Wednesday Bible Study- Developing Spiritual Habits - 2 Peter 1- Associate Pastor Matt Passmore and Pastor Greg Addison

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

Welcome.

We are glad.

I'll assure you this.

My part's really small today.

If you came to listen to the man speak, he's here.

So he is Jaren, and so we're grateful for him coming.

Hey, actually, before we pray and get started, I we, you know, as we knew we knew the school year was in, and we have some great classes going on.

Men's Discipleship, Women's Discipleship's doing a great job of connecting, getting in God's word.

Roger Haney's doing a great job in the prayer group, just teaching through Scripture, and we are grateful for that.

And we do not, the one thing we don't want to do is say, hey, we know everything we're coming, but we wanted to, through this time, we wanted to rally, kind of come together, and in the process of thinking of what it looks like to come together, we also, what do we do?

So we prayed through a book of the Bible, and and and we wanted to be careful not just to have a Bible study.

So that's where we got to the port of we are this summer, we want to take a step back.

We all know this, we want to take a step back, and we want to work on developing some spiritual habits.

Some spiritual habits.

Um, if you look here, I have a question for you.

So we are going to be in 2 Peter, and we want to tonight, as we kick this off, the importance of spiritual habits.

So I have a question for you, though.

Think of this question and think about it with me.

Think of a time when you had a you had to discipline yourself to develop a habit.

And a lot of times uh as we think of that, it's really not that easy of a thing to do.

We had a kid here in the student ministry.

Actually, he grew up in children's ministry, and uh I don't mean anything by this, I don't know any other words to use, but he was just a pudgy little kid.

You get the picture, you know?

That means he's healthy, I don't mean anything bad by it, but just a pudgy little kid.

He enjoyed just sitting around, he enjoyed playing video games, he really didn't do a whole lot.

In fact, at camp, when we had walk places, he'd be sweating and he'd be like one of the first ones to want to sit down.

But something happened in high school, towards the end of his high school, he got into lifting weights.

And uh he is not a pudgy little kid anymore.

He is a big boy, and he told me the other day, I was talking to him, he says, Do you know if I go a day without lifting weights, I feel bad.

He said the other day, he was with some friends, he ate some stuff, you know, he watches his diet, he does all that.

He ate some stuff that didn't line up with the diet that he was doing.

He said, When I ate, I felt bad.

But isn't that what a habit gets us to?

He got into a good habit, but it was hard work to get there, but now that he got there, and that's the same look we want to look in, what does it look like develop spiritual habits?

We do not want the thing, one thing we don't want to do is this summer is encourage you to do something, you do it for a week, and then I call it good and we we wander off.

Okay, this is something as believers, we want to come together, we want to develop spiritual habits.

So my next question is this What is the purpose of spiritual habits?

Think about that just for a second.

What is the purpose of spiritual habits?

Some of you say, well, hold on, let's go back to spiritual habits.

So let's just even break it down even closer to this.

What is a spiritual habit?

Okay?

Over the summer, we have things lined up.

These are some, now this isn't all of them.

There is a lot of spiritual habits.

And this really a spiritual habit is something when what?

We are developing a Christ-like character.

We want to be like Christ.

What does that look like?

That's a habit that we're getting.

But here are here's a list of some of the habits we are going to work on and encourage each other to try to make it a habit in our Christian walk.

We're looking at knowing Jesus, prayer, worship, evangelism, journaling, perseverance.

It's a big one nowadays.

And then just the word learning.

Sometimes we just kind of take it for granted.

We could raise our hands, many of us in here and say, I had a quiet time today, but then my next question is this did we learn anything in our quiet time?

So it is a discipline to not just read the Bible, but what?

To learn as we do it.

And so that is our goal because for us to develop a spiritual habit, it shows our Christian maturity.

Think about this just for a second.

You think you know the scripture that says, uh you know, there's babies, you know, the milk, and then there's the meat.

You know what?

Those that are able to eat the meat of the scripture have to have what?

Spiritual habits.

Because if we don't have spiritual habits, we're black the baby, and what the baby doesn't even know when it's time to eat.

They just what?

Eat when the bottle's put in their mouth.

And so through doing this, it shows if we are going to mature as Christians, we have to develop spiritual habits.

And as we talk, many of you have some, but here's the thing, I think the big picture of this, we never completely arrive that our habits are perfectly what they need.

Our Christian walk is a continual journey.

Brother Dill always talked about justifications when we when we realize we need to turn from from self to Christ, and then we have in a Christian walk, then we still have sanctification.

Now, we are not, I want to, I want to, we are not developing spiritual habits to impress God by how good we are.

Because we all know that we're not very good, right?

But what are these spiritual habits?

When we give our life to Christ, we should have a desire to what?

Be like him.

So that takes me, we're we're we're in 2 Peter, but I want to read, listen to 1 Peter, just listen to me.

In 1 Peter 5, I mean on 1 Peter 1, starting in verse 15 or 13.

1 Peter 1, starting in verse 13.

Listen to what it says.

Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As obedient children, do not be conform to the desires of your former ignorance.

Okay, we're talking about salvation, we are changing from our foreign, but as the one who called you is holy, you are to be holy in all your conduct.

Listen to what 16 says.

16 is going back to actually Leviticus.

It says, be holy.

I'm sorry, for it is written, be holy because I am holy.

Now I'm reading this, it's not I.

We know it's God.

Be holy because why?

He is holy.

As a Christian, we are called to what?

Be holy.

And that makes it a continual journey.

