The Importance of the Life of Godliness

Transcript

GR 1958
06/26/2016
The Importance of a Life of Godliness
II Peter 1:8-10
Gil Rugh

We are going to 2 Peter in your Bibles as we have just begun our study of this second letter of Peter. Peter is dealing with in this letter as in the first letter with foundational truths. He is writing to believers and they are Jewish believers as he mentioned clearly in the beginning of his first letter. Jewish believers scattered outside the land of Palestine, the land of Israel. He says in chapter 3 of this letter that he is writing to the same people; so even though he doesn’t start out that way.

The foundational truth that we have to grasp is what Peter emphasizes to begin with in these letters and that is salvation is the work of God. He is sovereign in salvation. It is all by God’s grace that we are cleansed, forgiven and become children of God.

Look at Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved.” It is important that we understand what grace means. In Romans chapter 11, verse 6 Paul puts it this way: “If it is by grace it is no longer on the basis of works otherwise grace is no longer grace.” So we have to be careful of using terminology but corrupting it. Oh yes, we believe that salvation is by grace but then they add works to it. But if you add works to it grace is no longer grace. Now false teachers are always corrupting the grace of God and the beauty of this salvation He has provided by grace.

Over in chapter 3 of this letter Peter will warn that the untaught and unstable are continually distorting the Scriptures to their own destruction, talking about false teachers, unbelievers who corrupt the Word of God. Some corrupt the Word by mixing works with grace and say salvation is a matter of believing what God has done and then doing these things. For the Jews it was being circumcised, keeping the Mosaic Law. Others add today, baptism, sharing in communion or other works that are necessary. So they are saying it is grace plus works equals salvation.

Back up to Galatians chapter 1 and we will look at several verses here so don’t leave, Galatians chapter 1. Paul addressed those who would add the works of the law to grace. You can see how subtle that is because God had given the law in Israel’s past history but over time Israel began to view keeping the law as a way of salvation.

Now with the coming of Christ there were those who claimed to believe that Jesus was the Messiah and He had provided salvation by his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection. Well that sounds great. We have Jews who have believed but they said that is not enough. You must also keep the law and so Paul addresses this and says in verse 6 of chapter 1: “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him.” He puts it as an act of desertion as you would see someone who deserted in a military conflict. “You are deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel which is not another variation of my Gospel. It is not anything like my Gospel. There are some who are disturbing you who want to distort the Gospel of Christ.” Then you have that statement. “Even if an angel from heaven preached a different gospel he would be accursed,” anathema, ultimately condemned to hell; so the importance of not adding anything to the Gospel.

Over in chapter 5 of Galatians look at verse 4: “You have been severed from Christ,” cut off from Christ; “you who are seeking to be justified by law. You have fallen from grace.” They have no relationship to Christ. You have totally removed yourself from grace as the way of salvation. So we want to be careful. Those who use grace language and can even talk about the facts of the Gospel, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. If they add something to that they have changed it into a totally different kind of message which is not the saving Gospel at all. You are cut off from Christ. You have fallen from grace. You are no longer on a way of grace of salvation. You cannot mix works with grace and have salvation.

Now others, you know the devil is a master at taking truth and then corrupting the truth to confuse Christians who may focus attention on the truth that has been included and failed to consider the fact that that truth has been altered so now it is no longer truth and so there are those who would take the Gospel and add works to it. There are also those who would corrupt the Gospel by saying we are saved by grace so works have no place at all. Peter is addressing this. You place your faith in Christ; you are saved by grace through faith. That is all that matters. Now whatever you do with your life you are free and nothing can change that.

We have had recent emphasis on that in past years, relatively recently depending on how old you are on the lordship debate. You have placed your faith in Christ. That is enough. And so it can lead to a licentious life and some false teachers promoted that. Look, you placed your faith in Christ. Didn’t He set you free? That means you can do whatever you choose to do and doesn’t He cleanse you from your sin? He does. Therefore you are free to live a life of enjoyment in sin if we can put it that way.

