Nicholson, J B: Clay In The Hands Of The Potter ~ 2 Peter 2

Well, good morning, everyone. Let's turn in our Bibles to, um, second Peter, and, uh, we're going to move on to chapter three, but I want to make just a few passing comments on chapter two. Let's, uh, look at, at a few verses there in second Peter, chapter two. And, um, as we noticed at the end of chapter one, there would be false prophets that would rise up at the time when the true prophets were writing the word of God, but there would be false teachers that would rise up, uh, later on after the completion of the canon of scripture, who would bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. Uh, then beginning in verse 4, uh, Peter gives us a series of if statements or since statements, uh, the if of argument. If God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell. If verse 5, if he spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, and so on, if he turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemning them with an overthrow. If, if these are, these are true, he says. In other words, if for one sin God cast the angels out of heaven, for one sin, uh, he cast Adam and Eve out of the garden. When you're dealing with unbelievers, some of them have the funny idea that at the end there will be a great weigh scale, and the good deeds will go in this side and the bad deeds in this side. And I like to say, well now, do you think that sins and good deeds weigh the same? Have you ever thought about that? I- I think you'd like to think about that before you get there, you know? The- obviously, buckshot and feathers don't weigh the same. Why should you think good deeds and bad deeds weigh the same? We don't know how long the angels were in heaven serving the Lord, but for one sin, God cast them down to hell. How long were Adam and Eve in the garden? Well, long enough for Adam to name all the animals, but for one sin, God cast them out of his presence. One sin, obviously, is very heavy, isn't it? One sin is enough to bring the whole creation crashing down in the fall. So we, we wouldn't want to assume that sins and good deeds weigh the same. Again, you'll notice, uh, Peter's use of illustrations. He uses, uh, Lot here, delivered just Lot, verse seven, vexed with the filthy lifestyle of the wicked. For that righteous man dwelling among them is, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished. Lot went into Sodom, no doubt thinking that he could have an influence for good in the city. Eventually got himself posted as one of the judges there in the gate. How much influence did Lot have in Sodom? When God came looking for ten men, for nine other men that he had influenced, God couldn't find them. Not even his own family. He was as one that mocked. I tell you, if you try to work within the system, all you do is promote the system. Who was the man that had influence with Sodom? It was the man sitting up under the oak at Mamre in fellowship with God. He almost saved the city by his intercession. I would like you to notice in that story that Abraham was not arguing with God. As if God was reluctant. Okay, as if Mos- as if Abraham had more mercy on Sodom than God did, and that he was somehow reluctant to, to give in, okay, Abraham, seeing you're my friend and you're asking me, okay, all right. You know what the scripture says? God says he takes Abraham for a walk out to the end of the road, and he says, I'm going to have to tell my friend Abraham. And so he turns to me and he says, Abraham, and this is my paraphrase, but this is the basic idea. I've heard what's going on in Sodom. I can hardly believe it's that bad. And so I've come down to check it out, to see if it really is that bad. You see, it wasn't just two angels that went to Sodom that night. There was someone else there in the city of Sodom looking desperately for the least tincture of faith, the first move of repentance, anything at all. So you see, when Abraham was pleading with God, that was the heart of God pleading. That's exactly how God felt about it. If there was any means at all that God could show mercy to Sodom, he would have done it. What did Lot lose when he moved into Sodom? He lost his peace of mind. Daily vexed. He lost his material wealth. He went in a rich man. He was so loaded that hi- his servants and Abraham's servants couldn't get along. There were, there was too much. It was a trap. You know, sometimes we think of, of material things as blessings. We shouldn't be so quick to jump to that conclusion. The Lord has blessed me. We say, well, it wasn't the Lord that blessed Abraham. It was, it was the king of Egypt that gave him all that stuff, and it was a trap. It was a, it was a, it was a, a snare to Abraham and to Lot, and it divided brethren. It's a solemn thing, isn't it? It's not always the blessing of the Lord. Sometimes material things are a trap, and rarely do we hear it preached on, but Paul makes it very clear that it is the responsibility of the preacher to declare two things. Number one, to those who are rich, not to