Blessed Assurance - [2 Peter 1:5-11]

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You know, doubt can be a valuable thing. In fact, as I drove here this morning,
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I was reminded of how valuable doubt could be because I doubted I could stay on the road.
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But doubt can also spur you on. If you're not sure if you can do something, sometimes it challenges you to do something.
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But it can also lead to what's called the paralysis of analysis. Doubt in certain circumstances can be deadly.
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I'll never forget the first time I was exposed to tear gas. For those of you who don't know me,
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I come from a family. My dad was a police officer. I was a police officer for 21 years.
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But my dad never exposed me to tear gas. He never took me into the bedroom and said, Son, I've got a lesson for you this morning.
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The first time I was ever exposed to tear gas was in basic training,
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Fort McClellan, Alabama. Now, we had been warned for several weeks.
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This was weeks into the program. We'd been warned that we were heading for what was known as the gas chamber.
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We were also told exactly what we needed to do. We went there that day.
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We sat and we listened to the presentation on the importance of gas masks. We were wearing them.
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We had these little, I don't know what you want to call them, little mask holders. And you strapped them around your waist and around your leg and you cinched them up and there they were right by your side.
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And then we put them on during the course of this class and we checked each other's seals and we practiced taking them on and putting them off.
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And then the loud call of gas seemed to fill the room.
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And we reacted hurriedly by putting our masks on. And we could see all the gas coming into the room and there were a couple coughs.
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Well, it was that time. It was the appointed time to line up at the door to give our name, rank, serial number, and platoon.
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And I'll never forget, you know, people were standing there at the doorway and they'd take their gas mask off one by one and each one would stand up there and they'd start and then they'd start coughing and some people were getting sick in the background.
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And I mean, it was, you know, but I was, I had been practicing and I'm telling you, I had never practiced so hard for anything in my life.
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You know, tests, everything else, forget it. This was important. And I could say my name, rank, no,
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I'm not going to practice for you this morning because I haven't been in practice, but I could literally say, I'd never spoken so fast in my life.
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I could say, it was just done. So I get to the front.
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Staff Sergeant Weck. Some people you never forget in life. Sergeant Weck says, all right, son, give me your name, rank, and serial number, platoon number.
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So I took it off and I said it. And I mean, just like that, I rattled it right off.
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And I started walking forward and the sergeant started smiling and he put his hand out and he said, hold on there just a minute, son.
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He said, I don't think I quite got that, soldier. And I was still okay.
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I mean, this was all so fast. I was fine. He said, let me have that one more time.
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So I started again and then all of a sudden my eyes started watering. I started coughing and I don't even know if I finished.
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He said, oh, that's okay. That's fine. He just wanted to make sure that I got the full value of my training.
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He didn't want me to be cheated out of a single thing. You know, over the years, after my time in the
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Army, during my time on the Sheriff's Department, I put a gas mask on countless times.
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And after that occasion where we'd sat in there and the whole room filled with gas, and I was quite comfortable until I took it off and actually had to breathe the stuff.
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After that, I really had confidence in my equipment. I knew that it would work. And when you think about it, it's that assurance that my mask would work when it was supposed to work that strengthened me, that allowed me to function in a lot of emergency situations.
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And similarly, assurance of salvation is a good thing.
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It frees you from worrying about your eternal destination. It allows you to freely preach the gospel to others, to unbelievers.
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And there's one other thing it does, and this is Peter's purpose, and I would invite you to turn to 2 Peter. We're going to be looking at chapter 1 this morning.
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Assurance of salvation, knowing where you are going, can protect you from false teachers.
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And of course, that's Peter's whole purpose in writing this second letter, 2
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Peter, is to warn the church about the coming of false teachers.
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And the last time I taught from 2 Peter, we looked at the first four verses as Peter reminded his readers of the theological truths of the gospel.
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We looked at how the initiative of God is, or the initiative of salvation is with God, and how he has provided us with every necessity, every spiritual necessity to live a life that is pleasing to him.
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What do you not have to live out your Christian faith? What are you lacking?
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Peter says you're lacking nothing. Look at verse 3. Seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence.
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You are lacking nothing. He's going to go on and develop this thought some more.
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Let's look at our text, which will begin in verse 5 of 2 Peter chapter 1. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge.
