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.
Now, this is an election year. We're going to hear a lot of politicians talk a lot about their values. It might not be virtuous. A politician might value a woman's right to an abortion for convenience. They might value a child's right to transgender without you being informed.
They might think it's valuable to have same-sex marriage. They might value an evolutionary curriculum for third graders. But God defines virtue, right? From Raw. The question is not how long.
Are you gonna live? The question is how? Are you going to live? The real question isn't how can you live a long life? The real question is, how can you live a meaningful life?
No matter how long it is. What if I told you that the Bible has a supplement program. To strengthen. The saint. No matter how old you are, there is a divinely inspired supplement program that is guaranteed to make your life better.
Meaningful. In fact, it gives this, I find it, a rather astonishing. Guarantee. Not a sales pitch either. It's a very good idea.
Did you could live a fulfilling life?
well lived, fruitful, Effective Life.
Well, the Apostle Peter delivers the guarantee.
So go back to 2 Peter. Chapter 1 And you can read this with me. And let me tell you this this It doesn't have anything to do with candy or chocolate. It has to do with a lifelong development. By surrendering to the hand of God.
I want to read. For you, what I want to call seven supplements that guarantee spiritual strength.
Now, we'll unpack it over the next few weeks, but for now, let's just read through the shopping list. It begins at verse Five. He's finished his introductory comments.
Now he's into his exhortation. For this Very reason. Make every effort to supplement Your faith with virtue. And virtue with knowledge. and knowledge with self-control.
and self-control with steadfastness. and steadfastness with godliness. and godliness with brotherly affection. and brotherly affection with love.
Now get this guarantee. For if these qualities, these supplements he just rattled off, are yours and are increasing. That is, this is the direction in which you're heading. They will keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge Of our Lord Jesus Christ. You want a life that's meaningful?
Fruitful, effective. Here's God's guaranteed supplement program. He guaranteed it. It's guaranteed. If you have these supplements added to your life, you will not be unfruitful or ineffective.
No matter how old you are. In fact, if you want to see an even more stunning guarantee. The latter part of verse 10, he writes this: If you practice these qualities, these supplements, You will never Fall. Wow. You will never Fall.
Now, the word here for fall is not the word for apostasy. He's talking to believers. He's not talking about abandoning. The faith. He's talking about living a meaningless life.
You could render the word fall to that of living a wretched. Miserable life.
So here's the supplement program that keeps you from. Living a wretched, self-centered. Unfruitful Miserable Life.
Now with that, I'd want to know what it is because I want to sign up.
So let's go back. To verse five. and begin To understand it. Peter writes, For this very Reason. Make every effort to supplement.
your faith. I want you to notice he's not telling his readers to get faith. or to have faith. Because they already have it. He's writing to believers.
Faith is the foundation for their salvation. Peter's already told us back in verse 1 that we have been given the gift of saving faith. that began our Christian life. He tells us that we have salvation. Faith, saving faith, through Christ, verse 1.
Then we have already the provisions for life and godliness through God's power. That's verse 3. And then he told us that we have already the promises of God for life and eternity. Verse 4.
Well, an author says it's like God has deposited all the gold bullion in the bank. With our name on the account that we're going to need to live our lives for Him. But we have to go and withdraw it. And apply it. And that's the point he's now going to make.
For this reason, because God has given you all these resources at salvation. Don't stop there. You haven't been saved. to just wait for the undertaker. There's a life that you can live.
You've been given the gift of faith that brought you to life.
Now, Peter gives you seven supplements so that you can fully live that Christian life and escape. A self-centered life of misery. Let me put it this way. Faith is the foundation. of your Christianity.
These seven supplements are the demonstration. of your Christianity. So you never want to be satisfied with stopping with the foundation. You were saved by faith in Christ. Just don't stop there.
If you've ever built a house, We did. We've been living in it now for... More than 25 years.
