SERMON TITLE: Everything We Need
TEXT: 2 Peter 1:1-11
SPEAKER: Matt Heft
DATE: 5-5-2024
Sermon Discussion Guide
Take notes here
Good morning! I’m Matt Heft, an elder here at Gateway Church. I love Gateway Church, and when I say that, I mean that I love each of you as well. And far better than my love, you need to know that God loves you. For those of you with Mexican heritage, Happy Cinco de Mayo! I hope you enjoy celebrating today.
While we’re on the subject of Hispanic culture, I have to share one quick story from Gateway Church’s most recent mission trip to Havana, Cuba. We split up into groups to more effectively do ministry, and one of our groups was playing soccer with a bunch of kids. Our group wanted to start a gospel conversation with the kids, so one of them said, “Do any of you know who Jesus is?” To our group’s surprise, all the boys quickly pointed…to their friend, Jesus. I hope today’s message will point you to Jesus, our Savior.
This morning, we are going to continue our series where we are looking at The Westminster Shorter Catechism and seeing how this can be a tool we can use in our lives. Adam Borsay did a great job talking about Question 2 when he preached in February. In fact, he did so well, he took about half of the material I was going to use. So, if you have questions about the authority that Scripture should have in our lives, go back and listen to Adam’s sermon.
For all of us, there’s someone or something that is constantly speaking into our lives. It could be that Netflix show you like to binge on, those talk radio personalities, or even TikTok – until it’s banned. It might be books, podcasts, or your friends. Something is speaking into our lives and telling us how to live. Other “teachers” are trying to tell us how to answer the questions we find in the Westminster Catechism. As Christians, we look to Scripture for these answers. If you’re not a Christian, I invite you to join us today as we look at why we hold Scripture as the source for answering life’s most difficult questions.
Today, we’re looking at Question 3 in the Shorter Catechism. Here’s the question and the corresponding answer: “What does the Bible primarily teach?
The Bible primarily teaches what man must believe about God and what God requires of man.” I wanted to see if I could get a little more context and background, so I flipped over to the Westminster Larger Catechism to see if there was a larger answer there. In the Larger Catechism, this same question is asked and the answer is about the same. So no new insights. But then I turn the page in the Larger Catechism and there’s a large heading: “WHAT HUMAN BEINGS OUGHT TO BELIEVE ABOUT GOD” followed by 85 more questions and answers! And then, after those 85 questions, there’s another large heading: “HAVING SEEN WHAT THE BIBLE PRIMARILY TEACHES US TO BELIEVE ABOUT GOD, NEXT COMES WHAT GOD REQUIRES OF HUMANS.” followed by another 105 questions! So, I either need to talk really fast and cover 190 questions or we need to look at this a little differently.
Consider yourselves fortunate, I’ve decided to look at this a little differently.
Here’s my key point for today:
Through God’s Word and his Holy Spirit, we have everything we need for life and godliness. So again, the question we’re covering today is “what does the Bible primarily teach?” Well, it teaches us what to believe about God, or how to see God correctly, and the Bible also tells us what God requires of humans. When we know how to see God correctly and when we know what God requires of us, we can confidently say that we have everything we need for life and godliness.
Since we’re not going to cover 190 questions, please open up your copy of the scriptures to 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 1. While you’re turning there, let’s start off with a little Bible trivia. Go ahead and say your answers out loud.
Thanks for humoring me. I enjoy trivia and from the sound of it, some of you do too. But, if we’re not careful, I believe that we can know a lot about the Bible. We can know so much that we could ace a Bible trivia quiz, but it has very little impact on how we live our lives. Kind of like knowing that they play duck, duck, grey duck in Minnesota, but knowing that fact won’t change my life one bit.
