Title: Trust, But Verify Part 2

Text: II Peter 1:8-11

FCF: We often struggle laboring zealously to do what God wants us to do.

Prop: Because being these virtues confirms our call and provides our entry to God’s Kingdom, so we must zealously labor to grow toward Christ’s moral excellence

Scripture Intro:

[Slide 1] Turn in your bible to II Peter 1.

Let me briefly review what Peter said last week so we can get ready for part 2 of Peter’s thought.

From verse 1 through verse 4, Peter has stated that from beginning to end, God will superintend His people to inherit what He has prepared for them. He gives them faith through the righteousness of Christ, He gives them grace, peace, and His power to supply all they need for a godly life. He’s called them to Christ’s moral excellence and to inherit a divine nature becoming holy and escaping corruption.

In short, God has done all to take His people from pre ordination to glorification. Because God has done this, Peter commands his readers to add to their faith every virtue required by God to reach the moral excellence of His Son.

But what is at stake? What do they gain or lose if they do or do not add these virtues to their faith?

I am in II Peter 1. I’ll actually start at verse 5 and read through verse 11. I am reading from the CSB today. You can follow along in the pew bible on page 1369 or whatever version you prefer.

Transition:

This is a challenging sermon for 2 reasons. Reason 1 – it is long. Reason 2 – we will walk a theological tightrope through most of it. What does that mean for you? It is absolutely imperative that you stay with me. Do what you must do.

I.) Because being these virtues confirms our beginning, we must zealously labor to grow toward Christ’s moral excellence. (8-10a)

a. [Slide 2] 8 – For if you possess these qualities

i. Which qualities?

ii. Certainly, this refers back to the virtue list in 5-7 where Peter speaks of adding to our faith, the moral excellence of Christ and everything in between which he itemizes with 6 more virtues.

iii. We should not see these virtues as all the qualities the Lord desires of His people – but we should instead see this list as an all-encompassing summary of what God desires.

iv. But what does Peter mean when he says the word “possess?” Indeed, what does it mean to “possess” these virtues?

v. We think of possession in the realm of ownership. I bought them and they are mine.

vi. That isn’t quite what we need to see.

vii. The word here is a word used for being. Sometimes it is a synonym for other verbs in the “to be” category. Meaning that sometimes this word is translated am, is, are, was, were.

viii. This gives us a hint that perhaps these qualities are a little more than simply owned… but rather incorporated into our being.

ix. Perhaps another way we could say this would be “For if these virtues describe you” or “If these are true of you”

x. So, it is not something we own and put on a shelf. Rather it is something we are.

xi. But not just AS they are but…

b. [Slide 3] In an increasing measure,

i. This gives us a hint that the virtue list is not something any Christian can genuinely say they’ve arrived at. Nor is it a ladder to climb.

ii. You can’t step on faith and then step to knowledge leaving faith behind. Rather faith becomes a foundation that continues to grow underneath the other virtues.

iii. Rather than seeing all 8 of these virtues in their absolute sense then – we ought to see them in their general sense.

iv. Are you a person who clings to the righteousness of Christ? This is the baseline of possessing faith or faith being true of you. But are there not other things God has promised us that require trust? Are there not deeper facets of believing that God has supplied Christ’s righteousness to us? Indeed, there are!

v. And so, with faith as an illustration, we see that if someone possess all these virtues generally AND the virtues are growing, then what is their effect upon that person?

c. [Slide 4] They will keep you from being useless or unfruitful

i. These growing spiritual character qualities will keep them.

ii. The word for keep here has the idea of setting something, placing, or appointing. Meaning that these growing virtues cement or anchor a person against something. They keep them grounded.

iii. Well, what is attempting to unset or dislodge us?

iv. Uselessness. This means laziness, idleness, or doing nothing.

v. These growing spiritual qualities anchor them in work, in effort, and in labor. They are guarded against laziness and passive apathy.

vi. But it is not just that they are guarded against spiritual laziness but also that they are guarded against unfruitfulness.

vii. The idea is something done without profit. Something done that avails nothing.

viii. Not only is a person who can be described with these increasing spiritual virtues prevented from being lazy about spiritual labor– but they are also prevented from lacking spiritual results.

ix. God will use these growing spiritual virtues to produce what He has promised.

x. But in what will a person who has these growing spiritual virtues labor and be spiritually profitable?

d. [Slide 5] In the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ

i. We are back again, aren’t we?

ii. Let me quickly review and trace this phrase.