Well, if you've built one, you you know the the process and They finally poured the footings and then they poured that cement slab. And you went out there and looked at it and your first thought was, it's so tiny. It looks so small.
Well, Nobody's ever told the builder, and we certainly didn't tell ours. You know, you know, look. This is perfect. You can stop. I've always wanted to live on a cement pad.
I've always wanted to live on the foundation, so I'm going to bring my sleeping bags, my family and I, out here. I'll bring a little Coleman stove and get a little rocking chair. And this is great.
Now this is the starting point. It's time to build The structure. See, in Peter's inspired perspective, faith is That's the beginning. And that's something God has done for you.
Now this supplement program is something you do. For God. One author writes here that Peter's perspective. On the Christian life is like the steering wheel of a car. God has provided the car.
Uh there's a powerful engine in it. It's got gasoline in the tank. And he's given you The daily decision In life to turn the wheel. Peter is emphasizing the simple fact that even God And gonna steer a parked car. You got to get it going.
You turn it on, it's got the power all ready for you, and then you steer it.
Now, if you're older in the faith, in fact, if you're younger in the faith, it might be a little confusing to you as you read the Bible, but if you're older in the faith, you've recognized that there are passages where everything seems to be God's responsibility. And then there are passages where it seems like You have all the responsibility.
Well, that's this passage. And I think it's Wonderful to recognize that a balanced biblical view of the Christian life is one of cooperation. with God. Between you and God. For instance, his word is promised that it's going to protect us from sin.
It's going to encourage us. It's going to guide us. God isn't going to get you up in the morning. Turn to the passage you want you to read and stick your nose in it. You've got to do that.
That's your responsibility.
So, this supplement program is something you must steer, as it were, your life. And that's why Peter's emphasizing our responsibility. Take notice. The next phrase in verse five, I've emphasized it. For this very reason, Make Every Effort.
to supplement your faith. Make every effort. It's one word in the original language, and it refers to a number of things. It refers to earnestness. It refers to Being focused.
being intentional. Developing a godly life, building that Godly Structure is never accidental. It's intentional.
Well, look, that wall got framed. I wonder how that happened overnight.
Now, somebody was at work. One author writes that Peter is telling us to bring, he writes, bring into your walk with Christ every ounce of determination you can muster. Not so that you can be saved. That's already assumed by Peter. Let me tell you, this supplement program was something every Christian just automatically did.
Peter wouldn't be exhorting us to do it. And he would be warning us if we don't. It's possible. for the Christian. to waste their lives.
And we can't blame God. This is why you find one passage after another exhorting the believer in the New Testament, like the Apostle Paul did. He said, I beseech you, I am begging you. He's writing into believers. I beg you.
Present your bodies a living sacrifice to God. Give it to him every day. And don't be pressed into the mold of the world, Williams writes. Don't be conformed to this world. Which means you can be.
Don't. But instead, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
So that you'll discover that the will of God for your life is perfect and acceptable. Romans 12, 1 and 2. If this divinely ordered supplement program was something every Christian signed up for, Peter wouldn't be warning us that if we refused it, we would leave. ineffective, we'd lead ineffective, unfruitful lives, and we would be heading. for a fall.
Now, with that kind of warning and that kind of wonderful guarantee, it makes me want to take the first supplement. Where do I sign up?
Well, Peter also uses this word to encourage us even further because making every effort. originally referred to making haste. Moving fast. It's like Peter's a coach and he's shouting out to his players: come on. Keep moving.
Do it. There's urgency. Built into this word. Same idea of Paul, who wrote to the Thessalonians: Look, I want you to pray for me that the word of God may speed ahead. We have plans.
We want to move forward. We don't want to piddle around. There's a sense of urgency. Let's get moving. Here.
Urgency in the biblical sense doesn't mean you're panicking, it means you're purposeful. In fact, biblical urgency might lead you sometimes to just stop. Yeah. And wait. But there's this sense, Lord.
I don't want to waste my life. I want to apply it. in the right way.
