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I'd like to speak to you as we continue to, as we open up this wonderful journey that we're taking through the book of 2 Peter. We finished 1 Peter and what a glorious blessing that has been to us. So I'd like to speak to you from verse one and two and a few more verses actually in this opening to this wonderful book.
But we're looking at faith and I'd like to focus our attention onto those who have obtained a like precious faith. This will be a part one of maybe a three part series and next week what I'd like to do is we're gonna look at those precious possessions.
We're gonna look at all the scriptures and the word of God mainly from Peter. The Apostle Peter talks about those precious possessions that God has given. We're gonna have communion as the Lord sees fit.
But I'd like to pick this up afterwards and there's a lot of reason why. There's a lot to be said about faith and all that the Apostle Peter is speaking of in this wonderful chapter. We'll see it come up here and there quite often.
We saw it in 1 Peter and it's definitely on his heart. The Holy Spirit gives it to him. Faith is important, isn't it? And we're gonna see but even more important is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Faith is that instrument, that gift as I'm saying, we're gonna look at that is obtained. It's obtained, it's received and it's received by God. So please turn with me in saying that this Lord's Day in the second epistle of Peter.
As we look at the opening second epistle of Peter, we looked at the last Lord's Day. We looked at an overview of this whole wonderful book and it's not much really. That's not, I say not much. It's loaded actually but I'll say in the scope of three chapters, that's not what you'd say like 30 chapters or so.
No, it's just three chapters but a lot's there, isn't it? And we will see that. Looking forward to as God wills it as we continue to go through this wonderful book. So hear the word of the living God and reading from verse one and two this morning and we'll look at others as well but we'll look at this as a starting point.
The word of God says Simon Peter, a servant. Some translation says bond servant which I believe is correct. A bond servant, a bond slave 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.
Please bow with me in prayer as we seek our Lord's help and blessing this morning. Our father and our great God, Lord, once again we come to you in prayer and we plead with you, oh God. Have mercy upon us, even your church, Lord.
We desire mercy and not judgment. Even though judgment begins in the house of God, but Lord, it's mercy that we ask for and Lord, we thank you and we praise you for this morning for your eternal word, that word that is unchanging, world without end.
And Father, we thank you and we bless you for this great salvation that's only in Jesus Christ, our Lord, our savior. Lord, we thank you and Lord, we just would ask you that you would sanctify us through and through with your truth this morning because your word is truth.
This is where we get our sanctification.
Is through your word.
So Father, give us eyes to see, ears to hear and a heart to understand and to perceive. Lord, we know your Holy Spirit only can help us. Lord, I'd ask you as your messenger this morning, Lord, as your servant, I'm too weak, Lord, to preach a message that is so great and Lord, I tremble before your word this morning and I would ask you, Lord, to give me the strength to bear up underneath this and to preach this word as you have given to us, Lord.
Help me, hide me, Lord, behind the cross and may I decrease and may Jesus increase. That is our prayer and Lord, our goal this morning is Jesus. Lord, may we bring forth fruit unto unrighteousness, unto holiness for your name's sake and we ask this for your glory in Jesus' name.
Amen.
In this wonderful letter, Simon Peter, it begins. Simon Peter, a slave, a servant, a bond slave. Actually, that's the original. The original is a bond slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. What stands out to me here is how he begins this and we looked a little bit of this last Lord's Day but as he begins this wonderful letter, there's a balance of true humility here.
There's a balance of true humility and that true humility and dignity is as a servant, he was on equal basis with all other Christians, all other Christians. I believe we got some company coming in, praise God.
So he says this first and foremost as he is stressing the importance of true humility as a servant, a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Good to see you, ladies. Good to see you, Devin, God bless you.
Okay, and here we see an obedient slave of Jesus Christ. He is first and foremost a bond slave. Now, what we need to pay attention to this morning is he is first saying he is a servant, he's a bond slave, then he's an apostle.
This is so important. Let us not miss, this is the humility of this apostle. He did not say first, I'm an apostle, even though he had the right to because he was an apostle. Apostle was someone that was divinely called God and commissioned as an eyewitness to the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ.
He could have easily started and said, I'm Peter, Simon Peter, and an apostle and slave, bond slave, but he didn't. He said first a slave, a bond slave, then an apostle. Now, that is significant. Now, the apostle Paul even does this.
You could turn there if you like, but look at Romans one and one, chapter one, verse one. Very quickly, just looking at the apostles here because these apostles were commissioned of God in a special way, and by the way, a lot of people would say, are there apostles today?
No, there isn't. There are people that call themselves apostles. Don't listen to them. They are ignorant to the truth. Don't take my word for it. Take the word of God. This canon is closed. There's no extra revelation.
This is the revelation of God. So these 66 books, and when we talk about the canon of scripture, we talk about the 66 books of the Bible, God has closed it.
It's sealed.
Nothing, and by the way, if anything's added to or subtracted from it, a curse will be upon them. It's serious. And you got people going around today speaking about extra revelation. I've seen signs of new churches pop up.
Welcome to new revelation ministries. I don't go there. There is no new revelation. It is heresy, amen, and we need to be warned of these things. So if you hear someone come up and saying, there's a lot of people call themselves apostles, so and so, I'm telling you, friend, one of two things.
They're very much deceived, and I think that's more the case. They're deceived, and they don't know the word of God, but there's the only apostles, and the last of the apostles that penned in the book of Revelation was John the Apostle.