So we are not being good to please God.

We are being good because as a Christian, we are called to what?

Be holy.

And to be holy, that's how we have to develop our what?

Our spiritual habits.

So this statement right here, developing spiritual habits is not an option for those who claim to be children of God.

Pray with me and then I'm gonna pass it off to Pastor.

Dear God, thank you so much for your love.

Thank you for your word.

Just thank you for like the word you did not just give the word and say, this is what I want you to do, but you sent your son Jesus to live it out, to demonstrate what it looks like to love others, demonstrate what it looks like to pray, demonstrate what it looks like to be in your word, demonstrate what it looks like to have a relationship with you.

And Lord, this summer, as we dive into this, Lord, help us as a church, as a believers, as a community here to dive into what it looks like to develop these spiritual habits, not for our own good, not to impress others, but for our relationship with you.

Thank you for your many blessings.

And Lord, as we continue, Lord, we ask for blessings as we study your word tonight.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Amen.

Thank you, Matt.

We are looking forward to uh doing this study together, and uh so we're we're having a good time with this.

As we start moving into 2 Peter, uh, what we're gonna do is use this book as a textbook to work through those spiritual habits and how they work.

So let me ask you this question.

Let's just kind of share a little bit tonight.

Um uh, what is the difference between information and knowledge?

What do you think?

Different words.

What do you think?

What would you think when I say information?

What do you think about information?

Just data, right?

You just know stuff, facts about it, right?

What is knowledge?

It's those facts, but it has that understanding applied to it, right?

Now let's think about this for a minute.

What how would you um apply those to the situation of relationship?

So when you think about a relationship, how is information about somebody different than knowledge of somebody?

So if you have information about somebody, uh, for example, I grew up watching basketball.

Uh I'm a sports guy, love sports, grew up watching basketball.

I know a lot of facts about Michael Jordan.

I know information about Michael Jordan.

If Michael Jordan walked in this room, he wouldn't know me from Adam's house cat, right?

Because we don't know each other.

You know what I'm saying?

Now, Janet, on the other hand, I know Janet.

For example, when I say something, I know what the response is going to be ahead of time.

Y'all understand?

I mean, I I know, and I can hear something coming out of my mouth, and I know I'm in trouble, right?

Because I know her and understand her.

Look with me in your Bibles at 2 Peter, look at verse 1 and 2.

Here's what he says: Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, may grace and peace be multiplied to you through the, what's the word?

Knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

So Peter sets up right at the beginning of this, this is going to be about knowing Jesus.

Not information about Jesus, not data about Jesus, not facts about Jesus, but he wants us to know Jesus.

And then if you go to 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 18, which is the last verse of the Bible, of this book of the Bible, here's what he says.

2 Peter 3:18

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.

And so his instruction, his theme in this book is about knowing Jesus.

It is going beyond just information or data.

In church life, a lot of times, we don't mean to, but what we do is we impart information.

We have a teaching culture in church life, which is really good.

And the Bible teaches about preaching and teaching, but I don't think a lot of times we go from the information to the knowledge.

Now think about the way Peter even instructs this idea.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you through knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

He wants us to be growing, to be changing.

He wants us to understand Jesus at a deeper level.

He wants our relationship with him to flourish.

Then look at this other verse at the end of the book as well.

Now, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

It is the idea that our knowledge of Jesus becomes more intimate.

It becomes deeper, it continues to expand.

That we are supposed to go beyond information to know how Jesus will respond, to understand the heart of Jesus, to understand the mind of Christ, to understand how that works.

In Philippians chapter 2, the Bible says this let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

We're supposed to see what he sees and think what he thinks and feel what he feels.

And in order to do that, we have to know him.

We have to go beyond information and into relationship with him.

And that's as we prayed through this study, that's how we got to spiritual habits.

You have to work at knowing someone.

Like I can look up somebody famous on Wikipedia and get all the facts I want to know about.

But to know them, I've got to spend time with them.

I've got to talk with them.

I've got to listen to them.

We've got to understand each other.

Somebody use the word understanding.

We've got to understand each other at a deeper level.

So here's the theme of the book.

And this is the goal of spiritual habits.

Learning to know Jesus in a deep, personal way is the foundation for experiencing all that God intends salvation to be in our lives.

Information is never going to get us to that place where we experience all that Jesus saved us, saved us to, and saved us for.

Just studying Scripture, even, as awesome as Scripture is, and we'll look at that in a moment.

Even studying Scripture, if we're studying it as an encyclopedia, or we're only focused on learning facts about the Bible or God or Jesus in Scripture, we're never going to experience all that God has intended or planned in our relationship with Him.

I want you to think about how Peter sets this up.

Here is Simon Peter, right?

This is one of Jesus' closest three friends in the world.

This is Peter who walked on water, right?

Even after Jesus was gone, after the day of Pentecost, Peter and John are walking to the synagogue, and there's a dude who is lame, and Peter and John heal him, and he stands up and begins to walk.

In fact, the Bible says he's running and leaping and praising God because of that.

This is Peter.

Walks on water.

He heals people, preaches the day of Pentecost, and thousands of people are saved on that day.

This is Peter.

Now look what he says.

Simon Peter, and he reminds us, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.

I am one of the twelve.

He is setting up a truth for us here.

I am one of the twelve people that walk with Jesus.

I'm one of the twelve people that he has put in place as the pastors to begin the church.

We know that Judas betrayed Jesus and then he killed himself.

