2 Peter: Deeper Love - April 27, 2025 (Mark Makary)

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God for the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

So I've uh I have borrowed Pastor Miles' pause button.

For those who've attended here, they are familiar with this pause button.

And so I've borrowed it, and we're hitting pause on the gospel, the series on the Gospel of John.

And for the next four weeks, we are gonna take up a mini-series on the marks of a maturing disciple.

See, the Apostle Paul summarized his service to the churches by presenting everyone mature in Christ.

He has devoted his life to modeling the character of Christ so that we would imitate him as uh, you know, as sorry, we would imitate him as he imitates Christ.

He was devoted to responding to Jesus' great commission in Matthew 28, where Jesus called us to go forward and make disciples of the nations.

And here at our church, we do just that.

Now, unless you are new here today, you would have heard us say our church's mission statement dozens and dozens and dozens of times.

So much so that I'm gonna actually get all of us to repeat it with me.

Now, this is gonna get incredibly awkward if I just stated with such confidence that we all know it, only to have a handful of people repeat it with me.

All right, so don't leave me hanging.

Are you ready?

All right.

We want to see lost people saved, saved people matured, mature people multiply, all for the glory of God.

That was weak.

I you I was so weak.

All right, we're gonna we're gonna try to do that again so I don't stand here correct it, alright?

One more time.

We want to see lost people saved, saved people matured, mature people multiplied, all for the glory of God.

Thank you.

We do know it, we do know it.

Let's write it in our hearts, all right?

Um, so w while the elders and I believe that we've made this central to our church, you know, after all, purposeful discipleship is a distinctive here.

We also acknowledge that we want to spend a little more time in unpacking what a maturing disciple looks like.

All right.

So for the next four weeks, we're taking up a mini-series on the marks of a maturing disciple.

This being kind of an overview of the necessity, the need for maturity, followed by three marks abiding in Christ, connecting in the church, and reaching the community.

All right?

All right, so let's just start by turning to the Lord for help before we j dive into our message today.

Heaven Father, we're so excited, Lord, to embark on a new series, Lord.

Marks of a maturing disciple.

Lord, you've called us to go forward and make disciples of the nation, Lord, and that is our desire, that is our heart's desire, Lord.

We cannot do that without you, Lord.

So, Lord, I just pray that you speak to us, Lord.

Move, have your spirit move here today.

Show us the words you want to see.

Show us what we ought to do and change in our lives, Lord God.

Lord, we just need you in this time, Lord, as we turn to your word, knowing that it will not return void.

We give you all the praise, all the glory.

Amen.

You're gonna have to excuse my voice.

I'm not gonna apologize for it, but uh, you know, it is what it is.

All right.

I want to introduce you to somebody, my dog, my my imaginary dog.

There we go.

My dog Scout, all right.

Scout is a golden doodle.

Actually, he turned five just this month.

And I'm kind of ashamed to say this out loud, but I'm gonna confess anyways.

All right, we became a statistic.

During the pandemic, we became a statistic.

We are amongst the thousands that thought it was a good idea to get a dog during the pandemic.

Now, in my defense, and that this really depends on whether you are a dog lover.

If so, this comment is winning me no favors.

I was outvoted.

Okay, I was outvoted four to one.

My family insisted on getting a dog.

They said they'll care for him, clean up after him, feed him.

They even said I wouldn't even notice he was there.

Hmm.

I did.

I certainly did.

All right, but despite my best judgment, I folded to my family's requests and then began the dog pursuit.

Little did I know that all of Ontario was having the same debate, all right?

Like dog breeders, year-long waiting lists.

Puppies posted online, gone in minutes.

All right?

It was just pandemonium.

I'm sure some of you here were also a statistic and also can it relate to this.

All right, but much perseverance, we landed on Mr.

Scout.

All right.

Now, we took him home about eight weeks old, first brought him home, and boy, it did not take long before chaos erupted.

All right, like who knew how much actually I knew.

I knew how much chaos rode, which is why I voted against, but that doesn't matter, maybe slight bitterness that I have to work out.

All right?

The muddy pause, the constant, the constant crying when left alone, all right?

The chewing up everything, all right?

You know, as a puppy, Scout was a free spirit.

He did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, wherever he wanted, right?

