The Nature of the Christian Life

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  The Nature of the Christian Life

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  We're going to be in 2 Peter 1. A passage that is near and dear to my heart, and especially as I was thinking about the end of the year and looking ahead into the new year, there comes up the question, what do we devote our lives to? What's it all about? And I can't help but go back to the nature of things. That we talk about human nature, that we are made for certain things. And we can see this very powerfully when people act according to their nature. For example, it's the nature of parents to be protective. In 2006, a woman in Quebec named Lydia Anjou attacked a polar bear, not the other way around. You see, Lydia pulled up to her son's hockey practice to pick him up, and she saw her seven year old son. I don't know why a seven year old's playing hockey. It's just what happened. He comes out and he's walking to the car with two of his friends, and a polar bear starts running toward them....Alaska. And so she does what every mother maybe wishes she had the gumption to do, and she jumps out of the car, runs, and places herself between her son and the rushing polar bear. Witnesses say that she started to kick and punch and shove the polar bear, and kept the bear from reaching her son. Eventually, one of these witnesses pulled out a gun and shot the bear four times, and they were amazed to find that Lydia was still alive. They took her to the hospital. She had some significant scratches and some trauma, but no major life-threatening damage. And some people think that these stories are just exclusive to mothers. My brother was telling me about a power lifter named Eddie Hall who set the deadlift world record. And it was deadlift world record of 500kg. That's over 1,000 pounds that he lifted by himself. And after he lifted it, it was so intense that once he finished, he dropped the weights and he passed out immediately. And blood was pouring out of his eyes and nose, they rushed him to the hospital. And they asked him, you know, how did you do this? The why you do this is already thrown out the window as too crazy to even bother with waiting for the answer. But how did you do this? And he said that all he could see whenever he was lifting that weight was his daughter trapped under a car. And in his mind, he was lifting it off of her to rescue her. It's a parent's nature to stand between their kids in danger. It's only natural for them to fight when everything within them says flight. And we see that the parent's nature is great. It gives great power. Great purpose and leads them in a great path. But how much greater is the Christian's nature? Maybe you haven't thought about it recently, but you should, because it's actually what we celebrated all the way throughout Christmas. In the advent of Jesus Christ, we learn not only the true nature of God, but also the true nature of man, what we were made to be, and the nature of the Christian life. We'll see this in 2 Peter chapter 1, that our nature is actually Christ's. And because that power of being united to Christ is ours if you are in Christ, we should make every effort to gain more of Christ. So let's turn to 2 Peter 1. I'm going to read verses one through 11, but focus on verses 3 through 11.

  "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world because of sinful desire. 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. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

  My prayer for you this morning is that you will take to heart the phrase right there in the middle, the command from Peter to make every effort. And you wouldn't just make an effort to grow in Christ, but you'd make an effort to gain more of him, to know him and to love him more with your life. And to do this, we're going to look first at our power. And we start with our power because, as introduction showed, we're only as strong as the source of our strength. Parents can find great strength and determination from love for their children, but the Christian has an even greater source of strength. And it's right there in verse three that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. He's given us everything we need for life and godliness, and it all comes from his divine power.

