What Are Believers to be Doing?

Transcript

GRM 1065
1/1/2012
What Are Believers to be Doing?
2 Peter 1:1-11
Gil Rugh


I want to direct your attention to the second letter of Peter this morning. The Apostle Peter wrote two letters. The second letter he writes in anticipation of his own soon death. The Lord had made known to him that he was going to give his life in his service to Jesus Christ. In 2 Peter 1:14 Peter says, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And so with this surety of his death facing him imminently, at any time, but very soon Peter writes this last letter. And it's interesting he doesn't write it to tell them new things. In verse 12, therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, the things he has spoken of in the previous verses that we'll talk about in a moment. 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. Verse 15, I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you may be able to call these things to mind. Peter is concerned as he faces his imminent death that these basic truths be so fixed in the hearts and minds of these believers that they will almost automatically fall back on them. They will bring them to mind repeatedly as the pressures come in their lives, as the difficulties, as the conflicts develop, as false teachers try to lure them away from faithfulness to Christ. I want you to be able to call these things to mind, to live by them. So we're just going to highlight some of what Peter says in these opening verses of this last letter.

He began by identifying himself as common in New Testament times in the letters they gave. He says in verse 1 he is writing to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. A clear, strong statement of the deity of Jesus Christ. And he's writing to those of a common faith. We share the same faith in our Lord and Savior, our God and Savior Jesus Christ. And he wants His grace and peace to be multiplied to them in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ. We are saved by grace. We've entered into the peace that God brings that passes all understanding, surpasses all understanding. But he wants it to continue to grow and be multiplied in our lives.

Then in verse 3 he says, seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. We're talking about as the sovereign power of God that works graciously on behalf of and in the life of every believer. And His divine power has granted. Strong word, denotes the generosity of God in giving to us. And a perfect tense here. He has given this to us and it continues to be ours. His divine power. What more could we ask than the sovereign power of God operating in our behalf. He has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. And in Greek as some of you are aware you can rearrange the order of the words to give emphasis. And here in this statement, everything, all things, everything is at the beginning of the statement. Everything has been granted to us by His divine power. All that is necessary for life and godliness He has bestowed upon us by His divine power. His life has been given to us, His very nature as he is going to state in a moment has been bestowed upon us, implanted in us. Everything necessary to live out the life we have in Christ, to manifest in everyday life the character of God. That has been given to us by His divine power. To live the life that is to characterize one who is a child of the living God, who has been transformed by the power of the God who created everything, who sustains everything. That power has worked in your life and in my life and bestowed upon us everything necessary to live our lives as God's people, manifesting godliness, that which is pleasing to God. There is nothing more, nothing else.

Paul says all of those, verse 1, those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, that common shared faith we have. What is it? It's the faith we have in Jesus Christ and His work on our behalf. Everyone who has that saving faith in Christ has been the beneficiary of God's sovereign power in generously giving to them everything necessary to live the life that is pleasing to Him, to live the life that is a manifestation of His work in our lives. This comes through the true knowledge, the full knowledge. It's the word knowledge with a word on the front. EpignoscoI, knowledge, the full knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. Reminded here at the beginning. We're going to talk, as Peter addresses us, about the things that we are responsible to do, but we are responsible to do them because God has sovereignly acted in accordance with His own character in bestowing upon us everything necessary. So it's like someone gives you all the provisions, all that is necessary to accomplish a task. Then he tells you to do it. And it's not that you don't have the resources, you don't have the ability or anything because that has all been given you. All you are responsible now is to carry it out. That's what we are told here—it's by His own glory and excellence. He has granted us everything necessary for life and godliness. That came to us when we entered into the knowledge, that saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

For by these He has granted to us. And again we are emphasizing God's sovereignty in this. Verse 3, His divine power has granted to us by His own glory and excellence. And by these, His own glory and excellence, He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises. Precious and magnificent promises granted to us, bestowed upon us. Again the perfect tense. Something of the permanence of those promises. They are ours. God has bestowed them upon us, God has freely and abundantly given us precious promises, magnificent promises.

Turn over to 2 Peter 3:13. This is the only other use of this particular word promises in the New Testament. Verse 13, but according to His promise we are looking for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. You see it's all the promises we have from God in Christ that include the final realization of those promises in the new heavens and the new earth. As the book of Revelation concludes, the closing chapters there. These magnificent promises, they are so precious to us. We have based our hope for eternity on what God has promised to us in Christ Jesus. And He has granted us, these are ours. These are the promises He has given to us, they are precious to us, they are magnificent, they are awesome and wonderful.