Read between the lines on that one, all right?

But see, once we adopted Scout in our family, and that's what we do, this was a learning for me.

You actually adopt him and give him your last name, expectations were met.

Like there were certain expectations, certain rules in our house that Scout needed to follow.

You asked my children, they are familiar with our rules.

One of the rules is no going to the bathroom on the floor.

All right?

Why I have that for my kids, that's besides the point, but Scout needed to learn it.

We invested time, we invested energy, we taught them what to chew, what not to chew, how to interact with our kids, how to walk with our leash.

Yes, sometimes Scout fell into his puppy ways, but we knew that maturity would be a process.

See, it's one thing to just expect Scout to be a good dog, but it's an entirely other thing to equip them with everything he needs to be a good dog.

So I know what some of you are probably thinking right about now.

You're like, well, I attend small group at your house, and there's no sign of a dog.

I've been to your house, there's no sign of a dog.

And yes, this is not a fabricated story.

That is our dog.

He was kidnapped.

There's a little bit of a joke there, but that is a story for another time.

I'll explain it later.

Ask me after service.

But I'm not trying to compare ourselves to a dog, but we too, like Scout, find our need for maturity.

See, God has adopted us into his family, he has equipped us with all that we could ever need, and now he calls us to maturity.

And that's what we're really gonna flush out today.

We're gonna flush out why is maturity necessary?

How is maturity possible?

And what does maturity look like?

That is the main point of this message.

The main point is the pursuit of spiritual maturity made possible by God affirms our love for God.

So why don't you join me in standing as we read our text this morning in 2 Peter chapter 1?

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

If you do not have a Bible, just raise your hand.

There will be ushers walking down the aisles to get a Bible into your hands.

Listen, this is our gift to you.

You will bless it, bless us if you do not give this back to us.

You'll bless yourselves if you read it.

Reading from 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter 1, starting at verse 3.

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

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 this world because of sinful desires.

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 or unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he has been cleansed from former sins.

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election.

For if you practice these qualities, you were 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.

Please be seated.

The first point that I want to bring to your attention is spiritual maturity is possible through God.

See, as we read verses three and four, did you notice the emphasis on the Lord's work?

Did you notice the emphasis on what God has done and is doing?

Language like his divine power.

See, Peter is declaring that God has done all things required to grant us eternal life and equipped us with godliness.

See, eternal life and godliness stand or fall together.

You can't have one without the other.

You can't have the security of eternal life with the absence of godly living.

One validates the other.

See, as Christians, I think we know that.

I think we know once saved, we have that security of eternal life, don't we?

Right?

That the day we die, we'll be in the presence of Christ forever and ever.

But when it comes to godly living, I think it's a bit of a different story altogether, isn't it?

It may not necessarily fully apply to us, right?

Like, yes, we know that we have to live differently than the world, but to live godly, like entirely?

Like, isn't that for the extremes?

Maybe those in ministry, maybe those in leadership positions?

Does it really apply to me?

See, see, to live a godly life is to live a life so saturated by the love for God.

It is to be so constantly in tune with how much we need God that we just look at his life, his characteristics, and how much he loved us and cared for us, that our only response is to worship him.

And the one ways we do so is through obedience to modeling his character here on earth.

Caring for the way he cared, loving the way he loved, serving the way he served, forgiving the way he forgave.

See, to live a godly life is to have your life look more and more like Christ's.

See, what verse 3 is saying is that God himself gave us all things, all things pertaining to life and godliness, eternal life and godliness.

And so you gotta ask yourself, you gotta ask yourself, if you find that your life is not characterized by godly living, I want you to know it's not for a lack of resource.

He gave us and granted us all things.

And so if our life is absent of godly living, it's not for a lack of resource, it is a lack of will.

Ephesians 1, 3 says, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

See, simply put, if you are a Christian, you have all that you need to grow in Christ.

And that really should come to us as such an encouragement, right?

That God has granted us all things pertaining to godliness, that he is more committed to our growth in him than we are ourselves.

Like, like, do you understand that?

Like, God is so committed to our growth, more committed than we are in him.

That should be such a massive sigh of relief that the creator and sustainer of the universe is not actively against our maturity.

