Sermon Tone Analysis

“*ADDING TO FAITH*”

(A Godly People – Series in II Peter)

 

Westgate Chapel 3~/18~/01                                        2 Peter 1:5-9

 

PROPOSITION:  The call to every believer is to add to their faith, with every human effort, those qualities of the Christian life that we are to have in increasing measure if we are not to be blind, near-sighted, and forgetful of what it is we were saved from.

! I.    introduction

!! -     LAST Sunday we launched a new series of sermons from 2 Peter, entitled “A Godly People.”

!! -     PETER writes this letter to small clusters of Christians in Asia Minor who were living in a world that was hostile to the faith.

!! -     THEY were dealing with persecution and attacks from the outside world.

!! -     BUT on top of that there is now a threat to the very salvation of those believers from within the church itself.

!! -     AND the source of this threat is false teachers that have infiltrated the church.

!! -     THEY are leaders whose very lifestyle and teaching was threatening to destroy the work of God.

!!! ~*     They distorted and twisted Scripture to suit their own purposes.

!!! ~*     They had eyes full of adultery and never stop sinning.

!!! ~*     They treated sacred and holy things flippantly.

!!! ~*     They were arrogant and self-willed.

!!! ~*     They rejected all authority.

!!! ~*     And they were leading these Christians astray by their example.

!! -     THAT is why I have entitled this sermon series on 2 Peter, “A Godly People.”

!! -     THIS series is so timely.

!! -     YOU see, I am right at the beginning of some very exciting research on what a true follower of Jesus is supposed to be.

!! -     WHAT does the Bible say about being a disciple of Jesus?

!! -     RIGHT before Jesus left this earth, in Matthew 28:18, He told us that our #1 task was to make disciples….who

would be taught how to obey ALL that He has commanded.

!! -     I WANT to research what the church of Jesus has done with that command down through the last 2000 years.

!! -     I WANT to hear from Him about what and how He wants us to go about that right here and right now….especially those of us Pentecostals, who claim to have access, through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, to a special enduement of power.

!! -     THE condition of the church of Jesus today tells me that for all of our hard work and sincerity, we are missing this issue of being disciples of Jesus who “obey all that He has commanded.”

(Matthew 28:20)

!! -     BUT I am excited about what He is going to show me and what He has in store for us over the next few years as we become intentional followers of Jesus.

!! -     RITA and I have been here for 13 years this Sunday, but I have to tell you that I am more excited about what the Lord is doing right now, and where I believe He is taking us as a fellowship than I have ever been.

!! -     I AM confident that there is a better, a stronger, and a more victorious life in Christ available to us than the Pentecostal church has been experiencing for the past fifty years.

!! -     I SENSE more hunger in you for that victorious life than ever.

I know that is the case in our family.

!! -     I BELIEVE that with God’s continued blessing our best days in Christ are ahead.

!! -     BUT that is going to take more than having great services or prayer meetings.

!!! ~*     Charismatic and Pentecostal churches have been having great services for decades, only to walk out the church door and fall into all kinds of sin.

!! -     IT is going to take more than signs and wonders.

!!! ~*     Many of the greatest Pentecostal men and women of the last hundred years, used of the Lord in miracles and great power, ended up with shameful lifestyles.

!! -     IT is going to take more than organization.

!!! ~*     The church in the United States is better organized than ever in its history.

!! -     IT is going to take more than going to another Christian seminar or reading another book.

!! -     WELL, what it is going to take Pastor?

!! -     IT is going to take “adding to your faith.”

!! -     AND a collective gasp goes up from every Evangelical Christian in the world!

!! -     THAT is heresy Pastor!

!! -     YOU can’t add to your faith.

!! -     DIDN’T Martin Luther, the great Reformer of the 16th century, say that we are saved by “faith plus nothing?”

!! -     YES he did, but the Reformer’s have been exaggerated…and their teaching has been twisted by the same false doctrine that was tripping up the Christians in Peter’s day.