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And in your knowledge, self -control. And in your self -control, perseverance.
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And in your perseverance, godliness. And in your godliness, brotherly kindness.
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And in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short -sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
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Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you.
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For as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble. For in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our
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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. Well, this morning,
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I want to draw your attention. I tried multiple ways to shorten this. I thought about going to two weeks.
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But I have 12 commands. 12 commands from our text, so that you will work diligently to develop moral characteristics.
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Not as some kind of checklist. You know, oh, I've got this. I just need to get that.
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I've got 9 out of the 12. I'm better than most. But in gratitude for what
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God has done for you. I want to confront you with these 12 imperatives so that you can, in effect, examine yourselves.
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Sort out where your life is and where it needs to be. First of all, you must be diligent.
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Verse 5. Now, for this very reason also, applying all diligence. One commentator says, the
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Christian life must not be an initial spasm followed by chronic inertia.
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In other words, it's not this sudden burst of enlightenment and happiness and then nothing after that.
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Jesus taught the parable of the soils and spoke about those who sprout right up and then die out.
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Why? Because he knew that was a reality.
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That was one of the things that people will do. And then as soon as difficulty or oppression arises, they leave the faith.
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Because the root of salvation was never there in the first place. And Peter is addressing a very similar idea.
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Look at his very first words. Now, for this reason. Well, what reason? What reason?
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Listen to what Lloyd -Jones says. Peter reminds his readers of the glorious character of their precious faith, its origin in the mind and heart of the triune
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God. He's kind of reminding us of all that's said in verses 1 to 4. What it has done to us, the gospel, the precious faith, and the glorious prospect it holds out before us of being partakers of the divine nature and of knowing
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God. Because of that. For that very reason.
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Again, God has granted, bestowed, given every believer everything they need.
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And it is in light of God's gracious gift of salvation that there is a required or requisite response.
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We cannot save ourselves. We cannot sanctify ourselves.
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But the Bible presents us with a responsibility. We say on many occasions,
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God is sovereign, man is responsible. God has given us everything we need, but those whom he has saved will exercise what he's given us.
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We will act on it. We will exhibit certain characteristics. Now, will we all do so to the same degree?
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Will we all be the same? Will we all function exactly alike? No. Some of us will excel in certain areas and not so much in others.
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However, you are commanded to show these characteristics.
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Not simply because they show the work of God in your lives or because you will impress someone, but for your own good.
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So that you might know that you belong to Christ. This assurance, again, is a protection, an insulation, a firewall between you and false teachers.
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You say, well, how so? What do false teachers do? They present a gospel that will claim you are missing something.
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Otherwise, they wouldn't be false teachers. If they gave you the real gospel, they wouldn't be false teachers.
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But they'll tell you that you're missing something or that you've gone too far. That you've overlooked some secrets.
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They have some insight that seems exciting. You know, it's much like back in the day when
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I used to lift weights. And I used to say to the guys, you know, they'd come in with all these magazines about how to lift weights.
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Or it could be a golfing magazine or whatever. Think about this. If there's only one right way to do something, can you sustain a magazine about it?
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You couldn't. There would be a book, right? Because all the magazine articles would be exactly the same thing.
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Hey, by the way, this is how you need to do this. Next month, by the way, it's still the same. Next month, you know, and after about six months of that, you go, why did
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I subscribe to this? So instead, what you get is a weightlifting magazine, a golfing magazine, a cooking magazine that says, oh, everything that you've been doing is all wrong.
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You know, you used to think you only wanted to lift heavy for a few repetitions. That's not the way to go.
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It's to lift light for a lot of repetitions. Or it's to lift Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. No, it's actually Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.
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I mean, every month is going to be something different because you cannot settle on one thing or you're done with them.
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And false teachers, if they come up and say, you know what? Everything you've heard from the Bible is correct, and there's nothing more than they're done.
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So what they'll say is, everything you hear from the Bible is correct, but I've got some insights.
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But I hear from God. But an angel told me, what
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Peter is calling for us to do is to be so fixed and so sure in the truth and to apply it so thoroughly to our lives that when these false teachers come along, it's like baked on food on Teflon.
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It just comes right off. I don't know where that came from. It is to protect us, not so that we can measure ourselves against everybody else and think about how good we are.
