Sermon: What Do We Really Need?

Good evening everyone. It is good to be here with you to close out the Lord's Day.

Would you join me in prayer as we come to God's word tonight?

Our Heavenly Father, we worship you in your great transcendence as we sang. You are most blessed, most glorious, and the ancient of days far beyond our experience, far beyond our knowledge, far beyond anything we can imagine. You are God, We worship you also for coming near to us. You sense your own son into the world to pay for our sins so that we could be free from the guilt and power that shackles us and live lives of joyful service.

And then you sense your spirit even closer to live within us in our own hearts to reveal the beauty of Jesus, to apply all of his gospel benefits and to make us more like him. So we ask right now that you would send the spirit of Jesus to bless our continued singing and the preaching and the hearing of the word that we might be obedient children. And we pray this in the precious name of our savior Jesus. Amen. So tonight is our second sermon

in a new series on second Peter Ben Prizer opened up this series last week. And one thing I wanna remind you that Ben said is that one of the main themes and one of the main reasons for Peter to write this letter is the danger of false teachers. People who teach what is false and ultimately lead lives of immorality. It's a theme in this book, it's a theme throughout the whole New Testament as a biblical counselor meeting with people with all kinds

of needs and basing what we do on the scripture. I'm, I'm always aware of what are the false teachings that are floating around mostly in our culture, but sometimes they even come into the church. And one of those false teachings is what I would call an obsession with felt needs. Sometimes those are called pain points. A felt need is anything that people believe is necessary for their comfort, their wellbeing, or we might say to live the good life.

Everyone wants to live the good life. Sometimes talking about felt needs is kind of simplistic and and maybe silly. I read about a man who wanted to see if you could live happily with very few felt needs. So he moved into a 36 foot square dumpster and he would buy one small item and then another and then another. And his mantra was buy good things and own them a long time. That was the secret of the good life. Good luck, sir.

Sometimes the teaching about felt needs is more sophisticated and complex. Many of you have heard of Maslow's hierarchy of needs usually put in the form of a pyramid. The very bottom level of needs are physiological things that we truly do need, like air, water, food, and shelter. Next is safety needs, physical and emotional safety. Next is love and belonging needs. We need relationships and intimacy. Then esteem, respect, and recognition.

At the very top is what is called self-actualization, which is reaching your potential. Or as people like to say, I want to be the best version of me. And most people in our culture would define the good life as having these felt needs met, physical health and comfort, security and belonging, being successful and affirmed, following and achieving your dreams. Now people in the world would hear that and say, what else is there?

That's it. That is the good life. But as always, God has a different take on what we need. And he would say, come and listen to me and I will tell you what you really need. So I'd invite you to turn in your Bibles to second Peter. My task tonight is to unpack verses three and four and we're gonna think of it in terms of that question. What is it we really need? So second Peter chapter one, verse three, his divine power has granted to us all things

that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises. So that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. So the first thing we need to know to live the good life is what is the purpose of life? What is the good life looks like, look like?

I think this is implied by Peter telling us that God has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. That's everything that's totally inclusive. Life and godliness or we could say a godly life. God has given us everything we need. The purpose of human beings is to live a godly life, not necessarily a comfortable life or a successful life, but a godly life. What does that mean? It means a life where God himself is central to everything.

He's central to all our thoughts. He's central to all our relationships. He's central to our desires and plans. Our affections move toward him. Our actions are reflecting him. So the good life as God defines it is a life that is godward. God-centered in all areas of life and then in which God blesses us. That is what he would call the good life. The Bible describes it this way. David says, delight yourself in the Lord, a godly life

and he will give you the desires of your heart. He's not stingy. He loves to bless us. Jesus said, I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly. So we hear, talk and preaching about the abundant life. Paul says, but godliness with contentment is great gain. Peter's take on it is the godly life. The good life is a life that shines forth with God's own glory and excellence. And the way that that happens is we actually become

partakers of the divine nature. So that's the godly life, the contented life, the radiant life, a life that is centered on God, that loves God above all and reveals that by the way they live. The second thing we need, according to this passage, we need to know what it is that keeps us from that godly contented life. Everybody experiences frustration. Nobody's achieving all their dreams, no one's experiencing all that they desire out of life.

