All right, if you'll take your Bibles and let's turn to 2 Peter chapter number one. 2 Peter chapter number one. We're gonna read the first 11 verses here. We've dealt with the first four, and we're gonna be taking a look at the beginning of verse five, but we're also gonna be looking at some of the other verses. So I want us to read the context of what we will be dealing with today. And understand, we're not gonna get into the things that we are to add today. We're gonna talk about adding to our faith, but we're not going to get into the particulars until next week, Lord willing. But look at verse number one, 2 Peter chapter number one, verse number one, Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith, he's writing to believers, amen, with us through the righteousness of God, and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, and this is the part we're gonna be dealing with today, beside this, giving all diligence. Beside this, giving all diligence, and then he tells us, of what we're to do. Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience, to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather brethren, and here's the word again, give diligence. Amen, we're to give diligence. We talked about giving all diligence there, verse 5, and he talks about diligence here again. Wherefore, the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly and to the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now understand that the Peter's original readers were living in an environment that was extremely hostile to believers and to Jesus Christ. Anything to do with Jesus Christ at all, they didn't want anything to do with it. This, for the most part, is still the case in the world today for those who are determined to live godly in Christ Jesus, and we ought not to be surprised at that because the Apostle Paul told us it was going to be that way in 2 Timothy 3.12. He said, Yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. I mean, even in our own nation that was originally founded upon religious liberty, we see an increasing number of committed Christians are facing persecution and hostility, and sadly, some of that hostility and some of that persecution is coming from others who claim to be Christians. That's the kind of times that we're living in. They're coming from those who are really not committed to Christ very well. Now, Peter knew from experience that if believers were going to stand faithful in the face of pressure and make an impact upon the world for the cause of Christ, they were going to have to grow. There was a need for them to grow or mature in their faith and become spiritually strong. And that's still the need today. Amen? Just being saved is not good enough to go to heaven. but we're to be more than that. So Peter gave instruction here, and by instruction we're talking about doctrine or teaching. That's what instruction is. He's giving them doctrine here to help them grow, and if they would only heed his instruction, it would help fortify their faith, by helping them grow strong in their faith, and listen, today, if we will heed his instruction, it can help us grow strong in the faith for the cause of Christ, for whatever we might face in our time, and I believe that we are gonna see, as we get closer and closer to the Lord coming back, things are gonna get more heated for us. The thermostat's gonna be turned up a little bit. The heat's gonna be coming. and we need to be strong to stand our ground for Christ, amen. I don't know about you, but I want to grow up spiritually in Christ and be as mature and be as effective as a servant of Christ as I can possibly be for the time whenever I leave this earth and stand before the Lord Jesus Christ that I can give a good account of what I have stood for and what I have done for our Savior. As a pastor, one of my greatest desires for our church is to see each believer grow and mature into effective servants of the Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God. So for today and for several more weeks, I want us to see the keys of growth, the keys of growth, what it takes to grow spiritually and mature as effective Christians. Here in verse 5, Peter admonishes his readers to add to or build on the foundation of faith that they already have. In fact, he gives seven things here, and I like to call this seven stories built on the foundation of faith. I mean, that's a good thing, because that's what we're saying. He says, add this, and then add this, and then add this. There's seven things. There's seven stories you add to your faith, faith being the foundation, and the main principle that I want to cover today is also foundational. Now, we shared one foundational principle last week, and that is also in this verse, is to add to your faith. That's the foundation. Faith. Amen. You got to have faith. If you're going to grow in Christ, faith is the beginning point. You have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not going to become an effective Christian until you first repent of sin, turn to the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, Lord and Savior, and understand to grow, we first have to be genuinely saved. We gave the illustration last week. If you plant a tree that's dead, it's never going to grow anything. I know that from experience. I told you about when I first got married and planted a dead dog tree. I thought it looked like it was going to live, but it didn't live. It was dead. It kept watering that thing and fertilizing that thing, and it was no good because it first needed life. It didn't have life. So add to your faith. means faith in Christ is the starting point. Now notice this next foundational principle that we're going to deal with. In order to properly mature as a believer, we must be spiritually diligent. Amen. He said beside this, giving all diligence add to your faith. And so we're going to be talking about spiritual diligence today. In order to properly mature as a believer, it takes some effort. Amen? Our part in growth is to give all diligence to add these things that we're going to be studying in the weeks ahead to add them to our faith. Now, if we're going to be effective believers growing in maturity, listen, we have to be all in. We've heard that phrase, haven't we? All in. Are