Thank you for directing your internet connection to the sermon audio page for Christ Orthodox Presbyterian Church. You can learn more about ChristOPC by visiting our website at www.christopcatl.org. ChristOPC meets for worship each Sunday at 11 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. Sermon passage this evening is in 2 Peter 1. verses 8 through 11. In order to remind ourselves of the context, as it has been some time, I'll begin reading in verse 1. So 2 Peter chapter 1, beginning in verse 1 through verse 11. Hear now the holy, inspired, and inerrant word of our God. Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever lacks these things is so blind that he is nearsighted, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, Be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and your election. For if you practice these things, you will never fall. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Well, throughout this opening paragraph of Peter's letter, beginning at verse 3 and on through verse 11, he has been expounding upon the doctrine of sanctification and calling you as Christians to diligently pursue righteous living by the power of God. And up to verse eight, Peter's central thesis has really been that your sanctification, the progress of increasing holiness in your life is exclusively by the power of God. That it's not a 50-50 work or even a 90-10 work, but it is God's divine power at work in you that causes you to grow in righteousness and holiness. And then he further begins to emphasize that this soul and effectual work by God's power in your life in no way, shape, or form diminishes the call to diligently pursue that righteousness and holiness. See, far from diminishing the call for you to diligently pursue these things, his logic is the opposite. He argues that it's precisely because of God's almighty power at work in you that you therefore earnestly desire and diligently pursue a Christ-like life. Do you remember how his argument has progressed up to this point? It begins in verse three where he says that by God's divine power, he has granted to us all things that pertain to life and to godliness. And then he proceeds in verse 5 to build on that argument, saying, for this very reason, that is, for the very reason that God's power has granted you godliness, make every effort to pursue the virtues of godly living, which he then outlines through verse 7. Now, as he rounds out this initial discourse on sanctification here in verses 8 through 11, our passage this evening, He rounds it out by juxtaposing a fruitful Christian life with a life that he outlines as blind, or we can say unfruitful Christian life. And as he juxtaposes the fruitful life with the blind life, he uses this juxtaposition to call you to be all the more diligent in the pursuit of righteousness and holiness, and to do this with a view toward the ultimate goal of the Christian life, which is living in the heavenly places with Christ our Lord. That's what we're gonna see this evening. We're gonna see that the diligent pursuit of godliness is what the fruitful Christian life looks like. And that diligent pursuit of godliness, that fruitful Christian living. Confirms our calling and election. And it presents the hope of heaven to the Church of Christ on Earth. See this in four parts this evening. First, in examining the fruitful life in verse 8 and second, a blind life in verse 9 and third, the diligent confirmation and then lastly, a richly provided entrance in verse 11. Now first, thinking about the fruitful life in verse 8, I think it's important to make a note here that verses 8 and 9 stand in contrast to one another. where verse 8 reveals what the fruitful Christian life looks like, and verse 9 is meant to reveal a Christian who is living as though they are blind. And so we need to keep in mind when we're thinking about the relationship between verses 8 and 9, that Peter is not talking about the difference between a person who confesses Christ and a person who does not confess Christ. What he's talking about is the fruit of the Christian life, and one who evidences the reality of their confession, and one who lives as though they do not. And so Peter's call throughout these verses, beginning in verses eight and nine, is really to call you to live in conformity to your confession. To recognize that a Christian doesn't just say they believe upon Christ, but their life matches the confession of who Christ is and therefore how he calls them to live. Now we'll see a little bit more about why this is the case when we get to verse nine, but first Peter wants us to sort of answer the question, what does the fruitful Christian life look like? So he says in verse eight, For if these things, that is if the virtues of verses five through seven, are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see how he begins his exposition of the fruitful and useful Christian life? He begins by saying that the virtues of godliness must be both yours and increasing. The virtues of godliness are yours and are increasing. And that's an important thing to think about as we're pondering this concluding exhortation on sanctification. See, if you were to broadly organize the benefits of salvation that you have in union with Christ, you can