1. In verse 2, Peter wishes for God’s grace and peace to be lavished on his audience as they grow in the rich knowledge of God and Jesus.

2. In verse 3, Peter says that it is through the rich knowledge of God that God’s power gives all that we need for a godly life.

3. And here in verse 8, we are assured that if we can be described with these increasing spiritual virtues, we will be kept or protected against being lazy in pursuing the knowledge of Christ and from being unprofitable in our knowledge of Christ.

iii. So, what is the connection here?

iv. If you find someone who is characterized by these growing spiritual virtues – what is the only conclusion?

1. That they are laboring in and profiting from a rich knowledge of Christ.

2. Which means that they have received and are continuing to receive the power and grace and peace of God through a rich knowledge of Christ.

3. Which means that they are called to inherit the moral excellence of God and to be a partaker in the divine nature when they escape this present world of corruption by receiving all they need to be godly in the rich knowledge of Christ.

v. In short, such a person is clearly on the road to what God calls His children to.

vi. Peter will touch this one more time because this is the heart of what he wants to say to his audience, but because of what they will be facing soon from false teachers – Peter desires to answer the other side of this question too.

vii. What if a person is NOT characterized by these growing spiritual virtues?

e. [Slide 6] 9 – The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted

i. First, let’s deal with what it means to lack these things.

ii. Again, we may be tempted to view this as not possessing or not owning these virtues. However, this word too has a being or “to be” concept to it.

iii. To not have, or to not be, or to not be present in.

iv. So, what does it mean to not be able to be described with these virtues? In short, they are Christians in name– but their lives show little change.

v. Therefore, they are blind and shortsighted. Now what is the relationship between these two words and what do they mean?

vi. Let’s talk about relationship first. They are connected in some way grammatically but the word “and” is not present in the Greek. They are actually two words, a noun and a participle stacked next to each other.

vii. Some translations present this as a simple addition like the CSB. They are both of these.

viii. But other translations indicate that the relationship between these words is explanatory.

ix. That Peter says they are so nearsighted or shortsighted, that they are blind.

x. Even today, your eyes can be so bad that although you can technically still see, you are still classified as blind. Peter seems to be saying just that.

xi. So, what does Peter mean that they are so shortsighted that they are blind?

xii. Shortsighted is actually from the verb to close your eye or to blink. Or to squint

xiii. As an illustration I’ll ask Dean to put an image on the screen behind me. But before he does, I want you to close your eyes as far as you can without actually closing them. Get them as close to closed as possible. Don’t open them until I tell you to. Ready?

xiv. [Slide 7] Ok Dean – now. Look at the picture for 3…2… 1…. And now everyone open your eyes.

xv. Ok so you may have seen yellow shoes. Perhaps you even saw the jeans the person was wearing. But did you see that they were sitting on a tall building? Did you see the scooters below or the people on the street? Probably not.

xvi. When our eyes are barely open we cannot possibly see important details.

xvii. Indeed, if all we had was a blurry look at the calling of God, we’d walk away just as blind to it as if we’d never had seen it at all.

xviii. No one experienced the anxiety of a picture taken at such a great height with their blurred look. But when we look at it long and hard, with eyes wide open – we think, perhaps – what is that guy doing up there! Or, perhaps, cool view!

xix. In short – opening and fixing our eyes changes how we react and what we do with what we see. Whereas a blurred look through squinted eyes leaves us unchanged. Unaffected.

xx. Indeed, we could say that a squinted look is rather useless. And unprofitable.

xxi. Such is Peter’s assessment of a person who cannot be described with these growing spiritual virtues.

xxii. It is because they are so squinty eyed that they are blind, unable to see the call of God.

xxiii. But it isn’t just what is in front of them that has become blurry…

f. [Slide 8] And has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.

i. My friends, we could be led down a strange theological quagmire here if we are not careful.

ii. So, let us walk through this passage knowing all that God has said about how His saving faith works, ok?

iii. We might be tempted to think that Peter leaves the door cracked, be it ever so slightly, to the possibility of someone that has had their former sins washed away, could now find themselves lacking all these virtues, being so short sighted that they are blind, and even forgetting that they had been cleansed.