What is it that keeps us frustrated and not satisfied? Well, again, the world will tell us many things and mostly what the world, well, not mostly, I think completely what they would say is what keeps us is things that go wrong in nature and nurture. Nature has to do with our health, our physical body, our heredity, our genetics, all that health or sickness and so on. And nurture has to do with how people treat us, our family

of origin, our peers, our culture. But God says the main thing that keeps us from this godly contented life is not primarily bad upbringing or disabilities or trauma or injustice, lack of education, poverty or peer pressure. These are all real. They all influence us profoundly and God cares deeply about them. But he locates the problem that keeps us from the godly life, the good life, the contented life deeper. He has a deeper diagnosis

and you know that the diagnosis is simply a very short word. It is sin. Peter helpfully expands that. He says, what keeps us from that life is corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. There's an outward thrust and an inward, uh, source of that corruption in the world. There's nothing deeper in us than sin. There's no deeper cause of sin then sin itself. Moral decay is what corruption is. And all you have to do is turn on the TV any night

of the week, whether you're watching programmed shows or the news, there is moral decay all over the place. Wild, crazy ideologies, divisiveness, politically violence. When Charlie Kirk was killed a couple weeks ago, the governor of Utah, Spencer Cox said, America is broken. So is the whole world corruption, moral decay that leads to destruction. It's all around us. Here's a quote from someone that we might think it's unexpected.

He's not a Christian, not even an orthodox theist. His name was Albert Einstein. Here's what Einstein said. The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It's not a problem of physics, but of ethics. It is easier to denature plutonium than it is to denature the evil spirit of man. It's very perceptive. So it's corruption, but it's corruption caused by sinful desire. The corruption is how we live. It's outward. You can see it.

The sinful desire you can't see. But that's the source of the corruption. We crave things. We long for things. The Bible would say, we over desire things. Sinful desire is anything that you or and I, I value, love or live for instead of God or more subtly alongside of God. So it's helpful every once in a while to think about these questions because if, if the desire is the starting point for all our behavior and our ultimate destiny, then what we desire the most

is absolutely crucial. So a couple questions just to think about in the coming days. What is your treasure? What do you care about the most? What do you love the most? What could you not live without? Jesus says Where your treasure is, your heart will be. Also whatever you love the most captures your heart and then motivates your behavior. Second question is just coming at it from a different angle. Where do you run? Where do you run to when things are falling apart?

Who is your refuge? Who is your wisdom? Where do you go? What do you do when things are falling apart? So we need to know the purpose of life, a godly life, a contented life. And then we need to know what is it that keeps us from that life which is sin. Peter defines it as the corruption, the moral decay that is in the world because of sinful desire. The third thing we need is we need divine power. We need divine power to lead this godly life that

radiates the glory of God's excellence. Lemme read the word the words again. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge Him, him who called us to his own glory and excellence. We need divine power to live lives that radiate holiness and godliness. We need to be as one person coined the phrase lighted Christians. When I think of lighted Christians, I think of a particular person.

Many of you know the story of Johnny Erickson. She was eight, 17 years old, just graduated from high school. This is back in the seventies. She went diving in Chesapeake Bay in a shallow area, hit her head and became a quadriplegic, which she has been for over 50 years. She taught herself to paint with, with with her mouth. She's written several books. She's appeared on countless places speaking. She started an organization called Johnny

and Friends to provide wheelchairs and other accessories for people with disobedience, disobedience with disabilities. I remember seeing her decades ago on a Billy Graham crusade on tv. There she was on the stage in her wheelchair talking about Jesus. And I don't know, I don't think I saw a physical light, but she was alighted Christian. She just radiated the love of Jesus. There was a woman whose sons I taught at Lansing

