We're going to read a passage
in 2 Peter 1 and then we're going to see some other places that
I think bear upon what that has to say and other things as they
come to your mind from what the Scriptures have to say also and
bear upon this. Okay, 2 Peter in the first chapter,
and we're gonna call this study or lesson or time this evening,
Fruitful in Christ. Fruitful in Christ. In 2 Peter
1, and I'd like to start with the first verse and read down
through verse 12. It says, Simon Peter, a servant
and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like
precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and
our Savior, Jesus Christ. who this is to is to God's people.
And it's very specific here and very plain that it's just, that
it is as the rest of scripture written for God's people, for
their learning and admonition for all those things that it
says that the scripture is intended for, for God's people. And it
is them that have attained like precious faith with us through
the righteousness of God and our savior, Jesus Christ. and
that's going to bear upon what we're going to see in just a
second here. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through
the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. According as his divine
power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life
and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to
glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of
the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust. And beside 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, or love. For if these things
be in you and abound, they make that you 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, the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling,
and election sure. For if ye do these things, ye
shall never fall. For so an entrant shall be ministered
unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. Wherefore, I will not be negligent
to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know
them and be established in the present truth. A couple of things
right off that we're going to see that the scripture addresses,
and a couple of things. First, that we have obtained
light, precious faith through His righteousness, our Lord's
righteousness, and not through anything else. We know that it
is by faith that grace given to us causes us to have that
faith and that give us that faith through the righteousness of
God our Savior, Jesus Christ. And according as, in verse three,
according as his divine power hath given us all things that
pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him
that hath called us unto his glory and virtue. And before
we go on to the rest of that list of things here, we need
to keep in mind always before us that all things that pertain
to life and godliness have been given to us in Him. That's the
only source, the only way of that and the only hope and the
way we look to anything that we have pertaining to life or
godliness is because of Him. And then we go down and the rest
of this we're going to look at where it says in Verse five and following, beside
this give all diligence, add to your faith virtue, virtue,
knowledge, knowledge, temperance, temperance, patience, patience,
godliness, godliness, brotherly kindness, brotherly kindness,
charities. And it says, for these things
that be in you and abound, they shall make that you neither be
barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't know about you, but I think I got most of those covered,
maybe a couple that I need to work on a bit. If we take that as a how-to list
and a check-the-box list, we're going to come up pretty darn
short, like all of them, starting with faith. As faith is given to us by the
grace of God and by His righteousness purchased, all these other things,
if they don't come from the same source, we try to live good lives,
we try to live as good people, we try to do that and we'd like
to do that, but to add these things as this list here, it's if the
same source of those that we're adding to those things to faith
has to be those things are his descriptors of the Lord himself,
not ours. We We strive to live as we know
we should, and those are things that we certainly have those
virtues and those type of things as things to live by, but they're
not something that we can attain of ourself. And as Paul said, he said, we
don't use sin for an occasion to sin because we got things
covered. God's people don't have that
attitude or that intent or direction. As he says, we know that Paul was speaking of
himself, but he was speaking to all of God's people that those
things that should be done or we'd like to do, we don't always
do them or seldom do them maybe. And the ones we don't want to
do that we find doing those things. And he says, I find a principle
there, a law there that we've got sin dwelling in us and that
it says what can save us from the body of this death? And there's
only one answer to that. And the same answer as these
other virtues or characteristics that
it says to add there, they can only be done in him. And as he
said, the only salvation we have from the body of this death is
our Lord's doing in that. And we're gonna see that this
is not a checklist that we have to attain. It says right up there
in verse three there. We've been given all things that
pertain to life and Godliness. We either have those in Him or
we don't have anything in Him. It's all part and parcel with
those precious promises, as it said, that we have in Him. And if He's not all our righteousness,
He's none of it. And that goes for all these other
things, virtues or fruits, It talks about if you don't have
these, you're going to be unfruitful with Him. We know that we have
all of these in abundance in Him. It's not our keeping the
list and providing these things. In Him, we have these things. Some of them we have apparently
in greater clarity than others, and some of them we We don't
have so much, but we know that in Him, those are all accomplished
and all done and all seen. There's a couple of other places
that have lists like this of things that we should strive
for and things, but they're not, they cannot be just checklists
that we, and if we could check some of those off, it doesn't
get us any closer to God or righteousness if it's not His righteousness.
