Supplementing Faith with Fru..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. 2nd Peter chapter 1, we're going to be addressing the beginning of verse 5. We're going to pay attention to each one of the words until verse 11.

So this is the word of the Lord. 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 qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and 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. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities, 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. Amen. And as I said, brothers and sisters, we are going to be addressing this first statement in verse 5, in which the Apostle, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says, that we Christians, for this very reason, are to make every effort to supplement to our faith, and then there is a list of different qualities, of different things, as he calls them through this section. He speaks of of virtue, and knowledge, and self-control, and steadfastness, and all of these qualities that are mentioned here. As I said before, brothers and sisters, the intention of the Apostle Peter, when he's writing these letters, is perhaps very well summarized in what he says in chapter 3 and verse 1.

If you go to chapter 3 and verse 1, the Apostle there says This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder. In both of these letters, the Apostle has the goal, by the Spirit, to stir up the mind of the audience, of the ones that receive this letter. This is to awake the mind of the believers to the dangers that could be around these believers. In the first letter of Peter the exhortation was to endure in times of tribulation and now in this second letter of the Apostle his burden is going to be that the people, that the audience, that the churches, they may have their mind Awaked that they may have their minds in alert to false teachings and false prophets And the power the destructive power that those false teachings and those false teachers that will be within the context of the church Will have that even he's afraid that some some of them may be carried away and taken By the deceitful teachings these doctrines of demons as paul calls them in first timothy chapter 4 these teachings of satan can take a carry away some of the believers of the Church.

This is the God-given, Spirit-empowered, Christ-centered burden of the Apostle that is in love and in grace for the recipients of this letter. And as I said before, the first thing that the Apostle is going to do is to show them the things that God has done in them as and the power of those things that God has done in them in preventing in keeping them from falling from the faith in preventing and in keeping them from the destruction of false teaching or false teachers and the destructive power that there is in all of those things and that is the section that goes from verse 1 to verse 11. The Apostle is showing them this power, this divine power working in the believers that prevents them from falling away. But now we arrive to this verse 5. And in this verse 5, the Apostle now is not going to so much address what God has done in them, but rather the result of it.

The natural, organic outflow or result of what God has done in the believer So now the apostle is going to give better to the Christians an exhortation to do, to act. He says, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith. It's an exhortation to move, to run, to work, not to be passive, but rather to do. And this is the testimony not only of Peter, but also of the New Testament, that as Christians we are to do, to act, to move, to run, to work. It is a call to action that the Apostle is given here.

And that call to action is to add to our faith all of these qualities that are named from verses 6, or the end of verse 5, until verse 7. Now, brothers and sisters, it's very important that even before we get into studying those qualities that the Apostle names in this section of Scripture, that we will understand how the Apostle is going to introduce this call to action. We must understand this exhortation to actually do or to make every effort or to move, to act, to do things. before we actually analyze each one of those qualities. And this is because as Christians, in our flesh, we can tend to fall into mistakes that go from one extreme to another.

One could be that we tend to derive satisfaction from much doing. The Bible calls us to do things, and to act, and to move, and to run, and to work in our faith. But sometimes we may fault in the mistake of deriving peace and satisfaction from works instead of the Lord Jesus Christ. But on the other side, we can also make the mistake or even sin in being passive and slothful and to be asleep. This is why the Apostle is writing this letter, because he wants the audience, the believers, to be awake, to stir up their minds with this exhortation that he's bringing.

So he's now calling us to action. He says, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith. And that's going to be the text of our meditation this evening. These words that in the ESV are written as these this make every effort to supplement your faith some other translations that you may have will say now for this very reason also applying all diligence in your faith supply and then all these qualities that the apostle mentions or the translation will say and for this very reason give all diligence and add to your faith and all of the qualities that we have in this portion of scripture also some other translation will say make every effort to add to your faith we have that we are to be diligent give all diligent or make all effort to supply or to add or to increase or to furnish our faith with all of these qualities that the Apostle mentions in this portion of Scripture. When he says that we are to make every effort, brothers and sisters, the Apostle means that we are to do it with all eagerness, that all of our power, all of our might, all of our action, with everything that we have, we are to pursue these qualities.

This is what he means when he says every effort, that we are to make every effort or every diligence or all diligence and all of that eagerness, all of that action, all of that power, everything that we have has to be directed to provide to our faith or to supplement our faith or to add to our faith. each one of the qualities that we have listed here. As you can see in the text, brothers and sisters, this is a very important exhortation. It's a very important apostolic exhortation to the practical life of the Christian. For you, within the sound of my voice, if you are in Christ, this is a God-given spirit and power exhortation from the heart of God given to us by the writings of the Apostle here to with all diligence, with all eagerness, with all of our might, with all of our power, with every one of our efforts, to take the faith that we have and to add to that faith each one of those qualities that the apostle mentions in this portion of scripture.

