How to Build Stability into Your Life

Adrian Rogers was a motivator, an encourager, and a leader of the faith. He was also passionate about presenting scriptural application to everyday life circumstances, and you'll hear that in today's message.

Now, let's join Adrian Rogers. They have a false view of separation, and they wound the brotherhood because they separate from people they ought not to separate from. Then others have a false view of cooperation, and they aid the enemy by cooperating with those that they have no business to cooperate with. People are confused. Now, God doesn't want us to be confused. God wants us to be strong, stable, steadfast.

I'm going to talk to you tonight about how to build stability into your life. 2 Peter 1, verse 1, Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now, let me just stop right there and say that the man who wrote this is obviously Simon Peter, and he is one who slipped and fell. Simon Peter, as you know, denied, swore, took an oath that he never knew the Lord Jesus.

But now here he is writing, Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith. By the way, it doesn't say they attained it. They have obtained it. It is a gift. Salvation is not a reward for the righteous. It is a gift for the guilty. It is something not that we attain, but we obtain, who have obtained like precious faith.

Now, this like precious faith he's going to go on to tell us is bought with the precious blood of Jesus as a lamb without spot and without blemish. We don't have any cut rate salvation. The man, the first astronauts went to the moon.

Somebody asked them, what were you thinking about when you were up there on the moon getting ready to come back? One said, I was thinking about the craft that is supposed to bring us back was built by the lowest bidder. Thank God, God did not do a cut rate job when he saved us. We are redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus. So he calls it like precious faith.

Now that's very interesting. Like precious faith. You were saved the same way I was saved. I was saved the same way you were saved. It took as much of the blood of Jesus to save me as it did you. We all come in through the same door. It is like precious faith. There's only one way to be saved. We all come that way.

Amen. But now here's the strange thing that while we all come in through the same door, some end up so differently. Some grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Some are strong, vital, vibrant, victorious and vivacious in their faith. Others stumble and stagger, slip, fall.

Why? We all have the same like precious faith. Now what makes the difference? Well, look if you will in verse 10.

The key is this. Wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, ye shall never fall.

Now he says, here's something. You'll practice this. You'll never fall. Now you might think I'm going to give you some strange, mysterious, esoteric, convoluted plan or something.

No. It's so simple that we almost miss it. But what Peter is saying is, look, I've been there. I know what it is to stumble, to fall. But I'm going to tell you something. Those of you who are saved just like I am with like precious faith, I'm going to tell you what to do.

And if you'll do this, you will never fall. Now Peter, when he did this, has grown up. Peter's no longer the inconsistent man that he used to be. You know, when he was first named, his parents gave him a name, I guess almost by some sort of a divine intuition. They gave him the name Simon. Do you know what the name Simon means? It means shifty.

It means unstable. Now, Jesus changed his name from Simon to what? Peter. You know what Peter means? It comes from the word petros. Where did we get our word petrified, petroleum from?

It means rock. First of all, he was shifty. Then he's rocky. He becomes strong in the Lord.

He becomes stable, no longer unstable. Now, what I want you to do is to have the stability that you ought to have in the Lord. Let me tell you three things now that will help you to have a steadfast faith. First of all, you need a faith that knows.

K-N-O-W-S, knows. Look, if you will, in verse two. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, the word knowledge is a key word here in this passage of scripture.

If you don't believe it, look with me for a moment. Look, if you will, in verse two, there's the word knowledge. Look at the end of verse three, through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory. Look down there in verse five, and besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge. Then look in verse six, and to knowledge temperance. Then going down to verse eight, neither be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as a matter of fact, in this chapter, the word know, our knowledge is used some 16 times are its cognates. I mean, related words that speak of knowledge. As a matter of fact, the word here for knowledge is not the ordinary word for knowledge, ginoso, it's epiginoso. You say, well, I'm really blessed, preacher. What that means is supra knowledge, epiginoso, not just mere knowledge, but it means intimate relationship, not knowing about God, but knowing God. I mean, do you know God or do you know about God? Now, if you only know about God, you come and study and you learn facts about God, that's not enough.

The way to have a life where you will not fall is to have epiginosos, an intimate, personal knowledge of God. For years I used to carry in my billfold something about my wife. It was a card. It told all of the vital statistics. It told about her size.

