Don't Settle

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

I’m currently reading a book by one of my favorite authors - A.W. Tozer - titled A Cloud By Day, A Fire By Night. The book is based on the Exodus account of God leading His people out of Egypt and into the promised land, leading them as a cloud by day and fire by night. Although the book is primarily about finding God’s will for our lives, this except from the book is particularly relevant to the passage we’ll be looking at this morning:

…God’s loving plan for His ransomed ones is twofold. First, it is to bring them out of the land of bondage, and second, it is to bring them into the land of promise, These two things go together.

Unfortunately, an entire generation of Israelites only experienced the first part of God’s plan for them. Because they listened to the ten spies who reported on the giants in the land rather than listening to God who had promised to give them the land, they settled for a life that fell far short of what God wanted for them and they ended up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.

Later in the book, Tozer expands on this idea:

Too many people view Christianity as an insurance policy so that when they die they can go to heaven. They do not see it as a road map leading them into the heart of God.

I think Tozer is right. Far too many Christians settle for a life that focuses only on what we have been brought out of. They think of their walk with Jesus primarily as an insurance policy that will get them into heaven one day. They fail to do what is needed to enter into their land of promise, allowing what they see in the world around them from experiencing the fulfilling life God desires for them. And just like that entire generation of Israelites who wandered in the desert for 40 years, their lives have little meaning, hope, or joy.

Tension

Today we conclude our current sermon series in 2 Peter which we’ve titled Confident in Chaos. Like Peter, we live in a world that is full of chaos, a world in which the disciples of Jesus face increasing opposition and even persecution, a world that is sorely lacking in hope and joy.

As Peter concludes his letter, he urges his audience, including all of us, to not settle for the life that this world offers. He calls us to choose a better way, one that is built on the sure foundation of God’s Word that allows us to stand firmly in the midst of a world that is increasingly spiraling out of control.

Truth

Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to 2 Peter 3:14 and follow along as I read:

2 Peter 3:14–18 ESV

14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Peter presents us with a striking contrast here. There are essentially two ways to live our lives as disciples of Christ.

On one hand there are those who are at peace because they are diligent to be found without spot or blemish. They are constantly growing in the grace and knowledge of their Lord. Tozer would say that these are the ones who are both saved out of Egypt and saved into the land of promise.

On the other hand there are those who are ignorant about the Bible or who twist the Scriptures to justify their way of living. That leads to instability and destruction. These are the ones who are only saved out of something but who never make any effort to truly pursue the heart of God so that they can enter their promised land and find peace and joy. Unfortunately, based on both my own personal observation as well as objective data from recent surveys, I’m afraid that a large number of people who call themselves Christians fit into this category.

So how do I make sure that I’m in the first group and not the second? The answer to that question is our main idea this morning:

A life fully devoted to God's Word is the most fulfilling life possible

Before we develop that idea more fully, I want to spend a few minutes talking about something very significant that Peter writes here that we could easily overlook.

I am really glad that Peter agrees with me that some of the things that Paul writes are hard to understand. But notice that they aren’t impossible to understand. But what is even more crucial here is that Peter claims that Paul’s letters are Scripture when he says that some people are twisting Paul’s words, just like they do with “other Scriptures”.

So even this early in the life of the church - likely around 65 AD - the church considered Paul’s letters to have authority as the Word of God. I have no doubt that when Peter makes that claim, he is thinking back to what he wrote earlier in his letter:

2 Peter 1:21 ESV

21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Peter confirms for us that even though he and Paul were merely writing letters to the church, every word they wrote was being inspired by the Holy Spirit and therefore was authoritative.

With that in mind, let me remind you again of our main idea this morning. Will you read it out loud with me?

A life fully devoted to God's Word is the most fulfilling life possible

I can guarantee you that most of the world doesn’t think this way. In fact, I’d argue that even a lot of Christians don’t live like that. They might go to church regularly and hear someone preach from the Bible. They probably say they believe the Bible. They might even read the Bible on a regular basis. But they aren’t 100% committed to living their lives according to what is on those pages. And when that happens they settle for a life that falls far short of what God desires for them.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen this recently with some very respected pastors and church leaders who have fallen because they lost sight of the need to surrender totally to what the Bible teaches. They allowed their own selfish desires to undermine their commitment to God’s Word. And if that can happen to these leaders, it can certainly happen to any of us. So how do we make sure that we don’t fall into that trap? How do we make sure that our lives are fully devoted to God’s Word?

