SPEAKER_00: I always look forward to this Sunday as we kick off really a new ministry year, it seems every every fall.
SPEAKER_00: This is that Sunday, and traditionally at APC, this Sunday is where we announce our new theme that the elders have prayed over and sought, that we believe God has given us a new theme this year.
SPEAKER_00: Praying in the promises of God, living out the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's our theme for the next year.
SPEAKER_00: This morning it's my privilege to kick that off by preaching from our first promise, the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is a little bit different, kind of a theme than what maybe we're used to in the past, but we think it's a good theme.
SPEAKER_00: Our desire is to see 600 people, from the youngest to the oldest, praying in the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, if you're a believer who's been a believer for a long time, this would be good for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a new believer, or if you're not sure if you are a believer, this would be good for you.
SPEAKER_00: To dig into the Word of God, to take the promises of God, and there are so many, and not just read them and not just study them as valuable as that is, but to ask the Holy Spirit to make them come alive, to even dare memorize?
SPEAKER_00: That's not a dirty word, is it?
SPEAKER_00: I know you say my kids are really good at that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, they are.
SPEAKER_00: But we're all capable of learning and taking God's word in by the work of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so, for instance, you'll see in the printed sermon text this morning verses that are bolted.
SPEAKER_00: All right, you know where this is going.
SPEAKER_00: And you might say, Tom, that's too much.
SPEAKER_01: If it is, that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Bite sizes, what you can.
SPEAKER_00: Verses three to five might be a good start.
SPEAKER_00: And each Sunday, the first Sunday of each month, we're going to preach on one of the promises of God, and we're going to ask God to help us hide God's truth into our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: That we would hide God's word in, that God's word will continue to speak to us throughout the day, throughout the week.
SPEAKER_00: You know what, a year from now, I think this is going to be good.
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of us are going to have more of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of us are going to have more of God's promises tucked deeply into our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And that will be good.
SPEAKER_00: What we're going to do in our covenant fellowship groups, we're up to 19 already this year.
SPEAKER_00: Many of them kick off this week.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to ask them the first time they meet after the first promise of the month to spend time doing the same thing, just diving deeper into these promises and talking about it, studying it together.
SPEAKER_00: And we're asking the youngest from Covenant Fellowship Kids, Protoss, adults.
SPEAKER_00: We all want to be grabbing hold of God's precious word in a deeper way.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that you'll join us in this journey.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we start with the really what might be called the foundation of the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Peter speaks of this, and you'll see that as I read it.
SPEAKER_00: Hear the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
SPEAKER_00: For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
SPEAKER_00: For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he's blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election.
SPEAKER_00: For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall.
SPEAKER_00: For in this way there will be richly provided for you on entrance into the kingdom, eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have.
SPEAKER_00: I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.
SPEAKER_00: And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reading of God's infallible, inerrant, precious, beautiful word.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just struck by these words.
SPEAKER_00: That you may be able to recall these things at any time.
SPEAKER_00: When you most need these words of truth, that the Spirit will remind you.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, would you please do that?
SPEAKER_00: Oh you oh how we need your truth in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: In a world that has lost truth, in a world that doesn't understand you.
SPEAKER_00: As we're bombarded at work, at school, our culture just constantly throwing error in our face.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we need your truth.
SPEAKER_00: So would you please teach us this morning?
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: The precious and very great promises, that's what Peter calls these promises.
SPEAKER_00: Praying in the promises of God, living out the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're looking at this morning.
SPEAKER_00: In this text, the Apostle Peter, as he says, near the end of his life, this was sometime in the mid-60 A.D.
SPEAKER_00: range.
SPEAKER_00: Nero put him to death.
SPEAKER_00: Nero was out by 68 A.D., it was probably 63 to 65, somewhere around the year 8 A.D.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter knows it's coming to the end.
SPEAKER_00: And he knows that he must say the things that are most important under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to an audience of people that are going through hard times, as you'll see in the first epistle to Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He's facing these early Christians who are going through persecution for their faith.
