Hey, well, good morning. I’m going to move this tambourine, because if I start stomping, you know, it’s going to become a song.
Well, I just came from Hope, and that was really good. Andy said a lot of kind words about having us meet there for so long, and just the partnership it’s formed, and I was able just to say thank you to them for loving us for these last two, two and a half years. However long it’s been, to allow us to just have a home when we didn’t have one. So that was very good, and they were very warm, and just grateful, grateful that they were able to serve us in that way. Thank you to everyone who’s worked so hard to get us to this point. I know the carpet feels really good, getting all those squares down. I probably was annoying, because I would say to Shaggy or Richard, like, I think that one. Are you sure that one’s not lined up good enough? Are you sure that one’s just right? It’s a joke. I love that way. I love through picking. So, no, it looks really good. It looks good.
We’re going to be in 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 5 through 11. 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 5 through 11. We’ve been here the last couple of weeks, and I’m excited to keep pushing through this letter. It has so much in it for us to see.
Starting in verse 5, the Apostle writes, For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue. And virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful, and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent, all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Making every effort in your Christian life. That’s what the Apostle is talking to us about.
Darcy and I were talking about her getting better, playing the piano. She’s been taking lessons for the last couple of years, and she’s doing really well, and she’s getting better. And she says, when can I play with you? When can I play at church? When can I do that? And I keep saying, it’s only through diligence. It’s through learning and learning and giving yourself fully to it. I had a friend in high school. His name is Corey Greco. And Corey Greco, probably at age 15, he was the best guitarist you ever would have heard, and he still is. He was as good as any pro you would ever hear. And you know why? When everyone else was out doing what they do on the weekend with their friends or goofing off, he was in his bedroom for hours and hours as a teenager being a great, learning to be a great guitarist. Don’t, so I want you to see this. I don’t want you to. Because Peter doesn’t do it, and the Bible doesn’t do it. It doesn’t pit making effort, working hard at the Christian life against God’s grace and God saving you. Those aren’t two things that are fighting against each other. Making every effort is, in fact, part of what it means for God to show us his grace and give us his salvation. So Peter says here in verse 5, For this very reason. Make every effort. What’s the reason? Well, we said the reason was a big reason for the last couple weeks. The reason is this wonderful reason that God has given us a faith to believe. He’s granted us eternal life. He’s called us to his glory to know the fullness of his holiness. He’s granted to us promises. Remember, he’s promised to make us holy, and he’s promised, Jesus has promised to come back for us someday. And the last thing was that we… He will escape sinful desire, the corruption of this world. That’s a really huge reason that Peter gives for why you and I should make every effort. And I almost want to launch back into talking about that. Why? Because that reason that God has of his own free grace, loved you, said, I put upon you my eternal favor. I’ve sent my son to bleed and die for you. And in Christ, you’re kept. And nothing can take you out. You’re kept out of my hand. That’s a really big thing, isn’t it? Like, who can sit in one sitting and fully grasp that? That’s such a wonderful truth that we forget. And the problem is, and this is what Peter shows here, when you and I forget that amazing grace that God has loved us and saved us, we fail to then go on and do the next thing, make every effort. We get busy, don’t we? We have our to-do lists. We have worry and anxiety about… We have this issue or that issue or we have these things we want to get or these possessions that we want to get or have. And it all steals, it takes away an adoration, a worship that only belongs to God. So here’s what I want to say at the beginning then. A truly supernatural working of God’s spirit in your soul and in my soul, it will not start high but then end so low. It’s not going to happen. God is not going to call you to saving faith, give you the promises of eternal life, make much of His Son in your heart, call you away from sinfulness, and then it ends in kind of a tapered nothingness and you’re moving on to the next trinket. That’s not true saving faith. The gospel of grace starts as high in the heavenlies in our… our trajectory. This is what life’s about. It’s not about here and now. It’s about being God’s people for eternity. But it also ends in that. God’s not going to see to it that we… He’s going to see to it that we make it to that end. It’s our daily light. So this phrase, make every effort, it has nothing to do with your power and your will and you pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. It has everything to do with… It has everything to do with… It has everything to do with rejoicing in the fact that God has said, I’ve saved you. I’ve done that. But then what did we read that the scripture said in verse 3? It said that I’ve also given you all things pertaining to life and godliness. So that’s amazing. God doesn’t just say, I’m saving your soul, but He’s saying, I’m going to take care of that middle part. It’s like the headboard of a bed and you got the end and then one of those horrible mattresses that like, you know, it’s like a complete and total you. Like that, I think, is how we think about the Christian life. Like what’s supposed to happen? What’s supposed to happen in between being a Christian and dying? It’s the good stuff. There’s good stuff there. It’s solid. And what is it? It’s God working through your efforts. Why do you have those efforts? Because God’s given you a new nature. He’s made you a new thing. So don’t fret about the fact that God’s calling you to make an effort. He says, I’ve given you the power to make an effort.