Application

HOW TO BE FULLY DEVOTED TO GOD’S WORD

In this passage there are four commands and each one of them provides us with practical guidance on how to so that.

Do the work (v. 14)

…be diligent...

Interestingly, we saw this same commandment back in chapter 1. As we talked about then, salvation is 100% God’s work. And, as we saw in our last sermon series, transforming my heart is also God’s work. It’s not something I can do on my own. However, as we have also discussed, if I want to grow in my relationship with Jesus, I do have a part to play in that process. I have to give God something to work with. And that requires discipline and diligence.

In particular, Peter urges his audience to be diligent to be found without spot or blemish. Obviously he is not suggesting that it is possible for us to live a sinless life. But what he is saying is that we need to have a mindset that says I willing to do whatever I can to develop both my inward character - being without spot - and my reputation - being without blemish.

That’s why our last sermon series was so important. The seven spiritual disciplines that we talked about are how we go about letting God work in our lives to develop our character and our reputation. So I’d encourage you to make sure that you’re incorporating those practices into your life. And if you need some help with that, go back and listen to or watch those messages again. And then if you need some more help, Ryan and I would consider it a great privilege to come alongside you.

Ask God for His perspective (v. 15)

…count the patience of our Lord as salvation...

As we saw last week, Peter’s audience looked at the fact that Jesus had not yet returned and they assumed that meant that Jesus’ promises were not true and reliable. So they said we might as well go ahead and live however we want. But from God’s perspective the apparent “delay” was actually evidence of God’s divine patience.

Those people made the same mistake we often do. We look at our circumstances and try to apply our own human logic and reasoning to the situation. And when we do that, we almost always come to the wrong conclusions, just like the Christians to whom Peter is writing did.

We can even do the same thing when we read the Bible. We can allow our preconceived ideas and prejudices color how we understand God’s Word. Or even worse, we can begin to do what the false teachers were doing and twist the Scriptures to fit our own selfish lifestyles rather than letting the Bible be our guide and adjusting our lives to match the Scriptures.

Fortunately, every disciple of Jesus has the Holy Spirit living inside and one of His primary roles is to guide us into truth. He helps us to understand things from God’s perspective. But in order for that to happen, we have to listen for His voice and then obey it. I have found that one of the best ways to do that is to pray before I read the Bible and to ask the Holy Spirit to guide me into truth and help me to see things from His perspective.

Be discerning (v. 17)

…take care that you are not carried away...

Many of the people that Peter was writing to had fallen prey to the deception of the false teachers in their midst. And Peter was warning them that if they continued to do that, they would become unstable.

The verb “take care” that Peter uses here means to “be on guard” or to “watch out”. He is encouraging the people to be discerning, to not believe everything they hear from those who were teaching them.

In a day where we have a proliferation of teaching that you can find on YouTube, podcasts, TV, and streaming platforms it is even more incumbent on all of us to constantly be evaluating everything we read, see, or hear against the Word of God.

I know that most of you are probably familiar with this verse, but it is one that is certainly worth coming back to over and over again:

Acts 17:11 ESV

11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

As I’ve said before, you should never believe something just because Ryan or I say it. While I can assure you that we preach with the right motives, we are fallible humans so we may not always get everything right. You should always be evaluating our messages against the standard of the Bible. And if you find something that doesn’t match up, please come and talk to us. I can assure you that we will listen and consider what you have to say.

Develop an increasing appreciation for God’s grace (v. 18)

…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord...

Transformation requires that we both put off some things and put on things. In verse 17, Peter wrote that we are to put off false teaching, which we do by exercising discernment. In verse 18, he tells us what we are to put on. We are to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.

It is important to note that the command “grow” is a present tense command. That means we could accurately translate it “keep on growing”. This is not something that we do just once and we’re set for life. It is something we need to do every day.

So what does that look like? First, let me tell you what it does not mean. Peter is not saying that we can do something to get more of God’s grace. By definition, God’s grace is not something we earn or deserve. It is God’s unmerited favor toward us, so that means there is nothing we can do to get more of it.

So if I can’t get more of God’s grace how do I grow in grace?

Let me give you an illustration that might help. If you were fortunate enough to be raised in a functional family with two loving parents who did their very best to love you, protect you, encourage you and direct you, I’m pretty sure that when you were younger, you didn’t always appreciate that. Maybe you just took their love for granted, or it’s even possible that you sometimes resented the limitations they placed on you and that you rebelled against them.

