-
"But grow in the grace and knowledge
-
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
-
To Him be glory both now and forever.
-
Amen."
-
2 Peter 3:18
-
Now, one of the great
goals of this conference
-
is expressed by Peter in these words,
-
that we grow in the grace and knowledge
-
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
-
Many benefits come from conference -
-
the renewal of friendships,
-
moments of inspiration from speakers,
-
and meeting someone special perhaps,
-
but unless we grow
-
from our time here -
-
grow in graciousness,
-
grow in our knowledge of the Savior,
-
then there will be major failure
-
in our gathering together.
-
Some of you know Don Whitney's
-
helpful little book: "Praying the Bible."
-
And we gather to pray this Scripture.
-
Lord, help me to grow in graciousness.
-
Lord, help me to grow in knowledge
-
of the Savior.
-
And who needs to pray that?
-
Well, the baby Christians here -
-
they need to pray it.
-
And then, the man who is the most holy
-
and most mature
-
and has followed the Lord for many years -
-
he needs to still pray this prayer.
-
So what are we asking
-
when we are asking that we may grow
-
in grace and in the knowledge
-
of the Lord Jesus Christ?
-
Well, firstly, we are asking for genuine,
-
progressive concern for
the needs of others.
-
The second commandment,
-
after to love God with all our hearts
-
is to love our neighbor as ourselves.
-
And that's the impact that we are to make
-
on one another.
-
A real concern for other people.
-
How is it with you?
-
Do we know where
-
the members of the congregation are?
-
Do we know where there are doubts?
-
Do we know where people
are close to giving up?
-
Do we know where the troubles
-
and the problems are?
-
And you'll say, well, the elders know.
-
Well, perhaps they do.
-
But perhaps with some people,
-
you know more.
-
I'm not talking about inquisitive prying
-
into the lives of other people,
-
but I'm speaking about a concern for them.
-
Do they have some fear?
Do they have some worry?
-
How can I help them?
-
So, that's going to be
our lives from now on.
-
We're going to be corns of wheat
-
that fall into the ground and die,
-
or we'll abide alone.
-
We're going to be concerned
-
that there be fruit in the lives of others
-
and fruit in our own lives.
-
The Savior, then, He didn't come
-
to be served,
-
but He came to serve.
-
So He calls us also
-
that we're better servants of one another;
-
more concerned;
-
more aware of the needs.
-
How is it with you?
How is it at meal times?
-
Do you look to see if everyone's
got what they want?
-
And you're concerned about them?
-
You just don't look at the
food in front of you?
-
The nicer seats - are you anxious
-
to help other people?
-
When you drive a car,
-
do you let other people cut in?
-
When there are family choices,
-
do you ask your wife:
-
what do you want to do?
-
Do you ask children
-
what their concerns are?
-
It's a very sad life
-
if it's just centered on you.
-
An egotistical life.
-
And so growing in grace,
-
growing in graciousness then
-
shows itself in a progressive concern
-
for the needs of others.
-
That's the first thing
that we're praying for.
-
And the second thing we are praying for
-
is that we are growing in knowledge
-
of the gospel, of the Christian faith,
-
and growing especially
-
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
-
A literal, mental grasp with our minds
-
of the teaching of Holy Scripture.
-
It may seem to you very elementary
-
and very basic.
-
But the first thing that
a believer puts on
-
is the girdle of truth.
-
And the first thing that he must attend to
-
in terms of spiritual knowledge
-
and spiritual growth is familiarity
-
with the truth;
-
with the teaching of Scripture;
-
with the system of Christian doctrine.
-
It's all very well for us to speak
-
of the perils of a dead orthodoxy,
-
and I guess it's a real peril.
-
There are people and their concern
-
is not interest in the great
foundational doctrines,
-
but they're interested in
the conundrum of theology.
-
And let's avoid that.
-
And there are other people
-
and they're only
interested in the doctrines
-
that have given rise to controversies
-
amongst Christians.
-
Doctrines that men fight about.
-
Doctrines that men disagree with.
-
Let's mortify that spirit too.
