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2 Peter 1:1-11 - You're Invited to the Wedding Feast! · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: You are listening to The Bible Explained with Jen Koukl,
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  Speaker 1: a P40 Ministries podcast. Howdy and good morning, friends and
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  Speaker 1: faithful listeners. Welcome to The Bible Explained podcast. We're in
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  Speaker 1: a brand new book of the Bible today, 2 Peter.
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  Speaker 1: And already, I know 2 Peter is going to be
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  Speaker 1: such a great book because the first chapter talks all
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  Speaker 1: about Peter encouraging Christians to grow in their faith. The
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  Speaker 1: second chapter warns about false teachers. And you guys know
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  Speaker 1: I love that topic. And then the third chapter talks
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  Speaker 1: about just waiting for Jesus to return. So 2 Peter
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  Speaker 1: is going to be a fantastic book. But before we
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  Speaker 1: dive in, do me a solid and listen to this
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  Speaker 1: first sponsored advertisement. All right, faithful listeners, let's go ahead
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  Speaker 1: and dive into 2 Peter 1, verses 1 through 11.
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  Speaker 1: I'll be reading, as always, from the WEB. Let's give
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  Speaker 1: reverence to God's word together. Simon Peter, a servant and
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  Speaker 1: apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a
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  Speaker 1: like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our
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  Speaker 1: God and Savior, Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace
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  Speaker 1: be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus
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  Speaker 1: our Lord. seeing that his divine power has granted to
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  Speaker 1: us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through
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  Speaker 1: the knowledge of him who called us by his own
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  Speaker 1: glory and virtue, by which he has granted to us
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  Speaker 1: his precious and exceedingly great promises, that through these you
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  Speaker 1: may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from
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  Speaker 1: the corruption that is in the world by lust. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: and for this very cause, adding on your part all diligence,
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  Speaker 1: in your faith supply moral excellence, and in moral excellence, knowledge,
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  Speaker 1: and in knowledge, self-control. and in self-control, perseverance, and in perseverance, godliness,
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  Speaker 1: and in godliness, brotherly affection, and in brotherly affection, love.
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  Speaker 1: For if these things are yours and abound, they make
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  Speaker 1: you to not be idle or unfruitful in the knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these
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  Speaker 1: things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten
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  Speaker 1: the cleansing of his old sins. Therefore, brothers, be more
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  Speaker 1: diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if
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  Speaker 1: you do these things, you will never stumble. For thus,
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  Speaker 1: you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the
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  Speaker 1: eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Normally
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  Speaker 1: at the beginning of every book that we start, I
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  Speaker 1: do an introduction of what the book is and who
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  Speaker 1: wrote it. But honestly, this book does not need much
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  Speaker 1: of an introduction because Peter himself explains who wrote it.
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  Speaker 1: and also the reasons why he wrote it, and kind
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  Speaker 1: of when as well. This book would have been written
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  Speaker 1: right before Peter died, so probably sometime around 65 to
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  Speaker 1: 69 AD, which is when we think that Peter was
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  Speaker 1: eventually assassinated by Nero and potentially crucified upside down. But that,
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  Speaker 1: of course, is just the church tradition itself. not biblical facts.
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  Speaker 1: So we're not sure exactly how Simon Peter died. But
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  Speaker 1: in this book, he does actually say that he knows
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  Speaker 1: that he was given a revelation that his death was
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  Speaker 1: very soon, which is why he wrote this book, because
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  Speaker 1: he wanted to make sure that the Christians had some
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  Speaker 1: final things that they needed to do before Peter departed
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  Speaker 1: from this earth. So his last words, he says in
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  Speaker 1: verse one, So that explains Peter is the one writing
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  Speaker 1: this letter. He calls himself both a slave and also
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  Speaker 1: an apostle of Jesus Christ, which is interesting because Peter,
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  Speaker 1: You know, the apostleship is considered to be like the
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  Speaker 1: greatest of all the spiritual gifts, right? And yet Peter says, yes,
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  Speaker 1: I am an apostle, but I am a slave of Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: So Jesus always comes first to those who have obtained
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  Speaker 1: a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of
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  Speaker 1: our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So Peter was always
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  Speaker 1: very humble, right? Because he's not lording himself over everybody.