  So, when we start with our power, we have to start with looking at God Himself and His own power. And we see it everywhere. We saw it this morning in first service. It was raining a whole lot louder during this time and there were some tornado warnings, not the tornado watch. That's the one where you actually see the tornado, if I'm not mistaken, there. But even if we did see the tornado, we still see the power of God is greater than the tornado, greater than the rain. He's the one who made the universe from nothing by the word of his power. He breathed life into dust and crafted the first man. He has healed the sick. He's raised the dead. He's stopped the sun in the middle of the day. That's the God whose divine power is given to us. Now, out of that power, he's given us everything we need for life and for godliness. And we know it's incredible to consider God's power in just making life and making everything that is. But even greater than that is making spiritual life. You've probably been impressed with this in the Christmas season, as you have family or friends that you know who are unbelieving and you talk to them about Jesus and you think, if I only had the best arguments, if I only could, you know, sit him down in a chair and maybe shake him real good they'd become a Christian, right? No, that's not how it works. There's no amount of effort we give that converts someone. We know it ultimately has to be the work of God. This is the message that is reinforced to us again and again and again throughout human history and throughout the Bible. Just consider the Old Testament. Starting with the great loss of life and godliness in the fall in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve sin and all the world after them are cast into sin and death. And then we see God again and again, teaching us that we can't recover life and godliness on our own. Can't do it in our own power. Glories of the Exodus...the Israelites see everything. They see the plagues. They see the Red sea split and walk across on dry land. They see God in a pillar of fire. You think if there's any religious experience that's going to, you know, convince them that they and they will have spiritual life and follow after Christ? Well, guess what...doesn't happen. They get to the Promised Land and Joshua gives them the pep up talk to end all pep up talks. Go and take the land. Be faithful to God. And they say, yes, we will do all of these things. And he says, no, you won't. And it's true...they don't. The blessings of the Promised land couldn't convert the hard hearts of Israel. The judgments of foreign kings couldn't. The wonders of the prophets and even the exile couldn't do it. No amount of discipline and providence could restore true worship to Israel. The only hope was God's promise of doing it himself. Like he promises. Like in Ezekiel 36, that I will give you a new heart. I will take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Or in Deuteronomy 31 that I, the Lord, will circumcise your heart. You're not able to make yourself clean, but I will. And that's certainly the good news of the gospel. And that's the kind of power that God gives to us. It's not just powerful spiritual life, but power, for again, everything that leads to life and godliness. You think of in your own life the sins that you've struggled to put away, or maybe when you've given effort. I just got to tackle this one thing, and then I'll be all right. You know I'll finally be okay. Can be a good Christian. We know how hard it is to change our own lives, but yet God gives us everything not just to change and follow him, but to live a life of godliness. And how do we receive this power? Well, I think the greatness of the power is shown even in just how God gives it to us. Right here in these next phrases, let's pay attention to this grammar that he has given us everything for life and godliness. He's given it through the knowledge of him who has called us to his own glory and excellence. The means of God, of us gaining God's power is simply through knowing him. There are a lot of ways that you can get power. You wouldn't think it would just be through knowing the God who made everything. But yet that's all it is. God's power is so great we only have to know him and we learn we also gain his power through his precious and magnificent promises. So in verse 4, his power comes to us through his promises. That simply through the Word of God. That same word that spoke the world and the universe into being when spoken to us and received in faith, gives great power, gives us all we need for life and for godliness. And I think faith is a good indication of where the power really is, right? Because faith says I bring nothing to the table. I contribute nothing. But you are the one who has done everything. Faith simply receives the alien righteousness of Jesus Christ. And then what exactly is this power? Okay, so the divine power has given us everything pertaining to life and godliness. He tells us how it's given. That's given through knowing Christ through his promises. But then there's the result. It's so that...in verse four, through them you