iv. So, a case could be made that either Peter is saying that it is possible to lose salvation or it is possible to be saved but not have these virtues.

v. Indeed, at a cursory reading that seems to be exactly what Peter is saying.

vi. However, we must understand that Peter does not understand salvation as a checkbox kind of salvation. Just because you were “cleansed” of your former sin doesn’t mean you were “saved.” In fact, the writers of the New Testament do not talk about salvation exclusively as a “done” concept. They speak also of it being a future event and even an ongoing process.

vii. It is the ongoing process of BEING saved that Peter is concerning himself with.

viii. Where does the path of true Christianity start? Does it not begin with the initial cleansing of former sins? And where might that path end? Does it not end in sharing in the divine nature and inheriting Christ’s moral excellence?

ix. Peter has described the beginning and end of the Christian’s race… He has talked about how we were saved and how we will be saved. But what he speaks of now and really for the rest of the letter is how we are BEING saved.

x. And so, when Peter says that a person is so shortsighted that they are blind he is saying that they have lost sight of the eternal prize of Christ’s moral excellence. Their vision of that future salvation has become so blurry, they are blind to it entirely.

xi. But not only that, they have forgotten – or rather as the original language says – they have received forgetfulness.

xii. Suggesting they have willingly forgotten the cleansing of their past sins.

xiii. So, a person who cannot be described with these virtues not only cannot see the destination of all God’s true people, but they don’t want to remember where all His people begin either.

xiv. What do you call someone who doesn’t know where they are going or where they came from?

xv. Lost.

xvi. Does this mean Peter describes someone who was saved but now isn’t? No.

xvii. Effectively what Peter says is that if you are not being saved now – then you’ve never been saved and you have no hope to be saved as you are.

xviii. So, what does Peter advise, in light of these two kinds of people on two different paths?

g. 10a – Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election,

i. Again, to make every effort is with all zeal, with all you have, with all you are, as if your life depended on it.

ii. Confirm means to make firm or to bind.

iii. Based on this word and the context, there are two errors we can fall into in regard to interpretation. I need to caution you against both.

1. [Slide 10] To confirm our calling and election must be more than simply knowing we are saved because we do good works.

a. Peter uses the word to bind or make firm. This is not something he would use to speak of the subjectivity of our salvation, or how we perceive our own salvation. Instead, this is a word related to the objectivity of our salvation. Or the reality of it. Peter doesn’t want us to confirm our own feeling about being saved, but rather He wants us to bind up or secure the reality of our salvation.

b. From the rest of Scripture, we know that good works are not optional in the life of a believer.

c. So much so, that faith without works is a dead faith. You can believe all the right things but if no action follows then you are no better than demons.

d. And so, even though it is God’s Sovereign call and election, and even though God promises to bring His children from pre-ordination to glorification –

e. The nature of good works in the life of a believer is not simply to assure themselves of their own calling.

f. This is part of it, but if they ultimately fail to do good works, to display these virtues, they lose far more than assurance and if they ultimately succeed they gain far more than assurance.

g. Peter will speak to this overtly in the rest of verse 10 and 11.

2. However, to confirm our calling and election must also mean less than earning or achieving our calling and election.

a. Even though good works are integral to our salvation

b. Even though those who do the will of God will enter the Kingdom

c. Even though to bind means to make sure or make firm

d. We cannot go too far and say that by our good works we complete or that we keep our calling and election from failing – as if human performance is the determining factor of someone whom God has called and elected to see whether or not they actually make it.

e. Its not! Peter has already told us God does this.

iv. So, if it is more than simply assurance but less than human achievement, what is the third option?

v. The means God has chosen to make His call effective, is Him cooperating with the spiritual labor of His people, and empowering that labor to bear much fruit.

vi. We work out our salvation.

vii. This does not deny that God does it in us. Because like Philippians 2 says, we ought to be struck with fear and awe to realize that when we do work out or labor in our good works – it is God supplying to us both the desire and the power to do all He asks. Indeed, in Ephesians 2 God is the one who pre-ordained the good works His people were to do.

viii. In this sense then, when we can be described with these growing virtues, we firmly anchor ourselves against idleness and unfruitfulness, which are judged harshly by Christ as illustrated in the parable of the talents and in the curse of the fig tree. It is clear that the spiritually idle and unfruitful will NOT inherit the Kingdom of God, no matter what they believe.

