In 1 and 2 Peter, Peter is writing to a despised and persecuted people. On July 19, 64 A.D., a fire broke out in Rome. The flames licked up large parts of the city and both mansions and hovels were destroyed. The fires burned for three days and three nights. There were rumors that Nero had his men all over town trying to hinder people from putting out the fires. Nero identified a scapegoat – the Christians. A savage outbreak of persecution ensued. In view of these circumstances, Peter instructs these “pilgrims of the dispersion” to pursue holiness and truth. He encourages them that they are protected by the power of God. 

Okay, open your Bibles to 1 Peter. We'll be going through both 1 and 2 Peter today. It's a really relevant message. It's a helpful message because it connects with lots of things that are going on all around us. For example, our culture is increasingly becoming hostile to Christianity.

And the people who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, those who embrace the idea that He is the only true God and that we should worship Him, that we should obey Him, that we should walk in His ways, are more and more finding themselves on the wrong side of history, on the wrong side of the culture. And particularly if you embrace a biblical morality, you've set yourself against the world. And the rapid shift in the morality that we're seeing take place before our eyes, particularly in things regarding gender, is astonishing and it really is creating no middle ground in the world. We know that there's only light and darkness And there really never has been middle ground, but the Christians are being edged out of the mainstream like never before. And 1 and 2 Peter are written for people who are in that kind of situation.

It's very contemporary in its feel. It was a time of persecution. Peter's writing to a despised and a persecuted people. And here's the context. It's July 19th, AD 64, and a fire breaks out in Rome.

And the flames are licking up the city. The mansions and the hovels are both being destroyed and the fires are going to burn for three days and three nights. And there are rumors around that Nero, who's emperor at that time, is hindering people trying to put out the fire. And, well, Nero was a builder and there were many who thought that he set the fires so that he could rebuild the city to his own liking. And this is the kind of man Nero was.

He was one of the most brutal rulers that ever lived. So Nero identified a scapegoat for the fire. Guess who the scapegoat was? Well, the Christians, you know, of course. So a savage outbreak of persecution started rolling and Nero did just remarkably hostile things to the church.

He would take Christians and roll them in pitch, impale them on poles, and use them to light the roadways to the city. And these waves of persecution started spreading throughout the empire. Christians were accused of cannibalism because they said they ate and drank the body of Jesus. Atheism because they worshiped the Lord Jesus Christ and they refused to sacrifice to the Emperor. They were accused of orgies because they drank wine at the Lord's Supper and they greeted one another with a holy kiss.

So the tide turned against the Christians And so Peter's writing to people who are in the midst of that kind of environment. Now I want to identify here at the beginning seven subjects that Peter deals with. He deals with lots of subjects. I'm just gonna identify seven by way of summary getting a sense of the big themes and subjects that Peter deals with, and the first is persecution. Peter is writing to a despised and a persecuted people, and he offers wonderful counsel to them from the Lord.

Now secondly, he speaks of salvation, and he's trying to explain what has happened to the Christian. The word grace appears seven times in Peter's letter. And there's much in here about salvation and what happens to you when you're saved. Because you've been sprinkled by the blood of Jesus Christ, you can approach God. Because He shed His blood, the wrath of God has been calmed, because Jesus Christ is the substitute for your sin, for the punishment for your sin.

For example, in chapter 1 verse 3 he speaks of, His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And then he says, and because of that you are kept by the power of God. So salvation is a critical, prominent message in this letter. Thirdly, suffering. There are various kinds of sufferings that Peter identifies that have come about as a result of the persecution that takes place.

The word suffering occurs nine times and Peter says that there are two kinds of suffering. One is good and the other is not so good. The first kind of suffering is suffering for doing good. He says don't think it's strange when you suffer for doing good or because of your faithfulness to Jesus Christ. And the second kind of suffering is the suffering that takes place when you do evil.

So Peter addresses both of these, and when we get into the text we'll walk through some of those incidences where the Apostle Peter deals with these two different kinds of sufferings. Peter is addressing these readers out of a real warmth and an understanding pastor's heart to a persecuted and scattered people. And then fourthly, submission. The word is repeated five times. He speaks of the various relationships of submission that God has ordained to the civil government, to your employer, and the submission and honor that exists in marriage.

