SEVEN SUPPLEMENTS TO YOUR
FAITH- PART V
GROWING IN GODLINESS! II Peter 1:1-7,
There
was once a godless seaman who was in a boat fishing with his godless companions
when a storm came up which threatened to sink the ship. His companions begged
him to offer a prayer; but he hesitated, saying it was years since he had
prayed or even gone to church. Finally, upon their insistence, he offered this
prayer: O Lord, I have not asked You for anything for fifteen years, and if You
deliver us out of this storm and bring us safe to land again, I promise that I
will not bother You again for another fifteen years.
That’s not sincerity.
Many people only call on God in times of difficulty and then when the
difficulty has passed, they tend to forget God. As it’s been said: Danger past.
God forgotten. Danger present. God remembered. One great example was 9/11 attacks.
Many soon after those attacks were in church seeking God for answers, but today
many are too busy to attend a church service on Sundays. We
have been following a series titled, “Seven Supplements to Your Faith,” based
on the second letter of the Apostle Peter. 2 Peter 1: 5-7 “For this very
reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness,
knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to, Self-control, perseverance;
and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to
mutual affection, love.”
The Apostle Peter encouraged the persecuted Christians,
if they want to be productive they were to supply in abundance to their faith, goodness,
to goodness, knowledge and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control,
perseverance. We looked at these four supplements more in depth in the past
weeks. Today we will look at another supplement which is often misunderstood
and not emphasized much these days, that is the supplement of godliness.
We heard this word, but when it comes to giving a quick and
easy answer what godliness is, we have hard time defining it. Before we look
into what godliness is, how it manifests in the life of a believer, how we can
cultivate and grow in it, it would be helpful to look at godlessness for a
moment and its devastating effects on individuals and in our broader
society.
I. GODLESSNESS IN OUR SOCIETY:
When pastors and
Christian leaders get together we often lament over the state of the world and
especially the state of the USA, that is becoming more and more godless. I
grieve in my spirit when I watch ads like the one that Ron Reagan put out for freedom
from religion foundation, that starts like this, Hi I’m Ron Reagan, an
unabashed atheist,” and signs of saying, "Lifelong atheist, not afraid of
burning in hell." Are you sure! What is coming of our country, that
supposedly have been founded on biblical principles? Why this godlessness in
our times?
Godlessness doesn’t mean
that God has abandoned the earth, or He is not interested or uninvolved in the
matters of our lives. It means that we have moved away from God, thinking that
we don’t need God, we can do it ourselves and do whatever we like. Godlessness is
not a new thing, since the time of the garden of Eden, the devil has been
trying hard to discredit God His plan and claims on humanity. The devil has
been cleverly deceiving so many people.
The words godlessness, ungodly,
and pagan appear throughout the Bible in various forms. To name a few scriptures: Psalm 53:1-3 “The
fool has said in his heart, "There is no God," They are corrupt, and
have committed abominable injustice; There is no one who does good. Proverbs
11:9, “With their mouths the godless destroy
their neighbors, but through knowledge the righteous escape.” Job 15:34, “For
the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of
those who love bribes.”
Job 8:11-13, “Can reeds
thrive without water? While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly
than grass. Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so, perishes the hope of
the godless.” Israel’s history tells us that there was a time where both the
prophet and the priest have become polluted. Jeremiah 23:11, “Both prophet and
priest are godless; even in my temple I find their wickedness,” declares the
Lord.” When a nation forgets God, wickedness
will thrive, the poor will be oppressed, and people will be deprived of
justice. How God has dealt with Godlessness in the past and how will he deal
with today and forever in the future?
In Genesis 6 we read
about the universal flood that wiped out the entire godless society, including
the animals, only sparing a righteous man named Noah and his family. In Exodus
we read about God wiping out an entire nation of Egypt while he preserved His
own people, Israel. Later on, when
Israel forgot God, he dealt with them severely by sending them into captivity
in Babylon. In Romans 1: 18, we read, “The wrath of God is being revealed from
heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the
truth by their wickedness.
The scriptures tell us
that once again the wrath of God is going to come upon all the ungodly. Jude
14-15, “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is
coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to
convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their
ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against
him.”
One day all those who
are ranting against God now, will have to give an account. It is very sobering
to hear and read about godlessness in our society. It is frightening to even
think about what the outcome of our nation would be if we let this godlessness
continue without addressing it. Is there a remedy? Can we turn our nation back
to God? I believe it is possible, when believers learn how to grow in godliness
and teach others to do the same.
II.
WHAT IS GODLINESS?
The
dictionary defines godliness as, “conforming to the laws and wishes of God; devout;
pious.” In the Bible
the Greek word translated “godliness” means “holiness,” without which no one
will see God (Hebrews 12:14). But it is a holiness not obtained by keeping the
Law, which is impossible, according to Galatians 2:16, “know that a person is
not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.” We are
not only justified by our faith in Christ, but also according to 2 Corinthians
5:17, we become a new creation, the old is gone and the new is here.
What
does this all mean? It means that, at
the moment of salvation we are made completely clean and righteous before God.
Our old self with all its uncleanness has been washed away and we have been
given a new nature so that we might share in His godliness. and only then can
we share in His godliness. We don’t do things so that we become godly, but we
are already godly, holy and set apart, because Christ’s work at the time of
salvation.
III. GROWING IN GODLINESS:
How do we grow in this grace called godliness?
As with everything else there are no shortcuts. We don’t automatically become
godly overnight with a simple decision to be godly. We must work at it, we must
train ourselves to be godly. Timothy, compares it to the physical training of
an athlete. I
Timothy 4:7-9, “Have nothing to do
with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For
physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things,
holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”
This scripture encourages us to
train ourselves physically which is helpful for this present age, but even more
so to train ourselves unto godliness which will be beneficial both for this life
and also for the life to come. What are the tools we use in our training
towards godliness, and where do we get them? The Apostle Peter deals with it in
I Peter 1:3.
“His divine power has given us
everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us
by his own glory and goodness.” Christ’s power is the source of the believer’s
sufficiency in all things that pertain to life. In other words, we have been
empowered by Christ with all the necessary tools to live godly lives, all we
need to do now is to start living godly. What does it mean to live godly, in a
godless society? To live godly means to live reverently, loyally, and
obediently toward God. Living godly means through our worship we revere and
honor him. Through our faithfulness and loyalty, we serve God and others. We
are obedient to His word. We love our spouses, children, and others as Christ
has loved us.
Living godly lives also mean, that
we take care of the poor and the needy and we stand up and fight for justice. In
the beginning of the sermon I lamented quite a bit about godlessness in our
society. It is one thing to be vexed about all that is not going right in our
society and it is another thing to pray to God to be merciful and to tenderly
deal with our nation, so that it will turn back to Him. One of the ways we grow
in godliness is by heading Timothy’s advice to pray.
I Timothy 2:1-3, “I urge, then,
first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made
for all people, for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful
and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God
our Savior,” My prayer for our each of us
and for our country is that, “O Lord, we have sinned against you by neglecting
you. Please forgive us. Fill us with grace so that we will continue to grow in
the grace of godliness and love people as you have loved us. We pray for our
president, that he might be saved and have your wisdom and strength as he deals
with critical issues in our nation. We
pray for those who do not know you, so that they might come to know you. Pray
against all unrest, crime and violence so that we might live in peace and
harmony with one another. Amen