Well, that's an extra bonus there. I didn't have that in my notes, but I thought it was important for us to understand that. We know that, but there's a lot of people out there that don't know that. They'll go, and I don't care how good they preach.
If they call themselves apostles, they're false apostles, period. Now, Romans 1 and 1, Paul says this. Notice how he says, Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus. Notice the first thing he says. I'm a bondservant.
I am God's slave. I am under the submission and the authority of God Almighty and Jesus Christ. Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus. Then he says, called as an apostle, just like the Apostle Peter. Called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.
Peter was set apart, just the same. Paul was set apart. So these are apostles, but first and foremost, they're bond slaves. They're a bondservant, and that is so important. The order is servant first.
Servant, there's such humility in that. There's such, even, yeah, it's, I'm okay to be addressed personally with Pastor David. I'm okay with that. But I'd like to be looked at as, first of all, as servant, David.
I'm a servant. I'm first and foremost a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. And a lot of people really bear on these titles today, and I think there's a lot of pride behind it. Servant, servant. When we go before, one day we're gonna stand before Jesus Christ.
He's not gonna say, well done, good and faithful.
Pastor?
No, he's not gonna say that, is he? Good and faithful evangelist? Good and faithful so-and-so? Good and faithful servant? Servant, it's a servant. And I think that's important here, the way the Holy Spirit just pressed upon this wonderful man, the Apostle Peter.
But first he says a servant, a servant. Simon Peter, a servant, a bondslave, an apostle of Jesus Christ. He identifies, he is the writer to this letter. I'm not gonna go over this again, but in the first message last Lord's Day, we have, as you well know, there's critics that basically said that he was not the writer because it was like forged.
And we know better, right? The Holy Spirit, right here. Simon Peter, a servant. I believe that says enough. But you can look into that in your study time. There are scholars that basically say that Peter was not the author, but we know better, right?
It says Simon Peter, a servant. Now, he goes on to say this, to them, this is who he's writing it to, who's the audience? The audience is to them. Now, it's a general audience as we know of, but we'll find out later on.
This is the same people that he spoke to and wrote in the first general epistle. The same one, how we know, we'll see that. He says, to them that have obtained light, precious faith. And we see the recipients here.
And you also see it in 2 Peter 3 .1. This second epistle, he says, beloved, now I write unto you, in both, notice that, in both, which I stir up your pure minds. Not corrupt minds. These are the children of God.
They have pure minds. Their minds are pure. By way of remembrance. So we see the author of this letter, Simon Peter. He's a servant, he's an apostle. We see the recipients. And then, those to those who have obtained a light, precious faith with us, through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Now, therefore, this faith is precious. It's a precious faith. And what does it mean by obtained like? When he says like, it depends on your translation. It basically means the same kind. Now, isn't that wonderful?
You have the same, if you are a child of the living God today, you have the same kind of faith as the apostles. Nothing different. Just the same. Isn't that glorious? Just the same faith as Abraham. Just the same as Isaac, and Jacob, and Daniel, and the prophets, and the apostles, and all the great martyrs and the reformers.
Same faith. Same faith.
Same kind of faith. As obtained, that word obtained means received, and we're gonna look at that in the closing of this message. But it's precious. It's precious. As I was studying this, John MacArthur makes this note in his commentary, and I noted, I jotted this down, and I think this is good.
He says, quote, it's a faith here, he says, a faith here, that could mean the objective faith, as in the doctrines of the Christian faith, or it could denote subjective belief, but it's best to understand it in this context without the definite article, in contrast to Jude 3.
As a subjective faith, the Christians, in other words, it's the Christians' power to believe the gospel for salvation, even though belief, he says, in the gospel is commanded of all, so that all are responsible for their obedience, we can't take away from that, right, or disobedience.
And in that sense, it is the human side of salvation. But God still must supernaturally grant the sinners the ability and the power to believe unto salvation, end quote. That's a wonderful quote, because I like it, and it basically says, this gift of faith is given ultimately from God, and also repentance is a twin gift that goes along with it.
It is the gift to lay hold of God, lay hold of eternal life, as Paul said. And that basically, you see this backed up with scripture in Ephesians chapter two. You could go with me there if you like, but it's a great verse.
Ephesians chapter two, verse eight and nine says this, for by grace are you saved, that's God's unmerited favor, God has shown favor. It's not anything we've done, we're gonna see that. You're saved by grace through faith, notice that.
It's through the instrument, it's through faith. And that not of yourselves, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
What's the gift?
The faith, the faith is the gift, see? And then he says, it's not of works, lest any man should boast. So the apostle Peter, the servant Peter, bond slave Peter is in the second letter here with a clear and concise description of the Christian life and he tells us how the Christian life actually begins, it's by faith, that's how it begins.
And by the way, we'll see later, according to Hebrews 12, one and two, that's the way it ends. It begins by faith and it ends by faith. And it's in the person of Jesus Christ and we're gonna see that.
So how the Christian life begins is right here. So before he even describes the counterfeits, the phonies and the hypocrites and the false teachers in chapter two, he describes the true believers. Don't you love that?
He first goes to the genuine article. He goes to the real deal. He goes to the way the believer is. Then he exposes the false teachers. And we see that. And the best way to detect, by the way, a falsehood is to understand the characteristics of what is true.
