THE SECOND PURPOSE: TO GROW IN THE LORD

2 Peter 3:1-18

 

 

Waiting …waiting … waiting. It sounds simple, but it’s often difficult for some to do. Consider the patient in a doctor’s office waiting to be called. Consider how often the patient shifts in the chair or looks at the clock on the wall, wondering if the actual appointment will ever come.

 

Consider the driver in the car next to you on W. Main. The stoplight is red, but finding it difficult to wait, that driver beside you inches the car beyond the line and eventually into the intersection, as if somehow, that stoplight will get the message and finally change color!

 

Or consider the customer waiting in line at a fast-food restaurant. That customer is muttering to himself that the food is not getting out nearly as fast as he wants it! “Fast-food? Oh, sure it is!”

 

Waiting, waiting, waiting. As Christians, we, too, are waiting … waiting for the return of our victorious Lord, no longer as a Babe in Bethlehem, but as the King of kings and Lord of lords. Much of our passage for this morning is hinged on the vital hope of His triumphant return.

 

The Apostle Peter reminds us that there have always been scoffers concerning the return of the Lord and there always will be. But God’s timetable is quite simply not that of our own. God is using this time to bring more people to repentance and faith in Christ, so that in God’s good time, there will be more who will live eternally in the home of righteousness that awaits all who belong to Christ.

 

So, what are we to do as we await the return of the Lord? Peter tells us, in calling us to live holy and godly lives in an unholy and ungodly world, to think on and look forward to the new heavens and earth, and to be on our guard against heretical teaching.

 

Peter tells us that we should also do the following: “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” During this waiting period, we are called to grow in the Lord, to experience an ever-deepening relationship with Christ and a deeper understanding of His truth. This should characterize the entire course of our lives, as we abide in Christ and in His love, and bear fruit, proving to be His disciples.

                                                                                                   

But how exactly do we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ? We do so by engaging in “spiritual disciplines” that deepen our intimacy with Christ. We draw near to Him in the use of these “means of grace” and find that, in so doing, He also has drawn near to us.

 

There are so many we could consider this morning. But quite simply, I’m going to speak of only three. They are the use of Scripture, the Sacraments, and Prayer. Let’s look at each of these for a moment.

                                                                                   

I

WE HAVE THE USE OF THE BIBLE, THE WORD OF GOD.

 

The worth and value of the Bible is beyond our ability to describe. It is this divinely inspired Book that teaches us what we are to believe concerning God, lest we conceive in our own limited imaginations far too much or far too little of the nature and character of God. The Bible also shows us how to frame our lives according to God’s own will and way, rather than our own will and way.

 

Now, when the Holy Spirit combines with the use of the Bible, something happens - a kind of spiritual combustion occurs. When we engage ourselves in the personal reading and study of the Word, or in listening to the teaching and preaching of the Word, the Holy Spirit can enlighten, convince and humble us in the fact that we have fallen far short of God’s purpose for our lives, and make us aware that we are in need of a Savior.

 

In other words, we can be driven away from ourselves in the pretense that “I’m OK and you’re OK,” and draw near to Christ, who alone can deal with the reality of who we truly are and what we truly need. By the Word, we can also become more like Christ in the sense of His character. The more we learn what Jesus did, the more we desire to do and lean towards what Jesus would do.

 

We can also be strengthened in times of trial, testing and temptation, strengthened in time of adversity, comforted in times of sorrow, and directed when the way ahead seems so dark. A Bible that does this much should never be neglected, but there are indeed churches where it has been neglected.

                                                                                       

One of the pastors I greatly admire is Charles Simeon, who lived in the latter part of the 18^th and early part of the 19^th centuries. While an undergraduate at Cambridge University in England, Simeon became a deeply committed Christian. When God further called him to the ministry of the Gospel, he longed to preach there in that very setting. He would walk past Holy Trinity Church in the heart of the university campus and say to himself: “How should I rejoice if God were to give me that church, that I might preach His gospel there, and be a herald for him in the midst of the university.”

 

Well, God answered his prayer and he in fact became the pastor of this most prestigious church. But it was hard going, as most of the congregation saw the church as little more that a social club and was bitterly opposed to his biblically orthodox views. Seat-holders of this Anglican church locked the doors to their pews and actually boycotted the services. For more than ten long years, those who came to the services had to stand, but come they did!

 

Simeon’s biblical preaching made a tremendous difference in the long run. He was in that pulpit for 54 years, systematically opening up the Word without any compromise whatsoever. He made such an impact on that congregation, and on the university students and the faculty as well. Simeon firmly believed that God speaks to us through the preacher and said so in this way:

 

Ministers are ambassadors for God, and speak in Christ’s stead. If they preach what is founded on the Scriptures, their word, as far as it is agreeable to the mind of God, is to be considered as God’s. This is asserted by our Lord and his apostles. We ought therefore to receive the preacher’s word as the word of God himself. With what humility, then, ought we to attend to it! What judgement may we not expect, if we slight it!  [i]

 

The Word of God is living and powerful and as such it gets to the very marrow of our being (Hebrews 4:12). How gratefully – and how seriously – we should take this gift of God!

