FURNISH by Dr. Shah, Clearview Church, Henderson, NC

Introduction:  When Nicole and I got married, we moved into an apartment near the college we were attending. We had no furnishings. So, Nicole’s parents bought us a bed. Her grandmother gave us a rocking chair. We got a couch from someone who was giving it away. I even remember a shelf we had upstairs in the bedroom that my roommate had left behind at the dorm. In fact, everything we had was sort of donated, found, or bought cheap; and nothing matched. Then, we moved to Wake Forest to attend seminary, and I worked on the paint crew. One of the advantages of that job was that we would find furniture left behind by students who had moved out. Like Little Mermaid, I would bring home coffee tables, chairs, lamps, etc., and we would add them to our collection or upgrade what we had. Then, when we moved into the parsonage in 1999, we got rid of some of those less desirable things and bought some newer furniture. Through the years, we slowly began to buy things that actually matched. Finally, when we bought our house in 2012, Nicole began to slowly update and match our furniture. In our new series called “On Track,” today’s message is titled “FURNISH.” Big Question: If your spiritual life is a house, how are you furnishing it? Many people’s spiritual lives are like mismatched furniture: some borrowed from a preacher growing up, some found in a book you read in college, some picked up from a well-meaning Christian you worked alongside, some you came across in a Facebook meme, and some preached by me on Sunday morning. Your spiritual house is a mishmash of this, that, and the other. Nothing makes sense or hardly serves its purpose. Most of your life you spend tripping over the wrong furniture. If we’re going to get on track in our lives, we must get our spiritual house in order. 

2 Peter 1       5 “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge. 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Context: 2 Peter was written by the apostle Peter to help believers get back on track in their Christian lives. In the passage we just read, he was listing all the necessary virtues that should be added to one’s Christian life to prevent it for becoming barren and unfruitful. Let’s look at the verses we read more carefully – 5 “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence…” The Greek word for “diligence” is “spoude,” which means “be earnest,” “make haste,” or “make every effort.” In other words, this is not some causal exploration in how the Christian life works. You must get with it! Again, 5 “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge. 6 to knowledge self-control…” The Greek word for “add” is “epichoregeo, which means “to furnish,” or “to fully supply.” Hence the title of today’s message: FURNISH. Again, the Big Question: If your spiritual life is a house, how are you furnishing it? Do you understand what the necessary ingredients are of a successful Christian life? Do you understand the role of virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, and the rest? Are you furnishing these things correctly to stay on track in your life?

Question: Have you escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust?

Before we look at all the necessary furnishings, I want us to focus on the house first. How do we get in the house? It happens when as verse 4 tells us “…that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” The word for corruption is “apopheugo,” found 3 times in this little letter. It means escaped or fled. In other words, when we receive Jesus as our Savior and King, we simultaneously partake of the nature of Christ and escape sin’s pollution and hold upon our lives. Technically speaking, this involves Faith in Christ, Regeneration, Justification, Sanctification (first definitive, then progressive; first positional, then experiential), and even Glorification. While Justification takes care of the guilt of sin, Sanctification takes care of the pollution of sin. The pollution is the corruption of our nature. This corruption comes about because of sin, and it causes more sin. Because of the Fall, we are born in corruption and sin, and then we add more sin to it. Sanctification is the process by which God cleanses us, but the work will not be completed in this life. Because of sanctification, we can change the direction of our lives. Now that we have the divine nature in us, we can live in a way that glorifies God. In fact, we can be like Christ. We are rescued from the condemned and crumbling house of sin, and we are brought into our new home, our holy dwelling place in Christ.

One of the greatest truths of Christianity is the fact that Jesus came not only to forgive us for our sins but also to set us free from the power/control of sin. We are no longer slaves of sin. We are free. Yet many Christians have never experienced this freedom. They are still chained to the same old habit, hang-up, and sin that they had before they got saved. While Peter puts this in 2 verses, the apostle Paul gets into the details of this rescue plan in Galatians 5and Romans 6-8. Listen to Romans 6:6 “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”Paul begins with the promise that sin is no longer our Master. That is very important to understand. Sin was our Old Master but God has freed us from him. How did God do that? Not by killing Master Sin. He is still alive but God has killed/crucified us—the Old Man. Remember—2000 years ago when Jesus died for us, He not only died as our substitute, but He also died as your Representative. He died to represent our death in the family of Sin/the family of Adam. The only way we could come out of this family was to die. Jesus not only died for our sins but He also died our death for us.

