Introduction
I wonder how many of you have had this happen. You are driving to go somewhere and you take a turn thinking you know exactly where you are going or you are just cruising in a neighborhood looking for a certain street and then you see a sign which is a huge pain. The sign says, “No outlet.” That is really worse than dead end because you know there may be other turns up ahead but none of them lead away from where you are. You are stuck unless you turn around which means you are losing ground or backtracking.
Too many followers of Christ Do things like this spiritually.
Instead of a plan that keeps us in the word of God, we just drive around spiritually and eventually we hit an area in our lives where there is no outlet. We have to turn around and begin to find our spiritual route all over again.
Describing the Biblical Text
In this chapter of 2 Peter, he is just getting through with the introduction of the letter and he jumps right into a section of growing in the faith.
It describes how we as followers of Jesus Christ can live lives of Christian virtue and mature as followers of Jesus Christ.
It tells us he can be fruitful in our service to Christ, his church, and the world around us.
Narrate the Contextual application
Peter is telling us what we need to add to our lives in order to be useful and fruitful and to be growing in the true knowledge of Jesus.
Life Application (thesis)
Growing in our faith is that which enables us to be useful in the kingdom.
When a pond or a creek stagnates, it cannot sustain life and the fish, frogs, and other life that relies on the fresh water will simply die or move to better water.
We must not allow our lives to stagnate either.
Spiritual stagnation is like a subdivision with no outlet.
You drive and use gas, very expensive gas, and end up going nowhere very fast.
The road best traveled is the road that enables us to grow in our faith.
SO WHAT!! (Outline)
As we explore this text this morning, we will look at 3 road signs that will direct us to the road best traveled.
We have become partakers of the divine nature.
I remember my ordination exam. I got through the first 2 questions really easily. Do you like fried chicken? Does Valerie play the piano?
But, later on came the kicker. Do people retain their sinful nature after they have trusted Christ?
I was ready. Of course not and I quoted a passage out of 2 Corinthians 5 as my text to affirm my answer. My pastor and convener of the council looked at the deacon who asked the question and simply said, “Do you want him or can I have Him?” Of course, they straightened me out from Romans 7 very quickly.
Yet in my original answer from 2 Corinthians, something there was very apparent.
Our nature is renewed.
If any man be in Christ, he is become a new creation. Behold the old things pass away and new things come and these things are from God.
In our new creationship, we become partaker of the divine.
If you think about it, that is how it has to work.
If we are saved by grace, it is not by any work or any acquiescence that we do or perform.
Something then must do the work of regeneration since we cannot.
Jesus called that work the new birth.
Unless a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.
There is a spiritual birth that takes place when become followers of Jesus Christ.
It is something that God does in us, to us and through us to make us His child.
If we are totally depraved, then there is nothing good in us and then God bestows upon us the divine nature and we become a follower of Jesus Christ.
Look at verses 3-4
Now,
Did you see the power that came having that?
It helps us to avoid the lust of the world and the sin that is in the world.
We need that because we do not lose the sin nature when we are saved but it does compete with the spirit.
The Spirit is infinitely stronger yet the lust the eye, the lust of the flesh and pride of life are always there to trip us up as it were.
This divine nature is in us and it accomplishes several things.
The first is that it demonstrates the righteousness of God in our salvation.
It prepares and enables us to face a sinful world,
It prepares us for a divine inheritance which is to come to us in Christ Jesus.
Let’s look at our next sign
We are called to live effectively and fruitfully for the Lord.
As we look at the life we are called to live, we are to apply diligence, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance and godliness.
These are the things that make the Christian life better and better.
As we grow in our faith, these things will tend to grow with us.
We can learn some very practical lessons as we seek to apply these teachings.
Think about a diligent faith.
That means it is dependable.
It is regular and we do not get slack with things like prayer devotions and loving our fellow believers.
Moral excellence means that your thoughts and passions are under control.
Lust does not burn in you just because you see or someone brings to mind a tempting image.
Knowledge in this case is the gaining of information that leads to a stronger faith in Christ.
We don’t get knowledge that is useful to our faith from worldly sources.
I meet with a group of reformed pastors once a month and we share our thoughts on certain Biblical ideas, doctrine, and other stuff and we discussing false teaching and how to recognize it.
Our conclusion was that we try to be so faithful in teaching sound doctrine that the false doctrine is self evident.
Self-control is actually a fruit of the Spirit of God.
God gives us the ability to keep our vessel under control.
The idea is related to moral excellence but it goes a step farther than that.
It encompasses all of life and not just our behavioral decisions.
Self control impacts the way we think and the way we feel.
