Three Essentials of Genuine..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Let's go to 2 Peter to read together and to ask the intervention of the Holy Spirit so that we may be edified in the truth of His Word. The verses that I want us to meditate upon this afternoon is the last three verses of chapter 2.

Verse 20, 21, and 22. So we're going to be completing chapter 2. and brothers and sisters, the topic that I want us to meditate and to think about carefully this afternoon and this evening is the falling away of these false teachers. The falling away of these false teachers And this falling away of these false teachers is the falling away in a sense of every single false convert, every single false Christian that is going to fall away either from the faith, as the apostle Paul will say, First Timothy and Second Timothy, or they will fall from grace as the same apostle says in Galatians, Chapter five. So very seriously and before the Lord, with much faith and paying attention to the words that are preached and the words that are read, I'm calling your attention and your heart, beloved of Christ, to meditate upon these verses in which the apostle is going to speak of that reality.

the falling away from the faith of these false teachers in this case. So what we are going to do, as we always do, is that we're going to be reading together the whole chapter, chapter number two, and then focusing our attention on those three verses there in the end of chapter two. So let's come before the Lord and ask him in his in our hearts. that he may give us the faith that is needed, that he may give us the guidance and the leading of the spirit that is needed, so that as we read this scripture, that we may have hearts that are open, faith, good faith to receive the word of the Lord, and that he may help us not only to speak, but also to receive the message of the Spirit of Christ. So 2 Peter chapter 2, and let's read it together.

This is the word of God. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their centrality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle.

and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, that cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment, If he did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, And if he rescued righteous lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over the lawless deeds that he saw and heard. Then, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. bold and willful. They do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.

But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction. suffering wrong as the wage for the wrongdoing. They counted pleasure to revel in the daytime. Their blots and blemishes, rebelling in their deceptions while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin.

They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed, accursed children, forsaken the right way They have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression. A speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. These are waterless springs and mist driven by storm.

For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, that they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved." Verse 20, After they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome.

The last state has become worse for them than the first. But it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness. than after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What a true proverb says has happened to them. The dog returned to its own vomit and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.

Amen. This is the word of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and beloved of Christ. Brothers and sisters and friends, as I said, we're going to be paying attention. And I hope that the Lord might guide us by his spirit to verses 20, 21 and 22, in which I want to present from my heart to yours the topic of falling away from the faith, the fearful reality of the falling away from the faith. In this case, these false teachers.

They have fallen from the faith. They have departed from the way in which they were. They have fallen from grace. They have departed from the faith in which they were. And that is a fearful reality.

And beloved of Christ, I hope that you can see not only the fearfulness of that topic that I'm just conveying and communicating to you, but the difficulty of the passage that we have in front of us. We are told that these false teachers, these false prophets, they have, in a sense, escaped the defilements of the world. And not only that, they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are told that they have received the holy commandment of the Lord and that they have turned away from the holy commandment of the Lord, that they have known the way of righteousness and that they have turned away from that way of righteousness. I hope that you can see not only the fearfulness of the reality of falling from the faith, but the complications, the complexity and the difficulties of the passage that we have in front of us.

Because here we're told that people who have been partakers of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, people who have known the way of righteousness, people who have received the holy commandment of the Lord, that these people, that if I don't say anything else about these people, we could easily say that they are Christians. that there is a greater judgment that awaits for them, that these people actually are not going to end up in heaven, but these people are going to end up in hell. Very important for us to understand this doctrine of falling away from the faith, falling away from the path of righteousness, very important for us to understand that and not to have a simplistic understanding of falling from the grace or falling from the faith, that it is 100% informed from our theological presuppositions that tells us that one saved always saved. And then therefore, every time that the scripture speaks about falling from the faith or falling from grace, we read our theology into the text and then the text becomes of no meaning to us because we have a shallow understanding of it. So that is my invitation to you, beloved of Christ, brothers and sisters and friends and whoever is within the sound of my voice, that we pay careful attention to this text so that we will have a deeper understanding of the doctrine of falling away from the faith.

that we will have a more biblical and robust understanding of falling from grace or from the faith or whatever term comes to your mind. So that is what we're going to be doing this afternoon, beloved of Christ. But the first thing that I have to make sure for us to get something from the letter and especially from chapter two is that we are absolute clear about the few things that I have mentioned in this last month that the Lord has given me the opportunity to speak to you. And I've said so many things and we usually said so many things from this pulpit. And, of course, not every single one of those words is going to be saying your mind and in your heart.

So let me just remind you of some of the very important things that we are to remember, that we are to have in our minds and in our hearts here from Chapter two. The first thing that I've said and even that I said last week is that we need to know and we need to remember that false teachers in the context of the church is not a possibility, but rather is a reality that just as there were false prophets in the Old Testament, there will be false teachers in the context of the new covenant church. So false teachers is a reality. It's not an option. It's not a perhaps, but it's a reality that rests in the decree of God.

We ought to know that. Second thing is not that there's only going to be false prophets, but many will follow them. Many people within the context of the church professing Christians, they will follow these false teachers. So just as it is certain that there will be false teachers in the context of the church, it is certain because the scripture says so that will make the many will follow these false teachers in the church. We know that.

