Scott Wiley here, the Executive Director of Wisdom International. We're celebrating our 25th anniversary this year. What began as a radio programme in a single city has grown into a global ministry now in sixteen languages. We're hosting a banquet to celebrate all that the Lord has done and you're invited. Please visit wisdomonline.org slash twenty-five.
That's wisdomonline.org slash twenty-five. There's a link in the show notes. And now here's Stephen with today's message from Wisdom for the Heart. You know, I couldn't help but think. The Christian life is Like boarding a raft, didn't it?
Yeah, yeah. Going down class eight. rapids. And if you've been a believer long enough, You know. That's true.
It probably took you about three days to figure that out. That Christianity didn't smooth out the water. It became rough. Whitewater. God never promised us uh Yeah.
Smooth sailing. He promised us a safe landing, right? Peter is attempting to encourage. his original readers and all of us to not give up. to stay in the race.
And I open with an illustration that I thought would be just fitting for this text for today. An illustration taken from the writings of a pastor who With his brothers, they grew up in the mission field and they decided to travel to Zimbabwe. They had, for years, wanted to do some whitewater rafting on the Zambezi River. The Zambezi is famous because at one point on its journey to the Indian Ocean, it It uh becomes, it flows over the Victoria Falls, the largest falls in the world.
Okay. And it creates The dangerous white water, they were going to begin rafting at the base of Victoria. False. He writes about his experience with his brothers. Massive amounts of water I pour over the top of the giant falls, dropping nearly 1,000 feet.
The roar is deafening. After cascading over the falls, the water rushes down the gorge in torrents. creating the largest rapids anywhere in the world. In the United States, the highest class rapid you can legally raft on is a class five. The Zambezi Whitewater Rapids can reach Class VIII.
I don't really know what that means, but it sounds really, really dangerous to me. He writes, This trip was not for the faint of heart. Already nervous. And fearful, I was eventually suited up in a tight overstuffed jacket Life preserver. A thick Crash helmet.
On my head. As I sat on the edge of this eight-person raft, I wondered if it was really that dangerous. Then the guy began to speak, and I heard him say.
Now when the raft flips over, I said, wait. He didn't say if. But when The raft flips over. Stay in the rough. White water.
You will be tempted to swim toward the quiet water at the edge of the banks of the river. Don't do it. It's in the calm stagnant waters at the river's edge where Crocodiles are waiting. It really is.
So when your raft flips over Stay. in the rough water. He goes on to make an application that We can easily understand that stagnant waters are more dangerous than white water. The believer might not want to stay in the rough waters of service or suffering. But the rough water, he writes, is actually a place of God's protection.
where our trust is strengthened. We must resist the temptation to swim. to where it seems safe and calm. Stagnant waters. Are where Deadly enemies are watching.
And waiting. You know, I couldn't help but think. The Christian life is Like boarding a raft, didn't it? Edmund. Going down class eight.
rapids. And if you've been a believer long enough, You know That's true. It probably took you about three days to figure that out. that Christianity didn't smooth out the water. It became rough.
Whitewater. God never promised us uh Smooth sailing. He promised us a safe landing, right? Well, the Apostle Peter is about to give us some tour guide instructions. In the text before us, And I kind of view it as, you know, what to do in white water.
Out of handle. Fast-moving rapids.
So I invite your attention back to 2 Peter. Where we're in chapter one. And now, verses three and four are going to conclude. Here's Opening comments. I view verses three and four as the conclusion of his initial.
Insights.
Now in our last study in verse two Peter wrote out that prayer request he had for his readers and for us, so let's get a running start there. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God. And of Jesus our Lord.
Now you could translate verse 3 to begin with the word seeing that, or seeing this, or in light of this. In other words, grace and peace can be multiplied throughout your journey in life.
Now, in light of that goal, In line of the direction you're now heading, Let me give you two assurances. Here's the first assurance. The provision of God equips us on this journey of godly integrity. Seeing that His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life. And godliness.
Stop there for a moment.
Now remember, Peter's writing to people who are experiencing what we could call Class VIII rapids. The pressure is building. Their lives aren't easy. They've been displaced. He's writing to people in modern day Turkey.
