Being fruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ

Notes from a sermon on 20 February 2011
2 Peter 1 verses 1 - 12

Peter has an important task that he wants to get across to these believers. He tells them in verse 8 “For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is the reason of his writing. Then he goes on in verse 10 “for if ye do these things ye shall never fall”. Giving a self guard for their lives. Who better to look to than this fisherman who had gone through experiences that were diverse. In book 1 Peter was encouraging Christians to work through every burden in life. He was speaking of the trial of their faith. Now in his second book he is writing about something different - bogus preachers. Chapter 2 verse 1 These people will come in secretly and you will not know them as false teachers. They will “bring in damnable heresies” and “bring upon themselves swift destruction.” Then he goes on in verse 2 to say “And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.” Many people will be deceived by such people. For Peter when he began to speak of such people, it would have caused an uproar but for Peter it was his responsibility to warn people. The devil is still prominent today and there are many false teachers around. Peter asks the Christians “how should we stand against these false teachers?” He replies keep on growing, “add to your faith” (verse 5)

The responsibility of this evil day. False teachers will bring in all sorts of damnable heresies leading men and women away and in the midst of it all our responsibility is to be growing. Peter encourages Christians in the sense they are all equal - verse 3 “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and goodness.” Whatever God has given to us must be applied to ourselves and must be added to. In chapter 1 verse 1 Peter describes himself as “a servant and an apostle” - that is his qualifications. Then he goes on to describe the people he is writing to - “to them that have obtained like precious faith with us” Peter says you have obtained the same faith as we have, you have placed your trust in Christ so now build on the foundations already laid. The moment you placed your faith in Christ that made you a Christian, not sitting at a communion table or being aligned to some church but rather it was the finished work of Christ on Calvary’s cross. Faith is the bedrock of our salvation. We cannot obtain salvation in any other way but simply through faith in Christ. The apostle Paul said “by grace ye are saved” (Ephesians 2 verse 5). God gave his son to die on a cross that we might have eternal life. The moment I receive that salvation it is not the end, we got to keep on growing. Acts 4 verse 12 “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Peter now gives us a challenge, a commission and a command - “giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge” verse 5. Are we serious about our faith? We should be continually adding to our faith. It is our responsibility to do this. Paul said in Philippians 3 verse 14 “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.“ Peter says because you have received God’s grace in your life you should be adding to it. It is your responsibility and mine today. We could listen to the best of preachers and read books available but never apply it to our lives. We need to learn from God and apply it to our lives.

The requirements for this evil day. If we are to add what are we to add? Peter takes time to do that. The first characteristic is virtue. That quality is strength of courage. The word speaks of manliness. Saved by God’s grace, saved to be a soldier. Whenever God saves us he doesn’t put us into a playground but rather a battleground. We need the strength from that. We need to be growing continually when saved. Placed into that battle against the spiritual elements of this world. As Christians we need courage. This is what Peter is talking of. Ephesians 6 talks about putting on the whole armour of God. Remember Joseph of Arimathea. He kept his faith hidden. In John 19 he was the man who stepped out of the crowd when Jesus died. Jesus’ disciples had all fled but Joseph was the one who went to Pilate and asked to take Jesus’ body and bury it in his tomb. He was given that permission and bore the wrath of the religious leaders of his day. We live in a day when anything goes. We see so many things happening in our town we never say a thing about. It is so easy not to step out and say we are against such things but we need to do it. Whenever Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost the crowd accused Jesus’ disciples of being drunk but Peter stood up and said “these men are not drunk as ye suppose.” (Acts 2 verse 15) He went on to preach with boldness - why - because he was filled with the Holy Spirit. The second characteristic is knowledge. Peter later on encourages us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Peter grew in his knowledge of Jesus Christ - 1 Peter 2 verse 1 “wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speaking as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby.” A baby must be fed on the purest milk as he begins to grow and then be becomes stronger. So too the faith within you that reaches out and touches Christ must grow. The only way to grow is to study God’s word. Paul said to Timothy “study to show thyself approved unto God.” (2 Timothy 2 verse 15) He also said to the Philippians “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings” (Philippians 3 verse 10) That was Paul’s ambition in his heart. Paul knew God in a mighty way - remember the day on the road to Damascus. He knew Christ then but he wanted to know Christ more. The other characteristics to add are temperance, patience, godliness, brother kindness and love. Temperance is self control and refers to our emotions. Peter is speaking to those professing the name of Christ - that they might know how to act and react. 1 Corinthians 9 verse 24 “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.” We need to be striving for it. Paul is speaking here of a man going into the fight ring or an athlete going into a stadium to race - he must train first. As he trains he brings his body into subjection. He is careful about his training - why - because he wants to win the race. As a child of God there are urges we have that need to be under control. Each day we need to add to our faith. We need to be growing and getting stronger in our faith. Have we these qualities today? Will we continue to grow that we might win the “crown that is laid up for us” in the manner as he commanded us to?