I hope that we know that that is just in the chapter there in second Peter, chapter two. And also you can see that in Jude and Matthew, chapter seven. Also, beloved of Christ, something that we need to have clear in our minds in that these false prophets here of second Peter, they have a judgment that is reserved for them from long ago. They have been set apart for this judgment. In that sense, they are reprobate.

Just as there is a salvation that is kept for us in heaven for those who are in Christ. Also, for these false prophets of 2 Peter 2, there is a judgment that is awaiting, that is not idle, that is not asleep. There is a judgment that is waiting for these people. So there is a certainty that these people will face that judgment because they are reprobate. Now, here's when I have to clarify, because we may not then understand the extended context of what false teachers or false teaching is.

Pay attention to me here, beloved of Christ. The nature of the false teacher is one that is lost, but not only lost, but also reprobate because of what I have just said, right? He or she is lost, and he or she is also a reprobate because there's a judgment that is awaiting for them, kept reserved for them. But we ought to differentiate between the false prophet and the false teacher of 2 Peter 2 and Jude, which is one that teaches a damnable heresy or a destructive heresy, differentiate that group and category of people from those who oppose the faith with wrong teaching. Again, we are to differentiate between the false teacher from 2 Peter 2 and Jude, who teach destructive or damnable heresies, for whom there is a judgment that is reserved and kept, and there's no gospel proclamation that will save them, differentiate that group of people from 2 Peter 2 and Jude from a group of people that oppose the faith for whom there is hope, and not only hope, but those who are in the context of the church are called to bring them back.

I don't know if you remember that sermon, that was like two months ago, but if you go quickly there, because that is a very important, I don't want you to have flattened categories of false teaching, because now every time that there's someone into a false teaching, I don't want to just simply just to go and put them into the category of 2 Peter chapter two, and then therefore conclude that that person is a reprobate. we will not be acting according to scripture. So if you go to 2nd quickly, please go to 2nd Timothy chapter 2. And this is the passage there in 2nd Timothy that helps us to understand the difference between these two type of people. Then in 2nd Timothy chapter 2.

In verse 24, so you have to remember this verse to understand this doctrine of false teachers, to understand the nuance of this. Remember there in verse 24, it says, And the Lord's servant, that is, the preacher, the teacher, the elder, the Lord's servant, must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach patiently enduring, enduring evil. correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. So there are some opponents of the faith.

And then if you see first Timothy and second, Timothy are the ones that sometimes are called to be handed out to Satan. Perhaps these are more on this in the type of, say, computer chapter two, but also the ones that are to be corrected. And there is clearly a hope of repentance for those people for whom the elder of the church or the people within the context of the church are to, in a sense, rescue them from fire. Very important that at least we distinguish between that. But we're dealing in second Peter chapter two, not with this type of people for whom there is time, you know, to bring correction and these opponents of the faith for whom there's a hope of repentance.

But we're dealing with those who are lost and those who are reprobate for those whom There is a judgment that is kept and waiting for them. I hope that that is clear in your minds. You go back in your Bibles. It's a computer because that distinction is very important for us to have clear in our mind. So I've said to you, beloved of Christ, that there is a reality of false teachers that there is going to happen.

that many will follow those false teachers, that there is a judgment that is reserved and kept for them, that the nature of those false teachers is one of lust and reprobate. And I said something last week that what they do in the context of the church is that they bring poison. They bring what the Apostle calls in 2 Peter in the beginning, destructive heresies. That which the false teachers do to the church or within context of the church is that they bring poison that has no power to save nor power to edify because they are waterless wells. Remember that?

They don't have substance. They are lost. They are lost. There is nothing of the Spirit in them. So they think that they know, and they have assurance, and they think that the things that they are speaking are the things according to Scripture, but they don't know.

They have this certainty, man-made certainty, that they are speaking of the law of God, but they have no idea about the commandments of the Lord. And I said to you that that's because the commandments of the Lord are not understood with this. are understood through this, with this, and it is given by God. And that's how God fills the well of a person, with water that produces life for the lost, and water that it defies the church and the Christian. So they are waterless, they are carried.

Jude says that they are plants without fruits, plucked up by the roots, I think is the word in English, or removed by the roots. They have no fruit, no substance. So now, to those categories and those points that I have taught to you, or better, just simply convey from scripture, I want us to add another one. And that is the reality of their falling away. They're falling away, beloved of Christ.

And now there is an assumption here for the falling away, an assumption that I have already proved to you, I hope, from scripture, and that they're falling away happens because they are simply not in the faith. So they fall away from the faith because they have never experienced saving faith. They have never, ever received the visitation of the Holy Spirit into their hearts to give them saving faith. Therefore, their professional faith is external and they will fall away from the faith. And I hope that we know that.

And I think that mainly we understand that because of our theological understanding. But this is where you have to pay attention to me, beloved of Christ. And this is when when you have to pay attention to what I'm going to try to communicate to you, because as I said in the beginning, at some point in my first three or four minutes, we have a danger. We have something that we can make a mistake very easily. And that is that as reformed people or as Calvinist, whatever, you know, your reformed theology has taught you or formed you.

we can easily jump into the conclusion that those who fall away from the faith is just simply because they were never in the faith. I'm pretty sure that you've said that. I'm pretty sure that you've heard that. I have said that, and I have thought that. So that when a person falls from the faith, it's just immediately because they were never in the faith in the first place.