And when he says supplement, it is not simply that he's saying, OK, once you have faith, take that as done and then move on to virtue. And then once you have virtue, take that as done and then move on to knowledge. And once you have knowledge, take that as done and move on to self-control and so on and so on. But rather, when he speaks of supplement or to add to our faith, he speaks of fullness of each one of those virtues. Well, fullness of each one of those qualities.

So that is that when our faith has reached its fullness and its power, then we are to add to that virtue and then when a virtue has been provided in fullness and in all power with all eagerness then we are to add to that knowledge and then with that knowledge has been provided at fullness completeness with all eagerness then we are to move on to each one of the qualities that are listed there As you can see, this is a very challenging text. This is a very, very convicting text. That is that these qualities are to be part of the life of the Christian. These qualities are to be the definers, the adjectives of the faith of the Christian. The faith of the believer is to be defined by each one of these qualities, by each one of these things at its fullness.

And the Christian should live a life of constant effort and eagerness and action to actually have these things in reality. And this is when I first need to give a warning here, brothers and sisters, to our hearts. A warning against this abstract view of the Word of God when it comes to the practical reality of the Christian, in which we are many times very boldly we can profess that the Word of God is sufficient, that it has been given by inspiration of God and is sufficient for everything that we need and we speak with our mouth that the Word of God is indeed sufficient. But when it comes to the application of the Word of God and the practice of the Word of God in our lives, We live lives in which the Word of God, we see it as ideals, abstract ideals that will not be applied to our lives. And sometimes we tend to see things as half empty, rather as half full.

When the Bible speaks to us of love your neighbor with all your heart and love God with all your heart and with your own mind and with all your strength and love your neighbor as you love yourself. Speaking of the fullness and completeness of our love, We simply tend to just take the direction of saying, the Bible speaks of loving with all my strength and might and power and soul, but this is not possible. So this is not possible, so therefore I do not practically live towards loving God with all my mind, my soul and my heart and my strength. or when the Bible calls us to be holy as God is holy we know that we cannot be completely and fully holy in this life and therefore sometimes not even confessing that with our mouth we just tend just to relax and to not live by faith the practical power of the Word of God. If the Bible calls us to love God with all our heart and with all our might and with all our strength, then we are to pursue to love God with all our might, with all our strength, with all our soul.

If the Bible calls us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, then we are to pursue loving our neighbor and loving our brothers and sisters as we love ourselves. If the Bible calls us to be holy as God is holy, then we are to pursue by faith to be holy as God is holy. We are not to place our mind and our thoughts and our heart in the impossibility of reaching those things, because in the moment that impossibility of doing those things enters into our mind or into our heart that is called faithlessness. We are to do what the Bible calls us to do because this is the Word of God. God has not given us abstract commandments that are ideals but are not reachable by the power of the Spirit.

We are to live our lives as wanting to be perfect as God who is in heaven is perfect. We are to live lives by the Spirit of God and Christ in us, obeying the Word of God to the fullness, as Apostle Peter will say here, to the fullness of doing or making every effort to add to our faith all of those qualifiers that he lists in this portion of Scripture. Now, of course, I don't want to proceed and move into the doing and into the things that we are supposed to add to our faith, If we first of all, we do not understand the structure of the exhortation that the apostle is giving us here. Because brothers and sisters, this call to action, this call to do, this call to pursue, this call to make every effort, this call to supplement our faith and to do it in fullness, to do it in completeness, to do all of these things is established upon the very reason that the Apostle has described. He doesn't call us to act.

He doesn't call us to do. He doesn't call us to run. He doesn't call us to do all of these things without pointing us to the reality of what God has initially done in us. So for that reason, he starts verse 5 saying, for this very reason. As the result of what I have just told you, as the natural outflow of the things that have been described, as the consequence of the things that I have told you, then you are to act.

then you are to do, then you are to make every effort to supplement your faith. And what are those things? The glorious things that He has given us, that He has told us in the previous section, that His divine power, in verse 3, that the divine power of God, brothers and sisters, has granted to us all things you can see the language of completeness there of fullness of perfection perfection in the bible is it speaks of completeness his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness not 99 of the things or 90 of the things but all things have been given to us by the divine power of god that pertain to life and godliness. Not only that, but also through the knowledge of Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who called us to His own glory and excellence, He has also granted to us all of His great and very precious promises. Promises of being partakers of the divine nature and promises that are given to us because we have escaped the corruption of this world.

This is the glorious works workings, doings of God in the life of the Christian, in the life of the one who genuinely has been saved, set apart. So we are to understand, brothers and sisters, that Apostle Paul is calling us to do because he has already done. That is, the action of the Christian is rooted in the action that God has already accomplished. The action of the Christian is the result of our belonging to Him. And we belong to Him because the Lord Jesus Christ shed His blood upon the cross.