So the beginning of grace finds its end, but it’s kept in its middle parts also by the grace of God. And it’s… It’s exercised through faith. It’s exercised through your faith. It’s exercised through my faith supplied by the Spirit. It’s God’s grace at work. It’s God’s grace at work. So here’s what Peter says. He says, make every effort to supplement, furnish, add to your… What? Your faith. Your faith. What is faith? What is faith? Faith is like that spiritual organ you have in your soul that God’s given you to believe the gospel. It’s something God’s given you that as your faith grows, you’re able to grow in holiness. As your faith grows, you’re more like Christ. As your faith grows, you grow in outward obedience to God. So it’s something vital Christ has given you that you can obey God. That you can obey Him. That you can make the effort, grow, supplement, add to, furnish your faith. In Luke chapter 17, Jesus tells a story of… Or it doesn’t tell a story. Luke tells a story of Jesus. And you’ve got these 10 lepers and they all get healed by Jesus and they run away. They’re so happy. But only one comes back and the one comes back to say thank you. And Jesus says, where are the other nine? And Jesus says to him, go your way. Your faith has made you. Now hold on. I thought Jesus already healed them of their leprosy. Why is Jesus saying again, your faith has made you well? Because Jesus isn’t talking about a physical healing. What was it that that one leper had out of the rest? See, he had real, spiritual, vital faith. And it drawed him back to believe in Jesus. Not just as one who heals the body, but one who heals the soul. So he says, your faith has made you well. That’s the kind of thing that Jesus said, kind of faith we’re talking about. That’s the kind of faith we’re talking about. Faith is so important. Faith is so important. And faith’s hard to have sometimes, isn’t it? There’s a lot of things that pull at our faith. Do I really believe that? I’ve sinned too much. All kinds of things are why our faith struggles. But I want you to see, faith is not the only grace in the Christian life. That’s why he says you have to supplement it. It would be like somebody like, I love the heart. It’s the best organ. I love what it does. I love how it looks. Take my kidneys out. I don’t need my intestines. I just want the heart. The heart is wonderful. Well, the heart is really critical and important for you to be a functioning human being. But you need a lot of other organs too for that heart to really be that heart. And in fact, if those other things aren’t healthy and working, you’re not going to be a functioning human being. You’re not going to be a functioning right. Guess what? You’re going to end up having a bad heart. If you have kidneys and liver that doesn’t work, guess what? You’re going to have dirty, messed up blood. And guess what that’s going to do to your heart? You have ruined lungs. What’s that going to do to your heart? You see what Peter’s saying here is you’ve got to supplement that faith and grow in grace more and more. Here’s another illustration to help you think about it. Peter says in his first epistle, you are a living house. You’re a living house being built up, a place in which God dwells. So imagine if someone gave you a house and they said, here’s your house. It’s completely free. Here’s a bank account with all the money you could ever need. All you’ve got to do is, you know, live in the thing, furnish it, add to it, repair it, take care of it. You’ve got everything you need. Yet that same man came back 20, 30 years later and the roof’s falling in. The wood’s rotten. It’s got termites. It has a horrible, horrible smell. You didn’t buy one piece of furniture. He would say, well, hold on a second. I gave you everything you needed to furnish your faith or furnish this house. Why didn’t it happen?
So you see, you’ve got to add to that wonderful grace called faith. You’ve got to bolster it.
