Grow in Grace

We conclude the book of 2 Peter this morning. Just to give you a heads up of what will be happening over the next few weeks. Next week we will be having a small group emphasis in our worship services. We are encouraging everyone to visit a small group next Sunday. Even if you normally just come to worship, we challenge you to find a small group to get involved in. David will be preaching a special message challenging us to go from the rows of the sanctuary to the circles of small groups. And then as we enter into September we will be talking about how we can maximize our finances for the kingdom of God. This will be stewardship emphasis, and we hope you will join us. As we conclude the book of 2 Peter I would like to ask you to stand as we honor the reading of God’s word this morning. The words that we just read are some of the last words that Peter ever wrote. We know as he is writing this book he is nearing death. So as we study this text together this morning think of Peter writing in the context of the end of his life.

 

Be Holy Until the Return of Christ:

Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. - 2 Peter 3:14

 

Perhaps some of you in this room grew up hearing from your parents or your grandparents, “Do you really want to be there when Jesus returns or do you really want to be talking like that when Jesus returns?” This is an attempt to get us all thinking about our behavior as if Christ were returning at the moment of our inappropriate behavior.

What Peter is talking about here, however, is your behavior in general until the return of Christ. The language without spot or blemish is sacrificial language often used to describe the animals that the Israelites would bring before God as they made sacrifices.

The waiting that Peter is talking about here is the the new heaven and the new earth. As you wait for the new heaven and the new earth, be diligent Peter tells us here. This is a Peter and Paul word. We never found the word for diligent in any of the Gospel accounts. 7 times in Paul, 3 in Peter, and once in Hebrews.

Peter uses the word diligence here because it’s hard work to be spotless and unblemished in this world. We have to work really hard at it, and even though we try with all of our might the reality is that we will never be truly spotless or blemish free in this life time. We are inherently sinful and that sin nature never leaves us as long as we live on this earth, But there will come a day when we will abandon that old sin nature and be reconciled with our creator in the new heaven and the new earth.

Peter drops in this small two word prepositional phrase at the end of v.14. “At peace.” In the meantime, as you await the return of Christ be “at peace.” Do me a favor this morning, Take a deep breath and remember that our God is sovereign. Don’t waste a lot of mental or emotional energy on the things that you cannot control. Now I realize that is easier said than done, but be at peace this morning. Our schedules are out of control. We go from one appointment to another day after day.

• I was listening to a podcast a few weeks ago about raising alien children. That is, raising children in a way that they will stand out and stand up for Christ instead of just trying to fit in with everyone around them. The speaker on this podcast asked a friend of hers who was a school counselor, and she was saying that the number of children with anxiety and depression is continuing to get higher and higher. And you know the reason she gave for this: overcommitted children. Not unstable family life, or demanding academics. Children are shuffled from one activity to the next without any down time, which leads to sleep deprivation and an overly tired body, which leads to anxiety and depression. It’s difficult to ever be at peace when we go 90mph all the time. Let’s be diligent in not only living a holy life, but being at peace as well.

 

Be Disciplined in Your Study of the Word:

…There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. - 2 Peter 3:16

 

Let me remind all of us this morning that reading God’s word is not an easy task. Not only is it not an easy task always, but if we were to be honest this morning we don’t always want to do it. I am confessing to you that I don’t wake up every morning just dying to get into God’s word. I wish that were the case, but it is a struggle some days. Some days I want to sleep in or some days I want to just check emails and begin my work day. Some days I get so confused by what Jeremiah is saying or what Jesus is saying that I just want to quit reading.

Peter is exactly right here, there are some things in God’s word that are just hard to understand, and when there are hard things to understand sometimes you just wanna quit reading. But when that happens you dig deeper. You research, you read commentaries, you try to find what Paul, Peter, or Jesus meant in a particular text. Sometimes reading God’s word is hard work.

If you aren’t willing to put the time in, then you run the risk of being like the people that Peter is talking about here. The ignorant and unstable who take God’s word and twist it. They think they are twisting it in a way to help themselves, but Peter says it leads to their destruction. Not only are there aspects that are hard to understand there are also some texts that make us uncomfortable. Sometimes it makes us uncomfortable because we don’t want to do what it says, or other texts that make us uncomfortable because our culture would tell us that this isn’t the way it should be.

Take what Jesus says for instance about those that truly want to follow him will forsake their fathers and mothers and follow after him. We don’t want to believe this. Our families are important to us, but the reality is at the end of the day our allegiance is to Christ above all else. Or take Jesus’ teaching regarding praying for our enemies or those that have wronged us. Not only are we told to pray for them, but to forgive them as well. Those are not comfortable things to do. But this is what God’s word stretches us to do.