may become partakers of the divine nature. And this isn't a way that we're used to talking. It sounds kind of odd, but this is such a deep theme in the scriptures, such an ineffable mystery that scriptures explain it to us in a lot of different ways, that when we are saved, we are united to God in Christ, and so we're no longer the same person. That old sinful nature is put away what once was by nature, children of wrath is united to God to be his...a child of glory. And this is what we celebrate in Christmas, that this is even possible. That it's all through Jesus Christ. That Christ and the story of Christmas is when God, without ceasing to be God, became his creation so that we could be united to him, or as we confessed in the Chalcedonian Creed, that Christ is both of one substance with God regarding divinity and of one substance with us regarding humanity, so that as we are united to Christ, we are also united to God. The scriptures have many ways of talking about this, and this mystery is so wonderful. In Ephesians 3:16-17, says that Christ dwells in our hearts through faith. And he does this by His Holy Spirit in our inner being. In 1 Corinthians 12:27 it says that we are members of Christ's body, and we are connected to him as the body, to the head. In John 14:23, Jesus says, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Or Colossians 1:27 that salvation is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And so we're brought into a union that is vital, that is life giving, that is personal and that is real as our natures are changed from sinful to saved. Herman Bavinck in his book The Wonderful Works of God, this Dutch theologian says this, "The combination in Christ," which I think encapsulates this idea very, very well. "The combination in Christ occurs more than 150 times in the New Testament. It indicates that Christ is the constant source not only of the spiritual life, but that as such, he also immediately and directly dwells in the believer. The unity is as close as that between a cornerstone and a temple. A man and a woman. The head and the body, the vine and the branch. The believers are in Christ as all things, by virtue of creation and providence are in God. They live in him. As the fish lives in water, the bird in the air, the man in his vocation, the scholar in the study. Together with him they are crucified, dead and buried, are raised again, seated at the right hand of God and glorified. They have put him on assumed his form. They have shown in their body both the suffering and the life of Christ, and are perfected in him. In short, Christ is all and in all." The greatest reality of salvation is that we are united to Christ and we receive him. Everything else is a bonus. Justification...it's a bonus. Sanctification, it's a bonus. Glorification, it's a bonus. The real heart of salvation is that we have Christ, and that if you're in Christ, his life is in you. So, our power is not just a mere man...a good example out there. He's not some demigod, but God himself...in human flesh. Our Savior is our brother. It's a great line from a Christmas hymn, and it captures this well that in the Christian life, in this union with Christ, sinners are made sons, the damned are made daughters. God himself, in mortal flesh, united to us in the heights of our power is this...the glory and excellence, the virtue of Christ. That's our power. That's where the Christian life starts. That's what motivates everything that follows. Because in verse 5, there's one of the biggest throat clears in the Bible...for this very reason. Meaning, okay, you've heard everything that came before. Now let me tell you what this means for you. And he's about to hit you with quite the command. Make every effort. Make every effort. Labor intensely to supplement your faith with virtue. Virtue with knowledge. Knowledge with self-control. Self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. That's the path of the Christian life. And it's a path that starts first with faith. You see, faith is the starting point of our faith, the starting point of the Christian life. That's how we receive union with Christ. That's how we, as Romans 5:2 says, have our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. Faith, and this is really incredible and should give you great encouragement, is what allows Peter to say this in verse 1. He starts off saying who he is...Simon Peter servant, apostle of Jesus Christ. That's a pretty great title. We think Peter, he's a great Christian. This is, you know, Simon Peter...Simon. He uses his Jewish name. He's one of the chosen people of God. He's Peter, he's the rock of the church. He's servant and apostle of Christ. Doesn't get much greater than that. The apostles, the foundation of the church. Then he writes to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. You see one of the beauties of faith, because we are reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ, and that is only received in faith. There's no second class Christians. There's no first-class Christians. We're all on equal standing. We have faith that is as precious as the apostles. That is quite