ix. Instead, we are anchored in the work that God has chosen to use to prepare and seal away all His dear children for glory. Do we gain assurance from this? Of course. But this is a result of being planted even more firmly in our faith in Christ.

x. We’ll talk about that more in just a moment.

h. [Slide 11] Passage Truth: So, Peter reminds his audience of the call of God for His people. That they have been called to walk the path toward moral excellence. He will get them there – but all His dear children walk the same road. The narrow road. And he warns that all who do not walk this path neither see where they are going nor do they desire to remember where they came from. They are truly blind and have lost their way.

i. [Slide 12] Passage Application: So, what must they do? They must spare no effort of labor to firmly cement themselves in the work that God has set forth for all His people to do.

j. [Slide 13] Catechism #34 – asks, if we are redeemed by grace alone through Christ alone, must we still do good works and obey God’s Word? The answer to the question is yes and it lists 3 results or purposes to doing good works. 1 – to show love and gratitude to God. 2 – so that we may be assured of our faith by the fruits and 3 so that by our godliness others may be won to Christ. But there is only 1 governing reason that we must still do good works and obey God’s Word. Because Christ having redeemed us (past tense) by His blood, also renews us (ongoing) by His Spirit. We are being renewed.

k. [Slide 14] Broader Biblical Truth: CBC, good works are so important to our faith that even though we are not saved by them, we are saved WITH them. What I mean by that is that even though we rest on the righteousness of Christ, because God’s standard is perfect and perpetual obedience – which we simply cannot do. Even though we trust in Christ alone… the path that Christ’s blood puts all His people on, is a path marked with the Spirit’s renewal. Faith with good works is saving. Faith without good works is dead faith. Good works without faith are dead works.

l. [Slide 15] Broader Biblical Application:. So, what must we do? We must labor zealously to do the good works that God has prepared for us. Why? Because we are what God has made us to be! Unlike those who have chosen to forget the cleansing of their sin, we labor to continue from and in that cleansing. Pursuing that day when we will truly and completely be cleansed forevermore.

Transition:

[Slide 16 (blank)] That, if I say so myself, was a HUGE first point. The second point is significantly smaller. But it does provide another reason that we must zealously labor to grow toward Christ’s moral excellence. Let’s look.

II.) Because being these virtues richly provides our ending, we must zealously labor to grow toward Christ’s moral excellence. (10b-11)

a. [Slide 17] 10b – because if you do these things, you will never stumble.

i. Here Peter both explains further what he means by confirming our calling and election, and also provides a benefit for living out these spiritual virtues in an increasing way. And he begins with the fact that they will never stumble.

ii. Although this word can be used in the sense of a single offense or even to sin in some way, it can also be used of a final fall. To fall into unbelief or to reject the faith. To apostatize. The certainty of Peter that a person who lives out these spiritual virtues will NEVER, or not even once stumble assures us of which to pick.

iii. If they have these increasing virtues, they will not apostatize.

iv. This is why he cannot be talking about raw assurance. He is not concerned with his audience doubting their salvation.

v. Let me lace together a thought for you.

vi. John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world that he sent His Son. Why? So that those who are believing ones (notice the ongoing nature of their faith) … would not perish but have eternal life.

vii. Ongoing, enduring, anchored faith in Christ’s righteousness alone is what saves us. Not in its action but in the object.

viii. What does Peter say here? How does God make sure that our faith endures? How does God keep His dear ones from failing to cling onto the righteousness of Christ?

ix. By entering into the cooperative work with His children of working out their salvation.

x. How do you safely teach your kids that they do not have the balance necessary to ride a bike? You provide training wheels. The first couple times they teeter and don’t fall, they not only learn that they haven’t got the balance necessary, but they also learn to trust in the wheels to hold them up. Eventually they learn balance and don’t need the wheels anymore.

xi. Surely this illustration is far less beautiful than what God has done, but it helps us to understand God’s heart. To ensure that we continue to trust in Christ’s righteousness alone – He comes along side us helping us to aim for sinless perfection in this life. As we bumble along, not only do we gain assurance in our success, exclaiming “I’m doing it – I must be saved!” but we also cry out in renewed dependance in our failure. Crying in repentance “I could never do it on my own Lord, I need Christ’s righteousness!”

