When some of you talk about your misspent youth, once in a while your old, ungodly music is mentioned. Even though I am not much older than some of you, I often have no idea who you are talking about. I don’t know the lyrics you are mentioning. I can’t picture the people. And I don’t know how they died. I usually tune out those conversations, because you’re speaking in an unknown language to me. The most radical musicians in my early life were Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, the New Christy Minstrels, Peter, Paul and Mary and other folk singers.
And speaking about “Peter, Paul and Mary”… of course those are Biblical names, like Steven, Philip and David. Despite being Bible names, I have been waiting fifty years to put “Peter, Paul and Mary” into a sermon title. I’m not quite there tonight; I’m only 66% of the way. Tonight as we near the end of our study of this book, let’s consider “Peter, Paul and YOU.”
The Apostle Peter has a concluding message for you, and in doing so he refers to some of the words of Paul. Those two men, despite their divergent ministries, were both servants of God – apostles. The ministry of one was primarily to the Jews in Israel, while the other was primarily among non-Jews. But Peter reminds us that their ministries overlapped. Paul, raised as a Pharisee of the Pharisee, was not averse to evangelizing his own countrymen. Usually, when he came to a new community, he went into the synagogue to tell those people that their Messiah had come. Then when they kicked him out, he turned to the Gentiles, telling them that the Saviour of the world had given His life on the cross, making salvation available to them. “Repent before the one true and living God, and put your faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Peter reveals to us that his two epistles had been sent to people to whom Paul had already written. This raises an interesting question – into which I’m not going to dig very deeply. Most of Paul’s letters were written to churches which were primarily filled with redeemed Gentiles. Was Peter also writing to the people of Ephesus or to the churches of Galatia? Or, is he referring to the letter to the Hebrews, the penman of which is unidentified, but which many scholars believe was Paul? There are certainly some very difficult theology in the Book of Hebrews, and Peter mentions difficulties, so maybe he is thinking about Hebrews.
This brings me to my first point for this evening: Even though Peter, Paul and Mary made certain songs famous in my day, they didn’t write all of them. Their first number one hit was written by John Denver. Others they made famous were written by Hedy West, Bob Dylan and others. Going back to the apostles Peter and Paul – the Author of this epistle and those to Timothy and Colosse, was actually the Holy Spirit of God. Even the Book of Hebrews, no matter who was the penman – Hebrews was God-breathed. As Peter said earlier in this letter – “the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” And as Paul said, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God…” The Holy Spirit is the true author of this letter – and as such it was written to you, as well as those Peter may originally have had in mind. The third person in my title tonight is YOU.
PETER has a message for YOU.
“Wherefore, beloved, seeing that YE look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation…” What are those things the Bible-believer is looking for? Peter is thinking of all of those events related to “the day of the Lord.” For today’s Christian, he is expecting the Lord’s personal delivery. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord” – I Thessalonians 4. Then will come seven years of judgment designed to chastize the world – and especially Israel. The best that today’s world has to offer will be destroyed. Economies will crumble, forests will be burned, quantities of fresh water will become undrinkable. Governments will become exponentially more corrupt than they are today. Wars will be everywhere, but most particularly there will be war in the Middle east – Israel. Following the Great Tribulation will come a thousand years of peace and prosperity in this world under the divine leadership of the Son of God.
But then, Satan will be released from his bonds to once again go about his business. Millions of unredeemed human beings will once again raise their fists in defiance of Christ the King. And then “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” That will be just before the creation of “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”
Peter, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit says, “WHEREFORE, beloved… be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.” Be “diligent.” Don’t mess around about this. Labor for these things with all your heart and strength. Endeavor, as one of your primary goals in life, to be found of your Saviour in peace and holiness. There is only one other verse which ties together peace and holiness like this. Hebrews 12:14 exhorts, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see Lord.” There are many professing Christians, who profess holiness, but who are not peaceful people. First of all, some of them have no peace within themselves. They can’t trust God for their day-day lives. They have to be in control, and that means they are out of control. In addition to these, some other professing Christians are consumed by anger – not peace – and therefore can’t get along with either God or their neighbors. The Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God.” Doesn’t that mean that troublemakers should not be called “the children of God?” Doesn’t the world question the testimony of those Pharisees who can’t do anything but criticize and attack others? Peter exhorts: “In the light of all that is coming, be diligent to work on your peaceful surrender to the Lord.”
“Wherefore, beloved… be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.” Our diligence should be focused on both peace and holiness. The Pharisees of the Bible, and the Pharisees of today, in their finger pointing and criticizing, are more often than not, guilty of the same sins as others or even worse. They are not spotless and blameless. Time and time again, Christ said that very thing of the religionists of His day. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.” “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.” – Matthew 23.