SPEAKER_00: So we ought not to be so terribly surprised if we get persecuted.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us aren't going to die for our faith.
SPEAKER_00: But can we can we live?
SPEAKER_00: Can we live with a little awkwardness because of our faith?
SPEAKER_00: Can we say things that might rub people the wrong way just because God wants us to?
SPEAKER_00: Not that we are offensive, but that the gospel becomes an offense.
SPEAKER_00: Can we live with a little pushback from the world?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we we we should.
SPEAKER_00: We should.
SPEAKER_00: Many of these readers that Peter is addressing were facing two problems.
SPEAKER_00: One was the persecution because they were Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Just because they were Christians, people were treating them ill.
SPEAKER_00: And the second thing that Peter addresses in this letter is false teaching.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll get into that a little bit today.
SPEAKER_00: The precious and very great promises, that word great, all right, mega is the Greek word, mega.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, kids, when you go through the fast food line and you want a mega, what do you want?
SPEAKER_00: You want that big cup, right?
SPEAKER_00: You want the extra fries.
SPEAKER_00: Mega my size.
SPEAKER_00: Peter uses this word.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to know that the promises of God are more precious than you can hardly imagine.
SPEAKER_00: Great promises.
SPEAKER_00: What promises is he referring to here?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't state them all.
SPEAKER_00: I think he's probably implicit, the promises he's already talked about in his first epistle, the promises of God throughout the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Like, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Is there a better promise than that?
SPEAKER_00: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
SPEAKER_01: And your family.
SPEAKER_01: These are precious promises.
SPEAKER_00: Peter is writing to these Christians, and he describes himself right out of the gate as a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There was a humility to him.
SPEAKER_00: To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours.
SPEAKER_00: That's a beautiful phrase right there.
SPEAKER_00: Even though he's an apostle of Christ, when you come to faith in Jesus Christ, Peter says your standing with Christ is just as sure as mine.
SPEAKER_00: Equal standing.
SPEAKER_00: There are no junior members of the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: God sees all of his children as his children.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have favorites.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in Christ, you have a standing before God the same as the Apostle Peter had.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: By the righteousness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This passage this morning, I'm going to bring out three points.
SPEAKER_00: God's great gift to us, secondly, our great responsibility in light of the gift.
SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, God's gracious enabling to us.
SPEAKER_00: Another way of saying this, I like the way theologian J.I.
SPEAKER_00: Packer puts it, what this passage is about is that we learn how to live slowly enough to think deeply about God.
SPEAKER_00: Are you doing that?
SPEAKER_00: You see, you can't do that if you're going 100 miles an hour.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm talking to you.
SPEAKER_00: Me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care how spiritual you are.
SPEAKER_00: If you're going 100 miles an hour, you can't think slowly enough to meditate, to sit in the truth, to think slowly enough to go deeply with God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he wants from me.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he wants from you.
SPEAKER_00: God's great gift to us.
SPEAKER_00: The first point is simple.
SPEAKER_00: We must know what God has given us and to be reminded of it.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to stop for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: This Greek word that He has granted.
SPEAKER_00: It's stronger than just given.
SPEAKER_00: Granted, what does that suggest in your mind?
SPEAKER_00: If somebody grants something to you, it's a gift.
SPEAKER_00: It's a precious gift.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the Greek, in the Greek, it's in the perfect tense, which means he gave it to you once.
SPEAKER_00: This is a one-time granting, but it continues to have impact in your life on and on and on.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's what the grammar means.
SPEAKER_00: You receive it one time.
SPEAKER_00: You don't receive it two times, three times, five times.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get saved five times.
SPEAKER_00: You get saved once.
SPEAKER_00: But once you really get saved, it goes on and bears fruit in your life for the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Granted, it means to endow, to furnish with an estate.
SPEAKER_00: It's a powerful concept.
SPEAKER_00: And well, all Peter is doing right now is reminding you, if you're a Christian, reminding you of what God gave you.
