Godliness Requires Diligence

Transcript

GRM 945
1/1/2006
Godliness Requires Diligence
II Peter 1:3-11
Gil Rugh


I want to direct your attention to II Peter in your Bibles, the second letter of the Apostle Peter, all the way in the back part of your New Testament. The Apostle Peter is well known to us, the most well known of the 12 who were associated with Christ during His earthly ministry. We sometimes think of Peter’s blunders, mistakes, speaking when perhaps he should have been listening. But we have to be amazed at the character of the man, Peter—a remarkable man. And he wrote two remarkable letters. Now we’d say of course they’d be remarkable, the Spirit inspired him. And that’s true. We have to remind ourselves that this man was a fisherman by trade, not what we would call an academically trained man, as the Apostle Paul would have been in his day. Yet he has written 2 letters, not only remarkable for content, but remarkable for their style. In fact some of those who are not committed to the authority of the Scripture when they study the New Testament say, the fisherman, Peter, couldn’t have written these letters. The Greek is too polished, too good for a fisherman. But he’s a man remarkably used by God, even though he was not “academically trained.” He’s obviously a man of considerable ability and selected by God and empowered by the Spirit.

I want to look what he has to say in the first chapter. And in chapter 1 he tells his readers that he is simply telling them what they already know. In verse 12, 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. Then he goes on to say I know my time on earth is short, the Lord has made that clear to me. There are certain things that we as God’s people need to hear again and again and again and again. Because God wants them constantly reverberating in our hearts and minds so that they are constantly lived out in our lives.

Peter began the letter by saying he is writing to believers, those who have by God’s grace come to faith in Jesus Christ. In verse 1, to those who have received a faith, that faith is a gift that comes from God, of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Clear statement of the deity of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied to you. We enter into God’s grace and His peace when we believe in Christ. But that’s only the beginning. And Peter desires that the grace of God and the peace of God continue to be multiplied and increased in them, in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Now he’s going to go on and talk about matters relating to the life of God’s people. I thought it would be a good thing for us to be reminded of as we contemplate a year stretched out before us. What is to be our commitment in the days God has given us? What does it require of us as His people in the way we are to live our lives? What should we be resolving to do as God’s people in the days ahead? And that’s what is laid out for us.

Beginning in verse 3, my translation as yours probably does, begins, seeing that, as though the sentence continues. But I think it would be better to put a period at the end of verse 2 and start a new sentence in verse 3. And we’re not tampering with the text. You understand as the Bible was originally written, there were no divisions in the sentences and so on, you just had to know where they broke and how they should be divided. Verse 3 is telling us that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. So remember he’s writing to those who have received saving faith, in verse 1, have entered into the righteousness that God has provided in His Son, our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, those who have the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ. And when we came into a saving knowledge of Christ, placing our faith in Him as the One who loved us and died for us, God’s power provided for us everything necessary for life and godliness, or a life of godliness, if you will. He’s talking about our spiritual lives in Christ and the way we are now to live as the redeemed people of God, and the new life that we have by new birth is now to be lived out.

His divine power has granted to us. That has granted carries the idea of abundant in the giving. He has more than adequately granted to us, given to us everything, everything pertaining to life and godliness. Salvation comes to us as a package and we enter into that salvation through faith in Christ, and when we do everything is provided for us. Now that does not mean at that point we begin to experience or enjoy in our practice everything. For example, the glorified body has been provided for me in Christ, but I have yet to experience the realization of that glorified body and all the things that are yet promised in the future. Peter will build into this when he talks about the entrance into the kingdom which is yet future. But where we stand right now and where we have been from the first moment of our salvation, God has provided for us everything that is necessary to live lives that are pleasing to Him, godly lives, lives that are according to God’s will and a manifestation of God’s character. There is nothing missing, there are no add-ons in that sense. There are things yet to be experienced, but they already are part of the provision given to me. I just have some things yet that I will enjoy, so I don’t have to seek for other things. I am looking forward to some things yet, but everything has been provided and everything necessary to have a life of godliness is mine in Christ.

This comes through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. That’s the knowledge of Christ, you enter into that true knowledge, that true understanding of Christ when you believe in Him. Then you move from darkness to light. Now you know God, you know His Son, Jesus Christ. So this has been granted to us through the true knowledge of Him who called us. We are going to see as we move through Peter, we’re not going to get that far, but there is that constant balance of the sovereign work of God and the responsibility of God’s people. And here is what God has done, and here is what we must do on the basis of what God has done.

