Scripture and Salvation

2 Peter 3:15-16
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, July 28, 2019
Copyright © 2019, P. G. Mathew
Language [Japanese]

Introduction

Without the Holy Scripture, the Holy Bible consisting of Old and New Testaments of sixty-six books, there is no gospel, no Jesus, and no Savior. That is why you should not go to a church where the word is not preached. This church believes in the Westminster Confession of Faith, especially chapter 1, “The Authority of Scripture”:

Article 2: Under the name of the Holy Scripture, or the Word of God written, are now contained all the Books of the Old and New Testaments. All which are given by inspiration of God, to be the rule of faith and life [that is, doctrine and ethics].
Article 4: The authority of the holy scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself,) the author thereof; and therefore it is to be received, because it is the word of God.
Article 9: The infallible rule of interpretation of scripture is the scripture itself; and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture, it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly, which is important.
Article 10: The supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the scripture.

Holy Scripture

Based on its own testimony, the Bible is the word of God and therefore infallible. In the Bible, we hear the voice of God who is eternal, infinite, holy, and triune.

In 2 Peter 1:21, Peter tells us the divine origin of Scripture: “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit [that is, controlled by the Holy Spirit].” Paul spoke the same thing: “and how from infancy you [Timothy] have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). Timothy was taught from infancy the holy Scriptures. As he grew up, he heard from Paul the gospel and he trusted in Jesus and was saved. Paul says that not only the Old Testament is Scripture, but also that all Scripture, which includes apostolic writings of the New Testament.

In 2 Peter 3:1-2 we read, “Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets [i.e., the Old Testament] and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles [i.e., the New Testament].” And in 2 Pet. 3:15–16 Peter writes, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

In 2 Timothy 3:16–17 we read, “All Scripture is God-breathed,[1] and therefore profitable for salvation, that is, for teaching, rebuke, correcting, and training in righteousness that every believer be thoroughly furnished for every good work.”

Timothy was told to preach the Word. In this church we preach the word. We do not use psychology or tell stories to entertain. Timothy was told to preach the Word: “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Tim. 4:1–3).

The Word consists of the whole gospel, the Old and New Testaments. In Luke 24 we read, “[Jesus] said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow [that is, stupid. Foolish means idiot] of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself [vv. 25–27]. Christocentric interpretation of Scripture. He also said, “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:45–47; see also Acts 1:8).

The promised Messiah has come to accomplish redemption which is being applied to the elect by the Holy Spirit. So we read in the New Testament:

Galatians 4:4–5: “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.”
Romans 4:25: “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

The “Delay” of the Second Coming

The Scripture teaches not only Christ’s first coming to accomplish redemption, but it also promises Christ’s second coming in glory as Judge. The Hebrews writer says, “Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Heb. 9:28). And Paul says, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thess. 4:16).

He will not come until every elect is saved. He “delays” his second coming so all elect can be saved. And I am preaching the gospel today. If you are elect, you will be saved. If you are not, you will not be saved. His delay means salvation of sinners, as Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3:15. God gives sufficient time to everyone to repent and believe on Christ to be saved. This does not mean a majority will be saved. The flood of Noah’s day saved only eight people.

God is patient with sinners. He has been patient with you. Peter writes, “God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.” Noah preached one hundred and twenty years that a flood was coming that would destroy the world. The people did not listen. Peter continues, “In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water” (1 Pet. 3:20).

God is like the father of the prodigal son, waiting for sinners to come home in repentance. Yet the vast majority refuse to repent and return to the only Savior. They trust in their money, in their position, in their power. Jesus himself said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matt. 7:13–14). It is still the rule.

Ignorant and Unstable, meaning unregenerate

A.W. Tozer said that forgiveness without repentance fills the church and fills hell.[2] Antinomians fill churches and hell too. Too many big churches are lawless, antinomians. And in his book, Concise Theology, J.I. Packer lists six forms of antinomianism, and we add a seventh.