And then we know later that Paul becomes an apostle through his encounter with Jesus and is established as an apostle.

And so you have 12 apostles again.

Peter is one of those 12 men.

And here's what he says Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith equal to ours.

What God intends for us is to have the same intimacy with Jesus that Peter had with him.

We are literally to have the same spiritual power in our lives that Peter had when he walked on water or when he healed the lame and the sick.

When he preached the day of Pentecost and thousands of people were saved.

When he worked and ministered in that kind of power, we are saved to that if we know Jesus.

I mean, that's how he sets up this whole thing.

You have the same thing that I have as one of the twelve apostles personally selected by Jesus who walked with Jesus.

And then he tells us how that happens.

Grace and peace multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

So this whole letter he is writing to people who have been saved long after Jesus has ascended into heaven.

In fact, most of these people, if you put together 1 Peter and 2 Peter, which everybody says those kind of go together, companion books, they are written to Christians who are living in a terrible world.

They are under horrible persecution.

They have been scattered around the world because of their faith.

And they are all over all over the world.

They've gone to places that they didn't, they've never been to.

They don't know people there.

They're trying to figure out how this works.

They're trying to figure out how they walk with Jesus in these settings where they're being persecuted and all of that.

And what Peter is writing to encourage them is that you have everything that we have as the 12 apostles.

You have every amount of power that Jesus can bring to bear in your life.

And all of that comes when you learn the spiritual habits that help you know him personally and intimately.

When you have developed a deep and personal relationship with him.

Now, let's read the first chapter and begin to get an overall picture of this book.

We've read the first two verses, so let's go to verse 3.

His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness, and again we see, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.

By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them, through the promises, you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires.

For this very reason, because of the great and precious promises that give us everything needed for life and godliness, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith.

Now we're not adding anything to it, but what he is calling to us to are spiritual habits where we exercise what we're learning, and through them we learn a deeper personal knowledge of who Jesus is.

For this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful, and then he tells us again, in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The person who lacks these things is blind and short-sighted, and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things, you will never stumble.

For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be richly provided for you.

Therefore, I will always remind you about these things.

Even though you know them and are established in the truth, you now have, I think it is right, as long as I am in this bodily tent, to wake you up with a reminder.

Since I know that I will soon lay aside my tent, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

In other words, he's saying, I'm old, I'm at the end of my life.

God's already told me, I know I'm on my way to heaven.

And the last thing I'm gonna do, the most important thing I'm gonna do with the short amount of time that I have left, is I'm gonna pound into you these spiritual habits.

I'm gonna remind you over and over and over of these spiritual habits.

And he literally says, in verse 15, I also make every effort so that you are able to recall these things at any time after my departure.

In other words, after I'm dead and gone to heaven, I want my voice ringing in your ear for as long as you're alive, reminding you of these things.

Every time you get in trouble or every time you start to do something, I want the Holy Spirit to knock you upside the head and you to hear my voice saying, Hey.

Remember this.

That's literally what he's saying.

Verse 16.

For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the majestic glory, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

In other words, he's describing there what church folks a lot of times refer to as the Mount of Transfiguration.

There was this moment where Jesus led Peter, James, and John at the leading of the Lord, God the Father, up to this mountain, and they're going to have this moment with the Lord as he's preparing to go to the cross.

God the Father is there.

Jesus is there.

He speaks.

This is my beloved Son, and who am I well pleased?

And the Bible describes that there in front of Peter, James, and John, there's this transformation that occurs that they are able to get glimpses of the glory of who he is as the Messiah before he goes to the cross.

And Peter is saying, we were there, we saw him, we know he is the Messiah, he is the Son of God.

We ourselves heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.

We also have the prophetic word strongly confirmed, and you will do well to pay attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place.

In other words, the prophetic word there is the Old Testament.

They have the Old Testament scriptures, and now they have been there as that was affirmed in Jesus.

And now later he'll even talk about Paul and the writings of Paul, how Paul is saying Jesus was the Messiah as confirmed by the Old Testament prophecies pointed to and spoken of.

So what he's saying is we have Scripture strongly confirmed, and you will do well to pay attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Above all, you know this no prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet's own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man.

Instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

That's just another verse similar to the number nine verse we had on Sunday.

All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.

So there you have the chapter.

So let's take a minute and look at that.

I want to show you three truths tonight that set us up about this spiritual habits and about driving in to build spiritual habits.

We want you to understand how vital this is.

So here's the first truth that we have.

You must know him to be transformed in his image.

You must know him.

You must know him in an intimate, deep, personal way.

Walking with him, talking with him, recognize his voice when he speaks to you.

There is a transformation that occurs in your heart so that you begin to feel the things that Jesus feels.

What breaks Jesus' heart breaks your heart.

What excites Jesus' heart excites us.

We see people the way that Jesus would see them.

We love the body of Christ the way Jesus would love.

All of that is a transformation, but you can't become someone you do not know.

We have to know him.

We have to be in relationship with him.

And that requires work and it requires process and requires effort.

Now, the knowledge of him, first thing I want you to see is the knowledge of him, there is inherent in this process that we are transformed.

If you're going to get to know him, then you're going to become like him, right?

Now you think about this as when we think about just our human relationships and how that's illustrated.

My wife, growing up, she was adopted, okay?

So she is not the biological child of Pat, my mother-in-law, and Don, my father-in-law, right?

So she's got no DNA, she's got no commonality with them whatsoever.

They adopt her as a baby and they're raised in the house.