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False teachers want several things, but they want your money. They want your adulation.
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They want you to follow them. Listen to 2 Peter a little bit later. Chapter 2, verses 2 and 3.
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Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them, the way of truth will be maligned, and in their greed, they will exploit you with false words.
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Peter wants to protect the church, protect the readers, protect you from false teachers.
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He isn't warning about something that may or may not happen. It's going to.
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Look, many will fall for them. These false teachers are exciting. They've got something new to say.
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They're cutting edge. They're relevant. And what they say feels right. And it's also important to note that Peter is addressing
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Christians. Again, these elements that we talk about here this morning are not a recipe for salvation.
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You don't take this and add that and just a pinch of that and a cup of that and boom, you're saved.
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This is describing what a saved person is to live like, what their lives are to look like.
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And our text says to apply all diligence. And the Greek is a participle.
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And it means... Participle means it's just part of the fabric of your life, but the word literally means to add in a second effort.
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So it's not just enough to try. This is all diligence, to bring in beside something else, to bring a second effort alongside of it.
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And the picture is this. God has given you everything you need. And you are to place beside what he has provided something else.
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And that something else is diligence, eagerness, earnestness, willingness, zeal.
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In other words, in light of all that God has done for you and provided for you, you need to get busy.
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Listen to what Hebert says. Human effort must follow upon the work of God. But human effort is subordinate.
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We can't improve upon the work of God, but we have a responsibility. God must go first, but certainly we must go next.
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Diligence is modified further. All diligence. Peter places an inescapable responsibility on his readers.
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No Christian is immune. You cannot become a Christian and just hit the autopilot button.
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You can't put it in cruise control. All diligence must be exercised.
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Secondly, you must be morally excellent. Again, verse 5.
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In your faith, supply moral excellence. Notice the wording.
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Peter's not asking you to supply faith. He's not saying, you know what, generate your own faith. He's made it clear that God has given us everything, including faith.
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He's acknowledging that believers have a God -given, personally expressed faith, and he's exhorting them to do something with it.
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Moral excellence is moral courage, or more specifically, energy in the exercise of faith.
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It translates into vigorous action. MacArthur says this, that moral excellence never meant cloistered virtue.
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In other words, Peter's not saying go off to a nunnery, or what are the nunneries for guys?
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Monkeries. He's not saying go off into the
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Himalayas and just kind of hang out with really spiritual people, burn incense all the time. That's not moral excellence.
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MacArthur says, it is that which is demonstrated in the normal course of living. It's in real life.
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It is, in effect, spiritual heroism, a willingness to risk one's comfort, reputation, and even one's life for the cause of Christ.
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That's moral excellence. How about you? Are you spiritually brave?
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Are you willing to stand out? Are you willing to go against the grain? And again, it's not just enough to have a little moral excellence.
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He says, supply moral excellence. That verb is a fascinating one. First of all, it's an imperative, a command.
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And it means, the verb means, to provide at one's own expense.
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And it has this original idea. It came from the idea of a rich person who would want to put on a full, large -scale, full -bore, you know, the whole orchestra, the whole choir musical in town.
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A musical production with all the bells and whistles. And he would pay for it out of his own pocket. He would be the big, magnificent benefactor who would provide everything.
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And that's what this verb implies. When it says supply, it doesn't just mean supply a little bit.
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It means to fully supply. To dig into your wallet, as it were. You are commanded to put forth a great effort toward spiritual heroism, toward moral excellence.
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Thirdly, you must have knowledge of the truth. Again, verse 5, and in your moral excellence, knowledge.
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See how Peter is building his argument? One thing leads to another, leads to another. Without faith, you cannot have moral excellence.
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You cannot have spiritual courage. What would you be courageous about? But your moral excellence, your spiritual heroism, is to be guided by knowledge.
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Now, is there a scriptural picture of someone who had great courage, great zeal for the cause of Christ, but little or no common sense, knowledge with which to channel himself?
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I think Peter probably could have been thinking about himself when he wrote this. I mean, here's a guy who would cut your ear off if he thought it would help the cause of Christ.
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He had great zeal. And you know what? He probably thought he was being brave at the time, probably thought he was being bold.