put your trust in uncertain riches, but to be rich in faith and rich in good works. And that those who will be rich, who want to be rich, beware. It is a self-inflicted wound. You will pierce yourself through with many sorrows. Now, it's not a matter of, well, the Lord does give material things, uh, I'm not one of those who says every Christian ought to give away everything they've got. Now, the rich young ruler, that was the thing that kept him from Christ, and so of course it was too expensive. But, um, the Lord didn't tell Nicodemus to give away everything he had, or Matthew or others. You can't be a steward if you don't have anything to stew with. And the Lord gives various people various amounts of material goods to, to care for and to look after. The scripture says not abusing the world, but using it. We need to take advantage of what we have and use it for the glory of God. I thank the Lord for a couple up in, um, Delaware. Uh, they're well to do. She's a medical doctor, and he, um, is way up in Hewlett-Packard. And, um, they had their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, and they rented, uh, one of those beautiful DuPont estates up there, and they put on a lavish dinner, and they invited all their relatives and all their friends, a huge crowd of people there. And they came, and everybody had to walk by this, this board dripping with the best of everything, you know, I mean, there was seafood and exotic fruits and all kinds of stuff there, and we all walked by it, and we all went downstairs, and, you know, your salivary glands are working now, and you realize, hey, this is a good thing. We, you know, we, we, we got in on a good thing here. But before ever you took a bite, everybody went downstairs into a big meeting room, and the brother got up and said, um, my, my boys would like to say something. He had three sons. Each of the sons got up, and now most of the people, by the way, in this room were Muslims. And, um, and he they got up, and the three of them said, uh, we just want to say this, in one word or another, they said the same thing. Um, we want to thank the Lord for mom and dad. The best thing you ever did for us was introduce us to the Lord Jesus. And they, and they, they praised the Lord for a Christian home. And then, uh, the man got up, Sidbot, and he said, um, now many of you know we're, we're Christians, you know our life is different, you've seen our difference in our family. Um, we'd like you to understand why, and we've invited a special guest here today to explain to you how you too can, can get in on the good things that we found in the Lord Jesus. And so he turned it over to me, and for forty minutes I preached the gospel to a room full of Muslims. Taking advantage of an opportunity. Now there's a couple with very well to do. They have a lovely home. They use their home for the Lord Jesus. You know, uh, see, there's many a man, and and he looks down his nose at some Christian who drives a big fancy car. The fact is that he has a bigger problem with the car than the brother who drives it does. He's the one who lusts after it, who wants that, you see? So, as far as material things are concerned, um, the Lord is very careful in in laying this out, but just the same, there are many young couples today who are getting themselves up to their eyebrows in debt because they want to start where their parents were after forty years of marriage. Not just, not that either. I mean, you got to have a jacuzzi, and you got to have not just two cars, you got to have two imported cars, and you got to have this and that and the other thing. And, and what they do is they go into bondage, they go into slavery. And if the Lord called them to go and do something, they couldn't do it. Sorry. They are locked in. And so, um, you have to decide what you want to live for, and you live for one world or the other. And if you're going to live for this world, you're welcome to it. But I tell you, as Peter reminds us in the next chapter, if we ever get to it, um, it's all, it's all got a, an expiry date on it, folks, and the whole thing's going to be burned up. So, um, Lot goes in there, and he loses everything. When he comes out, all he's got is the shirt on his back. That's it. Lost it all. But worse than that, he lost his family. He lost his testimony. You know, if it wasn't for second Peter chapter two, you wouldn't even thought Lot made it. I mean, he ends up in a cave with his two daughters. It was one thing to get his daughters out of Sodom, it was another thing to get Sodom out of his daughters. And, I mean, there's no evidence that he ever was recovered. When you read second Peter chapter two, you discover two things. You discover that Lot made it, and Balaam didn't. You know, if you read just the Old Testament, you might think Balaam made it. Some of the greatest sermons ever preached, some of the greatest blessings that were ever prayed down on the head of Israel came from the lips of Balaam. But when you come to second Peter two, you find out Lot did make it, and