Or he's not lording it over us, like he's looking at us and saying, Hey, why aren't you maturing without giving us the means to maturity?

Nor is he neutral or he expects us to mature and yet again doesn't equipped us with the capability, the means to mature.

Instead, he has given us all things.

All things pertain to life and godliness.

He's given us all that we can ever need for maturity in Christ.

This is a passage.

This is the passage that calls us to pursue maturity.

It is a passage that calls us to grow deeper and deeper in Christ.

So, what does that look like?

What does growing spiritually mature, growing deeper in Christ look like?

I'll tell you what it doesn't look like.

How about the opposite?

See, seniority doesn't equal maturity.

Just because you've been a Christian for five years, ten years, twenty-five years, just because you've been raised in a Christian household, it doesn't matter.

None of that matters when it comes to your spiritual maturity.

It doesn't matter how many stories in the Bible, you know how quickly you can turn to your Bible passages.

It doesn't matter how many verses you've memorized, it doesn't matter how many times you've read the Bible or prayed to the Lord.

It doesn't matter if you show up to Sunday service or worship a prayer or small group, none of that matters.

None of that matters.

If you do not have a love for Jesus.

After all, isn't that what the Pharisees excelled at?

They knew their scripture, they memorized their verses, they attended the synagogues, they lived a pious life.

In fact, they were at the top of spiritual leadership.

But what does what does Jesus describe them as?

Hypocrites and whitewashed tombs, looking so perfect and righteous on the outside, but dead on the inside.

It is our love for the Lord that is that roots our growth, that is the means to our sanctification.

See, maturity is not a complicated formula.

It doesn't need thousands of hours logged in scripture or countless prayers raised.

It needs a heart for Jesus, period.

We love because he first loved us.

See, God has made our maturity possible.

He initiated a relationship by loving us.

He demonstrated that love by sending us his own son and nailing our sins to him.

And then in response, we must love back.

It says, we love because he first loves us.

How else can we come to a true understanding, a true appreciation, a true love for someone who has given himself for us without responding back by giving ourselves back to him?

No maturity will come, no growth will occur until we fall madly in love with the Lord Jesus.

How do we do that?

How do we fall madly in love with the Lord?

Truth be told, I kind of wrestled with this one.

I thought to myself, how am I gonna explain to you how to fall in love with the Lord?

And after writing and deleting and rewriting and deleting and rewriting, it dawned on me, I'm actually not convincing you to fall in love with the Lord.

In fact, I'm not even capable of such a transformative work.

Instead, I'm actually reminding some of you, reminding some of you about the love that you once had.

See, I liken this to a relationship.

When you fell in love with your spouse, no one told you how to do that, right?

You just did.

It just happened.

But over time, that love could fade if you're not actively working on that relationship.

For those who can recall the time that they came to the Lord, your eyes were open.

You're suddenly a sponge absorbing everything on fire for the Lord.

You had such passion, such love for Him.

But then over time, that love again can fade if you're not actively fighting that battle.

The Church of Ephesus found themselves in a similar boat.

See, the Apostle John praises them for the many things that they previously did, but this is what the Apostle John says.

He says, This I have against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

Remember.

Remember therefore, for where you have fallen, repent and do the work you did at first.

How do we fall madly in love with the Lord?

We must remember.

We must always remember the gospel of truth.

Let's look at verse four again with me.

Verse four.

Actually, I'm not sure why I turned away to cough into the microphone, but oh the logic.

Verse four.

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 corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

See, this verse tells us that God's divine intervention, we are transformed, being freed from the moral and spiritual decay of sin, that we are to remember that the gospel of truth is that we couldn't save ourselves.

We are spiritually dead, but it was God's own act, his divine work, nailing our sins to his own son.

And by doing so, God reconciles us back to himself.

We now stand justified in his own eyes, adopted into his family, uh secure in his identity, loved by a heavenly father, equipped by a Holy Spirit, and blessed with every spiritual blessing.

With the fear of understating it.

The gospel truth, in short, is God taking what is dead and meaningless and giving it life and purpose.

It's a transformative work that is meant to resonate and come through our every fiber of our bodies until we die here on earth.

In order to fall in love with the Lord, we must remember the gospel of truth.

When speaking about the living out the gospel, one author drew a comparison between a door and a gateway, sorry, a door and a house.