And by shedding His blood, He instituted a new covenant, a better covenant, that makes us member not only of the covenant, but unites us to Him. This is what God has done, and therefore He calls us to do. Brothers and sisters, the do's that we are called to perform, or the actions that we are called to do and to live out through our lives, it is what we call sanctification. In simple words, we are called to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are indeed called to die to self and that the Lord Jesus Christ may continue to live more and more in us.

We have been, just as Israel in the Old Testament, positionally sanctified by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is that we have been made holy by the sprinkling of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have been set apart as the people of God by the shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But once we have been positionally sanctified as the people of God, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are also called to be progressively sanctified or to be progressively made more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, in the Old Covenant, as we have studied so much through now the book of Leviticus, the blood of the animals, as our brother explained to us, did not have the power to transform the lives of those people.

But the author of Hebrews says that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has the power to perfect the worshiper. That is that through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the grace that unites us to Him, we are made His people. And now God does not dwell in tabernacles that are made with hands, but He dwells in us. And because He's dwelling in us, He's now purifying from inside outward. And then we reach a point in which this positional sanctification, together with this progressive sanctification, becomes glory.

Once we are taken up in glory because we die and we come and see the Lord Jesus Christ, or because the Lord Jesus Christ comes to take His church and to judge the living and the dead. This is the glory of the Christian life that we are called to do because He has already accomplished. That we are required, that is a requirement of the Christian to act and to do, but this is to be understood in light of the accomplishments of God. that we are required and commanded to act and to have good works but this acting or this doing or this performing is in light of the accomplishments once for all of the second person of the Trinity the Lord Jesus Christ who gave his life for the church now brothers and sisters these are concepts that we have studied many times and that we have mentioned now many times but as I said to you when it comes to the practical reality of the believer sometimes we tend to practically fall into mistakes or errors or sins of being passive because of the accomplishments of God being passive and slothful and lazy just simply thinking about what he has already done and then not do anything that the Bible says. Or on the other side, we tend just to do things that are not rooted in what God has done, but rather a selfish desire to derive peace and satisfaction from our own doing, from our own righteousness, to bring glory to our own name, instead of bringing glory to the one who has accomplished those things on our behalf.

And the result of it is a transformed life. Now, brothers and sisters, it's very important that we understand this truth of this conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ before even we point the soul of the believer to the things that they are supposed to do. If the mind of the person deviates from Christ, then the doings and the works become just simply things that are done in the flesh and are wicked and are against the Spirit. Brothers and sisters, if we have found reconciliation to God by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, then the things that we do are to bring glory to the Father because they are done in and through the righteousness of Jesus Christ and by the power of the Spirit. Now this is my burden today for you, for each one of you who are within the sound of my voice, So, understanding this process and these workings of sanctification, or if you want, using words more biblical, of this process of conformity to Jesus Christ, will set the foundation for us to understand what is virtue, and why do I have to make every effort to add virtue to my faith?

What is knowledge, and why do I have to make all diligence or to give all effort to make every effort to add diligence to my virtue? knowledge to my virtue, and so on, and so on. If our mind or our heart slightly deviates from the purpose and the root and the spirit of the apostolic exhortation, we can find ourselves either being slothful or not adding to any of this. to our faith, or on the other hand, we might find ourselves doing all of these things for the sake of our own reputation, for the glory of our name, and with the purpose of living moralistic lives that are not rooted in the person of Jesus Christ, and that instead of accomplishing these things by the Spirit, we accomplish them in the flesh. just like the pharisees and just like the moralistic person, that when it comes to practice they say I don't need the spirit, I can do these things on my own.

The first thing that I want to point your attention to brothers and sisters, it is the condition for this reality. The reality of us being able to do all of these things, the reality of us being able to make every effort to supplement our faith with all of these qualities is conditioned. There is a condition that needs to be fulfilled before a Christian, him or her, is able to make every effort to supplement their faith with all of this quality. And that initial condition has been given to us by the apostle in this text. And this is that that first condition is that the person has to be genuinely saved.

That there has to be genuine faith. A faith that it is rooted in the righteousness of God. A faith that it is obtained, that comes from God. A faith that gives us knowledge in the Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from genuine salvation and apart from genuine faith, none of our workings can move us into conformity to Jesus Christ.

Apart from the existence of Heaven given faith, then the person will find him or herself pushing to herself righteousness and adding more wrath for the day of wrath. Genuine faith that is rooted in the righteousness of God, beloved of Christ, that does not only give us forgiveness. that does not only justify us, but as it justifies us, it gives us a new relationship with God. It gives us confirmation or transformation in the Lord. Jesus Christ.

