Make every effort in God's grace

From 2 Peter, continuing our studies in 2 Peter, page 122 in the Church Bible. I'm just going to read that section again, but I'm just going to read from verse 3 down to 11. Let's hear the words of the Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these, he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption of the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness, and to goodness knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control perseverance, and to perseverance godliness, and to godliness mutual affection, and to mutual affection love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is short-sighted and blind, forgetting what they have been cleansed from their past sins. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, for if you do these things you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. This is the word of the Lord. The Lord at his blessing. Do please turn back to that passage that Laurie read to us in your Bible. If you're following it in the church Bible, you'll see the page number is up on the screen. 2 Peter chapter 1. And let's pause, shall we, to pray, asking that God will be with us now to speak to us. Let's pray. God, our Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you that you are a God who has revealed yourself and your purposes, your nature to us. You've revealed the gospel to us, the glorious gospel of your Son, Jesus Christ. As those who would profess faith in Jesus Christ, Lord, enable us now by your spirit to hear your word, to hear its challenge, to apply it to our lives this day and this coming week. And we ask these things, Father, in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Amen. I've never forgotten from my earliest years as a Christian, two posters that were on the wall in the church office come meeting room. It's sort of a multi-purpose room in my home church. The first poster was a kind of a caricature, I suppose, of John 3.16. It said this, God so loved the world that he didn't send a committee, which was hugely and hilariously ironic because that was the room where the church council, which is kind of like our quarterly meeting, and all the committees used to meet. But then the second poster said this, if you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Now, being a Christian is not a crime, but I hope you guess or can see the point of that poster. If the first poster served as a reminder, the second poster served as a challenge. The first poster, I suppose, was reminding, particularly that church council and its committees, that the Christian good news is not about us, it's not about our church, it's not about what we do, it's about Jesus Christ. But then the second poster served as a challenge, a challenge to all who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. And it's a challenge that confronts us here this morning, not merely in the words of a poster, but in the word of God. In this passage that we're looking at from to Peter. Laurie actually read for the context verses 3 down to verse 11, but we're going to concentrate this morning on verses 5 to 11. A couple of weeks ago, you may recall, we looked at just the first two verses, Peter's greeting, and Mark used the opportunity to give us a bit of an overview of the letter as a whole. And then last week we looked... In this passage that we're looking at from 2 Peter. Laurie actually read for the context verses 3 down to verse 11. But we're going to concentrate this morning on verses 5 to 11. A couple of weeks ago you may recall we looked at just the first two verses, Peter's greeting, and Mark used the opportunity to give us a bit of an overview of the letter as a whole. And then last week we looked at those first two verses of this passage. If you were here last week we looked at verses 3 and 4 where we heard amazing and wonderful declarations. That God in his power has given us everything that we need for life and godliness. The NIV says godly life. I think life and godliness is better. God has given us everything we need, Paul wrote. Sorry, Peter wrote. And verse 4, he's given us his promises that through them you may participate in the divine nature, which is a bit of a strange phrase. I think what Peter means there is God has given us his spirit who works in us if we are believers. Now, as we look at these verses beginning at verse 5 this morning, I want to first of all issue a hazard warning. Now, hazard warnings are important, aren't they? You ignore them at your peril, whether it's a hazard warning about the weather or about a dangerous piece of machinery, whatever it is. So here's the hazard warning this morning. As we look together at verses 5 to 11, we will need to keep reminding ourselves of verses 3 and 4. As we hear what Peter says in verses 5 to 11, we must not lose sight of what he said and what we looked at last week in verses 3 and 4. If we do so, if we take our eyes off those two verses, we run the risk of misunderstanding Peter and indeed misunderstanding Christianity and the Christian faith. Here in verses 5 to 11, Peter calls, Peter urges, Peter cajoles his Christian readers into action. Then he explains to them why that action matters and finally