FURTHERING Your FAITH-IV—2Peter 1:8-11(:5-11)
Attention:
Suppose you have bought a new vehicle, that will be your ‘daily driver. It will be used to take you to work & back home; To haul your children to school, church, sports events, dance recitals, parades, play-dates, etc.; It will be used to visit & car-pool with your friends; Your new vehicle will be used to travel—To visit your Momma & Daddy, To visit your boyfriend or girlfriend, To visit your siblings, your grown children, your grandchildren, great-grands, etc.
You can very easily be enamored with & take ownership of your new vehicle/purchase, but never once think about or act on ‘maintaining’ it! Thru such neglect, you will NEVER experience the joy of the vehicle’s usefulness.
As the owner, it is your sovereign ‘right’ to ‘limit’ your new purchase, to never use it beyond where the initial tank of gas, or the initial charge leaves you. You can park it where it ran out of juice, & buy yourself another vehicle with another full tank of gas or another full charge, if you choose to do so.
•However, you also can learn to make the sacrifice of saving your money in order to pay for your electric bill &/or a re-charge, or to put gasoline in the vehicle when needed.
Yet, in a gas-powered vehicle, if you never have the oil changed, one day, sooner or later, the oil will degrade to the point that it will no longer lubricate all the hundreds of parts that make the engine work. The oil might begin leaking, & without any lubricant, the engine will seize, & stop working altogether.
•However, you can learn to make the sacrifice of saving your money in order to have the oil changed regularly.
Yet, if you neglect to top off the coolant levels in your vehicle, one day, sooner or later, the engine will overheat, seize, & cease working altogether.
•However, you can learn to make the sacrifice of saving your money in order to have the coolant checked & changed regularly.
Not-to-mention: Tires, Brakes, Shock absorbers, etc. There is a whole host of things that have to be maintained on your vehicle.
To REFUSE to maintain any of those things(electricity, gas, oil, coolant, tires, brakes, etc.) that I’ve mentioned, & more, would be to neglect your responsibility for the vehicle altogether. And thru that neglect, you will NEVER know the freedom of having a trustworthy vehicle!
You & I are urged, thru God’s word, to maintain, the FULLNESS of our “faith” in Christ, so that we will experience a positive, Christ-honoring, & beneficial outcome!
Need:
?Are you satisfied with your walk with Jesus?
?Are you pleased with your working relationship with the Father, the Son, & the Holy Spirit?
Some Christians....
•Struggle with their calling & their giftedness.
•Struggle to ‘fit in’ with the church.
•Struggle with using their calling & giftedness outside a church setting—at home &/or in the ‘work-a-day-world.’
The apostle Peter encouraged the Churches to bolster/strengthen/further support their initial faith in Christ, in order to provide an ‘abundant entrance’ to the Kingdom of God.
God’s people are obligated to further their faith.
Here Peter answers the question:
?What does ‘Furthering Your Faith’ involve or entail?
We are continuing to examine:
4 Factors For Furthering Your Faith.
In the last weeks we have examined the fact that,
Furthering Your Faith involves...
1. DUE DILIGENCE DONE(:5-7)?•[Part 1--:5a-d]?•[Part 2--:5e-6a]?•[Part 3--:6b-??]
Today, we’ll find that:
2—Furthering Your Faith ALSO involves...
FRUITFULNESS(:8)
Explanation:(:8)
:8—“For if these things are yours & abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
:8a—“For if these things are yours & abound,...”
“IF” a person can truly say that the above “things”/additions/qualities/furnishings(:5-7) are theirs, & that their faith indeed (super)“abounds” or flourishes, increasing in their life, THEN such a person can expect & depend on a particular outcome from it.
“Abound/Increasing”(See :11—plousiwv)—pleonazw—Present Active Participle - Nominative Plural Neuter—1) To superabound—1a) of things—1a1) To exist in abundance, 1a2) To increase, 1a3) Be augmented; 2) To make to increase: one in a thing. Strong—To do, make or be more, i.e. Increase(transitively or intransitively); by extension--To superabound. Used 9X.?From—pleiwn, neuter pleion, or pleon—Adj.—Strong—More in quantity, number, or quality; also(in plural)--The major portion; comparative of poluv/pollov—Much, many, largely.
:8b—“...You will be neither barren nor unfruitful...”
To be neglectful & unconcerned about the state of your personal “faith”, is to be spiritually: ‘lazy’(‘at leisure’), ‘useless’, ‘ineffective’’ or “barren.”
•God’s people have the power of God available to them, 24/7! But it is a personal choice to either use, or to bypass such power!
•So since being spiritually ‘lazy’, ‘useless’, ‘ineffective’’ or “barren”, is a personal choice, That ought to put some fear in you...The only fear that God’s people should regularly deal with, is a fear of failing God!.....A fear of being “unfruitful.”
•Being “barren”, ‘lazy’, ‘useless’, or ‘ineffective’ is akin to:--
•Hiring someone to do a particular job, to which that employee refuses to apply themselves. Much potential is available in calling & entrusting them to the task. But by that employee’s ‘sorry’, “barren”, ‘lazy’ attitude, 1)The employee’s potential is ‘recklessly squandered’, 2)The ‘trust’ is removed, & 3)The ‘intended’ work is never accomplished!
A ‘faith’ that is “barren” & bears no fruit(“unfruitful”), for, in, & thru “Christ”, is an UNACCEPTABLE state of affairs for anyone claiming to be a Christian!