It’s God who calls us, it’s God who gave us faith, it’s God who calls us by His own glory and excellence. Take note of that word excellence, we’re going to see it in a moment, His own moral excellence, the perfection of His person, His moral character. God’s call, which is an effectual call that always is effective in bringing people to salvation, why was that call extended to you? Because God determined out of His own being that He would. That’s developed in Ephesians chapter 1, that He did it according to the counsel of His own will. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the three persons of the triune God, counseled among themselves and determined and extended that call that results in salvation. It came out of His being, His person.

Move on to verse 4, for by these His own glory and excellence. Out of His own being, His own character, who He is, He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises. Verse 3 we read, His divine power has granted to us, given to us abundantly. And out of His own glory and excellence, now in verse 4, He has granted to us, given to us abundantly His precious and magnificent promises. And that word granted in verse 4 is the perfect tense, and the perfect tense refers to something that happens in the past and continues into the present. And it denotes permanence. These are ours by divine bestowal, His precious and magnificent promises.

Look over in II Peter 3, the only other use of this word, promises. ???????, it’s in II Peter 3:13, according to His promise we are looking for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. You see the promise is not only the initial forgiveness of sins and cleansing you will have if you will turn from your sin and believe in Christ, but the promise includes everything in our salvation, including the coming kingdom, including the time when God will make all things new. And we will live in the glory of His presence and in the perfection of His righteousness that will pervade all of redeemed creation. That’s what He has promised.

So when you come back to II Peter 1:4, He has granted to us precious and magnificent promises. Peter is going to focus on what happens as we enter into our salvation, so that by them, by the promises. What are the promises? He that believes in the Son will not perish, He that believes in the Son will enter into life. If you will believe in the Son you will be forgiven, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. God offers His salvation. These precious and magnificent promises are given so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. You may become partakers of the divine nature. You know what happens when you believe in Jesus Christ? You become a child of God, you are born again, you are born from above. You become a child of God, you partake of the divine nature. Now this does not mean that we become deity in some sense, but it does meant that we partake of the very character of God. Not that we become deity, but His character, His moral character, His moral excellence now becomes our character so that His love, His joy, His peace, His righteousness, His goodness and so on now become characteristic of His people. And just a parallel in the analogy, when a baby is born you look at that baby—my, looks like his father, looks like her mother, or something like that. I see the features there. I’m amazed—it seems the older you get, the more you look like your parents. You think you start out looking like them. My Dad went to glory a little over a year ago, I was looking at a picture someone sent me on the computer, they took at a meeting here of my Dad and me. My goodness, I though I was more handsome than he. We look alike. I had someone say to me when I grew my beard, and some of you knew my Dad, knew he had a beard. You look just like your Dad. I went home and looked in the mirror, and it’s true.

Now it’s true in the spiritual sense that God’s character is built into our lives now and we are to look like Him in that sense. What a startling contrast. We become partakers of the divine nature. What a radical change this brings about in the life. At one time we were of our father, the devil, and as Jesus told the religious people of His day in John 8, you are just like your father, the devil. He’s been a liar from the beginning, and you’re liars; he’s a murderer and you’re murderers. You see the character that is being talked about, that moral character. In the spiritual realm, the unbeliever is like their father the devil; the believer, like their father who is God.

You become partakers of the divine nature. Parallel with this, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. So when you become partakers of the divine nature, that is what delivers you from the corruption that is in the world by lust. The corruption, the ruin, the deterioration, the corruption, the destruction that is there by virtue of sin. James talked about that, we fall into sin when we are turned aside by our own lusts. What corrupts the world? Sin. When God makes the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells, what will be missing? Sin. Corruption is in the world by virtue of our lust, our sin, our selfish, self-centered desires. When you become a believer in Jesus Christ and you are born again………

Back up to I Peter 1. When Peter says he is reminding them of what they already know, he knows they already know it because he wrote them the first letter and told them already. So in I Peter 1:23, for you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God. So what are we talking about? Being born again, and that enables you to become a partaker of the divine nature. Remember I John 3? By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. The one who practices sin is of the devil, the one who practices righteousness is of God. You can look and see whose child this is by the manifestation of their character.

