2 Peter 1:3-11 His
divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness,
through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by
which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that
through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from
the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For
this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and
virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and
self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and
godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For
if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being
ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For
whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having
forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore,
brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if
you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in
this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal
kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
This is Peter’s second
letter written from prison as he was awaiting execution. In his first letter he
laid out a great deal of information for the Christians who lived in the center
of modern day Turkey. He has told them many of the things they need to know to
live a godly life. Now Peter points out the need to grow in grace and the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. The passage we’re going to look at lists a
series of growth steps that are essential to the believer’s assurance of
salvation.
Now, I want you to
understand neither myself, nor the apostle Peter, is advocating any kind of
works for salvation. We are saved by grace through faith and that is not
because of any works of righteousness that we have done…
It
is God’s work. A number of places in the Bible affirm
without question that salvation and growth in grace are God’s work. Listen
while I read 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your
whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely
do it.
Just as Peter began with,
“He has divine power”, Paul begins with, “Now may the God of peace”, do his
work in us. God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
Those things are granted us through the knowledge of Jesus, the one who called
us to his own glory and excellence. I am so grateful that my salvation, and my
spiritual growth, are both dependent upon God’s ability, not mine! You cannot
sanctify yourself! You cannot somehow morph yourself into life and godliness!
That is God’s work! His divine power has given us…
Everything
we need. Somehow it seems that most Christians expect that they
will be rewarded materially as well as spiritually because of their faith. Paul
wrote to the Philippians thanking them for helping him materially but he
assured them that he knew how to live with material blessings or without them.
Listen while I read Philippians 4:11-13.
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have
learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how
to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I
have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I
can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Verse 13 is often quoted out
of its context. We use it too often to claim some ability that we really do not
have. This passage affirms that we can live with, or without, material
blessings. What we really need is a godly life. We do not have the ability in
ourselves it is a gift of God given to us…
Through
knowing Christ. Christ
alone gives us the ability to know God. The Bible doesn’t say that we should
accept Christ as our Savior. The Bible says we must confess Christ as our Lord.
Listen to what Paul wrote in 2
Corinthians 4:5-6. For what we proclaim is
not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for
Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of
darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
The message of the Bible is,
“Jesus Christ is Lord”. The persons bringing the message are secondary, not
primary. God has lighted our hearts so that we can share the knowledge of the
glory of God. Through Christ Jesus God has given us everything we need
pertaining to life and godliness. We know that because…
God
has given us his promises. I feel so sorry for those people who
believe that some of the promises of God found in the Bible are no longer ours.
Again, let’s listen to the words of the apostle Paul. This passage is found in 2 Corinthians 1:18-21. As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. 19 For
the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and
Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 20 For
all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him
that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21 And it is God
who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and
who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a
guarantee.
All the promises of God are
granted to us in Christ Jesus. Paul tells us that the message he shared was not
yes and no. The message he had from God was YES! It is God who has given us all
we need to live a godly life. It is God who promises to sanctify us entirely:
spirit, soul, and body! He doesn’t promise to teach us how to be godly he
promises to “gift” us with godliness!
We are born separated from
God by sin and subject to death all our life. Left on our own that inherited
sin would drag us down to the pits of hell. All any of us deserve is death and
hell! But God demonstrates his love for us in that while we are still sinners
Christ died for us. Thanks be to God we can come to a place where we see that
Jesus Christ has taking our sins into his own body nailed them to the cross, he
then buried them in the grave and left them there. When we confess him as Lord
we are brought into his family allowing us to be…
Partakers
of his nature. The apostle John lived longer than all the
others and had a deeper spiritual insight than most of the others. Towards the
end of his life he wrote the gospel of John, first, second and third John and
Revelation. In his first little letter he tells us about that nature that we
receive from God. Listen while I read 1
John 3:2-3. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet
appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we
shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him
purifies himself as he is pure.
When he appears we shall be
like him. But, we don’t have to wait till then! “We are God’s children now”!
The work of God in the life of the believer gives us everything that we need
for godly living. And since that is true we make it our desire to be like him
in every way. We purify ourselves, growing in grace, because he has worked in
our lives to shape us into the image of Christ Jesus.
We begin with faith that God
has given us and then, in order to grow in him, we begin the process of…
Adding
to our faith. How do we go about that? Listen while I read Philippians 2:12-13. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in
my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will
and to work for his good pleasure.
One of the most misused
passages of Scripture is found at the end of verse 12. Where it says “work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling”. This is in no way talking about
our work earning us salvation. If that were the case none of us would have any
chance of being saved. We could never do enough good to overcome the sin we
were born with and the sin that we have committed ourselves since birth. “Work
out” with regard to salvation is an interesting term.
Have you ever watched someone
prepare dough for baking? Yeast bread requires a good deal of kneading. All of
that working with the dough has a very special purpose. The purpose is to
spread the yeast evenly throughout the loaf. If it’s not done properly the
bread will be ruined. At the very best, it will rise unevenly. God does the
work in us for salvation we do the work of spreading the good things of God
throughout our lives as we are guided by the Holy Spirit. Faith itself is the
gift of God.
Peter says that we are to
add virtue, or excellence, to our faith. Then we are to add knowledge; and then
we are to add self-control; then we are to add steadfastness; then we are to
add godliness; then we are to add brotherly affection; then we are to add love.
