All of you part of the service tonight, Mark and Clara, we appreciate it very much.
I'm not sure that we like to believe what we've just sung,
that we can't prove the delights of His love until all on the altar we lay,
because we would like to think we could prove the delights
and experience the delights of God's love without having to put all on the altar.
Of course, what we've sung is true.
I just want to say how much I appreciate looking out here almost every Sunday night
and seeing a line of our single adults who are in the service.
That blesses me.
We have such a terrific group of single men and women in our church,
and I thank God for you and your faithfulness in the service. I really do.
Would you open your Bible, please, with me to 2 Peter, Chapter 1,
as we look at our text for this evening, which is verses 5 through 7.
Now, for this very reason also, applying all diligence in your faith
supply moral excellence and in your moral excellence knowledge,
and in your knowledge self-control, and in your self-control perseverance,
and in your perseverance godliness, and in your godliness brotherly kindness,
and in your brotherly kindness love.
The heart of Christian growth is not found in doing more, but in being more.
It begins with faith, a faith that is genuine,
the kind of faith that is described in verse 1, which is received.
It is not a faith that we somehow generate on our own effort or of our own ingenuity,
but it is a faith that is received, that is granted, that is given freely by God.
That faith brings genuine salvation, but that faith is only the beginning.
Because of the greatness of the salvation that God has given to us,
we are instructed through Peter to apply all diligence to grow beyond the infant stage.
Literally he says in verse 5, now for this very reason,
because of this marvelous salvation that God has given you,
for this reason he says, bringing in all diligence in your faith,
supply moral excellence, and so on.
What he is saying here is that we are to bring into this relationship
that we have with God, in addition to what God has done for us,
every ounce of determination that we have in our beings.
We are to muster diligence within,
so that we may grow beyond the infancy stage of salvation.
We begin as God gives us faith and we trust in the Savior.
And we share a like precious faith, a faith of the same kind as others who are genuine believers.
But that is only the beginning.
After we have received that gift, we are to dig down within ourselves
and fulfill our responsibility to apply diligence to grow.
That concept is largely lost in contemporary Christianity.
The fact that we have a responsibility to God and we are ordered by God to be diligent about our Christian growth.
It's more of a laissez-faire attitude that is prominent today.
Just kind of let it all hang out and just let it happen.
God says that we are to apply diligence.
That we are to be earnest and serious about our growth as Christians.
We are to make every effort to be zealous about this matter of going on beyond the initial faith
to becoming mature in our walk with God.
And that does require effort.
Michelangelo once showed a friend of his an unfinished piece of sculpture in his studio.
Sometime later the man visited him again and was surprised to see that very little progress had been made on the sculpture.
And he even remarked to the master regarding that.
So the great artist showed him how he had rounded out a limb here and smoothed a roughness there
and put in a touch of expression somewhere else.
His friend said, but sir these are but trifles.
Yes, replied Michelangelo, but trifles go to make up perfection.
And perfection is no trifle.
We're going to talk tonight about the importance of being diligent to add to our faith some things.
These are not trifles that we're talking about.
They come together to bring us to a point of perfection or maturity.
We are to be diligent, it says, to supply in the NASV.
To supply, to add to the basics, to further provide more than expected, more than it is demanded.
We are to lavishly and generously supply something out of our faith.
The picture that is seen here seems to be of something that grows out of something else.
It reminds me of the telescope that I wanted when I was a little boy.
It was a telescope that was at a circus.
So you know it was of the finest quality.
It was about that long.
But the neat thing about this telescope is that when you pulled on it, it got longer.
Do you remember that kind of a telescope?
Now when I bought the telescope it seemed this long, but there was more that was added to it as you pulled it out.
And that's the picture that Peter has here.
He says here's your faith.
But now out of that faith you're to provide for some other things.
As I was thinking about this, the picture of a computer came to mind too.
I'm about as close to computer illiterate as one can be and still use the things.
They fascinate me though.
When I turn on my computer in the morning it reminds me of how much I have to learn.
It shows me a directory and I pick the program that I want.
On the computer I most often use WordPerfect 5.0 at this present time.
So I choose WordPerfect 5.0 and it takes me to that program.
Then a menu comes up and there are some subdirectories and I pick which one of those I want.
That brings me to that sub-directory and then it shows me a list of the files that are in that sub-directory of that program or in that one computer.
I pick that file that I want and then once I get to that file I perhaps look for the page within that file that I want.
It's within that sub-directory, within that program, within the directory of the computer.
Now those of you familiar with computers know that you just have the one computer but within that computer are tremendous divisions.
You can go down and down and down into these things and pull out what you want.
Peter says, here's your faith.
Now in that faith provide for all of these other things that are really built into it, that are a part of it.
Go on to experience them, he says, and be diligent about it.
Lavishly provide out of your basic faith these qualities and then he lists them for us.
He says, supply moral excellence.
Out of your faith, that basic gift of God, out of that now provide for moral excellence.
