Sunday, July 8, 2012 pm Joshua Thornhill
Diligently Building Your
Faith
2 Pet. 1:3-11
This is Peter’s second epistle and is written to
Christians in the region of Asia Minor. Gnosticism had begun to creep in
among this region and Peter was seeking to alert them concerning this
false doctrine.
A theme of this epistle is to beware but grow 2
Pet. 3:18. In this first part of chapter 1, Peter is giving an
exhortation to grow, which will help to resist the false doctrine that
is prevalent in the society of that day. It will also help us with the
false doctrine of today. I want
to focus our lesson on how we may grow according to the exhortation that
Peter gives.
In this introduction, Peter refers to several
blessing or gifts. First being we have obtained a like precious faith.
When we are truly united in Christ Jesus, we have a like faith
that is so very precious. We
ought to treat it as such. The next gift is grace and peace. Grace is
the greeting requesting God’s unmerited favor upon those addressed while
peace is the greeting requesting the natural result of God’s favor.
These gifts are multiplied through the knowledge of God and
Jesus. This brings us to
verse 3 where we will begin our lesson this evening.
1.
All Things Pertaining to
Life and Godliness (3, 4).
a.
As his Divine Power has given to us.
i.
God through his almighty, and unmatchable
power, has given us a gift.
ii.
This gift is all things pertaining to
life and godliness.
Everything that pertains to life and godliness has been revealed to us
through God’s word.
iii.
Life refers to our spiritual life,
godliness is how to live life in faith
iv.
2 Tim. 3:16-17 All Scripture is by
inspiration of God and is profitable for:
1.
Doctrine- God’s plan for life and
Christ’s example for godly living.
2.
Reproof- exposing our error in our
spiritual life and exposing our ungodliness.
3.
Correction- How to properly correct the
error in our spiritual life and correcting our ungodliness.
4.
Instruction in righteousness- Instruction
for a life pleasing to God and instructions for godly living according
to Christ’s example.
5.
Complete and thoroughly equipped- With
these we may be complete in our knowledge of life and godliness. We are
thoroughly equipped for all good work.
b.
Through the knowledge of Him who called
us.
i.
As stated in vs. 2 this is knowledge of
God and Jesus. However, this is more than simply an academic or
intellectual knowledge. The Greek word this comes from means to be
acquainted with.
ii.
We are in the midst of a study about the
life of Jesus. We are getting acquainted with Jesus at great depth. We
are studying who he is, how he came to earth, why he came to earth, what
his purpose here is, how he died, why he died, what his death means for
us, and how to be part of his Church. All this is essential knowledge
that we must be familiar with.
c.
Exceedingly Great and Precious Promises
i.
God has promised us great gifts. These
are exceedingly great in value and they ought to be very precious to us.
They are great because of who gave them.
ii.
Promises include
1.
Forgiveness of Sin- Given to us when we
obey the gospel. Acts 2:38,
22:16. How much do we appreciate the forgiveness of sin?
2.
Gift of the Holy Spirit- Acts 2:38, 5:32.
Do we appreciate the gift of the Holy Spirit?
3.
God’s Care and Strength- 1 Cor. 10:13 are
we thankful that God is so caring?
iii.
Partakers of the Divine Nature
1.
Through these we partake of the divine
Nature of God. We share in things related to God’s divine nature.
2.
We do not partake in God’s deity. We
cannot partake in God’s omnipotence, omniscience and so on.
3.
We can, however take part in his
divinity. We can partake in holiness, love, righteousness, etc. All
these are part of God’s divine nature and they are things we can and are
commanded to take part in.
d.
Escaped the Corruption
i.
Through these precious promises and this
divine nature, we can overcome the corruption in the world. Gal 5:19-21,
2 Tim 3:1-5.
ii.
When we become a Christian we become new.
Rom 6:1-4, Gal 2:20
2.
Diligently Adding to
Your Faith (5-7)
a.
Because we have escaped the corruption of
the world, Peter now is giving encouragement to remain away from the
corruption, to remain pure.
b.
Giving all Diligence
i.
We must diligently seek to grow. I think
of resolve which means to come to a definite or earnest decision,
determination. We must
definitively decide or have determination to follow after God, to grow
as a Christian.
ii.
We cannot be half- hearted and expect to
be pleasing to God. Rev
3:15,16. Matt 6:24.
iii.
If we are going to build up our faith, we
must constantly give diligence. We must be determined.
c.
Add to your faith.
i.
Add- From the Greek word epichoregeo
which means to bring along side or to join together.
ii.
Our faith is our foundation. We build all
other things off of our faith. Our faith is an important part of our
lives. Heb 11:6, John 6:29. Without our faith all of the attributes
following would be meaningless. Our faith is what motivates us or calls
us to do the work that God has set out for us to do!
iii.
Add to your faith
1.
Virtue- moral excellence, integrity. This
is the courage to stand up for your convictions even when it may cost
you dearly. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego all had this attribute.
When threatened with death, they had the courage to say “We do not serve
others God’s.” WE must have this same virtue, or courage to stand up for
our conviction, our faith. Let us always continue to add virtue to our
faith.
