May 17, 2024 • 57 mins
7b894Cdvgh92q6qEdBPu Join hosts Brandon and Matt as they delve into the transformative power of 2 Peter 1 in the 3rd installment of The Bible Says Podcast. This passage reveals that through God's divine power, we have everything needed for life and godliness. This profound truth highlights that righteousness comes from God, not our efforts, and likens this divine power to a vast deposit of raw materials within us—potential that needs to be diligently mined and refined to manifest its full value in our lives.
This discussion goes beyond personal spiritual development, carrying an urgent call to action. As Christians, we’re encouraged to step into the fullness of our divine nature by embracing the 'exceeding great and precious promises' of the Bible. By doing so, we become partakers of the divine nature, transforming our lives from within and moving from passive faith to active engagement with Scripture's transformative power.
One common struggle among believers is the approach to Bible study. Many lean heavily on devotionals, which, while beneficial, can limit engagement with the depth of Scripture. This episode emphasizes the need for direct Bible study, inviting the Holy Spirit into our sessions for deeper revelation. A disciplined approach to reading the Bible, exploring various translations, and engaging multiple senses by reading aloud is encouraged.
We also discuss the importance of understanding and applying God's promises to our daily lives, highlighting the role of spiritual leaders in guiding their congregations toward these truths. It’s about building a faith that is not only knowledgeable but also resilient and dynamic in the face of life's challenges. There's a call for a return to doctrinal teaching that solidifies the foundations of our faith, ensuring believers are well-equipped to unleash the divine power and godliness within.
In conclusion, the journey through soteriology to the realization of God's promises is an invitation to experience the full spectrum of divine salvation. It’s a journey marked by growth, challenges, and profound joy as we discover the limitless potential within us, unlocked through the wisdom of Scripture. Join us as we continue to explore these transformative truths and apply
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Episode Transcript
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Brandon (00:09):
What does the Bible say ?
The Bible says the Bible sayspodcast.
All right, matt, welcome back.
This is the third time.
Episode three Third time we'redoing this.
How you doing, I'm good.
How about you Doing well, doingwell.
(00:31):
This is, like we said, thethird episode.
The first two seem to be doingwell they are.
Matt (00:38):
We've had over 600 listens of the podcast itself.
Brandon (00:44):
The entirety of the podcast itself.
Matt (00:44):
The entirety of the podcast the entirety of the
podcast plus, we're at like7,000 or 8,000 video views,
right so?
I think it's doing pretty goodfor two episodes in.
Brandon (00:55):
Small form content and the hour-long or hour-plus-long
podcast the entire episode.
Hour plus long podcast theentire episode.
So, just to make sure, this isepisode number three and we're
going to dive in here in asecond, but I wanted you to take
(01:15):
some time.
People that I know just fromwhere we live have been asking
me where can I find it, how canI get to it?
Tell everybody out there wherethey can find it and then how
they can share it, because wewant to get their word out as
best we can.
Matt (01:26):
Awesome.
So easiest way to find it iswwwthebiblesayspodcastcom.
Okay, forward slash, share.
That'll list out all theplatforms where the audio and
the video forms of the podcastare available.
At the very bottom of that pagethere's YouTube links, facebook
links, twitter links, spotifyyeah, spotify's in there, so all
(01:50):
of those links are on there.
You can go to your favoriteplatform YouTube, facebook,
whatever, like, follow, share,click the little notification
button, et cetera, so you getnotified on new episodes, and
just get the word out there Gooddeal.
Brandon (02:07):
We're trying our best to put out one episode per week
and that's our plan.
Obviously, there'll be two orthree times a year, at least
around holidays, that we won'tdo that, but we're going to put
out you know, pushing 50episodes a year and so we're
very excited about that.
We appreciate you guys tuningin a year and so we're very
excited about that.
We appreciate you guys tuningin.
Thank you for yourencouragement.
(02:30):
We've gotten some comments andall good.
Matt (02:31):
So far we haven't had too many haters, so that's good,
we've even got We've had a few,one or two.
Yeah, that's going to come, butthey're not we're used to that.
Yeah, we're used to that.
They're not that bad.
They're not that bad.
We haven't been cussed out yet.
Brandon (02:41):
We'll see what we can do about that.
Yeah, we'll work on that.
We'll work on that.
Yeah, well, tonight we aregoing to dive into a little bit
further.
Over the course of the lastcouple episodes we have kind of
set the stage with the doctrineof salvation, soteriology, and
we said it and I'll just say itagain there's so much and for
(03:04):
lack of a better term justcrappy doctrine out there that
just is not biblical, that istaught and just from a place of
ignorance, and it's not anattack on people, it's just.
But when you mess withsalvation and the way that
someone is justified andredeemed, it's just you can't do
(03:25):
that.
So we're in this conversationon salvation and I wanna
encourage everybody out there goback and listen to episode one
and two, because we define foryou what justification is
sanctification and glorification, the three tenses of salvation.
We get into the conversation onbody, soul and spirit what part
(03:46):
of you got saved at the momentof your belief in Christ, and so
it is so important for us tounderstand that and to know
what's going on from the momentwe're saved and justified
throughout the course of ourlife.
So that's what we want tocontinue on there tonight and I
want to begin tonight, and whatwe're going to begin with is
(04:09):
talking about the divine nature.
When we get saved, we are, youknow, born again of the Spirit.
Jesus said you must be bornagain, but we are and I think
this is often just misunderstoodand it goes or goes right over
our head that we become a newcreation in Christ and we have a
new nature on the inside of usthat our old man, romans says,
(04:31):
is gone, crucified, nailed tothe cross with him, and we have
a new man.
But that new man is on theinside and sometimes when I read
about this or have in the past,it kind of bothers me a little
bit, because I'll read and'llsay that God's blessed you with
(04:51):
all spiritual blessings and youhave everything you need in your
inner man.
And sometimes I don't feel likeI have everything I need, but I
have a divine nature on theinside of me and that's what we
want to get into.
So I want to go to 2 Peter 1,and Matt, if you want to pull
that up, and we can look at somescriptures there.
This is just a.
It's a pivotal launching pointscripture to understand how you
(05:16):
grow in your walk with Christand how you grow after your
salvation.
And so I just want to look atsome scriptures here, because
and let the Bible speak.
This is the Bible Says podcast,so we want the Bible to do the
same, and then we want to pickup from there and glean what it
says.
I don't want to read into thetext, I don't want to read my
(05:37):
opinion into the text.
I want the Bible to speak.
So 2 Peter 1, and let's pick up.
Let's just read from so 2 Peter, chapter number 1.
And let's pick up.
Let's just read from verse 1.
Matt, do you want to jump inthere and read a few verses?
Yeah, I can read, and then youcan add some things, and I've
got some chiming in that I wantto do on these verses as well.
Matt (06:00):
Okay, we'll jump in on verse 1.
Simon Peter, a servant andapostle of Jesus Christ, to them
that have attained likeprecious faith with us through
the righteousness of God and ourSavior Jesus Christ, grace and
peace be multiplied unto youthrough the knowledge of God and
of Jesus, our Lord.
Brandon (06:18):
Let me say, right there , just this is such.
Anytime I preach on 2 Peter 1,it is so chock full, every verse
is so unbelievably deep.
First of all, in verse 1, hepoints out that we have like
precious faith Peter's writingthat we have obtained like
precious faith through therighteousness of God and our
(06:40):
Savior, jesus Christ.
So it's Jesus's righteousness,it's God, the Father's
righteousness that has beenimparted to us at salvation,
it's not our righteousness.
So that is just a great pointin and of itself.
But I love verse two as well,because it says grace and peace
be multiplied unto you.
A lot of times people preachthat lost people need grace and
(07:03):
you need the grace of God andyou need salvation.
But I love the fact that evenas a Christian, as a believer
since I was seven years old, Ineed grace every day, I need
peace every day, and so I'm gladthat the well of grace is not
just for those who are just nowfinding Christ, but it's for all
of us.
Yeah, all believers need grace.
Matt (07:27):
We talked about people determining that they no longer
wanted to sin in their body oncethey were saved and the fallacy
of that.
Those people need grace too.
Brandon (07:45):
Yeah, we all do, because you never and we talked
about it last time your body,your soul and your spirit, your
spirit's born again.
Your soul is your mind, youremotions and your will, and it's
being transformed, and yourbody is just.
Paul described it as his.
He's dragging a dead body ofdeath, and so you never escape
(08:05):
flesh.
And so we all need grace and weall need peace, as verse number
two says.
But we can keep reading inverse three.
But I want you to really listenin verse number three, because
there's a couple, there's somekey words in here, and I want to
point out verse three and four,these key words.
Matt (08:27):
Okay, continuing verse 3,.
Brandon (08:40):
All right, so just chew through that verse little by
little.
It says that according to hisdivine power, god's divine power
, he hath given unto us allthings that pertain unto life
and godliness.
Now I don't know about you, butI don't always feel like I have
all things that pertain to lifeand godliness.
But Peter here says that I havebeen given okay, hath given
(09:05):
past tense, I have all thingsthat pertain unto life and
godliness.
Okay.
So that might blow your mindout there, because maybe you're
feeling inadequate, maybe you'refeeling sinful, rebellious, but
the Bible says that you alreadyhave, as a believer, all things
that pertain unto life andgodliness.
That blows my mind, it gets meexcited and it leaves me saying
(09:28):
why don't I have it then?
Why don't I experience it?
Then?
Why don't I have what thatverse describes?
Now, if you look back at versenumber two, it said grace and
peace be multiplied unto you.
Notice this through theknowledge of God and of Jesus,
our Lord.
So notice that grace and peaceis multiplied to them, but it's
(09:52):
connected to them gainingknowledge about God and about
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Okay.
So knowledge equals grace andpeace.
I get more grace, I get morepeace when I connect to the
knowledge of the Lord and of theFather, and the same thing in
(10:12):
verse number three.
So his divine power has givenus all things that pertain unto
life and godliness, but noticethe end of the verse through the
knowledge of him that hathcalled us to glory and virtue.
So the knowledge, knowing aboutGod, knowing what God has given
us, okay, equips me, it givesme grace, it gives me peace.
(10:35):
And it gives me, it releasesthe divine power that has given
me all things on the inside.
Does that make sense?
Matt (10:40):
Yeah, it's mining and refining ore.
You don't go out and find asteel bar underground naturally
in the earth, or gold.
All the raw materials are inthe earth for it.
But you've got to dig throughthem that's a good point and
(11:04):
find them and put them togetherfor you and your life.
Right, it's like you know it's,but it's in there, it's in
there, it's there, it's alreadyin you, but you have to learn to
bring it out and manifest it inthe world basically Right.
Brandon (11:31):
So the materials in us, god has equipped us with grace
and peace multiplied.
He's equipped us witheverything that pertains to life
and to godliness.
That means you can be as godlyas God wants you to be.
Okay, you have everything todefeat the power of sin in your
life, the holes, the strongholes that the enemy throws at
us.
We have all of that on theinside of us.
It's in there.
But I want you to notice thatthe verse number two, verse
(11:53):
number three it is connected togaining knowledge of God, the
Father and of Jesus Christ.
Now I want to ask you a questionout there and pose this to Matt
how do we?
What is the number one sourceof finding knowledge about God,
the Father and of Jesus Christ?
(12:13):
How do we find out theknowledge about him?
The Bible says the Bible saysright, the Bible is the key.
Thus this podcast.
Right, the Bible is the key.
Thus this podcast.
Okay, and you would think thatthat is so such an elementary
point to put out there, but notto the religious world.
(12:34):
Okay, why?
Because we have built wholesystems of religion and churches
with huge steeples and bigministries, and what do we do?
We ignore the Bible and we givepeople just a teaspoon here and
a teaspoon there and we wonderwhy Fill the rest with opinion,
fill it with opinion, and wewonder why we do not have grace
(12:57):
and peace, we do not have thedivine power releasing those
God-like attributes in our life,power releasing those God-like
attributes in our life.
It's frustrating to me becausethere's so much neglect to the
Bible.
Preachers preach.
I mean let me give you threepoints and a poem and let me
(13:19):
preach for 25 minutes.
And I don't know, I'm just I'mgetting really tired and sick
and tired of a lot of thepreaching and the styles of
preaching out there.