Moving on, Peter added, “and account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.” With every passing human day we are twenty-four hours closer to the “great day of the Lord.” But the Lord Jesus hasn’t come yet – after two thousand years. The Lord is patient. I learned a new word this week – “longanimity.” “Longanimity” is the quality of having extraordinary patience and endurance, particularly in the face of injuries, hardships, or prolonged suffering. The Lord is extremely patient, and there is a two part purpose in the Lord’s patience. Paul tells us in Romans 2 that every passing day of sin – w/o judgment – adds to the judgment to come. But here Peter reminds us the longsuffering of God is about salvation. The Lord knows who will be that last soul saved before the hammer falls. Bri was not the last person to be born again, and Dynan was not the final soul to be saved, either. There are yet more, and therefore we must be diligent about our evangelism as well as our peace and holiness. Who will that last soul be? Who will be redeemed and who will be left behind? Who will be the chosen evangelist of the last soul to be saved in this era?
In addition to Peter, PAUL has a message for you.
“Even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”
The relationship between Paul and Peter has several important lessons to teach us. They began on either side of the fence, when it came to the evangelizing of the Gentiles. Yet, whether the thought about it or not, they were both working toward the glory of the same Saviour.
It took the grace of God and the testimony of Paul to convince Peter, James and some of the other apostles that the Lord intended to send the gospel though out the world. And for a while Peter was as liberal in that subject as he should have been, but on one occasion he reverted to his former Jewish attitude, breaking fellowship with some Gentile believers. This forced Paul to rebuke his eminent co-worker. You can read that in chapter 2 of Galatians. And perhaps that was an epistle read by the very people to whom Peter was writing this letter. But despite being rebuked by Paul, Peter was Christian enough to call him “his beloved brother.”
He also said that Paul wrote and taught “according to the wisdom given unto him,” by the Lord. Paul spoke of “the grace given unto him,” enabling him to be an ambassador for Christ. Here in verse 16 Peter tells us that he considered Paul’s epistles to be “scripture” – holy writings. He believed that the letters of Paul were directly inspired by the Holy Spirit. In addition to acknowledging Paul’s divine authority and ministry, Peter essentially acknowledged that he deserved to be rebuked. He didn’t hold a grudge against the minister of God who pointed out his sin. Despite the embarrassment of the moment, Peter got over it, learned his lesson and moved on. It appears that his relationship to Paul moved forward and upward in the process.
Peter tells us that Paul also taught what Peter has just reminded us. Paul’s ability to share the gospel was as great as anyone who ever lived. He was an evangelist on a par with the Lord Jesus Himself. And beside that, Paul went on to teach things which lowly fishermen and graduates of the public school system have a hard time understanding. The Book of Hebrews is particularly difficult for a lot of Christians to fully grasp, but that’s okay.
Some of Paul’s doctrine is MENTALLY challenging, and some of it is SPIRITUALLY challenging. Take for instance the epistle to the Galatians. The purpose of that book was to rebuke and silence professing Christians who were telling the Gentile believers that they had to behave and look like Jews in order to be saved by the Jewish Messiah. Because they were unstable and untaught, they had been taking Old Testament scriptures and “wresting” them. The word “wrest” is a rare but interesting word in Greek. It is related to twisting – twisting to the point of torture. People who are untaught in the Word, and who have doctrinal agendas to meet, are quite willing to take scriptures and force them teach their perverted doctrines.
Picture the Mediaeval Catholic priest with his hooded prison torturer, putting a young Christian on the rack. With every turn of the wheel, the joints of that poor woman are being pulled apart. The pain is excruciating. And for what purpose? To make that tortured saint confess to something she didn’t believe. That is what many do with isolated scriptures – torture them into saying what they don’t believe.
For example, some people like to use the Book of Hebrews to deny that eternal life is eternal and that people can lose their salvation. But Romans, Matthew, John and Galatians teach us that salvation is guaranteed by the Saviour. To wrestle a few verses here and there into saying otherwise is doing so “unto their own destruction.” If they believe their own lies, they prove that their faith is not in the Christ of the Bible. Peter says, calling on Paul for back up, “seeing that you have put your faith in Christ…” “Seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your steadfastness.”
Beware, be very cautious and careful. In these last days, steadfastness is becoming all the more important. Earlier, Peter shared the same sentiment with the words: “Make your calling and election sure.” Be ye steadfast. Be steadfastness in doctrine; steadfastness in our faith – faith in God and faith in His word. With the proliferation of poisonous nuances of doctrine, steadfastness is exceedingly important. As well as being steadfast in our peace and holiness, we need to stand firm on Biblical doctrines as well.
Why? Not only for our own sakes. But because in these things we may bring “glory (to Christ our Saviour) both now and for ever. Amen.”