How we tend to view the gospel as a doorway to Christianity, where we see Jesus' death and resurrection as a passage to Christianity, a golden ticket to get us into heaven, and once in, no longer is central.

It's like kicking kicking start or kick start our Christian walk rather than fueling it entirely.

To view it as a home itself means we have to stay in the gospel, live in the gospel, dwell in the gospel day in and day out.

It is to always remember that the love that drew Jesus to the cross is the same love that sustains us each and every day, no matter how unloved we feel.

It is to always remember that our identity is secure in Him, regardless of how unworthy we feel.

It is to always remember that the righteousness of Jesus stands no matter how great our sin, how great our weakness, how great our wander.

It is to remember the word.

Work of the cross.

Another way we can remember the gospel truth is by holding on to his great promises referenced in verse 4.

See, all throughout scriptures we read of God's promises.

His promises that his love will never fail.

His promises that he's faithful in every way, that he will never leave us or forsake us, that we find rest and peace in him, that he is our refuge, our strength, our comforter, our provider.

These are just but a few promises found in Scripture, and I want you to know there is nothing we can do to cause God to break his promises.

Nothing.

No sin too shameful, no addiction too strong, no despair too great, no depression too strong, no life too broken, no failure too big.

God keeps his promises.

Amen.

No.

The source of eternal life and godliness is God's.

He has granted us all things, but this doesn't mean that we can be passive with our feet up, just watching the Lord at work, right?

Philippians 2.12, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Listen, I'll try to qualify this once so I don't spend the entire message trying to qualify this.

Ephesians 2, we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Look, we weren't drowning in the middle of the ocean, screaming out for the Lord, help me, help me, and he throws us a life raft that we hang on to.

That's not how it works.

We were at the bottom of the ocean, and the Lord reached down, grabbed a hold of us, pulled us out, and breathed life into us for the very first time.

Before Christ, we were dead.

Dead is dead, dead is not dying.

Dead is not us on life support in need of a savior.

Dead is dead.

Our salvation is not by our works, but it is the gift.

It is the gift of God.

God has done everything to save us, and then He gives us, empowers us with the Holy Spirit, and through the Holy Spirit's work in us, we can then mature.

See that bridges together human responsibility with divine sovereignty and how we move forward in our sanctification.

Said a different way.

God has acted, and now we must act.

This brings us to our second point.

Spiritual maturity is necessary to pursue.

God has made it possible, and now it's necessary to pursue.

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, 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 or unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

See, in this section, it starts with for this very reason, connecting the work that God has done in our life with our need.

God has made maturity possible, and now we have to see our own pursuit of spiritual maturity.

We find a call for eight virtues, and now we can spend an entire miniseries on its own going through each one of these virtues and understanding what they mean and what that looks like in our own life, but that's really not the intent.

So I'm gonna just give you the general thrust behind this section.

The list of qualities start with supplement your faith.

The Greek word for supplement is to invest in.

To invest in, I think we all know a little about investing, don't we?

If you're invested in the stock market, you're probably hoping that you weren't, right?

You probably weren't, you know, it's just been a rough time this year.

Right?

Why?

Because you got skin in the game.

You got your hard-earned cash tied up in the market, hoping for a return.

If you're a parent, you know, you certainly know what investments look like.

And your kids, time and effort, blood, sweat, and tears, and just about everything you can absolutely give to them, hoping for it to pay off.

Yet whether it's your finances or your kids' salvation, neither are guaranteed in life.

And we probably all have heard it before that there's nothing guaranteed in life except what?

Death and taxes.

Especially true at the end of April.

We know Mr.

Tax Man is coming.

He's coming.

But Christ provides a better guarantee.

Verse 8 is yet another promise that God will uphold, that if you invest, if you supplement your faith with these lists of virtues, your investment will pay off.

Now notice that the list starts with faith and ends with love.

Okay?

And faith is the foundation of all other virtues.

As you practice, as these other virtues increase in your life, it then is an outward demonstration of true, genuine love.

But don't think of these virtues as mere stepping stones, where you perfected one and then move to the next, and perfected that and then move to the next and perfect that and move on.

It doesn't work like that.

That's not the intent of this passage.