And that is true, but that is shallow. Because when you go through Scripture and then you hear the warnings of Scripture about taking heed for the faith that is within you to walk and endure, none of those warnings have any type of substance to your soul. Because if you have reached any type of certainty of salvation, then by knowing that you are in Christ, any warning to fall away from the faith is meaningless because you say the one that falls away from the faith is the one that is not saved. If I am saved and I have certainty of my salvation, I will not fall away. Now, even though all of those statements are true, the Bible never calls us to have assurance of salvation simply because you happen to be within the reformed camp.

If your assurance of salvation is established upon the fact that someone taught you that once saved, always saved, or that you study the doctrine of eternal security, What a pity with your soul, because then your certainty will depend in the best case scenario on you, on your performance, on your faith. Your assurance of salvation will depend on, I prayed a prayer five or 10 or 15 or 20 years ago, whatever. Or more than that, if you have a little bit more discernment, then your assurance of salvation is going to be, I've been a Christian for five or 10 years. Not only that, if you're a little bit more spiritual and understand a little bit more, I've seen a change in my life. You know, this is me when I was saved, and I've seen this work of the Lord in my life.

And therefore, I'm a Christian. And because I'm a Christian, every time that I read words in the scripture that says, take heed or be careful and endure until the end, this is speaking to those who will fall away who they were never in the faith. All of those warnings, you simply become over your head. It's just as if you were not reading a scripture. Because remember that I said to you, God is speaking to a person.

It's not a person just simply going through the codes of English that communicate a type of sound or meaning to your mind. God is speaking to you. That's when you say, take heed, Lord, take heed, take heed, endure, Lord. Help me, Lord, to endure. That's when God speaks to you.

because you've seen what the Spirit is speaking to you through a scripture and you're not reading your presuppositions and your theology into the text that is actually killing your soul because he's not strengthening you. He's not giving you maturity. He's not giving you power to simply making you a religious person with the correct set of doctrines. So you've changed a set of lusts, lusts with a u, lusts. that the lost person would have for another set of lusts that are more pure and more correct.

And you could even call them reformed theology or whatever. Still, men may center in self. So, beloved of Christ, we ought to be very careful because here we have people who have knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, people who have known the way of righteousness, and we have a language that is fearful. They have escaped from the defilements of the world. They have turned from the things of this world.

Now they have fallen away. And that's how the text presents the experience of the false teachers and the experience of every person that falls from the faith as falling from the faith. And the Bible is not careless, not idle to say that they have fallen from something when they have not fallen from something. For falling away from something to be real and true, you have to be somewhere, right? That's the way that I understand those words in English.

For you to fall away from something, or from somewhere, or from someone, you have to be in that something, in that someone, or in that place. Otherwise, those words are just simply meaningless, and you are just not speaking correctly. The Bible speaks about not only false teachers, but people falling from the faith, falling from grace and departing from the way of righteousness. Are we just going to simply take that as just they were never in the faith and that's why they departed from the way? Shallow, right?

That is shallow. That has no power. There is in front of us, beloved of Christ, a very important truth that we ought to make the effort to understand, to comprehend, to store in our hearts, so that we will be filled with faith and certainty in Christ of our salvation, but also the precise and important element that connects the reality of His loneliness with my unrighteousness. And that element is fear of the Lord. You will never have certainty of your unrighteousness and the holiness of the Lord if you don't connect that with fear of the Lord.

Just words. Sinner that I am of your unrighteousness. Oh, how holy he is. And then when you see that experientially, no fear. If your unrighteousness is truly unrighteousness in your eye and in your heart, and if the holiness of God is truly holiness, set-apartness, the devotion of God to himself, if that is real, then that which is going to unite those two is fear of the Lord.

Not fear like the fear that children have of their parents, because sometimes they do things that they should not. but rather the reverential fear of the Lord that is only produced by the Spirit of God. This is what we have here in Beloved of Christ. I want us to analyze or to study this doctrine of falling away from the faith, from actually the positive point. I want us to analyze the elements of genuine salvation, the elements or requirements of genuine salvation.

Because if we understand that which it is, then we will be able to discern that which is not, right? That's what usually happens in a scripture. It's better for us to know that which is the truth of something, so that by having this sort of the truth, and by understanding, not in a shallow way, but in a deep way, the doctrines of the scripture, then we are able to discern that which is not. So instead of paying attention to the elements of falling away directly, I want us to pay attention to the elements of genuine salvation and then see how they have manifested in false teachers and those who fall away. And then we will understand why they fall away.

Now, beloved of Christ, I have many thoughts in my head, so you have to you have to try to pay as careful attention to the things that I'm just going to communicate to you. I'm going to give you three elements or three requirements of genuine salvation now i feel uncomfortable by using the word requirements right it's a little bit uncomfortable to use the word requirements of genuine salvation But I hope that you know that I'm not talking about workspace salvation. You've known me for a few weeks, some of you and the rest of you, you've known me for some years. So when I say requirements, this is just the word that I have in my head. And I will say perhaps naturally through the sermon, but I'm not speaking about requirements as something that you have to give or do in order to be saved.