organize them in two big camps, forensic and renovative. A forensic benefit would be one that highlights the declarative nature of who you are in Christ. Justification being the preeminent example of a forensic benefit where by the power of the Spirit uniting you to your Savior you are declared righteous and holy before God because Christ is righteous and holy and His righteousness and His holiness is given to you by the power of the Spirit and through faith. But the renovative, the other camp of benefits of union with Christ, come in a context not in light of the forensic declaration of who you are, but rather the work of God in your life to make you match that reality, to renovate your person, to cause you to be more and more like the Savior whom you confess. And as Peter begins to expound upon what we could call the renovative work of God in sanctification. He emphasizes for us in this initial phrase, two different aspects of it that are mutually informing and dependent upon one another and are equally vital and important. And the first side of it is he said that the qualities of godliness from verses five through seven are yours. It's a definitive work of God. where God by his power has given you a new godly character. Remember what Peter said back in verse three, that God has granted to you by his power all things that pertain to life and godliness. And how he continued to make the argument in verse four that we have escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For the qualities of godliness from faith to love in verses five through seven to be yours is for Peter to say that is a central quality of a Christian that you have a new nature. That you have a new life as a child of God. That God has raised you already now from spiritual death to spiritual life. that you are from the moments of faith, a new creation, a new man, a new being by the power of God. The old is gone. The old man with the dominion of sin, the corruption and the misery that comes with that is gone. It is no more. A new man has come. Isn't that what the Lord said he would do in our reading in Ezekiel 6 a short while ago? Where the Lord said in Ezekiel 36 verses 26 and 27, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and I will cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my decree. See, the first thing Peter wants you to understand when he's thinking about the fruitful life of a Christian is that it stems from a new nature that God has sown in you by his own power. It is impossible for one who is dead in sins and trespasses to live for the holiness and righteousness of God. In order for one to be in this process of sanctification we'll get into here in just a moment, God must first raise the dead. And that's what he does for his people. That's what he does when he calls you to himself by his power. He raises you. He recreates you after his own image and righteousness and holiness. But that's not the only aspect of sanctification, is it? Because it's not as though God's power stops at the moment of conversion. The process of sanctification isn't as though God plants a seed within you and then takes a step back to say, I wonder what's going to happen in the life of the Christian. No. God's power and work remains in the life of his people, causing you to pursue righteousness all the more in your life. And this is what is called the progressive aspect of sanctification. We're the believer who has a new nature by the power of God. Lives as one who pursues more and more the holiness and righteousness of God that he has called us to. That's really what Peter means, I think, when he says that these things, these qualities of godliness are not only yours, but are also increasing. They grow and they progress in the Christian life as by God's power you strive all the more to put to death the misdeeds of the flesh. And to live by the power of the spirits. Isn't that what Paul says in Romans chapter 8 verse 12, that if you by the power of the spirit put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. What does it mean for you to increase in these things? And now I fear in light of our modern culture, where we look at things like the economy and its progress over time, that we become I guess we could say overly scientific when we read words like increase. And we start to evaluate our own Christian lives and say things like, well, I see an increase of love by 3%, of knowledge by 4%. So maybe the other one's just about 1%, but at least I'm going in an upward direction. So we try to see our Christian life and evaluate it as if we're a jet plane taking off of a runway with an immediate jump to 30,000 feet and no bumps or bruises along the way. But this isn't how we should consider this progressive aspect of sanctification. It's often much more intangible than that. It's a simple reality that we're people and not robots. We can't always look back on our lives and say, well, I've got a 5% growth here or a 10% growth there. We're not seeing enough growth here, so we need to work on that. But instead, what we should be trying to evaluate for, to look in our lives for, and to consider for ourselves as a general increase in the progress of holiness in every aspect of our lives. We should have a united and concerted desire to be more