So I want to run through, I want to run through these, these graces that Jesus is calling each of us to have in our, in our lives. And the first one that Peter talks about is, is virtue or, or what would be just moral excellence, moral excellence. So if you have faith in Jesus, you should have morals. You should have a moral compass. That’s a lot better than the rest of the world. You should be able to size up situations and say, okay, what do I think about this? How am I going to act in this situation? What do I really desire here? Our morals are refined when our faith in Christ shapes us, right? The next thing he says, besides your virtue being present is your knowledge, your knowledge. And that’s an important one because Jesus told the people, love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Meaning what? It means if I love God, and I love the gospel, I want to add to my mind a further knowledge of Christ. I’ve got to have this hunger to know more about Jesus. It’s kind of like the husband and wife thing. If I really love my wife, I want to know more about her. I want to grow in who she is. I want to grow in, in what it means to serve her. And that’s going to help me know who I need to be. So in the same way, my knowledge of the person of Christ, my knowledge of God, it should be ever increasing, which will also impact what? My virtues and my, morals. The next thing is self-control. That’s a hard one, isn’t it? Especially about food, right? Self-control is hard. Self-control is kind of the same thing, but opposite. If I really am new in Christ Jesus and I have good morals and I know the truth, I should now have the power to not do things, right? Now, again, no one’s, you know, hitting the bullseye on that till we’re in glory. But Peter says, you should have the power to not do things, right? Now, again, no one’s, self-control to stop doing what you ought not do. And then steadfastness. Steadfastness is, well, that’s not just doing the right thing and not the wrong thing or thinking the right thing and not the wrong thing once. You got to keep doing it the rest of your life. So Peter says, if you’re a Christian, doing right, not doing wrong, believing right, not believing wrong, acting well and not, you know, acting poorly. This should be a lifestyle culture that’s happening over. And over throughout your life. And he says godliness, which is just kind of a catch-all for all moral, everything that’s good and moral, everything that’s holy about us. And then lastly is brotherly affection and love. And it’s important to notice brotherly, because what does brotherly affection mean? But you think about the word Philadelphia, like we have, you know, Philadelphia. Pennsylvania. I don’t know how much brotherly love they have, really. I’ve never been there. A bunch of Puerto Ricans there, though. I have family in Philadelphia. But that’s a word that comes from the Greek language, and it means brotherly love. So Peter’s saying all this knowing God, if it doesn’t translate into loving your brothers and sisters in the church well, throw it out. Throw it out. So you can’t be like a Christian and like, I read all the right books, and I’m so doctrinally sound. And you know, those people exist on the internet, and they’re snooty, and they know better than you, and they’ve read more than you. And you’re just kind of like, shut up. You know, like that is not loving to condescend people with how much you think you know. Because if you know Christ, what are you going to do? You’re going to love the church well, because these are the people you’re going to spend the rest of your life with in your eternity in heaven. And then the huge cap off here is love. Is love. If we, truly obey the commandments of God, what does Jesus say that we’ll have? We’ll have love. We’ll have love. So I want you to think about all those things with me for a second. If we’re supposed to have all those things growing and increasing in our lives, it’s not like building blocks. Like, all right, I’ve got to learn the knowledge thing, and then I’ve got to learn the moral thing. And then I’ve got to learn the moral thing. And then I’ve got to learn the moral thing. And then I go, it doesn’t happen like that. It doesn’t happen like that, because you now aren’t software. You know how your phone’s like, you know, iOS, or if you have an Android and it’s update, now it’s 1.0. It’s 1.1, 1.2, 1.1.2.1, 2, 2.1, 2.2. It’s not like that. Why is it not like that? Because you’re not a passive, mindless creature, like we talked about. God is calling you to make effort, to discern it out, and know the truths of God’s word. And then at the same time, it’s not like karate. You know, I remember taking karate. I never became anything more than a white belt and just, you know, dropped out. But you learn these set of things, and then you stack on that these set of things. It’s not like that, because life is complex and messy. And guess what? You as a person, you’re complex and messy. And sometimes God tries to teach you things. And what happens when God tries to teach you things? You don’t listen. You don’t listen. How many times have you and I had to learn and relearn the same lesson over and over again? How many times do we go, Lord, how did I do that again? How did I yell at my kids again? Right? How did I wake up later than I meant to, to be in prayer again? How did I do this again? So it’s not, it’s not so simple. And then it’s true that each of us, we all come from different backgrounds. Who’s the only person who really knows where each of us are and how we need in our stage of life? Like who’s that tender and compassionate to know where each of us are and how we need to grow? Who knows that? Well, only the Spirit. So you see, the Spirit is good to each of us individually. He knows where we are. He’s patient and loving, and He’s growing us where we are. So where does that leave us if you and I aren’t like passive, non-conscious computers? At least they’re not conscious for now. Right? Nor is the Christian life this building blocks thing. Where does that leave you and I on the whole making an effort thing and knowing what I do need to grow in and what I’m struggling with? Where does that leave you? Where does that leave me? Right where we started in verse five, making every effort. That’s where it leaves us. Making every effort.