You know, it's very hard to buy a dress for a woman. You don't know the size that she wears and all of those things and shoe size and glove size and dress size and all of these various things about my wife. As a matter of fact, on that thing, I even had the birthday, so I would remember that, and the anniversary date, so I would remember that, and all of these things about Joyce. Now, if you'd never met Joyce and you said, well, tell me about your wife, and I pulled out that card and handed it to you, you would know about her.

But you would not know her. Now, you can sit in a church and get all of the facts about God. That's ginosos. That's knowledge. But what we need is epiginosos. We need an intimate relationship with the Lord. Now, let me give you some verses that will ramify that. Philippians chapter 3 and verse 10, Paul gives the ambition of his life, and it says that I may know him, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. Now, wait a minute, Paul, you wrote this later on in your ministry. Are you telling me you've been an apostle and you're still saying you want to know Jesus? Well, friend, I don't care how much you know him today, you can still know him better. Did you know that?

Columbus discovered America, but there's still more than 10,000 unnamed lakes in Canada. None of us really know the Lord as much as we could. But if you would come to a place where you would not fall, you need to have a personal knowledge of him, not a knowledge about him.

The Bible says in Daniel chapter 11 and verse 32 that the people who know their God should do exploits. And Jesus himself said in John chapter 17 verse 3, and this is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Now, how do you know him? Well, the only way to know somebody is to spend time with them.

Spend time with Jesus. I know Joyce because I spent a lot of time with her. Matter of fact, I have known her since the earth's crust hardened. And we've been together from grade school friends to junior high school puppy love, high school love and college deeping love. And she's just been my life. I know her.

I can tell you what she's going to do. Now, friend, that's epigonosis. Now, what does this knowledge do?

What does it bring? Well, look, if you will here, as he talks about this knowledge, look in verse 2. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ. The only way that you can know pardon, that's grace, is through the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

And so you know pardon through the knowledge of Jesus Christ, verse 2. You know peace through the knowledge of Jesus Christ because he says grace and peace. And by the way, always in the Bible, grace always comes before peace. First the grace of God, then the peace of God. Pardon is given through the knowledge of Jesus. Peace is given through the knowledge of Jesus. Power is given through the knowledge of Jesus.

Look in verse 3. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, now here it comes again, through the knowledge of him who hath called us to glory and virtue. Now, listen, he's given us everything, but what good is everything if you don't know about it? I mean, you can have blessings that you don't even know about. You see, this power is released.

You don't need anything else. You need to understand what you have. You see, it comes through the knowledge of him. I think many of you have seen the elephants in the circus. That elephant, if he's there on display, will generally have an iron ring around one of his legs. And that iron ring will have a chain on it. And that chain will be fastened to a stake. And that stake will be driven into the ground. And that elephant will be there, and you've seen him do it, rocking back and forth. He'll be taking that hay and throwing it over his head like that. Why he does that, I don't know. Rocking back and forth, and this leg will be there back like this on that chain.

He'll be there. Now, here's the interesting thing. That stake is only about that deep in the ground. That elephant could pull it out at any time, but he never tries because he thinks he cannot. When he was a baby elephant, they trained him by putting a stake in the ground very deep and putting that chain around that leg, and he pulled and could not get free.

And now, as a grown elephant, he has been convinced that he cannot pull that stake from the ground, and he never tries. And there's some in this building tonight who have been trained by the devil that same way. You don't understand the power that you have. All of this comes through the knowledge of Jesus. Pardon, Jesus died for you, but grace comes through the knowledge of Jesus. Friend, peace, that all of us need the peace of God, peace with God, peace with one another. And power, it all comes through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And friend, I want to say that the promises are claimed by the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Look in verse four, whereby, and he's still talking about knowledge, are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Now, God gives us these promises, but if you don't know the promises, then you can't claim the promises. You can't stand on the promises of God. Now, the promises of God help you to understand that you have a divine nature. Look at it again. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these, by the promises, ye might be partakers of the divine nature.