But over time, what happens as they're walking through life together, she begins to take on mannerisms that happen all the time in their house.

And so she begins to mimic them because they're her parents and she's getting to know them and they're teaching her and they're having fun together and they're doing these things together.

And then as she gets older, she begins to walk like them and she begins to use certain phrases that they use.

And then she begins to dress like them and she fits in the culture of their family.

And then by the time I got to know her in high school, our senior year in high school, I've been standing there before when this happens.

Someone walks up to her and says, You look just like your mother.

Now they don't because Janet is this tall and my mother-in-law is this tall, right?

I mean, they don't look I and Janet would be just amazed at that.

But what happens is because she talks like them, they share mannerisms, they're dressing similar, they laugh at similar things, they do that.

As they have grown intimate in their relationship, people literally look at her and say, You look like your parents, right?

Not at all, but they do.

And they perceive her that way and they see that.

As you get to know someone, it becomes more like that.

Now what happens?

Janet and I, this next month, we will have been married 36 years, right?

We finish each other's sentences.

Some of y'all have been married long enough to do that.

Um, she'll say, sometimes, I'm not going to finish your sentences because I would never say something that dumb.

But we understand where we are, and it creates this.

And how many times have you seen folks who are senior adults and you see some of those wonderful couples, and you think, they have been together so long they almost are like twins.

They look alike, they act alike, they do things together, they stand the same way, they walk the same way, they laugh the same way, and as we are in that relationship, it makes us draw closer together.

That makes sense?

All right.

That is a human picture of spiritually what happens with us as we grow to be like him.

I want you to just look at a couple of examples, how this getting to know him begins to transform us into his image.

Verse 3, his divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

By these he has given us, verse 4, very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in his divine nature.

Literally, what happens is when you hear someone share with you the first time, for God so loved the world, he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him will never perish, but have everlasting life, and you say, Nobody ever loved me that much, and I can't fix my own sin, and Jesus died for me on the cross, and you come and you place your trait, your trust in him, and you place your faith in him as your Savior, what happens?

Immediately your sins are forgiven.

The transaction of those sins being paid for on the cross means that those sins are now cleansed and they are out of your life.

There is an exchange that happens.

Your sin is paid for on the cross, and then Jesus gives us his righteousness.

We literally partake in his divine nature.

We are changed.

We are transformed.

That's why in 2 Corinthians it says, if any man is in Christ, he is a what?

New creation, a new creature.

We literally are changed, and now the righteousness of Jesus has given us a new heart, a new name, a new future, a new desire, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

Our nature has literally changed.

And so now I am already birthed into this nature of Jesus through the promise that he would save me, through this new eternal life.

And then I progressively begin the journey of finding what all that means and what happened to me when I got saved.

I received a faith of equal privilege, of equal access to the Lord through Jesus, the same one that Peter has, that same level.

And now as I get to know him, I'm being transformed and changed in that.

Look at how he describes this litany of verse 5.

For this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith.

And then he goes through this whole process of all these things we're learning to do and all of that.

And he says in verse 8, for if you possess these qualities in increasing measure.

In other words, I'm getting more and more like that.

Look at the list.

My faith is turning into more goodness and more knowledge.

And all of that more goodness and more knowledge is generating more self-control.

And then I'm getting more endurance in my life.

And then that means I'm becoming more godly.

And all of those things are happening in my life, and they are increasing in measure.

I am being transformed through knowing Jesus and walk with him.

He says in verse 8, for if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The person who lacks these things is blind and short-sighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.

In other words, sometimes we get so far from Jesus that we forget what happened to us.

We think, I don't want to do that.

That's not where I'm focused.

I'm focused on this.

I've got target fixation on this, and I'm doing this, and I'm being selfish about this, or I'm doing what I want to do, and all of that.

And we are fighting against the transformation process.

And he clearly says that's wrong, that's harmful, that we are constantly supposed to be doing the opposite, growing to be more like him, and these things increasing in measure.

The Christian life is a life of transformation.

There is no scenario in which we have information about the Lord and then we go on and we do our own life as we do it.

That is in no way, shape, or form biblical in any structural way whatsoever.

It is transformation.

And it happens through knowing Him.

Now I want you to think about the knowing Him part.

It is this intro is filled with incredible pictures of Jesus.

Just look for a second in the first few verses.

He says in verse 1, to those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Just think about what we learn about Jesus just in that verse.

Jesus Christ.

The word Christ is not part of Jesus' proper name, it is a title as the anointed sacrifice.

Savior, Jesus Christ.

He saved us from our sins.

He was the anointed sacrifice of God in that.

And so we learn immediately who Jesus is.

He is the one who came and died for our sins.

He is the one who conquered death and hell.

He is the one who gave himself for us.

Philippians chapter 2, he did not think it robbery to be equal with God, but he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death on the cross for us.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

That's who Jesus is.

We learn that he's righteous.

Through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Not only is he the Savior and the anointed sacrifice for us, he could only do that because he was righteous.

When Jesus went to the cross, every person is appointed to die.

Every one of us are sinners by birth, nature, and by choice.

Death happens because all of us are sinned.

Jesus lived as a man.

He was righteous.

Jesus would have never had to die.

He would have never died.

There's no judgment attached to him.

But because he was righteous, he could go to the cross and die a sacrificial death that could then be a substitute for other people who deserve to die.

It's a righteousness.

He's perfect.

He's holy.

He's done everything right.

Jesus is honorable.

He would never lie to us.