So these seven Supplements are given. In that regard. By the way, you ought to know that these seven supplements are not. Sequential. In other words, you don't master the first one and then move to the second one, and when you get that one nailed down, you move to the third one.
This is the direction you're heading. And you'll never master all seven. This isn't perfection. This is intention. This is progression.
All right, so let's go back to verse five and let's look at the first one. We'll cover just one. For this very reason. Make every effort to supplement your faith. with virtue.
Peter begins with a description of something that's very important. Good. He says, add goodness. Add what's right. To your faith.
Bring it alongside your faith. Your faith assumes you already have it.
Now, with a definite article, add this to it. Bring it alongside. A supplement that's actually good for you. You might think that Pearl dust is good for you. We don't know yet.
But God has told us what's good for us in His Word.
So without Him, we have no objective standard. But He's given us His objective standard for what is virtuous. What is right What is good Because what you think is good and what I think is good might not be good. It might not be good for us. In fact, we can justify just about anything, can't we?
And all the while. Be taking in something that's not good. I remember as a little boy, I was around the age of four, I think three and a half into four. My older brother was five and a half. at the time and he wasn't feeling well so my mother gave him That little orange aspirin, you old enough to remember those?
Tasted like orange candy. And uh she gave it to him, and then she put that bottle in the medicine cabinet there in the bathroom. And He watched her. Do it. Well, we shared a bedroom.
And um That night We were just talking. Instead of sleeping. And he informed me that he knew. where some candy was being stored. And that intrigued me, of course.
So we got out of bed. We went to the bathroom. He climbed up. I can still see him climbing up. on the counter, reaching into that medicine cabinet.
and pulling out that bottle. It was fall. We split it right down the middle. And went back to bed. But fell asleep.
Well, my grandmother was spending the night At our home that night, And she woke up Around one or two o'clock in the morning, use the bathroom. We only had one bathroom in our little house. She went in and she found that empty bottle of aspirin lying in the sink. She immediately figured out She knew. My older brother.
was trying to kill me. That's the way I interpret it. The next thing I remember, and I can still feel it, I was on a cold metal table. in the emergency room having my stomach pumped out and my brother was in the on a metal table next to me. I thought it was good.
Tasted good. But it was deadly. And if my grandmother had not been there that night, By the grace of God. I would not have Grown up and become your pastor. And I'm glad she was there.
You see, what someone values Is it necessarily Virtuous. Did you know there's a big difference between a value And a virtue? I valued that aspirin. I wanted that aspirin. I thought that was good.
It was it was tasty. What's wrong with it? But what I valued wasn't good for me. At all. You know, this is an election year.
We're going to hear a lot of politicians talk a lot about their values. What they consider. Valuable. It might not be virtuous. A politician might value a woman's right.
to an abortion for Convenience. They might value a child's right to transgender without You being informed. They might think it's valuable to have same-sex marriage. That's a valuable thing for our country. They might value an evolutionary curriculum for third graders.
They think that's the best thing for them to learn. They value that. But values aren't necessarily Virtues. We make our own set of values. But God defines virtue, right?
From wrong.
Now, this word, interestingly enough, was also used in Peter's day for something they considered excellent. One Greek scholar I was reading. Wrote that the basic meaning of the word in the first century was for someone who stood out by means of their excellence. Whatever they did, Whatever their job was, they pursued a standard. of excellence.
In fact, they would use that word for Just about anything that fulfilled its purpose with With an outstanding merit. They'd call a horse that could run fast, an excellent horse. It was a horse with virtue. They would refer to a tool that was designed to do the right job, and it did it well. They'd call it a virtuous tool.
Tool. And excellent. Tool. One of my favorite tools around the house is super glue. I mean, that is a great tool.
Why it works?
So well So there is this broader sense in the mind of Peter that virtue Is a supplement where a believer will fulfill the role God has. Given them. They are devoting themselves to what God has given them to do. Whatever they have found to do with their hand, they are doing it with all their might. Ecclesiastes 9 verse 10.
