Awe Matters to Remembering God

Life throws so much at us on a daily basis. If you are anything like me, all too often if I do not write something down I find myself forgetting it. Our bodies even forget things. Our muscles learn habitual motion. When I began to learn how to play basketball, after a certain amount of time and practice my muscles and my brain just go into a certain motion when I shoot the basketball. When I get on a bike my body balances, I do not have to think about it.

Our Christian life is very similar. Every day we either are strengthening habits or forming new ones. These habits can be mental, social, physical, and/or spiritual. We have influences that seek to shape the mental, social, physical, and/or spiritual areas of life. As a Christian it then stands as vital to our lives that we have each of these areas shaped in Christlikeness and to the glory of God. Because of sin, we can fall prey to blindness in our spiritual lives. For the Christian, blindness takes on a life where we spiritually don’t see what is taking place physically. We continue to do those things that displease God and grieve the Holy Spirit. We perhaps publicly hurt the testimony of God. We confuse those around us because what they have come to know as Christian is not at all what we are living as a Christian. We become frustrated and upset at others living in sin when we have glaring sin issues our own life. In these situations and many, many others these sin problems are awe problems. We have filled our awe cup with something other than God. Something fundamental has failed to be lived out in our life because we have misplaced awe. This fundamental failure is simply we forget God! We forget God’s gracious and glorious work of salvation and sanctification. We forget what Christ went through as he died for us on the cross. We have forgotten what it means to be a child of God.

This failure of awe must be remedied. It must change in the Christian life. You and I who are Christians here this morning must look into the “perfect law of liberty”, God’s Word—the Bible, and repent where we are living blindly. Our passage this morning will help us dive into both the theological and spiritual truths on how awe centered on Christ’s Work is life altering and freeing from the torment of sin.

Context:

Peter is writing his 2nd letter and begins the letter by explaining the basis or foundation for the believer’s spiritual growth (1-2). The background to this writing is a false teaching that was centered around a faux gospel. He was writing to help people not live lives of counterfeit. Rand Hummel in his devotional from 2 Peter looks at the letter as Peter exposing counterfeit Christianity. True Christianity comes from the one true God who has called us through his own glory and excellence and not of anything of our own. Salvation is granted by God and provides eternal security from the pains of eternal damnation in hell. It is salvation that gives the Christian to defeat the spiritual blindness in their life. It is God’ power through salvation that we have all we need to live righteously. Salvation is living out a true knowledge of Jesus Christ!

Peter in 2 Peter 1:5-7 deals with the process of spiritual growth. Peter gives to us the mentality and attitude we must have in adding to our divine nature, to our spiritual growth. This attitude is not one of indifference or complacency but one of determination and total dedication. The phrase “apply all diligence” refers to maximum effort. The Christian life cannot honor God without effort. God has given to us the power to live the Christian life but alongside that requires us to be disciplined in every way possible to live a life that honors, respects, and glorifies God.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary (B. The Function of the Divine Nature (1:5–9))

In this beautiful paragraph Peter orchestrates a symphony of grace. To the melody line of faith he leads believers to add harmony in a blend of seven Christian virtues which he lists without explanation or description. A carnal Christian has spiritual myopia (v. 9), but a spiritual Christian is both effective and productive (v. 8) in his understanding of the Lord Jesus and his application of biblical principles to daily life.

In applying diligence to our life we are to apply this diligence in adding to our faith (Philippians 2:12). The word “add” is better translated supply or nourish. We are to nourish our faith. What does it mean to nourish? The Christian is to provide their faith with the necessary food to promote growth. This is the idea of everything needed not just something here or something there but dedication to nourishing your faith.

Peter than lists 7 specific aspects of being devoted to living a righteous and Christ-centered life. He in verse 8 reveals to us the results of having or not having these 7 qualities in your life.

Virtue/Moral Excellence – quality of live which made someone stand out as excellent. Peter is telling us that our lives must demonstrate excellence. This excellence is the desire to live our lives in a way that represents Christ in an excellent way. This involves our decision making, our actions, our thoughts, our everything.

Knowledge – this is the idea of understanding, correct insight, truth properly understood and applied. This involves diligent study of truth in the Word of God. Our hearts must be in tune and have a heart relationship with God.

Temperance/Self-Control – this literally means “holding oneself in.” This is controlling our will and allowing God to control it. The Holy Spirit is who should be controlling our lives. This means to have one’s passions under control. During Peter’s time this term self-control was used of athletes training for competition. It is controlling the flesh and passions rather than them controlling him. “Moral excellence, guided by knowledge, disciplines desire and makes it the servant, not the master, of one’s life.

Patience/Perseverance – this is the idea of James when in chapter 1 he talks about enduring trials. We must have patience and endurance in doing what is right. We are not to give into temptation or trials and lose self-control. It is spiritual staying power that will die before it gives in.

Godliness – man’s obligation of reverence toward God. The Christian is to live reverently, loyally, and obediently before God. This consists of a walk with God, communion with Him, and child-like trust.