you all in? Sadly, not everybody that has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ is all in. There's a lot of folks that are satisfied with just living a mediocre Christian life. That's sad. When it comes to growing the way that we should grow and being what we should be, we have to be all in when it comes to the effort that we put forth. And sadly, what we see in our day are many, if not most, professing believers that are, for the most part, immature and ineffective in their Christian walk, and why is that? I don't know, but I suspect that the problem may be that the necessary effort to properly mature is lacking on the part of most people. It just really is. So, let's take a look at this. First thing I want us to see is we have a responsibility to practice spiritual diligence. Peter really is giving a command here. He gives the command here to add to your faith, and then he names seven things would add or build upon the foundation of our faith, but there is that preceding phrase that is of utmost importance, and that's why I chose to spend a whole message on that, because if you miss it, you're gonna miss the rest of it, okay? The word diligence refers to the earnest, zealous exertion of oneself. Think about it. Sounds like something that an employer likes out of employees, amen? You ever went to work on a job and you gave your best effort and it was recognized that boy, he's a diligent worker. That's the way it ought to be. If you're a believer, you ought to be diligent in your job that you work. Giving all diligence takes honest effort. It takes work. I remember many years back when I was still in high school, I went to work a couple of weeks for Bill Cudson in Brunswick, Georgia. Had a cousin who was going on vacation and they wouldn't let him off unless he could find somebody to take his place. And so I went there and I went there with the idea of doing the best that I could do. And I wound up taking his job away from him. And I asked him to give his job back to him and give me another job, give me something different to do. That's being diligent. You do the best that you can do. Now, the matter of adding to our faith. Seeing that faith is strengthened and enriched so that we grow properly demands our diligence. And sadly, whether we're talking secular work or whether we're talking the work for Christ, work is a four-letter word. You know what I mean by that, right? They say, oh man, don't talk to me about work. I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear that word. It takes work. And what we're talking about when we're talking about adding to your faith, you're gonna have to put forth some effort. I don't want you to think that this is easy because it's not at all. And Peter wants us to understand that no one grows in the spiritual realm automatically. As a pastor, I can tell you that it would be great if I could just put everybody in here, in this room, and just be able to walk over there and flip a switch. And boom, we were all mature in our faith. We were growing and mature, effective believers for the kingdom of God, but that is not the way it is done. Sure, it takes good doctrine, but good doctrine being made available, listen, is not enough. I've been here a little over 15 years now. And you know, and you can testify during that 15 years, I have been teaching and preaching biblical doctrine that is both right and good. But listen, that is not enough to mature you. It's not enough. It's not enough to sit up under the sound teaching and preaching of God's Word. You've got to put forth some effort. You ever heard the phrase, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink? That's true in what we're talking about. I can put it out there, but you've got to choose to drink it. You've got to choose to take it in. It takes intentional effort to listen. with the ears, to hear with the heart, and to heed what is being taught and preached. Now, the attainment of anything worthwhile doesn't just happen. It takes intentional effort. I'm always amazed every year whenever the time comes around for Olympics to take place, and the discipline that those athletes keep themselves under for the previous four years in order to do what they do. I mean, they don't just walk out there and say, you know, I think I'll do this today. You've never done it before, but it looks like I'd like to try that. They don't do that. It takes training. It takes effort on their part. It takes intentional effort. for them to attain the ability to be what they should be there in their sport. Again, anything worthwhile takes intentional effort. Not one of us can afford to dilly-dally around spiritually. but rather we must be diligent, okay? Dilly dally, bad. Diligent, good, okay? We want to be diligent, not dilly dallying around in our pursuit of becoming all that the Lord wants us to be. Well, what happens when we're not diligent? Well, let me give you a spiritual example, a biblical example. Hold your place there. We'll be back. Look at Deuteronomy, chapter number six. Deuteronomy chapter number six, and those of you that are with us on Wednesday nights, we talked about some of these things. The things that Israel went through and the things that are written about them are written for our benefit. They're written for us. It's not just history, but it's history with a purpose. It's for us to see how we ought not to be or how we ought to be. Deuteronomy 6, look at verse number 1. The Lord says there, now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you that you might do them in the land whether you go to possess it. That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command thee, thou and thy son and thy son's son, all the days of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and notice this, observe to do it. that it may be well with thee, that thou may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might, and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. Notice verse seven. and thou shalt teach them diligently. They were supposed to be in their heart first, and they were to teach them diligently unto their children, unto thy children, and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Look down at verse number 17. Verse number 17, he says, ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee. It says, and thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with thee, that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers. to cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the Lord hath spoken. And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean these testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which the Lord God hath commanded you? Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and the Lord showed signs and wonders and great and soar upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes. And he hath brought us out from thence, that he might bring us into the land which he sware unto our fathers. It says, and the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, and to fear the Lord our God for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as it is, at this day, and it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these things, commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us." Now, question class, did they do that? They didn't, did they? We know, we've just gotten out of the book of Judges, and I'm going to read just two verses out of Judges chapter number two. Joshua was no sooner in the grave and the generation of elders that served with him than that things went south right away. Judges 2 and verse number 10 says, And all that generation were gathered unto their fathers, and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for them. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. And my, what a mess it was. We spent a great number of weeks going through the book of Judges, and it's just unreal the mess that Israel made. out of what the Lord wanted them to do. They did not practice diligence. Israel's problem was a lack of diligence in the things that they were warned to be diligent in. They were to teach their children. How does a whole generation grow up not knowing the Lord? It's because they weren't diligent to teach them. It's the way it is. So we have a responsibility to practice spiritual diligence. Back to our text. Number two thing. We must use the resources we've been given to practice spiritual diligence. And I'm just going to refer back to the previous message. Remember what those basic resources are. They're in verse three and four. So according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. And then it says, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Let's think about this. Remember those basic resources that we said? First of all, we were given spiritual life, amen? And along with spiritual life came the Holy Spirit, living within, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and then we've got the entirety of God's Word. We got the whole book. And those three things are all that we need in order to live life that's fleeting to God and to be godly in our living. Can we be successful in the process of adding to our faith? Yes, if we give all diligence. Is spiritual growth for every believer? See, some folks act like, well, that's not for me, that's just for the preacher and that's for maybe the teachers and the church or whatever, but that's not for me. No, if you're saved, if you're a child of God, it is for you. Spiritual growth is for every believer. There is absolutely no reason why any believer cannot grow spiritually if they really want to grow. Peter tells us here to give all diligence in adding to our faith the things that we're going to see in the weeks ahead there in verses 5, 6, and 7. How can we do that? Well, we have God's power to enable us, the power of the Holy Spirit, amen. That's what verse three's talking about. Peter's saying that our Lord's power is sufficient, the provision of divine power that is available to us is able to provide all things that we need for both life and godliness. Peter's point is that divine power not only produces new life in the believer, but it also enables us to live godly lives. But you have to be led by the Spirit. Amen? You've got to walk in the Spirit. It will enable you to add to your faith. Now listen, no believer, not one, should ever be mired in mediocrity. If you're mired in mediocrity right now, you could really care less about what I'm talking about. You say, I'll be glad when this is over. Well, we'll drop to a close here in a little bit. But listen, when there is divine power available to enable us to live victoriously for Jesus, there's no reason for you to live a mediocre Christian life. Notice also that as we begin to diligently add to our faith, we not only have at our disposal God's power to enable us, but we have God's promises there in verse number four, God's promises to encourage us. It says we've been given exceeding great and precious promises. Herbert Lockyer, he's a theologian, wrote many books, got several of them in my office. In his book, All the Promises of the Bible, he says that in the Word of God there are 7,487 promises made to mankind by God. Now, I didn't go back and count them to make sure that was right. I'll take his word for that. But I'm sure he's pretty close with that figure. 7487. Now the promises of God are described as exceeding great and precious. Now listen, they're exceeding great because of their source. They come from God. God gives them their greatness. God is great, amen? They are seen as precious because of their significance. Their value is beyond measure. Think of some of those promises that have been given to us. The believer is promised eternal life by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Strength when weary, according to Isaiah 40, verses 28-31. We're going to be rewarded when we're obedient, according to Revelation 22, 12. Gives us comfort for trials, 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3 through 5. We could talk about others, victory over temptation, answers to prayer, companionship when we're dying. That's just to name a few. But listen, we can depend on God's promises. Think about how Abraham depended on God's promises. Let's take a look at Abraham's example. Look at Genesis chapter number 12. With all that's going on in the world right now against Israel and just the things that we've seen in the last couple of days, Hamas is coming against them. This came to mind, in my heart and mine anyway, what the Lord told Abraham in Genesis 12. Look