In fact, it's better to look at them like strands of rope.

Where each virtue is a strand tightly woven around the next.

And well, what happens if that strand of rope is different lengths or different sizes, or some strands are missing?

Well, ultimately it wouldn't be a very effective rope, would it?

And that's the thrust of this passage.

To each of these virtues, they must increase throughout your life that you may be effective for Christ.

Now, if these qualities altogether were absent from your life, and I'm not talking about like today you didn't demonstrate it, I'm not talking about like a season of your life you hadn't demonstrated this.

I am talking about your life's pattern.

You are characterized by this.

And if your life is characterized by the absence of these virtues, then the only thing I can conclude is that you're not his.

That you're not Christ.

And look, I'm not trying to be antagonistic or offensive, but that's not my opinion.

Matthew 7, we find it in other areas of scripture, you'll know them by their fruits.

Every healthy tree bears good fruit, and every diseased tree bears bad fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

That does not sound like a Christian to me.

John 15, I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

Well, what kind of fruit?

Surely at least the qualities of this passage, or the virtues of this passage.

For apart from me you can do nothing.

See, the scripture is pretty clear.

If the Holy Spirit is not working in you to produce fruit in your life, you're not his.

Over the course of this mini-series, we're going to be looking up and studying the marks of a maturing disciple.

And we're going to get to abiding in Christ and connecting in the church and reaching the community.

And what you'll see across all three of those messages is these virtues permeating through the life of the members that are pursuing this, through the life of those disciples.

It is in the fabric of our church mission statement.

How do we have saved people matured and mature people multiply if it's not for investing in Christ-like qualities of the life of our members?

It's in the fabric of our small group ministry.

How do we obey scripture and practice the one another's if we aren't doing a community life together, exercising these virtues?

Ultimately, what small group is, we know this, right?

Is disciples striving together towards maturity.

So if I can just throw in like an unsameful plug, which I'm sure I've done in the past before, the plug's coming about small group, those not in small group, needs needs to get into small group.

They need to get in small group.

Why?

Maturity apart from community is not possible.

Maturity apart from community is not possible.

There is no such thing as a solo Christian.

It doesn't work that way.

If you're not plugged into the life of the church, you are stifling your growth.

You're becoming ineffective for Christ.

And so it's not good just to get into a small group.

Get this, get this.

You actually have to show up and share.

Right?

Like, can I just address the elephant in the room when it comes to small group?

You ever wonder if you ask one person, hey, how's small group?

They're like, oh, it's so amazing.

It's great, it's great, it's great, you gotta attend.

And you ask someone else, like, eh, take it or leave it.

You ever wonder why there's such polar opposite opinions about small group?

Small group will only be as good as the effort you put into it.

You give it a little, it'll return a little.

If you give it a lot, it'll return a lot.

Let's get our eyes back on the text.

Look at verses five through seven with me.

I'm gonna read this out loud.

And I want you to ask yourself as I go through it, are you growing?

Are you growing?

Faith, virtue, which means moral excellence, knowledge of him.

Are you growing more in self-control, in steadfastness, in godliness?

Are the people around you experiencing your brotherly love and affection?

See, sometimes self-reflection is all it takes, right?

There are some people in this room that can really just take a step back from their life, meditate on their life, reflect on it, and really come with a true reflection of man, like these are the qualities that I need to turn to the Lord and repent of and really ask for his strength to increase in them.

There are some people that can absolutely do that.

But inevitably there'll be another group, a group of people, that will look at this and despite the fruit of their life, despite their passion, despite their love for God and God's people, can only see their failures in sin.

And they they aren't trying to be humble or pious, they truly think they're the greatest sinners.

And there's gonna be a group of people that look at this and be like, ah, you know, brotherly affection, I could do a little better.

But the rest, I got, I got down for sure.

I got down for sure.

Right?

The truth is we can be blinded by our own strengths and weaknesses, and perhaps meditating and self-reflecting could work for you, but ask someone else.

Ask a loved one, ask an accountability partner, a spiritual mature individual in your life.

One evening, one evening, Beth and I were catching up on the day's events.

Um, and so I turned to her and I and I said, Beth, what do you think my sin struggles are?

Right?

It's a completely normal thing to ask out of the complete blue.