literally the same in honor. And how can this be? I mean, how can we dare to boast, to be at the same standing before God as the very apostles? Well, because Peter says it, but he grounds it in this. That's by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And again, it goes back to our power. Our power to sustain the divine power of God sustains our faith, his righteousness, our foundation. And so, faith is the starting point. But faith also contains everything that follows, because by faith we have Christ. And so this passage works a lot like a Russian nesting doll with faith on the outside. And then the next phrase, if you have the NASB, it will bring out this grammar a little bit more clearly, where he says, in virtue or in faith, add virtue in virtue, add knowledge, or maybe with your virtue. But the idea is that each one is implicit in the one before. So the Russian nesting doll faith on the outside. You open it up virtue. You open up virtue knowledge and implied in knowledge...self-control, implied in self-control, steadfastness, and implied in that is, godliness, implied in that brotherly affection. And at the center, the beating heart of the Christian life is love. I hope this will be a very practical portion of the sermon as I go through each of these in turn, but I want you to maintain that big picture in your mind that it all starts with faith. It all starts with faith in Christ, and then he's the one who brings it all the way through to love. See, faith is great because it's by faith that we grasp the mysteries of God. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, Hebrews 11:1 says, because faith, trust God. Sometimes we think about faith as just believing in things...statements. but primarily the Christian faith starts with believing a person. That God is and that he is a rewarder of all who seek him. And so starts the Christian faith that we know and love and trust our God. And that ought to lead to all these subsequent actions, because that's really where faith is demonstrated. For example, I was fishing with my son James, and I caught a bass. That's no credit to me. That's credit to my dad. He brought the fishing tackle. He gave me the lure. He told me cast over there. I did, and then pulled the fish in. That's not me. That's totally him. So if you're looking for fishing tips, just throwing that one out there...be a good guy to talk to. But I bring the fish in...bringing the bass to the boat. James is three. He's having a great time so far. He is, you know, casting his little toy fishing rod into the water and he's trying to throw trash overboard. I had to stop him on that. But then baskets in the boat. James loving it. And I said, James, touch the fish. And he's about to. And then the fish twitches and immediately he screams. He cries. He runs to the other side of the boat. He's terrified. And what did I tell him next? Did I explain to him the biology of the fish, how weak the fish was compared to him. Gave him all the specifics. No, I just told him. James, trust your daddy. Touch the fish. It'll be fine. That's all he needed to do. Sometimes in faith, we want all the answers. We want all the details. One of the beauties of faith is that we trust. And then we show that trust by acting and stepping out in faith. See, James really trusted me when he finally touched the fish. He didn't know that the fish didn't have, like, razor sharp teeth. He didn't know. He doesn't know what the bass is like. But he trusted me enough to step forward. And so it is with us. We start with faith, but then we step forward in action. As Calvin said, it is faith alone which justifies. And yet the faith which justifies is never alone. So supplement your faith with virtue. Not that faith is lacking, but it is immature. Faith needs to grow. See, even the smallest Christian, even the youngest Christian. You start with one thing, and that's faith. And you start with something even greater. And that faith is in the power of Jesus Christ. And that's what carries you through. So first we have virtue. The new American standard translates this word moral excellence. Virtue is doing what you do with excellence. For example, a piano virtuoso is someone who plays the piano quite well. You've heard Justin and Steve Kukla play piano for us. You know their skill and their talents. You might even call them virtuosos. But if you put one of them against me, and I know, contrary to what the Christmas video seemed to imply, I do not know how to play the piano and it sound well. I know how to make sounds with the piano, but that's very different from being a virtuoso. See, the virtuoso is one where we both sit down. We're both playing the piano, but the virtuoso plays the piano well. A bad pianist...myself plays the piano poorly. For someone to be virtuous, a virtuous human is someone who lives well. Everyone lives, but not everyone lives well. See, the great obsession of the greatest philosophers was that question. How do we live well? And that's a very important question for you. I think it should hit home that Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. It should hit home when Plato says, a life of virtue is its own reward. So they put great effort into considering the virtuous life because they knew that it mattered, and it was what it meant to live a good life. Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, and even most of your self-help books these days all trade on some basic truths. I want to give them to you in just a short form, and it's this. Good choices when repeated produce good habits which lead to virtue. Bad choices, when repeated, produce bad habits which lead to vices. Or as Scripture says in Romans 6:19, just as you once presented your members as slaves of lawlessness, leading to further lawlessness. So now present your members as slaves of righteousness, leading to sanctification. See, we make sinful choices. Sinful choices repeatedly lead to sinful habits, and from there it just keeps getting worse and worse. A life of vice. A life of villainy. But for the Christian, it ought to be that we make good, God honoring choices, and we do them repeatedly and produce good habits which lead to the life of virtue. What's amazing about this is that that's step one for the Christian, for Peter. You believe? Okay. Go live a good life. Go live well. You need a starting place? Well, start with Christ. Who else? Consider the virtues of Christ. Consider his humility. Consider his love. Consider his holiness. Or maybe very practically, for you, you should consider Galatians chapter 5, which gives two lists...the deeds of the flesh and the fruits of the spirit, or for the sake of some continuity here of language we could say a list of vices, and then a list of true Christian virtues. I'd recommend, maybe, as you're looking ahead to the new year and you want to grow in Christ likeness and make every effort to gain more of Christ, consider that list...first the vices, the deeds of the flesh, and consider which ones mark your life. What habits do they show themselves in? For example, you might look at your life and see a problem with gluttony and say, well, that's a vice, but then where does it show up? Maybe it shows up in getting the second and third cookie at dessert. Maybe it shows up in laziness in the workplace. And very specifically, it shows up at the beginning of your day where you start off your day by checking fantasy football, when you could have done that at home. Maybe it's gossip and that vice comes out whenever you're with certain people, and you want to talk about certain things and have something to say. Well, you've recognized the vice. You've recognized where it comes out. You've recognized that deed of the flesh. What's the way forward? A good way to start would be to consider the opposing virtue that maybe instead of gluttony, it would be self-control and consider for your own life. What choices or habits do you need to make to cultivate self-control in your life? That could be a good way to think about your New Year's resolutions. Go through those lists together. Maybe have someone a friend help you with that. I'm sure they would want to. But then going from virtue. That's not where Peter stops. He says, keep going. Grow in knowledge. And this word for knowledge, it's the most general word for knowledge in Greek. It's more general than the word for the knowledge of Christ in verse 3 and verse 2. And I think a good takeaway from this is that God wants us to know much more than just commands. He wants us to know much more than just how to live well. Much more than random facts about your favorite sports team or the intricacies of other people's social lives. Instead, he wants us to be learned in the things that matter most and in the things that matter for your life. One of the great glories of the Christian life is that whatever vocation you're in is a God given opportunity for you to honor him. You're called to be the best HVAC technician, the best salesperson, the best kindergarten teacher, the best doctor, lawyer, fireman. And for each of those professions, there's a certain base level of knowledge and competency that you should have to actually be good at your job and contributing to it. We should have that base level of knowledge. You're also called to certain offices as a father. You're called to be a good parent, leader. You're called to be a good friend, a good citizen. These all require certain knowledge. But even more than that, we are made for knowing Christ and the glories of him. And I think back in my own life, how sad it is for me to think of the years where I let the scriptures just sit closed like this on a bookshelf. And you should think about that for your life as you go into the new year. How can you prioritize gaining knowledge of God through His Word? Listening to other teachers explain the word, read some good books. We have a bookstore full of them, but a little word of advice on books. Life's too short to read the second best book on anything, so make sure you choose a good one. But this is God's plan for us that we would grow in wisdom and knowledge. Proverbs 4:7 says this at the beginning of wisdom is acquire wisdom, and in your acquiring gain understanding. And maybe you say, well, this is too hard, too difficult. There are