It makes me think of an illustration here, people that study counterfeits before they can even know the counterfeits, they really don't study the counterfeit, they study the genuine article. They study the one that's real.
Even those that can distinguish between a counterfeit $100 bill versus a real $100 bill. See, those who study that know what is true, what is the genuine. And if you know what is true, the false immediately pops up, you know it.
Discernment is given. First John 4 .1, beloved, believe not every spirit, but try, that means to test the spirits, whether they are of God. And listen to this, and this is so true. This is true 2 ,000 years ago, it's true even more true today.
Because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Yeah, not a few, many. Verse six, we are of God, he that knoweth God, heareth us. He that is not of God, heareth not us. Jesus said, my sheep, hear my voice.
And then he says, hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. There is a spirit of truth, there's a spirit of error. And as we looked at earlier in the ending of 1 Peter in chapter five, Satan is no dunny.
He's very cunning and he's very deceptive. And he comes as an angel of light. So we do not need to be ignorant of his devices. So basically Peter here in the beginning, I'd like to point out, there's three important affirmations.
This is my outline about the true Christian life. So in this message in part one today, we're going to look at these three important affirmations from the word of God briefly. There's more we could probably bring to it, but I'm gonna briefly try to go through it.
The first point is this, is that faith is in a person. That sounds simple, doesn't it? But it's very important. Faith is in a person. And who's that person? The Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ.
He is that person. And we're gonna see why our faith is in him. We don't put our faith in men, only the man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's because he's God. He's the God man. And secondly, we look at that in verse one and two.
And second, faith involves God's power. It involves God's power. We will see that in verse three. And third, faith involves God's precious promises in verse four. So it's faith is in a person, faith involves God's power, and faith involves God's precious promises.
Praise God. These are three affirmations that are fundamental to the Christian life. And in conclusion, we will see how these three affirmations are obtained and how they are received to our personal life.
So this is so important. So let's look at the first one. Faith is in the person. The person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we see this. Notice, he says, Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.
That's who he's, an apostle. He's a servant to Jesus Christ. He's an apostle of Jesus Christ. And then he says, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Now, I love that. Grace, and then he says, verse two, grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord. He just didn't stop with just the knowledge of God. He says, and of Jesus, our Lord, our Lord.
Beloved, the Christian faith begins with faith in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Precious is this faith. It's precious because in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, right here in verse one, two, we see this.
And when he speaks of God and our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, there are not two different persons here. They describe the one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul used a similar expression in the book of Titus, chapter 10, I'm sorry, chapter two, verse 10, which says, not proloning, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things, our Savior, Titus 3, 4.
But after that, the kindness and the love of God, listen to that, the kindness and the love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared. God is a Savior and he has come to save us through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
And Peter reminded his readers here that Jesus Christ is that Savior. There's no other Savior. By repeating this exalted title that he has given, 2 Peter 1, 11 says, for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Notice chapter two, verse 20, for if after they, and that chapter basically deals with false teachers, but notice what he says here. For even if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that's how we escape the pollutions of the world is through Jesus Christ, our God, our Savior.
Now, and then he says, they are again entangled, they are overcome and the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. Why is that so? And we'll look at this more. Because they have a knowledge of the truth, beloved.
They're just not ignorant of this. They know the truth and they outright willfully go against the truth and rebellion. And the scripture says, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. That means it's satanic.
It comes from hell. It comes from Satan. We must know this and it's in the heart. And that's why we need to be regenerated. That's why Jesus says you must be born again. Now, and then chapter three, verse two, that you may be mindful of the words which have been spoken before the holy prophets and of the commandments.
Notice what he says, of the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Then in chapter three, verse 18, but grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's how many times, Lord and Savior, Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, he's a Savior, but he's Lord.
And by the way, he's not gonna be Savior unless he is Lord. Now we don't make him Lord, do we? No one can make Jesus Lord. He's Lord, whether you're saved or unsaved.
Here's the deal.
And I wanna say it like it is in scripture. We submit to him now and bow to him now or we're gonna bow to him later. Everyone's gonna bow. Scripture says in Ephesians, I'm sorry, not Ephesians, but Philippians two, every knee shall bow.
Every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Even the worst of sinners that die. Adolf Hitler would bow before Jesus Christ. All, millions and the billions of people that's lived on this planet will all bow the knee and confess with their tongue that Jesus is Lord.
But here's the deal. We better submit and bow to him now and submit to his Lordship now. But see, he's Lord. We don't make him Lord. If you hear preachers out there saying, make him Lord, forget that.
He is Lord.
He's Lord and Savior. And notice in each of these verses from 2 Peter, Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You cannot separate the two. You cannot say, our God and Savior.
Peter's identifying Jesus Christ as both Lord and Savior. Hebrews 1a, but unto the son, he sayeth, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Isaiah 43, three, don't you love the book of Isaiah?
I love this prophet. He says this in Isaiah 43, three, for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy one of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom and Ethiopia and Saba for thee. Verse 11, I, even I, am the Lord and beside me, there is no Savior.
He's it.
Isaiah 45, 15, barely thou art God, a God, that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior. Verse 21, tell ye and bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient time?
Who hath declared this? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else, no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior. He's just and he's merciful. And he says, there is none beside me.
I don't you love that? There's none that can compare to him. There's none beside God. God is the Savior. And by the way, the name of Jesus actually means Jehovah saves. It means Jehovah saves. It's a Savior.