It keeps us from having that angry outburst as well as that 3rd piece of chicken.
Perseverance is the idea that we will finish what we started with God.
We know that God will finish what he has started with us.
Philippians 1 tells that God will finish the good work He has begun in us.
The question is, “Are we sticking it out for Him?”
When things are tough or we are facing tribulation or persecution, are we being faithful in our service.
Godliness is the capacity to represent God in our lives and in our sphere of influence.
There used to be a bumper sticker that asked the question, “If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”
This is the sign of godliness.
People around us know where we stand and what we believe because our lives reflect God and His values in our lives.
Brotherly kindness is simply the word Philadelphia which means brotherly love.
And finally on this list, we see love.
This is the word agape which as we know is the self giving self sacrificial love that Christ demonstrated when died on the cross.
He was willing to take our place and to receive our punishment for sin simply because he loves us.
Don’t you love what v. 8 says?
For if these qualities are yours and increasing than you are not useless and unfruitful.
You are fulfilling God’s purpose for your life and you are bearing fruit as a useful implement in the holy hand of God.
Our third sign is this.
We are to know a sure election and calling.
Look at verse 10
Simply living the Christian life in the way that God prescribes it will confirm the saving work that God has done in our lives.
The Holy Spirit is like God’s pledge to us for an eternity in Glory.
Our Christian lives are like a receipt that proves that God has purchased us by His blood on the cross and the tomb that was emptied on the third day.
A faithful life is a useful life that bears fruit for God and is lived effectively for Him.
Think about your life today.
Nothing is more certain than God’s election in that you were chosen for salvation before the foundation of the world.
Nothing is more certain than God’s call that brought you effectually or irresistibly into the kingdom of God.
The question remains what are we doing to solidify the calling of God in our own lives and in our own minds?
That happens when we are growing in our faith.
That happens when our lives are fruitful and effective in our service to Christ
That happens when we are on the road best traveled living a useful life.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Sunday, April 06, 2008
The Road Best Traveled -- A Confident Life -- Ephesians 1:13-14
Introduction
What is the road best traveled?
When you are taking a trip, it depends on what you want to accomplish.
Do you want to get there quickly?
Do you want to see the sights and the sounds of the road?
Do you want to go straight to your destination?
Do you want to stop and pick up gramma?
It all factors in to the decision that you will make about the road you will travel.
You want speed, take the interstate.
You want scenery, take the back roads.
You want peace and quiet, drop the kids and gramma’s then take any road you want.
The road best travelled is the road that accomplishes your travel goals.
Describing the Biblical Text
These are the closing verses of the introduction to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.
After Paul has spent some time talking about God’s eternal purpose in Salvation, he, in two verses, covers the assurance of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ when that gospel is empowered and accompanied by the power and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Narrate the Contextual application
When we think about Salvation, we need to think about the eternal purpose of God.
Our salvation is not simply a deed for this time now.
It is an event of eternity planned from eternity past by a loving yet purposed God who had in His heart His glory through our redemption.
The praise of His glory is the very reason that we exist in His kingdom.
The praise of His glory now, the praise of His glory then and the praise of glory to come is why we exist and why we have come to know Christ.
Life Application (thesis)
If God saved us for His glory then we know something very important.
We know that God intends for us and our lives to be useful in producing His glory.
If that is the case, confidence is the result of knowing that God has intended us for His glory even before the foundation of the world.
Look at verse 4 for just a moment. [Read to 7]
Bearing that in mind, let’s build this idea.
We will have confidence living as a follower of Jesus Christ when we realize the work of God’s Spirit in our lives.
SO WHAT!! (Outline)
As we seek to travel down this road, we will see a number of routes that are available to us as we see this destination.
The first route is this.
I will live confidently because of the Gospel’s power.
Confidence is a great thing because it makes us believe something without doubting and with assurance.
Teams win ball games because of the confidence they have in their ability, their coach, or their gameplan.
Confidence in life is a healthy thing as long as it does not cross the line into arrogance.
But the confidence we have in the Lord is a tempered confidence.
It is tempered by the instruction that Jesus has given us to be humble and meek.
Something that has really been our focus lately is the power of the Gospel.
Since we began studying Romans on Sunday Night, we have repeatedly come across the power of the gospel to reveal God’s salvation or cleansing from sin.
That power is something that Paul described in the first chapter of Romans as a power of God to save people regardless of who they are.
Their background does not matter since the gospel is no respecter of persons.
All that is required is faith, believing that God indeed sent Jesus to die on the cross for us and then raised Him from the dead.
Paul tells us something in verse 13 about the gospel.
He calls it the message of truth.
