Book: 2 Peter

Remembering Who Is Coming, Part 1

In this sermon, Pastor Babij teaches from 2 Peter on how believers can grow in the assurance of their salvation: by diligently performing good works, praying, and studying the Scripture. Pastor also reminds believers of Jesus’ imminent return and of how the knowledge of Jesus’ soon coming ought to inflame believers’ passion for their Lord.

Full Transcript:

Let’s take our Bibles and turn to 2 Peter. This is probably going to be in two parts when I return to this after Resurrection Sunday. Today in our passage of Scripture, we need to remember who is coming. Christians should add to what God has already given to us. We are to proceed and grow in what He has given us. I’ve already mentioned by way of review the seven qualities that we are to grow in: moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. These are the qualities that help to form the image of Christ in our Christian character.

I asked last week why not all Christians are fruitful and why so many continue to stumble. How can we live now to ensure the rich and rewarding entry into Christ’s Kingdom. God of course did not say that all Christians would be fruitful no matter what. He also did not say that we would never stumble once we believe and start to follow Christ. So the goal for the seven qualities is found in verse 8 and that is to be more useful if these qualities increase in our lives. We will also be more productive and that means that the qualities of Christian character are not to be added to our lives to ensure some quality of practical productivity, but that our character may be like that of Jesus Christ. The productiveness and effectiveness that God wants in our lives is our increasing ability to think like Christ and the attributes that are communicable in our lives, and to act like Christ with those same qualities.

Now what is the verdict for those who don’t have these qualities increasing in their daily growth of pursuing Christ’s likeness? Well that means that you are disobedience to the goal. In verse 9, there are two negative things if you are not growing and don’t have these qualities. It shows that you are blind and shortsighted. The idea is that these people only see what is in front of them and thus are blinded to the true reality. If they lack these qualities, it shows they have a bad memory. They forget where and from what Christ has rescued them. Of course, if you see in the passage in verse 9, they have forgotten their purification. They have forgotten their cleansing as moral and spiritual cleansing that was done for a believer by the finished work of Christ.

Why did they forget this? Something was going on in their present reality that caused them to forget what happened in the past and these people were really returning back to their former way of life living like the world. They were ignoring that their sins have been cleansed by the blood of Christ and that they actually can say no to sin and put it to death. They failed to grow in their knowledge of Christ. They failed to focus on others and have now stepped into the darkness which means you’re not walking in the spirit and therefore when you’re in that state, you are useless, unfruitful, and lack assurance. They shut their eyes to the truth and have become careless to spiritual things which actually hinders their spiritual growth.

Now Peter assumes in this condition that these people are believers that have gotten off track and moved away. If this takes place for the whole of a Christian’s life, and it shouldn’t, then of course they have to examine themselves. Peter is writing to remind the recipients of his letter that this condition is not a reality in their life yet, but can become one very soon if they stop pursuing these virtues.

If the influential false teachers have their way by misrepresenting and maligning the truth and get real Christians to listen to them and follow their ungodly ways, it will make that Christian more and more forgetful of the truth and rob them of their assurance. That’s why he serves in 2 Peter 1:10:

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.

Now remember we see here that God is calling us in the inner call of salvation where we are moved in our hearts to believe the gospel. We’re chosen and selected by God and not only are we to examine whether we are actually called but also chosen. It doesn’t say that you are choosing Him, but that He is choosing you. We have to make sure we practicing these things so that we don’t stumble.

The promise here is that when you pursue these qualities, you have the assurance of salvation. This is translated never at any time will you stumble. It doesn’t mean that you will never sin, but it is used as a military term that means you will be able to keep up with the troops without being left behind. It means staying close to the conquering Christ as you grow in your knowledge of the Lord. He is the One who leads us who are called and chosen by God in and through the battle of life, on to victory, and into the Kingdom of God.

The second promise is that we would have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom in verse 11 where it says:

For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

That is actually a great encouragement to us by Peter through the Spirit of God that this life is actually preparation for the Kingdom of God. But it is never implied that we earn a place in Heaven because we keep these qualities. Heaven is all of grace and all because of God’s mercy and choosing us and His electing love. However, some who take the human side of salvation seriously by giving every effort to increasing these qualities will have a more glorious welcome into the Kingdom than others will.

In fact, some will be saved only as one who escapes the flames. We talk about the bema seat of Christ in 1 Corinthians where Christians will be judged not for their sins but for their works and how they lived their lives. 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 says:

Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Peter is admonishing and exhorting believers to not live as though by fire, but with gusto. Live with all energy and effort to pursue the things in the Word of God, and in doing so reap great benefits and encouragements. One of these encouragements is that we can be assured of our salvation and of eternal life. We don’t have any doubt about it because God has done a work in our hearts and we want to serve Christ. Those desires don’t come from the flesh, the world, or Satan, but from God Himself.

It was Yogi Berra who was a manager, catcher, and coach of the New York Yankee. He used to come up with these quotable short sayings. He didn’t mean to be quotable but what he said ended up being repeatable that are still known today. He said things like, “It’s not over until it’s over,” and “When you come to a Y in the road, take it.” Christians are actually left with that decision every single day of their lives, to figure out which path they’re going to take. Are they going to take the low road and live according to the flesh? Or are they going to take the high road and live by the Spirit.

The more we make the decision to stay on the path where we are walking in the Spirit, the more victory we have over our sin, the world, and the deceptions of Satan. Salvation comes to us by grace alone, through faith alone, by Scripture alone, and in Christ alone. All who believe in Christ are given the gift of life guaranteed by God. However the path taken from salvation to heaven will not be the same for every child of God.

Some will take the low road, maybe more often than they should. The believer who takes the low road lives life with no assurance. they lack visible editions to the seven qualities to their life, they can’t see spiritually and are blind. During their journey in this world, they stumble along the rocks and get bruised. They are bleeding travelers and can’t see far off. They have spiritual myopia with eyes half open and cannot see spiritual truth. So Christians who lack diligence or who are idle in their faith have no right to assurance at all.

Some will take the high road, and this is the motivation of Peter, to stay there. Those will take the high road, they will possess in their practice evidence that they are diligently and visibly adding to their faith. They also know they are called and elected and will demonstrate that by a holy life. Individual behavior is proof or disproof of a true calling and election of God. Also they will abound and will have more than enough in this life and will always be thankful. Their joy and thankfulness overflow because God lavishes upon them more than they need and that’s why they can live joyfully and with gratitude even in a bad situation, because they praise God.

Also, they will not be barren or unfruitful but will keep moving forward and producing fruit. They will never fall because they can’t see. They make a steady progress in the Word of God. They have and look forward to have an abundant entrance in the Kingdom. The world becomes dim and the Kingdom of God becomes more of a desire in their hearts.

Christians who do not lack diligence and who are not idle in their faith have every right to assurance. So then the exhortation is if you will have spiritual success in time and divine congratulations in eternity, then take the high road so that you don’t have to stumble and fall in the Christian life. The Scriptures do promise to those who will apply diligence in developing seven vital qualities in their lives will have an effective and an abundant Christian life and plenty of assurance. So Christians who are faithful in this way are welcomed into the glory of Heaven in really a spectacular fashion, and of course the one thing we will want to hear is, “Well done good and faithful servant.”

So all that leads up to what we’re looking at this morning. You don’t have to stay on the low road, the call for the high road is open to all. The one question you may have right now is where do you start? Well, 2 Peter 1:5 says you must apply all diligence. It also says in 2 Peter 1:10:

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.

It starts with giving all diligence. Here is a call to serious consideration which forbids you to waste time pursuing lesser things and being idle in your Christian journey. So as we see here, your attitude towards growth is to bring into the relationship alongside with God every ounce of determination that you can possibly muster. Then we continue to practice being diligent every day of our lives. Even if you fall off the wagon, you need to get back on it.

Why is diligence so important? Because all the recipients of this epistle are reminded that they live in a world where they are many dangers. There is the danger of being led astray under the influence of teachers who do not believe in truth. In fact, they go as far to believe that immortality would not incur divine judgment. 2 Peter 2:10 says:

Especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties.

So these are the dangers before us. Peter is not only admonishing, encouraging, and exhorting them, but also the one way we can keep diligent is that we have to be reminded so we don’t forget. We have to be reminded of something we already know. You make think that’s redundant, but that’s what learning is. We have to be reminded of it over and over again. This next part of the text has two major points. The first includes the implications of remembering. And the second is the informants of remembering, which I probably won’t get to today.

In 2 Peter 1:12 it says:

Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.

In the text we see a father’s concern for the well-being of his spiritual children to remind them of what is truly important in their lives. After his death, they will be able to easily remember what he taught them and how it is beneficial to their lives. In order to stay on that high road where we are continually increasing in our godliness, we must always have in our remembrance the certainty of Christ’s return. That’s the ultimate remembrance, that Christ is not only a knowledge that we need to be growing in every day but He is also coming again.

He says in verse 12 that the believers have been established in the truth. Peter is assuming that his readers are on the high road. Peter wants his readers to stay right there because he knew himself what it meant to fail the Lord Jesus Christ. Actually the word established was the same word that Jesus used of Peter when He predicted his failure and promised restoration. If you turn back really quickly to Luke 22:31-34 it says:

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!”And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.”

Peter failed but the Lord wants him to know that He prayed for him. When he was out of it, he was able to strengthen his brothers. He was able to do this by the implication of remembering which retains our increasing godliness. We have to be prodded on to godliness on a regular basis. The word strengthen means to set up something so it remains immovable. He wants his hearers to be immovable in what they already know and not go backwards. A second implication of remembering is in 2 Peter 1:13-14, where remembering arouses our passions. Peter wanted his readers to remain immovable in the truth and that becomes important for our text. The truth is already available to his audience and the teaching is of the prophets and apostles that has already been given to them.

Now why did Peter remind them not to be negligent in something they already knew and were firmly established in. There are two reasons for himself as a father to his spiritual children. The journey in life is short. Look at verse 13:

I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder.

Now remember that our lives is that of travelers whose tents will be packed away one day and no longer needed. So you must live for a sure destination, the Kingdom of God. While you are heading there, redeem the time because the journey is short. The second reason would be that death is sure. This remembering is going to rouse their passions to go on and live in light of dying because he says in verse 14:

Knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

The reasons for his persistent reminding of the truth to his hearers is that the journey is short so you got to get it and death is sure and we’re all heading there. Repetition is a sound way to teach. The consistent repetition of a thing until it becomes a part of us is the heart of all learning. Parents, how many times do you have to remind your children of something they already know? Maybe 5, 10 times a day, or for years until they get it. For example, you tell them two times a week to take out the garbage but when you go there, it is still full. Of course if there is disobedience you have to take care of it very quickly.

I don’t know really anybody who has a photographic memory and who doesn’t forget. Most of us forget! So there is a knowledge which is so crucial for our well-being that we cannot afford to forget what we have been learning from the Word of God. If there is one area of knowledge that we need to be reminded of again and again, it is our need for spiritual truths and for truth itself from the Word of God.

The Apostle Peter as he nears the end of his earthly life, writes 2 Peter for the purse of reminding his readers for the need of spiritual truth and what God has said in His Word so that it sticks to them. If you look in 2 Peter 3:1-2:

This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

This is where he brings together the Old and New Testament. See Christians need more than low tack adhesive, as used in Post-It notes. We need, as mentioned in the first message, Gorilla Super Glue adhesive so that we are learning from God’s Word will permanently stick in our minds. He is reminding them so that their passions for truth are aroused. The more you are in the Word of God, the more you get passionate about truth.

In 2 Peter 1:14, Peter knew he was going to be martyred shortly and that he would vacate his earthly tent. It says:

Knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

But if you notice, Peter doesn’t show a sign of fear in this statement. It’s because he was established in the truth and wanted the same for his hearers. He wanted them to know that death wasn’t something to be feared, but correctly understood. It is an entrance way from this world to the Lord Himself. See the resurrection of Christ had slain the fear of death in him. Just like King David says in the famous Psalm 23:4:

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Death was just a blip on the radar for David and Peter. He wanted the same for those who listened and received the truth. There’s another implication of remembering and it’s found in 2 Peter 1:15. Remembering actually reinforces our readiness, it says in this verse:

And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.

In other words when you are in the valley or on the mountaintop, when you are alone after your parents and mentors are gone you will be able to carry on because you will establish the truth and pass it on to others. People don’t need new truth today, but only to gain a clearer understanding of the eternal truth God has already revealed in the Word of God. So what is important for us is to be able to navigate the winding road of life on a strong foundation of objective reality while on our journey home to Heaven. Why is that important? So that the real substance of the eternal truth of God sticks in our minds. Peter knew there will be heavy-duty false teaching right around the corner as there is today. Teachers mock at the idea of a powerful heavenly Christ who could strengthen His children for present godly living no matter how botched the circumstances are. 2 Peter 2:1 says:

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

So falsehoods are everywhere and are dangerous and destructive. They are distracting and blinding and deny essential truths. Falsehoods are controversial and don’t lead to godly living. Falsehoods rob assurance and strength to be effective, productive children of God in this world. So Peter did not want his disciples to be carried away by the tide of false doctrine and those who propagated, why? So believers will lose their foundation and their footing in the truth, and fall victim to false teaching. It says in 2 Peter 3:17:

You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness.

He did not want them to fall into their own steadfastness. One thing that could cause them to fall is their own weakness of the flesh and also being introduced to false teaching and letting it into your thinking. Unprincipled teachers deny Christ in their sensual ways and they don’t have moral restraint. It says in 2 Peter 2:2:

Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned.

Unprincipled people deny Christ in their teaching. You have to examine what they are saying and what they are not saying. These false teachers take the truth lightly so that it is slandered and twisted and misused. These are the things that he is bringing to the attention of his hearers. The implications of remembering this retains our increasing desire for godliness and rouses our passions and reinforces our readiness against false teaching and against our own weaknesses that we have in our flesh. Also there are reliable informants needed to undergird our memories and our thinking. The informants for remembering are in 2 Peter.

Let’s go back to 2 Peter 1:16-18. The first informants are the Apostles themselves. The Apostolic witness and experience inform us of what is true in the Word of God. The second informant is the prophetic Word, which informs us how to live. In verse 16 it says:

For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

He is saying that the Apostles have experience of truth and reality. They did not follow cleverly devised tales like myths, legends, and fables. It is opposite to the word logos which means word or declaration. It is also opposite to the word aletheia which means truth. He says that the people were established in the truth and the other things are not established in the foundation of truth or authority, and have no importance for producing godliness and stability.

Now these fables were far-fetched stories, usually of a religious nature about the nations steeped in pagan practice. There are also Jewish fables, in the Talmud and the Apocrypha, which was written after Malachi and before John the Baptist. Some determine that as Scripture but we know it is not considered Scripture because God did not speak through a prophet for 400 years after Malachi. The Apocrypha is filled with all kinds of stories, some of which are historically true but it doesn’t mean they are Scripture. They can be considered a type of legend.

I heard a beautiful legend of two Hebrew brothers who live side by side. One was single and one was married. The single brother said one day that as he was single and had all these things, he was going to give some goods to his brother because he has a large family and a lot of needs. The married brother said that as his brother was single and didn’t have a family, he would bring goods to his house. They both decided to do it on the same night and met on the way and embraced. Now of course that is a great story, but it’s only a story. It has no power or authority.

Peter is saying to us that these people were clever in devising tales, myths, etc. This is not the only place you find this particular admonition in Scripture as to what not to follow. We also see it in 1 Timothy 1:3-4 where Paul says:

As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith.

It says it again in 1 Timothy 4:7:

But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.

Don’t even waste your time giving your life to those things that are not true! Don’t let them slip into the place where they are somehow equal to the authority that Scriptures have. On the last day Paul even said to the people in 2 Timothy 4:4:

And will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

Titus 1:14 says:

Not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.

The myths are the opposite of where Paul wants them to go. Also false teachers scoff at the teaching of the prophets and apostles that Jesus would come again. That is something Peter brings up in his epistle. The false teachers are mocking that Jesus will return because they don’t see any signs of it yet! These false teachers have taught that the Incarnation and Resurrection and the coming Kingdom were just mere stories and not to be taken too seriously. They say they don’t see any evidence of resurrection today or life after this world. These stories are continuously repeated and take root. They become destructive in the lives of people. It destroys faith and doesn’t help it.

False teachers are so locked into their present pleasures that they thought of God’s future coming Kingdom as just a blur to their greedy hearts and corrupt desires. Their minds were clouded to the second coming of Christ. To them, it seemed like a made up story. So Peter calls out their error as those who secretly introduce destructive heresies. They bring it in the back door and from the side, and places you wouldn’t expect. It sounds right and if you don’t know the truth, you get hooked.

That’s why Peter is reminding them that it isn’t what you ought to think about. In fact, 2 Peter 1:16 says:

For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So he is saying that he received the way, the truth, and the life because as Apostles, they experienced the power of Jesus Christ. It is by this power the creation was called into existence. It is by this power that demons flee, diseases disappear, and ungodly people are made pure. He is saying that he has experienced Jesus’ awesome power and was given an unforgettable invitation into the mystery of Christ’s person and got a preview of God’s eschatological return in glory. So he actually uses the word here for the coming of the Lord Jesus as the word parasya, which is the arrival of a visiting king or someone who has incredible majesty and authority. He is saying here that he was given a genuine, authentic picture of the second coming of Christ. Let’s look again at 2 Peter 1:16-18:

For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”— and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

This was the Father’s witness of the character and work of His Son. This was no dream or vision. It was a genuinely authentic experience. Peter wants the readers to know what happened. Let’s quickly look at Mark 9:2 because he is talking about the Mount of Transfiguration, where something took place. See Jesus took His disciplines to a secluded and private place on top of a mountain so that He could be alone with His inner circle of disciples. The verse says:

Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them.

The word transfigure is the Greek word metamorphosis. It’s actually a passive form of the word meaning wrought by the Father. It was the glorification of the physical body of is humiliation. The best way I heard the transfiguration described is that God changed Jesus’ for by allowing His pre-incarnate glory to shine through His human features as a foretaste of His coming exultation. One day we will see Christ in His full glory. He is teaching His disciples that all of this is in light of the coming of Christ, that the event of the Transfiguration enabled the disciples to see Jesus’ power, glory, and true nature. This foreshadows the two comings of Christ: the first coming in His humiliation and death and the second in His glory and power. In Mark 9:3 it says:

And His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.

His garments are described as white and glistening as nothing else can be produced on Earth. Fab, Tide, Oxyclean, nor Bleach can do it. Jesus had a super Heavenly whiteness that was never seen before. What the disciples saw was the glory of Christ, which is often connected with brilliance and brightness. This was such a significant event that all the gospel writers say something about it. Three of the writers present a narrative of the Transfiguration whereas the gospel of John does not present then narrative but sets forth the glory of Christ in John 1:14:

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The glory assigned to each part of creation is not inherent glory, but reflected glory. We’re baked dirt therefore we have no glory that comes from inside of us. Whatever measure of glory we receive comes from outside of ourselves. The reason why human beings have any dignity at all is because God has assigned dignity to us. It is not inherent. The glory of Jesus is inherent glory, not like the reflected glory that was shown on Moses’ face in Exodus. The glory and light they witnessed around Jesus was not falling on Him from above but seemed to be coming from Christ Himself. He was not reflecting light, but producing it.

God’s glory is His own and proceeds from within the very nature of His majestic deity that was shown on that mountain. The deity of Christ burst forth from within Him, showing forth His glory in a very magnificent and majestic way that Christ is the brightness of the glory of God and it comes from within.

This causes the disciples to ask who is this man. In fact this light will shine in the New Jerusalem which does not need the sun. It says in Revelation 21:22-23:

I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

Jesus is the One who will always display for us the incredible glory of God. Now getting back to Peter, there’s something that he is stressing to his hearers. However great and historic and reliable our experience was there on the mountain, no matter how awesome and extraordinary the experience was on the mountain, there is something still more reliable. False religions are often intertwined with spurious unverifiable visions and voices with Satan as the puppet master. Satan is the counterfeit of new prophetic visions and teachings, which he repackages as the Word of God.

See Peter wants to confirm to his readers something more sure than authentic experience. He says that if they don’t believe his experience, he has an even more sure witness than that. That of course is Scripture itself. So next time I’m going to lay that out because the second informant for our faith is the prophetic Word. The Scripture is sure that it is reliable. In 2 Peter 1:19 it says:

So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention.

This is what we have, as we wait for Jesus to return to see His glory, the Scriptures will inform and establish your faith and will cause you to be strong. And every day you will grow in the Lord. The Scriptures are reliable and are life-illuminating, they are truth-revealing, and they originate from God and are trustworthy. If you ignore or neglect God’s Word, you become prey to your own laziness, blindness, and all kinds of religious false teaching. So as we await the coming of Christ, stick close to the Word of God for all your guidance and holy living. The Scriptures will not let you forget that Jesus is coming. Are you ready? Have you been living on the low road? Well it’s time to take your salvation seriously and put effort into your spiritual development and stay on the high road and keep your eyes and mind focused in the truth.

Lord, I thank You so much this morning for another opportunity to be in the Word of God and share with Your people in this way. I pray that the Word of God would be used in our lives in the same way it was used in the audiences that read Peter’s letter. In the same way, we want it to be used in our people of faith that are not tossed to and fro by any wind of doctrine but that are established in the truth. Don’t allow our pride to get in the way when we hear things, and let us always be receiving the truth and examining everything through Scripture.

I pray that as we do that, Lord, we would anticipate Your coming again in all Your glory and power. I pray this in Christ’s Name, Amen.

April 5, 2020
The Believer’s Responsibility for Godly Living, Part 8

In this sermon, Pastor Babij preaches on how a Christian becomes fruitful unto the Lord in applying the seven qualities taught in 2 Peter 1:5-11. Pastor details both positive results when believers apply these principles and several negative results when believers disobey. On the basis of the passage, Pastor Babij also exhorts Christians to make their calling and election sure.

Full Transcript:

Ok Calvary. Let’s take our Bibles this morning and let us start right in 2 Peter. As we continue to worship this morning and as we look at the Word of God, we want to be ready to receive it and take it to our own lives, put ourselves in the equation, because it has everything to do with us and with our relationship with our Lord and how He wants us to live our life while on this earth.

Let’s pray before I look at the Word this morning. Father, we just thank You again for this great opportunity to be able to come before You, to be able to continue ministry, and to be able to preach the Word of God to your people, even though we’re not present in the same place. It’s amazing that we’re able to do this and we thank the Lord that we have been preparing for this through the people in our church who have that kind of knowledge and technology and all those who contributed to that. We’re able to meet here together today and to be able to worship You, to study Your Word, and just to sit down and receive and drink in what the Word of God has for us today. I just pray that You would grow us and challenge us and convict us of what the Word of God tells us today. In Christ I pray. Amen.

We’re looking again at 2 Peter. In this particular passage of Scripture, it is an admonition to grow in godliness and to take it serious. God’s already done something. He saved you. He’s established you. He’s redeemed you. He’s positionally put you in His presence as clean and as forgiven. Now our responsibility while we’re on this earth is to take that human side of salvation seriously and to diligently add to our faith, increase in our faith, proceed to grow in our faith. Of course we know from this passage of Scripture that there are seven qualities. These are not the only things we are to grow in, but these are what Peter thought important for his audience and for us today to grow in, these seven qualities found in the Word of God in Scripture. These qualities are listed in verses 5 and 6 and 7. There’s two foundational qualities that we see in verse 5. That is we are to add to our faith moral excellence, and then we are to add to our faith knowledge. Then in verses 6 and 7, these are the five directional qualities. We are to add to our faith self-control, patience, endurance/steadfastness/perseverance – all the same thing. Then of course add to our faith godliness and then add to our faith brotherly kindness. Then finally last week, we looked at both of those brotherly kindness and love.

So the Christian faith is really not limited to the initial conversion experience. And I think that’s where the apostle Peter is pushing his audience to not think that it’s just a matter of professional faith or that you just simply believe in Christ and that’s it. It was intended, after we become Christians, to grow and mature in our spirituality, to go from babies to young men to spiritual fathers. That growth process will take the rest of our Christian life. God promised that you can live a useful and fruitful life in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. He promised that not only will you join Christ in His eternal kingdom, but by your entry into that kingdom, it will be rich and rewarding.

That’s with the passage of Scripture finally concludes in verse 11, and I’m getting there today. But the question is this: if that is true, why aren’t Christians as fruitful as they ought to be? More productive as they ought to be? Why do so many Christians continue to stumble today with all the things available to them? How can we live now to ensure our rich and rewarding entry into Christ’s kingdom? God did not say that all Christians would be fruitful no matter what. He also did not say that they would never stumble whence they believe and start to follow Christ. He never said that. He said the way is going to be hard. Following Christ will not be easy.

So there is a goal in our passage that I mentioned last week, and it’s in verse number 8. I like you to look there in your Bibles. It says:

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So see, there is a conditional nature in the two participles in verse 8: for if these qualities are yours and are increasing. Now those two things are really conditioned with their conditional phrases. It doesn’t necessarily have to be true, but it could be true that if the “if” here is fulfilled, then the end result is true. Thus, if you put your hand in the fire, you will get burned. It’s saying that if you fulfill the condition of putting your hand in the fire, the consequences will be you get burned. So the first class conditional statement in Scripture, which we have here are, they are assumed to be true for the sake of argument. So the literary device can function as a tool to persuade one’s audience. In other words, I don’t want you to fulfill the negative conditions in the passage. I want you to fulfill the positive conditions in the passage. In other words, are these qualities at work in your life right now? If these qualities are at work in your life, then there’s a result – something will occur. On the other hand, if these qualities are not at work in your life, then there is also a result that will occur.

So if you are continually increasing in these qualities, these seven qualities, if these qualities are more and more apparent in your thoughts and your words and your actions, then there will be a result or a benefit that results from you growing and increasing in these seven qualities. We come now to the results of the pursuit of increasing in goodness and knowledge and self-control and perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love, of those who participate in the divine nature. There is a positive result for increasing in these qualities, and there is a negative result for not increasing in these qualities.

First the positive results, if you noticed in verse eight, it says that you will be more useful when you increase in these. It says they will render you neither useless. But notice what it says:

in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So the basis for this growth in these qualities of the Holy Spirit is your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that includes at least two things. It’s both your knowledge of Christ at conversion, but it doesn’t end there. It’s also your knowledge in a life of sanctification. In other words, you’re increasing in the knowledge of who Christ is. He’s God, and that means He has a vast character. There’s a vast amount of information to know about who God is and what God has done and how He works and what He wants you to do and where He’s taking you someday. When we do that, when we actually live a life of sanctification and we grow in and increase in these qualities, they produce a harvest of right living in our life. In other words, we can actually live a good life if we follow these qualities.

There’s a second part of this positive result – that you could be more productive also. It says it will render you neither unfruitful, not only will it render you neither useless, but it will render you neither unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a worthy goal, a legitimate pursuit, to give your time and effort in order to be godly. It actually has great gain. The Bible tells us that physical exercises has some gain, little gain, but godliness has great gain. Now, we all exercise and we know that exercise, when we do it right and we pursue it and we do it on a regular basis, it does have results in our life. It keeps us healthy. It keeps our mind clear. It keeps our body toned. It keeps us strong. It keeps our blood flowing. It has all kinds of benefits for us, but can you imagine the Bible says: but greater is a pursuit of godliness. Now, I don’t think we necessarily give godliness that kind of pursuit. Sometimes we’re more concerned about the physical and not so much concerned about the spiritual. Like maybe the spiritual will just happen to us. That’s not true.

So all these qualities should appear in your life as you grow and godliness. Now in my reading and studying of this passage, it was brought to my attention, that I did not think of this first, that one must be careful as to how we understand what it means to be useful and be productive. See, the danger is that with our proper desire to be useful, we begin to develop unbiblical measures of success to help us to determine if a Christian service is a quality ministry. Eventually, we feel that we must not allow any place for service that could fail or for servants who have failed. We sing that praise song that says with a question: what if I fall again? See, if we look closer at this passage of Scripture, before that the possibility of failure while we are present in this world and this sin cursed world will be a reality. We will not live a perfect life. We will not live a perfect Christian life. But if you noticed it says in verse 8, and if you look closer at the passage, we are to avoid being ineffective and unproductive in what? It says this: in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. See, Christ can actually be talked about and viewed in the wrong way. But in Scripture, it says there’s a true knowledge of God. That means it’s going to rise out of a proper interpretation of the Word of God, where God tells us who He is and what He has done. We don’t have any knowledge about God unless we come to the Scripture and look at what the details are.

In other words, the qualities of Christian character are not to be added to our lives to ensure some quality of practical productivity, but so that our character may be like Jesus. That is the end result. That is where we become successful. That is where we become people who are useful and we are productive. Our productiveness and our effectiveness that God wants in our lives is our increasing ability to think and to act like Jesus. That is where the success lies, and that is where the passage actually takes us. That is where we go with it.

In fact, there are other passages of Scripture that bear this out. For example, Ephesians 4:32. Listen to what it says:

Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

In other words, when we do these things, we act like we are participating in the divine nature. What things here? We are kind to one another. We are tenderhearted to one another. We are forgiving to one another. And when we do that, we actually act like God. That is where our success lies before the eyes of God.

And then it’d be good for you to take your Bibles and turn to Philippians 2:15, just by way of example on how this bears out in Scripture. In Philippians 2:15 it says this:

so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,

Now, here’s the question before we read up to verse 12. Go back to Philippians 2:12. Here’s the question though: how do we prove ourselves before a crooked and perverse generation and appear as lights in the world? In other words, that we can live as believers in the midst of the most crookedest and perverse time in history and still be lights for Christ, how do we do that? Well, if you look back to verse 12 of Philippians chapter 2, it says:

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

And look at verse 14:

do all things without grumbling or disputing;

Now when we do things without grumbling and disputing, we act like we are participating in the divine nature. Those are just a few passages of Scripture. 1 John tells us – we love because He first loved us. So when we love as He loved, we act like we are participating in the divine nature. See, this is where success is in the Christian life. It’s when we’re growing in these qualities and when we grow in these qualities, we actually develop in our own life by the Spirit of God the character of Christ. This is where the Lord wants us to have good success and visible success. This is not success in private. This is success that everybody knows about, even you. One of the things that Peter wants his audience to know and he wants the people who are receiving this message to know is that they can actually have assurance of their salvation.

But before I explain the thought of assurance of salvation, there is another question that I have to ask. What is the verdict if these qualities are not increasing in your daily growth in Christlikeness? What if you’re not there? That was the positive results. Now, let’s look at the negative results of not increasing in these qualities and not heeding and obeying the Holy Spirit’s goal for all of God’s people, all of Christ’s people. There is also a disobedience of the goal. We can actually disobey where God wants to actually take us. He’s talking here about believers. The first thing he says: when you don’t obey this and when you don’t increase in these qualities, there’s going to be two things that happen to you. Number one – if you lack these qualities, you’re going to show that you have bad eyesight. Look at what it says in verse 9:

For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted,

Here is a metaphoric warning for those who are suffering from spiritual blindness. The word blindness or shortsighted, we derive the Greek word here and we get the word today as “myopia”. Myopia is really nearsightedness, or somebody who sees poorly. Figuratively, which is used here, it means spiritual short-sightedness, a fail to understand something that we ought to be understanding. So myopia is a condition of the eye in which parallel rays are focused in front of the retina, objects being seen distinctly only when near to the eye. So you have to hold something really close to your eye to be able to see it.