You know I used to want to be agood preacher.
I could care less about it.
Now you know what I want to be.
I want to be a good teacher.
I want to be somebody thatteaches the word of God and has
(13:41):
light bulbs click on in people'sbrain because you know what
this getting them connected tothe word is God.
And has light bulbs click on inpeople's brain Because you know
what this getting themconnected to the word is what's
going to change their life.
There's so much opinion outthere and preaching that well,
don't get me started.
Matt (13:56):
I won't go off on that tangent, and part of it is, I
think, why it doesn't manifestin people's lives.
Their version of God in theirbrain is not big enough.
Right, okay, that's I mean.
Honestly, to me, that's theroot of everything, from people
(14:17):
teaching that you can lose yoursalvation Right, okay, their
God's not big enough.
God's not big enough to keepyou saved, right, or he can't
break this piece of sin that'sin their life, right right, but
we find that everything that weneed to do all of these things
it's already in us.
Brandon (14:35):
And that's the thing that we want to point out.
It's already already there.
Okay, it's not you need to beequipped with it, you're already
equipped with it.
It's how do you get it out?
So let's look at verse numberfour, because there's a key
phrase in here that I want topoint out.
Let's pick up verse number four, matt.
Matt (14:54):
Okay, where are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises that by these youmight be partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped thecorruption that is in the world
through lust?
Brandon (15:07):
Okay, so there's the key.
So verse three said the divinepower of God has given us all
things on the inside of us, allthings that pertain unto life
and godliness.
Okay, and so we have everythingon the inside of us that we
need to be godly and everythingassociated with life.
It has been supernaturallygiven to us and bestowed upon us
(15:30):
by the divine power of God.
From the moment that we believeand when we connect ourself to
the knowledge of God containedin the word of God, then what
happens?
Okay, then we gain.
Grace and peace.
Verse number two Then we gain.
We have access to all thingsthat pertain to life and
godliness.
But verse four tells us what hegave us, that teaches us about
(15:55):
the knowledge of God and JesusChrist.
So don't miss this Verse four,what Matt just read.
It says whereby okay, whereby,or because God has given you all
things that pertain unto lifeand godliness and it's connected
to knowledge and you need theknowledge whereby, or because of
that God gave you the great andprecious promises.
(16:16):
Okay, that by these?
Okay, notice that word.
If you're following along withus in the Bible, I want you to
read this passage of scriptureand I want you to circle in your
Bible every time the word theseor these things comes up.
Okay, because he says wereceive exceeding great and
precious promises.
(16:37):
That by these, those great andprecious promises, we might be a
partaker of the divine nature.
Okay, promises we might be apartaker of the divine nature.
Okay, that's the key, all right.
So the Bible that I hold in myhand and the Bible that you're
reading and you're holding yourhand, a Bible that Matt has here
, okay, whether it's on yourphone or in a hardback book or a
(16:57):
leather bound, soft, beautiful,it doesn't matter.
The Bible that you have is theWord of God, and the Bible calls
itself great and preciouspromises.
Okay, great and preciouspromises.
You know, the Bible is full ofgreat and precious promises.
(17:17):
That's what it calls itself andthat is a phenomenal, beautiful
phrase to refer to the Bible.
And so when we have the greatand precious promises of God,
the Bible says that by these webecome partakers of the divine
nature.
Okay, now, the divine nature iswhat he's talking about.
(17:41):
Okay, in verse 2 and 3.
Yeah, he gave us all thingsthat pertain to life and
godliness.
Grace and peace are multipliedto you by knowledge.
So all these wonderfulattributes that God has, for you
are already on the inside ofyou.
That's what many people miss.
Did you know you have a divinenature on the inside of you?
A lot of times we blame our old, sinful nature, but we never
(18:04):
talk about our divine nature.
Oh, I slipped up and I said abad word, or I did this or I did
that because my nature Wellit's my nature.
Well, did you know?
That's your old man's nature,you're pre-Christ, before
salvation nature.
But you have a new man on theinside and a new nature, and
that new man, your spirit, man,has been made righteous, a right
(18:31):
standing before God.
We talked about that in theprevious couple episodes.
Yep Justification.
Matt (18:36):
Yeah, so it no longer has that sin Right, but your soul or
your mind and your body stilldo.
Brandon (18:46):
You can still think the wrong thoughts, your mind, soul
, body, mind, emotions and will,and then you can also sin with
your physical body.
Okay, but you also have theoption, okay.
This is what we don't talkabout a whole lot.
You don't have to just sinbecause your body's under sin.
You have a divine nature on theinside of you and that nature
(19:09):
wants to come out.
God wants you to be godly.
He wants everything that exudeslife to come out of you, but
it's connected to the knowledgeof God, which is connected to
the great and precious promisesof God.
Matt (19:21):
Yeah, and it's kind of like the and actually this verse
is a very good point of that.
It's like the two wolvesscenario, where you've got the
dark wolf and the light wolfRight.
Which one comes out Right?
The one that you're feedingRight?
The one that wins is the onethat you're feeding Right.
Are you feeding it theknowledge of God?
Brandon (19:44):
Because the Bible says that the great and precious
promises of God contained inScripture come from the
knowledge.
Are what unlock the knowledgewhich unlocks the divine nature?
Yeah, okay.
So let's back up here and if wedidn't talk about anything else
for the rest of the evening,that'd be enough.
(20:05):
Right there, I mean that rightthere can change your life.
Yeah, so, if you want, ifthere's not a lot of godliness
coming out of your life, if yourlife is not filled with the
things pertaining to life andgodliness and grace and mercy
and peace, okay, in your life,guess what?
You're not accessing andtapping in to that divine nature
.
So what do you need?
(20:26):
You need the great and preciouspromises of God to unlock the
knowledge of God, about God thathe wants you to know, and thus
unlock that divine nature, soyou can be connected and unleash
that divine nature that is onthe inside of you, but it's
connected to the great andprecious promises of God.
(20:50):
That's profound.
When I really did a deep diveinto 2 Peter a couple years ago
maybe not even that long ago Isaw it with fresh eyes and I'd
read it all my life.
But I saw it with fresh eyesand it really just changed my
life, but I saw it with fresheyes and it really just changed
my whole perspective that I havea divine nature on the inside
of me, and that's why I have tobe in the word of God, because
(21:12):
the more I learn about God andthe more I am reminded of God's
precious promises, and we'regonna go there in a minute.
What are the precious promisesthat he gives us?
We're gonna give you some ofthose today so you can begin to
cling to them, okay?
And when you cling to them andremind yourself of them, you are
unlocking that divine nature,and then the fruit of the Spirit
begins to come out in you.
(21:32):
This is exciting stuff.
It's awesome.
I want to look at verse number.
At the end of verse number four, it says that whereby are given
unto us exceeding great andprecious promises that by these
you might be partakers of thedivine nature, having escaped
the corruption that is in theworld through lust.
So how do you escape thecorruption that is in the world?
(21:53):
Through lust, you connect tothe great and precious promises
of God.
So the great and preciouspromises not only unlock the
knowledge which unlocks thedivine nature, but it also
shields you and protects youfrom the lust that is out there
in the world.
In other words, it'll defeatsin.
It'll defeat the things thatyour body craves against the
(22:14):
spirit.
So that's just an excitingthing.
So I told you a second ago inverse four circle the word these
, because it's talking about thegreat and precious promises.
By these you might be partakersof the divine nature.
Look at verse five.
It says go ahead, matt.
Matt (22:32):
And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith
virtue and to virtue, knowledgeand to knowledge, temperance
and to temperance, patience andto patience, godliness and to
godliness, brotherly kindnessand to brotherly kindness.
Brandon (22:53):
Charity Right brotherly kindness, charity, right.
So he goes through a list inverse number five and six and
seven, that not only do yourelease the divine nature on the
inside of you, but you alsodefeat the corruption and escape
the corruption that's in theworld through lust.
But then you know, we talkedabout, I think, on a previous
(23:16):
episode that you know, theChristian life is like growing.
It's like growing a garden.
It's like growing seed out ofthe ground.
It's like a baby growing up.
It's a maturation process, okay.
And here we see that when weconnect to the divine, to the
great and precious promises, weare to add to these things, to
the great and precious promises.
We are to add to these things,it says, diligence, add to your
(23:38):
faith virtue, that's excellence.
Virtue, knowledge, knowledge,temperance or self-control.
Patience is endurance,godliness, godliness, brotherly
kindness, brotherly kindness,charity, okay.
So you've got brotherlykindness, you've got deep,
abiding love.
You have a process here thatbegins to play out.
Why?
(23:58):
Because you have released thedivine nature on the inside of
you.
Why, because you got connectedto the great and precious
promises.
Matt (24:05):
Yeah, and it's almost like a salvation journey.
It is Okay.
So your diligence, yourstudying and learning who Jesus
was, who Christ was, learningthe gospel he saved you.
You accept the gospel, right,okay, that comes in as your
faith.
You place your faith in Christ.
(24:26):
When you place your faith inChrist, he imparts virtue to you
, right and giving you a rightstanding with God.
And then you build on that withknowledge and then with that
knowledge you become temperate.
It's like rungs on a ladder.
You're growing in your faithand your salvation journey and
(24:51):
you have temperance.
You learn to be more patientwith people and with patience
comes a little more godliness.
You're not lashing out atpeople for things Brotherly
kindness.
Brotherly kindness and thencharity, and the word charity
there in the Greek is agapeRight, and the King James a lot
(25:13):
of times translates agape ascharity.
Brandon (25:16):
But it's love.
Matt (25:18):
It's deep abiding love, deep abiding love, love for a
person, right Brotherly love,right, something like that.
Brandon (25:24):
Right, absolutely so.
It's a maturation process, butthat maturation process begins
with your faith.
That's where it begins.
That's the first rung on theladder, as it describes it.
But it all goes back to thesegreat and precious promises.
Now look at verse number eight.
Notice the first couple wordsof verse number eight.
(25:45):
For if these things be in you,okay.
For if these things be in youNow, I don't know about you, but
every time it mentions thesethings, I believe from 2 Peter
that it is referring back to thegreat and precious promises of
God.
Okay, now, some people will say, well, it's referring to the
(26:07):
list that he just gave you ofvirtue and knowledge and
temperance.
I don't think so.
I think he's saying if thesethings be in you, what things?
The great and precious promises.
So if the great and preciouspromises are in you and they
abound because you are connectedto them and you have released
the divine nature on the insideof you, okay, then all of this
(26:29):
fruit's going to start to comeout.
All right, now notice what hesays.
He says for if these things bein you and abound, they make you
that ye shall neither be barrennor unfruitful, okay, so if
you're not bearing the fruitthat you should be bearing in
your life.
It's probably because you arenot connected to the great and
precious promises and you're notmaturing, you're not releasing
(26:52):
that divine nature that comesfrom being connected to the
great and precious promises ofGod.
Okay, does that make sense?
It does, it does.
Yeah.
So nobody wants to be barren,nobody wants to be unfruitful in
the knowledge of our Lord JesusChrist.
Okay, but let me tell you thisso if we back up and just kind
(27:13):
of surmise what we've talkedabout, I've got to know the
great and precious promises ofGod.
Okay, why?
So I don't get shaken by theworld, so I let the divine power
, the divine nature that's onthe inside of me come out and
godliness begins to come out,things that pertain to life.
All right, I need the great andprecious promises of God.
(27:34):
One of my.
I don't know if you guys everseen them, but if you go in a
Christian bookstore, sometimesthere'll be like little promise
books, okay, and it'll gothrough and it'll have like
scripture after scripture.
So if you are dealing with theloss of a loved one or you're
dealing with anxiety or fear orwhatever the case may be, you
(27:55):
can look up that topic and it'llgive you promises from the word
of God that you can just, youknow put into your brain, put
into your mind, and not rest inyour thoughts and your fear and
your worry, but be remindedconstantly of the word of God.
That's what I'm talking about.
I learned a long time ago,really, when I was a boy, that's
(28:17):
what I'm talking about.
I learned a long time ago,really, when I was a boy, that
this book is a promise book,okay, and that, you know, I need
to get a hold of God's promisesand I need to cling to it.
Sometimes for all, hold on, fordear life.
It's like getting a sponge andwringing it for every drop I can
get out of it.
