Pastor Chuck Bradley

Adding to Our Faith

2 Peter 1:3-11

 

When we get saved God doesn’t remodel the old life. He builds an entirely new one. We have a new foundation. Faith and Grace. We have a new framework. God’s Divine Power, His Dynamic Promises and new nature as a Delivered Partaker of the Divine Nature. (2Co 5:17) “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

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   1. Now God wants us to add on the doors and the cabinets and the pictures, etc.

   2. But even these are placed on a framework provided by God.

   3. Our diligence to do this work is dependent on the divine power God supplies. 2 Peter 1:3, 5

   4. Our faith to proceed along amid trying times is dependent on His dynamic promises. v. 4,5

   5. Our virtue, excellence that we begin the work with is hinged upon the new nature, the Divine Nature that we have become partakers to. v.4,5

Now we are to continue building. The work is not done. As a matter of fact, the work is never done. If we stop building, we stop growing spiritually. To stop working on these things in our life is tantamount to “lacking” these things in our life. (2 Peter 1:9) There is always water pouring out of the bottom of the bucket so we need to keep filling it from the top. We are always expending spiritual energy to resist temptation and to serve others so we need to add new energy.

We are building on a foundation of grace and faith. Grace is God’s favor to us. We are building on a faith. God moves with grace toward us when we exercise faith in Him. (Heb 11:6) “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

The framework is solid. We have God’s divine power. God’s Dynamic Promises and we are Delivered Partakers of a new nature. Everything we nail to the framework or add to the framework is solidly placed for eternity.

It is a work that must be carried out with diligence therefore it necessitates Divine Power. It is a work that proceeds by faith therefore it is crafted upon God’s Dynamic Promises. It is a work requiring virtue, moral courage and excellence so it is stabilized upon the new nature we possess having been delivered from corruption and made partakers of the divine nature.

So we continue to add to this structure of spirituality we call the Christian life. “Add” meaning to lavishly outfit our life with…

We are to lavishly outfit our virtuous life with…

1. Knowledge, 2 Peter 1:5

   1. True wisdom, by which your faith will be increased, and your courage directed, and preserved from degenerating into rashness. Adam Clarke

   2. practical discrimination of good and evil; intelligent appreciation of what is the will of God in each detail of practice. JFB

   3. 2 Peter 3:18

   4. Lehman Strauss in his devotional studies on Galatians and Ephesians points out that human philosophy says….”know thyself.” However, Jesus said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3). To know oneself is important. But the greatest thing in all the world is to know God personally and to know that one shall live with God forever. God and eternal life are the summits of knowledge. It is better to know that one shall never die, than to know all there is about oneself and then lose that knowledge at death.

   5. (Php 3:8) Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

2. Temperance, 2 Peter 1:6

   1. Self-control; holding the passions and desires in hand. See 1Co_9:25.

   2. (Pro 25:16) Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.

   3. The Greeks believed there were four states of self-control.

      1. Passion has been entirely subjugated to reason.

      2. Reason is entirely subjugated to passion.

      3. Reason fights passion, but passion prevails.

      4. Reason fights passion, but reason prevails. The Self controlled life.

   4. What we are hoping for is a Spirit controlled life. We know that the flesh fights against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. We yield to the Holy Spirit. (Gal 5:1617) This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

   5. Our self control comes from God control.

3. Patience, 2 Peter 1:6

   1. Steadfastness, called the queen of virtues.

   2. Cicero defines it as “the voluntary and daily suffering of hard and difficult things, for the sake of honor and usefulness.”

   3. “It is not that the righteous man must be without feeling, although he must patiently bear the things which afflict him; but it is true virtue when a man deeply feels the things he toils against, but nevertheless despises sorrows for the sake of God.” Didymus of Alexandria

   4. “Patience isn’t just to accept and endure; there is always a forward look to it.” William Barclay. Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him. (Heb 12:2) “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

   5. The great New England preacher Phillips Brooks was noted for his poise and quiet manner. At times, however, even he suffered moments of frustration and irritability. One day a friend saw him feverishly pacing the floor like a caged lion. “What’s the trouble, Mr. brooks?” he asked. “The trouble is that I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t!” Haven’t we felt the same way many times?
   6. Hebrews 12:1 tells us to “run with endurance” the race set before us. George Matheson wrote, “We commonly associate patience with lying down. We think of it as the angel that guards the couch of the invalid. Yet there is a patience that I believe to be harder — the patience that can run. To lie down in the time of grief, to be quiet under the stroke of adverse fortune, implies a great strength; but I know of something that implies a strength greater still: it is the power to work under stress; to have a great weight at your heart and still run; to have a deep anguish in your spirit and still perform the daily tasks. It is a Christ-like thing! The hardest thing is that most of us are called to exercise our patience, not in the sickbed but in the street.” To wait is hard, to do it with “good courage” is harder! Our Daily Bread, April 8.