Now if you turned 40 years old or more, you’re going to find out, if you didn’t wear glasses, that one day you wake up and you can’t see that small print anymore. And then of course you were in denial for a while because you don’t want to think that you’re getting older or that you can’t see the print that you once saw even a week before. But nonetheless, it becomes true that you may, as you grow and get older, need glasses. So you’re going to have to have glasses where you can see that small print again. It’s going to have to be magnified for you so you can actually see it. So myopia is really a condition of the eye.

We’re not speaking about the physical eye here. We’re speaking about the spiritual eyes. This is spiritual myopia and it means a lack of knowledge, a lack of foresight. These people are so short-sighted that they actually cannot see the truth. This believer has shut his eyes, has shut his mind to further knowledge. Actually, Jesus uses blindness as a metaphor for unbelief in the gospels, where He says this and I’ll just read it to you. When He’s talking to the pharisees, He said to them in John 9:39:

“For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Those of the Pharisees who were with them heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” And Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘we see’, your sin remains.

See, they did not believe in Jesus, so they were blind and they didn’t know they were blind. They thought they could see, and Jesus says: no, you can’t see because your sin still remains. You haven’t understood yet that the Messiah who would come would be your sin-bearer and take away your sin from you, but you have not seen that and so you’re spiritually blind.

So the idea is that these people in 2 Peter see only what is in front of them, thus are blind to true reality. There’s a refusal to see the truth, with spiritual and moral blindness resulting. So their eyes are focusing on something. They’re focusing on themselves. They’re focusing on their own desires. They only can see what they want. They are shutting their eyes to the truth and really have become careless to spiritual things, which ultimately hinders spiritual growth and increasing in these qualities.

So Scripture is referring to a couple of group of people. First of all, it’s referring to those who come under the influence of false teaching. The false teaching prevents you from seeing what the truth really is. That results in moral and spiritual blindness. But it also is talking about a group of believers who are lazy. They do not want to put the effort in to grow and increase in these qualities. They are lazy. If the person continues in their spiritual myopia, that person will remain confused. They will remain frustrated. And maybe because there’s so much depression today, they’re depressed because they’re not putting into practice the things that the Lord has given us in Scripture to actually be useful and productive.

So you just focused in on yourself and your needs and what you want and what you think is right. You don’t think on: Wait, what is God doing in my life? Why is this issue and problem coming to my life? What is that teaching me in my life? What are some of the sins that I need to drop off in my life? What are some character qualities that I need to change in my life and God is impressing that upon me? And I’m not going to move forward until I actually submit to those things and allow the Spirit of God to change me and transform my mind so I would know the good and the acceptable and the perfect will of God.

So these victims of false teachers and laziness, they are blind to spiritual realities and they only see earthly things. They’re unable to discern the future. They are not looking for Christ’s return, but only to live in the present and usually that’s what the false teachers teach. They teach have your best life now. See, that’s a present reality that is always the motivation of false teachers. It’s about you. It’s about now. It’s about what I know. Peter is saying: no, that is not what it’s about. It’s about growing in the knowledge of Christ, which changes your heart and mind so you can actually be productive and useful for the Lord. Also, they are failing to see the present with the perspective of the past, and therefore not living with eyes continually aware of God’s mercy and forgiving their sins.

There is a second negative that comes from not increasing in these qualities. If you look back at verse 9, here’s the second thing. It says:

for he who lacks these qualities will be blind or shortsighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.

Now you think to yourself: wait a minute, this is like christianity 101. When I become a Christian, what happens? Wow, I’m forgiven. Wow, the Lord’s forgiven me of my sin. The Lord has taken all the wrath of God in my place. And then He shed His blood to wash it away. There’s no condemnation on me anymore. But you noticed that when somebody is lazy with the truth and and gets under the influence of false teaching or false thinking, what happens? Look at verse 9. Here’s the second thing that takes place. The first thing that takes places when you lack these qualities that you are spiritually blind. And second one is when you lack these qualities, you have a bad memory. Look at what it says:

having forgotten his purification from his former sins.

They forget where and from what Christ had to rescue them. Now look what this person forgets. It says they forget his purification. That is the word to katharise. It means to cleanse. It’s the moral and spiritual cleansing that actually was done for a believer by the finished work of Christ. So we’re looking at the doctrine of Christ in this passage of Scripture. Hebrews says it like this in Hebrews 1:3. It says:

When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

So the cleansing was the work of the Holy Spirit applying the atonement. That’s Christ’s shed blood accomplished by Christ to the sinner. That’s what was forgotten in these believers’ present reality. Now you think to yourself: that’s awful strange. How could you forget that if you’re a believer? Well, because you have drifted away into false teaching and laziness and you get away from the Word of God and the truth, your mind is not necessarily being transformed. So you’re not growing and increasing in the knowledge of God as you ought to be as a Christian.

So when believers are saved, they come to learn that they have been cleansed from their sins. The apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians in that very well-known passage of Scripture in 1 Corinthians 6:11. Remember what he said to them?

Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

But here, false teaching has done its destructive work by severing and severely handicapping in the mind to the point of forgetfulness concerning the work of Christ and salvation.

Now, if you look at verse nine of 2 Peter, you’ll see this:

having forgotten is purification from his former sins.

In other words, he has forgotten that God delivered him from his old life of sin. Because of that, he doesn’t know how to live a strong and a godly life, doesn’t know how to live a life that is increasing and is productive. Here’s a person who really is stuck in the present and doesn’t realize what has happened to them in the past, and therefore can’t look forward to the future. So something is happening in the present which has caused this person to forget what has happened in the past concerning the cleansing of their former sins. In other word, these people were returning to their former way of life. They were living like the world. They were ignoring their behavior and their sins. By their behavior, they are really showing that their sins have not been cleansed by the blood of Christ but actually had been cleansed by the blood of Christ.

In other words, they fail to grow in their knowledge of Christ. They fail to focus on God. They fail to focus on others and have stepped into walking in the darkness and away from walking in the Spirit. So they have become useless, unfruitful, and lack assurance. They’re lacking in righteousness, instead of experiencing what Philippians tells us:

having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

They really are lacking and holiness instead of experiencing what Paul said in Romans 6:

But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.

They are not experiencing that. They have forgotten that. Then they’re lacking in growth in the fruit of light, where instead of experiencing what Ephesians 5 says:

for the fruit of the Light consists of all goodness and righteousness and truth,

That’s kind of like the fruit of growing in the Lord, that I grow a goodness. I grow in righteousness. I grow in truth. That’s in these other passages similar to what Peter does in chapter one.

So again, Peter is writing to remind the recipients of his letter that this condition is not a reality as of yet, but could become a reality if they’re not increasing in these qualities, if the influential false teachers have their way and the flesh has their way by remaining lazy. Of course, the false teachers have their way by misrepresenting and maligning the truth, getting you to listen to them and follow their ungodly ways. It will make you more and more forgetful of the truth and will actually rob you of what increasing in these qualities will do – give you assurance.

However, remembering this cleansing of sin makes us Christians thankful for our forgiveness and helps us understand the purpose of our sanctification – that is to make us into the image of Christ and to make us a new kind of people that live for Christ. Those new kind of people are bearing actual evidence that they are Christians.

Saying all that, here’s the exhortation that comes back in 2 Peter chapter 1. Here’s the exhortation. We have to really look at it and say: okay, I don’t want to be the second person. I don’t want to be the person who doesn’t bear fruit, who’s not useful for God, who’s not increasing in these things. I want to be the person who’s increasing. Well, that person is also not lazy. That person is also not listening to false teaching or allowing false teaching to influence them. Also that person is not thinking wrongly, but that person is immersed in the Word of God. As they’re immersed in the Word of God, this is the exhortation that comes to those who may be our thinking: I don’t want to be the negative. I want to be the positive. There’s an exhortation to be sure, make sure that you are a believer. Look at what it says in verse 10:

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain…

I’m going to stop there for a minute. Again, here is that language – be all the more diligent. Put sweat into it to make certain of something. The phrase to make certain means to be sure that you have the real thing and that you are genuinely saved. Isn’t that a good thought to have? There’s no room, in other word, for uncertainty as to whether you are genuinely saved and are in the company of God’s elect.

So look at verse 10. It says:

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling you…

So there’s the first thing to be sure of. Be sure that you’re called by Christ, by God. There’s no room for uncertainty as to whether you are genuinely called by God. Now, just a few other passages of Scriptures. If you go up to 2 Peter 1:3:

seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us…

So there’s a calling that comes to believers. Then even the last chapter of 1 Peter 5:10. It says:

After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

So there is a calling that we can examine. The apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8, we see the rich and full completeness of the work of God done on a believer where it’s often called the golden chain of God’s full and complete salvation, where it says:

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined… these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

But I just want again to highlight that word “called”, even in Romans 8:30:

for these whom He called, He also justified;

That means that all the called are justified, made right before God in a positional way and also in a very practical way, where we are living out our salvation.

Now, how does God gather His people? How does God call His people? Well, he calls his people, first of all, with the gospel. That’s how we’re to understand the word “call”. There are two distinctions in the call theologically. The first distinction is there is always the outward call of the gospel. Everybody who becomes a believer has an outward call of the gospel. Now when I became up believer, I heard the gossip about three or four times before I actually got saved. But each time the gospel was given, I was being called. While heard by the ears, it can be rejected many times. Even Jesus said in Matthew 22:14:

For many are called, but few are chosen.

All who hear are invited to come to the Lord. So this call is ineffective by itself. But because all men are totally depraved, dead, and are enemies of God, they resist this call and the work of the Spirit of God at that moment. So we are not saved by anything that we have said or thought or done in our condition of death. In fact by our own experience, we all know that not everyone will be saved. Not everyone who receive the call of gospel will be justified, because not all believe the gospel when they hear it.

Remember, because man has fallen into sin, people are spiritually dead. It was one person who said this: unregenerate people can no more choose Christ or spiritual truth than a rotting corpse can play football or debate philosophy. There’s no middle ground between being alive and being dead. Unregenerate people are not just sick. They are not just handicapped or impaired. They’re dead. They cannot respond to God unless God does something to them. So that’s the first distinction of the call.

A second distinction of the call is that there is an inward call. And that inward call usually takes place when the outward call of the gospel is made. Faith comes by hearing and by hearing of the Word of God, the Word of truth, whereby God the Holy Spirit calls His people to Himself effectually by working a miracle in their hearts, bringing them from spiritual death to spiritual life. It’s like when Hebrews says:

those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

Jesus has effectively obtained redemption by Himself and He did so for all those who are called, who respond to the inner call. Some theologically have called this irresistible grace. There’s a time where the gospel comes to you that you cannot reject it because the Spirit of God is working upon you. That also brings to our mind another thing that God is doing as far as our calling – that God gathers His children by drawing them by the power of the Holy Spirit. It says in John 6:44:

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.

Or in John 6:65:

And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”

So a third way that God gathers his children is by bringing them out of death into life, where it says in John 6:63:

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

So the Spirit gives life. And when He has not given life, it is not present, and it cannot be present unless He gives life.

Now getting back to 2 Peter. The first thing in the expectation to be sure is to make sure that God called you. Then the second thing in verse 10, it says this:

make certain about His calling and choosing you;

Now it’s interesting in this passage, it does not say you are choosing Him. It says He is choosing you. So what do you need to be sure of? You’re to be sure of whether you were chosen by Him. It says:

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you;

It’s the word “electus”. That is the word. That means to select, to pick, to choose. In other words, prove you are chosen by God. Prove you are called by God. And how do you do that? By displaying the qualities listed in 2 Peter. and remember this, the basis of God choosing us is not us. It says back in 1 Peter 1:2, it says Christians are elect first:

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,

So chosen based on the gracious and loving foreknowledge of God the Father. That means that election is not based on God’s foreknowledge of our faith. People will agree that God predestined some to be saved, but they will say that He does this by looking into the future and seeing who will believe in Christ and who will not. And then based on foreknowledge of that person’s faith, He elects them. If they do not believe, He does not elect them. You see, some believe the ultimate reason why some are saved and some are not lies within the people themselves and not with God. That’s wrong. All that God does in His predestinating work is to give confirmation to the decision He knows people will make on their own. That would be wrong. That means man’s choice first. Then God’s choice follows.

No, God’s foreknowledge is not in any good or nobility or wisdom or power or choice or seeking that He foresees in anyone. This view actually destroys the meaning of the word foreknowledge. Understand this: in the sovereignty of God, the only things that can be foreknown are those that are predestined. This means that election must be prior to faith. Now that’s a whole other subject for another time, but I do want to say this: when God foreknows someone, foreknowledge really is much more than knowing what will happen in the future. It includes an effective choice, that God predetermines with a love relationship. That foreknowledge of God has wrapped up in its meaning intimacy. That’s why you have passages of Scripture like this.

I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,

I know them intimately. And then in 2 Timothy 2:19 it says:

Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows who are His,” and, “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.”

When people know God in Scripture or when God knows them, it is a personal knowledge and it involves a saving, intimate, ongoing relationship with them. God’s foreknowledge, He foreknew beforehand to whom He would extend the grace of salvation. He elected them and accomplished this before the foundation of the world.

So what is the purpose or goal of election? Conversion, positional sanctification, practical sanctification and holiness, and of course eternal glorification. Today, part of growing these qualities has to do with sanctification. Sound sanctification is the hard work of growing throughout life in holiness. You are to prove that you are called and chosen by God. Now, how do you do that? Well look at verse 10. It tells us in Scripture. Again, this is gaining assurance. It says here – be sure you are practicing these things. In verses 5 through 9, that’s where we gain assurance of our salvation, by fulfilling the conditions. But here it says:

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;

See, you possess the practical evidence of diligently adding to your faith when you are practicing these things. Now, that means that comes with a promise. There is a promise for pursuing these qualities. Here’s the first promise in verse 10 – the promise of the assurance of salvation. Doesn’t everyone want assurance of salvation? Don’t you want to know that you’re saved? Don’t you want to know that you are chosen by God? Don’t you want to know that you are called by God? Every Christian should want to know that beyond the shadow of a doubt. When they do, they will have assurance. In fact, it says right here that the promise of an assurance of salvation is that you will never stumble. You will never stumble. You will never fall. It’s translated to the original. In the original, this is an emphatic which can be translated: never ever at any time will you stumble or fall. Now that’s a lot of assurance there. This doesn’t mean that you will never sin though. That’s not what it’s talking about. Actually, it’s kind of used in a military way. It means that you will be able to keep up with the troops marching homeward without stumbling, without falling out of rank, without being left behind. It means staying close to the conquering Christ who leads His called and chosen ones in and through battle onto victory and right into the kingdom of God. That’s what He does.

Notice in verse 11, there’s a second promise. There’s the promise of an abundant entrance into the kingdom of God. Look at verse 11, what it says:

for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

I would say: wow, that’s amazing that this life is preparation for heaven’s life. But it is never implied that we earn our place in heaven. It’s all of God’s grace. Every bit of it is God’s grace. None of it we obtained on our own. However, some who take the human side of salvation seriously by giving effort to increasing these qualities will have a more glorious welcome into the eternal kingdom than others will. Some are going to be in and out of laziness. Some are going to be in and out of being influenced by wrong teaching. So what does the Bible say? That some will be saved, but only as one who escapes the flames. Now, we’re talking about the judgment seat of Christ here. What is it say in 1 Corinthians 3:15:

If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

So the person comes to the end of his life. He is just a believer. But his life has not been what it should or could have been. The person has horror actually in his face at death. Death to him is dread with the cloud of darkness. Oh yes, he is saved thanks to God, as His strong hand takes hold of him and drags him across into the entrance of the kingdom of God. His last article of death was blackened by sin and loss of reward. He is saved, Bible says, so as by fire. He just makes it. According to Peter, you don’t want to be that person. You want to have assurance because this person is not guaranteed assurance. They remained lazy, and they’re duped by often false teaching.

So the exhortation today is if you will have spiritual success in time and divine congratulations in eternity, then take the high road, not the low road, so that you don’t have to stumble and fall in your Christian life. The Scriptures do promise to those who apply diligence in developing these seven vital qualities in their lives will have an effective and an abundant Christian life with plenty of assurance. And that means they’ll have plenty of boldness and they’ll have a life that is good and noble. Not trouble free, never. As it says in the passage in this way, if they’re faithful in this way and increasing in these things, the faithful are welcomed into the glory of heaven in a spectacular fashion.

Rewards are promised again and again in the Word of God to those who serve Him well. Faithful children of God can anticipate the greatest reward of all. Do you know the greatest reward of all? The privilege of hearing the Emperor of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ, say to you:

Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into joy of your master.

Now the exhortation behind all that should be this desire – that’s what I want. That’s how I want to live, because that is going to take you to the next step, to the next place, and to faithfully live for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray. Lord, thank You again for the awesomeness of the Word of God. It is so incredibly clear of what the apostle was saying to us. It is so incredibly practical for you and myself to understand so we can actually live a life that is honoring to the Lord and that we can have assurance that we’re chosen, that we’re elect, that we’re useful, that we’re fruitful, and our entrance into the kingdom of God’s going to be glorious. That’s what we want Lord. Please do what You need to do for that to happen in our life. And I pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

March 29, 2020
The Believer’s Responsibility for Godly Living, Part 7

In this sermon, Pastor Babij teaches from 2 Peter on how a true Christian is controlled by God’s Word and desires to do God’s will. Pastor Babij therefore calls on Christians to practice visible love for others, especially their brethren. Pastor concludes by exhorting Christians to examine honestly their walks before God.

Full Transcript:

This morning, we’re looking at 2 Peter. I’ll be reading from verses 1 to verse 6.

Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,

Let’s pray. Lord, thank You this morning again that we were able to come together as your people to listen to, to participate in the Word of God, and to be able to think through the things that You’ve given us that are great treasures for our soul, that make us like You, that lead us in the way everlasting, that causes us to examine our own selves to see where we’re at, to see if we’re growing, to see if we’re adding to our faith. And I pray, Lord, that You would just identify those things in our life. If we are, that we would continue to grow in them. And if we’re not, I pray, Lord, that You would just show us where we need to lay things aside, put away sin and put on righteousness. So Lord, we can live in a manner that’s pleasing to You, and we can know we’re pleasing You. Let us live like that, because we know, Lord, that’s where our peace is maintained, and that’s where the joy of the Lord is our strength. So I pray you would again teach us the Word this morning. In Christ’s name I ask it. Amen.

So I’ve been looking at this passage in this book, that Christians have been given everything, as it says, to grow in godliness. We saw already in verses 3 and 4 what God has done. Now we have been looking at and will continue to look at what Christians are to do and what Christians are to actually take very serious in their life, and that is the human side of salvation. We’re to take it so serious that we are to put strenuous effort into our spiritual development, because that is the goal of the Holy Spirit. That is the goal for God when He saves us, not just to leave us, not just to stay the same, but to grow.

Any baby that is born into this world, if the baby does not grow through the stages in their life, we would say something’s wrong. Something’s not healthy. Something needs to be done. It’s the same thing for us, where we coming to the kingdom of God, believing in Christ as babies spiritually, but we’re to mature to be teenagers in a sense, and then to be strong and become spiritual fathers. We just learn to live by faith. We learn to trust God. We learn to give our life over to God, and we just live to please Him. That’s really where maturity is taking all of us for those who are real believers. Christians must add to what God has given them. They must increase in it. They must proceed to grow in it because that is what the Scriptures teach us. We saw in Scripture already the five of the seven qualities. We just mentioned moral excellence and knowledge and self-control. Today we’re going to be looking at perseverance, because this goes along with self-control.

The two starting qualities, moral excellence and knowledge, they had to do more with our relationship with God, and now our relationship later on when we grow in brotherly kindness and love that, our relationship to others. So Scripture really calls us to bring every effort to bear upon the process of cultivating our spiritual growth. What that means is actually increasing in the image of God that is stamped upon our life as believers. These are in this passage the qualities that help to form that image of Christ. So these qualities deserve our utmost effort. The two foundational qualities, I’ve mentioned already, is moral excellence. Of course that also can be understood as adding to your faith goodness, the ability to be good because God is good. And we learned goodness by keeping our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, who He is in His person, how He did things, and what He has done and is going to do so.So there’s one thing about goodness I’ve mentioned that is always true – that you cannot exhaust goodness. Goodness is something that there’s never a bottom of the barrel. Goodness is something we ought to be doing all the time before God and toward others.

Goodness is controlled by a second foundation of quality, and that’s knowledge. We’re to grow in our knowledge. Knowledge, of course, is a reference to the intellectual part of the personality. This knowledge is really not necessarily knowledge that is complete. It is a growing knowledge. Scripture is really challenging us to keep stimulating our intellectual appetites. That knowledge definitely includes the knowledge of Christ, but it also includes that of growing in practicality, growing in how to live our life skillfully, growing in discerning what is good and what is not good, what is God’s way and what is every other way. The Christian needs to grow in these virtues, the virtue of knowledge. As we grow in Scripture, then we grow also in a practical action. We put the Scripture into practice.

So this Lord’s day, we’re going to look at the second of the five directional qualities. This next quality will set us on the right path and give us clear direction of the way that we should be walking, the direction that we should be going. That the first directional quality I covered last time was in verse 6: to add to your faith self control. Remember, that literally meant to hold oneself in. And it could specifically mean in Peter, because of the false teachers, relating to something that has to do with more of a sexual nature and a greedy nature, where the whatever the world is offering, that’s what you’re going after. So self control comes in because it tells us in the Word of God that God has given us the ability to participate in the divine nature, that we have the power to control and stabilize our lives. Controlling our own passions and desires instead of them controlling us, we’re controlling them.

So self-control is the ability to lay aside your desire and then take a grip of yourself and all your passions and all your desires and make them your servants, make them your slaves. They are no longer your masters. They are no longer the tyrants in your life. They are no longer screaming louder than everything else, to go the opposite the way God wants you to do, and they are no longer calling the shots. You are, because God has given you the ability to do so. So the Word of God, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, directing and informing our passions and desires instead of the old man, the old nature, instead of the world’s system and its beliefs, and instead of demonic enticements that come our way on a regular basis. They’re not doing it anymore. But the Spirit of God is leading us to live a life of that being self-controlled, part of the fruit of the spirit.

Putting that all together, this means that you the Christian, participating in the divine nature, are able to control your greatest feelings, your greatest desires, your greatest cravings, your greatest passions, with a wise and a skillful control, without giving into any of those strongest urges that maybe enticing you at any particular point in your life. Before they let us, now we are to say no to them.

This is also the opposite of what the false teachers in 2 Peter have been teaching. False teachers believe that following their own lust and showing no restraint and having what they call freedom in Christ is actually where maturity lies. See, the false teachers, for them, freedom in Christ has to follow their own sensuality, not the truth. Freedom in Christ has to follow their own lusts and not the truth. So the false teachers actually are feeding the strongest urges of the fallen nature in humanity, which is to be healthy and to be wealthy and to be prosperous. Everybody wants that. When it comes to spiritual things, those are not the things we want. God has to give us the desires to want them. And because they’re not going to come up and we’re not going to decide to one day not only believe, but one day to follow Christ with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. That does not come from the sinful nature. That does not come from the world and its system and its teachings. And it surely doesn’t come from the enemy Satan himself.

So obviously, that’s not what the Scripture is teaching us. It is teaching us to be watchful. If we are going to stand against temptation, it’s teaching us to be prayerful, to keep praying that we may not be led into temptation, because the spirit is willing and the flesh is weak. Self-control is the discipline to be able to restrain one’s desires and follow through on doing what is right, even when it is difficult. From 2 Peter 1:4, God already says that in salvation, you can escape from the corruption that is in the world by its own lusts and desires. You can actually flee from it, run from it, get away from it as far as you can. So believers have the control to live out the nature of God and not live out the corrupt life that this present evil world offers. It has always offered and will continue to offer. As we live today it is getting worse and worse and worse. Debauchery is on the rise, and it is approved of, and it is supported, and it is voted for. That’s the day we live in. You know what, Christians, we are going to stand alone more and more as we go forward.

But the Lord always told us that. He didn’t say: listen, when you become a Christian, it’s going to be a rose garden. No, He didn’t say that matter fact, He told us the opposite of that. He says if you are a believer, you will suffer persecution in some level. At some place in your life, you will have to make very difficult decisions not to go with the crowd but to go in alone, because you know the truth. So the Bible’s best advice for dealing with temptation is to flee from it. Put as much distance between you and the source of temptation as possible. Believers have the control to live out what God is working in. So a Christian’s participation in the divine nature gives believers this new ability, this new desire to resist sin. We are to resist and flee, and of course the Lord rescues, as it says in 2 Peter 2:9:

then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation,

and trials and testings.

So this Lord’s day, let’s take a look now at the second of the five directional qualities. That’s found in verse 6: add to your faith, endurance. Add to your faith perseverance. In the New American Standard, it is also translated endurance. It’s also translated patience. They’re all the same words. They are synonymous with each other in what they mean. Patient endurance and steadfastness is a way to define that. This perseverance really has a basic attitude to it and it has a frame of mind to it. It has a frame of mind to be patient with something. It has a frame of mind to be steadfast with something, to bear long with something.

Secondly, it has a reference to a steadfast adherence to a course of action in spite of difficulties and testings. That’s why this word is really defined as perseverance, endurance, and fortitude. Now this term perseverance gives the believer a heads-up that the Christian life will have its difficulties. It will have its problems and troubles. It will have its valleys and trials. It will have its battles, but it will also have its victories. It will not be a smooth road into the kingdom of God. That is clear in Scripture just by this very word, just by the word to have self control. What the apostle Paul wrote in Romans chapter 5, he said this:

And not only this, but we also exalt in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;

Hope – that’s where it’s leading to. And of course it says in the Scriptures:

hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

So this morning, I would like to actually go over to Hebrews, if you go forward. I want to examine again the life of Abraham. The reason I would like to do that is because Abraham’s faith has comparable parallels to our walk of faith. Abraham actually lived by faith in obeying God in a patient manner. I guess if anybody in Scripture could be considered to be patient, the first would have to be Noah. Of course Abraham would come there too, because God kept giving him promises and it didn’t seem like those promises were going to work out real soon. He had to wait years and years and years, but by faith he held to the promises and that becomes key to having perseverance.

So in Scripture, in Hebrews chapter 11, which is that great famous hall of fame of those who gone before us, that great cloud of witnesses that have gone, lived, and died before us, are our examples. We are to look at them and emulate them and say – I want to be like that particular person because they were like the God in whom they serve. They trusted in Him. In Hebrews, Abraham had a patient trust in God that carefully persevered. Not sloppily persevered, but carefully persevered. He was careful with everything he did, actually. That doesn’t mean that he was a perfect man, but he was definitely a careful man. And he was careful through and persevered through difficult situations for long periods of time, and with an inner longing for home. That’s exactly what ought to be in our life as Christians. This is how we ought to think and live as Christians. So according to the book of Hebrews, the proof of faith is perseverance. It is recorded in Hebrews 10:36:

For you have a need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

In other words, it’s saying there in Scripture – listen, all believers have a need. Do you know what you need to do? You need to endure. You need to persevere. That doesn’t mean that things are going to come instantly. We live in a society where we want things instantly. We pray and we want God to instantly answer our prayers just the way we prayed, just the way we envisioned that it should be answered, and that’s not going to happen. God has to first show you what His will is. He has to first show you what you ought to be doing. And when you are doing that, you learned what He wants, and then you learn to pray in a way that honors Him and that aligns with His will. So for the present, we all have this great and essential need, and that is we all need to continue in endurance. Endurance means to persevere absolutely and emphatically under misfortunes and trials, and to hold fast to one’s faith in Christ. Now why is that? It’s because trials forces us to depend on God. Trials mature us spiritually and develop in us a proven character. Trials causes us to long for heaven, long for the kingdom of God, long for the new heaven and new earth that Peter is going to talk about. So all these things are preparing us to run the Christian race, to reach the goal, to finish, and to receive our reward. That’s what endurance is all about. The bottom line is – the key to successful endurance is faith. Faith in the object, faith in our God and in His character. Faith will give us the ability to know how to please Him. The key to growing in faith is continued perseverance. So all these things are preparing us to run the Christian race so we can finally receive the reward.

It was Charles Haddon Spurgeon, an old english preacher, who said: there is a kind of faith which does not run well, but is soon hindered and does not obey the truth. That is not the faith to which the promise is given. The faith of God’s elect continues and abides to the end. That for God’s real children, they will continue through it all, up and down mountains and valleys. They will continue to the end because they know the truth. They know the promises that because God tells the truth are laid before us. And those promises are true, even though people want to discount those things as being true, especially this world that we live in.

So Abraham’s faith is displayed as a patient trust that carefully persevered through, first of all, difficult situations. Look at Hebrews 11:9, it says:

By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;

So by faith he lived, as the Bible says, as an alien in the land of promise as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents. Meaning this – he lived in a time and in a land where he had no citizenship. He was an alien of the land of promise. And when he arrived at the land of promise, he found that it was still in the hands of others. All his long life by means of faith, he dwelt as an outsider in the land of promise. Abraham never owned the land, but he was only permitted to remain in the land as an alien. So that was a difficult time.

He also had no permanent settlement. If you look at verse 9, it says dwelling in tents. Tent is the most nonpermanent residence you can have. we think about about camping. You don’t go camping and stay in the woods for two years. Most people don’t anyway. You go there for a couple weeks, a week, a day. You pitch a tent so the elements would stay off you. And then you pack it all up, put it in your car, and go back home to your permanent residence. It’s saying about Abraham that he actually dwelled in tents his whole life. He lived in a non-permanent status, experiencing this in a foreign land. The Bible says dwelling in tents as a sojourner. Of course a sojourner means to stay in a place from day-to-day. A tent is something that has no foundation. It is not meant to be permanent. It is designed to be taken down only to be put up another day somewhere else. That’s what a tent is.

So he lived on the promises of God with endurance during difficult times. Then he also lived for a long periods of time. So perseverance is something that we endure for a longer of time. It says:

dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise.

Abraham did not receive the promise. Isaac did not receive it. Jacob didn’t receive it. It even tells us in Acts 7:5:

But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet, even when he had no child, He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him.

So Abraham dwelt in the land of Palestine. He did not possess the land, but he held it only as a promise from God to him and to his descendants. God spoke to Abraham outside the land of Palestine. God blessed Abraham when he had no land, no children, no place to worship. He only had God, and he was fulfilled in that. So they all lived a long time, Abraham, Isaac, and jacob, as foreigners and died having nothing but faith in the promise. Can we do that? We do that. We are promised the heavenly kingdom of God. We’re promised a new heaven and new earth. Do we have that right now? Do we actually see it? No, we don’t have it in our possession, but we have it because God made a promise to us. And because of God’s character, that promise will come to pass, because a promise is only as good as the character of the person making it. If the person is completely trustworthy and true, I can trust that person’s promise. I don’t need a contract for me and that other person to sign to establish that this is going to be taken care of and it’s going to happen. No, God can be trusted because of His character, because of who He is. And if you notice in Hebrews chapter 11:13, look at what it says:

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

They welcomed the promises from a distance. They saw by faith what God was going to do. Once we become Christians and followers of Christ, we quickly sense that we are non-residents. In this world, we are tent-dwellers, sojourners, just passing through. That’s what it said in 1 Peter 2:11:

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.

