Hey, everybody happy. Merry Christmas. He be the first to say Merry Christmas. And you've already done that multiple times. Well, I just want to make sure I catch everybody. Well, I got it in first, actually. I said happy, Merry Christmas. I don't know why, but I did, but all you said it wrong. So it's kind of like when you offer an incantation and it's the wrong incantation, you technically didn't do it. So I've done it. You're welcome. On our behalf. Hold on. Merry Christmas. What is an incantation? You know, like a spell or some kind of a, how many incantations are you doing? Well also, how many are you getting wrong and what is happening as a result of that? Well, there's all sorts of incantations. Yeah. If you think of the root word, I think it comes from the Cantara Kantar. Which that's the thing. Yeah. So. You're singing a song. That's an incantation of sorts, not, not the kind that we traditionally think of, but this went so many directions that I didn't think it was going to go. Well, and that just brings up the awareness that. And during Christmas, we sing a lot of incantations. Which is part of it's part of the experience. Yes. I love that. I guess. So. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Merry Christmas, everybody. Christian celebrating with your family and or loved ones or, uh, That you are with people that they care about you, or if you're not able to be with people that care about you, that you are able to get in touch with some people that care about you. We love you. We are the gift to you. If you have nothing else, our presence is your present. That's right. Although not. Actually in person. Well, it's a kind of our presence and most you're in our family. And then it's true. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas. Filthy animals. Yeah, our Christmas Eve service last night, which, uh, we trust as we record this actually on December 24th is going to be a great. Uh, time focused on Christ and a. He's gift to us and enjoy this Christmas. And so we're, we're praying for that. We've got a message coming up on the 29th. And just to kind of give you a roadmap of where we're going with. We do in our sermons. Yeah. Um, we are, um, I'm still landing, but I think I'm going to preach potentially out of the book of Ecclesiastes, these oh, wow. We are wrapping again, it be right with God. I mean. It's a good message. It's a good message to bring. Yeah. But a good. I think that the sermon is going to be called navigating life and the idea is going to be, Hey, these are three things that I know at the end of the day, next year, at the end of the year, a year from now, December 29th, 2025, uh, you're not going to regret living this way. And so I think Ecclesiastes is sets us up really well. Chapter seven is where we're going to be, uh, for, for the 29th right up. So Brit bring out for worship. All of those. Good. Ecclesiastes these worship songs. Yeah. There's not many, uh, uh, I'll have to look really deeply into the catalog to see if there's even anything. I think it was the birds or the mamas and the Papas that did theirs. Well, no, I was thinking that this guy is great. There's a time for. This there's a time for that. The phone. Yeah, that's a different one. Um, I like that one. I'll do that one. Yeah. So that's the 29th and then I'm, I'm taking off. I'm going to be out of town for a little bit. Like six weeks, bro. Not quite basically. Sabbatical? No, like a week and a half of the show. Anyway, it's best where I was gonna be preaching on January 5th on a ambition ambition. Yeah. Good ambition. Yeah. Holy ambition. Holy ambition. That's awesome. Uh, and so you'll be doing that. Who's leading worship on the fifth. David David Rapido, David Rapido is covering. Oh, yeah, I'll be covering the podcast while you're gone. So. We're continuing on. At least for a part of it. Anyway, you're gonna be joining us for at least the first few days of the year, and then we're going to keep carrying out. So it's like one of those things where, you know, the one seat moved to your left kind of thing. So all of us are taking different roles. We'll see how that goes. Yeah. By the way, we're doing the same plan again. Next year we were just discussing this and, uh, though we feel. Uh, robbed a little bit because we've missed out on a lot of the new Testament, just because they pack it into the last three months of the year. We feel like this plane is going to be good for us to do again for another year. And then, uh, we'll figure something else out. Potentially moving into 2026. It's a great plan, I guess. Primary. I don't know, I don't call it complaint. It's just that you should get, you have to go through so much in the new Testament. Um, and you go through it so quickly and you only get three months in it. So I feel like if you're going to do it again with us, what I might do is just to systematically go through the new Testament in conjunction with the old Testament. At the same time, even though it's not technically the plan, I want that. And that means I'll get to the new Testament four separate times if I follow this pace anyway. Yeah. I. Slow it down in more Bibles, never a bad thing. Never a bad thing. Which is what we tell our people at our church. If