To quote John Flavel, again, that I did in my email I wrote to you last week, heart work is hard work. Heart work is hard work. It takes a lot of effort to grow. And I can’t say anything else so serious to you this morning. And I’m afraid I’m going to have to say something else. I’m afraid I’m going to have to say something else. I’m afraid at the same time, growing and persevering in the faith is the very thing we often don’t seek to do. I want to read you this passage from John Flavel’s book, Keeping the Heart. A neglected heart is so confused and dark that the small amount of grace which is in it is not ordinarily discernible. The most accurate and laborious Christians sometimes find it difficult to discover the pure and genuine working of the spirit in their heart. How can it be then that a believer who’s negligent about heart work could discover grace in his own heart? Sincerity, which is what he looks for, it lies at the bottom of his heart like a small piece of gold on the bottom of a river. And he who would find it must stay until the water is clear. And then he will see it sparkling at the bottom. For the heart to be clear and settled, much pain, watching, care, and diligence is required.
Why don’t you and I regularly go into the deep, hidden bowels of our hearts and souls? Why don’t we regularly go into the deep tunnels of our hearts?
Because we sometimes know what we’ll find there and we don’t want to deal with it.
Or we know it’s there and we don’t want it to leave.
What’s at stake though if we’re not willing to do this kind of heart work in ourselves? If we’re not really willing, to on a daily basis go deep into that dark black heart and say, Jesus, show me what’s sinful. Tease it out. Show me where my heart needs to grow. Show me, Lord, what happens if I’m not willing to do that hard heart work? He tells us in verse 8, he says, if these qualities are yours, and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he’s blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. So the first thing that he says, if you don’t want to, on the regular, follow Christ, you don’t, on the regular, want your heart to be clean, you don’t want to follow Christ, you don’t want to follow Christ, you don’t want to have your heart out on the table and all of its nastiness and all of your sin and all of your pride. You don’t want to surrender and resurrender that to God. You don’t want to give up your pride and humble yourself and hear it from the word or hear it from the spirit or, God forbid, hear it from a brother and sister in Christ. The first thing that he says you and I will be is incredibly ineffective and unfruitful for God. If you don’t grow, you’re not going to serve well. If you don’t grow, you’re not going to serve well in God’s kingdom. So the question is, does that bother you? Does it bother you to think about the fact that, man, if I’m not willing to do hard heart work and grow in Christ, I’m not going to be effective and useful in God’s kingdom? Well, friends, if we love the gospel and we really believe in Jesus and all that he’s done for us, we should certainly be broken at the thought that because I’m lazy or hard hearted or ignorant or just, you know, in this season wanting to serve myself, Christ isn’t served. A true believer who truly has the spirit of God is going to be broken over that. Do you think about that consciously? But as we serve self, Christ is not served in our stagnant faith.
A Christian would, little interest in besides showing up instead of serving the church however it needs to be served passive listening instead of active hearing a comfortable and easy christian experience instead of obedience and sacrifice friends this is what peter says is a christian that has such a dim view of jesus he’s practically forgotten the greatness of salvation the greatness of knowing god and this takes us right into verse 10 he says therefore brothers be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election for if you practice these qualities you will never fail so he says once more be diligent have an ongoing struggle is what this means here this word do you have an ongoing struggle to do what to earn your salvation to add to your salvation to merit god’s favor that’s not what he says he says to confirm or that word means prove it to be true prove it to be true that you have a new spiritual nature by what by growing in christ by growing in christ confirm that god has elected you confirm that god has called you confirmed that by your ongoing growth which infers doesn’t it that if we have churches today full of people who just want to show up who just want to do the bare minimum who don’t want to grow who don’t want to do hard heart work who don’t want to sacrifice who don’t want to share christ it’s indicative of what people who have not been called in the first place i don’t say that lightly it’s a heavy thing it’s a heavy thing but it’s also a gracious word to say to us while we’re alive in this life to say, have I truly received Christ? Have I truly received Christ? Because if I have, I won’t be able to sit still and that’s not for me. I’ll show up and do the bare minimum. I’ll go to church when it’s easy. I’ll read my Bible when it’s easy. I’ll share the gospel when it’s convenient. Friends, this is not the divine nature at work in you.
Yet, friends, the Apostle Peter says it is the only way to get to heaven. He says it’s the only way to get to heaven.