Our stay on earth for a short time is as in a foreign land in which we are without citizenship or without status or without rank or without rights in this world. That’s what believers really are, if we understand our position in Christ. So we stay on this earth, and we do it for what reason? To live in our faith in God who makes promises to us and keeps them. It says in 1 Peter 1:17:

If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;

God is the object of our faith in the way we live, not health, not wealth, not prosperity, not sexual pleasure, not meeting our own fulfilling, our own desires and passions. Those are not center in a Christian’s life. We are not citizens on the earth. We are citizens of heaven. As citizens of heaven, we are under a government of heaven with Christ as our King who reigns in our hearts. As citizens of heaven, our names are written in heaven, giving us full access to the city of God when we get there. As citizens, we have a common right to all property of heaven. There is nothing in heaven that doesn’t belong to us because we’re joint heirs with Christ as citizens. We enjoy all the delights of God’s presence. Philippians tells us this already so concisely:

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait…

That’s perseverance. For what?

for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;

What all this means is that we have much in common with Abraham concerning perseverance. We should also share the longing he had for a permanent dwelling. It’s not wrong to desire a permanent dwelling, but tent life, with its non-permanent characteristics, is now contrasted here in Hebrews with the stable settled existence of a city. If you look in verse 10, notice what it says because he persevered, Abraham, with an inward longing for a home. Everybody wants to make it home. After a long week, you know what you want to do? You just want to go home, kick your feet up, get your favorite beverage, right? Relax. Everybody wants that, but that’s a noble desire. That is a noble desire. In fact, look at Hebrews 11:10. It says:

for he was looking for a city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

To me, that’s fantastic. Abraham looked far beyond earthly things and displayed a longing for a heavenly city. That’s what the Spirit of God is doing in our heart. He’s showing us in our heart that God is the designer of a city that can never be gotten rid of. God is the actual framer of that city. He’s the builder of that city, of that higher city, of that eternal city. That’s a noble longing for a believer. It is faith alone that can make the prospect of an eternal city built by God real. We have it by faith. And that’s what our eyes are fixed upon. That’s what our heart is yearning for. It’s to finally be moved through this life into the presence of God, where we don’t have all this baggage. That’s going to be a day we all long for as believers. The Spirit of God is doing that in our heart. Our eyes are fixed upon it.

This means that the city God has built as a foundation to it. Those who dwell there have a permanent dwelling. They have permanent citizenship. They find themselves truly safe and secure and truly fulfilled, because God is our God and we are His people. And He dwells with us and we dwell with Him. That’s the ultimate goal to finish the book of Revelation, and that’s the goal.

So one thing that we must notice that the Holy Spirit is doing in us. And what is it? That we desire something better than this world, something that is beyond this world. If you have not yet learned it, I pray that you will. You say: learn what? That this world and what it offers can never, can never satisfy you. Yes, when you’re dead in sin, a dead world may have satisfied your dead hearts with husks and empty vanities. But once you become a believer, that’s not going to happen anymore. I don’t want that anymore. You don’t want that anymore. See, you have received by God’s grace nobler desires. Stronger, sharper more passionate desires that wants a better country. In Hebrews 11:16, it says:

But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.

The word desire is a very telling one. It really means to stretch oneself out in order to touch something, to grasp something, to reach after, to desire very strongly something. In other words, God gives us desires that draw us toward heaven, desires that keep us stretching out for heaven and at the same time draws us away from this world and its glitter.

I’m talking about those who have truly come to Christ and have known something of better things and brighter realities. Have you not discovered that in this world we have no home? We have no true place to make it permanent for our eternal souls. Our home is yet beyond, and that’s exactly the way it ought to be. We are looking for it among the unseen things. We are, in reality, strangers and sojourners. As those believers who have gone before us, we are dwellers in the wilderness, just passing through to reach our perpetual inheritance in the city of God.

So I hope that these Scriptures will steal your heart to be a little bit more homesick while you presently live on this earth. As a pilgrim, you will never feel quite at home and comfortable here on the earth. You’ll actually groan in your soul for a heavenly dwelling. The more you grow in Christlikeness, the more you will feel like this. The more you mature in Christ, the more you’ll desire these things. The more you add to your faith the virtues in 2 Peter, the more you will feel like this as a believer. For the Christian, our final home is not this world. Our citizenship is in – what does it say in 2 Peter? It is in the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we’re going to enter that kingdom someday, and it’s going to be a grand entrance.

So the main idea in 2 Peter, and using Abraham as an example, is that the idea of change and transformation in the Christian life are fueled by a combination of divine power and human responsibility. We have God’s power to add perseverance to our faith. We also, humanly speaking, are responsible to practice perseverance each and every day. Literally, perseverance means to walk under a load. And that’s what we do. We’re walking under a load, but God lightens the load for us. There’s no load that God allows us to experience that He is not there with us walking with us.

We all need to practice adding to our faith perseverance, which means to remain under trials and testings and temptations in a way that honors God. It is a patience which lets nothing adverse force it to give up. So are you ready? Are you ready to persevere when people consider you foolish for believing there is only one way to be saved and be made right with God? Are you willing to stand when that happens?

Like Noah, he persevered, undeterred by the mockery of others, while he built the ark and preached for 120 years. He was a preacher of righteousness. You can hear the Noah jokes. Laughter on those sunny days with no mist in the air when Noah told them about what was coming. I think they would say that Noah might have been the craziest of biblical characters. Hearing from God? Building an ark? Gathering animals and putting them into the ark? They would say this whole thing sounds delusional, because it was in their eyes. Or someone would ask: do you know someone who can fit all the animals into a ship? And the person would respond: I know a guy who will. Or if anyone needs a boat, I happen to know a guy. You got that right? See, Noah surely looked like a madman to his unbelieving onlookers. He sounded like a fool to those who came and heard him preach. But is it not the same for us? What did Paul say in 1 Corinthians chapter 1? He says:

but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

So are we willing to persevere and are we ready to be found fools for Christ’s sake in this world? Because you will be looked at as a fool. The more we go forward, the more that seems likely. Are you ready to persevere when the mocker say that Christ is coming, and that the fact that Christ is coming is just a big farce. It’s just a big story. It’s just something that was made up for a crutch, for you Christians, something to hope, hope for knowing all well that death is the end just like a common animal. Well, 2 Peter 3:3-4 says this:

Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”

So when you know the second coming is a promised reality as a believer, are you willing to stand firm in light of those things being slung at you? Mocked for believing in a creation by God? Mocked for believing that there was a worldwide flood and the world is now reserved for fire? Mocked and judged by an ungodly world because you believe that there’s a new heaven and new earth, where righteousness dwells and that’s what your hope is in, but it’s in the person who promised that. Are you ready to hold to that truth? Are you ready to persevere through the loss of friends, even family, just because you’re a Christian? Are you ready to persevere when you are the butt of people’s jokes and innuendos, just because you’re a Christian? Are you prepared to stand alone when some people close to you just drift away from you? Don’t really want to have much to do with you anymore, and some just outright forsake you. Are you ready to stay in the race and persevere until the end if you’re alone because you know the truth? What what it what did Paul tell young Timothy? He says:

Make every effort to come to me soon; for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica;

Paul experienced it. The Lord experienced it. We’re going to experience it too at some level. Are we going to keep going? Are we going to persevere when those things happen? Are you ready to persevere in order, young people, to meet the right Christian person that’s really a Christian? And because you’re really a Christian, and not be tempted to shack up, not be tempted to change your sex. And to keep yourself sexually pure until the day of your marriage vows. Are you willing to persevere to do that because you know it honors God and pleases Him and it aligns with the truth of Scripture? These things are not easy to do. These are going to take some very conscious effort every day to think about. This is what I should do because it honors God. This is not just a one-time quick decision you make while you’re driving out of the McDonald’s parking lot. This is a serious decision. It’s a decision. You have to wake up everyday and remind yourself of. All these are decisions that are going to take adding perseverance to your faith. Are you ready to persevere when you have been a Christian for a good amount of time and everything has been kind of status quo and you are tempted to lay aside this time for some sinful excitement? Are you ready to do what is right when no one is walking with you? Are you ready to persevere when the adversary takes up an aggressive posture against you as a believer? And he will.

Satan attacks all who threaten his rule. If you are a believer, you are already a threat to his rule because you are now in the kingdom of light. He’s still operating in the kingdom of darkness. God’s people are hindrances to Satan’s reign. So Satan contrives methods by which he may remove them, neutralize them, cause them to work on his behalf. Satan has his whole host of inferior spirits working to cause God’s faithful to fail. All the servants of God will come under the direct or indirect assaults of this formidable enemy that is against those who bear the image of Jesus Christ. Satan’s goal is to curtail the believer’s usefulness and to ruin the believer’s testimony. And whatever he could do to bring you to that point, he will do it. Satan tempt believers to sin and then aids them in justifying their sinful actions. So to be clear, Satan does not make people sin, but he does tempt people by drawing upon their various lusts present within them. Satan wants to ensnare people in their lust, and then persuade them that those lusts are legitimate even though they are wicked. And all the while making himself and his allurements appear right and helpful and desirable and fulfilling. All lies. After all, Paul tell us that Satan even transforms himself into an angel of light. He says in Timothy:

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So in Satan’s world system and in all his temptations, nothing is as it seems to be. He makes things other than what they really are. We kick around the devil’s deceptions in our minds all the time. Because these deceptions want to convince us that what we’re planning to do is really all right. Thoughts like: God wouldn’t want me to be unhappy, would He?Why fight the feeling? Just give in. Everyone else is doing it. Everyone else is doing it. Why am I different? Why should I deprive myself of something that everybody else is doing and seems to have a good time doing it? This won’t lead to anything else. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to do this one thing just this once. No big deal. No one will ever know. I can get away with this time, and I’ll just go to the Lord and pray and then He’ll forgive me of what I just done. That’s presumptuous sin. Now you have another sin. Sin just makes more babies. That’s all it does. It just makes life more difficult. Or this won’t affect anybody else but me. I can just confess it. It’ll be like it never happened. God will stop me if he doesn’t want me to go any further.

All these and more are things that have been thrown at you and me forever. But how loud are those voices today? If you’re adding to your faith a lot of those voices, or maybe you just don’t hear them anymore. I don’t hear those things anymore, because I don’t want to hear them anymore, because I know they’re all lies. Really when it comes to temptation, it always comes down to what lie are you believing or what truth are you shining. It’s got to be one of those two things. There’s no middle ground. And for a believer, because you have been in the Word of God and your mind is being transformed by the Word of God, you know what God’s will is. You know the right thing to do. It doesn’t matter what age you are. It doesn’t matter really how long you’ve been in the faith. The Word of God clearly tells us what we ought to be doing. The more we roll it over in our mind, the more deceived we become, until eventually we go for the bait. And when is the bait is taken and the hook is set and the line is reeled in, then sin, like a pregnant woman, brings forth death. That’s what James says. And sin always destroys. It may take a while for it to happen, but it does.

So, why would I want to live like that? Why would you want to live like that? You don’t want to live like that. See, Satan works on believers to get the better of them. The devil wants to destroy the power and testimony of the church by putting stumbling blocks in believers’ ways, keeping them ignorant of God’s Word and stifling their spiritual growth. Christians must resist him, it says in Peter, if the church is to accomplish its mission. In other words, will you persevere in keeping your armor on in order to stand up against whatever the enemy throws at you? Are you ready for that? Again, the apostle Paul said in Ephesians,

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

That Scripture is not for somebody else. It’s for you and me. These are realities for believers. Paul also said,

Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day,

The day that some demon specifically points you out for temptation, you’ll be able to resist him. Believe me, all demons are stronger than you and me unless we have the armor of God. It says,

take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

Stand firm – you know what that means? It means this – perseverance. You’re bearing up under the load of life, under the load of temptation, under the load of satanic enticements, under the load of your past, under the load of oppressive people, under the load of false teaching that is turned into truth in our culture, which is not truth but a big lie.

So are you ready to persevere when you have been wronged as a Christian and you feel justified to stay angry? I could put a whole other bunch of sins in there, but I chose anger for a very specific reason, because we all get angry at one point or another. That sin is not foreign to anybody. No matter how nice you think you are and how patient you are and how long-suffering you are, you get angry. Because we get tired and we get weak, right? Just that one moment, you lose it and your anger takes over. Are you willing to persevere when you are wronged by someone else and you feel justified in your anger? But this is what happens for those who are persevering in the faith. You remember something. Do you know what you remember? I remember what the Scriptures say about anger and what opportunity it will give to the enemy. In fact, it tells us right in Ephesians: do not give the devil opportunity, specifically in the area of being angry too long, where righteous anger quickly turns into unrighteous anger if you don’t confess it. Don’t give the devil the opportunity when you’re angry because he’ll take it every time. He’s not going to take it for your benefit and for your good.

See, you’re reminded of Scripture when those things happen and you practice being spiritually skillful at that moment when this strong desire of justifying yourself comes into your mind. But instead what you do, instead of remaining angry, you implement displaying God’s goodness. You implement the knowledge that you have been learning of your Lord Jesus Christ. You implement the exercise of self-control by using the power that God has given you to put off that sin, to use your renewed mind and put on the righteousness at that moment that is available to you instead of anger. See, that’s what adding to your faith means. I’m able to, in this practical situation, to not go the way I used to go.

In doing so, your anger does not lead to nursing grievances. Your anger does not lead to desire to revenge. Your anger does not slander with the tongue. Your anger does not treat people with contempt. In other words, you remain in control. You remain forgiven. You remain holy, abiding in God’s intended goal for you. And what is that goal? Christlikeness. In that moment, you acted like Christ. And you had all the divine power to do so, but you didn’t have to do so. You have persevered with your own effort while participating in the divine nature. That is how perseverance should look like. And that’s not just going to happen once. That’s going to happen a multitude of times with all kinds of other sins. And I’m saying to you brethren, for those who are believers, you are to add to your faith these things already mentioned so you can act like Christ. But you need to practice that.

Again, steadfastness is the willing courageous acceptance of everything that life can do to you and then take the worst event and use it as a stepping stone upward for Christian growth. The assumption here is that walking on the path of perseverance develops a strong faith. And you know where that strong faith leads to? It leads to the next virtue – godliness. It leads to godliness, to act like God. When you do that, that’s where the victory is experienced. That’s where the joy of the Lord is experienced. That’s where God is honored and exalted. And that’s where you become stronger. That when you become strong. That’s where God is taking us. He’s taking us to a place where we can be strong, so we’re not tossed to and fro by every wind of teaching, but in adding these qualities to our life, we are actually becoming useful and fruitful. That’s what God wants to do with us.

Let’s pray. Lord, I thank You this morning for the Word of God. Lord, in it is contained the words of life, The words that give us light to our life. It illuminates darkness. It shows us, Lord, which way to go when we come to that “Y” in the road, that we can discern which way to go, one that honors You. And I pray, Lord, that these qualities found in 2 Peter and exemplified in the life of Abraham would be qualities that would be our qualities, something that You would do in our life, Lord. I just prayed today that that would be true of us, that we would have that desire. Lord, I pray that as we do that, the gold of the world would grow dim in light of Your wonderful face. I pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

March 22, 2020
The Believer’s Responsibility for Godly Living, Part 5

In this sermon, Pastor Babij, preaches from 2 Peter 1:6 regarding perseverance and how the practice of perseverance leads to godliness. Pastor Babij reminds Christians that life is full of trial and trouble; Christians must always be willing to persevere and even be thought of as fools for Christ.

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okay as we continue this morning we’re looking at second Peter pew Bible if you’re using it as page 1215 and I’ll be reading from verse 1 to verse first number 6 Simon Peter a bondservant an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have received the faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence for by these he has granted to us his precious and Magnus magnificent promises so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust now for this very reason also applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence and in your moral excellence knowledge and in your knowledge self-control and in if in your self-control perseverance and in your perseverance godliness let’s pray lord thank you this morning again that we were able to come together as your people to listen to to participate in the Word of God and to be able to think through the things that you’ve given us that are great treasures from our soul that make us like you that lead us in the way and were lasting that causes us to examine our own selves to see where we’re at to see if we’re growing to see if we’re adding to our faith and I pray Lord that you would just identify those things in our life if we are that we would continue to grow in them and if we’re not I pray Lord that you would just show us where we need to lay things aside put away sin and put on righteousness so Lord we can live in a manner that’s pleasing to you and we can know we’re pleasing you Lord let us live like that because we know Lord that’s where our peace is maintained and that’s where the joy of the Lord is our strength and so I pray you would again teach us the word this morning in Christ I ask it amen so I’ve been looking at this passage and this book that Christians have been given everything as it says to grow in godliness and we saw already in verse three and for what God has done and now we have been looking at and we’ll continue to look at what Christians are to do and what Christians are to actually take very serious in their life and that is the human side of salvation and we’re to take it so serious that we are to put strenuous effort into our spiritual development because that is the goal of the Holy Spirit that is the goal for God when he saves us not just to leave us there not just to stay the same but to grow any baby that is born into this world if the baby does not grow through the stages in their life we would say something’s wrong something’s not healthy something needs to be done it’s the same thing for us where we come into the kingdom of God believing in Christ as baby’s spiritually but were too mature to be teenagers in a sense and then to be strong and become spiritual fathers we just learn to live by faith and we learn to trust God we learn to give our life over to God and we just live to please him that’s really where maturity is taking all of us as for those who are real believers it’s Christian’s must add to what God has given them they must increase in it they must proceed to grow in it because that is what the Scriptures teach us and we saw we saw in scripture already the five of the seven qualities we we just mentioned moral excellence and knowledge and self-control today we’re going to be looking at perseverance because the this is goes along with self-control and of course the two starting qualities moral excellence in knowledge they had to do more with our relationship with God and now our relationship later on when we grow in brotherly kindness and love that we are our relationship to others so scripture really calls us to bring every effort to bear upon the process of cultivating our spiritual growth and that is and what that means is actually increasing in the image of God that is stamped upon our life as believers and these are in this passage the qualities that help to form that image of Christ so these qualities deserve our utmost effort the two foundational qualities I’ve mentioned already is moral excellence and of course that also can be understood as adding to your faith goodness of the ability to be good because God is good and of we we learned goodness by keeping our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ what he who he is in his person how he did things and what he has done and is going to do so there’s one thing about goodness that I have mentioned that it that is always true that you cannot exhaust goodness goodness is something that there’s never a bottom of the barrel goodness is something we ought to be doing all the time before God in and toward others and so goodness is controlled by a second foundational quality and that’s knowledge right we’re to grow in our knowledge in verse number five and knowledge of course is a reference to the intellectual part of the personality that this knowledge is really not necessarily knowledge that is complete is a growing knowledge scripture is really challenging us to keep stimulating our intellectual appetites that knowledge definitely includes the knowledge of Christ but it also includes that of growing in practicality growing in how to live our life skillfully growing in discerning what is good and what is not good what is God’s Way and what is every other way so the the Christian needs to grow in these virtues the virtue of knowledge as we grow in Scripture then we grow also in a practical action we put the scripture in to practice so so this Lord’s Day we’re going to look at the second of the five directional qualities and so this next quality will set us on the right path and give us clear direction of the way that we should be walking the direction that we should be going that the first directional quality I covered last time was in verse number six to add to your faith self-control self-control and remember that literally meant to hold oneself in and it could specifically mean in Peter because of the false teachers relating to something that has to do with more of a sexual nature and a greedy nature where the whatever the world is offering that’s what you’re going after so self-control comes in because it tells us in the Word of God that God has given us the ability to participate in the divine and that we have the power to control and stabilize our lives controlling our own passions and desires instead of them controlling us we’re controlling them so self control is the ability to put aside one’s desire to take a grip of yourself or lay aside your desire and then take a grip of yourself and all your passions and all your desires and make them your servants make them your slaves so you no longer they are no longer your masters they are no longer the tyrants in your life they are no longer screaming louder than everything else to go the opposite way of what God want the way God wants you to do and they are no longer calling the shots you are because God’s given you the ability to do so so the Word of God enlightened by the Holy Spirit directing and informing our passions and desires instead of the old man the old nature instead of the world’s system and its beliefs and instead of demonic and enticements that come our way on a regular basis they’re not doing it anymore but the Spirit of God is leading us to live a life of that being self controlled part of the fruit of the Spirit and putting it that all together it this means that you the Christian participating in the divine nation nature are able to control your greatest feelings your greatest desires your greatest cravings your greatest passions with a wise and a skillful control without giving in to any of those strongest urges that may be enticing you at any particular point in your life before they led us now we are to say no to them now this is also the opposite of what the false teachers in 2nd Peter have been teaching that false teachers believe that following their own lust and showing no restraint and having what they call freedom in Christ is actually where maturity lies see the false teachers for them freedom in crisis to follow their own sensuality not the truth freedom in crisis to follow their own lusts and not the truth so the false teachers actually are feeding the strongest urges of the Fallen nature in humanity which is to be healthy and to be wealthy and to be prosperous everybody wants that when it comes to spiritual things those are not the things we want God has to give us the desires to want them and because they’re not going to come up and we’re not going to decide to one day not only believe but one day to follow Christ with our whole heart mind soul and strength that does not come from the sinful nature that does not come from the world and its system and is teaching and it surely doesn’t come from the enemy Satan himself so obviously that’s not what the scripture is teaching us it is teaching us to be watchful if we are going to stand against temptation it’s teaching us to be prayerful to keep praying that we may not be led into temptation because the Spirit is willing and the flesh is weak so self-control is the discipline to be able to restrain one’s desires and follow through on doing what is right even when it is difficult and of course from 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse number 4 God already says that in salvation you can escape from the corruption that is in the world by its own lusts and desires you can actually flee from it run from it get away from it as far as you can so believers have the control to live out the nature of God and not live out the corrupt life that this present evil world offers it has always offered and will continue to offer and as we live today it is getting worse and worse and worse debauchery is on the rise and it is approved of and it is supported and it’s voted for that’s the day we live in so you know what Christians we are going to stand alone more and more as we go forward alright but the Lord already told us that he didn’t say listen you when you get become a Christian it’s gonna be a Rose Garden no you didn’t say that matter of fact he told us the opposite of that he says if you are a believer you will suffer persecution in some level at some place in your life you will have to make very difficult decisions not to go with the crowd but to go it alone because you know the truth so the Bible’s best advice for dealing with temptation is to flee from it put as much distance between you and the source of temptation as possible that believers have the control to live out what God has is working in so a Christians participation and the divine nature gives believers this new ability this new desire to resist sin so we are to resist and flee and of course the Lord rescues as it says in 2nd Peter 2:9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation and trials and testings so this Lord’s Day let’s let’s take a look now at the second of the five directional qualities and that’s found in verse number six add to your faith endurance add to your faith perseverance in the new American Standard is also translated endurance it’s also translated patience they’re all the same words they’re synonymous with each other in what they mean alright patient endurance and steadfastness is a way to define that that this perseverance is really has a basic attitude to it and it has a frame of mind to it it has a frame of mind to be patient with something it has a frame of mind to be steadfast with something to bear long with something secondly it has a reference to a steadfast adherence to a course of action in spite of difficulties and testings and so that’s why this word is is really defined as perseverance endurance and fortitude now this term perseverance gives the believer a heads up that the Christian life will have its difficulties it will have its problems and troubles it will have its valleys and trials it will have its battles but it will also have its victories it will not be a smooth road into the kingdom of God and that is clear in Scripture just by this very word just by the word to have self-control control what what the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans chapter 5 he said this and not only this but we also exult in our tribulations knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance brings about proven character proven character brings about hope hope that’s where it’s leading to and of course hope it says in the scriptures does not disappoint but the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us so this morning I would like to actually go over to Hebrews if you go forward and I want you to look at I want to examine again the life of Abraham and the reason what I would like to do that is because Abraham’s Am’s faith is comparable has comparable parallels to our walk of faith that Abraham actually lived by faith in him obeying God in a patient manner I guess if anybody in Scripture could be considered to be patient it would have to be the first would have to be Noah and of course Abraham would come there too because God kept giving him promises and it didn’t seem like those promises were gonna work out real soon he had away years and years and years but by faith he held to the promises and that becomes key to having perseverance so in Scripture in Hebrews chapter 11 which is that great famous Hall of Fame of those who’ve gone before us that great cloud of witnesses that have gone lived and died before us are our examples we are to look at them and emulate them and say I want to be like that particular person because they were like the God and whom they served they trusted in him so in Hebrews Abraham had a patient trust in God that carefully persevered not sloppily persevered but carefully persevered he was careful with everything he did actually done doesn’t mean that he was perfect man but he was definitely a careful man and he was careful through and persevere through difficult situations for long periods of time and without or with an inner longing for home and that’s exactly what ought to be in our life as Christians these are the this is how we ought to think and live as Christians so according to the book of Hebrews the proof of faith is perseverance it is recorded in Hebrews chapter 10 verse number 36 for you have a need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised so in other words it’s saying there in scripture listen all believers have a need you know what you need to do you need to endure you need to persevere all right and that doesn’t mean that things are gonna come instantly we live in a society where we want things instantly we pray and we want God to instantly answer our prayers just the way we prayed in just the way we envisioned that it should be answered and that’s not going to happen God has to first show you what his will is he has to first show you what you ought to be doing and when you are doing that you learned what he wants and then you learn to pray in a way that honors him and that aligns with his will so for the present we all have this great and essential need and that is we all need to continue in endurance endurance means to persevere absolutely and emphatically under misfortunes and trials and to hold fast to one’s faith in Christ now why is that is because trials forces us to depend on God trials matura spiritually and develop in us a proven character trials cause causes us to long for heaven long for the kingdom of God long for the new heaven and new earth that Peter is going to talk about so all these things are preparing us to run the Christian race to reach the goal to finish and to receive our reward and that’s what endurance is all about so the bottom line is the key to successful endurance is faith faith in the object faith in our God and in this character faith will give us the ability to know how to please him and the key to growing in faith is continued perseverance so all these things are preparing us to run the Christian race so we can finally receive the reward it was Charles Haddon Spurgeon an old English preacher who said there is a kind of faith which does not run well but it soon is soon hindered and does not obey the truth that is not the faith to which the promise is given the faith of God’s elect continues and abides to the end that for God’s real children they will continue through it all up and down mountains and valleys they will continue to the end and they because they know the truth they know the promises that because God tells the truth are laid before us and those promises are true even though people want to discount those things as being true especially this world that we live in so Abraham’s faith is displayed as first of all a patient trust that carefully persevered through first of all difficult situations look at verse number 9 of chapter 11 of Hebrews it says by faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise as in a foreign land dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob fellow heirs of the same promise so by faith he lived this the Bible says as an alien in the land of promise as in a foreign land dwelling in tents meaning this he lived in a time and in a land where he had no citizenship he was an alien of the land of promise and when he arrived at the land of promise he found that it was still in the hands of others all his long life by means of faith he dwelt as an outsider in the land of promise Abraham never owned the land but it was only permitted to remain in the land as an alien so that was a difficult time he also had no permanent settlement if you look at verse number 9 it says dwelling in tents 10 is the most non permanent resident you could have right I mean we think about camping you don’t go camping and stay in the woods for two years most people don’t anyway alright you go there for a couple weeks a week a day you pitch your tent so the elements would stay off off you and then you pack it all out put it in your car and go back home to your permanent residence where it’s saying about Abraham that he actually dwelled in tents his whole life he was a non-permanent he would lived in a non permanent status experiencing this in a foreign land the Bible said Wehling in tense as a sojourner of course a sojourner means to stay in a place from day to day so a tent is something that has no foundation it is not meant to be permanent it is designed to be taken down only to be put up another day somewhere else that’s what a tent is so he lived in on the promises of God with endurance during difficult times and then he also lived for long periods of time so perseverance is something that we endure for a longer period of time it says dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob fellow heirs of the same problem of promise so Abraham did not receive the promise Isaac did not receive it Jacob didn’t receive it it even tells us in Acts chapter 7 verse number 5 but he gave him no inheritance in it not even a foot of ground and yet even when he had no child he promised that he would give it to him as a possession and his descendants after him so Abraham dwelt in the land of Palestine he did not possess the land but he held it only as a promise from God to him and to his descendants God spoke to Abraham outside the land of Palestine God blessed Abraham when he had no land no children no place to worship he only had God and he was fulfilled in that so they all lived a long time Abraham Isaac and Jacob as foreigners and died having nothing but faith in the promise can we do that we do that all right we’re promised the heavenly kingdom of God we’re promised a new heaven and new earth do we have that right now do we actually see no we don’t have it in our possession but we have it because God made a promise to us and because God’s character that promise will come to pass because that promise is only as good as the character of the person making it if the person is completely trustworthy and true I can trust that person’s problem I don’t need a contract for me and that other person to sign to establish that this is going to be taken care of it’s going to happen no God can be trusted because of his character because of who he is and if you notice in Hebrews chapter 11 look at verse number 13 what it says all these died in faith without receiving the promises but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and it exiled on the earth they welcomed the promises from a distance they saw by faith what God was going to do so once we become Christians and followers of Christ we quickly sense that we are non-residents in this world we are tent dwellers sojourners just passing through that’s what it says in said in 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 11 beloved I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul so our stay on earth for a short time is as a in a foreign land in which we are without citizenship or without status or without rank or without right in this world that’s what believers really are if we understand our position in Christ so we stay on this earth and we do it for what reason to live in our faith in God who makes promises to us and keeps them it says in 1st Peter 1 if you address as father the one who impartially judges according to each one’s work conduct yourself in fear during the time of your stay on earth that God is the object of our faith in the way we live not health not wealth not prosperity not sexual pleasure not meeting our own own fulfilling our own desires and passions those are not Center in a Christians life we are not citizens on the earth we are citizens of heaven and as citizens of heaven we are under a government of heaven with Christ as our king who reigns in our hearts as citizens of heaven our names are written in heaven giving us full access to the City of God when we get there as citizens we have a common right to all property of heaven and there is nothing in heaven that doesn’t belong to us because we’re joint heirs with Christ as citizens we enjoy all the delights of God’s presence and Philippians tells us this already so concisely for our citizens citizenship citizenship is we’re in heaven right from which what we wait we eagerly way that’s perseverance for what for a savior the Lord Jesus Christ so what all this means is that we have much in common with Abraham concerning perseverance we should also share the the longing he had fought for a permanent dwelling it’s not wrong to desire a permanent dwelling but tent life with its non permanent characteristic is now contrasted actually here in Hebrews with the stable settled existence of a city and if you look in verse number 10 notice what it says because he persevered Abraham with a inward longing for home everybody wants to make it home after a long week you know what you just want to do you just want to go home kick your feet up get your favorite beverage right relax everybody wants that but that’s a noble desire that is a noble desire in fact look at verse number 10 of Hebrews 11 it says for he was looking for a city which has foundations whose architect and builder is God to me that’s a fantastic passage of Scripture Abraham looked far beyond earthly things and displayed a longing for a heavenly city that’s what the Spirit of God is doing in our heart he’s he’s showing us in our heart that God is a designer of a city that can never be gotten rid of he is God is the actual framer of that city he’s the builder of that city of that higher city of that eternal city that’s a noble longing for a believer and it is faith alone that can make the prospect of an eternal city built by God real we have it by faith and that’s what our eyes are fixed upon that’s what our heart is yearning for is to finally be moved through this life into the presence of God where we don’t have all this baggage that’s going to be a day we all long for as believers Spirit of God is doing that in our heart our eyes are fixed upon it and this means that the City of God God has built has a foundation to it and those who dwell there have a permanent dwelling they have permanent citizenship they find themselves truly safe and secure and truly fulfilled because god is our God and we are his people and he dwells with us and we dwell with him that’s the ultimate goal finished the book of Revelation and that’s the goal so this one thing that we must notice that the Holy Spirit is doing in us and what is it that we desire something better than this world something that is beyond this world if you have not yet learned it I pray that you will you say learn what that this world and what is what it offers can never can never satisfy you oh yes when when you’re dead in sin a dead world may have satisfied your dead hearts with husks and empty vanities but once you become a believer and that’s not gonna happen anymore I don’t want that anymore you don’t want that anymore so you have received by God’s grace nobler desires stronger sharper more passionate desires that wants a better country in verse 16 of Hebrews 11 it says but as it is they desire a better country that is a heavenly one the word desires is a very telling one it really means to stretch oneself out in order to touch something to grasp something to reach after to desire very strongly something in other words God gives us desires that draw us toward heaven desires that keep us stretching out for heaven and at the same time draws us away from this world and it’s glitter I’m talking about those who have truly come to Christ and have known something of better things and brighter realities have you not discovered that this world in this world we have no home we we have no true place to make it permanent for our eternal Souls our our home is yet beyond and that’s exactly the way it ought to be we are looking for it among the unseen things we are in reality strangers and sojourners as those believers we have gone before us we are dwellers in the wilderness just passing through to reach our perpetual inheritance in the City of God so I hope that these scriptures will stir your heart to be a little bit more homesick while you presently live on this earth as a pilgrim you will never feel quite at home and comfortable here on the earth you will actually grown in your soul for a heavenly dwelling and that is the more you grow in Christ’s likeness their more you will feel like this the more you mature in Christ the more you’ll desire these things the more you add to your faith the virtues in second Peter the more you will feel like this as a believer for the Christian our final home is not this world our citizenship is in as it what does it say in 2nd Peter it is in the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we’re going to enter that kingdom someday and it’s going to be a grand entrance so the main idea in 2nd Peter and using Abraham as a example is that the idea of change and transformation in the Christian life are fueled by a combination of divine power and humans responsibility we have God’s power to add perseverance to our faith and we also humanly speaking are responsible to practice perseverance each and every day literally perseverance means to walk under a load and that’s what we do – we’re walking under a load but God lightens the load for us there’s no load that God allows us to experience that he is not there with us walking with us so we all need to practice adding to our faith perseverance which means to remain under trials and testings and temptations in a way that honors God it is a patience which lets nothing adverse force it to give up so are you ready are you ready to persevere when people consider you foolish for believing there is only one way to be saved and may right with God are you welling willing to stand when that happens like Noah he persevered undeterred by the mockery of others while he built the ark and preached for 120 years he was a preacher of righteousness you can hear the Noah jokes you know laughter on those sunny days with no mist in the air when Noah told them about what was coming I think they would say that Noah might have been the craziest of biblical characters hearing from God building an ark gathering animals and putting it into the ark they would say this whole thing sounds delusional because it was in their eyes or someone would ask do you know someone who can fit all the animals into a ship and the person was bond I know a guy who will or if anyone needs a boat I happen to know a guy you got that right see Noah is surely looked like a madman to his unbelieving on lookers he sounded like a fool to those who came and heard him preach but is it not the same for us what aren’t Paul saying first Corinthians chapter 1 he says but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling-block to the Gentiles foolishness but to those who are the called both Jews and Greeks Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men so are we willing to persevere and are we ready to be found fools for Christ’s sake in this world because you will be looked at as a fool the more we go forward the more that seems likely are you ready to persevere when the mockers say that Christ is coming and that the fact that Christ is coming is just the big farce it’s just a big story it’s just something that was made up to you know for a crutch for you Christians to something to hope hope for knowing all well that death is the end just like a common animal well second Peter chapter 3 verse 3 and 4 says this know this first of all that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking following after their own lust and saying where is the promise of his coming for ever since the father’s fell asleep all continues just as it was from the beginning of Crete so when you know the second coming is a promised reality as a believer are you willing to stand firm in light of those things being slung at you mocked for believing in a creation by God mocked for believing that they are there was a worldwide flood and then the world is now reserved for fire mocked and judged by an ungodly world because you believe that there’s a new heaven and new earth where a righteousness dwells and that’s what your hope is in but it’s in the person who promised that are you ready to hold to that truth are you ready to persevere through the loss of friends even family just because you’re a Christian are you ready to persevere when you are the butt of people’s jokes and innuendos just because you’re a Christian are you prepared to stand alone when some people close to you just drift away from you don’t really want to have much to do with you anymore and some just outright forsake you are you ready to stay in the race and persevere unto the end if you’re alone because you know the truth well would it would it Paul tell young Timothy he says make every effort to come to me soon for demas having loved this present world has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica Paul experienced it the Lord experienced it we’re going to experience it too at some level so are we going to keep going are we going to persevere when those things happen are you ready to persevere in order young people to meet the right Christian person that’s really a Christian and because you’re really a Christian and not be tempted to shack up not be tempted to change your sex and to keep yourself sexually pure until the day of your marriage vows are you willing to persevere to do that because you know it honors God and pleases him and it aligns with the truth of Scripture see these things are not easy to do these are going to take some very conscious effort every day to think about this is what I should do because it honors God this is not just a one-time quick decision you make while you’re driving out of the McDonald’s parking lot this is this is a serious decision because it’s a decision you have to wake up every day and remind yourself of all these are decisions that are going to take adding perseverance to your faith see are you ready to persevere when you have been a Christian for a good amount of time and everything has been kind of status quo and you are tempted to lay aside this time for some sinful excitement are you ready to do what is right when no one is walking with you see are you ready to persevere when the adversary takes up an aggressive posture against you as a believer and he will Satan attacks all who threaten his rule and if you are a believer you are already a threat to his rule because you are now in the kingdom of light he’s still operating in the kingdom of darkness see God’s people are hindrances to Satan’s reign so Satan contrives and methods by which he may remove them neutralized them caused them to work on his behalf Satan has his whole host of inferior spirits working to cause God’s faithful to fail all the servants of God will come under the door or indirect assaults of this formidable enemy that is against those who bear the image of Jesus Christ that Satan’s goal is to curtail the believers usefulness and to ruin the believers testimony and whatever he could do to bring you that to that point he will do it that Satan tempts believers to sin and then aids them in justifying their sinful actions so to be clear Satan does not make people sin but he does temp people by drawing upon their various lusts present within them that Satan wants to ensnare people in their lust then persuade them that those lusts are legitimate even though they are wicked and all the while making himself and his allurements appear right and helpful and desirable and fulfilling all lies after all Paul tells us that Satan even transforms himself into an angel of life an angel of light where he says in Timothy for such men are false apostles deceitful workers disguising themselves as apostles of Christ no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light so in Satan’s world system and in his and in all his temptations nothing is as it seems to be he makes things other than what they really are see we quick we kick around the devil’s deceptions in our minds all the time because these deceptions want to convince us that what we’re planning to do is really all right thoughts like Godin God wouldn’t want to one wouldn’t want me to be unhappy would he why fight the feeling just given everyone else is doing it everyone else is doing it why am i different why should i deprive myself of something that everybody else is doing and seems to have a good time doing it this won’t this won’t lead to anything else I’ve always wondered what it would be like to do this one thing justice once no big deal no one will ever know I can get away with this time and I’ll just go to the Lord and pray and then he’ll forgive me of what I just done that’s presumptuous in now you have another sin sin just makes more babies that’s all it does it just makes life more difficult or this won’t affect anybody else but me I can just confess it it would be like it never happened God will stop me if he doesn’t want me to go any further all these and more are things that are have been thrown at you and me forever right but how loud are those voices today if you’re adding to your faith a lot of those voices or maybe you just don’t hear them anymore I don’t hear the things anymore because I don’t want to hear them anymore because I know they’re all lies so it always comes down to really when it comes to temptation what lie are you believing or what truth are you shunning it’s got to be one of those two things there’s no middle ground and for a believer because you have been in the Word of God and your mind is being transformed by the Word of God you know what God’s will is you know the right thing to do doesn’t matter what age you are doesn’t matter really how long you been in the faith the Word of God clearly tells us what we ought to be doing and the more we roll it over in our mind the more deceived we become until eventually we go for the bait and when is the bait is taken and the hook is set and the line is reeled in then sin like a pregnant woman brings forth death that’s what James says and it always does is always it always does sin always destroys it may take a while for it to happen but it does so why would I want to live like that why would you want to live like that you don’t want to live like that see Satan works on believers to get the better of them the devil wants to destroy the power and testimony of the church by putting stumbling blocks in believers ways keeping them ignorant of God’s Word and stifling their spiritual growth Christians must resist him it says in Peter if the church is to accomplish its mission so in other words will you persevere in keeping your armor on in order to stand up against whatever the enemy throws at you are you ready for that for again the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might put on the full armor of God so you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil that scripture is not for somebody else it’s for you and me these are these are realities for believers Paul also said therefore take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day the day that some demon specifically points you out for temptation you’ll be able to resist him and believe me all all all demons are stronger than you and me unless we have the armor of God because it says to take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm stand firm you know that means it means this perseverance you’re bearing up under the load of life under the load of temptation under the load of satanic enticements under the load of your past under the load of oppressive people under the load of false teaching that is turned into truth in our culture which is not truth but a big lie so are you ready to persevere when you have been wronged as a Christian and you feel justified to stay angry and I could put a whole other bunch of sins in there but I chose anger for a very specific reason because we all get angry at one point or another that that sin is not far into anybody no matter how nice you think you are and how patient you are and how long suffering you are you get angry because we get tired and we get weak right and we it’s just that one moment you lose it and you you your anger takes over so are you willing to persevere when you’re wrong by someone else and you feel justified in your anger but this is what happens for those who are persevering in the faith you remember something you know what you remember I remember what the scriptures say about anger and what opportunity it will give to the enemy in fact it tells us right in Ephesians that do not give the devil opportunity specifically in the area of being angry too long where righteous anger quickly turns into unrighteous anger if you don’t confess it don’t give it the devil the opportunity when you’re angry because he’ll take it every time he’ll take it every time and he’s not going to take it for your benefit and for your good see you’re reminded of Scripture when those things happen and you practice being spiritually skillful at that moment when this strong desire of justifying yourself comes into your mind but instead what you do instead of remaining angry you implement displaying God’s goodness you implement the knowledge that you have been learning of your Lord Jesus Christ you implement the exercise of self-control by using the power that God has given you to put off that sin to use your renewed mind and put on the righteousness at that moment that is available to you instead of anger see that’s what adding to your faith means I’m able to in this practical situation to not go the way I used to go in doing so your anger does not lead to nursing grievances your anger does not lead to desired revenge your anger does not slander with the tongue your anger does not treat people with contempt in other words you remain in control you remain forgiving you remain holy abiding in God’s intended goal for you and what is that goal Christ likeness so in that moment you act it like Christ and you had all the divine power to do so but you didn’t have to do so see you have persevered with your own effort while participating in the divine nature and that is that is how perseverance should look like and that’s not just gonna happen once that’s gonna happen a multitude of times with all kinds of other sins and I’m saying to you brethren for those who are believers you’re to add to your faith these things already mentioned so you can act like Christ but you need to practice that again steadfastness is the willing courageous acceptance of everything that life can do to you and then take the worst event and use it as a stepping-stone upward for Christian growth the assumption here is that walking on the path of perseverance develops a strong faith and you know where that strong faith leads to it leads to the next virtue you know what the next virtue is right godliness it leads to godliness to act like God and when you do that that’s where the victory is is experienced that’s where the joy of the Lord is experienced and that’s where God is honored and exalted and that’s where you become stronger every that that’s where you become strong and that’s where God is taking us he’s taking us to a place where we can be strong so we’re not tossed to and fro by every wind of teaching but we are in adding these qualities to our life we are actually becoming useful and fruitful and that’s what God wants to do with us let’s pray lord I thank you this morning for the Word of God because Lord in it is contained the words of life the words that give us light to our life it illuminates darkness it shows us Lord which way to go when we come to that why in the road that we can discern which way to go one that honors you and I pray Lord that these qualities found in 2nd Peter and exemplified in the life of Abraham would be qualities that would be our qualities something that you would do in our life Lord and I just prayed today that that would be true of us that we would have that desire and Lord I pray that as we do that the gold of the world would grow dim in light of your wonderful face and I pray this in Christ’s name Amen