Balaam didn't. Scripture says judge nothing before the time. There, you know, that they say there are going to be three surprises when you get to heaven. There'll be people there that you didn't expect to see, and there'll be people not there that you did expect to see. And the greatest surprise of all is that you'll be there. Say, Lord, you got me here. Right? But, but we, we are not the ones to judge that. Um, concerning the fishing expedition that the disciples made after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, they caught one hundred and fifty three fish. Uh, someone has said, statistics are not for the end of the expedition, they're for the end of the age. They didn't count the fish till the morning, and it's good not to count the fish till the morning. But, uh, another thing we notice from second Peter two is this, that none of the sins of the saints of the Old Testament are recorded in the New Testament. They're all gone. And that's a little indicator, isn't it? My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the whole, has been nailed to his cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. The sea of his forgetfulness, as far as the east is from the west. The, the scripture declares that God has removed them forever. There is no record in heaven of the sins of the saints. They're gone, and we rejoice in God's magnificent justification. Then you'll notice, um, as we read through this little section, um, coming towards the end, uh, we have the description of a group of people, uh, and there's been some discussion over this, and some people actually have taught, uh, that you can lose your salvation on the basis of some of these verses. Notice, um, verse twenty: If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they're again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than at the beginning. And then it talks about the dog returning to his vomit and the sow to her wallowing. Um, this is a very different phrase, verse twenty, uh, having escaped the pollutions of the world, from what we have in chapter one and verse four, where we read, where- whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. The corruption that is in the world, that's an internal thing. That's the damage that sin does within. It corrupts people's hearts and minds, and we've escaped that, and we have the renewing of the mind. We have, uh, a work that God has done within us to make us new creatures. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation in Christ Jesus. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. But what we have here in chapter two is the pollutions of the world. That's an external thing. And what happens is this. There are people who, when they hear the gospel, they hear the preaching of the word of God, they meet with Christians, they look around and they say, I like this crowd. I like what they do with their kids. I like how they behave themselves. I like the singing. Gives me a nice, warm, religious feeling. And so they start attending. And when they do, there are some visible evidences in their lives that the word of God is taking effect. They clean up their act, as we say. There's outward reformation. And the Lord Jesus used the illustration of the sower sowing the seed, didn't he? The seed is the word of God. The plants that grow are not the people. The ground, the different kinds of ground are the people. And the seed is sown, and every time the word of God lands on the ground, it forces the ground to make a choice. And some ground is hard and utterly rejects the message of the word of God, and the word of God is stolen away by the s- by the the devil, right? That's what the birds are picturing. And then there's some seed that lands on ground that, um, is thorny, and it grows up for a time, but then its influence is choked out by cares, riches, and pleasures. And so the influence of the word of God disappears. And you find this too, don't you? People who come along for a while, and then one day they say, well, like, you really take this Christianity seriously, don't you? Like, you expect me to miss out on my son's, uh, football game to come to church? Are you, like, you're not kidding, are you? You really think it's that important? And so cares and riches and pleasures, love of other things, one gospel puts it. And this is what characterizes the last age. Men are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. It's not that they don't want to be religious or to, you know, come to church and so on. They just don't, you, you don't want to take it that seriously, do you? And so other things choke out the influence of the word of God in their lives. And then we read about the shallow ground, and, you know, if the farmer comes out to take a look at the field, the shallow ground plants look as good for a while as the, as the good ground plants. The farmer can't see what's going on under the ground. He can't see whether it has a root structure or not, but he's presuming it does, and this lovely little plant grows up, and what is the