Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davy. Stephen has been teaching the Bible for over four decades, and we bring you these messages to help you know God, think biblically, and live wisely. Just before Stephen's message today, please take a moment to like and subscribe to this podcast. That helps more people find this biblically faithful teaching.
Now, here's Stephen. And by the way, I wouldn't be so bold as to suggest this if Peter hadn't written it down. Of all people, if anybody would rather say he didn't deserve anything, let's just move on. It'd be Peter. He never forgot that threefold denial.
You can bank on that. I have no doubt he never heard a rooster crow that he didn't remember that courtyard. A signature failure. Peter is convinced because of the gospel, where Paul says there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. That's the gospel.
None of these seven supplements are beyond the reach of. Every believer; these are our goals in life. We won't perfect them, but we will pursue them. What you simply have here is a practical definition for living for Christ. This is the Christian life.
Now, having studied all of that, it's it's not ironic to me to discover that he. And I want to rephrase them because what he's going to do is give us seven guarantees that follow these seven supplements.
So let me rephrase them, and then we'll look through the passage, and we will get to verse eleven. Here's the first guarantee: they will guard you from wasting your time. Verse eight. For these qualities, these supplements are yours, and are increasing. They keep you from being ineffective.
Now, the word Peter uses here for ineffective could be translated idle, idleness, a refusal to work. It's a reference to being inactive, uninvolved in in your Christian life, unconcerned about advancing the gospel. This this believer is is is choosing to sit it out. I'm going to sit out the race. Too much, too much of it's uphill.
I'm going to the sidelines. He slipped that gear shift into neutral. The engine's on, but is idling. Peter is saying, "You know, you're going to waste time that way. Pursue this, and it will guard you from wasting time." The second guarantee follows naturally.
Secondly, let me put it this way: these supplements will give you opportunities to demonstrate the character of Christ. These supplements will give you opportunities to demonstrate the character of Christ. He goes on to write in verse eight: "For if these qualities, these supplements, are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective, notice, or unfruitful." In the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, unfruitful carries the idea of unproductive. Unproductive means there's well, there's nothing to show for your Christianity. This is the challenge of James.
You ain't going to show anybody the reality of your Christianity by your faith. They can't see that. Let them see your works. You're saved by faith. You prove it by your works.
Unproductive living means there's nothing to show. You've heard it this way: If you were taken to court and accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? That's the idea. Would your coworkers be shocked if you told them tomorrow you're a Christian? Would your classmates be stunned?
To find out that you claim to be a Christian, it's the idea here. Practice these supplements, and I guarantee you will never need to be afraid of living a life that could be summed up as ineffective or unproductive.
Now it might feel like it at times, and there may be times of greater productivity than others. You're not going to pillow your head every night and say, "Man, was I effective today, or what? Was I productive?" No, you're glad nighttime came so you can interrupt a very unproductive day with some sleep. But let me tell you, according to God's word, as you pursue these supplements, no matter how you feel, no matter how you ebb and flow. He will sum it up as that was effective.
That was productive. In fact, you you forgot a lot of things you did or said. Just the encouragement of your presence to someone near you, rewardable. That note, that phone call, rewardable. Helping out in some way, rewardable.
You haven't even calculated it. Can't wait to congratulate you. Third, these supplements will provide spiritual guidance and perspective in life.
Now, this particular guarantee is coming from what I observe in the form of a warning. Notice verse nine: For whoever lacks these supplements, these qualities, is so nearsighted that he is blind. The word he uses here for Nearsighted is mupadzo. You know, need to write that down. It gives us our word myopic.
It it occurs only here in the entire New Testament, and in this context, it refers to a believer whose eyesight has begun to focus on things around, just around him, earthly things up close. He can't see the big picture. He doesn't see others. Just himself, his family, his job, his stuff. Peter adds the idea that he's effectively blind because of it.
That's strong language. What that means is he can't visualize what God is doing, not just out there, but but even in his own life. He's lost that perspective. He can't see down the road. He's blind to the reality of what God is doing.
Can't see God's hand at work. If you're reading through the Bible as I am, you've encountered now that signature event with Joseph. I love that account, don't you? Where his brothers show up to buy grain and they don't recognize him. He's the prime minister of Egypt.
He's dressed differently. His hair, everything's different. Every time I see a picture of him at that scene, he's got a great tan. Whatever that means, he's got a great tan.
Well, they're there bowing down to buy grain, and they don't recognize him. And finally, he can't hold back, and he stuns them in chapter forty-five with the news: "I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold." They're speechless. They're ready to panic. And then he says very quickly three times, verse five, God sent me here before you. Verse seven, you didn't send me here.