These are promises by which you may become partakers of the divine nature. One of the most remarkable statements in all of Scripture. By these precious and magnificent promises you become partakers of divine nature. Doesn't mean that we become divine. With the influence of easter religions, the corrupted teaching and thinking people develop the idea that you have all the ability and all the power within yourself. And we become gods in our thinking, but not in reality. But believers do become partakers of the divine nature. We become children of God, sons of God. And His character is implanted within us. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold new things have come, Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 5. We have become partakers of the divine nature. His character has now been produced in us, planted in us so that now we can live lives of godliness, God's likeness, the very character of God. Some of these things we're going to see in a moment.

So it's by these promises, the promises that center in Christ Jesus, the promise of His salvation. When you become a believer in Jesus Christ you are born again, you are born from above you become a child of God.

With this is the other side, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust, the desires of sinful hearts, the corruption that is in the world by lust. We have escaped it. This goes with becoming a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Romans 6 breaks this out by talking about slavery to sin and slavery to righteousness. We won't take the time to go back there. What happened? We lived our lives enslaved to sin and the corruption, the decay. It is all around us. The corruption. What happens? These bodies grow old, they die, they decay. The wages of sin is death, it's in the world by lust, by our own desires, evil desires. Jesus said in Mark 7 it is out of the heart that proceed all these sinful things from adulteries to murder and all those kinds of things. They come from the evil desires of the heart because we are fallen, sinful beings.

But we have escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust, the desires that were ours as fallen beings, what Ephesians tells us, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. And the smell and stench of death surrounds us. And decay is everywhere. But we have escaped. And we look to the time when Christ will come and the power of physical death will be overcome. And we'll be transformed and changed and brought into conformity of His glory. We have escaped all the corruption that is in the world as a result of sin and the evil desires of fallen, sinful beings.

Turn over to 2 Peter 2:20, for if after they have escaped the defilements of the world. There is our word, the corruptions of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and they are entangled in them again or overcome, their last state has become worse than the first. He's talking about those who are made aware of salvation in Jesus Christ. Some make a profession to have believed in Him and say they have escaped the corruption that is in the world, but they go back to it. They reveal they've never truly been born again, never truly become a partaker of the divine nature. Because when you have escaped the corruption from the world by lust you can't go back. You can't go back, you can't be what you were. You've been made new. That doesn't mean Christians can't sin, but we can't return to what we were. We've escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

We need to understand the impact of this for our lives and service to Jesus Christ. We are not called to try to reform a sinful world or to reform sinful people. The only thing that can change the rottenness of the sin in our lives is the salvation that is in Jesus Christ. ________________ come something of a statement in recent political times to talk about putting lipstick on the pig and sadly sometimes the church becomes guilty of that. We think well, if we do these things to help people better themselves and help improve their lot in life and raise them up in their social standing and help them do better, we have accomplished something. But you understand what Peter is saying here that he wants us to remember and he wants us to remember it after he is gone and to be diligent to call them to mind. You escape the corruption that is in the world by sinful desires by becoming a partaker of the divine nature, by sharing in the saving faith in Jesus Christ that Peter and others have had. That's the only hope to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. We end up denying the gospel that Peter is going to die for, that His Savior died to provide because we're going around being do-gooders. And the church turns from the only message that brings salvation to a lost soul to try to help people clean up their rotten lives. But there is no cleaning up a sinful life. That's how serious it is, that's why Christ came to earth, that's why He died on the cross. We can't make ourselves acceptable to God, we cannot clean up those who are defiled and unacceptable in the sight of a holy God. Only He can, and that's the power of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So having become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, all of this because His divine power has granted to us everything necessary to life and godliness. Out of His own glory and excellence, out of His own glory and excellence He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises that provided our escape from the corruption that is in the world through lust, when we believed and became partakers of the divine nature. You'll note we can't do both, live in the hold of the rottenness of our own sinful desires and claim to be a partaker of the divine nature. Praise God there is freedom, there is deliverance, there is new life.

