The Nature of God
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Sermon Series: It’s True, I Promise
Sermon Title: The Nature of God
Scripture:
“His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.”
Opening Hymn: 518 Standing on the Promises
Closing Hymn: 190 Jesus Loves Me
Big Idea: God's precious promises enable us to partake in God’s divine nature which ultimately fills us with love.
Preach your Announcements:
Several weeks ago by sister and brother in law, Ian and Alsa Lain, shared their plans to go to a create access country in North Africa. They wrote us a letter after spending the weekend with us and I’d like to read it to you.
Many of you expressed your desire to join them in prayer, and even financial support. On November 9th, during our all church business meeting, we’ll consider a suggestion that our board has recommended for our whole church to adopt Ian and Alsa as our missionary family.
Have you seen the tall cards in the pockets behind the tithe envelopes?
I just noticed them last night at the Jam and Bread vespers, and they answered a question that I’ve been curious about for some time—how can I join the Bonners Ferry church?
The first thing you do when you move is you get your address forwarded by the Post Office.
Then you get your stuff moved in.
Then you get your library account set up.
Then you change your phone service so you can get phone calls in these hills.
Then you register your cars, and change your license.
And then, you move your membership to your new church.
Some people feel like it’s a good idea to leave their membership in a church they haven’t participated in for many years. Some do it because they want to support a small church, or continue to pay tithe to their former church, or because they think that they’ll move back some day. Well, as a guy who has moved quite a lot, I believe my membership should be on the “books” of whatever church I attend regularly. It’s the church where I can be involved in ministry and mission. It’s the church that can empower me to reach my community. And it’s the church where I invite my time and resources to further God’s kingdom. What you do with your membership is up to you, but as for me and my house, we’ve asked for our membership to be moved to the Bonners Ferry Church. Hopefully when it comes time for you to vote on whether to accept our transfer, you’ll say yes.
Introduction
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For her 7th birthday in June, 2014, Emily wanted to be a princess. Most fathers would buy their daughter a tiara and a pretty dress and say, “you’re my princess,” but not Jeremiah Heaton. Jeremiah promised Emily that he would make her a princess. So, he traveled across the globe to an area known as the Bir Tawil, an 800 square mile uninhabited territory that lies between Egypt and Sudan and has remained unclaimed by either due to a border dispute.
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Jeremiah traveled to Bir Tawil, planted a flag he and his children designed, and claimed the land as a monarchy, making Emily a genuine princess.
While Emily’s story is a bit out of the ordinary, it illustrates a father’s determination to fulfill his promises.
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This is the first in a series of sermons I’m calling, “It’s true, I promise.” In every age, since long before the flood and all the way until today, people have been saying that there isn’t really justice for evil and there’s no tangible reward for the righteous. All this religion stuff is a social construct at best or a plot to control you at worst. These doubts and dismissal of religion come down to a simple claim:
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God doesn’t keep his promises.
That’s a big claim, and a question we really need to answer if we’re going to be His followers. Some suggest he doesn’t keep his promises because he doesn’t exist. Others suggest that He just doesn’t care or isn’t involved.
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Peter knows a thing or two about promises, and as he writes his second letter to the Christians that have been scattered in Asia Minor, he wants to assure them that God keeps his promises. For example, in chapter two he points out that the promise of the resurrection, and the reality of Jesus’ divinity is something he can personally attest to since he, himself, saw Jesus transfigured on the mountain with Moses and Elijah. In chapter three, Peter is assuring the Christians that there really is justice for evil and a resurrection of life for the righteous. It shouldn’t surprise you that a letter full of references to God’s promises would begin with a strong and somewhat surprising statement about God’s promises.
Let’s read about it in
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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. (, ESV)
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If you’re a serious Bible student, you might have remembered that is the home of Peter’s ladder. You might also remember the song, “Jacob’s Ladder.” It’s loosely based on the vision Jacob had of the angels ascending and descending on a ladder between heaven and earth, and Peter’s description of Christian growth here in 1 Peter seems to some like a ladder that Christians must climb. Some of the lyrics to the Jacob’s Ladder song go like this:
We are climbing Jacobs Ladder
We are climbing Jacobs Ladder
We are climbing Jacobs Ladder
Soldiers of the cross
Every rung goes higher, higher
Every rung goes higher, higher
Every rung goes higher, higher
Soldiers of the cross
If you’ve ever climbed a really tall ladder, you know that climbing a ladder can quickly drain you of energy. It’s difficult work. And that’s what many think about when they read Peter’s description of Christian growth. They focus on the climbing. But Peter seems to have a different focus. He centers our focus, not on the advancement but on a gift from God.
