Seize the Moment – Day 322
Open Hands Demonstrate a Humble Heart!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, February 2.
Do you hold your life and your plans tightly, as with closed fists, or do you hold your life and your plans loosely, as with open hands?
James speaks into all of our shared experiences and collective circumstance of our last 11 months grappling with the novel Covid-19 international pandemic in James 4:13-15,
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”
This is not actually about Covid-19, this is our reality all the time, as some many have experienced before all of this, whether through a medical incident or work accident or heart break. Life as we know it can change today.
While it is honest to say that we intellectually know this, but it is also honest to acknowledge that until we experience it we do not really live with this posture of humility towards our lives and our plans or life ambitions. We keep making plans and assume they will happen!
We hold everything tightly until we don’t because we realize we can’t. This is when the deepest decision of our lives is made: to truly trust God and His goodness and grace over our lives or keeping fighting for control and our ability to make life work out the way we want it to.
Did you know that this passage is an application of verse 10, when James write, “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you”?
Seize the moment and open your hands to God today. Because He loves you and you can trust Him!
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Seize the Moment – Day 321
Teachers Appreciation!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, February 1.
Who has influenced your life and way of thinking? Are you thankful and encouraging to your teachers?
James addressed a very important issue: being thankful and supportive of our teachers because they do an impossible task for us!
Listen to what he says in James 3:1-5,
Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!
Do you see it? Do you see how James is dealing with some specific issues in the local churches, not just our everyday use of our tongue, even though, of course, the principles apply, but the focus is on how there were people most likely wagging their tongues at the teachers of the local congregations. James, the overseer of the Jerusalem church (Acts 15:13-21), was telling them to get a handle on their critique and ridicule of the early church teachers because there was only one perfect teacher: Jesus.
James was calling them to submit themselves to their teachers and not disqualify them just because they were human and made mistakes. James is calling all of us to stop being a hostile demanding crowd and start being a peaceful appreciative congregation. None of us are perfect!
Seize the moment and be thankful and encouraging to your teachers.
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Live Like a Champion – (Week 5)
“Live Like a Champion: Victory Through the Promises of God!”
“The Promise of Being Established in God’s Word!”
2 Peter 1:12-21 (NAS95)
In the first four weeks of this series, we have learned how to live like a champion by learning how to live according to the Victory of the promises of God. Our guiding image for this series is being a member of an NFL team who wins the Superbowl. As God’s athletes we must do four things to live like champions:
(1) Know God’s playbook—the Bible—by learning the promises of God.
(2) Train ourselves for godliness by learning to live according to the promises of God.
(3) Learn how to listen to the Coach’s voice so that we play the right play at the right time.
(4) Work together as one team—we are members of God’s family—His Church.
Never forget, the Superbowl celebration is in our future and we are invited to play like a championship team.
This is our last foundational message for this series as we finish our study of 2 Peter 1. Today, we are focusing on the last verses of this chapter to learn that we can trust God’s playbook. Starting next Sunday, we are going to start looking at the individual promises—the plays in God’s Playbook—and learn how to apply them to our lives so that we can live the victorious life and play like champions!
Listen to Peter’s words from 2 Peter 1:12–21,
12Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. 13I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind. 16For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”— 18and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. 19So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. 20But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
The heart of today’s message is to reinforce the bedrock of the promises of God as being God’s spoken Word to us. As the last verses, 2 Peter 1:20-21, say as of first importance, “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
We believe the Bible is God-breathed (inspired) as Paul teaches in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
Furthermore, we can trust that what we have in the four Gospel narratives are the true historical accounts of Jesus Christ, the living Word. Peter, a disciple of Jesus Christ, makes significant claims of this first-hand witness to their historicity in today’s scripture. Listen again to verses 16-18:
For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”—and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
Luke further emphasizes the accuracy of the Gospels as theologically-motivated historical accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry in Luke 1:1-4, the prelude of his Gospel:
Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.
As a final point of the importance of the Word of God, Peter states in verse 19, “So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.”
John, another first-hand witness of Jesus, discussed Jesus with the same imagery in John 1:1-4,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
If the first big step of living the victorious life is to know God’s playbook, then this message is intended to give us a conviction that as we learn to listen to God’s voice we will trust the Bible as His playbook. When God calls us into the game and directs us to play a certain play, we won’t question either the authenticity (that this is the Coach’s idea and not our own) or the efficacy of that play (that the play will accomplish that which the Coach intends for it to do).