He is the Savior that brings salvation and the word salvation is a very familiar to the people of that day in which Isaiah was speaking of and even in the opening of Matthew. But it says the vocabulary is meant deliverance.
That's what he means by Savior. He's a deliverer. He delivers us. It's just not saying it by mouth. Oh, Jesus is my Savior. That's not a light thing to say.
He is Savior.
He delivers us. The Savior delivers us. He rescues us and he makes us whole. He delivers us from trouble. He delivers us from the enemy. Now, ultimately may not be here and now. You see a lot of people that was martyred under the enemies but there was a deliverance given to them right into glory.
See, it's a spiritual thing and those who were not afraid and fearful of man and that burned to the stake, they were not fearful of man because they knew who was holding them even though they would go through some torment just temporarily, that they knew they'd be ushered right in the glory.
God was a deliverer and he is a deliverer. Jesus Christ is the Savior. Actually, that's what it says in Matthew. Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from hell. No, it doesn't say that, but he does.
That's a benefit. Save them from their sin. Now that's the deal. He saves us from our sin. He's a great Savior. And you know, this is what I love about God. He is more desirous to save us than we want to be saved.
You think about people that really plead with God, God save me, God save me, and they struggle with that. But you know, God is more desirous to save us than we want to be saved. That is how great the heart of God is.
Acts 4 .12, I love this in Acts. Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. We must be saved. That's Jesus. Jesus is God and Savior.
Now, our Lord and Savior. I love what it says in John, the Gospel of John. We just celebrated the resurrection. We celebrate the resurrection all the time, actually. But at Easter time, our focal point is on that.
But chapter 20, verse 27, 20, I want you to notice this. Jesus comes to Thomas. He's already appeared to the other disciples. In verse 27, and he says to Thomas, then saith he to Thomas, reach hither.
Could you imagine? Here's a man that was doubting. He was an apostle that was doubting Christ being risen from the dead. And he appears right there in flesh and bone. And he comes through the walls. He appears as the glorious.
And he showed himself to over 600 eyewitnesses. And he says to him personally, reach hither thy hand, thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. In verse 28, Thomas answered. He didn't even say, oh yeah, let me do that.
No, it's almost as if he fell down and he said, my Lord and my God. My Lord and my God. And Jesus accepted that worship. What does that tell you about Jesus? He's God.
He's Lord.
He accepts the worship. He never turns to worship away. And Thomas cries out, my Lord and my God. Jesus is Lord and he's Savior. He's God. You know, back to 2 Peter, I'm sorry. Our Lord Jesus Christ, three spiritual commodities given us.
And I want to look real quickly in our first point, these special commodities. There are righteousness, grace, and peace. Righteousness, grace, and peace. Now, when we trust Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, his righteousness becomes your righteousness.
See, we, as you know in scripture, our righteousness is filthy rags, right? So there must be a great exchange. The exchange is that we take off our filthy garments, we repent, come before him as a beggar, and Jesus basically takes off his garments and hands his garments to you.
His garments are pure and white and clean. That's the only way we can even appear before a holy God. Or he would strike us down because that's what he's going to do. He's going to strike down those who rethink their righteousness in their own eyes.
But it's stench, it's filth. That's why you see how Jesus rebukes the Pharisees and the Sadducees so much because their righteousness is really filthy before God. They're basically what they're saying, I'm good and God, I'm better than God.
That's what they're saying. And Jesus gave them a loving, powerful rebuke. And you see this time and time again, but we trust Jesus Christ. He gives us his righteousness and therefore gives us a right standing before God, a holy God, by faith alone.
Now this is the gospel, beloved, and this is why Peter calls it precious faith. Precious faith. Because it is precious. And that precious faith helps you and I to take a hold of God through Jesus. Jesus is that mediator.
We need that mediator or we cannot make it into heaven. Matter of fact, we'd burn up and disintegrate. But there is a protection. There is a security. It's almost like the ark of God. The ark of the covenant.
And there's within that was the law of God and God's presence that represented God's presence, but also the ark back in Noah's day. You have to enter into the ark. And if you notice, look at the ratio there.
Only Noah and his family made it in. The rest of the world perished. And very similar today, Jesus says many, many is gonna go into that broad road of destruction. That's so sad, but it's so true. But few will find that way of eternal life into that straight gate.
But it's very real, beloved, and we better make sure that what we have and what we know is the truth. And I am here to tell you today that what I preach to you from this Bible is true. It's steadfast and it's sure.
And God himself through Jesus Christ is our savior. He gives us the gift of faith that God grants to us to lay hold of him. Hebrews 11, six. I love this verse.
We'll quote it quite often.
But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. It's in this seeking him. But you find him, you find him.
Again, salvation is not earned. And I like what Spurgeon says. Before you sought him, God's already sought you.
He is really the seeker.
Even though the scripture says about seeking, and I looked this up. It was a good question that was given to him. He says, why are we commanded to seek God when God is really the seeker? And he answers that and he says, technically in man's depravity, we don't have the capability to seek God.
Even though God commands us to seek him, but God's already sought us. That's the order. If you go back to Genesis, when Adam fell and Eve fell, God comes. God's seeking them. They're hiding. That order has been the same ever since, beloved.
Man is still hiding, but God still sees them. He can't hide from God. They take fig leaves, their own righteousness, trying to cover themselves. Ultimately, God had to slay an animal and cover them. That's an act of redemption.