Many of them have moved. Many of them are. on the run as it were. It's a challenge for them, and persecution is beginning to coalesce. around these people called Christians.
It's as if Peter wants them to focus on the people. on this assurance. What God has provided, it's as if He says, never mind what you would like. Think about what you already have. Yeah.
Power. You could translate it. God's Divine dynamic. The Greek word gives us our word dynamite or dynamite. Because of God's dynamic.
Tower. You have everything you need. It's been granted. To you. You might note that verb.
That verb for granted has this idea of a Of a bestowal, a regal sense of being. granted something from a royal hand. Back to what I study this sex immediately thought of the program marcia and i watched some time ago where Queen Elizabeth invited to Buckingham Palace Ordinary British citizens Or she honored them. She put a ribbon around their neck. honoring them for their service.
And among them was a farmer. A shepherd. A teacher a civil servant, and they were granted this honor. From the hand of the queen. In a sense, that's the idea.
Our sovereign king. Our Lord has granted, has bestowed on who? Us, Peter writes, ordinary Christians, all of us. Who are believers today, we've received this grant. This royal bestowal.
to help us. Equip us. Let me tell you, this is more than a ribbon. Around your neck. This is divine provision.
For the rest of your life, the tense of the verb lets us know that these are permanent bestowals. This is permanently granted to us. That's encouraging. Because God isn't saying then, Peter isn't describing God as saying, maybe one day, hey, you know, you didn't do a very good job teaching this year like you did last year, or you weren't a very good civil servant, or you didn't serve me like you did, you know, last month or last year, you know, with the same energy or passion. I want the ribbon back.
Now this is permanent. It comes with the package. A big believer. This royal grant. From God, but just as Queen Elizabeth wanted to encourage these ordinary citizens.
God wants to encourage us. Stay at it. You're living a life of godly integrity, he writes. Uh godliness, life Which is godliness. Godliness simply refers to a worshipful attitude.
toward God. It's a God-focused attitude. in life. You get up in the morning and you begin the conversation. You talk to him throughout the day.
You're encouraged by something you've read. from his his word. It's just focusing A godlike focus. In life. And he tells us, by the way, how godliness is developed.
Verse 3. Notice the middle part. Through the knowledge of him. who called us to his own glory and excellence.
So he repeats this idea from verse 2. That the more we come to know Jesus Christ, And you find him in the word. You don't make it up. You can talk to people out there on the street and say, Yeah, I know Jesus and I know God.
Well, let him describe him, and it has nothing to do with the Bible. This is the disclosure of who he is.
So the more you come to know him through his word, the more you come to know who he really is, the more you come to know what he's really done. For you, who you are in Him, what He's given you, the more you grow. in that kind of knowledge.
Well, the more you're gonna focus less, on what he hasn't granted you. and appreciate what he has. Granted you. His dynamic in your life to help you. Survive that white water rafting journey through life.
So, if I can boil down this opening assurance to this point. Peter's effectively saying that every Christian has been granted everything they need from God. to walk with God.
So, you know what Peter is also saying in that, by implication? He's saying This is to these original believers who don't have it easy. But he's saying, God has provided to us all, every one of us, everything we need for a life of godliness. And that means, in blunt terms, none of us have any excuse for living anything less than a God-focused life. There's there's no out here.
From the very beginning. of your Christian experience, coming to faith in Christ. Peter's saying God's provided everything you need for a life of godliness. The resources are there. The question is: are we applying the resources?
to our lives, and that's a daily. Decision. J. Alan Blair writes in his commentary on this text about a Welsh woman. who was living in a remote valley in Wales.
And along with all the others in her village, they didn't have electricity. For quite some time. And so they would light their kerosene lamps. at night to provide Lighting.
Well, eventually and through you know much difficulty Power uh lines eventually made it down into her valley and Connected. to the homes in her village, in her own home, for the first time. had electricity. But three months after her her power meter. had barely moved.
You know, not like mine, it just keeps, you know, it's like a fan, a ceiling fan, or yours too.