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  Speaker 1: He is not saying he's above anybody. In fact, he's
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  Speaker 1: actually bringing other people up to his position because he's like,
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  Speaker 1: I'm writing this letter to all of the other Christians
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  Speaker 1: out there who have a similar faith like mine, a
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  Speaker 1: precious and like-minded faith through our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now,
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  Speaker 1: there's a really interesting rumor actually going around about Peter
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  Speaker 1: right now on social media, and I happen to see
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  Speaker 1: it myself. This rumor says, that Peter was the only
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  Speaker 1: one to call Jesus his God and Savior. That none
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  Speaker 1: of the other apostles ever said that Jesus was their
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  Speaker 1: God and Savior. Paul apparently never said it, and neither
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  Speaker 1: did the other disciples. Apparently, Peter was the only one
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  Speaker 1: to call Jesus his God and Savior. But that is 100% untrue.
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  Speaker 1: If you look at Titus 2, verse 13, Paul also
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  Speaker 1: calls Jesus his God and Savior. that he's waiting for
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  Speaker 1: the appearing of the glory of his great God and Savior,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. In John chapter one, the author being John
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  Speaker 1: the Apostle, he calls Jesus God. He says, in the
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  Speaker 1: beginning was the word, the word was with God and
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  Speaker 1: the word was God. And following that up in first
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  Speaker 1: John 520, he says, Jesus is the true God and
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  Speaker 1: the source of eternal life. So essentially he is his
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  Speaker 1: God and his Savior. So no, Peter was not the
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  Speaker 1: only one to call Jesus his God and Savior. And
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  Speaker 1: that's a crazy, ridiculous rumor going around right now. And
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  Speaker 1: just so easy to debunk. You just research it, you
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  Speaker 1: type it in, and then you find out, was Peter
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  Speaker 1: the only one to say that Jesus was his God
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  Speaker 1: and Savior? No, he was not. So Peter continues in
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  Speaker 1: verse two, grace to you and peace be multiplied in
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  Speaker 1: the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. So
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  Speaker 1: Jesus has granted us access to his divine power, not
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  Speaker 1: because we are becoming divine ourselves, not because we are
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  Speaker 1: little G gods or anything like that. Specifically, he grants
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  Speaker 1: us this divine power so that he can give us
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  Speaker 1: godliness and everything that pertains to life. He says, through
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  Speaker 1: the knowledge of him who called us by his own
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  Speaker 1: glory and virtue, by which he has granted to us
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  Speaker 1: his precious and exceedingly great promises, that through these you
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  Speaker 1: may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from
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  Speaker 1: the corruption that is in the world by lust. So
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  Speaker 1: because of Jesus and our knowledge of Jesus, we become
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  Speaker 1: partakers of the divine nature, which is really amazing that
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  Speaker 1: Jesus is willing to share that with us. Now, again,
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  Speaker 1: notice here, Peter is not saying we become divine ourselves,
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  Speaker 1: but we partake in Jesus's divine nature that he grants
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  Speaker 1: us specifically so that we can become more godly and
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  Speaker 1: live a life that is virtuous. And then in verses
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  Speaker 1: five through seven, this is interesting. He goes on to
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  Speaker 1: explain how to achieve this divine nature. Obviously, you have
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  Speaker 1: to believe in Jesus. You have to have faith in Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: But as we've discovered in the book of James, James
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  Speaker 1: chapter 2 specifically, faith without works is dead. And we've
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  Speaker 1: talked ad nauseum about what James means by works because
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  Speaker 1: he's not talking about good works. In fact, James himself
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  Speaker 1: explains what these works were. Let's go back and read
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  Speaker 1: that actually. James 2, 20-26 Do you want to know,
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  Speaker 1: vain man, that faith apart from works is dead? Wasn't
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  Speaker 1: Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered
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  Speaker 1: up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that
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  Speaker 1: faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected.
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  Speaker 1: So the scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God,
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  Speaker 1: and it was accounted to him as righteousness, and he
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  Speaker 1: was called the friend of God. you see then that
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  Speaker 1: by works a man is justified and not only by faith.
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  Speaker 1: In the same way, wasn't Rahab the prostitute also justified
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  Speaker 1: by works when she received the messengers and sent them
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  Speaker 1: out another way? For as the body apart from the
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  Speaker 1: spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.