The word here is the same word used back in verse 3 of God where he calls us by his own glory and excellence.
We are told to add this to our character.
It means that we are to add virtue and moral energy to our lives.
In classical times we are told that this word meant the God-given power or ability to perform heroic deeds.
That's what it meant, heroic deeds, the ability to do great things,
whether military deeds or athletic or artistic accomplishments or the conducting of one's life.
The basic meaning of the word indicated the quality by which one stands out as being excellent.
Having been on the golf course a few times and having walked over more of the golf courses I've been on than most people ever see,
it was a thrill to me to go out to the open and to see some people who really know how to play the game.
You don't have to wonder why those people are up on the green and not yourself,
because they stand out as excellent.
I mean, when they're just standing there looking at the ball, they're excellent.
They hold that club up and you know they get around it and you know they know what they're doing.
When they stand over that ball and they grip that club and they make that simple little movement
and it hops out of the rough and it goes out there and then gets onto the green and into that cup,
as I saw one of Scott Simpson's do, you know that guy is excellent.
Now he says, to your faith, provide the quality so that you stand out morally from the crowd.
You're not just one of the group, but you stand out.
There's an excellence about your virtue.
He's talking here about an energy, a courage to stand up for what is right in the sight of God,
to make no compromise with sin.
I think the NIV puts it goodness here. We are to have a goodness about us that causes us to stand out from the crowd.
What kind of a project can you put into your life this week that will add this quality to your basic faith?
Maybe it's a project to determine, to be more selective about the movies that you watch,
the television programs that you view.
We need to be diligent about this matter of being moral and of being excellent in our morality
and of standing out from the crowd, being different.
Not because we want to boast in ourselves, but because we want to please the Savior and be fruitful.
We'll talk about that next week, how important that is.
Then he says to add to our moral excellence knowledge.
Faith and moral excellence grow on the knowledge of God's promises and what God wants.
It's like a fuel. When we grow in the knowledge of the Word of God,
and I don't mean just merely intellectually, but I mean allowing the Word of God to come down into our hearts
so that we grow spiritually as well as intellectually.
So that the Holy Spirit is in charge in our lives.
When we grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ in this way,
when we focus on the Word of God, that just provides fuel for the moral excellence and the faith that have come before us.
What project might you put into place in your life this week that would focus on the knowledge of the Word of God?
Would it be to find a book that you this summer are going to read your way through every day?
Or would you take the time and put in the diligence to memorize a book?
Last summer I got started on the book of Ephesians and memorized the first two chapters before I quit.
I'm sorry I quit.
And I wish I had gone back and reviewed that more faithfully than I have, but I can tell you this,
that memorizing those two chapters did something for me.
There is something about getting the Word of God, beginning to know it, not just up here, but deeply in your spirit,
that enables you to go on and grow. That's what Peter's talking about.
He says, out of your knowledge, supply lavishly for self-control.
Only two other times is this word found in the New Testament. It's not a common word.
It means literally to hold yourself in, and the emphasis is upon controlling the sensual appetites of your body.
Not allowing the basic drives in your humanness to take over and control you, but to control them.
The drives for nourishment and intimacy and possession and meaning,
all of these things are part of the drive of being a human person.
That if we allow our desire for nourishment to get out of hand, we become gluttonous.
If we allow our desire for intimacy to control us, then we may become immoral.
If we allow the desire for possessions to be in charge, we will become covetous and greedy.
If we allow the search for meaning to be number one in our lives, we may become arrogant and egotistic.
So he says, isolate those drives that are part of being human and bring them under control.
Put the bridle on them and lead them. Don't let them lead you.
The opposite of this, of course, would be excess, and that's what we're to avoid.
Out of your knowledge, he says, as you come to know God more deeply,
then provide for self-control to hold yourself in from excess.
What project this week could you focus on, if this is the quality that God wants you to work on this week?
Would it be to focus on an area that is not in control,
and by God's grace to begin bringing that area under the discipline and the lordship of Jesus Christ?
Out of your self-control, he says, provide lavishly for perseverance.
This is the same word we looked at this morning in the services, at least, where I preached,
in God's giving to us both perseverance and encouragement.
And the word means to remain, to stay, to live under pressure.
Continuance in the faith and resistance to the pressures of the world system, those are essential.
And often when you find this word in the Scriptures, it's tied together with the coming of Christ,
that coming of the Lord, that thought of home that we heard sung about so beautifully.
That is what provides for us hope to remain under the load that God causes us and calls us to bear.
Let's remember that the pressures of life are an essential part of God's work in us.
They're not accidental.
They are provided for our learning, that we might add perseverance among the qualities of our life.
What project this week would allow you to work on perseverance?
Maybe it'll be driving through rush hour tomorrow to downtown St. Paul or Minneapolis.
Maybe God is going to provide some perseverance, or at least the opportunity for it in your life at that moment.
Maybe it'll be a snub that you will experience that hurts.