You are still in Galatians chapter 5, look down in verse 13: “You were called to freedom, brethren only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh.” It is true Christ has set us free but He has set us free from the slavery to sin, to Satan, to the flesh. So now we can serve God as we were created to do. “Through love serve one another.” Verse 15: “Don’t bite and devour one another or you will consume one another; walk by the Spirit. You will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” There is a battle going on. You need to be led by the Spirit and here are some of the works of the flesh.

The book of Jude. You can leave Galatians. Come back all the way just before the book of Revelation, the book of Jude which as some of you are familiar with is very similar in content in what we are going to get to in the second chapter of 2 Peter and in Jude verse 4: “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed. Those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turned the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ, the one that we are to serve.” We aren’t saved so that we could now serve the flesh and sinful desires. We were saved so we could be set free to serve the one who is the only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. “So they turned the grace of God into licentiousness.” And Peter will get into this in chapter 2 in some detail.

So come back to 2 Peter, chapter 1. What Peter is doing in this chapter is unfolding what is to be the character of conduct of a true believer. We have been set free. Verse 4: “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.”

As we noted, these are the two sides. You become partakers of the divine nature. That sets you free from the corruption and control of the domination of sinful desires.

So in verse 5-7 then Peter went on to talk about seven qualities or character traits that are to be produced in the life of the person who is the partaker of the divine nature. When you become a partaker of the divine nature you don’t become deity but the very character of God now has been implanted in you; I John 2, because “we have become the sons of God.” His character is produced in us. His seed abides in us. We can no longer live for the flesh. That doesn’t mean we can never sin again but you can’t become new in Christ and not have a change made in your life. That is what Peter is developing.

He continues this, the importance of having these qualities produced in your life and we are responsible. You know, this is where works come in. When you have become a partaker of divine nature and thus been set free from slavery to sin and the lust of the world. Now we are to be diligent, zealous in verse 5 to grow in our faith and “in your faith supply moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness or brotherly love and then love.” Now that is our responsibility. Now that is not working for our salvation. That is the result that now having become partakers of the divine nature we apply ourselves earnestly, zealously to have the manifestation of that, the development of that nature manifest in our conduct. Just like a baby that has been born into a human family, not expected to act like an animal. Now you know you may have a pet in your house. The little one may observe the pet and try to imitate the pet. No, you’re not a dog. You don’t lick the floor. You don’t eat your food off the floor; some of those things. Why? We are saying to become a human being you do this because you are a human being. Here’s the things you do and don’t do. That is what God is saying.

Because you are now God’s child and His nature is implanted in you, you apply yourselves to do what a child of God does and of course it is His power, His enablement that provides that but we just can’t say, “I sit back and God does it.” So the responsibility we have.

So having laid out those seven qualities in these verses, 5-7 then he picks up in verse 8. Why is it so important that these qualities be produces in you? Well they are the manifestation that you are a child of God. They are what give you the assurance of your eternal salvation. I mean to say that I become a partaker of the divine nature but I live my life like a child of the devil. Well wait a minute. I John 2: “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious.” I mean, think about it. God’s character has been implanted in me and I still live like an unredeemed child of the devil?

So, verse 8: “If these qualities are yours and are increasing,” the qualities he has just mentioned and that is not a complete list where he talked about those things in other lists like it but if these qualities are yours they belong to them, they are the characteristic of their lives personally as those who have experienced God’s saving power. If these qualities are yours and are increasing they are increasing in abundance. You know the Christian life is a growing life. We are new-born babes as Peter wrote in his first letter in chapter 2. We are to be longing for the pure milk of God’s Word to grow in respect to our salvation. I am growing in the manifestation and the living out of God’s character in my life and I never reach the point where there is no more growing to do.

So these are yours and are increasing. Now the point is they are present in every believer. They were yours and they are growing. They are becoming more evident, more abundant. They render you…. This is an ongoing, present tense. You who are going to be studying some Greek or have done so already, the present tense often indicates on-going activity. They render you that you won’t be useless or you won’t be unfruitful. Many words are used interchangeably. Useless because the unbeliever is not producing anything that is pleasing to God. There is nothing of the character of God being produced in him. They are idle, they are not working. So these things are here as an evidence that you are not useless. You are not unfruitful.