God sent me here. Verse eight, God sent me here. How do you handle imprisonment without growing bitter? How do you handle betrayal? Disappointment, suffering, waiting—these are all experienced by Joseph.
This is spiritual perspective, where God gives you the wisdom to say, "This has been sent to me, and I have been sent into this by God." It's a wonderful guarantee as you face life. Here's a fourth one: supplements will number four keep you from developing spiritual amnesia. Again, this follows closely naturally. Person who is blind to what God is doing for him in the present has probably forgotten what God has done for him in the past. You see how Peter connects these.
Verse nine again. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. In other words, if you don't pursue these seven supplements, you not only develop a problem of spiritual vision, you develop a problem went off the road of spiritual amnesia, which gave me the idea. You not only fail to see what God is doing, you've forgotten what God has done. In your life, living a disobedient life as a believer, then as a way of dimming our vision, clouding our memory, you forget that God has saved you.
You forget that God has forgiven you, rescued you. Perhaps you've met a few, but the most impactful Christians I have ever met are people who've never quite gotten over their conversion. The verb here for forgetting implies that the individual is deliberately putting out of their mind the idea of being sinful, being forgiven, the need of being cleansed, having been cleansed. This happens to a believer when they are, in fact, backsliding. Peter makes it clear in this passage: you're either moving forward or you're moving backward.
You're making progress or you're backsliding. The Christian who chooses to forget their need for forgiveness, the Christian who stops thanking God for their salvation, is is edging back into sinful ways, old ways. Don't talk to me about. Cleansing from old sin, because I'm I'm being pulled by that undertow back in. I'm gonna go back under.
See, that's somebody you might know that's entering the lifestyle of sin, and you say, "Hey, you're you're a believer. You you shouldn't be doing that." Don't talk to me about that. Don't tell me what sin is. Don't judge me. They're on dangerous ground of wasting, wasting.
Away. Here's a guarantee to keep you from being pulled back under. Just take a couple of them: the supplement of virtue, the refusal to cut corners. Are you cutting corners? That job you're doing when when the supervisor's not looking, what do you do?
Supervisor shows up, everybody gets to work. How about godliness? Isn't it interesting? He tells Christians to be godly. The refusal to make excuses.
When you fail in that passionate pursuit of purity, well, this will keep you from developing amnesia, and to forget history, you remember is to repeat it. Here is another guarantee, number five: pursuing these supplements will increase your assurance of salvation. He writes here in verse ten: Therefore, brothers. Again, note that he's writing to brothers, believers. Be all the more diligent.
There's that phrase again: "Give it everything you've got, pedal to the metal, to confirm your calling and election." Here again is that principle of cooperation between God's work and your work. He began this paragraph. Earlier in verse three, by telling us we have everything we need, it's been given to us for godliness, for life, for a godly life. You could translate it.
So also here, he tells the believer that God has chosen you. Other passages inform us that His choice of you was before the foundation of. The world that is sometime in eternity past, He chose you. Let me tell you, you don't understand that any more than I do. To talk about God's sovereign election is a majestic truth that staggers our understanding.
Yes, we have to say to Him, "We take you as our Savior," and then you find out it's sort of a wedding gift. Oh, he he had already chosen you before time began. To talk about God's sovereign election taking place in eternity past—what a mystery! If you figure it out, by the way, write a book. You are going to be able to sell so many copies you can buy your own island in the Caribbean.
I'll buy one too, by the way. And I'll put it with all those other books I have in my library, written by people who think they've figured it out. Don't miss the fact, and don't miss the point: that Peter isn't telling you to understand God's work in your salvation; he's telling you to prove it, confirm it, firm it, give evidence of it. Confirm your salvation means that you provide evidence in the way that you live that God saved you. Prove it.
What's the benefit of that?
Well, the world will see the difference in you. It gives credibility to your testimony and to your gospel. But let me tell you, the person who benefits the most is you. You. Assurance of salvation is closely tied to the evidences of salvation.
You prove it to the world, but you prove it to your own heart. John Calvin put it this way in his discussion on election: purity of life. Not only testifies to others that you are a child of God, it provides confidence for you. Your translation might read here: "Make your calling and election sure." Now, what Peter means, and you might write it into the margin of your text: "Make your calling and election obvious. Make it obvious." God saved you.
Now, what are you going to do about it? That's the cooperation between something He has done in eternity past, that you ratified by your own belief in His Son.
Now, are you going to live up to it? God is doing His part. Are we doing ours? I love the way William Barclay dealt with this idea of cooperating with His sovereign will with our own. Moral choices.