But as you matured, and maybe even became a parent yourself, you began to understand why your parents did what they did. You developed a greater appreciation for their love and care. And more than likely that completely transformed the kind of relationship you have with your parents. And it probably has also impacted the way you parented your own kids and the way you treat others.

I think that is a pretty good picture of what it means to grow in grace and knowledge. The fact that Peter ties together growing in grace and growing in knowledge is important as we attempt to answer that question. As we’ve discussed before, in Greek there are several different words for “knowing” and “knowledge”. The one Peter uses here means relational or experiential knowledge. It is not just learning a bunch of facts, but rather getting to know someone as a person.

The more time we spend with Jesus in His Word and in prayer and having fellowship with other believers, the better we will get to really know Jesus. And the more intimately we know Jesus, the more we will come to appreciate just how awesome His grace is. We will come to understand more deeply just how desperately wicked we are and the tremendous price that Jesus paid to save us from the eternal judgment that we deserve for our sin.

And as we develop that deeper appreciation of God’s grace it will have a significant impact on how we treat others - both within and outside the body of Christ. When i am reminded of how much I have been forgiven, I will be much more likely to extend grace to others.

Action

Today we’ve learned that...

A life fully devoted to God's Word is the most fulfilling life possible

As disciples of Jesus, we shouldn’t be surprised when we face difficulties, pain and trials in this world. Jesus told us that we would have tribulation in this world. He told us that if the world hated Him, it will hate us too. And the other New Testament authors like Peter and Paul, confirmed that, too.

But it is possible to live fulfilling lives of joy, hope, and peace even in the midst of challenging circumstances. We do that, not by trying to change the world and create a perfect place where we’ll be happy, but rather by surrendering totally to the Word of God regardless of circumstances, even when that might not make sense to us. That is the only way that we experience the fullness of God’s grace - not just being saved out of our Egypt - our bondage to sin, but being saved into life in the promised land - a life full of joy, hope, and peace regardless of what’s going on in the world around us.

It is possible that there are some of you here this morning who are lacking joy and peace in your life because you’ve never taken the first step in the journey toward knowing Jesus intimately. Like the Israelites who had to first be saved out of their bondage in Egypt, you must begin that journey by being saved out of your bondage to sin. Every one of us here today, including me, is a sinner. We all fall short of God’s standard. And because of that we deserve God’s judgment. And none of us can do anything on our own to prevent that judgment. We can’t work our way out of that situation.

But Jesus died on the cross to take that judgment upon Himself on our behalf. And then He rose from the grave to prove that His payment was sufficient. That’s the grace of God we’ve been talking about this morning. And all He asks in return is that we place our faith in Him alone and give Him control of our life.

If you’ve never done that, then please don’t put off that decision. Please don’t leave here today until you have that settled with God. I know that you probably have some questions about exactly how to do that, so please come and talk to me or Ryan or one of our Elders after the service today. And if that seems too scary, our contact information is in the bulletin and you can contact any of us later today.

I am confident that most of you here this morning have already done that. But that’s only the beginning of the journey. And I love all of you to much to let you just stay there. So I we close, I’d like you to prayerfully consider a few questions. Would you go ahead and bow you head and close your eyes as we all do that:

Have you merely been saved out of your Egypt, or have you also been saved into God’s promised land for you? Is your salvation merely an insurance policy that insures you’ll get into heave some day or is it a way of life?

Are you totally devoted to God’s Word, the Bible? Are you doing your very best to live your life according to His Word? Or do you ignore the parts of the Bible you don’t like or twist it to fit your own selfish desires?

Are you growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus? Do you know Him more deeply today than you did a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago? Do you appreciate His grace more deeply today than you did then?

As you consider those questions, ask God to reveal anything that you might need to change in your life in order to apply what we’ve learned today. And then I want to encourage you to write down whatever the Holy Spirit brings to mind.

Inspiration

It is increasingly difficult to live as a disciple of Christ in this world. But the good news is that we can live confidently in the midst of the chaos of this world. We can have fulfilling lives full of peace, hope, and joy. God has given us everything we need to do that - His grace, His Holy Spirit, and perhaps, most importantly, His Word. And if we will surrender totally to live according to His purposes, plans, and ways, this can be our promised land regardless of what is going on around us.

Let’s make sure we don’t settle for anything less!