Brotherly Kindness – mutual sacrifice for one another; a fervent and practical caring for one another.

Love – it desires the highest good for others; this is the love God shows toward sinners, toward us. This is a sacrificial love.

It is important to have these necessary qualities in your life as a Christian. Having these in your life give evidence to filling your awe capacity with the right material. Peter goes from explaining our position with God through salvation and the promise of his power to live it out to detailing the character traits that should be manifesting in our lives to stating the truth about our spiritual growth status when these qualities or virtues are or are not progressing in our lives. This is our main focus this morning. Our main focus zooms in on 2 Peter 1:8-11.

2 Peter 1:8–11 NASB95

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.

Our main principle this morning is: Living in awe of Christ’s redemptive work impacts our spiritual usefulness.

Living in awe of Christ’s redemptive work impacts our spiritual usefulness.

I. Remembering Christ’s redemptive work manifests through your constant growth.

Peter in these four verses delivers to us the results of being diligent or not diligent in adding to and nourishing our faith. He begins with the positive side of the results.

2 Peter 1:8 explains to us that if these qualities are “yours and increasing” then you are neither useless nor unfruitful and are growing in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is our divine nature growing.

The key here is the phrase “be in you and abound.” It means you have these qualities and are increasing. These qualities must first exist in your life followed by them growing or abounding in your life. The phrase is not to be split up. The condition here is not one or the other. If you or I want to be fruitful we must not only have these qualities but they must be increasing, growing continually.

The term unfruitful carries the idea of unproductive. I hope everyone here desires to have this verse be able to describe them.

1, 2 Peter, Jude (3. Godly Virtues Necessary for Entrance into the Kingdom (1:8–11))

The word “ineffective” is used of idle workers who are wasting their day in the marketplace instead of working (Matt 20:3, 6). James said that faith without works is “idle” or “ineffective” (Jas 2:20).

It is a thrill to serve God and to be growing in Christ becoming more and more like him, 2 Peter 3:18.

Too many times people obtain salvation but lack the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. They are not advancing spiritually. This is because these 7 qualities are not increasing in your life.

II. Forgetting God’s redemptive work blinds you from your position in Christ.

In verse 9 Peter bluntly explains the opposite truth to verse 8. If these qualities are not increasing in your life then you are “short-sighted” and have forgotten the gift given to you, “purged from his old sins.”

This text is saying that if these truths are not increasing in your life then you are not growing spiritually and are living as you did before you were saved. Sin clouds the eyes and blinds us keeping us from being able to discern our true spiritual condition.

The Letters of 2 Peter and Jude A. Opening Sermon (1:3–11)

They are focused on the present, probably with the implication that they are focused on their present desires (in the light of the teachers of ch. 2) and cannot see the past (nor, it will turn out, future judgment).

That the past is what they cannot see comes out in their forgetting their cleansing from past sins.

A person may be saved but his or her failure to diligently pursue spiritual virtues produces “spiritual amnesia.” We are a forgetful people. It is often joked that Christians do not remember what the sermon was last week. If there was to be a pop quiz this morning before the sermon, how many of us would be able to remember the big idea from the sermon? What we remember today will too often become a distant memory. We forget to attach the attachment to an email and the purpose of the email is what was suppose to be attached. It has happened multiple times to me that Liz will ask me to bring back the lunch containers from my lunch home. I agree to bring them home assuring her I will not forget. I walk out of my office, get into my car, and begin driving down the road. As I am half way home I remember I forgot!

We are a forgetful people. In our Christian life when our awe is misplaced we tend to forget what God has done for the sins of every person ever born and to ever be born. Our awe is placed and focused on something other than God!

We forget about God often just through living each day without looking at creation (Psalm 19:1-4 “1 The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. 2 Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard. 4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world. In them He has placed a tent for the sun,”) and remembering it was God! The same power he created the world with he rescued mankind from eternal damnation in hell in Christ’s redemptive work!

The forgetful are unable to discern their true spiritual condition and will have no confidence about their profession of faith. “The ineffectiveness and unfruitfulness relate to their knowledge (epignōsis) of the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Thomas R. Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 37, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003), 303.

The Letters of 2 Peter and Jude (A. Opening Sermon (1:3–11))

Thus 2 Peter is pointing out that if one grows in virtue, the knowledge of Christ referred to in v. 3, that is, the coming to know Christ that happens in Christian conversion/initiation, will not be unproductive or unfruitful.

The content of what we are forgetting is the one point in time you entered God’s family. The individual parts of the believer’s conversion to faith in Christ are multiple. When we forget Christ’s salvation of our lives we forget our adoption. We forget the repentance from our rebellious attitude. We forget God’s sealing of us through his Spirit. We forget his love and forgiveness. We forget his mercy and grace!

What about you this morning? Are you refusing to admit that you even have spiritual blindspots?

How fruitful and effective are you for the glory of God?