He put it this way. Let me read it. He wrote from England about a hundred years ago. He said, "Suppose a man who is wealthy and gracious chose a poor lad from the street who would never have had the chance, and offers him the privilege of a university education. This man is giving the lad something which he could never have achieved for himself.
Now." It's up to this young man to enter the university and study, and the harder he works at it, the more he will enter into the privilege and joy of what has been freely offered to him.
So it is with God in us. The more we labor to serve Him and represent Him and walk with Him and trust Him, the more we enter into the joy and assurance of our salvation. And you know it's true. And so do I. Here is another guarantee provided by pursuing these supplements.
Number six: they will guard you from a life of wandering. They will guard you from a life of wandering. Peter writes in verse ten. Practice these qualities, and you will never fall. The word for fall here is used elsewhere in the New Testament for stumbling.
James chapter two verse ten. Peter seems to be implying that stumbling. Here would become a permanent course of wandering. Remember this: the man writing this tasted those bitter tears of stumbling, denying as the Lord, pride of boasting. Peter is able to write here effectively this encouragement to get back on the path.
Pursue these supplements, and stumbling won't become a permanent manner of living—a wandering, disobedient life. You don't want that. One author writes that Peter is referring here to being spared a life of disobedience that ends with tragic grief. Grief for a life wasted—not just wasting time, but wasting your life.
Now, with that, Peter gives us the final guarantee that naturally follows. Instead of wasting your life and ending in grief, these supplements will keep you, number seven, focused on finishing well.
So, here's the promise of a future reward. He writes. For in this way that is living in pursuit of these supplements, there will be richly provided for you. I'll amplify the translation: a lavish entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Imagine!
Doesn't that do what Peter wants it to do? Make you want to live for it when you see that end goal? It helps you slug through those uphill challenges. We tend to focus on now, today. Peter's saying, "I'm going to end this by talking about that day." Don't forget that day, and a lavish reception that Jesus, your Lord and Savior, will prepare for you with rewards in hand.
And don't forget, he had missed anything that you've done for him. You tell the average Christian that the Lord is watching them today, and they're going to take that as a threat. Wait, what? He's watching me. Is there a way to get him to not watch me so closely?
Reminding me of just a couple of weeks ago, someone in our church handing me this little story. About a third grade boy got into trouble, and at school, he came home and he told his parents that they were probably going to get a call from the principal.
Well, they demanded to know why. He said, "Well, here is what happened. I was standing in line to get my lunch in the cafeteria, and I came to a big a bowl of apples, fresh apples." And there was a note next to the bowl that said, "Only take one." God is watching.
So I only took one. But then a little farther down the cafeteria line, there was a big bowl of chocolate chip cookies, but no note.
So I decided to write one for me and everybody else. I wrote. Take all the cookies you want. God is watching the apples. Love that kid, man.
Well, the truth is, God's watching the apples and the cookies. This isn't a threat. This is actually a reassuring promise that He cares and. Again, back to that verse I mentioned in Hebrews. Let me put it up on the screen.
Here it is: God is not unjust so as to overlook your work, the love that you've shown for His name. He's thrown your sins into the deepest sea, but He's keeping record of everything that's rewardable. He's eager. Imagine it's possible to enter heaven, like Rick Hansen entered that arena, to hear the applause of your Savior, to hear the commendation of your Lord. Peter's saying, "Doesn't that make you want to give all diligence?" To adding to your life these seven, what's the evidence that that's happening in your life?
Well, the evidence is the sadness in in your heart when you sin, and the desire to repent quickly get back on. It's the evidence of that joy that you feel when you obey. It's that it's that sense of Energy that you have, that that keeps you serving, is that growing anticipation of a future day when you are introduced, if you can imagine it, to this lavish reception, and you enter into the eternal kingdom, and we we see, and faith is forever set aside. We see our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let's live in light of that.
Seven supplements, these seven guarantees. Pray with me. Thank you for your Word. That as we understand it correctly, in the heart of every believer today is. Just giving fresh wind in our sails to keep moving, keep praying, keep looking for opportunity, keep loving, keep resisting, keep confessing.
Not so that we can get in, Lord. That's settled.
So that we can be the recipient of rewards that we will most gladly gladly lay at your feet. Forgive us when we keep our Christianity a secret. Forgive us. When we bring shame to your name, and here is this invitation to get back up, freshly forgiven, in fellowship again, serving, loving, walking with. Trusting, waiting upon you, our Lord.
May that be our testimony as we face this new year as a church, as we take steps of faith, as individual believers, as we walk with you before others. May we bring glory and honor to you. We pray it, Jesus' name, Amen.
Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, Amen. That was Stephen Davy, and this is Wisdom for the Heart, a production of Wisdom International. Learn more at wisdomonline.org.
