceding in heaven.

He continues to intercede as the propitiation for our sins. That's why our confession of future sins makes sense. Because He is the propitiation for our sins. And because He lives forever, He could say, it is finished. Because it is finished indeed.

That's why Beloved of Christ were to take heed of the warning that is given to us there by the Apostle Peter. But now, I know that this is just very long, but let me just simply point you to a reality. Our Beloved Peter, our Apostle, the one instructing us to take heed that we may not lose our own stability in this case with false teachers, our Beloved Peter manifested ways of unrighteousness not only before the the Holy Spirit was given to him, but after he was an apostle, and after he was powerful, and after he was, you know, like the apostle of the church. Come with me to Galatians chapter 2. Now, beloved of Christ, this is an apostle.

It says in verse 11 of chapter 2, but when Peter, or Cephas perhaps you have there in your Bibles, but when Cephas or Peter came to Antioch, you're with me, right? Galatians chapter 2, but when Cephas or Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, that is the apostle James that we read, right? He was eating. No, that's James.

He was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. and the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him so that even Barnabas was carried away, led astray by their hypocrisy. It was a matter of the heart. Here we have the apostle Here the one that has preached on the day of Pentecost, you remember?

The one who had just seen all of these mighty works of the Lord and Savior, and the one who had witnessed the coming of the Spirit, the outpouring of the Spirit, the day of Pentecost, the one who had been persecuted, the one who had been rescued miraculously from prison, the one who had seen all of these mighty things, the one who received all of the glorious revelation that the Gentiles will be, Incorporated. This person that will write these letters and so on. Fearing men in the heart. Before they came, he was walking in the truth. He was speaking and walking with the Gentiles.

He was steadfast. He was walking according to righteousness. And then the fear that he had in his heart. When these men came, he separated unloving Peter, unloving brethren in Peter. Separated himself from the brethren, from the Gentiles.

Imagine, Peter, come and have lunch with us. Who are you? You are a Gentile. I'm not going to eat the food that you eat. Separated from the Gentiles.

And now just in this corner with the legalistic circumcision party. Imagine that, drawn away and enticed by his heart, by your heart. It is your heart, the one that moves you. But you see the grace of the Lord here? Because the convicting power that I was speaking about happened through whom?

Through Paul. Paul came and just confronted him. And when he confronted him, of course, he accepted the confrontation. Because even in the passage that we have, that we have in 2 Peter chapter 3, it goes, Beloved Paul, the beloved brother Paul, the Spirit of God bringing confrontation to the hearts of the sinner. The apostle, sinner, a sinner.

that now is being brought into the way of steadfastness and stability. It is our heart, beloved of Christ, the one that moves us and that takes us from one place to another. Beloved of Christ, how are we going to avoid all of these things? I'm going to speak about that deeper and more extensively in the following sermons, but just simply come with me to 1 Peter chapter one. 1 Peter chapter two, actually.

1 Peter 1, chapter 2. Verse 1 and 2. It says, so put away all malice and deceit. 1 Peter 2. So put away all malice and deceit, and hypocrisy, and envy, and all slander.

And then it says in verse 2, like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk. And it says there of the word. It doesn't say in your ESV, but it's of the word. That by it you may grow up. Or thereby that you may grow up into salvation, it says in the ESV.

If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. The same word, grow up. It says in verse 18, but you, beloved, grow up in grace, or grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in 2 Peter chapter 2. And then pay attention to verse 40.

It says, as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. As I said, we're going to speak more about growing in the grace and growing in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But how are we going to respond in righteousness and in the light every moment of our lives? only Beloved of Christ, but growing in our understanding and in our communion, in our experience of the Savior, Lord Jesus Christ, who initially saved us. How are we going to respond when we commit sin and when we are falling or departing from the way, other than by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who saved us initially?

How are we going to receive by faith the fullness of the forgiveness that we have in Jesus Christ when we come before the Lord, if it's not by faith and by knowing that He is the propitiation for our sins? If we don't do it by faith and we don't understand those things, then we're always going to try. to fix the issue on our own. Always we're going to try to bring ourselves into the path of stability. Always we're going to try to bring ourselves into the path of steadfastness, which is completely impossible for us to do.

We are always to depend on the Lord Jesus Christ. We are always to live in Him, and with Him, and with His Word, and desire in His Word, dwelling richly in our hearts, that when temptation comes, that when trial comes, that when we're sifted by Satan, that when there's false teachers, that when there's lack of truth, that when there's an unloving brother or sister, that when there is the deceitfulness of riches, or any of those matters, Then we turn our eyes to Christ, and He is altogether lovely, and He moves our hearts more than whatever of those matters, so that our hearts are not drawn away and enticed by any of these issues, but rather that our hearts are naturally and organically drawn and taken by the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, a beauty that has to go beyond this word beauty. and looking unto Jesus that has to go beyond looking unto Jesus. These are my words and how I understand it from Scripture. But it's your task, and it's your duty, coming to the Scriptures with the power of the Holy Spirit that was given to you if you truly are in Christ, to defining your own heart, not in the mind, what looking unto Jesus is, and what is communing with the Lord.

Because He has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. And the only way that you know the Lord Jesus Christ is by genuine, individual, committed, diligent, never stopping, ongoing communion with the Savior that cannot be mediated by anyone or anything. That's why the accountability of your soul is yours alone. It does not matter your father, your mother, your spouse, your wife, your husband, your whatever. It does not matter.

In the end of the day, is your heart the one that is either drawn away and enticed by the things of this world, or your heart the one that is drawn away and taken captive by the beauty of Christ? Now, when I say beauty of Christ, that means something to me, because I have seen Him in the Scriptures. Have you? That is what you have to do individually before Him, because He is calling you to come. Come to Me, He says, as a living stone, and taste that the Lord is good.

Taste that the Lord is good. Individually, not mediated. Because in the day when temptation and trial comes, It is only the substance of Christ that is in your heart, the one that will keep you going and the one that will make you recipient of the worst. Blessed is the one who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life for those who love him. Beloved of Christ, in the end, everything is about the Savior growing the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So that your heart may be a heart that is just so taken naturally by the things of the Lord. The sin, trials, tribulation, false teachers, all of these matters will be not natural to our heart. And that you will be so sensitive to sin in you and in others. That you will be so sensitive, if that is the word, to unrighteousness. That you will be so sensitive to error and lack of truth, that you will be so sensitive to careless words, that you will be so sensitive to weak faith, that you will be so sensitive to countenance of pride and countenance of all of these matters, that you then will be an instrument to bring others onto the feet of Christ, not to yours, not to a church, but to the feet of Christ, so that the mighty glory of Christ may shine in earthen vessels, and in the end, Always the glory is for him and not for us.

And if we endure until the end, just as our brother read in first Peter, then the honor and glory will be for Christ at the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who we have not seen, yet we love the one who we have not seen yet believe in him. And we rejoice when unspeakable words obtaining the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls. Beloved of Christ, that that may be the heart of each one of you, of this church, so that we may not be playing any of Christianity. Flee from playing Christianity in your flesh and as a church, because the Lord has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness indeed. Amen.