Now, wait a minute. I thought we got the divine nature when we were born again. Yes, we do. But you see, that nature that is incipient in us has to be developed when we learn about what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's just talk a little bit about the nature, the divine nature that's in you. Let me tell you what nature determines, what nature does. Did you know that your nature determines your appetite? For example, a pig has an appetite for slop. A dog, Peter tells us in 2 Peter 2, verse 22, will return to his own vomit. That's a dog nature. A sheep prefers the green pastures. Now, you tell me what you feed on. You tell me what really blesses you.

Do you have an appetite for the Word of God? Not only does nature determine appetite, but nature determines behavior. What's the nature of an eagle? It's to fly. What's the nature of a fish? It's to swim. What is the nature of a Christian?

It is to live the Christian life. Nature determines appetite. Nature determines behavior. Nature determines environment. Squirrels climb trees.

Moles burrow underneath the ground. Fish swim in the water. You can tell whether or not you are a child of God by the environment that you seek out for yourself. Nature determines association. Sheep gather in flocks.

Fish in schools. Christians in church. How are you going to live up to this nature, however, that God has put into it? You've got to know the things that are freely given to you of God. So, first of all, you need a faith that knows. Intimate relationship with God.

Epigenosis. Got it? All right, now second, not only do you need a faith that knows, but you need a faith that grows. Look now beginning in verse 5. And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue. And to virtue, knowledge. And to knowledge, temperance. And to temperance, patience. And to patience, godliness. And to godliness, brotherly kindness.

And to brotherly kindness, charity. So he says there's some things that we're to know. A faith that knows, then a faith that grows.

Once you get this, you don't stop there. Because I've told you before, if you cease to be better, you cease to be good. If you're not a growing Christian, you're set up to fall. Now you've got to know Jesus Christ intimately, and then you have to make it your purpose to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now these words that I have given to you will be a good checklist right now for you to check yourself and ask yourself, am I a growing Christian?

Now let's just look at this list, and there's a checklist. First of all, he speaks of virtue. Do you see that in verse 5? And besides all of this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue. Now, virtue is a word that we don't use a whole lot today.

So let me give you another word for that, strength, strength. Now, when Jesus was touched by that woman and had that issue of blood, the Bible says that virtue went out of him. It doesn't mean that goodness went out of him. Goodness went from him, but not out of him.

He was no less good after she touched him than he was before she touched him. When the Bible says virtue went out of him, it means that strength went out of him. So you take your faith and add to your faith strength because you need strength. Babies are weak, but as babies grow, they get stronger. Would you describe yourself as a strong Christian? You can tell the strength of a man by what it takes to stop him, the strength of a woman by what it takes to stop her.

All right, we just give you a test now to see whether your faith is growing. First of all, there's virtue or strength. Then he says add to this knowledge in verse 5.

Now, that means practical insight and intimate knowledge. Just because you know the Lord and know him intimately, sing, oh, to know him more, to love him more. In the Christian life, there's nothing to earn, but there's a lot to learn. And then add to your strength, add knowledge, and then to add to that, temperance. Verse 6, that word temperance means self-control. Proverbs 16 verse 32, He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his own spirit, than he that taketh the city.

Proverbs 25 and verse 8, Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbor hath put thee to shame. Both of these verses talk about keeping yourself in control. Now, babies not only are weak, but babies often are out of control. And babies get into tantrums, and they cannot be controlled.

They have to be corralled. If you have any babies, you know that is true. Are you in control? How about your sexual desires? How about your appetite for food? How about your sleep? How about your recreation?

How about your quiet time? Now look, you add virtue or strength. You add knowledge or wisdom, intimate understanding. Then you add temperance or self-control. And then on that, verse 6, he mentions patience.

That means steadfastness. Are you a patient person? Traffic jams?

Lose your keys? Long lines? Late airplanes?

Flat tires? Interruptions? Why do these things happen? I spill something and hit it with my hand. Went all over my stuff on my desk. Ran all over into my papers that I had all stacked up there and eating everything. Why, God? What purpose is all of that?

Why would that happen? Then I just thought, praise you, Lord. Thank you, God. God bless me. Thank you, Lord, for that. If for no other reason, just to help develop my patience. My patience. Things happen to us that are totally, you can't explain them.