And then the fifth issue that he speaks about is the issue of protection. One of my favorite phrases in the entire letter is when Peter talks about that we're protected by the power of God. That when God saves you, he starts carrying you, and He gives His angels charge over you like He did His Son. And you're protected by the power of God. Kind of like what Psalm 34 says.

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them. You can picture this encampment around you and Peter speaks of this And it was an important principle for them to grasp because Nero would take, you know, the skins of newly butchered wild animals and he would wrap them around Christians and he would sew them up and then he would send wild dogs in to devour them limb from limb. He hung them on crosses. It was Nero who killed Paul and it was Nero who killed Peter himself. So they needed to hear about God's protection in the midst of the difficulty.

What does it mean to be protected by God? And he says, don't be surprised when the persecution comes. Peter makes it very clear that persecution either makes you better or it makes you bitter. It makes you grow or it makes you grumble. And Peter's writing to people who have a reason to grumble and to be bitter against those who are persecuting them.

And Peter makes it really clear that you will have reasons to be bitter. But don't take them, because God is doing something, and you need to recognize that. Some have called 1 Peter the Job of the New Testament, because there's so much suffering in it. And he speaks of Christ's suffering. He speaks of counting it a privilege when you suffer.

You know, I was reading this week the words of Polycarp, who was the disciple of the Apostle John. He wrote a letter to the Philippian church, and he said something that was so remarkable. He said, those who were bound in chains, the fitting ornaments of saints, and which are indeed the diadems of the true elect of God and our Lord." He writes that in his writings of the apostolic fathers. Your chains are ornaments, fitting ornaments, diadems of the elect. So Peter is trying to change our whole frame of reference regarding suffering and persecution.

You know in chapter 2 verse 21 he says, Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against your soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles." In other words, persecution often brings out the flesh. So he speaks about these matters of persecution. You know, if you look at chapter 3, verses 15 to 18, you find this testimony that Christ suffered, and so So do we suffer in the same way that He did. In chapter 4 verses 1 and 2, He says, therefore since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind. For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.

Now, 1st Peter chapter 4, the entire chapter is quite likely the central New Testament testimony on how to endure trials. Chapter 4 is the place you turn when you are suffering various trials. So then the next message that you find here is the message of obedience. And There are many calls to obedience. There are 34 imperatives in 1 Peter alone, from 1 Peter 1.13 to 5.9.

Obedience and grace are companions. It's grace that teaches your heart to fear, and it's the grace of God that teaches you to obey. And Peter makes that very clear. But there are many calls to obedience. And then the seventh and final thing I want to bring out just in this introduction is the issue of holiness.

There are two ways that the Apostle Peter speaks about holiness. He talks about being a holy people, and then He talks about personal holiness. So there are these two issues. There is a holiness that the individual pursues, and then there's a holiness that marks the people of God. On the one hand, we're strangers.

We're different. We're a holy people in that sense. We're set apart. And on the other hand, we live holy lives. We live differently.

And you can read about that in chapter 1, verse 1, chapter 1, 13 through 16, chapter 2, verse 11, and chapter 4, verse 4. So holiness is a really critical theme. Let's talk about the author Peter. Peter is the indisputable author of 1st and 2nd Peter. He experienced a radical transformation.

It's documented pretty clearly in the Gospels, contrasting what you read about in Acts chapter 2 to Acts chapter 2 to Acts chapter 20. There's much about Peter there, and we find this evidence of Peter's transformation. You know, he seems to be a different man compared to the rash man, the impulsive man that he was. You know, when he encourages young men to submit to older men and not to think so highly of themselves. You know, we wonder how the Lord might have subdued him to that position from a hot-headed, independent kind of man.

How did that happen? Well, He was filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter traveled extensively with his wife. We read about that in 1 Corinthians 9-5. Peter was most likely crucified upside down by Nero in 68 AD.

