Abundant Entrance Into The Everlasting Kingdom of Our Lord

I think what I would like to talk about just a little bit as a tone setter, or a—I don't know what you set the tone of this message—and I think the title says a lot of it: Abundant Entrance into the Everlasting Kingdom of Our Lord. That first word is the word that really grabbed me out of this passage, and maybe your new—I can't remember if the New King James Version has this word in it or not.

As you will see when we look at the scripture verses and stuff, everything is out of the Old King James, mostly because my program that I use does not have the New King James in it. But I find that I like the richness of some of the language that the Old King James uses, so I often find myself going back to that, and my memory is mostly saturated with Old King James passages. So you'll have to forgive me for that if it's cumbersome to you.

So the idea of abundance. You'll also have to bear with me on the pictures because my mind works in pictures, and I can—I visualize things; almost everything I read comes to me in pictures. So hopefully you can make the connections. If you can't, you might have to ask me afterwards.

So often we, as Kingdom Christians today, have a scarcity mindset. We have a tendency to focus on phrases that say, "Scarcely saved," "How hardly," etc. I think you all know about these phrases, and I don't want to downplay these because they are in scripture, and there are those phrases in scripture.

While these verses must be looked at, and we must acknowledge that they're there, I think that we also need to see that our God is a God of abundance. He wants us to have a joyous, prosperous, and a hopeful Christian experience. He doesn't want us to be in a scarcity mindset, like the picture of the man up here.

That's what I visualized in my mind, and thanks to AI, it helped me create that into a picture that I could put up there this morning. So he's very thin. He looks harrowed. He looks like he's had a tough life. He doesn't get enough to eat. And that's kind of the picture I get sometimes when I think about the way the Christian life has been presented to me in times past sometimes. It's kind of like, "You're just barely making it, but you'll buy and buy, you'll make it," you know? And I don't think that's quite what God wants for us. I think He wants us to have a joyous experience in the Christian life. There will be lean times, but there will be times also of joy and growth.

And there's a few verses I'd like to read from the New Testament that bear out this idea: "If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?"

Jesus is saying here that even we, as imperfect earthly human beings, parents—there are exceptions to this, but I know myself personally, I struggle with not being the best father sometimes, but there's still something in me that I want to give my children good gifts. Sometimes I like to give them gifts without them even asking for them. So even we, as imperfect parents, give good things to our children. We don't normally give them unexpected bad things. Why do we think that God is minded any different than that?

He says, "How much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?" So when you ask God for something, expect something good. It may take a while, but you will get something good in return.

Another verse says, "Consider ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much more are ye better than the fowls?" I don't know if ravens are like crows. If they are like crows, I kind of have a feeling I can take them or leave them.

They're black scavenger birds that fly around and make a lot of noise and get very little else done. But even what Jesus is saying here, even the ravens, these noisy black birds that fly around, even them, God is looking out for them. He says, "How much more are you better than the fowls of the air?"

So you don't get a scarcity mindset from that either. Another little verse here: "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." And this is one of my favorite verses. This verse has been an encouragement to me. It's your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He's not just tolerating your entrance into His kingdom. It's His good pleasure to give you His kingdom.

So we're going to start with our passage today. We're going to be looking at 1 Peter 1-15. Sometimes we'll be taking one verse at a time, sometimes two, just depending on what's in the section we're looking at. So we're going to start with verse 1. He says, "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ."

His audience, who were they?

Maybe someone here has studied into this a little bit more. Who was Peter talking to when he was talking to these people? We could maybe go back to the beginning of 1 Peter, and he gives a little bit of an idea there. He says in 1 Peter 1, "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia."

He doesn't even identify the audience role well at that point either. He says, "The strangers." So we could say, are they Jews that have been exiled or whatever, or in different regions believing Jews, or were they just Christian people, the scattered Christian churches that are in these places?

It could be any of those two things. The other thing I thought about is that if you are a Christian, you are a stranger and a pilgrim in this earth. It doesn't matter where you're at. When you look at the world's value system and your system of belief, you're going to be a stranger and a pilgrim. So Peter's message is to you today, is to us today.

So you can look at that and think about that as we go through this. We're going to move on to verse 2 and 3. "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue."

Another one of these phrases of abundance, "In all things that pertain unto life and godliness." There are a number of things that grab my attention here in these two short verses, and we're going to look at them. First of all, grace and peace are multiplied or strengthened through our growing understanding and knowledge of God. The more we see and understand the way our Lord works, the more our trust and faith in Him will grow. The more we can be at rest in Him, the more we will feel emboldened to move ahead and take life by the horns.