SPEAKER_00: And if you are a Christian, whenever that was, wherever you were.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not a Christian, oh, isn't this good that you're here?
SPEAKER_00: To hear.
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to hear this anywhere else, probably, this week.
SPEAKER_00: For you to hear this and take this in.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the usual word for to give, it's a much richer word.
SPEAKER_00: So let's stop for a moment and just ask ourselves one very important question.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a Christian, do you know how wealthy you are?
SPEAKER_00: Peter's going to unpack this.
SPEAKER_00: If a benefactor surprised you greatly this afternoon by putting a million dollars into your bank account, or maybe 10 million into your bank account, would you feel wealthy?
SPEAKER_00: Would you feel like you had been granted something precious?
SPEAKER_00: Hear me.
SPEAKER_00: That's nothing compared to what you have when you receive the forgiveness and the power of God in your life, and you receive a new heart, and you're born into the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: I promise you, one day you will realize that if you don't today.
SPEAKER_00: You will realize that.
SPEAKER_00: When you sing of your love to the Savior with the glittering crowns on your head, you will know that all the money that you could have made in this world is nothing compared to the riches that you have in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Rob reminded us of this earlier when he read from Ephesians 2.
SPEAKER_00: But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love that he has, loved us when we were dead in our sins.
SPEAKER_00: You do not know anybody who was not at one point in their life dead, spiritually dead.
SPEAKER_00: But God, because he loved you.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it says.
SPEAKER_00: Even when we were dead, he made us alive together with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: By grace you have been saved through faith.
SPEAKER_00: So that in the coming ages, okay, he's talking about when you're not here any longer, okay?
SPEAKER_00: In the coming ages, when you're no longer here, but your soul will be somewhere, as we just preached several weeks ago, every soul of every person in this room will either be in heaven or hell.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's anywhere else.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody has a foot here and a foot there.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever you're going to be, but if you're in Christ, in the coming ages, when you continue to bask in the love and the forgiveness of God, that he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what he's saying there?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't stop.
SPEAKER_00: In the coming ages that he might continue to show the immeasurable riches of his grace, we're never going to stop being blown away.
SPEAKER_00: There's not one person in heaven who's going to yawn.
SPEAKER_00: There's not one person in heaven who's going to hear the riches of God's glory and love and say, oh yeah, I know that.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: I thought I knew it.
SPEAKER_01: And I did.
SPEAKER_01: But there's so much depth and breadth to the promises of God and to the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm a kindergartner the first day.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to just keep coming.
SPEAKER_00: And you're not going to yawn.
SPEAKER_00: And you're not going to fall asleep.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to fall asleep.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to say, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing better than what you're giving us.
SPEAKER_00: He revealed to us through the knowledge of Jesus who called us to his own.
SPEAKER_00: This word, this verb called, is a rich theological word.
SPEAKER_00: It means an effectual call that when God calls you to himself, he calls with such a distinct, clear, powerful voice that you will hear, that you will respond.
SPEAKER_00: You will.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises.
SPEAKER_00: This word precious is one of Peter's favorite words from 1 Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Peter loves this word.
SPEAKER_00: He talks about the precious blood of Jesus Christ that saved us.
SPEAKER_00: He says, the precious blood of Jesus Christ, you can't even begin to compare with all the gold and silver in this world.
SPEAKER_00: And then some of you old timers know that one of my favorite preachers' sermons to preach from 1 Peter, he actually dares to call us his precious.
SPEAKER_00: Don't have time to unpack that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: That he would call us his precious.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter uses that word here.
SPEAKER_00: The precious and very great promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: So we must ask ourselves, why would he ever make such precious and very great promises to us?
SPEAKER_00: Did he have to?
SPEAKER_00: Did God have to promise anyone here anything?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: He would be no less just, he would be no less righteous, he would be no less God if he didn't.
SPEAKER_00: Why did he make these kind of promises to you?
SPEAKER_00: Are you sleeping on them?
SPEAKER_00: That's a fair question.
