Please do turn with me now to 2 Peter chapter 1. As we continue to look in our series of messages on the subject of Christian growth, If you have been with us, you will know that the theme that we are dealing with is simply entitled, Christian, Grow Up. That's all it is, Christian, Grow Up. And today, we're looking at 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 9, and the title of our message is, The Blinding Effect of Forgetting God's Grace. the blinding effect of forgetting God's grace. As usual, we begin reading from verse 5 of this chapter, and we'll go all the way to verse 9. Verse 5, primarily because that's where this aspect of what you should add to your faith is dealt with. And then finally, verse 9 is our text this morning. The Bible reads there, 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 qualities are yours and are increasing, They keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins." Well, what we're really looking at in this passage is the realization that God has provided for each one of us who are his children that which we need for our spiritual growth. In other words, the potential that is in me for my own growth is precisely the same potential that is in you. There ultimately should be no reason why you should be a spiritual toddler after the same number of years as somebody else who is now so mature that so many people are looking up to him or to her because the potential is the same. We have seen that in the words of verse 3 where the Bible says, 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. That's what God has done to all of us. He's given it to us and consequently it is now up to us to keep adding to this faith the various qualities that we see in the scriptures. The qualities of knowledge and self-control and steadfastness and so on, all these qualities are God-given, which we should be actively seeking to grow in so that God might be glorified in us. Well, last time we noted in verse 8 that although the Apostle Peter has couched these words in negative statements, actually the statement itself is a positive. In other words, he uses two negatives in order to make the point that there is something positive that should be true about all of us. And what is that? That we must possess these qualities in increasing measure, and as a result of it, we will be fruitful, we will be effective. We notice that in verse 8. For if these qualities are yours and increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The point there is that they make you effective. and fruitful, if we possess them and if we indeed grow in them. What we did last week was really to apply this to the COVID-19 situation, to show how if you are increasing in these qualities, it doesn't matter what the outward circumstances will be like. You will indeed be still seeking to glorify God in your life to be a means of blessing to other people. Yes, it might mean endangering your life, it might mean a lot of sacrifice on your part, but you will be so gripped by wanting to live for God that all these things will not stop you. You become unstoppable. Verse 9 is the exact opposite of verse 8. You can easily see it. In verse 8 we read, if these qualities are yours and are increasing. Verse 9 says, for whoever lacks these qualities. So you have two opposite situations. The one who has these qualities and increasing is one who is a trailblazer for Christ, is one who is Striking blows for Jesus Christ is one who is indeed being effective and fruitful. And then Peter turns around to those who are in the opposite camp. And what is true about them, they lack, they lack, they lack these qualities. And what we really want to see today is Why would anybody end up in this way? And ultimately, the answer is, in the text itself, that they forget God's grace. They forget God's grace in pardoning them of their sins, especially the reality of where they are coming from. They get so used to the Christian life that they lose the thrill, the sparkle, the joy of knowing that God has had mercy upon me. Well, let's quickly look at this and trust that the Lord would truly minister to our hearts as we consider this point from the Apostle Peter. First of all, it is the simple fact that too many believers, even today, too many believers lack these qualities beyond this saving faith. And that's what Peter is bemoaning here. We read in verse 9, the first part, as we already saw, for whoever lacks these qualities, whoever lacks these qualities. What does Peter mean by this? Well, I touched on it a few weeks ago, that when Peter is talking about possessing these qualities, he's talking in terms of the way in which you own property. You own a house. It is something which is an ongoing possession. You live in it. People around identify you with that property. They say, this is where he lives, and so on. It is not the way in which a businessman, for instance, will buy a car in order to quickly sell it and make quick money. So people don't identify him with that car at all, because it is something he quickly gets and passes on, gets and passes on and so on. Peter is not thinking in those terms, momentary acquisition of these qualities. He's talking about you possessing them in such a way that when people are describing you, they describe you in those terms. They'll be