March 1, 2020
The Believer’s Responsibility for Godly Living, Part 4

In this sermon, Pastor Babij preaches from 2 Peter 1:6 regarding the Christian’s responsibility to practice self-control, to master one’s passions and emotions and not be ruled by them. Pastor Babij teaches that, when Christians run from temptation, God will rescue them.

Full Transcript

We are continuing to look at the believer’s responsibility for Godly living. We’ll be looking at 2 Peter 1 and Ephesians 1 and some other passages that I’ll ask you to look up. We’re looking at part of 2 Peter 1:6 today. Let’s pray.

Father, thank You for another opportunity to be in Your Word and to have it available to us and to be able to read it and hear it preached. We are able to think through it and Holy Spirit, we ask You to allow the Word of God to be practical in our life that we would be looking at what we are seeing in Scripture and in our own life and I pray as we do that, Lord, that we would truly bear the benefits that this passage tells us. Because of it, when we live this way, Your Name is glorified. So bless us today with an understanding of the Word of God with eyes to see, ears to hear, and a will to do Your will. I pray this in Christ’s Name, Amen.

Now if I were to tell you how to avoid being unproductive in your Christian life, avoid being spiritually shortsighted, avoid forgetting what you have learned so far being a disciple of Jesus Christ, avoid falling on your face spiritually, being unsure of your election and doubt whether you would make it into the Kingdom of God, would you wan to hear what I have to say? That’s the question I have for you!

If I then said to you, all those things are attainable and yours, all you have to do is put strenuous effort into obtaining them and then to continue to increase in them until the day you leave this earth, would you consider it? Would you consider it a legitimate pursuit and would you be willing to give time and effort in order to be godly? That’s what Peter is addressing in the first part of this epistle.

So if we are to supply generously to our own faith the seven qualities that are listed in this passage, and if we add to those qualities as we grow in our knowledge and wisdom of Jesus Christ, we will avoid the downside of the negative results of being irresponsible in our behavior. Believers are to be responsible for what they are reading and studying in the Word of God. That means Christians have been given everything, as it says in 2 Peter 1:3:

Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

Because we have that, we saw what God had done for us. Now the Scripture is telling us that we are to take the human side of our salvation very seriously, by putting strenuous effort into our spiritual development. As Christians we are to add to what God has given us, proceed to grow in it and then add to our faith the seven qualities. If you look at 2 Peter 1:5-7, here are the seven qualities:

Diligence, moral excellence, knowledge, ;self-control, perseverance, godliness, ;brotherly kindness, and love.

These ethical virtues are to be lived out by the Christian which constitutes what a godly life is. This is what Christians are enabled to do and discipline themselves to do. We are to lavishly supply to our Christian faith all the virtues until they culminate in the last virtue which is love. We are to work them out in every avenue until they are in every compartment of our lives. They are not to be worked out all at the same time but over a period of time all together. The first five are characteristics that grow out of our relationship with God: moral excellence, knowledge, ;self-control, perseverance, godliness. The last two represents are relationships with our fellow men, which would be brotherly kindness and love.

Again just like the Ten Commandments. The first part marks our relationship with God, the second is our relationship with people. That should reflect how we actually deal with people once we have been growing in these characteristics. Two starting qualities that should be added to our faith are moral excellence and knowledge. These lay down the foundation of the rest of them. Faith is the root of which these virtues grow. Of the seven qualities, two are foundational and five are directional.

The Scripture calls us to bring every effort of cultivating our spiritual growth, that is to increase in the image of Christ in our Christian character. These qualities help format that image. Now when you read passages like this, you may say to yourself that this is impossible to achieve. That’s why Peter tells us that we can because we are participating in the divine nature that God has put in us by His Holy Spirit. God doesn’t just tell us to do this and it automatically happens. He wants us to put the effort in because we have a relationship and are walking with the Lord. Every day as we learn more about Him, we are growing. You shouldn’t be the same a month or year from now then you are today, you should be different. You should be laying aside the things that God doesn’t want in your life anymore, which may not be sinful but don’t enhance your spiritual growth. You can spend less time on things that are just not helpful.

We’re heading to eternity and the city of God! He is preparing us for that very purpose. The two foundational qualities are in 2 Peter 1:5:

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in ;your ;moral excellence, knowledge.

Moral excellence can also be translated the quality of the goodness of God that we learned from God which can be demonstrated in good habits. Fleshly desires are also discarded from us. We are to pursue what is morally right. Moral excellence is the state achieved by which the soul operates on the level of goodness. Christians are able to live out their virtuous life. Not because of our own efforts alone, but because of the presence of Christ in our soul. That’s what makes someone different from just professing Christ and nothing changes in their life, to those who have trusted Christ and have the Spirit and the Word of God and are different.

I think any honest Christians are going to say that the day they trusted Christ, everything changed. Our whole worldview change because of Christ. If someone was pushed in the corner and then grow in the Lord and become a Christian, they would say no to denying Christ. If this means that this is the last day, then so be it. God gives us the grace if that ever happens to us. We’re not going to deny Christ because we know He is our treasure. He gave His life to us and demonstrated love for us first.

This moral excellence is really part of the handiwork of God’s goodness in our lives. Everywhere we look, we see God’s goodness and creation. We see it in His laws and providences. God cannot be anything other than good. We learn goodness by keeping our eyes on Jesus, who He is and what He’s done. We learn goodness by the second foundational quality, which is knowledge. God does not bypass our minds, but actually makes it come alive. We understand things we never understood before. We know there’s a hope and a future for us, even when it comes to death.

It is so elusive for us to try and define what happens after death, but we can actually preach messages about that because the Bible tells us so. We have enough details of what God wants us to know on this side of eternity that we can preach on that and have a hope. Death is a doorway into God’s presence. To be absent from the body is to be present in the Lord.

That gives us the strength to be able to live another day. Even in the difficulties of life. So we are to add to our faith knowledge and this is the word gnosis, this means knowledge that is not necessarily complete yet. It is a growing knowledge in which we are stimulated in our minds intellectually and our appetites comes alive where we have a spiritual appetite for things we never had before. This knowledge definitely includes knowledge of Christ but it also includes wisdom and discernment that goes with knowledge. It includes the practical part of action after learning the Word of God. It’s not just cold theology or theory.

The Scripture is really stressing and imperative for living life well. It is this that if we are to finish life well, we must know God. The knowledge is really based on knowing who God is. We must get to work on knowing God because that is the pathway that leads to home which tells us in 2 Peter 1:11:

The entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

So this Lord’s Day, we will take a look at the first of the five directional qualities. This next quality will set us on the right path and give us clear direction on the way we should go. That’s why it’s a directional quality. The first directional quality is found in verse 6, which says:

And in ;your ;knowledge, self-control, and in ;your ;self-control, perseverance, and in ;your ;perseverance, godliness.

We’ll look at perseverance next time. I really want to focus on adding to your faith self-control. Now this word literally means to hold one’s self in. The root word means power and strength. In other passages, this term is used like in Ephesians 1:15-19:

For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which ;exists ;among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention ;of you ;in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I ;pray that ;the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are ;in accordance with the working of the strength of His might.

Now let me stop there because the word there is the same word that Peter uses in 2 Peter, and it means supernatural activity or energy or the operation of one upon us. The question here is what power we are using to try and resist temptation. What power are we using to put off besetting sins, develop godly character or bear spiritual fruit. What kind of power are we using? We can’t just use our own because that’s not enough. Here the Bible is saying that this power has been given to us.

The fact is that sin is one of the greatest powers in the world. No matter or method or power from us or from our world can overcome it. Only the Almighty power of God working in the lives of those who seek it from and through Christ can access it. So Christians don’t really have to struggle vainly over victory over their sin. But they should instead seek God’s power in prayer and keep in step with the Holy Spirit. Surely, this should quicken our hope and should enable us to appreciate our inheritance that we have and it should strengthen us to maintain against enemy and hindrance and obstacle in our path and it could be overcome in God’s power. That’s why it says in Ephesians 1:19:

What is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe?

God is not doing this towards everyone. He is only doing it to us who believe, those who are in Christ. You and I used to be in spiritual darkness and dead in trespasses and sins but now we are alive or quickened. In Ephesians, our hearts are opened and the prayer that is being offered here is that this light would be flooded into our souls to give us understanding. Now if you go to Ephesians 2:5, we get this passage of Scripture that says:

Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).

The very fact that you and I are believers is solely a demonstration of God’s might. Many things had to be overcome and conquered by the strength of God in order for you and me to become believers. For example, our flesh had to be over come. Why did it have to be overcome? Because Paul said to us in Romans 8:7:

Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able ;to do so.

We know that God can do this but we need to continue in that even as we grow in the Lord. We still need the power of God to overcome our remaining sin and corruption that is in the world. The second thing that has to be overcome is the devil himself. He is a real being and a fallen angel. I guess you could say that his power is second only to God in this world. He is the god of this world, which is what it says in 2 Corinthians 4. He has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.

It is only by the exceeding greatness of God’s power that he can be over come. What about the world itself, the system in which we live that is pounding against us every single day? The subtle power of worldliness with its lusts and desires that are opposed to God, the regular influences that fall upon us by the endless flow of books and films and blogs and all the inroads those into our lives by the complex technologies of the day.

Now you know and I know that when we are surfing the web, we’re finding things that we want to find, algorithms are being designed just for you. They are tracking everything you do. They have all the information they need about you and they are mapping out your likes and your dislikes, your wants and your desires. And they are also formulating advertisements in order to entice you to further indulge yourself in endless gratification. That’s what we do today, spend all day surfing the web. Before you know it, you’re taking your credit card out and buying something you don’t need. And they’re good at doing that!

We put our names on Facebook and all of a sudden because you’re one of their friends, you now have an advertisement in your notifications and mailboxes. The world knows how to get their message out and they know how to entice people. They’ve done their homework and behind all this is Satan himself. It’s power to please and entertain and entice the natural man and ultimately to blur the lines of what truth and error are, even to dictate what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior, what is real and what is fantasy, and if they can blur those lines, then they will get your mind.

1 John 2:15-16 says:

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Sinful people are going to promote the things that they want and what the culture wants. These are nice people who are kept in darkness and lulled into a stupor of false teaching and practices because they are just following what the system of the world is already doing, and it is good at advertising at what they want you to do.

So even Christians come under the subtle power of the world, which is trying to lure them away from pure devotion to Christ. Now what I’m stressing here is the difficulty in believing if it were not for the power of God to cause us to be born again. None of us could be saved without Him or be able to live the Christian life. We would not be able to stand for one moment. That’s what Peter said in his first epistle. Let’s look at what it says in 1 Peter 1:3:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

If it was not God’s power, not only would we not be able to be saved, but we would not be able to stay saved. Believers have the power working in them, if it were not for God’s power we would not have the desire to read the Word of God, pray, or the strength to put off sin and put on righteousness, or be strong in the Lord in the spiritual battle. The Apostle in Ephesians is not praying that believers see their need of this power, or that the believer have more power, but that believers would realize the greatness they have of the power that is already working in them. Philippians 2:13 says:

For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

God’s already doing that so you don’t have to pray for it! You now just have to live it out. How great is that power? How much strength is available for the Christian in this daily living out of our faith? Well in Ephesians 1:19-20 it says:

These are ;in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly ;places.

We often think of the Christian life solely in that we are forgiven. Then we tend to live the Christian life in the best way we can. This is altogether incorrect thinking because it is impossible to live the Christian life on their own strength. You see by nature, not one of us could or would believe the gospel. Nothing but the power of God can make us believers. But this same power is it what helps us continue in the Christian life. This is also connected to what God had to do to raise Christ from the dead and raise us to spiritual life. Believers are being urged to depend on this power and to realize the inexhaustible source of this strength that you can never run out of it since it comes from God.

I pray that we know it fully and personally and learn by experience the measureless might and exceeding greatness of the power that God is exerting towards those who believe. So if you are a person who has believed then you have the power of God to live out what Scripture asks you to live out and you can never exhaust it.

Now let’s go back to 2 Peter 1:6 because I said all that for this reason, that you and I are to be growing in this quality of self-control that the Christian has available to them because they participate in the divine nature and power to control and stabilize their lives. Just think of this, controlling one’s passions and desires instead of letting them control you. Self-control is the ability to put aside your own desires and passions so that they are now your servants. Sin is no longer your master, you are the master of yourself. I’m saying that in a Biblical sense, not a motivational message. You make your passions and desires into your servants.

In other words they are no longer your master or tyrants or calling the shots. Why? Because God is transforming your mind to know what you ought to do and then do it. That knowledge shouldn’t just lay in your brain or go in one ear and out the other. It should go down to your will and move that. Your will is what you do. The Word of God, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, directing and informing your passions and desires, instead of the old sinful nature and the world’s system and demonic enticements. You are informing and in control of your own will because God has given you the power to have self-control.

It says in Galatians 5:22:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

When Paul wrote and gave us the epistle of Titus, he said to the older men in Titus 2:2:

Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance.

He told the older women so that they may encourage the younger women to love their husbands, children and be sensible. The word sensible means to be sound of mind and self-controlled. The older women are to teach the younger women to be self-controlled and pure, workers at home, kind, and subject to their own husbands so that the Word of God will no be dishonored.

So everywhere you go, you cannot get away from the fact that when you become a believer you are in control of yourself. We have no excuse that we are not. We can’t make excuses about things that we should not be doing that we are doing, or the things that we should be doing that we are not doing. Romans 8:13 tells us:

If you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

You will experience the life of Christ in your life by these qualities becoming much more clear and more evident, not only in seeing them, but in wanting to do them as well. Then of course, the wisdom book of Proverbs tells us this in Proverbs 16:32:

He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.

It says this in Proverbs 25:28:

Like a city that is broken into and ;without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit.

Of course a city without walls is easy to attack and easy to control, but people live there. But if you have walls up, the wall of self-control up, it’s very hard to change control. There is an interesting narrative in the book of Acts that I want you to turn to. Go to Acts 24. As I was studying this, I thought this was an incredible narrative because in it we get Paul standing before Felix and giving his testimony and of course every time the Apostle Paul gave his testimony, he always brought the gospel in. But I want you to notice how he preaches the gospel to Felix. In Acts 24:24-25 it says:

But some days later Felix arrived with Drusilla, his wife who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul and heard him ;speak ;about faith in Christ Jesus. But as he was discussing righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come.

When someone becomes a believer in Christ Jesus, one of the first things they begin to recognize in their life is that they have self-control, which means they are responsible for their life. Here’s the gospel, the righteousness of Christ, self-control once you’re a believer in this world, and judgment to come because you’ll stand before God one day and give an account on how you lived your life. Look at how Felix responds in Acts 24:25:

Felix became frightened and said, “Go away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you.”

It was interesting that Felix was controlled by fear. Look at the second thing it says in Acts 24:26:

At the same time too, he was hoping that money would be given him by Paul; therefore he also used to send for him quite often and converse with him.

Here’s the second thing that Felix is controlled by: money! He’s not listening to the message, he’s controlled by fear, money, and greed. In Acts 24:27 it says:

But after two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and wishing to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul imprisoned.

He was also controlled by prestige and power. So Felix’s desires and passions were not controlled by himself even though he may have thought they were. They were controlled by fear, greed, and power. A believer is not controlled by any of those things anymore. It doesn’t mean they don’t struggle with them, but they begin to lay those things aside. Putting it all together, it means you the Christian participates in the divine nature are able to control yourself. That means the greatest feelings you have, the strongest desires and cravings you have, the powerful passions that you have, you can control them with wise control without giving in to the strongest urges.

When the direction of the believer’s life is in accord with practicing self-control, he or she will avoid falling prey to all kinds of temptations. Self-control is connected to the temptations that you are going to be tempted with in this life and in this world. Don’t misunderstand! This has no connection at all to what psychology calls behavior modification. Anyone can make modifications in their behavior if they want to. They can stop smoking, overeating, spending money, drinking, and taking drugs.

The Bible is talking about something else. It is talking about transformation where these seven qualities are worked out in every avenue and compartment in the Christian life in which they are growing all at the same time. The Spirit of God is developing in us the image of Christ and we the Christians are cooperating with Him to pursue that goal.

This is the opposite of what false teachers are teaching which Peter is going to get to in our text. Turn back to 2 Peter again and I want you to notice that he is writing these things for the believer to be able to stand up against the pressure that is going to come against them through what people are calling true teaching which is actually false teaching. He says that false teachers believed that following their own lusts and showing no restraint were signs of maturity. Look at 2 Peter 2:2:

Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned.

For the false teacher in verse 2, to be in Christ is to follow their own sensuality and not the truth, to follow their own passions. Look at 2 Peter 2:18-19:

For speaking out arrogant ;words ;of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.

So the lure of the false teachers is to bring a person into their world and that is how someone can live their best life now. If you fulfill your passions and desires, the ones you want, then that’s what you ought to be doing in this world. In 2 Peter 3:3 it says:

Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with ;their ;mocking, following after their own lusts.

Freedom in Christ is to follow their own lusts and not the truth. This is the danger of false teaching because they are not packaging it as false teaching, they’re packaging it into a container and giving it out as truth. False teachers actually are feeding the strongest urges of the fallen nature. Those include to be wealthy, healthy, and prosperous.

It is interesting that Paul uses the same word for strength and power that he has been using for the Christian. He says in 2 Timothy 3:2-5:

For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, ;unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, ;treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ;holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

We live in a day where there is an abundance of false teaching packaged as truth. We also live in a day in these last days where people do not have self-control. They are powerless to control themselves.

For the believer, we are to grow in this characteristic of self-control. It was Jesus who said that if you don’t want to enter into temptation, you need to develop certain characteristics. One of these is to be watchful. He says in Matthew 26:41:

Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

The Apostle Peter uses in 1 Peter the word to be on the alert and awake and watchful. He says don’t be lazy or sleepy that Christians are nonexempt from the duty of being vigilant and on the alert and constantly ready. Another way He put it was to gird up your mind, which means don’t move through life with loose thoughts that are lazily moved by just impulse and passions, drifting this way and that way as the occasion dictates. Instead, the girded mind means the mind is made up and has decisive thoughts and made decisions already. It knows the direction that the life should take.

So the sober mind is a calm and steady mind. It is a sensible mind and a balanced mind. A spiritually balanced Christian can maintain self-control and spiritual sanity. A sane person looks like they see things in their proper order. They see what things are important and what are not important. They are not swept away by sudden and passing enthusiasts. They are not prone to unbalanced fanaticism.

They know in what they believe and who they believe. They see affairs of this life in light of eternity and their eyes are fixed on the goal. They give the Lord Jesus proper place in all things and have a heart fixed on God. They have minds un-intoxicated with the structures of this world. They know that they are in Christ and they know where they are heading and what to do while on this Earth heading towards Heaven. They are watchful and aware. They are self-controlled. It is very difficult to convince the person who is self-controlled to do other than what they already decided to do.

Jesus said a thing that with watchfulness comes prayerfulness. Keep praying that you do not come into temptation. The Spirit is willing and the flesh is weak. Self-control is the discipline to be able to restrain one’s desires and follow through on doing what is right, even when it is difficult. Of course another thing is mentioned in 2 Peter that goes along with that that Jesus didn’t mention. Not only we are to be watchful and prayerful, but we are to take the way of escape. It says in 2 Peter 1:4:

For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of ;the ;divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

It means to flee, get out of the area and run. Self-control or somebody who is holding themself in, is specifically related to the matters of sex and greed. The false teachers in 2 Peter seem to focus on those. The Bible’s best advice in dealing with all kinds of temptation is to run from it. Put as much distance between you and the source of temptation as possible. Don’t feed it or allow it to get a control of your imagination where you’re thinking about it. Paul says this in 1 Timothy 6:10-11:

For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance ;and ;gentleness.