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But his boldness, his courage was not always tempered by knowledge. Sometimes we see people who flit from church to church, from ministry to ministry, from leader to leader, who just kind of move around, never take the time to put themselves under somebody to gather some information, to gather some knowledge, to sit there and work.
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It's that kind of zeal without energy or without knowledge that is a problem. We have to have a certain concept of who we are and where we're going.
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Listen to what Hebert says. He says, the knowledge, it is the knowledge that Peter refers to. There's one pool or school of knowledge which speaks of a practical knowledge that admits of expansion.
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In other words, you can be wrong. You can grow, certainly.
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But it enables its possessor to discern between right and wrong and facing the duties of life.
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You know, knowledge without action is wrong. And action without knowledge may not be wrong, but it may not be the best.
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We need wisdom. The ability to determine how to best employ our spiritual heroism, our moral excellence.
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Think about it this way. If your moral excellence is zeal, it could be compared to a powerful and fast horse.
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You know, you just get out and run. But without the wisdom, without the knowledge, without kind of the bit in the mouth of the horse, then it's just running all over the place and not accomplishing anything.
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But you put that bit in the horse's mouth, you take that little bit of knowledge and you grow that knowledge and you've got a valuable tool in terms of that horse.
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Zeal is good. Zeal with knowledge is better. And knowledge of the truth is vital when we think about Peter's purpose.
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I'm writing this letter again to warn of the coming of false teachers. There is no better cure for error than to be inoculated with the truth.
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There is no better cure for error than to be inoculated with the truth.
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If you don't take the false information in, if you reject it immediately, you never have to remove it.
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Prevention is better than the cure. Fourthly, you must have self -control.
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Look at verse 6. And in your knowledge, self -control. Moral excellence is to be steered by knowledge, and knowledge leads to self -control.
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This refers to inner power to control your desires and cravings. The more you know, the more you're able to steer away from those things that will cause you to stumble, that will weaken you.
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A proper understanding of divinely revealed truth does not result in a life running amok. When we understand who we were, who we were before Christ, all the things that we used to be, all the things that we valued the most, and we look at how
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God has changed us. We have a desire for self -control.
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We're excited. We want to do what is right. We have to temper our zeal with knowledge and self -control.
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We have to learn to deny ourselves. Now, why would Peter stress this?
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Well, one of the appeals of false teachers over the centuries has been antinomianism.
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In other words, false teachers come along and they're against the law. They say, listen, you have absolute freedom.
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You can do whatever you want. Listen to 2
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Peter 2, verse 19, promising them, their listeners, freedom.
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While they themselves, talking about the false teachers, are slaves of corruption.
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They're sinners. They're not redeemed, but they come along and they promise freedom to people because they want people to follow them.
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Self -control. If something, spiritually speaking, if something sounds too good to be true, and it's not the gospel, which is forgiveness for every sin
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I've ever committed, that sounds pretty good. But what about if I could just do whatever
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I want and still get to heaven? And that's what false teachers would often present to people. The Lord never says that salvation means the freedom to sin.
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In fact, Paul prohibits that. Jesus prohibits that. It is the freedom from the penalty and power of sin.
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In fact, what did Jesus say? If we love Him, we are to obey Him. We are to follow Him. You must have self -control.
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Fifthly, you must persevere. Look at verse 6 again. And in your self -control, perseverance.
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Perseverance. I kept wanting to put an extra R in there this week. This is the discipline of self -control and the spiritual capacity for applying knowledge and zeal.
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And it leads to an ability to survive and even thrive under pressure. One commentator says that this
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Greek word, hupomone, does not simply accept and endure. In other words, this isn't some kind of passive, oh, well, if that's the way it's going to be,
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I'll just kind of go with it, I guess. I don't really like it. Instead, there's a forward look to this.
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It is the courageous acceptance of everything that life can do to us and the transmuting of even the worst event into another step on the upward way.
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In other words, we take even those things that are bad and we look at them as a positive thing.
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It is to remain strong in unwelcome toil and hardship. To never give up.
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To always think, what can I do? What can I do in this situation that will turn it toward the glory of God?
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For just a minute, keep your fingers there in 2 Peter. But let's look at Acts 28, the end of the book of Acts.