So in II Peter 1, we become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption, the decay that is in the world through lust. What did Jesus say in Mark 7? Where do adulteries and fornications and murders come from? They come from within, out of the heart. That’s the corruption, that’s the ruin, that’s the destruction. You’ll note, we have escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust, when we become partakers of the divine nature. So they happen together. When you are born into God’s family, you are set free, washed clean, set free from the control and domination of sin. The only way to escape the moral decay and decadence and corruption that is in the world is through the new birth. We look around at the world and say, my, when will it stop and where is the bottom. I was reading something you may have seen in the paper here in the last couple of days. I think it’s in Sweden, a very popular line of jeans that they want to begin to import to the United States. It has a symbol on it with a cross upside down, supposed to be satanic, and some of the sellers of the jeans says, oh I just think it’s a picture of a skull with a design. The designer of it says I had a goal. I despise Christianity and I want to get young people to think differently about Christianity and realize it’s the cause of the problems in the world and so on. Where does it go? We look around us, the moral decadence and how many people…….. watch the news to find out who’s been arrested, or how many children have been molested and all this. Now you go to the mall to go shopping you’re afraid if your child gets out of your sight. What in the world? What do we expect? We say we ought to clean up our society. Can’t be done. Have to have a new birth to escape the corruption that is in the world by lust. Then you become a partaker of the divine nature, and that produces something totally new in your life, because you are a new creature in Christ.

So that is the foundation for those who have become partakers of the divine nature, have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, have entered into the true knowledge of Jesus Christ, have by God’s grace placed their faith in Him as their Savior. Verse 5, now for this very reason. On the basis of what we’ve been talking about in verses 3 and 4, applying all diligence in your faith, do these things, supply these things. Applying all diligence. That word diligence really is the first. Remember in Greek you can arrange your word order, well the first word in the Greek sentence here is diligence. So you want to put the emphasis on that, there is to be a zeal, a passion, an earnestness that we are to bring alongside our faith. That word to apply means to bring something alongside of to do. God’s people not only are to be men and women of faith, as though faith were something passive and you know you’re just like a cabbage, you’re there. I don’t do anything wrong, I’ve been saved. I don’t necessarily bring any passion to the table, or zeal or enthusiasm, but be thankful I’m a warm body taking up a spot. Isn’t that good? Not good. In fact, Peter, because of the problem of false teachers that as you’re aware II Peter will go on, particularly in chapter 2, to address. He’s using these things to divide out among those who are genuinely children of God and those who are not. A lot of people already were paddling around claiming to be believers. Something was wrong in their lives.

A number of years ago Martin Lloyd Jones wrote this, is there not something languid so often in our Christian life and Christian activities as you contrast it with the life of the world outside? Is there not this curious tendency for the element of passivity in our conception of the Christian faith to predominate as if we regard faith as nothing but an attitude of waiting. A kind of lethargy and languor spreads over us, a curious kind of lassitude. No, says Peter, let your faith be energetic, vigorous, alive. We are to be a people of zeal, of passion, earnestness, enthusiasm in our walk with the Lord.

So for this reason, verse 5, applying all diligence, all zeal, all enthusiasm in your faith. Saving faith is to be a passionate faith, not just we can identify a point in time. You hear so many times, people say I know they’re saved, I remember the time…… Do they have a passionate, enthusiastic, zealous faith? Saving faith is a faith that begins at that point in time, but it doesn’t end there, you know. It is to be the ongoing characteristic of our life. We now walk by faith in the grace of God, and that is to be a zealous, passionate life that we are to be living.

So in addition to our faith we are to supply the following things, and there are 7 virtues mentioned, faith being the foundational one here. Some would say there are 8 here because faith itself is one, of course, but then faith is the basis that he is operating from. I’ve considered the rest of them to be added on to our faith. In your faith. So we’re not talking about how the nonbeliever should be encouraged to live. The unbeliever should be encouraged to come to faith in Jesus Christ so he can escape the corruption that is in the world through lust, and become a partaker of the divine nature. For those of us who have experienced that, we are now to supply these things. That word supply, we get the word chorus from this. In Biblical times wealthy people were like our people today, they liked to do things that display their wealth but do them in philanthropic ways. So some wealthy people would pay all the cost for the chorus, singers and musicians and so on, which could be quite expensive. And the more lavishly they provided, of course, the more they were noted for their wealth. Like people today, they build a building and then they put their name on it and it’s for the good of the city. Or they do this, they donate this money for the park and the park is named after them. Of course the… comes—wow, they must really be loaded to have been able to give like that. So this word came to note supplying something, but always carries in the background of it that lavish supply.

