Let's get into the second letter of Peter and chapter 1. The second letter of Peter and chapter 1. We are continuing in our series of messages entitled, Christian Grow Up. And I hope you notice it is in the singular. Christians grow up. And so in hiding behind anybody, this is to you as a believer on your own. Today is special. Most of you missed the prayer meeting in the morning. We had two individuals testifying on the way in which the Lord saved them with a view to joining the church. And then we had four individuals being baptized. And when I was preparing this, I did not even realize, or maybe I just forgot, that there would be three individuals being welcomed. And so this is something that doesn't happen every Sunday. And so it is particularly special. But for me, it is also special in that it is the day 32 years ago, in 1987, when I arrived here as a church pastor. Still single. 25 years old, not knowing what to do with doing pastoral work, but trusting in the Lord. A small group of about 35 individuals that we were meeting in the Waterloo Meeting Hall. Yesterday, I was visiting a few ailing relatives of mine due to old age. And in the process, I mentioned to them what tomorrow will be like. for me, meaning today, my anniversary at KPC. And the wife reminded me about how she was very upset when I announced I was quitting my job to come and be a pastor. And then she added, but now seeing what is happening, I think God was in this. God was there. So it's a very special day for me. Special. as one listens to individuals who are testifying one way or the other. But especially in realizing that growth must be what all of us must be committed to. Not just growth in terms of the number of members that the church has, but growth in terms of qualitative growth in our lives. Those that testified earlier this morning, those that have just been welcomed, those that have been baptized, we must begin to seriously think in terms of personal growth, growth in maturity, growth in depth, and not just wanting numbers. As I pause and think about this as an anniversary, again I must be asking myself the question, are God's people here growing in grace? Which is what the Apostle Peter handles in this letter. We have thus far seen a number of indicative realities, truths, facts that must be part of us if we are truly Christians. We've seen that in the first four verses. Simeon Peter, a servant and an 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. There it is. You will have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus as our Lord. Here's another one. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. through the knowledge of him who calls us to his own glory and excellence. Again, there it is. That's a fact that this has been granted to us, his divine power to enable us to have everything that we need for life and holiness. And then there was the third, verse four, by which he has granted to us, there it is again, His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become protectors of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desires. There it is again, we have this great and precious, glorious promises through which our sanctification and our spiritual growth ought to happen. And then beginning with the five, Peter starts with the imperative, what it is that we ought to do in the light of these facts. And this is the way he puts it. We've already seen the first part in our last sermon, verse 5. For this very reason, because of these indicators, 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. That's the journey that I want us to begin looking at. The last time we saw, therefore, the need for us, if we are going to grow spiritually, to take cognizance of that which God has already provided for spiritually in our lives, that he has already given to us. We also saw the need for us to make every effort We will go back into that today, and then to also go beyond faith. Peter is writing to believe us, and so he's not urging us to believe. That is a taken. Because for you to become a Christian, you must repent, you must believe. And so Peter is saying that is already in the pocket as it were, if you are truly a child of God. But when your duty comes in, it is this addition, this supplementing, this bringing certain virtues to come alongside that which is already within your soul. It was a big temptation for me to handle all this in one sermon. But I realize that if I did so, I will be unfair. I'll be unfair in the sense that we will lose out. the very painstaking way in which Peter deliberately breaks down this painting of a full-aubed, mature Christian through the various strands of characteristics that he is putting on the canvas. And so I have opted that I will look at each one of them. And as we look at each one of them one by one, I want us to be asking ourselves the question, am I deliberately ensuring that these characteristics that are being mentioned are part of my life, as he goes on to say in verse 8, in an ever-increasing way, verse 8. 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. So it's only right that we take our time and look at each of these qualities and then ask ourselves the question, is this quality continuing to manifest and to grow in this manifestation in my life. Let's begin with the very first one. He says in verse 5, For this very reason, we make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue. Our first task is to understand what Pita means by that phrase, virtue, which we are being asked to add to our faith. What does it mean? Well, thankfully, he has used it already once before. It doesn't appear very clearly in the English version, but it's actually in 3D. when he says his divine power has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. That word excellence is actually the same word as the word virtue that we have in verse 5. So what does excellence mean? Let me give you a working definition. Nothing to compete with