Saturday, September 13, 2014

140914 Choose Holiness and Peace



2 Peter 3:14-18 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
As we come to the end of Peter’s second letter we find him pressing this point home: We have a responsibility to focus on a life that honors God. Peter began this letter with a call to add to our faith qualities of life that every Christian should reflect. Peter assures us that everything we need pertaining to life and godliness has been given to us by God’s divine power. Much of the second letter is written as a warning to avoid false teachers and false teaching. Peter wants his beloved Christians to remember the words of the prophets, and the prophetic words of Jesus Christ and the apostles. Especially we should remember that Christ is coming again! Now let’s look at the last words in the letter.
Since we are waiting on the day of the Lord and the end of all things as we know them. Jesus is coming again! A day when the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved! And according to his promise we will see new heavens and a new earth that will be a dwelling place of righteousness. I suppose part of the problem is that many Christians are not waiting for these things. Folks, let’s get with the program! We need to be expectantly waiting for our Lord to return and in the process there are several things that we should be doing. First of all…
We must apply our faith diligently. Turn with me to Paul’s letter to the Philippians chapter three verses twelve through sixteen. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
Since we know that Jesus is coming again we must apply ourselves to living out the Christian life. Paul points us in the right direction. This side of heaven we will never be perfect. Paul said that he counted everything as loss that did not point him to Jesus Christ. The most important thing in life for him, and for us, is to be found in Christ Jesus. Our righteousness comes through faith in Christ not through our good works. Our righteousness grows out of our faith and is a gift from God. We should join the apostle in laying aside all our human achievements in order to know Christ.
When I first came upon this passage of Scripture I was impressed with the idea that the apostle Paul talks about “knowing Christ” or “that I may gain Christ” and as a result be found in him. Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, felt the same things we feel and desired, spiritually, the same things we desire.
So he said “I press on to make it my own”. And he can do that not because he was a Pharisee or a persecutor of the church but because Christ Jesus has made him his own! This is an amazing thing! That the man who was looked to as “a Hebrew of the Hebrews” should feel a need to lay aside all his achievements in order to put the past behind him and press forward, in faith, toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. If anyone had ever “attained it” or “obtained it” that person would have been the apostle Paul. I love the fact that he is positive that God will reveal to us what we need so long as we hang on to what we have. We must apply our faith diligently and…
We must seek to be blameless. Turn with me to 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.
There is an awesome unity in the Word of God. Peter refers to us being found in Christ “without spot or blemish”. That is a pretty high goal for anyone. To be without spot or blemish is referred to by the apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter five. There he refers to Christ loving the church and giving himself up for her so that he could sanctify her, washing her with the word, so that he could present the church to himself “without spot or wrinkle” being holy and without blemish. Notice that in this Thessalonian passage Scripture speaks of our being completely sanctified. Sanctification is a work of God and man, cooperating with each other, making us more and more free from sin and more and more like Christ in our lives. Now before you start organizing a “sanctification plan” with a series of actions and goals that we are to complete in our own strength look again at this passage. It is the God of peace who will completely sanctify us. Not by works of righteousness that we have done, it is God who does the work in us. As verse twenty-four says, “He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.” Please allow me to quote from Bill Gillam’s book Lifetime Guarantee. We need to keep in mind Bill is talking about believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have confessed with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believed in their heart that God raised Him from the dead and are saved. Listen to this! It is a very important concept!
All your needs are met. Your Father has everything under control that happens on earth. He is totally accepting you and loving you. You are a son or daughter in the Father’s forever family. You are “holy and blameless before Him”. You have become a “partaker of the divine nature”. Think on these things. Focus your mind on this truth.
It’s reality! “When Christ, who is our life...” (Colossians 3:4). Wow! He is your life! Right now, He is the only life you have. If He were ever to leave you, we’d know it right away, because your earthsuit would fall over dead. Your soul and spirit could not reside in your body without His life, because your old life died in Him at Calvary. So much for losing your salvation. Since Christ is your life, wouldn’t it be a normal thing for you to let Him express His life through you? Jesus is the only one who ever lived a victorious life, and His indwelling Holy Spirit is the way He can now express that life through you. That wouldn’t make you a little Jesus, as some teach, any more than you were another Adam when you were once in Adam. It’s just that now, instead of Adam’s life of self-service, you have Christ’s life of serving others. It’s His life we have, not His personality.