And it brings sorrow to your heart, and it's a load, it's a burden.
The Lord says, I'll give you the ability to abide under this load, not to be discouraged.
He says, out of your perseverance provide for godliness.
Godliness.
This refers to man's obligation of reverence toward God.
We have that obligation.
You see it in the Ten Commandments all over the place, but especially where it says we are to reverence God's name.
We are to keep it holy.
We are not to blaspheme the name of God.
We are to have reverence for Him in our lives, godliness.
A respect for spiritual things.
We are to remember that there are some things that are not common, that are not ordinary.
Among those are the things of God.
We're to have reverence for them.
One commentator says this refers to a very practical awareness of God in every aspect of life.
How aware are you of God in your life?
Perhaps the project for godliness this week, if that's what you want to give diligence to,
would be to look for some eye spy sorts of experiences where you see God at work.
And God, through perhaps bringing some timing together or in some other unusual way, has said,
Hi, here I am, right here in your life, today.
And you see Him.
You don't just let it pass as coincidence.
You're determined this week to be looking for God as He's working in your circumstances and in your life
and in that way being reverential of Him.
Perhaps it would be viewing the news this week with a particular perspective of finding God at work in the world.
And you read about what is happening in Russia.
Or you hear about what is happening in the Philippines or in some other nation.
And you think, you purpose in your heart, you give diligence to say to yourself,
Now, how is God perhaps at work in this?
You see, that brings God into focus in our lives. It's godliness.
And out of your godliness, He says, provide for brotherly kindness.
This is that word that you know well, Philadelphia.
It refers to a fervent practical care for others, a warmth of affection that comes from being in a family.
You will notice that suddenly we've turned a corner here in these qualities.
Up to this point, they've been all inward.
But in the last two, we suddenly turned outward. Brotherly kindness does that.
How might you show brotherly kindness this week?
Give diligence in your life to add brotherly kindness to the qualities in your character.
Would it be perhaps to send a note to a shut-in friend?
Or maybe even better, to stop by and see that person.
And to show kindness out of the sense of being a brother or a sister to this person.
You're in the family together.
And then he concludes by saying, and in your brotherly kindness, lavishly provide for love.
And here's the word agape, that self-sacrificing action that we take on behalf of others, God's kind of love.
It flows from God, who is love.
This love desires the highest good for the other, just like God does.
A project for this one, if you want to focus on it.
If you would dare to start with love this week, a project would perhaps be to find a way of doing good to someone that you naturally find annoying.
Now granted, there are so few people like that in your life that you'll have to think a while.
But when you have gone far enough into your personnel file to find somebody that there just isn't this natural bond with,
how can you do good for that person?
You see, that goes beyond brotherly kindness, because there aren't those kinds of affections there.
This says that person is a sorry rascal.
But I will nonetheless do this in Jesus' name for that person, love.
Notice that in this list of qualities, we begin with faith.
That's the beginning, and then we extend it all the way out here to love.
Faith is the root, and all the way out here at the end is the real fruit of love,
the loveliest of blossoms, which provides a fragrance that is noticeable and pleasurable in this world.
Have you ever walked out in a pig lot on a hot summer day?
Well, if you have, you remember the experience.
There is an odor about a pig lot that is unforgettable.
It's unforgettable for one thing because it hangs on your clothes wherever you go,
but it's unforgettable because it's written on the sensory nerves in your brain.
We live in a world that is odious. It stinks, in other words.
It's a whole lot like a pig lot with pigs wallowing around in the mud and eating slop.
But in this pig lot, there is someone with a fragrant perfume on.
And how that stands out in contrast. And as people walk through the pig lot of this world,
and there's someone there with the lovely fragrance of love about them,
how that person is immediately noticed.
God wants us to be that person.
If we were to put it a different way, if we would take all the colors of these godly characteristics in the list,
and we began to paint, and we took some of faith and we put it on the canvas,
and we dip down with our brush and we pick up a little bit of moral excellence in all of its perfection.
We put it there. And then we reach for the color of knowledge and we mix with it some self-control and we add that.
And then some perseverance and godliness and brotherly kindness.
And then we're just about finished and we reach down with love. We finish the portrait.
When you look at that picture, you will see Jesus Christ.
Because all of these qualities are found in their perfection in Him.
And that's what we want to look like.
So give diligence to add these colors to your portrait, to your picture that you're painting of yourself.
And know that when you have finished, the portrait will be you, but it will look like Jesus.
Let's pray.
Father, thank You for giving us this pattern for growth.
As we see these characteristics and qualities in all of their beauty, we sense, I'm sure all of us, that we have a long, long way to go.
And the picture that's being painted of us is not at all what we would like to see it be now.
But Lord, I pray that You will give us diligence to do our part.
That we might provide lavishly for these things.
That we will focus on them and understand the importance of these qualities and know that our part is to be serious about becoming what You want us to be.
Show us that growth is not what we do, it's what we're becoming.
In Jesus' name, Amen.