Growing by Knowing

As parents of two young boys, my wife and I not only encourage our children to eat what is good and healthy for them, but we also do our best to keep them from intaking what is harmful. We put locks on the bathroom cabinets and under the kitchen sink, so that the two-year-old doesn't open them up and start drinking the Draino. That could be fatal for him, and we wouldn't dream of standing by watching it happen.

Now when he's matured a little, like our seven-year-old, we won't have to keep it locked because he'll have no desire for it. He will have learned that it's not good for him and he'll want nothing to do with it. He's growing by knowing what is healthy and what is harmful - choosing the healthy while rejecting the harmful.

As a pastor, my heart is to protect the church and encourage her to keep choosing to eat the good and healthy nourishment of God's Word while rejecting the harmful deceits of false teachings. I want to see each person living godly, productive, fulfilling lives that honor our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I want each believer to keep growing in the grace and knowledge of Him. I don't want anyone swallowing harmful or possibly fatal false doctrines, which might lead them away from the truth and into sin. If I could somehow lock up destructive heresies and ideas behind cabinet doors, I would.

That's the heart of the slave and apostle of Jesus Christ - Simon Peter - as he writes his second letter under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. When was the last time you heard a sermon or Sunday School lesson out of 2 Peter? It’s one of those shorter letters kind of buried there toward the back, and if your pages stick you might miss it altogether. I’d guess that probably most Christians could not quote or maybe even identify a single verse from 2 Peter. That’s too bad because this short but fervent letter packs a punch that should wake up many sleeping churches in our culture today.

This past Sunday I began what I’m intending to be a five-sermon series on 2 Peter called “Growing by Knowing.” I’ve summed up the main theme in this book by saying that Christians must continue growing in the faith (i.e., the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ) so that we will not be swept away by false teaching, but be assured of our salvation and keep living the godly life that such salvation brings.

Make no mistake about it: there are many deceivers and godless men, as Jude says, who “have secretly slipped in among you” (Jude 4). They “will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them…Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute” (2 Peter 2:1-2). Even in many self-professing Christian churches the raw transforming power of the gospel has been replaced with psuedo-psychological, politically correct, self-help motivational speeches. The whole idea of preaching God’s Word as the absolute truth and authority for our lives is giving way to relativism and compromise. The question many church leaders are asking is no longer, “What’s true?” but “What works?”

I want to encourage you to read carefully through 2 Peter and see if doesn’t speak emphatically to the need for the church to be guarding the treasure of the gospel today. Then read it again and ask the Lord (by the help of the Holy Spirit) to reveal His character and His will to you in these pages. Then read this letter a third time and discern what He wants you to do as a result.

Come hungering and thirsting for the truth of God’s Word and you’ll keep growing by knowing our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.