like Christ in every facets of our life, in every facet of our being. I like to liken it to more like someone on a pogo stick going up a set of stairs than it is like a Boeing 737 taking off from the runway. And I mention that because when Peter says that these qualities both are yours and are increasing, an important entailment of that is that none of you, rephrase that, none of us, are yet perfect in this life. It entails that there's not a single living Christian who has yet perfected faith, or knowledge, or brotherly affection, or virtue, or godliness, or love. It means that even while a Christian can never be more justified than at the moment of salvation, there is always a need to be more sanctified. That the Christian life is one of constantly seeking to be more and more like our savior. Of always looking to the one who has saved us, growing in our knowledge of who he is and having our character begin to look more like the one who has saved us. and what Peter wants you to understand, brothers and sisters. Is that that is what the useful and fruitful Christian life looks like. It looks like God working by the power of his spirit to make you more godly. Isn't that how Peter finishes our verse where this increase in sanctification, the increase of godliness that is yours and is increasing, he says, keeps you. from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Now, Peter puts his argument in the negative, but let me put his arguments in the positive. These godly qualities that are yours and these godly qualities that are increasing in the life of the Christian as you diligently pursue righteousness and holiness is what the useful and fruitful Christian life looks like. Walking in the proper manner worthy of the Lord and worthy of the calling of the gospel Bearing every fruit in good work as Paul says in Colossians chapter 10 being zealous for good works as we read in Philippians chapter 2 a little while ago is What the useful and fruitful Christian life looks like? We can even put it on the other side as as the Apostle James does in James chapter 2 verse 20 where it says faith apart from works is useless and In fact, the word useless there is the same word that Peter uses for an effective here. So what does a useful and fruitful Christian life look like? It looks like one that pursues godly living above all the things that the world would have to offer. And I think that's an important thing to keep before our eyes, especially in today's climates of celebrity pastors and online influencers with Twitter warriors and Facebook fighters and fill in the blank with everything else that might provide a platform for Christians in this age. You see, in light of how easy it is for anyone to have a platform, it's almost become commonplace that if you don't have one, then you're not doing enough. If you're not the one saying everything, then you're not the one who's useful for the kingdom of God. If you're not out there having a million followers or whatever, then you're not actually bearing fruits in your Christian life. See, when we evaluate things from the terms of the world, there's always this pressure to say, I'm not doing enough. I'm not living up. I'm not able to stand to the pressure of being the celebrity, to being the online influencer. Or there's another danger, kind of coming from the other side. And when you watch something on YouTube or read a particular post on Facebook that you think your work is done, when you've placed your thumbs up, your smiley face, or made a little snide comment or two, that is not what the useful and fruitful Christian life looks like. The useful and fruitful Christian life looks like one who's diligently pursuing Christ. who's diligently pursuing a life of simple fidelity, where you are just wanting to be faithful to what God has placed in your life, where you just want to pursue the righteousness that he calls you to pursue, the holiness that he calls you to be. The useful and fruitful Christian life is not made up of you being the next celebrity pastor, you being the next online influencer. The useful and fruitful Christian life isn't made up of making a bunch of comments online or being some sort of sleuth on the internet. It's made up of the simple fidelity to our Lord and seeking to be more like him in every aspect of our lives. It's the life of simple faithfulness. But what about the blind life? What about the life of this blind one that Peter continues to expound here in verse 9? He goes to give us kind of a flip side of the coin. If the useful and fruitful Christian life is one that is marked by the diligent pursuit of godliness, that simple fidelity, then the failure to pursue godliness, to pursue the virtues of verses five through seven, is tantamount to living as though you were blind. Peter continues in verse nine. Whoever lacks these qualities is blind, being nearsighted, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. And what does Peter mean by blind here? There is a sort of spiritual blindness that is tantamount to being spiritually dead. It's like what the prophet Isaiah deals with over and over again throughout his work. An example of that being Isaiah 6 where the prophet talking about the people of Israel says that they are blind such that they cannot see