Let us turn to God's Word in
that second portion that we read. The second epistle general of
Peter. And reading again in the first
verse of chapter 1. 2 Peter 1.1 Simon Peter a servant 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." We
were considering last Lord's Day evening just two words found
in Mark chapter 16 and verse 7. The message that was sent
to the apostles of Christ after his resurrection from the dead. The angels spake to those women
who had gone early to the sepulchre and found the sepulchre empty. Christ was risen from the dead
and they saw a young man clothed in white, he was an angel. And
he said to them, Go your way, tell his disciples and Peter
that he is not here. He is risen and gone before you
to Galilee, as he said. We thought in particular then
about Peter was singled out. Go your way, tell his disciples
and Peter. And Peter. Peter was the one
who had so sadly fallen and denied the Lord Jesus Christ, denied
Him with curses. Now the Lord had warned him of
this, Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you that
he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee that thy
faith fail not, and when thou art converted, when thou art
restored, strengthen thy Brethren, have we observed something of
Peter in his failings, in his sins? His unbelief, his unbelief. You know, the Lord, when He saved
him, remember how Christ had come to the disciples walking
upon the waters and Peter was there climbing out of the boat
to meet the Lord? But then, so very conscious of
the elements all around him beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord,
save me. And immediately he's saved, he's
in the boat. But the Lord speaks to him, O
thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? He doubted. He was on belief even when he
made his great confession at Caesarea Philippi. And Christ
said to him in flesh and blood, I have not revealed it unto thee,
but my Father which is in heaven. And then as the Lord began to
speak of the purpose of his coming, the death, that he must die at
Jerusalem, Peter takes him aside and begins to rebuke him. He'll have no talk of Christ
dying and the Lord has to turn to Peter and address him even
as Satan. Satan, get thee behind me, he
said. Our Saviour is not the things that be of God, but the
things that be of men. It's unbelief. He was many times
guilty of it. Not only unbelief, but he was
guilty of pride. Often these two are close together,
are they not? Pride and unbelief. We see the
two there in the Garden of Eden when our first parents transgressed
and fell. There's pride, there's unbelief.
And with Peter there was pride. Though all denied he says to
the Lord, I'll never deny, I'm willing to go to prison with
them. For Peter, alas, he foully denied the Lord, and denied him
with terrible cursings. We observe then something of
Peter's failings, his sins last time. But also we saw there the
faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan had desired to have all
the disciples. Satan had desired to have you,
that he may sift you as wheat. The pronoun is a plural pronoun
there in Luke 22. But what does the Lord say? He's
addressing Simon and he says, I have prayed for them. that
thy faith fail not the singular pronoun Peter needed the prayers
of the Lord Jesus the other disciples needed those prayers but at that
time Peter in particular and how faithful the Lord was the
Lord prayed for him and he was converted that's the word that's
used there in Luke 22 32 when they were converted but he was
already a converted man it wasn't that he was converted again,
he was restored, his faith was restored but so great had been
his fall, we might say it was like another conversion when
he came again to faith when the Lord looked upon him and Peter
remembered the word of the Lord and he wept those bitter tears
for he was restored and so he was able to minister to others
when thou art converted the Lord said strengthen my brethren and
so we find this man doing that very thing, and we have these
epistles that were written by the Apostle, yes, written under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but nonetheless, it is Peter,
he's a human instrument in the hand of the Spirit. Peter, an
apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout
Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied." So
we address this, that those who are of faith, the faith of God's
elect, though they be scattered in many regions. And there we
have then the beginning of the first general epistle, and then
here in the second epistle. Simon
Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that
have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. What does he speak of here? he
speaks of faith and he knew something of faith this man, he had a real
faith a faith so sorely tried and so sorely tested but a faith
that was proved to be so genuine like unto precious metal, like
unto gold and so I want tonight to say something of this faith
he addresses them that have obtained like precious faith with us,
that is with the apostles, the same faith as his faith. And I want to divide the subject
matter into three parts, first of all to say something with
regards to the nature of this precious faith, and then secondly
to consider the source of this faith, and then finally to speak
on the object. of such a faith as he's spoken
of. First of all, the nature of precious
faith. Now, as we've said on previous
occasions, when we come to the Word of God we discover that
there are different faiths. All faith that is spoken of here
in the Bible is not necessarily saving faith, justifying faith. There are various types of faith
There is a faith that even the devils have. Remember the words
of James, chapter 2 and verse 19. He says, To some, thou believest
that there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe
and tremble. What is your faith? He is saying,
nothing more than that. The faith that the demons possess.