But rather, you can see them as nuances, elements or factors or whatever of genuine salvation. And I'm going to give you three of them. And for a person to be truly saved, for a person to be genuinely saved by the spirit of Jesus Christ, for that person to have been part received, been partaker of saving faith, these three elements must be present in the soul of that person. And not only all of them must be present, but they have to be present to their fullness and their completeness. Because there might be a person that only has one of those elements and they don't have the other two elements.

Then that person is not generally in Christ. There might be a person that has two of those elements and not the third. That person is not generally in Christ. But also there might be a person who has a manifestation of the three elements and not the fullness or the completeness of those three elements. And that person is still might not be in Christ.

Like I will say is the case of false prophets like here. three elements that are a requirement or elements of genuine salvation that the soul is supposed to have each one of them in completeness and in fullness and in the presence of the three of them. Otherwise, genuine salvation does not exist. Those three elements, the first one, the light of God, God's light, the light of God given to that person, the light of God, that person needs to have the light of God. Second element, that person needs to have a change of nature, change of nature, a person in order to be saved, that person needs to have the light of God and a change of nature.

And the third element is that that person must have not only the light of God and a change of nature, but the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Once a person has received the light of God, once a person has received a change of nature, and once a person has known the Lord Jesus Christ, then that person is genuinely united to the Lord Jesus Christ, never to be separated from Him, because there's nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. The love of God has been manifested to that soul. The light of God has been revealed to the eyes of the lost. Then that person has been transformed, his nature has been changed, and that person has known the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, I hope that you can see not only the beauty of that, but the complexities of it, because for each one of those instances, I can point you in a scripture to show you that not everyone who has the light of God is actually saved, that not everyone who has a change in the behavior is a person that is saved and not everyone that knows the Lord Jesus Christ is saved. You have an example of that in front of you, right? The false teachers. Very important, therefore, that the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ and those who want to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to them, because there's no other words that can provide life to you, will pay attention to what the preacher has to say about these matters. Very important because I want us to see the light of God, a change of nature and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ in a deeper way so that we will be able to discern the state of our soul.

We will be able to discern the state of the soul of those around us and we will have the sword of the truth to proclaim the gospel with much power and bring salvation and bring edification and bring salt to this world that is much needed. the light of the Lord as the first one of those elements, beloved of Christ, that is needed. And you might have even in your mind, as I mentioned, that the many times that a scripture speaks of salvation as the light of God being manifested to a person, a person has been transferred from the dominion or the kingdom off. darkness into the kingdom of light when we speak about a person that has been saved. The light of God has shone upon that person and that person has been partaker of eternal life.

That is the light of God in the Bible when it speaks of salvation. Even the apostle John says in John chapter 3 that those who are wicked, those who are unrighteous, They will not come to the light because if they come to the light, their wicked deeds will be exposed. I don't want their wicked deeds to be exposed. But those who are in the truth, they will come to the light so that their works will be manifested of being the works of God. The Bible clearly speaks about the light of God as a necessity for a person to be truly saved.

And not only that, but the Bible gives qualifiers of the light of God. As we spoke with the man in the man's meeting, the light of God can be given to the world in two ways. The light of God to the world can be given in a general, in a natural sense. Remember, men, wives, if you don't understand this, you can ask your husbands. The light of God can be revealed to the world through creation, right?

The eternal power of God and the divine nature of God is revealed through creation. So when men and women, they open their eyes and they see everything that has been created, they can point to the eternal power and the divine nature of God because there's a certain amount of light that is given to them. The heavens declare the glory of God. That is the light that is given from God to humans through the natural sense. But there's also another way in which that natural light is given.

Remember, the second way is not only through creation, but it's the God given conscience. Every single person that is born, every single baby that is conceived is given a God given conscience that helps them to discern between that which God hates and that which God has appointed of righteousness. So everyone through their conscience can discern between that which is evil and that which is right. God has given them a natural light in creation and in their conscience. Now, we also said in the men's meeting that that light is not able to save.

The light of general revelation is not able to save. A person cannot be saved just simply by looking at creation or paying attention to their conscience. So there is a necessity and other type of light. And the other type of light is the light of the gospel. Be with me, beloved of Christ, because you will see how everything simply just goes together.

The natural light of God revealed to men is not able to save. So if we're talking about genuine salvation, then we ask the question, what is the type of light that lost humanity needs in order to achieve and to obtain that genuine salvation? And the answer that the Word of God gives to that is that that light that is needed is the light of the gospel. Because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jews first and also to the Greek. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.

In the gospel, the God that has spoken to sinful men now reveals himself in the person of Jesus Christ. So the light of God is deeper and more profound and more powerful in the gospel of Jesus Christ, because now they can not only know about God, but they know God through the person of Jesus Christ, the light of the gospel that is given through the preaching of the word. You know why the church is called the light of the world, that we're called to be the light and the salt of the world? because the light of God that is given to the world through the gospel is preached. the foolishness of preaching the gospel.

And the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 3, if you have the time, then when you read that, he speaks about the mystery of salvation that was kept from long time ago before and that has now been revealed to his holy prophets and apostles, the salvation of the Gentiles, the salvation of everyone. And that message has not only been revealed or communicated or preached through the ministry of the Apostle Paul, but also through the church. the churches, the batteries and the foundation of the truth, the pillar of the truth, that is to bring the light of the gospel to the world. And when a person, beloved of Christ, hears and receives the light of the gospel, then that person is saved. It is a requirement, as I said in the beginning, is an element, as I said in the beginning, it is required the light of the gospel, so that person will be saved.

