Peter's Plea: Be Diligent to Grow in Your Faith

Peter’s Plea:

Be Diligent to Grow in Your Faith

2nd Peter 1:8-11

August 12, 2007

Sun Oak Baptist Church

Introduction

          A.      Please turn with me in your Bibles to 2nd Peter 1:5 and I encourage you to take out your sermon notes as well.

          B.      As we are getting started this morning I want to give us fair warning that we will not be dealing with one of the “feel good” passages in God’s Word.  We will be dealing with Peter’s plea in verses 8-11 for Christians to be diligent in adding to their faith the seven (7) essential ingredients for Christian growth that we dealt with two (2) weeks ago.  Read 1:5-7.  Remember that the word “add” here in the Greek is an imperative, it’s a command – pursuing these in optional for a Christian.

                   1.       Pastors often try to encourage people to grow in their faith by suggesting regular church attendance; that they attend Sunday evening services; read their Bibles; pray throughout the day; a pastor might encourage us to develop friendships with unsaved people in order to open opportunities to share the Gospel and so on – and these practices are meant to encourage people to grow in their Christian life.

                   2.       But understand that Peter doesn’t make adding or increasing in these Christ-like character traits optional – we are commanded to pursue them.  And Peter strengthens this command by using the word “diligent,” which means that we are to be “earnest” or “steadfast” about this.  But he doesn’t even stop there.

                             Verses 8-11 are part of a plea to pursue Christian growth by giving three (3) reasons why it is so very important to work at growing and maturing in the Christian life – three (3) reasons why we must be seeking to move from crawling as a baby Christian; to learning to walk as a toddler Christian; and then finally to begin running the Christian race – as Paul says in 1st Cor. 9:  “run as if to win.”

                   3.       Look at 1:1.  Verses 1-4 are a unit; so are verses 5-7; so are verses 8-11 and so are verses 12-15 – and while each of these sections are units they all fit together to communicate a message that is critical to Peter’s reason for writing this letter.  Follow along as I read and see how verses 1-15 all fit together.

                             Read and pray.

          C.      As we begin to unpack the truths of verses 8-11 some of us might find them very confrontive – and in fact they are.  They are an “in your face” confrontation by Peter that is his plea for Christians to take seriously the command in verse 5 to “add.”  He makes every effort to persuade us about the importance of growing in the Christian faith; about of making the pursuit of Christ-like character a central priority in our life and his approach is to confront – to sit us in a chair, look us in the eye and ask us the hard questions and he does it by presenting three (3) incredibly important reasons why we should be diligent to obey the command in verse 5 to be about the business of adding these seven (7) qualities to our lives.

I.       First of all, reason #1, is so that we will have a productive Christian life.  See 1:8.

          Read 1:8.  Why should we be diligent to add the seven (7) virtues of verses 5-7 to our faith?  Because if we do we will have a productive, or a fruitful, Christian life.

          Here’s the question Peter confronts us with in verse 8:  is our Christian life productive?  Is our Christian life productive or isn’t it?  What do we have to show for our decision to receive Christ as Lord and Savior?  Would our Christian testimony resemble a barren desert or would it look like a fruit orchard that is producing a harvest for God’s glory?

          That’s the question Peter confronts with in verse 8.  And he does it by identifying what it means to have a productive Christian life.

          A.      For one, being productive means that a Christian is constantly in the process of growing.  Look at verse 8 again.  Read 1:8a.

                   The word “abound” here can also be translated “increasing.”  In other words, adding these seven (7) Christ-like character traits is not a stagnant proposition.  Just like we would regularly pursue adding money to a savings account, the idea here is that Christians are to be constantly in the process of adding these qualities to our faith – constantly moving towards more and more Christ-likeness.  Like a young fruit tree continues to mature and grow if properly cared for, so being a productive Christian means we must constantly be in the process of growing and maturing.

          B.      Being productive also means that a Christian does not have a “barren” life.

                    1.       Look at verse 8 again.  Read.  The word “barren” could be better translated “idle” or “lazy.”  The word pictures a desert – a desert is “idle;” the heat beats down; hardly anything grows – it’s barren.  A barren vegetable garden is idle and doesn’t produce a crop and it’s the same thing for a Christian not growing in Christ-likeness – Peter says they’re barren.

                    2.       Unfortunately the tragic truth is that many people attending church have lives that are just like a desert – when it comes to spiritual things they are very idle and barren.  They say they believe the Bible and they see that Peter says to be diligent about these things – but they do nothing about it.  As James says they are “hearers” of the Word but not “doers.”  People like this can be very active in connection with other things that they believe in:  for example their hobbies; cleaning house; fishing; a bridge club and so on; they can give themselves wholeheartedly to a career, but when it comes to the fact that God has taken a personal interest in them and that Christ has died for them – there’s idleness and their Christian life looks like a desert – that’s tragic.