I don’t know if this is a necessary sequence of qualities added to our life but
I do know that they are necessary and that God has given us everything we need
to be able to add them. God does the initial work of salvation and grants us
all the tools that we need to grow in grace! Salvation makes us children of God
— partakers of the divine nature! Jesus says that we must be born again. That
new birth comes about as a work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Just as when
we are born physically we have to mature, when we are born spiritually it is
absolutely essential that we grow up spiritually. A major problem in the church
in Corinth was that Paul had to address them as infants in Christ. In Peter’s
first letter he said that we, like newborn infants, are to desire the pure
spiritual milk, that by it we may grow up into salvation.
We don’t grow spiritually by
somehow straining out each one of these qualities mentally. We find out how
these qualities work by spending time with the word of God. The Bible teaches
all that we need. Yet most Christians read the Bible very little. It is very
important that we spend time reading and meditating on the word of God.
Many people say they just
don’t have time. Well, if it’s important you will make time! Or, you will use
your time more effectively. Most people, I believe, listen to the radio in
their car. Most cars today have CD players as part of the radio. You can buy
the Bible on CD’s and as you ride to and from work listen to the word of God.
You can take some of the time before you go to bed to read a little in the
word. You can get up a little earlier and spend a half-hour reading the word of
God.
Some people have a real
problem in that they do not know how to read or, have a difficulty reading
because of dyslexia. Again, the recorded Bible will solve that problem and will
help you with your reading. My uncle, Wilbur, had a very limited education. As
a result he could not read well and seldom ever tried. Then he met Jesus! He
was saved by the power of God and began to apply himself to reading the Bible.
He literally learned to read from the King James Bible. As time went by, God
called him to preach! He was the pinch-hitter for several churches in the area,
filling the pulpit when their pastor was away, or ill. As time went by he saw
the need for a new church in the area where he lived. He formed a church out of
his friends and neighbors and then deeded a piece of land from his farm to the
new church. Then, with his own hands, and the help of many others, he built a
church building. Today, the Indian Creek Baptist Church outside of Defuniak
Springs Florida is still in existence to the glory of God! One man, determined
to grow in the Lord, was used by God to establish a church where many people
came to know the Lord Jesus Christ. He added to his faith!
Peter tells us that if we
have these qualities and they are growing in our lives they keep us from being
failures in the Christian walk. God has given us everything we need with regard
to life and godliness. He has brought us to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and
has worked in our lives to encourage us to grow in grace.
The more these qualities
increase the clearer we see our relationship to God. For many Christians there
has been a…
Failure
to add to faith. Again let’s look to the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. According
to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a
foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he
builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than
that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone
builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each
one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will
be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has
done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation
survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is
burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as
through fire.
When God led Paul to preach
to the Corinthians he laid a foundation. That foundation is Jesus Christ!
Having faith in Jesus gives us everything we need. Our knowledge of Christ
releases God’s promises in our life and allows us to begin to build on that
foundation. As Paul puts it to the Corinthians, we can build with gold, silver,
or precious stones. That’s good quality building! That’s what happens when we
add all these qualities to our faith.
Very often we build with
wood, hay, or straw. Most of us know the story of the three little pigs. It
goes like this:
Once upon a time there were three little pigs. One pig
built a house of straw while the second pig built his house with sticks. They
built their houses very quickly and then sang and danced all day because they
were lazy. The third little pig worked hard all day and built his house with
bricks.
A big bad wolf saw the two little pigs while they danced
and played and thought, “What juicy tender meals they will make!” He chased the
two pigs and they ran and hid in their houses. The big bad wolf went to the
first house and huffed and puffed and blew the house down in minutes. The frightened
little pig ran to the second pig’s house that was made of sticks. The big bad
wolf now came to this house and huffed and puffed and blew the house down in
hardly any time. Now, the two little pigs were terrified and ran to the third
pig’s house that was made of bricks.The big bad wolf tried to huff and puff and
blow the house down, but he could not. He kept trying for hours but the house
was very strong and the little pigs were safe inside.
Now we know that the story
of the three little pigs is just a fable but it does teach a truth. What you
build with determines how protected you are. The problem with comparing our
spiritual development with the three little things is that we are stuck with
what we build. We can’t run to the brick house and be safe we have to build out
of material that will stand the test of time — and of fire!
The Bible tells us that we
are to be careful what we build with. Our work in the Christian life is going
to be tested by fire. Remember, it is appointed unto man once to die and after
that the judgment. The day of judgment will test our work. The work that can go
through the fire will be to our credit. There will be rewards for those who
build with gold, silver, and precious stones. For those who build with wood,
hay, or straw will suffer loss. However, if the foundation is there, then they
will be saved, but only as through fire. I am afraid that a lot of us will
arrive in heaven with the smell of smoke all over us.
A person who fails to grow
in grace, adding to their faith — etc. grows more and more nearsighted even to
the point that they are blind to their salvation. They do not lose their
salvation they simply lose “touch” with their salvation. It seems strange to
say but they forget they are saved because they have not been making every
effort to add to the faith they began with. If we look at these qualities, or
virtues, we see that they are found in studying God’s word. Satan does
everything in his power to keep a person from salvation. Having failed that,
Satan works at keeping that person from acting like a Christian. If he is
successful in that then the church becomes more and more like the world.
Christian believers are reduced to stumbling along, spiritually, getting
further and further away from appearing saved. Where are you in your Christian
walk? Have you come to know Jesus as your Lord? Are you adding to your faith
every day the qualities that cause you to remember your relationship to Christ?
Today is the day! Come to Jesus, or, come back to Him!
All
scripture quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version.
2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
No comments:
Post a Comment