We are invited to trust the Bible as God’s Playbook.
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
Can you imagine the ridiculously chaotic game on the football field if the players started questioning the authenticity or efficacy of the play every huddle? In reality, there would be no game. There would be only internal confusion and fighting at every huddle (with no running of the plays; therefore, no victory!).
Is this an accurate image for the American church? We spend more time in our huddles “discussing” the authenticity and trustworthiness of the playbook and questioning the efficacy of the play themselves, that we never get on with the game to win the championships that is ours in Christ Jesus!
This series is intended to change that because every week we are going to learn a play and your assignment is to trust God’s playbook, training yourself in godliness, listen for the Coach’s voice, and then, out in both the private and public arenas of life, run the play—live like a champion based on the promises of God!
We are to build our lives and our game plan on the truth, from the Playbook!
Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.
God has given us His Word and His Spirit to do what Peter promises in these verses. Here’s how it happens:
(1) His Word! We establish our lives on the Truth of God’s Word as handed down to us in the Bible.
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments. Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You. Blessed are You, O Lord; Teach me Your statutes.”
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
If you don’t feel connected to the team, stop making excuses and start showing up to the practices. The Coach has us at FBC sending every player plays from the Playbook every day on the phone at 10 am; we are inviting you to the team practice to learn how to listen to the Coach’s voice every Wednesday night at 6:15 pm; and we you are called to participate in weekly scrimmages every Sunday at 10:30 am.
But, the reality is that victorious living, while learned and practiced together, must be lived every day out there. The Christian life was never to be one big holy huddle, but a rhythm of gathering and scattering, so that we run the right play in the everyday circumstances and challenges of our communities.
(2) His Spirit! The Holy Spirit is the one who stirs us up and calls the play for the Coach in the midst of our ever present circumstance and challenges. God has given us the Word and He calls us to the right play!
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you (e.g. Luke 12:11-12).
As we learn the Playbook and listen to our Coach’s Voice, then we will live like champions in both the public and private arenas of life and make His Victory visible. Paul taught us in Philippians 2:12-16,
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain (cf. Matthew 5:14-16 & 1 Peter 2:9-12).
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Seize the Moment – Day 319
Today’s hymn focus: “How Firm A Foundation”
Isaiah 41:10 (ESV)
“fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Written just before the turn of the 18th century, this hymn is attributed to Robert Keene and John Rippon. This hymn was said to be a favorite of Theodore Roosevelt, and Andrew Jackson requested it be sung at his deathbed.
The song was written to make known the promises of God found in Scripture, especially calling upon the promises for strength in times of tribulation to bring comfort and peace. Verse 2 is from our scripture today…
“Fear not, I am with thee; oh be not dismayed. For I am thy God and will still give thee aid. I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand.
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.”
We need to wake up every morning and remind ourselves that our faith and hope is built on Jesus and it is strong and firm. No matter the circumstances we find ourselves in, we can rely upon the solid foundation of the Lord to keep us calm and encouraged.
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How Firm A Foundation
is laid for your faith in his excellent Word!
What more can he say than to you he has said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
for I am your God, and will still give you aid.
I’ll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow,
for I will be with you, your troubles to bless,
and sanctify to you the deepest distress.
my grace, all sufficient, shall be your supply.
The flames shall not hurt you. I only design
your dross to consume, and your gold to refine.
I will not, I will not desert to its foes.
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!”
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Seize the Moment – Day 318
The Hearth of Your Life!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, January 29.
In the 1500s, Martin Luther championed the fundamental Christian belief that we are saved by faith alone and changed the modern world in the process.
James 2:18-20 focuses our minds on the importance of living the life of faith and not just saying we have faith, lest we be deceived ourselves:
But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
Luther certainly did not miss this point. Listen to this wonderful teaching that informs the church’s faith and practice to this day, 500 years since he wrote it:
Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake life itself on it a thousand times. This knowledge of and confidence in God’s grace makes people glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and with all creatures. And this is the work which the Holy Spirit performs in faith. Because of it, without compulsion, a person is ready and glad to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer everything, out of love and praise to God, who has shown this grace. Thus, it is impossible to separate works from faith, quite as impossible as to separate heat and light from fire.[1]
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[1] Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 576.
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Seize the Moment – Day 317
God as a Refiner’s Fire!