SPEAKER_00: Are you sleeping on the promises of God?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I know he did.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: If that's your response, you don't know anything about this.
SPEAKER_00: You just don't.
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, he should make these kind of promises to make.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_01: He's God.
SPEAKER_01: We're not.
SPEAKER_00: That he would make such a promise to you or me.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Peter's saying.
SPEAKER_00: That we would become partakers of his divine nature.
SPEAKER_00: Christ in us, Paul says, the hope of glory.
SPEAKER_00: Christ in us.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, we are temples of the Holy Spirit if you are a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: The new nature that he gives us, the seed of the new nature that he implanted, the moment that you were regenerated, the moment that you came to faith in Christ, the moment that you came to faith in Christ, he put a seed of life in you that grows to bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: We are not only forgiven, friends, but we are partakers of God's nature.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's not telling us that we are deified.
SPEAKER_00: We don't become God like so many of the cults teach.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: But what he is saying, when the moment that you became a Christian, the Holy Spirit gave you faith to believe the promises are true.
SPEAKER_00: He implanted real life, spiritual life in you at that moment.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I want to move in.
SPEAKER_00: And I say, really?
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, you want to move in?
SPEAKER_00: Here.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what's really in here sometimes?
SPEAKER_00: He says, no, I'm I'm moving in.
SPEAKER_00: I'm moving in and I'm cleaning up.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of rubbish I'm going to throw out.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of truth I want to implant.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we call him the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's the Spirit of God, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: He's holy.
SPEAKER_00: And he's here to make us holy and to grow us.
SPEAKER_00: We are partakers of this divine nature.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says, having escaped from the corruption of this world, Peter has so much to say about that in this epistle.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Peter chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 7, he's talking about the end of the world.
SPEAKER_00: But by the same word, the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
SPEAKER_00: One day this world is going to be burned up.
SPEAKER_00: One day this world is going to be destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: God is going to make a new heaven and a new earth.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to walk on that new earth.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to breathe that new air.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to live forever with our King and our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says, don't get caught in the destruction.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get caught up in the corruption.
SPEAKER_00: We are partakers, which means we now have the family resemblance.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't look anything like Jesus, you don't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Once you become a Christian, he gives you the family genes.
SPEAKER_00: If you say I'm a Christian, but there's nothing in your life that resembles him, you're not a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You may think you're a Christian, but you're not.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible has so much to say about this.
SPEAKER_00: It's not until we get to heaven that we're going to be like him fully.
SPEAKER_00: We're not like him fully now.
SPEAKER_00: But we ought to be looking more like him.
SPEAKER_00: And in order to look more like him, we need to know more of him.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we need to be people of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We need the Holy Spirit to make us like this.
SPEAKER_00: The seed of life that he implants at the time of our conversion.
SPEAKER_00: This new life, therefore, we not only share in his promises, but we also share in his power.
SPEAKER_00: Is the power working in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, we must understand our great responsibility in response to this.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Add.
SPEAKER_00: The NIV says, add to your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Supplement your faith.
SPEAKER_00: This is a very rich Greek word that came from the first century, from the Greek world of stage and drama.
SPEAKER_00: The director of a play, the director of a production, not only coached and directed the cast, many of them who were wealthy also paid the expenses of the cast.
SPEAKER_00: They paid the expenses of the production cost, contributions out of their own personal financial resources to whatever the city, whatever the state might have already supplied.
SPEAKER_00: Got that?
SPEAKER_00: Korygos was the Greek word.
SPEAKER_00: Korygas.
SPEAKER_00: Some choir master.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not only the conductor who was proficient in his skills and his gifts of conducting, but he was a wealthy person.
SPEAKER_00: She was a wealthy person.
SPEAKER_00: They could say, well, this production's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to provide all the resources necessary.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to come alongside of you and I'm going to coach you and I'm going to help you.
SPEAKER_00: But this show's going to open.
SPEAKER_00: That's the word he uses.
SPEAKER_00: Here, isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_00: God is the one who does it, but you're in the cast.