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  Speaker 1: So James right there gives two examples of what he
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  Speaker 1: means by works. When Abraham obeyed God and it was
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  Speaker 1: counted to him as righteousness, And also when Rahab was
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  Speaker 1: the only person, the only woman in Jericho to obey
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  Speaker 1: God and to submit to his will that the Israelites
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  Speaker 1: were going to take over her city. The other people
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  Speaker 1: in Jericho were trying to fight against the Israelites and
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  Speaker 1: do everything they can to go against God's will. But
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  Speaker 1: Rahab knew specifically that that God was giving her city
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  Speaker 1: to the Israelites. And she knew that Yahweh was God.
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  Speaker 1: And so she submitted and obeyed the will of God.
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  Speaker 1: And it was counted to her as righteousness. And she
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  Speaker 1: was saved from Jericho. She was the only person, she
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  Speaker 1: and her family, saved from Jericho during that time. So
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  Speaker 1: that is the works that James is talking about. Not
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  Speaker 1: good works that we think of, you know, like feeding
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  Speaker 1: the poor, helping those who are hurt, volunteering at a
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  Speaker 1: soup kitchen. That's not what James is talking about. He's
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  Speaker 1: talking about the submission and obedience to God's will. And
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  Speaker 1: Peter is essentially saying something very similar in verse 5
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  Speaker 1: of 2 Peter 1. Yes, and for this very cause,
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  Speaker 1: adding on your part all diligence in your faith supply
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  Speaker 1: moral excellence and in moral excellence knowledge and in knowledge self-control.
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  Speaker 1: and in self-control, perseverance, and in perseverance, godliness, godliness, brotherly affection,
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  Speaker 1: and brotherly affection, love. And I'll go through each individual
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  Speaker 1: one right now. But the overarching idea is that faith alone,
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  Speaker 1: kind of like what James says, when it has no
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  Speaker 1: obedience attached to it, it's dead. Faith in and of
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  Speaker 1: itself is the starting point for the Christian walk. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: you start with faith, obviously, believing that Jesus existed, believing
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  Speaker 1: that he's your savior. But you have to build on
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  Speaker 1: that foundation. Peter actually gives a step-by-step guide of things
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  Speaker 1: that you can work on. And each individual thing kind
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  Speaker 1: of grows into the next thing. So the first thing
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  Speaker 1: we start with is faith, right? Then faith grows into
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  Speaker 1: moral excellence. So having morals. rejecting some of the things
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  Speaker 1: that you used to do in the past, having a
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  Speaker 1: better moral compass, you know, understanding more about sin and
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  Speaker 1: other people's sins as well, and your own sins, especially.
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  Speaker 1: After moral excellence, that grows into knowledge. So you start
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  Speaker 1: having more knowledge of the scriptures, more knowledge of who
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  Speaker 1: Jesus is and what he wants you to do, more
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  Speaker 1: knowledge about his will. And after knowledge, self-control begins to grow.
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  Speaker 1: And the Greek word for self-control is found elsewhere, specifically
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  Speaker 1: in 1 Corinthians 7, when Paul is talking to the
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  Speaker 1: unmarried individuals who need to learn to have self-control from
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  Speaker 1: their sexual desires before marriage, essentially. So self-control grows from
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  Speaker 1: your knowledge in Christ. And not necessarily always when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to lust or sexual things, but just growing in
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  Speaker 1: more self-control in general, becoming less volatile, I suppose, when
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  Speaker 1: things irritate you. Just having a sense of calm when
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  Speaker 1: people are irritating you, maybe starting to get a little
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  Speaker 1: bit of thicker skin, you know, and just having more
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  Speaker 1: tolerance of people's irritating behaviors overall. And yes, of course,
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  Speaker 1: self-control as well when it comes to vice and sin. Obviously,
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  Speaker 1: if you start partaking in that kind of stuff, Peter
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  Speaker 1: says right here that you are not partaking in the
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  Speaker 1: divine nature that is offered to all of us Christians.