Most of us here today would say, I believe in the Bible, but how many of us are willing to open it up and say, I believe this book, and I’m going to read it, and study, and learn more from it…and I’m going to rearrange my life to line up with this book. One of our Kidway volunteers, the kids call him Mr. Sam, jumps up and down and tells the kids every week, “Read your Bible, Read your Bible, Read your Bible!” Mr. Sam, for this message, I want to add to what you tell the kids. “Do what it says, do what it says, do what it says!” James 1:22 even tells us “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
That’s my goal this morning…that in greater and greater ways, we would start doing what it says.
Remember our key idea for this morning.
Through God’s Word and his Holy Spirit, we have everything we need for life and godliness.
Let me read the entire passage from 2 Peter chapter 1 to get us started this morning.
2 Peter 1:1-11 (NIV84)
Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
This morning, we’ll be spending our time working through this passage. Let me re-read verses three through five.
2 Peter 1:3-5 (NIV84)
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
Some of you noticed that verse three is where I got our big idea for today. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. I’ve elaborated on “his divine power” to ensure that we know that this would include both his written Word and the Holy Spirit as he speaks to us. Verse four says that he has given us his very great and precious promises. What else could these great and precious promises be other than the Word of God and the promised Holy Spirit? Through God’s Word and his Holy Spirit, we have everything we need for life and godliness.
Ok, now starting in verse 3 again. His divine power has given us, and the verb tense here indicates that he gave (past tense) and we continue to see the results (present tense) of what he gave to us. As you know, one of the characteristics of a disciple here at Gateway Church is that we want to be Word and Spirit Christians. Even though we are reading words that were first penned millenia ago, the Holy Spirit brings them alive in our lives and keeps us in step with him.
I firmly believe that God’s Word has given us everything we need for life and godliness. And that belief is summed up in one word, “sufficient”.
Let’s try a little experiment. Husbands, if your wife is here with you this morning, I have something I want you to try. If your spouse isn’t here or if you’re single, don’t worry about it, just sit back and enjoy the show. Alright, husbands, I want you to turn to your wife and say, “Honey, you’re…sufficient” Now wives, don’t punch him. I don’t see any of you looking deep into their eyes and admiring your husbands for such a show of love. No, because our common definition of sufficient is insufficient.
In a regular context, when we say sufficient. We typically mean, it’s enough, but just barely. Like if you gave me a slice of pizza. That’s sufficient. It would satisfy my hunger. But I mean…I could eat another one. But one is sufficient.
When we use the word sufficient when talking about the Bible it’s not the same meaning. When we speak of God’s Word being sufficient, we mean that it is fully adequate and it “contains everything we need God to tell us for salvation, for trusting him perfectly, and for obeying him perfectly”. I don’t need God’s Word, plus something else. As the Holy Spirit illuminates God’s Word for me, it is sufficient. It is fully adequate to show me everything I need for life and godliness.
Let’s be clear, it’s not going to explicitly tell you what college to go to, or who to marry, or at what age to retire. But it is sufficient to guide us through all the crazy ups and downs and twists and turns that this life will throw at us. God’s Word may not always tell me what to do, but it certainly tells me how I should be doing it.
And what’s the benefit of trusting that God’s Word is sufficient and I can rely on it for life and godliness? It tells us at the end of verse four, I get to participate in the divine nature and I escape the corruption in the world. Again, from the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the Bible will teach me what I ought to believe about God and what God requires of us.
Moving on to the next section of our passage, it says in 2 Peter 1:5-9 (NIV84) For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
In your life, do you want to be effective and productive in the things that you do? I know that I do. I feel as if I’m always looking for ways to be more productive, to get more done, to make more of an impact. Some days I try to do this by working faster, some days by working harder, some days by working smarter. But the Bible has a better answer for what we should do if we want to be effective and productive.
Faith
Verse five starts by saying that we should make every effort to add or supplement our faith with the next seven qualities. Before we start into the qualities that we should add, let’s start with the foundation: faith. Faith stands alone. It is the entry point into our relationship with God. And it is only through this relationship that any of these other attributes are possible or make sense for us to add into our lives. Our faith in God is the foundation, and while we stand strong on faith alone for our salvation, if there is no sign of growth, but instead we see decay, we should be very concerned for our souls.
