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Guest (Male): Paul was surely the greatest Christian of his time, a wonderfully mature believer, and yet what do you find him saying towards the end of his life in Philippians in Chapter 3? "I want to know Christ and I want to know the power of his resurrection more and more in my life, and even the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings."

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, we've been in a series taking a look at everything we need for life. And as you point out, here's Paul, super apostle, who even at the end of his life is saying, "I still want to grow in my faith."

Isn't that inspiring? And if he feels that after all that he did for the cause of Christ and all that he knew and all the rest of it, then why would any of us be coasting in our Christian lives? I love the way in which the beginning and the end of Second Peter come together. God's given us everything that we need for life. That's the beginning. Therefore grow in godliness. Grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, your Savior and your Lord. That's at the end. You put these two things together. Boy, if God's given me everything I need, why would I not really go for it and develop as a Christian believer?

Well, that's what our series has been all about. And today we're going to see what that looks like: how we discern error, how we grow, and ultimately what the result of that will be. So open your Bible and join us in Second Peter Chapter 3, as we continue our message, Everything You Need for Action. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: I want you to notice then that at the end of this letter, Peter calls us to action, and he does it in three ways. First, there's something that we're to guard, verse 17. And we're to be real proactive about this—guard against distortions of the gospel that diminish Jesus Christ. Something to guard.

Secondly, he wants us to grow, verse 18. Grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And thirdly, he wants us to glorify our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, both now and forevermore. That's a call to action with which Peter ends this marvelous, marvelous letter. And I want you to notice how all of his call to action is centered in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Number one then: Guard. Guard against distortions of the gospel that diminish Jesus Christ. And of course, if we have seen as a congregation that all that we need for life is in Jesus Christ, we will want to guard very carefully against anything that displaces Jesus Christ, anything that diminishes Jesus Christ, anything that moves the focus of ministry away from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And that's where Peter comes at the end of the letter, verse 17: "Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position." And what's he saying? "Since you already know this." Know what? What do we already know that will put us on guard with regards to the gospel?

Well, verse 16 tells us that there are some things in the Bible, Peter says, which ignorant and unstable people distort. Notice that word. "As they do the other scriptures, and they do this, verse 16, to their own destruction." Now that in the context is why he says that we as Christian people, individually and together, always need to be on our guard.

Why? Because we know, and we must know this, that in every generation there will be people who distort the message of the Bible, which of course is about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They will do this, notice what Peter says, to their own destruction. The problem of course is that the destruction of such ministry has broader effects within the church as well.

Distorting the gospel always diminishes Jesus Christ. Wherever you have a distortion of the gospel, they always diminish Jesus Christ and displace him with something or someone else at the center. Now notice what he says one more time please in verse 17 here: "Be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position."

Fall from your secure position? Oh, that sounds scary, doesn't it? Does this mean that I am not secure? No, look at what it says. Peter says you are secure. You're in a secure position. You are secure as a believer in Christ. That's what he says. But remember, your security is in Christ. That's the whole point of the danger of the church moving away from Christ or of any person moving away from Christ, which is what the book of Hebrews is all about. Your security is in Christ.

Therefore you hold to him and do not move away from him and you guard against anything that would diminish the centrality of Jesus Christ in life or in the church. No security outside of Christ, which of course is why Paul says to the Corinthians, remember in Chapter 15, "Brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel that I preached to you, the gospel on which you've taken your stand, by which you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you." Paul says, otherwise you believed in vain.

Do you not know people who once professed faith in Christ but now have abandoned him? They were like the seed that sprang up quickly and then withered. Be on your guard. You cling to the Lord Jesus Christ and you will find him clinging to you from here to eternity. Now you say, whose job is it to guard the church against distortions of the gospel that diminish our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?

Is it the pastor's job? Yes. Is it the elder's job? Yes. Is it the member's job? Yes. Is it the volunteer's job? Yes. Is it the newest Christian's job? Yes, all of the above. Now at this point, you may be wondering how in all the world can I do this? I mean, you're an ordinary Christian. You've never been to seminary. So how can you discern error and guard the truth? How can you do that in your own life? How can you do that as part of the body of Christ in the church?

Well, let me try and give you just some practical help here on this point because it's a very important one. I think there are two ways in which we can discern error: one is by zooming in and the other is by zooming out. Zooming in is quite demanding. Zooming out is incredibly easy and anybody can do it. Let me explain these two to you.

Zooming in involves developing a careful understanding of what is being said by leaders and movements in our time. Now frankly, that is especially a job and a responsibility for pastors and elders. The Bible makes that clear. Paul said to Timothy, who was a pastor to a local congregation in Ephesus, Paul said to Timothy as the pastor, "Guard the gospel." That's 2 Timothy Chapter 1 and verse 14.