plant? It is not the person. If you say it's the person, you have real problems when it withers away. You say, well, what happened here? It's the ground that's the person. They have received superficially the word of God. They don't let it get in where it's really going to do some good. They don't deal with the root issue of sin, but they give superficial acceptance to the word of God, and the plant that grows that looks so healthy and strong is the visible evidence that the word of God is taking some effect in their life. But then the sun comes out. And what is the sun? Hard times. And when hard times come, why, the plant in the deep ground flourishes. It needs the sun. And the sun, the hard times, the persecution that comes actually makes the plant that has root to grow and flourish. But the plant that doesn't have any root withers away. In other words, the influence of the word of God in their life withers away. Hard times come, they say, hey, is this Christianity? I'm out of here. I, I don't need to take this. And they go back to their old life. They never were saved. They allowed the word of God only to have a superficial entrance into their lives, and then when hard times came, it withered away. That's why Paul says, um, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, a new relationship with God. But more than that, he says, not only, um, are we justified by faith in the Lord Jesus, but we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. So that, uh, not only do we have a potential for a new kind of life because we have a new relationship with God, but now we have the resources to live it. We have access into the very throne room of God to all the resources that God has to live the life. And, he says, in addition to that, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We have the long view now, so that the difficulties and problems of life, we see them in relation to their eternal implications. We understand that all things work together for good to those that love the Lord, and that the pressures of life are molding and changing us to be like the Lord Jesus. Like that piece of pottery on the wheel. I don't know how many of you have ever worked with pottery on the wheel, but the first thing you discover is you better get the clay in the middle of the wheel or it's on the wall. It's called centrifugal force. And, and, um, the, in order to make a vessel, you have to use two hands, and one hand pushes into the inside, and one hand works on the outside. And the pressure of the hand on the inside is just a little bit more than the pressure on the outside, so that you enlarge the vessel. If you want to make a little lump of something, then you can just press it on the outside. You'll never get a vessel that way. You've got to press it on the inside and the outside, and you work the clay between your hands, and you enlarge the vessel. And that's what God is doing in, in the lives of his people. What are his two hands? David says, my times are in thy hands. That's the outward hand of circumstance. And the Lord brings circumstances into our lives. The people you work with, yeah, those people, you know. The, the people in your family, your in-laws, yeah, those people. The people in your assembly, those, yeah, those people. They are all there as pressure, influence, the people who criticize you. Yeah, they're, they're there, they're all part of the design. Did you know that? Sure. And, and the Lord is using circumstance to mold us. Now, we're all one off. We're all custom jobs. There are no two vessels alike. And when they speak about hand-thrown pottery, it doesn't, you can get some strange ideas. There are some wives that use hand-thrown pottery at their husbands, but that, that isn't the idea, of course. The idea is that you're not using any artificial means to make all the pots look the same. You put one on and you make one, and the next one's going to be just a little bit different. You're going to use a little different pressure, a little, you have a little different design in mind. So the Lord uses circumstances to mold us, and that's why everybody's circumstances are different, because, well, every pot is to be made different. So the Lord uses different circumstances, and nobody has the same set of circumstances. Some people go through depression, some people go through financial reverses, some people have family problems, some people go through various, various things, and, and we say, how do they bear up under that? Well, here's the secret, that it's not just a hand on the outside. You see, the reason people are crushed by the burdens of life in the world is that they won't let God get his other hand in there. What is the other hand? It is the hand of conscience. David said, day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. That's the, that's the inward hand, you see? And the Lord gets in there, and he touches us on the inside, and he shows us the circumstances of life, how they relate, how they work, what, what the purpose is. And as we allow him to work on