We are justified by faith, but the justification that we receive by faith does not come alone. There has to be regeneration, and there has to be adoption, and we have to be united to the person of Jesus Christ. This is genuine faith. the faith that gives us the forgiveness of our sins. As we heard, our unrighteousness has been propitiated by the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross, and our guilt has been removed.

The Lord has expiated our guilt by His sacrifice, so therefore we can be innocent before God. But we are not only innocent before God, we are blessed because we are made the children of God. And part of the blessing of being the children of God is that He gives us the promise that we are going to be conformed to the image of His Son. So there cannot be progressive sanctification, beloved of Christ, if there has not been positional sanctification by faith. If we have not been chosen before the foundation of the world and if the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has not been sprinkled upon the soul of a person set apart as holy and set apart as the people or the person or the child of God to be adopted by the blood.

This is the whole argument that Apostle Paul will make in Ephesians chapter one. So that is the condition of our doing. The mind of the person will always tend to go naturally to the do's and the don'ts, to tell me what I need to take and tell me the things that I should not do. But rather, we need to understand that the heart and the soul of the person has to be pointed initially and primarily by grace, through faith, through the person of Jesus Christ. Only when we understand the condition, the requirement of our sanctification, we will be able to understand the source of our sanctification, or the source of our doing, the source of every effort that we are to perform.

what he comes from, the ultimately source of the good works and the good doings and the efforts of the one who has been genuinely saved and who has been genuinely set apart as the people of God by the grace of God and through the Spirit given faith. the Apostle Paul summarizes very clearly and by the inspiration of the Spirit this source of our sanctification in Romans chapter 8 when he says that those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son that it is that those whom he foreknew in eternity past were predestined to be made like the Lord Jesus Christ. This means, brothers and sisters, that everything that we do as Christians in our lives finds its source, its origin in the eternal decree of God. We are never to think that the things that we do or the good works that we are called to do and that by God's grace the Christian can do, it is rooted in the effort of the person. But rather the Bible speaks that the blessing that we have in a relationship with Christ is the result of the eternal decree of God who foreknew us before the foundation of the world, and in that foreknowing and in that predestination He conformed us to be to the image of His Son, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 8 verse 29, that He may be the first one that is born among many brothers, and that the others may be resurrected in the likeness of the Son, the Son Jesus Christ, be made like Him.

Every portion of faith, every portion of Christ-likeness, every gift that comes from above is from the Father who doesn't change and is rooted in eternity past. Even before we sinned, even before we broke God's law, He had already predestined us the ones that are recipients of grace and mercy to be made holy to be made sanctified that's why the same apostle in Ephesians chapter 1 says blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us the Christian in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him." This is the rest. This is the peace. This is the divine satisfaction that the Christian who has been genuinely saved, united to the person of Christ by grace through faith, has through the Word of God.

that the final destination of conformity and glory that the final destination of sanctification and die to self or death to self it is not established on my daily performance but it is rooted and sourced in the eternal decree of God before the foundation of the world. He has chosen us to be holy and blameless before Him. And this is a decree that cannot be changed. This is a decree that cannot be altered. Those who have been indeed chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world will be made holy and blameless.

So that means that every good work and every effort that they make through this life, it is rooted in not in their understanding power of ability, but rather is rooted in the eternal decree of God, which is a decree of love. The same apostle says in Ephesians chapter 1 in verse 4 and 6 as he continues that he's in love! In love, He predestines us for adoptions as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will. So we are to be holy and blameless before Him because of that decree that is in love. It is in the Beloved.

It is in this glorious, eternal union that we have with Jesus Christ that our holiness, that our blamelessness is rooted. But if this is not enough for the heart of the Christian to know that the root of everything that we do is in the Lord, is in the salvation from beginning to end is of the Lord, then He also gives us through the testimony of Scripture, brothers and sisters, that this decree of blamelessness and holiness in eternity past is confirmed and accomplished by the life, death, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That all of our doings, all of our workings, all of our good works, all of the efforts that we are to make are not rooted ultimately in our ability, in our energy, in our understanding, but are rooted in the decree of God and also in the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. even before you were born, even before you seen practically, even before the unrighteousness of Adam was imputed to you, even before you existed. The Lord had not only decreed that you were going to be blameless and holy if you are genuine in Christ, but also when the Lord Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, died upon the cross and was powerfully resurrected, the same power that resurrected the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead is the power that is given to the Christian to make every effort to do all of these things that the Apostle Peter calls us to do all of these things.

For this reason the Apostle Paul can feel himself with authority and with understanding of the things that are from above and he says, what shall we say then? Are we going to sin that grace may abound if we are not under the law but now we are under grace? Are we going to sin that this grace may abound in us? And he says, by no means! How can we who have died to sin still live in sin?