But just as the light of the gospel produces salvation, the light of the gospel also produces something terrifying. And that is that the more light that a person is given, even if that is the light of the gospel, the greater the judgment that that person will receive. And this is when you have to pay attention, beloved of Christ, because the type of men that we have in our portion of text here, these false teachers, they did not only receive the general light of the world and in their consciences, these false teachers of second Peter chapter two, they also receive the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They were in the context of the light of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why we're told that it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness.

Because the light of the gospel gave them access to know the way of righteousness. The light of the gospel gave them access even to escape from the defilements of the world and to be and to know the Lord Jesus Christ. The greater the light, the greater the judgment. The more that a person knows about the Lord Jesus Christ, the greater the judgment. There is going to be judgment for those who deny the existence of God.

Of course, a greater judgment there will be for those who are seated in church or preaching from a pulpit. Greater, tender, because there's a greater light that is given to these people. I'm beloved of Christ. I want you. I want you to see that there are some people who are within the context not only of general light of God to the world, but in the context of the light of the gospel in the context of the church that cannot be saved like the case of these false prophets.

There are hundreds and thousands of people. There may be even people within us, beloved of Christ, who receive the light of the gospel as it is preached, that read the scriptures, that participate and take part of the events of the church. And that night is given and given and given and given and given and given. And they understand who Christ is and they understand what the gospel is. And they see this and that and memorize.

And we know and know and know. Yet that line has not produced in the heart what it's supposed to produce. Those people are still in the ways of these false prophets that we have here. In 2 Peter chapter 2, they have received the light of the world and the light of the gospel, yet they are not still in Christ. Why, beloved?

Because it's not only the light of God that is meant to be received. It is a requirement. But the light of God is not the completeness of salvation. Pay attention to that language. It is not the light of God as it is revealed in the gospel.

the completeness of salvation. It is a requirement in the sense that I explained to the beginning. It is an element of a genuine salvation. But the light of the gospel is not the completeness of a genuine salvation. There's also a need, beloved of Christ, and that need is that a person may change their nature.

The effectiveness of the light of God being applied to that person is manifested initially in a change of nature. Many of these things, you know, but beloved, please stay with me. A change of nature. Think about the radical thing that the gospel is. A change of nature.

Something that was a piece of wood and becomes water. That is a change of nature. Something that was a piece of plastic and becomes a tree. There is a change of nature. When the light of the gospel has been effectively applied to the soul of a person, then that person experiences a change of nature.

The nature that was naturally received, Because every soul that is conceived is conceived in an unrighteousness. The unrighteousness of Adam is naturally, immediately imputed onto every single soul when it is conceived. There is no need to wait. for the five or the third year of the baby or the boy or the girl for them to see him for the first time so that unrighteousness will be passing to them. Naturally, the unrighteousness of Adam is given and is imputed to every single conception that is happening, that will happen in the time that I'm speaking.

Every time that a soul is conceived within the womb, there is an imputation of the unrighteousness of Adam. And that unrighteousness is not only legal in nature, it's a legal status, but it will manifest. Because when they will come out of the womb, the first thing that they will do is not only cry, but then when they have the ability, they will start to sin. Not because they have learned it, but because they are sinners or we are sinners by nature. That is the unrighteousness of the nature.

My daughter in the womb of my wife, she has already received the unrighteousness of Adam. Apart from the grace of God in giving her life and to the understanding of Jesus Christ with the gospel of the Lord, she deserves and she has the unrighteousness of Adam in her. And that is the condition of every single person. because our nature is fallen, then salvation requires a change of nature. You see that, right?

Requires a change of nature. That requires that we were dead in our trespasses and now that we will be made alive in the person of Jesus Christ. That requires that we have the seed of Adam in us. And then as the Apostle Paul of John says in first John chapter three, that the seed of God will be given to us. So that will be a radical transformation of the nature of that person.

Beloved of Christ, now pay attention to this. The change of nature in a person will be manifested not only in the existence of a new nature, but it will also be manifested in the change of the affections of that person. The nature of that person will be manifested in a change of affections. The God that they hated, now with their new nature they love. and the sin that they enjoyed and loved, now by virtue of this grace given to them a new nature, now they hate."

Dual new relationship. The God that they did not love, now they love, and the sin that they enjoyed and that they were enslaved to, they now hate. Because, beloved of Christ, if my daughter is born by God's grace, with the imputed unrighteousness of Adam, the only reality is that she is going to be enslaved to that nature because that's who she is or will be, is a slave to that nature. So that means that a new nature, beloved of Christ, requires genuine salvation. Beloved of Christ, genuine salvation requires a change of nature that will liberate us, that will give us escape from the fallen nature to which we were in bondage.

And by having the freedom of a changed nature, we will leave behind the defilements of the world. You can see even if you see, if you go to chapter one of Peter, you can see that the apostle puts this in the positive terms, speaking of genuine believers. In chapter one of this second Peter. It says his divine power 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 and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises. so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire." Escaping from that nature. Speaking of genuine believers, yet I said to you that we ought to understand these requirements in the depth of them. Because in the passage that we have just read, the same vocabulary is used for the false teachers.