Christian many years ago. She was a singer, this woman, and she had met Johnny Erickson and she said the same thing. She was alighted Christian. Our lives are to radiate the glory of God's excellence. And the good news is that God has given us everything we need to live in such a way that our lives reveal the goodness and truth and beauty of God. Here's how Paul says it. In Philippians two 15, he prays that you may be blameless

and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation and hear this among whom you shine as lights in the world. God has given us everything we need to shine as lights to live godly, contented, radiant lives. Now at this point, someone might object. God has given us everything we need for life and godliness, everything. Isn't that kinda simplistic or reductionistic? Are you saying we don't need other relationships?

Are you saying we don't need medicine or technology or education or culture? No, absolutely. I'm not saying those saying that those are good common grace gifts of God and all of them can be helpful, delightful if they are submitted to the Lordship of Christ and if they don't become substitutes or equal partners with Christ. So we need to know what the purpose of life is. We need to know what keeps us from it, and we need divine power to rise above

that corruption caused by sinful desire. And then finally, we need to know how do we experience that divine power? How do we tap into the power to lead a godly, contented, radiant life? Peter says it's through two things. It's through the knowledge of God and it's through God's precious and very great promises. That's how we tap into the divine power. First of all, he says through the knowledge of God. Now what we're talking about here is not just

knowing about God. It's not just collecting information or facts about God. That's not knowledge as the Bible refers to it. When our son, Neil was a youngster, like many other boys his age, he was obsessed with Michael Jordan. He loved Michael Jordan. You could tell that by just walking into his bedroom. And he was a a walking encyclopedia of facts about Michael Jordan. I remember him one time telling me how many points Michael Jordan scored in the first ca game.

He came out of retirement. See, Michael Jordan played for a number of years, won championships, and then he retired and he be became a baseball player for the Chicago White Sox for a while. And then he came back, different number, not number 23 anymore. Number 45. Neil could tell you how many points he scored in the first game back from retirement. I was very amazed. I was impressed. But Neil did not know Michael Jordan.

If you said what's he like, Neil would say, I don't know. I just know what he's like on TV playing in a game. We're not talking about just information. We're talking about personal, intimate knowledge of God through Jesus Christ. In John 17 three, Jesus said, and this is eternal life that they know you the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Did you hear that? Knowing the Father in that personal intimate way, knowing the Son

is not the means of eternal life. It is eternal life. There is nothing better. God has nothing more awesome and wonderful and satisfying and delightful to give us. But himself, Jesus said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. So often we are tempted to use God to get something else we want more. Sometimes it's obviously worldly. We want God to get a boyfriend or a girlfriend. We want God to give us marriage or a better job.

But sometimes it can be subtly spiritual. Do you think it's p possible to want God so that we go to heaven?

Absolutely. Years ago, John Piper kind of stirred up a little controversy with a question he asked. I'm gonna read you the question. Piper said, the critical question for our generation and for every generation is this. If you could have heaven with no sickness, with all the friends you ever had on earth and all the foods you ever liked and all the leisure activities you have ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw,

all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven if Christ was not there?

Piper said he asked that question one night and a woman came up to him in tears. Why was she in tears? Because she said, I would be satisfied without Jesus,

God has nothing better to give us than himself. He is never a means to an end Jesus again, in John five said, you search the scriptures. So far so good that you think in them you have eternal life. So far so good. And it is they that bear witness about me. And yet you refuse to come to me that you may have eternal life. Did you hear what Jesus is saying? You can't have eternal life without scriptures, but you can't have eternal life without him.