That's an act of love. God covers them. But God comes to them. God seeks them. Then he questions them, where art thou, Adam? God knew where he was. He wanted Adam to know where he was. That's the problem, isn't it?
Adam doesn't know where he's at. And Adam, representing the whole human race, is lost, hiding, running from God. But God is seeking him. God is going after him. When God has you marked out, he's going to get you.
He's going to get you. Now, faith is something we can't earn, is it? No. Salvation can't be earned. No. But who earned it?
Jesus Christ.
I love this.
If anyone earned heaven, eternal life, Jesus, our Lord and Savior, earned it for us. How did he earn it? He kept the law. He kept the law of God perfectly. Jesus Christ earned heaven. I like this. We're not saved by our works, but we're saved by his works.
That's the key.
That's why Jesus must be all in all to you and me. Because without Jesus, no eternal life, nothing, no heaven. Hey, and that's why he is heaven of heavens, not the streets of gold. It'd be glorious, right?
I can't wait to get to heaven. And I can't wait to see those wonderful prophets and apostles and share these things and speak to Spurgeon over here and Luther over here and John Knox over here and these great men and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
But, oh my goodness, Jesus. Without Jesus, there would be no heaven. He is the heaven of heavens. He is the bliss of heaven. And by his, by the way, by his active obedience, that's what the act of obedience of God is in Jesus Christ, he kept the law perfectly.
He does this for his people. We can't keep the law. We break the law here and there, even though we have a desire to love and delight in the law, we still break it, don't we? But Jesus himself kept it perfectly.
His motive, think of this, every motive he had was pure and holy. Every thought he had was pure and holy. And everything he did was pure and holy and pleasing to God. And he did this as a man, as a man full of the Holy Spirit.
But yet he was divine, he was deity. It's a mystery. But God sent Jesus Christ to, he basically kept that standard of the law. His good works, his good works. Jesus' good works, not ours.
He kept it.
And also, what else saves us? Not only his good works, but his passive obedience. What's that? That means he died as a substitution or death on the cross as the lamb of God. He took your sin, he took my sin, he became sin.
That's what it says. That, what a savior. That's the gospel of God. And just in one verse, for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
That's the righteousness.
The perfect righteousness.
You know, we sung it this morning, blessed assurance. Notice two verses. Perfect submission, all is at rest. I, my savior, happy and blessed. Perfect submission, perfect submission. And so many, I've heard people think, well, is that talking about my perfect submission?
Not on your life. It's talking about Jesus' perfect submission. That's why I love that song. She's focusing on Christ. Christ is perfect submission. Perfect submission.
Perfect righteousness.
And that is the gift. That's the gift. You know, Titus 3, 5, not by works of righteousness. In other words, not by works of your righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us.
God shows compassion. And even if you're wayward in sin and committing sin, it's not too late. So many people think I've wallowed in the pigsty so much and I can't make my way back to God.
It's dark.
And I'm telling you, God loves you with an everlasting love. He desires you to repent. He will actually even give you the gift to repent, to pull away from it and hate the sin in which you once loved.
And then he would give you the faith to lay hold of eternal life. That's the kind of God we serve.
Hallelujah.
God, unmerited favor, gives us the favor and the gift to lay hold of him. Our God is a God of all grace. 1 Peter 5, 10. He's a God, he channels that grace and favors to us through Jesus Christ. Jesus is that favor.
How do we know that? John 1, 16 says this, and of his fullness we have received. That means we've obtained grace for grace. Grace for grace. And grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And I love that. Righteousness, grace.
Next is peace.
The result of having righteousness through Jesus Christ, experiencing peace, don't you? Isn't that wonderful? When you come to Jesus Christ, you experience peace with God and you experience the peace of God.
I love this because in scripture, it says in Romans 5, 1 and 2, therefore being justified by faith. That's what you're justified by, by faith alone. We have peace with God. There's a peace. You don't have to worry about going to hell.
You don't have to worry about your sins being brought up anymore. He has justified you. And by the way, that justification is a one-time legal act that God declares you righteous, not because of anything that you've done.
See, so many people feel like when I come to God, I got something I gotta do to make him love me. Well, he loves you. You can't change his love, whether you're good or bad or ugly. God loves you with an everlasting love because that's God's nature.
God is love.
It's a holy love.
It's not a passive, weak love. It's a love that was strong enough to sacrifice Jesus to the cross. Well, he says in Romans here, we justify by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
There it is.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith. There it is. Into this grace. How can you tap into this grace? It's by faith and it's by a gift that God has given wherein we stand.
You stand by it. And also not only stand, you rejoice in hope. It's something to rejoice in because that's the Christian life. You have something to rejoice in, of the glory of God, the glory of God. Tremendous verse, tremendous.
Now saying that we've been justified a one-time declaration by God almighty. Isn't that great to know? Almighty God declares you righteous by faith through Jesus Christ because you trust those that trust in the sacrifice of Jesus.
Nothing else. Nothing else. No one else. What he has done and who he is. And by the way, I want to point this out very quickly. That's a one-time act. That's not an ongoing process. Justification by faith is a act, a one-time act that has happened in heaven as we trust Jesus Christ.
That's peace with God. Now very quickly, I want to say this.
A lot of people get confused with it.
Then sanctification begins. Now sanctification is an ongoing act. Sanctification is an ongoing process because we still have remaining sin. That remaining sin must be dealt with, right? You know what I'm talking about.