I have been in places in mylife and I'm sure you have where
(28:38):
I needed those promises and Ineeded to know those promises
and I needed to cling to thosepromises.
I just sat earlier I'm a pastorand I just sat with someone who
is worried that their time isdrawing near to go home to be
with the Lord, and we just satthere and we talked about the
great and precious promises ofGod and I just did my best to
(29:00):
try to share some of thepromises from the Word of God in
His time of need that he neededto hear, to remind Him that
God's got Him, that we are notto fear, that we are not to be
as the lost people would be,with no hope.
We are to be reminded of thegreat and precious promises, but
(29:21):
so many people are not.
And I want to say this righthere and I want to press on this
and I know I'm talking a lot,matt, here, so you jump in.
No, you're fine.
This is why it irritates me somuch that our preaching and our
teaching in most of our churchesis not.
I mean, it's that deeptheologically.
If I hear another preacher sayopen your Bible and I'm going to
(29:47):
read you my text verse, okay,and he opens up and he reads me
one verse of scripture and thenhe preaches for 45 minutes of
his stinking opinion.
It's horrible.
I have heard enough preachinglike that in my life.
I've even heard preachers say Iwanna open up your Bible, I'm
gonna read a verse, and they'llread one verse.
And I've even had them sayclose your Bibles, I'm gonna
(30:07):
talk to you for a little while.
Yeah, that's what they weredoing.
Close my Bible and they talk tome because God didn't.
Okay, people in our teaching andour preaching have to hear the
word of God.
I am a pastor.
I have been pastoring since Iwas 26 years old.
Okay, I'll be 43.
(30:28):
All right, I've been preachingsince I was 16.
Okay, pastoring since I was 26.
Pastoring since I was 26,.
Okay, I have preached a lot ofsermons.
Okay, I have preached a lot.
People do not need me, they donot need my experience, they do
not need my wit, they do notneed my jokes.
Okay, all of these things aregreat.
(30:49):
Okay, use them if God's giftedyou in those ways.
But the main thing that peopleneed, okay, is the word of God,
the promises of God, becausewhen you get born again, okay,
jesus said, man shall not liveby bread alone, but by every
word that proceeds out of themouth of God.
People do not need me, theyneed the word of God.
And I'm so tired of teachers.
(31:10):
And if you're a preacher, ateacher out there, listen, get
your nose in the Bible.
And if you get the opportunityto stand in front of a group of
people and teach or preach, stopgiving your stinking opinion
all the time.
Okay, get in the Word of God,all right, and you connect them
to the Word of God.
Nothing against your opinion,but it's the weakest form of
doctrine.
Okay, you get them in the Bible.
(31:32):
Okay, you get them in the Bible.
Get them in the Bible.
All right, I'm on a tangenthere.
All right, and listen to me,you Christians out there, you're
not a pastor, you're not ateacher, you're not a minister.
Listen, you know what you needevery day you need the Word of
God.
Okay, I'm going to saysomething else here,
(31:52):
controversial.
Too many Christians usedevotional books and rely on
them.
Okay, and what the averagedevotional book is?
A verse at the top and then apage or a half or two pages of
what that author thinks.
It's a story, it's anillustration.
That is great and cute andgreat and all okay.
(32:13):
Do you use devotionals, brandon?
Nope, okay, I get my nose inthe Bible.
Okay, now, I'm not mad at youif you use a devotional, all
right, but I'm just telling youit ain't enough scripture for
you.
A verse a day, two verses a day?
Oh, I got this Bible app and itsends me the verse of the day,
right, so I'm good.
You need more than that.
Matt (32:34):
You need a lot more than that.
Brandon (32:36):
Because you've got the divine nature and you're trying
to get it to come out.
Matt (32:39):
And you've got the divine nature and everyone has that
Holy Spirit on the inside Right.
And what about the people thatsit down, brandon, and say I
read the Bible but I don't getanything out of it?
Brandon (32:53):
Right?
No, I've gotten that a wholelot.
I'll say this Two quickpointers that I've told people a
lot in my life.
Sometimes they need to maybeswitch up a translation a little
bit.
I have recommended differenttranslations to people at
(33:16):
different times because theywere having a hard time.
You know, I grew up with theKing James Version.
I'm not a KJV-only guy, butit's my favorite and I read it,
and so if you hear me and you goout and get a KJV, you might
not be able to track along likeI can, because I've been around
it my whole life.
Maybe you need a more modernversion.
That's you know, and there'snothing wrong with that.
You got to make sure it's afaithful version.
(33:37):
That translates you know, asmuch, as much, as much as you
can, from word from word fromthe Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic
into English.
But maybe you need to do thatand ask a pastor or send us an
email.
If you've got a question aboutthat, you know, give us a
comment, give us an email.
We'll try our best to help you.
Another thing that I dopersonally is I read scripture
(33:59):
out loud.
So when I read my Bible I readit out loud, and this may sound
kind of silly, but I read it outloud so I can see it.
But I can also hear it and callme crazy.
But Romans 10, 17 says forfaith comes by hearing and
hearing by the word of God.
So if I hear it, I'm getting adouble whammy.
(34:19):
I'm seeing it, saying it andhearing it.
Okay.
So I encourage people to dothat.
Helps you focus on it.
And here's a big one Praybefore you read the Bible.
Matt (34:29):
That's what I was going to say.
Pray before you read the Bible.
What do you pray?
I actually ask the Holy Spirit.
A lot of people don't evermention the Holy Spirit in their
prayers.
No, talk to Him.
Yeah, they don't talk to it.
You have that Holy Spirit, thatdivine nature, as part of you.
(34:53):
Talk to it.
Talk to the Holy Spirit, sure.
Pray, ask that Holy Spirit toyou.
Know, I'm fixing to open upthis Bible and I'm going to read
Give me the knowledge, thewisdom that I need to gain from
this text to get me through thisday, absolutely.
I mean, that's my basic.
Brandon (35:12):
You know, in John 14, after Jesus begins, judas
betrays him or leaves the room.
It's before the Garden ofGethsemane.
Jesus begins to teach theremaining disciples about the
Holy Spirit, and this is wherehe refers to him as the
comforter.
But he also says he will teachyou all things and he will bring
(35:33):
to remembrance those thingsthat you've learned.
Okay, so the Holy Spirit isyour teacher.
So Matt's exactly right, and Ipray something like Holy Spirit,
I'm about to read your word,please teach me your word as I
read it and I just pray that,and then I'll read it out loud
and I'll hear it.
And let me say this so ifyou're struggling with getting
connected to the word of God,check out the translation, okay,
(35:56):
maybe there's something easierfor you to understand.
Pray before you begin to readit, okay, and then I encourage
you to read it out loud.
But one of the main things aswell is just don't get
discouraged.
Consistently do it.
Don't read it for two or threedays and then stop and say, well
, I'm not getting anything outof it.
You will when you consistently.
(36:17):
I promise you it's helping you.
All right, if you startexercising, you're not going to
see the results you want inthree days.
Matt (36:24):
Yeah, okay, so just stay consistent with it and something
else that tends to help me staymore consistent.
Help me stay more consistent.
I'll take, typically, a proverb, a book of proverbs, I mean one
of the chapters.
I'll hit the chapter whateverthe day is of the month, and
(36:52):
then somewhere in the OldTestament and somewhere in the
New Testament.
Brandon (36:53):
So you spread it around right.
Matt (36:55):
Spread it around a little bit, but those wisdom verses in
Proverbs, it's an easy way toremember.
Okay, where am I at in Proverbs?
And you can read that book overand over and over.
And I've read it 70, 80 times,right, I've read it 70, 80 times
(37:17):
, you know, right, I've read itmany, many times and I find
things new in that book thatI've read that many times.
Yeah, and it's kind ofinteresting to me that you can
read something that many timesand still find something
different, because you'redifferent from the last time
(37:38):
that you read it.
Brandon (37:39):
Well, the Word of God is the only book that you could
do that with, because it's asupernatural book.
It's alive and there's so manylayers of truth to it.
And in one frame of mind, inone stage of your life, you
might read scripture and itapplies in a certain way, and
then, a year later, you read itagain and it hits you completely
(38:00):
different.
You pick up and glean truthfrom it.
It's like layers of an onionthere's always another layer
underneath, layers and layers oftruth in the word and the more
you read, the more you get fromvarious different parts.
Matt (38:13):
It's like you love genealogies in the Bible.
I'm a dork.
If you get a fairly newChristian, they're not going to
love genealogy.
They're not going to lovegenealogies because they'll read
straight through that genealogy.
They won't know any of thenames in that genealogy.
Sure, sure, the light bulbs youknow.
When you read through thegenealogy and you find Lamech,
(38:36):
right, the father of Noah, kindof stuff, and you're like, oh,
wait a minute, and you startputting two in.
You put those stories togetherin your head where they'd be
reading that genealogy.
And then it comes to Noah andtells Noah's story, right, yeah,
but I mean you, because you'vebeen in the Bible and know the
(38:56):
Bible, bible.
You read those genealogies andgain more out of it.
Brandon (39:01):
Sure, just stay consistent.
And if you're a new believer,new Christian, my number one
recommendation is start in thebook of John.
The book of John is one of thesimplest books to understand.
It's all about Jesus, obviouslyone of the Gospels, one of the
four Gospels.
I would start there.
You don't necessarily have to.
(39:22):
It's not the Bible and I knowthis sounds crazy.
You don't necessarily have tostart at the front and read it
straight through.
It's going to make sense, evenif you jump in at different
areas.
I would start with the book ofJohn or one of the Gospels.
It would the book of John orone of the gospels.
It would be great for you.
(39:43):
But I want to go back to 2 Peterand I want us to see this,
because this is all great adviceto you if you're new to the
Word of God, because the Biblefirst of all.
I don't know if we've said iton here, but the Bible is the
Word of God, it's God-breathed,it's all for you and it's
profitable for you.
And the Bible says that aboutitself, that it is the great and
precious promises that unlockthe divine nature.
But I want you to look back, ifyou have a Bible, back at verse
(40:04):
number eight.
You won't be barren orunfruitful in the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
But look at verse nine.
What if you aren't connected tothe word of God?
What if you are a believer whois not connected to the word of
God, not tapping into the divinenature that's on the inside of
you?
God already said in thischapter I've given you all
(40:25):
things that pertain to life andgodliness.
So what if you are a Christianwho is not connected to the word
?
Watch what it says will happento you.
Verse number nine but he thatlacketh notice this.
What these things?
What things?
The great and precious promises.
If you're not connected to thegreat and precious promises,
watch what happens.
But he that lacketh thesethings is blind.
(40:47):
Okay, now I think that thatmeans you are blind to the great
and precious promises.
Okay, you do not know them.
Okay, you're walking throughyour house and it's dark and
pitch black and you're gonnastub your toe because you're
walking blind.
You're flying blind.
You're going through lifetrying to live a Christian life
(41:08):
and be a good Christian, andyou're not connected to the word
of God and you're walking blind.
You're flying blind.
He that lacketh these things isblind.
And the walking blind.
You're flying blind.
He that lacketh these things isblind.
And the reason I think it meansthat you're blind to the
promises is because the nextpart look what it says and
cannot see afar off.
Well, if you're blind,obviously you can't see afar off
.
So that's a way of saying well,what does it mean that I'm
(41:28):
blind and I can't see afar off?
I think when it says I'm blind,I think it means I'm blind to
the promises that God has for me.
And because I'm blind to thepromises that God has for me, I
can't see afar off.
I don't have the discernment tosee down the road in my life.
I can't see trouble when it'scoming.
I don't have my finger on thepulse of what's going on in my
(41:51):
life.
I don't have that Holy Spiritdiscernment because that divine
nature on the inside of me hasnot been tapped into the way
that it should be, because I'mnot connected to this.
So I'm blind to the promisesand I can't see afar off.
And look at the third thing andhath forgotten that he was
purged from his old sins.
So what do you do?
(42:14):
So what do you do?
You forget how forgiven you areand you walk around in guilt
and you walk around in shame andyou walk around defeated all
the time and you want to throwin the towel because your flesh
let you down.
Why All?
Because this could all havebeen avoided if you had let the
divine nature on the inside ofyou come out through connecting
(42:36):
to the great and preciouspromises.