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  Speaker 1: But after self-control, it continues into perseverance. So you start
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  Speaker 1: to learn how to control yourself. And now during that,
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  Speaker 1: you learn how to have endurance through other kinds of
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  Speaker 1: trials and not just with people who irritate you, but
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  Speaker 1: something a lot more difficult that is going on in
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  Speaker 1: your life. You have perseverance and you maintain faith through
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  Speaker 1: all of that. And then perseverance grows into godliness. Now, this,
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  Speaker 1: of course, is not becoming like a little G God. Again,
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  Speaker 1: there's no divinity in any of us. The divinity belongs
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  Speaker 1: to God 100%. But godliness just means Maintaining your faith
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  Speaker 1: in God, like your piety, regardless of what situation you
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  Speaker 1: find yourself in, God is your one and only. You
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  Speaker 1: are not going to stray from him. And after godliness
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  Speaker 1: comes brotherly affection. And I laugh because, man, I have
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  Speaker 1: not achieved that. And after brotherly affection comes love. If
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  Speaker 1: you can learn to actually start loving God, People who
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  Speaker 1: irritate you, not just having self-control of like being like, okay,
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  Speaker 1: this person is so annoying, but I am just going
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  Speaker 1: to not lash out at this person. That's a good thing.
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  Speaker 1: That's self-control. But if you can even start to love
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  Speaker 1: the person who is persecuting you. or mistreating you or
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  Speaker 1: being irritating to you. That's kind of like the peak
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  Speaker 1: of Christianity. That's what Jesus did up on the cross.
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  Speaker 1: You know, when people were insulting him and killing him
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  Speaker 1: and spitting on him and torturing him and just doing
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  Speaker 1: all sorts of vile things to him, Jesus loved them
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  Speaker 1: in return. And he said, Father, forgive them for they
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  Speaker 1: don't know what they are doing. And I think this
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  Speaker 1: chapter of 2 Peter is really comforting because Because it
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  Speaker 1: shows that the Christian walk is a process that we
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  Speaker 1: have to learn. And don't get me wrong, I'm not
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  Speaker 1: saying that, oh, you know, you can just keep on sinning.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it's all a process. I'm not saying that
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  Speaker 1: at all. Obviously, we try to move past those personal
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  Speaker 1: sins that we have, not just because they are bad
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  Speaker 1: for us, but because they offend God. And if we
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  Speaker 1: are a Christian, if we have any faith in God whatsoever,
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  Speaker 1: our first thing that we should do is recognize that
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  Speaker 1: We don't want to offend God. We want to have
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  Speaker 1: fellowship with God. And Jesus came down to earth to
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  Speaker 1: free us from the sins that we struggle with. So
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  Speaker 1: we do our best with all of that. But it
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  Speaker 1: does take some pressure off if you find you're not
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  Speaker 1: as knowledgeable as you think you should be, or you're
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  Speaker 1: not loving somebody the way that you think that you should,
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  Speaker 1: or you're really struggling through some kind of trial. Peter
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  Speaker 1: is taking a little bit of pressure off with all
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  Speaker 1: of that. These things you kind of have to grow into.
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  Speaker 1: Even Paul himself said that in Philippians. He said, I
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  Speaker 1: have learned how to be content in every situation. Meaning
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  Speaker 1: at one point in time in his Christian walk, he
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  Speaker 1: was not content. He had to learn that virtue. So
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  Speaker 1: it's the same for all of us. All of us
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  Speaker 1: are fallen individuals. When Jesus comes and changes our life
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  Speaker 1: and we learn more about him, we're going to grow
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  Speaker 1: more into the person that God wants us to be,
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  Speaker 1: especially as we partake more and more of the divine
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  Speaker 1: nature of Jesus. So Peter concludes this list in verse
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  Speaker 1: eight by saying, for if these things are yours and abound,
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  Speaker 1: they make you to not be idle or unfruitful in
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  Speaker 1: the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So unfortunately, there
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  Speaker 1: are Christians that stop after the first one or two.
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  Speaker 1: Like say you stop at moral excellence or knowledge of
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  Speaker 1: the scriptures, you still will not be as fruitful in
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  Speaker 1: your Christian walk as you could if you keep on
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  Speaker 1: growing more and more in your faith, which is why
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  Speaker 1: Peter says, if you do these things and they are
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  Speaker 1: yours and they abound, then you will not be idle
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  Speaker 1: or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: So you're going to be a very effective Christian. For
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  Speaker 1: he who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what
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  Speaker 1: is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.
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  Speaker 1: So anybody who doesn't do these things, they lack these virtues.
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  Speaker 1: They are blind, They see only what is directly in
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  Speaker 1: front of their face. And they've forgotten the cleansing from
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  Speaker 1: their own sins. So here's what Peter says in verse 10.
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  Speaker 1: And this was a very interesting verse to me. Therefore, brothers,
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  Speaker 1: be more diligent to make your calling and election sure.
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  Speaker 1: For if you do these things, you will never stumble.
