Tag: Precious & Magnificent Moments

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Sermon: Precious & Magnificent Moments – Grow in Grace and in the Knowledge of Our Lord
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: II Peter 3:15-18
Duration: 20:50
Size: 9.53 MB

Precious & Magnificent Moments
Grow in Grace and in the Knowledge of Our Lord
II Peter 3:15-18

I. The Age of Salvation

The human mind desires to see meaning and direction and coherence in history.

Let’s be a people who key off of God and see the times in which we live from his perspective.

II. Paul’s Letters as Scripture

So by calling in Paul’s support, Peter shows that there is agreement among the apostles.

The apostles are united with each other and with the Old Testament in one great inspired book of God.

III. Scripture Can Be Hard to Understand

The mind of God is vastly greater than our mind and will often be perceived by us as strange and complex, not familiar and simple.

IV. Misinterpretation Can Lead to Destruction

Another way to put this is that the interpretation of Scripture is a matter of life and death.

V. Guard Yourself from Error

The antidote to deception and destruction is growth in the grace and knowledge of Christ.

After “Jesus” there is no sweeter word in all the Bible than “grace.”

The best fertilizer for our hope and godliness is the knowledge of our future in God’s grace.

To him be glory both now and forever!
Amen.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:09 — )

Sermon: Precious & Magnificent Moments – What Sort of Persons Ought You to Be?
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: II Peter 3:10-14
Duration: 23:09
Size: 10.6 MB

Precious & Magnificent Moments
What Sort of Persons Ought You to Be?
II Peter 3:10-14

I. Just What the False Teachers Need to Hear

His picture of the end is very simple: fire will destroy the sky, the earth and everything on it, and new heavens and a new earth will stand in their place.

Peter would have blunted the attack of his warning if he had given a long and detailed picture of how all the events of the end of the age fit together.

II. The Coming Day of the Lord

In the Old Testament the day of the Lord was the future time when God would vindicate his holy name, bring judgment on the unbelieving, and gather his people into a new kingdom of righteousness and peace.

So Peter was not saying anything new or unexpected.

III. New Heavens and a New Earth

When Peter emphasizes that this new world will be one in which righteousness dwells, he implies that the cause for destroying the old world was man’s unrighteousness, and that those who swerved from the righteousness of faith will not be included in the new world.

IV. What Will and Will Not Remain

Most people try to find meaning in life by building something that’s not just here today and gone tomorrow.

A life lived for the world will go naked into judgment; a life lived for Christ will be laden with eternal riches.

V. Without Spot or Blemish

How can we sinners hope to be found without spot or blemish?

And where shall we find power to walk in the light, to stand in the love of God when godless pleasures entice us, and to zealously pursue purity and peace?

Next Week
Grow In The Grace And In The Knowledge of Our Lord
II Peter 3:15-18

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:11 — )

Sermon: Precious & Magnificent Moments – Where is the Promise of His Appearing
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: II Peter 3:1-10
Duration: 20:11
Size: 9.23 MB

Precious & Magnificent Moments
Where is the Promise of His Appearing
II Peter 3:1-10

In chapter 3 Peter returns in part to the theme of chapter 1, namely, that God has given his people precious and very great promises, so that if we hold them in front of us and trust them, we will have power to resist temptation and remain in the way of righteousness.

I. The Denial of the Second Coming

If the promise of Christ’s second coming and the new world of joy and righteousness is going to fill us with hope and power for godliness, we have to really believe it’s going to happen.

He says in verses 1 and 2 that he wants the believers to have a sincere and lively memory of what the prophets predicted and what Jesus commanded.

Then in verses 3 and 4 he introduces the false teachers again. They themselves are part of prophetic fulfillment, and their presence shows that the last days had arrived.

II. God Creates and Upholds by His Word

The first thing the false teachers ignore is that the world was made by God and that its order hangs on his word.

In the past he did it with water. In the future it will be with fire at the coming of Jesus Christ.

III. A Day Is as a Thousand Years

Here Peter is answering the criticism that Christ has delayed so long that we can’t really believe he is coming back.

When Jesus comes back and stands on this earth to make it his own, he will say, “It just seems like yesterday that I was here.”

IV. The Lord’s Merciful Forbearance

Therefore, we should count the delay of Christ’s coming as an act of mercy and patience until all the sheep are gathered into the fold and not one is lost.

The delay is meant to lead to repentance, not to unbelief.

Next Week
What Sort of Persons Ought You to Be?
II Peter 3:10-14

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:55 — )

Sermon: Precious & Magnificent Moments – Better to Never Have Known the Way
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: II Peter 2:11-22
Duration: 26:55
Size: 12.3 MB

Precious & Magnificent Moments
Better Never to Have Known the Way
II Peter 2:11-22

The chapter intends to do in a negative way what chapter 1 aims to do in a positive way, namely, make us earnest about the business of confirming our call and election.

