SERMON TEXT
2 Peter 1:3-7
INTRODUCTION
In 1996, Dr. Michael Behe wrote a book called Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. In the book, he coined a new phrase to describe the complex inner workings of the bacteria flagellum; he called it Irreducible Complexity. The flagellum is a slender thread-like structure, a spinning appendage which propels the bacteria through liquid. It works similar to an outboard motor on a boat. But instead of a gearbox, an engine, and a propeller—these large objects that we can physically manipulate with a socket wrench—the flagellum is composed of proteins, tiny building blocks so small that we need an electron microscope to look at them. When the proteins combine in the flagellum, they make a driveshaft, a universal joint, a rotor, bushings, a stater, and even a clutch and braking system. Our God is an exquisite miniaturist, engineering on a scale that is truly hard to comprehend. In his book, Dr. Behe uses some analogies to explain the concept of irreducible complexity.
OUR DESTINATION
Our destination is conformity to Jesus Christ. Verse 3 says, “As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness!” Ephesians 2, puts it this way, “…we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” John 15, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” And from Titus 2, “Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
CAR #1: THE LOCOMOTIVE OF FAITH
And so we’ve come to our first train car, the most important one. It is the car on which all the others depend for movement. It stands proud at the front of the train, with its fire box and smoke stack. Pure white steam billows out of the top. The turbine generator is the powerhouse strong enough to pull all the other cars. It is the locomotive of faith.
CAR #2: A LIFE OF MORAL EXCELLENCE
(To be addressed later in the sermon)
CAR #3: KNOWING GOD
Would you like to know God better? If you are a Christian and you are hesitant to answer that question in the affirmative, then it is likely that you have an idol in your tent. There is something hidden—gold, silver, a robe from Babylon—that is preventing you from growing closer to God. Isaiah 59 says, “…your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” Proverbs 28, “If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction, even their prayers are detestable.” Micah 3, “Then they will cry out to the Lord, but he will not answer them. At that time he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done. So the double-minded Christian lives in conflict within himself. He wants to know God, but on his own terms. He doesn’t like the exclusivity clause.
CAR #4: SELF-CONTROL
The command is: keep control of yourself. Putting it that way is a reminder to us all; there is something wild within us. Usually when we say, “Keep control,” it is in a certain context. “Keep control of your dog.” “Keep control of your troops.” “Keep control of your team.” The idea being that if you do not keep control, things will start to decay on their own.
CAR #5: PATIENT ENDURANCE
How many different aspects of our lives can we connect to the virtue of patient endurance? It is at the forefront of parenting, our constant witness to non-believers, beside us in suffering, sustaining us through trials. We need it in marriage, we need it to study. We need it to plant a church, to grow a church. It is our tool of great precision when people hate us, exclude us, insult us, and reject us as evil. It is our shield to block mistreatment and slander. It’s one thing to simply endure affliction. Prisoners in the penitentiary are doing that now. It is a completely different thing to endure patiently.
CAR #6: GODLINESS
To be godly is to be like Him. Hebrews 1 says, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” We have many examples of godly men in the scriptures.
CAR #7: LOVING THE SAINTS
The cargo of the train of moral excellence is love. And we are to deliver this love at various stops en route to the kingdom of heaven. Romans 12 says, “Honor one another above yourselves.”
CABOOSE: LOVING EVERYONE
The caboose is genuine love for everyone. There are different tiers of difficulty when it comes to loving non-believers. Loving your non-Christian mom is not going to be the same thing as loving the person who flips you off, ignores you, or cusses you out. So let’s jump straight to the difficult part, how do we love our enemies?
THE TRACK OF GOD’S PROMISES
The train of moral excellence is a comprehensive system that is irreducibly complex. The cars of knowing God, self-control, patient endurance, and Godliness need the locomotive of faith to pull them forward. They also are inextricably linked together, each car is dependent on the next. And the train as a whole rests upon a track, without which, it cannot move. What is this foundation that the whole train rests upon? The train finds its direction, its stability, and its understructure in the promises of God.