you want to do your own Bible reading plan. Great. Do that, but also read with your church. Yeah. Do do do your church Bible reading plan in the morning and then do your own thing in the afternoon or the evening. Whenever you want a hundred percent. It's like we're doing this together. What a good thing it is for us as a family to go to the book, the word of God together to read the same thing, to be talking about the same things. And then as you do your own plan, On top of that. Fantastic. Yep. Extra credit. So if you're a card that has all the different readings on it, if it's getting kind of beat up, like mine is you can pick up a new one. Uh, at church on Sunday and tuck it in your Bible and know that we're doing the same thing next year. I would get multiple of those bookmarks. Yeah. Because often you need. You stay in one book of the Bible, you transitioned to another. Yup. And then you come back to it eventually. So having multiple bookmarks, that's a good call and put them different places so that no matter where you're at wherever you happen to read your Bible, you're going to have one nearby. That's a good idea. Yeah. All right. Well, let's jump in second, Peter and Jude and Jude. Let's do both. Yeah, we'll do both. Second Peter chapter one opens with one of my favorite sections on just eternal security and confidence. Uh, people often ask the question. Can I know that I'm saved. And in second, Peter chapter one seems to answer that question in the affirmative. Um, because Peter's going to say do your best or be all the more diligent verse 10 there. Uh, to confirm your calling and election. And so it would appear to me at least that that Peter is implying if we will. And then right before that, Supplement our faith, which the word supplement is interesting. It doesn't mean. That your faith is not enough, but it means bring things alongside to, to bolster, to support, to. Uh, strengthen. Uh, your faith and, and he lists some things like virtue, self-control steadfastness, godliness, brotherly, affection, and love. He says, if those things are yours and are increasing, that's how you are able to confirm your calling an election. So the question is, can I know for sure I'm saved? The answer is yes. And you've heard us talk about this before, and there's a lot of these spiritual inventory list and here's another one in second, Peter chapter one. That you can hold your life up to you and say, do I see these things? And Peter's, Peter's careful to say in, in, are they increasing in my life? And that's the idea of what we call progressive sanctification. That is, uh, that as you are the longer, you're a believer, the more and more like Jesus, you will become. And there's going to be different seasons where that's going to feel like, man, this is easy and I'm growing and it's great in him. The spiritual gains are there. There's going to be other seasons where it's going to seem more incremental. Uh, because life is hard and difficult and, and you're going to be battling sin, whatever that may look like. The point is you're progressing. You are moving forward, that there isn't the stagnation that there isn't the regression. Uh, but that you were continuing to go forward. And if that's true, then the opening of second Peter chapter one says, that's a way for you to feel good, feel secure, feel confident about your standing in Christ. And I'd remind you to in verse three here, it's, God's power. That's at work within us to do these things. It's his power that has been granted to us. And it's useful for all things that pertain to life and godliness. It sounds a lot like Paul and that's because Peter and Paul are both working from the same spirit, saying a lot of the same things. And what you see in this text here is God's encouragement. To all of us to grow in grace and knowledge. In fact, that's how Peter is going to end this book. Uh, the grace and knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. What he's going to say, we need to grow in that, but here. Uh, Peter starts off strong saying, look, this is what God has given us. What a great gift it is to have this. Yes, the rest of chapter one, then. Uh, he talks about the shorty of the word of God and he does so by appealing to his own experience, which is the presence. Uh, being present on the Mount of transfiguration and seeing, as he says, Being an eye witness of his majesty. And then he describes in his own way. Uh, being with him on the holy mountain and seeing the transformation of Christ, that's a reference back to the Mount of transfiguration there, but then he goes on and says, but, but even if you weren't there, or weren't a part of that, we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed and you would do well to pay attention to it. And he goes on to talk about the veracity of scripture as something that has not come from the mind of men, but as come as men were carried along by the holy spirit and wrote the very words of God. This is similar in its emphasis in, in 0.2 second, Timothy chapter three, verse 16. Where Paul says that all scripture is God-breathed. Peter is making a similar argument here at the end of chapter one in second, Peter. Uh, in contrast to the veracity and truthfulness of God's