SPEAKER_00: You're in the play.
SPEAKER_00: You're in the production.
SPEAKER_00: He was the Koragos, the choir master.
SPEAKER_00: Make every effort to add, to supplement to your faith, because he's doing this, he's calling you into production with him, and you have a part to play.
SPEAKER_00: You're not just an audience member in the seats.
SPEAKER_00: You're in the production.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Make every effort to do your part.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of the words of Paul in Philippians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Work out your salvation with what?
SPEAKER_00: Fear and trembling.
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying you should really be afraid because you don't know if God's really angry with you and or he loves you.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know, so you better work hard to get him on your side.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that.
SPEAKER_00: Fear is holy fear, it's loving fear.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a child who properly fears, properly fears his parent or his coach or his teacher.
SPEAKER_00: You want to do well for them.
SPEAKER_00: You want to do your best.
SPEAKER_00: You work hard.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to disappoint them.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it suggests.
SPEAKER_00: Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Martin Lloyd Jones, the great theologian a few decades ago, likened this concept to a farm.
SPEAKER_00: The farm, he talks about it.
SPEAKER_00: The farm is God's gift to you.
SPEAKER_00: We are given the farm, meaning what we've already talked about this morning, our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: We are also given the farm equipment with which to farm.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us the seed.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us the sunshine.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us the rain.
SPEAKER_00: And so that means the farmer just sits back and does nothing?
SPEAKER_00: Not on your life.
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to have a crop if that's how you farm.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he's getting at.
SPEAKER_00: You, Christian, supplement to your faith.
SPEAKER_00: You're in the production, you're in the process.
SPEAKER_00: Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
SPEAKER_00: Get at it.
SPEAKER_00: Make every effort to do your part.
SPEAKER_00: And that means that we must learn how to respond to the Holy Spirit's work in our life.
SPEAKER_00: There's so many passages we could go to today, and time does not permit.
SPEAKER_00: I think probably maybe one of the first ones that came to my mind in my study was from Galatians 5, verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: But I say walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Then he goes on to give the list of the weeds, what happens when we don't do this, and he gives the fruit of the Spirit when we do.
SPEAKER_00: I have a question.
SPEAKER_00: When he says, But I say, walk by the Holy Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: What trouble has come upon you in the last year or few years because you haven't been walking in the Spirit and you've been gratifying the flesh?
SPEAKER_00: What trouble have you brought into your life?
SPEAKER_00: Because you don't believe the promise of God and you're not learning how to walk in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: What trouble has come into your life?
SPEAKER_00: We all could speak to that, couldn't we?
SPEAKER_00: None of us are perfect.
SPEAKER_00: But we must learn and we must listen.
SPEAKER_00: And we must understand that there's an effort on our part that's required.
SPEAKER_00: You don't just sit back.
SPEAKER_00: You have to participate in this.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is like a muscle.
SPEAKER_00: If you use it, it gets stronger.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't, it atrophies.
SPEAKER_00: Your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Is your faith growing stronger or weaker?
SPEAKER_00: This matters.
SPEAKER_00: And then Peter goes on to list these eight different qualities that are like the fruit of the Spirit, qualities produced by the Spirit, yet requiring our effort.
SPEAKER_00: It begins with faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faith to believe the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: Do you pray for faith?
SPEAKER_00: You should pray for faith every day of your life.
SPEAKER_00: I do.
SPEAKER_00: Every day I pray for faith.
SPEAKER_00: You say, well, Tom, don't you have faith?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I do.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is like a muscle.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, would you grow my faith?
SPEAKER_00: Would you grow my faith to believe your promises?
SPEAKER_00: Then he talks about virtue, which means moral excellence, integrity, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: Are you growing in integrity?
SPEAKER_00: Are you growing as a person of your word that what you say you will, you do?
SPEAKER_00: What you say you won't do, you don't, by the power of God?
SPEAKER_00: Integrity, moral excellence.
SPEAKER_00: I have a question.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think that comes before the next virtue of knowledge?