We ought to continually seek to add more virtues to our faith. We have a solid foundation to work with. We can trust in God’s promises, depend on God’s power and know that this is possible because we are new creatures.

So add to your faith virtue, moral excellence. And lavishly outfit that virtue with knowledge. Learn more about God and his Word. Add to that knowledge temperance or self control and to self control patience or steadfastness.

When we bring our lives under the control of the Holy Spirit, then, we grow and mature as Christian and see the spiritual progress we desire.

Being Diligent in Your Faith

2 Peter 1:5-11

In the Christian life there must be a steady moral advance. “The Christian life must not be an initial spasm followed by a chronic inertia.: Quoted by James Moffatt

That is really the subject we are talking about. Will our Christian life be average or amazing? Ho Hum or Hallelujah? We are often content to let things just stay as they are “inertia,” rather than do the hard work to make the changes we need to go forward.

We saw last week that God desires for us a life that is fruitful. Think about it the only inert fruit tree is a dead fruit tree. Even when the look dormant, internally they are prepare to bud.

We need to build a good foundation. That is Grace and Faith. Everything comes to us from God by Grace and through faith. Eph. 2:89

On top of that foundation, we place a framework. 1. God’s Divine Power
2.God’s Dynamic Promises 3. God’s Delivered Partakers

Now that we have built a framework on the foundation, we can add some things to it. Our text says, “and beside this,” which means for this very reason. For the reasons previously stated we should do more. We should add some things. This is our “finish work.” When you build a house, you put in the foundation. You put up the framework and the walls, the roof. But then comes the finish work. You need doors and cabinets, trim, etc.

Most of the time, the work that goes on inside of the house takes much longer than the work that goes on outside of the house. So it requires diligence.

1.Diligence: 2 Peter 1:5 “Giving all diligence”
(a)“Giving” introducing side by side or at the same time. We are to bring alongside into our relationship with God every ounce of determination we can muster.
(b)“All Diligence”
i.(2Co 8:7) Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.
ii.Thayer: earnestness in accomplishing, promoting, or striving after anything.
(c)“Add”
i.In ancient Greece, there were lavish choruses or choirs. These choirs would have benefactors who would supply them (out of their own pocket) with all of theirs needs. It was very expensive and they would perform several times a year. These benefactors were called “choregoi.” “Epichoregein” means to equip and outfit any one or anything. But it carries the idea to equip lavishly. It can mean to equip an army or in our case to equip the soul.
ii.The Linguistic Key to the N.T. Says, “to provide more than was expected or could be demanded.”
iii.We should make an earnest and diligent effort to provide and add more than is expected and demanded for our faith to grow and mature.
(d)How shall we operate with such diligence? How can we make such a sustained effort that our growth doesn’t stagnate or go along in spasms. God’s power. Remember our “framework?” We have God’s Divine Power on which we can rely.

2.Faith: 2 Peter 1:5 “Add to your faith”
(a)Faith is the conviction that what Jesus says is true. It is understood that we have faith and that we are to add to it.
(b)We commit ourselves to his promises and launch ourselves forward to meet His demands.
(c)The finish work we put into the house is suspended upon the framework. If we have faith, it hangs upon His Word. Our trust is nailed to His Dynamic Promises. Our strength is attached to His Divine Power.
(d)Faith in God makes great optimists. Over in Burma, Judson was lying in a foul jail with 32 lbs. of chains on his ankles, his feet bound to a bamboo pole. A fellow prisoner said, “Dr. Judson, what about the prospect of the conversion of the heathen?”, with a sneer on his face. His instant reply was, “The prospects are just as bright as the promises of God.”
(e)Our faith doesn’t rest on our faith or my situation. I don’t have faith for the sake of faith. I have faith because His promises proof true. My faith doesn’t work because I have faith. It works because it rest on His promises.
(f)During an especially trying time in the work of the China Inland Mission, Hudson Taylor wrote to his wife, “We have twenty-five cents–and all the promises of God!