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I want to look at an example of perseverance. An example of somebody whom the
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Lord had refined. When we consider the life of Paul, Paul wrote, as you well know, in the book of Romans, that he longed to get to Rome.
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He wanted to get to Rome. Why? Because eventually he wanted to go to Spain and to be a missionary there. He wanted to preach the gospel to the
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Gentiles. Well, good news for Paul is, he made it to Rome.
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Bad news is, he didn't quite make it like he wanted. He was a prisoner. And ironically, he was a prisoner because of the objections of the
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Jewish leadership. And I say ironically, because here's a man who went to the, before he was saved, he went to the Jewish leadership and got basically arrest warrants to go persecute the
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Christian church. And now, they're the ones keeping him in prison. And he goes to make his appeal in Rome.
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Acts chapter 28, verses 20 through 24. Paul's speaking.
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He says, For this reason, therefore, I requested to see you and to speak with you, for I am wearing this chain for the sake of the hope of Israel.
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He's talking to Jews in Rome. Let's see if he asks for his freedom.
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Let's see if he complains about his circumstances. Verse 21. They said to him, We have neither received letters from Judea concerning you, nor have any of the brethren come here and reported or spoken anything bad about you.
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But we desire to hear from you what your views are for concerning this sect. It is known to us that it is spoken against everywhere.
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We've heard what you teach, and it's spoken against everywhere.
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You've got a bad reputation with everyone. Verse 23.
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When they had set a day for Paul, they came to him at his lodging in large numbers.
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And he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and from the prophets from morning until evening.
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Some were being persuaded by the things spoken, but others would not believe. He never gave up.
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He never stopped. He never complained. He never blamed anybody. He said, Listen, this is where I am, and I'm going to preach the gospel until the minute
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I die. That is hupomone.
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That is perseverance. Just kind of recap where we are.
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Verse 5. You must be diligent. You must be morally excellent. You must have knowledge of the truth.
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You must have self -control. You must persevere. And you must go back to 2 Peter. Number 6.
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You must possess godliness. You must possess godliness. Look again at verse 6. And in your perseverance, godliness.
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This is a particular manner of life characterized by reverence toward God and respect for the beliefs and practices related to Him.
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I think we generally know what godliness means. But one must persevere with an attitude that desires to please
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Him in your relationships with men and in your relationships with God. When can you be sure that you've reached the level of godliness to which you've been called?
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What is the fulfillment of godliness? May I suggest that it is when you know that you love the
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Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And when you love your neighbor as yourself.
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In other words, this aspect of Christian character is to be measured both vertically and horizontally.
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Godliness, Mount says, it is religion in the best sense.
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The kind of religion that James says looks after orphans and widows in distress and stays clear of the polluting influence of the world.
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You push off everything else and you say, how can I love God more?
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How can I love my fellow brother more? Which leads right to number seven.
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Number six, godliness. Number seven, you must possess brotherly kindness. Verse seven, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness.
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Godliness is an attitude that puts God first and others second and ourselves last.
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And the result will be Philadelphia. That's the word. That is the precise word.
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Philadelphia, brotherly kindness. And this word really emphasizes the relations within the body of Christ.
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It has that kind of familial feel to it where we are called to love within the body of Christ at a special degree.
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How do you love within the body of Christ? Well, you serve. You encourage.
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You show up even when it's snowing outside. You exhort one another. You rebuke one another when that needs to happen.
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You know, people say, I don't think it's very loving to confront, to rebuke.
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It's the most loving thing you can do. If you've checked your own life first, if you've removed the beam from your own eye before you go after the speck in your brother's eye, what else can you do?
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Fellowship. And can I just say to you, in love, that fellowship within the body of Christ does not stop outside of these walls.
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It doesn't end when we leave here on Sunday morning or Sunday night. It's not restricted to here.
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We can have fellowship in one another's homes. We ought to do that. I even had a little fellowship in the gym here this last week.
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You just don't know who you're going to run into in places. Fellowship. There's a special camaraderie and brotherhood and sisterhood within the body of Christ, and we need to really enable that, follow that, seek it.
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How else can we serve? How else can we show brotherly kindness?
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We can pray for one another. Nothing more encouraging than that. And can
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I give you a don't? If you want to grow in brotherly kindness, if you want to grow in your love for the body, don't gossip.