the Encyclopedia Britannica or Wikipedia or anything. Here it is. Excellence means the highest degree in achieving something's intended purpose. the highest degree in achieving some things in intended purpose. So for instance, when you say he is an excellent student, what you mean is he is a student who's not content with average grades, but gives himself or herself to preparation for studies, very attentive during those studies, does a great job in researching when they are doing their assignments, and when they deliver, you can tell that this was not done quickly, early this morning in order to meet the deadline. You have an excellent student there. Or if an employer referring to somebody or a manager referring to somebody who is under him and says, this chap works with excellence. It means this person hardly needs any supervision. When they bring in their work, You can tell that a lot has gone into this. As a manager, a supervisor, an employer, you can afford to look elsewhere. You know that this individual does a solid job, puts in everything, and delivers in good time. Or let's go away from human beings. When you say it is an excellent car, You're not just saying about the fact that it managed to get you between two points. And then it's been coughing half the way to get there. No, what you mean is that it has exceeded your expectations. It's a very comfortable bar. The music system in there is You know, sort of, real-faced world, et cetera, et cetera. Everything about it. The cities are really leather, not polythene, and so on. You keep adding, and all these things, you look at it and say, wow, this is an excellent car. Well, that's the word that Peter is adding here when he says supplement your faith with virtue. He's saying supplement it with excellence. In other words, the foundation of your Christian life is faith. That has been put into place. Now the superstructure must be such that people can look at that and say, wow! Wow! What a life! What goodness! What Christ-likeness! And on and on we can go. Now, virtue is also to be understood in terms of the utmost energy that is expended in order to achieve moral distinction. In other words, yes, excellence can be there in a car, it can be there in a person doing a good job at work, it can be there in terms of a good student handling assignments and everything else, but this has to do more with moral distinction. That's the way we're thinking in terms of virtue. But notice, it's the utmost energy being expended. for that. Two quick illustrations. First of all, in terms of utmost energy. You see, excellence doesn't just arrive by accident. You don't just wake up one day and become an excellent student, or an excellent worker, or an excellent, well, you can't become an excellent worker. But those things do just happen. It's inevitable that somebody has put in a lot of energy in order to achieve that which you are now seeing. I don't know what is special about today's number one football players, but a few years ago, I remember one football player by the name of David Beckham. Most of you will not know that. You'd rather not know him. And the thing that often amazes me is that when he has his free kicks, the ball is here. He would kick the ball this way. Then it begins to drain in the air. It begins to drain. And it's right in the corner of the corpus. That's the way it goes in. So even the keeper is sort of thinking, ah, this guy is useless. Only to see the bobo beginning to come in his direction. And consequently came the famous phrase, bend it like Beckham. I'm sure you may have heard that phrase. But on one occasion, I had the opportunity to watch a video of his training sessions and realized that it wasn't just magic that was happening. The amount of time. and effort and energy alone from everyone else. Like you often said, with the poor, he would try again and again and again and again. And this time he was doing so, he was getting better and better and better. And so what we're seeing is that the poor began to do this. was the fruit of utmost energy poured into achieving excellence. Now, this is what Peter is saying here about our spiritual lives. You don't just become a spiritual giant overnight. It just happens like magic. There is to be utmost energy poured into achieving moral distinction. The second illustration is in the Bible itself. And it's Proverbs 31. The virtuous woman. The virtuous woman. Proverbs chapter 31. In fact, we sometimes refer to her as the woman of noble character. The woman of noble character. Or, as the ESP puts it, an excellent wife. An excellent wife. Whatever way you might want to put it, two things I want you to notice. The first is, if you've never read this passage, you are going to say, wow. What a woman. Wow. But number two, you will notice energy. You won't miss it. Nobody does what you're seeing here half asleep. Let's reread it. Beginning with verse 10. Proverbs 1, verse 10. An excellent wife who can find. She's far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her and will have no lack of gain. She does him good and unharmed all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax and works with willing hands. She is like the sheep of the mansions. She brings her food from afar. She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and potions for her maidens. She considers a field and buys it. With the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard. She dresses herself with strength. She makes her arms strong. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. She puts her hands to the dish stuff and her hands hold a spindle. She opens her hands to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow. For her household, for all her household, are clothes in scarlet. She makes bed coverings for herself. Her clothing is fine linen and paper. Her husband is known in the gates. When he sits among the elders of the land, she makes linen garments and sells them. She delivers sashes to the merchant. Strength and dignity are her clothing. And she laughs at the times to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and then the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praises her. Many women have done excellently. Oh, we can say viciously. But you surpass them all. Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain. But a woman who fears the Lord is praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates. Energy. Energy. Energy. That is producing distinction and excellence. That's what virtue is. And the point that is being made here by Peter is that we must never content ourselves with an energetic, half-hearted, mediocre, average Christian life. No! We must add virtue to that life. We must add excellence to that life. We must add distinction to that life. And we are to do so with utmost energy. In a sense, I'm running ahead of myself. Because the next question is, what does this what does virtue look like in the Christian life? This is excellence. What does it look like? The answer shouldn't be difficult if you can think of faith as the foundation and then virtue as the superstructure. Faith is the foundation. What people see is not the faith, because faith is internal inside you. People don't see faith. What they see is the life outside. And Peter is saying, let them see virtue. Let them see excellence. Let them see moral distinction. Let them see an energy that is producing all this. Let them see that. Peter is basically making this appeal, and let me quote it for you. He's saying, being believers, so that's the plan. Being believers, become energetic towards moral excellence. become energetic towards moral excellence. In other words, just as we're admiring Benedict like Beckham, or better still, admiring the woman in Proverbs 31, Let it be so with your life. Yes. Let it be that with the passing of years, those who know you are going, wow. There was a speech I did. There was, the right way now, a man of God here. Wow. There was a woman of God here. And this needs to be applied to all areas of life. We've just talked about the woman, the wife here. Wow. Can our wives honestly say, I thank God that he gave me this man for a husband? Because in him, I saw godliness with his distinction. After all, we are all fallen. We are all fallen. So what do you expect? At least I'm grateful I'm married, you know? Because some people are not married. So at least, you know, at least I'm married. What am I supposed to expect from parents and children? We may not be married, but we are youths in the homes of our parents. Can I honestly say that since this child professed to be a Christian, we've seen a level of responsibility Virtue, excellence, distinction, as far as spirituality is concerned. Can you say that? All they see is that you used to be a musician and now you're a Baptist. That's all. I want to ask, because that's what Peter is talking about here. He's saying, look, don't just have faith. Art, this is equality. Art, this is excellence. This is distinction that produces the wow from those who observe. And especially those who are close enough to us. Parents, are our children able to say that? That we've been raised or we are being raised in a truly Christian home. Truly Christian home. That if there's a place you find pure godliness, it's here. In the relationships, there is godliness. Christ, as those posters that we put around our homes, although I haven't seen them on the monthly, I'm not sure what has happened. And so Christ is at his home, the unseen guest, I think, at every meal. And I can't know what else we claim there. He's on the wall, but he's missing in the actual home. It is their moral distinction, excellence, virtue from us as parents that make our children say, when I have a home of my own, I want it to be like this. Our girl children say that when I get married, I want a husband like my dad. Oh, I hope my husband will not cry. I need a break. Ah, our sons say the same thing, that the girl I marry, I want her to be like mom. There's been a good model here. I've said, wow, this is what I now want for myself for the rest of my life. Brethren, this is the kind of society we should be aiming for. I use the example of the workplace. It's exactly the same thing. Maybe that when you are being moved from your department to another as a boss, your entire department has a funeral, a real funeral. thinking, where will we get another supervisor, another manager like him? Not the moment rumor comes that you are being transferred, it means that Michael Jackson is no more. Acharya. There is just one thing, and I praise the Lord to it. distinction in the workplace. Or, assuming we are the ones who are under-supervised us, we wouldn't go elsewhere, and we push in our resignation. I just say, no, no, you can't do it. Let's discuss. What is the problem? We can even include yourself if you want. No, no, let's just talk. Is that what they are saying? Or they just say, I'll take it to HR department. In their hearts, they are thanking God that they didn't have to find a way to fire you. And that you're supposed to be a Christian. Is there? This is deliberateness. I am a Christian. I'm a believer. Now, I must be energetic towards moral excellence. I must put in my energy that my life shows that Jesus really saves. He saves sinners. He transforms sinners. This is the evidence. We can apply church membership to friends. This is aspect of excellence. Are you that kind of church member that counts? That counts? In terms of your interpersonal relationships in the church, in terms of your consistency with respect to church meetings, in terms of your involvement in the various ministries of the church according to your gifts, in terms of support for the work of commissions. Is there excellence? Is there real virtue? Can this be spoken about as a member of noble character? Noble character. That's what Peter says about you. But further, you see, all of us go