We can be sure in our salvation
Notes
Transcript
Mic
Prayer
Last week we learned that if we are to grow in Christ, then we must be diligent in our pursuit of becoming more Christ Like. This means we need to put feet to our faith.
In verse 5 we begin to grow in our faith by adding moral excellence - we quit doing things that Christ would not do and start doing things that Jesus would do.
We then begin a sustained program to study God’s word and apply it to our lives.
As we grow in our learning, it will require us to exercise self-control as we start to apply what we are learning in our lives , and
then as we continue to apply what we learn it requires perseverance.
As we continually practice these steps we become more God-like because we are imitators of God.
And we do not stop here but we implement these new principles in how we interact with our fellow human beings. We practice brotherly love and with brotherly love … agape love.
This is basically the same thing that Paul teaches us in Philippians chapter 3. Paul is a Christian.
He was saved when He placed his faith in Jesus just like the rest of us.
But did he attain perfection, now that he was a respected teacher and missionary? No!
Listen to him in verse 13
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13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul clearly tells us that He is not there yet. God is not finished with him yet. and so the first thing he does is..… he forgets what lies behind.
Paul is not counting on his “Road-to-Damascus” experience for his salvation. He is not counting on the prayer of Ananias when he laid hands on him or,..… his baptism.
He is not looking back to successes he had in the past. Not even to past missions trips or churches planted. He is not resting on his laurels in his Christian walk.
No where in the Bible does it say that if you prayed this prayer… if you were baptized… if you are a member of this church then you are saved.
Rather it talks about walking in the light as He is in the light. It talks about bearing fruit… imitating God… purifying ourselves even as He is pure.
We can not look to our past experiences for our salvation or assurance of salvation. As Christians, our goal is to become more and more Christ-like… to become more and more like Jesus. Notice that Paul says he presses on toward the goal. and what is that goal. It is to become more and more like Jesus!
We see this in 1 John 3.2.
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2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.
and then in verse 3
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3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
The verb purifies is in the present tense. It describes something that is going on in our lives as Christians now.
We are purifying ourselves.
It is not a passive verb… we are not “ being purified” as if God is doing it all for us … although God will do His part. It describes what we are doing.
In Celebrate Recovery we talk about things that God does in us..
but there are also things that we have to do. We have to come to the meetings.. We have to do a moral inventory....
we have to confess our sins to God and to one other person we trust.
We have to commit our lives and our wills to God.
We have to practice forgiveness.
In 2 Peter… Peter stresses that we need to be diligent.
Paul uses the term of an athlete when he says “I press on toward the goal.”
Paul uses the word ἐπ- ἐκτείνω -
now ἐκτείνω alone means “to fully stretch out.” It describes a runner who is fully stretched out has he approaches the finish-line. He is straining to reach the goal. but this is
ἐπἐκτείνω when the preposition επ is added to it , it strengthens the meaning.. it adds to the meaning. and so Paul is saying that while he is fully stretched out… he is straining even more to reach the goal … he is stretching out all the more.
This is the same thing that Peter is saying when he says “applying all diligence” “ using every effort”
I am stretching out and stretching out even more to reach the goal.. and that goal is to be more like Christ. the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. This is not describing someone who is lackadaisical in their walk with Jesus.
Paul was active in sharing the gospel. Paul had an active prayer life. This was a missionary who traveled thousands of miles to share the gospel with others. He suffered hardship after hardship and suffered intense persecution in order to bring the gospel to others.
As Wesleyans we need to be creative in bringing the gospel to others. John Wesley was willing to use unconventional means to preach the gospel. He started out by preaching the gospel in the church. and then he was challenged by his friend George Whitfield to preach the gospel to people where they were. John tried that and saw that God was blessing “field preaching”.
His superiors told him to stop that… We each have our parishes and you are to do your preaching in your assigned church.
They asked him where was his church.. his parish… and John answered them “the world is my parish.”
He enlisted lay people in the church to help him. Both men and women and he made them lay preachers. Friends if we are going to reach our community for Christ it is going to take a total effort. Both yours and mine.
Other than becoming more and more like Christ, … We need to make it our mission — to preach the gospel to everyone everywhere. That was the mission of Jesus.
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10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
That was the mission of Paul. That was the mission of Peter. That was the mission of John Wesley and this must be our mission.
Nothing else matters in light of eternity. As George Whitefield told Benjamin Franklin. and as Jesus told Nicodemus “You must be born again.”