And and I fully expected her to be caught off guard, like, oh uh, let me uh let me think about that.

Let me you know what?

Let me get back to you in like about a week, right?

No, no, didn't didn't skip a beat, didn't miss a beat, all right?

She's like, finally, and she proceeded to pull out a book.

No, I'm that she didn't do that.

She didn't do that.

She looks, listen, she was very loving in her response back, but I'll tell you, it is eye-opening.

There are things that your loved ones can see that you will just miss.

Like, isn't isn't that so true?

We can see the sin in others so much better and so much clearer than the sin in ourselves.

We need loving people around us, a community of believers around us to point out in a very, very loving way these struggles.

We grow in these virtues no further than we know and experience Christ's love for us.

So, how do we experience his love?

How do we experience his love?

One of the ways has to be spending time with him, right?

Bethanah again.

Celebrated 14 years of marriage this past month, right?

And throughout the past 14 years, there hasn't been a day that has gone by, no matter where I am in the world traveling, no matter how sick I am, no matter how busy work is, no matter how angry we are at each other, there's not a single day that has gone by, 14 years, 5,000 plus days, that we have not communicated with one another.

See, it's one thing for me to say I love Beth, but an entirely other thing to have my actions, my priority, my pursuit, my desires, my intentions show that love.

So, how much more should our communication and our service for the Lord reflect our love for the Lord?

How much more?

If it is lacking, so is your love for him.

We need to win the daily battle to read and pray and spend time with the Lord.

Now I know what you're thinking.

Mark, you just said a moment ago that it doesn't matter, and here you are saying, win the daily batter.

And the the both is true.

Listen, if you want to read and pray to God so you can keep an apt streak going, or so that you don't have a hard conversation with your spouse when they say, Hey, have you read today?

Then it doesn't matter.

But if you want to know and love and truly understand who God is and the work he's done and how much love and care he has for us, then it matters so much more.

The final point I want to bring to your attention is spiritual maturity is affirming of our salvation.

Spiritual maturity is affirming of our salvation.

Let's reread verses 10 to 11.

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election.

For if you practice these qualities, you will never fail.

Fall, never fall.

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

If we practice these virtues in verses five through seven, if we live them out, if we are characterized by them, then our pursuit for spiritual maturity affirms our salvation.

It affirms it, it does not save us.

It affirms it it does not achieve salvation.

Again, I feel the need to qualify this so people don't go up to Pastor Miles and be like, hey, that tall guy is preaching workspace salvation.

That is not what I'm doing.

You've been snoozing if that's what you've been hearing.

All right?

It'll be on the screen behind me.

Ephesians 2, verse 8.

Ephesians 2:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith.

This is not your own doing.

It is the gift, it is the gift, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

It is God who does the saving work in us and makes maturity possible.

Once possible, we must pursue it.

As we pursue it, it affirms our salvation.

That's exactly what Philippians 2.12 says.

I'm on like repeat right now.

Philippians 2.12, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

God has acted, so we must act.

God has saved us.

Now we must pursue salvation.

Pursue spiritual maturity.

Sorry.

Salvation.

Salvation must result in changed life.

It must result in changed life.

How else can we come to a true appreciation, a true love for God?

How else can we come for a true love for God?

Understanding what He's done for us without giving ourselves back to Him.

The pursuit of maturity affirms our salvation.

When it comes to assurance of salvation, there are four different types of groups.

You would have probably seen this before.

It'll be behind me on the screen.

You got four groups of people.

You got the saved people who know they are saved.

You have unsaved people who are sure they are saved.

You have saved people who are unsure if they are saved.

And unsaved people who know they are not saved.

Now, if I can just spend a moment addressing the third category for just a minute.

Those who are saved but are unsure, those who are wrestling with assurance of faith.

And I want you to know that tension that you feel, that wrestle that you have, is between objective reality and your subjective experience.

The objective reality is that Jesus did a saving work in your life, that God the Father sent his son to die on the cross for our sins and nailed our sins to him.

And there is nothing we could do to reverse that.

Nothing.

That is the objective truth, the objective reality of God's saving work.

Philippians 1, 6, he who begun a good work in you will bring it to completion.