So here is what we are to be supplying in our faith and we are responsible. But God has provided everything for life and godliness. So this is not something we do on our own. We are drawing upon the provision God has made for us, now to live life abundantly, the godly life, the life of godliness.

Supply in your faith, first moral excellence. And I told you to remember that word at the end of verse 3, we were called by His own glory and excellence. That’s the same word translated moral excellence. We’ve used two words, we’ve added the word moral, but it’s the same Greek word translated excellence. So you could have translated it moral excellence by His own glory and moral excellence at the end of verse 3 because it’s the same word. We are to supply moral excellence. And you see the character of our God is now to become ours in a full and abundant way. It’s like that baby born in the physical realm. Everything is there, now it must be developed, matured, brought out more fully. With the passing of time it will. I was following one of my nephews, a couple of years ago we were together, and the father has since passed away, or his father had passed away. And I’m walking down the hall behind him, my goodness, this could be his Dad, he walks the same way. I mean if I didn’t know his Dad was gone and this person didn’t look a little younger………. He jumps the same way, he walks the same way. …. develop with the passing of time, he’s becoming more. Well that’s the way it is. Supply in your faith, now, moral excellence. More of the moral character of God Himself is to be evident in all aspects of our lives, His moral excellence now.

You say, you’ve been a child of God now how long? Five years. Yes, and I see ….much of the character of God, and then I look at a saint that’s been walking with the Lord for 40 years and he looks so much more like the Lord, or should. Sometimes we seem like we cool off and that zeal for abundantly producing these things wanes. That’s why the Spirit of God uses Peter to remind us and reremind us, moral excellence. Something wrong with the immorality that’s pervading the professing church today, is there not? We are to be manifesting in abundance the moral excellence of our God, the person of our Savior. Moral excellence. You have people paddling around indulging in immorality of a variety of kinds and yet they are claiming to belong to the living God. What a lie! And they ought not to be.…… well, you know it’s borderline I guess. No, supply in abundance moral excellence. I mean that’s one of the overflowing characteristics of our life, if you will.

Supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence knowledge. He doesn’t mean you have to have this one before you can move on to the next one. And in each of these lists that you find in different places in the New Testament, the fruit of the Spirit, for example in Galatians 5. …all things to be part of the Christian life, and it’s not you can pick on one and I’m just going to develop that one. No, they are all to be in our lives and they are all to be developing and growing and evident more and more. In your moral excellence we are to be abundantly supplying knowledge. And the form of this word was used in verses 2-3, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God. Middle of verse 3, through the true knowledge of Him. This word or a compound of this word, we’re talking about. And this is, we’re growing in the knowledge, it’s not just a knowledge I had of the gospel that brought me into salvation. But what happens is you grow in knowledge. Well what happens in the physical realm? …Children…to become more and more aware of the parents’ will, they know better what they are to do, what they are not to do, how they should behave, and how they shouldn’t behave. As they progress and get older, if they don’t function in a certain situation properly, you say what? You should know better, you know better. So we are to be abundantly growing and adding to our knowledge. So that the more we walk with the Lord and the longer we walk with the Lord, the more perceptive we are, the more we know as God’s people, in light of His truth, what is to be done. Often you have a newer, younger Christian come to you and say, I don’t know what I should do here, and I’d like to talk to you. And you talk to them and say well, here let’s talk about what God says here. And they go away, they’re thrilled, how did you know that? How did you know where to go? How did you know? Well, you grow. I mean here’s what the Word says, and if the Word says it we do it, and we are growing in the knowledge of our God, who He is, His own character so that our lives are shaped by that knowledge of Him.

Romans 15:14, eliminating some of the verses for time, I want to cover several verses. Romans 15:14, an example of this use of knowledge, and concerning you, my brethren, talking about fellow believers, I myself also am convinced that you are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to admonish one another. …..admonish, give correction, help one another stay on track, correct someone who stepped out of line, so to speak. You are filled with all knowledge and able to admonish one another. So we’re growing in knowledge.