•“Barren” & “Unfruitful” “faith” places God—the Father, the Son, & the Holy Spirit—in a negative light for everyone!
•“Barren/Useless/Ineffective”—argov—Adj. 1Aorist Passive Imperative—1)Free from labor, at leisure; 2)Lazy, shunning the labor which one ought to perform. Argov is Idle, involving blameworthiness. Strong—Inactive, i.e. Unemployed; by implication--Lazy, useless. Used 8X.?From—A(as a negative particle)—&—ergon—Toil(as an effort or occupation); by implication--An act; from a primary(but obsolete)--ergw(to work).
•“Unfruitful/Unproductive”—akarpov—Adj. 1Aorist Passive Imperative—1) metaphorically--Without fruit, barren, not yielding what it ought to yield. Strong—Barren(literally or figuratively). Used 7X.?From—A(as a negative particle)—&—karpov—Fruit(as plucked), literally or figuratively.
:8c—“...in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
*So... “IF” your ‘faith’ is indeed flourishing, as it should, THEN you continuously exhibit all the characteristics of being a bonafide Christian(:5-7). And so your work ‘in the Lord’ continually bears “fruit”, by your willingly nurturing that relationship with God.
And that is why Peter tells us that those who are truly God’s people, “will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“The knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” is an intimate & active knowledge. It is a precise & correct “knowledge”[epignwsiv]. That kind of “knowledge” is born of personal experience & attentiveness to “Jesus Christ” as your “Lord.”
*?Why should we be so attentive to our Christian faith’s being “fruitful” in “the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”?.....
Because...
•That “knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” is necessary for a believer to be productive & purposeful in their particular ministerial calling....Your answer to God’s calling on your life, takes place on an every-moment-by-every-moment basis. And it carries thru till you draw your last breath on this earth.
•And FYI--Every one of God’s children has a ministry calling. All ‘ministers’ are NOT pastors!
And in your particular ministerial calling(:10)—your personal “knowledge of” “Christ”, defines your personal ‘relationship’ with Christ, & your personal personal ‘walk’ with Christ. Your personal “knowledge of” “Christ” becomes the driving force for ‘actively’ living & working empowered by the Holy Spirit!
Don’t be that person who SO separates the supposed ‘work of the Holy Spirit’, from the Father & the Son(“Christ”), that you end up actually serving your own emotional desires, while referring to them as God’s desire!
“Assurance of salvation is directly related to present spiritual service & obedience.”—John MacArthur in MNTC
“IF” you own-up-to your “faith”, & it indeed “abounds” as it should, THEN your personal, experiential “knowledge”[epignwsiv] of our Lord Jesus Christ” will be “neither barren nor unfruitful.”
•Each of us indeed NEED to “know” Jesus personally! And when you do, you will, in turn, respond favorably to His leading with joy & excitement!
•Each “fruit” is a source of sustenance.
•The ‘seeds’ of the Gospel are in each fruit.
•The potential for multiplication of the Gospel & of the spread of the Kingdom is in each fruit.
If you are not bearing fruit for God, then you are not serving God!
Argumentation:
Col. 3:16-17—“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching & admonishing one another in psalms & hymns & spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
Jn. 15:1-8—Jesus to His disciples at ‘the Last Supper’,—“I am the true vine, & My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; & every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, & I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, & I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch & is withered; & they gather them & throw them into the fire, & they are burned. If you abide in Me, & My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, & it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
Titus 3:14—Paul to Titus,—“And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful.”
Mat. 13:2-9, 18-23—“And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat & sat; & the whole multitude stood on the shore. Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; & the birds came & devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; & they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, & because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, & the thorns sprang up & choked them. But others fell on good ground & yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”.....“Therefore hear the parable of the sower: “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, & does not understand it, then the wicked one comes & snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word & immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, & the cares of this world & the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, & he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word & understands it, who indeed bears fruit & produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.””
Illustration:
There is a large loblolly pine tree located near where the pastorium driveway enters Salem Road, on the Coxe Rd. side. Lately I’ve found myself picking up pinecones off of the driveway, & throwing them into the woods. At certain times of the year our driveway is inundated with pinecones. That tree is a picture of FRUITFULNESS
Most trees & plants are Monoecious, having pollen & fruit borne from the same flower or from the same plant. Native Persimmons(Diospyros virginiana) are what scientists call, ‘Dioecious.’ That is, there are either male or female trees. In order to have the female trees bear fruit, there must be male trees somewhere around, to fertilize them.
To my limited knowledge, there is only ONE female Diospyros virginiana persimmon on the pastorium property. I know that because that one tree faithfully bears fruit every year. FRUITFULNESS
Application:
?Is YOUR ‘FRUITFULNESS’ born of FURTHERING YOUR FAITH in Christ?
?Are YOU actually FURTHERING YOUR Christian FAITH?
*?Does Christ-honoring “FRUITFULNESS” accent/characterize the way you live the life that God has granted to you?
CONCLUSION:
Visualization:
You can know the freedom of having a trustworthy vehicle, IF you make the effort to Further your Faith in it by properly maintaining it.
You & I are urged, thru God’s word, to ensure, the FULLNESS of our “faith” in Christ, so that we will experience a positive, Christ-honoring, beneficial outcome!
Action:
Furthering Your Faith involves...
2. FRUITFULNESS(:8)
1. DUE DILIGENCE DONE(:5-7)[Parts 1-3]
Pt# 2 only!-presented 08/25/2024am to:
Salem Baptist Church
1618 Salem Road
Bennettsville, SC 29512