And that's the long and short of that is that He has provided
these things to us or that he has not. We're going to look
at several passages this evening. In the book of James, turn to the
book of James. And the Scripture is not short
of places where it says what we ought to be like and what
we should be like. But in Him, if we are in Him,
we are like Him and we have those things given to us. We see very
poorly what we are. Our Christ-likeness in this world
is never going to be satisfactory. In him, we have that standing
before God. In James chapter one, and starting
with verse 16 and down a little bit, it says, My beloved brethren,
for every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and
cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his
creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness
and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able
to save your souls." And these are things as it speaks here
that it says, He begat us by his own will, begat us with the
word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of
his creatures. Wherefore, let every man be swift
to hear. slow to speak and slow to wrath. Those are tough check marks.
If you read a little more of what James says, he said, the
tongue can't be bridled. And some of us can attest to
that readily. And that these are things that
are characteristics that, by God's grace, We mellow with time
into some of these things. We cannot say, yeah, we've got
that part covered, so let's move on to something a little more
important. We know we don't have that covered.
In ourselves, it shows the contrast between what we have in ourselves
and what we have in the Lord himself. In Titus, in the book
of Titus for just a minute. There's some interesting things
written in here to that is being brought forth by
Paul to Titus and some things to do and some things that should
be done in a physical way. And there are those that are
false prophets, false teachers, ones that do not hold forth God's
word, they hold forth their word, but in chapter two of Titus,
reading verse one, and then we're going to read a couple of others, but speak thou the things which
become sound doctrine. I realize there's a colon and
that sentence goes on for about a third of that chapter, but
we're going to read that verse. to start with, but speak thou
the things which become sound doctrine. And then skip down
to verse 11. You can read the in between part
at your leisure, but verse 11, it says, for the grace of God
that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching
us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously and godly in this present world, looking
for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great
God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that
he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works. These things speak and exhort
and rebuke with all authority, let no man despise thee." So
here in some things here that's speaking about Again, several things that he
mentions here, living, as it says, denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present world. That's a goal that all God's
people have. And has been said many times
from the pulpit here, Norm and Mike and myself even, that those things here, God's people sin
more than they want to. There's no question about that.
It's not a thing that God's people take lightly and a thought that's
been brought up before that most believers were better Church
people are, Christians in quotes, better church people before they
were saved than they were afterwards. They see the problem after when
God regenerates his people. Then, as it says in Jeremiah,
then we see what we were like. And then we loathe ourselves
that we know what we are like by nature and not before that. But it says here, our Savior
gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and
purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. It's not speaking about sanctification
here. And as we get along, we get a
little better, and he works on us here. He does do that. But
his people, in God's eyes, are seen as freed from iniquity and
purified, sanctified in him. And if that robe of righteousness
that we speak about, if that is not on us and covering every
bit of us, there's an issue. If any of that's not covered,
then none of it is covered. It's like the passages say, if
you offend in one point of the law, you've offended all the
law. And that's the case. And of ourselves, we have no
covering. We have covering that Adam made.
And it covered very little, and it didn't cover well what it
did cover. There was no usefulness to that
covering that he made. And that robe has to be a complete
covering to us, or it's not. And it has to be the complete
covering of that sheepskin, as it were, that had no blot or
blemish in it. It was perfect. We have to be covered with in
that picture. That robe of righteousness by
that picture is that perfectness that we must be clothed with.