Yet our subjective experience is that there are some days where we doubt his goodness, where we don't feel God's presence, where we wrestle with assurance, where we wrestle with unworthiness, where we say, well, how can I be a Christian if my life is so messed up, if I keep falling into the sin, that if I keep messing up this bad, how is it even possible?

See, if we are wrestling with the thought of being unworthy, I want you to know you are looking at the wrong life.

We are unworthy.

That is the beauty of Christianity, that we are unworthy, we are unloving, and yet God, his own life, his own promises, his own work on the cross makes us worthy.

Christian growth is understanding how powerless we are and how need we are of Christ.

Alistair Bagg puts it this way: if dependency, if dependency is the objective, weakness is the advantage.

If dependency is the objective, weakness is the advantage.

The more we understand how needy we are of Christ, the more we grow in Christ.

Ever wonder how we're such a forgetful people?

Like the curse of sin?

Just we always forget the good, don't we?

Like we're forgetful, but only of the good things, right?

Of all the fruit of the labor, all our growth, all our joy in moments where we wrestle, forgotten, right?

What do we remember?

We remember the bad.

99 blessings that the Lord has shared with us, and one bad thing occur.

Well, guess what?

We forget the 99, and the one is so crushing.

Look at verse 12 with me.

Look at what the apostle Peter says.

Therefore, I intend always to remind you, always to remind you of these qualities.

Who do you think he's talking to?

In verse 3, we read that to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours.

He is speaking to faithful Christians and yet finds the need to constantly remind them of the virtues that are in them, constantly remind them that they need to increase in these qualities, constantly remind them that God has made maturity possible, and now we need to see maturity necessary and the pursuit of that.

See, we need to be constantly reminded ourselves of life's ups and downs, of times of assurance, times of doubt, times of difficulty.

And we need to hold on to God's promises like a death grip.

Not so he doesn't remember.

He'll never, never break his promises.

So we, we can remember.

We need to remember his promises, like his love will never fail, that he'll never let us go, that he's our refuge, our strength, our provider, our comforter.

We need to remember the gospel of truth.

We need to remember the promises of God.

We are forgetful.

For those here today that find themselves in the fourth category, that you know that you are not.

Look, I don't know what brought you here today.

God knows I don't know.

Maybe you're in search of identity.

Maybe you're in search of answers.

Or perhaps today you're feeling unworthy, insufficient, unloved, and you're tired.

You're just tired of it all.

And I want you to know this is exactly who Jesus came to save.

He'll be on the screen behind me.

I can call up the worship team now.

Matthew 11.

Let me just read this out loud before we close.

Come to me.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly, and you will find rest for your soul.

Whether it is fatigue from constantly searching for answer or the crushing weight of shame and expectations, Jesus provides rest for our souls.

The same one who will adopt us into his family.

The question you need to answer is, will you come?

Let's turn to the Lord in prayer.

Heaven Father, Lord, we are so thankful for you.

Lord, we are nothing without you, Lord.

And yet when we just open your word and are reminded of your divine work, Lord, your work that drew your son to that cross and paid the penalty for our sins, Lord God, a penalty that we could not pay ourselves.

Lord, we're so thankful that you have adopted us into your family, given us an identity, loved by a heavenly Father, Lord.

It is you who does a transformative work in us, Lord.

We were unworthy, and yet you call us your children.

Lord, life is difficult.

Life can be hard.

It is hard, Lord.

There are many times where we wrestle with assurance, wrestle with the feeling of being insufficient and unworthy, wrestle with being not good enough.

Lord, we we look at times in our life where we're so bogged down with sin that we doubt our assurance.

Lord, we're so thankful that you're such an engaging God that doesn't leave us or forsake us, that helps us in our time and need, that strengthens our soul.

Lord, we need you.

We're so thankful, Lord, that you have given us the ability to mature in you through the saving work of the cross, Lord.

And as we just read, there's a need, a desire, Lord.

Give us that desire, give us that zeal, give us that passion, Lord, that we once had when we first came to that saving grace where our eyes were open, that we were like a sponge, Lord.

Lord, we need to remember the gospel truth.

Remind us.

Let us never stray, let us never wander, Lord.

We know when we do, it is not you, it is we.

We repent of the times where we have forgotten the gospel truth, Lord.

Remind us.