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized, inserted, united into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? We were buried with Him, with the Lord Jesus Christ, and by that baptism of death, it was so that we will be resurrected with Him. So the glory of the Father and the mighty power of the Father, the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, is the one that works in us that we may walk in newness of life. It is not only the decree, beloved of Christ, in eternity past, before the foundation of the world, but the sufficiency of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. is not only sufficient to forgive us from our sins, but it's also the power that is given to us so that we will be made like Him.

This is the sacrifice that was accepted once for all. As our brother said, there is no need of other sacrifice. There is no need of another lamb. There is no need of another person or sacrifice to be given on behalf of the people of God. The Lord Jesus Christ in His perfect life and His perfect obedience through His life, death and resurrection gives us the power through His righteousness and His resurrection so that we will walk.

as He walked. This is why the Apostle in Philippians chapter 3 is filled with this glorious desire to knowing the power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the power of the risen Jesus Christ in the life of the believer that He may share in the sufferings becoming like Him in His death. this is the work of God even before we existed so that as Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2 there in the end in verse 10 in the end of that section that we are the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus for good works, that we were in Christ Jesus for good acts, good doings, good deeds, good works. Not only the decree of God, beloved of Christ, in eternity past, not only the life, the death, and the resurrection of the Son, but the Father and the Son have given us the promise of the Holy Spirit.

the third person of the trinity is now coming to dwell in the temple of the christian to make one to baptize that christian into union with the lord jesus christ is the spirit of god that points us to the lord jesus christ and his truth it is the holiest spirit of god the one that convicts us of our sins It is the Holy Spirit of God, the one that illuminates the Word of God to us, so that indeed we might be able to make every effort to supplement our faith with all of these qualities. It is the Spirit of God, the one that imparts the righteousness of Christ to us. Yes, the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us by faith, but the conformity to Christ, it is given by the imparting of the righteousness of Christ to us as we live. We are made like Christ. The practical righteousness of Christ, the words of Christ, the doings of Christ, the thoughts of Christ are given to the Christian.

We have the mind of Christ in 1 Corinthians. We have the love of Christ in Ephesians chapter 3 and 4. We have the faith of Christ in Galatians chapter 2 verse 20. We have Christ living in us in the same verse. And this is through the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God that leads us daily.

Because those who are heirs with Christ, who are the sons of God, who can cry, Abba, Father, they are led by the Spirit. They are not led by the flesh, but the Spirit comes and dwells with them, and they are led by the Spirit. It is the Spirit of God, the one that guides us in prayer and in the Word, so that we might understand the mind of God and the heart of God, so that we will be able to make every effort to add to our faith all of these qualities that are given here. It is the Spirit of God, the one that restrains the evil that is around us, and is the same Spirit, sovereign Spirit, that prevents us not from seeing death before it is appointed for us to die. It is the Spirit of God, the one that seals us unto eternal life, and is the same Spirit that gives us to the church and individually the spiritual gifts that we need for the edification of the soul, namely conformity to Christ and the edification of the congregation.

brothers and sisters, everything that we do as believers is ultimately rooted in the Triune God, the only God, the Living God Every good work, every effort that is to be done, everything that we are commanded to do as Christians is ultimately rooted in the decree of the Father, in the perfect life and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the workings of the Holy Spirit. How would a Christian who understands this, How would a believer who knows this from Scripture, how would a person that has been saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, how would a soul take either glory unto himself in the doings, how would a person desire to take any glory or any reputation or any good thing onto our name when we know these things? Or on the other hand, how would a believer or a Christian be as thoughtful in doing the things that we are called to do? How would a person even question the commandments of the Lord when we are called to do what He says that we are to do? How would a person just neglect or just simply not pay attention to what the Lord says if the Triune God of Heaven who created the heavens and the earth and everything that is in them, not only decreed in eternity past, that we should be holy and blameless, guaranteeing the outcome of our lives, but also on top of that He accomplished salvation on our behalf by giving His beloved Son Jesus Christ, defeating death and Satan and paying for our sins, giving us His righteousness and imparting His righteousness, practical righteousness by the Spirit, how we would not take heed of the commandments that are given to us.

in Scripture? How would we desire to live our lives apart from Christ? How would you wake up in the morning and not make Christ the first thought that comes into your mind? How would you start your day and the things of your day and the things and the harries of work or studies or whatever you have to do without thinking in Christ? without acknowledging the sovereignty, the grace, the mercies, the perfections of God Christ?

How are we not going to live our lives, our daily things that we are to do, the works that we are to perform in light of this glorious reality? There is a condition, brothers and sisters, for good works. There is a requirement for good works and that is that the person has genuine faith, saving faith. That condition met means that that person and the life of that person and the good works of that person have been decreed in eternity past by God. that the holiness and blamelessness of that person who has saved in faith has been appointed before time, before creation, in the mind and in the heart of God, in the love of God towards us in Christ.