In chapter 3, we're in Titus 2. I just about forgot where
I was headed with some of this. But in chapter 3, verse 4, And it says above, it's kind
of an understatement almost, that it says in verse three,
for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived,
serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hating
and hating one another. Verse four, but after that the
kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace we should
be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life, This is
a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm
constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful
to maintain good works. These are good and profitable
unto men. And here, this here that how
we escape as far as the guilt of this and the sentence of that
over us, where it talks about sometime we were these type of
people. That's not saying maybe you were
like this sometime. This is where we are also sometimes
like this, sometime like this, but it says after the the kindness
and love of God our savior toward man appeared by not by his righteousness
that was shed on us abundantly that righteousness of his that
being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life and and that's by saying that but
being those heirs we had to be we had to be as perfect as him
in him we are that We're perfect in Him. We don't feel that in
a physical sense, we don't feel that in many senses, but the
faith He places within us shows us and causes us to know
that the Spirit bears witness with us, that those things are
so, and that we are sons of God. As Paul said, claiming to be
a son of God does not excuse us from what sin is. and what
we are like by nature, but thank God that's not how God sees his
people. And in him we are not unfruitful,
we have the perfect fruit because we have his righteousness. And
then, turn to Jude, and we're just
gonna turn to the book of Jude. And these things bear on what
is said when people make a list of things that we should do and
should be like, and it takes it from being a to-do list type
things and makes it into those things that we have gained in
Him. We don't just ignore those things.
We don't ignore those scriptures when it says, these things ought
not to be so, when it talks about things that are not right. We
have to address those as God gives us the ability and the
strength to do those and convicts us of those things. In the book
of Jude, starting with verse 17, and a wonderful passage through
here, Verse 17 of Jude, it says, But beloved, remember ye the
words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus
Christ, how that they told you there should be mockers in the
last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These
be they who separate themselves, sensual having not the Spirit.
But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy
faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keeping yourselves in the love
of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto
eternal life. And of some, have compassion,
making a difference, and others, save with fear, pulling them
out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and present
you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion
and power, both now and ever. And here, up here, that verse
24, it's him that is able to keep you from falling and to
present you faultless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy. And as it says up here, keep yourselves in the love of
God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life, and then down there. It's not that we stir up that
and we keep the proper love in our hearts
towards God and stuff, He's gotta cause that in us. We know that
we would not be there if it wasn't the working of Him in us. But
here that He's, not only is He able to keep you from falling
and present us faultless, but we are, in Him we are seen as
faultless and we are as faultless in that with that robe of righteousness
on, we don't, God sees our Savior, then He sees us. He doesn't see
us in ourself or without that robe of righteousness on. But not by our own strength or
our own might or power or goodliness or anything like that are these
things done. When it says looking to The only
God and our Savior, only wise God and Savior can this be done
and is done in Him. In 1 John, turn back just a bit
to the book of 1 John if you would. 1 John, the first chapter and a
little bit in the second chapter, 1 John 1, it says, That which was
from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen
with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have
handled of the word of life. For the life was manifest, and
we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal
life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. That
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye
also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these
things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then
is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto
you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If
we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as
He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth's not in us. If
we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. And chapter two,
verse one, my little children, these things write I unto you
that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he
is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also
for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we
know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith I know him and
keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not
in him. But whoso keepeth his word in
him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby we know that
we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him
ought himself also so to walk even as he walked. Brethren I
write no new commandment unto you but an old commandment which
you heard from the beginning. The old commandment is the word
which you have heard from the beginning. And here it tells
us how that we have an advocate with the
Father if we are faithful to confess our sins unto Him. We
know we sin in this. It's speaking about our, excuse
me, As we live this life, we know that those were sinful people,
and that is, this side of glory, it's not gonna change that part
of it. But we are cleansed from sin. We are cleansed from all unrighteousness,
it says. And in Him we have those things,
and we are those things. Again, it's not a, a striving to check boxes that
we're ever going to fill, but we strive to be those things.