-
But we are bound as Christians
-
to make conscience of growing
-
in our grasp of Genesis, Exodus,
-
Leviticus, Numbers, and so on
-
to Revelation.
-
And to that life of Adam, and Noah,
-
and Abraham, and the Patriarchs,
-
and Moses,
-
and the deliverance from Egypt,
-
and then the time of the entry
-
and Joshua and Judges,
-
and Samuel,
-
and the rise of Saul,
-
and the rise of David,
-
and Solomon - the great division
-
that took place under him,
-
and then the destruction
-
of the Northern kingdom of Israel,
-
and then the temporary
Babylonian captivity
-
of Judah and their return,
-
and the coming of Christ
-
as promised.
-
So, we ought to know those things.
-
And know the letters.
-
And so when the Jehovah's Witness
-
comes to your house,
-
then you say,
"Do you know the Bible?"
-
"Yes."
"Well, what..." you say to him,
-
"What is the main theme
-
of the letter to the Romans?"
-
And that's a good question to ask him
-
because he won't know.
-
He'll know his stuff,
-
but he won't know a question
as important as that.
-
"Well, Ephesians is shorter," you say,
-
"six chapters - tell me,
-
what is the main teaching of Ephesians?"
-
And then he'll get a bit frustrated
-
and angry with you.
-
"Well now, come back and let me know."
-
Because you're driving him to the Word.
-
Aren't you? To read the Word.
-
And that is the only
chance of him changing.
-
And so I'm saying to you
-
we have to soak ourselves
-
in the Word;
-
marinate ourselves in the Word of God,
-
because if we're going to ask then
-
a Jehovah's Witness to tell us
-
what the main theme of Romans is,
-
we better know it ourselves.
-
We better know it ourselves.
-
So, we ought to know
about the Person of Christ.
-
His deity, His humanity,
-
His incarnation,
-
His states as pre-existent,
-
humiliated, exalted;
-
His offices of Prophet, Priest, and King.
-
We ought to know the great doctrines
-
of God's sovereignty,
-
of justification by grace through faith,
-
of adoption,
-
of union with Christ,
-
of sanctification.
-
These teachings are not
simply for theologians,
-
but they are the stuff
of believing meditation.
-
They are the stuff of doxology.
-
The great hymns are about those themes.
-
And if we're to be growing Christians,
-
we are to be growing intellectually.
-
We are to be growing theologically.
-
We are to grow in our grasp of it,
-
and we are to grow
-
in the emotional impact that they make
-
upon our lives.
-
That the Word of God lives in us.
-
Because the Psalms begin by a man -
-
his delight was in the law of the Lord,
-
and in that law,
-
he meditated day and night.
-
Thirdly, if we are praying this prayer
-
that we might grow in graciousness,
-
in grace, we are praying that we might
-
progress in conscientiousness.
-
That is, in responsiveness
-
and obedience to our own consciences.
-
Because God has placed that monitor
-
in our minds,
-
and it reproves us when we do wrong,
-
and it encourages us when we do right.
-
How is it with your
conscience and you tonight?
-
How are things between you
-
and that monitor, that voice of God?
-
You know, there are many consciences,
-
and in Thomas Boston's words,
-
they are too persnickety.
-
They condemn what God's
Word doesn't condemn.
-
We must educate that conscience.
-
Does the Bible condemn blood transfusions,
-
for example?
-
And there are other consciences
-
and they let anything pass.
-
They let pass what God's Word condemns.
-
They are less sensitive
than they should be.
-
They are much too broad,
-
much too open.
-
So, we must always bring our conscience
-
under the light of the Word of God.
-
You know the Puritan illustration then
-
of the sundial.
-
And the sundial will work
-
if it's at the right angle
-
and in regards to the light of the sun.
-
But on a bright moonlight night,
-
you can go out to your garden,
-
and you can look at a sundial.
-
And there will be a shadow -
-
a moon shadow.
-
And it will give you the
totally wrong reading,
-
because it's not a moondial,
-
it's a sundial.
-
And so there is the conscience
-
of the cannibal.