What are three possible responses to hearing this? What are three possible responses Peter gives for these things he says? Here’s how we could process this about trusting in Christ. That’s not enough. I need to grow up more in the person of Jesus. And in my growing, I’m serving. And in my growth, in my service, I’m confirming my calling in my election. What are my responses to that? Here’s the first response. The first response to that potentially is carelessness. It’s that part of you that says, that’s too hard. That’s not going to happen. I’m not going to actually, I’m not going to actually course correct.
Pastor, you were worked up this morning. It’s your job to get all animated up there. You know, that’s a nice sermon. Really good sermon, but it’s gone as soon as I walk out these doors. Who among us is going to actually go home today and get a journal in the closet and sit with Jesus? Beg the Lord, Lord, show me my sinfulness. Show me your sinfulness. Show me your beauty. Show me how wonderful you are. Show me the glories to come. Take away my desires for fleshly, worldly things. Who’s going to actually do that? And keep doing that.
Another response to this is anxiety. There’s anxiety. And the anxiety says, I’m not going to be able to pull it off. I can’t keep it all together. Maybe I’m going to learn how to be more patient. I should have been learning the whole time how to be more sacrificial and giving. And what if I’m working on love, but I should have been working on, you know, you know, peace. And I’m going to come up and be a big mess in the end. And Jesus is going to say, how did you do that? You’re such a mess. I said, make every effort. You were just like spinning in circles. Like that was terrible. No, there’s no reason for that response either. Because remember friends, if Jesus saved you in the beginning, Peter says he’s also supplemented your faith with everything that you need for life and godliness. In other words, in other words, you need not fear, have anxiety that you’re going to incomplete because Christ promises your new nature is going to do it. Like saying, I wonder if that bird’s going to fly. I don’t know if that bird’s going to fly. The bird’s like, I’ve got wings. Stop. You know, like you can do it. So confirm that you can do it by doing what? Flying, grow, serve, sacrifice, do the hard work, do the hard work. So what’s the only appropriate response then to hearing all of this about making an effort? Well, I want to say it’s joy or freedom, but I was thinking through this as I was writing it, I think freedom and joy are actually synonyms because if Christ has set you free, you have what? Joy. And if you have joy in Christ, it’s because you’ve been set free. So there’s no reason to do anything but go. You’ve saved me. You promised to keep me all along the way. You’re gracious and merciful when I make a massive mess of my life. And haven’t we all made massive messes of our life? And are we going to keep making massive messes of our life? Yes. But Jesus every time says, hey, I’ve paid for all of your sins. I’ve already put that under the blood. Keep running, man. Keep growing. Keep supplementing your faith. You can do it because I’ve made you able to do it in the spirit. That’s the response to this that we can each have is joy and freedom. There’s no fear and there’s no shame. There’s grace. There’s mercy to run and grow and enjoy God forevermore. So Peter can say this. Make every effort. Verse 11. If we make every effort, what does he say in verse 11? For in this way. For in this way. There will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What a promise. He doesn’t say in these ways. He certainly doesn’t say in your way. He says in this way. Receiving Christ, but then making every effort to grow in Christ. And supplement your faith through the word, through prayer, through being with the communion of saints on Sunday mornings. Friends, God has given you every tool you need to grow in the faith. It’s never for lack on God’s part, is it? It’s always for a lack of our effort. So receive this as a warm encouragement from the apostle this morning. Let us each grow. In Christ Jesus. Because in this way, in this way, there will be richly provided for us an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let’s pray.
Father, we thank you for your word because it is not a book. It is your very heart and your very mind. And in it, we discover all the fullness and richness of your love, of your truths, of who you’re calling us to be, of who you’re calling us away from, of what you’re doing. So God, let us, let us, Lord, pursue Jesus. Let us run the race.
Father, I pray for each of us. Let us hear that there’s some sense maybe that I keep stumbling and I keep falling and I keep making messes along the way. Lord, remind us that there’s only grace. There’s only mercy. There’s only the blood to cover these things, that your blood is powerful enough for all, all our sin.
Remind us, Father, that your son, his perfect life, death and resurrection. That is why we can have peace. That is why we can have assurance that we truly will grow up and we truly will be entered or given an entrance into the eternal place, Lord.
So, Father, take our eyes off those things that are below. Lift our eyes to those things that are above. And in all things, Christ will be our joy. And, Father, you will be glorified. Amen. Amen. In all these things we pray, in Jesus’ name, amen.