Now for this reason also applying all diligence in your faith. Here is our responsibility. He has laid the foundation. Here is what God has done. We have been the recipients of the faith that has come from Him, that is His work in our hearts. He has granted to us all that is necessary, by His grace we have become partakers of the divine nature, have escaped the corruption. Now for this very reason applying all diligence. That word diligence means zeal, earnestness. Sometimes it is used in contrast to sloth, laziness. There is to be a diligence, a zeal. Applying all zeal, all diligence. The word applying means to bring something alongside something else. It's a compound word and the first part of it is to bring alongside of. So you carry this alongside of. So we are to be bringing alongside with all zeal and diligence. What God has done to us, we have a responsibility now to carry on. Not in our own strength, but what He has provided to us to enable us because His divine power has provided for us, granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Now put it into practice with a zeal and a passion to demonstrate in all areas of life what God has accomplished on behalf of us and in us.

Now for this very reason applying all diligence in your faith. Faith is the foundational issue here. The faith we have in Jesus Christ, the faith we have received by the grace of God in verse 1 that brought us salvation, that enabled us to become partakers of the divine nature by the grace of God and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. In your faith supply. This is a strong command. Here is what we are responsible to do—series of actions, virtues, things that characterize us as those who are partakers of the divine nature. We are to supply them, to bring them in abundance. One Greek commentator said, always at the back of this word there is the idea of a willing and lavish generosity in the ____________. We are to supply in abundance, if you will, in our faith these things. We're just going to note them briefly.

First, in your faith supply moral excellence. We have a list here, we have lists like this that appear other places in the New Testament—the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, in 2 Corinthians6:3-10 Paul gives a list of such things, 1 Timothy 6:11. We have lists of virtues, qualities that are to be characteristic, must be characteristic of a true believer. Moral excellence. Interestingly this word was used of God at the end of verse 3 when it says, by His own glory and excellence. That's the word we have here. We have it translated moral excellence. That which is characteristic of God is to be characteristic of us. Moral excellence gives you the idea, that which is true of the very character of God is to be true of us. What a standard. And we are to supply it in abundance. He has provided everything, my responsibility is to seize the provision He has made and act accordingly so that what He has done in me pervades my life and becomes more and more the overwhelming characteristic of my life. Moral excellence.

Some commentators have note that this is more than just a passive characteristic, but is an active characteristic. Moral power, moral energy, vigor of soul is what one commentator said on this Greek word. Again, going with that idea of the zeal and diligence we have. There is to be moral excellence. We are to be passionate about this, that quality. We live in a rotten world, we have escaped the corruption and the rottenness and the decay and decadence that characterizes the world, that is dominated and enslaved to sin and their sinful desires. But in Christ we have escaped that corruption and now the moral excellence of God Himself is to be characteristic of us. And we are to be passionate about that and the display of that in our lives. And Christians go about bemoaning how corrupt the world is and how vile it is and how defiling it is. Wake up. It has always been that way. It was that way when Peter wrote. We get the idea that at one time the world and our country were so good. Don't believe the gospel anymore? If that's true, why did Christ come? Why was He crucified? The world wasn't so good then when the Son of God came and stood on this earth. The world was so offended with Him that they crucified Him, wanted to be rid of Him. You know where the passion ought to be for us. Not to see if we can change the world, and this is an election year and we're going to make a difference. We are to be passionate about having the moral excellence that characterizes our God, characterizing us. The world around us is characterized by that which is repulsive, it ought to be repulsive to us. But it ought not to surprise us. Because apart from the grace of God we were just like them. It is by the grace of God that we are what we are and have escaped the corruption. We don't go to people to tell them to clean up their lives, we go to tell them God can clean up your life. He cleaned up my life. He can clean up your life, He can set you free and change you. Supply in your faith moral excellence.

The second things he says to supply to our faith is knowledge. In your moral excellence you supply knowledge. These things don't mean you work on moral excellence, next we'll work on knowledge. These are qualities that characterize us. In other lists there will be different ones named. Some of these overlap, some change, some the order is different. These are things that are to be there in our lives, they must be there. These are the characteristics of one is a partaker of the divine nature. He's going to say that in a moment.

Knowledge. This is the compound form of this word, was used in verses 2 and 3. Verse 2, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Here we have the basic word knowledge. It is not just factual knowledge. We now know God in a way we didn't before. The unbeliever is blind and ignorant of the truths of God, but now in Christ we know God. Even the most immature babe in Christ knows God, has a knowledge of Him. He's talking about here in this list of what we are responsible to do is exercising that knowledge. We have the ability to discern right and wrong, sin and righteousness. We are to supply that knowledge. What we know is to be put into practice. This is not now we can continue on maybe with seeing a little bit of change in our life but now . . . No. Now I am to supply knowledge, that knowledge is to shape the way I live. This is not feelings that direct me, this is the truth of God that directs me. This now overrules everything. It doesn't matter how I feel, it matters what God says. Applying this knowledge. Sometimes we approach our children and they've done something they shouldn't, and we tell them, you know better than that. What does it mean? They should have put into practice what they know, they should have acted on the basis of what they know is right and wrong. That's what he's talking about here, that kind of knowledge. When you supply knowledge, you continue to grow. We are perceptive, we do see right and wrong as God has set it out.