and they're gonna remain blind lest they see with their eyes and deaf lest they hear with their ears and turn with their hearts and be healed by the word of God. There is a blindness that is the description of one who is living in the kingdom of darkness. But I don't think that's what Peter has in mind when he uses the term blind here. See here, the term blind is qualified by another one translated nearsighted. And here there's a translational difficulty where the English standard version translates it as so nearsighted that he is blind. And that translation would lead us to the conclusion that Peter is saying there's one who has such defective vision that they are blind. But the order of the Greek is actually the opposite. It's actually one who is blind that is being nearsighted. Where the nearsightedness is meant to be a description of what he's meaning when he says the term blind. Blind is not a heightening from nearsighted. Nearsighted is a description of what Peter is after when he's using the term blind. So what does it mean for someone to live nearsightedly in their Christian life. See, this is not a person who's totally blind, but one whose eyesight is distorted. One who can maybe see shapes and colors, but not faces. One who might be able to make out things in the room, but if they took a walk down the aisle, would stub their toes here and there. And if this is the case, I don't think what Peter is talking about is people outside the church living in the kingdom of darkness. I think what he's talking about is people who are inside the church, people who in terms of their confession and in terms of their church membership should have eyes to see and yet nonetheless have eyesight that is distorted and they live as though they were blind. The issue is that there are people that while being instructed in the way of wisdom such that they should have eyes to see, their life does not match it. They live as though they don't see hardly at all. Their confession and their life don't match. Saying that they can see They are wandering around as though they were blind sinners. And I think seeing it in that light drives us to Peter's important pastoral point here. Because Peter is very much concerned about the character of the Christian. He's very much concerned about the character of the Christian, where he wants you, desires you, and pastorally guides you to increasing in godliness and in righteousness. See, there is a type of person, even in the church today, that might know the Westminster Confession of Faith backward and forward, be able to teach it such that some of us might even utter a hearty amen, And yet their personal life is such that Peter would consider them blind. That's the type of person that I think Peter has in mind here. That at least in terms of their public profession and even their public reception, they claim to be a Christian. Yet the way they live shows that perhaps they are not. that he describes them as nearsighted. In fact, the Greek term here is where we get the English term myopic from. I think takes us to consider the reality of how dangerous this type of person really is. You see, I'm nearsighted myself. My grandpa used to say about himself and I now say about myself and I'm blind in one eye and can't see out the other. If I didn't have corrective lenses in, you would all be like moving trees, maybe stationary trees, sitting out in the pews. And while I might be able to navigate a few stairs here or there, you certainly don't want me driving down the highway without my glasses, because that's the fastest way to death. A quick way to cruise down the road, and as you're driving down and a semi-truck becomes but a mere blob in the side of your eyes, to know that a wreck is very shortly around the corner. And that's why if your wear glasses, your driver's license says the same as mine, corrective lenses required. Because if you don't have those corrective lenses having the right eyes to see, then you're not useful or fruitful for the work that is at hand. See, the person who is nearsighted in this way, they say that they can get you safely up I-75. But the reality is that their seeing isn't worth squats. And it's not because their character isn't what it's supposed to be. Their confession and their lives don't match. And I think that's why Peter continues on in his description of the blind life. This Christian living as though they are nearsighted continues to say, not that they've forgotten what the virtues they should do are, but rather forgotten what the redemption of Christ is. Where he continues to say this person who is living blind, blind that is being nearsighted, is one who has forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. You see, if you find yourself wavering in the commitments to a Christian character, the commitments to holiness and to righteousness and to godliness, to brotherly affection and love and faith and all of these things that Peter outlines for us here and in other places, it is more than a lack of discipline in your Christian life. It's more than a simple failure. It's more than a little mistake. It's forgetting Christ and it's forgetting His work. It's an act of breached faith. An act of faithlessness rather than faithfulness. Do you see how Peter is