He is eternal life. We don't use God to get something else, even if it's heaven. So we experience divine power by knowing God through Jesus Christ. As the Holy Spirit opens up the scriptures, that's what Peter's teaching us. Or we could say it another way. We search the scriptures to know Jesus Christ, who gives us divine power leading to life, godly life, contented life, radiant life, eternal life. So that's the first thing we we,

we tap into this divine power through the intimate personal knowledge of God through Jesus Christ, as the Holy Spirit opens up the scriptures to us, the second thing he says is, we know this divine power through God's precious and very great promises. You notice how both of these things are pointing us back to scripture, but not just scripture itself, but knowing the Lord through scripture.

I was thinking about this recently. How big is the universe?

We live on a little pinprick planet in one galaxy

that galaxy has, maybe the Milky Way has maybe a hundred or 200 billion stars, most of them bigger than our son. The Milky Way is one of billions of galaxies. Can you see how small our planet is compared to the whole universe? And then we are little pinpricks on the planet? How could it be that God even knows about us, that he pays attention to us? How amazing is it that he speaks to us little pinpricks? How even more amazing is it that he makes promises to us,

promises that yield divine power so that we might partake of the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world due to sinful desire. So what does that mean to partake of the divine nature? It doesn't mean we change our being. The study of being is called ontology. We don't become ontologically different. We don't become God. We don't become absorbed into God. We stay finite human creatures forever. He's not talking about ontology.

He's talking about ethics, morals. Spiritually. We become as much like His son, the God man. As is possible for finite human creatures, we become partakers of the divine nature. So not only does he notice us, not only does he speak to us, not only does he promise us things, but those promises make us morally and spiritually like him so that we can enjoy him forever. God's promises save us initially. God's promises comfort us when we're weary and burden.

They strengthen us when we're weak. They assure us when we're feeling doubts and fears and God's promises will bring us all the way home to the father's house.

What promises? Well, you know, Paul says in two Corinthians one 20, all the promises of God are yes in Christ. How many? All of them, I don't know how many that is. Hundreds, thousands of promises in the Bible. There's there's no promise. That's no not for you. There's no promise. That's maybe they're all yes in Christ. All the promises of God find their yes in Christ. Here's just a few. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son,

that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Or the kind of shorter version in Romans 10, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. There's a promise that will change. Change your eternal destiny. There's a promise that will save you comprehensively, deeply, and eternally. How about this promise? Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, worried, burdened, burnt out. Come to me and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I will. I will give you rest. I'm gentle and lowly. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. How many of us have benefited from that promise when we just felt like we couldn't go on any longer? When we are most crushed, weary, hurting, feeling hopeless, all Jesus does is issue a simple invitation. Just come to me. Just come to me. I will give you rest. That's a promise. And here's one

that ever since C-O-I-D-I have been saying every day, not superstitiously, but it's just become a precious promise. It's the last three verses in Psalm 91. Because he holds fast to me in love, I'll deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him with long life. I will satisfy him and show him my salvation that has been so precious to me.

And God has honored that the promises of God help us. They save us. They comfort us, they assure us, and they, and they are the means of partaking of the divine nature. Charles Spurgeon said this about the promises us, if we would venture more upon the naked promise of God, we should enter a world of wonders to which as yet we are strangers. The Puritans had a phrase called pleading the promises. They envisioned each promise in heaven connected

to a big thick rope that comes down to earth. So imagine all these ropes, everyone connected to a promise to plead. The promise was to grab a hold of that rope and through unfortunate prayer, to pull and pull and pull until that promise came true. To plead the promises, we need to know the promises. We need to believe the promises, and we need to plead the promises. And when we do that, God moves and we experience more of the divine nature.

So in conclusion, what are we talking about tonight? One way of thinking about their verses three and four is that they affirm what theologians call the sufficiency of scripture. God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. When I was first learning biblical counseling years ago, that was one of the texts they love to use to remind us that as counselors, we have the goods. We have the Bible. We know who God is,

we know what he's done. We know what he promises. We know what who Jesus is. We know the gospel. We know what Christ accomplished for us. We know about the Holy Spirit. We have what we need to counsel people in any and every situation. But it's bigger than just counseling. It's preaching, it's raising your kids. It's being a friend. It's having conversations in the fellowship hall,

the sufficiency of scripture. You know, our pastor, Jason, every Sunday did it today holds up. His Bible says this is the holy inherent sufficient word of God. And that's what he's trying to get into our heads every week. Whatever you need, you'll find it in the word of God. Our former pastor, Kevin De Young, wrote a book on scripture called Taking God at His Word. And I wanna read a couple short quotes from Pastor Kevin de Young.