We are told in verse 20, for if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, these false teachers who are not genuinely saved, these false teachers who remain in Adam have accomplished something that is seemingly impossible for the fallen nature. They have escaped the defilements of the world. the horrible things and the horrible practices of the world, these false teachers have managed to escape from them. And not only that, but they have done it through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So then that means that the general light of God given to people in addition or added to or added the light of the gospel given to these men has been sufficient and powerful enough.

So to that extent, These men or these people have escaped the defilements of the world just in a similar way as the genuine believers has escaped the corruption of this world. Beloved of Christ, what I want to point your attention to here is that the power of the flesh and the power of sin is so deceitful. that even with the intention of false religion, with the intention of men's exaltation, flesh can pretend to be in the ways of God and he can accomplish it. Faith can, or better, the flesh can pretend to be in the ways of God, the flesh can pretend to be in the ways of God and accomplish it. In a sense, not in reality.

That's why the apostle gives us the analogy of the dog and the sow. It says in verse 22, what the true proverb says has happened to them. The dog returned to its own vomit and the sow, like a pig, like a female pig, after washing or cleansing herself, returns to wallow in the mire or in the mud. Pay attention to that. The dog returned to its vomit.

It is natural for the dog to eat his or her vomit. They find that pleasure. That is natural for them. It is even tasty for them. That which is awful and disgusting for us, for the dog, is nice and it's tasty and it's a beautiful food.

They want to return to the vomit. And that is terrifying for us. But the terrifying thing when it says returns, which implies that the dog move away from the vomit. that the dog has managed to move away from the vomit. That which is natural for them, that which they enjoy and is tasty for them, for some reason, they have managed to remove themselves from it, and now we know that they end up returning to it, but they have managed to move away from the vomit.

And the same thing happens with the sow, that word is just so awkward, it's strange for me, pig. That the pig that naturally enjoys to be in the mud, that naturally enjoys to be there to wallow in the mire. Those words say they're in English. We can see here that implicitly when it says that after washing herself, it has managed. Falling nature has managed to go against nature.

Beloved of Christ, I don't know if that terrifies you, but it does to me. Even, you know, I feel my many hairs here just going up. The flesh empowers sometimes a person to remove themselves from the natural practices of the flesh, and to do that which is contrary to nature, and of course, in the case of the false prophets, to do that which is Christian, to do that which is religious, to do that which is good. You know one of the things that they could not do? The dog remains dog, and the pig remains pig.

They can have the appearance of something else. They can do the things of like a different animal or a different creature, even a human. They can now enjoy a good piece of meal and meat or whatever is good food. They can enjoy now a shower, you know, with the way that we take a shower. But the shower, nor the food, nor the clothing changed the fact that the dog remains a dog and the sow or the pig remains a pig.

The terrifying thing about it is that the light of the gospel that they had, these false prophets, was sufficient enough for them to escape from these things. Just as the dog removed him or herself from the vomit and the pig from the mud. That is terrifying. Beloved of Christ, and this is because genuine salvation requires something else. Not only the light of God given to a person through the gospel and not only a change of behaviors, a change of things that we do, that every time there is a genuine change of nature, there will be change of behaviors.

But not every time that there is a change of behaviors. It means that there is a change of nature. You see that right? Every time that there is change of external things, that's not mean that there is a change of nature because there's another element that guarantees the seal of genuine salvation. And that is the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But even the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ can be counterfeit. Even the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ could be empty. Even the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ could be knowledge of Satan. Even the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ can be the flesh. Even that which the Bible calls knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus, with inspired words can be experientially speaking for the person the knowledge of Satan.

Why? Because also the knowledge of Jesus Christ, beloved of Christ, has qualifiers that we are to understand. And perhaps this is the more important point that I want you to pay attention to. Because let me present to you at least three elements. Now I'm presenting you another three elements.

But three elements with this third element of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Genuine knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ has to have also, just as my opening statement or sentence, whatever it is, knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ must have these three characteristics or these three elements, if you want, or these three aspects or factors. The first one is to have a natural knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, is to have a intellectual knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Come with me to Second Timothy, please.

The same passage that we had checked together. Second Timothy, the first type of knowledge or the first characteristic of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ that we ought to have is a natural, that is the only word that comes to my mind, or intellectual knowledge in the head, if you want. Natural knowledge. Second Timothy, chapter three. from chapter three, from verse one.

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, no loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. You know how that fits in the thing that I've said before, right? Having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people, he says to Timothy.

For among them, those who have the appearance, right? Those who have these good things of godliness exteriorly. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women. They're waterless. They're taken by their passions.

In the secret, they do things that are against God. When people are not seeing them, when people are not observing them, when they're in the secret place, they do things that only the lust and the hater of God does. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various persons, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Always learning and never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. Always putting in their minds words and concepts and thoughts and philosophies of men and enjoying church and the things that are said in church and enjoying the things that are said about the gospel and about Christ and about God and about everything that is according to Scripture.

Enjoying all of those things and storing them in their minds. Even experiencing, to an extent, the power of those things, just as the false prophets, able to remove the sense from the defilements of the world. Partakers of these things, understanding, but never able to arrive to the knowledge of the truth. Not able. They don't have the ability in and of themselves to arrive to that truth.