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you asked that question.
SPEAKER_00: Because you know what happens when virtue doesn't come next?
SPEAKER_00: You get proud and arrogant and puffed up.
SPEAKER_00: When you just go right to know when knowledge is your go-to, I know I'm talking to a lot of us here.
SPEAKER_00: This is DC.
SPEAKER_00: We love knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: We think knowledge is power.
SPEAKER_00: When you just go to knowledge without virtue, you just become proud and arrogant and by the way, hard to live with.
SPEAKER_00: Virtue must come next.
SPEAKER_00: Added to the faith is a humility, is a moral excellence that sees God as God, not me as God.
SPEAKER_00: But knowledge is important, putting on knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: We're saying let's grow in our knowledge of God's word, but with humble hearts.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, do you see that the relationship between the time that we spend in the Word of God and pride?
SPEAKER_00: The more proud you are, the less time you'll spend in God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: You don't think you need it.
SPEAKER_00: The more proud you are, the less time you will spend in God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: You may never say it, but what you're really, your life is saying, I don't need that.
SPEAKER_00: I've already figured out what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: I've already figured out how I'm gonna live.
SPEAKER_00: I've already figured out the plan for my life.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't, I'm not one of those religious fanatics.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not into Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: You better be.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not, get started.
SPEAKER_00: Are you humble enough to say, I need God's word in my life?
SPEAKER_00: I need to be a student of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Start wherever you are.
SPEAKER_01: Wherever you are is the right place to start.
SPEAKER_01: And say, God, teach me your word.
SPEAKER_01: That's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: Then he lifts self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Without getting into the context here, many scholars believe that what Peter is saying here is he's addressing the Gnostics, those who said they weren't Christians.
SPEAKER_00: They were using some gospel truth to convince themselves that they knew enough about God that they were good, and God would just accept them on their terms.
SPEAKER_00: It's a dangerous heresy.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, it's alive and well today, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: To know just enough about God to think, okay, I think I'm on speaking terms with him.
SPEAKER_00: I think I know enough.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to know that much more.
SPEAKER_00: I think I know enough.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says, no.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: To control the self-control, control our passions.
SPEAKER_00: You see, they were they were engaged in a lot of six sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not lost on our generation.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a Christian, but it it really doesn't matter what I do with my body.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes, it does.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a Christian, but God understands.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm saved.
SPEAKER_00: Does it really matter what I do here and there if I'm saved?
SPEAKER_00: That's a dangerous way of thinking.
SPEAKER_00: That's a very dangerous way of thinking.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible would warn you against that thinking.
SPEAKER_00: It may not be a judgment, only God knows your heart, but that's a warning.
SPEAKER_00: That's a dangerous way to live.
SPEAKER_00: Steadfastness, ability to persevere under hard circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Look, I'm your pastor.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know all of you, but I know a lot of you.
SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of what a lot of you are going through.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if you're sitting here and you think, yeah, I've been in Tom's office lately, he must be talking about me, you have no clue.
SPEAKER_00: You have no clue how many people are going through hard stuff.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just you.
SPEAKER_00: Steadfastness is the grace of God to stay in the hard place and not give up and not walk out and not run away.
SPEAKER_00: Because the promises of God are speaking to you.
SPEAKER_00: God is speaking to you.
SPEAKER_00: You're not running away just because it's hard.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Holy Spirit can give you.
SPEAKER_00: And then he talks about godliness, which leads to brotherly affection, the way we treat each other, to speak kindly to each other, to respect each other.
SPEAKER_01: Let's treat each other as if we love each other.
SPEAKER_00: Because God can do that in us.
SPEAKER_00: And then he uses the Greek word agape, love.
SPEAKER_00: Love.
SPEAKER_00: Let's love as God loves us.
SPEAKER_00: As God loves us.
SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed this little word in Peter's writing?
SPEAKER_00: The little word if.
SPEAKER_00: That's a little word repeated with a big meaning.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8, for if these qualities are yours and increasing, they will keep you from being ineffective or unproductive.