the inside and the outside, he enlarges our capacity. The pressures of life don't squeeze us, they don't, they don't straighten us, they don't shrink us, they enlarge us, and they give us a greater capacity for compassion for others and for knowing the grace of God and the love of God and the patience of God as he works with us and molds us. Now, when a potter sits down to the wheel, there is a perfect vessel. Obviously not on the wheel, it's just a lump of clay on the wheel. Where is the perfect vessel? It's in the mind of the potter, isn't it? And as the potter molds the vessel by a wonderful process, the perfect vessel in the mind of the potter runs right down through his arms, down through his fingertips, and after a little while, the vessel on the wheel begins to look more and more like the vessel in the potter's mind. And that's what the Lord's doing. Do you know what thoughts I have towards you, says the Lord? Thoughts of good and not of evil. He has, when he looks at you, he sees you as the finished product. And he, I mean, he knows you're just a lump of clay. But as he works on you more and more, I mean, the God of heaven is encouraged because he sees the likeness of his son being worked into your life. As we yield to the pressure of the hands of God, he molds us to be like his son. This is not true, of course, of some who, who have the hand of God working upon them as he seeks to mold them, and they harden themselves to God. And eventually, the potter takes that clay vessel. He had such high hopes for it, such great plans, but the clay would not cooperate. The clay hardened itself in a shape that is dishonoring to God. And the potter takes the clay outside, and he smashes it on the ground. It refuses his will. It becomes a vessel of wrath. Judas was such a vessel. Oh, how he knew the pressure of the hand of the Lord upon him. He was there. He saw Jesus bless the little children. He heard those words of which his own enemy said, never man spake like this man. He, he actually went and preached the gospel of the kingdom. He did miracles in the name of the Lord. There will be people outside the gates of heaven saying, Lord, open to us. We did miracles in your name. He kissed the door of heaven, and he went to hell. It is then not by accident that when the Jews, hypocrites, took the money which they themselves had paid and then called it blood money and said, we can't put it in the treasury. They were the ones who corrupted it. They went and bought a potter's field with it. Cast it to the potter, says the prophecy. For he was a lump of clay that refused to yield to the hand of the potter. The Lord, of course, wants to use everyone as a vessel of mercy. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And he applies pressure to everyone. Was he sincere with Pharaoh when he worked with Pharaoh? And Pharaoh said, who's Jehovah that I should obey him? And the Lord said, you don't know who I am, Pharaoh? I'll show you who I am. And he gave him evidence to believe. And Pharaoh made fun of the evidence and said, come on, my magicians can do that. Show them, boys. And out came Jannes and Jambres, and they imitated the work of God. They resisted the truth by imitating it. And God could have said, that's it for you, Pharaoh. But God's not like that, you know. Oh, he's gracious and long suffering, not willing that any should perish. And so God said, well, if you don't like my evidence, Pharaoh, I'll give you some more evidence. And God gave him incontrovertible evidence. Evidence that was so overwhelming that his own magicians threw down their little wands and said, this is the finger of God, we can't do this. And instead of bowing down and worshiping, he hardened himself to God. And so what did the Lord say? Well now, Pharaoh, I wanted to use you as a vessel of mercy. I'm the God who could save Saul of Tarsus and turn him into a vessel of mercy. I could save Manasseh. God saved Manasseh. I could have saved you, Pharaoh. You wouldn't have me. Well, you know, this is the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God is not that God acts like a bully in his own backyard. God can do anything he wants, you know, he's God. That's not the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God is God overruling the stupidity of man to bring about blessing to man in spite of himself. That's the story of the cross, isn't it? The worst thing man ever did, God turned it into the best thing. And here, Pharaoh hardens himself against God, and God says, well, look, I wanted to use you as a vessel of mercy. What a tremendous example it would have been if Pharaoh had bowed down and worshipped the Lord like Nebuchadnezzar did. But he wouldn't. He hardened himself. So God said, well, you can't thwart my ultimate purpose, Pharaoh. I'll use you as a vessel of wrath, not an object of wrath, but a vessel of wrath. In other words, I will pour out my wrath on you in such a way that you will become evidence in spite of yourself. If you won't be evidence for what the mercy of God does, then you will be