It doesn't matter how much they know. It doesn't matter how much preaching they've heard, how many books they've read, how many times they've read the Bible, how many books of the Bible they've memorized. It doesn't matter. Never able to arrive to the knowledge of the truth. Natural knowledge is what it's called.

Natural knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? Lord, Lord, Didn't we open our mouth to speak of this and that with much authority? Lord, Lord, didn't we follow your ways? Didn't we do this and that?

Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Depart from me, I never knew you. Intellectual knowledge in the head. Through the light of the gospel, of course, because arriving to that type of knowledge is impossible through nature, right? It is through the gospel, through the scripture, in the context of the church, within the buttress and foundation, the pillar of the truth, teachers, preachers, perhaps, never able to arrive to the knowledge of the truth.

Why? Because they don't have something else that is needed. Not only a natural knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, but a second element, a second requirement. You understand what I mean? spiritual knowledge, a spiritual knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, not only to know him with the head, but to know him in or through the spirit.

To know Him by a spiritual experience, by the spiritual intervention. That a person can say that they know the Lord Jesus Christ, not only with the head, but also they can say that they know Him spiritually. But not even that knowledge is sufficient. Because the Bible clearly speaks of people and men and women who have experienced the work of the Spirit in knowing things, spiritual things. Not only of the Lord, but of God, who are not generally saved.

You know the passage that I'm going now, right? Hebrews 6. So if you go to Hebrews chapter 6. I don't think that I will survive anymore with that temperature. See if it's okay with you.

They're kind of just put a little bit lower. Thank you. Hebrews chapter 6, brothers and sisters. Speaking of false prophets, those who... not false prophets, right?

Those who fall from the faith. Listen to this in chapter 6, as we've read many times, and perhaps let's just read from from verse 11, chapter 5. Put your eyes there in verse 11, chapter 5. About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. But though by this time you to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.

You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the words of righteousness, since he's a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore, therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God and of instruction about washing, the laying on hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits that is advanced to maturity.

And now he says, contrast the advancement to maturity is contrasted by those who do not advance into maturity, but rather fall. It says, verse four, for it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, not those who once understood doctrine, which is natural knowledge. But those who once were enlightened, spiritual knowledge, who have tasted the heavenly gift, not those who understood the heavenly gift, but those who tasted, emphasizing in the experience of the person, those who tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit, if there was any doubt, those who shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come and then fallen away." They have been enlightened. They have understood the things of the word and they have experienced those things.

They have tasted those things. The powers of the age to come, partakers of the Holy Spirit. If you tell me that that only reaches the mind, I don't know how you interpret even English. That is speaking of a spiritual experience, right? This is speaking of a spiritual knowledge of these matters.

Natural knowledge is not sufficient to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Spiritual knowledge is not sufficient to know the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to know the Lord Jesus Christ generally and save Him, you do need intellectual or natural knowledge. If you do want to know him generally and be saved generally, you do need a spiritual knowledge. You need to be enlightened in his word.

You need to have tasted of the powers of the age to come and be partaker of the Holy Spirit. You need all of these things. But having them is not enough. It's not enough. It says they have fallen away to restore them again to repentance.

You see how we cannot simply say that those who fall away just simply were not safe to start from. That is true, but that is shallow because they have fallen away from something that was real. They have fallen away from something that was real. Otherwise, the falling away has no meaning. And God is perfect and always has a meaning in everything that he says.

It is impossible to restore them. It is impossible to bring them down from the place where they fell because they have indeed fallen away. And the average which they fell away is real. They had a real knowledge of the Lord through the light of the gospel. And they have a real change of that which is even unnatural to them.

practices, religious practices. They have knowledge of the Savior in their mind, natural knowledge, as I have called it. Or they have spiritual knowledge of the Savior, as I have called it. Yet, they are missing something. For the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ to be indeed the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A person needs to have something that I call the principle of substantial reality or the principle of reality in you. And that is found. Let me show you the principle and then the text in 1st John. If you go to 1st John, I want to show you the principle of spiritual reality or substance, spiritual substance in 1st John. The spiritual reality only takes place in a soul when what we have here happens.

Chapter four, verse 13. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. None of those things is still qualified to make any difference from the false prophets. We could make the case. And we have seen and testified that the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world, whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, that abides in him and he got all of that is true.

But all of that can be also manipulated. All these guys are just I don't know what the word is, just externally manifested with no reality. So we have come to know, verse 16, so we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love. And whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him.

By this, by this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment. And whoever fears has not been perfected in love. And this is just the verse that I wanted to point you to.

We love, that is, we have a spiritual reality in us, the spiritual reality that is being explained and expounded just in the previous verses. And the reason why we experience that is spiritual reality, which will be contrary to our nature. We love because He first loved us. Beloved of Christ, it's impossible to know God. It's impossible to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

There's nothing that we can do, not even in the best of our spiritual abilities, not even in the greatest of the manifestations of our faith, not even in the best of our days as a Christian. Impossible to know God. Slaves to our nature. We can remain slaves to our nature. Because the principle of spiritual reality is that which is real in you.

It's because it's real in Christ and he has communicated that to you. He's the life of Christ, the one that is life indeed. So when it comes to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's not that we have natural knowledge and understand his ways and his doctrines and all of these things. It's not even that we have been partakers of a spiritual experience. The works of the Holy Spirit.