That's what tradition says. So that's Peter, a transformed man, brutally murdered at the end of his life for the gospel. The audience, you'll see this at the very first part of chapter 1 in 1 Peter. The audience is composed of strangers scattered abroad. These were the pilgrims of the dispersion.

People were being dispersed because of the persecutions. And you'll see if you look at a map how large an area this is. Millions of people are in this area, and they're Christians scattered all through. So you have this struggling group of converts who are out in remote places and living in cities. Some of them came out of paganism.

Peter says that they were called out of darkness, that they once were not a people, but now they're the people of God. He's writing to these people. He talks about their former aimless conduct in chapter 1 verse 18. Aimless conduct. They were just kind of bouncing off the walls, going wherever the culture would lead them.

You know, also I think it's interesting to see how much Peter draws from the Old Testament. 11% of the letter is composed of direct quotations from the Old Testament, and he brings up Sarah and Abraham and Noah, and when he talks about Old Testament Saints, he uses Old Testament terminology. Like he says that the church is a kingdom of priests who are offering sacrifices. So he uses the terminology of the Old Testament to speak of what it means to live as a Christian in the New Testament era. Let's talk about the time of writing, 60 to 67 AD.

Peter, we know, feels like he's near the end of his life in 2 Peter chapter 1. We'll read this section in just a moment, but he believes that he's going to die soon. It says that it was written from Babylon, and we're not sure exactly what he meant by that. Was it literally the city of Babylon, or was it Rome? Rome is called Babylon, and most likely he was imprisoned in Rome where Nero was.

So most people believe that it was written from Rome even though he uses the word Babylon. You know Babylon is a representation of worldliness and hatred of God. That's why Rome was called Babylon. If you say, we went to Sodom and Gomorrah, you might say that if you go to a corrupt city or to an immoral place, but you're not really going to Sodom and Gomorrah. You went to somewhere, San Francisco or something like that, because it's a figurative term that's applied to other places than just this place of origin.

Okay, so let's look at the outline here. You'll find that the things I've already identified we'll camp on and we'll see them in here. He first of all greets them. He greets these pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Now, he speaks of his desire for them, And you see it in verse 2.

Grace to you and peace be multiplied. That's his heart's desire. And you might ask yourself, is this happening in my life? Is grace and peace being multiplied? Now Peter is going to tell you how to multiply grace and peace in your life later on in the letter, because in times of difficulty, Sometimes grace and peace are harder to find, but because of the power of the Holy Spirit and because of the way that you can pursue grace and peace, they can be multiplied.

But it's God's will that His children would have grace and peace being multiplied in their lives. And then after this greeting, He speaks of this heavenly inheritance and the fullness of salvation from verse 3 to verse 25. And he speaks of just the beauty of salvation here. It's such a remarkably beautiful section in the letter. And he says, "'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope.

So you have abundant mercy coming from Christ, and you have his desire that mercy and grace are multiplied in your life. Well you have a source of mercy and grace in your life and it's the Lord Jesus Christ. It happened through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's what he says in verse 3. And then he says, you have an inheritance reserved in heaven for you.

And he says, you are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. What he's saying is that you're not kept from trouble, you're kept in the midst of your trouble for a time when all of your troubles will be over and that is at the last time, in the last time. You're being kept for that time. In other words, He's going to sustain you. In other words, He's going to see you through.

He's going to bring you to your final destination. And then he speaks about trials beginning in verse 6. Now I want to direct your attention to verse 6, the middle of verse 6, because there's something that's really helpful for anyone who's going through any kind of trial. He says, though now for a little while if need be, you've been grieved by various trials. So, though now for a little while, okay, in other words it's not gonna last forever if need be.

Why did he say that? Well, he said that because we have a need for trials. They're for the testing of our faith that we might grow. And he says that their purpose is that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ." So trials are needed actually. Most of us think trials are the worst thing that could possibly happen.

That's really not what the Bible says at all. And then he shifts to speak of holiness in verse 13 and how you live before your God and your Father. He says, therefore gird up the loins of your mind. That's in verse 13. Be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Notice this language. It's very helpful. It helps you to understand how you become strong. Gird up the loins of your mind. Okay?