word, chapter two, there's going to be false teachers. And look, it's going to look at times like maybe they are winning or winning more to themselves, or maybe that they're getting away with things, but. Uh, Peter wants to remind us that judgment is going to come for them as it always has. He says in verse three, their condemnation from longer ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep. And so. He's going to go on here and talk about God judging angels when they sinned, casting them into hell. He's going to talk about, uh, those that are are bold and wilful, not trembling before him, as they blast FIM, the glorious ones. And so he's, he's warning and he's describing, and he's laying out the dangers of the false teaching and the false teachers out there. And in their error in verse 19, they promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption for whatever overcomes a person to that ease and sleep. And so if we know that in our culture, in society today, you're going to hear false teachers promise you freedom. And, uh, libertarianism that, that you don't have to be bound by this. Um, there there's a prominent teacher that we've referred to recently on the podcast, you just continue is just doubling down on his licentiousness of the fact that, you know, it doesn't matter that he had an affair while in ministry that there's nothing you can't. I saw this recently, he said there's no single Bible verse in scripture that points to. Out to that scene as being permanently disqualifying for a pastor. And he's doubling down on this and celebrating almost he's guilt as a way to relate to people and saying, look, this is a good thing because I'm able to relate to real people because I've gone through this and I've done these things. That's this type of false teaching that Peter's pointing out here saying that they're promising a freedom because you don't have to be bound by the heaviness of the law, but he sink, but they don't understand that they're slaves of corruption themselves. So he's warning against that chapter two, one of the things that becomes evident about a Christian versus a non-Christian is who their authority is. A non-Christian is going to say, man, on. My own authority. Uh, you can, you can be your own king, your own master, you know, that kind of thing. Uh, in fact, that's one of the defining marks in verse 10, that Peter says, look, these guys are. Especially those who indulge in the lost of defiling passion and they get this, they despise authority. Christians don't despise authority. We love godly authority. We esteem that we want that. And in fact that comes right back to our esteem of God's authority in her life. So to keep that in mind, as you read through your Bible and notice here, And those who go their own way, define their own authority. They don't go by God's authority. They go by themselves. And that's evident in the way that the relate to you and the rest of the church. Yeah. And then, uh, as the book concludes, he talks about the judgment that's coming upon. Those people that cast off that authority and those false teachers, and really the world at large. And he opens by talking about the reality that, that people are going to question, they're going to say, Hey, where is this promise of his return? Where is Christ? You've been talking about this. You know, with me for a while, the church has been talking about this for 2000 years. And yet, where is he? And this is that passage where Peter says, don't overlook this one. Fact that with the Lord one day is as a thousand verse eight. And a thousand as a single day, he's not slow to fulfill his promise, but is patient towards you not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance now. This is where we get into the, the theological, um, bifurcation of the, the will of God that God has a desired will in a decreed will, or a declarative will sometimes you'll hear it described as. Here we see his desired will. The heart of the father. Is that those that are part of his creation. I would love Christ and would love him. It would be safe that they would repent from their sins and trust in Christ. That's the father's heart. I mean, if you think about the. The cost that it. That the father had to incur to even make that possible. Killing his son. On our behalf, his desire logically is that everyone would repent from their sin and put their trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins. The reality though of his ordained or decreed will, is that not everyone will come to faith in Jesus and there's a difficulty there in, and we talked about that a little bit back in Romans chapter nine. That there are vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, that there is a. And necessity, even if I can use the language of that strong, there's a necessity of, of the existence of hell for God's full character, to be able to be seen for his holiness to truly be able to be appreciated. And for his. Justice to be truly known there that the place of hell has to exist. And those inhale by extension also have to exist. And so we see his desire is that everyone should reach repentance. But the reality is his, his declared will, is that, that won't actually be the case. And so this is one of