!! -     YOU cannot “add to your faith” for your initiation into the family of God.

!!! ~*     Faith in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection alone is what saves you from your sin.

!!! ~*     Faith in Jesus alone is what cleanses you from the stain of your past.

!!! ~*     Faith in Jesus alone is what makes you a new creation, and gets your name written in His Book of Life.

!! -     THE Reformers were right.

There is nothing you can do to add to faith alone for your initiation into the family of God.

!! -     BUT after your initiation into God’s family, the rest of your life is to be invested in “adding to your faith.”

!

ii.   every effort

!! -     TURN with me please to 2 Peter 1:5 (page 1204).

!! -     BUT let’s begin reading at verse 3, where we left off last Sunday,

!!!       “*His * (Jesus) *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*.

(4) *Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires*.”

(2 Peter 1:3-4)

!! -     THESE two verses speak of our (the Christian’s) participation, through faith, in “the divine nature”…and how that accomplishes our deliverance from the corruption of the world.

!! -     NOW, that is the part of our Christian life that is all from grace…God’s grace.

!! -     GRACE is that power of Jesus at work in us, without which we would not survive one second.

!! -     DON’T ever loose sight of those promises that are by grace!

!!!       “…*if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved*.”

(Romans 10:9)

!!!       “…*if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come*!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

!!!       “*If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness*.”

(I John 1:9)

!!!       “*Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus*, (2) *because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death*.”

(Romans 8:1-2)

!!!       “*Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword*?…(37) *No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us*.” (Romans 8:35)

!! -     THESE are just a sampling of those very great and precious promises.

!! -     AND the false teachers in the churches of Asia Minor were likely quoting them all.

!! -     BUT God’s power, and His grace, and His great and precious promises to us are only part of the story of being a disciple of Jesus.

!! -     IN 2 Peter 1:5, the apostle goes from very great and precious promises straight into…

!!!       “*For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith*…”

!! -     FIRST, “*this very reason*” is the phrase that points us back to the verses directly preceding.

!! -     WHAT is the reason that we “*make every effort to add to our faith*?”

!! -     IT is God’s grace towards us.

!! -     THE motivation and power for the Christian life is precisely the grace of God for us demonstrated in each one of those very great and precious promises.

!! -     “*MAKE every effort*!”

!! -     THE Greek for “*make every effort*” literally means “to bind all of your energies.”

!! -     PETER is talking about binding all of our energies to, of making every effort for this Christian life because of God’s grace.

!!! ~*     We readily “make every effort” for our careers.

!!! ~*     We “make every effort” for our relationships, when it is something we want.

!!! ~*     We “make every effort” for our hobbies and interests.

!! -     BUT here, Peter tell us that the only way to live the Christian life…is to “make every effort” for God’s grace in our lives.

!! -     AND what is it that these energies, this effort is to be focused on, as we bring ourselves alongside of God in our own spiritual development?

!! -     EVERY effort is to go into “*adding to our faith*.”

!! -     THE Greek word for “adding,” comes from a term used in the Greek arts where a benefactor would come alongside a theatre company and give everything he had to get them the best of training and the best of equipment to be and do their best.

!! -     IT was a costly endeavor.

It was never miserly.

!! -     AND in this rare New Testament setting the apostle Peter uses this term to describe how it is up to us to come alongside the God of all grace, in His preparation, training and equipping of our lives…..energetically giving everything we have in and for the process.

!! -     THIS alone is New Testament Christianity.

!! -     A CRITIC of an earlier century once described Christianity as “an initial spasm followed by chronic inertia.”

!! -     TO avoid this inertia a true follower of Christ has to always adding to their faith.

!! -     HUMAN effort is indispensable, even though it is woefully inadequate.

!! -     THEN what follows in 2 Peter 1:5-7 is a list of qualities that are evidence that Jesus is at work, and you and I are adding to our faith by any and every means at our disposal.