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And this takes so many forms. For example, if you're having a conversation about someone who is not present, and you're not just sitting there and extolling their virtues, you might be gossiping.
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And nothing is more detrimental to the overall love of the body than gossip.
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Do you really care? Do you really care about the fellowship of the saints? Do you really love the church, the people in it?
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Are you willing to be inconvenienced for those in your family? I received an email this week from somebody talking about how the man who does our snow plowing went over to their house and did it just as a courtesy, did their house as a courtesy.
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Now, when you think about that, how many of us would do that for someone else? That's love, and I don't know if he's a believer or not.
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But that's pretty self -sacrificial. Brotherly love can extend even beyond the church.
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Are you inconvenienced by unbelievers? Or do you have a burden for their souls? Do you see them as obstacles, or do you recognize them, each and every person, as someone who will one day give an account for their lives?
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Eighth, you must possess love. And in your brotherly kindness, love.
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Hebert says this, Peter's portrayal of these various facets of a developing Christian character presents faith as its foundation.
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In other words, you cannot have these other things without faith and love as the culmination, as the pinnacle.
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Another commentator writes, these characteristics here seem to observe an order from the more elemental to the more advanced, but they are all of them facets of the
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Spirit's work in the life of a believer. Aspects of the glory of the indwelling Christ, his character shown in the
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Christian's character. Love is the very pinnacle of Christian virtues.
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Love that does not seek its own, but sacrifices one's own interests for the good of others.
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That is the most Christ -like virtue that one may possess. Ninth, your
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Christ -likeness must increase. Verse 8, For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither.
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I'm going to pause there for a second. Peter calls for you to examine yourselves, to take an inventory of your lives, to look and see if this mosaic of attributes is yours and increasing.
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This combination of attributes, are they present in your own life? And it's not just merely present.
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You can't just say, yeah, I persevere sometimes. I exhibit self -control sometimes.
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I am guided by my knowledge of the truth sometimes. They are to increase or abound.
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Can they wax and wane? Can some characteristics be stronger than others? Sure. But what do we know?
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That any of these characteristics, apart from love, is a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal, a bunch of useless noise.
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You know, I wanted, when I initially thought of this, I love UCLA basketball, I always have. And I wanted this to be some kind of pyramid of success, you know, that you start with faith and you end up with love.
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But the problem is, love has to run through all of this. I kept trying to come up with different formulas, and you know, the best
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I could come up with is this. That when we look at, we don't have pictures of Christ for a number of good reasons.
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One, nobody knows what he looks like. But if we were to look at, you know, sometimes on those
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TV shows where they're trying to figure out who it is, they'll have a grainy picture where you can't really make out who it is, and then they have the computers kind of go through all the pixels and do all this stuff, and eventually, boom, you figure out who it is.
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Well, that's what it is. We are not perfectly in the image of Christ. And, you know, initially or sometimes when you look at us, it looks really distorted, but over time, the
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Word of God, the Spirit of God transforms us, brings out those pixels, brings out those attributes, so that we become, we are conformed into his image.
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Some parts aren't as clear as others. But that's the picture. And that's what we're to examine ourselves for.
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That's what we're to look for. Peter writes so that we don't do something, so that we don't become something.
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And the first thing he says is so that we don't become useless, which means unproductive or worthless.
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And the verb render means this is an ongoing state. If you are not habitually moving forward, you are habitually moving backward.
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The Christian life, sanctification knows nothing about stasis. You're either going forward, you're either becoming conformed in the image of Christ, or you're not, in which case you are backsliding,
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I guess. You're not where you need to be. You're not being obedient.
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By the way, if we're to use that word backsliding here, think about it. He doesn't say backsliding, he says useless, useless.
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What if we said that, not I'm a backslidden Christian, I'm a useless Christian. Secondly, he says, nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. The word unfruitful, this is shocking, is simply the negation of fruitful.
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They just took the word and put an on the front of it, just like I just put an on in the English. Scripture describes the lives of those who live a life pursuing sanctification, those who are pushing towards sanctification.
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Psalm 1 -3, don't turn here, I'm just going to read them real quickly. Talking about believers, he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season.
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Matthew 7, verses 17 and 19, Jesus speaking, he says, so every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree produces bad fruit.
