Dwelling Place

Al Pittman: Today on the dwelling place.

Nathan Pittman: And there have been times in my life where God has spoken to me and said, Nathan, I want to bless your life, but you're not progressing. You haven't developed to a place where you're ready to receive what I have for you because you're not progressing. In order to know the deeper things of God, in order to experience more in our relationship with God, we have to have an intentional mindset of progressing in our faith.

Al Pittman: Thank you for tuning into the dwelling place, a radio ministry from Pastor Al Pittman and Al Pittman Ministries in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We hope today's message is a blessing to you. If you like to partner with us financially, you can go to alpitmanministries.com, give directly on the One Place app, or mail in a check to 501 Castle Road, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80904. We appreciate your generosity to help us spread the gospel. Today we continue our new series titled Counteracting Counterfeits in Second Peter. We as Christians need to be able to identify false teachers and teachings, not only in the world, but also in the church.

Pastor Al's son, Pastor Nathan, will be teaching this series with him. Now here's Pastor Nathan.

Nathan Pittman: Well, glad to be with you all today. We are continuing our series called Counteracting Counterfeits in the book of of Second Peter. And the purpose of this book in the Bible is to address the false teachers that unfortunately have made their way into the churches in Asia Minor. Now in this series, our hope as we go through this is for all of us to grow. That's the purpose of going through this series. It's to grow in our ability to discern between what is clean and unclean, what is real, and what is fake as we journey through this walk of faith.

The reason why this is so important is because as a church, the time is now for us to be firmly established in our faith so that we will not be deceived by the smooth talking words of false teachers or the great delusions of the world. Delusions sometimes is even in the church. And as we saw last week, Pastor Al took us through verses 1 through 9 of Second Peter chapter 1 and we got to see how powerful it is when we know we have a real relationship with God, when we experience the real thing. And so as we continue in this, as we look at verses 10 through 11 tonight, we are going to learn how to counteract the counterfeit by learning how to make our calling and election sure.

So let's get into the text, verses 10 through 11. Look there with me. It says, therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now anytime we get into the scriptures, we always want to read the full text and then we got to go back and break it down so we can see what the Lord's going to say through it. So let's go back to verse 10.

It says, therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. Now anytime you study the Bible, you know, teachers will tell you that anytime you see the word therefore, you got to figure out what it's therefore. So the therefore that it's talking about is Peter is talking about verses 5 through 7 where Peter encourages his readers. He encourages the believers to add to their faith with all diligence. Now when we look in the Greek with that word, diligence means it means to exert oneself towards something, to exert yourself, to demonstrate energy.

I'm going to go for something and not like lazily, not like I'm just casually walking, I'm casually doing. No, it's like all out sprinting, all out effort, all out I'm giving my all in being diligent towards something. And that thing that Peter is calling us to be diligent to is to intentionally add to our faith in Christ. And as I was studying this, God showed me he showed me the reason why adding to our faith is so important is because Christianity and following Jesus is all about addition. Christianity is all about addition. Meaning that you never get to a place where you're satisfied with the current growth that you've experienced in Christ.

You never get to a place where you're like I don't need anymore Jesus. I don't need anymore scripture. I don't need anymore spiritual fruit. I don't need anymore relationship with God. No, no, no, no. It is always being a place of I want to add more to my faith. I want to add more relationship. I want to know more of the word of God. I want to know more in fellowship. I want to know more in accountability. I want to know more in iron sharpening iron. I want to know more. Therefore, I'm going to add to my faith in Christ.

Not just one time, but in every season of life, I'm seeking to add to my faith in Christ. And this this if you're listening this this is a challenge to the church, but it's also a lifeline for us because progressing in your walk in of faith, progressing in your relationship with Jesus is really what gives us the passion and really the sparks joy as we follow Jesus. If you've ever met someone who says, man, I I tried that God thing before and I'm bored with Jesus or whatever it is, it's probably because they stop progressing at some point in their life.

They just got satisfied with oh, well, I said the prayer, I've got Jesus, but they've not they haven't been growing in Jesus. Progressing in our faith is what ignites passion and joy in our relationship with God. Without it, our faith just becomes a dull form of religion that has no meaning and no power behind it. Progression is the lifeline for the believer. And consistent growth in our walks with God not only keeps the fire going, but like I said, our lives depend on it. First Corinthians chapter 3 verses 1 through 2 says this. It says, brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit, but as people who are still worldly, mere infants in Christ.

I gave you milk, not solid food, for you are not ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready for it. You see, Paul there is writing to people who should have progressed farther in their faith. And as a result of their lack of progression, they were suffering as a result of as a result of that. They couldn't take hold of the things that God wanted them to have because there was no progression. They were stagnant and not moving forward. So Paul said, I can't even give you the deeper things of Christ. I can't even give you the deeper things that God wants to give you because you're not even progressing.