But rather, what is important is what Paul says in Galatians 4. Go to Galatians 4. Inspiringly speaking of all of these matters that I have just preached, the apostle is going to say things here in chapter 4. Galatians chapter four. Speaking of the liberation of the genuine believer from the bondage of sin, I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is not different from a slave in verse one, though he is the owner of everything in his analogy.

But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world, that is, our unrighteousness. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son.

And if a son, then an heir through God. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not God's. Again, verse 8. Formerly, that is in the past, in previous times, when you did not know God, that is when you were lost, you were enslaved to corruption to those that by nature are not God's. You see everything that I've said so far, right?

Corruption. But now that you have come to know God, and then the apostle receives life from the Spirit. Or rather, to be known by God. To be known by God. How can you turn back to the weak and worldless elementary principles of the world whose slaves you want to be once more?

The implicit answer to that is you should not, you will not, and you cannot. Because, beloved of Christ, Knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ does not only require natural or intellectual knowledge, spiritual knowledge, but also requires divine knowledge. A knowledge that does not happen in time, but a knowledge that has already taken place. It is in the blessed Jesus Christ, chosen before the foundation of the world, not to understand, not to know a particular set of doctrines or things, but rather to be transformed as sons and children of the Lord God known by Him, is in time manifested in us genuinely knowing Him. It's Him, the one that has saved us.

Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. It's not that you know Him. It's that He knew you first. That is eternal life. That you know God and Jesus Christ whom He sent.

And that word, know, implies that He knew you first. It's not that we love, but that He loved us. And it's not that we know Him, but that He knew us first. He knew us. before the foundation of the world, in all our weaknesses, in our trespasses, in our unrighteousness, in all our fallenness and shortcomings, in everything that we've done, do and will do.

He loved us in Christ. And that is the depths and the beauty of this glorious gospel. That when we deserve unrighteousness and hell, because he knew everything back then, just as Eve was removed from the loins of Adam to become one in the spiritual loins of the eternal begotten Son of God. The church that was united to him was removed to be inserted in time so that through the workings of divine spirit in time that bride will be inserted again to the loins of the Savior. Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

Union in Christ, the one who has seen, the one who made us, the one that has determined everything, separated temporarily from the Savior, to come to the consummation of the union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Knowledge of light, of the book, change of patterns, understanding the Lord Jesus Christ of no value, zero value for genuine salvation. When the Lord has chosen and has loved a soul from eternity past, that soul will come to the Lord Jesus Christ, will be kept in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, will endure until the end, and will spend eternity in glorious union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Because apart from the eternal knowledge of God of the soul and beloved of Christ, we're all lost. There is nothing that we can do.

Three elements I presented to you, right? Three elements I presented to you. We need the light of God, the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a change of nature. And we also need a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, that knowledge with those three levels. Now, I want you to see that in the mouth of Paul as he speaks to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter four, 2 Corinthians chapter four.

Speaking of the ministry of the gospel given to him, he says, therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced his graceful under underhanded ways. That's how you pronounce it, right? Underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, as many false prophets are doing even today from pulpits. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word.

But by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

So God, in his eternal decree and in his perfection, opened his mouth and said, Let there be light. And he created everything with the power of his mouth. And then when he saves really and truly and genuinely a soul that is lost, he speaks unto the light, unto that person. and the light of the glory of God is manifested in the heart of that person, knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is revealed.

That is the treasure that if you continue, it says in verse 7, but we have this treasure in jars of clay. I prefer earthen vessels to show that this surpassing power belongs to who? To God and not to us. Beloved of Christ, that is the treasure of genuine salvation in earthen vessels. Vessels of mud that will break otherwise.

Vessels of mud that will just simply collapse otherwise. If the one that has filled those vessels is not the one that sustains them. He is not the one that keeps it and preserves it until the end. If it's not him, the one that does the whole work, then simply just the thing explodes. It is the glory of the Lord and not the glory of the person.

And that is what should move us to every time that we read, no, read the word in a shallow way. You're not going to endure until the end because someone has put together a doctrine of eternal security of one saved, always saved. You endure until the end because of Christ. because of the person of Jesus Christ, and not only the utterance of his name, the person of Christ, the one who died, the one who sustains you as Kisbir, the one that gives you life, the one that speaks to you through his word, the one that convicts you of sin through his spirit, the one that wants you to become like him. And it's the necessity of every single soul within the sound of my voice to have certainty, not of who they are, but if they are in Christ.

Because there's nothing more important for a person to have certainty that they have been known by God. And when you think about the implications of being known by God, the only thing that says that you can say is... I cannot do anything about it. I just give up. Lord, faith comes and then you're united to him because he's not depending on you.

But he depends on the Lord. Once a person has been crushed, destroyed, there's no self, there's no strength, there's no power left in the person. Then the beauty of Christ is manifested by his grace because that is only about him. And he is the one that saves. These men did not have the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as He comes from Him to them.

They knew many things. May God keep us and protect us by not experiencing the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and being partakers of that knowledge, not only in our minds, not only in our hearts, but in Him. Because the same apostle would say that we are partakers of they, divine nature, and that is through the genuine knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is how we have escaped from the defilements and the corruptions of the world. And that is rooted in a faith of equal value.

We call it standing as the faith of the apostles who saw the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to Jesus. Amen.