what difference that action will make in their own lives. If I can put it more simply and more succinctly, Peter makes an appeal and he tells us its importance and finally its impact. We'll broadly look at this passage under those three kind of headings in turn this morning. So first of all, here before us is an appeal to work at the Christian life. If you are a believer, look at verse 5, make every effort to add to your faith goodness and to goodness knowledge and to knowledge self-control and to self-control perseverance and to perseverance godliness and to godliness mutual affection and to mutual affection love. Make every effort, says Peter. In other words, apply yourself with all diligence. Be earnest, we might say. That's the sense of Peter's words here. It couldn't be clearer, could it? It's crystal clear what he says. Peter's words make it abundantly clear to us that if you are a Christian, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you have to work at the Christian life. Peter speaks of adding to or supplementing a profession of faith and he gives us a list of seven, the NIV calls them qualities, we might say virtues, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual or literally brotherly affection and finally love. Now I don't think this list is meant to be comprehensive and perhaps more importantly, nor do I think we look at this list as if it's some kind of sequential process. You know, a bit like working through the grades if you're learning a musical instrument. You know, you've got to take on and master goodness first and only when you've mastered goodness can you tackle knowledge and only when you've got knowledge tapped can you take on self-control and so on. No, that's not the way we read these verses. Peter is giving us, I think, a composite picture of what we might call a robust, consistent, yes biblical, true life that is devoted to Christ. When we get to chapter 2 later in this series, we'll see Peter is writing this letter against the backdrop really of some serious and dangerous false teaching. False teaching that was characterised by weak beliefs and even weaker morals. And clearly Peter doesn't want his Christian readers to fall foul of these things. And so he urges them now. He urges them to be diligent in Christian living, consistent biblical Christian living. We could spend a lot of time looking at each of those words in verses 5 to 7. We won't, but let me just say a line or two about each of them. First of all, goodness. Add to your faith goodness. It's interesting that the word goodness there is the same word that Peter had used at the end of verse 3 to refer to Christ himself. them now. He urges them to be diligent in Christian living, consistent biblical Christian living. We could spend a lot of time looking at each of those words in verses five to seven. We won't, but let me just say a line or two about each of them. First of all, goodness. Add to your faith goodness. It's interesting that the word goodness there is the same word that Peter had used at the end of verse three to refer to Christ himself. So we might say what Peter is looking for here in his readers is Christ-likeness. That's where the Christian life begins and it ends, perhaps. Knowledge. Well, in the Bible, knowledge, particularly knowledge of God, is not simply head knowledge. It's not simply facts. It's not simply a paper qualification. It's not simply information, you know, the kind of information that some of us try to regurgitate at the checkers quiz nights, usually unsuccessfully. No, in the Bible, knowledge, and in particular knowledge of God, is relational. It's a relational knowledge of God that Peter speaks of. Self-control. Well, you might say that speaks for itself, but we'll see the significance of self-control when we get to chapter two and what Peter has to say about those false teachers. Perseverance. To persevere is to stick at something, isn't it? To endure. There's that ugly word that's entered the English language, stickability. It's often said nowadays that people don't have it. The digital age in which we live encourages people to be very fickle. You know, we quickly get bored with something and throw it down and pick up the next thing or whatever. But Peter, of course, when he speaks of perseverance, is not just talking about persevering in the tasks of life or in your hobbies. You know, you started that jigsaw, so you really should finish it. No, what he means when he speaks of perseverance here is perseverance as a Christian, as a believer, in the face of the difficulties of life, in the face of the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil. Perseverance in the face of opposition for being a Christian. Perseverance. And next he says godliness, which I guess speaks of a reverence for or a devotion to God, to be devoted to God. In times past, previous generations of Christians might have spoken of piety or even actually of religion. You know, we don't like the word religion nowadays, do we? Because we think it conjures up the wrong ideas. But previous generations of evangelical Christians would have had no problem talking about their religion, meaning their devotion to God. And then Peter adds to that mutual or literally