If you're not getting anythingthat we're talking about today,
you better get this.
The Word of God is the mostimportant thing in your life.
You need to be in the Word ofGod every day.
You need to be feeding on theWord of God.
This book is your food.
This book feeds you spiritually.
And if you're a husband hereokay, listening to me, you're a
(43:00):
wife, all right, and you'retrying to parent and be a spouse
and do all these things andyou're not feeding your
spiritual self.
You're starving yourself.
Your number one priority is yourwalk with God and his word,
connecting to those great andprecious promises and unleashing
the divine nature.
And when you don't do that,when you're not connected to
(43:21):
these things, you're blind tothe promises.
You can't, you have nodiscernment and you forget how
forgiven you are.
A lot of people out thereyou're struggling with.
Well, I was saved a long timeago.
I don't even know if I'm savednow.
I guarantee you that you're notconnected to the great and
precious promises.
I guarantee you haven't beenreading your Bible Guarantee.
You have not been connected tothat and that is why you're
(43:42):
doubting, because you haven'tbeen reassured through the Word
and most of us, most Christians,at some point doubt our
salvation Right, lots of them.
Matt (43:54):
So when you doubt your salvation, where do you get rid
of the doubt?
Brandon (44:04):
To the preacher no, no, no, that's what a lot of people
say.
Matt (44:09):
So when you doubted your salvation, where did your dad
take you?
Brandon (44:11):
My dad when I was about 14, 15 years old.
I went through a lot of doubts.
I've told about this publicly.
He took me to the Bible and hemade me read the promises of God
and he says what does the Biblesay?
Matt (44:25):
What does the Bible say?
What does the Bible say?
What does the Bible say?
What does the Bible say aboutyour salvation?
Brandon (44:29):
Yep, and that's one of the greatest spiritual lessons
that I ever learned was Brandonstop going by your feelings,
stop going by what your headtells you and what the enemy
tells you, and go off what theBible says.
But let me tell you somethingThank God I had a dad who knew
the great and precious promises,to get me connected to them, so
(44:50):
I could unleash the divinenature and kill the doubt.
If you don't have someone youcan go to to connect you to the
promises you've got to get inthe word of God so you learn
those promises for yourself.
You need to learn thosepromises for yourself, for your
kids, for your grandkids, so youcan help others and connect
them to those promises.
Matt (45:10):
And that actually plays into the next verse even
Wherefore, rather, brethren,give diligence to make your
calling and election sure, right, okay, giving diligence.
Put in the work to study theword Right, so that you can know
that your salvation is secure.
(45:32):
Right, how do you know yoursalvation is secure?
The Bible says so Through thepromises Through the promises.
Brandon (45:39):
That's right.
That is a great point, matt.
And notice, there's our littlephrase again at the end of verse
10.
Make your calling election sure, for if ye do what these things
, ye shall never fall.
What are the these things?
Again, it's connection to thegreat and precious promises.
Wouldn't you love to live aChristian life that from now on,
(46:01):
you don't fall?
Okay, you don't stumble likeyou used to.
I'm not talking about never sin.
I'm talking about you stayupright and you consistently
move forward in your life, inyour life as a Christian, in
your life as a Christian man orChristian woman, christian
husband, christian wife, and youdon't fall flat on your face
again.
Maybe you stumble every once ina while, but you do not fall
(46:24):
down.
Why?
Because you're connected tothese things.
These things are the great andprecious promises.
But Peter's not done here.
He keeps saying this.
Let's read on and look at thisVerse 11, for so an entrance
shall be ministered unto youabundantly into the everlasting
kingdom of our Lord and Savior,jesus Christ.
(46:45):
Watch what Peter says.
I love this.
He says wherefore I will not benegligent to put you always in
remembrance of what these things, what things the great and
precious promises.
Can I tell you what Peterpreached over and over?
Okay, and he said I will not benegligent to put you always in
remembrance of what these thingshe preached the same promises,
(47:09):
over and over and over again iswhat he did.
So Peter's ministry philosophywas equip people with these
things and not neglect to preachit to them.
Notice this though you knowthem, he goes.
You've already heard thismessage.
You've already heard thissermon.
You've already heard this truth.
But I already heard this sermon.
You've already heard this truth, but I am not going to neglect
to keep teaching these things,though you know them, and be
(47:31):
established in the present truth.
You're already grounded in it,but I'm going to keep hitting it
over and over and over.
Why?
Because when you know thesepromises, it unleashes that
divine power on the inside ofyou and the godliness comes out.
Matt (47:44):
Yeah, and I find patterns.
When I go to preach, it's likeevery time I stand up, one of my
points is almost always readyour Bible, Right?
I'm like do you really need tomake that point again?
(48:05):
Yeah, Until everybody gets it.
You really need to make thatpoint again?
Yeah, until everybody gets it,you probably need to make that
point.
Brandon (48:12):
It came to you for a reason.
One thing I've learned sincewhat?
Nearly 30 years, what am I?
60?
Yeah, in a couple years it'llbe 30 years of preaching, since
I was 16 years old.
They never get it.
Not everybody ever gets it.
Hopefully a few of them do.
But sometimes I think, man, I'mgoing to say this again.
I have said this 100,000 times.
(48:34):
Yeah, read your Bible, Right.
The Lord's like say it again,say it again Yep, yeah, look, he
keeps going.
Though you know them and beestablished in them, I'm going
to remind you of these things.
Then he says, yea, I think itmeet, or necessary, as long as
I'm in this tabernacle, his body, to stir you up by putting you
in remembrance, remembrance ofwhat these things, the great and
(49:02):
precious.
I've got written in my Biblethese things because he's saying
I'm going to remind you of themover and over and over.
What these things?
Then he says it again.
Verse 14 says, knowing thatshortly I must put off this, my
tabernacle, even as our LordJesus Christ has showed me.
So the Lord Jesus had showedPeter that your life is coming
to an end and you're going todie.
And Peter said I'm not going tostop preaching what I've
already preached to you, whichis get connected to the great
(49:23):
and precious promises.
And then he says this in verse15.
Moreover, I will endeavor thatye may be able, after my decease
, to have these things always inremembrance.
He said.
I want you to remember onething about me I preach to you
the promises over and over andover again.
Matt (49:42):
Man.
I love that.
Think about that.
He was shown by Christ thathe's going to die, right, he
knows his days are numbered andwhat does he do?
He sits down and writes thisletter.
Yeah, to tell them about thegreat and precious promises
Again that he says in thisletter.
(50:03):
I have already told you thesethings, right, but I'm telling
you again to make sure that youdon't forget it.
Yep, to bring it back to yourremembrance, Yep.
Brandon (50:14):
He says these things one, two, three, four, implies
it a fifth time, says it a sixthtime, six times, Five times he
says it.
And another one.
He implies these things in thefirst chapter, in the first 15
verses of that.
So these things is the word ofGod and the precious promises of
(50:38):
God.
So I want you to understandthis.
Okay, If you are a minister, ifyou are a teacher out there, if
you are a Sunday school teacher, a small group leader, okay,
listen, I tell all of ourleaders here all right, if
you're working with youth kids,whatever, listen, we're going to
give kids fun, we're going togive them activities, we're
going to do things like that.
(50:58):
But the main reason we're hereis to give them the word of God,
give them the truth and thepromises of God.
Anytime that I preach and here'sa pattern I've noticed as I've
gotten older and I'm by no meansold, but I'm older than I used
to be is I used to have like atext verse.
(51:19):
That's how I grew up.
I grew up in a Baptist churchand so you picked a text verse
and you preached on that passageof scripture.
But now I have developed intoand I'm not saying that I do it
right or somebody else does itwrong.
I'm just saying when the wordof God takes over in a message,
I've noticed that more and morescripture has creeped into my
(51:39):
messages and I'll look sometimesat a message that I'm going to
preach and teach and I'm afterteaching, I'm after the light
bulb clicking on and I'll lookdown and I'll count and I'll
have 10 or 12 scriptures to gothrough.
Now, that's a lot, and maybe youknow I don't know about you
guys out there if you're apastor or preacher, let us know
how long you preach.
But I preach about an hour,okay, and I jam in there and I
(52:05):
know that's a lot for somepeople because they're like,
well, where we go, it's 20minutes.
I'm just going to be honestwith you.
I don't even know how you makea point in 20 minutes, Okay,
like you're just getting warmedup and I'm not attacking that,
because I'd rather have peoplehave 20 minutes of the word of
God than not have 20 minutes ofthe word of God.
But we have got to get back andbut we have got to get back and
I want to say this We've got toget back to the doctrine of the
(52:28):
church, the precious promisesbeing taught, Because our kids,
guys, our kids don't know them.
Okay, Our grandkids don't knowthem.
Our young Christians, we don'tknow them.
Matt (52:42):
We don't know them.
Most of them get a coffee cupburst.
And that's all the promisesthat they get is a coffee cup
burst, something that'll fit ona coffee cup, and that's the
promise that they know.
Brandon (52:56):
But we don't see that in.
I'm thinking.
Matt (53:00):
And half of those are taken out of context when
they're put on the coffee cupcontext when they're put on the
coffee cup.
Brandon (53:12):
You know, we don't.
When I think about what achurch should be like in a
gathering together, I think ofActs, chapter 2, and the Bible
says that they continuedsteadfastly in the apostles'
doctrine.
So it says I think it's Acts2.42, and I'm not looking at it.
I want to show you one morescripture here before we sign
off on this episode.
But in Acts, chapter 2, verse42, they met together.
This is the church that youknow.
(53:32):
They had 120 people, and thenthe day of Pentecost happens,
and now they have 3,120 peopleand those 3,120 people continued
steadfastly in the apostles'doctrine.
It says Okay, so the apostleswere standing up and preaching
to them doctrine.
We know from Peter, who was thechief speaker on the day of
(53:53):
Pentecost, that what he waspreaching throughout the course
of his ministry was the greatand precious promises of God.
Okay, so he was reminding themof doctrine.
And that's what we've got toget back to.
And I want to encourage everypastor, every minister, every
youth leader, every small groupleader, sunday school teacher,
even a parent that is teachingyour kids, or husband, wife, you
guys are walking together.
(54:14):
Hey, stay connected to the wordof God, don't just read a verse
or two verses, connect to itSystematically.
Go through the word of God.
Let's get in depth, okay.
It's another thing that I'venoticed in my ministry.
I did not grow up in a veryexegetical style where you'd
take a whole book and go throughit just like line by line,
(54:35):
verse by verse.
But I'm going to tell you thatI've transitioned and most of my
teaching is more in a verse byverse style now.
Teach through many books, averse-by-verse style now.
Teach through many books, manybooks, several times of the
Bible, and people just love it.
It puts everything in contextand our people really eat it up.
And it's not me, it's notbecause they like my style.
(54:56):
They want the Word of God.
That's what we're hungry for.
Matt (55:00):
Don't just think and you get, when you're teaching like
that, you get more scripture inVersus.
If you're teaching like that,you get more scripture in, yeah,
you do a lot more Versus.
If you're doing a topicalteaching, and there's a time for
that, yeah, there's a time forboth.
There's a place for both.
Yep, but a lot of times whenpeople are doing a topical
(55:21):
teaching, you'll end up with averse or two, right, and you'll
preach on that.
A lot of opinion, a lot ofopinion, yeah.
But when you're going throughthe book, you're reading verse
after verse after verse afterverse after verse, and digging
into those verses, and now youmay connect other scriptures to
(55:42):
those verses, right?
Brandon (55:44):
well, yeah, Well, yeah, I agree.
So I just want everybody toconnect to the divine nature
that's on the inside of us.
We do that through the word ofGod.
You know, 2 Timothy 3 says thatall scripture is given by
inspiration of God and it'sprofitable.
And it says for doctrine that'sthe first thing, Okay, For
reproof, correction, all thoseinstruction of righteousness but
(56:04):
for doctrine, I want you toknow what to believe.
So you got to get in the wordof God to know what you should
believe, what you should betelling yourself, what you
should be believing aboutyourself, who you are, what
God's doing in your life.
Connect to those great andprecious promises and it's going
to unlock the door for thedivine nature to come out in you
.
And here's what we're going todo, Matt.