speaking in terms of, you know, that brother who is so knowledgeable, that sister who is so godly, that brother who is so loving, you are identified by these qualities. And yet, let's face it, brethren, that we all know many professing Christians whose lives cannot be described in these terms. No, no, no, a thousand times no. Individuals that as we've come to know them over years, they don't seem to grow in their Christian knowledge. With them in Bible studies, they are always not wanting to speak. until you are out there in the world and then speaking about the news, suddenly they come alive because that's what they thrive on, the information in the news rather than in this good old book. You cannot speak in terms of them being self-controlled because literally any situation causes them to react and overreact. losing their temper at almost anything. You cannot describe them as being steadfast. Yes, you remember once upon a time when they were living for Christ and you were doing evangelism together. They were striking some blows for Jesus, but that is no longer the case. Today, There's no difference between them and the person, perhaps, who's never been truly saved. They are there, but they've clearly become completely lukewarm. I can continue with these virtues and these qualities that have been spoken about here. Godliness, brotherly affection, love. You cannot speak of them in these terms. And I want to repeat, That's extremely sad. They are professing believers, yes, but it seems that it is easier to describe them in the opposite ways. In other words, to speak on them in terms of the fact that they are full of worldly pleasures. to speak of them in terms of the fact that they are individuals who simply want to acquire more and more and more of the world's goods. That's all that you seem to see in them. You are together in church, yes. But clearly, when they are in church, they are absent-minded because that's not where their hearts are. And as soon as they are out there, they come alive. because it's the things of the world that primarily occupy them. I wonder whether I'm describing you today. I wonder whether this is true about you, that you are not a person who challenges fellow believers concerning what true spiritual growth is all about. You are not in that category. If anything, You are more an individual that pulls them down. You are more an individual that causes them to be corrupted and to become worldly whenever you are with them. It is easy to describe you in the words of scripture that bad company ruins good morals. That in the end, that is what you Well, that's the situation that Peter is describing here when he says, for whoever lacks this quality. And if that describes you, then just bear in mind that you are the kind of person I have in mind as I am preaching this series. And it is to you that I'm saying, Christian, grow up. Yes. You cannot go on living this way. This is not the way Christianity is meant to be lived. No. You better put those childish ways behind you, those immature ways behind you, those worldly ways behind you. Put them away. And instead, begin to show the qualities that have been described here in verse five. verse 6 and verse 7 of 2 Peter and chapter 1. That people can describe you that way because that has now become the property that you own. Well, let's go on because we need to ask two questions. First of all, why would anyone be content with that kind of life? scraping the floor, so to speak, instead of going higher and higher and higher in spiritual things. Why would anyone be content with this? Well, it is because of being short-sighted and spiritually blind. That's what Peter goes on to tell us here. Listen to verse 9. For whoever lacks these qualities, is so near-sighted that he is blind. He is so near-sighted that he is blind. What does he mean by this? Well, near-sighted is really the equivalent of being short-sighted. In other words, the person seems to only see the things that are very, very near to him. Now we've all come to realize this, that sometimes people wear glasses and then when they are about to read, they take them off in order to read. Other people wear glasses and it is when they are about to read, that's when they put on those glasses to read. And you say to yourself, but why is somebody taking off glasses to read? Well, it's because they are near-sighted. Their eyes don't need help to see what is near. But the moment something is distant, it is all blurred. They can't quite make out what is over there, and consequently they need to put on the glasses. Well, that's the kind of picture that Peter is talking about here. He's talking about individuals who cannot see beyond the immediate context. What has he got in mind there? He obviously has in mind the fact that these are people who are so conscious of the physical realities around them, that they fail to see that which is spiritual and eternal. They can't see that. They are overwhelmed with the immediate. They are overwhelmed with what is in the news today. That is what has captivated them. We'll open that up a little bit. But Peter goes on to say that they are so nearsighted that they are as good as blind. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind. In other words, he's not really blind. But he's so myopic, his eyes can only see here, that the moment you go a few meters beyond, it's as good as if he's blind. He cannot make out anything of what is beyond a meter or two. And therefore, you literally have to lead him wherever he is going, because if you do not lead him, he will soon knock things over. Not because he is blind, but he's as good as blind. The nearsightedness is quite an extreme. In other words, if we can again apply it to the spiritual realm, it is the fact that these physical things of the world have become such a reality that the person no longer functions along spiritual lines, no longer thinks along spiritual lines. The spiritual lines are there, but he no longer thinks along spiritual lines. He's overwhelmed. with these physical realities. In other words, all he thinks about is, I need to finish my school, I need to get a job, I need to marry, I need to have children, and while I'm working, I should make more and more money and get promoted. and finally own the very business that I am involved in and so forth and own properties and own powerful cars and own real estates here and there and so on. That's the thing that overwhelms him. That's what is in his plans. And when anything happens in the negative, that affects the economy, that affects job acquisition, some disease that comes into his life, into the family's life, and consequently there is a loss perhaps of a child or a spouse and so on. This person is completely knocked off course. Because that's all that had occupied this person. I need to get this. I need to get that. I need to get this. And it's all in the physical realm. And therefore, when something dislodges that, the person is equally ineffective. Ineffective when chasing up the things of the world. Ineffective now when the things of the world are snatched away from such a person. There's no spirituality. And even if you were to go to the person and try to share God's Word in order to encourage and comfort in the moment that they are frowning providences, the person is unable to relate. There is a hard crust around the heart. The person feels as though God is unfair, God hates me, and so on and so forth, because my agenda seems to have been disturbed by the recent happening. So short-sighted that the person has become And as a result, even when the person is in church and you are preaching and preaching and preaching eternal realities, the person cannot identify church is boring because your subject matter is not about how to be successful in this world. And the person would rather quickly leave because you're speaking about sin and salvation. You are speaking about sanctification. You are speaking about the way in which God wants us to live a life of obedience to him, a life of commitment to him in this world. It's not touching him at all. It's the sense in which he feels this is the wrong place for me to be. I want to be in a place where I'll be taught about how to be successful, how to be great in this world. terms. You see, such a person is definitely not living the Christian life. The Apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, puts it this way about the way Christians live. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and towards the end. Listen to this, beginning with verse 16. so we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, they are temporal, they will soon pass away. But the things that are unseen are eternal. Now what is he speaking about here? Paul is speaking about Christians who are going through a very difficult time. And he is saying that, including himself, he's saying that we are not discouraged. We are not overwhelmed with these difficulties that we are currently going through. We don't lose heart about it. Yes, it's true that in the immediate physical context, we are wasting away. We are suffering. We're not denying that. That's true. But he's saying because we are not nearsighted, because our eyes are set further, we've got our spiritual lenses on, we are seeing spiritual realities on the inner man. Actually, we are being renewed. We are being refreshed. We are growing into maturity because of these same circumstances. That's what he's saying. And again, because his eyes are looking beyond the immediate, they are seeing the far distant spiritual realities, he looks at what he's going through and he calls them light and momentary affliction. Light and momentary affliction. Now I want to assure you that what he's talking about, if we were going through them, most of us would be saying, I think, let me just die. Let me just die. Let me give you an example of it. Let's quickly go to chapter 11. Chapter 11. This is what he is calling light and momentary afflictions. I begin reading from verse 23. Are there servants of Christ? I am a better one. I'm talking like a madman, with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea. on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers. In toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure, this light and momentary affliction. I know it doesn't sound like that. Well, you see, again, it's because Paul is speaking in comparison. He is comparing to what? Oh, here's the way he puts it. It's preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. That's what causes him to see this as light and momentary. It is because his eyes are not blind, his