Every day. I get pricked to the heart. I get something that I've done or something I said or something I didn't say or something I did I didn't do. I fail somehow. Even though my heart's direction is in pleasing God, I somehow have slipped up.
And God is in process of molding me, making me like Jesus. He sanctifies me. I go to the word. I go to prayer. Oh God, purge me. And I'm telling you, if we're not bothered by that,.
There's a problem.
If we're not bothered by our sins, there's a problem. More than likely, you're not saved. And I say this because the sinner loves, and we're gonna look at this in a minute. The sinner loves to do what he likes to do.
He likes to sin. The nature of the sinner. But the nature of a child of God has changed. Even though he has remaining sin to deal with in sanctification, he's changed. He's a changed person. He doesn't like to do the things he used to do.
Matter of fact, he doesn't do them. And if he does do them, he's gonna be disciplined by God. Now, let me go on. There we have the peace with God, the peace of God. Peace of God, Philippians 4, 6, and 7.
Be careful. That means be anxious for nothing. We're not to have anxiety for nothing. Now, I know this is a struggle, but it says in scripture, be careful for nothing. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything, not some things, but in everything, by prayer, supplication, with thanksgiving, let thanksgiving be there.
Let your request be made known unto God. He knows your request, but make it be known to God. He wants to hear you. It's almost like a father loves to hear their children come to their father and say, Daddy, I have a need here.
Will you help me? I tell you, does that not delight a father or a mother that loves their children to come and ask them to help me, give me some counsel? Well, even more so. God loves to hear his children come to him, even though he knows everything already.
He wants to, and also, and ultimately in the end, when he gives the answers and when he graces them, the glory is his. The glory is his. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
What keeps your hearts and minds? It's the peace of God, but it's through Christ Jesus. Peter tells us, Peter tells us, grace and peace be multiplied. Now, I love that word multiplied. Let's look at that for a minute.
That's mathematical, isn't it? You know about multiplication? I wasn't too good in math, but I know what multiplication is. It doesn't mean just once. It means over and over and over and over and over again.
It reminds me of what Peter said to Jesus. Lord, how often should I forget my brother? Seven times? Jesus said seven times. How about 70 times seven? He gave multiplication to it. In other words, over and over and over again, you forgive God.
That's the way God is.
And that's the way his children are.
We reflect his image. We forgive just not once, twice, three times, four times, hundreds, thousands, yes. Over and over, it's unending, abundant streams of mercy coming from God above. Beloved, and this is wonderful, isn't it?
This is wonderful. Now, faith also involves, not only the person of God, it involves God's power. Faith involves God's, notice with me verse three. According as his divine power is given to us, all things that pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.
Christian life begins with saving faith, faith in the person of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 12, two. First part, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. In other words, what he's saying is he's the originator and he will end you off.
He begins you off, he finishes you off. I've seen a lot of people begin this race, beloved, and I've seen a lot of them fall by the wayside. I'm telling you, it's disheartening, isn't it? They didn't persevere.
Jesus says, he that perseveres or endears to the end shall be saved. And by the way, God's elect will make it all the way to the end. They will make it. You can look at that in scripture, but it says God is the one that begins us and he's the one that ends us.
For it became of him, Hebrews 2, 10, for whom all things and by whom all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Listen to that. Without Christ's humiliation, without Christ's sufferings, there could be no redemption.
Jesus learned obedience through the sufferings. Isn't that amazing? That's the powerful school of suffering. Jesus mastered it, by the way. Jesus aced it with an A plus. And he did it as a man full of the Holy Ghost.
But without redemption, and there could be no glorification. Think of it. There had to be that. The price had to be paid by bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
His divine nature was already perfect, but in his human nature, he was perfected. He was perfected through his perfect submission, perfect obedience. It's just mind boggling. Even including his suffering in order that he might be an understanding high priest, a perfect example.
What a savior. Perseverance, sufficiency. Colossians 2 .10. Colossians 2 .10. And you are complete in him. Why is Peter telling us what he's telling us about this wonderful pertaining to life and godliness?
First, it's because of the edification of the believers. But also, if you notice in chapter two, Peter tells us and warns us against false teachers that had to have a special new revelation, by the way, a new doctrine which they were preaching.
He knew better. You can't add to the gospel. As a matter of fact, if it's adding to it, it's another gospel. You can't add to the gospel. The gospel stands unique. Nothing you cannot add to it or subtract to it.
And if you do, it's another gospel. And if you preach any other gospel, as it says in scripture, let it be accursed. Let it be accursed. It's a false gospel. Now, there's much more I'd like to embark on here, but I gotta move on here.
We have, let me say this one more thing before we move on to our next point. God never has to call back any of his models because something is lacking or something is faulty. We're talking about pertaining to life and godliness.
As a baby has a definite genetic structure within them, as this little baby, as Devin is holding, congratulations, by the way. That baby already has within it the genetic that determines how he or she will grow.
It's there. Isn't it precious? So that the believer, same, genetically is structured to experience glory and virtue. You see what I'm saying? This is a child of God. When you're born, as a newborn child of God, desiring the baby desires the milk, crying out for milk, we cry out for God's word.
One glorious day, when we are glorified, we will be like Jesus and we will be complete in him. Romans 8, 29, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
First John 3, 2, beloved, now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear that we shall what we shall be, but we know, do you know? We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. That will happen.
