"8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you."
Your identity is essential to the way you live your life, but you may not be able to fully understand what identity is. Our identity is really what will ultimately determine our actions. Our behaviors do not determine who we are, or how we act, our identity determines our behavior. Many attempt to excuse for their actions because of their behavior.
Negative behaviors are nothing more than a lapse in your personality, they do not define who you are. Unless you take responsibility for your actions, you will not restore your true identity. Your true identity is not the sum of your weakest moments, your true identity is in Jesus Christ. Before you can understand who you are, you must first understand Whose you are. I believe this is the first step to everything else in life.
The children of Israel, after 40 years of wandering in the desert, stood
on the river shore, the Promised Land in front of them. All they had to do was cross the Jordan River. You can imagine the hesitation, fear, and uncertainty they must've have felt. In Joshua 3, Joshua sent instructions, "However, there shall be between you and it a distance of about 2,000 cubits
by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you
shall go, for you have not passed this way before." Then Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you."
Enemies could be waiting for them on the other side, the river was at flood stage and not easily navigable. God fulfilled His promise to the children of Israel, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." He put the priests and the Ark on the front lines. Like the Father He is, He goes before us, and invites us to join in on the adventure.
In Egypt they lived under a slave mentality. In the wilderness they held
on to a survival mentality. Now it was time to embrace their new
identity, as the recipients of God’s promises. God knows you, He created you and He designed your life, for being here at this time, for His specific purposes. And, when we put our faith in Christ, we inherit a new identity.
In Matthew 4:17, Jesus taught, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." When we repent, we make a change of action, to change your mind, to go in a new direction. We turn from the ways which we have been living, we begin to follow Christ, in a new direction, only then do we experience what God has promised us.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank You for Your Word. Thank You for such clear instruction. Bind it to our hearts, help us to make application to our lives. Because You love us, may we be faithful and passionate to obey Your Word. May serve the One who truly saved us, may we realize that You’ve given us power, the promise of eternal life and we can never ultimately lose.
May we be content to suffer patiently, knowing that we have much in the world which is to soon come. Help us to rejoice and enjoy the assurance that is ours in Christ. Thank You for that confidence. Keep us from being deceived by the enemy who would make us doubt our salvation. Thank You for reminding us, that by living in obedience to the Spirit, we can fulfill all the good pleasure of Your will. Lord, I pray that You, through the Holy Spirit, would use this text yo reshape our theology, rather than to allow our theology to bias our view of interpretation. May it be for Your glory and for Christ's sake.
In His name we pray
Amen
Today's Message: Discovering Your True Identity
When we accept and believe in God’s great love for us, our identity as His children is established. We have not gone this way before. Our false identity is removed, and the power of God can be manifested in our lives. I have been a pastor for some time and I must say, I am deeply disturbed by some of the teaching coming from the pulpits today. "Sinner" is no longer our identity. We are sinners saved by grace. We are "new creations" in Christ. The Bible never refers to Christians as sinners, but saints. This certainly does not imply that Christians never sin, we all do, the difference is, we can no longer enjoy sin. We are deeply convicted by the Holy Spirit and brought to repentance.
In I Timothy 1:14-16, Paul said "And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It
is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life."
Open with me, your Bibles if you will, to II Peter, chapter 1. Allow me begin by saying that God wants His beloved children to enjoy the assurance of their salvation. Satan, the accuser of the brethren, loves to deal blows at us, in order to make us doubt our salvation. Where there is knowledge, there can be no deception. God has saved us from our sins through the righteousness of His Son, Jesus Christ. On the other hand, He wants to affirm our spiritual condition.
In verses 5 through 7, Peter gave us a list of virtues to pursue. When you pursue those virtues, you will experience assurance. In verses 8 and 9, we are presented with two options. You can go either way, accepting or rejecting the pursuit of these virtues and the prescribed effort. Peter, then makes the results of these two options very clear.
I invite you to follow along with me as I read to set the text in our minds, while we prepare our hearts for a Word from our Lord. Listen for the voice of our Lord. II Peter 1:8-11.
"For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore,
brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling
and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will
never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you."
Verses 8 and 9 outline the benefits of pursuing holiness previously described in verses 5 through 7. If I’m going to experience assurance in my life, I'll take the positive option. Let's look at verse 8. "For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Now, this is a rather intricate argument that Peter gives us. If you want to enjoy assurance in all of its richness, pursue these qualities. And, if you do that and find them increasing, "they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
By the phrase "For if these qualities are yours," he talking about the seven virtues that he previously mentioned. If they belong to you, the expression here is very strong. The Greek verb denotes property which someone owns, an abiding possession. If you see these virtues which are moral excellence, knowledge, self control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love, and you see them increase, they render "you neither useless nor unfruitful."
The word "useless," means to be inactive, or idle, out of work. By the way, it is used eight times in the New Testament. And, it always means inoperative, inactive and indolent. So, Peter is saying if you pursue the virtues, you won’t be useless or inoperative. In other words, you won't be dead in terms of your effectiveness.
Then he adds, "nor unfruitful," which is basically the same thing, it means unproductive. Which, by the way, is used seven times in the New Testament. And it is usually used of trees. However, in Jude 12, it is used to speak of of unregenerate apostates, who are like trees without fruit. Then, in Matthew 13:22, it is used to speak of unfruitful, superficial believers.
Peter is then saying, when your life does not manifest these things, if you possess not these virtues, you are useless and unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, if they are in you and they are on the increase, your life is not useless and is increasingly fruitful. And, if they are not there, you are indistinguishable from an apostate. He uses the phrase "in the true knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," illustrates to us that he is referring to true Christians. If you possess the true knowledge as opposed to a false knowledge, you are a believer.