In other words, your strength is derived from what you put in your mind. So he's saying, gird up the loins of your mind. Think about the things that are true and lovely. Fill your mind with those kinds of things. That's how you gird up the loins of your mind.

And then he says that you not just put it in your mind, but verse 14, as obedient children. In other words, you obey and you don't conform yourselves to your former lusts, he says, that you did in ignorance. In other words, your mind didn't know certain things. And so one of the great journeys of a Christian is to banish his ignorance by girding up his mind. And then he says, "...but he who called you is holy.

You also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy." And then he speaks of the enduring nature of the Word of God, that it never fades away in chapter 1 verses 22 to 25. And he says, All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. He's quoting Isaiah. This is one of the great Old Testament quotes that Peter uses.

He's just speaking of the enduring quality of the Word of God. So then we go into chapter 2, and the first 10 verses are about growing and how to grow. How do you grow? Well we already read that it has girding up the loins of your mind and to, you know, begin to wipe out ignorance by filling your mind with things that are true. But he speaks here of, First of all, laying aside malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby.

So it has to do with drinking in the pure milk of the Word of God so that you grow. But then he says, if indeed you've tasted that the Lord is gracious. I think one of the other translations says, if you've tasted the kindness of the Lord. If you've tasted His kindness, keep drinking it in. That's the idea.

And then He speaks of how this happens. You know, in verse 4, you come to Him as a living stone. You come among his people and you offer sacrifices as priests and you believe that he is precious. That's in verse 7. And you find yourself in this world of believers, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people.

Why? That you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Why did God call you? Well one reason is so that you would proclaim His praises in the world. That's your function, praising God.

This is so critical to understand that we're a people who are constantly exalting God. We're speaking of how good He is, how wise He is, how perfect His Word is. We're there to praise Him and to exalt Him. Not ourselves, not anything else but Him. And you know this is one of the critical things that every father, every child, and every pastor needs to to pay attention to.

Why are you here? Well you're here to sing His praises. One of the objectives that I have whenever I preach is that I want to declare His praises. I want to proclaim them. You know, in any passage of scripture that I'm preaching in, before I walk up there, I find myself saying, Lord, help me to praise you.

Help me to exalt you. Help me to somehow declare your might, your beauty, your goodness, your love somehow. But this is the purpose of this chosen generation, this for all priesthood. This is what we're supposed to do. And you know it's critical that fathers understand that, that their primary role in life is to proclaim the praises of Him who called all out of darkness.

So then in verse 11 all the way to chapter 4 verse 19 from 2 11 to 4 19 he deals with lots of different issues. I mean he brings up an enormous number of categories and issues that have to do with living before God in the world, enduring suffering, you know dealing with all the confusing things going on around you. So he starts out in verse 11, "'Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles.'" But then in verse 13 he turns to the issue of submission to government and he talks to his readers about relating to the institutions that are contemporary to them. So he's saying, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or to governors, as those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God." Now, he's very careful to identify these categories.

Submit yourselves to every ordinance that has doeth laws and kings as supreme or governors. Now, who is king? Who is the emperor? Well, Not a very nice man. Were Nero's laws all good laws?

No. Were Nero's motivations that he was trying to wrap people in the midst of good motivations? No, not at all. Even so, he calls us to submit, even to people like that. You know we have an election coming up very soon here in our nation and we're looking at the candidates and we're thinking, Lord, what in the world are you doing?

It's difficult to even consider voting for either one of them because they're so corrupt. And sometimes we think that we, You know, we can only submit ourselves to governors if they're exemplary. But that's not what Peter says. He says, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake and all the governors. And then in verse 18 in chapter 2, he turns to your job.

This is even more difficult because it's a little bit more of a daily matter because when you're working for someone, you're performing a task, that's every day. So now he's talking about facing somebody every day and he says, servants be submissive to your masters with all fear not only to the good and gentle but also to the harsh. So be submissive not only to these bad governors but also to bad bosses who are harsh. So your boss is harsh with you, the people you work with are not treating you right. They aren't.