The truth is that Gospel has the power to set us free from the sin and the bondage that has trapped us in a hell bound eternity by showing us the cleansing that God provides to us in our lives.
When we realize that we receive something, namely the righteousness of God, we then realize that there is nothing to be condemned in that righteousness.
It is perfect and in God’s eyes, it is the only sufficient way that God can see us and allow us to enter into His rest.
Knowing then that the Gospel is the power of God to save us, how do we live?
Do we live like defeated little puppies or do we live with confidence in life knowing that God’s power was applied in the Gospel to fulfill God’s purpose in His glory in our lives?
The next route we can see is that I will live confidently because of God’s promise.
My kids taught me a lesson early on in their lives.
If you say you are going to do something, they expect you to do it.
As a matter of fact if I tell my kids we will stop and eat somewhere and we don’t, they will quickly say, “But Dad, you promised.”
Now it is tempting to say, “I didn’t promise, I only said it.”
But you quickly realize that when you as a daddy say something it carries the weight of a promise.
Well, when the Bible makes statement like we find in verses 13-14, we see that they carry the weight of a promise from God.
When you know the promise of God in this passage, you can rest assured that there is nothing that can thwart your eternal relationship with God.
Look at verse 14.
When we see some done by God as an earnest or pledge, we can know that God means business.
Those of you who have bought a house have had to come up with some earnest money.
That is simply an amount of money that the seller gets to keep if you back out of the deal.
It shows that the buyer means business.
What has God given to us to show us that He means business?He has poured into us His very Spirit.
And, He did so to make a promise.
He did so to confirm a promise.
Look back up to verse 11.
Once again we see the stated purpose of God and in that purpose we see the glory of God but then we see a promise from God.
That promise come by the seal of God in our lives.
What does it mean to be sealed?
Look at this little thing.
It is a seal, not one of those polar dog like animals but an embossing seal.
It presses an image in the paper to identify my books as mine.
In Bible times things were sealed with a drop of wax and the press of a bas relief image like from a ring.
That seal made contracts valid and promises carry the weight of law.
Now think about that.
We are sealed or affixed with God’s seal of ownership, promise and sealed with a future that is intended just as His choosing us in the past was intended to Give Him Glory.
If you know that God’s seal is affixed to you, won’t that encourage you to live with confidence toward God?
Look what the promise is for?
It is for an eternal inheritance with God.
You cannot lose that nor have it taken away.
It is the follower’s of Jesus Christ confidence that he or she is glory bound.
Let’s look at one more route in the trip of confidence this morning.
I will live confidently because of the glorious possession.
We alluded to this when were talking about that seal.
But verse 14 describes us very clearly as God’s possession.
Why can we say that?
Twice in the book of 1 Corinthians, we are told that we are bought with a price and that means that the blood that Jesus shed for us bought our salvation.
We were purchased as it were by the death of Jesus on the cross and the transaction was complete when we heard the gospel and at that moment were drawn to faith in Jesus to become His follower.
In the future glory, the transaction made complete will be revealed in perfect clarity.
Listen to what we find written in Romans 8
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36Just as it is written,
“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
A follower of Jesus Christ never has any reason to live in less that the full assurance that God will give him a true fulfillment in the perfect glory of God
That is found in the gospel’s power God’s promise and the fact that we are his glorious possession.
Are you living with confidence or driving down the wrong road?
What is the road best traveled?
When you are taking a trip, it depends on what you want to accomplish.
Do you want to get there quickly?
Do you want to see the sights and the sounds of the road?
Do you want to go straight to your destination?
Do you want to stop and pick up gramma?
It all factors in to the decision that you will make about the road you will travel.
You want speed, take the interstate.
You want scenery, take the back roads.
You want peace and quiet, drop the kids and gramma’s then take any road you want.
The road best travelled is the road that accomplishes your travel goals.
Describing the Biblical Text
These are the closing verses of the introduction to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.
After Paul has spent some time talking about God’s eternal purpose in Salvation, he, in two verses, covers the assurance of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ when that gospel is empowered and accompanied by the power and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Narrate the Contextual application
When we think about Salvation, we need to think about the eternal purpose of God.
Our salvation is not simply a deed for this time now.
It is an event of eternity planned from eternity past by a loving yet purposed God who had in His heart His glory through our redemption.
The praise of His glory is the very reason that we exist in His kingdom.
The praise of His glory now, the praise of His glory then and the praise of glory to come is why we exist and why we have come to know Christ.
Life Application (thesis)
If God saved us for His glory then we know something very important.
We know that God intends for us and our lives to be useful in producing His glory.
If that is the case, confidence is the result of knowing that God has intended us for His glory even before the foundation of the world.