-
And there the conscience
-
of the abortionist.
-
And they are not living in accord
-
with what the Word of God
-
who created the conscience gives to us.
-
Now, let's supposed that you have
-
an enlightened conscience.
-
Let's suppose that you have the full light
-
of God's Word on your conscience then.
-
Are you carefully obeying it
-
when you are emotionally disinclined?
-
When you're lying on the floor
-
in despondency and sulking
-
and unhappy because your worst fears
-
have been realized?
-
When you're in the depth of depression
-
and self-pity,
-
and there's a duty that
you have to attend to -
-
it's a duty, it's very unpleasant;
-
it's very demanding.
-
Do you do what your conscience tells you
-
that you should do?
-
Do you have the maturity
to stand on your emotions
-
and reject them in the face
-
of their reluctance and aversion
-
to attend what God commands us?
-
There's no greater peril
in the Christian life
-
than to make our emotions the touchstone
-
of our duties.
-
And time and again, we
have to pick ourselves up
-
off the floor of discouragement and say,
-
I have a duty,
-
and I know this is right,
-
and I'm going to do it.
-
Or again, let me ask you,
-
are you conscientious about small things?
-
Because there most of all
-
Christians are tested.
-
We don't have huge sacrifices to make,
-
but every day, there are
-
many little duties that you
know have to be done.
-
And we have to pay careful attention
-
to matters of detail,
-
because our Lord, He commends people
-
who are faithful in little things.
-
And so often we are losing the battle
-
in little things.
-
It might seem to you
-
not a big issue to be in prayer meeting
-
on a Wednesday night there.
-
It might not seem a big issue
-
to be in Sunday nights at church.
-
It's a small thing.
-
It might seem just a little thing
-
to ignore writing a letter to someone
-
to say thanks for your kindness to me.
-
Certain things.
-
But we must make conscience then
-
if we are going to grow in graciousness
-
our conscience - we respect it.
-
Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
-
And then fourthly, we must
-
make progress in victory
over besetting sins.
-
And that's a great reality
in the Christian life.
-
There's just some sin that you know
-
it's a problem for you, isn't it?
-
And you know you're not going to grow
-
unless you deal with that particular sin.
-
It's perfectly possible to be normal
-
in every part of the Christian life
-
in your emotions and your affections
-
and will and so on.
-
Everything seems to be in order
-
except at one point.
-
You're in the grip of one temptation.
-
You are dominated by one lust.
-
You are entangled in the meshes
-
of one particular sin.
-
And you see it in the world around you.
-
It's called monomania.
-
One man - in 99 out of
100 areas of his life
-
he's straight down the line.
-
But there's one area of his life
-
where he's walked,
-
and he's grasped by one sin.
-
And when you say,
-
well, it may be a mysterious thing
-
that I'm not growing as I should be
-
as a Christian.
-
Is it so mysterious?
-
Is the reason why I'm not growing
-
as I should be because my spiritual life
-
is diseased in one area.
-
Unless it's dealt with,
-
it's going to - just like a bug,
-
a virus is just in one part of you
-
and it affects the rest of you.
-
You're weak and listless and so on.
-
You must deal with that besetting sin.
-
Worldliness, prayerlessness,
-
irritability, impatience,
-
aggressiveness, what have you...
-
So, those are four,
-
and then one more point
-
in which when we are praying for
-
growing in grace,
-
we are praying that we should grow
-
in evangelistic earnestness.
-
Now, you know, when you
first knew the Lord,
-
you see it in the young convert -
-
it's lovely to see - how bold he is.
-
You tremble at times
-
because he'll blurt out things
-
that you might have
said rather more sweetly.
-
But he just sees the world's need
-
and he sees Christ as a great Savior.
-
And he speaks a word
-
in and out of season.
-
And the mature amongst us, we smile
-
and we may sneer even,
-
because much of it was immature.
-
The witness was unwise and indiscreet
-
and ineffectual.
-
But that does not justify that fact
-
that many Christians as they grow older,
-
they grow more reticent and quieter
-
and share their faith less and less.