(56:25):
On the very next episode, we aregoing to take this divine
nature, okay, these great andprecious promises that we are to
be reminded of, and we're goingto look at a few of them
Throughout Scripture.
What are these great andprecious promises?
And we're going to look andwe're going to give you a list.
It's not an all-encompassinglist, but we're going to look at
what happened to you atsalvation.
What promises can you claimthat you need to be reminded of
(56:49):
that are going to keep you frombeing blind and not able to see
far off and forget how forgivenyou are.
So join us next time and we'regoing to go through some great
and precious promises of God.
Hey, don't forget to share ourbroadcast.
Don't forget to like us onYouTube and all the social
medias.
Share, Tell your friends andyour family.
We're trying to build aplatform here because this is
(57:11):
such a needed outlet diggingdeep in the Word of God and
finding out what the Bible says.
Matt, any last words before wesign off?
No, I don't think so.
All right, you guys have agreat night and we will see you
later.
The Bible says the Bible sayspodcast.
What does the Bible say ?
The Bible says the Bible sayspodcast.
All right, matt, welcome back.
This is the third time.
Episode three Third time we'redoing this.
How you doing, I'm good.
How about you Doing well, doingwell.
(00:31):
This is, like we said, thethird episode.
The first two seem to be doingwell they are.
Matt (00:38):
We've had over 600 listens of the podcast itself.
Brandon (00:44):
The entirety of the podcast itself.
Matt (00:44):
The entirety of the podcast the entirety of the
podcast plus, we're at like7,000 or 8,000 video views,
right so?
I think it's doing pretty goodfor two episodes in.
Brandon (00:55):
Small form content and the hour-long or hour-plus-long
podcast the entire episode.
Hour plus long podcast theentire episode.
So, just to make sure, this isepisode number three and we're
going to dive in here in asecond, but I wanted you to take
(01:15):
some time.
People that I know just fromwhere we live have been asking
me where can I find it, how canI get to it?
Tell everybody out there wherethey can find it and then how
they can share it, because wewant to get their word out as
best we can.
Matt (01:26):
Awesome.
So easiest way to find it iswwwthebiblesayspodcastcom.
Okay, forward slash, share.
That'll list out all theplatforms where the audio and
the video forms of the podcastare available.
At the very bottom of that pagethere's YouTube links, facebook
links, twitter links, spotifyyeah, spotify's in there, so all
(01:50):
of those links are on there.
You can go to your favoriteplatform YouTube, facebook,
whatever, like, follow, share,click the little notification
button, et cetera, so you getnotified on new episodes, and
just get the word out there Gooddeal.
Brandon (02:07):
We're trying our best to put out one episode per week
and that's our plan.
Obviously, there'll be two orthree times a year, at least
around holidays, that we won'tdo that, but we're going to put
out you know, pushing 50episodes a year and so we're
very excited about that.
We appreciate you guys tuningin a year and so we're very
excited about that.
We appreciate you guys tuningin.
Thank you for yourencouragement.
(02:30):
We've gotten some comments andall good.
Matt (02:31):
So far we haven't had too many haters, so that's good,
we've even got We've had a few,one or two.
Yeah, that's going to come, butthey're not we're used to that.
Yeah, we're used to that.
They're not that bad.
They're not that bad.
We haven't been cussed out yet.
Brandon (02:41):
We'll see what we can do about that.
Yeah, we'll work on that.
We'll work on that.
Yeah, well, tonight we aregoing to dive into a little bit
further.
Over the course of the lastcouple episodes we have kind of
set the stage with the doctrineof salvation, soteriology, and
we said it and I'll just say itagain there's so much and for
(03:04):
lack of a better term justcrappy doctrine out there that
just is not biblical, that istaught and just from a place of
ignorance, and it's not anattack on people, it's just.
But when you mess withsalvation and the way that
someone is justified andredeemed, it's just you can't do
(03:25):
that.
So we're in this conversationon salvation and I wanna
encourage everybody out there goback and listen to episode one
and two, because we define foryou what justification is
sanctification and glorification, the three tenses of salvation.
We get into the conversation onbody, soul and spirit what part
(03:46):
of you got saved at the momentof your belief in Christ, and so
it is so important for us tounderstand that and to know
what's going on from the momentwe're saved and justified
throughout the course of ourlife.
So that's what we want tocontinue on there tonight and I
want to begin tonight, and whatwe're going to begin with is
(04:09):
talking about the divine nature.
When we get saved, we are, youknow, born again of the Spirit.
Jesus said you must be bornagain, but we are and I think
this is often just misunderstoodand it goes or goes right over
our head that we become a newcreation in Christ and we have a
new nature on the inside of usthat our old man, romans says,
(04:31):
is gone, crucified, nailed tothe cross with him, and we have
a new man.
But that new man is on theinside and sometimes when I read
about this or have in the past,it kind of bothers me a little
bit, because I'll read and'llsay that God's blessed you with
(04:51):
all spiritual blessings and youhave everything you need in your
inner man.
And sometimes I don't feel likeI have everything I need, but I
have a divine nature on theinside of me and that's what we
want to get into.
So I want to go to 2 Peter 1,and Matt, if you want to pull
that up, and we can look at somescriptures there.
This is just a.
It's a pivotal launching pointscripture to understand how you
(05:16):
grow in your walk with Christand how you grow after your
salvation.
And so I just want to look atsome scriptures here, because
and let the Bible speak.
This is the Bible Says podcast,so we want the Bible to do the
same, and then we want to pickup from there and glean what it
says.
I don't want to read into thetext, I don't want to read my
(05:37):
opinion into the text.
I want the Bible to speak.
So 2 Peter 1, and let's pick up.
Let's just read from so 2 Peter, chapter number 1.
And let's pick up.
Let's just read from verse 1.
Matt, do you want to jump inthere and read a few verses?
Yeah, I can read, and then youcan add some things, and I've
got some chiming in that I wantto do on these verses as well.
Matt (06:00):
Okay, we'll jump in on verse 1.
Simon Peter, a servant andapostle of Jesus Christ, to them
that have attained likeprecious faith with us through
the righteousness of God and ourSavior Jesus Christ, grace and
peace be multiplied unto youthrough the knowledge of God and
of Jesus, our Lord.
Brandon (06:18):
Let me say, right there , just this is such.
Anytime I preach on 2 Peter 1,it is so chock full, every verse
is so unbelievably deep.
First of all, in verse 1, hepoints out that we have like
precious faith Peter's writingthat we have obtained like
precious faith through therighteousness of God and our
(06:40):
Savior, jesus Christ.
So it's Jesus's righteousness,it's God, the Father's
righteousness that has beenimparted to us at salvation,
it's not our righteousness.
So that is just a great pointin and of itself.
But I love verse two as well,because it says grace and peace
be multiplied unto you.
A lot of times people preachthat lost people need grace and
(07:03):
you need the grace of God andyou need salvation.
But I love the fact that evenas a Christian, as a believer
since I was seven years old, Ineed grace every day, I need
peace every day, and so I'm gladthat the well of grace is not
just for those who are just nowfinding Christ, but it's for all
of us.
Yeah, all believers need grace.
Matt (07:27):
We talked about people determining that they no longer
wanted to sin in their body oncethey were saved and the fallacy
of that.
Those people need grace too.
Brandon (07:45):
Yeah, we all do, because you never and we talked
about it last time your body,your soul and your spirit, your
spirit's born again.
Your soul is your mind, youremotions and your will, and it's
being transformed, and yourbody is just.
Paul described it as his.
He's dragging a dead body ofdeath, and so you never escape
(08:05):
flesh.
And so we all need grace and weall need peace, as verse number
two says.
But we can keep reading inverse three.
But I want you to really listenin verse number three, because
there's a couple, there's somekey words in here, and I want to
point out verse three and four,these key words.
Matt (08:27):
Okay, continuing verse 3,.
Brandon (08:40):
All right, so just chew through that verse little by
little.
It says that according to hisdivine power, god's divine power
, he hath given unto us allthings that pertain unto life
and godliness.
Now I don't know about you, butI don't always feel like I have
all things that pertain to lifeand godliness.
But Peter here says that I havebeen given okay, hath given
(09:05):
past tense, I have all thingsthat pertain unto life and
godliness.
Okay.
So that might blow your mindout there, because maybe you're
feeling inadequate, maybe you'refeeling sinful, rebellious, but
the Bible says that you alreadyhave, as a believer, all things
that pertain unto life andgodliness.
That blows my mind, it gets meexcited and it leaves me saying
(09:28):
why don't I have it then?
Why don't I experience it?
Then?
Why don't I have what thatverse describes?
Now, if you look back at versenumber two, it said grace and
peace be multiplied unto you.
Notice this through theknowledge of God and of Jesus,
our Lord.
So notice that grace and peaceis multiplied to them, but it's
(09:52):
connected to them gainingknowledge about God and about
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Okay.
So knowledge equals grace andpeace.
I get more grace, I get morepeace when I connect to the
knowledge of the Lord and of theFather, and the same thing in
(10:12):
verse number three.
So his divine power has givenus all things that pertain unto
life and godliness, but noticethe end of the verse through the
knowledge of him that hathcalled us to glory and virtue.
So the knowledge, knowing aboutGod, knowing what God has given
us, okay, equips me, it givesme grace, it gives me peace.
(10:35):
And it gives me, it releasesthe divine power that has given
me all things on the inside.
Does that make sense?
Matt (10:40):
Yeah, it's mining and refining ore.
You don't go out and find asteel bar underground naturally
in the earth, or gold.
All the raw materials are inthe earth for it.
But you've got to dig throughthem that's a good point and
(11:04):
find them and put them togetherfor you and your life.
Right, it's like you know it's,but it's in there, it's in
there, it's there, it's alreadyin you, but you have to learn to
bring it out and manifest it inthe world basically Right.
Brandon (11:31):
So the materials in us, god has equipped us with grace
and peace multiplied.
He's equipped us witheverything that pertains to life
and to godliness.
That means you can be as godlyas God wants you to be.
Okay, you have everything todefeat the power of sin in your
life, the holes, the strongholes that the enemy throws at
us.
We have all of that on theinside of us.
It's in there.
But I want you to notice thatthe verse number two, verse
(11:53):
number three it is connected togaining knowledge of God, the
Father and of Jesus Christ.
Now I want to ask you a questionout there and pose this to Matt
how do we?
What is the number one sourceof finding knowledge about God,
the Father and of Jesus Christ?
(12:13):
How do we find out theknowledge about him?
The Bible says the Bible saysright, the Bible is the key.
Thus this podcast.
Right, the Bible is the key.
Thus this podcast.
Okay, and you would think thatthat is so such an elementary
point to put out there, but notto the religious world.
(12:34):
Okay, why?
Because we have built wholesystems of religion and churches
with huge steeples and bigministries, and what do we do?
We ignore the Bible and we givepeople just a teaspoon here and
a teaspoon there and we wonderwhy Fill the rest with opinion,
fill it with opinion, and wewonder why we do not have grace
(12:57):
and peace, we do not have thedivine power releasing those
God-like attributes in our life,power releasing those God-like
attributes in our life.
It's frustrating to me becausethere's so much neglect to the
Bible.
Preachers preach.
I mean let me give you threepoints and a poem and let me
(13:19):
preach for 25 minutes.
And I don't know, I'm just I'mgetting really tired and sick
and tired of a lot of thepreaching and the styles of
preaching out there.
You know I used to want to be agood preacher.
I could care less about it.
Now you know what I want to be.
I want to be a good teacher.
I want to be somebody thatteaches the word of God and has
(13:41):
light bulbs click on in people'sbrain because you know what
this getting them connected tothe word is God.
And has light bulbs click on inpeople's brain Because you know
what this getting themconnected to the word is what's
going to change their life.
There's so much opinion outthere and preaching that well,
don't get me started.
Matt (13:56):
I won't go off on that tangent, and part of it is, I
think, why it doesn't manifestin people's lives.
Their version of God in theirbrain is not big enough.
Right, okay, that's I mean.
Honestly, to me, that's theroot of everything, from people
(14:17):
teaching that you can lose yoursalvation Right, okay, their
God's not big enough.
God's not big enough to keepyou saved, right, or he can't
break this piece of sin that'sin their life, right right, but
we find that everything that weneed to do all of these things
it's already in us.