Now we are dead to Master Sin. He still comes around but I am no use to him. I am just a cadaver. Sadly, many Christians when they see Old Master Sin around, they try to fight him by digging up the Old Man. I call them “grave robber Christians.” They are an interesting sight. They put all their energy in trying to train the Old Man; they try to suppress the Old Man, they try to deny the Old Man. They say things like, “I am not going to get angry; I am not going to be envious; I am not going to lust; I am going to do better.” Before they know it, they are doing all those things and more.Some even make a commitment to crucify their Old Man. Ever seen anybody try to crucify a dead body! Christians do it all the time. They don’t remember Galatians 2:20,“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”

Question: Have you asked the Holy Spirit to show you who you are in Christ?

What does God expect from you? Listen to Romans 6:11, “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” All God wants you to do is to accept by faith that you are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Ask the Holy Spirit of God to open your eyes so you can see who you are in Christ.

Some Christians make matters worse. They turn to the Law. Listen to Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” If you go back under the law, it only gives Master Sin the opportunity to control you. What happens when you are told not to do certain things? You do it more. “You better not lust. You better not envy. You better not steal. You better not get angry.” The list goes on and on. Listen to Romans 7:8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. What Master Sin wants us to do is to make a list. He wants us to try to be good in our own power. He wants us to take our eyes away from Christ and focus on the Law. It’s a trap. I Corinthians 15:56 “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.”

Application: You are no longer a slave to sin. You are no longer under the Law. You are free. You may not feel it; you may not understand it but you have it. The only way you will see your Old Man crucified is when you look to Christ. Keep your eyes on Christ and you will see the Old Man crucified with Christ. Take your eyes away from Christ and you will see your old self again. Start keeping a list and it will make things worse.

Listen to Romans 6:17 “But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.”

Question: Are you obeying from the heart the doctrine to which you were delivered?

Background: What does it mean to obey from the heart that form of doctrine? Imagine there is a person here who is lost—does not know Christ. Somehow the gospel comes to this person—maybe through preaching; maybe through a friend; maybe through a bible study. This person is convicted that they are lost and Jesus is the Only Hope. Now he/she has a decision to make: What will I do with Jesus? When this person receives Christ as their Savior, they obey from the heart. This is not half-obedience, partial-obedience. This is full obedience as to who Christ is; why He came; what He did for them. At the very moment, the Holy Spirit of God comes to dwell in that person. God makes that person’s spirit a new spirit and that person’s spirit becomes one with God’s spirit. As long as this new believer is obedient to the light that God has given to him/her, the Holy Spirit has access to flow through that life, body, and environment and reproduce the life of Jesus Christ. Why? Because that person obeyed from the heart.

Now this person is going to grow in grace. Now one-by-one the Holy Spirit wants to set this person free. (The following section is based on Manley Beasley’s message)

FIRST HANG-UP – Stealing. One day this new Christian is listening to a message like this one and the Holy Spirit convicts that heart that they should be giving their money to the Lord. Once you are saved, everything is now His. We are His slaves.By the way, it’s not 10%. It’s 100%. 10% is still living by the law. 100% is living by grace. Sadly most people in church this morning are barely tithing. As Manley Beasley would say, “God is gracious and he still uses fragmented light to send us fragmented truth and at least let us be fragmented Christians.” Nevertheless, most will never understand beyond the 10% and that’s that. You will hear a message like this where the pastor will say – “If you give your 10% to the Lord, He will turn around and give you back much much more. You can get by further on 90% than on 100%.” That does not make any sense mathematically or logically and the Devil will argue with you but that is the truth. But, you obey from the heart (just the way you obeyed from the heart that Jesus died for your sins and trusting in Him you can have eternal life) that form of doctrine and you begin to give. “Lord – I don’t know how we are going to make it but we are going to give and trust you.” You have freedom over stealing. Some people are legalistic and they tithe because they have to and there is no joy in giving. It’s all by obligation not obedience. But those who truly believe are set free and they become slaves of righteousness.

