Grow in Grace to Avoid the Traps of the Mark of the Beast

2 Peter 3:14-18

• Blameless through Jesus Christ.
• Salvation is Simple Message.
• Grow in Grace to Avoid Leaving Christ.

Blameless through Jesus Christ.
Those who live for Jesus Christ are looking forward to the new heaven and new earth where there is righteousness. That righteousness will never be found on this earth because people are flawed with sin. There will be no earthly utopia. Some might say that we can’t be held accountable for being born into a world of sin, and in a way that is true. In fact, God wants us to be blameless when it comes to inherited sin.

We become blameless when we believe God and accept Jesus Christ as the atonement for our sin. Still, we are sinners saved only by grace who needs to separate ourselves from the purpose of this world. It’s really pretty simple, a person saved by grace stays away from anyone or any activity which loves the benefits of the flesh more than the Spirit of Christ. As Christians, we reject the mark of the beast so that we can live for Jesus Christ. God chooses to conform us into the image of Christ and one day will bring us home into the New Jerusalem.

Those who live for Jesus Christ are at peace with God because He considers us spotless. Not perfect in the sense of never tripping, never coloring out of line, never dropping a bowl, never saying something wrong, never making a typing error, never getting below a 4.0 GPA, etc. No one is perfect in that way because those are impossible standards to live by. We are spotless because we believe God, accept Jesus Christ as Lord, welcome the Holy Spirit, and speak in favor of the Gospel. Although many people are hostile to Christianity and despise the testimony of Jesus Christ, God’s patience is such that He will allow anyone to come to Him through Jesus at any time.

“So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this,
make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him. 
Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, 
just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.”
2 Peter 3:14-15

Salvation is a Simple Message.
John 3:16 is the entire Gospel put into one verse, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” It’s a very simple message. Anyone who would teach that God’s grace overlooks sin would be to throw out the entire Gospel message. Likewise, to teach that God is so loving that everyone will be brought into heaven is also throwing out the Gospel. Even today, like when Peter wrote this letter, people were completely distorting Paul’s message of God’s grace. Grace is not something that enables us to toss out the Bible, grace is to allow us to share the Gospel of Christ despite inheriting a sinful nature.

If anyone says, “God would never want me, I’ve done so many terrible things,” that is the person whom Jesus Christ came for. Just accept God’s amazing grace and start saying a good word in favor of Jesus Christ. Anyone who teaches anything more complicated than John 3:16 are distorting the Scriptures. Unfortunately, many people hijack the scriptures to promote the agenda of a “global democracy” through the mark of the beast. They distort the Scriptures and wrongfully interpret many things to deter from the simple message of God’s Salvation plan. They discard Jesus Christ, grieve the Holy Spirit, and set up the mark of the beast as God.

“He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters.
His letters contain some things that are hard to understand,
which ignorant and unstable people distort, 
as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
2 Peter 3:16

Grow in Grace to Avoid Leaving Christ.
The only way to avoiding straying from the testimony of Jesus Christ is to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Growth comes by reading the Bible. The Prophets explains why there is a push in today’s world for a “global democracy,” and why God’s people are accosted. It explains the presence of the mark of the beast in this world. The Apostles of Christ explains why we need to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Jesus is Lord, not the mark of the beast, and Jesus is the Savior of the world, not the beast’s “global democracy.”

The thing that governs through the mark of the beast has the power to form feelings and thoughts. It enflames those feelings and thoughts to make a Christian feel unworthy of being a child of God. It can cause us to be carried away by the errors and flaws happening within us to the point that we lose what we have in Jesus Christ. God is not holding us to impossible standards of perfection, His grace helps us to continue on in the Spirit of Jesus Christ to build our character and virtue. That is part of the process of growing in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus.

“Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned,
be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by
the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 
To Him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”
2 Peter 3:1718

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11