Kootenai Church Morning Worship

After more than a year and forty-one sermons, Pastor Jim Osman closes out the book of 2 Peter with the two exhortations that summarize everything Peter wanted his readers to hear.

In this final message on 2 Peter 3:17-18, Osman shows that if believers are to remain stable in the gospel, they must diligently heed two closing commands. Guard against error. Grow in truth. Osman opens with a sobering, real-world example of how easily false teaching slips into a church under the banner of spiritual formation, a reminder that Peter's warnings are just as urgent now as in the first century.

Osman then works through both commands. To guard means standing watch the way a shepherd watches his flock, alert to wolves who would carry believers away from their steadfastness. To grow means pursuing the grace and knowledge of Christ as an ongoing responsibility, not a plateau reached and left behind. False teachers cannot take away a believer's salvation, Osman notes, but they can rob believers of fruitfulness, stability, and reward.

This final sermon brings the epistle full circle, back to Peter's promise that believers already have everything they need for life and godliness, and closes the series with a clear charge: guard, and grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.