some things that are just beyond my comprehension. Well, maybe be inspired. One of the great thinkers of the Christian faith, Thomas Aquinas, said this, that even the slightest knowledge of the highest things is more desirable than certain knowledge of lesser things. He said, I'd rather have the slightest knowledge of God and the heavenly secrets that understand all the intricacies of the universe. That's the kind of knowledge we should pursue. We should also pursue self-control. Self-control finds its opposite in losing control. Some of you maybe can relate to losing control. It's when you know the right thing to do and you just can't quite bring yourself to do it. You know, you should stop watching that. You know you should start working on that. You know, you should maybe make a list of things that you're supposed to do and shouldn't do just to motivate you a little bit more, but yet you lose control. You don't do what you know is right. You go back for the third cookie, even though you know you should have stopped two cookies earlier. But self-control is the exact opposite. It's knowing the right thing to do and then doing it despite your desires to do otherwise, despite the cost, despite the difficulty. You just do it. And I think this is a good reminder that what sets off the section is the command to make every effort. Self-control requires a lot of effort, but this kind of self-control is in many ways the pinnacle of a virtuous life. It's the last fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5. It's the greatest need of the watching world. In Acts chapter 24, when Paul is speaking to Festus, he talks to him about three things righteousness, judgment, and self-control. It's what the world wants but can't quite seem to have. And it's seen, I think, most vividly in the extremes. So ancient Christians lifted up two great examples of self-control, chastity, which is remaining faithful in marriage and pure outside of it, and martyrdom, having the fortitude to die for your faith. Seeing the cost and yet knowing this is what will please the Lord. I cannot and will not turn from my Savior. So, are you preparing yourself for that? Are you preparing yourself for martyrdom? It might sound extreme, but maybe a good one to think about. Think about for your kids. Are you preparing them to give it all for Christ? How are you cultivating self-control in your life? There are a few things you could do to practice this. One is by fasting, by saying no to food. Another way, maybe you want to practice some good fortitude of turning down what is fearful to you and go and share your faith. Maybe you need to resolve to share the gospel with that person at work this year that you know is a non-believer and you rub shoulders with them every day, but you haven't quite felt that it was right in the moment that maybe it'd be a little awkward if I brought up Jesus Christ now. Or maybe for you...you look around your life and you see, well, I don't really have non-believers around me. I'm terrified to go share the gospel. That's all the more reason to go out with the ambassadors this spring. Go knock on a stranger's door and share the gospel, because in doing so, you cultivate a heart of worship for God and self-control. That you will not let your lesser desires master you, that you will not settle for anything less than giving all for Jesus Christ. Trade the lesser goods of today for the greater goods of tomorrow. That's how you cultivate self-control. And then you have to add the next one, which is steadfastness or patience, or literally to endure under. You have to continue and persevere in your life, in your life, in Christ. You can't just make a habit and then throw it off the next day. We know this is true. Like New Year's resolutions are coming up, New Year's resolutions are only as good as your resolve to keep them. You all know it's true. And the canceled gym memberships. Or maybe you were unable to cancel them from last year. And so you've got that one lined up again as the resolution for this year. We know that it's hard to keep our commitments. We know it's hard to keep saying no and no and no and no again to ourselves and yes and yes and yes to the hard things. But we ought to add that steadfastness. And for the Christian whose living out your life and you feel like I have good habits in place. I'm seeking the Lord. I'm in his word daily. I pray I do all these things. Well, I'd say beware of falling into complacency, confusion and compromise, which leads to catastrophe. Maybe think about those...how those can be a stumbling block for you...complacency, confusion, compromise. And we all know those end in catastrophe. The goal is to cultivate godliness, which is next in the list. Literally, in Greek, be good worship. And every choice we make shows who or what we worship. Worship is not just singing here on Sunday, but it's how you live your life Monday through Saturday and even Sunday. Think about that with every choice you make, how you can bring the most worship to God. Sometimes we think first through oh, what I should or shouldn't do, what I want to do or what I don't want to do. Or maybe we