evidence for what the wrath of God does, and men and women will flee the wrath to come when they hear your story, and other people will be saved. If you won't be saved, other will be sa- others will be saved as a result of me pouring out my wrath on you. Is it true? How many people do you suppose will be in heaven as a result of the story of the Passover? Why, Rahab the harlot will be there. The reason she wanted the God of Israel to be her God was because she heard what, what God did to Pharaoh in Egypt. And hundreds of years later, the Philistines, when they had taken the Ark of the Covenant, they said, when they started to have trouble, you know, they started to get hemorrhoids, says the King James, hemorrhoids. They thought they were attacked by the hemorrhoid god. They made little, little gold hemorrhoids, and they put them in the ark, and they sent it back because they said, we remember what God did to Pharaoh in Egypt. It was an effective message, wasn't it? And you see, God wants to save people. If they don't want to be saved, he can still use them. And that's why Balaam's here. You see? Nobody is absolutely useless. You can always be a bad example. And so God uses Balaam as a bad example to warn people to flee from the wrath to come. Well, our time's all gone, isn't it? Yeah. All right, I'll just introduce, uh, chapter three to you, and then we'll, we'll take a look at it in our next study. Uh, there are two great themes that run through chapter three. There is, first of all, the, the timing of God's will. And we have, um, the last days, verse three. There shall come in the last days scoffers. We have the day of judgment, verse seven. kept in store, reserved in fire unto the day of judgment and perdition. And then we have, in verse eight, one day with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. And then we have the day of the Lord, verse ten. but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. And then we have, in verse twelve, the day of God, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God. And so all of these are time markers. They describe to us God's strategy in history. Now, history is his story. God is the one who writes it, and that's what makes it so terribly ironic that none of the great days in history are found in the history books. Right? Creation isn't there, the fall isn't there, the Tower of Babel isn't there, the flood isn't there, the call of Abraham isn't there, the giving of the law isn't there, the uh, the incarnation isn't there, the uh, the transfiguration isn't there, uh, the crucifixion may get a footnote in Roman history, the resurrection isn't there, the birth of the church isn't there. None of the great days of history are found in the history books. Why is that? Because the great days of history are the days when God entered into time and space. People say he invaded. Well, he doesn't invade his own cr- it's his. He has a right to it, but the Lord came into time, broke into time, and did something. And says Peter in this chapter, men are willingly ignorant. Uh, God can stand honest doubt. He just can't stand willful ignorance. I mean, if, if you're in the dark side of the world, eventually the light will come to you. But if you go and hide in a cave and stick your fingers in your ear and cut, shut your eyes and say, I don't see anything. What I like to say to an unbeliever is, listen, if I could prove to you that Jesus is the Son of God, would you bow down and worship him right now? And they say, well, I don't think you can prove that. Say, well, no, I didn't say I could. But if I could prove it, would you receive Christ as your personal savior? They say, well, yeah, but I don't think you could prove it. No, no. You've spoken English most of your life? Yeah. Okay, let me try this again. I didn't say I could prove it, but if I could prove it, would you receive him as your savior? And what do they say? Well, I don't think... You're afraid that I can prove it, and I can't. And if I did, you'd be obligated to worship him, you see? That's why. This is what the blind man said. When they came at him with all their arguments, he said, look, I've told you once, if I tell you again, will you also become his disciple? Boy, that was a good line, wasn't it? Yeah. That's the issue here, isn't it? That's the issue. So the timing of God is essential, and and God has unfolded history to us. He's let us in on it. We are not those of the night, we are those of the day. We understand God's scheme. How strange is it, then, that the church in America is living for the wrong world, living for time? Whatever happened to heaven? What's happened to the hope of the Christian? As the world gets darker, the hope ought to get brighter. But people have forgotten. They've lost it. Some of it is hope deferred makes the heart sick, you know? People have been saying, oh, the Lord's got to come this week, this year, this, well, then he doesn't come, and after a while people say, well, I've heard all that stuff, but, you know. That's not the blessed hope. It's not