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There's no neutral. Verse 18, a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
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And if you do not bear good fruit, then what? Cut down and thrown into the fire.
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John 15 -2, again the Lord teaching, and he says, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.
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Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it, so that it may bear more fruit. Galatians 5, fruit of the spirit describes all those.
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Colossians 1 -10, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
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If you are not growing in these areas of life, of what value are you to the body?
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How can you minister? How will you present the gospel to an unbeliever when your own life is in disrepair?
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Number 10 in our imperatives, you must evaluate your life.
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Verse 9, for he who lacks these qualities is blind or short -sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
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Let me ask you a question, can you have faith without works? No, James says that.
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So if your life is lacking in these qualities, can you have any genuine confidence that you belong to Christ?
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The blindness here referred to is a spiritual blindness. Perhaps a Christian has fallen into a pattern of sin, such that he has lost the capacity to rejoice in his or her salvation.
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They can't see it anymore. They've forgotten the joy of salvation because of the sinfulness in their lives.
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Still saved, but they have no joy. The idea of being short -sighted is simply that a
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Christian has become focused on the things of this world. They've set aside their heavenly calling and they've lost their assurance of the purification or cleansing from their sin.
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Number 11, you must make sure God has called you. Verse 10, therefore brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling.
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We've already talked, just quick review, you must be diligent, you must be morally excellent, you must have knowledge of the truth, you must have self -control, you must persevere.
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Sixthly, you must possess godliness. Seventh, you must possess brotherly kindness. Eighth, you must possess love.
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Ninth, your Christ -likeness must increase. Tenth, you must evaluate your life.
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And he says here, to be all the more diligent to make certain about your calling.
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There's a high importance placed on being sure of his calling.
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Now, when he calls, when God calls someone, what does that mean? It means he effectually calls them, he calls them into his kingdom.
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He transforms their lives. The evidence of a transformed life is how you live it.
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So he's saying, take inventory, look back, make sure, be diligent to make certain about your calling.
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Make sure that you haven't just made it up in your head. Look back on your life, look at where you were, look at where you are, examine yourself for these things.
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Where are you? Number twelve, you must make sure
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God has chosen you. Now, calling, election, choosing, opposite sides of the same coin.
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Before the foundations of the world, God the Father chooses or elects you.
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In time, he calls you. He makes that election effective.
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Verse ten, he says, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you.
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Well, how do you know you're chosen? Is there a sign on your forehead? Is it based on the curvature or lack of curvature of your thumb?
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How could anyone know that they're chosen of God? Do you even hear that argument made against election?
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Well, how can anybody know if they're chosen? Shouldn't you only preach to the chosen? Peter is offering not a formula for figuring out who's chosen.
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He's offering a challenge. The idea of being chosen is, of course, a special choice, a selection, especially of God's selection of Christians.
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Now, do we influence God's choice? Is this a list of things that we can do so we can say, well, see, God, you know,
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I've got 11 of these things that Pastor Steve has talked about, and on 10 of them,
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I'm pretty good, so you should choose me. No. In fact, that would be exactly the kind of false doctrine that Peter was fighting against.
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Peter is challenging you, every believer, to examine your own life and affirm for yourself its direction, not the perfection, the direction.
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Your calling is God acting in time, and you're responding, you're election. Before the foundations of the world, you cannot prove you're calling an election to someone else, and that's not the point.
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The call is to look at your own life, to determine for yourself. Look at verse 10 again.
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You can know that your reward is sure. Verse 10, for as long as you practice these things, what things?
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Examining yourself, looking at yourself, making sure that you're calling an election are right.
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You will never stumble. Verse 11, for in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our
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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be abundantly supplied to you. Listen, if you have these characteristics, diligence, moral excellence, knowledge of the truth, self -control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love, you will never stumble into doubt, despair or fear.
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And what's the benefit of that? It gives you a joyful and fruitful spiritual life. It allows you a life of ministry, of serving the body, of serving unbelievers.
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So let me briefly just address this question, why is assurance of salvation so important? Well, first of all, it is biblical.
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Assurance of salvation is biblical. It is the very purpose of, for example, 1
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John 5 .13, John writes, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the
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Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. Assurance is biblical.
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It is also promised by the power of God himself. Listen to John 10, verses 27 to 29.