Useless is used by James when he says in James chapter 2, verse 20 of James 2: “Faith without works is useless,” the same word. It goes nowhere. It does nothing. So to claim something but there is nothing happening in your life and it is amazing how many people do this. It is useless. It is unfruitful and this is a common metaphor used in the New Testament. As you are aware for the qualities, the ethical qualities that are to be demonstrated in our lives, the kind of conduct that is evident in our lives.

We were in Galatians, if you want to turn back there, Galatians chapter 5. You might as well just turn there and then we will go to Ephesians. Pick these up in order. Galatians chapter 5 verse 22: “The fruit of the Spirit.” So you don’t want to be unfruitful and you know a tree by its fruit, Matthew chapter 7, the Sermon on the Mount that is what Jesus taught.

So here is some of the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Verse 24: “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit let us walk by the Spirit.” In other words if you have been made alive by the Spirit of God then you continue to live your life in the power of the Spirit of God. That is the point. So you manifest the work of the Spirit in your life who is producing the divine nature.

Go over to Ephesians chapter 5, just after Galatians, Ephesians; the context here. The chapter opens up, verse 1: “Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children.” And then how you walk – “you walk in love just as Christ loved you and gave Himself up for us.” No immorality, or any impurity or greed is to be named among you. No filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting, but giving of thanks because immoral, impure, covetous, idolaters, none of them will inherit the kingdom and this is where Peter is going. How do you have an eternal inheritance in the eternal kingdom? You do it by being transformed from within. “Let no one deceive you” verse 6 “with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” The sons of disobedience is a name for unbelievers. Their lives are characterized by unbelief. They live their life in that realm. They never do good. They are never pleasing to God. That is there realm. We don’t live there any longer. “Don’t be partakers with them.” Verse 8: “You were formerly darkness now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light for the fruit of the light” (there’s our word, ‘fruit.’) “consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth. Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” The other side of that, you don’t participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness. Verse 15: “Be careful how you walk.” Verse 18, the end of the verse: “Be filled with the Spirit.” So the dramatic change. We become partakers of the divine nature. God Himself takes up residence within us. Life is going to be different. That doesn’t mean I don’t have to apply myself with effort and diligence to do what pleases Him.

You are in Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians chapter 1 and verse 9: “For this reason, since the day we heard of it” (heard of their faith and love that they have believed the Gospel) “we have not ceased to pray for you, ask that you be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Peter is going to talk about this as well in a moment. “So you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please Him in all respect. Bearing fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power according to His glorious might.” And on the sentence goes.

You see what God has done for us, the greatness of our salvation; the completeness of it. That is why Peter started out the second letter what? “Given us everything necessary for life and godliness,” for a life of godliness. So if there is no manifestation of a life of godliness there is no spiritual life. That is what is being driven home and reminding them but there is the danger as he said in Ephesians 5, “Don’t participate in the deeds of darkness.” I don’t live there but you know sin still has its appeal. That’s why you have to keep saying, it doesn’t come automatically. I am applying myself to this. It’s just like in the analogy of birth and being a child. A baby is born into the human race, great. Now all they have to do is lay there and wait. No, there is the development process. It has to be nourished and that’s why we feed on the Word but then there will have to be the application of them to do things and partly then you help them grow, continue to mature, develop and it will take their effort so that they can but you don’t make a human being by trying to get them to do certain things. They have to be born into it. Then there will have to be effort. That is where the problem comes in raising our children. What? You remind them of the diligence and effort that is required. That is what God is doing with us spiritually.

