Growing in Grace

2 Peter 3:14-18

Transcript

Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by
Him without spot or blemish and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as
salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the
wisdom given to him, as he does in all of his letters when he speaks in them of
these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which
the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other
scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you
are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own
stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. Let's
pray together. Father, we are thankful for your word and we're thankful for the
exhortation of this book, this challenge to keep growing in grace. Lord, I pray
that you would speak to us through your word this morning, that you would mold
us and shape us more and more into the image of your Son. And Father, that you
would encourage each one of us to take that next step to pursue greater growth
in grace. We pray for this Lord through your name Jesus Christ. Amen. Famous
last words. They reveal a lot about a person's character and a person's burden.
There are some famous last words that are rather lighthearted. For example,
George Orwell allegedly said at the end of his life, by the time a man reaches
50, he has the face that he deserves. I don't know what exactly he meant by
that. I'm 45. That's kind of a scary thought. But that was his final words. Now
sadly, many of their last words are not marked by triviality but rather by
despair, by fear, by hopelessness. The atheist Voltaire noted, I am abandoned by
God and man. I shall go to hell. Winston Churchill, the great leader who
galvanized an entire nation, a man of hope, at the end said this, I'm bored with
it all. I am convinced that there is no hope. Now think about these words in
contrast to the last words of those who have a humble, confident faith in the
promises and power of Christ. For example, I think of Paul who at the end of it
all said, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept
the faith. Or even of our Lord Jesus Christ who at the very end breathed out, it
is finished. The work is complete. Now there are some words that a person offers
toward the end that were meant to challenge, to inspire, to encourage, to
instruct those that they love. For example, D.L. Moody, as he was dying, looked
at the young men that were by his bedside and said, if God be your partner, make
your plans large. I think of the prophet Samuel who is ready to pass the baton
of leadership to Saul who looks at the crowd one more time and says, only fear
the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart for consider how great
things he has done for you. Or the apostle Paul as he wrote to his son in the
faith Timothy, preach the word. And so now we come to 2 Peter 3, 14-18. Peter's
final words. At one point, Peter was the most prominent, well-known apostle. He
was a man who went from an overconfident, outspoken leader to a humble, wise
shepherd of God's church. And Peter knows as he writes this epistle that his
days are numbered. In chapter 1 13 he said, I know that the putting off of my
body will be soon as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And so knowing that
this was the case, knowing that this most likely would be his final letter, his
last words to the church, what was Peter's burden? What was it that he wanted to
impart to the church in the face of his own impending execution? As we open the
text this morning, here's the challenge. Here's the final word. Here's the great
burden. Make every effort to keep growing in grace. This is a challenge. Make
every effort. Be diligent. Strive to keep on growing in grace. We see this
challenge first unfolding in the exhortation of verses 14-16 and then in this
final charge in verses 17-18. So in verses 14-16 we read, Therefore, beloved,
since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or
blemish and at peace. Now before we take note of what Peter said in this final
challenge, I want you to notice how he says it. Three times in this section we
read the word beloved. Beloved. Notice the love that Peter has for his brothers
and sisters in Christ. Three times he addresses them as beloved. Now I can't
help but think as he's writing these notes of Christ's loving confrontation with
Peter where three times Jesus asks him, Do you love me? And if so, feed my
lambs. Love my people. Now did Peter have that in mind when he penned this final
charge? I don't know. But I do know that it's a really sweet thing to see Jesus
restoring and renewing his people through the power of his love. And so in light
of this love, Peter says, Therefore. Now chapter 3, 1-13, Peter has spent a
great deal of time defending the truth that Jesus will be coming back regardless
of what the skeptics think or say. And when he comes, he will judge his enemies.