Isn’t that true? Think of how long you’ve been a believer and how much you knew about your God, the wonder of your Savior when you were first saved, and where you are now. What a blessing it is, isn’t it, to grow in knowledge, and then live in light of that truth. Have a life that is shaped by truth and knowledge of the living God.
Back in II Peter 1, and in your knowledge you add self-control. I like the literal meaning of this expression, this word, compound word put together. We have self-control, that’s a good translation. Literally means the ability to get a grip on yourself. Sometimes you’ll see in a movie or read in a story someone under pressure beginning to unravel, and the person will say, get a grip, get a grip on yourself, get ahold of it. That’s the word here. Self-control. Now here self-control is not self self-control, but this is the ability, remember, brought to us because He has given to us everything necessary for a life of godliness. So I can live a life with self-control by virtue of the provision He has made for me in Christ. Not the self that the world thinks about. This is the ability to have a grip on my life, because He has given me the provision for it. Stop and think about this. There is no possibility in light of what is said here that there is such a thing as a Christian who can’t get control of this area of their life. Now we have Christians, and this multiplies the counseling movement and so on, I just can’t help it, it’s more than I can do. Well we are to back up to the beginning, because if it is more than you can do, we have to decide whether you have been given everything necessary for life and godliness. If you have not been given everything necessary for life and godliness, you are not in Christ. So let’s get to the root of the problem. People indulge in sin and say I can’t help myself, it just controls me. Get a grip. I can’t, I’ve tried. All right, you’re probably telling the truth. Let’s back up. You have to recognize you are a sinner, separated from God and under condemnation. Then we have to go through the gospel. I don’t want to be trying to tell someone who makes a profession to get a grip on their life, take hold of this area and bring it under control, if they’re not redeemed, if they haven’t escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust by becoming a partaker of the divine nature. I fear this is much of the problem in our churches—that we have people who have never been changed by God’s grace. But they have a profession of faith, but they are living controlled by their sin. And to live controlled by your sin means what? By this the children of God are evident, and by this the children of the devil are evident. He whose life is characterized by righteousness is a child of God, he whose life is characterized by sin is a child of the devil. We think, well I think this is an exception, I’ve listened to them, I really think they believed at one time. Well forget what you think and take what God’s Word says. Go back to the previous virtue. We are to be supplying knowledge, not our own intuitive thinking, but our knowledge of the living God as He has revealed it in His living Word.

Now I find this tremendously encouraging, because it means that we as believers can live lives that are pleasing to God. We have been set free, it is real, it makes a difference in life and the living of life. I’m not saying it’s easy, and every person has what I’ve shared with you, what Puritans liked to call bosom sins, sins that we keep close to our heart. I mean, I want to give it up, but I don’t want to give it up so badly that I want to get too far away from it because I may want to indulge, because I really like that one. Now your sins, I can’t, I just don’t understand why you would ever even want to think of doing that. But we all have those areas of our lives that we sort of enjoy. Let’s face it, we don’t do the things we don’t enjoy. There are some sins I never commit, and I’m not going to tell you which are which. We’re all that way. Thank God for common grace, none of us are as bad as we could be in our practice. Even in an unredeemed world, and unredeemed people are restrained to a degree by God’s common grace. But you know I come and say, I can bring my life under control. Not because I am a man of super discipline, not because I am a man who know how to take control, but because my God has supplied for me and given to me more than sufficient, everything necessary for a life of godliness. And now I can draw on that, I really don’t want to, but I’m going to because it is what I must do. But the man who is to be walking by faith. Supply in your faith self-control. Not a popular thought in the world, we have all kind of excuses—nobody can be in control and when somebody does something wrong we try to think, what could have gone wrong, what could have happened? I knew them, they never murdered before, I don’t think they’d be capable of it. Well how many mass murderers are there? Most people who murder only murdered once, didn’t they? We can have control as God’s people.

So we live differently than the world, we don’t live in sin. But we are to be supplying, this is to be a growing thing. The longer I walk with the Lord, the better control I have with my life by His grace, through the power of His Spirit. But you’ll note, it’s not something I’m passive about, because I am to be supplying this with all zeal and all enthusiasm and all passion. I just don’t let go and let God. I know He’ll change me in His time when He wants to. He wants to today, so He says do this.

And to your self-control supply perseverance. Compound word, means to live under something. Two words, to live under. Perseverance is that enduring, that staying with something. When you exercise self-control, you do develop perseverance, that staying with something, that tenacity that I’ve asserted authority and control over myself.