Goodness
The first thing that this passage says we should supplement our faith with is goodness. Goodness in this context simply means moral excellence. Let me put this in even simpler terms. Are you ready for this? Be nice. Don’t be mean. Be patient with other drivers on the road, speak kind words to others in your home, at school, in your workplace, and even online, be kind to waiters and waitresses, tip well, be friendly to employees at the gas station or grocery store. To your faith add goodness. Be good to people. And just be good to people in the way that the world knows to be good to people.
Knowledge
As we work to add goodness to our lives, we don’t want to stop at just being a good person. Our verses say to add knowledge. And the source of this knowledge is from God’s Word. Read and study your Bibles, be at church on a regular basis, attend Life Group, listen to and read other godly books and sermons. Add knowledge to your goodness.
One way that I really learn and gain knowledge is when I have to prepare to teach others, God uses that to help grow me far more than anyone I may be teaching. Preparing for this sermon today, I have had to wrestle with the words in this passage. I’ve tried to define them, understand them, and figure out how to apply them. Maybe for you, to grow in knowledge, it’s time for you to start teaching too. We have many opportunities for you to teach. You could teach in Kidway – we have many opportunities to try that out for the summer, maybe you’ve been in a Life Group for quite a while and now it’s time for you to step up and lead a Life Group, or perhaps you’re ready talk to Pastor Josh or Laura about leading an Equip Class.
Self-Control
To knowledge, we’re to add self-control. I remember when our kids were younger, my wife, Amberly, would say to them, you can either have self-control or you can have mom-control. I thought it was funny…the kids not so much. I now realize that Amberly is more of a theologian than I realized.
Look at her word…mom-control. When mom-control is in effect, who is doing the controlling? Mom. And when mom-control is in effect, who is being controlled? The kid or you might even say the self.
Our word self-control often wraps both the who is being controlled and who is doing the controlling into one person. The self is being controlled and the self is doing the controlling. But when the Bible talks about self-control, it is talking about myself being under control. But who is doing the controlling? It’s not me, or it shouldn’t be, it is the Holy Spirit who should be doing the controlling in our lives. Maybe you’ve been trying to control your life, trying to have self-control, but you need to give that up and let the spirit be in control of your life.
Steadfastness
To self-control, we’re to add perseverance. The ESV here uses the word steadfastness. Steadfastness is the quality of being resolutely firm and unwavering. Notice that there is no timeframe tied to it. I’m not steadfast for a week, month, or a year…I’m either steadfast or I’m not. This is an area that I think I have room for growth, but how would I even do that?
Let’s look to one of the Psalms to give us some indication of what this should mean for us. Psalm 78 provides a history of the Israelites from the time of the Exodus to the reign of King David. You can read the whole Psalm yourselves this afternoon, but I want to jump right in the middle of it so that we can begin to answer this question of how do I develop steadfastness? I’ll start reading in verse 32. This picks up right after we see God providing the Israelites with meat and manna while wandering in the wilderness before entering the promised land.
Psalm 78:32-37 (ESV)
In spite of all this, they still sinned; despite his wonders, they did not believe. So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror. When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and sought God earnestly. They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer. But they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues. Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant. Psalm 78:32-37 (ESV)
So, we see some positive examples of steadfastness. It starts with repentance and seeking God. It includes remembering who God is: that he is our rock, he is our redeemer, He is the one who has bought us back from slavery. The Israelites were doing all those things, but something wasn’t quite right. While they were remembering all that God had done, they were also flattering God with their mouths (God doesn’t need our flattery), they were lying to him with their tongues, their hearts were not steadfast.
Before we read Psalm 78, my question was “how do I develop my steadfastness”? The answer is that it starts with our hearts. We must let God begin to change us from the inside. It does not start with paying lip service to what we think will look best outwardly. When we allow the Holy Spirit to use God’s Word in our hearts, then he’ll take our lying tongues and turn them into truth-telling tongues, he’ll take our flattery and turn it into pure and wonderful praise. Through these small changes, we will begin to grow to be firm, unwavering, and steadfast.