brotherly affection. In fact, even more literally, brotherly love. Now, I can understand why our English translations render it as a different word because the next word that ends the list is love. But it's two different words there. The Bible has more than one word for love. But here, mutual affection is literally brotherly love. Philadelphia. Yes, that's what the name of that city means. Brotherly love. And we frequently find, don't we, in the New Testament that the love that Christians should have for one another. Yes, I know Christians are to show God's love to the whole world, but the love that Christians should have for one another is frequently described in the New Testament as a powerful witness, isn't it? A powerful witness to the life-changing reality of the gospel. And then last, all those qualities capped off by love. A different word for love, agape, sacrificial love. Take every effort, says Peter. That implies that these things will not come naturally. Sin comes naturally, doesn't it? You not find that? I do. Sin comes very naturally. You don't have to teach children how to sin, do you? Sin comes naturally to our sinful nature. But these things are things that we will have to work at. They don't happen just like that. It's not a case that I simply go to bed one night, a grumpy old man. Janet's probably thinking nothing new there. And that magically, magically, without any thought or effort the next day, here am I full of goodness, full of self-control, full of a desire to show brotherly love. No, says Peter, you have to work at these things. Does that mean then that the Christian life is all about me? Being a Christian is about sort of believing in God and being nice. Well, no. Here's a game where we have to remember our hazard warning. In verses three and four, we mustn't lose sight of verses three and four. In fact, if you look again at verse five, see how it begins. And I very sneakily left off that first phrase. It doesn't begin, make every effort, does it? Verse five begins, for this reason, make every effort. What reason? Well, for the reasons Peter has just articulated in verses three and four. God in his divine power has given us as believers everything that we need for life and godliness. He's given us his promises. He's given us his Holy Spirit. The Christian doesn't rely on self. The Christian relies on God. Make every effort. What reason? Well, for the reasons Peter has just articulated in verses 3 and 4. God in his divine power has given us as believers everything that we need for life and godliness. He's given us his promises. He's given us his Holy Spirit. The Christian doesn't rely on self. The Christian relies on God, who he is. And above all, what God has first done for us in his son Jesus Christ, and then what he does in us by his Holy Spirit. And we must never make the mistake of thinking that the Christian life is sort of a bit like this. You sign on the dotted line to say you have faith, yes, okay, I'm a sinner, but now my sins are forgiven, and then we're left to our own devices to somehow try to be as nice a Christian as we can be. We first came to Christ by grace received through faith. We go on living for Christ by grace received through faith. Yes, we are to strive as Peter makes clear in these verses, but we are to strive in the power and the grace that God supplies. And that is the consistent message of the New Testament. Look with me for a moment. Keep your finger in 2 Peter, but just flip back to Paul's letter to the Philippians, if you can find that. If you need help in the church Bibles, it's page 1179. Philippians in chapter 2. First few verses, Paul has been expressing the way in which Christ humbled himself, gave himself, and did so, of course, for us on the cross. And then Paul says, chapter 2, verse 12, therefore, my dear friends, and he says, not just when I'm with you, but when I'm not with you, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Now, if we stop there at the end of verse 12, we might think, okay, so it's all down to us. It's all about us. It's all about me. It's all about me trying my darndest. But then Paul adds verse 13, for it is God who works in you. In fact, who works in you to will and to act. So God not only gives you the grace to act, he gives you the grace to have the desire to act. You see how those two things happen in the same breath? Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to work for his good purpose. And Peter is saying the same thing in these verses. We might say what God has given us, we are to live out. Verses 3 and 4 will dictate how we receive the challenge of verses 5 to 7. Here then is an appeal to work at the Christian life. Then secondly, we see the importance of working at the Christian life. Verses 8 and 9. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is short-sighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. In a nutshell, Peter says, those who work at the Christian life, yes, by the grace of God, but those who work at the Christian life, those who pursue the virtues that he's just listed in verses 5 to 7, they are those who will be productive for Christ and his kingdom. Becoming a Christian and then being a Christian is not just about signing on the dotted line, yes, faith in Christ, having God stamp your card, saved, there you are, life eternal, and then going off and living your life for yourself as if nothing has changed. That's not the Christian life, is it? We're called to serve the Christ who saved us. We're called to serve the kingdom that we have been brought into by God. It's interesting, one of the most common ways in which the New Testament writers introduce themselves is the word, or by the word, servant. We see it here, don't we, at the beginning. Look at verse 1, Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. Yes, Peter is an apostle, but he sees himself as a servant. And if we were to flip back through, we would see that the apostle Paul uses similar language with a number of his letters, an apostle and yet a servant. And the word that Paul and Peter both use there, and some English translations will render it bond servant, it's a word that has the sense of somebody who is bound under a contract to serve a master. That describes the Christian. No king wants a servant who does nothing. Servants are to be productive for their master, for their king. And you might say, well, how? How are we meant to be productive for our Lord? Well, Peter's just told us, hasn't he? By cultivating. Somebody who is bound under a contract to serve a master. That describes the Christian. No king wants a servant who does nothing. Servants are to be productive for their master, for their king. And you might say, well, how? How are we meant to be productive for our Lord? Well, Peter has just told us, hasn't he? By cultivating the kind of qualities that he's listed in verses 5 and 7. Because he says now in verse 8, for if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you might then, if you're the kind of questioning person, I'm the sort of person who always asks why to everything that everybody says. So if you ask another question and say, well, OK, Peter, but how do we cultivate? How do we cultivate these qualities? I guess we would say, and the Bible constantly reminds us that we do so by the means that God has provided. By immersing, yes, immersing ourselves in his word. Does that characterise you? Or do you only open the Bible on a Sunday morning? Immersing ourselves, being soaked in his word, developing a dependent and utterly dependent prayer life. Being active in the Christian community, the church, where, as we were saying at the concise theology group yesterday morning, where iron sharpens iron. These are the ways in which we will cultivate these qualities. But again, don't forget our hazard warning. Don't lose sight of verses 3 and 4, because cultivating Christian virtues is not just a mechanical process. It's not just a case of, to use computer language, you get out what you put in. No, we might say you get out what God puts in. We are to remember, we must never lose sight of the fact that his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. Yes, we acknowledge, even as those who are redeemed and who trust in Christ, we acknowledge our sin, don't we? And in our weakness, in our frailty, in our sinfulness, we will need constantly to come back to God in prayer, constantly to confess our shortcomings, and in doing so to reaffirm our faith in Christ's saving work as our only hope. And to plead for the grace of his Holy Spirit that we might be the people Christ calls us to be. Peter adds verse 9, but whoever does not have them, these qualities, is short-sighted and blind, which is a bit of a strange thing, isn't it? Because you might think, well, you can't be both. You know, you're either short-sighted or you're blind. You can't logically be both. Interestingly, what Peter says it the other way around. I don't know why English translations put it like this. What he literally says is, he is blind being short-sighted. Which I think is more helpful because I think it suggests that blind is being used metaphorically there. In other words, don't lose sight, as a short-sighted person might, if I take my glasses off, you're all a bit of a blur. Don't lose sight, don't take your eyes off the grace of God as you strive, as you seek to live an authentic Christian life. Don't ever take your eyes off the grace of God in Christ. Here then is an appeal to work at the Christian life and a reminder of why it's important. We're called to be fruitful for Christ. But then thirdly and finally, we also see the impact of working at the Christian life. Final two verses, therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. Or some versions put it, make your calling and election sure. But if you do these things, you will never stumble and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Make every effort to confirm or to make sure your calling and election. What does that mean? Does it mean that somehow we have to kind of persuade God? Is it a case that God hasn't definitely decided to save us? You know, that the jury's out as far as God is concerned, that we have to pass some kind of test? No, that's not what Peter means at all. And again, again, we have to remind ourselves of our hazard warning. He, in his divine power, has given us, you didn't earn it, you didn't pay for it, you didn't negotiate for it with God, he