Peter wanted the church to be ready.  He, in the text, is making an effort to get the saints to focus or refocus on Christ and His promise to them.  And I believe that’s where we are today.  Many Christians today have lost their focus.  Just because Christ has not returned already, many in the church have grown slack.  Many are not as diligent as they should be when it comes to making ready for the coming of the Lord.

Humankind cannot continue living on this earth the way they are living.  Something is about to happen.  Something is about to change.  You can almost feel it in the air.  You can not break the laws of God over and over without paying for it.  God almighty Himself is about to stop folk from the evil they are committing.  Too many lives are being taken.  Too many people are being hurt and left behind.  Too many children are being ruined for life.  Families, that great institution created by God, are being destroyed daily.  There is, just like in the Bible, a curse on the land because of the sins of the people.  Nothing short of repentance will save people now.  God will not continue to allow His word to be trampled under feet.  There must be a full turning away from sin.  People must turn to God with their whole heart.

Let me ask you a question.  If God could look beyond your faults, can not you start over again and believe Him?  Isn’t it true that you have messed up enough, failed enough, and sinned enough?  Isn’t it time to give God the rest of your life?  Look what you have made out of it so far.  Now let God make your life what He created it to be.  Let Him come in and build into you a foundation that standeth sure, that will never fall.

The key to this life is faith. Once you believe in what God has done through His Son, God declares you righteous. And a most critical point: you must continue to believe or have faith. You must live a life of faith so that what the Spirit builds into your life can become a part of your daily life. God looks beyond your faults and sees your need. He knew that you could not stop sinning on your own. He knew that you were still human. He knew that you would always be weak. But at the same time, He knew that He put faith in you – and that you can believe or that you have faith no matter what you go through, no matter your experience.

Righteousness is a God thing.  Righteousness comes from the inside.  And it takes the Holy Spirit to change you from the inside out.  His job is to build into us the character of God.  God has never left to you to build into yourself godly character.  You can not do it.  This is why He sent His Spirit.  When He is done with you, your character will be in harmony with God’s character.  Your heart will mirror the heart of God.  For His righteousness will be your righteousness.  But if it is not in your heart first by the Holy Spirit, it will never show up in your life.  For what is inside of you will show up on the outside of you.

No longer is righteousness measured by what a person does or does not do.  From now on, righteousness is measured by what God does, what He declares, what He places in your heart by faith.  If you will receive by faith what God declares the Holy Spirit will come and will begin the process of making you over again from the inside out.  The Holy Spirit’s job is to build into you, into your life, righteousness – the righteousness of God.  He will make you righteous.  Then you won’t have to go around trying to act righteous.  Righteousness is a heart thing.

When a person believes the gospel – the good news, really believes that Jesus Christ saved him or her, God takes that person’s faith and counts it for righteousness.  The person is still weak, still imperfect, still come short of the glory of God, still sins, but because he/she believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, God accepts him/her and counts them righteous.  Upon your confession of faith in Christ Jesus, God looks at you through the eyes of His faith.  His faith says that you are righteous when you believe on His Son.  The key is your faith. Your faith joins His faith and in His presence you become what He calls you or declares you to be, and that is righteous before Him.

This is what has been missing.  Many do not know this.  So they have given up on the church – they come but refuse to get involved.  They have given up on really living for God – they want to but sin won’t let them.  They have given up on the Bible – they use to love to read it but they don’t read it anymore.  They have given up on entering the kingdom of heaven.  They have talked themselves out of living with God throughout eternity.  They have assigned themselves to everlasting punishment, thinking that they are no good.  They say to themselves, I am a sinner; I just can’t help myself.  They are right.  They can not help themselves.  Only God can help them and turn their lives around.

o man, no woman in self can be righteous before God.  There is nothing in you that can make you righteous.  You have to be given the nature of righteousness.  You have to be given a righteous covering or you have to be covered with righteousness.  This can only be done through Christ.  II Cor. 5:21 reads, “For he [God] hath made him [Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him [in Christ].”  Listen, God makes you righteous.  It has nothing to do with what you have done.  It has nothing to do with what you do or do not do.  If you believe on Jesus the Christ, God makes you righteous in Him.

May I ask you a question?  What happened?  What happened?  What took away your faith in God?  What happened?  What took away your fear or respect for God?  What happen?  What did God do to you to make you not love Him anymore?  What did God do to make you not want to serve Him anymore?  What happened?  May I tell you something?  Sin is a terrible thing.  When a person abounds in sin and refuses to come out you lose your mind.  I’m not talking about going crazy; I am talking about a mind unable to make the right choices.  Sin will cause you to lose your mind.  You lose your will – your will to do the will of God.  You lose your desire – your desire to please God.  When you look around, Satan and the world and your flesh is in total control of your mind and your life, and you are not living at all the way God created you to live.