II Peter 1: 3-11
3. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.
4. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;
6. and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;
7. and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
8. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
10. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall,
11. And you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
We’ve been examining ways God changes us form Peter’s words in the Bible. Last week we saw through this passage that God is willing and has the ability to change us from the bad to the good. This week let’s see how...
God Changes Us from the Good to the Better
II Peter 1: 5-9
"For this very reason," (because God changed you from the bad to the Good), "add to your faith," (why does he begin with faith? Because that is the only way you can accept Christ as Savior and Lord in your life.
So he starts with the foundation of our Christianity, how we moved from the bad to the good, to move us forward)
"...add to your faith, goodness; and to your goodness, knowledge; and to your knowledge, self-control; and to your self-control, perseverance; and to your perseverance, godliness; and to your godliness, brotherly kindness; and to your brotherly kindness, love.
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins."
The tragedy is that many people are changed from the bad to the good.
They go through the experience we call "Salvation" or -Conversion.
They are made right in the sight of God.
Christ’s righteousness is imputed to them and then they STOP right there.
A lot of Christians are only interested in just going to Heaven.
Tell me preacher what I have to do to go to heaven.
I don’t want to worry about anything beyond that.
-We talk about Salvation.
-But we don’t talk about Sanctification
-We sing about Deliverance in the Church,
-but we don’t like to sing all that much about Discipleship.
-We speak about being baptized into Christ’s death,
-but not much about walking in the newness of Life.
-BUT THEY ARE ALL IN THE BOOK.... CHRISTIANS!
We dare not think that becoming a Christian is all there is to it.
Peter said, "Add to your Faith..."
And then he lists seven qualities that we need as God
changes us from good to the better.
Look at verses 8 & 9, look at what he says,
"If you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here’s the other side of the coin:
But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins."
When I think about the deficiencies in my Christian life,(And I am very aware of the many areas of deficiency in my walk with Christ),
But when I do think about them, I am encouraged by thinking about those who have been deficient but have been made full.
For instance:
I am encouraged by thinking about the Apostle John.
He is called the "Beloved Apostle"
He is called the Apostle of love. In his gospels he uses the word love over and over and over again and again.
Let me tell you something, John wasn’t always that way, did you know that?
As a matter of fact, he was the one who got so upset, so ticked off because someone was teaching in Christ’s name that didn’t travel along with him.
He said. "Jesus, why don’t you go shut up that guy?" Mark 9:38
John, the one we know as the "beloved" apostle was the one who wanted to call down Fire from heaven and destroy the Samaritan village that did not receive Jesus. LK 9:54
(He and his brother James)
He was the one who was determined to sit at his Lord’s right hand when the kingdom came (Mark 10:35-37)
Now, how would we characterize somebody like that in the Church today?
- Somebody who was always going around and criticizing other people.
- Somebody who was always wanting God to bring down judgment upon everyone else.
- Someone who was always looking for power.
How would we characterize someone like that?
Well, we’d call them things like hot-tempered, intolerant, Narrow, Vindictive, envious...
Jesus called them, "Sons of (what) THUNDER" (Mark 3:17)
You know,
I’ve been in the church long enough to have met a few of their descendants, what about you? There’s a few of them still around.
But here’s the encouraging thing. Here’s what I want you to see...is that John CHANGED or I should say, God changed him... YES!
...From the Bad to the Good and then from the Good to the Better.
From following Christ to being Christ-like.
There’s a big difference there!
How did he change?
Well, among other things he changed by spending time with Jesus.
-Learning from Him
-Following what he did
-Copying his examples
And if we will be changed, friends, we need to spend more time with Jesus in:
Worship
Prayer
Study
Ministry
More time feeding on the Word
More time seeking to become more and more like Jesus
Let me ask you a question this morning?
What are the areas in your life in which you need to become more like Jesus?
If you’re like me, there’s probably a pretty good list you could make in that regard.
But what comes readily to mind?
Maybe we’ve become intolerant and legalistic, like John... More locked into our traditions than in scripture?
...Maybe so wrapped up in our own little world, our own little church, our own little understanding that we forget there’s a lot of other brethren out there?