Brandon (14:35):
And that's the thing that we want to point out.
It's already already there.
Okay, it's not you need to beequipped with it, you're already
equipped with it.
It's how do you get it out?
So let's look at verse numberfour, because there's a key
phrase in here that I want topoint out.
Let's pick up verse number four, matt.
Matt (14:54):
Okay, where are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises that by these youmight be partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped thecorruption that is in the world
through lust?
Brandon (15:07):
Okay, so there's the key.
So verse three said the divinepower of God has given us all
things on the inside of us, allthings that pertain unto life
and godliness.
Okay, and so we have everythingon the inside of us that we
need to be godly and everythingassociated with life.
It has been supernaturallygiven to us and bestowed upon us
(15:30):
by the divine power of God.
From the moment that we believeand when we connect ourself to
the knowledge of God containedin the word of God, then what
happens?
Okay, then we gain.
Grace and peace.
Verse number two Then we gain.
We have access to all thingsthat pertain to life and
godliness.
But verse four tells us what hegave us, that teaches us about
(15:55):
the knowledge of God and JesusChrist.
So don't miss this Verse four,what Matt just read.
It says whereby okay, whereby,or because God has given you all
things that pertain unto lifeand godliness and it's connected
to knowledge and you need theknowledge whereby, or because of
that God gave you the great andprecious promises.
(16:16):
Okay, that by these?
Okay, notice that word.
If you're following along withus in the Bible, I want you to
read this passage of scriptureand I want you to circle in your
Bible every time the word theseor these things comes up.
Okay, because he says wereceive exceeding great and
precious promises.
(16:37):
That by these, those great andprecious promises, we might be a
partaker of the divine nature.
Okay, promises we might be apartaker of the divine nature.
Okay, that's the key, all right.
So the Bible that I hold in myhand and the Bible that you're
reading and you're holding yourhand, a Bible that Matt has here
, okay, whether it's on yourphone or in a hardback book or a
(16:57):
leather bound, soft, beautiful,it doesn't matter.
The Bible that you have is theWord of God, and the Bible calls
itself great and preciouspromises.
Okay, great and preciouspromises.
You know, the Bible is full ofgreat and precious promises.
(17:17):
That's what it calls itself andthat is a phenomenal, beautiful
phrase to refer to the Bible.
And so when we have the greatand precious promises of God,
the Bible says that by these webecome partakers of the divine
nature.
Okay, now, the divine nature iswhat he's talking about.
(17:41):
Okay, in verse 2 and 3.
Yeah, he gave us all thingsthat pertain to life and
godliness.
Grace and peace are multipliedto you by knowledge.
So all these wonderfulattributes that God has, for you
are already on the inside ofyou.
That's what many people miss.
Did you know you have a divinenature on the inside of you?
A lot of times we blame our old, sinful nature, but we never
(18:04):
talk about our divine nature.
Oh, I slipped up and I said abad word, or I did this or I did
that because my nature Wellit's my nature.
Well, did you know?
That's your old man's nature,you're pre-Christ, before
salvation nature.
But you have a new man on theinside and a new nature, and
that new man, your spirit, man,has been made righteous, a right
(18:31):
standing before God.
We talked about that in theprevious couple episodes.
Yep Justification.
Matt (18:36):
Yeah, so it no longer has that sin Right, but your soul or
your mind and your body stilldo.
Brandon (18:46):
You can still think the wrong thoughts, your mind, soul
, body, mind, emotions and will,and then you can also sin with
your physical body.
Okay, but you also have theoption, okay.
This is what we don't talkabout a whole lot.
You don't have to just sinbecause your body's under sin.
You have a divine nature on theinside of you and that nature
(19:09):
wants to come out.
God wants you to be godly.
He wants everything that exudeslife to come out of you, but
it's connected to the knowledgeof God, which is connected to
the great and precious promisesof God.
Matt (19:21):
Yeah, and it's kind of like the and actually this verse
is a very good point of that.
It's like the two wolvesscenario, where you've got the
dark wolf and the light wolfRight.
Which one comes out Right?
The one that you're feedingRight?
The one that wins is the onethat you're feeding Right.
Are you feeding it theknowledge of God?
Brandon (19:44):
Because the Bible says that the great and precious
promises of God contained inScripture come from the
knowledge.
Are what unlock the knowledgewhich unlocks the divine nature?
Yeah, okay.
So let's back up here and if wedidn't talk about anything else
for the rest of the evening,that'd be enough.
(20:05):
Right there, I mean that rightthere can change your life.
Yeah, so, if you want, ifthere's not a lot of godliness
coming out of your life, if yourlife is not filled with the
things pertaining to life andgodliness and grace and mercy
and peace, okay, in your life,guess what?
You're not accessing andtapping in to that divine nature
.
So what do you need?
(20:26):
You need the great and preciouspromises of God to unlock the
knowledge of God, about God thathe wants you to know, and thus
unlock that divine nature, soyou can be connected and unleash
that divine nature that is onthe inside of you, but it's
connected to the great andprecious promises of God.
(20:50):
That's profound.
When I really did a deep diveinto 2 Peter a couple years ago
maybe not even that long ago Isaw it with fresh eyes and I'd
read it all my life.
But I saw it with fresh eyesand it really just changed my
life, but I saw it with fresheyes and it really just changed
my whole perspective that I havea divine nature on the inside
of me, and that's why I have tobe in the word of God, because
(21:12):
the more I learn about God andthe more I am reminded of God's
precious promises, and we'regonna go there in a minute.
What are the precious promisesthat he gives us?
We're gonna give you some ofthose today so you can begin to
cling to them, okay?
And when you cling to them andremind yourself of them, you are
unlocking that divine nature,and then the fruit of the Spirit
begins to come out in you.
(21:32):
This is exciting stuff.
It's awesome.
I want to look at verse number.
At the end of verse number four, it says that whereby are given
unto us exceeding great andprecious promises that by these
you might be partakers of thedivine nature, having escaped
the corruption that is in theworld through lust.
So how do you escape thecorruption that is in the world?
(21:53):
Through lust, you connect tothe great and precious promises
of God.
So the great and preciouspromises not only unlock the
knowledge which unlocks thedivine nature, but it also
shields you and protects youfrom the lust that is out there
in the world.
In other words, it'll defeatsin.
It'll defeat the things thatyour body craves against the
(22:14):
spirit.
So that's just an excitingthing.
So I told you a second ago inverse four circle the word these
, because it's talking about thegreat and precious promises.
By these you might be partakersof the divine nature.
Look at verse five.
It says go ahead, matt.
Matt (22:32):
And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith
virtue and to virtue, knowledgeand to knowledge, temperance
and to temperance, patience andto patience, godliness and to
godliness, brotherly kindnessand to brotherly kindness.
Brandon (22:53):
Charity Right brotherly kindness, charity, right.
So he goes through a list inverse number five and six and
seven, that not only do yourelease the divine nature on the
inside of you, but you alsodefeat the corruption and escape
the corruption that's in theworld through lust.
But then you know, we talkedabout, I think, on a previous
(23:16):
episode that you know, theChristian life is like growing.
It's like growing a garden.
It's like growing seed out ofthe ground.
It's like a baby growing up.
It's a maturation process, okay.
And here we see that when weconnect to the divine, to the
great and precious promises, weare to add to these things, to
the great and precious promises.
We are to add to these things,it says, diligence, add to your
(23:38):
faith virtue, that's excellence.
Virtue, knowledge, knowledge,temperance or self-control.
Patience is endurance,godliness, godliness, brotherly
kindness, brotherly kindness,charity, okay.
So you've got brotherlykindness, you've got deep,
abiding love.
You have a process here thatbegins to play out.
Why?
(23:58):
Because you have released thedivine nature on the inside of
you.
Why, because you got connectedto the great and precious
promises.
Matt (24:05):
Yeah, and it's almost like a salvation journey.
It is Okay.
So your diligence, yourstudying and learning who Jesus
was, who Christ was, learningthe gospel he saved you.
You accept the gospel, right,okay, that comes in as your
faith.
You place your faith in Christ.
(24:26):
When you place your faith inChrist, he imparts virtue to you
, right and giving you a rightstanding with God.
And then you build on that withknowledge and then with that
knowledge you become temperate.
It's like rungs on a ladder.
You're growing in your faithand your salvation journey and
(24:51):
you have temperance.
You learn to be more patientwith people and with patience
comes a little more godliness.
You're not lashing out atpeople for things Brotherly
kindness.
Brotherly kindness and thencharity, and the word charity
there in the Greek is agapeRight, and the King James a lot
(25:13):
of times translates agape ascharity.
Brandon (25:16):
But it's love.
Matt (25:18):
It's deep abiding love, deep abiding love, love for a
person, right Brotherly love,right, something like that.
Brandon (25:24):
Right, absolutely so.
It's a maturation process, butthat maturation process begins
with your faith.
That's where it begins.
That's the first rung on theladder, as it describes it.
But it all goes back to thesegreat and precious promises.
Now look at verse number eight.
Notice the first couple wordsof verse number eight.
(25:45):
For if these things be in you,okay.
For if these things be in youNow, I don't know about you, but
every time it mentions thesethings, I believe from 2 Peter
that it is referring back to thegreat and precious promises of
God.
Okay, now, some people will say, well, it's referring to the
(26:07):
list that he just gave you ofvirtue and knowledge and
temperance.
I don't think so.
I think he's saying if thesethings be in you, what things?
The great and precious promises.
So if the great and preciouspromises are in you and they
abound because you are connectedto them and you have released
the divine nature on the insideof you, okay, then all of this
(26:29):
fruit's going to start to comeout.
All right, now notice what hesays.
He says for if these things bein you and abound, they make you
that ye shall neither be barrennor unfruitful, okay, so if
you're not bearing the fruitthat you should be bearing in
your life.
It's probably because you arenot connected to the great and
precious promises and you're notmaturing, you're not releasing
(26:52):
that divine nature that comesfrom being connected to the
great and precious promises ofGod.
Okay, does that make sense?
It does, it does.
Yeah.
So nobody wants to be barren,nobody wants to be unfruitful in
the knowledge of our Lord JesusChrist.
Okay, but let me tell you thisso if we back up and just kind
(27:13):
of surmise what we've talkedabout, I've got to know the
great and precious promises ofGod.
Okay, why?
So I don't get shaken by theworld, so I let the divine power
, the divine nature that's onthe inside of me come out and
godliness begins to come out,things that pertain to life.
All right, I need the great andprecious promises of God.
(27:34):
One of my.
I don't know if you guys everseen them, but if you go in a
Christian bookstore, sometimesthere'll be like little promise
books, okay, and it'll gothrough and it'll have like
scripture after scripture.
So if you are dealing with theloss of a loved one or you're
dealing with anxiety or fear orwhatever the case may be, you
(27:55):
can look up that topic and it'llgive you promises from the word
of God that you can just, youknow put into your brain, put
into your mind, and not rest inyour thoughts and your fear and
your worry, but be remindedconstantly of the word of God.
That's what I'm talking about.
I learned a long time ago,really, when I was a boy, that's
(28:17):
what I'm talking about.
I learned a long time ago,really, when I was a boy, that
this book is a promise book,okay, and that, you know, I need
to get a hold of God's promisesand I need to cling to it.
Sometimes for all, hold on, fordear life.
It's like getting a sponge andwringing it for every drop I can
get out of it.
I have been in places in mylife and I'm sure you have where
(28:38):
I needed those promises and Ineeded to know those promises
and I needed to cling to thosepromises.
I just sat earlier I'm a pastorand I just sat with someone who
is worried that their time isdrawing near to go home to be
with the Lord, and we just satthere and we talked about the
great and precious promises ofGod and I just did my best to
(29:00):
try to share some of thepromises from the Word of God in
His time of need that he neededto hear, to remind Him that
God's got Him, that we are notto fear, that we are not to be
as the lost people would be,with no hope.
We are to be reminded of thegreat and precious promises, but
(29:21):
so many people are not.
And I want to say this righthere and I want to press on this
and I know I'm talking a lot,matt, here, so you jump in.
No, you're fine.
This is why it irritates me somuch that our preaching and our
teaching in most of our churchesis not.
I mean, it's that deeptheologically.