He would never walk away from a promise.

He would do everything he could do with a perfect and righteous love.

That's what we're learning about Jesus just from one verse.

He is God.

Jesus is God.

Look at what he says.

Faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Jesus is God.

He is one of the persons of the Trinity.

Sometimes you will hear people say that Jesus was not God, or he never claimed to be God, or you may know a Mormon and they don't believe that Jesus is the same as God the Father.

He's some other form of some other lower God.

You hear people say that Jesus was a historical figure, but he was just a teacher.

He wasn't God.

Scripture does not allow you to ever dismiss the deity of Christ.

Look at what he says right here.

Of our God and Savior.

Now that's different than what he says in verse 2.

He says, May grace and peace be multiplied you through the knowledge of God.

So we need to know God and of Jesus Christ.

The way that's structured and the prepositions and all of that, it is clear that he is talking about the knowledge of God and the knowledge of Jesus.

You see how it sets them up as God the Father and Jesus as two separate persons of the Trinity.

But right here in verse 1, he makes it clear there is no separation.

Our God and Savior.

Jesus is God and Savior.

He is the Son of God.

For God so loved the world, he gave his Son.

He goes on to talk about the Mount of Transfiguration and where God the Father shows up and speaks and says, This is my son, and I'm well pleased.

Jesus is God.

All of that we learn right here in just one verse.

We get the opportunity to know that Jesus.

But in our state of being sinner saved by grace, it's not natural and it's not automatic.

I have to learn that.

Look at what he says in verse 2.

Look at what we learn in here.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Again, he is God, our Lord.

You understand that grace and peace come through Jesus.

He provides grace and peace to us.

He is a giver.

He brings into our lives.

Jesus said in John 10, 10, I've come that you might have it and you might have life, you might have it more abundantly.

Look at what he says right here.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Jesus lavishes on us grace and peace.

He increases it.

He increases it by multiplication factors.

How much does Jesus love us?

He multiplies grace and peace in our lives as we get to know him.

You think about the intimacy and personal nature of that relationship.

When we know him, we see him and feel him and understand him bring that peace and that grace into our lives.

That's who Jesus is.

Look at the next verse.

His divine power.

He is divinely powerful.

How could Jesus conquer death and sin?

Because he is God, he is the creator God of the universe.

He is the author of life.

He is divinely powerful.

Whatever circumstance we face, when we walk into that and we have questions and it's an unknown, we are walking into it.

If we are personally connected with Jesus and we know him, we know his divine power and we know he is greater than anything we could ever face.

It's one thing to say that intellectually, it's another thing to know that.

His divine power.

Look at what Elsie says.

He has given us everything required for life and godliness.

Again, he is gracious.

He is a giver.

He has a plan for us.

He has a vision for us.

He knows what we need.

He knows how it works.

And he has given us everything that we could possibly need.

There is nothing lacking in who Jesus is.

He is more than sufficient in all matters.

How do you know that?

Because he is God and He is divinely powerful to do that in our lives.

I mean, you begin to think about who Jesus is and spend a little time just in a few verses here understanding.

In fact, those may not even look like verses about Jesus, but when you begin to spend some time with them and you begin to focus on, I want to know who Jesus is, look at the character of who Jesus is.

Look at the power and the character traits.

Look at what else he says.

His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who what?

Who what?

Called us.

Jesus loves you and he called you to salvation.

1 John says, not that we loved him first, but he first loved us.

I'll explain to folks this way.

I didn't wake up one day when I was nine and a half, and I'm just smarter than the average kid who was nine and a half, and I just thought, you know, I just did that and that was wrong.

You know, I think there must be something wrong with me.

I'm gonna go figure out what's wrong with me.

Oh, you know what?

I figured out I'm a sinner.

You know what?

Somebody needs to take care of that.

I don't think I can take care of that myself.

I'm gonna go find one.

I didn't wake up one day and just be smart enough to realize I needed to go find a savior.

No.

People told me Jesus loved you and he took your punishment on the cross.

My parents told me that.

My Sunday school teachers told me that.

And then the Holy Spirit told me that.

And then Jesus said, Greg, I love you and died for you.

That's how much I love you.

And he called me to himself.

I heard the voice of Jesus in my heart.

That's what he's telling us.

He loves you and he calls you.

It's incredible when you begin to think.

I am invited into a relationship with Almighty God, the Son of the living God, our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

He wants to come into your life.

He reached into your life before you understood what you needed.

And he reached into it with his divine power to bring everything we need for life and God.

How in the world can we struggle in any kind of circumstance in our life if this is what we have in our lives?

If we know that Jesus, how can we ever have a struggle?

How can we ever doubt his faithfulness?

How can we ever find ourselves in a position where our faith is rocked and it is struggled and we think I can't do this and I'm not going to do this and all of that?

It happens because we don't know him.

We have not gotten close enough to him that we begin to finish each other's sentences.

I've not gotten close enough to him that I began to mimic his movements and speech patterns and the things that he does.

I've got to get to know him.

And so what we think through is that this is teaching us that we have to be involved in understanding that it takes work to be closer to Jesus and to know him.

And so that brings us the truth.

Number two there is a process for knowing Jesus in a personal way.

There's a process involved in this.

So let me just show you a couple things real quick, and then I want to talk to you about some motivations about why we do this.

Here's the first thing that your promise is.

Number one, and these are not on screen, but number one, we pursue him through his promises.

We pursue him through his promises.

Verse 3 given us everything required for life and godliness.