He says, the scriptures contain everything we need for knowledge of salvation and godly living. We don't need any new revelations from heaven. But then he says this, when life gets difficult or just a bit boring, we look for new words, new revelation and new experiences to bring us closer to God. Can you relate to that? Lord, this is so hard. There's gotta be something more. I know there's stuff in the Bible, but there's gotta be something more,

something more, whatever. No. Everything we need in any stage of life, hardship, good times is in the Bible. So why do we believe the scripture is sufficient? Why do we believe that we have everything we need for life in godliness? This question blessedly leads us back to where every question should lead us and every sermon should lead us. And that's Jesus in the gospel. Why do we believe that the scripture is sufficient?

Again, Kevin de young scripture is enough. That's his word for sufficient scripture is enough because the work of Christ is enough. Do we need anything else to be done for us, for us to live a godly life than what Jesus has done? No. But again, that that we're tempted at times. There's there's gotta be Christ and something else. That was the heresy of the Galatians. We need circumcision. That was the heresy of the Colossians.

We need this philosophy. We need something to complete. Scripture is enough because the work of Christ is enough. Here is beautiful life transforming truth. Jesus through his humble incarnation, his sinless life, his vicarious suffering, his curse bearing death, his glorious resurrection, his triumphant ascension, his compassionate intercession and his culminating return has done everything necessary to fully save any person who trusts in him.

The work of Christ is enough, but we can't separate the work of Christ from the revelation of scripture. They stand or fall together. Scripture is enough because it tells us about the Christ who has done enough. They stand or fall together and they will stand everything we need to know about Christ and his saving work to lead a godly, contented, radiant, eternal life is found in the Bible. So Christ is enough, his work is enough,

and scripture is enough. So as we close two applications, first of all tonight, right now, come in faith to the sufficient savior, Jesus through the sufficient word of scripture. We're gonna close in prayer in just a minute, and there's no reason to just rush through that. Christ is here tonight because his people are gathered and because his word is open and because his spirit is at work. So in a minute we're just gonna pray.

We're just gonna pray silently. Be quiet before the Lord. Paul says, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Certainly that refers to initial conversation con conversion. But we always need further saving, don't we? It's called our sanctification. Maybe tonight you have the need for forgiveness and you can talk to him right about that. Maybe you need liberation from some besetting sin. Maybe you are feeling bored and restless

and you need to know the satisfaction of the bread of life. Maybe you feel in danger or worried, and you need to know and be assured of his preservation. All of us need to be further transformed and finally welcomed into the father's house. So in just a minute, come in faith, write where you are to the sufficient savior through the sufficient word of scripture. Second application tomorrow. Read your Bible, Search the scriptures for Jesus,

and rejoice in eternal life. Let's go to prayer. Lord, we come to you now together as a congregation. And individually you know our needs. You know what we really need, our need for forgiveness, our need for transformation. So Lord, as we're quiet for a moment, would your spirit move each person to talk to you honestly about what they need? Some are just gonna be full of praise and thanksgiving, and that's wonderful as well.

So hear us as we come to Jesus

For your word to do it's work.

Father, we thank you that you tell us what we really need. What we need is you through Christ. We need the Holy Spirit. We need the scriptures. We need to be sanctified, freed from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. We need to partake of your very holiness. And we thank you Lord that not begrudgingly, but willingly, joyfully, delightedly, you give us all things in Christ. We pray all this with joy and thankfulness.

In Jesus' name, amen.