He will reverse the curse of sin. He will purify his creation through fire and
ultimately establish a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness will
dwell forever. And so in verses 11-13, he states that he's not merely arguing
for this truth, but that this truth ought to matter and impact how we live. And
so in verses 11, he said, Look, since all these things are thus to be dissolved,
since all of this is true, what sort of people ought we to be in lives of
holiness and godliness as we eagerly anticipate this day? And so in verse 14, he
sort of almost kind of re-summarizes this exhortation. He says, Since you're
waiting for these beloved, be diligent to be found by him at his coming without
spot or blemish and at peace. Notice how Peter connects this final charge with
our future hope. You see, for Peter in the scriptures, waiting is not a passive
thing. It's an anticipation that influences action. It's future hope that shapes
present living. And the truth is we all almost instinctively understand this. We
have a goal in mind that shapes then how we live today. I remember before our
wedding, as I was preparing our honeymoon, I wanted to make sure I had ample
money and resources to go all out. Now I had one more final course that I had to
take in Pensacola, Florida to finish up my master's program. So I had to go down
there for two weeks. And as I thought and looked at the amount of money that I
would have to spend for rent, I realized, ooh, this is going to really put a big
dent into our honeymoon plans. So I found a guy, a guy who was renovating a
home. There were no windows in the home. Debbie can confirm this. There were no
beds in the home. There was no carpet in the home. The whole thing was being
gutted. And so I asked my buddy, I said, hey, man, do you mind if I just like
stay here? He's like, actually, there's a bunch of other guys getting ready to
get married. They're all going to stay here, too. So it's like five of us. And
we're all just like, you know, hunkering down in this God forsaken home. And
there's no windows. There's barely any electricity. There's no carpeting. I
remember in the middle of the night being woken up, my foot was kind of itching.
And I looked down and there was a cat, stray cat that had jumped into the home
and was like licking my feet. There's these little there's a big old Florida
cockroaches. Florida's mostly Jurassic Park. So you've got these big old
cockroaches running around. It was disgusting, absolutely disgusting. During
that two week time, I fed myself. I had peanut butter and honey on bread and
tuna fish. My breath was atrocious, but I didn't care because I was with a bunch
of dudes. So it didn't really matter. I spent twenty dollars for my food for
those two weeks. I just found a way to live as minimally as possible because I
had this goal in mind. I said, look, I can go through a lot now because the best
is yet to come. I'm waiting for something that is far, far greater. So these
sacrifices are but a small thing compared to what awaits us. So we get this,
don't we? But for the Christian, I think we lose sight sometimes that we have a
future hope that is real, a future hope that is life changing and a future hope
that was meant to affect how we live right now. He says, look, you're waiting
for this. This is what you anticipate. This is what we long for and look forward
to. Therefore, be diligent. Go after this purity, this peace in the presence of
God. He's really kind of almost elaborating on the earlier exhortation of verses
11 through 12. Holiness and godliness, this time he emphasizes without spot or
blemish. He's using this idea of purity and sacrificial language. He's saying
live as a living sacrifice. Live a life of worship as you wait for the coming of
Christ. Romans 12, one and two, the scripture exhorts us, present your bodies as
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service,
your reasonable worship. He says, present yourself. Go after a life that is to
be found by Christ without spot or blemish and at peace. Now this peace could
refer to a settled sense of well-being as we prepare to meet our savior. And
needless to say, pursuing a life of godliness should and can lead to such peace.
But I think he's referring here more specifically to relational peace within the
body of Christ. So go after holiness, go after health of relationships. You see
the truth is Christ is coming, therefore we ought to live a certain way. That's
what he argues for in 11 through 12. But in verses 14 to the end of the chapter,
he's saying, okay, if this is true, therefore be diligent to go after it. It's
not enough to simply agree with the idea that we should be holy and godly and
pure. Most Christians would all agree, yeah, that's what we should be. But we
actually have to make hard life choices if we're actively going to pursue this
kind of purity of character and conduct. We must be diligent, make every effort.