Come back to Peter, verse 8 of chapter 1 of 2 Peter. “These qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We have talked about this word. Sometimes they translate it knowledge; sometimes true knowledge. It is the word ‘knowledge’ and it does have a preposition on the front. Sometimes in comparison it can mean full knowledge or true knowledge in contrast to general. Sometimes it is just a synonym for knowledge. This is the knowledge of Jesus Christ. He is talking about saving knowledge. He talked about this up in verse 3, the middle of the verse: “It is through the true knowledge of Him who called us.” Verse 2 he said, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge.” There they just translated it, it is just the same Greek word that they translate ‘true knowledge’ and then true knowledge again in verse 8 but this is what we are talking about, that saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and we can’t be useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ that has brought us salvation.

Now verse 9 gives the contrast here and you will note he doesn’t change. Verse 8 says that “These qualities are yours.” Then verse 9 it becomes somewhat less personal “For he who lacks these qualities,” even directed directly to them. “If you lack these qualities,” it is true of them but he is not accusing them of lacking these qualities. He doesn’t say, “For those of you lacking these qualities, you are blind.” But he wants them to be clear. Anyone who would lack these qualities, this could be true of the false teachers who have infiltrated among believers. Chapter 2 will bring that up. There will be false teachers among you.

So we need to be aware of the contrast again because we get taken in by some of the truth that is included in false teaching and we emphasize to focus on the truth they are saying and fail to take into consideration the error mixed with it which nullifies the truth. “So he who lacks these qualities,” who does not have these character qualities manifest in their walk, their behavior. “He is blind,” short sighted. I take it he is describing their true spiritual condition, blind, short sided. Blind is used as a description of unbelievers a number of time. It is used in the Gospels. It is used in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 4: “If our Gospel be hidden it is hidden to those whom Satan has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.” They don’t see the truth. You know what that is like. You share the Gospel with an unbeliever and sometimes well, I don’t have time to talk to you, well I am not interested, well I have my religion. Wait a minute, did you see what I just told you – how you could have forgiveness, how you could have life? They are blind. They didn’t see a thing. That is the picture of the unbeliever, they are blind.

Turn over to I John, you are close to that. Just turn back a few pages to I John, right after 2 Peter. I John chapter 2, verse 11: “The one who hates his brother is in the darkness.” He walks in the darkness. He doesn’t know where he is going because darkness has blinded his eyes “but the one who loves his brother lives in the light.” So this is a characteristic, living his life in darkness. You don’t have a love for fellow believers, you are blind. You are living in spiritual darkness.

You know Revelation chapter 3, the church at Laodicea, this had infected the church; amazing the impact that error can have. Revelation chapter 3, verse 17: “Because you say ‘I am rich, I have become wealthy, I have need of nothing.’” They thought they were well off spiritually. “You do not know that you were wretched, miserable, poor and blind and naked.” They have nothing spiritual and yet they don’t know it. So that blindness is what he is talking about.

Come back. He is going to elaborate on this, short sighted, having forgotten, two participles – going to encourage you who are going to be taking some Greek. He is going to further explain this blindness. They are short sighted, myopic. We carry that over into English, don’t we, with certain eyesight, short sighted. They were short sighted. They were unable to see beyond the physical, natural realm. They have no perception into spiritual truth; a different analogy that Paul used in writing to the Corinthians where he talks about the soulish man who doesn’t have the Spirit of God. He cannot understand the things of God. They are spiritually discerned. All he can see is in the realm of the physical. That is why religion gets built around physical things, your works that you are doing to earn salvation, your physical baptism, physically sharing in communion, physically doing this, this physical, that realm of creating an experience because the unbeliever is short sighted. That is why trying to make the church appealing to the unbeliever corrupts the church because the unbeliever has no awareness of spiritual reality, is not drawn to it because he is totally ignorant of it. So to do what pleases him we must do what he sees in his spiritual blindness which is limited to the physical. So we devise services for what we call seekers, which is what? An unbeliever, I mean what can I do for the unbeliever? Entertain him, keep the Word of God to a minimum and only use the Word of God in a way that the unbeliever will say, “Talk about the love of God and God loves all people and we need to do good things for one another.” Yes, we limit it to that. Understand they are short sighted. They are unable to see beyond the immediate earthly realm. That is why social work, those kind of things, what, the things we can see, to touch. And what does the world say, “That is what the church ought to be doing. More to help the poor, more to alleviate poverty, more to, more to… In this realm, what? Because that is the realm they see and so the church begins to adjust to do what the world wants.