 

Do Not Be Persuaded By Other Words:

…take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. - 2 Peter 3:17

 

 The reason we are disciplined in our study of the Word is for the exact purpose of not being persuaded by other words. If we don’t know what the Bible says than we are more susceptible to every new interpretation and prophecy that people come up with.

Think of all the ways that Scripture has been distorted and confused over the years. Let’s just use one example from history. The Reformation. The selling of indulgences so that people’s sins could be forgiven was believed and accepted by so many people. Where do we find that in the Bible? We don’t. People were buying into the lie that the supreme authority in their life was what the Church was teaching instead of what the Bible taught. Martin Luther sees what is happening around him, and he says wait a minute. Luther said, When I read God’s word in Romans 1:17 it reads the righteous shall live by faith not the righteous shall live by the good deeds that they do. I love the illustration that Jonathan Edwards gives when he says your righteousness would have no more influence to keep you out of hell than a spider web would have to stop a falling rock.

Just like Peter taught here so many people were carried away with the error of lawless people and lost their stability. Don’t buy into the lie that just because culture deems the teachings of Jesus or Paul as out of date that we should as well. We don’t align our beliefs about the Bible according to what the culture tells us is acceptable. So much of the Bible is counter cultural anyways.

You won’t be popular when you tell your friends that being a good person will not make you right with God. They won’t want to hear that. You won’t be popular when you say you disagree with someone because the Bible teaches something different than what they believe. Don’t lose your stability by falling prey to false teachings that do not align with what the truth of Scripture teaches. And please just because our culture thinks something should be normative or accepted doesn’t mean we have to go along with that.

 

Never Stop Growing:

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. - 2 Peter 3:18

 

Now as I say this let me remind all of us in this room what Peter tells us here. He says never stop growing in grace. He does not say grow in rules and regulations.

Often times when we look at Jesus’ encounters with the Pharisees I think we often think that they are so much different than we are, but in reality we all struggle with legalism just like they did.

If you think about it, we are all dealing with this tension of walking in grace and walking in legalism. In fact, if we were to be honest in some ways it is just easier to think in our minds that if we follow this list of rules we will be okay. It’s easier to look at those around us and say “hey look at the sins in their life they shouldn’t be doing that they need to stop doing that.” We are often times really quick to point out the sins, but we aren’t quite as quick to provide the grace that covers those sins, which is exactly what Jesus teaches us when he says you are real quick to point out the speck in someone else’s eye but you won’t deal with the log in your own eye.

But Peter clearly tells us that we are to grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus. Growing in grace is difficult because it causes us to be completely reliant on Jesus. Following a list of rules and regulations we can manage ourselves for the most part, but growing in grace requires complete dependence on Jesus. Because at our core we are not really gracious people. We are inherently sinful people, and if it were up to us we would all walk around and be the rules police.

In addition to grace, we are to continue to grow in knowledge as well. Now knowledge about God and his Word can be a dangerous thing. It can lead us to think that we have all the answers. It can lead us to be arrogant, pious, and out of touch with the needs of people, But knowledge of who Jesus is and his character strengthens our witness. Because knowledge of Jesus can’t help but cause us to grow in grace because Jesus is grace. So we must never stop growing. Past good deeds are not a reflection of future good deeds.

• There was a sociological study done out of Stanford University in 2010 on the subject of moral licensing. Moral licensing is when past good deeds liberate individuals to engage in behaviors that are immoral, unethical, or problematic. So how does this work, one of the examples used in the study asked participants to describe a time in their past when they had acted either morally or immorally. Then the participants indicated how likely they were to engage in activities like giving to charity, donating blood, and volunteering in the community. The study showed that those who decided to recall a moral action were less likely to indicate that they would engage in charitable work, donating blood, or volunteering. But those that reported an immoral behavior were more likely to indicate that they would engage in charitable work, donating blood, or volunteering. In another example of this, participants were given $2 to imagine themselves doing various tasks given to them by the researchers. At the end of the experiment, they were offered an opportunity to donate some money to charity.  Those that were told to imagine doing generous things in the study gave less to charity then those that were asked to imagine doing non-generous things. This study ultimately shows that we are pretty messed up people.

Do you understand now why we can’t stop growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ? Because if we become stagnant we begin justifying our moral decisions to actually not do good in other instances.