He always says that if you’re going to flee from something to pursue something else. Who is not tempted with having more wealth or being comfortable? Nobody can get away from temptations because as soon as those things that you desire start to be taken away, you ask what is going on here. He says to flee these things and pursue righteousness and godliness and faith and love and perseverance and gentleness. It is the same kind of list that the Apostles use everywhere. A Christian should already know to take a certain road.

Lingering in the vicinity of power and temptation and sin is foolishness. Don’t act the fool. The Apostle Peter used the same word to describe those who barely escape from becoming slaves of the lust of human society. If you look in 2 Peter 2:18 it says:

For speaking out arrogant ;words ;of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error.

Obviously when I get there I’ll explain that a little bit more, but who are those who barely escape? The example in Scripture is Lot. He lived in Sodom, where there was pollution, pornography, sexual perversion, homosexuality, etc. It was part of an acceptable lifestyle in that city. He lived among fearful corruption and Lot did not flee. But God rescued him. If you look at 2 Peter 2:7-8 it says this:

And ;if ;He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard ;that ;righteous man, while living among them, felt ;his ;righteous soul tormented day after day by ;their ;lawless deeds).

You might ask Lot why didn’t he leave! Abraham rescued him once, so why did he go back? There’s no reason for us to be tormented by lawlessness and corruption. We can actually do something about it and Lot of course did not remain uncontaminated because he ended up drunk and dishonored on a hill overlooking the smoldering ruins of the city where he had made his home and raised his family.

Self-control over anger, hatred, anxiety, negativity, selfishness, and a multitude of other sins. This is part of the old nature and believers have the control to live out the nature of God and not live out the corrupt life that this present evil world offers. A Christian’s participation in the divine nature gives believers a new ability to resist sin through union with Christ in the indwelling Spirit in which the desire of the flesh is weakened and the desire to obey the Spirit of God is strengthened to which they desire to live a holy life in the patterns of their lifestyle.

In other words, we resist and flee the temptation and God rescues us from the temptation. Look at 2 Peter 2:9:

Then ;the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.

That’s how God cooperates with us when we are resisting the sin and resisting the temptation. He comes in and rescues us. That’s the promise that we have as believers that we are to add to our faith self-control. So are you in control? Or are you still guided by your passions and desires? You should have new ones that are stronger than the old ones because God has given you everything you need to participate in life and godliness.

If I ask a teenager how they know when they fled from temptation, they might say when the world is their goal and their friends are their masters. When you are in school and your classmates are living as close to the world as possible in their attitudes and music, you say in your heart that all of your friends are doing it so you should too. You’re saying that you have given up your goal and want to be spiritually asleep. At that point of thinking, it becomes apparent that the world’s corruption is your goal and your friends are your masters.

Peter is saying to those learning to follow Christ to begin to control yourself and say no to ungodly passions. Do what is right and increase in your knowledge of God for your own salvation’s sake, begin to control yourself in all areas of your life. You may have to ask the Holy Spirit today to reveal to you characteristics of the culture that He wants out of your life. Old default sins that you quickly go to. Whatever it may be, He wants out of your life.

Now you have all the knowledge in Christ and all the power from Heaven to not do that anymore. You have to pledge your life to conform it to Christ and not to the culture and not to your own sinful ways. Look at the positives and the transformations that God has actually done in your life. You should be able to say that you are not the person you used to be. It’s not having willpower or turning over a new leaf, but it’s God giving you a new nature and you cooperating with what God is doing in your life using His power and your effort to make you like Christ.

You can praise the Lord for that and know that if you continue on that path, you will not be at all unsure of your election or unproductive in your Christian life or spiritually short sighted. You will not fall on your face spiritually and you will know that you’re going to enter into the Kingdom of God someday.

Let’s pray. Lord, thank You again. Lord, Your Word is awesome. What it reveals about us is so detailed and so clear. Thank You that this passage of Scripture is there for us, for our learning and edification. We ask You today to help us be honest with ourselves, that if there’s anything in our life that remains an issue, whether it be sinful or not, that we would by the control You’ve given us and the power of the Spirit, we would put it out of our lives. And that we would practice that every day until it is gone. We pray that Your passions become our passions and Your desires would become our desires. I pray this in the precious, holy Name of Christ.

February 23, 2020
The Believer’s Responsibility for Godly Living, Part 3

In this sermon, Pastor Babij continues in 2 Peter 1:5 elaborating on the second foundational quality of holy living to develop: knowledge. Christians are not to check their minds at the door but use the intellect God has given them to grow in righteous zeal for Him.

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Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.

let’s take our Bibles in turn choose second Peter you’ve been looking at the believers responsibility for godly living and if you are using your pew Bible it’s on page 1215 2nd Peter again I already read verse 1 through 5 it says Simon Peter a bondservant an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have received the faith of the same kind as ours by a righteousness by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence for by these he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust now for this very reason also applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence and in your moral excellence knowledge let’s pray father thank you for the privilege to have the Word of God in our hands to be able to look at it read it think about it carry it with us where we go read it wherever we are listen to it Lord in the preaching of the word there’s so many privileges that we take for granted I pray we wouldn’t take for granted of these things they may not be there tomorrow but your word would be there so embedded in our heart so we don’t forget it so we know what it says so we know what we’re supposed to do and I pray Lord as we step out every day to live this in this world I prayed that we’d grow more and more in Christ’s likeness for we know Lord that’s the spirit of God’s goal and that you that’s what you want us to cooperate with you’ve given us everything to do that so now Lord allow us to do it in Christ I pray amen so the Christians participation in the divine nature I have already said gives the believer a new ability to resist sin through union with Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit and which also gives a desire to weaken the flesh and then of course a greater desire to obey the spirit and please Christ and have the Spirit of God in a strengthened so our life the pattern of our life will be that of godliness and holiness so Christians as they grow in holiness being separated more and more unto God is another way of saying it see clearly that their need to separate themselves from the moral corruption that is so much a part of our fallen world and at the same time recognize in their life there are certain distractions that need to be removed that are not sinful there are certain things that do not profit us spiritually or cause maturity as a believer those two need to be put off from us and they may be different from every other person so God restores us in salvation he makes us spiritually alive in salvation here eek he’s recreating in us after he’s recreated us in the image of the perfect man the Lord Jesus Christ and so each Lord’s day at least the last several ones the admonition has been and will be to use the power that God has given us that he’s made available to to grow and godliness we saw in verse three and for what God has done and now we are as Christians we are to do what God says to do and of course that is to grow in these qualities that are listed here in this passage of Scripture so discipline I’ve mentioned is the secret of godliness and God intends for his children to be godly that is his goal for us that should be our goal for ourselves and that means each day a godly person leads his life that reflects what God is doing in that life and a godly person is really growing in their desire to please God in their thinking and what they’re thinking about in their speaking and how they’re speaking to other people and they’re doing what what are they actually doing what are you doing in your private time as well as in your public time it should be quite the same and what are you in your being what is God creating in your being who are you who are you 24/7 and then also your feelings are your feelings being directed by truth or they are they being directly directed by the whims of the world and by some information that you received on a particular day see we must add to what God has already given us we must increase in it we must proceed to grow in it and we know as we do that as we add to our faith then that is what’s going to give us stability in our life there is an ethical list of virtues listed in our passage and of course these virtues are to be lived out by the Christian that constitutes ultimately what a godly life looks like so this is what Christians are to do and this is what they are enabled by the Spirit of God to do and this is what we are to discipline ourselves to do we are to add to we are to supplement our faith in verse number five it says there we are in your faith supply moral excellence and in your moral excellence knowledge so I’m going to kind of park on knowledge this morning that we Christians are too lavishly supply to our Christian faith all the virtues until they culminate in love which was is the last one there so your faith is a living faith it’s an active faith it’s an energetic faith and we are to cooperate with the Holy Spirit of God adding to our faith what is found in this passage of Scripture and I’m from last week I wanted you to notice that we’re not left to guess what we’re to add to our faith were actually given it to us right here in Scripture there are seven qualities to work out in every avenue and compartment of your life and they are not to be worked on as a one at a time deal but actually think about it as they you are growing in all of them all at the same time and what are they well the fact the first five of them appear to be characteristics that grow out of our relationship with God moral excellence knowledge self-control perseverance and godliness and then the last to represent our relationship to his and of course and people’s our fellow man people that we interact with and of course that would be brotherly kindness and love so today we’re to add to our faith knowledge now I read this article once where a food processing marketed a cake mix to the public and of course in this cake mixed it required that the housewife or whoever’s making the cake would only add water and it would be a fine cake the company did not understand however when they put it on the market it did not sell at all and they wondered why and they found out people felt uneasy about the mix that required only water so it seemed too simple to them and so what they did is they put out a new product the same product but on the label they put just add one egg and the product took off and everybody bought it see they just had to add that one thing and it made the product sell well this morning I want you to look at and think about what the Bible says here in verse number five that were to add to that were to supplement our faith with knowledge now of these seven qualities we are a grow in two that are foundational qualities and five our directional qualities this Lord’s Day I want to look at the second of the two foundational qualities scripture calls us to bring every effort to bear upon the process of cultivating our spiritual growth and that is to increase the image of Christ in our Christian character and these are qualities that help to form that image in us so these qualities already deserve our utmost effort the first one I’ve already mentioned last week and that was the quality of moral excellence of course a simple way to say that is to supplement your faith with goodness the quality of goodness is demonstrated in our living in our good habits that we form as a believer and as fleshly desires that we had being discarded and put away from us so we are to be people who are to be honorable in our behavior not just the absence of bad habits but to pursuit of what is morally right what is helpful and good in our relationships with each other so moral excellence one has said is the state of the achieved whereby the soul the inner man operates on the level of goodness so Christians are able to live out this virtuous life not because of our own efforts alone but because of Christ’s life within us and that’s really the difference between an unbeliever and a believer is the life of God is in us the Spirit of God is in us and so we have all we have to do is look around us and we see the handiwork of God’s providential goodness all around us in his creation in his special revelation the Word of God so all that emanates from God has decrees his creation his laws his Providence cannot be otherwise than good because God is good and because God is good we can actually live out that characteristic that now is stamped upon our soul in our daily life and of course what defines goodness I mentioned that last week is the Word of God and the character of God so when when we learned goodness we learned goodness really by keeping our eyes on Jesus who who he is and what he has done how he acts in the Word of God how he acts in the Gospels this is one thing about goodness that is always true and it’s this you can’t exhaust being good just think of that for have you ever heard anyone would anyone ever say with her with the right mind stop being so good to me no nobody would say that right we like when we’re being treated well and good we like that right we should be doing that with other people why because we’re Christians right and we want to treat people and reflect the goodness of God to them I don’t never heard anybody say stop being good to me I can’t take it have you I don’t think if you have I want to talk to you all right I want to tell me your story but I’ve never heard it see goodness is controlled by the second foundational quality and its knowledge notice in verse five in your face supply moral excellence and neuro moral excellence knowledge see knowledge is in reference to the intellectual part of the human personality that knowledge actually is used some 16 times and what we need more than anything else is to have an accurate knowledge about matters of life and death about how to be right with God and how to tell other people how to be right with God about eternity and of course entrance into the kingdom of God if you look at verse number 11 of chapter one it says this for in this way that the entrance into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you in other words if you add to your faith these qualities entrance into the kingdom of God will be abundantly supplied in other words you’ll no have no problem walking the narrow road to be welcomed into the kingdom of God because that’s what God is doing he’s making us ready for him the only way anyone can reach the final destination is to get real knowledge that is based on what is true and what is right in this epistle in this the Greek language that is used in the original Peter actually uses two different Greek words to translate our English word knowledge one is epignosis which means full knowledge or what comes to know what we come to know and appropriate through faith in Christ and that would be called the true knowledge – because we didn’t have that knowledge we weren’t born with that knowledge that is the knowledge that only comes when one believes in Jesus Christ and then now the Lord opens it up to us he opens up everything to us about what is really true especially what is true about him and what he’s doing and how one becomes a believer there’s a second word though he uses and this is the one that probably more more defines the word knowledge we’re using this morning is that it’s a knowledge that is is not necessarily well-known it’s a knowledge that we grow in it’s a knowledge of how do I have good sense in my life how can I have a greater understanding in a particular on a particular subject how can I have greater insight to help somebody or wisdom another way of looking at it is wisdom it means knowledge that is not necessarily complete yet got it you’re growing in it I don’t have all the answers and it matter of fact we may not get all the answers to all the questions we have on this side of eternity most likely we will not but we are to be growing in this knowledge it is a growing knowledge scripture is saying to keep stimulating those intellectual appetites that God has given you in conversion and don’t check your brains at the door don’t do that don’t check out intellectually and a lot of times in Christianity today there is a there is they’re they’re not checking the box about I need to know more it’s more about a moding it’s more about emotionalism now evangelism is driven by music instead of knowledge musics not going to bring you to Christ it’s not even going to make you more sanctified no matter how great it is only thing’s gonna sanctify you is the truth that’s what Jesus says the truth will sanctify you it is the truth that is given to us so knowledge definitely includes knowledge of Christ but it also includes wisdom and discernment that the Christian needs to grow in the the various different things in Scripture that where when we get a greater knowledge of Scripture it leads to practical action I know how to not just know it I know how to do it I’m not just to hear the word but I am actually a doer of the word now the fact of the term being used by Peter actually it’s a repeated refrain in 2nd Peter if you look at verse number 2 of chapter 1 it says grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God in Jesus our Lord look at verse 3 seeing that his divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence look at verse number 8 of chapter 1 for if these qualities are yours and are increasing they render you neither useless or unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ look at chapter 2 verse 24 if after they have escaped the defilement of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ they are again entangled in them and overcome the last state has become worse for them than the first and then look at the last verse of 2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 18 the last verse it says but grow in the Grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to him be glory both now and to the day of eternity amen so in other words the Bible is very clear in 2nd Peter that knowledge is really important for you to be growing in the Lord you cannot bypass your mind to become spiritually minded you cannot lay aside your brains and think that if you lay on your pillow and put your Bible underneath it somehow it’s going to migrate into your brain and solan and give you what you need no you have to put the effort in alright we’re adding to our faith we’re putting ourselves there we’re listening really listening to the Word of God when it’s being preached when we’re reading the Word of God we’re not thinking about something else and yet our eyes are going through the world and then we when we get down and say well what did that really say see are we engaging in it in a way where our mind is in gear so the scripture is stressing and imperative for living life well it’s this if we are going to finish this life well we must know God – faith in Christ let us add a praiseworthy life and then let us add knowledge so in other words we must get to working on knowing God now he’s talking to Christians here it’s not talking to people who who are in the world who are secular who are religious he’s talking to believers he’s saying that you don’t know God enough that’s your problem your problem is not three things you didn’t do here or three things to have a good marriage or three things would be a better beautiful Christian no that’s not it you and I need to know God that’s the problem that’s all our problems because once we know God and are growing in our knowledge of him true knowledge of God we will be stable we will be will won’t be like that Reed broke blowing through being blown left and right and by every wind of doctrine we will be stable like an oak tree because we are our roots are deep in what the Bible teaches about who God is so knowing Christ and God’s will enables us to live for him so like I had been using the weightlifter as a an example the weightlifter who who takes his knowledge of his sport and goes into the gym with exercises that target building particulars the chest he does the chest he does the upper chest in the lower chest he does the arms he has exercises for biceps for triceps for forearms he builds his shoulders so they’re big he builds his back and laterals his legs and his calves all the body parts have different exercises that go with it so he or she becomes an athlete who effectively implements each exercise to achieve results I want to see a bigger biceps I want to heat I’m going to see stronger legs I want to direct mo those exercise to make those things happen but I have to put the work in I have to put the effort in but if the weightlifter does not produce practical action which leads to results well one would have to conclude it’s useless it is fruitless behavior if you’re going to workout and then every day stop at McDonald’s to have the big soda and the hamburger and all the stuff that goes with it you’re defeating your purpose right yeah all of it goes together and what but that comes from knowledge it comes from knowing exactly what to do it’s in a similar way in this in the spiritual realm if practical action does not lead to producing God’s character in us the character of Jesus in us it could actually be worse than useless it can blind us as one person said to our true sorry state if you notice in verse number 9 of chapter 1 Peter is actually going to teach us this when we get there notice what it says it says for he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted having forgotten his purification from his former sins see in other words if I don’t do if these things are not being added to my faith into your faith we are actually people that kind of have our head in this and we don’t even see we’re short-sighted we can’t even see what we ought to do we were oh I don’t know what to do that’s not should be not that should not be the case for a believer and to me that doesn’t sound like a good place for a Christian to be who’s called by God it sounds like a very uncertain position to be in as a Christian it sounds like it could even challenge the whole credibility of a Christians profession of faith if they are blind and short-sighted to the things that God wants them to do see God places no premium on ignorant in Scripture or we wouldn’t have the Bible that we have it takes study to understand the Bible and it takes years of study and meditating and listening and we’re always constantly growing we’re never in a stagnant state as believers so God doesn’t produce he doesn’t place any premium on ignorance he actually expects us to expand our mental horizons constantly and there is enough unexpected or unexplored may I say truth in the Bible to occupy our thoughts for all eternity it’ll take a long time and it does take a long time to grasp all the inexhaustible truths of the Word of God sometimes we may think that we have arrived because we’ve been in the faith for a long time we’ve arrived at knowing a significant amount of knowledge about God and then we discover we’re quite deficient in our knowledge about God that we we don’t actually know enough about God you think that you have arrived at some point in your life and then you discovered so much more is to be learned about our great God and Savior Jesus Christ even our intellectual community who investigates and studies our universe has not even touched the hem of the garment of the vastness and the complexity of our universe in our world that we live in they’re just touching it even the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 11 when he was giving us good and sound theology he realized at the end of that when God was what would what God was gonna do in the future he did not even plan on what God was going to tell him teach him and this is what he says he says oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways who has known the mind of God who has become his counselor or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again and then Paul says this for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory for ever and ever amen in other words Paul says as soon as I thought I had God figured out he took a left turn and I had to follow him to find out what was next and that’s how it always has to be us as human finite beings we’ll never figure out everything about God we just won’t do it so that means that I must put a premium on learning more about him so this Paul even tells us in the Word of God we surely don’t want to be like the Jews in Scripture who thought they were in God’s family and yet this is what it says in Scripture brethren my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for you for them is that for their salvation wait a minute they thought they were saved and then he says this for I testify about them that they have a zeal for God but not in accordance with knowledge and then it says this for not knowing about God’s righteous this and seeking to establish their own righteousness they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God and if you don’t subject subject yourself to the righteousness of God your righteousness cannot save you right that’s what the Jews didn’t get of course some of them got it because they believed the gospel and that’s a lot of the things that we don’t get that’s why people say well how do you know that how if God were to say to you why should I let you lose my heaven what would you say to a wall I’m a good person I I do good works I’m religious wrong wrong answers the only way anyone gets to heaven is God’s righteousness that is stamped upon us and is received not by works but by faith right that’s what it says in Scripture you know how many people miss that who are religious their whole life go to church two three times a week that’s not going to save you you have to believe the righteousness of Christ that when I believe in what Christ has done on the cross he takes my sin and nails it to the cross and he takes his righteousness and puts it on my account by faith not by works there’s nothing I could do you could do anyone could do to obtain that Christ did it for us on the cross and that’s what I believe and then he gives us a spirit if you missed that you realize you’re heading on the road to hell so what does Paul do he says that they had a zeal without knowledge but we need both Christians Christians have a god-given responsibility to use our minds and not check our brains at the door we need both zeal and knowledge together scriptural knowledge right not our own now this is about any old knowledge this is God’s knowledge see Paul also prayed and just take your Bible and turn there he also prayed in Ephesians back I mean you’re turning forward to colossians philippians ephesians he said in ephesians he actually prayed in ephesians that all Christians would know God he si uses the same word to mean insider knowledge that they would have insight about God they would have knowledge about God and notice what it says in ephesians chapter 1 verse 17 that the god of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of glory may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of Revelation in the knowledge of him that’s Christ verse 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints he is basically saying praying for them that the believers there at Ephesus would know God wait I thought they do know him they do know him by way of salvation but they don’t know enough about him for their daily life in daily living and we need to know that so this is not knowing a number of things about God like God is great and God is mighty and God is majestic we need to know those things about God because the demons have knowledge of the greatness and the might and the majesty of God and where does it leave the demons it says in James it leads them to trembling and to shuddering and fear where it says in James 2:19 you believe that God is one you do well the demons also believe and shudder they tremble why they know the power of God because demons are just created angels that fell in their pride right that’s all they are and so they are they know they’re gonna be responsible to God in fact God is holding them in judgment right now to those who rebelled against them and were sent out of his presence he’s holding those who were in right now in judgment in hell until the last day of judgment now there are some demons that of course that are not bound they’re free but they’re doing wrecking havock and you know what they’re trying to do the most is keep you from the knowledge of God if they can do that they will do that and they’re good at doing it all right so if you can be distracted for away from God in with good things he will provide it for you good not sinful things good things wholesome things right and what happens is that you seem to go overboard with it and spend so much time like just for example Facebook how many hours can you spend behind your computer on Facebook you don’t realize sometimes it’s hours that you spend behind the screen looking up little details about other people’s lives I wonder how this person is doing that person is doing right that’s you that’s what you do but you know what you’re distracted and you’ve got time robbed from you because curiosity kicked in and you wanted to know more and more and you spend more and more time on it and then you have more and more followers and more and more people to look up and then before you know it you’re spending a chunk of time on Facebook and it’s distracting to you and it is not contributing to your spiritual growth at all see those are some things that you and I as Christians need to put aside because you do you know that one could have an interest in theology they can read many Christian books on theology and apologetics and a variety of Christian subjects and one may have even a good grasp and knowledge of church history one may also have learned to find their way around Scripture quite efficiently they may even lead a Bible study listen to tons of sermons cuz you can do that today a write of some of the Gress greatest and best preachers out there they can read christian blogs til it’s coming out of their ears and all that maybe that is you’re just getting a bunch of knowledge about God but I tell you what a person can know about God and yet not know God you realize that right because not knowing God is the is the problem it doesn’t mean that we can’t pass a test on facts about the Bible that’s not that doesn’t prove anything that maybe you’re a good person you can memorize things no we need to know who God is and so that means that some of the things that we’re putting into our head we’re flooding our head with so much stuff we can’t land on one thing about God because we have too much stuff going on in there so the prayer here in Ephesians is for the Saints to have a true knowledge of God that is personal that is intimate knowledge where God is real to them and to us and we are conscious of his presence to know a person means something beyond a casual acquaintance knowledge means an intimate personal special knowledge of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ like it says in in Corinthians for God who said light shall shine out of darkness is the one who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ so there’s really several reasons why we need to use our minds at least for reasons you didn’t know you didn’t know all that was in that word knowledge in verse five did you the first reason why we we need to use our minds is because we are created to think were created in the image of God in other words we are to participate in the divine nature and this divine likeness in man is in his capacity and her capacity to think we see God’s God communicates with man in a way he does not communicate with animals he expects men he expects humanity to cooperate with him to cooperate with him consciously and also intellectually man men are called to think and respond until in the garden God told Adam after he placed him in the garden Adam was to discriminate rationally as well as morally between what he is permitted to do and the one thing he was prohibited to do Adam everything is yours see this tree the tree of knowledge of good and evil you stay away from it and that’s mine that’s what he told Adam right and Adam had to make the choice of to obey her or not obey and he was given that ability by God so since man is different from animals should we not behave differently psalm 32 verse 9 says this do not be the horse or the mule which has no understanding don’t be like them however sometimes God’s people don’t obey as well as the animals do right well look if you look at of the prophet Isaiah right in chapter 1 go right into the Old Testament you’ll find that right after proverbs not too far you’ll find Isaiah but Isaiah the prophet in chapter 1 tells us this in verse number 3 and for an ox knows its owner and a donkey it’s masters manger but Israel does not know my people do not understand and then it says the last sinful nation people weighed down with a negati iniquity offspring of evildoers sons who act corruptly and then in the end of the verse they have abandoned the Lord they have despised the Holy One of Israel they have turned away from him so what is it saying there is that the animals have a better understanding of who God is and respond to God and no beating way and Israel doesn’t even know me and they’re supposed to be my people and why don’t they know we know me because they don’t have any knowledge they somehow given that up they thought maybe they’ve arrived and without turning back there just keep your hand right there in Isaiah back in 2nd Peter this is what it says about the false teachers in chapter 2 in verse number 12 of 2nd Peter it says but these like unreasoning animals born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed reviling where they have no knowledge will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong they counted pleasure to revel in the daytime they are stains and blemishes reveling in their deception as they corrals with you having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin enticing unstable souls having a heart trained in greed accursed children he’s saying they’re just like the animals they act just like the animals just look at their life they’re acting just like they don’t know me if you know me that wouldn’t be going on if you know me your life would be different your behavior would be different your thinking would be different everything would be different because you know me and the false teachers say they know God but by their deeds they deny him they really don’t know who God is in fact if you’re right they’re still in our Zeya look down chapter 1 verse number 18 and 20 because I Isaiah actually communicates through this rebellious people of Israel to come and think about what the Lord is saying because because there are consequences when you disobey look at verse number 18 it says come now let us reason together doesn’t that doesn’t that assume thinking says the Lord though your sins are as scarlet they will be as white as snow though they are red like crimson they will be like wool if you consent and obey you will eat the best of the land verse 20 and if you refuse and rebel you will be devoured by the sword truly the mouth of the Lord has spoken he’s talking to these rebellious people and he says listen because you cast off knowledge this is going to be the result because the results going to be disobedience and disobedience has its implications so the first reason we already use our mind is because because of creation because we are to think second goes along with that and it’s we are created to think God’s thoughts we are created to think about God Christianity is a revealed religion it is not a mystical religion it is a religion based on facts and truth and factual history and real people that God really did create the heaven in the earth he really did speak it into existence he really did when you read the Old Testament talked to these men and used these men of old he did communicate with them so see we have a revealed religion God speaks to us through the created universe some chapter 19 if you’re familiar with that so I’m probably one of the most famous Psalms when it comes to general revelation where it says in Psalm 19 verse 1 through 4 the heavens are telling the glory of God and their expanses declaring the works of his hands day to day pour forth speech and night tonight reveals knowledge when we look out at creation is it telling us it’s telling us listen there’s a god out there who has knowledge who has order who has placed everything right where it’s supposed to be at the distances they’re supposed to be at the everything is where it ought to be because God put it there and spoke it there and until and he holds it together and until he decides to step back and let it all fall apart which second Peter is going to address it’s gonna remain steadfast and reliable tomorrow I would pretty much say you’re gonna wake up and you’re gonna see the Sun Rise it’s gonna be daytime and the sun’s gonna set and you’re gonna see night I can you can bank on that I can bank on that right now but someday when Christ comes back in judgment everything’s going to fall apart all right but isn’t that knowledge – that’s knowledge of what’s going to take place who has that knowledge except believers nobody has that knowledge unless you open up the Bible and study it read it and that gives us stability – no listen I’m not going to put all my eggs in the same basket and put everything my tent pegs down too deep in this earth because I’m just passing through I’m a sojourner and I’m heading home I’m having to head into the kingdom of God so that knowledge gives me the ability to know it’s not the end death is not the end death is a doorway into the presence of God for those who know Christ right and the death is also a doorway because everybody will be raised from the dead one to a judgment of righteousness and a one to a judgment of wicked or damnation and so either way people are going to be raised from the dead but for a Christian they know for sure that when they die they will go to heaven a lot based on truth in the Word of God not just based on some mystical and that thing they heard from from somebody or some platitude that was was was given to them by some religious system now this is truth this is God is behind saying this that means it’s reliable 100 ten uh it’s a reliable a thousand percent right I can trust God because it says in Titus 1 God can’t lie to us God won’t lie to us his very character will not him allow him to lie to us so see God wants us to think God thoughts in fact creation also is mentioned in Romans chapter 1 where it says in Romans chapter 1 verse number 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them he’s talking about people for God made it evident to them now let’s now just think about that for a moment the Bible is saying listen what God made himself evident to everyone well we can’t even disagree with that from the scripture because it says God made it evident within them he’s already put it in inside of everybody they’re just suppressing that knowledge they’re holding it down or they’re confusing it with other things and believing other things it says for God made it evidence then verse 20 of Romans 1 for since the creation of the world his invisible attributes his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen they’re not cloudy they’re clearly seen being understood through what was what has been made so that we are without excuse everybody’s with that excuse and that’s just creation that’s not even special revelation the Bible right God has also given us special revelation communication in words communication in the written word that we can actually it can it’s locked up in history do you know that in the Old Testament written in Hebrew and Aramaic it’s a language that is dead that means there’s no new vocabulary being added to that language that means it cannot increase or decrease and understand of what it says and then in the New Testament Koine Greek is the same way God rendered it dead it’s a dead language it’s not spoken anywhere all the vocabulary is locked up so that means God what God has done that because now the Word of God remains stable steadfast in Aaron with without error and fully trustworthy for all who read it and study it they will find in it the way of salvation that’s what they will do they will find in it the way of salvation so God communicates in words he has revealed words to our mind and our duty is to receive the message to submit to the message to seek to understand the message and to relate it to the world in which we live one of the highest and noblest functions of man’s mind is to listen to God’s Word the very fact that we have ears to hear is so that we would ultimately hear the Word of God going into our ear and into our mind so we can understand who he is and what he requires us of us if we fail to use our minds than we actually descend to the level of animals and the Lord pointed out to the Prophet Hosea that is people’s main problem was they were lacking something listen what it says without turning there in Hosea chapter 4 verse 1 it says listen to the word of the Lord o sons of Israel for the Lord has a case against the habitants of the Lamb because there is no faithfulness or kindness or knowledge of God in the land and then he says my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge because they have rejected knowledge so why is it that we live in a day of mass media and all kinds of information at our fingertips and plenty available biblical knowledge and yet we suffer from the same malady there’s no knowledge of God if there is it’s very little and the knowledge that has been given is rejected or reinterpreted no knowledge of God land that’s the greatest judgment a nation could ever have and for the church it’s a lack of thinking it’s a lack of meditating on the knowledge of God and there’s one other thing that we are created we are created to have a renewed mind Romans chapter 12 verse number 2 the renewed mind what is the renewed mind the renewed mind is now subject and open to divine truth not just secular truth it says in Romans 12 chapter 12 verse 2 but be transformed in the renewing of your mind that is to assume an outward expression that reflects what is deep within and this process takes place in our minds for it is our thought life that controls our attitudes and our feelings and our actions and we are to let our lives be changed from the inside out and brethren how much our minds were opposed to God before we became believers john calvin says indeed nothing can be more true that the renewal of the mind is necessary for successful inquiry to every part of the will of God the natural man is in every thing opposed to the mind of God and that’s what we were before Christ we thought we were on board with God and religious but we find out when we become believers that we were opposed to God because we were reinterpreting things in our own mind when we came to the scripture we says well that’s not what it is at all so here’s a renewal of a believers mental powers in Romans chapter 12 our whole body life is to be evidence by a constant inner metamorphosis which is actually the very Greek word used there it means to be changed in form to be transformed to be changed in character so the Holy Spirit of God wants to each the likeness of Jesus Christ on our character that’s what he wants to do are we cooperating with that that’s the thing he does it by the Word of God and he does it for what reason so we test out the will of God and that’s why it says in Romans chapter 12 verse 2 that you may prove what the will of God is the good and the acceptable and the perfect will of God that the renewed mind is bent it’s bent on finding out and following God’s will and that is the revealed will of God not the secret will of God the secret will of God is up to God we can’t figure that out but the the prescriptive will of God found in the Word of God we can find out because it’s right here in the world of God so the Christian is is the one who should be asking some questions when they are studying the word when they are evaluating their own life and and the question should be is how do I actually test out the will of God well it could be questions like this is the thing is the thing that I’m getting involved with really good for me and is it glorifying and pleasing to my lord if you answered no then it’s done or is it well pleasing to God as far as my attitude is my attitude in this situation pleasing to God are my thoughts about God and other people pleasing to the Lord are my feelings what’s going on in my feelings am I filled with the feelings of anger and bitterness and resentment I know that’s not pleasing to the Lord so I have to deal with that that’s not God’s will for me that’s the flesh taking over that rebel voice inside of us saying your have every right to act like that because of what they did to you and said to you know we have every right to act like God wants us to act and God’s given us the power to act in the right way oh yeah we fall on our face don’t think I’m not saying that we’re perfect then there were circumstances we fall on our face we sin but what do we do if we sin we get up we identify the sin we confess the sin we know in 1st John 1 7 through 9 that he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so we get back up start walking in the light because God’s in the light and keep going right that’s what we do why that’s what pleases God that’s what’s right for us that we can even ask – is it complete in and of itself is it something that will bring about Christ’s likeness it is it’s something that will enhance my spiritual maturity or will this thing good or bad hinder my Christian growth even like I said good things need to be lay aside because they’re distracting and they’re not profitable so the Word of God is really the criterion it is the measuring stick for knowing what is good well pleasing and advances maturity we discover from his word alone and we subject all our own conceptions to what is good for us what is pleasing to him and complete wholly being evaluated by the Word of God every test made without the Word of God is deceptive and wrong the renewed mind does not want to disregard God’s will the renewed mine wants to know it understand it and do it and then there’s one last thing the reason why we should think and it’s this judgment we are going to be judged by our knowledge God will judge us by our knowledge and by our response to his revealed truth it says this in John chapter 12 verse 48 he who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him the word the word I spoke is what will judge him on at the last day so God holds us responsible for the knowledge we have he made us thinking beings rational beings so that we are to make every effort to add to our faith to supplement our faith moral excellence and to the moral excellence knowledge it was J I Packer who wrote a book if you haven’t get a chance to read it a long time ago and his book was called knowing God and in that book he gave at least four propositions on what he discovered about people who know their God and he based it on really the life of Daniel in the Old Testament and he said the first thing was that people who know God have great energy for God secondly the people who know God have great thoughts of God thirdly the people who know God show great boldness for God and fourthly the people who know God have great contentment in God they are satisfied in the depth of her soul about everything that God has said and everything that God has done and will they are settled godliness with contentment is great gain not only for this life but for the life to come that’s what scripture says so here’s the bottom line the urgent need of the church is the knowledge of God we need to know God better if we are going to finish life well we must know God we must get to working on knowing God and we we must never stop our effort in knowing God and the more we know Christ the more we will reflect his glory the glory the Spirit of God imparts to the believer is more excellent and last longer than the the glory that Moses experienced when he was on the mountain came down with the Ten Commandments and the people could not even look at him because he was in the presence of God it was John Piper who said it well he said this God made us to magnify his greatness the way a telescope magnifies stars he created us to put his goodness his truth and beauty and wisdom and justice on display before the world the greatest display of God’s glory comes from deep delight in who he is and when we do that be by beholding the nature of God with unveiled minds we can be more like him in the gospel we see the truth about Christ and it transforms us morally as we understand and apply it through Christ’s life we can understand how wonderful God is and what he is really like from the Gospels and as our knowledge deepens the Holy Spirit helps us change into that image becoming like Christ is a progressive experience it’s an ongoing growing experience and that’s what the very word knowledge here means and the more closely we follow Christ the more closely we follow Christ the more we will be like him amen let’s pray Lord again I just pray Lord that this would be something will cooperate with you every day of our life Lord that we would never be satisfied never be satisfied with what we know about you that our hunger and desire to know you more deeply to know you more profoundly to know you more intimately we’ll just become more intense as we live our life as we look around the world and see things fall apart Lord we cannot put our stock in men we cannot put our stock in philosophies or religious systems we must put it all upon you Lord and we thank you that we have this privilege given to us that we can actually know you and I pray Lord that that desire would just intensify for the sake of the glory of your great name and for the transformation of our mind and for the sanctification of the process the Spirit of God is carrying out in our life we want to give you all the praise and the glory and honor for all that you have and will do I pray in Christ’s name Amen