God as a refiner’s fire is a powerful image from Malachi 3:3! I love this image and based on it I often pray for people: Lord Jesus, please refine (insert your name here) with your unquenchable fire of holiness, removing all that is not of You and perfecting all that is of You, so that all that s/he thinks, says, and does brings You glory. Amen.
Together, let’s understand the old saying, “where there is smoke, there is fire” in a new way.
Listen to James 1:2-4 invite us to allow God as a refiner’s fire to work in our lives through difficult circumstances: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
God refines us so that we reflect to the world more and more the presence of the One who is pure light, eternal love, and radiant holiness. From start to finish, this is a journey of love and grace because at the end of it, God promises that you will be “lacking in nothing”.
The Spirit works within you when you dedicate your life to be a living sacrifice for His glory (Romans 12:1-2):
Your desperate grip on life is broken (yet again!) …
Your disillusionments on what life should provide for you are burst like old wine skins (yet again!) …
Your desires for something other than God are pealed back like another thin layer of an onion (and you find yourself crying yet again!) …
If you want your life to be a living sacrifice to God, then never forget: where there is smoke, there is fire!
Seize the moment and let God work in you! This means that you can’t do everything in your power to get out of the fire of His love and grace. Rather, you must submit to His good work and learn to trust Him, yet again.
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Seize the Moment – Day 316
Praying the Benedictions of God’s Word!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, January 27.
I love the ancient benedictions found in the Bible. They are powerful prayers that we can memorize and pray often. Listen to Hebrews 13:20-21.
Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
What is a benediction? It is a pronouncement of God’s favor upon God’s people; a blessing. In the Old Testament, it was a formal part of the ritual life of the Jewish people. An example of this is Numbers 6:24-26, “The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’”
Paul and the New Testament authors demonstrated how the benediction continued into the earliest churches as a pastoral practice of blessing the congregations as they gathered.
As your pastor, allow me to now bless you in this ancient priestly way:
From 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
From 2 Thessalonians 3:16, “Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all!”
Seize the moment and pray God’s Word over other people and yourself. The most powerful prayers and blessings to give to others are the ones already given to you through the grace of God’s Word.
Please join us live or in-person tonight for our mid-week prayer service which begins every Wednesday at 6:15 pm every Wednesday night. Please prioritize this time or another time to participate in this community prayer.
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Seize the Moment – Day 315
Faith supplies Faithfulness!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, January 26.
Are you tired of running the race set before you?
Listen to Hebrews 12:1-3,
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Did you notice the “therefore”? Did you ask yourself, “What is it there for?”
Hebrews 12 is an action call to the “Hall of Faith” found in Hebrews 11. Those in the great cloud of witnesses are real people with real faith in real history—they are forever our living testimonies of how to run the race of faithful living.
A lifetime of fidelity flows from the rich supply of faith that God gives a person. Faith shapes your worldview because the thoughts and actions of a person’s life flow out of what each person believes about God.
Jesus was able to finish the race set before Him with joy even though God’s will came with great pain and suffering. His faith permeated all that He did. He is forever our greatest living testimony of how to run the race of faithful living.
Seize the moment and keep your eyes on Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of your faith. Do not grow weary and lose heart because God’s faithfulness will fuel you to the finish line. For the joy set before you—run faithfully!
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Seize the Moment – Day 314
Real Life Stories of Faith!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, January 25.
According to Hebrews 11:1, faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Verse 6 further explains that “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” Paul, in Romans 14:23, unapologetically teaches us God’s perspective that “whatever is not from faith is sin.”
Unfortunately, for most of us, knowing this is not enough to convince us to live by faith alone. We each need daily encouragement to do the right thing for the right reasons at the right time. That is why the Bible is full of stories of real people with real faith in real history.
Here are three of those testimonies from Hebrews 11:
-
- Noah trusted God and against all evidence and public opinion built an ark to save humanity from God’s judgement (verse 7).
- Abraham trusted God and left behind all that he knew to set out on the journey to claim God’s promised land (verses 8-10).
- Sarah trusted God and after 90 years of not being able to have a child, conceived a son who would inherit the promises of God (verses 11-12).
I encourage you to open up your Bible to the book of Genesis and read these great stories of faith. These testimonies in Hebrews 11 are real stories about real people with real faith in real history. The stories of these real people in these historical accounts are intended to encourage you and motivate you to live the life of faith, no matter the circumstances of your life.
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Live Like a Champion (Week 4)
2021 Series: “Live Like a Champion: Victory Through the Promises of God!”
“The Promise of Eternity!”