-
The vision of the world's
lostness just disappears.
-
And that's a maturity that our churches
-
need to do without.
-
It's expected sometimes -
-
it's only the young people
-
who go out on missions and work
-
and go to Mexico for a week and so on.
-
And they haven't the equipment;
-
they haven't the wisdom.
-
They're great helpers, but
they're not great leaders.
-
So, as we've been coming now,
-
we've been Christians many years.
-
How is it with you
-
and your evangelistic concern?
-
Are you prepared to get involved
-
in every true evangelistic cause?
-
Are you prepared to support it
-
and pray and give and cooperate?
-
I know there's a lot of
misplaced evangelism.
-
I can give statistics for
evangelistic failure,
-
and you know all that.
-
And that won't help us at all.
-
We must stand back
-
from simply criticizing.
-
And we have to be involved in every form
-
of biblical evangelism.
-
We have to do that.
-
And it's a sad thing for any Christian
-
if that vision is gone.
-
So, I'm saying, those
are the sorts of things
-
we are praying for when we hear
-
the exhortation - the
last words of Peter -
-
but grow in grace;
-
grow in graciousness.
-
And we're talking about making
-
progress in being
concerned for other people.
-
And growing in our knowledge of the Bible
-
and what the Bible teaches.
-
And growing in conscientiousness.
-
And growing in victory
over besetting sins.
-
And growing in evangelistic earnestness.
-
And then, very briefly, as a postscript.
-
How is this to be achieved?
-
How are we as Christians going to grow?
-
And the first answer is
-
that it must be a priority in our lives.
-
These are Peter's last words, aren't they?
-
Think of the life he lived.
-
He preached at Pentecost
-
and 3,000 were converted.
-
Do you think he would sort of float along
-
in the glow of that for
the rest of his life?
-
But he doesn't. He's here and there,
-
and he's going to Cornelius' household,
-
and he's traveling and he's
speaking everywhere.
-
And his last words to people are:
-
grow now; grow in the grace
-
and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
-
That's the greatest thing in our lives.
-
There's nothing more important for us.
-
What's more important than this?
-
In the midst of all the other engagements
-
and preoccupations and concerns,
-
a Christian's relationship with God
-
controls his life.
-
It's what his life is built around.
-
And his greatest longing is to be more fit
-
for the Master's use.
-
This one thing I do - one thing,
-
the apostle says,
-
a single eye Jesus speaks about.
-
I look at my own life and I wonder
-
as the years have gone by,
-
have I changed that scale of values
-
and my sense of priorities?
-
I know it's easy to react against
-
extreme religionism.
-
A person just talks about religion
-
and isn't interested in anything else.
-
That's unbiblical too,
-
because in the Bible,
-
they talk about all
that's in God's creation.
-
But there's a far greater peril
-
than that sort of extreme.
-
And that's a reduction
-
of religious aspiration;
-
of religious vision;
-
of a relegation of my
relationship to Christ
-
to not be the first thing
-
and the greatest thing in my life.
-
And at times I think it's happened to me.
-
And it's happened to other people.
-
That things that should be primary
-
have become secondary in my priorities.
-
And I think as I look at my old church,
-
and at evangelicalism as I meet it,
-
I see slackness and sloppiness
-
coming into so many areas of church life.
-
For to me, to live is Christ.
-
That's what he says, isn't it?
-
If our chief end in life is not that,
-
we are facing the most appalling
-
and unhappy futures.
-
And then secondly,
-
it must be a priority -
-
secondly, our religious lives
-
are not going to take care of themselves.
-
We can't simply expect our soul
-
to nourish and fend for itself;
-
to provide for itself.
-
You have to see for it.
-
I have all the weight of
an apostle's command
-
to say you have to grow.
-
You have to make sure you are growing,
-
and that applies to every form of life.
-
We're concerned for our plants.
-
We give our key to our neighbor
-
and we say I'm going to Florida now
-
for two weeks, can you feed the plants?
-
When I'm away, we're concerned
-
about the bushes and the flowers.
-
We're concerned about our animals -
-
how they'll be fed.