They're just, they're not treating you right. It's not as if you don't understand what's going on. You do understand what's going on and they are harsh. And so he says it's commendable to be submissive to these kind of people. And he says, if because of conscience toward God, one endures grief, suffering wrongfully, for what credit is it if when you are beaten for your faults you take it patiently, but when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, This is commendable before God.

For this you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example. We should follow in his footsteps. And then he talks about Christ who there was no deceit in his mouth. He never sinned, but when he was reviled, he didn't revile in return. You know, when he suffered, he didn't threaten.

He didn't say, you know, I'm gonna go after you. He didn't do that. It's a really interesting verse, particularly when we consider the reality of the litigious culture that we live in. You know, if something unseasonable happens to you, then you're going to soothe them. You're going to get your pound of flesh.

Peter really dismisses that whole thing, and he says to submit to those even who are harsh, you know, against you. Here's the reality. You're gonna work with people who are gonna disappoint you on different levels, always. You're gonna have good bosses and bad bosses. You're going to have harsh bosses, and you're also going to have bosses that aren't harsh, but they're just idiots.

And so what are you going to do? Well, submit to them, whether they're harsh or not. So then you get into chapter 3 and the apostle turns to family life. He starts with wives saying, wives, likewise be submissive to your own husbands, and he really urges wives to be at peace that God is their protector. He says, As Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord, whose daughters you are, if you do good and are not afraid with any terror." You know, one of the greatest problems in wives is that they're afraid.

They're afraid that their husbands aren't leading them in the right direction or something bad might happen to them because of their imperfections. But Paul says submit to them and don't be afraid. Trust in God. You don't need to Trust in your husband like you trust in God. God will take care of you.

And then he turns to husbands and he says, husbands likewise dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel. So He's talking about honor. He's talking about treating your wife like an heir of the grace of life. And if you don't, your prayers will be hindered. So tenderness toward your wife, honor toward your wife, recognizing her weaknesses, is what the Apostle Paul is calling husbands to do.

Women are different. They have a different emotional makeup, most of them. They have a different physical makeup. That should be obvious. They're weaker.

You know, women can tend to actually experience more illness than men. You know additional things that are working in their bodies that men don't have. Hormonal and various things like that. So he says live with them in an understanding way. Give them honor.

Care for them. He's calling husbands into a life of gentleness and sensitivity to their wives. And then He follows this up in verse 8 in chapter 3, Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing. So now he's talking about all your relationships like this. Compassion, tenderhearted, be courteous.

You know, your boss is not being very nice to you. Be courteous. And don't return evil for evil, but give a blessing. Evil comes, you spit out blessing. That's what Christians do.

Then he speaks about the use of the tongue, you know, he who would like to love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from speaking evil. He speaks of this whole matter of suffering here at the end of chapter 3. And then in chapter 4, we turn to this remarkable testimony regarding suffering, and he's really urging in chapter 4 for his readers to prepare to suffer like Christ suffered. He said, be of the same mind as Christ. He suffered, so will you.

Then become like Christ. And he talks about suffering in different kinds of ways and he talks about hospitality without grumbling. When you practice hospitality sometimes there's a little bit of suffering in it. You know, people might wreck your house or they might overeat or they might do things you don't want them to do. They might stay longer than you want them to stay or whatever.

Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. It's a form of suffering, you know, in a way. And then he talks about how to serve. This is one of the most significant aspects of life in the church. He says, "...as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

If anyone speaks, let him speak the oracles of God." In other words, when you're ministering, speak the things that God has said, and then if anybody ministers, let him do it with the ability that God supplies. In other words, don't try to be somebody else. Do it with the ability that God gave you that he might be glorified, but he says do it according to the ability which God supplies. Serve out of the strength that He gives. You don't serve out of obligation primarily.

You serve out of the strength that He gives you. He gives you energy. He gives you desire to serve. That's how serving in the church should be. You know, we shouldn't just sign people up in the church to serve.

