To Spiritually Float Is to Dangerously Drift
Chapters
0:01:48 Glenda and Robert Linen
3:47 5 through 11 of 2nd Peter 1
10:1 What Happens to Our Souls Immediately after We Pass Away
00:00:00.000 | [Intro music]
00:00:05.000 | Christians who float will drift off course.
00:00:09.000 | This is a sobering reality and a sobering warning from 2 Peter 1, verses 5-11.
00:00:15.000 | I'll read the text to begin today's episode. This is what Peter writes.
00:00:19.000 | "For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,
00:00:24.000 | and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control,
00:00:28.000 | and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,
00:00:33.000 | and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
00:00:38.000 | For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective
00:00:44.000 | or unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:00:47.000 | For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind,
00:00:52.000 | having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
00:00:56.000 | Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election.
00:01:02.000 | For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall.
00:01:05.000 | For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom
00:01:12.000 | of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
00:01:17.000 | Here now is John Piper in a 1982 sermon to explain this text.
00:01:22.000 | Last week, Karsten brought home a book from the library, Glenda's Long Swim,
00:01:33.000 | from the Incredible series. This is a fantastic series of books.
00:01:37.000 | So I assembled my triumvirate around on the couch, Benjamin here, Karsten here,
00:01:43.000 | and Abraham right here, and read this book.
00:01:47.000 | Here's what the story says. Glenda and Robert Lennon.
00:01:53.000 | It's a true story. They were four miles off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico
00:01:59.000 | fishing in their yacht by themselves.
00:02:02.000 | It was a beautiful afternoon, so Glenda decided she'd take a swim in the water
00:02:07.000 | and do some spearfishing with a mask and snorkel.
00:02:11.000 | All of a sudden she realizes she's 50 yards from the boat in a current taking her farther out.
00:02:18.000 | And she calls to Robert, and Robert without thinking dives in to go to her.
00:02:23.000 | And he gets there, and they both realize they're being carried out fairly quickly.
00:02:28.000 | He's a champion swimmer, she's not. What are they going to do?
00:02:33.000 | She can't make it to the boat against this stream. He can't carry her.
00:02:37.000 | The plan is this. Don't swim, Glenda. Tread water.
00:02:43.000 | I'll drive against the tide, keep swimming, and when it breaks, maybe I'll make it to the boat.
00:02:49.000 | If I can swim hard enough, I can keep the boat in view.
00:02:53.000 | Six hours he swims.
00:02:56.000 | And just as it's getting dark, the tide turns, he can still see the boat appearing above the waves.
00:03:02.000 | He turns, he swims to the boat, starts making cuts, gets shrimp boats in to help.
00:03:08.000 | It's dark, they don't find her.
00:03:10.000 | He returns to shore.
00:03:12.000 | The next morning, the motel owner where they're staying says, "I know these currents well, let's make one more attempt."
00:03:18.000 | Out they go. 20 miles, and they find her. 20 miles out.
00:03:25.000 | It's a very tearful book at the end. My heart's beating fast.
00:03:30.000 | Now, here's what that story illustrates from 2 Peter 1.
00:03:37.000 | Christians who just float never stay in the same place.
00:03:45.000 | Christians who disobey verses 5 through 11 of 2 Peter 1 and do not apply themselves with all diligence drift into grave peril.
00:04:02.000 | We have to strive just to stand still in the Christian life.
00:04:09.000 | The effort towards virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly affection, and love is not dispensable icing on the cake of faith.
00:04:27.000 | If Robert had not swum, he would have drowned with his wife.
00:04:37.000 | The evidence of God's power unto godliness in your life is not that you're perfect, but that you're stroking against the stream, even if you're standing still, as it may feel sometimes.
00:04:53.000 | Verse 8 warns us of what I've just been saying.
00:04:59.000 | "If these things," referring back now to verses 5 through 7, "if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
00:05:13.000 | Now, you recall from verse 2 that it is in the knowledge of Christ that grace is multiplied to those who believe.
00:05:23.000 | But here we learn that there is a knowledge of Christ that can be utterly ineffective and fruitless.
00:05:31.000 | We learn that it is possible to make a sort of start in the Christian life and then begin to just float and drift to destruction.
00:05:44.000 | Look at chapter 2, verse 20. "If, after they have escaped from the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first."
00:06:05.000 | In other words, if the glorious promises of God do not spur us on to stroke, we will drift to destruction and it will be worse than if we had never heard the gospel.
00:06:23.000 | Now, verse 9 describes what's happening in a person in whom that happens.
00:06:29.000 | What's going on in a person who seems to make such a good start with the Lord and then just seems to quit swimming?
00:06:37.000 | "For whoever lacks these things," that is, whoever isn't making any effort towards these things, "is blind and short-sighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins."
00:06:51.000 | The problem with the person who is not stroking with all his might is that he's blind in two directions.
00:07:00.000 | When he looks to the future, he's short-sighted, and the promises of God that extend out there as glorious and attractive are just a haze of worldly longing.
00:07:12.000 | And when he looks back to the time when once he was so exhilarated and excited about what Christ had done for him, it's as if he doesn't remember a thing.
00:07:24.000 | He's trapped in the now and feels nothing of what Christ has done, nothing of what Christ promises, and therefore is utterly powerless, limp in the water, and drifting to destruction.
00:07:40.000 | If those things are yours and increasing, the text says, you will not be fruitless, you will never stumble, and you will have access into the kingdom of the Savior.
00:07:51.000 | And if those things are missing and you are not moving, stroking towards those things, then you're blind.
00:08:01.000 | The promises of God hold out no attraction to you, evidently. The cross of Jesus Christ is neither here nor there, and the forgiveness he holds out is not exhilarating anymore.
00:08:12.000 | And you are simply floating and floating away and must needs take heed this morning to be diligent in applying yourself to add these things.
00:08:27.000 | The text is a warning and an encouragement. It warns against laziness and lack of diligence in the pursuit of sanctification,
00:08:36.000 | and it encourages us to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life.
00:08:43.000 | It encourages us to lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely and run with perseverance the race that is set before us.
00:08:54.000 | It encourages us with the Apostle Paul to press on to the mark of the goal of the upward call of Christ.
00:09:02.000 | It encourages us, like this text says, to go forward, on, advance in all the virtues of Christlikeness.
00:09:12.000 | And in that way, to find reassurance that we are indeed among the elect and that we are called, as verse 3 says, to God's glory and excellence.
00:09:30.000 | That is a good and wise warning from John Piper's 1982 sermon, "Confirm Your Election," based on 2 Peter 1, verses 5 to 11.
00:09:39.000 | It was sent in to us from a listener who did not include his or her name.
00:09:44.000 | Nameless or not, the clips we play on Wednesdays come from you, the podcast listeners.
00:09:48.000 | And if you have a clip to share with us, please email me the sermon name and the timestamp of when and where the clip appears in the message.
00:09:54.000 | Go to our online home and send us an email from DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:10:01.000 | So what happens to our souls immediately after we pass away?
00:10:07.000 | It's a common question that we get. It's often debated in the church and outside of the church.
00:10:12.000 | And it's a question John Piper will address tomorrow.
00:10:15.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.
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