February 16, 2020
The Believer’s Responsibility for Godly Living, Part 2

In this sermon, Pastor Babij continues in 2 Peter 1:5 by focusing on the development of moral excellence, the first of two foundational qualities Christians need for holy living. Pastor Babij explains that Christians can only obtain this high state of mind through constant practice.

Full Transcript

Okay let’s take our Bibles and turn to 2 Peter 1. We’re looking at the believer’s responsibility for godly living. Let me read 2 Peter 1:1-5:

Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. ;For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of ;the ;divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. ;Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in ;your ;moral excellence, knowledge.

Let’s pray. Lord, thank You this morning for another opportunity to be in the Word of God. Teach us how to live the Christian life and thank You that we are not left in the dark about what to do. It’s clear what we ought to do and who we ought to believe. Teach us and remind us about these things often so we do not forget that. Make us believers who are fruitful and active. And Lord, bless us as we desire to live for You each day. In Christ I pray, Amen.

So last week I was saying that Christian participation in the divine nature gives believers a new ability to resist sin through the union with Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit. The desire of the flesh is weakened and the desire to obey the Holy Spirit and please Christ becomes a stronger desire that we have in our hearts because we want to pursue holiness as a pattern of our lifestyles.

Christians, as they grow in holiness, see their need to separate themselves from the moral corruption that is so much a part of our fallen world. God restores us in salvation and makes us spiritually alive. He recreates us after the image of the perfect man, the Lord Jesus Christ. So this Lord’s Day, we want to continue the admonition to use the awesome power that is available to us to grow in godliness.

We saw from 2 Peter 1:3-4 what God has done. These things, in other words, have already been done for us by God. It’s already been said that along with Christ’s righteousness that He gives us as believers, He also gives us a practical, ethical righteousness that we can live out every day of our lives. That means that believers’ nature is transformed so that he or she will manifest the character of God. As we do that, as we grow in Christ, we cannot forget that the Scripture says that we have everything that we need for life and godliness. Our source of divine power is from Jesus and it is to live a godly life and that we don’t do it alone. The power of the Spirit of God is to help us replace sinful habits with godly habits and that it is not just human effort I’m talking about. It is grace-motivated effort. We could never do these things apart from the Holy Spirit. So it is an effort in cooperation with the Holy Spirit to become godly and holy.

As we continue in 2 Peter, we are specifically looking at verse 5 today. Scripture emphasizes as I said last week, the human side of salvation. Just to remind you that is not to suggest a works-based salvation. Everything has been done for us in salvation to be saved. We don’t have to add anything to it. However, faith must lead to works. If it has no works, as James says, faith is dead by being by itself.

Works comes after initial salvation. Works are the fruit of salvation. There are two responsibilities that we started with last week. The first one was to have a diligent attitude towards growth as it says in 2 Peter 1:5:

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in ;your ;moral excellence, knowledge.

So we are not to sit back, but we are to engage in an intense work as believers to live a godly life. We cannot be lackadaisical in our attitude towards godliness. If we do, we are going to be unfruitful and unusable by God. It may even bring into question whether we’re really believers or not. So we cannot miss the importance of the phrase all diligence in verse 5. As I mentioned last week, we are to bring every effort and exert ourselves completely before the work of growing in godliness. So Christians are to take the human side of salvation very seriously by putting strenuous effort into our spiritual development. That is always the Christian’s goal. We don’t just sit there in the stands with our hands folded. We are in the game and God’s in the stands watching.

I said last week that discipline is the secret of godliness. There really is no other way to obtain godliness. Discipline is the path of godliness. God intends His children to be godly. That is His goal that we are not only saved to be right with Him but also holy. God is going to do that as part of His work. But we need to cooperate with the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. That means that a godly person still has circumstances and people to deal with. We still have to learn the truth of the gospel and more of who God is. We are to do this as Christians. A godly person is really growing in their desire to please God in their being, thinking, speaking, doing, and feeling.

Biblical discipline includes three elements. The first one is the element of self evaluation. This means to be aware of your own life and patterns. All of our life patterns are different. Take our life patterns and evaluate them by the Word of God. We must determine whether our patterns of living are according to the old sinful ways, or according to godliness. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just zap instant holiness in us apart from learning God’s Word and the Scriptures.

The second thing is that we need to discipline ourselves to include crucifixion. Now that we see are our sin, the Bible says in Romans 8:13:

If by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

It’s our responsibility to put to death the deeds of the body after we identify them. Of course in God’s power, we are given everything to live a godly life. Every day by the guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit, we are crucifying the old sinful ways. We are saying no to that old rebel voice inside us and that involves denying ourselves. Jesus says in the gospel of Luke that we must deny ourselves and daily follow Him. The denial of self is the denial of the self within. By self He meant old ways, practices, and patterns, that we acquired before conversion. Before we got saved, we brought a lot of baggage into our Christian lives. You’re on a ship and the water is getting into the boat because of your sin and you have to start throwing over the old baggage and sin.

That’s kind of like a good picture of what it means to be a good Christian. Taking up your Cross means putting the old man and patterns to death. We cannot take off the old without putting on new clothing. This is spiritual clothing which is righteousness. You’re saying no to yourself all the time, that you’re not going to hang out with those people or do those things anymore. This is because Christ doesn’t want you to. It’s not beneficial or good for your Christian walk and it doesn’t produce godliness. Godliness is always the road to joy and happiness. The world says to gratify your flesh but the Bible says to put it to death.

God replaces it with something better, a desire for Him and a view of life that actually produces joy. The Holy Spirit enables a believer to put off the old man and put on the new man. That of course led to a third discipline which involves practice. The Bible says in Hebrews 5:14:

But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

Continual daily effort is an essential element of the Christian discipline, until godlike behavior changes are no longer something you have to do but what you become. In other words, if you practice something long enough, it becomes just a habit which is good for you as a believer. The led to the second responsibility of a believer which is also in verse 5. This is that believers are to have a determined action to add to their faith. It says again:

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in ;your ;moral excellence, knowledge.

In some translations it says add to or give something in addition to. The word translated supply is a strong word that is a command and we are commanded as believers to supplement our faith and to add to it. It means that our faith is not just a dormant faith but an active one. Another way to think of this command is to bring alongside what He has already done, every ounce of determination we can muster to bring these qualities into our Christian lives. Christians are called to express in action the nature of God that is created in us. I left you last time with the illustration Martin Lloyd Jones gave of the farm we are given by God’s grace. We are given all the tools that are necessary and we are given the seed that is necessary and we are called to farm that land. It makes no sense telling a person to farm if they don’t have a farm or if they don’t have any land or tools or seed. But God says He has given us all those things and to go on and farm in the life God has given.

In other words, we must add to what God has given us and we must increase in it. Diligence plus addition to faith equals spiritual growth and godliness. Add to your faith seven qualities. Let’s look at 2 Peter 1:5-7:

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in ;your ;moral excellence, knowledge, ;and in ;your ;knowledge, self-control, and in ;your ;self-control, perseverance, and in ;your ;perseverance, godliness, ;and in ;your ;godliness, brotherly kindness, and in ;your ;brotherly kindness, love.

Here is the ethical list of virtues to be lived out by the Christian which constitutes a godly life. This is a godly life right here and what it entails. This is what Christians are enabled and to discipline themselves to do. Believers are to supplement their faith. This means trust in all that God says and does that it is true and to be obeyed. It says in your faith supply moral excellence and knowledge.

In ancient times, the term supply was actually used in the context of outfitting a chorus. At the end, a person would give an outpouring of everything that was needed to have a noble and excellence performance. Christians are to supply to their faith all the virtues until it culminates in love. Our faith is an active, energetic faith, not a dormant one. We are to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in adding to our faith. And just as Philippians 2:12 tells us:

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

So we are to work out what God has done inside us. If you notice in our passage that I just read in verse 5-7, we are not left to guess at what we are to add to our faith. We are given seven qualities what we are to add to every compartment in our lives. They are not worked one by one. It’s like we are growing in them all at the same time. Five of them appear to be characteristics that grow out of one’s relationship with God. Those are moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, and godliness. The last two represent one’s relationship towards his or her fellow man like brotherly kindness and love.

The two starting qualities that we add to our faith are moral excellence and knowledge. They lay the foundation for all the rest of them. Faith is the root from which these virtues must grow. Of the seven qualities that we are to grow in, two are foundational qualities and two are directional qualities. So this Lord’s Day, let us look at the first of the two foundational qualities. Once I started looking at them, I saw it will takes more time. These are characteristics of God.

The first one in verse 5, in our faith we are to supply moral excellence. Some virtues say virtue or goodness. We are to supplement our faith with goodness. Nobody is born good or virtuous. Romans 3 is pretty clear on that: no one is righteous, none seek after God. There is no one who does good, not even one. That’s God’s view of man, that no one is good. So if no one is good, how can we be good? Because of sin, we cannot obtain the standard of goodness. For all have sinned.

However, as Christians and Believers, we have the divine nature that we are participating in. Believers in Christ can actually live out God’s goodness by His grace every day of our lives. This is the first one that is mentioned so it has to have some importance. The first communicable attribute really describes God and Christ. If you look back at 1 Peter 2:9, it says:

But you are a chose race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

We are to proclaim the goodness of God who calls us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Look back now in 2 Peter 1:3:

Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

It’s a moral characteristic of uprightness, righteousness and goodness. This quality of goddess is to be demonstrated in our living, good habits formed and fleshly desires discarded on a regular basis. We are to be people that have honorable behavior, not just the absence of bad habits, but a pursuit of what is morally right and helpful in our relationships with God and each other. Goodness goes along way in living in this world. Moral excellence is the state achieved whereby the soul operates on the level of goodness. The virtuous person would not be believed to have done an evil deed despite reports to the contrary.

Somebody will say that a person could not have done that because their character of goodness is so visible and so much in practice that it is highly unlikely that the person is the one guilty of that. That’s how God wants us to live, not that someone could bring a false accusation against you and make it stick. But just consider Joseph in the Old Testament and all the things brought against him that were hateful and not true. He maintained the virtue of goodness all through his life and God exalted him at the right time and at the right moment.

Many of these qualities that we are looking at here we must realize that Christians are able to live out this virtuous life, not because of our own efforts alone, but because of Christ’s life in us. That’s how we are able to do it. Many of these qualities we are asked to add to our faith come from the Holy Spirit, as it says in Galatians 5. We are to grow in them and they are to occupy every part of our life, and they are to be increasing in influencing our daily lives.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized it is not easy to define goodness. When I went to the New Webster’s Dictionary, I found that I was not alone in this. Webster had seventeen ways to use the word. Everybody has their own view of what goodness is, so we can’t go by that as the standard. From my recollection, I believe that Webster was a Christian and many of the definitions were for words from the Bible. So Webster listed seventeen ways to understand goodness. The universal definition is a general term of approval or commendation. The problem here is this can mean anything.

So I found that the closest meaning of the word defined goodness as this morally sound, excellent, virtuous, honest, just, pious, devout, kind, benevolent, generous, sympathetic, well-behaved, and dutiful. Those are all good words that describe what it means to be good. Parents can use all those words with their kids to see if they are being good or not.

Of course the opposite of good is evil. The Word of God speaks often of the goodness of God because that’s what we need to focus on. The only way we can get somewhat of a picture of what good is, is to look at the character of God in Scripture. The Word of God speaks often, as a matter of fact I was overwhelmed by the passages of Scripture that talk about the goodness of God. Even in the Hebrew, it is translated as loving kindness. The Word of God speaks often of the goodness of God, like in Psalm 119:68, which says:

You are good and do good; Teach me Your statutes.

Just think of that for a minute, that God is good and does good. It starts from your character then works out in doing something. In Scripture, we find that goodness is something that God wants us to have in our lives. This passage says that God is good and from the core of His being and from the absolute perfection of God, flows out the goodness of God.

It was one of the old Puritans, Thomas Manton who wrote this about God: “He is originally good, good of himself, which nothing else is; for all creatures are good only by participation and communication from God. He is essentially good; not only good, but goodness itself; the creature’s goodness is but a drop, but in God there is an infinite ocean and sea, or gathering together of goodness. He is eternally and immutably good for He cannot be less good than He is as there can be no additional made to Him or subtraction from Him.”

All emanates from God, His decrees, creation, laws, and providences cannot be otherwise than good. Also we see the goodness of God really come out in several areas in Scripture. Just keep your hand there in Psalms, but just think of how the goodness of God is first seen in creation. In Genesis 1:31, it says:

God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

The second thing is that the goodness of God is seen in the highest of God’s creations, which is man Himself. In Psalm 139:14, it says:

I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.

Everything about our bodies shows God’s goodness. Just think about how our hands are uniquely designed for work. Our ears are uniquely designed to hear sounds that form meaning in order to understand and communicate, especially to hear the Word of God. The complex orbs called our eyes display images in which we can see things and navigate our world and understand our surroundings. Our eyes are so important, that God provides eyelids and brows for their protection.

See the Lord in His goodness even appoints sleep to refresh a weary body. The goodness of God in a third way is exercised towards all His creation. In Psalm 145:15-16, the Word of God says:

The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

This is all the goodness of God coming out to His whole creation. Whatever living thing there is, God’s abundant provision has supplied their every single need. Have you ever heard a sparrow begging for food? Or a squirrel lacking acorns? I’ll tell you what, they’re not lacking in East Millstone. We’ve got very large squirrels here, that’s all they do is eat.Whether it be birds of the air, or beasts of the field, or fish of the sea, they are supplied by the good hand of God. God is the One who feeds them. You don’t see them worry about that do you? We worry all the time even with things provided to us.

Psalm 136: 25-26 says this:

Who gives food to all flesh, for His lovingkindness is everlasting. Give thanks to the God of heaven, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.

That word everlasting can be replaced by the word goodness. Even what it says in Psalm 33:5:

He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord.

This Hebrew term kaddish, which is goodness and kindness. It is also translated as faithful care of loving kindness of God. All of them express the goodness of God. They’re found all over the earth and this world which is filled with sinful desires, and subject to decay because of moral corruption, when you look around you see the goodness of God. Just waking up this morning was God’s goodness to you. Remember when the rich young ruler came to Jesus and called Him good master, and Jesus says that only God is good. He put it right where it should be. Only God is good.

The goodness of God is also seen in the variety of natural pleasures, which He has provided for His creatures. Think about it for a moment. God did not give us food just to satisfy our hunger. He gave us a large variety of meats and vegetables and fruits with all kinds of flavors in order to satisfy us with food that tastes good. In America, we have the choice of pretty much anything you want at any time you want it. We’re given this, which is God supplying all our needs way beyond what we could ever ask.

He gave us a large amount of herbs and spices to further enhance the flavor of our food, so we could enjoy it and make it taste good. That reveals His goodness. It was the Lord who said in Matthew 5:44-45:

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on ;the ;evil and ;the ;good, and sends rain on ;the ;righteous and ;the ;unrighteous.

That reveals the common grace of God. The Lord did not have to give us beautiful, colorful flowers for our eyes to behold, along with the sweet smelling fragrance for our sense of smell to delight in it. Take the time to look around, and you may be overwhelmed by the abundance of God’s goodness, and we should be as Christians. We are saluted by the delightful music of sparrows in the morning, which should remind us not to worry or fear. The Lord says in Luke 12:6-7:

Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

The birds remind us that God is good. But are we listening and looking for it? I don’t think we always do, because we are so busy and we live by the watches on our wrists. We always have to be places and we rush to get everywhere. We are beat by the end of the day and our head hits the pillow right away to sleep. Not once sometimes in those days, do we actually notice the goodness of God and give Him praise for it.

Maybe we can be like the old saints, where in 2 Chronicles 6:41 it says:

Let Your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation and let Your godly ones rejoice in what is good.

The Psalms are filled with rejoicing and the attributes of God’s goodness. Look at Psalm 23:6:

Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

While going through this world with all the warfare he was involved with, David did not take his eyes off the surety and foundation that he had in God’s goodness. I would not make it if it was not for the goodness of God. Then look at Psalm 145:4-9:

One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wonderful works, I will meditate. Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, and I will tell of Your greatness. They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness and will shout joyfully of Your righteousness. The Lord ;is gracious and merciful; slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. The Lord ;is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.

That is the goodness of God and you see that the goodness is seen in what He does and because of who He is. He wants us to do the same thing as believers. The goodness of God appeared most eminently when God the Father sent forth His Son to be the perfect, sinless sacrifice in order to die and shed His blood in the place of lost sinners where we see in Galatians 4:4-5:

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Maybe more than anything else, is not the gospel considered good news? Isn’t that what it means? The angels when they pronounced Jesus coming, what did they say? They said in Luke 2:10:

I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people.

And the question John the Baptist asked when he was in prison was whether Jesus was the One or if he should look for someone else. This is what Jesus told the disciples to tell John the Baptist. He said in Luke 7:22:

Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the good news preached to them.

That’s all they needed because that’s exactly what the prophet said. And then of course the message of salvation is the message of good news. It’s recorded in Romans 10:15:

How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!”

God is a good God, and even if He saved no one and left all to perish, it would have been no reflection on His goodness. Would God be good if He punished not those who misused His blessings, who abused His benevolence, who trampled His mercy beneath their feet as it says in Hebrews? No He would not. He is good in His justice and righteousness as well as in His daily activities. The prophet Nahum tells us in Nahum 1:7:

The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him.

So the nature of God is always the same. He is always good. When God’s people see that God’s hand is neither invisible or nonexistent, and that His providential care is a reality, then the response ought to flow out from their own soul thanking God for His goodness. We ought to recognize that the drop of morning dew gleams His glory and that every speck of dust bears His impression. Our great God is in within us, keeping our hearts in motion, and around us, giving us the air we need to breathe to sustain our life.

Christians are to add to their faith God’s goodness. How are we to do that? Let me point you to other passages of Scripture that tell us what we are to do once we are saved and now participating in the divine nature. I think of passages like Titus 3:8, where it says:

This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.

Hebrews 10:24:

Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

Let us look at a couple of passages in Romans 12:21:

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

We’re called on to do that. In Romans 16:19, it says:

For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.

Believers are supposed to be like that. So according to Scripture, we are to provoke or excite each other to labors of love and good works. Love is the motive and good deeds is the practice of love. Doing good deeds adorn the gospel and glorifies the Father who is in Heaven. If you just think about good deeds for a moment, that’s exactly what God is asking us to do. He’s asking us to be vessels of good deeds and that means that we have to be cleansed and set apart. 2 Timothy 2:21 says:

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these ;things, ;he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.

What should be the motive for doing good? Glorifying God! It says in Matthew 5:16:

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

The objects of good deeds should be that of all kinds of people. Let your light shine in a way that all would see your good works! The purpose of good deeds is to provide and meet needs like it says in Titus 3:14:

Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful.

It seems like doing good deeds and being fruitful goes together. Not doing good deeds or not living out goodness in your life is unproductive and useless. The realm of good deeds is your own giftedness, how God made you. It says in Ephesians 2:10:

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

There’s the doing of what God has done in you, and there is the preparation of good works. It also says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

The direction of good deeds is fruit bearing and prayer. It says in Colossians 1:10:

So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please ;Him ;in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

You don’t have to wonder about what a good work is, it’s anything you do for the Lord. If you give a cup of cold water and do it unto the Lord, that is a good work. I like the passage of Scripture in 1 Timothy 5:10 where it talks about the general nature of good works by a woman:

[This woman] having a reputation for good works; ;and ;if she has brought up children, if she has shown hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has assisted those in distress, ;and ;if she has devoted herself to every good work.

Washing the saints’ feet shows honor to them by washing off the dust from their feet. This is a good work. If we just considered that good works could be a care package, a letter to someone, an email or text, giving someone clothing or food, or even just companionship to talk with them. Or it could be mowing the lawn, clean their house, shovel their snow, or pray with them! Invite them to your home, bring them to your church, give them a ride to the doctor’s! All of that is included in what a Christian does to be good. The motive drives them to actually carry that goodness in their hearts.

God has shown us in Scripture where it says in Matthew 10:42:

And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.

The affirmation of good works is really a vital proof and the fruit of salvation. It proves that you have a living faith. It proves and affirms that you are a child of God. Virtue is the high state of mind, and moral ability perfected over years by walking with God. It’s practicing this every single day. You may not be good at it. Let’s face it, it’s hard to love people. You may love the ones you like, because they like you. But how about you love someone who is not like you? Who is contentions, rambunctious, a thorn in your side? How do you do good to them? That’s what we’re called to do because that’s what God has done with us. He’s been good to us.

See virtue, or moral excellence or goodness is a condition whereby day and night, we can be sure that a virtuous person is living a righteous life no matter what pressures may be placed upon them. They believe from Scripture that is what they’re supposed to do. That’s how they add to their faith. And the only place where empowerment for the virtue of goodness is found is at the Cross of Calvary. The Church of Jesus Christ, is to be the custodian for these precious qualities and commodities.

When we realize that and know this, every single person here can carry out the characteristics of God’s goodness in their life. It’s not beyond us and we are given help by the Holy Spirit to do that. We are to exert everything we have to make sure that we add to our faith moral excellence or goodness. This virtue is vital and it’s first in the list of communicating to the world the goodness of God.

I believe there’s a lot of people in the world who have never experienced goodness from another person. We can talk about someone being mean and degrading, and who blows people off. But a Christian is supposed to be good to people, and not only to those you like. If your enemies are hungry, we are to feed them. We need God’s help for that. Let’s pray.

Lord thank You again. Your Word is so convicting. Forgive us when we have not displayed goodness to people. Forgive us when we have been mean and condescending and when we have not considered our brethren and those around us. I pray, Lord, that we would be able to carry out the things set in Scripture, that this day we would be able to add to our faith diligently with great effort the characteristics of the goodness of God that flows in us and out through us. Let us practice this until we get good at it and it becomes a habit that we don’t even think about, and we just do it. I pray in Christ’s Name, Amen.

February 9, 2020
The Believer’s Responsibility for Godly Living, Part 1

In this sermon, Pastor Babij teaches from 2 Peter 1:5 the Christian’s responsibility to live godly and to cultivate the means of grace provided by God. Pastor details three elements of necessary spiritual discipline:

1. Examining yourself
2. Crucifying the old self
3. Practicing the new ways

Pastor Babij concludes with an admonishment to Christians to “farm the land” with the tools given them by God.

Full Transcript:

Let’s turn to 2 Peter. If you are using a pew Bible, it’s on page 1215. 2 Peter chapter 1, I’m going to read from verse 1 through 7:

Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received the faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they rented you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray. Lord, this morning I just asked You, as we again look at Your Word, Holy Spirit we pray that You would illuminate Your Word to us. Make it real to us. Make it practical to us. Make it apply to us, Lord, in a very specific way, so Lord we would do what it says. And we would be the kind of people that the Spirit of God is actually making into the image of Christ. So any obstacles, any things that are going to hinder us today, please remove. Very purpose of Your Word coming to our heart without any distractions and I pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

Just to remind you from last time in this text, this is what we must not forget. We must not forget that you are not lacking anything to grow in Christlikeness. You have everything you need for life and godliness. Verse number 3 – everything pertaining to life and godliness. The source of divine power is from Jesus, that this divine power is expressed in a godly life. And that you do not do it alone. Philippians tells us:

for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

You’re not alone. Also don’t forget that the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit, helps us to replace sinful habits with godly habits. We must not forget that it is not just human effort, but grace motivated effort. It is not effort apart from the Holy Spirit. It is effort and cooperation with the Holy Spirit. We have the promise of being like Christ. Verse four:

For by these he has granted granted to us His precious and magnificent promises,

Now from last week, what that meant is that Christ’s attributes of divine majesty and moral goodness have been instrumental in giving believers not only what they need for a godly life, but that through these attributes of His own glory and goodness, Christ has provided for the fulfillment of the promises. The fulfillment of the promises include believers becoming sharers of the richest of all treasures on this earth, and that is the nature and the life of God. Also believers receive a remarkable privilege while we’re on this earth. That privilege is to actually enjoy intimacy with the God who created the universe through Christ Jesus.

So the two benefits of the promises come in verse four, where there’s a positive benefit. The positive benefit is actual participation in the divine nature, where it says:

For by these He has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature,

Remember, Scripture does not say you have the divine nature. It says you participate in the divine nature. To participate in the divine nature means that the Christian shares in God’s own character. That He is allowing certain attributes to be remade in us that reflect the attributes of God Himself. Not all of them, only the ones that are communicated through us as humans. See the apostle Peter also does not say that we possess the divine nature in its totality, and therefore we become sinless. We will never become sinless. We’re always dealing with sin. So participation in the divine nature is the reception of an ethical nature like God’s, which then leads to holiness and godliness. Christians are given an ethical desire to live for our Lord and to do so with a holy desire and a holy purity and a holy goodness.

Now at the same time, there’s a negative benefit. That does definitely show the tension that’s in the Christian life once a believer trust in Christ. There was a tension that comes in our lives because the tension is between the old nature and the new man – what God wants us to do and what we’re used to doing in the old person. So the negative benefit that is concurrent with the desire to participate in the divine nature is also the escape from corruption in the world caused by desire. And there is the tension of the Christian life. Verse four says:

having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

This is corruption in the world because of desire, because of sinful desire, because of the fall of man into sin.

Sin came between man and God and God’s own divine characteristics that were given to man at the beginning. We’re lost. Sin shattered the image of God created in us and stamped upon us. The part of man that had communion with God absolutely completely died at the fall. We bear that deadness when we’re born into the world, having no reference to God once we are born into the world. All we have reference to is our own sinful desires. From young to old, we have sinful desires to do what we want to do and not what God wants to do, not what God laid out for us to do. So since that time, man has been running from God. He is now governed by sinful desires and panders to those sinful desires of his lower nature. So sinful desire is at the root of all moral corruption in the world. Because of moral corruption in the world, it’s subject to decay. It’s dying. We are dying. The world is dying. Everything is dying because of sin, because of the curse of sin in the world.

So that means that the the escape here in verse four is the escape from corruption that remains in this old world. Christians, as they grow in holiness, see clearly more than ever before, that they need to separate themselves from the moral corruption that is so much a part of this fallen world and so much a part of our fallen nature. God restores us in salvation. He makes us spiritually alive. He creates us after the image of the perfect man, the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what He’s doing to us right now, for all those who are in Christ.

So then, a Christian’s participation in the divine nature gives believers this new ability to resist sin through union with Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit, along with the Scriptures. That means that the desire is that the flesh that we now have, the flesh, this sinful old man, needs to be weakened. The desire to obey the Holy Spirit and to please Jesus Christ needs to be strengthened. Our desires that come from our heart needs to be strengthened so we want the pattern of our life to be godly, to be holy. It’s already been said that along with Christ’s righteousness that he gives us in salvation where He makes us right with God, that’s what He’s done. He also gives to the believer an ethical righteousness, a practical righteousness, a righteousness that actually we live on this earth. He gives that. We receive that at salvation. That means that the believer’s nature is being transformed so that he and she will manifest the character of God. That will take place in a real believer.