                    3.       There’s something I want to underscore here so we don’t miss it:  the kind of Christian activity that Peter is talking about in verses 5-7 is the result of changed character and this is fundamental to understanding Peter’s plea.  We must be something and become something before we can do anything – that’s verses 1-4.  The reason people struggle with verses 5-7 is because they don’t have the changed character that comes in verses 1-4 – in other words they haven’t truly been born-again.

                             We must be something and become something in verses 1-4 before we can do what Peter says we must do in verses 5-7.  And if we don’t seek to do verses 5-7 Peter confronts us with the truth that are Christian life will be barren.

          C.      A productive Christian is a Christian that is the ongoing process of growing so they are not barren, and next, if we are diligent to keep adding these things not only will our Christian life not resemble a desert, we also will not be unfruitful.  Re-read 1:8.

                   The word “unfruitful” goes hand-in-hand with the word barren – they go together.  Unfruitfulness, or uselessness, is a by-product of being barren.  I’m pretty sure most of us would agree that it would be quite difficult, if not impossible to grow an apple tree in the middle of the Sahara desert and it’s the same thing in the Christian life.

                   1.       Peter’s plea here is incredibly serious on a personal level.  Don’t lose sight of where he’s heading:  read 1:10.  Here’s the issue – so be honest:  are you producing fruit in your Christian life?  When is the last time that you shared the Gospel with someone?  Are you more patient today than you were last year?  Do you love others today more than you did five (5) years ago?  Can we say with conviction that we love God more today than last year, the year before, and so on?  In other words:  is our Christian life producing fruit?

                   2.       But not only is Peter’s plea serious on a personal level it’s also incredibly serious on the corporate level – meaning in the church.  For example, do you think on the whole that there are more people who claim to be Christians attending church today or less than there were ten (10) years ago?  A 1991 Gallup poll showed that 78 percent of Americans surveyed expect to go to heaven when they die – 78%.  However, the survey also went on to show that the majority of these people hardly ever pray, hardly ever read the Bible, and attend church irregularly.  They also admit that they live to please themselves instead of seeking to please God.  Another survey estimates that a little over a hundred churches a month are closing their doors.  Question:  do these kind of statistics sound like the church at the corporate level is producing fruit?

          D.      Why is it so critical that we diligently seek to add the Christ-like character qualities of verses 5-7 to our faith?  Because first of all, then and only then will we not be barren and unfruitful – then and only then will we be productive Christians – only then will be useful to God.

II.      Secondly, reason #2, because he who lacks these things is blind.  See 1:9.

          Read 1:9.  Why should we be diligent to be about the business of growing in the Christian faith?  Do you see what Peter is saying here?  A person attending church who lacks these things (the things in verses 5-7), or who is not diligent in regard to adding these Christ-like qualities to their faith is demonstrating a fundamental ignorance and Peter tags a person like this with two (2) labels.

          A.      First, he calls them short-sighted – or blind and this label is incredibly sober warning regarding the danger of false conversion. 

                   1.       The reality is that Jesus solemnly warned us, and so does Paul, and so does Peter (and by the way – so does virtually every book in the NT) of the incredible danger of people that attend church somehow thinking they are a Christian, and somehow thinking, or hoping, or believing that they will go to heaven – when the fact is there is no evidence in their lives of the qualities in verses 5-7.

                             Turn with me to 2nd Cor. 3:12.  Someone who is short-sighted is someone that can’t see distant things – they only see things that are immediately in front of them and obviously, people who are blind can’t see at all and notice what the apostle Paul says about blindness.  Read 3:12-16 & 4:3-4.

                             Now flip back to 2nd Peter.  Peter applies the label of short-sightedness and blindness to people that are not growing in their faith and this label is a sober warning regarding the very real danger of false conversion.

                   2.       And this label is also a warning about priorities – priorities.  If we take the glasses off someone who is short-sighted they can’t see distant things – they can only see what is immediately in front of them.

                             And here again we are confronted with the urgency of Peter’s plea:  do we want to be sure of where we will spend eternity?  Then what are our priorities today?  Teenagers are often short-sighted – they’re often accused of only thinking about the “now” and it’s the same thing for someone that is short-sighted.  They forget that death is coming – they forget that judgment is coming – they forget that a face to face meeting with the Author of the universe is only a moment away for any one of us – and that’s being short-sighted.

                   3.       Remember the first question of the Westminster Catechism:  what is the chief end of man?  Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  How do we do that?  It’s simple:  become like Christ – become like Christ – become like Christ.  And how do we do that?  By devoting ourselves to increasing and adding the seven (7) Christ-like qualities we find in verses 5-7.

                   4.       So that’s the first label Peter tags people with that aren’t growing in their faith – they are short-sighted and even blind.

          B.      And secondly, Peter tags people who don’t make Christian growth a priority in their lives with this label:  read 1:9b.

                   1.       What’s this mean?  Not only are people not growing in their faith short-sighted or blind in terms of where they will spend eternity, they can’t see backwards either.  They have forgotten, missed, or never known the whole point of salvation:  Christ paid the penalty of their sin and we have God’s forgiveness because of that payment.