We may never be faultless but we are blameless in Christ. As long as we live in this world system we will do things less-than-perfect. As long as we’re less-than-perfect there will be fault in what we do. But as long as we allow the life of Christ to be lived through us we will be without blame. Because we are in Christ we are without spot or wrinkle — holy and without blemish. Praise God! He does the work!
We must apply our faith diligently, seek to be blameless and…
We must make it our goal to be at peace. Turn with me to Romans 14:17-19.  For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
Throughout my adult life I have never seen more conflict and quarreling in the public arena than we have today. Jesus said that the peacemakers will be blessed. I wish I could see a peacemaker in our social society. These conflicts spill over into the church. We are supposed to be at peace with one another and, along with that, able to encourage and strengthen one another. I think it’s very interesting that being found by him without spot or blemish leads to the idea of being at peace. Of course! When Satan attacks us he goes after our peace. If Satan can convince us that our faults are part of our personality and our salvation depends on our good works he can take away our peace. If he can move us into the idea that we can earn our salvation if we can be good enough then he will certainly be able to take away our peace and drive us into depression! Remember, it is God who is faithful! He will do it!
We need to lay aside all concept of anxiety and by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving make our requests known to God and then the peace of God — it’s beyond all understanding — will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus!
We must apply our faith diligently, seek to be blameless, make it our goal to be at peace and…
We must avoid getting carried away with error. Turn with me to Colossians 2:6-8. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
You find yourself in money problems and then you turn on the TV or radio and hear someone say all you have to do is… and your financial problems will be solved. I once had a friend phone to tell me about an evangelist that he heard that day on a popular Christian radio station. This person said that if you are having trouble paying your bills it is because you don’t trust God enough. The evangelist instructed his listeners to add up all their monthly bills, send that amount of money to him, and destroy the bills. He then said God would give them one hundred times what they sent to him. That is error! The radio station should have removed him from their listing and someone should have sued him for libel against God!
You watch as you ride through the village and you will see two nice-looking young men dressed in dark slacks, a white shirt and a tie. They are deceived and they will deceive you if you will let them. They are Mormons and not Christian!
It may be on a Sunday morning when you didn’t feel like going to church that some nice lady, or gentlemen, will come to your door and offer you some literature and ask to be invited in. They feel like they’re pretty safe when they call on Sunday morning! They believe that the people who are home then are not active Christians. They are Jehovah’s Witnesses and they are deceived and will deceive us if we let them.
The apostle John in his first letter said that we are not to believe every spirit. We are to test them! He went on to say that confessing that Jesus Christ has come into the world in the flesh is the standard we must use to measure truth and error. (1 John 4:1-6) Paul warned Timothy that in the latter times (we live in them) some would come devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. They will have consciences that are seared, forbid marriage, and impose dietary restrictions.  (1 Timothy 4:1-5) They are all around us and we need to watch out for them. As far as teaching is concerned the Bible is the only Book that is without error. Every other book, or teaching, needs to be approached the same way you would a fish dinner. When you approach a fish dinner you need to be careful to avoid the bones and eat the meat. Pretty much every Christian book which you find yourself picking up will have some bones in it. Don’t throw the book away — throw the bones away! If it’s really, really, bony then throw it away. Don’t bother with it. It’s a waste of time!
If you’re confronted by someone in your church that you believe to be in error correct them in love. Try to determine if their error affects something that is essential to salvation. If it is simply a matter of preference for a particular view of the second coming, or of spiritual gifts, then encourage them not to make that a test of fellowship. A long time ago I was told by someone much smarter than me that everyone has the right to be wrong and I have accepted that as my policy. Everyone does not have to agree with me in order for me to fellowship with them. But, those who are in error must not try to drag others into their error. That is the way cults develop.
We must apply our faith diligently, seek to be blameless, make it our goal to be at peace, avoid getting carried away with error and…
We should rejoice in God’s patience. Turn with me to Romans 2:4. Let’s see what God’s patience is intended to do.  Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.