In his book entitled Awe, Paul David Tripp addresses this topic of this tendency of ours to forget. He lays out a variety of symptoms that we need to honestly assess of our own life and the living out the knowledge we have of Christ.

III. Evaluating your spiritual growth proves your position in Christ.

In verses 10-11 Peter gives to us admonishment regarding the truths he just laid out for us regarding our spiritual growth or lack thereof. It is here that the previous four verses come to a conclusion.

God is always certain who have gotten saved and who have not received His gift of salvation. He has given those he has saved eternal security. Though God knows, the Christian may not always have full assurance of his or her salvation. Security the Holy Spirit revealed fact that salvation is forever. Assurance is the confidence that you will go to heaven to be with God and live forever in heaven.

The believer who diligently pursues the spiritual qualities mentioned guarantees to themselves by spiritual fruit that he has been saved.

He will not stumble into fear, despair, or questioning but rather will enjoy assurance of his or her salvation. This will only happen if there is a diligent pursuing of the spiritual qualities.

Peter ends in verse 11 with wonderful and encouraging words. Encouraging because it is an abundant hope and reality to the fruitful and faithful Christian knowing that they will live in eternal heaven.

This person will not only experience a fruitful life here on earth but more exciting is the future rewards in heaven.

Refutation/Application

Sin will only cloud your eyesight and begin to creep in and get you to doubt and fear your eternal security in Christ. Satan desires for you to fall by the side and become unfruitful and unfaithful in serving God.

Between your flesh, the sinful society, and Satan the influence of sin can be great in your life and without God and growing in Christ it will overwhelm you. You will not even see your own problem and will at times begin to doubt your ability to serve God even to the point of doubting your salvation.

I have mentioned a few times the example of my friend Matt. He is an example of what happens when we take our eyes off God, stop pursuing spiritual excellence, and striving to know Him in a fuller more personal way.

Are you this evening blinded to your own state spiritually? Are you living a fruitful and useful life for God?

Taking it a step further, on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the lowest-10 being the highest, how useful are you right now for God? What sin in your life are you holding onto? Are you allowing God’s Word and the Holy Spirit to reveal your sin to you?

How useful do you want to be for God? If you find yourself struggling with joy and hope, evaluate your life and see are you pursuing spiritual excellence?

Conclusion

These 7 qualities can be seen as a “symphony” as one man stated it. A symphony of beginning with our faith and ending with love. As we build on our foundation of faith in Christ, we are to show, exhibit Christlikeness by supplying these qualities that climax in love to others and devoted love to God. In a symphony it is never one part playing by itself and then once that is accomplished another part plays and so on and so forth. It is all of the parts playing together at the same time. Sure at times certain parts may struggle but they are progressing. If you remove one part of the symphony the music will not sound right. If you remove more than one it will flounder and fail. Sales will not be made for without all the parts the symphony is unproductive.

What kind of symphony does your life resemble? Here are some symptoms that hinder the spiritual growth process and lead to spiritual amnesia and misplaced awe:

Evaluating our “spiritual amnesia” (take from Awe, ch.5, pg 69):

Self-centeredness - seen in babies, children, teens and adults. Your own satisfaction and happiness; you are not the center of the universe. How do you respond when things do not go your way.

Entitlement - “I deserve” attitude or even the “I have a right”; We are not to be motivated by prestige and popularity. We instead are interested in joyfully magnifying Christ.

Discontent - The world is not your friend and is not looking to bring contentment to your life. Time is time and all too often we allow ourselves to become discontent. Rather than allowing discontentment to swallow us up, we need to stay steadfast in the storm.

Relational dysfunction - In our lifetime we will struggle with emotions of the negative kind when life takes a 90 degree turn from our plans. God’s place in our lives directly correlates to our peace with God.

Control - who doesn’t want to be in control! We can find ourselves struggling with God’s control of our lives. When we feel like our life is spinning out of control we may try and gain control by finding a relationship to insert control. Failing to properly have an awe of God will, as Tripp phrased it, “rob you of your rest in God’s control. Sometimes God just wants us to stand back and sit back and enjoy the view!

Fear- each of these traits has a question to ponder. “What areas of your life do you see fear settling in and creating an agenda that decides the interaction with others and the handling of situations in your life?”

Anger - often anger in a persons life will roll back to being angry at God and for being God. They are mad at God because they are not responding right to life decisions.

Envy - this is an awe problem. God’s greatness exists diametrically opposed self-greatness and wanting what is not yours.

Drivenness - in driving for success at work, home, or play a person stops having an awe of God.

Exhaustion - allowing constant service to people and streets to wear you down where your spiritual life begins to atrophy and no longer desires the excitement of ministry. How has life been? Are you getting exhausted with seeking to reach others.

Doubt - “The more you lose sight of the centrality of God’s awesome presence and grandeur, the more you will focus on yourself.” Where are you doubting God?

Spiritual coldness - do you find joy in in worshipping God? Awe and worship are connected. I agree with this truth. What is filling my awe is filling my life.

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