eyes are not myopic, his eyes are farsighted, and he is seeing what will happen as a result of his afflictions on the other side. And he's seeing an eternity with incomparable weight of glory being given. And that's the reason why it goes on to say here that we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Well, you see, the worldly believer is the exact opposite. Because the person is myopic. They are not seeing spiritual things. They're not seeing eternal things. So the moment there's just some affliction, some disturbance of the plans, it is deflate, deflate. I'm giving it all up. Why? It is because of this short-sightedness. to the point of blindness. To the point of blindness. Let me ask you, what are you living for today? What are you living for? What's your passion? When you wake up in the morning, what's the thing that drives you out of bed and gets you rolling out there in the world? What is it? the things of this world? Sadly, those are transient, they're momentary, they'll soon be gone. Or is it a spiritual, eternal thing? What is it? Because ultimately, if it is the things of this world, then that explains it. It explains! The lack of growth, the lack of spiritual growth, it explains it. Why would you even be concerned about spiritual excellence, about spiritual knowledge, about being self-controlled and steadfast? Why would you even be concerned about all those things? Because they've got nothing to do with the things of the world that you are chasing after. And so you will give every excuse for why you are not studying your Bible, for why you are not reading Christian books, for why you are not attending Bible studies, for why you are missing all of these things. You will give every excuse. The truth of the matter is this. You are so nearsighted that you are blind. Blind. That's the way God sees you. Blind. What a pitiful state. You are in blindness. I said that was the first question. Why would anyone be content with this? Here's a second question. What is it that causes this blindness? What is it? Well, it's forgetting God's pardoning grace to us sinners. When you forget, God's pardoning grace. This is what happens. Let's go back to 2 Peter and chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 9. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind. And then here is where it's all coming from. Having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. In other words, the root cause of all this in a believer's life is the disconnect that takes place in the person's mind in terms of, this is who I am because of what God did for me in Christ Jesus. That disconnect. And when he's talking here about this pardon of cleansing, he's primarily not so much talking in terms of God forgiving us on a daily basis as we sin against him and go for pardon. He's referring to that day when you were translated from darkness to light. when translated from death to life, when you were an object of the wrath of God, when you were a threefold slave to the devil, to the world, and to your own sinful nature, when there was absolutely no hope for you to find a place in heaven because you were dead. Yes, dead, spiritually dead. And then God, out of mercy, reached out to you and saved you. And if you are a believer today, you should be able to look back as the hymn writer says, yes, I spent in vanity and pride, caring not that my Lord was crucified, knowing not it was for me he died on Calvary. And then the hymn writer goes on to say, by God's word at last my sin I lent, then I trembled at the law I had spurned. until my guilty soul, imploring, turned to Calvary. In other words, at that point, there was only one reality. I've sinned against God. I deserve to go to hell. But as a soul, you came to know that this God of heaven, whose wrath was lying over you, had taken his own son, the best of heaven, and sent him here on earth to suffer in a world of sin, to be hunted like a wild animal, literally from birth. And finally, to be nailed to a cross, the most excruciating form of punishment that existed at that time, literally hanging you up to dry on nails. as pig. But it was more than that, that the wrath of a sin-hating God should now have been poured on him to its very dreams until he cried, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? To realize that it was for my sin, my sin. That's why he remained hanging there, for my sin. That's why he finally said, it is finished. He was paying the price for my sin. And as you knelt upon your knees before that cross, you could say, mercy there was great. And grace was free. Pardon there was multiple. multiplied a thousand times, a million times, trillions multiplied in gigabytes, multiplied again. There, my burdened soul found liberty. If you're a Christian today, you know what I'm talking about. You know that from that point you rose up and said, now I have given to Jesus everything, everything. Now I'm gladly owning him as my king. I want to live for him in everything. Now my ruptured soul can only sing. Do you remember those days? Do you remember those days when your soul was overwhelmed with the grace of God, that the only thing you wanted to do in life was to tell the whole world about Christ, the whole world about the grace of God. You wanted the whole world to know that God pardons sinners. That