Dualistic antinomianism. Salvation is for the soul only; bodily behavior is irrelevant. You can do what you like.
Spirit-centered antinomianism: God’s law has no relevance on ethics because we are led by the Spirit. It is sheer subjectivism.
Christ-centered antinomianism: Christ sees no sin in those who are in Christ. You can do what you want.
Dispensational antinomianism: In this dispensation of grace, keeping of God’s law is not necessary.
Dialectical antinomianism (of Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann): God’s word has no authority.
Situational antinomianism: God requires today only your intention of love.[3]

And we add a seventh form:

Assensus antinomianism, in which people hear the word of God and understand the word of God and agree that it is the word of God but will not do it. In other words, agreement with God’s word is all that matters. (PGM) Jesus spoke about such people in Matthew 7:21–27. The unregenerate hear only. They are like bad trees bearing only bad fruit. The regenerate hear and do. They are good trees that bear good fruit.

Unregenerate pastors will not preach the word. The book, Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth, is a must-read on this subject of antinomianism.[4]

Scripture is difficult to interpret Christocentrically unless one is born again and Holy Spirit indwelt. So ignorant and unstable people are bad trees. Bad trees must become good trees to bear good fruit. Without new birth, one cannot understand or experience the kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5).

Peter writes about false teachers: “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping” (2 Pet. 2:1–3).

False teachers are heretics, greedy for money, lust-driven. They have left the way of truth and their destiny is destruction. Their minds are depraved and they suppress the truth, as we read in 2 Peter 2:14–15: “With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.”

For example, liberal (i.e., unbelieving) theologians, pastors, and churches never interpret Scripture correctly. They are spiritually dead. They must be born again, like Professor Eta Linnemann, who spoke here in November, 2001.[5] She was an unbelieving German professor of theology who went to all kinds of top schools. But thank God, God saved her.

Antinomian unbelievers are ignorant and unstable. They fill the church. They rejected the gospel and so they have no Christ foundation. They come to Christ’s church looking to seduce unstable people like themselves. We read about them in Matthew 7:26–27: “But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not [obey them] is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Their lives end with a great crash.

Hard to Understand

There are scriptures hard to understand. There are certain portions of Scripture that are hard to understand even for true believers. So study the Scripture prayerfully. Read pious and learned Reformed theologians. Study Puritan theology. Avoid antinomian theologians, pastors, and churches. Study Luther, Calvin, Spurgeon, Lloyd-Jones, Machen, van Til, John Murray, and others. Read the whole Bible based on a daily reading schedule. Hard portions of Scripture are generally explained by other portions of Scripture, as we read already in chapter 1, article 9, of the Westminster Confession of Faith: “The infallible rule of interpretation of scripture is the scripture itself; and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture, (which is not manifold, but one,) it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.”

Above all, be filled with the Holy Spirit. Paul writes, “However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. . . . We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us” (1 Cor. 2:9–10a, 12).

Because the Holy Spirit is the author of the Scripture, he will enlighten us. Be clothed with humility, not arrogance, not pride, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Be always ready to learn and grow in knowledge.

Beloved Brother Paul

In verse 15, Peter calls Paul “beloved brother.” Paul had rebuked Peter and corrected him when he refused to eat with Gentile believers in Syrian Antioch for fear of Jewish believers, even though Peter had preached the gospel to the Gentiles and stayed with them in obedience to divine commission (Acts 10).

Paul writes about this confrontation with Peter: “When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, ‘You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?’” (Gal. 2:11–14). But Peter received Paul’s rebuke and correction as a sign of Paul’s love to Peter. So in this epistle he calls Paul “beloved brother.” He was beloved of God and his saints.

Thank people who rebuke you and correct you. They are beloved of God and his saints. The true Christian church does not discriminate. We are God’s holy family (Heb. 2:11) and the bride of Christ. Jesus paid the highest price to redeem each one. Each one is God’s treasure. So we are to love one another and care for one another.

Jesus also corrected Peter because he denied Jesus three times (Matt. 26:69–75). Peter received his correction. Peter was eventually crucified because he loved Jesus.

Man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). Did you notice that Jesus ate with the publicans and sinners?

All Scripture Benefits Wholesome Thinking for Christian Growth

Scripture alone benefits wholesome thinking. All Scripture, Old and New Testament, benefits our thinking for Christian growth. Peter writes, “Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles” (2 Pet. 3:1–2). Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).

The Old Testament, authored by holy prophets, and the New Testament, authored by Christ’s apostles, alone are truth. All Scripture is God-authored. The Holy Spirit is the primary author; the secondary authors are holy prophets and apostles. And we read that all the epistles of Paul are Scripture the moment they were written. Peter says, “Our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Pet. 3:15b–16).