He starts out verse three by saying, “His divine power has granted…”
This is an unqualified statement that isn’t dependent on any behavior or action on my part. He “has given.” Not only has He given this thing to me, but it’s by His POWER that He has given it. The Greek word translated here as power is a word that has come into use in the English language as “dynamite.” Dynamite is a dynamic, explosive, and powerful mechanism. In using this word Peter is making sure we know that there will be a dynamic and powerful reaction when whatever it is God is granting us applied in our lives.
Next he says that what God’s divine power has granted is “all things that pertain to life and godliness…”
There is no suggestion in this verse that we have to contribute some of what is required for life and godliness. God’s power has given “all things” for life and godliness.
And how does Peter suggest that God’s gift works? How is life—eternal life—and godliness developed in a person?
“through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence…”
When Peter talks about knowledge, this isn’t some mysterious information that will release your spirit from its mortal prison—that’s the philosophy of Gnosticism. Peter is talking about something deeper, richer, and more alive than just knowing a bit of information.
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Jesus said it this way, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (, ESV)
This is what Peter is talking about—knowing Jesus is everything we need for an eternal life in God’s glorious and excellent presence. This knowledge is an experiential, intimate knowledge of Jesus.
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When we read the words, godliness, glory and excellence in 2 Peter, we are tempted to jump to performance anxiety. We’re looking around and thinking, “do I measure up?” Is my faith strong enough to make me godly and excellent? But notice that Jesus’ calling is not to become glorious or to become godly; Jesus’ calling is to HIS OWN glory and excellence. Godliness is the result of spending time with Jesus. He is the glorious one. God alone is good. Jesus calls us to himself and when we spend time basking in His glory and excellence, we begin to glow with a little bit of His glory.
In Peter’s first letter he said that when others see our good works they will glorify our Father in Heaven. When Moses came down off the mountain from spending time in God’s presence, the people asked him to veil his face because he was glowing with the glory of God. No one was under any illusions—they knew it wasn’t Moses’ glory, and people today will know it’s not your glory when they see Jesus shining in your life.
The depth and intimacy of our relationship with Jesus, the Living Word is largely dependent on the relationship we have with the written Word, the Bible. If you want to know Jesus and fall in love with Jesus, and experience the glory and excellence of Jesus, then spend time in His love-letter to you.
Part of the knowledge that God gives us in His Word is His precious and very great promises. These promises are going to be a big deal in this letter, so let’s read how Peter introduces them:
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“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…” ( ESV).
It is Jesus’ glory and excellence that grants to us these precious and very great promises. And where do these promises lead? To us becoming partakers of the divine nature.
Wow! You say. What’s that mean?
Divine nature?
The sentence doesn’t stop there, and to understand what Peter means by being partakers of the divine nature, we need to read the rest of the sentence:
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“… 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 desires.” ( ESV).
Peter equates partaking of the divine nature with escaping from worldly corruption. We could take this a couple different ways:
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One direction some commentators go is that partaking in the divine nature is the equivalent of complete victory over every sin—escaping corruption and lust. They point to the tall ladder of righteousness and say, “God promised that it’s possible to climb that, now get going. If you don’t make it to the top soon, then Jesus will come and you’ll be left out of heaven.”
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The other way to understand Peter’s statement is that God’s promises will ultimately culminate in our deliverance from the presence of sinful corruption and mortality and we will then live in God’s presence and experience fully the glory and excellence of His divine being.
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It’s this second interpretation that seems to be the direction Peter wants us to go. You see, Peter is about to address false teachers. He says that “we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (). His whole letter culminates in chapter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” And 3:13, “But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
With the background that God’s power is giving us the knowledge of His calling to intimacy with him and the possibility of eternal life and godliness through His precious promises, let’s go to and explore Peter’s so-called ladder.
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“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.” (, ESV)
To understand this section of Peter’s letter we need to begin at the end of verse 8, because that’s where Peter ties this thought to the foundation he laid in verses 3 and 4—“in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Previously he pointed out that God has given us everything we need to begin to reflect Him—something Peter refers to as godliness. What has God’s power given us? A knowledge of Him through His great and precious promises that we find in His written Word, the Bible.