I. Boastful and Reviling

The false teachers are so brazen and cocky and self-assured that they revile the evil spirits as though they were safe from any supernatural evil influence at all.

So I am inclined to think that the “glories” which the false teachers revile are the glories of God and Christ, especially associated with the second coming.

Their reviling at the glories of Christ is like a wolf howling at the moonrise.

II. Carousing and Greedy

Here the brazen willfulness of the false teachers is seen in their doing in the daytime what other sinners only dare to do at night.

Let’s be a church where we are constantly helping each other to send our roots ever deeper into the rock of God’s truth.

III. Waterless Springs and Mists

O what a need there is in the church for discernment between waterless springs and springs of living water!

IV. Distorting The Gospel of Freedom

The way the false teachers entice new and unstable converts is by promising them freedom.

So Peter blasts the trumpet of warning: they are twisting the Scriptures to their own destruction, and their promised freedom is a bondage to corruption.

V. Storing Up More Judgment

So it is in the Christian life; if you stop trusting the heavenly doctor and disobey his prescription for your redemption, your latter state will be worse than the former.

The whole New Testament is agreed; there is no salvation apart from persevering faith.

Next Week
Where Is the Promise of His Appearing
II Peter 3:1-10

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:09 — )

Sermon: Precious & Magnificent Moments – Destruction Is Not Sleeping
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: II Peter 2:1-10
Duration: 26:09
Size: 11.9 MB

Precious & Magnificent Moments
Destruction Is Not Sleeping
II Peter 2:1-10

The confirmation of God’s Word leads to confidence in his promises, which brings power for godliness, which gives us a personally experienced confirmation of our call and election.

I. Same Goal, Different Approach

If chapter 1 is the carrot, chapter 2 is the crack of the whip over our heads.

Here in chapter 2 he says, if you contradict the doctrine and the character of God’s elect, you will fall, and there will be no entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord, but instead eternal destruction in the gloom of hell.

II. Not Playing Games

This chapter is no accident in Holy Scripture. It is the Word of God, that all of us might become very, very zealous to confirm our call and election.

III. False Prophets Who Deny the Master

Even though Peter says these false teachers will arise in the future, it is clear from the rest of the letter that the prophecy is already being fulfilled.

To be bought by Christ is to be freed from the domination of sexual passions that drive one into sexual preoccupations and illicit sexual intercourse.

There is nothing new about the contemporary assault on the sanctity of sexual intercourse in marriage.

IV. God’s Past Judgment

The point of verses 4–10 is to warn us that since God has punished unrighteousness in the past, he will punish it in the future.

If the case of the fallen angels and the case of Noah’s generation do not deter people from following the false teachers, then surely the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah will wake them up to God’s wrath.

V. Lessons for Today

We must make every effort to keep ourselves rooted and grounded in the Word of God.

There is nothing new about free sex. And we should resist it today as resolutely as the apostles of old.

Heaven and hell hang on whether we follow Christ in righteousness or deny him in immorality.

If you put your trust in Jesus Christ and press on to love what he loves, then you will never fall, and there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Next Week
Better Never to Have Known the Way
II Peter 2:11-22

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:49 — )

Sermon: Precious & Magnificent Moments – Men Moved by the Holy Spirit Spoke from God
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: II Peter 1:20-21
Duration: 21:49
Size: 9.98 MB

Precious & Magnificent Moments
Men Moved by the Holy Spirit Spoke from God
II Peter 1:20-21

Be a people empowered by hope to lead lives of love. Let your confidence in the coming day of joy make you compassionate in the present night of woe.

I. Why or How?

“Pay attention to the prophetic word … knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation.”

Peter is either giving us a why to pay close attention to the prophetic word, or is telling us how to pay attention to the prophetic word.

II. Whose Interpretation of What?

You can’t just give Scripture any old meaning you please.

No individual is entitled to interpret prophecy, or Scripture, according to his personal whim.

III. The Way in Which We Should Heed the Word

The meaning of Scripture does not change with every new reader or every new reading. It cannot be twisted to mean whatever we like.

IV. God’s Meaning not Man’s

The meaning of Scripture is not like putty that we can mold according to our desires. It is the work of the Holy Spirit and carries a solid, firm, divine intention.

Do you need encouragement that the day is really going to dawn—that the life of self-control, patience, brotherly affection, and love is really leading to glory? Then go to the Scriptures.

V. Three Implications for Our Lives

And to that end you submit yourself to the severe discipline of memory and analysis and construction, until you have assurance that his meaning and not your own has been found.

If you believe that the Bible is the Word of God with authority over your life, it takes a good deal of humility to interpret it correctly.

The work of the Spirit is not to add new information to the Scripture, but to make us sensitive and submissive to what is already there.