making his arguments here in verses 8 and 9? that the diligent pursuit of godliness by His own power leads you to the useful and fruitful life in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But then the lack of sanctification, he continues in verse 9, means that you've forgotten the gospel of Christ and forgotten the forgiveness of sins that are found in Him. And so he's saying, if you truly know Christ, if you truly believe upon Him, then that faith will be manifest in the fruit of sanctification. Then that faith will be manifest in your works. And so what do you do? What do you do when in honest evaluation of your life you recognize that these things are not true of you? What is the remedy to our own spiritual myopia Well, the remedy, brothers and sisters, is to look to Christ. To rest upon the reality that God is the one who opens the eyes of the blind, who unstops the ears of the deaf. And as you look to Christ, you behold the beauty of the Gospel. The wonder of the forgiveness of sins that are found in your Savior. And precisely because of that, You are driven all the more to pursue this godly living. And so I ask you this evening, are you living as one who knows that your sins are forgiven? Are you living in a manner that is worthy of the calling of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Or are you living as one who is nearsighted and blind? groping about in the darkness, who says that you believe upon the Lord and yet live as though you do not. I think it's healthy for all Christians to ask ourselves those questions every once in a while, to take some time for self-evaluation, even as the Apostle Paul calls us to in preparation for the Lord's Supper, as we will partake of here in just a short while. And it's important, I think, to ask ourselves those questions and to honestly evaluate ourselves in light of that. Because really what that should do is drive you all the more to the diligent pursuit of righteousness and holiness. Isn't that exactly what Peter continues on to say in verse 12? Where he says, because there are these two types of life in the church today, the useful and fruitful and the blind, Therefore, he says in verse 10, therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. The clear mark of a Christian, an indelible mark on the Christian life is the diligent pursuit of a godly character. This is what Peter means when he says we should be all the more diligent to make our calling and election sure. That's important to realize he's not saying to be all the more diligent to call and elect yourself. It's to confirm your calling and election. Because what he is saying here is that your life and your confession, they need to match up with one another. In fact, the term translated to confirm means that very thing. If we were to add a footnote into our Bibles, which I don't mind doing to give greater connotation of particular words, we can say the Greek term here means the notion of being steadfast in continuity to a original commitment. Now, why isn't that in the translation? Because that's way too much of a mouthful. But the term means constancy, steadfastness, persistence, dependability. Peter is saying you are to be constant, steadfast, persistent, and dependable in living the Christian life. You should, as parts of your life, live as one who is steadfast to the original commitments of faith in your Savior. You are to be as one who rests upon Christ and who lives in Christ in your life. The diligent work to pursue righteousness in no way contradicts the divine work that is being done in you at this very moment. Instead, I think Peter is saying something very much like what Paul says in Philippians 2, where he says there, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his own good pleasure. The life of a Christian is a testimony to the work of God. His effectual work in you, the outworking of his electoral love towards you, moves to the reality that you are to work out your salvation with fear and tribbling. The Gospel gives you every reason to pursue righteousness and holiness as one whose sins have been forgiven. And so a Christian must never be one who sees the grace of God as a reason for complacency or for laxity in your walk with God. to never use the merciful nature of God as an excuse for sin, as if even in the throes of temptation, you say, it's okay, because if I pray, then I would be forgiven. No, out of the love with which he has loved you, live how he calls you to live. And doing this, living this sorts of life, leads to a situation where Peter concludes verse 10 saying, if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. Being elected by God, being called by God entails that you will also be kept by God. Whenever your life matches your confession, where it's showing to you and even to those who are around you that you have been effectually called and eternally elected by God. It shows you also the reality that God is going to preserve you throughout all of the trials and temptations in this life. See, Peter doesn't say you will never fail, does he? He doesn't say your life will be perfect or effortless. He doesn't say that you're already sinless. He says you will never fall. Because God's call is effectual. Because his electoral love is sure. Because his