those things that is. It admitted that very difficult to hold intention within us as believers as we walk in faith. Yeah, I guess it comes down to the fact that God has desires that are not going to be realized because he has greater desires that are more in alignment with his ultimate plans and purposes. Right. So just like even I have those, we have certain desires for this or that you might see a cheesecake and you might say I desire that, but if you're on one of the free, one of those people that are on a diet right now used to have stronger desires. To not eat that cheesecake because I want to, whatever, you know, I want to grow in my, whatever. So I think you could see this a little bit in terms of your human experience, but when it comes to God's experience of these things, we don't know, we're just kind of grasping at straws here because he's not human like us. But certainly you can understand how that might work. As he goes on, he talks about the impending, uh, disillusion of, of creation that the judgment that's coming upon the earth. And he encourages us. He says, if, if this is going to happen, two things, number one. Uh, hasten that day of, of Christ's return. And the way we do that is, is we share the gospel with more people. The more people come to faith in Christ. The number of those left to be saved will diminish in dwindle as time goes on until the last person is finally saved. And then. Christ comes back for the church. So if you want Jesus to come back, then get busy sharing the gospel. With people's what he's saying here. And then the second thing that we take away is, Hey, we need to be living lives of godliness and holiness. Um, in, in light of the impending destruction, that's coming, we need to be ready for his return. We need to be making sure that we are founded by him without blemish or a stain as he's going to say in verse 14, but at peace. Um, and, uh, and, and that's, that's our job as, as the church it's to pursue the lost and to live godly lives as we wait for the return of Christ. And so second, Peter gives us just an in chapter one, a confidence in our standing in Christ chapter two. Uh, make, makes us aware of the threat to the purity of the gospel, through the false teachers that exist out there. And then chapter three, Hey, this is what's coming. This is the judgment that's coming upon the earth in the future. Peter starts and ends his book by saying, look, you need to grow in grace and knowledge of chapter one, verse two. He saying peace and grace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He ends the book with the same thing. More or less, this is called a. Now when you add or you book you bookshelf, bookshelf. Bookmark. Thank you. Okay end. Bookend is the better one. We were looking for one of the books. It's book, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Uh, that, that, that is Peter's concerned. This is pastor Peter's last letter to our knowledge. And it's concerned is that we would grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. And that certainly our desire as your pastors. If in fact we are that if we're not your pastors and I'm sure your other pastor, your real pastor as the same desire. Ooh, real pastor. Hey, uh, let's turn over to the letter of Jude then. Uh, Jude has a lot of similar themes to second Peter, and that's why you will often find them grouped together sometimes even in commentaries. There's one volume that covers second Peter and Jude, because Jude also deals with false teachers. Now, Jude. Introduces himself with a, quite a mark of humility here. He says Judy servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. Okay. Well, which James James, the half-brother of Jesus. So if Jude is the full brother of James, who's the half-brother of Jesus, that would make Jude also the half-brother of Jesus. But. In humility. I think he introduces himself rather as the servant of Jesus here in the opening letter. But this is one of Mary's sons that she had with Joseph after Jesus was born. That's why we say half brother sometimes. Uh, in, in the world, you'll hear about half siblings and that's somebody that is, you know, same parent, different, different other parents. The only reason being, because Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. So these other brothers that he had came out of the normal relationship between Joseph and Mary. And that's why they are the half siblings. June would be one of those. And so Jude is writing. He says at the beginning, he wanted to write to them about their common salvation. He wanted to write a letter, maybe like Ephesians, maybe one of those where it's talking about the gospel and talking about the good things you're talking about. You know, Colassians and, and living in light of our walk and walking in a manner worthy of the gospel. Instead, he's writing to a group of people that he said, man, I had to write for you to contend for the faith because there's an outside threat coming in here. And so the whole letter in Jude and you'll notice there are no chapter divisions because there's only one chapter here. Is about battling against faults teaching and recognizing it being prepared against it, and then doing something about it and that doing