think about the consequences of our actions, and those are all good things to consider. The good Christian will certainly consider what God has commanded and what God has not. But our heart's motivation...our starting point should be to worship God with everything. With the job you take, the friends you make, the wife you choose. So live well. Cultivate godliness. Live by the word. And if you want to add some specific direction to godliness, then go ahead. Look at the sermon on the Mount. Consider the great moral teachings of Christ and consider how you can honor him with your life. And then add to that brotherly affection. Love your sisters and brothers in Christ. The virtue of the Christian life can only be practiced in community. The fruits of the spirit can't exist in isolation. You can be as patient as you want when it's just yourself. But you have to have someone to be patient to. If you're wanting to work on anger this year, well, that's going to take a specific relationship, probably with someone who pushes your buttons. It doesn't mean avoiding them. Actually, it means dealing better with them in a Christ honoring and Christ exalting way. If you want to grow in love. it requires having someone near enough to you to love despite their flaws and despite your own. So add brotherly affection. Very practically, this can be done through joining a life group or if you're in one, be invested with the people there. Really seek them out. Have them over to your house. I'd even challenge you for this year. Consider having one night a week where you invite someone from the church over to your home and have them over for a meal. Just get to know them. I assure you, I know this from personal experience that you will be greatly encouraged, you'll be greatly challenged in your faith, and you will grow. And then eventually, you'll have a hard time imagining a time where you didn't have people over on that day. But most of all is to grow in love. The pinnacle of the Christian life is love. It's the engine of the Christian life...is love. At the center of this great Russian nesting doll that starts with faith. What's at the center? Well, it's love. And love is what turns them all. And love motivates them all. Love is the greatest commandment. And for that matter, the second greatest commandment. First commandment...we should love the Lord our God, and then that overflows in our love for others. You see, without love all these other things are useless. You can bring them all. You can do them all. You can make your to do list your resolutions. You can keep them. But if you don't have love, well let 1 Corinthians 13 speak. If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, and have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries so as to remove mountains, but have not love. I am nothing if I give away all that I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned and have not love, I gain nothing. You see, you can have all these virtues. You can have faith, you can have virtue, you can have knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection. But if you don't have love for Christ and you don't have real, genuine love for others, it's nothing...gains you nothing. At the heart of faith is a heart that loves God. So look to grow this way. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. And so you should try to grow in love this year. If you do one thing after this sermon, I pray that you would be resolved to grow in love. And well, how do you do that? Well, in a lot of ways you do it by focusing on everything that came before...returning back to the faith, returning back to the promises of Christ and of the gospel. Walk the Christian life, but pursue time with Christ. You see, we should pursue a relationship with Christ like a young person, like a young man does, pursuing his bride, taking every chance he can get to spend a little bit more time with her. C.S. Lewis famously wrote that love is a terrible master because it says better this...better suffering better...waking up early. Better...losing sleep. Better to sacrifice. Better to shun the world. Better anything than to be apart. So how can you give your time, your affection and your attention to Christ? Resolve this year to read the Bible, to memorize the scriptures, to take the truths of Christ with you. Pray fervently and often. And we do all these things. You might sound like this is a lot of work. My list is getting longer and longer with each of these qualities. Well, that's where we go back to our power. Our power is not our own, but it is Christ who works in us. And so, as one author wrote, do small things as if they were great because of the majesty of Christ, who does them in us and lives our life...and great things, as if they were small and easy because of his almighty power. Supplement your faith with virtue, your virtue with knowledge, your knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with brotherly love. Brotherly love with love. Love is in all these things. And as you continue on the path of faith, you'll find yourself growing more and more in love with your Savior because the path is worth it.