Shortsighted, he continues, “Having forgotten….having forgotten his purification from his former sin;” this is what it means to be spiritually blind. You can only see in the realm of the physical and he has forgotten. This doesn’t mean now that this is a believer although sometimes when a believer gets off track it becomes hard to tell now whether we are dealing with a believer or an unbeliever. When Paul wrote to the Galatians you remember what he said to them? “I fear that maybe I labored over you in vain.” Because the Galatians were getting far enough off track and confused enough about the genuine Gospel, Paul says maybe all my work there to bring you to Christ was worthless because you didn’t truly come to Him. So it is true. Sometimes that is the warning and we can’t see a heart. I don’t know, maybe sometimes it is a believer off track or it is an unbeliever who never was on track. Sometimes we are talking, we want to first clarify. This is the kind of situation I am not sure where you are. You claim to be a believer but something is missing but Peter is reminding them often because these false teachers have an attraction and you get to that point. How confused can a true believer be and how long can a true believer be in this confusion if you will before you have to say, “You know I think this is a pattern that demonstrates true character.”

So they have forgotten his purification from their former sins. A failure to develop those qualities like the Galatians since we looked into that book that you know, salvation is by grace. Where do you get this works? And he had to tell the Romans, “You know, if it is by works it is not by grace.” Where is this? Something is missing. You claim to have been cleansed from your sins by Christ but there is no result and change. You claim to have become a partaker of the divine nature and thus escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust but your life is characterized by lust, worldly lust.

Come over to chapter 2 of Peter, verse 20. He gets into talking more specifically about these false teachers. “For if after they have escaped the defilements 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. It would have been better for them to not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.” And some of you have had experience as believers having to deal with this. A person who has claimed to be a believer and then departed.

We have people at Indian Hills in part of a work that was a good work but over time Roman Catholic doctrine infiltrated that church here in the city, tore the church apart. Enough people were won over that the church was torn apart. I had some of the people come see me, a couple of them that had been at Indian Hills many years ago, just crushed. How could this happen to our church? They claim, they infiltrate. Then they never have understood truly the cleansing that comes by grace. Don’t think it can’t happen here. The testimony of the people that came to see me was at church we were emphasized the Word, we taught the Word but this error got in and once it got in and a couple of the teachers that were influential, one of them at one time was part of here and now he claims I am a Roman Catholic; forgotten the purification of sins. He has abandoned it. The worst condition than has ever been known. They have become harder to reach because they have known the truth enough to have claimed it but never truly experienced it. Now they have turned away from it and they have become the promoters of the error.

That is what Peter is concerned about. That is why we have such warning about error. We don’t realize how affective an opponent the devil can be. These false teachers, they have professed to have received the Gospel but they have abandoned it. Matthew 7 which I have referred to. Jesus said, “Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, we did many mighty things in Your name.” He will say, “I never knew you, never knew you.” They did mighty things in His name it looked like and they thought, but He never knew them. So even when they were doing those things they are in spiritual blindness. They never had a relationship with Christ.

Serious business Peter is talking about. He is deeply concerned. They are not saying they lived a perfect life. Peter knows what it is. He denied the Lord three times. He stumbled after that. Paul said he had to rebuke him in Galatians 2 again but the pattern of his life is clear so Peter is not writing this to raise doubts in the minds of these believers but for genuine believers to see the seriousness of the issues. We let our guard down and the result can be disastrous.