has given us everything that we need for life and godliness. Not he's given us some things, not he's given us most things and then kind of leaves it for us to top it up. He's given us everything. We're saved by his grace, aren't we? It's the gospel. Peter speaks here of our calling and election. And the Bible's consistent teaching is that God's electing, God's choosing of his people, of those who are and who will be his people, is a calling or choice that God has made before the foundation of the world. Paul, towards the end of his life in what is almost certainly his last letter, Paul says to Timothy, God's solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this... Of those who are and who will be his people is a calling or choice that God has made before the foundation of the world. Paul, towards the end of his life in what is almost certainly his last letter, Paul says to Timothy, God's solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription. The Lord knows those who are his. God knows. So what does Peter mean here when he talks about us working to confirm our calling and election? Well, it might help us understand it, I think, if we ask that question slightly differently. If we ask the question, make our calling and election sure for whom? Or should that be for who? I don't know, grammatically. You know what I mean. And the answer is not God. The answer is to make it sure for ourselves. And we might say, secondly, for others around us, but primarily for ourselves. Make every effort to confirm your calling and election. In fact, the verb that Peter uses there is in what's called the middle or reflexive voice. Make your calling and election sure for yourself. Yes, God's choice is certain. The Bible affirms that. And thank goodness that is the case. Thank God that is the case. God's choice is certain. Christ's saving work is sufficient. And the Holy Spirit applies that saving work of Christ to those whom God has called. And Jesus declared that he will lose none of those given to him by his Father. Isn't that wonderful? God knows. But how do we know? We know by the evidence of his Holy Spirit's work in our lives. And that will mean, first and foremost, acknowledging that we are sinners. That we will find ourselves trusting in, resting in Christ alone for the forgiveness of those sins and for our reconciliation with God. But then secondly, it will mean also finding within ourselves that yes, we now have a desire to live for our Saviour and to serve him. What Peter is talking about here in verse 10 is what Christians down the years have traditionally referred to as assurance. The assurance we have, if you like, of our eternal life. And that assurance, Peter is saying, is cultivated in a life that is lived for Christ. Does that mean then that the genuine Christian will never doubt? Does that mean that the genuine Christian will never fall or fail? And if you think it does, you're in for a shock. Possibly before this day is out. But as the writer of the letter to the Hebrews puts it, we are to run with endurance, there's that word perseverance again, we are to run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to who? Looking to ourselves? Looking to our best efforts? Looking to our faith? Looking to our church work? No, we run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. Looking to Jesus who is the founder and perfecter of our faith. Yes, we will sin. Yes, we will need to come back to God in repentance. But it is as we look to Jesus, it is as we go on trusting in Jesus that we are then to strive. And in fact that we will find ourselves enabled to strive to live the Christian life. The challenge that Peter presents in these verses is a real challenge. But so is the grace that God has given us in his son Jesus Christ. His divine power has given us everything that we need for life and godliness. And it's that truth and our grasp of that truth that will determine how we receive and how we respond to Peter's challenge today. The challenge to make every effort. Let's pray shall we. Father God we thank you for Jesus. We thank you afresh this morning for the gospel. We thank you that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. That there is nothing more we can do or should do to know you, to know forgiveness of sins, to know the sure and certain hope of... Father God, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you afresh this morning for the gospel. We thank you that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That there is nothing more we can do or should do to know you, to know forgiveness of sins, to know the sure and certain hope of everlasting life. We thank you that your Spirit enabled us to believe these things, that your Spirit applied the gospel to our hearts, minds, and wills. And we pray that that same Spirit will continue your work in our lives, that we may be enabled, that we may be those who make every effort to live out the kind of Christian life that Peter has portrayed for us this morning, that we may do so for your kingdom and for the glory of your great and glorious name. And we pray this through Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Saviour.

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