A young minister about to deliver his first sermon asked a retired pastor for advice on how to capture the congregation’s attention. "Start with an opening line that’s certain to grab them," the older man said. "For example: ’Some of the best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who was not my wife.’" He smiled at the younger man’s shocked expression before adding, "She was my mother." The next Sunday the young clergyman nervously clutched the pulpit rail in front of the congregation. Finally he said, "Some of the best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who was not my wife." He was pleased at the instant reaction-then became panic-stricken, and said, "But for the life of me, I can’t remember who she was!"
Certainty. Have you ever felt absolute certainty about anything in your life before? Yesterday was the Pittsburgh Steelers football game, and I was absolutely certain that we were going to win that thing. EXPLAIN THIS. To me it was never in doubt. EXPLAIN THIS.
Our problem comes when we speak of certainties when it comes to this world. When it comes to this world, we can’t be certain of what tomorrow holds, what a football game holds, or even what our friends hold. I’ve talked about one of the girls in my dorm who just completed her classwork in December—she’s not coming back. And I’ve talked about her on Sunday nights; she has a terrible towel that she would wear on her head to watch the game. She promised me that she would be watching and cheering last weekend, and you know what? She turned it off and fell asleep! Unbelievable! I mean, if there were something that I could consider to be a certainty, a sure thing, it would have been her watching that football game. EXPLAIN WHY.
I know some of you don’t like sports—I’m stopping now—but I just want to remind you that when it comes to this world that there are NO SURE THINGS that this world has to offer you, outside of death and taxes.
Last week, we looked at a word—do you remember what it was? Sufficient. We talked of how Christ’s sacrifice for us was sufficient for eternal life, that his blood shed on the cross was sufficient to pay the price for our sins. But we also looked at how it was sufficient not just for eternal life, but for LIFE! John 10:10
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
We saw how in 2 Peter 1:3 that 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. Everything we need!
We talked about the ramifications of this as well. How we often look to this world for advice on ourproblems, for help, as the ULTIMATE AUTHORITY on what we need to do in life. Yet Christ came, not just to give us eternal life, but abundant life.
2 Timothy 3
16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
And remember the question we asked ourselves last week—do you believe it? Do you believe that Scripture is God-breathed? Do you take God’s Word at His Word? Because if we don’t believe this, if we don’t believe that we have everything we need for life and godliness, if we only believe that Jesus came to punch a one-way ticket for us to heaven, then we should all just go home. Go back to bed, get some sleep. In fact, we should all just do what we want, because God couldn’t keep what he promised.
But he is faithful. Hebrews 10:23
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."
God is faithful, and his work was sufficient—able to meet the need at hand.
Today, we will continue in this passage, but I want to give you certainty about it. Last week we started to look at how we can enjoy this abundant life, but not we will look at the certainty about this abundant life, and instead of looking at 2 Peter 1:5 and following, we are going to start at verse 8, and if you can, don’t look at any other verse than 8 for right now.
8For 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.
Now we will look at what qualities we are to posses. Look at the certainty—they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your WHAT? In our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Why is that important? Let’s look again at verse 3-- 3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through WHAT? Through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Why would we want to add these qualities (again, without looking at them yet) to our lives? So that we would know him. Why is it important that we know him? Because as we do know him, we will have everything we need for life and godliness—ABUNDANT LIFE!
I don’t know about you, but this is exciting stuff! Who wouldn’t want to have everything at our disposal regarding life and godliness? I mean, when the devil comes our way—HAH! I’ve got everything I need! When the world and its wisdom comes our way—HAH! I’ve got everything I need!
Now listen carefully; this passage isn’t telling us that Christ has given us all the money we’ll ever want. It isn’t telling us that we will have great health and longevity of life that we want. IT does tell us that we will have everything we need to meet life’s problems head on without missing a beat. IT does tells us that we can experience the abundant life that Christ came to give us. IT does mean that we can have a hope, not just for the future, but for here and now!
I talked about certainties, and we looked at the certainty of how we CAN grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. But there is another certainty in this passage. Look at verse 9.
9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
Wow. Think about that for a minute. Talk about wallowing in life! Have you ever met someone who says, “Oh, I just can’t help it. I’m doomed to failure. I’m not responsible for my actions. There’s nothing that can be done.” They have bought into the lie that the world has to offer them—and ultimately, what does the world have to offer us? NO HOPE!
No hope for lasting change, and in some cases, no hope for change at all! No hope for the future, no hope for today—no hope! Listen to what Peter would say a little later on in this letter. 20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome (EXPLAIN), they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit,"[6] and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."
You see, we have been given the opportunity to have abundant life, but often times, we can go back to wallowing in the mud of this world, and what it has to offer. Peter says that it’s worse to act like that, because we should know better!
Let me put it to you like this. Do you know what my dream car is? I’m not being too ridiculous in this, and if your thinking of a nice birthday gift for me, I’d ask that you consider this. My dream car is an Acura NSX. You know how much they cost? I had one made for specification, you know, with CD changer, keyless entry, all the really good stuff. Guess how much? $91,323.30
That’s not too bad, right? I mean, if you really want to check out a nice car, go to their website and see for yourself. WOW.
But let’s imagine for a moment that I owned this car. HAH! Now, let’s say that I wanted to drive somewhere, like I was going to visit my in-laws in Michigan. And I go out to my garage, and there sits that Acura NSX. And right next to it is a clunker, an old, beat-up Yugo. Which car do you think I should take? The Acura! That’s not even a decision that I would have to think about; it would be automatic!
But when it comes to our lives, we spend our times living an abundant life in a Yugo of our own making, when we could be living a life that God intended us to have. Why would we want anything less than the very best? Why would we want to wallow around in misery, when we can have abundant life—life at its very best?!?
You see, it comes down to “these qualities”. Either we possess them in increasing measure or we don’t. That will determine the life we will experience here on earth. What qualities? Well, I’m glad you asked. Let’s look at verses 5-7 for a moment here.
5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
If you’re wondering how we are going to look at all of these this morning, we are not. In fact, outside of reading this list, we are not going to get into it today. I just saw a jaw drop out there. “Well, Pastor James, why would you do that to us? You have just baited us along, and now you’re going to leave us hanging for a week?” Absolutely.
Let me tell you why. I don’t have time this morning to do this passage justice. What I wanted to show you was the truth, the truth, the surety, the ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY of this—we can have everything we need for life and godliness.
You may be thinking, yes James, you said that last week. I did, but we develop it, cultivate it, experience it through our knowledge of Him who called us according to His goodness and glory. I told you last week that we need to read the word, and yes, we learn about Christ through the word, but we also learn about Him through those qualities in verses 5-7. And as we posses those qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That is a source of great encouragement for me.
In other words, if we grow in these areas, we will grow in our knowledge of Jesus. In fact, we will increasingly grow. And as we grow in our knowledge of Jesus, His divine power will give us everything we need for life and godliness.
The sufficiency of Christ; the certainty of growth. We can have abundant life—we can live it today. We can experience life to the fullest—the life Christ came to give us. We don’t have to wallow in the muck and mire of this world. Remember what Jesus said about this world, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
