Sermon Tone Analysis

Many years ago, back when we as a church were first investigating the idea of putting up a new building, we had Dallas Putnam, one of the men who works with the ministry of CBM, preach in our church.

It was either right before or right after our church was approved by CBM to be taken on as a missionary building project, 8 or 9 years ago roughly speaking.

Dallas was preaching a message for our church, and I can’t remember if it was the morning or the evening service (we still had evening services back then).

My family and I were sitting in our normal row and one or two of my boys were in the service with us.

Dallas preached a fairly lengthy message, and is was especially lengthy to a 5 or 6 year old little boy.

And being young and innocent my son decided to make sure the rest of us knew what he thought about the length of the message.

As soon as the service was over, I mean Dallas is walking down from the pulpit right by our row, my son stands up and stretches and loud enough for most of the church to hear says, “Daddy, that man talked for a really long time!”

You can imagine my embarrassment!

Luckily, my son at the time was still young enough for his comment to be deemed cute.

I say all that to make this point- our responses to things in life say a lot about us.

If you have young children think about the way they respond when they sit down for supper and find out that the food you slaved on for the last hour and half is not to their liking.

Our think about the way they might respond when the open up a birthday present and they really don’t like the gift that grandma got them that year and they are not shy about saying so (has that happened to you yet?)

They way we respond to things says a lot about us, especially the way we respond when someone gives us something as a gift.

In 2 Peter 1:1-4 Peter has described for the local church believers the incredible gift of God’s divine grace in their lives.

V. 1- Peter says they were gifted by divine lot- like precious faith, even the faith necessary to trust Christ to save them from their sins was itself a divine gift of God’s grace.

V. 3- The divine power of Jesus Christ has bestowed upon them (gifted to them) everything they needed for life and godliness

V. 4- By means of the glory and excellence of Jesus Christ they have been bestowed (gifted) exceeding great and precious promises

The primary purpose that Peter highlighted the divine gift of grace was to along with marveling over God’s amazing grace, to also describe the purpose of that grace.

Why did God give us some many incredible things?

V. 4- So that we might be partakers of / sharers in the divine nature and so that we might escape the corruption (of sin) that is in the world through lusts.

God lavishly showered upon you his divine grace- so that you could share in His own divine nature.

That is, so that you could become the very righteousness of Christ or that you could become as righteous as Christ is.

His purpose is to conform / transform you into the image of Christ- and in so doing God provided a way for you to escape the corruption of sin.

This is God’s purpose, this is why He gifted you with like precious faith, and everything you need for life and godliness, and exceeding great and precious promises.

2 Peter 1:5-11 is all about how you will respond to the gift of God’s divine grace.

God has given you an amazing gift, and along with that gift he has given you His purpose for why He did so in the first place.

How will you respond?

Peter is commanding these believers to make every effort to respond to divine grace in a way that is pleasing in God’s sight.

Believers, we must make every effort in our lives to respond to God’s divine grace in a way that is pleasing in His sight.

Why?

Why should we spend the rest of our lives using all our energy, making every effort we possible can to respond to God’s grace in an way that is pleasing in His sight?

Peter gives us three reasons that we should positively respond to God’s divine grace.

We must make every effort we possibly can to respond to God’s grace in a way that is pleasing in His sight...

I.

Because of the incredible value of divine grace (vv.

5-7)

Think about all of the resources that God poured into providing you with your salvation, think of the incredible purposes that God will achieve in providing you with your salvation- if nothing else we can make this statement, “God’s grace is incredibly valuable to me!” Therefore, I must make every effort to accomplish the purpose of the gracious gift He has given to me.

A. Why God’s divine grace is so valuable (v.

5a)

“And beside this, giving all diligence...”

Here we have an idiomatic phrase in the Greek.

All other major translations interpret this idiom this way… “For this very reason...”

Peter is about to command these believers to respond to God’s grace in a specific manner, but before he does he gives them a reason.

Peter is saying, I want you to respond this way, “For this very reason.”

What reason is that?

It is everything he has just said in vv.

1-4.

Because God has gifted you with like precious faith...

Because God has by means of the divine power of Jesus Christ gifted to us everything we need for life and godliness...

Because Jesus Christ has called us by his own glory and excellence...

Because by the glory and excellence of Jesus Christ we have been gifted with exceeding great and precious promises...

Because by these promises we have become partakers of the divine nature...

Because by these promises we have escaped the corruption of sin itself…

For this very reason… give or apply yourself with all diligence, or make every effort possible.

Why should I do that?

Because God’s divine grace is so incredibly valuable.

God wants your to share in His own divine nature- He wants you to become as righteous as He is, and He wants you to escape every single effect of the corruption of sin.

In order to do that God has to bring to bear His own divine power, and a divine calling, and divine promises.

None of which we deserved, by the way.

He gifted them all to us because He is gracious.

Peter is asking you to consider the why God’s grace is so valuable, and once you have come to a proper understanding of why, he says, “For this very reason, make every effort possible...”

B. How we accomplish the purpose of divine grace (vv.

5b-7)

Now that you have considered the value of divine grace, here is what you do with it.

You must give all diligence, make every effort possible…

To add to your faith...

The Greek word for add is a very interesting word.

The Geek word is ἐπιχορηγέω, it is an imperative, a command.

To add to your faith is not simply recommended it is commanded.

This word according to William Barclay...

“Comes from the noun choregos, which literally means the leader of a chorus.”

In ancient Greece they used to put on all manner of plays, especially in big cities like Athens.

“All these plays needed large choruses and were, therefore, very expensive to produce.

In the great days of Athens there were public spirited citizens who voluntarily took on the duty, at their own expense, of collecting, maintaining, training, and equipping such choruses.

It was at the great religious festivals that these plays were produced… Men had to be found to provide the choruses for them all…the men who undertook these duties out of their own pocket and out of love for their city were called choregos / choregoi...

The word has a certain lavishness in it.

It never means to equip in any cheeseparing and miserly way; it means lavishly to pour out everything necessary for a noble performance.

Epichoregein went out into a larger world and it grew to mean not only to equip a chorus but to be responsible for any kind of equipment.

It can mean to equip an army with all the necessary provisions; it can mean to equip the soul will all the necessary virtues for life.”

So Peter commands us to make every effort possible to supply or to give lavishly or generously certain virtues to your faith.

This is the proper response to divine grace.

God wants you to be partakers of the divine nature- to be as righteous as Christ- so believer for this very reason- make every effort to supply lavishly and generously to your faith these virtues

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

1).

Faith- this is the starting point, this is talking about personal faith in Christ.

This is the like precious faith that Peter talked about in v.1.

He is talking here to believers.

It does no good to add these virtues unless your first of all have faith in Christ.

Neither can you earn faith through these virtues.

This is not a works based salvation.

Remember even our faith is a gift from God.

These virtues are what should be generously supplied to one’s faith.

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

2).

Virtue- uncommon character worthy of praise / moral excellence

excellence of character-

Virtue- This is the Divine moral excellence of Christ, focused especially on the beauty of his goodness.

The divine moral excellent goodness.

The beautiful holiness and righteousness of our Savior.

So we are commanded to lavishly supply our faith with moral excellence.

God saved you to partake in the divine nature- to put on the kind of virtue as Christ has- to become as morally excellent as Christ is- to wear the beauty of His goodness, holiness, and righteousness.

And what is the very first thing Peter commands us to generously supply to our faith?

The very same moral excellence.

This is what God will accomplish in you, so start supply this very thing in your faith.