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My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them.
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Listen, and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
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My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the
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Father's hand, promised by the power of the
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Son and the Father and furthermore sealed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4, verse 30.
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Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed, listen, for the day of redemption.
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There is a seal on believers that will be opened on the day of redemption. That will be the day when the
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Son presents every person in Christ back to the Father.
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He will lose not one. We are all secure in his hands. This is not about your salvation as much as it is how you view your salvation, how you apply it, how you live it out, but more than just being biblical.
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Assurance is protective. It is protection. No one can deceive you by uttering requirements of the
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Gospel. Listen to John 20, verse 31, a very familiar verse again, but these things,
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John writes, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
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Son of God and that believing you may have life in his name. If you really believe that Jesus is the
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Christ, the chosen one, the sacrifice, the Son of God, then you have life in his name.
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And again, what do false teachers do? They have to present something to get you dissatisfied with what you understand, what you believe.
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They have to have some new knowledge, new revelation, an angel had to tell them something. There has to be some different way to get to heaven, not simply by believing on the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe you need to be baptized into their church. Maybe you have to join their church.
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Maybe you have to send them a check for some amount. Now this list of Christian virtues, of Christian characters that we've talked about, this is not some kind of salvation by being good.
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The good news is never be good. What this is, is a call for self -examination so that we can be assured it is a protection and insulation against false teaching.
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Assurance of salvation is also powerful. Listen to Lloyd -Jones. You must be certain of your salvation because if you are not certain, you will not be able to function as you ought.
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What if you're sitting here this morning and you say, you know what, I have no assurance. Matter of fact, I can tell you the truth, my life is a wreck.
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Well the best news is there's hope for you. If you're saved and you're sitting here, and you're sitting here and you're thinking to yourself,
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I've never had security. I've never had assurance. I've never known that my sins are forgiven.
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Then today can be the day when you receive Christ, when you repent of your sins. You receive
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Him as Lord and Savior. If you're a
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Christian here this morning and you're thinking, I have no assurance because I have this sin going on in my life. Confess it.
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Agree with God that it is wrong. Turn from it. Begin studying the
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Word, growing in the knowledge of Him and look at how the Word of God will transform your life.
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You work on these issues one by one. Assurance is a vital part of the
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Christian life. Peter knew that and that's why he stressed objective measurements by which we can examine our own lives.
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Again, this isn't so we can rank ourselves against others. It is because objective assurance protects us from false teachers.
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If we could just say to ourselves and believe it what Philip Doddridge said, tis done, the great transaction's done.
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My sin on Christ at Calvary. His righteousness to me. And when
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I stand before God the Father, I stand before Him based on the righteousness of Christ, on His work, on His burial, on His resurrection, not on anything that I have done.
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A false teacher will suggest it's mostly done. But you need to add something or take something away.
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You've got to add something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. There's something different you've got to do.
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But no teaching of a false prophet can change the assurance that a
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Christian has. If he's living according to this word, no new revelation will move him.
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Beloved, you are to be steadfast, immovable. Those who have built their spiritual houses, as it were, on the rock of assurance of salvation, properly viewed, renders one a powerful tool in the hands of an almighty
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God. It makes you a surgeon's scalpel, as it were, in the hands of the Lord. Lack of one makes you useless, he says.
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Assurance is a great protection against those who would seek to rob you of your joy, from those who would seek to enslave you to a law of their own devising, or to free you, as it were, from the perfect law of liberty.
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Let's pray. Our Father, we rejoice in the words that you gave to Peter, not as some kind of formula that we might work our way into your kingdom, not as some kind of checklist that we could go down one by one and make sure that we're okay.
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But Father, it is a list of a form, one to examine ourselves, to make sure that our calling and election are in fact sure, to see that you have adopted us as your children, because we act as your children ought to act.
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We respond in joy and obedience to all that you have done for us in Christ.
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Lord, would you give us such an assurance that our assurance is apparent to the world.
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Give us a joy. Give us a zeal. Give us the ability to persevere in great difficulty.
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Father, let us never be satisfied with where we are. Let us pursue knowledge. Let us pursue service and love, both within the body and without the body.
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Lord, would you raise up a people here that are not arrogant, but are assured because they can see your hand in their lives.