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3 … “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
This must be our chief mission for our children. This must be our chief mission for our co-workers and friends. This must be our mission for the person across the counter from us in the store or our neighbor. This must be our passion. That is why the early church grew. The members of the church were consumed with the spiritual welfare and salvation of those around them.… and this must be our passion as well.
We have been talking about our goal… and our goal is to become more and more like Jesus. and we have been looking at various means of grace to help us become more and more like Jesus.… but we also need mentors.. We need spiritual leaders who can show us what that looks like. and so Paul continues in Philippians 3.
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17 Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.
Paul encouraged his followers to look at his example.
Likewise, we can follow Paul in the example he set. but we also need examples we can see in the here and now.
This passage serves as a challenge to each of us and especially to our leadership team. We should be striving to set a positive example for others to model in their walk to follow Jesus… to become more Christ-like.
Paul and Peter in these passages are speaking to those who were being tempted to go astray by false prophets and false teachers.
In Philippians 3:2 Paul warns these Christians to
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2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision;
Peter is facing the same thing and so we will see in the very next chapter…
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1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
Some false teachers try to add something to the gospel saying that Christ’s work on the cross was not enough for our salvation… we have to add something to it in order to be saved. Maybe baptism.. maybe circumcision or good works, or whatever.
Let me be clear
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8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.
Our salvation is a work of God’s grace. Christ did it all!
However… there were other false teachers who taught that it did not matter how we lived our lives.
Since we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ and by faith alone…
it does not matter what we do with our body.
They would separate the body and what the body does… from the spirit.
After all, we are both Spirit and body.
As long as you worship God in your spirit, it does not matter what you do with your body.
They basically taught what I would describe as a form of easy believe-ism.
That kind of teaching is equally false.
If we are placing our faith in Jesus.. we will repent from our sins and use every effort to become more and more like Jesus. That is because our faith is in Christ.… not just for salvation… but for everything.
We are striving with all we have to become more and more like Jesus - the anointed one.
This is why Peter says we are to “apply all diligence”
and Paul says… “I press on toward the goal” … “reaching forward.” One person translated this as “I strive energetically for the goal.”
Or as John said
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3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
It is not enough to follow Jesus with our words..
we must follow him in our behavior and to do this we need good Christian leaders to show us what it looks like to put our trust in Jesus.
Men.… like my pastor, Pastor Wayne (one of my mentors) who always had a smile on his face and was constantly helping out others in need.
Do you want to know where the idea came from for our shed ministry?
Pastor Wayne bought a house and was renting it out to a couple of families from Sierra Leone who needed a home and could not find one they could afford.
He makes pots of blessing..
He was always helping others.… and
as he goes along... he shares the gospel with them. He talks about the love of his life — Jesus. He has served as a faithful role model for me.
I think of people like Mr. Richardson -my theology professor. or Art O’dell and his wife Ann , or Darrel Johnson with the Equippers Ministry, who have encouraged me and modeled what it is like to be a Christian along the way.
What does it mean to be a Christian when your job is on the line? or
when you are mistreated or abused.
We have the example of Jesus in the Bible.. but
we also need the examples of men and women of faith today who can model that out for us.
I am sad to say that the world and the internet and the news are full of false leaders and pastors of churches who are not positive role models.
and don’t make the mistake of thinking that these 1st century false prophets and teachers came to the church and announced that they were false teachers.
No! They came dressed in sheep’s clothing. They had good reputations.…
as do their modern day counterparts.
This is why we must be careful to whom we listen … and who we follow. We need to be discerning as to who we listen to. and often these false prophets can be very dynamic. They can attract large followings because people want to hear good news. and their messages will be full of exciting things and things you want to hear.
They avoid the hard things.. the things that call for you to endure suffering, or persecution, or pain.
In 1982, 7 people died of cyanide poisoning in Chicago. They were taking something that looked like Tylenol. It came in a Tylenol bottle, … but they were deceived.
In 1978, Jim Jones laced Flavor-aid (a generic form of Kool-aide) and mixed it with cyanide to kill the people at Jonestown.
In Chicago, the people thought they they were taking Tylenol.
At Jonestown, 900 people died in what is called a murder/suicide. it tasted like Kool-aide and in both cases it killed them. Don’t be fooled or led astray by false prophets. They are leading you down the broad road that leads to death and hell.
You need to be discerning as to what you listen to and who you follow.