We pray God that he put those things in us that we are like
we should be. And part of it, there's a passage
that says, be holy as I am holy. Well, we know that there's only
one way that's going to ever happen, and that is His holiness
and not ours. It's not, as Paul said, it's
not that we hide behind what we have so we can live godlessly
and as sinful as we may. That's not the attitude of God's
people. God's people, God, keep me from
this. And his prayer that he prayed in John 17 was to keep
his people, and it wasn't to keep safe, fed, well, not sick
and those things, but it said, keep them from the evil. And
from, we know that in him, we are kept from the evil. And that's
the only way we, and the only hope we have. And then in Colossians, we're gonna read
just a couple more spots and just about be finished up for
this evening. But turn to the book of Colossians,
if you would. There are two passages there. In Colossians chapter 1 and starting
with verse 12, It said, giving thanks unto the
Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood and even the
forgiveness of sins. who is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created by him and for him. And he is before
all things. and by him all things consist.
And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have
the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself. By him I say whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven. And you that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled. In the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. That's the standing the church
has, is unreprovable in his sight. In the passage in Romans, it
says, therefore no condemnation, if we are in Christ Jesus, there's
no condemnation. We don't have a free pass for
everything, but it's been taken care of. In him, that's how we
are justified. In Him, in Him doing those things,
they are not things that we can, we just can't get there. And
as you, the farther along we go, some of those things don't
seem like we'll get any closer. But as it says in here, that
we are holy and unbelievable and unreprovable in His sight. we couldn't be in a better position.
And then also Colossians in chapter two. Colossians chapter two, starting
with verse eight. And this not just like the rest
of the passages here, but read that on your own, but to make
this point here. Verse eight, beware lest any
man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men and the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. For
in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. and ye are complete in him, which
is the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting
off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ,
buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through
the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from
the dead. and you being dead in your sins
and uncircumcised of your flesh, hath he quickened together with
him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the
handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary
to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross,
and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them. Then it says, let no man
judge you in meat or drink or holy days or those things. But
up here where it says that, through the operation of God
who raised him from the dead, hath he quickened together with
him, having forgiven your trespasses, blotting out the handwriting
of the ordinances which was against us, conjured to us and took it
out of the way, nailing it to his cross. and spoiling principalities'
powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them."
And him triumphing over them, our triumph is in him that he
did do those things. So looking back there at 2 Peter
and in Galatians and a couple of other places, James, where
it speaks of lists of things that we see often are taken as
to-do lists. and to do something to get somewhere
list. Those are things that in him
we have, but it doesn't give us a pass to just
gloss over and not recognize those things and not pray God show us the way to do
some things that we need to do, that his guidance, we pray for
his guidance to do those things. But our success in those lists
is not where we stand in God's sight. The success in those lists
is that he has done all of that for us. And so when a checklist
type thing comes along or people perceive it as that, we have
to be careful that it's actually saying something that we need
to do or not to do and why. And it says state, Don't do sin,
and a list of things that we know, and most of those things,
the sins that we fall into from time to time, they're not things
that we don't know. They're usually things that we
are well aware of. We have lived with them long
enough that we know those things, but we pray God deliver us from
those things. But in the end, as in Jeremiah,
he delivers us to an expected end. There's no wondering if
we're going to make it to the end. And in him, we're going
to make it to the end. And so these things are important
characteristics to look at. important fruits to be aware
of, but primarily they're speaking about the characteristics of
our Lord Himself and what He's done in those things. And we
thank Him that we stand in Him and not in ourselves. And that's
the hope we have. That's the hope that and the
faith that any of his believers have, that we stand in him, that
he has, when he said, it is finished, it is finished. And he meant
that that was completed, accomplished. So that, for this evening, that
we are fruitful in Christ. And we can rest in that, that
we are fruitful in Christ. So thank you for