Some of whom think differently, dress differently, talk differently, sing and live differently, but are still our brothers because they have been purchased by the blood of Christ.
Maybe, just maybe, some of us have become selective in our obedience to the Word of God.
Let me tell you something, we dare not quote Romans 6 on Christian Baptism and omit Galatians 1 about Christian attitudes.
We dare not quote Mark 16 on salvation and omit Romans 16:17 about division in the Church.
We dare not quote Acts 20:7 about observing the Lord’s supper weekly and skip over II Cor. 2:7 concerning church discipline.
Brethren we need, in the church today, not just a restoration of New Testament Doctrine, But a restoration of New Testament SPIRIT, Attitude and Activity.
Too many times we read passages like Galatians 5, and we see what Paull calls the works of the flesh, Sin!
And we go through and sort them out.
And we divide the list into a list of BAD ones and the NOT-SO-BAD ones.
The Bad ones are what "they" do.......and the not-so-bad ones are what "we" do!
Gal. 5:19 We would go through and put the BAD ones as
immorality
impurity
drunkedness
But then, we wouldn’t put in the same category:
hatred
discord
jealousy
fits of rage
selfish ambition
dissensions
factions
envy
Oh, NO! Those are the things.... we do.
The fact of the matter is, even though we may be Christians , and a part of the Body of Christ,.... we need to let God change us.
HE IS ABLE..... and HE WILL CHANGE US....but He will no do so, apart from our willingness to be changed.
That willingness involves what is called "Repentance"
-Repentance is not something we do once and then we are saved.
-Repentance is something we do continuously as we grow and become more and more and more and more like our Savior.
The Christian life in itself is a development and growth and change.
I’ve seen it happen from time to time. We play these games in the maternity ward.
A little boy is born... and the question is inevitably asked, Who do you think he looks like?"
Well, he looks like a sponged up prune. That’s what he looks like.
You can’t tell anybody that, or they’d be offended.
He dosen’t look like anybody...He looks like himself.
Poor kid he’s just gone through this traumatic experience.
But it isn’t long before you see some semblance to one or the other of the parents and many time both of the parents.
But he’s a little guy and he begins to grow up and about his teen years you begin to notice....did you notice how he walks like his dad?
Did you notice how he’s got that mannerism like his dad? His hair begins to lay like his dad?
Then before you know it he’s 20, 21, 22 years old and one day you see them standing side by side: Father & Son.
And you say isn’t that uncanny...look at that!
He’s the spitin’ image of his dad.
But it took some time! It took some time.
Now that’s the way it is in the Christian life.
As the years go by....we should grow and grow and grow more and more into the image of the Father.
It’s not something that happens when we are saved.
We don’t instantly become like Jesus.
It’s a PROCESS of Sanctification.
It’s something we’re all to be involved in... we’re all called to grow, to change, to improve.
But too many Christians develop an Americanized corporate mindset and relate it to their Christian life.
"If it’s not broke, don’t fix it."
But if God is going to change us from GOOD to the BETTER, then we must develop the mindset of
IF IT’S GOOD THEN LET’S GO ON TO BETTER!"
The same thing is true of Churches!
Now, we have a Good church, believe me, I’ve been around...
It’s a good church!
But it could be... and should be a BETTER Church!
And without putting down "where we are..." we should always strive to be more what God would have us to be.
To be changed from the good to the better is God’s plan for our individual lives as well as for His church.
The apostle Paul wasn’t exactly a bad person as a Christian... but there’s plenty of growing left to do.
That’s why Paul said as a Christian, "I press on..." I’m not through, I haven’t reached the goal!
"I need to become more like Jesus."
Everyday, I need to become more like Him!
-Conformed to HIS image.. to have HIS mind
-to think like HE thinks
-to do the things He would do
-to help those HE would help
So, I want you to see this morning that
GOD CHANGES US... FROM THE GOOD TO THE BETTER! He is Able to do that with you. But you have to be willing to change in order for Him to do his work in you.
The fact is, that God does change us not just from :
-Bad to Good, and
-Good to Better
But beyond all this God is able to change us, One Day
(part 3- "from the better to the Best)
Conclusion
Again, structure your own invitation/response according to your audience.