was your bread. That was your drink. That was your everything. Because you had yourself experienced it. Your spiritual eyes were opened. You saw spiritual things as very real, more real to you than the physical things that were around you. Your eyes were opened. You saw eternal things as more real than the temporal things around you. And that was the reason why eternal damnation shook you to the core until you sought the Savior. And then eternal glory. has excited you to the point where you say, it's worth suffering for this. It's worth dying for it. This is what life with a capital L is all about. That's where you came from. And that's what Calvary is meant to produce in our lives. That's the reason why in the Christian church, the two Sacraments or ordinances are all about the cross, baptism, and the Lord's Supper. They all point us back to the cross. In fact, to borrow the words of Jesus, he himself said, do this in remembrance of me. In remembrance of me. In remembrance of my body broken for you. in remembrance of my blood shed for you. Do this in remembrance of me so that this reality can remain the focus of our eyes, that our spiritual eyes, which is what faith is, its spiritual side, that it might be focused, riveted on the cross. on the grace of God that pardons sinners. And from there, the rest is going to flow. The rest is going to flow. That's what Paul told Titus in Titus chapter three. Titus chapter three and verse 14, that this is what calvary was meant to produce. Titus and chapter 3. I begin reading from verse 11. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age. In other words, the same present, fallen, sinful world. waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So that's where our eyes are. We are in the departure lounge. Our eyes are fixed on the clouds as it were, beyond the clouds into heaven itself, where our Savior will come. any day now and if he's delayed and death comes first well we will then meet him in heaven itself our eyes are fixed there but our eyes are not just fixed there our eyes are fixed backwards to what Calvary look at what it says in verse 14 who gave himself for us to redeem for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. That's what Calvary does. It produces the people that are zealous. They are passionate about serving Christ. They are effective. They are fruitful. You can't miss it. Why? Because they are deliberate about their growth, their spiritual growth, and that's what produces all this. So let's get back to their diagnosis. Number one, we've got too many believers who, after many years in the Christian life, are still some Thumb sucking and in their napkins. Other believers are still having to change their napkins. Disaster. Why? What we've learned is because they are concentrating on things that will perish with use. Things which, once they die, that's it. That's what they're concentrating on. The immediate thing. and they've lost sight of the things that are spiritual, the things that are eternal. When we go a step further, why have they lost sight of these things when at one time they were living realities to them? Well, it's because they no longer think about the great transaction which took place when the Lord said, They've lost sight of that. They've begun to take their Christian lives for granted. They forgot the price that was paid to bring them in. They've lost that smell, that aroma of taking off their grave clothes and putting on the righteousness of Christ. with that beautiful heavenly aroma. They've lost sight of it. What a terrible state to be in. The consequence of forgetting the grace of God. Because the truth is, when you are there and divine love The infinite and marvelous and matchless grace of God is pouring upon your soul in torrents something of its mercy and love and grace. As you see yourself dropping off that huge burden of sin in the words of John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress and jumping into the air with three shouts of Hallelujah, Friends, love, divine, causes our hearts to want to love Him back. That's what happens. We want to love Him back. We want to be the best for God. Yes. And that's where virtue comes in. And that's why we want to gain more and more knowledge because we know that without knowledge we cannot be the best for him. So we want to dig in into the scriptures, dig in into Christian books, dig in into whatever the sources of knowledge might be because we know that that's the way we can be the best for him. We want to go into the battlefront and we know that we're going to be weary in fighting and consequently we get up our loins as it were with self-control and steadfastness so that finally we can truly be a godly people. It is out of love that we want to do all that. Out of love. Have you lost that first love? Have you? That you had as you walked from darkness to light, from death to life. Have you lost it? Or that today, today, right now, at the end of this message, you might get away from everybody, close yourself up with God, and remind yourself afresh of what it cost him in his grace to save you. His motherless, infinite, and much less grace. And out of that, you might be a person who will arise and say, I want to live for this God who has loved me so much. May that be true of you beginning today.