Godliness
To steadfastness, we’re to add godliness. If goodness is doing the right thing as deemed right by society, godliness is that sense of right and wrong, that comes when we are transformed and shaped by God’s Word and his Holy Spirit.
To be godly, we have to know his Word and we have to have a heart that is tuned in to the Holy Spirit. As God trains me in godliness, there will be things that I should be turning away from, beyond what society says are wrong. There will be things that I should do, that are beyond what the world says that I should do.
In the sermon on the mount Jesus tells us that if someone wants your tunic, give them your coat too, or if you are asked to walk one mile, walk two. It is only through daily taking in God’s Word and listening to his spirit, that we will be able to discern when he is calling us to more…or less…than the goodness of the world calls us to.
Do you see how these attributes are building on each other. To goodness, I’m adding knowledge, and self-control, and steadfastness, and godliness. Let’s keep going and look at the last two.
Brotherly Kindness
To godliness, we’re to add brotherly kindness. With brotherly kindness, I want us to consider how we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ. At the beginning of this year, we talked about Gateway Church’s new vision statement. Gateway Church exists to glorify God by making disciples of Jesus Christ. And as we defined what it means to be a disciple, one of our key attributes was family.
How are you treating your brothers and sisters at Gateway Church? Is there fighting or gossip between you and someone else here? Or perhaps you fight in a different way…are there those that you avoid and hide from when you come to church, so that you don’t have to talk to them and confront issues between you and them.
It’s time that we begin to come together and show the kind of love between God’s children that we should. So, who makes the first move? As I mentioned those words, did someone or several someones come to mind for you? If so, drop the pride and you be the one to make the first move. You be the first one to say something. You take it on yourself to do whatever you can to gain peace within the family.
And we don’t want to stop at just “not fighting”…we want to move to a point where we are showing kindness upon kindness to our family.
Love
Not only does showing brotherly kindness to other Christians model what Christ’s love looks like, it gives us the training wheels to do the same with those outside of this body.
We’ve already covered goodness, which would seem to be about treating all people well. So what is Peter trying to get at when he says, “love”. What greater love could I have for someone than to share with them the truth about Jesus and the great love that he has shown for them?
There was a famous entertainer several years ago, who is also an atheist. Although he doesn’t believe in God, he had some remarkable insights into telling others about Jesus. He said, “How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? If I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn’t believe it, and that truck was bearing down on you, there’s a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.” Because we have this great gift of salvation, we should be showing love to others by telling them how they can receive this gift too. Remember last week…the Gospel is for everyone!
We want to possess these qualities in increasing measure, because they will keep us from being ineffective and unproductive. I know for me, I don’t want to get to the end of my life and look around and think, my life was ineffective. It was unproductive. I may have lots of stuff, or lots of memories and experiences, but my life was lived for myself. That is an ineffective and unproductive life. Peter is calling us to something so much better.
Now let me be sure to be clear for those that are following along closely. The passage says, ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. I’ve never thought about being ineffective and unproductive in my knowledge of something. I think what he’s saying is that it’s possible to know stuff. A lot of stuff. A lot of good stuff. But that knowledge, while extremely important, should be translated into action. And as we put God’s Word into action, we will see that our lives will be more and more effective and productive for his kingdom. The only kingdom that will survive. The only kingdom that is everlasting.
As we’ve gone through all of these qualities that we are being called on to demonstrate more and more of, I feel as if I’ve glossed over the concept that the Word of God is sufficient. Let me revisit that for just a minute.
To summarize another book I’ve read recently, the descriptions of human problems found in the Bible covers nearly every topic you can imagine, and the answers the Bible gives for how to solve those problems is far superior to anything that the world has ever offered. Only God understands the problems of humanity at the deepest level-and how to fix those problems. The Bible is sufficient. As we know God’s Word more, as we allow the Holy Spirit to speak into our lives, we will see that we have everything we need for life and godliness because God’s Word is sufficient.
