How To Keep The Victory
Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
Here we have both names of the apostle who was the first to preach the gospel following the birth of the church on the day of Pentecost. It is from the lips of Peter that we hear the words that define the new birth experience. We identify with Jesus's death burial and resurrection by repenting of our sin, being baptized in the Name of Jesus, and being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Peter calls himself a servant AND an apostle of Jesus Christ. In his first letter, he called himself simply an apostle. Here he adds servant. It is important to remember that no matter what position we hold in the church, no matter what title we hold or gifts we possess, we are servants of the Highest God. Although He has given us the privilege of being sons and daughters, we must follow His pattern of life. Jesus was in the form of God, yet He did not count His equality with God as something to lay hold upon. He humbled Himself and took upon Him the form of a servant. We follow Jesus's pattern. The principles of the kingdom of heaven as defined by Jesus in the sermon on the mount begin with "blessed are the poor in spirit." This is a realization that left to ourselves we are deficient to live the abundant life that God has promised. No matter what you learn, what you achieve, you still need Jesus.
The first principle of keeping the victory is remembering who you are and who you would be apart from Him. Then it is important to realize who you are in Him. Peter was an apostle. God calls us to do things and we should not be so proud that we fain humility as an excuse not to do it.
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:
Peter writes to those who have received faith just like the 120 in Acts 2 received. God is righteous and because of the sacrifice of the Lord on the cross, everyone can have what God is offering. It is for whosoever will!
Salvation is a gift that God already paid for. You will not be saved by your righteousness. It will never be enough. If you come to God in faith all of your unrighteousness is not enough to keep you from what He has for you. Our salvation is through the righteousness of our Gad and Savior Jesus Christ!
2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
The outflow of salvation is grace and peace in abundance! God is a generous God. He is not stingy. With Him, there is plenteous salvation! He delights in mercy!
Here is a word that Peter uses over and over again, "knowledge." This is not merely memorizing Scripture or understanding theology. This is the knowledge that flows from a relationship with God. God is not an object that can be studied from afar. God is the ultimate Subject. He can only be known as a Person!
The Pharisees had head knowledge and they were correct about much theologically, but they didn't recognize God when He showed up in the Person of Jesus Christ!
Seek an encounter with God as you read the Bible. Pray over what you read. Let your tears stain the pages of your Bible. Your Bible should be marked up and highlighted. The Bible is not meant to be a one-way conversation. You are in communion with the saints and prophets and the Lord Himself as you read Scripture! (Skin horse). Another aspect of keeping the victory: People whose Bibles are falling apart aren't! It is not about winning-a-theological-debate kind of knowledge. It is a knowledge of God Himself is the only way He truly can be known, in JESUS!
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
When you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, God gives you everything you need to live a godly life. It is the Spirit of God resident in us that leads us to a deeper knowledge of Jesus.
God gives us what we need, but then it is up to us to cultivate it along with Him.
We can live a godly life by knowing Him!
Remember, He called you. If you came to Him, if you decided to give your life to Him, to seek Him, it is because He called you. He called you by His own glory and goodness. He is lighting the path to Himself. He is being kind to you, even when you don't have it all right!
4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
It is through these that He has given us very great and precious promises.
Through them, we can actually partake of the divine nature. This is not just head-knowledge, we are connected to something that is out of this world! When you have the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you don't even know what you can do. God breathes fresh life into you!
And he gives you the power to overcome the decay that is in the world as a result of our evil desires. It is sin that has caused this world to be so broken. This present age is dominated by sin, sickness, death, brokenness, the devil, and demonic powers. All of those things feed on lust.
But, the Holy Spirit is the energy to escape!
You don't have to be controlled by the things of this world! You are free! You can keep the victory!
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, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, 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 whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
The things in this list are the things that will help you keep the victory.
They are not a list that you obtain once and then you are down with. They are more like a circular list that you keep working around and growing a little stronger each time. That is the way life works in the natural and that is the way growth happens in the Spirit.