Now when we hear about things like diligence or striving or being eager and
pursuing, we might struggle with this because we think, well, wait a minute, is
he saying that we're like saved by grace and then we're sanctified by effort? Is
that what Peter's arguing for? Well, I think this kind of creates a false
dichotomy that assumes that grace is opposed to effort. But scripturally, that
couldn't be farther from the truth. In 1 Corinthians 15, 10, I think we have
that in the back there, Paul says, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. And
his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any
of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. So who
worked hard? Was it Paul or was it grace? The answer is yes. Grace is not
opposed to effort. Grace fuels effort. In Colossians 1, we read, him we
proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may
present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling, the idea there
is agonizing with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. In
Philippians, we read Paul saying, forgetting what lies behind and straining
forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the
upward call of God in Christ Jesus. You see, there's nothing passive about
Christian growth. No one passively becomes holy or godly. Pursuing growth means
living a life of dependent responsibility. Holy, holy, holy, grace fueled, grace
driven, grace empowered effort. And I believe we need this challenge in our day
because far too many of us, we grow complacent. We start to kind of coast. We
stop fighting sin. We grow accustomed to it. It just kind of is what it is. But
the truth is, if you and I are going to be all that God has called and gifted us
to be, we have to stop the excuses. We have to stop making provision for the
sinful flesh. We have to stop believing the lies of sin. We need to look to
Christ. We need to make the hard choices that are necessary to do whatever it
takes to keep on growing in grace. That's what he's saying. And as we make those
hard choices, we cry out, Lord, help me. Lord, strengthen me. Lord, grant me
your sanctifying, strengthening grace. So beloved, look what you have to look
forward to. Therefore be diligent. Make every effort to put sin to death and
live a life of holiness, a life of worship, a life that can be found at peace
with God and with one another. He goes on then to say in verse 15, And count the
patience of our Lord as salvation. You see, there's a very real temptation in
light of our limited perspective and patience to wonder at times if the pursuit
of holiness and godliness is really worth the effort. And there's a reason we
struggle with that because we don't oftentimes see or experience the immediate
reward or an immediate payoff. And so we wonder, I'm putting all this time in.
Is it worth it? And Peter is saying it absolutely is because Jesus is coming
back, but his delay actually gives us more opportunity to live and labor for the
gospel's advance. And so think about it. When he comes back, there's no more
opportunity for evangelism. There's no more opportunity for missions. That will
be done. So our mindset ought to be, until he comes, let's make every effort.
Let's work hard by his grace to see his kingdom advanced, to see more people
repent before it's too late. Is it God's work? Yes. But he invites us into the
work. And so let us labor then, knowing that each day that our Lord delays is
another opportunity for people to repent and believe our great gospel. He then
goes on to say, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to
the wisdom given to him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them
about these matters, there are some things in them that are hard to understand,
which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do other
scriptures. Now initially this seems to be kind of random, doesn't it? I've read
this passage many times and I've always kind of wondered, like, why, as Peter's
leaving this great exhortation to the church, why does he feel obligated to
mention Paul? Like, what's really, what's going on here? Now a lot of folks
rightly see this text and they say, well, this text confirms that Paul's
epistles were regarded early on as equal with other scriptures. And that's good
to know. But once again, why is this passage here? Why would he include this in
his last words? Well, Peter is writing to saints who have already been
recipients of at least one of Paul's epistles. In verse 15 he notes, Paul also
wrote to you about these matters. Paul has already written and now Peter is
writing his epistle. Now there had been a time when Peter was the preeminent
apostle, but things changed when Paul came on the scene. Paul ascended to
prominence and in the process famously rebuked Peter publicly for his hypocrisy.
You can read about this in Galatians chapter 2. Now knowing that history,
wouldn't it have been easy for these people to prefer one apostle over the
other? Or to perhaps pit the two of these apostles against each other? How easy
would it have been for Peter or Paul to have let jealousy, pride, or hurt
feelings create some kind of a relational divide? Yet at the end of his life,
Peter wants us to understand, no, there's no divide. We're on the same team.
We're preaching the same message. That's my beloved brother. We would say in
today's language, that's my boy. And his message and my message go together. So
growing in grace. It's not just a you and God thing. It's a deeply relational
thing. You see, the more you grow in grace, the more resilient and rich your
relationships within the body of Christ become. See the resiliency. See the
richness. These men have been through their battles and yet through it all, we
see a beautiful love and unity. We ought to see that more and more within the
body of Christ. The more we grow in grace, the more resilient and rich our
relationships should be. And it makes sense because as we grow in grace, we
become free to extend grace and not continually put people into our expectations
and note their shortcomings and their fallings. As we grow in grace, we see the
grace given to us. We're then free to extend that grace to others. And where
there are differences, there's forgiveness. There's peace. It's a beautiful
thing. And so even here at the end of his life, Peter wants these people to
know, hey, yeah, we went through our battles. We went through the struggle and
yet we're on the same team. And we're both pursuing growth and grace together.