And again what does the Bible primarily teach? The Bible primarily teaches what man must believe about God and what God requires of man.
But what if you would say, I’m a believer, but I don’t really care about this long list of things you just rattled through. I don’t care about goodness, or knowledge, or self-control, or perseverance, or godliness, or brotherly kindness, or love. I don’t need or want to think about those things or put any effort into growing in those areas. Here’s what God’s Word says about you. “But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.” 2 Peter 1:9 (NIV84)
Here we are reminded of the gospel. This letter from Peter was written “to those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours” 2 Peter 1:1b We do not have a righteousness of our own. Any righteousness that I will ever have only comes through Jesus Christ and what he did for me on the cross. His broken body and his shed blood have paid the penalty for my sin, if I will call on him, repent, and ask his forgiveness. If you’ve never done that, please don’t spend the effort trying to get better. It will never be enough. Call on Jesus to take away your sins. If you would like to talk more after the service, we would love to talk with you more about that.
I want to encourage you this morning to keep striving to look more like Jesus. I want you to know how to live and be godly. And when we do these things, we will be more confident in the great salvation that we have been given. Let’s read that in our passage.
2 Peter 1:10-11 (NIV84)
Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We are all in agreement that we are saved by faith alone. But we should not stop at our justification, what we see here in these Scriptures is that there is a process of growth, a process often called sanctification. With each passing week, month, and year, we should be looking more and more like Jesus. And if we are not, we should be very concerned that we may just be going through the motions.
Let’s be careful not to assume that because we said a prayer when we were six or thirty-six that we have secured our place in heaven and can now live however we want. Although God’s grace is sufficient, what we see in this passage is that if that’s how lowly you think of the gift that God has given to you, then you may need to reconsider if you have truly received this great salvation.
I hope that we will all take the time to peer into God’s Word to clearly see who our God is and what he requires of us. I hope that we will be willing to listen to and do what he says in his Word, so that we can be confident in his calling of us.
Let’s pray.
God, our Father, I pray this morning that you would make us certain of our calling in you. I pray that our hearts would be stirred to supplement our faith with goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. I pray that you would drive us to your word, and guide us by your holy spirit to know all that we need to know for life and godliness.
Thank you for the gift of Jesus Christ who gives us the faith to trust in and follow after you. Thank you that you and your word are sufficient. We need to look no further. It is in your name that we pray. Amen.
As we look at passages like the one we just reviewed, it can be tempting to think that all of this is on my shoulders. That I must somehow make myself holy by my words or actions. And while we should be growing in him, we know that we will never be perfect. We can never forget that our salvation originates with him. He is the source of our salvation.
This table reminds us of his great love and sacrifice for us.
On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:24b-26 ESV)
As I give a few instructions and while you’re waiting on the servers to get to your row, spend that time reflecting on what God wants to say to you. Perhaps there is sin you need to confess, or perhaps he is calling you to something new, or maybe you have been challenged in some area of your life through his Word this morning.
If you are not a believer, I would encourage you to allow the bread and cup to pass.
Spend some time in reflection now.
At this time, I’d like to invite forward those who are going to be serving us. And — while they make their way forward — know that as the bread and cup are passed down your rows, you’re to take the bread on your own — but save the cup — which we’ll drink together. Also — in the trays with the bread — there’s a gluten free option in the center of the tray. Eat the bread on your own — but save the cup — which we’ll drink together.
COMMUNION PASSED OUT
The blood of Christ, shed for you.
Heavenly Father, thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus on that horrible, yet wonderful cross. Thank you that not only are my sins forgiven, but that I have received his righteousness. I am so undeserving of this kind of love and all that I can say in response is thank you.
Guide me in paths of righteousness. Teach me to live the way you want me to as I see in your word. Thank you for giving me everything I need for life and godliness.
And as you go, go knowing that God has provided everything you need for life and godliness. May we never neglect the great and wonderful gift of his Word. You are sent.
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