Listen to verse 18 – And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

Most people’s growth is grace is only so far and no more. Most people obey from the heart only two steps: get saved and stop stealing. Bible knowledge means nothing.

SECOND HANG-UP – Smoking, dipping, and chewing. Now in a service like this the pastor is preaching and he is preaching on smoking or chewing or dipping. Two men get convicted. They are both convicted that they are abusing the temple of the Holy Spirit. Man #1 – He is convicted that he needs to stop. God did not give it to me and I need to try my best and quit it. But I am not going to go forward and put these cigarettes on the altar because if I don’t quit, I will make God look bad. He is really concerned about himself. God is perfectly capable of handling his reputation. We need to worry about ourselves. So he takes them home and puts them away; doesn’t tell anybody and makes a decision to stop smoking. He gets one of those small pocket Bibles and puts it where his pack of cigarettes would go. He gets a patch and gets a pack of gum and a bag of sunflower seeds and he works on them. When he gets around people at work, he wants cigarettes so bad, he cannot stand it. He is miserable. He has real will power. He may even quit but he still wants one. That’s religion but it’s not true Christianity. Man #2 – He is also convicted that he needs to stop. God did not give me this habit and I can’t handle it. I detest myself for using it. He comes to God and says “God unless you help me I can’t do it. Even as I am coming to you, I want one. You are going to have to help me. Sink or swim I am coming to you.” He obeys from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. He comes by the cross and by grace and falls before the Lord. Would you like to know what happens next? He gets around the same people who smoke and he does not even want one. Now Satan tempts him but the temptation is from the outside and not from the inside. No longer is he a slave of sin.

That’s what obedience from the heart does. Man #1 did not dislike Jesus or reject Jesus but he decided to do it on his own and he shut the door to the Spirit of God and operated by the energy of his flesh. He forsook Jesus. This man will not grow in grace beyond that. He will grow in knowledge but not in grace. Spiritual knowledge means absolutely nothing. If it has not changed your character, then it’s not growth in grace.

Application: The moment you refuse to let Jesus have your problem, that’s the moment you begin to obey the flesh and you start on the road leading to death.

THIRD HANG-UP: Uncontrollable Temper. This is one area where most Christians struggle with. They just cover it up really good. Why? Because they haven’t obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which they were delivered.

For e.g. Imagine if I owned 40 acres of land and I decided to sell 39 acres and keep one. You could build a house as big as 39 acres but now I own one and you have to give me right of way to my property. I can come back and make him so miserable, confuse him, ridicule him, and defeat him. Satan does not care if we have given 39 acres to the Lord as long as he can keep 1 acre. He will let you do religious work (sing, bible study, serve) in church but beyond that you have a horrible temper and you act like the devil. The Devil has control over you. All he has to do is wait until he has you in the right place and then push the right button and you act like the Devil.

Let’s say the problem is unforgiveness. If it’s not dealt with biblically, it will rear its ugly head when you least expect it. As long as we are properly related to Jesus by obedience, sweet water comes. If it is bitter water, somewhere back here we have switched fountains.

God will allow afflictions, trials, and failures to bring sin to the surface because he wants to clean you up from the pollution of this world. This will not be completed in this life but in the life to come. J. Robertson McQuilkin wrote:

“Scripture gives many evidences of an unsurrendered heart: unreconciled personal relations, unforgiving spirit, a complaining attitude, unloving criticism, persisting in a wrong even after realizing one is sinning, grieving more over what hurts oneself than what hurts God, making decisions on the basis of personal benefit rather than promotion of God’s purposes, and seeking the praise of other people. Even if one displays no conscious rebellion, behaviors such as these indicate that the individual must choose to surrender unconditionally to the will of God.”

Application: The only way to handle it is to go back and get our obedient back on track. Confess your sins and get right with Jesus. Not God does his part and we do our part. Because God does his part, we do our part. This is all in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Are you saved? Have you entered your new dwelling in Christ or are you still following behind Master Sin?