power is at work in you even today to pursue this righteousness and holiness, the promise of God for you is that because you are kept by him, you will never abandon him and you will never forsake him. Yes, there will be times where we wax and we wane in our own fidelity to the Lord. Well, we knowingly break God's law. But for those whom the Lord has named as his own. you will never fully fall away. The one who blesses you is the one who keeps you. And because he is the one who keeps you, he is the one who will also bring you to the final goal of our salvation, which is heaven itself. And this is where Peter ends his exhortation this evening, saying that the work of sanctification is a work of God's free grace, where as he makes our life match our confession, where he calls us and renews us unto holiness and righteousness, he is fashioning in us the necessary character that we need to be the people of God and to dwell with God in his eternal kingdom. You see, without holiness, it is impossible to see God, But because God's grace is at work, electing you, justifying you, and sanctifying you, and having the terminus and glory with Christ. Because you are kept by the power of God, you can know that you will be brought into His eternal kingdom. That you will receive a new resurrected and glorified body where the war against sin is brought to an end. and you are fully holy even as he is holy. But isn't that what every Christian longs for and desires for in this life? So if we're following Peter's logic here, you should not only live as one who has had your sins forgiven by the work of Christ, but you should live as a citizen of heaven looking forward to the eternal and imperishable inheritance that is yours, knowing that the fight for sanctification today gives way to the rich provision of heaven and the world to come. See what Peter says here in verse 11. In this way that is in the useful and fruitful life of the diligent pursuit of godliness of making your calling and election sure by pursuing the holy life that he calls you to live in this way. There will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. See at the end of verse 10, Peter assures you The one who is elect of God and called by God will never fall away from God. Now in verse 11, he shows you where that person's eternal destiny lies. And it is in the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. since you have been delivered from the domain of darkness and been transformed, transferred into the kingdom of God's beloved son, the kingdom of his marvelous light. Since you have been made right with God in union and communion with Christ, and since you pursue righteousness in his power, you have an inheritance in his kingdom. Your new nature that is made up of qualities that are yours and are increasing from verse eight. shows you as one whom God has called to himself, whom he has renewed and made right that you might dwell with him. And isn't that the hope of the Christian? Being with God. See, this is why the doctrine of sanctification is so important. Even as it shows that our calling and election is sure, it also expresses that we are citizens of the kingdom of heaven, that we are a people whom God has called to himself, a people whom God has given a holy nature that is necessary for us to dwell with a holy God. And because of that, because of that, you, all of you, who trust and rest in Christ for your salvation will receive the rich welcome into his eternal glory. You see, seeing it in this light and ending this charge to sanctification with the hope of heaven is meant to be a robust encouragement to you. Because if we're honest with ourselves, there are times in our Christian lives whenever we are struggling against our own dwelling center, just wrestling with the reality of living in a fallen world where it feels like the wheels are just turning, or where it feels like we're stuck out in the bar dench, wheels spinning on some ice, and we're not getting anywhere at all, let alone anywhere fast. Quite the contrary. The wheels of the Christian life are never just spinning in the bar ditch. They're never stuck in a pile of snow. They're always ascending the heavenly Zion, moving you forward to the eternal kingdom of our Lord, bringing you into his heavenly presence with the gates of heaven open wide, ushering in his people to his kingdom. Where should we know? that through the grace of Christ, as you have been given this rich provision, that you will be brought into the kingdom of his perfect righteousness. The battle that we are fighting and even raging against our own indwelling sin will come to an end. The life of living in a world of misery due to the fall will come to an end. And all that will remain for those of you in Christ is basking in the glory of our Lord and our Savior, of rejoicing in Him in perfect holiness and righteousness and making much of Him forever. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you that you are a God who continues working in the life of the Christian to make our calling and election sure by conforming us more and more to our Savior. We pray that you would work mightily in our lives, even this evening, that we would diligently pursue this godliness. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.