R.C. Sproul

their minds are darkened.

We find people out there with 20-20 vision who are blind to the things of God.

And you can see those who are blind because their lives are barren of the fruit of the Spirit and of the fruit of the virtues

that Peter has listed herein.

He who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness.

And now he's directing this critique not, however, at the pagan, but to the Christian, where Christians can become short-sighted because they have forgotten that he has been cleansed from his old sins.

You know, David understood that when he wrote in the psalm, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

I'd like you to just take a moment to do a little reconnaissance in your own personal life, in your own personal pilgrimage.

I want you to think back to the first time that you realized that God had forgiven you of all of your sin.

And I want you to try to recall what that did for you.

The freedom that that brought to your soul, the peace that came to your conscience, the joy that came to your heart.

And yet how easy it is to forget what God has done.

To forget that he has forgiven us and in Christ has made us clean.

Now Peter comes to an extremely important teaching that drips down

of theology, and people who don't like theology will certainly not like this little bit of data.

It's the conclusion of these remarks, the place where Peter is taking us when he says,

Be even more diligent.

Now, do you see what he's just said?

He said, I want you to be diligent, industrious, careful, to apply yourselves, to add to your faith, virtue and perseverance and loving kindness, brotherly love, all these things so that you won't be barren, so that you won't be fruitless.

But there's something about which I want you to be even more diligent.