through peculiar temptations and trials in life. All of us. I know we all in our Sunday business are changed, and that includes not just clothing, but behavior as well, with a nice smile and so on. But we all know that as long as you are in this world, you are going Trials, you're going through temptations. Here it is. Are you exhibiting excellence? Deliberately so. In handling your peculiar trials and temptations. Whatever that might be. Because often, that's where we come and attack. When temptations come, we start saying, we are also human beings. When trials come, and we start blowing the top, tempers are flying everywhere, tantrums are everywhere, and we say, yeah, but you know, I'm not perfect, I'm not perfect. Nobody's talking about perfection here, as something you should be able to do now, but something you should be working towards. deliberately so, being believers, becoming energetic, deliberately energetic towards moral distinction, moral excellence. Now, only our Lord Jesus Christ is perfect. Only he is perfect. That's our task, to become Christ-like by putting in all our energies to get there. That's the challenge. And sadly, that's what is amiss three quarters of the time. We are too laid back. that the world sees little difference, if any, between genuine believers and those who are just religious. Hardly any difference. They are with us in the home. They are with us in the workplace. They are with us in the neighborhood. They are with us in the church. And it's exactly the same thing. We cannot be looking like this very normally, as soon as the business is over and we're in the car park. Ghost business starts. And then the business associates with it. You are not making any effort at cleaning up that mouth. What is the first thing that comes to your heart is coming through your mouth. Peter is saying, do something about it. Be liberate about it. Seek to have that kind of superstructure that's built on top of your faith. If only I can be a Christian like him. If only I can be a Christian like her. If only. I'll skip an entire point that I had due to time. And that is, how do you add virtue to faith? The reason why I'm skipping it is, in a sense, we keep repeating the same when we come to adding knowledge, adding self-control, adding all this. So I don't mind skipping it for now. All I want to say, as I quickly close this, is this. Christian, grow up. Christians grow up. Biblical saying, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue. In other words, aim for a spiritual life that is characterized by a well-rounded, godly distinction and excellence. Now let me say this, and say it with all my heart. If you are not interested in that, most likely, it's because you are not a Christian. You are just religious. Yes, you may be a member of this church. Welcome, as this is the way we welcome this morning. Without having gone through your testimony, I'm not convinced. But I'm saying, if you are not interested in exerting that moral energy that the Spirit of God implants in all of us while we're children. In order to become more and more like Jesus, if you are not interested, most likely, you've just never been a Christian at all. You are just religious. And if you die the way you are now, you go to hell. Yes, to go to hell. And there may be one or two KBCH members in hell because of a failure to listen to the direct teachings of scripture. I said at the beginning, let me say it again, where there is life, there must be growth. There's no way. Where there's no growth, I can say there's life there. But there's no way. If you are content with the closed Bible and an empty prayer closet and just go to church and come back and go to church and come back and have deads, I'm saying to you, you're actually full dead. That's what you are. Brethren, the Christian life is a race. It's a race. It's one of the pictures that say, a race. And nobody joins the race and simply is content that I will be the last one at the back. Nobody. They put in an effort. They may not be the winners, but you can still see that they've put in everything they can in order to win. And then you look in the Christian church, in the church membership hall, and you see individuals who, they never strike a blow for Jesus, zero. Just wanting to be there somehow. Because some time ago, you know, 1990, I gave my life to Jesus. And I'm a member of this church. That's the back door into hell, right there. A back door into hell. There is no spiritual life. And the biggest favor you can do for yourself is to go to Christ and say to him, Savior, you are a real Savior. Save me. And save me in such a way that I will be genuinely real desire and hunger for godliness. In all spheres of my personal responsibility, that there might be genuine godliness, a godliness that shines, a godliness that is so distinct from the world that people will not notice that you saved me, that I'm your child. They will not notice it. Jesus, please save me. And lastly, we will never arrive, all of us, Even the woman in Proverbs 81, I'm pretty sure if she was here, she should be telling you of her wars, her desires, her unaccomplished tasks, some of the things that she's still praying about with respect to her own family and her businesses and so on. Only Jesus has a right. And that's the reason why, if this is true about you, you are a genuine believer and you are healthy, this adding of virtue to faith Find its way through your prayers. Through your prayers. That when you go to your procession, you're not just praying for a new car, or a new job, or a new dress, or a new trousers, or whatever it is. But you're praying for more godliness. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to you. Take my love, my Lord I pour at thy feet it's treasure store. Take myself and I will be ever only all for thee. I've become your utmost prayer. Because that's what you really want. That's true sanity. May God help us all to grow. To grow. To grow. Amen.