Then he said in the first letter, "Command certain people not to teach false doctrines nor to devote themselves to myths." In other words, Paul says to Timothy, you're the pastor. It is your job to know what is going on to a particular degree and to be able to address that and to take responsibility for guarding the church against that. So let me make this application. Will you thank God for pastors and elders who are determined to guard the gospel by keeping it at the center of the church? And will you pray for us in that great responsibility because it's never easy, never has been and it never will be?

That's zooming in. Here's zooming out. Zooming out, which is much simpler and every Christian can do this. And by the way, this is how ordinary believers can check the pastors, which is a very important thing to be able to do. But how do you do it? Well, let me put it this way. Zooming out, when you listen to Christian teaching, when you're trying to get a handle on a new movement or a discussion in Christian magazines or whatever it is, when you're trying to evaluate simply another person's ideas, they're talking about this or that in relation to the faith, when you go into the Christian bookshop and you're browsing around and there are a thousand options as to what you could read and you have that long to look at ten titles and you're trying to decide should I buy this one or should I buy that one?

We all have to make these kind of decisions that shape what comes into us all the time. Ask this single question: Does this—this teaching, this book, this trend—does this make more of me or more of Jesus? It's a great question. Ask it all the time. Does this make more of me or more of Jesus? And I've found that a helpful question for some time, but just because I wanted to be up to date, I Googled yesterday. I just did "best-selling Christian books". And of course, because there are so many different distributors, I got any number of different lists of Christian books. And I just picked one at random and looked at a top ten. And I just applied that question. And immediately one thing was very obvious.

I found two books out of the ten that apparently just from looking at the title were going to be more about Jesus than they are about me. The other eight looked interesting and perhaps helpful, but at least just from an initial glance, and frankly that's all that any of us have when we're making a lot of these choices, it was pretty evident that they were more about me than they were about Jesus. They covered issues like the purpose of my life, the future of my country, dealing with difficulties with my children, improving my diet, finding passion in my work, and developing my leadership skills.

Now I will read some of these books, but I need to remember this: They make much of me. They are pitched to the idea that I'm the most important person in the world, which is how the world sells. And if Christ is simply there to serve me, my country, my children, my life, my diet, my leadership skills, or my fulfillment and satisfaction at work, then Jesus Christ is diminished because he's a means to an end, isn't he?

I've found that a very, very helpful grid to evaluate what's actually going to help my spiritual life and what's really going to have Jesus at the margins. And you can apply that in all kinds of spheres. And may it be for the glory of God until Jesus Christ returns that Jesus Christ, his person, his work, and his glory will always be at the center of this pulpit, of this church, and of every ministry of this church until he shall come. Guard it.

You know, I was talking with someone just the other day and he said to me, "You know, I'm really trying to get on a diet and I've actually been making some progress." You know that discussion? And he said, "You know, there's one thing someone said to me that has really helped me in a diet." Now here we are, you see, I've just mentioned diet, so I'm pitching in on that now. He said someone said to me, "Remember your body isn't a trash can." That's helpful, isn't it? You think about all that goes in there, "I'll just have an extra piece of that," whatever. Your body isn't a trash can. He says it's really helped me. I've lost some weight since I've been thinking about that.

Your soul isn't a trash can. Your soul doesn't exist for the inflation of your own ego. Your soul will not grow in grace if you're constantly told that you're the most important person in all of the world. When you think about your spiritual diet, fill your soul with a diet that will make much of Christ if you want to grow in grace. And treat the stuff that's mainly about you as you do fast food. It's okay once in a while, but it's deadly if it becomes your regular staple diet. Hope that's helpful. But you see what we take in shapes who we are and it shapes what the church is and we've got to guard the gospel. Grow in discernment by zooming out and you will make better choices about what you're taking in. Will it make more of me or will it make more of Jesus?

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called Everything You Need for Action. It's part of our series on the book of Second Peter called Everything You Need for Life. And if you ever miss a broadcast in the series, you can come and listen online at openthebible.org. You can also listen through the Open the Bible app, which you'll find for free at your app store.

But whether you listen to Open the Bible online, through the app, or on the radio, it's all made possible because of your generosity. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a copy of Pastor Colin's brand-new 30-day devotional book called Grow in Love. You know, a lot of us will feel that we need to grow in love, but is it possible? Do you really think it's possible to become a significantly more loving person than you are right now?

Well, the good news is you can, because love can be learned and God's Holy Spirit was given to us for this purpose. That's what Pastor Colin's new book is all about. And again, we'd love to send you a copy as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. You can find out more or give online at openthebible.org or call us at 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365. Or again, our website is openthebible.org. Back to the message, here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Now I said that there were three things and we would be way longest on the first, and we have been. Much more briefly, the second two. We're to guard. We're to guard against any distortion of the gospel that diminishes Jesus Christ, and all distortions of the gospel diminish Jesus Christ. Second, we're to grow. Verse 18: "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

Now of course, the best way to make sure that we do not diminish Christ is that we vigorously pursue Christ personally, together as a congregation, that knowing Christ is our one holy passion, finding everything that we need for life and for ministry in him and then sharing him with the world.

