Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from 2 Peter 2:20-22.

 

“²⁰ For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.  ²¹ For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.  ²² It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.””  2 Peter 2:20-22.

 

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Disgusting.

 

More than “A dog returns to its own vomit”.  Verse 21.

 

More than ““A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”  Verse 21.

 

What is more disgusting is those who “escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, (but later) they are again entangled in them and are overcome”.  Verse 20.  

 

“For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.  For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?  …”  Hebrews 2:1-3.

 

“For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”  Hebrews 6:4-6. 

 

 

 

Here is part of what the Canons of Dordt FIFTH HEAD OF DOCTRINE Of the Perseverance of the Saints states:

                                      

Article 3.  By reason of these remains of indwelling sin, and the temptations of sin and of the world, those who are converted could not persevere in a state of grace, if left to their own strength.  But God is faithful, who having conferred grace, mercifully confirms, and powerfully preserves them herein, even to the end.

Article 4.  Although the weakness of the flesh cannot prevail against the power of God, who confirms and preserves true believers in a state of grace, yet converts are not always so influenced and actuated by the Spirit of God, as not in some particular instances sinfully to deviate from the guidance of divine grace, so as to be seduced by, and to comply with the lusts of the flesh;  they must, therefore, be constant in watching and in prayer, that they be not led into temptation.  When these are neglected, they are not only liable to be drawn into great and heinous sins, by Satan, the world and the flesh, but sometimes by the righteous permission of God actually fall into these evils.  This, the lamentable fall of David, Peter, and other saints described in Holy Scripture, demonstrates.

Article 5.  By such enormous sins, however, they very highly offend God, incur a deadly guilt, grieve the Holy Spirit, interrupt the exercise of faith, very grievously wound their consciences, and sometimes lose the sense of God’s favor, for a time, until on their returning into the right way of serious repentance, the light of God’s fatherly countenance again shines upon them.

Article 6.  But God, who is rich in mercy, according to his unchangeable purpose of election, does not wholly withdraw the Holy Spirit from his own people, even in their melancholy falls;  nor suffers them to proceed so far as to lose the grace of adoption, and forfeit the state of justification, or to commit sins unto death;  nor does he permit them to be totally deserted, and to plunge themselves into everlasting destruction.

Article 7.  For in the first place, in these falls he preserves them in the incorruptible seed of regeneration from perishing, or being totally lost;  and again, by his Word and Spirit, certainly and effectually renews them to repentance, to a sincere and godly sorrow for their sins, that they may seek and obtain remission in the blood of the Mediator, may again experience the favor of a reconciled God, through faith adore his mercies, and henceforward more diligently work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.

Article 8.  Thus, it is not in consequence of their own merits, or strength, but of God’s free mercy, that they do not totally fall from faith and grace, nor continue and perish finally in their backslidings;  which, with respect to themselves, is not only possible, but would undoubtedly happen;  but with respect to God, it is utterly impossible, since his counsel cannot be changed, nor his promise fail, neither can the call according to his purpose be revoked, nor the merit, intercession and preservation of Christ be rendered ineffectual, nor the sealing of the Holy Spirit be frustrated or obliterated.

Article 9.  Of this preservation of the elect to salvation, and of their perseverance in the faith, true believers for themselves may and ought to obtain assurance according to the measure of their faith, whereby they arrive at the certain persuasion, that they ever will continue true and living members of the church;  and that they experience forgiveness of sins, and will at last inherit eternal life.

Today’s devotion comes from 2 Peter 2:9-19.  (Although verse 9 was part of yesterday’s devotion, we include it again today to help explain the rest of today’s Scripture.)

 

“then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.

 

Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.  But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong.  They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime.  They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children;  forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;  but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.

 

These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.  For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption;  for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.”  2 Peter 2:9-19. 

 

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In addition, the following Jude 1:7-16 also provides a glimpse of the wicked and a better understanding of why God is so righteous and just in punishing them. 

                            

“… in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, (they) are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

                                 

Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties.  But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”  But these men revile the things which they do not understand;  and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.  Woe to them!  For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.  These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves;  clouds without water, carried along by winds;  autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;  wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.

                                  

It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”  These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts;  they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.”  Jude 1:7-16.

                             

                             

“¹ The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice;
Let the many islands be glad.
² Clouds and thick darkness surround Him;
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
³ Fire goes before Him
And burns up His adversaries round about.
⁴ His lightnings lit up the world;
The earth saw and trembled.
⁵ The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
⁶ The heavens declare His righteousness,
And all the peoples have seen His glory.”  Psalm 97:1-6. 

Today’s devotion comes from 2 Peter 2:4-10.

 

“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;   and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;  and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter;  and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.”  2 Peter 2:4-10.

 

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Today’s Scripture is one long sentence which presents a dual theme of Scripture that God both rescues the righteous and punishes the wicked.  We need this reminder, especially God’s punishment of the wicked, because many of us tend to forget, ignore, or minimize God’s punishment of the wicked, despite the many examples in Scripture. 