That's the desire of the child of God is to be more like Jesus Christ. And that's God's goal for us, by the way, to be more like Jesus. We will be perfected completely when we see him face to face, when we're glorified.
As of now, the command is be holy as I'm holy. Be set apart from the world. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
It's all in the world, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, the lust of the eyes. It's all of the world and it's passing away. But he that does the will of God abides forever. Well, moving right along, the next is faith involves God's promises, promises of God.
And by the way, Peter calls this precious promises. We're gonna look more into that next week. We are made to be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, as Peter says.
Now, let me say, that is all and growing in the grace and the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ. And basically what Peter is saying is that, well, this is what he's saying in essence. Let me paraphrase it.
He's saying, may God bless you abundantly with his special favor. That's grace. Wonderful peace that it seeds your mind. And as you come to know Jesus, our God and our Lord better and better, as we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life.
He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness. And by that same mighty power, he has given us all of his rich and precious promises. And he has promised that you will escape the corruption that's all around you caused by evil desires and that you will share personally in his divine nature.
God has not only given us all that we need that pertains to life and godliness, but he's also given us his holy word to enable us by his holy spirit to grow in this life of godliness. He gives you those gifts and helps us by his blessed holy spirit.
Now, there are several things I'd like to point out here. And what he's talking about is precious and the precious possessions, we'll look at this again next week, more God has given through Jesus Christ.
It is precious, precious.
That means it's worth more than anything. It's of great value and infinite worth. If you have something of great value, don't you care for it and don't you love it and don't you treasure it? It's everything, precious.
Be partakers. He said, you're partakers of the divine nature. Oh my, what does this mean? Allow me to bring this out. And let me see how much time I have. My time is going on me quick. I'm going to close with this.
I have much more to say here, but I want to close with this. It means that the believer must be, and that has been born again. And the scripture says, and remember this in John 3, Jesus speaks to a very religious man.
People look at us a lot of times and say, oh, you're very religious. No, no, no, don't go there. No, there's nothing good in me. We're just vile, wretched sinners saved by the grace of God, period. You see, we're all born into this sin.
I said, don't even go there. Paul the apostle even called himself the chiefest of sinners. I want you to get this. Those that have been born again, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, shares in the partakers in union,.
Communion with God's holiness.
I want you to think of that. God, though we were once sinful, God now has brought us in to his family to be partakers of his holiness, his divine holiness. We're talking about something that would disintegrate us, folks.
But he said, you could be partakers of his holiness, and it's all through Jesus Christ by faith. Now, let me give some illustrations here. It's impossible to do outside of Jesus Christ. It's impossible for sinners to be part of this because they don't even come to the foot of the cross.
You must begin at the cross and see Jesus that took your place and took your sin and loves you.
And then he commands you to repent. But that's, most people say, that's hard.
Yeah, it's hard, but God will even help you and give you the gift to turn away from that sin.
You know why?
That something will happen within you. This is regeneration. He takes out a hard, stony heart, put in a heart of flesh, and causes you to fear him and to love him. God causes it.
This is the Bible.
This is not religion. This is not me somehow earning my way to heaven. This is the good gift of God through faith, precious faith. And now let me give us an illustration. There's several things here. Nature determines appetite.
Nature determines behavior. Nature determines environment. And nature determines association. I got those points from Warren Wiersbe, the book you gave me. Praise God, I love Warren Wiersbe. But basically, what's he saying here?
Let me give you an example. He said, nature determines appetite.
What does a pig do?
A pig loves slop, doesn't he?
What's a dog do?
Have you ever seen a dog eat his own vomit? I know it's disgusting, but I've actually witnessed this. Have y 'all witnessed this? I have seen a dog barf up his food and then go back. You may not eat lunch after this.
And he'll go back and he'll eat his own vomit. Why does he do that?
That's his nature.
The pig likes the pigsty because he's a pig. The dog will eat his own vomit because he's a dog. Scripture refers to those that are dogs will be outside of the kingdom of God. Now, what's he talking about?
He's talking about the nature. Nature determines appetite, 2 Peter 2 .22, that's there. For example, and he talks about that. And like I said, I've witnessed that. And also, let me talk about a lion. A lion is aggressive and vicious.
A sheep is passive. A wolf is aggressive. That's the nature. Don't you see this? So what I'm saying is nature determines the behavior. Now, not only the appetite, it's the behavior. An eagle flies because an eagle, that's the nature of an eagle.
A dolphin in the ocean swims because that's the nature of the dolphin, like a fish. Nature determines environment. Listen to this. Not only determines appetite, behavior, and environment, but squirrels, I'm a country boy, so I wrote this down.
Squirrels climb trees because squirrels are squirrels. Moes burrow underneath the ground because they're moes. That's their nature. That's their environment. A trout swims in the streams of water because it's a trout.
Oh, what are you getting to, pastor?
It's the nature. Your nature must be changed. It must be born again.
Nature determines association too. Who you keep company with. Who you like to keep company with. You see what I'm saying? When God changes you, you become a new creation. To those who are in Jesus Christ, all things have passed away.
All things have become new.
Folks, not just some things, all things. You become a new creation.
God speaks into the void and the darkness.
And says, let there be light.
And there's light. That's a miracle.
And the new birth is even a greater miracle.