Now there are some things in Paul's letters that are hard to understand. And so
the ignorant and the unstable, what do they do? They twist it. They distort it.
They butcher it to their own destruction as they do other scriptures. So he
says, look, we're talking about the same things. We face the same problems.
Truth is straightforward, but it's not always simple. It can be hard to
understand. And so the problem is ignorant and unstable souls twist the truth
for their own purposes. They did it to Paul. They did it to Peter. They'll do it
wherever the truth is proclaimed. And by the way, these ignorant, unstable
people, this is not some kind of passive ignorance that we're talking about.
We're talking about people who actively take the truth and decided, nope, I want
my way and I'm going to distort it. I'm going to twist it. I'm going to make it
fit into my self-centered framework. Praying in grace requires both the active
pursuit of godliness, but also the understanding, the recognition and rejection
of error. So in verses 17 through 18, he gives his final charge. You therefore,
beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with
the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. To grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, to him be the glory both now
and to the day of eternity. Amen. To keep on growing in grace, we must be on
guard against deceitful teachings. And we need this exhortation because it's a
problem. Not just back then, it's a problem today as well. In fact, we could
even argue it's a greater problem because we have access to so many compelling
prominent voices that make a ton of sense, and yet they're not biblical. They're
not scriptural. They've got their own agenda. Be on guard. I have seen this and
it grieves and saddens me. People get attracted and then compelled by a false
teacher or false teaching and they lose their stability. They lose their
sincerity. They lose their first love for Christ. And it's a sad thing. And so
therefore, at the end of life, he just wants to remind God's people. He wants to
remind the church, hey look, false teachers are here. They will be here. Be on
guard. Don't get sucked in by their plausible arguments, but rather, verse 18,
grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I
love this. Grace is both the environment and it's also the enablement of
spiritual growth. It's been wisely said that the essence of Christian theology
is grace. Now grace is more than merely unmerited favor. It's the favor of God
that comes through Christ to people who actively deserve wrath. It's not just
that we don't deserve it. We deserve something way worse than that. And yet God
in Christ gives grace. Scripture tells us that grace is the realm in which we
live. Romans 6 14, sin will not have dominion over you since you are not under
the authority or realm of the law, but you're under grace. Grace is the strength
that God gives that enables us to stand firm and to press on in the pursuit of
godliness. 2 Timothy 2 1, Paul says, you then my son, be strengthened by the
grace that is in Christ Jesus. In Hebrews we read, do not be led astray by
diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened
by grace. Grace is the sanctifying work of God that makes us more like Christ.
This is why Paul could say, I am what I am by the grace of God. And the good
news is this grace is available to all who will humble themselves and live a
life of dependent responsibility upon the Lord Jesus. 1 Peter 5 10, God gives
his grace to the humble. So grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Not mere information, not theology divorced from love or relationship,
but the kind of growth and truth that leads to humble, joyful love for Christ
and a love for the goodness of his ways. So Peter, at the end of his life, he
knows there are threats, he knows there are struggles, he knows there are
challenges. And so here is his final word. Here's the one thing he wants the
church to pursue after and the one thing we must pursue after. Here's the final
word. Make every effort to keep on growing in grace. Let's pray. Father, I thank
you for this word. I thank you for this challenge. Lord, I thank you for what
grace does and what it is. It's a beautiful thing, Lord. Help us to believe it,
to receive it, to live by it. To pursue and make every effort to grow in
holiness and godliness, to live a life that is without spot or blemish,
blameless as we anticipate your coming. A life that is lived in rich and
resilient relationships with your people, where actively together we grow in
grace and pursue more of Christ. Would you make this church that kind of family,
we pray? So Father, I pray that you would work in our lives, that we might put
sin to death and make every effort to keep on growing in grace. We pray this so
that Jesus Christ may be glorified. In his name we pray. Amen.