It means that a person that has genuine faith and saving faith will live a life of righteousness because when Christ was dying upon the cross, He was dying for that person. He was taking and atoning for the sins of that person. And it means that that person that has genuine faith, saving faith, has now the Spirit of God in reality, not romantically, but abstractly. knowing a religious way, the Spirit of God dwelling in them. and therefore that person can make every effort with all diligence, with all strength, with all might, because this sanctification that has been decreed in eternity past, this sanctification that requires saving genuine faith is a sanctification that is accomplished through the means of the believer.

You see, God has decreed from eternity past that we are to be holy and blameless and the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished victoriously our salvation and we have, yes, the Spirit of God dwelling in us but the Bible is very clear that this sanctification is accomplished through us through our works, through our effort, through our doing And I hope that you see that what I do not mean that works in and of themselves gives us the righteousness that we need to be before God. I do not mean that works in and of themselves makes us acceptable before God, but are the works that are rooted in Christ, the ones that we are called to perform. We are to make every effort That's why James says, What good is it, my brothers, if someone says that he has faith but he does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works, show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one? You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble.

Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? And then he concludes in verse 22 in chapter 2 James. He says, you see that faith was active or faith was being made perfect along with his works, the faith of Abraham. And faith was completed by his works.

Brothers and sisters, We are not saved by a lonely faith, but we are saved by a living faith. Knowing Jesus Christ is not something that abides in the mind of a person, but knowing Jesus Christ is a radical spiritual transformation for the person that was dead and now is made alive. How can someone who is now alive continue to be dead? Then it's a contradiction. But if the person has been made alive by the power of the Spirit, then the eyes and the ears have been opened to the voice of the Savior, so that we can walk out of the tomb and approach the Lord, the one that has resurrected us.

Saving faith is a faith that is living, a faith that makes us more like the Lord Jesus Christ, a faith that is rooted in the workings of God from eternity past, a faith that is rooted in the accomplishments of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross, a faith that is given by the Spirit of God. So the Apostle Paul, in the same line of what James says, can say to us, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you. both to do and to will for His good pleasure. It is God the one that works, operates in us both to will, to desire and also to do or to work for the good pleasure of God.

We are called to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We are not to grow weary in the words of the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 6. We are not to grow weary in doing good works. We are not to be burdened in the flesh in doing good things because when we are weary in doing these good things or good works is because we are doing them in the flesh. Why?

Because in due season, the Apostle says, we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have the opportunity, the Apostle says, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. continually and continually through the New Testament. The Christian, the believer, is assumed to have genuine saving faith that is rooted in the eternal decree of God, accomplished by the victorious death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and empowered by the Spirit of God living in that person, and therefore, that person is called to do and to live. Not thinking that I am not able to do.

Not thinking that I cannot love God with all my might, with all my strength and with all my soul so I'm okay. Not thinking I cannot be holy in this life and therefore I will not pursue holiness. Not thinking that I'm not to be perfect as God who is in heaven is perfect so I'm okay. I'm not thinking on the standard of other believers or other people around me but rather Thinking of the words of Scripture as they are given to the person. That we are to love God with all our hearts, so then we are going to pursuing loving God with our heart and strength and might.

That we are to be holy, then pursuing holiness. just like the Lord is holy. All of these things, not rooted in us, but rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ. These are exactly the same words of the Apostle in this portion of text, brothers and sisters, make every effort. That's why we cannot continue into studying what is virtue and knowledge and all of this if we do not place our eyes and our minds and our hearts and spirits and our souls in the root of what it is required of the Christian.

Beloved of Christ, it is the eternal decree of God, the One that promised our sanctification. It is the life, the death, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One that accomplishes our sanctification. It is the power of the Spirit that accomplishes our sanctification. In a sense, we could say that it's through the decree of God that we are sanctified. That through the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are sanctified.

It is through the power of the Spirit that we are sanctified, but the Bible also clearly speaks that it is through the works of the saint, according to James, or through the doing of good works, according to Paul, or through the earnest doing until the end, according to Hebrews. that we are to do because God has already done we cannot do if the triune God has not done he is the one that has to do all of these things and then we can do the source of all of our doing is the Lord and the source of our rest in our doing is the Lord. And this is perhaps the most important challenge, brothers and sisters, the source of our rest in our doing. Rest and peace in our doing, in our actions. You see so many people wake up in the morning and then they do the things that they are supposed to do, but if they had a bad day, if they did not read a scripture, or if they did not pray, or if they didn't do this or that, if they had a situation with their wives or their husbands or their children or at work, and then at the end of the day they feel that they have failed and that they are not what they are supposed to be before the Lord.