Second thing that comes out to me is God gives to us according to His divine power. The power bank does not run out or get exhausted. We get to tap into Him, the fount of unlimited resource. Philippians 4:19 says, "But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." I know that's a really popular verse, but that's a really important verse to remember. He's going to supply our needs according to His riches in glory. He has a bank account that doesn't run out.

He has a power that doesn't run out. And when He gives to us, when we connect to Him, we're connected to that source of power.

The third thing, He gives us all we need to experience true life and to become more like Him.

Fourth thing, truly knowing God leads us to more light, greater understanding, and growth in character.

On to verse 4, "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."

Partakers of the divine nature. I have three questions that I'd like to look at that came to my mind from this passage.

What are the great and precious promises that Peter mentions here? What kind of promises is he referring to? What does he mean to be partakers of the divine nature? What is the assumption he makes about his audience's predisposition?

The first thing we're going to look at is the promises.

We could say that those promises maybe this has something to do with what Peter was sharing before. It may be some of that. But when we look at the New Testament, it's full of promises. And one of the first places I think of comes to my mind is this. We might not even think of this as a verse with promises, but I'm just going to read down through a few of these. He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." There's the promise.

If we're the poor in spirit, we're poor before God. The promise is there that the kingdom of heaven belongs to us. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." So you can just read down through that passage, and the second half of every verse is basically a promise. If this is you, this is what you're getting.

And this is a state that we should be living in as Christians.

Second thing he mentions is being partakers of the divine nature. That new and living person we talked about above experiences this kind of growth because they have tapped into the very essence of God our Father. There's a lot of faith that needs to be exercised for this process to work in each one of us. We hunger and thirst for righteousness, and God fills us, which means we become more like Him. We become partakers and a part of His divine nature.

The third thing is the assumption that he makes in this verse. Through all this, Peter assumes that his audience, at least the majority of them, are free from the corruption of lust or covetousness that dominated the worldly society around them. The same is still true for us today. If we're going to tap into that divine nature, we need to plug and repair the holes in our minds that leach away our mental and spiritual energy. And I'm going to pause here to say I understand that we are all in a fight here. We're all working at this daily to grow in this way. It's the trajectory that matters. And I'm sure that these people here listening to Peter were also struggling through many of the same things we do today, but they were growing people.

So the assumption is that we're on that path. If we're going to experience and be a partaker of the divine nature, we're on that path of growth. We're on that path of building our character.

On to verses 5-7. "And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity."

God has in this supplying all we need to grow to bear fruit. However, that is not the end of the matter. Peter now proceeds to lay out our role in the whole process. And this is really, when we think about it, it's actually a very short list of things that are really important, but it's a lot of work.

And he says, "Giving all diligence." We master all of our mental and physical energies through the process of learning and application. Put your best foot forward. This fits right in with what Jesus said. You cannot serve both God and Mammon. You cannot live in both worlds at the same time. You need to marshal all your energy for the kingdom of God.

There again, it's something that we're growing in. This is a current we face every day in our lives, trying to figure out how we fit into the picture here. How do we live in the kingdom of God and live in this world where we are right now? It's a challenge every day. But Peter says, "Giving all diligence." Put everything into it you've got.

Just a little reflecting back on the Old Testament. This is Jesus speaking, but he's speaking from the Old Testament just to give us a little idea. And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.'" So it's already God's desire from His people was like it was the same thing.

He loved those people who were giving all diligence to His kingdom.

So we're going to start looking at this list of things that He's given us to work on, things we need to build on. He says, "Add to your faith virtue." So we have faith, but faith is just kind of like a foundation. It's not worth much just by itself. But you have your faith, and now you're going to start building on it. I like to think of the virtue as the fruit of discipline. Virtue is the resulting strength and character derived from the efforts of a person striving to develop their ability to respond in a proper way to any of life's given situations and challenges.

Now, that's my rendering of it. That might not be 100% perfect, but that's what I think of when I think of virtue. An example I have here is I've heard of people who say they enjoy the challenge of working with a person that's difficult to work with.

They enjoy it because they love to see how they can work it for the better, see how they can learn how to relate with that person, and maybe even turn that person's attitude around in time. That's a virtue-building experience.

This kind of practice builds virtue and character in all of us. So Peter is saying, "Add richness and quality to your faith by exercising and developing your own character, or maybe by allowing it to be developed by a proper response to life's difficult situations."