There are seasons of life. We move in circles as we move forwards. Our planet rotates as it spins around the sun. From our perspective, the sun rises and sets. We go from Sunday to Saturday each week only to begin again and all the while we are growing.
The things in this list will keep you spinning in orbit if you will make the effort to work them out.
It takes time. You will not get everything right every time, but you must remain in orbit if you are to keep the victory.
Faith is a starting place. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. And the person who comes to God must believe that God is and that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek for Him. Faith is about seeking God! It is about looking for God! Those listed in Hebrews 11 are recorded there because on their best days they were looking for the Author and Finisher of faith. God has given to every person a measure of faith. We go from faith to faith. If we have faith as a grain of mustard seed...
But, Peter says, you never move on from faith but you add to faith, goodness. The KJV has "virtue" here. It means moral excellence. It is not enough to have faith, but we must seek to do good. Goodness is a fruit of the Spirit. It is important to be good. When God created the heavens and the earth He made it good. When he was done with all that He had made, He beheld everything that he had made and saw that it was VERY good! God is good. He is so good that His goodness spills over into the lives of everyone and every living thing. Even those who are not good. I read this afternoon in Hebrews 11 that Isaac blessed Jacob AND Esau. Even though Esau was rejected by God, God is SO good that after Jacob came back from Mesopotamia, Esau had so much that He didn't need anything. Goodness overcomes evil. Evil can never overcome evil, only goodness can do that! Be good.
And to goodness knowledge. Knowledge is important. If you want to keep the victory, study. God wants you to know how to live. Talk to someone who has been there and done that! Read what those who have gone before you have done. God doesn't want you to be ignorant. God does want you to understand His Word. But, knowledge alone is not enough. Knowledge alone will make you arrogant and eventually you will fall. The reason we read the Word is to know Him! He is our Cheif example of what human life should be!
Peter said to add to knowledge, self-control. A knowledge of who you are in Christ and what you have because of your relationship with Him will lead you to a life of self-control! God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love, and of power, and a sound mind (self-control). Peter said to make every effort to add these things. Self-control means sin doesn't control you! Fear doesn't control you! It flows from the fruit of knowing who you are!
And to self-control, perseverance. Peter says that self-control is not enough. We have to keep showing up. It is those who endure to the end that are saved! To persevere means not to give up. Too often we quit when the going gets tough. We tend to check out of the kitchen when it gets too hot. If we are going to keep the victory we must learn that giving up is not an option.
And to perseverance, godliness. We ought to be godly. Godliness means being reverent and having piety. We live in a culture that can often frown on Christian piety. Living for the Lord and choosing to please him should be something that we add to self-control. Setting aside two days a week to attend public worship is godly. Offering our tithes and other monetary gifts to the Lord is godly. Being holy in body and spirit is godly. Having a sweet disposition is godly. Having a genuine smile is godly. Not blowing up in anger is godly! We ought to shine with the joy of the Lord everywhere we go!
And to godliness, mutual affection (brotherly kindness). Jesus said that by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another! When we make it all the way around the circle of growth we find the highest ideal.
He ends the list with LOVE or charity. The greatest place you can find yourself is in the realm of LOVE. It is where God dwells. It is what and WHO God is. You start with faith and you end up with LOVE.
Right now we are in revival. We are going to see a demonstration of the supernatural gifts of the Spirit. Did you notice that in this list that the gifts of the Spirit are not there? The gifts are gifts. You do not have to be a mature Chrisitan to operate in the spiritual gifts. Paul lists the nine spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, he says that the gift that we should seek mostly is the gift of prophecy or preaching. He says that each of the gifts has a place of importance.
But, even above preaching (or prophecy) he places LOVE. Seek to be a more loving person. You will change the world. You will save yourself. You will save your family. If you love.
John Woolman...
10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It's a list that Peter says we should keep working on. If we do we will keep the victory!
Background and context from my passage.
Peter preached his first sermon at Pentecost. But, he went on to preach this. His answer to how can I keep the victory Jesus purchased and won for me is right here!