Well, you know, they wondered, you know, what's going on, and so they contacted her to see if her lights were working. And she replied, Oh, yes. I switch on the lights every night so I can see the light my kerosene lamp. And then I switch it back off. Wow.
Well, there's an image of the believer who has that power. Within the dynamic of God, resources. And are we going to flip the switch on today? We get to activate, so to speak. as we surrender to him.
And focus on him and live for him. Today.
So here's the first assurance for the journey. On the white water of life. Number one, the provision of God equips us on this journey of godly integrity. Here's the second assurance. The promise of God, the promises of God, encourage us on this journey to final.
Victory. Because I ought to write in verse 4. By which he has granted to us his precious. And very great promises. You might underline, by the way, in your Bible, the repetition of that word granted.
There it is again. This is a bestowal. This isn't something you have to earn. You have it. You got it.
From the hand of divine royalty, you have had bestowed upon you. These precious Promises.
Well, Peter doesn't list them. But if you ransack your Bible, you'll come up with more than you can Ever claiming a day.
Well, you've got the promises of eternal salvation. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's a promise you're depending on forever. You've got promises of daily forgiveness. Because daily we fail him.
1 John 1:9, written to Christians. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from unrighteousness. That keeps that fellowship. Clean and open with our Lord. You're not getting saved over and over again, but you're having restored fellowship.
Over and over again. What a great promise. Promise of God's guidance. Psalm 32.8, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. Promises of God's wisdom for living.
James 1:5. If you lack wisdom, ask God, He'll give it to you. And he won't reproach you for asking. Oh, here he comes again. Here she comes again.
No. He'll never reproach you, you ask. He'll give it to you. When you need it, promises of God's presence. I will never leave you nor forsake you, and on and on and on.
He refers to these promises as. Precious. That's a favorite word of... This burly fisherman. Precious.
You can translate it priceless. He also, you'll notice, cause them here very great. Promises. He's giving it to us in the most exaggerated terms possible, because that's how we ought to feel about it. In fact, in the original text.
of the Greek scriptures, it's has the word mega. built into it. Mega. Greatest. You could translate this, these mega promises, these are the greatest of all time.
Promises. The greatest of all time. Yeah. I found that in the Greek text. I immediately thought about that football game I watched a little bit ago.
Oh. Aaron Rodgers. was the quarterback. He's 41 years old now. And you know, many thought he was finished.
But he's now playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, having a pretty good season.
So far, Uh uh I'm I'm not a Steelers fan. If you are Yeah. Find another church, as far as I'm concerned. You know, when I I just love to see an old man doing well. I mean, it's kind of like, oh, please don't get hurt, you know?
So I was watching it. But at one point, a fan was shown, holding a big placard. It said Aaron Rodgers equals Goat. Right? G-O-A-T.
And that means greatest of all time. I don't know, there's some debate about that. You might feel that way, but that goat. Acronym is now being used, you know, for some NASCAR driver, hockey player, basketball player, whatever. And there's a lot of debate about, you know, do they really.
Do they really deserve it? There's disagreement, debate. I gotta tell you. Uh the world out there You talk to them about the promises of God. These are the greatest of all time promises, and they'll go, oh.
Oh, I don't think so. But for those of us They've come to life in Christ. Is there anything greater than salvation? Eternal life? Is there anything greater than forgiveness?
Is there anything greater than his wisdom? For life? Is there anything greater than his Promise of Being with us, I'll never leave you. You got that. That was bestowed on you.
That's salvation. Easy to forget that in the white water. of life.
Now, what Peter's going to do And I wanted to cover two verses just to shock you. What he's going to do here is. Tell us that This is going to produce two results. In our lives, the first result is that we're going to experience the character of Christ. Notice the middle part of verse 4.
So that through them, the antecedent is, the promises of God. You May become partakers of the divine nature.
Now he's writing to Christians. That you may become this you may become partakers in the divine nature. That that refers to this ongoing development, this ongoing growth in understanding. The richness. The pricelessness.
of these Promises.
Now, we don't become Divine. Yeah. That's salvation. Just talk to our wives. We don't become little gods.