So this Lord’s day, the admonition is to use the awesome power available to you and I to grow in godliness. We saw in 2 Peter 1:3-4 what God has done. That is the things that have already been done for us by God. That’s taken place already. Today, and I’ll just start today. I probably won’t even get out of verse 5 today. Now in 2 Peter 1:5-9, the Scripture emphasizes and I want to drive this home to you the human side of salvation.

Now that does not suggest any form of work salvation. However, true faith must lead to works. The epistle of James tells us:

Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

So faith always produces works, always. Works comes after one’s initial salvation to Christ, not before it. Works are the fruit of salvation. So this morning, we are going to look at at least two things, but we’re going to look at other Scriptures too. The believers have initially a two-fold responsibility. Before we even get into defining what that is in detail, this must come first. The first responsibility believers are to have is a diligent attitude toward your own spiritual growth. Now look at verse 5. It says this:

Now for this very reason also, apply all diligence, in your faith…

Let me just go back before the comma – apply all diligence. Now I want to look at that for a minute because we are not to sit back at this point and wait for God. God already demands an intense work ethic in His children. We cannot have, in other words, a lackadaisical attitude towards godliness, towards growth in Christ. If there is that kind of attitude, it is an infection that must be healed and ultimately removed. We cannot miss the importance of the phrase “all diligence”. It actually literally means to bring every effort to this new life you have in Christ, to exert yourself in this new life you have in Christ, and maybe in modern-day vernacular, we can say to do your very best at being a Christian.

Now some people may not think that we have that responsibility. Some may think that God does it all and we just kind of like go with the flow. No. That’s not what it’s saying in Scripture. It’s saying to us: Christians are to take the human side of salvation very seriously by putting strenuous effort into your spiritual development. That is the goal of all Christian. That’s the goal of all believers.

Now, let me just backup for a minute and start with the bare bones basics. What I mean by that is that there are three things that we must all be clear about. Here’s the first thing – we must be clear that we are actual Christians. Make sure that you are a Christian to begin with or we couldn’t even go any further in this passage. That you have the Holy Spirit in you that enables you to grow. Remember, no salvation means no Spirit, which means you are not plugged in to the source. If you want a passage of Scripture, I have one for you – Romans 8:9. It would be good for you to look at that. Look what it says there in Romans 8:9:

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

That means if you have no Spirit, then you cannot participate in the divine nature. You are still spiritually dead in your trespasses and sins. So you will not understand what I’m going to preach, let alone put it into practice. In other words, you need to be born again first. You have to start there.

A second thing getting back to the bare-bones basic is this – you must use the means of grace available to all Christians in order to cultivate the Spirit’s power in your life. Now, you heard it before but again basics – the study of God’s Word, the reading of God’s Word, the meditating on God’s Word, fellowship with believers, the breaking of bread in the Lord’s Table and with each other, prayer, service, using your gifts in spiritual worship. I have a Scripture for you on this one too – Acts 2:42:

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

These are non-negotiable for the Christians in order to grow in spiritual maturity. Without them, it cannot happen.

Then the third thing is this – you must be responsible to discipline yourself in godliness. Now I would like you all to turn to this passage of Scripture in 1 Timothy 4:7-8. Just to remind you what it is saying here in 2 Peter, that in verse five it says:

for this very reason also, applying all diligence,

I’m explaining with that means – all diligence. The apostle Paul was writing about godliness to a young pastor named Timothy, and he says in 1 Timothy 4:7-8:

But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for life to come.

Now, if that doesn’t motivate you to hold in front of you godliness as a gold. Just like if you’re going to work out physically, you just don’t look at the weights and hope you develop muscle. No, you’ve got to actually exert yourself, right? You have to put yourself in the equation. In fact, the interesting thing about the Greek word Paul use for discipline in verse 8 – it is gymnazo. We get the words gymnasium, gymnastics. I don’t know of any sport that is more strenuous than gymnastics – walking the beam and flipping and the iron cross on the rings and all those kind of things. The passage is actually related to athletics. Athlete becomes better and more skilled only after hard practice.

I have enjoyed reading Muscle magazine since I was a teenager. Reading about weightlifting motivated me to get into the gym and try out the exercises. When starting off, I quickly realized that weightlifting was not for the faint of heart. A weightlifter must start off with light weights, but gradually over months and years add heavier and heavier weights in order to build muscle. I also discovered that regular training was vital in order to achieve even the slightest results. A weightlifter cannot decide this week – I think I’ll lift for 6 hours on Friday and then forget about it for the next six weeks. No, an athlete must practice regularly. Some workout everyday. Some work out 5 times a week. Some workout 3 times a week. They must train though. They must train to achieve results, to grow stronger and better along with this regular schedule. An athlete also must learn more and more about his sport nutrition and make sure that they’re living a healthy life. If you don’t do those things, you don’t get results.

In other words, all Christians have an automatic gym membership when you become a believer. You have a gym membership in which you get into the gym and train. It says discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Is that not the goal? Train to participate in the divine nature, applying all diligence, bring every effort, exert yourself for the purpose of godliness. That’s our responsibility. That’s what Peter is telling his readers.

Now maybe you’re here today thinking: you know what, I want this year to be the year that I really grow spiritually. I want to be what God wants me to be. In the past, I’ve been fired up to see real change in my life, but honestly nothing significant has taken place. Oh there’s some change, some growth, some blessing, but not the kind I earnestly would like to see. Now if you have from time to time been thinking something like this, well you are not alone. I believe all believers think this, because they realize how much they fall short of what God wants them to be. The danger, though, is that you will try to find some other spiritual experience to fill the gap than what God requires. Satan will provide you one. Or you’ll throw up your hands and say I give up. I can’t do this. Don’t go there. Don’t give up hope. Run back to the Scripture and get God’s mind on the matter.

Why do you think you have failed in your attempt to be godly? The major reason maybe some sin that you’re clinging to that has prevented you moving forward in Christlikeness. However, the problem may not be a big besetting sin. The problem may be that you have not understood what the Bible says about how to grow spiritually. Or the problem may be that you have sought and tried to obtain instant godliness and have failed again and again. Brethren, there are no instant gains without diligence and without discipline.

It is not wrong for believers to genuinely examine themselves to see whether they’re in the faith. It actually tells us that in Corinthians chapter 15 to make sure that you’re in the faith. Also, it’s appropriate for all believers from time to time to honestly examine whether they are living a life of faith. It’s good for believers to ask themselves – am I storing up in my mind the truths of God’s Word? Am I living by them? Have I actually developed an appetite for more solid in-depth food of God’s Word? Is my growth progressing or am I going backwards? Has my growth been arrested by some destructive weeds and thorns of anxiety and materialism or some sin that has lodged in my heart that is preventing me from moving forward? That’s a possibility because worry and greed are enemies of the Word. They betray a failure to trust in God and God’s fatherly care for us. Remember this, that’s spiritual security does not depend on a clear recollection of the moment of your conversion only. It has to do with the issue of fruit. See, by your fruits, by God’s love for you, by what God has already done for you and given to you and his grasp on you, and also discipline is the secret of godliness.

The term discipline has just about disappeared from Christian vocabulary and culture. Yet there’s no other way to obtain godliness. Discipline is the path to godliness. And God intends for all His children to be godly. It means each day, a godly person leads a life that reflects God. A godly person is growing in their desire to please God, in their being, in their thinking, in their speaking, in their doing, and even yes in their feelings, because all those lead into how I feel. Often times we feel wrong because we’ve been thinking wrong. We’ve been meditating on things that are opposite of what God wants you to meditate on, and therefore it bears that result of bad feelings, bad thoughts.

Now, look back at 2 Peter again, and I want you to notice in 2 Peter 2:14, Peter speaks about people whose heart are trained in greed. Speaking of the false teachers, look at what he says in 2 Peter 2:14:

having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children;

That word trained right there, the word is gymnazo. It means that the heart has been exercised in greed and is one that is faithfully practicing greed so that greed becomes as natural as breathing. The false teachers have developed a habit capability. They do it without thinking. False teachers habitually behave greedily.

This means that if we are going to obtain a heart of godliness, we must exercise discipline. We need to get into the spiritual gym and start there and start training and keep training until we develop a habit capability for godliness. Once we habitually have sinned, now as Christians, we are to habitually live righteously. We get to the point where that becomes who we are, what we do, because the Word of God is transforming us and making us like Christ. It’s like what it says in Romans 8:3:

For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin the flesh, so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

So God’s provided it for us. Now don’t misunderstand. There’s no such thing as instant godliness. We do live in a culture that wants things instantly and people want instant godliness too. They want someone to give them three ways, three steps to godliness. That’s what they want. And if I get that, then maybe I could do it. But God did not design our sanctification like that. The biblical way to godliness is not easy. It is not simple, but it is a solid way. Hopefully, the diagnosis in your life will not be what it says in Hebrews chapter 5. And what is that? That you never got past the rudiments or the basics of christianity 101, where it says this you’re still on the ABCs. It says:

you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God,

Also, the diagnosis wouldn’t be that you need to be bottle fed with milk. The only ones who use milk are babies and those who are ill. You need milk like a little baby because you cannot take in solid food yet to become stronger. Like it says in Hebrews:

you have come to need milk and not solid food.

Or that your decisions and behavior display spiritual ignorance, like little children who do not know the difference between right and wrong. Hebrews 5:13:

For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.

So what’s the solution to the problem? Get into the spiritual gymnasium! Just like it says in Hebrews 5:14:

But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

So again the term trained – you guessed it. It’s the word gymnazo. Gymnasium, right? It means to exercise vigorously. And so as one becomes accustomed to the Word of God by constant use, the mind then makes correct judgments and the desires of our heart are to live for godliness.

So the Bible also helps us to understand that discipline really has three elements to it. The first element of biblical discipline is that it starts with self-evaluation. It starts right there. You must become aware of your life patterns. You must evaluate them by the Word of God. You must determine whether your patterns of living are according to the old ways or toward godliness. The old sinful ways, as they are discovered, must be replaced by new patterns from God’s Word. The Holy Spirit doesn’t zap instant holiness into us apart from the Scriptures. In fact, the Holy Spirit ordinarily works through the Word of God. That’s how He works. For if we want to discipline ourselves towards godliness, the most essential factor is a regular study of God’s Word in order to make application of the principles to our own particular problems and behaviors that need to change. So it is by the willing, prayerful, persistent obedience to the requirement of Scripture that godly patterns are developed and come to be part of us. I like what Paul said in 2 Timothy. He says:

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Scripture again tells us: listen, you and I need to be examining ourselves to see where we’re at.

Second element that goes with discipline is discipline includes crucifixion. See, the old sinful ways must not be fed. The old sinful ways must be put to death. Romans 8:13 says this:

for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Everyday, by the guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit, we are crucifying the old sinful ways. First by saying no, I’m not going there. You say no to the old rebel inside of you. No, I’m not doing that anymore. This is what God wants me to do. I’m not going that way anymore. So you’re telling yourself everyday: nope, sorry. Temptation pops up. It becomes powerful to you. It starts getting your imagination going and you say to it: you know what, I’m not going there. I’m going to discipline myself in godliness and therefore I’m going to put the death that particular thought, that particular desire, and I am going to lay it aside until it dies and not feed it again. So it involves denying the self. Jesus commanded His disciples and He was telling all of them this:

If anyone wishes to comes after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

Now, Jesus did not mean denying yourself something. Rather, Jesus insisted that Christians must deny the self within them. By the self, He meant the old desires, the old ways, the old practices, the old patterns that were acquired before conversion. The old life that was discipline towards ungodliness, not towards godliness. So the phrase take up the cross identifies the battle, the struggle, as a believer grows in christlikeness. The cross is the instrument of death. Taking up the cross does not mean carrying some heavy burden or enduring some trial or some obnoxious person. No, taking up the cross means going to the place of death. It means putting to death the old man and the old life patterns.

Scripture says we are to put off the old and put on the new. Christians, as they continue to do that, saying no to the self and yes to Christ every day, until one by one, all the old habitual ways are replaced by new ones. That’s what God’s going to do, but you have to discipline yourself. God’s giving you everything you need to do that, and you are to discipline yourself. So the holy spirit enables a believer to put off the old man and put on the new man.

And then there’s a third element of discipline and that element is practice. We practice following Jesus Christ in the new ways by the guidance of God’s Spirit and what He provides in the Word of God. Again, the Hebrews passage of Scripture says:

But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

Continual daily effort is really the elemental essential of the Christian discipline, until God-like behavioral changes is no longer something you have to do. It’s something you become. It’s something you are. That’s your being, who you become.

The second responsibility, which I’ll really pick up more next week, is found back in 2 Peter chapter 1:5. He says:

for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,

That word again, “supply”, a very strong word. It’s an imperative. It’s a command in Scripture. It is a command with a cumulative force for a believer to supplement their faith, to add to their face. Another way of thinking of this command is to bring alongside what God has already done for you, every ounce of determination you can mustard, and go forward to pursue the goal of godliness. So Christians are called to express in action the nature of God that has been created in us.

One of my favorite pastor preachers, Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones, has been with the Lord since 1980s and has left us a wealth of material. Here in our passage, he has given us a helpful image by using a farm as the model. And this is what he said. We are given the farm by God’s grace. We are given the implements and the tools and all that is necessary. We are given the steed. What we are called upon to do is to farm. It is no use telling a man to farm if he has not a farm. If he is without land, without seed without tools, nothing can be done. But all these are given unto us and therefore having received them, we are asked to farm the lot of land that God has given us. That means to be diligent, to apply to our faith diligence, discipline.

So what do we do? We must add to what God has given us. We must increase in it. We must proceed to grow in it. Diligence plus faith equals spiritual growth in godliness. That’s the math. Add to your faith eight Christian qualities and we’re going to look at that next week. And what are they? Moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. That’s what we are to add to the faith that God has given us, as we do that and put the effort in to do that. You can’t sit there in the pew and fold your arms and think it’s going to happen.

I tell people all the time: remember we are not sitting in the stands. We are in the game. We are in the game. Right? Don’t think that the Christian life is you sit there like this and it’s all going to come to you. No, God says that’s not the way it’s happening. All you’ve got to do is follow my Word and discipline yourself. You want to be strong physically, go to the gym and make yourself strong. You’re not going to do it by sitting behind a TV and using the clicker all day, have your chips and your soda or whatever’s there. Nothing’s going to happen there. You’re just going to get bigger in other places you don’t want to.

We need some really strong believers. Godly people know how to be godly, know how to be holy, and how to pursue it. And all you got to do is stick to the Word of God and it will happen, because God has given us everything to farm our little land. So let’s take what He’s giving us and use it and become strong. It doesn’t matter how old you are. Young people, this applies to you too, because the Bible says don’t let anyone look down on your youth. You can flee sin and pursue righteousness. And you become a very strong model to those who don’t know how to do that. So I pray that you just evaluate yourself, where you’re at today. How have you grown today? This is a new year. You can make decisions to do great things in your spiritual progress, and I pray that you would do that. And we would help each other do that.

February 2, 2020
The Divine Basis for Godly Living

In this sermon, Pastor Babij discusses the divine basis for Godly living taken from 2 Peter 1:1-4. Pastor Babij teaches two fundamental objectives for the Christian:

1. To know God
2. To become like Him

Pastor Babij also details several privileges and benefits Christians receive from knowing and becoming like God.

Full Transcript:

Okay this morning let’s take our Bibles and turn to 2 Peter 1:1-4. What we do in our church is go through the Bible because it is a big book and there are a lot of things to know. We don’t want to be those people where Jesus says to them in the New Testament, “Have you not read?” God’s people ought to be reading the Word of God and read it until you get it. And they should be listening to it too.

Let’s have a word of prayer. Lord, we thank You this morning that we are able to have the Word of God in our hand. The Spirit of God gives us illumination as we study it and He bring it to our mind and attention to make it clear. I pray that today You would do that today as we start this book and go through it, that it would really change us and give us the mind of Christ. I pray that it would set us up to understand not only what the gospel is but also what the Christian life is. And I pray as we understand that, that it would bolster our faith to continue on and putting one foot in front of the other to do the next thing for You. As we live our normal, regular every day lives, we pray that You would be glorified through it and that we would manifest the things that You are changing in us and the characteristics of Christ that You are forming in us would be evident to ourselves and others. I pray Lord as You grow us that we would desire this more and more and never be satisfied and that we would always be more of You. We thank You for the Word of God that helps us to understand what You have done, what You are going to do, and what You want us to do. And I pray this in Christ’s Name, Amen.

So let’s look at chapter one and read verses 1-7 today, but we’ll only look at 1-4. It says:

Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

Let’s look closely at verse 1, where we have Peter introducing Himself to us. It says Simon Peter, but in the original Greek his name is Simeon. This is the Hebrew spelling of Simon, rarely used in the New Testament and only in Acts 15. Actually let’s turn to Acts 15:14:

Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name.

This verse falls in the context of the Jerusalem Council. There was a sect of Pharisees who believed that the Gentiles who were being saved should be circumcised and follow the law of Moses. So Peter stands up and this is what he says in Acts 15:8-11:

And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.

So the Apostle is saying that the Gentiles are being saved just as the Jews were saved. God is not making a distinction anymore. This was a little bit unnerving for the Jews but this is how God moved. And the Apostle Peter went on to say in Acts 15:19-20:

Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood.

So Peter just lays out that if they’re going to place any regulations on the Gentiles, this will be it. The Jews weren’t able to bear all the stuff placed on them, so the Gentiles definitely wouldn’t be able to. Peter was there for all of what Christ has done and saw everything that the Lord did. He became the leading Apostle and the most famous man in the world, besides Peter. He was there from the beginning.

When we go back to 2 Peter, we’ll find that this writer mentions two characteristics about himself that explains who he is and his relationship with Jesus Christ. In verse one it says that he is a bondservant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. The term for bondservant is the Greek word that means slave. A slave serves in obedience to another’s will. One commentator puts it like this, a person totally devoted to and owned by Jesus Christ. His status is not his own, but derived from the Master.

This comes right out of the book of Exodus, where we know there is a law of slaves. This law is that someone is willingly giving themself as a slave to another. The law went like this in Exodus 21:1-6:

Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them: If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment. If he comes alone, he shall go out alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone. But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’ then his master shall bring him to God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.

See that is the picture of a bondlsave. Someone who is willing to give themselves to the service of another, and also to the instruction of another to do that person’s will. Slavery under Christ is completely opposite from that of slavery under sin. Satan and sin remain cruel masters, they always have been and will be. But Christ is a good Master to all who put their faith and trust in Him for salvation. So Peter loved the Lord, who was His Master, and Peter willingly because a bondslave. He had his ear pieced in a sense to show that he is a willing slave of the Lord. That should be the way for all Christians. We should be willing slaves of Christ. Whatever it takes, we should be willing. Peter is presenting himself as that kind of person.

A second thing in this passage is that he present himself as a slave and then as an apostle. An apostle is an ambassador and special individual whose qualifications were very specific and limited. The criteria of becoming an apostle are important to realize because people today are saying there still are apostles, which is not true.

An apostle has to be a person who has seen the risen Lord and is commissioned and sent to preach the gospel. Once they were called by the Lord, then He gave those apostles abilities that no one else had like the working of miracles, casting out of demons, and raising of dead. All those equaled works of power and all those were given to the apostles to authenticate the apostles’ message. It was also given to lay down a foundation to build a church with the message of truth. 2 Corinthians 12:12:

The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.

The third thing an apostle was given was the authority of Christ. The Greek word for apostle was apostlos, which means on behalf the authority of another. This term apostle means that the person was a delegate or an envoy for someone else. They were an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ. Like it says in Matthew 10:1:

Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

This means that today there are no more apostles. In the book of Revelation it says that the foundation stones, the names of the 12 apostles, are done. Peter is saying that not only is he a bondservant but also an ambassador for Christ.

So once Peter tells us about himself, he starts laying down the divine basis for godly living. If you look at the end of 2 Peter 1:1 you’ll it says there that it says:

To those who have received a faith.

The foundational provisions of spiritual growth for God’s people are found in what God has done on our behalf. First of all, there are three things mentioned about salvific faith which include that faith brings about salvation and is attained as a gift. Faith here brings a trust that brings a person salvation and is a God given capacity to trust God. The original word for receive is the word to choose by lot. It is what comes to someone always a part of that person’s effort. This means that the gift that comes in salvation is a gift. There’s no way to pay for it or get it. But you do get to receive it.

Here the faith comes by divine will and is received by divine will. In other words, you would receive a gift of God’s grace. A second thing about the salvific faith is that it says later in verse 1:

To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours.

He’s saying that this faith is as precious as the apostles’ faith. Peter felt that the recipients of the letter’s faith equal to that of the faith of the apostles. It carries equal privileges just like the apostles received. Now you know that this means there is only one faith. There are not many faiths, but only one way to God. Just think of it, the gospel that was preached over 2,000 years ago is as adequate today as it was then. Did you notice that Peter put on the central person of the gospel? It’s Jesus Christ! In just two verses he uses His name 3 different times. There’s no gospel apart from Jesus Christ. But there are many people today that think you just need to have religion or believe in God.

But that’s very subjective because it leaves open to possibility one’s own interpretation of God. If a person says they believe in God, that does not make them a Christian or make them right with God. May people talk about God all the time, but the problem is there is no talk of Jesus Christ. Talk about God all you want but if you bring up Jesus you have a problem. Jesus Christ is a problem, but remember that Jesus is God.

If you are talking about Jesus, people’s understanding of Him seems to be at a distance from what the Bible actually says about Jesus Christ. The only way anyone can be righteous in the sight of God is to be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is by the righteousness that He has given to us in Christ freely in the gospel.

Well you might say how does that happen. Look at verse 1 again:

By the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Jesus came on the earth for one reason only, that He might bear the sins of man Himself. In Christ, God dealt with the sin of mankind, and God punished sin there and did away with it. And man can be right with God by believing that particular message and submitting to it. It’s when one comes to understand after hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ preached to them, that they have a real dilemma. Because of their sin nature and idolatry, they under God’s righteous judgment of wrath when they see that, they see they can’t rescue themselves or appease God. That’s when Christ becomes important and the gospel takes root when we see Christ and see Him in His work. He is the most precious offer of our lives, that they become like a man who has become very ill and goes to the doctor asking for any remedy no matter what it costs.

His health becomes the most precious thing at that point in his life and at conversion a sinner begins to realize how precious Christ is. A sinner calls out and says they have no righteousness of their own and they receive the righteousness that God gives in Christ. We are unworthy sinners but we can be clothed in His righteousness. The Apostle Peter is saying about this faith if the doctrine of Christ is precious to us? Is it our greatest gift that we can receive on this side of eternity that Christ chose us by lot to hear the gospel? We received it and were made right by Him based on what He has done and not what we could offer or do? It’s a free gift that He gives us, should that not be the most precious thing? That is what enables one to have the confidence to stand guiltless in His presence some day because it is His righteousness that saves anyone.

It’s like what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:9:

May be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.

So along with Christ’s righteousness given to a believer, there is also an ethical righteousness that comes with that. It’s not just a mere profession of faith or understanding that Christ is the One who saves. But along with that as God leaves us here on this earth, He gives us an ethical righteousness. That means the believer’s nature is transformed so that he or she will manifest the character of God. This is extremely important for believers because they have to know they are responsible to live the Christian life in a certain way.

There’s a third thing there said about faith and it’s a faith that must be grown into and guarded. In 2 Peter 1:2, a very rare verbal mood is expressed in the Greek. It is the mood like saying I wish, which expresses desire, and using the word may. In translations like the ESV it says “may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ.”

It’s like saying “may the grace and peace of God be yours in greater measure.” That’s where Peter is heading because he wants us to grow in the Lord. Remember Peter is looking at the end of his life here and is told by the Lord that he will die a martyr. The only people who could have this grace and peace are believers. They are given it in greater measure as the knowledge of God is applied. As a person moves further in the direction of that which it seeks to know. That is he or she comes to know Jesus better and better. The growing personal knowledge only comes by a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Christianity is really coming to know a person in an ever deepening personal relationship. Knowing Jesus Christ as a person is made clear when the Apostle Paul penned 2 Timothy 1:12, this is what it says:

For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.

Paul didn’t say he knows what he believes, but whom. Can we say that today? Can you say that you know whom you believe? It’s not just knowing things about God and Jesus or a quick acquaintance like having met someone for the first time. This is a knowledge heading to a committed living for the sake of the Lord, like a bondservant or slave. Make no mistake, Peter is not saying that you can reach God by sheer power of human thought or some mystical experience that is more like new age teaching.

An infinite God can never be grasped by the finite mind of man. If God is ever to be known in greater measure, He must be known not because man’s mind discovers Him, but because God chooses to reveal Himself to mankind. That’s the only way we can know God, is if God chooses to show us who He is.

There was a commentator, named Douglas Moo who said, “We are rightly warned by the danger of a sterile faith, of a head knowledge that never touches the heart. But we need to equally be careful of a heart knowledge that never touches the head.” The Biblical writers and Peter definitely is in this group who demands a knowledge of God that unites head and heart together. Once someone is born again, then what is the believer to strive for? What is the most important objective of the Christian life?

It’s two-fold. The first objective of the Christian life is to know God. You can’t say you know Him because there are a lot of things to know about God. When you first believe you take baby steps in knowing who God is. There’s a second objective of the Christian life. Not only we are to know God but we are to become like Him. I don’t know about you, but when I hear that I think to myself that seems impossible. How could I know God the way I ought to, and also become like Him?!

Since you have been become a believer, ask yourself how much you have grown in the knowledge of God. Is God real to us? Do we know God when we pray? Are we aware of a sense of contact and communion and fellowship with God on a regular day by day basis? We must thank the Lord that He has included everything necessary to strive for these objectives with success. You know when you buy something, like shelves, in a box that’s small that has 15,000 parts in it? We all start putting it together without looking at the instructions and then realize that we forgot something! Then we need to look at the instructions. But you know, we have to thank the Lord that He gives us all the parts and instructions on how to do this life. And He gives us the power to do it too. That’s what Peter is communicating to us. He not only laid down for us some of the foundational provisions, but now he gives us the privileges for spiritual growth of God’s people.

This next verse is really saying to the believer that we not lacking anything to proceed forward to grow in a more detailed and fuller knowledge of God. The privileges come to believers in the form of a gift. The first privilege highlighted is found in verse 3, and it gives us several privileges, like the power to be like Christ. It says in 2 Peter 1:3:

Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

So God’s power has been given to us, everything we need is provided and the term power means an ability that produces a strong effect. What God gives to us is effective and produces results. It’s going to produce a certain result which we’ll talk more about next week. But just think for a moment that God has provided us at conversion the Holy Spirit. The Spirit illuminates the Word of God to us and we have the intercessory ministry of Christ praying for us as our High Priest in Heaven every day. We have the protection of angels and true faithful pastors that expound the Word of God. And we have the teaching of the Word of God, the full inspired, inerrant Word of God in its final form in our hands. God is not giving any more revelation despite what people say today. We just have to find out what it is. There’s enough of the Word of God for us to never run out.

It’s there right on the page for us. In fact, the word granted is actually the perfect tense of a verb that means the continuing nature of that which is given. This particular divine power never runs out. It is always available to us. Every spiritual resource is provided by God in order to live a godly and Godlike life. The real question is are you living it?

God has provided through the indwelling Holy Spirit, the resources that we need to live a holy, godly, and blessed life. One person put it like this: Jesus has provided everything needed for the Christian to flesh out his life in every day living so as to reflect His image. A Christian is someone who has divine power to live the Christian life. Christians are ones who develop the divine character and manifest it in every day life. In other words, if we fail to live a fruitful, productive life, it’s not because of any lack of resources. All the parts are there, the instruction is there, and the power is there. It’s gotta be our misunderstanding of what God has given us. So for believers there is no excuse at all. We are not lacking anything to proceed forward to grow in fuller detail in the personal knowledge of Jesus Christ.

The next privilege comes to the believer in the form of knowledge. In other words God says this is what He is done for you, and this is the process in which the transformation actually takes place. This is the process of becoming like Christ. Peter is informing Christians that this is what they are called for, to manifest the characteristics of God that are being formed in them by the Spirit of God. God’s glory, as reflected off of man will show forth God’s communicable attributes that are being formed in them, such as goodness, kindness, truthfulness. Look down at 2 Peter 1:5, it says:

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge.

All of these are added to your faith as you grow in Christ. If your life used to be part of bitterness and cursing, and anger, and malice, and an unforgiving spirit, and hatred, then that’s all the flesh. God’s going to transform you out of those things, that’s what a real believer is. A real believer never stays the same, they are always moving and growing and maturing. That’s what Paul said to the people at Galatia in Galatians 4:19:

My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.

The Holy Spirit’s goal for you and I is that we would manifest the characteristics of Christ and that Christ would be formed in us. If you notice in verse 3, it says:

Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

So how does it happen? By growing in the true knowledge of Christ, who called us to manifest His glory as it’s reflected off of us. He’s called us to manifest His goodness, so this term true knowledge really means full knowledge, one who comes to know and appropriate it through faith in Christ. This is a true knowledge that leads to moral knowledge, an intensive knowledge of knowing Christ. The Bible says that when you grow in that knowledge, it says in 2 Peter 1:8:

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

True knowledge produces results. Let me explain. There’s such a thing as true knowledge of Him. Opposite of this true knowledge is false knowledge. I say to people that when you come to know God as your Lord and Savior, you didn’t know anything right about God. You gotta cast it all out and get out your Bible to start reading it and find out who He really is. Then you’ll replace that false knowledge that you’re coming into the faith with, with true knowledge.

The reason why he mentions it like this is because there is a false knowledge and the false teachers are spewing out their own particular doctrine that does not produce the same results as true knowledge of Christ. Their teachings does not lead to godliness, in other words. Their teaching appeals to the lower nature of man’s corruption and that results from lust and an unconscionable and moral desire that displeases God. Remember that if you look over to 2 Peter 2:2, it says this:

Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned

The hearers of false teaching are not getting the true gospel which does not produce true conversion, nor a lifestyle that is not in the direction of godliness. The apostle Paul also taught healthy and sound doctrine that lead to godliness. Let’s look at 1 Timothy and notice these passage, because he brings out to us that somebody can teach a different doctrine and it’s not coming from the true knowledge of Jesus Christ, it will not lead to godliness. Look at 1 Timothy 6:3:

If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness.

In other words when you receive a healthy doctrine from the Word of God about the true knowledge of what God has done in Christ, it leads you to live a holy and a godly life. But if that’s not being taught then it doesn’t lead to that at all. In fact, look at the next passage in 1 Timothy 6:4-6:

He is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.

The results of these false teachers is not contentment, it is strife! It’s fleshly stuff that comes out. They praise the Lord in their music but in their lifestyle there is nothing. Peter says that true teaching produces holiness and godliness. We must not forget that you are not lacking anything to grow in Christ likeness. That you have everything you need for a life of godliness and the source of the divine power is from Jesus, and is expressed in a godly life. It’s not a perfect life, but is a desire and lifestyle in the direction of god-likeness.

So what is the promise of being like Christ? Look in 2 Peter 1:4 where it says:

For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises.

The antecedent is glory and goodness, or excellence. It means that Christ’s attributes of divine majesty and moral goodness have been instrumental in giving believers not only what they need for a godly life, but through these attributes, Christ has provided with the fulfillment of these promises.

It’s not clear what promises the Apostle Peter has in mind. But if we stick to the immediate context, it would include the fulfillment of those promises that the believer becomes the sharer in the richest things of all treasures, which is the nature and life of God. This is what you can live out in your life and the remarkable privilege of enjoying intimacy with the God of this universe, which leads to a new heaven and new earth.