Third thing we have here is to virtue knowledge. As you are building your character, learn as much as you can about God our Father, first of all, about the faith you represent, about the people you interact with. Really, when you think about it, life is an open book. It's there for you to study and to read and to learn.

So put everything into you, God. Learn everything you can about your faith. Learn everything you can about God your Father. Learn everything you can about our Lord. Learn about your brothers and sisters. Add to your virtue knowledge. Expand your understanding.

And to knowledge temperance. In many ways, life is like a banquet table full of all manner of rich food. Life is full of options, richness, many varied possibilities, but you can't do it all and benefit from the potential of all its qualities.

So you must choose. A huge part of character development is knowing when to stop. This is knowing when something goes from being helpful to a hindrance. In other words, the Christian life is full of opportunities to practice moderation.

So in all your learning, you must choose those things that are most beneficial to your growth and development at any given time. And that can be a little bit difficult sometimes to decipher that. But moderation comes into that.

There's a lot of good information out there. There's a lot of stuff out there that's really exciting. But what is it that I need the most right now? That's where moderation comes in at the picture. And I can't help but think moderation is one of those things I struggle with every day of my life, is learning to use moderation in food.

But just like food, you get the most from your food when you choose carefully what you're going to eat, and you eat it carefully, and you benefit from its qualities. If you try to sample everything on that table, you don't really get the benefit from any of it.

You end up sick. That life can do that to you too. You can end up sick because you tried to eat too many things off of that table.

And to temperance, patience.

Patience and moderation are a duo who harmonize beautifully. Patience is the ability to wait cheerfully. Patience is the man who is on his way to work and finds himself in a traffic jam and is glad for the transition time. It doesn't mean that's his first thought when he gets into a traffic jam. I've had a recent experience with this. That's why I'm thinking about it. But you get into a traffic jam and you have two choices to make. You either get upset and frustrated at the people in front of you and wonder what's going on, or you can decide, "You know what? I'm on my way to work. I need to get to work, but this is great transition time.

I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts." Or maybe it's a person who's trying to sleep at night and they can't sleep. They know they need to get up the next day to work, go to work. Or maybe it's a mother and she needs to get up and teach her children or get her children ready for school, but she's not sleeping.

That's where the choice comes in of feeling frustrated about it or saying, "Hey, it's a great opportunity for me to maybe get up and pray, or I might be able to get up and read a little bit from scripture." Because mothers sometimes do not get the time to do that that some of us men do. And I'm just using it as an example. So patience can be that way.

Patience isn't just gritting my teeth and just barely making it through the experience, but patience is when I decide I'm going to be okay with this and I'm going to use it to my benefit. Patience rejoices in the unexpected pause to a well-planned day and sees it as the opportunity to grow, to diversify, and to build relationships.

And to patience godliness. When I think of godliness, that is something we can and should be cultivating in our lives. I think of Romans 13:13-14. "Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in writing and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy." The second verse is the one I'm looking for the most. "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof." I'm thinking of the idea of putting on Christ. It is interesting to me that Peter should put godliness next to the list in patience.

The reality of it is that we will never develop the true God-like character if we have not learned patience because the greater part of a meaningful, rich, prosperous experience comes through and by the love of the process. Godliness grows onto us through the process of the Christian life. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ is a daily thing. We identify with Him, His suffering daily so that someday we may reign with Him eternally.

And to godliness, brotherly kindness. You might say, or think at least, "Well, brotherly kindness is a part of being a godly person." This may be true, and it should be true. However, kindness has a way of taking the hard edges off of a purpose-driven individual.

I've known a lot of godly people through my life that I would still say they're godly people, but sometimes they lacked in kindness at given situations because they were so purpose-driven. And kindness is one of those things that knocks those hard edges off. Brotherly kindness is something we can all practice. Even in those cases where there's a personality conflict, sometimes we may see our brother as a hindrance to our all-important agenda. Maybe he is stuck on something we consider minutia.

Kindness and consideration go a long way in the growth of relationships. And as you guys all know, I'm all about relationships. That's my big thing. I really think a lot about that.

And to brotherly kindness, charity. Kindness and charity are another one of those duos that harmonize beautifully. And in many ways, we may struggle to see the difference. Here is a way we could think of these two beautiful qualities. Kindness could be seen as a situation-by-situation application, whereas charity or love pursues others. Love seeks to build relationships. Love seeks to enrich the lives of others on a continual basis. As a Christian, love is one of the greatest and most potent qualities because in many ways, true love embodies all the other qualities we studied previously.