Nature determines appetite. Nature determines behavior. Nature determines environment. And what is he saying here? Hebrews 12, 10. For they, speaking of our earthly fathers, they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure.
But he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. So if you're a child of God, what are you saying? You're going to be disciplined. You're going to be chastened because you're a part of the family of God so that you may be partakers of his holiness,.
His divine nature.
And also, let me bring this out from that verse I just brought out. You are illegitimate or illegitimate. And I'm not trying to curse here, but that's the proper use of the word bastard, okay? That's what it means.
The word bastard basically means illegitimate. Did you know that this is the only time that word illegitimate or bastard is used in Scripture? And there's a reason for it. That word's become a slang. And I'm not using that for a slang.
I'm using it in the correct context. But because naturally being disciplined, being loved by your parents, you are part of that family. And you are loved, right? And it boggles my mind that parents that do not discipline lovingly their children.
There's something wrong. And so no wonder we have a whole generation that's gone astray. They don't even know what they're being taught. And then families are no longer families. Fathers are absent. They're not there to lead and guide and show them what it means to be a man.
Now, this is even a controversy. Controversial, I should say. Shouldn't be because God is the one who sets the record straight. But let me get back to here. Notice here in the Scriptures that there's no other time in the Scriptures that this term is used.
Nowhere else in Scripture, illegitimate, bastard. In the Greek literature of those who have born slaves or born concubines, John MacArthur says, there could be in this implied reference to Hagar and Ishmael in Genesis 16.
Abraham's concubine and illegitimate son. Doesn't that make sense? And I agree with MacArthur on that. But the point is this. A believer are God's children. And when you are God's children and you step aside and sin against God, God is gonna come with a rod because he loves you and he wants you to be partakers of his holiness.
Not because you're not a child of God, it's because you are God's child. He disciplines you, he loves you, he wants you to be partaker of his divine nature.
His holiness.
When my time's gone. So a believer's behavior ought to be like that of his father in heaven. He ought to live in the kind of a spiritual environment because he's changed within. Second Corinthians 6 .14, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
For what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? And the answer is none.
You're different.
You're supposed to be different. And for the people that have a hard time with rejection, I can't see that being a problem because you know if you're one with God, you're with the majority. And Jesus basically said it.
Most of the world is heading on a grease slide right into hell, folks. That's why Peter says you better make your calling and election sure. Now this is serious. We better know who we are with the Lord.
Closing verses. Godly living is a result of cultivating that new nature. In other words, we must, if we're partakers of the divine nature, we take time to be holy. We love God's word. We love praying.
It's not like grinding my teeth.
Oh, I gotta pray somehow.
I gotta somehow. But folks, in my heart, I wanna go to God and love him more. And matter of fact, I feel that burden that, oh God, I don't love you enough. But I know I can't try within myself to muster it up.
It's the trusting.
It's not in the trying, it's the trusting. It's in the leaning because he loves me. And I know his love is holy. And it's not something I earn. It's something Jesus has earned for me. And Jesus has showed to me.
And Jesus has demonstrated to me because by faith I see him on that tree that he died for me. By faith, I believe every word in this book. 2 Peter 2 .9, the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of the temptations, and to reserve the unjust until the day of the judgment to be punished.
It sounds like Peter has been reading Psalm 34 .17,.
The righteous cry,.
And the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all of their troubles. Psalm 1 .6, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous. The Lord knows those are his, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Only two, folks.
You're saved or you're lost. You're in Christ or outside of Christ. And the Lord knows how to deliver the godly because the Lord knows the way of the righteous. Let me close with J .C. Ryle. What is true faith?
Lay and hold, he says, of the Savior's hand, leaning on a husband's arm, receiving a physician's medicine. It brings with it nothing to Christ, but a sinful man's soul. It gives nothing, listen to this, it gives nothing, contributes nothing, pays nothing, performs nothing, only receives and he takes, accepts, grasps, embraces the glorious gift of justification with Christ, which Christ bestows.
That's faith.
And we sing it. It's an old, old hymn.
I love it.
And I won't close, I promise you. Rock of Ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and let the blood from thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure.
Could my tears forever flow? Listen to this. Could my zeal no longer know? These for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone. In my hand no price I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. While I draw this fleeting breath, when my eyes are closed in death, when I rise to worlds unknown and behold thee on thy judgment throne.
Rock of Ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. That's precious faith. And folks, let me close with this. The command is repent or likewise perish. That repentance is turning away from that sin.
And hating that sin, it's a command of God. This is not a command of a preacher. This is God Almighty, Jesus Christ. The first thing he preached was the kingdom of God. And he says repent, unless you likewise perish.
Repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel. Notice that, the twin gifts. Turning from sin and turning toward God. Turning from sin, turning toward God. And I charge you today, if you have not come to Jesus Christ, come, he's willing.
He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
He's patient.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for this word. Lord, we thank you for the gospel. We thank you, Lord, for the knowledge that is given to us through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Lord, you have given this through your holy word.
Lord, through my stammering words and lips today, Lord, you even, I just pray that this gospel takes a hold of any heart here that does not know you. That they would come to know you in the fullness. And it's only through Jesus Christ.
Only through Christ. By simply coming as a child, in humble, childlike faith. And like your word says through Peter, Lord, wherefore, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. If we do these things, you shall never fall.
Lord, we thank you. Thank you for the unspeakable gift through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And the gifts you have given in faith and repentance. We praise you and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.