So this promise of being like Christ leads to two benefits. One is a positive benefit and the other is the negative benefit. Look at the positive benefit in verse 4. It says:

Become partakers of the divine nature.

Make no mistake, Scripture does not say that you have a divine nature, but that you participate in the divine nature. To participate in the divine nature means that Christians share in God’s own holy character. Peter can say in 1 Peter to be holy for He is holy. If God didn’t say that then we would say we can’t because God didn’t say we can. You’d be separated unto God like we are separated from sin and evil. You have the power to say no to sin.

Also the Apostle Peter says we do not possess the divine nature in its totality and therefore are sinless. We’ll never be sinless, but as you grow in Christ you will sin less. The divine power has been given to live out the communicable attributes of God to make us more like Himself. God desires that His children look like His Son Christ. Participation in the divine nature is the reception of the ethical nature of God. This then leads to holiness which then leads to immortality. Christians are given an ethical desire to live for our Lord in holiness, purity, and goodness.

That’s the positive side, but the negative side is found in this verse also. This is the tension of the Christian life. While we are participating in the divine nature, which is going to make us like Christ, concurrent with that is the following in 1 Peter 1:4:

Having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

This is the escape from corruption in the world caused by evil desire. There is plenty of corruption in the world, and it’s due to the sinful desire of the human heart that is depraved and self-centered. Because of the fall of man and to sin, sin came between man and God. God’s own divine characteristics that were given to Adam and Eve were lost. Sin shattered the image of God that was stamped upon man. The part of man that had communion with God died in the fall.

So when the gospel comes to you, it’s coming to someone who is dead and cannot respond to God. So God has to do something to work on them. God has to open their eyes to see and give faith as a gift. He has to bring them to Himself and draw them to Christ. When that happens, God quickens them and makes them alive and they do believe and become born again to the Kingdom of God. But in the Fall we instantly die to God because we have no way to respond to God. Since that time, man has been running from God and are governed by sinful desires that panders to their lower nature. Sinful desires area ll around us.

We know that well because we are human beings. You know when you have a sinful desire or thought. Christians are very aware of those things because they have the Spirit transforming their mind and their life. They’re very sensitive to their sinful desires. And they think that they don’t want to have these desires anymore because they know where they lead to. We don’t have to give into them, because we are participating in the divine nature of God. God says He will give this characteristic of His so He can build into us and help us say no to this other characteristic. Sinful desire is at the root of moral corruption in the world.

Because of moral corruption, the world is subject to decay. God will eventually replace it with a new Heaven and new Earth. The escape is from corruption that still remains in this old world. Christians, as they grow in holiness, see clearly their need to separate themselves from the moral corruption that is so much a part of this fallen world. It becomes clear to us that that is not the way to go anymore in this world. So God restores us in salvation. He makes us spiritually alive and He recreates us after the image of the perfect Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He is not just putting a coat of paint on a collapsing house, but He is making us new.

A Christian’s participation in the divine nature has a new ability to resist sin through their union with Christ and His indwelling Spirit, through which the desire of the flesh is weakened. The rebel voice inside of us is weakened and we desire to obey the voice of the Holy Spirit and to please Christ. It becomes the desire of their heart and the pattern of their lifestyle. That’s what Peter wants to lay out before us before he gets into the details, so we are not lied to.Don’t hook onto false teachers that tell you strange things that sound true but are not. You have to examine yourself to make sure that you’re in the faith and one of the chosen ones. You have to make sure of that because you are bearing fruit that the Spirit of God is producing in your life. It is manifest outside of your body, to yourself and others.

If you get dragged into a court of law, if they ask you if you are a Christian you gotta prove it not by your profession, but by your fruit. You keep growing every day in Christ likeness because God is always giving the tools, power, and instructions to make that happen. We have not excuse, let’s pray.

Lord, thank You that these are the divine bases for a forward moving godly life that is always growing. We know that where there is growth, there is life. Embed these truths upon our minds so that we are not just hearers but also doers of the Word. We know that doers of the Word are blessed and that You are near to them for blessing and strength. Increase our true knowledge of You that we may display the true characteristics of God in our life. Thank You Lord, we give You praise, glory, and honor and all that hasn’t yet will be accomplished. I pray in Christ’s Name, Amen.

January 26, 2020
Introductory Matters for Second Peter

In this sermon, Pastor Babij overviews the letter of 2 Peter. Pastor Babij explains the controversy over the letter’s authorship and also introduces the letter’s main purposes:

1) Reminding Christians of vital teaching concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ
2) Combating the rise of false teaching in the church at large
3) Giving details concerning the second coming of Jesus Christ

Full Transcript:

Let’s take our Bibles and turn to 2 Peter. We’re going to be looking at some introduction material today to set the book in the right direction. Be ready to take your Bibles in 2 Peter and be following the verses there. This book is very incredible, up-to-date, convicting, a book that exposes things that are so relevant for us today in the church. I believe it’s going to be a tremendous book to study.

Let’s pray. Father, as we approach the Word of God now, we look at this epistle that was written by one of your apostles. Lord, I pray that as we consider it and think of it, it would really challenge us. It would cause us to examine ourselves. It would cause us to examine our understanding. It would cause us to examine others who say that they are believers, and especially those who are prevalent in the public eye. I pray, Lord, make us discerning Christians about what’s going on in Your work, even in our day. So Lord, that we are not duped or deceived by anything that is thrown at us, any wind of doctrine that comes our way. We would have the proper ability to examine it, to see if it is true, if it lines up with Your Word. If it doesn’t, Lord, we throw it out and we not think about it again. So I pray, Lord, fill our minds with truth. I pray Lord as You do, the truth will give us the ability to identify deception. And I pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

Every one of us, if we are honest, have to from time to time be reminded of things that we should do but have forgotten to do. Parents are always reminding their children to listen to mommy and daddy when spoken to, reminding them to clean up their room, to brush their teeth, to do their homework, to practice their instrument, not to be late, to speak when you’re spoken to, and be polite, and to do your chores. And the list goes on. Many of us have to write things down in order to remind ourselves of the things that need to be done in order for our life and work schedule to go smoothly as possible, and then to check off those things as each one gets completed. As we get older, the possibility of becoming more forgetful may be a sober reality. We find ourselves walking into a room and then asking ourselves: why did I come to this room? What am I supposed to be looking for? Has that happened to you already? We’re already in trouble. So we experience leaks in our memory. Our ability to retain information that we at one time knew well shows gaps. We can know some things, and from time to time push it into the shadows of forgetfulness.

However there is that knowledge, which is so crucial for our well-being, we cannot afford to forget it. We can’t afford to forget what we have been learning and what we will learn from the Word of God. If there is one area of knowledge we need to be reminded of, it is to be reminded of needed spiritual truths, truths that never should grow old, never should get pushed aside, never should be forgotten in our minds. The apostle Peter, as he nears the end of his earthly life, writes 2 Peter for the purpose of reminding his readers, his audience, of needed spiritual truth. Reminding his readers of what God has said in the Word so the truth will stick with them. If you look at chapter 1 verses 12-15, you’ll get this sense in Scripture. 2 Peter 1:12 says:

Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.

So he is very concerned that they are reminded of things that they already know. And then if you look to 2 Peter 3:1-2, look at what he says there:

This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

So again, you see there’s an emphasis in this book about making sure his listeners do not forget things that they could never, they should never forget, because they’re vital for spiritual health. They’re vital for fighting the spiritual battle that we’re in as Christians. They’re vital for standing firm in the faith.

Everybody has heard of post-it notes and has probably used them from time to time. I really don’t know how we have lived without them for so long. A post-it note, if you don’t know, it’s a small piece of paper with a strip of low-tack adhesive on the back that allows it to be temporarily attached to documents, walls, computers, monitors, just about anything. The idea for the post-it note was conceived in 1974 by Arthur Fry as a way of holding bookmarks in his hymnal while singing in his church choir. He was aware of an adhesive that was accidentally actually developed in 1968 by a fellow 3M employee – Spencer Silver. No application for the lightly sticky stuff was apparent until Fry’s idea. The 3M company was initially very skeptical about the product’s profitability. Are they going to make any money on it? But in 1980, they tried it and the product was introduced around the world. Today, post-it notes are sold in more than 100 countries.

Now, why do I say that? Because Christians need more than low-tack adhesive as used on the post-it notes. We need super gorilla glue adhesive, so that what we are learning and what we will continue to learn from God’s word will permanently stick in our minds.

People today don’t need new truth, but only to gain a clear understanding of what eternal truth God has already revealed in the Word of God. What is important for us is to be able to navigate the winding road of life on a strong foundation of objective reality, while we really are on the road journeying home to the kingdom of God. Why should we do that? Why is that important? So that the real substance of the eternal truth of God is really in this life what sticks to our minds more than anything else. Actually, Jude, the next book that we’re going to look at after 2 Peter, says this:

Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.

Jude picks up the same information. I would say that Jude probably borrowed from Peter, but they shared information about this subject, about the subjects we’re going to look at. So this Lord’s day, as we begin to unpack this very relevant epistle of 2 Peter, I want to examine some introductory matter that will help us get a snapshot of this letter before delving into its parts. So what I like to do is I would like to look at who is the author, what was the date of the book, who’s the audience, what was the occasion, what is the character of book, and of course areas like that. These are important so we grasp the sense of where this book is actually going.

So who is the author of the book? Now the apostle Peter was a member of Jesus’ inner circle and a spokesman for the twelve. His ministry from Pentecost until the Jerusalem council is all recorded in the book of Acts, but after that he kind of disappears. Tradition says that he was crucified upside down by Nero in approximately 67 AD. Peter has been actually been a very disputed book of the Bible. You may not know that. Many scholars considered it to be a pseudo work written at the end of the first century or the beginning of the second. In our day, many Christians tend to ignore it due to the fact that it exposes heresy and false teachers. It’s just not appealing, they say, to identify others as wrong in what they teach or believe, if everyone’s opinion is as valid as everyone else’s opinion. In fact, they often say, if you try to examine what they teach: listen, we shouldn’t judge. Or they may say: listen, you shouldn’t name names. Or listen, you shouldn’t call or touch God’s anointed. But the Bible tells us in Thessalonians that we are to discern all things. We are to examine all things, everything, especially teaching. Whoever is teaching out there, we need to examine them and not take them as something that is gospel truth unless we run them through the grid of Scripture to see what they’re saying, whether it is true or not true.

Now saying that, the apostle Peter claims to have written this letter. Let’s look at some of the facts in the text. The text is really saturated with intimate details of the life of Peter and his experience as an apostle and as a writer of this letter. If you look at 2 Peter 1:17. Remember there were three apostles that were present on the mountain at Jesus’ transfiguration. There was Peter; there was James; and there was John. Those were the only apostles that were there. But notice what it says in 2 Peter 1:17:

For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased” – and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

Now you see, he’s referring to himself along with the other two apostles in that passage of Scripture. Also, Peter says in chapter 3 verse 1 that he has written a second letter to them. It says in verse 1 of chapter 3:

This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you…

Now what was the first letter? 1 Peter, right? So here’s the second letter. So he’s identifying things that really bring across that he is the one who is behind the information in this letter. He’s the one that’s writing this letter. Peter speaks also of his soon death, in which Jesus told him that he would die as a martyr in the gospel of John chapter 21. It says in 2 Peter 1:14:

knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

He told Peter that he would die a martyr. His death would be a death of an apostle, that he would die for the faith. Then Peter speaks of the apostle Paul, placing himself on a par as himself as an apostle and a writer of Scripture. If you look at 2 Peter 3:15, it says:

and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of Scriptures, to their own destruction.

We see here that these things are all identifying Peter as the one who is the writer of this epistle. Also, it is common for false teachers to attempt to falsely ascribe works in the ancient world as pseudo works in order to deceive people. In other words, they say: he didn’t write that epistle; someone else wrote that epistle. They would just throw that out there, a scribe wrote it, that he didn’t write it. So people would think: well, maybe he didn’t write it. So as long as people begin to question it, then it brings the document into question. However, there is one really more proof that Peter was actually the author of the letter. That is the apostolic fathers, and of course those were the disciples of the apostles, those writings are loaded with references to 2 Peter.

The bottom line would be this – the apostle Peter wrote the epistle. And you would not believe how much stuff is written on this. Hundreds of pages are written on whether Peter was the author. It’s crazy. I read a lot of that stuff.

but what about the date? 2 Peter was written sometime between 64 and 65 AD, some time after Peter’s first letter. Peter’s death most likely took place during the persecution of Nero. Though not explicit in the letter of 1 Peter, many believe that it was written from a prison in Rome and when he was facing imminent death. Of course the fire of Rome took place about 64 AD and Nero committed suicide around 68 AD. So somewhere in between there, Peter lost his life. So it just substantiates the date in that area.

Also the audience – the letter is addressed generally, if you look at chapter 1 verse 1, it says:

Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

So he’s saying to them: listen, the audience is those who have the same exact faith that was given to the apostles. And you’re going to see why he says it that way later on, because he’s putting everything up against what the false teachers are saying. So while this would include those addressed in 1 Peter as his audience, the letter probably had an even broader circulation because he deals with different subjects in 1 Peter. The churches who received it would have been made up of both Jews and gentiles, but mostly 2 Peter would be a gentile majority, a gentile audience. He’s addressing that because they knew a lot less of Scripture than what the Jews knew when it came to those who would bring false teaching, because the apostles did not preach from the New Testament. There was no New Testament. They preached from the Old Testament. So they had to know the Old Testament in order to know what the teacher was saying, whether it was true or not. So the occasion of the letter is really information received about the outbreak of false teaching within the church. Remember, 1 Peter addressed believers to persevere in the face of dangers from with-out the church. And this epistle, of course, warned them about dangers within the church.

Perhaps Peter’s personal circumstances also prompted his writing. He knows that his death is near. That’s a motivation to write something to the people that he’s going to leave behind. And he wants to leave them something to encourage them, to inform them, to strengthen their faith when he’s out of the picture, when he’s gone. So he passes the baton to that next generation. That was part of the motivation of this letter.

And of course the character of the whole book is a vivid description and a strong denunciation of false teachers, closely in connection with the letter of Jude.

So saying all that, there are about nine major themes in the book of 2 Peter. The first theme was that of reminding people. I already mentioned that. He wants to remind his listeners about what they already know, so they don’t forget.

A second thing, which will be a major subject, is false teachers. There’s a two-fold nature of the heretics’ teaching that is behind the scene and included in the Scripture about the way he writes. He brings out about the false teachers their morality and their theology. Look what he says about their morality, that the false teachers were propagating a wicked and a shameless lifestyle centering mainly on shameful immorality and also greed. Now if you look at that, you say, well that’s exactly what’s happened today. Satan doesn’t really have a whole lot of new stuff in his bag of tricks. He uses the same thing. He packages them in different way. He packages them with different words, but his end result is actually the same thing – to deceive people. If I can deceive people, I don’t care how I package it. But if you look at the Word of God and say, listen if people are doing these things, then they cannot be true teachers. It doesn’t matter how likeable they are. It doesn’t matter how much money they have or what kind of persona they have or what kind of influence they have or what kind of reach they have. It does not matter. What matters is what they’re actually saying and what they’re not saying. Those are the things that matter. Look at what it says in verse chapter 2 verse 2 and 3 about the morality of these false teachers:

Many will follow their sexuality, and because of them the way of truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words.

Let me just stop there. Again, we see that this is very very clear about what he’s saying. It is not a popular teaching in any culture that has a lot of teachers that are popular but are not teaching the truth. He exposes their twist sexual desires. Look at chapter 2 verse 10, it says:

and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.

And then verse 18 of chapter 2 says:

For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error,

So he is exposing their twisted sexual desires. Of course, that’s the best way to tempt people, is to say: listen, these particular desires and activities are fine. They’re not an offense to God, they’re fine to do. Don’t worry about them. Then of course they indulgent evil pleasure, in verse 13 of chapter 2:

suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime.

That means it’s a way of saying: the party constantly goes on. That’s what they’re about – reveling in pleasure. Whatever would please the flash, whatever would please the audience, that is what’s going to be exalted. When you look at the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel, that’s all about pleasure. Right? God want you healthy, wealthy, and He wants you to live the best life now. That’s what we want to do. So, these are indicators that these people, no matter how big their smile is, no matter how much influence they have, are false teachers. We cannot be afraid to say that and expose that and to name names. And I will be naming names as we go on, but not today.

And of course, what do they do? Look at verse 14 of chapter 2. They commit adultery.

having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children;

This is who they are. God, through the apostle, is exposing their inward motives. They never put this on their brochures. They don’t make this the announcement on the radio or on television, but Christians ought to know how to identify them and not be afraid to say that is false teaching. Remember, they deceive many people. You may be alone in that when you identify that. The many are going to be following them and say: No, they’re believers; they love the Lord. Look, it says “praise the Lord” on their plaque, right? But no, that’s not what you looked at. You don’t look at their presentation. You look at what they’re actually saying and examine that. So what are they? If you look at the verse 19 of chapter 2, they’re slaves of corruption:

promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.

So they are actually teaching freedom, but they are enslaved to their own corruption themselves. Anybody who hears them gets enslaved to that corruption.

Theologically they were justifying that lifestyle by stating things like this: there’s no return of Christ. There’s no judgement. Come on. God’s a loving God. He’s merciful. He’s not going to judge anybody. So they’re diverting that thinking away from them. But look at chapter 2 verse 1, it says they caught destructive heresies that deny the Lord. It says:

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

So they teach secretly. They bring it in the back door. They present it and package it very nicely. It sounds like truth. As I said the other day at the men’s meeting, the most dangerous place for Christians to ever walk into may be a Christian bookstore. Because seventy percent of the stuff that’s in that bookstore is false teaching. But it sells and it keeps them in business, so we’re going to keep giving it out. Unless the owner of that book store desires to hold to the truth and anything he has on that shelf he’s examined and knows that anybody who picks it up, takes out the bookstore is going to be edified and built up by it. I don’t know if there’s many of those guys around. If they are, they’re out of business. They’re not making any money.

What the false teachers also do is they slander the truth. It says in chapter 2 verse 2:

Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;

They will slander the truth. They will have remarks about the truth. For example, they’ll say stuff like: the doctrines of grace – that’s false teaching. God electing people before the foundation of the world, that’s false teaching. That’s what they would say. They may not say that directly, but they will imply it in what they say and what they do. Even the people they have come on their programs – they’ll never have somebody come on their program who actually is a biblical Christian and upholds sound orthodox doctrine and bring them on and asked questions. They won’t to do that because that person’s going to end up exposing them. They’ll quickly shuffle them off. They’ll selectively have people on their programs that align with them.

Also, they scoff at supernatural beings. Look at what it says in chapter 2 verse 10:

and especially those who indulge the flesh and its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties,

They have this arrogance about them. They speak as if they’re speaking from God, but they’re speaking from their own flesh and corruption and from the world’s view of things and of course from a demonic source, which they will never admit that they are speaking on behalf of.

So we could ask a question – why would the heretical teachers take such a cavalier view of how to live life while at the same time claiming to know Jesus? Claiming to be faithful to their religious teaching, which allows them really to worship God in their own way. Well, it’s because the false teachers were influenced, we know now, by Epicurean thought. Now Epicurean thought is not a new thing. It’s an old way of thinking, but it’s also in the frame of people’s thinking today. Epicureanism is really what generally, literally, it means one who makes a living at picking up scraps. That’s the literal rendering of it. The philosophers were known as seed pickers. They would pull together various aspects of pagan and Christian teaching and synthesize them into a new syncretistic kind of religion. They are noted actually in the book of Acts. In Acts 17:18 it says this:

And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him (that’s Paul). Some were saying, “What would the idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,” – because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

That was strange to their ears. But the point is that right there in the book of Acts, these philosophers, all that they wanted to hear was new teaching. What they would do is they would say: wow that teaching sounds like that would go in my system. So I’ll pick that, and then I’ll choose that, and I’ll reject that, and I’ll bring together my own system of the way I believe we ought to be Christian and keep that lingo. I believe in Jesus. I believe Jesus is Lord. I believe that He’s Savior. You’ve got to go way beyond that today. These Epicureans just wanted to hear new teaching, and they would just pick and choose what they want. That’s why they’re called pickers. They would bring it together into a new system. That’s exactly what’s going on today. And this is what these false teachers do.

So the Epicureans rejected any idea of the providential intervention of the gods and believed the world was ruled by chance. See, they actually believed in the unchanging nature of creation. Look what it says in 2 Peter 3:4. This is why Peter is writing like this. He’s refuting the false teachers. Look what he says in verse 4 of chapter 3:

and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?

These are the false teachers.

For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.

See, they propagate this and then people don’t check them out, and then people end up believing it. That’s Epicurean thought. This happens all the time in false teachers. Then if you look at chapter 1 verses 19 and 20, they also reject prophecy that came from a divine source. This is up of a very well-known passage of Scripture to most of us. It says in 2 Peter 1:19.

So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation,

That’s a refute against Epicurean philosophy and how they handled information. He’s saying: no, Scripture has a divine source and it only comes from God. Look at verse 21:

for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will,

He is refuting the philosophical system behind the false teachers, which is very much still active in our day. But it says at the end of verse 21:

but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

He’s saying: listen, the source of all true truth is God Himself, not man. If we had anything to do with truth, it would already be messed up. You couldn’t believe it. We wouldn’t come up with it anyway.

These false teachers believed that there would be no future judgment or just end of the world. So then they concluded that human beings are free to pursue whatever desires they have. That’s how they brought it across. They thought the sins of the body remained within their body and that God would never call them to account for their earthly sins or their behavior at all. And if you have teaching like that, you can conclude those things. The false teachers, there’s always some kind of sexual scandal that comes up. There’s multitude of marriages. There’s all kinds of stuff that comes to light about their finances, about their lust and greed for things and possessions and all those things. They think it’s fine because they believe that God wants people to be healthy, wealthy, and fine. So that is the theology and the morality of false teachers.

he also teaches, and I’m not going to go through all these in-depth yet because I’ll do that when I go through the book, about giving the important theme of Jesus as Lord and Savior. Actually eight times, Jesus is referred to as Lord and five times He is referred to as Savior in just these three chapters. So Jesus is Lord, Savior, Ruler over God’s creation, and Judge. So these false teachers said that God no longer intervenes in the world. That’s what they are saying in this book. But Peter gives four proofs that God has and will intervene in world history. And what does he do? Just to throw them out to you, God created. God did bring a worldwide flood. God did send His Son to accomplish redemption by dying and shedding His blood and rising from the dead and ascending back into heaven and is coming back at the end of the world. At the end time He will bring judgment. So he includes that in his references to Jesus Christ.

He also brings up the word for God because he’s identifying God as the creator of heaven and earth, the God who’s over time, the God who will destroy the cosmos with fire as well as the ungodly, and the God who will create a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells. So he brings the character of God into it. God’s the source of these things happening. No, things have not remained the same since the beginning of creation. There’s a great differences that you’re missing. That’s what they’re not saying. They’re leaving it out. Many times when you leave out things from teaching, then people don’t even know if it’s ever taught or if that’s in the Bible. You ever hear of people say that you? Is that in the Bible? Wow, I didn’t know that was in the Bible. Well you know why? You haven’t been reading the Bible. You haven’t been listening to the Bible. You haven’t been saturated with the Bible. Nothing’s sticking to your head.

And of course, he’s going to look at Christian growth and godliness and holiness. Look at verse 5 through 9 of chapter 1. It says:

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is going to be speaking a lot about if there is life, there’s growth. If there is no growth in true knowledge, there is no life. I don’t care what you’re saying. Sixteen time he talks about knowledge in 2 Peter. What we need more than anything else is accurate knowledge about the matters of life and death, how to be right with God, eternity, entrance into the kingdom of God. The only way anyone can reach the final destination is to get real knowledge that is based on what is right and what is true.

In fact the Koine Greek, which the new testament is written in, 2 Peter uses two different Greek words to translate the english word knowledge. The first term is epignosis, which really means full knowledge – what one comes to know and appropriate through faith in Christ. If you look at a chapter 1 verse 8, look at how it’s mentioned there – true knowledge. This is intensive religious and moral knowledge that comes to a believer. It says:

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The knowledge that comes to us that is true comes from our relationship with Jesus Christ. It is not false knowledge. It’s actually true knowledge. So he’s contrasting true knowledge with false knowledge all throughout the book.

A second Greek word, gnosis, basically is used here as the possession of information, what is known. It’s really more of an inside or a practical wisdom. He uses it in verse 5 and 6 of chapter one, where he says:

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge.

There it is.

and in your knowledge, self-control,

so that’s more of a practical outworking of a correct understanding of theology in your life. In other words, if I understand these things, I’m going to live them. These are going to be part of what God grows me and you in, these things. But it starts with knowledge and that true knowledge that comes from God works out in our daily walk and our growth.

Then you’re going to find in 2 Peter that he talks about ethics. Christians, at the second coming, are promised reward. But until then, until the Lord comes, Christians are called to live a responsible life that will be accountable to God. If you look at 2 Peter 2:2, you’ll find that Peter uses the words road and path in his statements. He says:

Many will follow their sensuality ,and because of them the way of truth will be maligned;

Then look at chapter 2 verse 15:

forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam,

Then verse 21 of chapter 2:

For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness,

Again, contrasting true knowledge with false knowledge, contrasting that true knowledge will get you on the right path walking the right way. So we contrast the wrong way with the right way to live as a Christian. When God’s people have finished walking their path, God will give them an entrance into the eternal kingdom of God. Look at chapter 1 verse 11 – incredible passage of Scripture:

for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

If that is not encouraging to those who are following the true knowledge, following the right way. We know that way is narrow and that way is not void of persecution or trouble. That is a way that is the most difficult, but it is the way that leads to the kingdom of God. Peter says by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, you’ll have an entrance into the kingdom of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that will be abundantly supplied to you. You don’t have to worry. Don’t worry about those things. You just live your life as a Christian on the earth in a way that honors the Lord.

The false teachers corrupted the road with their wicked and loose behavior. So they are headed to a final destruction, not to the kingdom of God, even though they teach that they will also end up in the kingdom of God. The Scriptures tell us they will not end up there.

Then another theme would be that of Scripture. I’ve already read the passage of Scripture in 2 Peter 1:20-21 that there’s no prophecy of Scripture that is a matter of any one’s own interpretation. The word of God comes to us by the Holy Spirit of God as the Spirit of God moved upon men to teach and to write. So false teachers distort the Scriptures. I do want you to look at chapter 3 verse 2 again. It says:

that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

Then in verse 16:

as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable

distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

They twist the Scripture. They’re great at Scripture twisting. But if we’re growing in true knowledge, if we’re walking on the right path that leads from our understanding of what is true, then the road that is on the right path leads to the kingdom of God. The road that’s on the wrong path leads the final destruction. Those who are being discerning with the truth do not twist Scripture, but they handle Scripture accurately. They want to be a workman who needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of God, right? That’s what we all ought to be. As we learned these things, these things should become imbedded in our mind so we are not deceived at all by these false teachers.

And then another theme, the last one that I’ll mention that he brings up, is that of eschatology or end time things, the coming day of the Lord. the false teachers would say that the stories of the end of the world and the return of Christ and the future judgment were clever myths and stories that were just propagated by the disciples of Christ and the apostles. Peter’s epistle lays out the end time and he presents the end time in really six parts. The first part is that Jesus’ return is prefigured in the transfiguration and confirmed by prophetic announcement. Second part is that the final fiery judgment is anticipated in the judgement by water in Noah’s day.

A third part is that the second coming has been delayed due to God’s patience and seeking redemption. Do you realize that God is actually delaying His coming? And why is He delaying is coming? well, it tells us in Scripture. We’ll look at that later on, that God’s people do understand the transitory nature of life. They’re to live it in light of this new world promise that is given to them. What is that promise? There will be a new heaven and new earth. This is a disposable planet. Right, so we should take care of it, but don’t be overly concerned about it because it’s not going to last. It’s growing out, it says in Scripture. It’s growing and wearing out like an old garment. It’s tottering and teetering. That’s what is taking place. So that day will come as a thief. God’s people must live in light of its coming.

A sixth part is that Christians not only await the coming of the Lord, but they can hasten it. If you look at verse 10 to 13 in chapter 3, notice what it says there:

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness.

That’s a punch in the stomach to the false prophets. Because that’s where truth leads. Truth leads to holiness and godliness and to the right path. And then verse 12:

looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

See, he comes to the end of the book and he really brings it all together, saying: listen, live faithful lives. Even though you may have times of suffering, God will take care of the things that you cannot take care of yourself. This promise of the new heaven and new earth will happen because all these other things have happened, just like the Scriptures said from the beginning to the end. That’s the promise he gives to those who are faithful to the Word of God, to the right way, to true knowledge, and to of course looking to the end of the second coming. That is our hope for all of us.

The point of 2 Peter is that this world will end and this close of human history will be unexpected. The Lord is coming in a day nobody knows. We don’t know. The world is going to be taken off guard completely. The whole world will be in a mess when that happens. But that will take place. The loving nature of God has led to his patients desiring time for more and more people to repent. That’s what it says in verses 8 and 9 of chapter 3:

But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

That’s why God is holding back His coming, so that last person and the persons that have not heard the gospel yet will hear the gospel, will come to believe, will become part of the body of Christ. God is the only one who knows that, but until then we must be faithful to His plan because He will bring everything to past. He is giving us time for more and more people to repent, but when the cataclysm comes, it will be final. That will be it, and the age of grace will end. The next portion of God’s program will begin.

So this introductory matter really aides our grasping the biblical author’s original intent. That’s the point of the study of Scripture – to find out what the original author meant when he wrote the book. That will prevent people from saying: this is what I think it says. And this is what I think it says. Like one pastor said – what matters is what does it say if you were never born? That’s what matters. That’s the goal, and that’s why this important matter will help us to hedge against saying that. I already put before you what the book’s about and where it’s heading. All of what Peter’s going to write is going to be contained in all those things.

So then we can be reminded and understand these truths in order to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, because that’s ultimately would drives his whole narrative. If you look at the last passage of Scripture in 2 Peter chapter 3, look at what it says:

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.

It’s about growth. A Christian doesn’t stay in one place in their Christian life after they make a profession of faith. Your whole life is about growth, and growth in what? In the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That’s where the growth come from. As we grow in our intimate relationship with Christ and learn to love Him, that’s what brings and blooms all the rest of the stuff, where we can actually live. No matter how bad things get, we can live right in the middle of a cesspool of sin and live godly, because we know things that God has taught us in the Word of God.

So where there is spiritual life, there is spiritual growth. Where there is no spiritual growth, there is no spiritual life.

Let’s pray. Lord, thank You this morning for the Word of God. Lord, specifically for this epistle and all that is contained therein. Lord, in it are things that we need to be reminded of, that we may know. Lord, always make our heart pliable so whatever is being taught, we would soak it up like a sponge. And Lord, it would saturate our thinking so our thinking could bear fruit in our words and our actions. And in doing so, we can live a godly holy life, waiting for You to come and look forward to knowing that no matter how bad it gets on this earth, there’s going to be a new earth where there’s not going to be any curse and all the implications that come with a curse, but there’s going to be a place where Your righteousness dwells. That is going to be a place where we’re going to enjoy Your presence and bask with our new resurrected bodies in that new creation. Lord, we look forward to that. Thank You Lord for taking care of that for us. I pray Lord, from now until then, make us faithful for the sake of the glory of Your great name. And I pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

January 19, 2020