Love may be accompanied by feelings, but true and enduring love is always a choice, and it means effort and sacrifice for the lover.

On to verse 8. "For if these things be in you and abound," that's the list we were talking about before. Virtue, knowledge, temperance, all of that. He's saying that if these things be in you and abound, they make you so you shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Another one of my pictures. Have you ever had someone tell you in jest, "You are full of it"? The list of qualities or virtues are things we should be full of. The word abound can mean to be brimming full and overflowing. Peter gives us this beautiful promise that if we exercise ourselves in these things, when we stretch and fill our lives with these qualities, our lives will not feel like it's pointless or lacking in purpose. We will not be lacking in understanding of our Lord either. It's kind of like the two things work together and build.

This is just a picture that depicts richness and fullness. I just couldn't think of anything better than that.

Verses 9 and 10. "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, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall."

But he that lacketh these things is blind. What of the person who does not think it's important to grow and improve in these character qualities or whatever? First, Peter says they have no foresight or vision. All of these qualities are relational. So if a person, for whatever reason, decides they don't want to grow in these areas of their life, their relationships will suffer. Second, Peter says the kind of person that has forgotten, that kind of person has forgotten the goodness of God towards themselves.

This kind of person would soon become insufferable to others. Here again, Peter is talking to believers. He's not talking to just the world out there. We understand that they are all about feeding themselves, and even people that have some wisdom in the world know that they need to work on these character qualities.

But we're talking to Christians.

So what he says next should galvanize us all to action.

Make your calling and election sure. So what does Peter say? Remember, this man walked with and learned from the Master himself. We're talking about Peter. So he says, "Make your calling and election sure." I'm not quite sure what to do with that. That's a phrase we probably struggle with a little bit. So that can mean a couple of different things. One, the Christian life does not happen by itself.

Or secondly, just because we made a good start does not assure that we are good for the rest of the way. Thirdly, our future security in Christ is contingent on our choices. So make those choices to embrace and accept the things that God has allowed to come your way to develop you.

Make your calling and election sure. It's all back in reference to that list we talked about. Make your calling and election sure.

"If ye do these things, ye shall never fall." Now, I can't guarantee you won't fall off the rock wall like that man's trying to climb, but there is eternal security in Christ. We don't like that phrase because it's been misused, but when we're abiding in Christ, there is eternal security in Christ.

I just want us to digest that. If we're living the kind of life Peter describes in the preceding verses, if we do these things, ye shall never fall. Doesn't mean you don't stumble. Doesn't mean that you don't sometimes wander off the path a little bit or whatever, but if you're coming back to Christ as your sender, when you're trying to learn these things like Peter was teaching us, you're not going to lose out in the end. You're going to make it.

And we're going to finish up with these last verses from 11 through 15. "For so an entrance shall be administered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them, and be established in the present truth.

Yay, I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off my tabernacle, even as the Lord Jesus Christ has showed me.

Moreover, I will endeavor that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance."

And we're back again to our title for today. "For so an abundant entrance shall be administered unto you abundantly." When we as Christians today choose to live the way Peter instructs in this passage, doing the hard work of building our character and allowing the circumstances of life to teach us and strengthen us, this may seem a difficult and a narrow way.

It's a tough way of getting into it. However, as you live your life this way, you grow. Life opens up to you. It actually begins to open up and you begin to see the reason in everything. And you begin to see possibilities you've never seen before. And ultimately, God's kingdom becomes more and more real to you.

Our Lord delights to share His kingdom with those who fight for Him and with Him, and the biggest battle you'll ever face is yourself. That's what I found in my life. Most things boils down, it's something to do with me that I need to work on. Not somebody else, it's me.

Peter finishes out this thought or this part of his passage with stating the importance and need of having our memories stirred to repeat often the things that have been taught to establish ourselves in the truth, that is, that which is real and will endure.

There is an added fervor to his message because he knows his time on earth is soon to end. He refers to his physical life as a temporary dwelling like a tent. And he's going to fold up his tent and put it away and go and live forever with the Lord whom he followed in life. And that's where we're going to stop today.

Hopefully, we can clean some encouragement from this. In the following verses in this chapter and on through the book, I'm going to say it's just a little bit more on a negative vein. It depends how you look at it. A lot of warnings and stuff. So I wanted to start with this because the next message or messages might be just a little bit more of a slight more negative, more of a warning tone to them.