whether you're pre-trib or post-trib or are amil or partial rupture. That's, you know. The hope of the church is the same. Isn't that what Ephesians four says? One hope. What is the one hope? Every true believer has one hope. It is this, that we shall be with Christ and like Christ. That's the hope of the church, and that hope ought to burn within our hearts. The second great theme that runs through chapter three, and we'll be looking at this, is the word of God, the revelation of God's will, the timing of it, and the revelation, the unfolding of God's purpose in his word. Notice, uh, verse two: be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. In other words, the Old and New Testaments are in perfect harmony, right? The prophets and the apostles spoken together. We have a similar statement in verse sixteen. Paul in all his epistles, speaking to them of those things of which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable rest, as they do also the other scriptures. In other words, Peter at this point elevates, maybe that's the wrong word, but puts the seal, the divine seal of approval on the Pauline epistles at the same level of the other script, in other words, the Old Testament. So they're treated together here as, as the, the completed canon of scripture. We have, uh, the word of God, verse five, by the word of God, and then in verse seven, by the same word. In other words, the word spoken that brought the flood is the same word that will bring the fire, right? The, the great last world cataclysm was vented in the same, the same descriptive terms as the coming judgment of fire. Uh, we have the promise in verse thirteen. We according to the promise, that again, or his promise is in reference to, uh, the word of God. So over and over again, he speaks about this, his epistles, the other scriptures. So it's going to be important for us to see that. So in our next study, we'll take a look at this, and we'll see the practical implications. There are a series of practical implications here. Seeing that all these things should be div- be dissolved. Uh, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent. Beloved, seeing that you know these things before, beware. There are a series of warnings and practical applications. In other words, some homework that Peter leaves us at the end of the chapter. So, uh, sorry for the rush on the way through, but I trust the Lord will encourage our hearts as we think about these things and realize that the pressures of life, the circumstances in our family, in our assembly, in our jobs, these are not haphazard things. This is all the, the hand of God pressing upon us to mold us, but let's not forget the other hand. Let's let him get the hand inside and teach us on our, in our hearts, move in our minds, in our thought life, in our consciences, in our emotions, in our will. Let him have access to these areas within, and that, that's what keeps us from being crushed as we allow the Lord to mold us inside and out and make us a vessel meet for the master's use. Shall we pray? Our Father, as we lift our hearts to thee this morning, we thank thee that we are on thy wheel. My times are in thy hands, and we say with the hymn writer, Lord, we wish them there. We're so thankful that our lives are not the products of mindless matter and impersonal forces, that we are not, uh, the result of chance, that, um, the fact that we're in this generation, in this nation, in this family, in this assembly is not an accident. It is part of thy divine purpose. Help us to yield to the pressure of the hand of God, that we might be molded to the purpose in the mind of God. We thank thee for the patience of the heart of God, that when the vessel was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again, another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Help us to yield to thy pressure. We thank thee for thy grace and long suffering with thy people as we learn the lessons of life, how many mistakes we make, how often we're marred. We thank thee for putting us back on the wheel and pressing us and molding us to be like the Lord Jesus. We ask thee, Father, to encourage thy people here who are going through deep waters, family troubles, assembly problems, perhaps, uh, confusion about, uh, the will of God for their lives. We pray, O God, that, that, uh, thou will shine upon them in such obvious light that even if they don't understand all the details, the light of thy love will warm their hearts. They will keep themselves in the love of God and know that, that our interests are in thy heart, and that thy will is good and acceptable and perfect. Help us to yield, then, and to submit to thy gracious pressure, as we thank thee for the marred visage of the potter himself, as he looks down upon us. Oh, what tenderness and kindness he shows towards us, the one who was wounded for our transgressions. We thank thee for this remolding, this remaking, new creatures in the Lord Jesus, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God and thank thee in his precious