3.Virtue: 2 Peter 1:5 “Add to your faith virtue”
(a)Virtue in Greek times meant “a god-given power to perform heroic deeds…the quality by which one stands out as being excellent. It came to mean right behavior. Some would call it moral courage and excellence.
(b)We want our lives to have virtue. Not be Ho-Hum, but Hallelujah. Not be average, but amazing.
(c)What will we draw upon in order to have such moral courage and excellence in life? We draw upon God’s nature.
(d)We have been delivered from the old corruptible nature. We have been given a new nature in Jesus Christ. We are dead to our old desires and awakened to new and Godly desires.
(e)We can live a life of moral virtue and excellence due entirely to God’s inner working in our life.
(f)Historians Will and Ariel Durant observed in their summary volume, The Lessons of History, that “there never has been a significant example of morality apart from belief in God.”

4.New Building. When we get saved God doesn’t remodel the old life. He builds an entirely new one. We have a new foundation. We have a new framework. (2Co 5:17) “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
(a)Now God wants us to add on the doors and the cabinets and the pictures, etc.
(b)But even these are placed on a framework provided by God.
(c)Our diligence to do this work is dependent on the divine power God supplies.
(d)Our faith to proceed along amid trying times is dependent on His dynamic promises.
(e)Our virtue, excellence that we begin the work with is hinged upon the new nature, the Divine Nature that we have become partakers to.

Becoming a Fruitful Christian

Text: 2 Peter 1:1-11

2 Peter sets forth two important goals for the Christian.

1. That we be fruitful although stated in the negative in verse 8.

2. That we never fall in verse 10.

I am sure that we all hope that 2010 will be a fruitful year. Spiritually we would like to draw closer to the Lord and see our life bring forth spiritual fruit.

The question is, How do we get there?

1. The Foundation. 2 Peter 1:1,2. Everything to be strong must be built on the proper foundation. A blessed life, a fruitful life must have a good foundation. A tree to yield the maximum amount of fruit must have the right soul and nutrients. Our life is built upon grace and faith. Eph. 2:8,9

   1. Grace – God’s favor given to us although we don’t deserve it. 1Co 15:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am.”

   2. Faith – Trust, confidence and reliance on God and His Word. According to 2 Thess. 2:13 faith is “belief of the truth:” Faith is “Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Assurance and conviction of the truth.

   3. So we have a strong belief that God has acted toward us to show favor and love to us and He does so in such a way to make our lives fruitful and blessed.

2. The Framework. 2 Peter 1:3-4.

   1. Divine Power. 2 Peter 1:3. God’s uses His power tools to work in our lives.

      1. In Eph. 1:18,19 Paul prays “that you may know (three things) 1. what is the hope to which he has called you, 2. what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and 3. what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ.” God is interested in working in our lives in a powerful manner.

      2. Eph 3:20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

      3. That power gives us all things that pertain to life an godliness, v.3. We are lacking the power, (the source for making changes and building a life). We don’t lack the resources. We just need to take the tools God has given us and use them.

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   2. Dynamic Promises. 2 Peter 1:4 We can build a fruitful life knowing that gives us the power, but also because God has given us His promise. We have God Word. He promises us eternal life. He promises us forgiveness of sin. He promises us freedom from sins dominion. He promises to never leave us nor forsake us. He promises to deliver us from temptation.

      1. 2Co 1:20 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

      2. 2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

      3. 1Jn 2:25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.

      4. How do I know that I can have a frutful life? How do I know that my life can be anything, but average? How do I know that I just won’t fall into sin again and fail? I have God’s promise that He will give me power and help. He will be with me. He won’t leave me. His promises are great and precious.

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   3. Delivered Partaker. 2 Peter 1:4 God has made us partakers in His very nature. We have escaped or been delivered from our own corrupt nature and have been changed and given a new nature. Our corrupt nature was inclined toward sin our new nature is inclined toward godliness.

      1. Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

      2. 2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

We beginning a new year. We are hoping for the best. Hoping to be better Christians, better parents, better spouses, better people. What will propel our spiritual life from average to amazing. From ho-hum to hallelujah. First, start out on the right foundation –Grace and Faith. Secondly, Build on the proper framework. God’s Power, God’s Promises, God’s New Nature He has given us.

I am new to blogging so this entry will be brief as I get things up and rolling.  The blog will contain info about our ministry, what it is like to be a bi-vocational pastor and general activities in which I am involved.