at verse number one. Genesis 12.1, now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, and to a land I will show thee. And here's the promises now. I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and I will make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and will curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed as the Lord hath spoken unto him." Now just think about that. He believed God, didn't he? In fact, the New Testament tells us that he believed God and some things that God told him and God counted it to him for righteousness. What a blessing. Now, we need to tap in to the resources that God has given us by faith and let Christ mold us into all he wants us to be. And we have many examples in scripture of others that did that. And of course, in the Hall of Faith, Hebrews chapter 11, it's a good place to look at those things. But we've a responsibility to practice spiritual diligence. We must use the resources we've been given to practice spiritual diligence. And lastly, we must understand the rewards of spiritual diligence. And that's where we get to verses 8 through 10 here. These things that we're gonna be looking at, that he says, add to your faith. This is what he has to say about them. Look at verse number eight again. For if these things be in you, what things? Well, faith, and those things are added to faith. If these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. but he that lacketh these things is blind, cannot see afar off, hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall." Listen, no doubt There was probably someone in the crowd that Peter wrote to as this was being read. It was a letter sent to some folks that were scattered. And as they would read that before the crowd, there were probably some there and maybe even some in our crowd this morning who might be thinking, yeah, I know I need to get more diligent about my spiritual development, but is it really worth it? Is it really worth it? It's going to take more than treating this the way that most folks do with New Year's resolutions. You know how folks do it in New Year's, right? They make these resolutions of things they're gonna do. They may resolve there at the beginning of the year, but a few days afterwards, they start thinking, man, I don't know if this is worth it or not. Before you know it, they've done stopped. They decide, no, it's not worth it. The problem often is that we cannot see afar off. He mentions that. He that lacketh these things is blind. If you don't have these things in your life, if you don't add to your faith, you can't see afar off. We fail to see. One of the things we fail to see is the future reward. The future reward, what it's going to do for us. Okay, so let's say we determine to go all in. on this adding to our faith. What's in it for us? Is it really worth it to add to our faith with all diligence? Yes, it is. For example, in verse eight, Peter says, if these things be in you and abound, be in you and abound, if we will build these spiritual habits into our lives and stick with it, amen, this is the direction I'm going and I'm not quitting. If we will do that, then several things will happen. Number one, we will be equipped. There in verse number eight, they talk about being neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we build these habits into our life, we will become useful, fruitful, growing believers, which is what the Lord wants from each of us. And then, not only will we be equipped, but we will be enlightened. There in verse number nine, he talks about if you lack these things, you can't see afar off. And you even forget that you were purged from your old sins. That's what he says. Peter says that those who neglect these habits are blind. You're blind to heavenly things while being engrossed in earthly things. See, if you don't have your mind set in the direction of growing in your faith, guess what? You'll be all wrapped up in this world. Does that please the Lord? Not at all. Not at all. They lack spiritual perception and forget the work of God's grace in their hearts. You ever seen somebody who had trusted the Lord as their Savior later in life because they didn't add what they should have added to their faith, they begin to doubt their salvation? You ever seen anybody like that? I see them all the time. See them all the time. You forget of that work of grace that God did way back when. So those that practice spiritual diligence by adding these things to their faith will be just the opposite. They can see. And not only see, but they can see afar off and understand not only their past and their present, but they can understand their future. The things that we see in this world, do you see what God is doing? because you understand the Bible, you understand what God's doing, you can read in the scripture, and your heart's encouraged because you know, boy, we're about to where the Lord comes back. And we can get excited about that, amen? So we will be equipped, we will be enlightened, and we will be established. That is, we will have confidence, we won't fall, literally stumble is what that word means, we will continue on the path of growth. So our first thing this morning, are you a genuine child of God? Do you know that if you were to die today that you would go to heaven? If not, that's the starting point. That's the foundation. Put your faith in Jesus and get his life as a firm foundation to build your life on. In fact, the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3.11, there's no other foundation but Jesus Christ. Amen. No other foundation that you can build upon that's going to be worth it in your life. So believers, do you want to be mature and effective as a servant of Jesus Christ? Well, I can tell you that's what Jesus wants for you. Do you want what Jesus wants for you? I hope that you do. If you're going to go all in for Christ, it's going to cost you something. Amen? It's going to cost you something. And I want you to commit today, not to me. Commit to the Lord. Lord, I'm going to give all diligence to be all I can be for you. The preacher don't ask you to be committed to him. Ask you to be committed to the Lord. Amen. Commit yourself to the Lord today. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we just thank you today for