As Leaders… we need to set a good example of what it means to follow Christ. At our local church conference next week, we will elect our leaders. we need to choose leaders who are good role models as to what it means to follow Christ.
and we need to be good role models for those around us.… and so I go back to verse 5.
Our Christian walk begins on the day we place our faith in Jesus. We repent of our sins. We begin to follow Jesus on that day.
then applying all diligence we add to our faith moral excellence,
and to our moral excellence… knowledge - we get involved in Bible study. We do not forsake our assembling together as is the habit of some. We make it a habit to set aside time each day to read our Bibles and pray. We are regular in our attendance at church
and to our knowledge we add self-control as we put into practice what we learn from our Bible study. - That is why there is a section on the back of your bulletin to write down “my commitment to God as a result of your word.” How will you let this message change your life?
and to self-control - perseverance… We keep on applying those lessons.
and to perseverance - godliness as we grow we become more and more like Christ
and to godliness - brotherly kindness… we grow in the way we show love and kindness to others. We look for opportunities to show God’s love and kindness to others.
and in our brotherly kindness - love.
Is this you.
Now I am finally getting to today’s text.
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8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If these qualities are ours and are increasing we will be bearing fruit. Note that it says “if these qualities are increasing”. We should be growing day by day in Christ.
Things that do not grow are dead. They are not Christians. They are dead.
If we are not walking toward Christ and Christ-likeness , we are walking away from Christ.
and if these qualities are yours and are increasing you will be bearing fruit.
We should see fruit in our lives.
Think of Gal 5.22-23.
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22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Does that describe you? Does that describe me?
I would hope that you can see these qualities in our entire leadership team. and not just once in a while.. but all the time. That is my goal.
We should also bear fruit by leading others into a new relationship with Jesus. Bearing fruit does not refer to just having certain spiritual qualities in our lives, but also to reproduction. We should be producing other Christians. Our faith should be infectious and as a result other Christians should be popping up around us.
Just as we are looking for opportunities to be kind to others and exercise patience and gentleness to others; we should be looking for opportunities to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others.
Maybe your friend is going through some problems and so you say something like this.....
We do not have to be trapped by our past.
God has made a way for us through Jesus Christ-
his death and resurrection!
God can heal your broken marriage.
God can provide a job.
God can find you a mate
God can heal you
If he wants to … maybe he has brought you to this place so you will come to him.…
. … but more important than that.…
We all have a problem far worse than any of those, We are facing an eternity in hell.
However, if we place our faith in Jesus Christ and follow Him, ...
if we will repent of our ignoring God and of our many sins,
he will forgive our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
Jesus died and rose again from the dead so we can have eternal life and live forever with God…
if we will follow Him.
Jesus said we must be born again and my friend you must be born again!
All these other issues are secondary. The biggest problem we face is that we must be born again before it is too late. Will you do that?
and Don’t forget to ask for a decision… will you do that? will you commit your life to Christ?
now, don’t forget about their other problems.. Let’s do what we can to help them with those problems too....
because that is what love does.
If we do that… we will bear fruit and our church will grow!
but what about those who are not practicing and growing in these 7 things?
moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love.
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9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
That person is as good as blind. He has forgotten what salvation and being a follower of Christ is all about.
Paul describes people like this in
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19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,
21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Do these things describe you? immorality? - are you doing things that you know are wrong?
Outbursts of anger? do you find yourself getting in disputes with others? ..
maybe there is strife and jealousy?
Do you like to hang out at bars? Do you like the “wild-life?”
Paul says those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Ouch!
Friend if that is you..… You have gotten off the track.. You need to repent of your sins and follow Jesus. Don’t wait … do that now… do that today!
You may find yourself with doubts… am I really saved?
This is a question you should be asking.
Listen to Peter
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10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
Be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling an choosing you! Peter is teaching us to examine our lives?
We should ask questions about our salvation…
but he goes on to say.…
Practice these things and you will never stumble.
and what are these things?
Let’s go back to
4 Slides (ending vs 8)
5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge;
6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness;
7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If we practice these things...
John Wesley would refer to these types of things as means of grace.
to which He would add prayer, witnessing, Sunday school (or as he would call it class meetings)
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11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
If we are practicing these things we can be assured about our salvation! our entrance will be abundantly supplied to us. We can rest assured.…
Can you rest assured?
Are you practicing these 7 principles in your life?
Then I encourage you to thank God for all that He is doing in your life.
Keep up the good work!
But if not… it is not too late to change… I encourage you to make a commitment to God this morning… to begin to practice these 7 principles.
Let’s pray