If I hear another preacher sayopen your Bible and I'm going to
(29:47):
read you my text verse, okay,and he opens up and he reads me
one verse of scripture and thenhe preaches for 45 minutes of
his stinking opinion.
It's horrible.
I have heard enough preachinglike that in my life.
I've even heard preachers say Iwanna open up your Bible, I'm
gonna read a verse, and they'llread one verse.
And I've even had them sayclose your Bibles, I'm gonna
(30:07):
talk to you for a little while.
Yeah, that's what they weredoing.
Close my Bible and they talk tome because God didn't.
Okay, people in our teaching andour preaching have to hear the
word of God.
I am a pastor.
I have been pastoring since Iwas 26 years old.
Okay, I'll be 43.
(30:28):
All right, I've been preachingsince I was 16.
Okay, pastoring since I was 26.
Pastoring since I was 26,.
Okay, I have preached a lot ofsermons.
Okay, I have preached a lot.
People do not need me, they donot need my experience, they do
not need my wit, they do notneed my jokes.
Okay, all of these things aregreat.
(30:49):
Okay, use them if God's giftedyou in those ways.
But the main thing that peopleneed, okay, is the word of God,
the promises of God, becausewhen you get born again, okay,
jesus said, man shall not liveby bread alone, but by every
word that proceeds out of themouth of God.
People do not need me, theyneed the word of God.
And I'm so tired of teachers.
(31:10):
And if you're a preacher, ateacher out there, listen, get
your nose in the Bible.
And if you get the opportunityto stand in front of a group of
people and teach or preach, stopgiving your stinking opinion
all the time.
Okay, get in the Word of God,all right, and you connect them
to the Word of God.
Nothing against your opinion,but it's the weakest form of
doctrine.
Okay, you get them in the Bible.
(31:32):
Okay, you get them in the Bible.
Get them in the Bible.
All right, I'm on a tangenthere.
All right, and listen to me,you Christians out there, you're
not a pastor, you're not ateacher, you're not a minister.
Listen, you know what you needevery day you need the Word of
God.
Okay, I'm going to saysomething else here,
(31:52):
controversial.
Too many Christians usedevotional books and rely on
them.
Okay, and what the averagedevotional book is?
A verse at the top and then apage or a half or two pages of
what that author thinks.
It's a story, it's anillustration.
That is great and cute andgreat and all okay.
(32:13):
Do you use devotionals, brandon?
Nope, okay, I get my nose inthe Bible.
Okay, now, I'm not mad at youif you use a devotional, all
right, but I'm just telling youit ain't enough scripture for
you.
A verse a day, two verses a day?
Oh, I got this Bible app and itsends me the verse of the day,
right, so I'm good.
You need more than that.
Matt (32:34):
You need a lot more than that.
Brandon (32:36):
Because you've got the divine nature and you're trying
to get it to come out.
Matt (32:39):
And you've got the divine nature and everyone has that
Holy Spirit on the inside Right.
And what about the people thatsit down, brandon, and say I
read the Bible but I don't getanything out of it?
Brandon (32:53):
Right?
No, I've gotten that a wholelot.
I'll say this Two quickpointers that I've told people a
lot in my life.
Sometimes they need to maybeswitch up a translation a little
bit.
I have recommended differenttranslations to people at
(33:16):
different times because theywere having a hard time.
You know, I grew up with theKing James Version.
I'm not a KJV-only guy, butit's my favorite and I read it,
and so if you hear me and you goout and get a KJV, you might
not be able to track along likeI can, because I've been around
it my whole life.
Maybe you need a more modernversion.
That's you know, and there'snothing wrong with that.
You got to make sure it's afaithful version.
(33:37):
That translates you know, asmuch, as much, as much as you
can, from word from word fromthe Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic
into English.
But maybe you need to do thatand ask a pastor or send us an
email.
If you've got a question aboutthat, you know, give us a
comment, give us an email.
We'll try our best to help you.
Another thing that I dopersonally is I read scripture
(33:59):
out loud.
So when I read my Bible I readit out loud, and this may sound
kind of silly, but I read it outloud so I can see it.
But I can also hear it and callme crazy.
But Romans 10, 17 says forfaith comes by hearing and
hearing by the word of God.
So if I hear it, I'm getting adouble whammy.
(34:19):
I'm seeing it, saying it andhearing it.
Okay.
So I encourage people to dothat.
Helps you focus on it.
And here's a big one Praybefore you read the Bible.
Matt (34:29):
That's what I was going to say.
Pray before you read the Bible.
What do you pray?
I actually ask the Holy Spirit.
A lot of people don't evermention the Holy Spirit in their
prayers.
No, talk to Him.
Yeah, they don't talk to it.
You have that Holy Spirit, thatdivine nature, as part of you.
(34:53):
Talk to it.
Talk to the Holy Spirit, sure.
Pray, ask that Holy Spirit toyou.
Know, I'm fixing to open upthis Bible and I'm going to read
Give me the knowledge, thewisdom that I need to gain from
this text to get me through thisday, absolutely.
I mean, that's my basic.
Brandon (35:12):
You know, in John 14, after Jesus begins, judas
betrays him or leaves the room.
It's before the Garden ofGethsemane.
Jesus begins to teach theremaining disciples about the
Holy Spirit, and this is wherehe refers to him as the
comforter.
But he also says he will teachyou all things and he will bring
(35:33):
to remembrance those thingsthat you've learned.
Okay, so the Holy Spirit isyour teacher.
So Matt's exactly right, and Ipray something like Holy Spirit,
I'm about to read your word,please teach me your word as I
read it and I just pray that,and then I'll read it out loud
and I'll hear it.
And let me say this so ifyou're struggling with getting
connected to the word of God,check out the translation, okay,
(35:56):
maybe there's something easierfor you to understand.
Pray before you begin to readit, okay, and then I encourage
you to read it out loud.
But one of the main things aswell is just don't get
discouraged.
Consistently do it.
Don't read it for two or threedays and then stop and say, well
, I'm not getting anything outof it.
You will when you consistently.
(36:17):
I promise you it's helping you.
All right, if you startexercising, you're not going to
see the results you want inthree days.
Matt (36:24):
Yeah, okay, so just stay consistent with it and something
else that tends to help me staymore consistent.
Help me stay more consistent.
I'll take, typically, a proverb, a book of proverbs, I mean one
of the chapters.
I'll hit the chapter whateverthe day is of the month, and
(36:52):
then somewhere in the OldTestament and somewhere in the
New Testament.
Brandon (36:53):
So you spread it around right.
Matt (36:55):
Spread it around a little bit, but those wisdom verses in
Proverbs, it's an easy way toremember.
Okay, where am I at in Proverbs?
And you can read that book overand over and over.
And I've read it 70, 80 times,right, I've read it 70, 80 times
(37:17):
, you know, right, I've read itmany, many times and I find
things new in that book thatI've read that many times.
Yeah, and it's kind ofinteresting to me that you can
read something that many timesand still find something
different, because you'redifferent from the last time
(37:38):
that you read it.
Brandon (37:39):
Well, the Word of God is the only book that you could
do that with, because it's asupernatural book.
It's alive and there's so manylayers of truth to it.
And in one frame of mind, inone stage of your life, you
might read scripture and itapplies in a certain way, and
then, a year later, you read itagain and it hits you completely
(38:00):
different.
You pick up and glean truthfrom it.
It's like layers of an onionthere's always another layer
underneath, layers and layers oftruth in the word and the more
you read, the more you get fromvarious different parts.
Matt (38:13):
It's like you love genealogies in the Bible.
I'm a dork.
If you get a fairly newChristian, they're not going to
love genealogy.
They're not going to lovegenealogies because they'll read
straight through that genealogy.
They won't know any of thenames in that genealogy.
Sure, sure, the light bulbs youknow.
When you read through thegenealogy and you find Lamech,
(38:36):
right, the father of Noah, kindof stuff, and you're like, oh,
wait a minute, and you startputting two in.
You put those stories togetherin your head where they'd be
reading that genealogy.
And then it comes to Noah andtells Noah's story, right, yeah,
but I mean you, because you'vebeen in the Bible and know the
(38:56):
Bible, bible.
You read those genealogies andgain more out of it.
Brandon (39:01):
Sure, just stay consistent.
And if you're a new believer,new Christian, my number one
recommendation is start in thebook of John.
The book of John is one of thesimplest books to understand.
It's all about Jesus, obviouslyone of the Gospels, one of the
four Gospels.
I would start there.
You don't necessarily have to.
(39:22):
It's not the Bible and I knowthis sounds crazy.
You don't necessarily have tostart at the front and read it
straight through.
It's going to make sense, evenif you jump in at different
areas.
I would start with the book ofJohn or one of the Gospels.
It would the book of John orone of the gospels.
It would be great for you.
(39:43):
But I want to go back to 2 Peterand I want us to see this,
because this is all great adviceto you if you're new to the
Word of God, because the Biblefirst of all.
I don't know if we've said iton here, but the Bible is the
Word of God, it's God-breathed,it's all for you and it's
profitable for you.
And the Bible says that aboutitself, that it is the great and
precious promises that unlockthe divine nature.
But I want you to look back, ifyou have a Bible, back at verse
(40:04):
number eight.
You won't be barren orunfruitful in the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
But look at verse nine.
What if you aren't connected tothe word of God?
What if you are a believer whois not connected to the word of
God, not tapping into the divinenature that's on the inside of
you?
God already said in thischapter I've given you all
(40:25):
things that pertain to life andgodliness.
So what if you are a Christianwho is not connected to the word
?
Watch what it says will happento you.
Verse number nine but he thatlacketh notice this.
What these things?
What things?
The great and precious promises.
If you're not connected to thegreat and precious promises,
watch what happens.
But he that lacketh thesethings is blind.
(40:47):
Okay, now I think that thatmeans you are blind to the great
and precious promises.
Okay, you do not know them.
Okay, you're walking throughyour house and it's dark and
pitch black and you're gonnastub your toe because you're
walking blind.
You're flying blind.
You're going through lifetrying to live a Christian life
(41:08):
and be a good Christian, andyou're not connected to the word
of God and you're walking blind.
You're flying blind.
He that lacketh these things isblind.
And the walking blind.
You're flying blind.
He that lacketh these things isblind.
And the reason I think it meansthat you're blind to the
promises is because the nextpart look what it says and
cannot see afar off.
Well, if you're blind,obviously you can't see afar off
.
So that's a way of saying well,what does it mean that I'm
(41:28):
blind and I can't see afar off?
I think when it says I'm blind,I think it means I'm blind to
the promises that God has for me.
And because I'm blind to thepromises that God has for me, I
can't see afar off.
I don't have the discernment tosee down the road in my life.
I can't see trouble when it'scoming.
I don't have my finger on thepulse of what's going on in my
(41:51):
life.
I don't have that Holy Spiritdiscernment because that divine
nature on the inside of me hasnot been tapped into the way
that it should be, because I'mnot connected to this.
So I'm blind to the promisesand I can't see afar off.
And look at the third thing andhath forgotten that he was
purged from his old sins.
So what do you do?
(42:14):
So what do you do?
You forget how forgiven you areand you walk around in guilt
and you walk around in shame andyou walk around defeated all
the time and you want to throwin the towel because your flesh
let you down.
Why All?
Because this could all havebeen avoided if you had let the
divine nature on the inside ofyou come out through connecting
(42:36):
to the great and preciouspromises.
If you're not getting anythingthat we're talking about today,
you better get this.
The Word of God is the mostimportant thing in your life.
You need to be in the Word ofGod every day.
You need to be feeding on theWord of God.
This book is your food.
This book feeds you spiritually.
And if you're a husband hereokay, listening to me, you're a
(43:00):
wife, all right, and you'retrying to parent and be a spouse
and do all these things andyou're not feeding your
spiritual self.
You're starving yourself.
Your number one priority is yourwalk with God and his word,
connecting to those great andprecious promises and unleashing
the divine nature.
And when you don't do that,when you're not connected to
(43:21):
these things, you're blind tothe promises.
You can't, you have nodiscernment and you forget how
forgiven you are.
A lot of people out thereyou're struggling with.
Well, I was saved a long timeago.
I don't even know if I'm savednow.
I guarantee you that you're notconnected to the great and
precious promises.