We should seek those who have energy given by God for them to serve. That way service is real and not fake. You know, it's a lot easier to just kind of sign people up and deploy them rather than it is to ask them if God gave them energy for such a thing. You want people to serve because they love it, not because you're making them do it. You know, we don't call ten people up before prayer night and say, hey would you pray?

Would you guys pray tonight so people will pray? We don't do that. We want people to pray out of the overflow of their hearts. So and then he speaks of suffering for God's glory in verse 12. He says don't think it's strange and also make sure you're not suffering for your own sin.

He covers that from verses 15 to 19. Verse 19 contains a very beautiful phrase. He says, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good as to a faithful Creator." He's faithful. And then chapter 5 he turns to leadership in the church. He talks about shepherds, shepherding the flock, not being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

He says that in chapter 5 verse 3. Again, he's talking about how shepherding should work. It's an act of service. And then he turns to the younger in chapter 5 verse 5 and he says, Likewise you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility.

And then he says, because God resists the proud and He gives grace to the humble. This is something young people need to recognize. And He says, don't worry about it. You know, submit yourself, you'll be okay. Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

He says that in verse 7. You can be submissive because God's caring for you. You're fine. You're gonna be okay. And God will give grace to you.

Resist the proud. And then he calls him to be on guard for the devil is walking about like a roaring lion in chapter 5 verses 8 through 11. He says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And then finally he delivers the farewell and he ends it by saying peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

So now we go to 2 Peter. We've just seen Peter dealing with this matter of persecution. So since Peter wrote his first letter, he apparently has become more and more concerned about false teachers and the way that they deceive the flock. So he's going to deal with that. So in the second letter, he deals with this different kind of threat.

In the first letter, he's talking about this external threat, governments, bosses, all kinds of stuff, external threats that come to you. Then in Second Peter he turns to an internal threat, a very different kind of threat. After answering questions about how you live in time of external opposition, now he addresses how you live among a people where there are internal problems, particularly from false teachers. Now, you know, Second Peter was written just before Peter was murdered by Nero's henchmen. And 2 Peter is really Peter's last will and testament.

These are his final words in 2 Peter. We observe that the external threats of government persecution and things like that in 1 Peter, and in 2 Peter he speaks about this whole matter of internal threats of false teachers. But he talks about how you grow and all kinds of things like that. When he talks about false teachers, he tells you how to identify them, and that is that they promote false ideas, and they also live a double life. That's really a summary of it, and they bring you into bondage.

There's lots of language, very illustrative language about what false teachers look like before you. So he begins with the greeting. I love the part of the greeting in verse 2, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God of Jesus our Lord. Grace and peace multiplied. We talked about at the beginning, but he begins 2 Peter with that, and then he speaks about what God has provided his children.

He says this, that his divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. And so, again, we have this thing about knowledge. God uses knowledge to bless us with all the things that we need. And then He speaks about diligence, how critical it is that we exercise diligence. It doesn't just come.

There has to be a schedule. There has to be a way of doing it. There has to be an orderly disciplined manner. So he speaks about that in chapter 1 verse 5 through 11. So he says, "...but also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control, perseverance, to perseverance, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness.

So he's piling up all these things and he's saying, you know, pursue all these things. Be diligent to add these things. Now if you look at verse 5, you see that word add? Add to your faith. The word add means to finance.

It means to provide. It means to allocate. So he's saying add, allocate all these other things in diligence. And then Peter actually tells us that he believes he's going to die in verses 12 through 15. He says, knowing shortly, verse 14, I must put off my tent just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.

Then he says, he says, moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease. So he tells them that he believes he's going to die soon. He's going to put off his tent. His earthly tent will be swept away and his soul will be swept into eternal glory. He says that Jesus Christ showed him that.

And then he says that he would leave a reminder and I believe that reminder is this letter. It's his last will and testament. And then he speaks about the trustworthiness of the Word of God in chapter 1 verses 16 through 20 and he talks about how he was an eyewitness of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. He says, "...a voice came to him from the excellent glory, saying, this is my beloved Son. In other words, he heard these things.