False Teachers Twist the Truth

Here we do not twist the truth. We explain the truth. We preach the truth. In verse 16, Peter says that the false teachers, who are ignorant and unsaved, twist the epistles of the apostle Paul as they do other Scriptures. False teachers are children of the devil (John 8:44).

False teachers represent liberal theologians, antinomian pastors and churches worldwide who deny the authority of Scripture and so misinterpret the word of God. Many churches in the world are synagogues of Satan. As such, they twist the word of God. For example, in Genesis 2:17, the Lord God said, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” But in Genesis 3:4 Satan said, “You will not surely die.” Consider the following:

Isaiah 5:20: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” Twist, corrupt, misinterpret.
Matthew 4:6: “‘If you are the Son of God,’ [the devil] said, ‘throw yourself down. For it is written: “He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”’” The devil twists Scripture.
John 8:44: “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
John 10:10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”

False teachers never preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. They twist the Scripture (“and my people love it so”). They never preach Reformed faith as represented by the acronym TULIP (total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints). They deny the divine authority of Scripture.

Not only do false teachers twist the Scriptures, but every so-called Christian cult twists the Scriptures. And antinomians always twist the Scriptures.

It is true that certain teachings in Paul’s epistles are hard to understand, and false teachers will twist them. But such teachings require hard work, prayer and fasting. They require dependence on the Holy Spirit. They require regular attendance of worship services in a true church where Scripture is preached and taught by pious and learned pastors of the Orthodox tradition. So we must receive more grace to understand hard sections (James 4:6) and he gives more grace.

As an example of a hard teaching: Paul teaches freedom from the law as a way of salvation. Yet antinomians reject the law as a guide to Christian conduct. In Romans 5:20 we read, “The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” Then he writes, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! [Mê genoito!] We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? . . . For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. . . . You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. . . . But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness [not lawlessness], and the result is eternal life” (Rom. 6:1–2, 14, 18, 22). And Jesus said, “Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).

Proofs That the Apostle Paul Wrote Scripture

The Scriptures give many proofs that what the apostle Paul wrote was Scripture.

He was an apostle. In 1 Corinthians 15:9–10, we read, “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
2 Peter 3:2: “I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.” When the apostle writes, he writes the word of God.
Ephesians 2:20: “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”
1 Thessalonians 2:13: “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.”
1 Corinthians 2:13: “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.” Spiritual means Holy-Spirit given.
1 Corinthians 14:37: “If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command.”
Ephesians 3:2–5: “Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.”
Romans 1:1: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.”
Galatians 1:1: “Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.”
2 Peter 3:16: “[Paul] writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

God Will Destroy False Teachers

The word “destruction” appears six times in 2 Peter. The Scripture says that the destruction of such people will be swift; it is not sleeping. It is coming upon the ungodly. It is everlasting. It is coming upon those who twist the Scriptures. It is coming upon those who do the work of the devil. It is coming upon those who are unregenerate. It is coming upon antinomians (Matt. 7:23). Paul says of such people, “Their destiny is destruction” (Phil. 3:19). He also says, “What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?” (Rom. 9:22). Jesus said of Judas, “None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled” (John 17:12).

False teachers are in the church. They seduce the unstable. But in this church, we exercise discipline. We put such people out by excommunication if they fail to repent when pastors counsel them. Obey your leaders and submit to their authority.

Carefully consider to this last statement: God is waiting to come back a second time. He is waiting that elect sinners may repent and believe in Jesus and be saved. Bear in mind that God’s patience means salvation for sinners. God commands, not begs. There are parents who begged their children, and they became wicked. I command because the Bible says. God commands all sinners to repent (Acts 17:30). God commands all people to believe in Jesus (1 John 3:23). God commands his people to love one another (1 John 3:23). May the God of patience enable every sinner to obey his command and be saved today, not tomorrow. Today. God brought you here to hear the word. Scripture and salvation.

[1] “All Scripture is God-breathed” (pasa graphê theopneustos) here is speaking about the whole Bible—the Old Testament and the New Testament—according to William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Pastoral Epistles, New Testament commentary series (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 301.

[2] A. W. Tozer, Tozer Pulpit, vol. 2.

[3] J. I. Packer, Concise Theology (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1993).

[4] John H. Gerstner, Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth and Hyatt, 1991).

[5] https://gracevalley.org/teaching/eta-linnemann-testimony/