                   2.       Think of this from God’s point of view for a moment.  What do we want for children born to us – to just leave them in a crib to die and never grow?  God didn’t send His only begotten Son to die on a cross in order to save people so that they can go to their “church crib” once a week, once a month or whatever and forget that the death of His Son purged them from their sin.  Jesus Christ died so that sinners could be born-again, start crawling, start walking, and then start bearing fruit for the glory of God – that’s why God saves people.

          C.      Why should every single man, woman, boy or girl that names the name of Christ be diligent to move from the crib to walking; and from walking to running?  First of all because if they do they will have a productive Christian life and secondly, because if they don’t they are short-sighted or blind and have even gone so far as to forget that they have been purged of their sin; they have forgotten the whole purpose of the Incarnation; the humiliation of Christ; and the agony and the death on the Cross.

III.    And finally, the third reason that it is so important to be about the business of adding these qualities to our lives is that if we do so, God will supply an abundant entrance into Christ’s everlasting kingdom.  See 1:10-11.

          Read 1:10-11.  To me, the progress of Peter’s plea in these verses only proves the divine authorship of this letter.  If we start the Christian life the right way (verses 1-4); if we then continue living it out in the right way (verses 5-7); then our lives will end the right way.  In verses 1-4 God saves us; in verses 5-7 we respond to God’s love and grace by adding Christ-like virtues to our saving faith; and then verses 10-11 tells us how it will all end.

          A.      In verse 10 we see that adding Christ-like character to our faith proves we are a Christian.  Re-read 1:10.

                   1.       The word “therefore” should hit us like a Mack truck.  It promises us that if we are diligent to do the things in verses 5-7.  Our diligence covers the whole of our life.  Growing in these things is the way to make our calling and election sure – certain – it proves we are indeed a Christian.

                   2.       On the one hand this is how we can know our salvation is real and on the other hand, if these seven (7) qualities are not being added to our lives, then we have every reason to question the certainty of our faith.  If we do these things we will never stumble – our Christianity will be certain, not uncertain.

          B.      And then in verse 11 we see that adding Christ-like character assures us of an abundant entrance in Christ’s kingdom.  Notice that verse 11 cuts two (2) ways.  Read 1:11.

                   1.       First of all, until Christ comes again His kingdom is always, and has always been a present kingdom.

                             During His earthly ministry Jesus told people that the kingdom of God, or “His kingdom” was “at hand” – meaning it was right there.  So when a person becomes a Christian they enter Christ’s kingdom in the here and now – in the present.  So verse 11is again about assurance.

                   2.       So first of all, in verse 11 there’s Christ’s kingdom in the here and now, but secondly, there’s also Christ’s future, or “everlasting” kingdom.

                              When you think about it there is perhaps nothing that tests or reveals exactly where we are and where we stand as a Christian than how we face the end of our life – death tends to be the great equalizer.  I never knew this until after he died, but for most of his life, my Dad was scared to death of death.

                             But this is not how Peter says a Christian that purposes to add the virtues of verses 5-7 to their faith views death.  Verse 11 tells us that men and women who are diligent to make Christian growth a priority in their lives are people that die and enter heaven “gloriously and trium­phantly.”  The word “abundantly” means “supplied richly.”  Peter couldn’t be any clearer:  if we are diligent to do the things in verses 5-7 we will have an abundant entrance into Christ’s kingdom both now and in the future.  Our entrance into heaven will be a rich and glorious entrance.

                             I was reading this past week where a Christian leader on his deathbed said these words:  “I shall be satisfied if I can but creep into heaven on my hands and knees.”  Now I have no problem with the spirit of humility that was behind these words – if I could read you the context it’s clear that this man felt that his service to God was nothing compared to what God did form him.

                             But, at the same time, what he says here is not technically correct.  For the Christian that is diligent to pursue growth not only is salvation a glorious event, death is nothing more than an entrance into a glorious life for all eternity.  When we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be – but the key to that kind of entrance (as compared to crawling into heaven on our hands and knees) is a steadfast commitment to Christian growth.

Conclusion

          A.      Revelation 22:14 says this:  “Blessed are those who do His commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.”

                   There is but one way that guarantees an abundant entrance into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ both in the “now” and in eternity and it’s being diligent to constantly growing in our faith.

          B.      What kind of entrance do we want?  If we want this kind of entrance then Peter’s argument leaves us with just one simple choice.  Look at 1:5.  give all diligence to add to our faith moral energy or virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and knowledge self-control; and to that perseverance; and to that godliness; and to that brotherly kindness; and finally to brotherly kindness love.  There’s a profound promise in verse 11:  we when are about the business of adding these, then God Himself is about the business of adding this kind of entrance to us.

          C.      Our response to what Peter is saying here should go something like this:  “God, I hear Peter’s plea – by your grace help me to grow in virtue; help me to make adding self-control to my life a priority…” and so on.