 

 

II

WE ALSO HAVE THE SACRAMENTS, AS A MEANS OF GROWING IN GRACE.

 

The Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are special gifts of Christ to His Church. They are, first of all, ordained and instituted by Christ, as He has given them to the Church intentionally. They are not rites or rituals that the Church conceived in the course of time, but instead come from Christ Himself.

 

We often speak of them as a visible, “outward sign,” pointing in a tangible way to the Good News of the Gospel. We see the water, and think of Christ’s cleansing blood. We see the bread broken and the wine poured out, and the sacrifice of the true Passover Lamb is put before us visibly.

 

The Sacraments are also a means of “an inward and spiritual grace,” as the Holy Spirit applies the grace and the truth, the love and the mercy of Christ into our hearts. We know outwardly and inwardly that we belong to each other, now and forever!

                                                                                         

Pat Novak understood this very little at first, as he was a pastor from a non-sacramental denomination. But he saw things differently in time, however. He was serving as a hospital chaplain intern outside of Boston and made his rounds as usual one summer morning. That’s when he met John, a man in his 60’s who was wasting away.

 

No diagnosis could be made. John hadn’t been able to swallow for the last two weeks. His eyes were hollow, his weight had dropped seriously, and all the IV tubes indicated the gravity of it all.

                                                                                           

Pat found John receptive to a chaplain’s visit, however. But that’s when it all got rather strange. In time, Pat sensed the Lord telling him to ask John if he’d like to have Holy Communion, even though to do so was clearly against the policy of this public hospital.

                                                                                   

Pat was obedient and asked John anyway, and that’s when John broke down and cried: “I can’t! I’ve sinned and can’t be forgiven!” he said. Pat paused, then softly asked John if he wanted to confess his sin. John nodded yes gratefully, and then released his great burden, weeping as he did. Pat laid hands on him, hugged him, and assured him of full forgiveness found in Christ.

 

Once again, the Holy Spirit led Pat to ask John if he wanted to take Communion. This time John did and later that afternoon, with the simplest of elements and setting, they had Communion together. John took the bread and chewed it slowly. It was the first time in weeks that he had eaten solid food. Then he took the cup and swallowed the juice.

 

Within a span of three short days, John walked out of the hospital. The Gospel had not only been told and visibly represented, it had also been experienced ever so deeply! It was for John as it can be for us, an outward sign of an invisible grace and tender mercy. [ii]

 

 

III

YET A THIRD WAY TO GROW IN GRACE IS THAT OF PRAYER.

 

Prayer is essentially conversation with the living God. By the grace and in the name of Christ, we come before Almighty God with confidence. We come before a Throne of Grace, bringing our praise and adoration, our humble confession of sins, our gratitude for all of His mercies, and the deepest desires for others as well as for ourselves.

 

We pray in Jesus’ name, not in the way of some kind of magical formula or meaningless ritual, but rather by finding in Him our all in all …drawing from Him our boldness, our strength, and our hope of acceptance in prayer.

 

We are to pray with a sense of God’s great majesty, and in a sense of our own unworthiness before Him. But it is again in Christ that we are made worthy, and thus we may also pray with enlarged hearts, with deep and abiding trust, while waiting on Him with humble submission to His good, pleasing and perfect will.

 

 

Through the years, many have tried to describe just what it means to pray with Christ as our Mediator. A long time ago, an unknown author – perhaps sitting at his desk in deep prayer himself - imagined just what the Son says to the Father, when we bring our stumbling prayers before the holy, heavenly Throne. For it is Jesus who stands in the gap for us, as our great Intercessor.

 

Hear the voice of the Son to the Father, saying:

 

Father, I bring this worthless child to Thee,

To claim Thy pardon once, yet once again.

Receive him at my hands, for he is mine.

He is a worthless child; he owns his guilt.

Look not on him; he cannot bear Thy glance.

Look Thou on me; his vileness I will hide.

He pleads not for himself, he dares not plead.

His cause is mine, I am his Intercessor.

 

By each pure drop of blood I lost for him,

By all the sorrows graven on my soul,

By every wound I bear, I claim it due.

Father divine! I cannot have him lost.

He is a worthless soul, but he is mine.

Sin hath destroyed him; sin hath died in me.

Death hath pursued him; I have conquer’d death.

Satan hath bound him; Satan is my slave.

 

My Father! Hear him now – not him, but me.

I would not have him lost for all the world

Thou for my glory hast ordain’d and made,

Because he is a poor and contrite child,

And all, his every hope, on me reclines.

I know my children, and I know him mine;

By all the tears he weeps upon my bosom,

By his full heart that beateth against mine;

 

I know him by his sighings and his prayers,

By his deep, trusting love, which clings to me.

I could not bear to see him cast away,

Weak as he is, the weakest of my flock,

The one that grieves me most, that moves me least.

 

I measure not my love by his returns,

And though the stripes I send to speed him home

Drive him upon the instant from my breast,

Still he is mine; I drew him from the world;

He has no right, no home, but in my love.

Though earth and hell against his soul conspire,

I shield him, keep him, save him; we are one. [iii]

 

 

What more can be said than this, dear friends? Grow! “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”