2.
Knowledge- Understanding, insight. As we
mentioned before this is a knowledge of God and his word. We ought to
become acquainted with God and his word. Our faith must be built on the
word of God. If it is not,
we have a blind faith or a blind zeal. WE need knowledge so we can be
firmly grounded in the truth. We must always continue to ad knowledge to
virtue.
3.
Self Control- This refers to subduing our
own passions and bringing them into subjection of God’s Will or putting
reigns on our passions.
Without self control we have knowledge without practice.
Without self control we will easily stumble whenever temptations
arise. Every sin we commit is a result of the lack of self control. We
are wasting the knowledge we attain by not properly applying it in our
lives. This self control
needs to be brought alongside our faith.
4.
Patience- We must have patience in our
life of service to Jesus. There will be difficult times and we need to
have the patience to be able to continue with Jesus through whatever
times may come. We must endure whatever hardships come our way. We must
be firm and steadfast in our faith. Patience, while at times difficult
is an attitude that we must add to our faith.
5.
Godliness- is respect or reverence for
God and for his demands for our lives. If we are godly, we will give God
the praise, honor, and glory he so richly deserves.
If we are living godly, we are
going to strive to live our lives like Jesus. Pattern our lives after
the way he lived. We need to
strive to develop the attributes that God possess such as holiness,
righteousness, goodness, love, and so on.
Godliness is needed to build our faith.
6.
Brotherly Kindness- this is the desire to
do good to all. We must have the attitude of the Good Samaritan who did
everything he could to help the one in need. We need to look to the
needs of our brethren and do what we can to help.
Gal 6:2 we ought to bear one another’s burdens. We must remember
that we are to do good deeds for all and always be kind to others.
Let us diligently add brotherly kindness to our faith.
7.
Love- Caring enough to sacrifice for what
is best. We must always seek to do what is best for our others.
This love is a devotion to God, Christ, and our fellowman which
is shown in our obedience to God and our service to man. We cannot be
pleasing to God is we do not have love. Thus we must supply love to our
faith.
3.
“These Things” (8-11)
a.
In the next four verses, Peter uses the
phrase “these things” 3 times. When using this term he is referring to
the graces we just noted. He is making application of the graces that we
are to supply to or bring alongside our faith.
b.
In vs. 8 Peter says if these things are
yours and abound.
i.
First, these things need to be present in
our lives. They need to be a
major part of us.
ii.
Secondly, they must be abundant. More
than barely there on some, we must have all of these and in abundance.
1.
I want you to reflect with me for a
moment. How much do we really have? How many of us have cell phones? How
many have a car that is not falling apart? How many of us have so many
cars, they all can’t fit in the drive way? How many televisions do you
have? How many computers do you have? How many of us stand in front of
crammed refrigerators and claim there is nothing to eat? How many of us
could go 3 weeks without ever wearing the same thing twice?
2.
My point is we have immense physical
abundance in our lives. Can you imagine if you had this much abundance
in these qualities?
3.
If we are abundant in these things, we
will not be unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus. We will
constantly be bearing fruit in God’s Kingdom. Our spiritual lives will
not be barren. We will be a
servant of Jesus who when the master comes, he will say “Well done, good
and faithful servant.”
c.
He who lacks these things (9)
i.
Those who lack these things, Peter says
are shortsighted, even to blindness.
ii.
They are spiritually near-sighted, unable
to see past the temporary pleasures of this life, unable to see the
reward that awaits those who obey him. They have forgotten what their
duty in life is.
iii.
They have forgotten that they were
cleansed, that Jesus came to this earth and died on the cross to save us
from OUR sins. By his blood, WE ARE cleansed, let us never forget that.
Let us never be spiritually blind but let these things be in us and
abound.
d.
Make your Call and Election Sure (10)
i.
We must give diligence to make your call
and election sure.
1.
We must give diligence as we noted
earlier, we must be determined to make our call and election sure.
It must be a priority; we must treat it with urgency. Now is the
appointed time. Don’t wait
to do tomorrow what you should be doing today.
2.
We must be diligent in making our call
and election sure. 1 Pet 2:9
speaks of “his own special people.”
This is the same idea as God’s elect. Are we sure we of God’s
Chosen People? Are we giving
diligence to make sure we are of God’s elect?
3.
If we do these things, we will never
stumble. If we are
diligently adding these to our faith, if we are diligently making our
call and election sure, we will never stumble.
a.
Why do we stumble? We allow the cares of
this world to come in a push its way in. We aren’t giving the diligence
we ought to in these things. We are not busying ourselves with our
Father’s business as Jesus was.
b.
If we are diligent, we will never
stumble. James 2:10 If we stumble in one point, we are guilty of the
whole law. If we keep our
focus on God and living aw he would have us to sin, we will not stumble.
e.
Entrance into the Kingdom (11)
i.
An entrance will be abundantly supplied.
1.
We will gain entrance into the Kingdom of
Heaven in triumph. If we possess these graces, we can joyously look
forward to our reward in Heaven. We can victoriously claim our eternal
reward. 2 Tim 4:6-8.
Is your call and election
sure?