Sermon Tone Analysis

Everything We Need … And More

2 Peter 1:3,4

 

/His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness 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 and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires/.

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ow can we live a life pleasing to God?  We know we are responsible to be godly; but like the weary apostles waiting in the garden with Jesus, we soon learn that the /spirit is willing, but the body is weak/ [*Matthew 26:41*].

We have the desire to be godly and to honour the Lord through our lives; yet, the sad testimony for the most is that the nearer we approach Christ the greater the awareness of our inability to do what we ought.

The message today is designed to be a source of encouragement to weary saints.

Join me in exploration of this delightful statement of Christ’s provision for life as a Christian.

*The Breadth of Christ’s Provision* (/Everything we need for life and godliness/) – No aspect of Christian life is untouched by God’s grace.

We are saved by grace, just as it is written: it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast [*Ephesians 2:8,9*].

Christians are strengthened by grace: It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace [*Hebrews 13:9*].

We are each encouraged in our service by grace: May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loved us and by His grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word [*2 Thessalonians 2:16,17*].

Without doubt, when we stand complete in Him at His return, it will be by grace.

This grace which we Christians have received creates an overwhelming sense of awe in any who permit themselves to think about that grace.

That God is gracious is no great mystery; that He should be gracious toward mankind is astounding!

We are rebels to grace – at enmity with God and opposed to His grace.

Who ever heard of anyone forgiving unconditionally one who perpetrated and perpetuated a horrible transgression?

Even should an earthly situation occur in which one forgave without condition another bent on harming him, it would nevertheless beggar the imagination to think of the infinite and perfectly holy God of Glory forgiving the very ones who violated His righteousness.

Who can fathom such grace?

The marvel is not that God is love; the marvel is that God is love */despite our sin/*!

At the point we deserved death, we were offered life.

At the point we merited condemnation, we received forgiveness.

At the point the conduct of our lives warranted judgement, we were given salvation.

This is grace, and it causes those who permit themselves to think about it to marvel at a God who is loving and gracious.

Our God gives us salvation and then leaves us in the world that we may glorify His Name.

It is true that we who are saved shall be presented before God and the angels /to the praise of His glory/ [cf.

*Ephesians 1:12,14*].

Nevertheless, we are charged with the responsibility of remaining in this world at this time that we may live lives reflecting /God’s workmanship/ as those who have been /created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do/ [*Ephesians 2:10*].

This is where the rub comes in – how can we do those good works?

How can we live lives worthy of His Name?  How can we accomplish all that He calls us to do?

It is at this point that Peter provides us insight into God’s rich provision.

His provision covers everything we need for life and godliness.

In other words, there is no area in which God has not made provision for us to glorify His Name, and His provision insures our joy … now.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee once preached a sermon entitled *All This, and Heaven Too*.

That sermon, based on *Romans 5:1-11* if memory serves me, spoke of God’s rich provision to believers.

We have peace with God, access into His grace, the ability to rejoice, hope in the face of opposition and suffering, and if that were somehow insufficient, we have complete confidence in His salvation.

Peter makes much the same sweeping claim for the child of God when he states that He /has given us everything we need for life and godliness/.

God calls each believer to a specific ministry within the Body of Christ.

Called, the Spirit equips each one to perform that assigned task to the praise of God’s glory.

*Whom God appoints, He equips*.

Likewise, God calls each believer to a life reflecting His character, His holiness, His grace.

*Whom God calls, He equips*.

There is no aspect of the Christian life which God has neither considered nor made provision for.

Do we require emotional strength which we are lacking to stand against the insults and insinuations cast by friends so-called?

/God has given us everything we need for life and godliness/.

Do we lack moral stamina to resist temptation?  /God has given us everything we need for life and godliness/.

Perhaps we believe ourselves to have insufficient physical strength to complete our assigned course on earth.

/God has given us everything we need for life and godliness/.

Experience leads me to insist, and this experience is but a faint echo of the Word of God, that /God has given us everything we need for life and godliness/.

All that believers need for /life/, for spiritual vitality, is already given us in Christ.

All that believers need for godly living is given us in Christ.

This word which is translated /godliness/ is fascinating, for it speaks of piety, of a sense of worshipful awe before God.

Accordingly, we are equipped to live lives worthy of His Name and we are equipped to glorify Him in worship as well as our daily walk.

Then, let us live to the praise of His glory and let us determine that we will worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

*The Basis of Christ’s Provision* (/His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him/) – This leads to a second observation which concerns the basis for Christ’s provision to believers: *all that we need is provided by His divine power*.

The focus of Peter’s statement is Christ’s provision to enable believers to live lives marked by spiritual vitality and godly piety.

You will no doubt recall Jesus’ words which are recorded in *Matthew 28:18*: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.

These words segue into the empowering corollary for believers: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations [*Matthew 28:19*].

Christ’s power is available to believers to enable them to fulfil His will.

Because of Christ’s power, we can live lives worthy of His Name.

Have you considered Christ’s divinity?

Is He God?

Is He a demigod?

Is He a mere man?

It is worth our while establishing that this Jesus is very God.

He is clearly declared to be God in the Word.

I recently pointed out some of the pointed statements from the Word which present Jesus as God.

Listen again to those familiar words from John’s Gospel and from Paul’s letters.

From John’s Gospel: /No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known/ [*John 1:18*].

From Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome we read these words concerning Jesus: /Theirs [the Jewish nation] are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised/ [*Romans 9:5*]!

Again, from the letter Paul penned to the young preacher, Titus: /the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good/ [*Titus 2:11-14*].

In an earlier message we saw Peter beginning this letter with reference to Jesus as very God.

He does this through addressing the letter/ to those who through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours/ [*2 Peter 1:1*].

The Jews understood Jesus to lay claim to divinity.

When He made the great claim which yet comforts His people, /I and the Father are one/ [*John 10:30*], the reaction of the Jews who were listening to Him revealed their perception of His claim.

John writes: /Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father.

For which of these do you stone me?”/

/“We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God”/ [*John 10:31-33*].

Jesus exercised power over nature, consistent with His claim to divinity.

He restored sight to the blind and restored shrivelled legs and arms.

He never attended a funeral but that He broke up the observance by raising the corpse to life.

Those tormented by demons were set at liberty and the multitudes were fed.

Jesus walked on the water and the quieted storm lay down at His feet like a chastened puppy.

No wonder that Thomas fell before this Risen Christ and cried out in amazement, My Lord and my God [*John 20:28*]!

One must be willingly blind to fail to see Jesus’ claim to divinity repeated and substantiated throughout the written Word.

Who is Jesus, Paul?

He /is God over all/ [*Romans 9:5*]!

Paul, if I look at Jesus, do I see God?  /God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross/ [*Colossians 1:19,20*].

Is He God, Paul?

He was in very nature God [*Philippians 2:6*].

Two thousand years of recorded history have witnessed repeated assaults against the claim of divinity for Jesus Christ.

This claim has withstood every imaginable assault and multitudes still know Him as God Most High.

Why is this claim of divinity so important to our study today?

If Jesus is not God, then we have no provision for life and godliness.

If Jesus is not God, we are weak and our faith is futile.

If Jesus is not God, we are deluded and deceived and destined to disappointment.

If He is not God, /we are to be pitied more than all men/ [*1 Corinthians 15:19*].

Yet, if He is God, we may be certain that /His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through out knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness/.