There’s an old saying, “only the good die young” and I believe there’s a certain truth to it. Of course it is not absolute. Only God knows whether a person will come to faith if they are given more time. The warning found in Romans is that we are not to take God’s patience for granted. Today is the day of salvation! There may not be any more days! God’s kindness and forbearance and patience is meant to give everyone an opportunity at salvation. Not everyone will take advantage of God’s patience but some will.
Let me tell you a story about Johnny. When I was in college, studying for the ministry, one of our activities was to go out on a Saturday night into a particularly rough part of town and preach on the street corner. While one of us would preach others would go along talking to individuals. One night while I was preaching a premed student, I wish I could remember his name, stopped an elderly man as he was coming out of a saloon. I couldn’t hear what was being said but I watched as this man knelt in the gutter and gave his heart to Jesus Christ. We had no plan for follow-up except to pray for these people.
About a year later a couple of us, Don Degarmo and myself, took our families and went out to a rural area near Richton, Mississippi. There was a church there that had closed down. We met with a couple of people who had been members of the church in the past and we agreed to resume worship services there. I’m glad to report to you that that church is still in existence after more than 40 years.
One Sunday morning, after the service had begun, I looked up and saw three people come into the back door and take a seat. One of them was the elderly man that I saw giving his heart to Jesus in the gutter. At the end of the service we extended an invitation to give a public confession of faith in Christ and this gentleman stepped out and came down the aisle.
I thought I knew who he was and he immediately confirmed it because he said that he had come to know Christ one night in the gutter in front of a bar. He publicly gave his testimony and asked to be baptized. I rejoice that God’s patience was present with Johnny to give him an opportunity to be saved after he was 70 years old. Not only do we rejoice in God’s patience but we soon discover that He has implanted that same quality in ourselves. Listen while I read Galatians 5:22-24. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
The fruit of the spirit is implanted in every Christian’s life. It is not something that happens to you after salvation it happens at the time of salvation. I believe that the fruit of the spirit is love showing itself in joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. God’s kind of patience grows in our life because He has implanted His spiritual fruit in us. As we mature in the Christian faith one of the evidences of the presence of Christ in our life is the patience with which we are able to be with others.
We must apply our faith diligently, seek to be blameless, make it our goal to be at peace, avoid getting carried away with error, rejoice in God’s patience and…
We are to grow in grace and knowledge of Christ. Listen while I read 2 Timothy 2:1-2. You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Peter has instructed us to maintain a steady footing in our spiritual life. We are to do this by avoiding the error of lawless people and applying ourselves to spiritual growth. Peter continues to urge the addition of spiritual qualities to our life. We are to grow in grace. In John’s Gospel we are told that though the law came by Moses grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. (John 1:17) There is a harmony in the Bible concerning the need for spiritual growth. Paul writes to Timothy that he is to be part of a chain of events that we also are part of.
Paul says that Timothy is to take what he has been taught and share with faithful men who will then be able to teach others. In this verse there is a four step process: Paul — Timothy – faithful men — others. That process of growing in grace, teaching one another, strengthening one another, caring for each other has continued without interruption for the past 2000 years! In fact Jesus prayed for that process go forward in His high priestly prayer found in John, chapter seventeen. Jesus said, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.”  (V. 20)
We see in these verses a continued emphasis by Peter on the need for spiritual growth. Many times people claim to come to faith in Christ and then there is no observable spiritual growth. In the first chapter of second Peter we see that the qualities of Christian growth are a key to the assurance of salvation. The qualities that Peter calls on us to add to our faith are: virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love. He assures us that possessing these qualities and growing in them will assure our effective ministry. If we lack these qualities we can come to the point in our life where we even forget our salvation. Are you adding these qualities to your life? Please make that a part of your day-to-day activity and you will never fall! (2 Peter 1:5-11) We have no assurance of tomorrow — today is the day! Don’t put it off any longer!
All scripture quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

1 comment:

  1. Pastor Waylen,

    Thank you for this EXCELLENT message. As you may know, our church is between pastors. Our scheduled speaker failed to show up today, and I was hungry to hear God's word. This message really hit the spot for Jenny and me, as we have been stretched beyond belief while helping to lead the church through this busy season. Thank you for your faithfulness to teach the whole truth of the Word.

    God bless you!

    ~Lars & Jennifer

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