You're not even in a place where you can handle it. And there have been times in my life where God has spoken to me and said, Nathan, I want to bless your life, but you're not progressing. You haven't developed to a place where you're ready to receive what I have for you because you're not progressing. In order to know the deeper things of God, in order to experience more in our relationship with God, we have to have an intentional mindset of progressing in our faith. You can look at it this way. A Christian who has stopped progressing in their faith has lost sight of the goal.

Second Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18 says, so all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord who is the Spirit makes us more and more like him as we change into his glorious image. The goal of Christianity, the goal of following Jesus is not religion. It is being transformed into the image of Christ. That means that our hearts, our minds, our lifestyles, our love and desires change to look more like Jesus. But what's interesting to me about this is that God doesn't just change us automatically into the image of his son, but he actually partners with us in this process.

For example, in the book of Genesis, when God created the Garden of Eden and when he put Adam and Eve there, he partnered with Adam and when he said, all right, now take care of the the field, take care of the plants and the trees. I put you here. Now you take care of it. God could have taken care of the garden by himself, but he was like, Adam, you take care of it. I'm partnering with you in the care of this garden. Even if we look at Samson, when God gave Samson his strength, he said, I'm the one that strengthens you.

I'm the one that gives you the strength, but your part in this is that you need to make sure your hair doesn't get cut. Samson didn't do that very well. If you read that story. But even with David, God gave David the victory over Goliath, but David had to walk onto the battlefield. You see what I'm saying? He had to walk onto the battlefield. And so in the same way, God does the heavy lifting when it comes to our transformation into the image of Christ, but we are responsible for our conduct and our obedience in that process as well.

Ephesians chapter 4 verses 22 through 24 says, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature created to be like God, truly righteous and holy. This process of becoming more like Christ, being transformed into the image of Christ is God, yes, sanctifying and transforming us, but it's also as we partner with God in our obedience to him to put off the things of the flesh and to put on the things of the spirit and to walk in obedience to the word of God, to walk in obedience to the leading of the spirit.

That's our part. That's what you and I do. And that's amazing to me and super frustrating, too, because sometimes I just want God to transform me. Like God just do it. Just click the button and I'll be good. I won't respond that way anymore. I won't respond with anger. I won't respond with lust. I won't respond with all those different things with insecurity, whatever it is. God just push the button. Make it happen. And God's like, hey, I didn't want a robot. I want your heart. And that means that you've got to crucify the flesh.

That means that you've got to submit to the word of God. That means that you've got to put things in place so that your heart and mind is centered on Jesus. That's what that is. And in the process of doing that, God moves, shakes shakes us up, changes and conforms and transforms us into the image of Christ as we walk in obedience to him. And in our text, Peter describes for us how we can make an effort to progress in our new nature, in the new man, how we can put on the the new man in Christ.

And that's by adding to our faith. Now if we do a a quick recap of verses 5 through 7, these are the things that Peter tells us to add to our faith. He says, add goodness, knowledge, self-control, godliness, endurance, brotherly affection, and love. These are the things that Peter says, I want you to add these things to your faith with all diligence. All diligence. Remember, diligence means to exert yourself towards something. It's an all-out sprint. It's everything you got. With all diligence, add these things to your faith. But then Peter kind of throws a wrench to me as I read this in verse 10 because then he says, add those things to your faith, but be even more diligent to make your call and election sure.

And in my head, I'm like, how much diligence does Peter think that we have? You already said all diligence and then you said, but be even more diligent to do this, to make your calling and election sure. Peter's not trying to mess with us by telling us that, but what he's doing is that he's trying to help us establish a foundation for us to build our faith upon because like any house, you cannot build anything structurally sound until the foundation is sure and established. So Peter is saying, yes, add these things to your faith, but first make sure that your calling and election are firmly in place.

Now he's not saying that we can gain or maintain our calling and election through our works, but he is saying that through diligent effort, we can become fully convinced of it. Now to understand how this is possible, we need to know what Peter means by calling and election. When Peter talks about the call of God, he's talking about the call of God that has gone out and continues to go out to the entire world through the Spirit of God that draws all people to repentance and relationship with God. This is what the Holy Spirit does in our world.

In fact, Jesus said this about the Spirit of God. He said, and when he comes being the Spirit, he will convict the world of its sin and of God's righteousness and of the coming judgment. We see that in John 16:8. So the purpose of the Holy Spirit from the moment he entered into our world and even right now, the Holy Spirit goes out to convict the world of sin, not for just judgment, not because the the Holy Spirit in some way kicks people while they're down or points the finger and and judgment or anything like that, but the purpose of the Holy Spirit convicting people in our world is to draw them into a relationship with God, to show people the depth of their sin, to show people that sin never satisfies, to show people that they will never be complete through what the world has to offer.