These virtues are inherent to a believer, within their new nature, because God says to the believer, you have all things that "pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him." Therefore, the potential for all of these virtues is then there, in the true believer. So, Peter says in a genuine believing Christian, these virtues, are on the increase. And, his life is not useless, nor fruitless. He is not unproductive.
Then, in verse 9, he says "For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins." He's talking about these same seven virtues here. If one looks at his life and he doesn’t see moral excellence, he doesn't see knowledge and self-control, he doesn't see perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love, if he doesn't see these things increasing, if he’s not pursuing these things. he "is blind or short-sighted." Because if a person diligently pursues these things, he will be able to identify, to discern his spiritual condition, he will see the fruit of God's work in his life. However, if he is blind or short-sighted, he cannot see his true spiritual condition.
And, if a person who has been saved, in which he was purified from his old sinful life, he is not seeing the increase of these virtues, he has forgotten it. Because a true believer, will see the increase of moral virtue, and he will have the evidence of salvation. In other words, a persons assurance of salvation is directly related to what’s going on in his life. Having the lack of these virtues, he is then in a state of spiritual amnesia. The failure to pursue moral excellence, produces the inability to see one's own spiritual condition. Believers who do not carry through the moral implications of the knowledge of Christ, have effectively become blind. Through his forgetfulness, he has returned to pagan ignorance, therefore, repeating his old sins.
Now, in verses 10 and 11, Peter develops the promised benefits, he ties it all together, in order to make his argument compelling. He begins verse 10, "Therefore, brethren," he's saying on the basis of everything I have just said, be all the more diligent to make certain of His calling on you and His choosing you. I'd like to you note, that verse 10, is almost identical to verse 5, "be all the more diligent." This carries with it an urgency, an urgency to make certain. Be spiritually diligent to make certain for yourself. Make certain because of the tragedy of option two. So, make sure for yourselves that God has called you and chosen you to salvation.
Obviously, God knows whom He has chosen, so you're not making sure for God, He knows. So you need to make certain for yourselves. So that you have that assurance. As long as you diligently pursue these moral virtues, as long as you're seeing them increase, as long as you pursue a holy life, as long as you pursue spiritual growth, you will guarantee, by the demonstration of these things, that you were called, that you were chosen.
Notice, he then says, "for as long as you practice these things," the word practice here is the word "poieó." this is a present active participle. The pattern of daily conduct. Peter is saying, as long as your pattern of daily conduct is to diligently pursue these virtues, which I've just told you, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love, as long are you are pursuing these things daily, "you will never stumble." You will never stumble, if the daily pattern of your conduct is to pursue these things diligently. That's a wonderful confidence to have. Because if God is producing these things in your life, and you see them increase, because they are visible, and you know your spiritual condition, you will know that you have been called by God.
I want to say to you, that assurance is directly tied to the way you live your life. It's crucial that you understand that. If you want to make your calling, all you have to do is make sure that these virtues that are visible in your life, because as they are produced by the Spirit of God, as you diligently pursue these virtues, they are increasing in your life, and their evidence is visible in the way you live your life.
Then, in verse 11, Peter sums it up as directly as one can, "for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you." "For in this way," here he's talking about the diligent pursuit of these virtues and the blessing they bring, "the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you."
If you diligently pursue these virtues in your life, if you see the evidence of them increasing, not only will you have the assurance of your calling, that you have been chosen by God, you will enjoy reward in the life to come, the entrance into the eternal kingdom. To be clear here, at the moment of our salvation, we’ve passed from death unto life, we have already entered the kingdom in the present form. He's talking about our future hope. We're still looking for the future fulfillment, when the kingdom of God comes into full fruition in the future, the blessing of our eternal reward. When we are in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ Who is our Lord and Savior. Because we have diligently and faithfully pursued these virtues, there will be an abundant supply. That is our goal, is it not?
In Closing..
You know, there are unfortunately some people who they can come to Jesus Christ and believe in Him and then live any way they want. They might even say it’s nice if you choose to pursue moral virtue, but it's not necessary to get into to heaven, if you've been saved. And, while that's true, if you are truly a Christian. However, if you do not diligently pursue moral virtue, if you do not see them increasing in your life, you will not be able to discern your spiritual condition and you will not have the assurance of your salvation, of God's calling on your life.
While you may enter into the kingdom of God in the future day, you will find that you are not going to receive an abundant supply of reward. While you will receive praise from God, it will not be to the degree in might of been had you pursued these virtues. It is intrinsic that we live our Christian lives in the light of an eternal reward, endeavoring to lay up treasure for ourselves in heaven.
It deeply saddens me that some Christians make a minimal effort at pursuing spiritual virtue. The Bible clearly says that God intends in the future ages to come to show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward all the saved. Since He has lavished upon all believers such enormous generosity, and His rich grace and blessing, I cannot resist believing, based upon the context of this passage, that as you diligently supply these virtues of Christian character in your life, that God will reciprocate by continuing to increase the abundance of supply which you will receive when you enter into His eternal kingdom. That there will be degrees of reward which God will give to His beloved children, based upon their faithfulness to diligently pursue these virtues. Scripture clearly says a man will reap what he sows. Therefore, if a man sows abundantly, it stands to reason that he will also reap abundantly. That his reward will be proportionate to faithfulness in this life.
While our entrance into His kingdom was settled at the moment of salvation, the manner in which we will enter the kingdom has not yet been settled. I believe that those who pursue virtue in this life faithfully, diligently will receive not only the assurance of salvation now, in the present, but in the future, there will be abundant blessing.
It is therefore, my prayer, that you will enjoy the blessing of assurance in this life, and the even greater reward of abundance of which is yet to come.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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