Third, we supply self-control. I like the way one commentator put it. It literally means the ability to take a grip of oneself, controlling your passions and desires rather than being controlled by them. That's consistent with what he said, wasn't it? We have escaped the corruption that is in the world through evil desires. So now we control, we live a self-controlled life. It's not self-controlled in the world sense, because where does the power and enablement come from? God. But I have a responsibility in all these things to be doing what He has provided for me, the ability to do now as His child.

Some of you have pets and you like them, but you hold your children to a different standard than you do your dog. That's it. And your children by virtue of being your children, they have been imbued with certain abilities that have been passed on from one human parent to another human. The dogs aren't in that line. You understand. And Paul uses the word dog to refer to unbelievers. They are not part of the family in the true sense. They haven't become partakers of the divine nature.

Self-control is one of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, where it is this ability to have control over your passion. Sometimes people profess to be believers and they are ensnared in sin, they are not demonstrating moral excellence. They say, I can't help it. I've shared with you, numerous times my question to them is we have to resolve something. You say you can't help it, you say you are a believer. Something is wrong, both aren't true. If you can't help it, you are not a believer; if you are a believer, you can help it but you just don't want to. Those are the differences, right? That's what Romans 6 says when it says we have been freed from slavery to sin and are slaves of righteousness. Here we are responsible. This is a fruit of the Spirit, to have self-control. We now are not controlled by our passions, our desires, our selfishness. I can make decisions now in light of the knowledge I have from the Word of God to do what is right. Doesn't mean there aren't temptations, doesn't mean sometimes I don't feel like I want to do the wrong thing because it would be enjoyable. The Bible is clear, there is pleasure in sin for a season. That is spoken of in reference to Moses in Hebrews 11. But by the provision of God we can have control, we are to supply self-control. There is no allowance in Scripture made for a believer who sins because he couldn't help it. That never is true. Now one who professes to be a believer, who is living a life controlled by sin is revealing something about himself. That it he is not a partaker of the divine nature. He has not escaped the corruption that is in the world through evil desires. But it is encouraging to know as a believer, I don't have to sin. Not saying I never sin, but I never have to sin. And we are to take control in our lives and not be controlled by our passions and evil desires.

Perseverance. We add to self-control perseverance in verse 6. Perseverance, another compound word. Basic meaning of the word, a compound word, is under and to live or dwell. When you're living under pressure, you are persevering, you are enduring. And a characteristic of a believer and what we are to apply to our lives and Peter is a demonstration of it because he is facing imminent execution. Keeping on, being faithful, not giving up under the pressure of this world, not being turned aside and turned away. We have the precious and magnificent promises of God and how often under pressure and difficulty we come back and say, Lord, all I can do is hang on to your promises, to plant myself on what you have promised. This is true. Lord, I believe it even though my feelings at times seem to be drawing me the other way. I come back to the Word. Perseverance, endurance. There are those who come on and they hear the message and it sounds like, this salvation is wonderful, what is promised here is wonderful. This is what I want. I'm going to trust Christ, I'm going to get baptized, I'm going to follow the Lord. And along the way they just drift off. And we sometimes make excuses. Well, it was difficult, they have a lot of pressure, the family was against their following Christ, this happened and that happened. Do you think Peter didn't know about pressure? That Christ didn't know about pressure? The devil offered Him the kingdoms of the world without having to go to the cross. We are reminded, many will say to Me in that day, Jesus said, Lord, Lord, we did many mighty things in Your name. And He'll say, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice iniquity. Perseverance, endurance.

The fifth thing added to faith is godliness. We saw His divine power, verse 3, has provided everything necessary for life and godliness. Look over in 2 Peter 3:11. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, manifesting the character of God, being what God would want us to be in all areas of life.