Because, or by these, he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature.

Verse 5, for this very reason make every effort.

So it begins with pursuing him through his promises.

Now there are a couple of promises that are specific in this book as we read forward.

The first is eternal life.

In chapter 3, he talks to us about Jesus' coming again.

And he talks to us about the return of Jesus to take us home.

It is a promise that Jesus will come and redeem us and take us to heaven.

But all of these promises are captured in the Word of God.

And that's why he ends the chapter as we read it, going back to explain to us the confidence that we can have factually in the Word of God.

We did not follow, verse 16, cleverly contrivedness, which we had made known to you by the power and coming of our Lord.

Jesus.

Instead, we were eyewitnesses.

And then he goes into verse 20.

All of you know this.

No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet's own interpretation because no prophecy ever came by the will of man.

Instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

And so what he's saying is the promises of God are great and precious.

They were given by his godliness, by his holiness.

They have given us everything that we need, and we must begin by pursuing him through his promises.

You cannot get to know Jesus.

You cannot understand who he is outside of the truth of the Word of God.

Second thing is add to your faith.

Add to your faith.

Look at what he says.

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith.

Now let me give you two truths about that verse.

First is the word supplement or add to if you read it in that deal.

There's a Greek word picture in this that's pretty incredible.

The Greek word is the root word for the guy, the rich dude who was a benefactor for the public arts.

That's the picture here.

And so what would happen is you would have drama and theater, or you'd have some choir deal or whatever.

And this root word is a rich guy who would come in as a benefactor to this performance, and he would add to it all of the culture and the flourishes and all of the instruments and all of the additions and all of that that took it from a basic performance into something that was culturally wonderful.

Does that make sense?

That's the picture of that.

My son and I, I grew our kids and Cabot, we raised them up in community theater.

And so somehow I got stuck in community theater.

Now it was Cabot Community Theater.

It was brand new.

We had some people in the community who just loved it and they were trying to raise it and they were trying to create stuff for families and kids.

And so it started on a shoestring.

I mean, we only had what people brought from their garage and figured out how to put together, right?

And so I've been in some theater performances that look pretty simple.

Is that a good word?

Simple.

And so one one it started one day.

We were my daughter had gone to the auditions for Annie.

And she's trying out for some parts.

And then I'm out cutting the yard.

I'm literally in the yard cutting the grass, sweating, grass all over, whatever.

Ball hat, there I am.

My daughter calls and she says, Dad, you need to come up here.

I said, I'm not coming up there.

What are you talking about?

And she says, You need to come up here.

We don't have a daddy war bucks.

Well, what does that have to do with me?

Well, because you have to come up here and do daddy war bucks because they're not going to do it if you can't do it because they don't have a daddy war bucks, and then I don't get to do this part.

And so, fathers, you get this right.

Dad.

Y'all get that right from your daughters.

Dad, Dan, I think you do that.

I'm like, I'm not doing that.

You need to come up here and do this, Dad.

I'm not gonna do that.

You need to come here and do this, Dad.

Like, I'm cutting the grass.

She said, Nobody cares, just come up here.

So I get in the car, I go up there, like I don't know what they're doing.

I walk in this room, and I got all these people and this thing, and my daughter comes running over, she takes me up there, and I'm like, I'm sorry I'm putting grass shavings all over your car, but I literally just came from the lawnmower, and she says, Well, can you sing?

I said, No.

And she punches me and says, Dad, sing something.

I said, Okay, whatever.

So I literally, the first thing that popped in my head was Amazing Grace.

I'm lucky it wasn't, you know, who knows what, right?

I mean, it could have been anything, it could have been veggie tails or something.

Who knows what would have popped in my head, right?

So I started singing Amazing Grace, and they go, Great, your daddy wore bucks.

And I said, No, I'm not.

And they said, Yes, you are.

How do you get into this?

So we so we got into community theater.

At one point, we got to do Little Shop of Horrors.

And uh and our son Grant, if y'all know that show, it's about an alien that looks like a big tomato plant, and anyway, and it grows, right?

And so it goes from a plant to a plant, right?

Eats people.

So I'm the voice of the plant, and Grant is the puppet master of the plant.

And so the first thing they do is they give him this sock-looking thing, and Grant's like, I'm not doing that.

We're gonna have to supplement that puppet.

We're gonna have to spend some money on this dad, we're gonna have to make this cool, we're gonna have to get some talented people, we're gonna have to make this right.

And so we end up building these puppets, and then it was cool because they looked awesome.

You get it?

We were benefactors, we made it more.

What he's saying is that we are to put that kind of effort into what we're doing in the theater of walking with Jesus.

Now, here's the next deal.

The next question you get sometimes then is Well, I thought we were saved by grace, and we're not supposed to like work at it.

I was on staff at Bellevue at my home church, and what we used to do back in the day, people would call all the time because of the church was famous and Adrian was famous, and they'd have all these Bible questions, and he'd do all this kind of stuff.

And I get this call from this guy from Mississippi.

It's always somebody from Mississippi.

He calls me and he says, I want to know about that their seminary by your church.

I said, What do you mean?

You talking about Mid-America?

Yeah, I want to know about that their seminary, what kind of heresy they're teaching in there.

And I said, Well, everything I know about is a really good seminary.

I know the president, and I know a lot of the guys that teach there.

I've got some interns on my staff.

Why do you think it's heresy?

Well, they're just preaching heresy in there.

And we got one of their professors down here preaching revival in our church, and he's just saying stuff I never heard before.