2 Peter 1:10-11 (NAS95)
In the first three weeks of this series, we have learned how to live like a champion by learning how to live in the victory of the promises of God. Our guiding image for this series is being a member of an NFL team who wins the Superbowl. As God’s athletes we must do four things to live like champions:
(1) Know God’s playbook—the Bible—by learning the promises of God.
(2) Train ourselves for godliness by learning to live according to the promises of God.
(3) Learn how to listen to the Coach’s voice so that we play the right play at the right time.
(4) Work together as one team—we are members of God’s family—His Church.
Never forget, the Superbowl celebration is in our future and we are invited to play like a championship team.
This truth is our emphasis for today’s foundational teaching on the promises of God: we have the promise of eternity. This is an overarching truth for living a victorious life because this is the foundation of all our hope.
“Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”
Today, we are going to cultivate our hope in Jesus so that we may live by faith and not by sight, as Paul commands us in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10,
For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight— we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
In light of this truth, how then shall we live? As we examine 2 Peter 1:10-11, we observe the progression of Peter’s thinking.
First, we, the “brethren”, the members of Christ’s body, are to “be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you…” This is in the imperative form meaning it is a command—Be diligent to not forget “[your] purification from [your] former sins” (2 Peter 1:9), by remembering your calling!
In other words, using our metaphor of being a part of a Superbowl winning football team, you need to be diligent in knowing that you have been called to the team by the Coach because He chose you. The original language is saying, “to make this a permanent experience” or to be diligent in “securing” this truth in you.
Jesus has unapologetically told you this truth in John 15:16, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”
You have been handpicked to be a part of God’s team! How can you be “all the more diligent” to know this?
Through your effectiveness and fruitfulness “in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:8). It is through fruit bearing that we are certain of God’s choosing. As Jesus said in John 15:8, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples” (cf. Ephesians 2:8-10).
As a “partaker of the divine nature” you are sharing in His nature, a partner of God in His purposes and plans. Jesus spoke this to an agricultural community in not only those words of being a fruit-bearing branch abiding in the vine, but also in words of a being fruit-bearing trees in Matthew 12:33-37,
Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
You produce (manifest and so prove to be) according to your kind—as Peter states in 2 Peter 1:4, if you are sharing in the divine nature of God, then you have escaped the corruption of this world (cf. Romans 12:1-2).
Earlier in John 8:31-32 Jesus made it very clear what that meant to those who believed in Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Did you hear that, His abiding truth will MAKE you free! You have escaped! Now escape…
There is something very beautiful in the original language of 2 Peter 1:10 here; the verb for “to make” is in the middle voice. Listen to this quote from a Greek Grammar book, “the middle voice signifies that the subject performs the action of the verb and participates somehow in the results.”[1] You both perform the action of making certain and participate in the certainty of God’s action to secure you as His own.
As Peter says in 2 Peter 1:10, “for as long as you practice these things [the virtues of 2 Peter 1:5-7], you will never stumble.” The promises of God come with daily invitations to practice what you believe; to put into practice the faith you have received. You are saved by faith alone, absolutely, but faith never stands alone! You are known by the works of your faith, as James stated in James 1:22-25,
But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.
The logic of scripture is irrefutable as James’ words harken us back to last week’s sermon when Peter said in 2 Peter 1:8-9, “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.”
So, we are to build our lives on the words of Jesus. We are to practice “these things” so that we will never stumble. This is the promise of Jesus Christ as the benediction of Jude 24-25 proclaims the power of God through Jesus Christ, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”
John says something strikingly similar in 1 John 3:1-3, which pulls together this whole sermon:
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Both of these scriptures bring us back to Peter’s logic in 2 Peter 1:11, “for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”
I love the visual of this promise regarding eternal life: the entrance into the eternal kingdom will be abundantly supplied to you. How is that possible?
Jesus taught us very clearly about the entrance (or gate) to life in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
How is the entrance abundantly supplied, yet the gate be small and the way be narrow?
These two truths are brought into perfect unity through the exclusive means of Jesus Christ, as He said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
The hope of entering the eternal dominion and authority of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is abundantly supplied to us through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is in Christ alone! Jesus is the most inclusive exclusive entry point into eternal life. Jesus gives us His abundant life with the Father! Apart from Him, there is no entry way—He is the only mediator of the covenant between God and humanity.
Jesus Christ returned to agricultural imagery to make this point very clear. Listen to John 10:1-10,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them. So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
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