SPEAKER_00: For if.
SPEAKER_00: And there's an if not, isn't there?
SPEAKER_00: If always considers a choice.
SPEAKER_00: If these qualities are yours and increasing in your life, they will keep you from being ineffective or unproductive.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9, for whoever lacks these qualities is nearsighted.
SPEAKER_00: That person is blind, forgetting that he has been cleansed by the blood of God.
SPEAKER_00: Forgetting that he has been cleansed by the blood of God.
SPEAKER_00: Stop making excuses for every kind of license in our lives, Peter would say, as though we had permission to do what we shouldn't be doing.
SPEAKER_00: I like the way one paraphrase puts this thought.
SPEAKER_00: Without these qualities, you can't see what's right before you.
SPEAKER_00: Oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books of God in the grace of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So, friends, confirm God's invitation to you, his choice of you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't put it off.
SPEAKER_00: Do it now.
SPEAKER_00: Do this and you will have life on a firm footing.
SPEAKER_00: The streets will be paved and the way wide open into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, verse 10, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election.
SPEAKER_00: For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10 is a verse to hang out.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that a lot this week, isn't it, verse 10?
SPEAKER_00: For if, for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall.
SPEAKER_00: That seems to suggest that you can fall.
SPEAKER_00: That seems to suggest that there's a falling, a hard falling, a fatal falling.
SPEAKER_00: Grace is contrasted with earning, but not with effort.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible contrasts grace with earning.
SPEAKER_00: You don't earn any of this, but that doesn't mean that there is not effort required.
SPEAKER_00: It's our effort and it's his power.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's the trick.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, trick.
SPEAKER_00: I think that took me years to understand.
SPEAKER_00: It's always his power, but it always requires your effort.
SPEAKER_00: It's not your power, but it does require your effort.
SPEAKER_00: And if it doesn't have your effort, you're not believing his promises.
SPEAKER_00: Those who believe his promises put forth an effort.
SPEAKER_00: As we close, it's God's gracious enabling for all this so that we will never fall.
SPEAKER_00: If we do not add to these qualities, how could we have the assurance of our salvation?
SPEAKER_00: May I ask that question again?
SPEAKER_00: If we do not take hold of this truth this morning, on what basis would you say, I know I'm a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: If there's no evidence, why do you think you're a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: Make your election.
SPEAKER_00: Be sure to make sure, diligent, to show that your salvation is true.
SPEAKER_00: It's real.
SPEAKER_00: There's fruit.
SPEAKER_00: There's evidence.
SPEAKER_00: There's enough evidence to convict you, as the saying goes.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I need.
SPEAKER_00: When we believe these promises, we add to our faith.
SPEAKER_00: So in closing, let's farm the land that God has given to us by his power.
SPEAKER_00: Let's farm the land.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do it together as a church.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to close with this illustration.
SPEAKER_00: Expecting moms have checkups.
SPEAKER_00: Expecting moms go to the doctor at different intervals, right?
SPEAKER_00: For one purpose.
SPEAKER_00: To see that the baby is healthy, that the baby is growing.
SPEAKER_00: We need spiritual checkups as well, friends.
SPEAKER_00: You need spiritual checkups, and I do, to see if in fact there really is life.
SPEAKER_00: And that life is growing.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God for the life that He is growing among us and in us and through us in this church family.
SPEAKER_00: May the farm just produce that much more fruit in the next 12 months in this church and in your life and in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Pray with me.
SPEAKER_00: Father, would you please?
SPEAKER_00: Would you please give us the gift of faith for anybody who's here that is not a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: Would you give them the gift of faith to believe?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, God, please.
SPEAKER_00: For those of us that are Christians, Lord, we want to be productive, not unproductive.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be fruitful, not unfruitful.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Lord, give us the want to, give us the desire to apply ourselves to these things, to make effort.
SPEAKER_00: God, please.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do it, but you can.
SPEAKER_00: And we're coming to you asking that you would.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, amen.