There's no divine spark. We just No. We did receive not a divine nature, but at salvation we received a new nature, didn't we? We have the old one. We have the new one, and as new creations, Paul writes, old things are passing away.
Behold, all things are becoming new. 2 Corinthians 5:17.
So as we grow up in the faith, we start acting like our Father. Like a child. Where'd they get that accent? Mom and dad. Where'd they get that appetite?
Mom and dad. There They're partaking, as it were, the nature.
So also we are partaking of His divine nature. It might be helpful for you to know that the word partake, partakers is koinonas. You may be familiar with the word koinonia. It means fellowship with, sharing. We are sharing in the likeness of Christ as we grow in him.
Well, how do you know? If you're sharing in his nature, sharing in the likeness of his nature. What that means then is, as Christians, new creations in Christ, as we grow to share in the likeness of the nature of Christ. Guess what happens to our associations? It changed.
Where are you comfortable?
Now we have friends who are unbelievers, and there's a reason for that. But where do you just feel at home? Places like this. With believing. Friends.
Our environment. Changes. Where do you want to hang out? It changes. Our behavior.
Changes. We learn to talk differently. Learn to think differently. R. Appetite changes.
What did we really want? What satisfies us? That's the first result of these promises. We are experiencing The character of Christ. The second result is this.
We escape the corruption. of the world. He writes at the end of verse 4: Having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of Lust upon lust, you could translate it, because of sinful desire. It refers to the evil passions of the human heart. Heart, you could translate it craving.
Illicit Craving. And he he doesn't pull any punches here and Saying that We as believers can get caught. We need to keep escaping. Ultimately, there will be the final escape from the very presence of sin. In the meantime, it's a battle all along the way.
But he's. Giving us a picture of what we might be craving. And it's not a very pretty picture. He uses a word for corruption that's used for a decomposing organism. It conveys the idea of utter ruin.
A total Decay. The world. Peter uses here as a reference to the unredeemed human race. The Apostle John defines the human race. By calling it the world, the desires of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the Pride.
of life.
Desires less than pride. That's the world. We still have that old nature that panders. to that. But he just pulls off the mask.
He says, look what you're craving after. What you're longing after, what you're lusting for, is actually a decaying. decomposing Hutred. Destructive lifestyle that will lead to Total ruin. For the believer.
Peter writes When you say no, You escape. Calov is dramatic language. You don't just walk away from sin. You don't just say no to that sin. You don't just say no to that temptation.
Peter says you're escaping. This decomposing Crap. Of sin, the greedy, grimy, clutches of sin. It doesn't look greedy. It doesn't look grimy.
I mean, it looks new and shiny and exciting. Interesting. Oh, but it's dangerous. Whenever you resist the temptation to sin, you are literally escaping. Christians are escapees.
Satan hates this. He he hates escaping. He's after you. Peter will write. He's like a lion.
is hungry. Roaming around. seeking someone to discredit. That's not the unbeliever, by the way. He has them.
He wants to discredit you. And me. He can't have your soul. as a believer. But he could ruin your testimony.
He can sideline you. He can get you on the shelf.
So to speak, he can convince you to get out of that white water. Oh, look at over here, this is calm. It's it's quiet. Oh. It's a trap.
Whitewater Is part of God's design to develop us. But also to protect us. Calm water can be stagnant. where greater enemies are waiting. For you And me.
The idea of escaping here has its final victory when we're glorified, when we're free from the presence of sin. There's a sense here in Peter's letter, is writing, this is a daily. Victory. This is this is uh one Escape After Another. As you trust the provision of God.
Let me simplify these verses. In one statement. God doesn't give us what we can handle. He empowers us to handle. what we've been given.
That's really another way of saying sometimes he gives us more than we can handle. Maybe that's how you're feeling today. But. He has granted to us all that's necessary to handle. what we've been given.
How? By trusting in his Provision. Clinging. to these greatest of all time. Promises.
So let's suit up. Hey, grab your crash helmet. You enter the world. and the white water of life. That was Stephen Davey, and this is Wisdom for the Heart, a production of Wisdom International.
Learn more. at wisdomonline.org. Mm-hmm.