And when you come to that place, it's like reaching rock bottom. And when you reach that place, it's not a place that the Spirit leaves you because when you reach that place of rock bottom where you realize that I'm not satisfied in the world, I'm not satisfied in my sin, the Holy Spirit goes, well, let me lead you to the one who will satisfy you. That's the purpose of the Holy Spirit in our world. The Holy Spirit reveals the truth about who Jesus is. And he says, enter into a relationship with him with me. But unfortunately, even though the Holy Spirit reveals this truth and has been revealing this truth to our world, not everyone would choose to believe it.

But those who choose to receive and believe the truth that the Holy Spirit reveals about Jesus, these are people who have responded to the call of God. Meaning that if you've responded to the Holy Spirit's prompting, if you've responded to the Holy Spirit's leading to believe the truth about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, you have responded to the call of God. Meaning that your calling is sure and established. But this goes even deeper when you realize that even before you responded to the call of God, he chose you to be saved before the foundations of the world.

Guest (Male): Amen.

Nathan Pittman: Now in the church and and in theological terms, we call this election, meaning that God predestined or chose you for salvation before the foundation of the world. Romans chapter 8 verses 29 through 30 says this. It says, for whom he foreknew, he also predestined. Whom he predestined, these he also called. Whom he called, these he also justified. And whom he justified, these he also glorified. Now what people get twisted is that they think that, well, God elected me because of something special about me. Not at all. We are not elect as believers because there's anything special about us.

But the truth is that God elects anyone who by faith chooses to put their trust in Jesus, chooses to receive the truth that the Holy Spirit has been proclaiming to the world. This means that for the believer, our election is based on the omniscience of God and our free will response to believe in his son. This is something that anyone has the opportunity to do, or else Jesus wouldn't have said in John 3:16, whoever right? God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever not a chosen few, whomever would believe will be saved.

But I love this because Peter isn't bringing this up so that we can in some way you know, convince God that we are called and elect. That's not the purpose of why he's bringing this up. He's bringing this up because it's about us being convinced in our own hearts that we are called and elect. Because the truth is is that from God's perspective, if you believed in his son, your calling and election is already secure. This from God's point of view, you're you're good. But we're the ones who struggle with that, right? So Peter brings this up not so that we would convince God that we're called and elect, but so that we would be convinced in our own hearts that our calling and election is sure.

And so Peter is showing us here through this passage of scripture, how can you become confident that your calling and election is sure? And Peter says this, the best way to do that is by actively developing your faith or actively adding to your faith in Christ. Because the truth is this, the greatest evidence of your calling and election is not your confession of faith. It's your progression in the faith after your confession. What's what's one of the sayings that we have in our world and our culture is that talk is cheap. And we know that because it's someone who says something, but they don't do something, right?

So Peter is saying, I don't want your salvation just to be based upon your words. I want it to be based upon progression. It's not about, well, I I I I prayed the prayer. And yes, if you've prayed the prayer and you've you've confessed and believed in Jesus, are you saved? Absolutely. And that's great. But from that point on, Peter is saying that your salvation should be evident through your spiritual growth. Because knowing Jesus is about adding to your faith. It's not about just having Jesus saying, well, I have Jesus, I prayed the prayer and that's it.

No, no, no, no. Remember, Christianity, following Jesus is all about addition. It is all about progression. It's not just about, well, I prayed the prayer and I got Jesus and that's all I have. No. It's about adding to your faith. So have if you've prayed that prayer, are you saved? Absolutely. But now the goal for you to not only prove to to not only prove to yourself is to progress in your faith. Because the greatest evidence that someone knows Jesus is when you see them progressing, when you see, wow, you used to be a liar, but you tell the truth now.

While you used to be addicted to all this stuff, but now you're clean. You used to respond in anger, but now you're you're you're different. Like you didn't respond the same way to that situation. There's something different about you. This isn't not in any way to mean that we're ever going to be perfect, but we progress. You know, it's it's kind of like I've heard before, you know, people say, well, I'm not sinless, but I sin less.

Al Pittman: Again, thank you for joining us today. If you are blessed by today's message, consider partnering with us financially. You can go to alpitmanministries.com, give directly on the One Place app, or mail in a check to 501 Castle Road, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80904. We appreciate your generosity to help us spread the gospel. Also, we would love to hear from you. Please email us at info@alpitmanministries.com if you need prayer or ask any questions you might have. If you live in or visit the Colorado Springs area, we would love for you to join us at Calvary Worship Center.

Pastor Al was the senior pastor at Calvary Worship Center for 27 years. Calvary Worship Center has services on Saturday at 6:00 p.m., Sunday at 8:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., and 12:00 noon. And if you can't make it, you can always join us online. We stream our 10:00 a.m. service every Sunday. Just go to cwvccs.org. Make sure to connect with Pastor Al Pittman by following him on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Just search Al Pittman Ministries. That's all the time we have today. May the rest of your day be richly blessed. God bless.