Verse 10: “Therefore, brethren,” talking to fellow believers. So he spoke to them, “If these qualities are yours” (verse 8, are yours, personally and increasing and growing abundantly) “but for anyone who lacks these qualities,” he doesn’t say it is them but there may be some among those but he is addressing them as brethren. “Therefore, brethren,” when you see. This line has to be clear, don’t get lax. “Be all the more diligent.” Now this is writing to them as a family. You are my brethren. Remember he told them in the first letter, “I am a fellow elder.” He doesn’t claim directly his apostleship although he is an apostle but in the first letter, chapter 5, “I am a fellow elder and I exhort the elders.” Here I write to you as my brethren. I am part of this family because “since we have been born again by the living and abiding Word of God” as he wrote in his first letter “and as we have become partakers together in the divine nature we are brothers and sisters in Christ. I write to you brethren, be all the more diligent.”

The danger that happens, we as a church need to be aware. We have been together for many years and we go through the truth of the Scripture and we get comfortable in it and we get confident that these things wouldn’t happen to us. The devil is relentless. We may get lax and settle back. He never does and he’s fine to let us settle in and then here comes the attack and all of a sudden people are swept along. I say, “what happened?” “Be all the more diligent brethren in light of this to make certain about His calling and choosing you,” “All the more diligent.” He used this word up in verse 5, “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence.” There is a sense of urgency here, the form of this down in verse 10, an aorist, active imperative. It is the way in Greek to give a strong, forceful command or exhortation. “Therefore, brethren, you must be all the more diligent, zealous.”

You know this lazy, easy going, flabby; out-of-shape Christianity is not only a poor testimony. It is a vulnerable situation. “Be on the alert, your adversary the devil goes about as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.” Remember Peter’s first letter. This is not a game. It is not I get to a point, well I have grown, I am mature, I am familiar with the Scripture I don’t think I would be vulnerable to what other people…... We are no different. In every conflict we come to we have people who will get swept away. Every conflict would come, we have to sharpen ourselves. As believers, you must be zealous. “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent,” (zealous, eager) “to make certain about His calling and choosing you.” There is an ongoing responsibility they have to make certain about His calling and choosing you, to say that is settled.

How do I make certain that God has called me? That He has chosen me? That word for election, Peter wrote his first letter, remember, to “the elect, sojourners of the dispersion.” Make certain that He has called you, that call that has brought you to salvation. There is a manifestation that He has chosen you. You want to make this certain. Calling and choosing are God’s work but the manifestation of that, the growth and development of that takes the application of all our energies, all of our efforts in drawing upon the power that He makes. He doesn’t write and say, “Well God will guarantee that you are not influenced by this,” of course not. He has called us and now we are responsible. Make your calling and election sure. You confirm it with the qualities for example, verses 5, 6 and 7. Those are the evidences that God indeed has called us to His salvation. We were those that He had chosen from eternity past to be the recipients of that salvation but you better make certain about it. Well what can I do if it depends on Him? He either saved me or He didn’t. Well we are in that realm where Scripture talks about God’s sovereignty in choosing and calling and our responsibility in believing and growing and if you lack the evidence of genuine salvation “call upon the name of the Lord and you will be saved.” Well what if I am not elect. Then you won’t call on Him but if I was in your situation I would start calling you know. “Lord, you may not have chosen me but here I am, I realize I am a sinner, only Christ can save me. I am casting myself on Your mercy, placing my whole trust in Christ.” You know what? He called you, chose you. You manifest it. Make certain about your calling. He is concerned that they will assume it’s true. We have that all the time. People, “Oh yes, I have trusted Christ, yep, yep and I come to church and I’ve learned a lot about the Bible.” These false teachers know the Word.

I used Roman Catholics. Roman Catholics have made a turn. It used to be they didn’t know a thing about their Bible. Now they’ve got people who had formerly claimed to be believers who have now gone to Roman Catholicism and they know so much about. I got an invitation to debate in a public forum in a Roman Catholic setting here. In the event that is what he does, tries to get this out that we know the truth and they have learned it so well they can become confusing to believers who know some about it.