They have to be unexplainable in order to make sense. What I mean by that is, if we can just praise God for the unexplainable, then we understand really what real patience is. And you see, what he's talking about here, primarily though, is endurance under persecution. These people were getting ready to be persecuted. And some of us have already endured some persecution. And if you're just a Bible-believing Christian in today's world, you're going to be under some persecution, some trouble.

Let me tell you something. If the persecution comes from God, I mean, if the pressure comes from God, if the troubles come from God, if the heartaches come from God, if the tears come from God, if the trials come from God, praise him. He means you no harm. You say, but what about if it comes from the devil? Then by all means, praise God.

Why? Do you know if the devil persecutes me and it causes me to praise God, the devil might stop it? I mean, say, hey, I'm causing him to praise God. I'd better stop that.

When I was president of Southern Baptist Convention, I took a stand for the Bible and the word of God to help our convention to come back to its roots. And I tell you, I got some real vilification. I got some slings and arrows.

I developed a little trick. When anybody would say anything about me and I would analyze it, it's not come from the Lord, it's come from the devil, it's false, it's for Jesus' sake, I would take it, I'd bring it over here to the Lord and say, Lord, you see this? It's all because of you.

I wouldn't be getting all this if it hadn't been for you. And so Lord, I take it now and I give it to you as a praise, as an offering. And friend, the meaner the thing was, the sweeter the offering, the more to give to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, and if you don't do anything else, you just build a wall of praise that the devil can't get through. Just praise God no matter what happens when it comes to you. Just add that patience or that steadfastness and then add to that godliness. Look in verse six, that means godlikeness.

When people see you, they ought to be reminded of Jesus. And then he says, brotherly kindness. That's very interesting because Simon Peter by nature was not given to brotherly kindness.

He was a debater and an arguer. One of the great evidences of the new birth is that you're kind. Little girl said, God make all the bad people good and all the good people nice. And then add to that charity or sacrificial love in verse seven. That's what that means. Friend, you can't imitate these things and you can't manufacture them. These are the fruit of the Spirit.

And you use these things as a checklist to say, am I growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Billy Sunday, and I often quote Billy Sunday. Billy Sunday was the Billy Graham of his day.

He was very flamboyant. Billy Sunday would do all kinds of things with a former baseball player. Sometimes Billy Sunday would be preaching and he'd talk about repentance.

He'd do a back flip on the platform. Sometimes he'd talk about fighting the devil or take a pulpit chair and break it on the pulpit. If you're a young embryonic theologian and a budding preacher, don't do that. But Billy Sunday did that. But when Billy Sunday was a young man, somebody told Billy Sunday this. He said, William, if you will do these three things in every day of your life, they will never write backslider after your name. Three things.

They are so simple. I want you to listen to what this man told Billy Sunday. And Billy Sunday said, I practiced these all of my life. He said, first of all, spend 15 minutes a day letting God talk to you through the Bible. Number two, spend 15 minutes a day talking to God in prayer. Number three, spend at least 15 minutes a day talking to someone else about God. Simple.

You say, oh, it ought to be more deep, it ought to be more... Listen, that is so simple and I thought about that. Now you say, well, I think I ought to spend more than 15 minutes a day in prayer.

Okay, spend 10 hours. I don't care. But most folks are not spending an honest 15 minutes a day in the Bible letting God speak to them. They're not spending an honest 15 minutes a day talking to God and they're certainly not spending an honest 15 minutes a day talking to somebody else about Jesus Christ.

Billy Sunday said, I practiced that and when he came to the end of his life, nobody ever wrote backslider after his name. Now, we need a faith that knows, epigonosis, to know, to know, to know intimately. Then a faith that grows. Add to your faith, virtue. Add to your faith, knowledge. Add to your faith these things. Don't be satisfied. Are you a growing Christian?

Because remember, to cease to be better is to cease to be good. We're to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior. Now, here's the third and final thing. A faith that knows, a faith that grows, and a faith that shows. Look if you will in verse 8 now. For if these things be in you and abound, they shall make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, writher brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.

For if you do these things, ye shall never fall. Now, how does it show? I mean, if I know and I grow, how will it show?

Well, may I mention three ways? First of all, you'll no longer be barren. Look in verse 8. They will make you that ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful. There's going to be fruit in your life.