I guarantee you haven't beenreading your Bible Guarantee.
You have not been connected tothat and that is why you're
(43:42):
doubting, because you haven'tbeen reassured through the Word
and most of us, most Christians,at some point doubt our
salvation Right, lots of them.
Matt (43:54):
So when you doubt your salvation, where do you get rid
of the doubt?
Brandon (44:04):
To the preacher no, no, no, that's what a lot of people
say.
Matt (44:09):
So when you doubted your salvation, where did your dad
take you?
Brandon (44:11):
My dad when I was about 14, 15 years old.
I went through a lot of doubts.
I've told about this publicly.
He took me to the Bible and hemade me read the promises of God
and he says what does the Biblesay?
Matt (44:25):
What does the Bible say?
What does the Bible say?
What does the Bible say?
What does the Bible say aboutyour salvation?
Brandon (44:29):
Yep, and that's one of the greatest spiritual lessons
that I ever learned was Brandonstop going by your feelings,
stop going by what your headtells you and what the enemy
tells you, and go off what theBible says.
But let me tell you somethingThank God I had a dad who knew
the great and precious promises,to get me connected to them, so
(44:50):
I could unleash the divinenature and kill the doubt.
If you don't have someone youcan go to to connect you to the
promises you've got to get inthe word of God so you learn
those promises for yourself.
You need to learn thosepromises for yourself, for your
kids, for your grandkids, so youcan help others and connect
them to those promises.
Matt (45:10):
And that actually plays into the next verse even
Wherefore, rather, brethren,give diligence to make your
calling and election sure, right, okay, giving diligence.
Put in the work to study theword Right, so that you can know
that your salvation is secure.
(45:32):
Right, how do you know yoursalvation is secure?
The Bible says so Through thepromises Through the promises.
Brandon (45:39):
That's right.
That is a great point, matt.
And notice, there's our littlephrase again at the end of verse
10.
Make your calling election sure, for if ye do what these things
, ye shall never fall.
What are the these things?
Again, it's connection to thegreat and precious promises.
Wouldn't you love to live aChristian life that from now on,
(46:01):
you don't fall?
Okay, you don't stumble likeyou used to.
I'm not talking about never sin.
I'm talking about you stayupright and you consistently
move forward in your life, inyour life as a Christian, in
your life as a Christian man orChristian woman, christian
husband, christian wife, and youdon't fall flat on your face
again.
Maybe you stumble every once ina while, but you do not fall
(46:24):
down.
Why?
Because you're connected tothese things.
These things are the great andprecious promises.
But Peter's not done here.
He keeps saying this.
Let's read on and look at thisVerse 11, for so an entrance
shall be ministered unto youabundantly into the everlasting
kingdom of our Lord and Savior,jesus Christ.
(46:45):
Watch what Peter says.
I love this.
He says wherefore I will not benegligent to put you always in
remembrance of what these things, what things the great and
precious promises.
Can I tell you what Peterpreached over and over?
Okay, and he said I will not benegligent to put you always in
remembrance of what these thingshe preached the same promises,
(47:09):
over and over and over again iswhat he did.
So Peter's ministry philosophywas equip people with these
things and not neglect to preachit to them.
Notice this though you knowthem, he goes.
You've already heard thismessage.
You've already heard thissermon.
You've already heard this truth.
But I already heard this sermon.
You've already heard this truth, but I am not going to neglect
to keep teaching these things,though you know them, and be
(47:31):
established in the present truth.
You're already grounded in it,but I'm going to keep hitting it
over and over and over.
Why?
Because when you know thesepromises, it unleashes that
divine power on the inside ofyou and the godliness comes out.
Matt (47:44):
Yeah, and I find patterns.
When I go to preach, it's likeevery time I stand up, one of my
points is almost always readyour Bible, Right?
I'm like do you really need tomake that point again?
(48:05):
Yeah, Until everybody gets it.
You really need to make thatpoint again?
Yeah, until everybody gets it,you probably need to make that
point.
Brandon (48:12):
It came to you for a reason.
One thing I've learned sincewhat?
Nearly 30 years, what am I?
60?
Yeah, in a couple years it'llbe 30 years of preaching, since
I was 16 years old.
They never get it.
Not everybody ever gets it.
Hopefully a few of them do.
But sometimes I think, man, I'mgoing to say this again.
I have said this 100,000 times.
(48:34):
Yeah, read your Bible, Right.
The Lord's like say it again,say it again Yep, yeah, look, he
keeps going.
Though you know them and beestablished in them, I'm going
to remind you of these things.
Then he says, yea, I think itmeet, or necessary, as long as
I'm in this tabernacle, his body, to stir you up by putting you
in remembrance, remembrance ofwhat these things, the great and
(49:02):
precious.
I've got written in my Biblethese things because he's saying
I'm going to remind you of themover and over and over.
What these things?
Then he says it again.
Verse 14 says, knowing thatshortly I must put off this, my
tabernacle, even as our LordJesus Christ has showed me.
So the Lord Jesus had showedPeter that your life is coming
to an end and you're going todie.
And Peter said I'm not going tostop preaching what I've
already preached to you, whichis get connected to the great
(49:23):
and precious promises.
And then he says this in verse15.
Moreover, I will endeavor thatye may be able, after my decease
, to have these things always inremembrance.
He said.
I want you to remember onething about me I preach to you
the promises over and over andover again.
Matt (49:42):
Man.
I love that.
Think about that.
He was shown by Christ thathe's going to die, right, he
knows his days are numbered andwhat does he do?
He sits down and writes thisletter.
Yeah, to tell them about thegreat and precious promises
Again that he says in thisletter.
(50:03):
I have already told you thesethings, right, but I'm telling
you again to make sure that youdon't forget it.
Yep, to bring it back to yourremembrance, Yep.
Brandon (50:14):
He says these things one, two, three, four, implies
it a fifth time, says it a sixthtime, six times, Five times he
says it.
And another one.
He implies these things in thefirst chapter, in the first 15
verses of that.
So these things is the word ofGod and the precious promises of
(50:38):
God.
So I want you to understandthis.
Okay, If you are a minister, ifyou are a teacher out there, if
you are a Sunday school teacher, a small group leader, okay,
listen, I tell all of ourleaders here all right, if
you're working with youth kids,whatever, listen, we're going to
give kids fun, we're going togive them activities, we're
going to do things like that.
(50:58):
But the main reason we're hereis to give them the word of God,
give them the truth and thepromises of God.
Anytime that I preach and here'sa pattern I've noticed as I've
gotten older and I'm by no meansold, but I'm older than I used
to be is I used to have like atext verse.
(51:19):
That's how I grew up.
I grew up in a Baptist churchand so you picked a text verse
and you preached on that passageof scripture.
But now I have developed intoand I'm not saying that I do it
right or somebody else does itwrong.
I'm just saying when the wordof God takes over in a message,
I've noticed that more and morescripture has creeped into my
(51:39):
messages and I'll look sometimesat a message that I'm going to
preach and teach and I'm afterteaching, I'm after the light
bulb clicking on and I'll lookdown and I'll count and I'll
have 10 or 12 scriptures to gothrough.
Now, that's a lot, and maybe youknow I don't know about you
guys out there if you're apastor or preacher, let us know
how long you preach.
But I preach about an hour,okay, and I jam in there and I
(52:05):
know that's a lot for somepeople because they're like,
well, where we go, it's 20minutes.
I'm just going to be honestwith you.
I don't even know how you makea point in 20 minutes, Okay,
like you're just getting warmedup and I'm not attacking that,
because I'd rather have peoplehave 20 minutes of the word of
God than not have 20 minutes ofthe word of God.
But we have got to get back andbut we have got to get back and
I want to say this We've got toget back to the doctrine of the
(52:28):
church, the precious promisesbeing taught, Because our kids,
guys, our kids don't know them.
Okay, Our grandkids don't knowthem.
Our young Christians, we don'tknow them.
Matt (52:42):
We don't know them.
Most of them get a coffee cupburst.
And that's all the promisesthat they get is a coffee cup
burst, something that'll fit ona coffee cup, and that's the
promise that they know.
Brandon (52:56):
But we don't see that in.
I'm thinking.
Matt (53:00):
And half of those are taken out of context when
they're put on the coffee cupcontext when they're put on the
coffee cup.
Brandon (53:12):
You know, we don't.
When I think about what achurch should be like in a
gathering together, I think ofActs, chapter 2, and the Bible
says that they continuedsteadfastly in the apostles'
doctrine.
So it says I think it's Acts2.42, and I'm not looking at it.
I want to show you one morescripture here before we sign
off on this episode.
But in Acts, chapter 2, verse42, they met together.
This is the church that youknow.
(53:32):
They had 120 people, and thenthe day of Pentecost happens,
and now they have 3,120 peopleand those 3,120 people continued
steadfastly in the apostles'doctrine.
It says Okay, so the apostleswere standing up and preaching
to them doctrine.
We know from Peter, who was thechief speaker on the day of
(53:53):
Pentecost, that what he waspreaching throughout the course
of his ministry was the greatand precious promises of God.
Okay, so he was reminding themof doctrine.
And that's what we've got toget back to.
And I want to encourage everypastor, every minister, every
youth leader, every small groupleader, sunday school teacher,
even a parent that is teachingyour kids, or husband, wife, you
guys are walking together.
(54:14):
Hey, stay connected to the wordof God, don't just read a verse
or two verses, connect to itSystematically.
Go through the word of God.
Let's get in depth, okay.
It's another thing that I'venoticed in my ministry.
I did not grow up in a veryexegetical style where you'd
take a whole book and go throughit just like line by line,
(54:35):
verse by verse.
But I'm going to tell you thatI've transitioned and most of my
teaching is more in a verse byverse style now.
Teach through many books, averse-by-verse style now.
Teach through many books, manybooks, several times of the
Bible, and people just love it.
It puts everything in contextand our people really eat it up.
And it's not me, it's notbecause they like my style.
(54:56):
They want the Word of God.
That's what we're hungry for.
Matt (55:00):
Don't just think and you get, when you're teaching like
that, you get more scripture inVersus.
If you're teaching like that,you get more scripture in, yeah,
you do a lot more Versus.
If you're doing a topicalteaching, and there's a time for
that, yeah, there's a time forboth.
There's a place for both.
Yep, but a lot of times whenpeople are doing a topical
(55:21):
teaching, you'll end up with averse or two, right, and you'll
preach on that.
A lot of opinion, a lot ofopinion, yeah.
But when you're going throughthe book, you're reading verse
after verse after verse afterverse after verse, and digging
into those verses, and now youmay connect other scriptures to
(55:42):
those verses, right?
Brandon (55:44):
well, yeah, Well, yeah, I agree.
So I just want everybody toconnect to the divine nature
that's on the inside of us.
We do that through the word ofGod.
You know, 2 Timothy 3 says thatall scripture is given by
inspiration of God and it'sprofitable.
And it says for doctrine that'sthe first thing, Okay, For
reproof, correction, all thoseinstruction of righteousness but
(56:04):
for doctrine, I want you toknow what to believe.
So you got to get in the wordof God to know what you should
believe, what you should betelling yourself, what you
should be believing aboutyourself, who you are, what
God's doing in your life.
Connect to those great andprecious promises and it's going
to unlock the door for thedivine nature to come out in you
.
And here's what we're going todo, Matt.
(56:25):
On the very next episode, we aregoing to take this divine
nature, okay, these great andprecious promises that we are to
be reminded of, and we're goingto look at a few of them
Throughout Scripture.
What are these great andprecious promises?
And we're going to look andwe're going to give you a list.
It's not an all-encompassinglist, but we're going to look at
what happened to you atsalvation.
What promises can you claimthat you need to be reminded of
(56:49):
that are going to keep you frombeing blind and not able to see
far off and forget how forgivenyou are.
So join us next time and we'regoing to go through some great
and precious promises of God.
Hey, don't forget to share ourbroadcast.
Don't forget to like us onYouTube and all the social
medias.
Share, Tell your friends andyour family.
We're trying to build aplatform here because this is
(57:11):
such a needed outlet diggingdeep in the Word of God and
finding out what the Bible says.
Matt, any last words before wesign off?
No, I don't think so.
All right, you guys have agreat night and we will see you
later.
The Bible says the Bible sayspodcast.
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