How did that church let people get swept away into Catholicism. The whole Protestant Reformation was fought over these issues. And now here today, 500 years later, people are converting, claiming to be Christians. We hear expressions like evangelical Catholics. That is like talking about a black/white person. I know we use that terminology but it is what? You can’t be. Make certain about your calling and choosing by God. As long as you practice these things you will never stumble. As long as you practice these things you are doing them. Also, see we are saved by works. No, without works though you are not saved. You are saved by grace through faith but when you become a partaker of the divine nature you are set free from slavery to sin and its lusts now you will live your life differently. It is a major effort. It is the result but you have a responsibility and God does plant a desire in the heart. That is what is different from a believer. A believer can sin. We all do. We refer to James to says, “We all stumble in many ways.” He could have used the word ‘stumble’ here. So we are aware. But even when I stumble I am not happy. Even when I say something I shouldn’t I think, “I shouldn’t have said that.” I don’t want to live there. At times we are drawn by the appeal but we don’t want to live there. He has changed my desire.

The president of the seminary I attended use to say, “When God saved you, He saved your ‘wanter’ so now you want to do what God wants.” And that is true. Our desires, it doesn’t mean I never can get my eyes off or you know something asserts itself. I say what I shouldn’t, I do what I shouldn’t but if you practice these things you don’t stumble as to fall as Paul said in Romans chapter 11 regarding the Jews. The nation has stumbled but not so as they are lost forever. God’s plan for them is not done.

You won’t stumble here in the point of failing to meet and reach the ultimate goal; that relentless zeal. You know if we could bottle that inside us what happens. I think in my early years here at Indian Hills the people came and they were so thrilled to be studying the bible and you know they just couldn’t get enough of the Bible and you know, boy, just take it in and take it in and this is wonderful but you know after we have done that for 40, 50 years we get, ahhh, I have been through this before. I even have this marked. Yes, I know that. You know it’s like your children. You tell them over and over again. What do they say to you? “I know, I know. You’ve told me that before” and you only have it half way out and they finish your sentence. They know. Then they go out and what? Don’t do it and you even sometimes tell them, “I know you know but you are going to listen to it again,” because they need it.

Why do you think God keeps telling us and then He tells us that we must be nurtured and nourished on His Word and we must be zealous about this because my zeal wains. You know we sometimes talk about new believers and their zeal but they will settle down. Maybe we ought to unsettle. You know He is telling us, “Be zealous, be zealous, have a passion for these things. You will never stumble.” I don’t want to be satisfied. I have grown. I am more like Christ than I was when I was first saved but now I am not near as much like Him as I desire to be. I am not near as conformed to the character of the God who has made me a partaker of His divine nature as I want to be. I am not near as close to the perfection as I ought to be for all He has provided for me in Christ. We can’t become satisfied. There ought to be that zeal. The younger people coming up ought to say, “Wow, those older people they are just as zealous for the truth and for God’s Word and the ministry together.” You know we ought to be catching our passion from the young people. They ought to be seeing it in us. I realize the physical body maybe doesn’t go like it did but the passion that tries to drive it on is still there.

Verse 11: “For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.” We will pick this up but you see where we are going, to the kingdom. You are not about that so start in Revelation chapter 20 and read through chapter 21 and 22. That is where we are ultimately going and the way into that will be abundantly supplied to you. You see it is the eternal kingdom. That is where I want to be. That’s where God’s presence will be manifest. That is where we will dwell.

I can’t be less than passionate about doing everything God calls me to do; being everything He calls me to be. So that, you know I am always on the edge and I am wondering about whether I am truly a believer or not. People around me wonder whether they are truly a believer or not and I get moved over here and then I get moved over here and…. We ought to be settled and we are on our way, an abundant entrance because this is what has absorbed our life. This is life. The ups and down of the world, the turmoil of the world. In that sense we are in a bubble. We are going with a fixed goal and nothing will keep us from arriving there because it is God’s work in us and it requires all my effort, all my energy, all my zeal and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the riches of Your Word. Thank You for every blessing we have in Christ. Lord may we be unsatisfied, uncomfortable to have a lax, lazy, walk with You. Lord, You deserve zeal, energy, passion in our service and our commitment to be conformed in every way in the greatest possible way to the beauty of the character that You have implanted in us. We give You praise in Christ’s name amen.