You're going to begin to reproduce. Don't tell me how deeply spiritual you are, how much you love Jesus, if you're unfruitful. Don't tell me you're a growing Christian if you're unfruitful. Jesus said, if you abide in me, you'll bring forth fruit. How much real fruit is there in your life? Now, the fruit of an apple tree is an apple.

Now, are we reproducing ourselves? Is the fruit of the Spirit in my life, in your life? He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off. He can't see his future and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. He's no longer thankful for what God has done for him.

Friend, wake up and say, dear God, thank you for saving me from my rotten, filthy sins. What would I be? Dear God, what would I be without Jesus?

I know what I am by nature. If I were in business, I'd probably be crooked. I would be selfish. I'd be proud. I'd be arrogant.

I'd be self-centered, be on the road to hell. Friend, have you ever stopped to think about what Jesus has done for you, how he has saved you by his grace, how he keeps you day by day? But listen, don't be blind to what God has done for you. When you have a faith, a faith that knows and a faith that grows, it's a faith that shows it will not be barren, it will not be blind, and it will not be bewildered. Look in verse 10.

Wherefore, the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure. That doesn't mean from God's viewpoint. God knows. God's not saying, well, I just wonder what his situation is.

No. God knows. He's talking about your knowing. Nobody is ever going to be a strong Christian that does not have a deep assurance, knows that he's called, and can say, I know that I know that I know that I'm saved. Or you say, Pastor Rogers, I don't know that I'm saved. I've got serious doubts that I'm saved. I have two things to say to you. Number one, if you made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and you do not have a real assurance of your salvation, one of two things is true about you, one of three things.

I'll put another one in there just to give a little wiggle room. Number one, most likely there's unconfessed, unrepentant of sin in your life. If you say that you're saved and you don't have knowledge, you don't have that assurance.

Number two, you don't have that knowledge because you don't deserve it. You're not saved. You're lost and on the road to hell. Number three, you may have some doubt just because you don't really understand totally the message of grace.

But most likely it's one of the first two things. There's some unconfessed, unrepentant of sin in your life. If you have problems with doubt, deal with sin. The Bible says beware lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. Unbelief never comes out of the head.

It comes out of the heart, and it comes out of an evil heart. Deal with sin. There's nothing more debilitating, more stultifying to assurance than sin in the heart. By the way, if your lifestyle is sin, you have no reason to say, I know I'm saved. I hear people say, well, I know I'm not living right, but I know I'm saved.

I say, oh yeah? How can a person just say, oh, I'm not living right. I'm living in sin, but I know I'm saved.

By what right? You're not saved by good works. But friend, if you can casually, carelessly, contemptuously just go on in sin, you better put a question mark there. Now, sometimes a person is saved and say, you know, I just wonder if I am saved. Maybe they've been dappling in sin somewhere.

Get your heart clean and clear. And if that still doesn't do it, if you confess and get right with God and you still have these doubts, it just may be that you've never been saved at all. But if you will have a faith that knows, get this personal knowledge, this epigonosis, and then once you get that faith, put yourself in a growing mode and have a faith that grows and grows. May I give you a testimony? I am a growing Christian.

You say, well, aren't you full of yourself? No. There'd be something wrong with me if I were not a growing Christian. Do you think because I'm a mature man and a minister that I have arrived?

No. I am a growing Christian. I want to continue to grow all of my life. And I don't care who you are, how many degrees you have, what you teach or how you sing, if you're not growing, you're going to fall. You're to grow. You are to know and you're to grow. And if you have a faith that knows and a faith that grows, it'll be a faith that shows. And Peter says, if these things be in you, you will not fall. People say, oh, did you hear what happened to so-and-so like they caught the flu or something? It just happened.

It doesn't just happen. God did not engineer you to failure. You don't have to fall. Let me tell you how you need to go into heaven. Look in verse 11, and I'm finished. He says, ye shall never fall, for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You know how I want to go to heaven? I want to go to heaven with the flags unfurled. I want to go to heaven with the trumpets blaring. I don't want to be hauled into heaven by the wrecking crew.

I want to have an abundant entrance, don't you? Amen. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with Him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org, or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.