No matter how mundane. What God may have Ordered for you, today is a sink full of dishes. Tomorrow, you might go to your shop and you've got a dozen cars to repair. How are you going to repair them when no one sees but God? He had a report to write.
What are you going to put into that? You have a Sunday school class to teach. How'd you prepare? To get by? Or the standard of excellence with determination and urgency and dedication and desire for excellence.
All that is bound up. in this supplement of Virtue. It's a loaded word. It encourages us to move forward, not just to reach a minimum standard, but to stand out. At that job.
In that home. with excellence. God would applaud that. Here's the supplement of Excellence, virtue. This is a virtuous.
Life. In his classic little book that I require my seminary students to read. By Howard Hendricks is entitled Teaching to Change Lives. He's a longtime professor at Dallas Seminary, now with the Lord. He told us in class, basically his notes became that book.
About how he went to a Sunday school convention. in Chicago. A number of years ago. He was one of the keynote Speakers with two other Uh men.
Well during the lunch break He and these other two speakers went across the street to a hamburger shop. to eat lunch and The place was full. Finally, a table for four opened up and And they saw an elderly lady there. She had the bag, she had the lantern. They knew she was from the same convention.
They invited her to sit with them. to fill out this table of four. She was 83 years of age. She lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She's from a little church.
And It had a Sunday school attendance. of 65 people. And for decades she had taught Fifth grade boys. She told them that she had traveled. Oh.
By Greyhound bus, all the way from the Upper Peninsula to Chicago the night before. It had taken all night.
So she could be there. Hendricks asked her why she had come to the convention. He writes, I will never forget her answer. She said, I have arrived here so that. I can become A better teacher.
Eighty-three years old. Taught for decades. I could do it better. I can pick up a few things here. I teach my students well.
She was pursuing the virtue of excellence.
Well, with that, you know, these three speakers are just now focusing on her, plying her with questions about her decades of teaching. And Hendricks writes that she spoke with humility and gratitude. She knew all her boys. By name. She had prayed for them.
She'd kept track of them as they went into high school and on to college. Then she said, quietly That 84 of her former students. We're now in full-time vocational ministry. And 22 of them had graduated from Dallas Seminary. A church with 65 students.
She had a hundred boys. In fact, Hendricks realized that he had been teaching Her boys. He was taking them. To the next step. Her passion had been to fulfill that particular assignment God had given her, and at 83, her standard of excellence, she's still pursuing it.
They're in that little church. That little classroom. I couldn't help but think that Boys are going to arrive to her classroom. And they'll have no idea. that they're about to meet.
A woman. A virtue. This is Peter's Encouragement. And warning. to have a focused Urgent passion for excellence no matter what It is so that we will not lead ineffective fruitful lives that lead us to Misery After a fall.
What has God assigned you? Today, no matter how mundane. How spectacular. What does he assign for you? Today.
What are you going to do tomorrow? The job. the office in the classroom. It's a home. Let me change the question.
If you were told that you had one month to live. What is it about your life? that you would change. What would you start doing? What would you stop doing?
But would you Bring it to your walk with Christ. What would you do differently tomorrow at work? at school. In the home. If you had one month left to live, what would you change?
What supplement? Would you pursue? Here's another question. What are you waiting for? That's his idea here.
Come on. He's writing to believers. Come on. In my vernacular, he's saying Teddle. to the battle.
Get moving. God has already deposited everything you need. Go withdraw it. and apply it. You're saved.
The foundation is poured. Don't stop with that. Build on it. Bring alongside your faith this supplement, this passion. For excellence, this virtuous desire to fulfill what.
God has Give it Yeah. Here, Peter. Applauding and the Spirit of God through him. When you decide. to do just that.
That was Stephen Davey, and this is Wisdom for the Heart, a production of Wisdom International. Learn more at wisdomonline.org. Mm-hmm.