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  Speaker 1: And this brings me to Matthew 22. So let's read
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  Speaker 1: verses 1 through 14. Jesus answered and spoke to them
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  Speaker 1: again in parables saying, the kingdom of heaven is like
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  Speaker 1: a certain king who made a wedding feast for his
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  Speaker 1: son and sent out his servants to call those who
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  Speaker 1: were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again,
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  Speaker 1: he sent out other servants saying, tell those who are invited, behold,
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  Speaker 1: I have prepared my dinner. My cattle and my fatlings
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  Speaker 1: are killed and all things are ready. Come to the
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  Speaker 1: wedding feast. But they made light of it and they
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  Speaker 1: went their ways. one to his own farm, another to
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  Speaker 1: his merchandise, and the rest grabbed his servants, treated them
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  Speaker 1: shamefully and killed them. When the king heard of it,
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  Speaker 1: he was angry and he sent his armies and destroyed
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  Speaker 1: those murderers and burnt their city. Then he said to
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  Speaker 1: his servants, the wedding is ready, but those who were
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  Speaker 1: invited weren't worthy. Go therefore to the intersections of the
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  Speaker 1: highways and as many as you can find, invite them
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  Speaker 1: to the wedding feast. Those servants went out into the
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  Speaker 1: highways and they gathered together as many as they found,
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  Speaker 1: both good and bad. The wedding was filled with guests.
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  Speaker 1: But when the king came in to see the guests,
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  Speaker 1: he saw there a man who didn't have on wedding clothing.
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  Speaker 1: And he said to him, friend, how did you come
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  Speaker 1: in here not wearing wedding clothing? And he was speechless.
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  Speaker 1: Then the king said to the servants, bind him hand
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  Speaker 1: and foot and take him away and throw him into
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  Speaker 1: the outer darkness. That is where the weeping and the
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  Speaker 1: grinding of teeth will be. For many are called, but
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  Speaker 1: few chosen. This is why I don't believe that God
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  Speaker 1: picks and chooses people to be saved. That God just
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  Speaker 1: condemns certain people to hell without any chance of salvation.
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  Speaker 1: Because Jesus himself said that that is not what he does.
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  Speaker 1: He said he invites everybody. Every single person is invited.
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  Speaker 1: Every single person is called to believe in Jesus. But
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  Speaker 1: there are certain people who are not going to listen
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  Speaker 1: to that calling. They're going to go their own ways.
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  Speaker 1: And they will reject the call. They will make light
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  Speaker 1: of it. Everybody was invited to this wedding feast, both
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  Speaker 1: good and bad. But only a few were chosen. That's
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  Speaker 1: what Jesus says here. For many are called, but few
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  Speaker 1: are chosen. And who are the ones that were chosen
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  Speaker 1: in this parable? The ones who showed up. And you
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  Speaker 1: might be like, well, Jen, are you suggesting that we
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  Speaker 1: earn our salvation? No, absolutely not. In fact, there is
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  Speaker 1: nothing we can do to gain our own salvation. It
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  Speaker 1: comes fully from God. No matter how many virtues that
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  Speaker 1: we learn, they will not. gain us salvation. But salvation
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  Speaker 1: is the invite to the wedding. And God isn't going
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: to force any of us to come as we see
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: in that parable. He invites us. We have to take
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: the steps to go into that wedding feast. But notice
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: in that parable, there was a man that got into
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: the feast and that didn't have the proper clothes on.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: And what did God do in that situation? He said, friend,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: he calls him friend. How did you come in here
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: without the wedding clothes on? And he ends up throwing
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: that man out into the outer darkness. Now I am
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: under the impression personally that the outer darkness is not
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: the same thing as hell because in the book of Revelation,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: it talks about the city of Jerusalem, the new city
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: that God is going to create. It's like this beautiful jewel,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: this gem that floats in the sky and only certain
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: people are going to be allowed in that city. But
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: there are people living outside of that city who are
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: not allowed to go in. And to me, it does
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: not sound like the people outside of that city are
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: living in hell, but they are living in a place
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: where they are separated from God. Hence why Jesus in
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: the parable calls the outer darkness a place of weeping
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: and gnashing of teeth. So that begs the question, are
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the people who are thrown out actually saved? Well, honestly,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: they could be. It doesn't say specifically in scripture, and
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: that's my own two cents that I'm throwing in there.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: And you're kind of getting into like a whole different
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: can of worms by me saying that. But what I
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: want to get back to is is the clothes that
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: God talks about here. And I think these clothes are
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: the virtues that Peter talks about. These virtues aren't going
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: to save you. You know, you can put on the
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: wedding clothes all you want and refuse the invite to Jesus.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: But if you accept the invite of Jesus and you
