Focused and Not Forgetful
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Introduction
Introduction
LESSON 1: THE CHRISTIAN’S NEED FOR GROWTH: What is Spiritual Growth?
Spiritual growth means growing in intimacy with Christ. We learned that it is important, immediate, intentional and inclusive. We need it because growth assures us that we are truly God’s elect.
LESSON 2: THE REASONS FOR GROWTH: That we would be Fruitful and Effective.
If a believer is not growing in an increasing manner he becomes unfruitful or not productive.
We learned that:
Unfruitful works are bad, wrong and false. Fruitful works are “good and right and true”
Unfruitful works are of darkness. Fruitful works are of the light.
Fruitful works are pleasing to God. Unfruitful works do not please God.
Fruit can be a:
1. godly mindset
2. a lips that glorify God.
3. people we gather for Christ.
Our spiritual growth affects our fruitfulness. Our goal is not just to become fruitful, it is to become very fruitful.
8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,
5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
1 Simeon Peter, a servant and 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:
2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3 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, 4 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 from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 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. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
USE ILLUSTRATION: Corrective Lenses. Shortsightedness. A trouble seeing things afar, thinking that reason must be because they were at a distance. This explains why near things were clear and things afar, are blurred.
IT IS THE SAME WITH LIFE. All along we thing that we see life clearly. We assume we are living normally. But when we finally see how God sees us through His Word, we realize that we are really out of focus. Our vision had been blurred all along.
This is similar what Peter says:
9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
The second reason why we must grown spiritually is, so that we become focused and not forgetful.
Verse 9 gives the consequence when we don’t develop those qualities stated in verse 8. Without mincing words, Peter describes a spiritually immature person as being “so nearsighted that he is blind.”
Was Peter talking here of believers or unbelievers? regards unbelievers as blind people:
4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
But Peter describes here a person who “is so nearsighted that he is blind.” It other words, “You are so shortsighted that you cannot see.” The person is not really blind, just nearsighted. He actually could see but he is so out of focus it is as if he could not. He is as good as a blind person. THEREFORE, PETER WAS ILLUSTRATING A BELIEVER WHO HAS BECOME SPIRITUALLY OUT OF FOCUS.
This nearsightedness is not INVOLUNTARY. A commentary explains, “A person has to be born again before his eyes are opened and he can see the kingdom of God. But after our eyes are opened, it is important that we increase our vision and see all that God wants us to see.” But instead of increasing his vision, this person closed the very eyes that God has opened.
The word “nearsighted” is active from the original text. So, “the meaning may be ‘shutting the eyes to the truth” He chose not to see. He is blind by choice. He defocused himself. HE DID IT VOLUNTARILY.
THE REASON FOR HIS NEARSIGHTED IS GIVEN in the verse: “having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” Peter meant the person’s former way of life. This person was actually cleansed from those sins and then he chose to forget this truth.
A spiritually shortsighted person then, first of all, is a believer:
1. who chose to forget from where God saved him to return to his old ways.
2. return to his old ways.
And because he chose to close his eyes to the truth and chose not to remember, he is like the false teacher whom Peter describes.
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
2 Peter
False teachers are exposed to the truth. Likewise, the nearsighted believer. At first they have appeared to have embraced the truth. But later on, they turned their backs away from the truth. The problem is, when we go back to our old ways, we would end up in a much worse condition than we were before we became believers - “the last state has become worse for them than the first.” Like dogs licking up their own vomit and pigs who just took a bath but returned to the mud, our lives could even end up worse than unbelievers.
2. A nearsighted person is only focused on the present.
Remember the Israelite in the wilderness? God, through Moses, freed then from slavery. Yet time and again they would long for what they had in Egypt. They forgot from where God had redeemed them - slavery in Egypt. THEY DID NOT SEE THAT IN THE WILDERNESS, THEY WERE FREE.
A book writer, Robert Deffinbaugh, said in his book ‘A secured Faith that Keeps the Saints from stumbling’, “Spiritual blindness manifests itself as shortsightedness. Instead of ‘fixing our hope’ on the spiritual and eternal certainties which God has promised and provided for us, we see only in the present. No wonder this generation has been called the ‘now generation.’” Just like the Israelite in the wilderness, the nearsighted person is focused on what he is missing from his past and forgets what he is enjoying in the present.
Also, a known preacher, John Piper, said “The problem with the person who does not strive toward all the fruit of faith is that he is blind in two directions. When he looks to the future, it’s all a haze. and the promises of God are swallowed up in a blur of worldly longings. I think that is what it means by shortsighted. And when he looks to the past, the forgiveness that made him so excited at first is well-nigh forgotten, and all he sees is an empty prayer and a meaningless ritual of baptism.”
WE SHOULD LOOK AT OUR PAST WITH THE CORRECT PERSPECTIVE. We remember its lessons. We are not to dwell on it or delight in it. We view it from the perspective of a redeemed people who were “cleansed from our former sins”. We have a saying, “Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan, hindi makakarating sa paroroonan”
We remember our failures, our sins and the lessons we have learned in the light of the truth of the gospel. In this way, we do not forget, our vision is kept clear and we grow spiritually.
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