Back in verse 5 Peter says to “make every effort to supplement our faith.” The greek word translated here as, supplement, is only used once in the Bible—here in . The King James and New King James versions translate this passage, “…add to your faith…” Again, our natural tendency is to start making our lists to see what we’ll have to do to measure up. We become the focus of our attention—“did we add virtue to our faith today? Did we supplement our virtue with knowledge today? Have I come to the point in my Christian walk where I have self-control? Will I ever have godliness? Well, if I don’t even have knowledge, then I can’t ever reach that top rung of love.”
This isn’t what Peter was hoping for us to gain when we read this. Keep in mind the context of this passage. He’s talking to a church that has been scattered across Asia minor. In 1 Peter he ended the letter by asking the leaders to step up and shepherd the flock—defending them from false teachers. Now, here in 2 Peter we find a large part of Peter’s attention is focused on helping these Christians weed out and eliminate the false teachers. In the last half of this letter he’ll talk about the false doctrines and immoral and greedy lives of these false teachers. In chapter 1 he’s setting the stage for that conversation. He’s reminding us that it’s deep intimacy with God who reveals himself, his calling for us, and his great and precious promises through His written Word, so that we can live with Him forever in heaven. If we truly have this intimacy with God we will be shining with the glory of God, not reveling in fulfilling all the evil and greedy and self-important desires of the flesh.
So… if you don’t have virtue and an intimate knowledge of Jesus and self-control and brotherly affection and love, then the evidence shows that you don’t fully know God. Does that mean we should double down and work harder to climb this ladder? No, it means we need to get to know the Living Word through His written Word. It means we need intimacy with God.
Peter’s conclusion is that when we know God through His calling and very great promises in His word, then we’ll be experiencing a growing faith that produces virtue which is grounded in an experiential knowledge of God, which leads us to exercising self-control rather than being enslaved to addictions. Ultimately our intimacy with God will lead us to have affection for one another and genuine, godly love for the world.
Verse 8 says it like this:
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“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.” (, ESV)
The fruit of the spirit living in us—of an intimacy with Christ—are these qualities. Galatians says the same thing in this way
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“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (, ESV)
The point Peter is making when he identifies these virtues is that when we allow God’s power, expressed through His promises, to touch our lives, we are changed and the fruit of God working in us are these beautiful virtues.
Hold onto this contextual understanding because Peter is about to say something else that trips people up. Look at verses 9-11.
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“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.” ()
When I read this, I asked myself what Peter means by “confirming your calling and election.” This is language that a reformed preacher might use—pointing back to some time long ago when God elected you for salvation. That’s not what Adventists believe, is it? Do we really think that long ago God called us and whether we like it or not we’re going to be saved? No, but in fear of some divinely mandated election we run the other way and conclude that although God generally wants everyone to be saved, he waits around for us to make a choice before he does anything.
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But our fear of God’s special election makes us fall into a dish on the other side where our salvation is up to us, and that’s not biblical. That’s not how God relates to us. Remember verse three? “His divine power HAS GIVEN us everything…” past tense, Has given; completed, done—everything. “through the knowledge of him who CALLED us to his own glory and excellence…” past tense, called, elected us for salvation. There is no question about it, God has called you to experience intimacy and deep relationship with Him. Not just in general, but specifically, God has called you. God has invited you to explore His written Word and to fall in love with the Living Word, Jesus Christ. No, we don’t believe that God has elected some to salvation and the rest to damnation. No, we don’t believe that God forces us to be saved or lost and we have no decision in the matter. But to deny that God has looked down through the ages and set up everything necessary for you personally to be saved is to call God what the false teachers in Peter’s day were calling him—Aloof, uncaring and uninvolved.
So, if the calling comes from God—passed tense. How do we “confirm” our calling?
The word Peter uses that we’ve translated into English as “confirm” is also translated as “firm” and “reliable” and “unshaken” and “guaranteed” and “steadfast.” This isn’t me going back to these virtues and checking my behavior list to make sure I’ve got it all put together and that my salvation is secure. No, to confirm my calling is to go back to those very great and precious promises and to read and take in all that God has said He will do. We confirm our calling by confirming God’s promises—by reviewing them and recognizing them as firm and reliable and unshakable and steadfast. To confirm my calling is to deepen my intimacy with Jesus through a knowledge of Him in His word.