It's heresy.

And I said, Well, can you give me an example what he's talking about?

He said, Yeah.

We're supposed to be, he said, he said, we're supposed to be doing ministry in the church.

And he said, we're just all a bunch of dumb sheep.

And if we do it, we're gonna mess it up.

That's what we pay the preacher for.

He's the guy called to ministry and he's got all these skills.

And listen, we're just a bunch of dumb sheep, and we're gonna mess it all up if we start doing it.

And that's heresy for him, tells that.

And I'm thinking, you're so dumb, I'm not sure how to talk to you.

I mean, I'm thinking, you well, it's all grace.

We're sinners saved by grace.

That's we just can't do anything right.

It's just great.

I said, Yeah, you're a sinner saved by grace.

But have you never read in James where it says, by our works we'll show that we believe and have faith in Him?

Have you never read that?

Did you know that Jesus said, The works that I do, you'll do greater works than I do?

Did you not know in John 15 where he says, if you're attached to the vine and you are drawing life from the vine, you will bear more fruit.

And if you're not bearing fruit, he's gonna cut you off and throw you in the fire.

Do you not know that?

Why God said all that.

I didn't know that was in there.

Yes, we are saved by grace.

And listen to what he says.

For this very reason.

He is not changing horses and going into a work-based faith.

That is not what Peter's saying at all.

For this very reason, he is connecting the dots.

We are making the effort to embellish, to add to, to bring flourish to, to put our best into our walk with Christ because of his divine power that provides everything for us to become godly.

It is his work in us.

But we don't get to sit there like a knot on the log when Jesus stepped out of heaven, died on the cross, rose again, conquered death and sin, has given us great and precious promises by his holiness, brought his divine power into our life, created all of that in us, and then we just sit around like a knot on the log?

That is not what it looks like.

He says, because Jesus has brought his divine power in your life, and because it is his promises that are changing your life and the access that is created in that, you are to bring your game in response to what Jesus has brought into your life.

Does that make sense?

That's why James said, by our works we show our faith.

We're not working our way to heaven, but because we are transformed by the eternal divine power of the Lord Jesus, it changes us and makes us different.

And we have to respond and be obedient to that.

Look at the power that he puts in this.

Make every effort.

Make every effort.

And then he says, if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus.

If we are not making every effort, if we are not building spiritual habits that grow us to be more like Jesus, that open up our knowledge and understanding of him, if we are not walking alongside him and bringing our best to what he's brought into our life, if we are not obediently trusting his work in us and his promises in us and surrendering the Holy Spirit and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide and train us, then we're going to be useless, is what he says.

Our knowledge of Jesus will be useless.

Because any understanding and knowledge of who Jesus is, is that he is transforming us through his divine power and his great and precious promises into the image of his likeness and holiness.

Now, here, I give you just a few reasons you'll see here why it is important that we build these spiritual habits.

And it is important because what we know, Matt and I know is people struggle with this all the time.

Let me give you a couple other things.

First of all, pursue them through promises, add to your faith.

Number three, confirm your identity as a redeemed child of God.

Look at what he says here in verse 10.

Brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things, you will never stumble.

Election and calling is in my position as a Christian.

I am a believer because I gave my life to Christ and He saved me.

But we all have times where we doubt and struggle, right?

And so what He is saying is in this journey, you want to go back and rehearse and confirm in your life over and over, I am a blood-bought child of the living God.

I am saved.

He saved me.

This is my testimony.

We do not use our testimonies enough.

You ought to rehearse your testimony of salvation in your life.

A lot in your life.

You should share your testimony so often that your spouse could share it as their own.

Your kids or your grandkids could share it as their own.

I share my testimony often in the church because as a young guy growing up, when I struggled, I could remember and hear my pastors share his testimony in my head.

I can tell you Adrian's testimony.

I remember Adrian used to tell us all the time when he was called to ministry.

He was had gone to school on a football scholarship.

He was freshman.

And God began to call and work in his life, and he said, one night in the middle of the night, he went out in a football field and he tried to pray and he knelt before God and he said that wasn't low enough.

He wasn't humble enough.

So he laid down prostrate and said, that wasn't low enough.

He wasn't humble enough before God.

And so he said he dug a hole in the ground and he stuck his face down in the hole so he could get as low as he possibly could and humble himself before God and respond to the call to ministry.

I heard that story over and over and over in my life.

And here's what happens when I'm 30 years old and I'm practicing law and I've been struggling with this call to ministry and I didn't know what to do with that.

And I was supposed to be writing a brief about a case I was lead attorney on, and I just couldn't do it.

I was consumed with God speaking to me and what was happening.

I got up, I locked the door in my office, and I remembered the testimony of my pastor.

And I couldn't dig a hole in the floor in my office, but I figured the lowest I could possibly get was to lay on the floor under my desk.

And his testimony spoke to me and coached me through that.

Our testimonies are powerful, and we should be rehearsing our testimonies and we should be sharing our testimonies.

And what he is saying is you rehearse your salvation, you confirm your identity as a redeemed child of God.

The encouragement of example.

He says in verse 12 through 15, what I talked about before, he is teaching us, he's going to remind us, even though we know what he's going to remind us.

I'm going to keep telling you this is the last days I have on earth, and I'm going to spend my time telling you this, and I'm going to tell you so often that when I'm dead and gone, you're going to hear my voice in your head.

The encouragement of examples.

And then the consistency and commitment to spiritual habits.

All of these things are spiritual habits.