xii. But no matter what… what do we never do?

xiii. Fall.

xiv. But wait, there’s more!

b. [Slide 18] 11 – For in this way,

i. In what way?

ii. In the way that lives out these virtues.

iii. In the way that ensures that you will never once fall from saving faith in Christ.

iv. In this way…

c. [Slide 19] Entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.

i. Peter is not concerned about earning rewards for doing what God has planned for us.

ii. In fact, the emphasis is not actually on the “richly provided” so much as it is on “the entry.”

iii. It is not that our entry will be better if we live these virtues than if we didn’t live them.

iv. It is instead, that if we live them we will be welcomed home and if we don’t we won’t enter at all.

v. Again, Peter’s emphasis – we are not saved by works but we are certainly saved with them.

vi. That is why without these virtues, and increasing – no one can enter heaven.

d. [Slide 20] Passage Truth: So, Peter reminds his audience that a life characterized by these increasing virtues ensures that they will not fall away, they will not deny the faith, they will not apostatize but rather that their call will be confirmed and their entry into the kingdom will be provided richly.

e. [Slide 21] Passage Application: So, they must zealously labor to anchor themselves against spiritual idleness and unfruitfulness.

f. [Slide 22] Broader Biblical Truth: Zooming out to all of scripture we see a tension that it is hard for us. We know that Christ saves us not by works of righteousness that we have done, but by mercy of God in giving us Christ’s righteousness. But we also know that we were made to do good works and that these works, according to verse 11, seem to have some bearing on whether or not we enter into heaven. But the gem in this passage is verse 10b. It harmonizes everything. What saves us? Christ and our being united to Him in faith. How does God ensure that His true children, those He called and elected, will stay united to Christ in true faith? He enters into a cooperative working out of their salvation.

g. [Slide 23] Broader Biblical Application: So CBC, we must zealously labor to have these virtues in an increasing measure in our lives. We must be what God has called us to be. Our lives depend on it. Our future depends on it. For if we have not these virtues we will fall away from faith, and if we fall away we will never enter into the Kingdom and if we never enter into the Kingdom then we were never called to it. Therefore, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. Make every effort to add to your faith in an increasing way toward the moral excellence of Christ. We do this because that is what God has planned all His people to do. There is no such thing as a Christian who doesn’t have these virtues and have them increasing.

Conclusion:

[Slide 24 (blank)] So, CBC, what has God said this morning and what then must we do?

God through Peter has said that having these virtues and increasing is the only road that His children travel. All other roads have forgotten beginnings and fuzzy endings. You are lost if you walk a different road than this. God’s people confirm their calling, will never fall away, and are richly provided their entry into the Kingdom by living out these virtues increasingly in their lives.

But perhaps the most concerning verse in this context is verse 9. Those who lack, are so shortsighted that they are blind. They have only glimpsed the truth. They have had some kind of experience that seemed to indicate that they were cleansed of sin – but they have willfully forgotten it. They neither see where they are going nor remember where they’ve been. They are truly blind and lost. They are people called Christians… that aren’t actually Christians.

Since the stakes are so high here, perhaps we’d do well to look specifically at what someone who lacks these increasing virtues might look like.

[Slide 25(end)]

A Person Lacking Faith: I imagine that they might frequently falter in their trust of God’s promises, particularly His promises of redemption and salvation. They do not labor to hold fast to these promises, nor are they successful in holding them. Often times they try to insert their own human reason, logic, or self-righteousness when only Christ’s will do. They have a high opinion of man, a low opinion of God, or both. They claim faith in Christ, sure, but in reality – the only person they really trust, is themselves.

A Person Lacking moral excellence: I’d imagine that they rarely find many things in their lives that must change to be like Christ. Therefore, since they find little of their lives that needs to change to be conformed to Christ, they rarely labor in casting off sin and find little success in being truly righteous. They may be moral people – but lack love, selflessness, kindness, and/or integrity.

A Person Lacking knowledge: I’d imagine that such a person labors little in the Word, rarely seeking God, His person or work. Bible study is a bothersome chore infrequently done, and when done, it rarely goes much beyond the daily bread entry. Because they rarely labor, they rarely find anything noteworthy or groundbreaking about God. They actually think they have arrived already. They think they’ve got God pretty well figured out. They’ve put him in a box and tied Him up with a nice bow. It’s so bad that even if they did see or hear something that poked holes in that box – they’d just assume what they heard or saw was wrong or search for all the ways to prove it wrong without ever considering they might be the ones who are wrong.