Peter’s council is that if you do this, “you will never fall.” You want to have victory over sin? You want your life filled with the virtuous fruit of the Spirit? Then get to know Jesus in His Word.
His Word is a living thing.
tells us that God’s word doesn’t leave His mouth except it accomplishes what God sends it to do. If God says, “You are righteous,” then these very words that go out of His mouth create in us what God said would be.
Do you want a for-sure salvation? Do you want to know that your salvation is guaranteed and unshakable? Then lean on the precious and very great promises of God. God back often and drink them in from His written Word. Let the words of the Bible saturate your mind so that you have a genuine and living knowledge of God.
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According to this is the way that “there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
It’s not a ladder that we climb, but virtues that God adds to our lives as we spend time with Him and allow His Spirit to live in us.
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Conclusion
In another sermon we’ll explore Peter’s response to false teachers, and his evidence for a faith in a God who is passionately involved with the people of this world. It would be a good exercise for you to spend time in 2 Peter, reading it several times over the next few weeks. As I share the tidbits that God has revealed to me, I hope you’ll share with me what God is teaching you.
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I’m asking you to spend time in God’s word, and according to Peter, this is the way you gain confidence in your calling from God. But what if you don’t know how to study the Bible in that way?
In our church we’ve taught the proof texts for our doctrine so long that many of us have forgotten how to feed on God’s word for spiritual life. Some of us get up in the morning, review a doctrine or two, pray for a bit, and then go about our day as though we’ve been fed.
That’s not Peter’s idea of Bible study. Peter is inviting us to an intimacy with God.
When people communicate, you can gauge the depth of their relationship by what they talk about.
A casual acquaintance will talk about the weather, a ball game, or maybe the car they’ve been restoring or the applesauce they made this week. It’s the surface stuff that is safe to share with anyone.
A friend will share a bit of their feelings. They might tell you how difficult it was to pick apples, make sauce, and can it all while three kids were running around making messes all over the house. A friend will tell you something they hope will happen soon. A friend will broach subjects of religion and politics because they know where you stand or at least that you won’t beat them up for having a different opinion than you.
A close friend gets deeper in intimacy. They talk about their hopes and dreams and fears. They’ll tell you how they were struggling with their emotions during this whole applesauce canning job because their husband had been working from early to late and they worried they were growing apart. They’ll tell you about the questions and doubts they have in their faith because they know you won’t blast them for having a question.
The deepest, most intimate relationships will share the things that are closest to their hearts. They’ll tell you things that no one else knows about them. They’ll open up every corner of their mind to you in a transparent revelation of their person. The Bible refers to this relationship in marriage as “one flesh.”
It’s this last type of relationship that Jesus longs to have with you. Jesus poured out his life for us, opened up the heart of God in a transparent display of His affection for us. When we go to the Word of God, we should stop and consider each phrase and each idea—comparing it with the broader idea of the passage and the concepts we find in other places in the Bible. As we consider that phrase we can ask ourselves, what does this tell me about who God is? What does this reveal about God’s love for me? What about my relationship with God is He inviting me to deepen through this passage?
And then, when we have spent some time looking into the heart of God, He invites us to open up our hear to Him too.
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Some people like to go to a closet or a corner of the house where they can pray out loud without anyone else hearing. Or maybe walk outside down a quiet street or in a field where they can cry out to God and be transparent with Him—even about their doubts and fears of Him. Other people appreciate writing their prayers out as a conversation or in a journal form. God doesn’t care what your method is, He just wants you to come to the place with Him where you can be totally transparent about your desires, your fears, your motivations, your interests, your doubts, your questions, your future, your friends—about everything, really. He wants to know you.
You might say, “God knows everything.” It’s true, he does, but there is nothing as intimate as a self-revelation. Doesn’t just want to know about you, he wants to hear it from your own mouth. He wants that total transparent revelation that characterizes the “one flesh” relationship.
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If you already know how to study the Bible, then make a commitment today to make this a regular part of your routine—make a regular date with God with a plan to be transparently intimate with Him.
If you haven’t studied the Bible like that before or you’d like to know how to have this intimate relationship with God, then talk to me after the sermon or at potluck and lets make a plan to meet up and practice this devotional experience.
You can fold that card up and drop it in the offering boxes on either side of the doors as you leave, or give it to me or one of the elders as you leave today.
Closing Prayer