  It leads to this final destination. Let's start in verse nine. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Or excuse me, sorry, verse eight. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some of you hear that and you think, yes, that's what I want to be effective, fruitful. That's what everyone wants in their job...to be useful. People quit jobs, move their families because they don't feel fruitful in their work. But even more than that, this is a fruitfulness in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. That if you're growing in these qualities, they lead you again, closer and closer to Christ. And if you're not growing in them, well, there's the warning of verse 9, and maybe you listen to this list and you say, I don't want to give every effort. I don't want to strive. I don't want to work hard. I work hard enough already, don't I? Why do I need to work on this Christianity thing? Well, if that's your attitude, then we have to take verse 9 as a very strong warning that you have forgotten. You have forgotten the God of your salvation. You have forgotten that you're cleansed from your former sins. That you've forgotten the glories of Christ most magnificently displayed on the cross, who live for us, who died for our sin, and who rose again that we would have newness of life. If you listen to this sermon, you're like, I don't want to make this effort. I don't want to go into the new year and strive after Jesus Christ. Well, it's because you've lost the end of you. You're no longer looking ahead to the prize, which is Christ, and you've forgotten what's behind. You've forgotten the Christ of your salvation. You've forgotten what he did for you on Calvary. You've forgotten that he bore the punishment for your sin and freed you not only from its punishment and penalty, but from its power in your life. You've forgotten his power that resides in you. You've forgotten the glories of Christ...who is God and who is in you the hope of glory. So be diligent. Make every effort. Our labor does not undermine God's sovereign priority in calling or election, but its his appointed means for carrying it out. Verse 11 says that it is in this way. It is through you making every effort dear Christian, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is God who brings us to the finish line. It is God who brings us through the path all the way to our purpose. And there can be no purpose higher then life, eternal with God. There is none greater, none higher, none more beautiful, none better. Jesus says it himself in John 17:3 that this is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. So let that motivate you. Let that motivate your effort. And perhaps no one understood this more than the missionary Adoniram Judson. Judson labored for 33 years in Burma in the 1800s. He and his wife Ann, they underwent intense training and then sailed for 16 months to get to Burma. It's a different age. And in Burma they would battle 108 degree heat, cholera, malaria, dysentery, imprisonment and death. Judson would bury Ann. He would marry a second wife and then bury her as well. He would also bury seven of his 13 children and many more of his co-laborers in the gospel. They kept trying to send help to Adoniram, and people would get there and they would either leave or the climate would take them. His ministry was lonely and for the most part unfruitful. And yet all the while he labored. He learned the native language. He wrote gospel tracts. He translated the Bible. He made disciples. He did all the public things, and he also did the private things. He sought Christ in the scriptures. He sought the Lord in prayer. He devoted himself to the Lord every day. But eventually it did get to him, the disappointments, the hardships. And so he went out into the woods. He dug his own grave and then prayed for God to take him. But little did he know, and in his words a year later, that there was a new spirit of inquiry in the land. You see, in the year after that moment, Judson gave out over 10,000 tracts explaining the gospel. He answered 6000 inquiries from natives who wanted to learn more about Christ, some of them traveling 2 to 3 months journey just to reach this man. And the only guidance they had to go by was going around and asking the question, where can we find Jesus Christ's man. And when they finally found him, they just asked for one thing. Tell us more about Jesus Christ. What could motivate such a life? Judson lived a hard life. He saw some of the fruit of his ministry, but he died soon after. When he died, his last words were. How few men there are who die so hard? What could motivate this? Well, I think that's best seen in Judson's letter to Ann's father asking for her hand in marriage, and he writes this to his potential future father-in-law. "I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring to see her no more in this world. Whether you can consent to her departure and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life. Whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India, to every kind of want and distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this for the sake of Him who left his heavenly home and died for her, and for you, for the sake of perishing immortal souls, for the sake of Zion and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory with the crown of righteousness brightened with the acclamations of praise, which shall resound to her Savior from heathen saved through her means?" There's no greater motivation than to one day stand before Christ and to be with him forever. Where there is no more crying, no more tears, no more death. Life forever with our precious Savior. So, will you make every effort to gain more of Christ? Will you give your life freely and readily for him? Will you work to grow, to add to your faith virtue, virtue, knowledge, knowledge, self-control, self-control, steadfastness, steadfastness, godliness, godliness, brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love?

  Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you are our power. You are the God Most High who made heaven and earth. And Lord, who makes in us new life the very life of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is, Lord, our hope, our glory. And so I pray, Lord, that we would run, that we would lay aside every weight of sin that so easily entangles us. Lord, that we would press on with endurance. That we would fix our eyes on Christ who is in us, giving us the power to go forward, and who is the purpose and the final hope of our path. Lord, we pray that you would do all these things in us and through us for your glory. Amen.