To godliness we add brotherly kindness, brotherly love. This is family love among believers. That word philadelphia. This is love directed toward other believers, love of brothers. Talking here about the family love. This is a word used of a family relationship. And believers, we share the same kind of faith. We have become the household of God, as Paul wrote to Timothy. God's family. We are to love one another. People claim to be believers but don't go to church, don't fellowship with a body of believers. Well that's all right, I can have a relationship with the Lord and . . . That's a lie. One of the things we are responsible for, we must demonstrate in light of God's work in our life is the love of other believers.

Peter wrote about this in 1 Peter 1:22, that we have been born again by the living and abiding word of God. And this has been for the purpose of producing in us love of the brethren. In 1 Peter 1:22, since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. This is what binds us together here. With all our differences God has brought us together as His family. We have a love that transcends even physical family relationships.

The last he refers to here is love. You add to brotherly love, love. That's what Peter said, that have purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love. Agape love and the phileo love, agapao and phileo. The family love and then that self-sacrificing love, love.

For if these qualities are yours and increasing they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is blind or short sighted, having forgotten his purification from sins. These things are important for two reasons. 1. They distinguish believers from unbelievers. That's what he is saying in verses 8-9, these qualities are yours and increasing. They render you neither useless, same word that James uses when he said that faith without works is useless. Nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind, short sighted. Peter will talk about these kinds of people in
2 Peter 3. Anything about the coming of the Lord and that, these false teachers make light of. They can't see beyond right now what they desire, what they want. Characteristic of the unbeliever. This is what he wants now. They go through one marriage and another marriage and another marriage. They are reviewing who died this past year on one of the news programs. One of them is noted for having seven husbands or whatever. I like this one now, I like this one, I like this. They are short sighted, this is what I want now, this is what I want now. I should be able to have what I want. This is what I desire. We want to change our laws in light of what people desire and want.

He is blind. Peter will talk about as the letter moves along, turn over to 2 Peter 2:20, 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 these defilements, corruptions, and are overcome. You see they are enslaved now. The last state has become worse for them than the first. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn away from the holy commandment handed to them. The proverb has happened to them, the dog has returned to its own vomit. What do we say when we see that happen to a dog? We say, that's disgusting, that's revolting. That's what God says. A person exposed to the truth, perhaps professed faith in the truth, for a time seemed to be committed to the truth, but they end up going back and living the old life. They are worse off than a person who hasn't heard the truth. Greater light brings greater responsibility.

But, back in 2 Peter 1:10-11, these things not only distinguish between true believers and unbelievers, but they give assurance of eternal salvation. Note verse 10, therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent, zealous, passionate to make certain about his calling and choosing you. For as long as you practice these things, you'll never stumble. Doesn't mean a Christian never sins, but he never falls away in the sense we have read about in 2 Peter 2.

For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. God's sovereign work, we started out with that in the opening verses of 2 Peter 1. But now we are, verse 10, to be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you. It is the height of arrogance to be living in sin and say, I know I'm a Christian, I know I'm saved. Numerous people have told me, you can't tell me I'm not saved. You don't know my heart. I may not know your heart, but I know your life. And I believe God who cannot lie over you who are telling me a lie. Where do we get the idea that just because a person says, I'm convinced, I know I've trusted Christ. But they are living in sin. I mean, where do they get that assurance? Not from God because He says in verse 10, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you. For as long as you practice these things you never stumble, you never fall away. For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior will be abundantly supplied to you. That gives me the assurance. The inconsistencies do stand out in my life, they stand out in stark contrast to the work of God's grace in my life. That's the way it is in your life. Doesn't mean you never sin, those sins stand out as a glaring inconsistency against the true backdrop of a life of holiness, godliness, a life that is pleasing to God.

We look to a new year. This is what we want to be passionate about, zealous about, those things that God says we ought to be producing in our lives, multiplying in our lives. I don't like to live in the past and I know I want to be further along in manifesting the character of the God who has saved me in my life on this first day of the new year than I was on the first day of the last year. And I know I have the year before me, I can't change the year behind me. And I want to be passionate and zealous about committing myself, producing in greater clarity the character of the God who has made me a partaker of His divine nature in all that I do. I trust that will be true of us as a church in the coming year,

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your abundant grace, the wonder of our salvation. Lord, may we never tire, may we never grow weary in our service for you. May our love for you grow stronger. May we be passionate and zealous, committed above all else to produce in our lives by your power and grace the beauty of your character. May we together as a church family be used in building one another up to greater maturity in our Lord and Savior, in whose name we pray, amen.