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: show up not properly dressed, I think that shines a
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: little bit more light on what Paul talks about in
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: 1 Corinthians, where he says that every Christian is going
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: to give an account of to Jesus. He's going to
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: judge everything that they did. And if their works for
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: him were built out of beautiful materials that withstand the fire,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: materials like gold and silver and precious stones, then they
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: will be saved and they will get a great reward.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: But the people who give Jesus works that are made
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: out of straw and hay and stubble, like weeds and
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: those works will be completely burned up in the fire
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: and they'll have nothing to show for it. And they
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: will be saved essentially through fire. So I don't think
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Peter is saying here that we gain salvation by growing
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: these virtues, but more so that we're going to have
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: a fruitful and productive life to show for Jesus. If
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: we gain these virtues, we will stand before Jesus having
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: beautiful clothes on, having works done for Jesus that are
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: made of better materials rather than works that are made
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: of crappy materials, essentially. And I think that's kind of
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: what all of this comes down to. These virtues do
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: not save us. Ultimately, Jesus saves us. But as we
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: do them, we will be fruitful, we will bless other people,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: and we'll gain a greater reward when we someday... meet
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Jesus face to face. So how does that tie into
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: faith without works is dead? Well, just because faith is
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: dead does not mean it's not there. You can have
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: faith that is dead. You can believe in Jesus, but
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: your faith is stagnant. That's if you don't do what
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Peter is talking about here. If you don't grow on
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: your faith, if you don't follow the commands of what
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Jesus tells us to do in scripture, your faith becomes
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: dead and stagnant. And I wonder if the man in
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: that parable that showed up to the wedding without his
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: clothes on was somebody that had a dead faith in Jesus.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: But of course, that's my own speculation. So if you
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: keep growing on your faith, if you do these things,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: you can know for sure that you will be invited
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: to that wedding feast and you will be accepted to
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: partake in that wedding feast. Peter has some urgency with
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: this letter that he wrote because he knows he's about
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: to die. So we can know that these things are very,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: very important for all of us Christians to do. So
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: how can we start today? Maybe firstly, we can try
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: to identify where we are on this list and pray
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: about it and think about it and through faith grow
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: even more, continue learning about Jesus, continue trusting in him,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: continue having perseverance through difficult times. These are all things
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: that will help us grow today. into a person who
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: can be sure of our election. All right, faithful listeners,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: before I let you guys go, please listen to one
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: last message from a sponsor. All right, hopefully you guys
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: thought this episode was pretty good. I thought it was
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: rather interesting myself. I really enjoyed this list. I think
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: I've gone over this list before on the podcast, possibly
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: when we went through 1 Corinthians 13, but I can't
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: remember specifically, but I know I've read this before. And
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I think I've talked about it before as well. So
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: faithful listeners, hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you did,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: share it on your social media platforms and tell people
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: that the Bible Explained podcast exists. But I'm not going
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: to talk your guys' ear off for too much longer. Instead,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: I hope to see all of you on Monday for
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: another episode from the book of Job. I've been loving
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the book of Job. Hope you guys have been as well.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: On Monday, we're going to talk about Job's response to
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Eliphaz because Eliphaz was pretty crazy, accusing Job of a
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: lot of... just not correct things. And so Job is
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: going to have his response for Eliphaz on Monday. So
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: I hope you guys tune in then. Now, as you
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: all know, Fridays is for the members. So for those
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: of you who want to become members, we are going
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: through the book of the Psalms on the Bible Explained
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: on Fridays. But that podcast is only available to those
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: of you who become members, at least for right now
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: until I make the Psalms public. But there's always going
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: to be some sort of new content coming for the
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: faithful members that are over on the Bible Explained on Fridays.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: All right, all you faithful listeners, have a fantastic and
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: wonderful weekend. I'll see you guys bright and early either
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: tomorrow as faithful members or on Monday for the regular
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: scheduled episode. Happy listening and God bless. I just want
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: to take a second to thank the team at Life
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Audio for their partnership with me on the Bible Explained podcast.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: In fact, if you go to lifeaudio.com, You'll find dozens
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.