 

“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne;  Lovingkindness and truth go before You.”  Psalm 89:14

 

“Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.  And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”  Jude 1:5-7.

 

“Yet You are holy,
O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
In You our fathers trusted;
They trusted and You delivered them.
To You they cried out and were delivered;
In You they trusted and were not disappointed.”  Psalm 22:3-4.

Today’s devotion comes from 2 Peter 1:16-18.

 

“For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.  For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”— and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.”  2 Peter 1:16-18.

 

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We are eyewitnesses of His majesty.

 

 

“Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.”  1 Chronicles 16:24 and Psalm 96:3.

 

Today’s devotion comes from 2 Peter 1:12-15.

 

“Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.  I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.  And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.”  2 Peter 1:12-15. 

 

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Today’s devotion emphasizes the importance of reminders.  “Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things …”  Verse 12.  “ I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder …”  Verse 13.  “And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.”  Verse 15.   

 

I will mention three reminders:  Christ, Credible and Faithful Men, and Creeds.  There are more.

 

 

Christ is the Head of the His church.  Ephesians 1:22.  Ephesians 5:23.  Colossians 1:18.  Christ will build His church.  Matthew 16:18.  Through the Spirit of truth and His servants, credible and faithful men, Christ teaches us the truth and reminds us of the truth.

 

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world;  they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.”  John 17:6.  

 

“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth;  for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”  John 16:13

 

“Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.  And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;  therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.  Go;  behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.”  Luke 10:1-3.

 

 

“But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God,”  Romans 15:15

 

“Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.  In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.”  1 Corinthians 4:1-2.

 

“For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.”  1 Corinthians 4:17 

Today’s devotion comes from 2 Peter 1:5-11.

 

“⁵ Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, ⁶ and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, ⁷ and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.  ⁸ For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  ⁹ For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.  ¹⁰ Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you;  for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;  ¹¹ for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”  2 Peter 1:5-11.

 

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We should not sit on our laurels, smugly thinking that we are the chosen.  But rather, we should be “applying all diligence” to add these qualities to us.  “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you;  for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;”  Verse 10.  We are not the “frozen chosen”.

 

 

Let us remember yesterday’s Scripture.  “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;  seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”  2 Peter 1:2-3. 

 

The diligence of which we have a duty to exercise has been granted to us.  We don’t need to cast our eyes down and muster up the diligence on our own.  We can look up to God and pray that He gives us the diligence (the will and perseverance) to add these qualities to us.

 

Moreover, these qualities are not foreign qualities, outside of us.  These qualities pertain to life and godliness, and they have been granted to us.  2 Peter 1:2-3.

 

“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;  for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”  Philippians 2:12-13.  

 

Today’s devotion comes from 2 Peter 1:4.

 

“For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”  2 Peter 1:4.

 

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By God’s precious promises, we become partakers of the divine nature.  Therefore, we “gold mine” through Scripture, carefully searching for these gold nuggets of precious promises. 

 

And, the “field” in which these gold nuggets exist is the knowledge of God as we learned yesterday in the prior two verses.  “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;  seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”  2 Peter 1:2-3. 

 

Here are some Practice Principles:

 

First, we meditate on God’s word.

 

“But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.”  Psalm 1:2-3.

 

Second, we remember God’s word.

 

“Remember His wonderful deeds which He has done,
His marvels and the judgments from His mouth,
O seed of Israel His servant,
Sons of Jacob, His chosen ones!
He is the Lord our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.
Remember His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded to a thousand generations,”  1 Chronicles 16:12-15.

                       

Third, we do God’s word.

 

“Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.  But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;  for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.  But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”  James 1:21-15.

 

Here are some Practical Preferences to help us find and remember these precious promises.  They are preferences, because they are not expressly mandated by Scripture, but they are helpful.

 

First, we remember the key words of the precious promises.  The key words will help us find the precious promises whether we use a printed index or an online keyword search such as the following.  (You may want to save it as a favorite bookmark,)  Click here: BibleGateway.com: Search for a Bible word or phrase in 60 languages and 160 versions.

 

Second, we remember the book and chapter within which the precious promise is located.  When you consider that there are many precious promises to remember, I have found that if I try to remember all 3 categories (book, chapter, and verse), then I would forget the location altogether, but if I just remembered 2 categories (book and chapter) then I could find the precious promise within that chapter.  I was able to remember many more locations of the many precious promises using that 2 category search rather than the 3 category search.

 

Third, we write about the precious promises and keep the record.  At first, many times when I discovered a precious promise, I wrote and mailed a letter of the Scripture to my friend Harry.  I kept copies of these letters.  These were my “Letters to Harry”.  Later, I posted the best of them online at my web site.  They became “Gold Mining”.  Click here: Gold Mining « Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions  I often go back to them, re-read the letter that deals with the subject matter that I want to remember.  It strengthens my faith as I remember God’s word.