Paul was surely the greatest Christian of his time, a wonderfully mature believer, and yet what do you find him saying towards the end of his life in Philippians in Chapter 3? "I want to know Christ and I want to know the power of his resurrection more and more in my life, and even the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings." See, when you come to know Christ, it is like buying a field that is full of buried treasure.

And it's a wonderful thing when you come to know Christ to do a little bit of digging and you find some treasure and you say look at this I've discovered about Jesus Christ and you have some glimpse of his greatness and you're thrilled with it. But oh, if ten years' time you're still holding that one little bit of treasure and you've got one little hole in the ground when the whole field is full of buried treasure, that's a tragedy.

You've missed the greatest gift and privilege of life. No, keep digging. Dig all the time. Because as Paul was expressing when he says "I want to know Christ," you never come to the end of seeing his greatness and his glory and the wonder of his gospel, which is the breath of fresh air that runs through the Christian's life. It's the joy of our worship. We never tire of Jesus because we never exhaust the greatness of his glory. Grow. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And notice how grace and knowledge go together. That the sure sign that you know Jesus is that you are growing in grace. John says in his gospel that Christ came from the Father and he was full of grace and truth. And so the more that we come to know him individually and together, the evidence of that is going to be the centrality of truth in relation to the one who is the truth and the evidence of grace in our words, in our character, in our disposition. Are you making progress in knowing Christ, or let me put it another way, are you growing in grace? Are you more patient with your kids, with those who work with you, than you were five years ago? Or are you becoming a sort of angry Christian?

Do you know there is all the difference in the world between religion and Christ? They're different trees and they produce different fruit. And you see this in the world. Religion makes a person hard. Christ makes a person tender. Religion makes a person proud, opinionated. Christ makes a person humble, teachable. Religion makes a person angry—don't we see that all around the world? Religious people are angry about this and that and the other, uptight. Religion makes people angry. Christ brings a person to love.

These are different trees. They produce different kind of fruit. And the kind of fruit you bear shows the kind of person you are. Now you come here this morning and you are angry and you're impatient and you're opinionated. I want to invite you around the Lord's table to come with me and with all of us and to say Lord Jesus Christ, meet me and change me because the wrong fruit is coming out of this life. This is not a small thing. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we grow like him as we walk with him.

And then here's the very last thing: We're to guard, we're to grow, and we're to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 18, now and forever: "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever." Boy, put these three things together, these three calls to action, and don't you have the most marvelous vision to pursue? To be a truth-embracing, grace-displaying, Christ-exalting believer, church. That's what Peter wants for the church. That's my prayer for us. You make it your prayer today.

And the more we see the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ who loved us and gave himself for us, the more you're going to find yourself saying, "You know, I really see it now, Lord. Knowing you is the greatest treasure of my life. And for all your grace and for all your love and for all your patience to me, not just in the past, but now, I say to your name be all the praise and all the glory both now and forever in my life and in the church until Christ shall come and then for all eternity." And to the message of Second Peter all the people of God say, amen.

Steve Hiller: May that be the prayer for all of us today. You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. And we're wrapping up a message called Everything You Need for Action. It's the final message in our series Everything You Need for Life. And if you've missed any of the broadcasts in our series, you can always listen online. Just come to openthebible.org.

Well, Open the Bible is a listener-supported ministry. We're able to do what we do and bring you Pastor Colin's teaching each day because of your generosity. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we're going to send you a copy of Pastor Colin's brand-new 30-day devotional book called Grow in Love. And Colin, who is this book for?

Colin Smith: Well, people have very different experiences of love, and perhaps you knew what it was to grow up with a godly mother, a godly father who loved you well and you've had all the benefits of that, but you still find now you've come to adult life that you want to know how to grow in love yourself. And if that's where you're at, this book is for you.

But there are other folks who have not had the blessing of being loved well. And if that's been your experience, you may find that you struggle with some real questions. What does it mean to love another person? What does real love actually look like? Where are you going to find it? Well, you're not sure that you know. Well, this book is for you. It's going to show you how receiving love from God through Jesus Christ can put you in the position where you're able to give love and receive love from others well.

Steve Hiller: Well, we'd love to send you a copy of Pastor Colin's new book. It's called Grow in Love and it's our thank you for your financial support this month. You can find out more or give online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365 or openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time. This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: At Open the Bible, we're grateful for like-minded organizations committed to sharing the gospel around the world. And to that end, I'd like to commend the work of Global Fingerprints. You know, in the book of James, God calls us to help orphans in their distress. That's a clear command, but it's not always clear how we should obey it. And this is where Global Fingerprints comes in.

Through Global Fingerprints, you can sponsor a vulnerable child to help meet their physical needs and ensure they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to commend Global Fingerprints to you. They're focused on equipping the local church to care for children and where there is no church, they help to plant one. If you'd like to help a vulnerable child, you can find more information on Global Fingerprints at our website, openthebible.org/gf. That's openthebible.org/gf.