-
And our minds
-
and our intellects -
-
what stuff we are feeding our minds with.
-
They won't look after themselves.
-
And so our souls -
-
our souls won't look after themselves.
-
We have to feed our souls,
-
as a program of provision for them.
-
Peter speaks in the 17th verse
-
about being led away
-
with the error of the wicked,
-
and we all know people
who've been led away
-
because they didn't look after
-
their own souls.
-
There are people -
-
and Paul tells Timothy about them -
-
they have a form of godliness.
-
And they go to church and so on.
-
But it's just a form.
-
It's formalistic.
-
That's it.
-
There's nothing under it.
-
Nothing beneath it at all.
-
So, let's be so careful about this.
-
You know, not to prove
-
I'm not a Puritan.
-
Not to prove to people
-
that I'm not narrow-minded;
-
that I believe in Christian liberty
-
and the freedom of conscience.
-
To show people I know about politics
-
and I can speak about all these things.
-
I wonder if some of the energy
-
that we pour into that,
-
can be poured into
-
my relationship with Jesus Christ.
-
And that I'm growing.
-
I'm growing in the knowledge of Him.
-
My Savior.
-
And that I'm feeding my soul.
-
So, how do we do this?
-
Well, it must be a priority in our lives.
-
And then, we must be aware
-
that we've got a duty to feed our souls;
-
that they won't look after themselves.
-
And then Peter tells us
in this 14th verse:
-
"To make every effort
-
to be diligent..." he says.
-
Be diligent.
-
And in what direction?
-
Well, you've got to seek
food for your souls.
-
You've got to get away to a conference.
-
Travel a long distance to be here.
-
Drive 15 hours.
-
Drive through the night.
-
Drive just to be here.
-
And search for things
that can nourish you
-
and build up your knowledge
-
and your graciousness;
-
that you don't want to be unfruitful
-
and static,
-
but there's a dynamism,
-
and a maturing,
-
and a beauty, and a fragrance,
-
and a loveliness about your life.
-
You're seeking for truths
that will do that.
-
That will produce love,
-
and joy, and peace,
-
and longsuffering, and gentleness,
-
and goodness, and faithfulness,
-
and meekness, and self-control.
-
You've got to fall in love with the Bible.
-
You've got to search it.
-
You've got to ransack it.
-
You've got to sit under the
best ministry you can
-
on a Sunday.
-
You've got to read the best books.
-
You've got to sit and listen
-
to older Christians as they talk together
-
and they reminisce about how God
-
has dealt with them over the years,
-
and learn from them
-
the mysterious influence
-
that one Christian can have over another.
-
You seek good fellowship
-
with other Christians.
-
And you hunger for truth -
-
you want the Word of God to come
-
not in word only,
-
but power and the Holy Spirit
-
and much assurance.
-
Fall with love.
-
Meditating upon Scripture.
-
Praying Scripture.
-
So, you read a verse like this:
-
"But grow in the grace and knowledge
-
of our Lord and Savior..."
-
And you say, "Lord, me too.
-
I want to grow.
-
I want to grow.
-
This week, I've got a special time here;
-
special privileges.
-
Help me to grow
-
in the grace and knowledge of my Savior
-
Jesus Christ."
-
Because your souls
won't grow without food.
-
And there's no food for the soul
-
like the Word of God.
-
There's no place to be better
-
than before the face of Jesus Christ.
-
You need that.
-
Let's pray together.
-
Heavenly Father,
-
we've heard these searching exhortations,
-
and so now we just roll
them out before Thee,
-
and oh, we wish we were much stronger,
-
and maturer, and wiser, and more loving,
-
and more patient, and gentle,
-
and longsuffering.
-
Oh, we wish there was more purity
-
and love for what is good and holy.
-
Oh Lord, give us a nudge.
-
Give us a little push -
-
a big push as we go.
-
Speak to us.
-
Humble us.
-
Encourage us in the
Christian life this week.
-
That as a result of being
in the conference,
-
we'll grow in the grace
-
and knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ
-
to whom be glory forever and ever,
-
Amen.