Back up to I Corinthians 9, we may not get here before the Lord comes in our study of Corinthians. I Corinthians 9. Paul talks about self-control and you see how this leads into other areas. I discipline my body, I Corinthians 9:27, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so after I’ve preached to others I myself will not be disqualified. In verse 25 he says, everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control. They do it for perishable reasons and goals, we imperishable. You see exercising discipline over my body, I discipline my body. Margins says bruise because that word discipline means to hit somebody under the eyes. You know what happens when somebody gets punched in the eye—turns black and blue. I beat my body black and blue to bring it into subjection. And you know that kind of discipline leads to endurance. So some of you have been watching athletic events over the holidays and you see athletes who have developed endurance and perseverance. They stay with it. I don’t know if I could do that. They didn’t just do it overnight, but over time the perseverance was developed. We supply that perseverance. These things become intertwined as a person exercises control over their body and bring their body under the control the Spirit of God has provided for them, and now they become a person who has endurance. That’s one of the characteristics of children.

Come back to II Peter. We don’t have the young children, the 2-year-olds come into this service. Why? Some people say, they ought to learn to sit. Well maybe there are better things for them to learn at church. If you just want to teach them to learn to sit, teach them at home. They don’t have to come to church to do that. They know you have other things to learn. But we also know that at that point they haven’t developed the ability yet to concentrate for extended periods of time, and we don’t expect them to. But that ought to happen. The sad thing is, we have 20- and 30-year-olds who have never developed any endurance. They do something for a while and then they don’t like it so they quit and do something else. And they don’t like it, they quit and do something else. And they don’t like it, they quit and do something else. We say they will have to grow up, develop some self-control, discipline and learn endurance. That ought to characterize us as a church, us as a people of God. It’s not always the way we like it, we ought to be modeling it for our kids. Endurance. Isn’t it difficult to keep doing that? Yes. Why do you do it? Because it’s good for me. If God says I should develop this in my character, my walk with Him, it doesn’t have to be fun, it doesn’t have to be games, it doesn’t have to be entertaining. If I’ve developed endurance, I stay with it, because it is the right thing to do, it is the biblical thing to do, it is the godly thing to do. And you’ll need to develop that in your life, too, to pass on to our kids.

Come back to II Peter 1, number 5 in the virtues—godliness. He supplied everything necessary for life and godliness, and now we are to have godliness in abundance. Godliness is a life that is characterized by being pleasing to God—my thoughts, my desires, my actions. It’s conduct that is pleasing to God.

Brotherly kindness, Philadelphia is our word, brotherly love. This is love directed toward the family of God, in particular. We are to be developing, supplying in abundance with our faith, brotherly love. We ought to be developing more and more of this. It’s that bond that draws us together. Come back to I Peter 1. We read this verse, emphasized verse 23. Look at verse 22, since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren. Therefore, fervently love one another. A love of the brethren, that’s what we have here, Philadelphia love, a family love. Compound word. Greek word for love and the Greek word for brother. Let it grow on us. I get concerned, we oughtn’t to move away from one another with the passing of time. We get tired of one another, and so on. It’s like a marriage—we ought to get stronger. ….my family love should increase with time? So it is spiritually. We are to be more in love with one another, and it takes a discipline to do it. That’s why we are to be supplying in abundance with zeal and passion, enthusiasm, brotherly love. And some people do it like their marriage—I don’t know what happened, I just don’t love them any more. Well here we’re commanded to do it. Brotherly love. That’s not an excuse—I don’t have a feeling. Well, begin to supply brotherly love. How do you supply that love? You either have it or you don’t have it, don’t you? Well if you’re in Christ it’s there, you begin to develop it and exercise it and demonstrate it. That’s a command.

And to brotherly kindness, love. And this is the agape love. The first one was the phileo love and this is the agapao love. The Philadelphia love, that family love, we are to strengthen those bonds, those ties. And then we are to have that self-sacrificial love. We love because He loved us and we give of ourselves because He gave for us. Now note the follow-up, why this is important.

Look at verse 8, for if these qualities, these things we just talked about, tied to our faith, developing out of what God has supplied for us for life and godliness. If these qualities are yours and are increasing, they are not only yours but they are increasing, growing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind, short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sin. He’s drawing here a contrast between believers and unbelievers, those who profess to have known.