Next Week
Destruction Is Not Sleeping
II Peter 2:1-10

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:02 — 12.4MB)

Sermon: Precious & Magnificent Moments – Listen to the Eyewitness of His Majesty
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: II Peter 1:12-19
Duration: 27:02
Size: 12.3 MB

Precious & Magnificent Moments
Listen to the Eyewitness of His Majesty
II Peter 1:12-19

The main point has been to urge Christians to make sure that they are truly saved.

God’s divine power has already given us all things which lead to life and godliness.

I. Peter’s Thought Process

His readers are well grounded and established in the truth.

No matter how tragic the death of a believer seems to us, God has universal perspective and does all things well.

It means that even we who know the truth and are established in it need repeated reminders of its greatness, unless we fall asleep or forget.

This letter is Peter’s last will and testament.

II. Myth Versus History

The reason Peter’s word to you is so weighty-is because it is not based on a myth but on an eyewitness account of Christ’s majesty.

If our faith is not grounded in reliable observations of historical reality, it is a “cleverly devised stories” and unworthy of acceptance.

III. The Glory of the Second Coming

Thirty years after the event the revelation of the majesty of Christ fills the mind of Peter with awe, and he wants more than anything to share the hope of that vision with us before he dies.

IV. The Lamp of the Prophetic Word

The world is covered with the darkness of sin and deceit and fear and greed.

What is the hope that lures us on to walk in the light as he is in the light, two things: dawn without and daystar within.

Next Week
Men Moved by the Holy Spirit Spoke from God
II Peter 1:20-21

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:34 — )

Sermon: Precious & Magnificent Moments – Confirm Your Election
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: II Peter 1:5-11
Duration: 25:34
Size: 11.7 MB

Precious & Magnificent Moments
Confirm Your Election
II Peter 1:5-11

Our goal is: life and godliness, the source of strength to become godly is divine power, and the activating connection between the goal of godliness and the source of divine power is knowing and trusting the promises of God.

I. The Logic of Godliness

Since God has given power for godliness, strive to become godly!

True Christians do not stop pursuing growth in grace. They go on. They advance.

II. Don’t Float, Swim Hard

We must strive even to stand still, the tide of temptation is so strong.

If the knowledge of God’s glorious promises does not spur us on to strive against the tide, then we will be barren and fruitless and drift to our destruction.

III. The Consequence of Not Swimming

The problem with the person who does not strive toward all the fruit of faith is that he is blind in two directions, the future and the past.

The assumption is that the whole world lies under the righteous judgment of God because of sin. But because of His great mercy, God ordained that a people for his own be saved by grace.

IV. Sanctification and Assurance

The confirmation of your election is your progress in sanctification.

Therefore, the Word of God warns us against being lazy in our faith and drifting away from Jesus Christ our only hope.

Next Week
Listen to the Eyewitness of His Majesty
II Peter 1:12-19

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:04 — )

Sermon: Precious & Magnificent Moments – Liberating Promises
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: II Peter 1:1-4
Duration: 30:04
Size: 13.7 MB

Precious & Magnificent Moments
Liberating Promises
II Peter 1:1-4

I believe that if we saturate our minds and hearts with the glory and excellence of God in the Scriptures, there will one day come an explosion at Richmond Community Church:

I. Peter: Servant and Apostle

But Peter is not eager to flaunt this authority. “Apostle” comes second, not first.

What is most important in anyone’s life is their faith, and on that score Peter is on a level plane with the church.

Peter does have authority, but he bends over backward to meet them as a brother and serve them, rather than lord it over them.

II. Peter’s Greeting

He pictures grace and peace as something that comes to us from God.

If you want to enjoy God’s peace and be the aroma of his grace in the world, your knowledge of him has to grow.

A. The Goal – Life and Godliness

First, Peter is aiming at two things: eternal life and godliness; moral and spiritual transformation now, and hope for life in the age to come.

The hope of life and the way of godliness stand or fall together.

B. The Source – Divine Power

Second, the way of godliness and the hope of eternal life do not lie within our own power to produce or attain.

The Christian faith is not merely a set of doctrines to be accepted. It is a power to be experienced.

God’s grace is a free power that works in us for our good.

C. The Means – Knowledge of God

The knowledge that leads to life and godliness is said to be the knowledge of God’s precious and very great promises.

Very practically, I think this means we must day-by-day go to the Word of God and search for great promises.

III. Conclusion

We can sum up these first four verses of II Peter with four words: power, promises, practice, and prospect.

God’s divine power (v. 3) flows into our lives when we know (v. 2) and trust (v. 1) his precious and very great promises (v. 4). And this power flowing through these promises produces practice of godliness (v. 3) and the prospect of life eternal (v. 3).

Next Week
Confirm Your Election
II Peter 1:5-11