Look at verse 4 for just a moment. [Read to 7]
Bearing that in mind, let’s build this idea.
We will have confidence living as a follower of Jesus Christ when we realize the work of God’s Spirit in our lives.
SO WHAT!! (Outline)
As we seek to travel down this road, we will see a number of routes that are available to us as we see this destination.
The first route is this.
I will live confidently because of the Gospel’s power.
Confidence is a great thing because it makes us believe something without doubting and with assurance.
Teams win ball games because of the confidence they have in their ability, their coach, or their gameplan.
Confidence in life is a healthy thing as long as it does not cross the line into arrogance.
But the confidence we have in the Lord is a tempered confidence.
It is tempered by the instruction that Jesus has given us to be humble and meek.
Something that has really been our focus lately is the power of the Gospel.
Since we began studying Romans on Sunday Night, we have repeatedly come across the power of the gospel to reveal God’s salvation or cleansing from sin.
That power is something that Paul described in the first chapter of Romans as a power of God to save people regardless of who they are.
Their background does not matter since the gospel is no respecter of persons.
All that is required is faith, believing that God indeed sent Jesus to die on the cross for us and then raised Him from the dead.
Paul tells us something in verse 13 about the gospel.
He calls it the message of truth.
The truth is that Gospel has the power to set us free from the sin and the bondage that has trapped us in a hell bound eternity by showing us the cleansing that God provides to us in our lives.
When we realize that we receive something, namely the righteousness of God, we then realize that there is nothing to be condemned in that righteousness.
It is perfect and in God’s eyes, it is the only sufficient way that God can see us and allow us to enter into His rest.
Knowing then that the Gospel is the power of God to save us, how do we live?
Do we live like defeated little puppies or do we live with confidence in life knowing that God’s power was applied in the Gospel to fulfill God’s purpose in His glory in our lives?
The next route we can see is that I will live confidently because of God’s promise.
My kids taught me a lesson early on in their lives.
If you say you are going to do something, they expect you to do it.
As a matter of fact if I tell my kids we will stop and eat somewhere and we don’t, they will quickly say, “But Dad, you promised.”
Now it is tempting to say, “I didn’t promise, I only said it.”
But you quickly realize that when you as a daddy say something it carries the weight of a promise.
Well, when the Bible makes statement like we find in verses 13-14, we see that they carry the weight of a promise from God.
When you know the promise of God in this passage, you can rest assured that there is nothing that can thwart your eternal relationship with God.
Look at verse 14.
When we see some done by God as an earnest or pledge, we can know that God means business.
Those of you who have bought a house have had to come up with some earnest money.
That is simply an amount of money that the seller gets to keep if you back out of the deal.
It shows that the buyer means business.
What has God given to us to show us that He means business?He has poured into us His very Spirit.
And, He did so to make a promise.
He did so to confirm a promise.
Look back up to verse 11.
Once again we see the stated purpose of God and in that purpose we see the glory of God but then we see a promise from God.
That promise come by the seal of God in our lives.
What does it mean to be sealed?
Look at this little thing.
It is a seal, not one of those polar dog like animals but an embossing seal.
It presses an image in the paper to identify my books as mine.
In Bible times things were sealed with a drop of wax and the press of a bas relief image like from a ring.
That seal made contracts valid and promises carry the weight of law.
Now think about that.
We are sealed or affixed with God’s seal of ownership, promise and sealed with a future that is intended just as His choosing us in the past was intended to Give Him Glory.
If you know that God’s seal is affixed to you, won’t that encourage you to live with confidence toward God?
Look what the promise is for?
It is for an eternal inheritance with God.
You cannot lose that nor have it taken away.
It is the follower’s of Jesus Christ confidence that he or she is glory bound.
Let’s look at one more route in the trip of confidence this morning.
I will live confidently because of the glorious possession.
We alluded to this when were talking about that seal.
But verse 14 describes us very clearly as God’s possession.
Why can we say that?
Twice in the book of 1 Corinthians, we are told that we are bought with a price and that means that the blood that Jesus shed for us bought our salvation.
We were purchased as it were by the death of Jesus on the cross and the transaction was complete when we heard the gospel and at that moment were drawn to faith in Jesus to become His follower.
In the future glory, the transaction made complete will be revealed in perfect clarity.
Listen to what we find written in Romans 8
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36Just as it is written,
“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
A follower of Jesus Christ never has any reason to live in less that the full assurance that God will give him a true fulfillment in the perfect glory of God
That is found in the gospel’s power God’s promise and the fact that we are his glorious possession.
Are you living with confidence or driving down the wrong road?
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