Now there is a good sense in which we are to be convicted from the things that we don't do and the sins that we commit. But we are to examine ourselves if the source of our rest and our peace is our own doing. If when we tick the boxes during the day, then we are okay with ourselves and we think of ourselves as an example of a Christian and someone to be followed. Because if we are the source of that, then we are doing the things in the flesh. We are doing things to please ourselves.

It is the Lord, the one that is the source of our rest in our doing. It is the Lord, the one that provides peace. When we do what we ought to do, glory be to Him. And when we do not do what we ought to do, it is Him that convicts us and also the one that gives us the grace to repent of our sins and to turn our eyes to Christ and to know that we are forgiven and to move forward. It is the rest in our doing that it is rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that prevent us from bitterness.

It is the rest in our doing that it is established upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that prevent us from self-righteousness. It is resting in the Lord Jesus Christ when we do things, when we do good works, the one that prevents us from being lovers of men and not lovers of God. It is having our eyes in the Lord Jesus Christ for everything, the one that protects us and keeps us from being lovers of self and wanting everyone to be lovers of us. It is resting completely in the Lord Jesus Christ when we do or when we don't, that helps us and empowers us to be wronged by others, to be afflicted by others and not to be offended and to harbor bitterness in our hearts. It is resting in the Lord for our doing and for our works and for our deeds, the one that protects our hearts from lack of forgiveness.

from murmuring and grumbling and speaking of others when we think that we are offended. It is resting in the Lord Jesus Christ and deciding to give the glory to Him, the one that protects us from making of ourselves idols that we worship, not saying without words, but putting it into our hearts. It is resting in Him and doing things from the rest that we have in Christ the one that actually provides and brings fruit of good deeds unto the glory of the Father. The Lord Beloved of Christ, the Lord is the source of our peace and sanctification. He justified us but He is also the One that sanctifies He is also the One that makes us like Him our sanctification is our doing but in the Lord that's why we always say when we preach and when we teach and when we speak with you just as the Apostle Paul says in Galatians chapter 5 verse 6 for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor a circumcision counts for anything that is in Christ Jesus to be under the law to be outside of the law counts for nothing but what counts in Jesus Christ is faith working through love It's a faith that operates, that moves through love.

It is an obedience, working, that is rooted in faith and that is done through love. It is an obedience to the command. It is a making every effort. It is doing all good things that we are required to do, working, but in faith and in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the Apostle Paul says in Galatians chapter 5, that what counts in Jesus Christ is faith that works through love.

Remember what the Apostle says in Philippians chapter 2? It is when he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do. This works in you and this to will and to do, it is what Paul says in Galatians chapter 5. a faith that works, a faith that works through love. The divine workings of God, according to His good pleasure in us, that moves us to will and to work, or to do good deeds, it is a faith that works through love.

It is a faith that can make every effort to supplement with all of these qualities that Apostle Peter is going to mention. It is a faith that has the power to obey the commandments of the Lord because we love Him. It is a faith that is rooted in the Spirit and is illuminated by the Word of God and a conscience that is fed with the Word of God so that we will do things out of faith and they will be no sin. Because those things that do not proceed from faith are sin. It doesn't matter what you do.

If it does not come from faith, it is a sin. So all the workings of the Christian are rooted in faith that works through love. It is a faith that obeys the law through love. It is a faith that is obedient to the words and to the voice of the Savior because of the love. Love is the beginning and love is the end of the obedience of the Christian who has a genuine faith.

So we say, we are not under the law, but we are under grace. What shall we say? Are we going to sin that grace may abound? By no means, because the faith that abides in my heart, it is a faith that works through the love of Christ. that it comes from above and it is the desire of the Father in my will, in my desire and my doings.

Brothers and sisters, that is the means of sanctification. We are to do, we are to work, we are to make every effort. We are not to be a slothful and lazy and passive when it comes to the things of God. but we are not to be self-righteous, deriving our peace and our satisfaction from who we are and the things that we do. Why is this so important?

And I'm just going to be short because now time is just going very late. Why is this important, beloved Christ? Because there is a goal for our sanctification. There is an objective of our sanctification. There is a purpose on our sanctification.

There is a fearful purpose for our sanctification, for our doing, for our making every effort, for our laboring, for our actions, for our deeds. There is a goal, there is a destination, there is a purpose for it. That is found in the text. the Apostle, if you put your eyes in the text, he says for this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith or to add in fullness and completeness to your faith and he lists all of these things that go until broadly affection and love and finish there in verse 7 but then in verse 8, 9 and 10 and 11 he's going to give us four reasons of the need of the Christian adding all of these things to the faith all of those verses will start with a word that will tell us this is a reason for or for or therefore or for that means that this is a reason or this is a purpose the first purpose brothers and sisters that we will indeed do deeds and works and will make every effort to make our faith a faith that it is filled with virtue and knowledge and self-control and steadfastness and godliness and broadly affection and love that our faith might be qualified, but all of those characteristics and those qualities is, verse 8, so that we might be fruitful. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful.