A Person Lacking self-control: I’d imagine that this is a person who is out of control. This isn’t to say they are unpredictable. In fact, they are fairly predictable. They predictably labor little in keeping themselves from self-righteousness, arrogance, unkindness, vices or lack of love. They can’t tell you the last sin habit they were able to break – mostly because – that just isn’t something they are concerned with. Or perhaps – they can’t really even think of any sin habits they have that need broken. Or even, perhaps, they know they have sin habits but have given up any real hope or desire to see them gone.

A Person Lacking perseverance: I’d imagine this is a person who quits early. Not at sports or school, but rather a person who does not labor to stretch their trust in the Lord. And since there is no labor to trust, they stop believing in His power or goodness to do anything about where they are. Such a person when faced with trial or tribulation will either conclude that they have done something wrong for which God is punishing them, or that God wasn’t quite able to stop whatever has befallen them from happening. So rather than laboring to trust and seeing the profit of God working things for good as He has promised – they conclude that their trial means something is wrong with them or that God isn’t quite all He says He is. Their one concern is to get out of their trial as quickly as possible, the consequences be darned.

A Person Lacking godliness: I’d imagine this to be a person who doesn’t see being all God wants them to be as a priority or as something they need to reach for. Either this means they think they have arrived already and are pretty much what God wants or that since God has saved them, they don’t really need to care super strongly about doing as He commands. With this attitude they are predictably unsuccessful at being what God wants them to be. They may not do too many “bad things” – but their hearts are still selfish, unloving, and full of bitterness. They are about as moral as your average Muslim, Jehovah’s witness, Mormon, or any other religious group that has not the truth, but emphasizes law keeping.

A Person Lacking brotherly love: I’d imagine this person sees people as obstacles rather than mission. People are hard, and because of that, having relationships with people is of course, hard. This person doesn’t invest in getting to know people or ever really getting too close. Makes it easier to duck and run. They are surprised every day that they don’t have any really close relationships, and almost none with Christians.

A Person Lacking love: I’d imagine this is a person who never really loves anyone or anything unless they profit from it somehow. And as soon as the profit disappears from the thing they love, be it God or people, it becomes more and more unlovable. Such a person does not labor to love selflessly, as such they gather around them people and versions of God and Jesus who love them the same way. It is a mutually beneficial relationship… until it isn’t.

So here is the 1-million-dollar question. If you are this kind of person today. If you have heard each of these and the Spirit has struck like a nail each description into your soul showing that you are a Christian in name only. If you have been brought to the realization that you have forgotten your former cleansing of sin and can’t see the moral excellence of Christ anymore. If this is you…what do you do about it?

Oh, the temptation will be great for you to try harder. Oh, the pull of your heart is to just do better. But friend, if you are on the wrong road – running faster won’t get you on the right one. If you are rooted firmly in sand – keep digging for the rock if you wish, but you’ll be buried far before you find it.

You don’t need to get serious about Jesus. You don’t need to rededicate your life.

My friend you need the righteousness of Christ. You need to see that though you thought you were cleansed of your sin – you are still its slave.

But here is the good news… If you are hearing this today and realizing this today – Christ’s righteousness is available for you. Will you cry out in dependance on Him and Him alone? Will you not be satisfied with one time washing but a continual cleansing is what you desire? Do you long to be clothed in the white robes which are the good works of the saints, available for them at the great wedding feast? Do you long to do the good works that God has ordained for all His children? Do you long to be held up in faith with those works, keeping you forever from falling away? Then won’t you repent of your dead faith and your dead works and believe that Christ has done it all for you? Won’t you seek His Spirit to begin His ongoing work of renewal in you?

I hope you will.

And if you are here today, and you do see these virtues in you – not perfect – always struggling – always laboring – but increasing… slowly. That is exactly how God gets all His children to Christ’s moral excellence. He carries them through the fire, He carries them through the flood, He carries them through the darkest nights… He carries them on the narrow path cooperating with them to do the good works that He has planned for them. In their success He gives assurance and in their failure renewed dependance on Christ alone. If this is you – Keep… Going…