The false teachers, look over at the end of chapter 2, for if after they have escaped the defilement, verse 20, of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state is become worse than the first. It would be better not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known and turned away from the holy commandment. They are like the dog that returns to its own vomit, the pig that returns to the muck, the mire, the mud. Those people who made a profession, oh yes I’ve come to know Christ. And they can share the gospel back to you, but these qualities are not theirs. They are not growing in their life. Well then their faith is useless. Same words that James uses, faith without works is dead, it’s useless, it’s worthless, unfruitful. Jesus said in Matthew 7, you know them by their fruit. A good tree brings forth good fruit, a bad tree brings forth bad fruit. A good tree can’t bring forth bad fruit, a bad tree can’t bring forth good fruit. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not do this in your name? Did we not do that? He’ll say, get out of here, I never knew you. It’s not enough to say I’ve learned the gospel, here, I can recite it back. Oh yes, I’m a Christian. Listen. Well you must believe in Christ. But if you’ve truly believed in Christ you become a partaker of the divine nature, you escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. God has provided for you everything necessary for a life of godliness, don’t tell me there are no changes. Don’t tell me you are living in the muck like a pig, or licking the vomit like a dog, but you’re a child of God. I have to believe God. So where are we?

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you. You don’t get saved by doing these things, but these things confirm that you really belong to the living God. As long as you practice these things you will never stumble. That word to stumble, the context of stumble so as to fall. You’ll never apostasize if you are a genuine believer. This way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be abundantly supplied to you.

So here we are. I look at a new year, what do I want my life to be like? You know what I’d say? There ought to be more passion about us as God’s people, more zeal, more enthusiasm. We oughtn’t to be cooling off, settling back. You know I’ve been a believer many years, I’ve been through these things, I know these things. You aren’t anywhere near, no matter if you’ve been walking with the Lord for 98 years, demonstrating the perfection of His character in every area of your life. None of us are. Oh I know, but……….. Well here’s what God says we are to do. We are to be zealous about these things, passionate. Here’s Peter at the end of his life, a man so mightily used of God. And it sounds like Paul in his last letters to Timothy, writing to Timothy. You have to step up, you have to increase that commitment, you have to stir the fire of passion and enthusiasm. It’s remarkable. Here these mighty saints used of God as His spokesmen to write His scripture to us and they come to the end of their lives and their concern is, are we passionate enough. You need to be passionate and zealous and enthusiastic in your service for Jesus Christ. God forbid that anybody hear you complaining and grumbling about oh I don’t like this, grumbling about those you are to be loving. Not demonstrating that passion and zeal for the Lord. Sadly, sometimes it comes from the younger people talking about the older people, that they seem discontent, they seem unhappy, they seem unsettled. We ought to be modeling, oh God when I get to be their age give me that same kind of zeal. I hope that the fire in my heart, the zeal, the passion will be as intense as theirs is, that I’ll be growing…….. What do you say? We ought to be modeling it, we ought to be living it, we must be. And that’s the demonstration. These things are not only in you, but they are increasing. The longer you are walking with Him, the more they are increasing. They tell you, the more they are increasing in your life, the experience of Peter, the experience of Paul will be our experience. There has to be more. I want to be more like Him. There are still more ways, more areas of my life that I can manifest Him in every area, I could demonstrate more fully the beauty of His character. And He has given me everything necessary for that life and godliness in Christ. So I am without excuse.

That’s a commitment I would say we ought to have as a church for the coming year, personally and as a church. Whatever else people say about us, they ought to say they are passionate for Jesus Christ, they haven’t waned a bit. Rugh has been out there forever, I think he’s just as passionate about Jesus Christ and wants to grow and I think he’s still growing. I hope so because he sure has enough areas to grow in. The Lord is not done with any of us. Let’s make this year the year of our greatest growth personally, our greatest growth as a church, manifesting the beauty of the character of the God who has saved us with such a mighty salvation.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for who you are. Thank you for the wonder of your salvation. Lord, we have come to the beginning of a new year. Many of us can look back and say we have known you for many years, we have been blessed with the privilege of walking with you for many years. Lord, these qualities ought to be in our lives in abundance. Everyone ought to see them. We don’t do them for show, but they ought to be overflowing and evident in every way, in every area. Lord, it is sad that sometimes our passion and zeal for you, the beauty of your person, wanes and cools. We become distracted, we become disheartened, we lose our passion and our zeal and enthusiasm and it seems we just plod along, indifferently. Lord, I pray that the truth of your Word might grip our hearts and minds and we might indeed supply these things in abundance to the faith we have received from you that has enabled us to become partakers of the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. And Lord for any who are here, perhaps they’ve attended here for a brief time, perhaps, Lord, for many years. But Lord, they’re just plodding along, going through the motions. May this be a day of salvation for them by your grace. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.