We cannot be fruitful. We cannot be effective for the Lord in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ if these qualities are not abounding in our faith. If our faith is not clothed by virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly love, and brotherly love with love. or probably affection, we will not be fruitful. And the Lord Jesus Christ says in John 15 that glory is brought to the Father when we bear much fruit.

When the Christian bears fruit, then glory is brought and given to the Father. And then we prove to be the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, brothers and sisters, that glory will not be brought to the name of the Father, and we will not prove ourselves to be the disciples of the Savior if these qualities are lacking in us, if they are not increasing, if they are not coming to our faith, all of these things. And these things are not going to be divinely given, but Scripture says, make every effort to supplement them to your faith. But it goes beyond that.

Verse 9. Verse 9 says that also another reason is that we will not lack assurance. It says, for whoever lacks these qualities, or whoever does not have these qualities, is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. The mind of the believer now, because of the absence of these qualities, has forgotten the efficiency of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this produces lack of assurance. When a person is lacking assurance of salvation, it is because, most of the times, not only, but most of the times, because there is presence of sin.

And when there is presence of sin, of course, none of these qualities is present. If we lack these qualities, we are blinded and we have forgotten that we have been cleansed from our former sins. But in verse 10 he continues that we will not fall away. that these qualities and the abundance of these qualities in us, so that is that we are to make every effort for all of these qualities to be attached to our faith, is that we will not fall away. Verse 10.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. we this is serious brothers and sisters we are to supplement to furnish to provide to our faith all of these qualities that we will not fall verse 11 not only not to fall away but also to have entrance to the kingdom of God entrance to the kingdom of our Lord that is final endurance for again as a result Conclusion there, for in this way, if we have these qualities, in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You see the seriousness of these qualities attached to our faith? You see the importance of these concepts that by God's grace we will study in the future, attached to our faith?

If we do not understand the seriousness of these matters, then we are going to be unfruitful for the glory of the Father. We are going to lack assurance. We are going to be in the risk of falling away. And there is the risk of not enduring until the end and not having an entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord. These are not my words.

These are the words of the author of Hebrews through his book. Our eyes are to be set and placed in the glorious reality that the doing of the Christian, the doing and the performing of the Christian is rooted ultimately in the accomplishments of God on our behalf, decreeing and predetermined from eternity past that we will indeed endure until the end, that we will not fall away, that we will not lack assurance in our lives, and that we will be fruitful for the glory of the Father until the end. This is decreed in the mind of God in eternity past, and for that reason He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life, to die upon the cross, and to be mightily and powerfully resurrected, so that in His blood there will be a new covenant instituted and established. that will guarantee that the decree of God is to be conducted or accomplished because He does not lie and because Jesus Christ has entered into the Holy of Holies on our behalf and then this promise, this oath is established on behalf of the Church. Not only that, but He has made us partakers of the divine nature by imparting Christ to us through the Spirit of God.

So the same Apostle Peter will be able to say in his first letter, in chapter 1 verse 5, that it is God's power, the one that keeps us, that is God's might and power, the one that preserves us through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. Endurance. That is God's power, the one that keeps us, preserves us, guards us, and this is done through faith. for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. And I don't want to end without pointing, brothers and sisters, to this glorious reality here that the Apostle mentions.

It says, your faith. Your faith. That now, this faith that is to develop all of these qualities and virtues of Christlikeness the mercy of the Lord who was the one that give us this faith now counts it as our faith makes it our faith and he says there is a faith of equal standing or precious value as the faith of the apostles there is a faith that comes from the righteousness of God and this is your faith my child I have saved you, I have redeemed you, I have loved you, I have chosen you, my son died for you, my spirit is given unto you, and now this belief that I'm giving you when you could not believe, and the eyes that were open when you were blind, and the life that was given when you were dead, all of that now is made yours. You believe, it is your faith. my son and my daughter, set your eyes upon Jesus and walk to Him, not paying attention to the things that are passing away, but set your heart and mind in Jesus Christ.

And as you do, love, because I love you. And as you do, be holy, for I am holy. And as you do, love others, because I love them. And as you do, give your life in service to the Church, because the Church is my bride. And as you do, be Christ unto everyone, so that when they see you, they may see the mighty glories of the grace of my habitation given to humankind, restoring and saving them when they were unsavable.

My God, give us the grace that is needed, not only to do these things, brothers and sisters, but rather to understand what they come from and to be amazed every time that there's workings of the Spirit in our life, making us more like Jesus Christ. Amen.