Verse 12, I will always remind you about these things.

What things?

Grabbing a hold of Scripture, learning to know Jesus, supplementing my faith with obedience and participating in the transformation process, rehearsing my identity in Christ.

Those spiritual habits are what cause us to do that.

Now let me just show you reasons why we do that.

And we're getting close.

Reasons why we do that.

Number one, because of our salvation.

The fact that we're saved and we're saved to an equal measure of access to the Lord as his closest friend on earth, Peter, who is a spiritual hero, the fact that he has allowed his divine nature to change us and that we are participating with him, the fact that he brought eternal life into our lives ought to be enough for us to go build spiritual habits.

It ought to be enough for us to have journals and prayer lists and committed prayer times and praying for folks and learning how to teach and do all that.

It ought to be enough.

The fact that Jesus saved me from hell and I can look forward to the fact that He's coming in heaven, that He's coming again to take me to heaven.

Number two, knowing who Jesus is.

You just go back through that.

He gives, He's righteous, He's God, He's Savior and Lord, He's divinely powerful, He's a giver in my life, He's given me everything I need.

He understood, He called me because He loved me, He's changing me, He's blessing me, He's working through that in my life.

That's who Jesus is.

To get to know Jesus should draw us closer to Jesus.

Once it kicks in that I start to understand and develop a knowledge and relationship with Jesus, it ought to drive me to know more.

The more I get to know him, the greater he is, and the more that ought to drive me to know more about him and these spiritual habits in my life.

Because transformation is participating in his divine nature.

When he gives us in verse 3 and 4 this change in our lives, and we are being changed from being captive to sin and tainted by sin to the holiness of a child of God, we that that should motivate us as we see fruit in our lives in transformation.

Because he is returning to take us home to heaven.

Look at 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 11.

2 Peter 3:11

He says straight up in this verse since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, in other words, he's coming back, he's changing everything, he's redeeming the world.

It is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness as you wait for the day of God and hasten its coming.

The fact that Jesus is coming back ought to drive us to be greater in our spiritual habits.

Drive us to get to know Him better, drive us to be learning those things.

And then to counteract the struggles and dangers of failing faith and false teachers.

That's the part between 9, 10, and 11 about us being useless and falling and all of that.

In chapter 2, the whole chapter is about false teachers and the impact when you put things that are not true in people's lives and it causes them to pull away from the Lord.

That we need to know Him.

So those things right there, as you're getting ready for next week, if you want something to study, you want something to pray through, I would spend some time with those reasons right there and think through am I working in my spiritual life?

Am I supplementing worthy of those reasons?

Am I spending that time being motivated by the truths of that?

And then finally, this is so foundational, we are required to rehearse and repeat it constantly.

Look into what Peter says.

This is how we know that the word habits is appropriate.

Therefore, I will always remind you about these things.

What things?

Promises, supplementing our identity, and rehearsing that and making that sure, all of those things.

I will always remind you about these things, even though you know them are established in the truth you now have.

Here's one thing I believe firmly.

We always have to remind each other about growing closer to Jesus.

That's what he says.

That's how we know these should be habits, and we should be reminding them and rehearsing them and increasing them and encouraging each other in them and holding each other accountable in that and working through that together.

We are always having to do these things.

They are necessary, and that's why he says, if they are that necessary, we're going to remind each other.

I love this picture.

I think it is right as long as I'm in this bodily tent to wake you up with a reminder, since I know that I will soon lay aside my tent as the Lord Jesus Christ has indeed made clear to me.

Peter is saying, I only have that much time.

And the most important thing I can possibly do is to remind you to have your quiet time.

Remind you to grow closer to Jesus.

Remind you to work at your spiritual habits.

Remind you to constantly rehearse your testimony.

I've got this much time, and I'm going to spend it doing this because it's the most important thing I can do.

And so that's why we, as Matt said in the intro, we felt like this is what we wanted to do, because that's what we do with each other, is we remind each other about these habits and call each other these habits.

It's amazing to me, and I'll close with this, as long as I've been in a pastor, when you ask people about their quiet time, standing on the promises of God, the great and precious promises that come from his goodness and his godliness.

I don't really understand my Bible.

Seriously?

There's no way that can be the case.

Can this be true?

There's just no way.

We ask people to serve here, to serve there to do that.

I can't do that.

I don't have time to do that.

I got kids.

We're busy.

Make every effort to supplement.

And so what we want to do is encourage each other, remind each other, and continue to strengthen that commitment to habits so we can know that Jesus that Peter knew.

I mean, pray for us.

Lord, thank you for today.

Thank you for our time together.

Thank you for the privilege to teach with Matt.

I thank you for our folks that are here.

There's a lot going on in summer and all of that, but um, I thank you for a chance for us to be together and encourage each other.

So I pray, Father, that um you'll take care of our kids and teach them who are all around.

Be with our students here and be with us as we start this journey this summer and work our way through 2 Peter.

We thank you for your word.

It is so much great and precious promises that you have given through your divine power and nature, through the godliness and goodness of who you are, the glory of who you are, you have given these to us.

And so I pray you'll make your word come alive into the lives of our folks, encourage us as we walk through this.

And I pray, Father, that you will bless everyone as they're thinking through these things and processing them.

Just as Peter prayed for those folks that you wrote that letter to, I want to pray for our folks that grace and peace will be multiplied to you as they know you closer and are drawn closer to you.

In the saving name of Jesus, we pray in everybody's head.

Amen.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church.