And then in chapter 2, he talks about how God governs all things, even the false teachers. He's dealing with false teachers, he's dealing with angels, he's dealing with men, He's dealing with mockers, and he's dealing with the heavens and the earth, and he's saying, God governs all this. This is what's going to happen, okay? This is what you can expect, and the first thing he does is he talks about men who bring destructive doctrines, and that's in chapter 2, verses 1 through 3, And this is why I said, you know, you have these internal and these external threats, but it goes deeper than that. He says in verse 1, but there are false prophets among the people.

That's one category. There are false prophets out there. But then he says, even as there will be false teachers among you. Two problems. False prophets out there, false teachers in here.

And then he talks about the doom of false teachers and the preservation of the righteous in chapter 2 verses 4 through 11 and he talks about how God both spares and destroys and he talks about angels where God destroyed the evil angels. He talks about Noah, how he preserved Noah and destroyed the rest of the world. He talks about Lot, who destroyed Sodom and preserved Lot. So this is also, by the way, the section where Peter says that Lot was a righteous man. Now that's a long discussion because remember what he did in Sodom by giving his daughters to these corrupt men.

How could you say He was a righteous man? He did terrible things, but He was a man who was saved by grace. He was a worldly man who Peter says was a righteous man. He was delivered. God delivered him.

God got him out of Sodom. God delivered him out of Sodom. He sent angels to walk him out of that city because he loved it. And then he speaks of the depravity of false teachers in chapter 2 12 through 17. He says they are spots, they're blemishes.

He says they have eyes full of adultery and he just gives this remarkably devastating language. He says, they are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever." So Peter wants wants us to be aware of false teachers and how dangerous they are. He speaks about how harmfully deceptive they are in verses 18 to 22 in chapter 2. It says, while they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption. Then we get to chapter 3 and then we encounter God assuring us of His promises and He makes it clear that His promises are going to come to pass, and He's not slack.

Even though He promised that His Son Jesus would return again, He hasn't come yet, but God is not slack about His promise, and He says that He's long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." So he says, With the Lord a day is a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. In other words, don't worry about the time. God's going to take care of the time. Why is there a delay? Because God wants to bring more to repentance.

That's why there's a delay. Jesus Christ hasn't come because Jesus Christ wants to save more souls. That's why. And when he's ready, he'll come. But He's going to bring many other sons to glory.

God grants time for repentance and He's preserving the world now. Why isn't the world running off its course now? It's because God is preserving it. He speaks to the day of the Lord in chapter 3 verses 10 through 13 and then this final call to be steadfast in chapter 3 verses 14 through 18. He uses the word therefore in verse 14, therefore beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

And consider that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation. So 1 Peter and 2 Peter are great companions because one deals with one kind of threat and persecution and the other deals with another. 1 Peter dealing with external persecution from governments and employers and that type of thing and then 2 Peter dealing with the kind of troubles that come from within through false teachers and how you should think about it. Okay, so here are just a few lessons from 1 Peter. First of all, the power of salvation is so beautifully explained and particularly the multiplied mercies of the Lord.

And that God uses trials to sanctify His people. They are actually good. They bring about holiness. And they really are a blessing. You know, if you suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed.

Rejoice. Peter is saying the same thing Jesus did. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven when you're persecuted. That's what he said in the Sermon on the Mount. Peter is just repeating his Lord.

And then to submit to the authorities that the Lord has placed over you. Rest. Be at peace. Recognize that God has you where He wants you. You might have a boss that's yelling at you.

It's your finest hour. It's the place where you need to glorify God. And then lessons from 2 Peter. You know, examine yourself and make your calling and election sure, and don't be too surprised when you see false teachers who bring false ideas into the church, but also recognize that God is going to deal with them. He's going to destroy them.

And the whole thrust that Peter is bringing before us is that Jesus Christ is Lord and He is such a Lord that He would keep you by His power. You are kept by the power of God. And so the believer doesn't need to worry at all about what's happening around him, but to recognize that he's in the hands of a faithful creator who will see to it that you don't live in vain and that you glorify Him as you gird up the loins of your minds.