something about it is kind of how the letter ends there, where he encourages the listeners, the readers there. Uh, he says in verse 22, build yourself up in your most holy faith. So strengthen your faith. Praying in the holy spirit, making sure that prayers just a constant campaigning of you. And keeping yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of the Lord, Jesus, having mercy on those who doubt and saving others by snatching them out of, out of the fire and then showing mercy to others with fear hating even the garment stained by flesh. So you've got these three groups at the end that we, as Christians are to go after. And the first group is those. With kind of a genuine doubt have mercy on those who doubt the second group would be those that have maybe an early commitment to false teaching their, save them by snatching them out of the fire. And then the third group is the group with full buy-in to false teaching show mercy, to those, with fear hating, even the garment stained by the flesh. Uh, this would be the Mormons that come and knock on your door. You want to steal? Pursue them with the gospel, but you also want to be very careful because what they bring with them is a garment that is stained by the flesh at garment that is stained by false teaching. And so you're going to be very careful on how you engage them, but you're still gonna engage them in call them to faith in Jesus. Yeah, we gotta be aware of the way that false teaching pervades the church. It's still in the church today, just in various flavors and shapes and perhaps the most important thing for you to know about that. Is that the best way to arm yourself against false teaching is to really know the right teaching. To really know your Bible. Uh, the best way to avoid this to avoid being caught by one of these guys is to know your Bible and to know it within the community of believers. This is one of the safest places for you to be. It's one of the best places for you to be. In fact, this is by God's design. How he wants you to grow up in your salvation to grow up in your faith, know your Bible, do that within the community of believers in God's going to take care of you. Amen. Uh, just one, couple of notes here that you may have had some people ask you about in the letter, uh, here in Jude. Uh, you've got in verse five. I want to remind you, although you want to fully knew it. Jesus who saved the people out of the land of Egypt destroyed those who did not believe. And then he says in verse six and the angels who did not stay with their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling. Uh, some believe that this is a reference back to Genesis six and the production of the Nephilim. When the sons of God came and lived with the women that the earthly women. And their offspring, we believe became the Nephilim. So that may be what he's referring to there at that port portion. And then one other part in that is the mention of James and John brace, uh, which is. It takes place in a. Art. Is that in here? Am I thinking correctly that pastor, rod bail me out here? Maybe I'm not. I's and chambers may be in a different letter. I don't think they're here. They're not here. I apologize for that. What is here is a reference to first Enoch. That's where I was going with this. Um, first the knock is, uh, a book that we don't have in our Bibles. You're going to look for it. It's an intertestamental period book. Uh, some people get all bent out of shape here and say, look, this is a reference to first Enoch. It should be in our Bibles. No, this is simply a reference to a situation there. This is not James giving it authority. This is not James saying that this is authoritative within the church. Uh, clearly it wasn't otherwise it would be in the scriptures. And so if, if you have somebody point out. Uh, look, firstly, Noxon in the new Testament because. Uh, Jude references. I keep saying, James. Jude references it. Then you can know that this is not a situation where we need to take first. You knock and slip it into our Bibles. This is simply a reference that Judy was making to a book they would have been familiar with though. Not authoritatively in that regard. All right. Uh, let's pray. And then we'll be done with this addition to the daily Bible podcasts. God, thank you for Christmas day and what it represents the birth of Christ. Um, the, the source of our hope, the source of our peace, the source of our joy. We just pray that we would be in intentional this Christmas to not only spend time. Opening presents and relaxing and having fun with our family though. Those are all good things, but really, truly reflecting on the purpose for this day and the significant significance of this day with the birth of Christ. And so give us Lord, just a good time of reflection today. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Hey, congratulations. Cameron and Natalie. I know Cameron listens. He does you're right. He listens regularly. So if you got to the end of this, then you earned it. Congratulations. Congrats. Yes. Well, not he alone, but he engaged Natalie. Yes. Which is really exciting. Yes, it is exciting. All right. You guys keeping your Bibles tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. Yep.