The devils tremble before God. We see it, do we not, in the
ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ there at the beginning of the
Gospel in Mark's account in Mark chapter 1 and verses 23 and 24
we see Christ as he commences, he's in the synagogue there in
Capernaum and we're told verse 23 there was in their synagogue
a man with an unclean spirit and he cried out saying let us
alone what have we to do with thee thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee who thou art the Holy One of God and Jesus rebuked
him saying hold thy peace and come out of him but see how the
demons know and acknowledge the Lord Jesus I know thee who thou
art says the demon the Holy One of God, the devil's believing.
Oh friends, we need something more than that sort of a faith,
even the faith of a demon who trembles, who knows something
of fear in the presence of Him who is God manifest in the flesh. We see also that there is in
Scripture a faith that is associated with miracles, the faith of miracles,
when Paul writes of that greatly gifted church of the Corinthians
and he has to rebuke them but they were a church so favoured
there were many gifts there were great diversities of gifts amongst
the believers there at Corinth and there in 1 Corinthians chapter
12 Paul speaks of the gifts Verse
8 he says, "...to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom,
to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another
faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healing
by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another
prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another diverse
kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues,
to another sorry, to another the interpretation of Tom's then
he goes on to say all these worketh that one and the self same spirit
dividing to every man severally as he will they don't all have
the same gift there are a great diversity of gifts and some have
one gift and some have another gift but amongst those gifts
he speaks of faith in verse 9, to another faith, by the same
Spirit. Now clearly this was not saving
faith, because all who were the Lord's people there in the church
at Corinth, all of them had that gift of saving faith. That was
what distinguished them from the unbelieving. This is clearly
a remarkable faith that seems to be associated with those gifts,
those strange gifts that were evident amongst the New Testament
churches. There is then a faith, a faith
of miracles, quite different to saving faith. And then we
know also that solemnly there is a faith that is just a temporary
faith a notional faith we have those passages in Hebrews chapter
6 and again in Hebrews chapter 10 those words that we sometimes
might find to be such searching words when they are applied to
us Paul writes there for example in chapter 6 of Hebrews in verse
6 it is impossible It is impossible for those who were once enlightened,
and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers
of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the
powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew
them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the
Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. It is impossible, he says, for
these to be restored. And yet they seem to have faith. They seem to have faith. Clearly
it was not saving faith. Here is one of the marks of saving
faith. He that shall endure unto the
end, the same shall be saved. And yet those were accepted as
having received a remarkable gift from God. But that faith
was not siding, it was only notional and temporal. See how searching
the word of God is. There's a faith that is only
the faith of the devils. There's a faith that, yes, it's
associated with miraculous things, strange things. There's a faith
that is just notional and passing. and we probably certainly are
aware of some who did once run well and something has hindered
them. We hope they might simply be in a sad backslidden state
and they will eventually be restored but we know not. Maybe their
faith was just that temperified. And then of course there is a
faith that we can say is simply natural. There are many who are
theists, not all are atheists. I suppose even today in this
nation the majority of people are not about atheists. The fool says in his heart there
is no God. Men will acknowledge that God
is. They might even acknowledge the truth concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ. But it's just a natural phase,
it's not saving. There are all these different
faiths and then we come to this saving faith. And this is the
faith that is spoken of here, is it not? Peter addresses himself
to certain people. To them that have obtained, he
says, like precious faith with us, that is with us apostles.
He is a servant and an apostle. Here is the faith of the apostles
that is being spoken of in the text. And this faith, this apostolic
faith, is that that is so sorely tried. And it is tried, that's
what Peter says, does he not, there in the first epistle. In verse 5 of chapter 1, he says,
"...who are kept by the power of God Through faith unto salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein ye greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through
manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much
more precious than the gall that perishes, though it be tried
with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at
the appearing of Jesus Christ. Use his this word precious so
many times and here he speaks of the precious trial where there
is precious faith there is that precious trying of the faith
and how it is being proved as it were in the crucible and because
it is genuine it comes forth as gold it is seen to be the
real article and so they're kept in spite of all the trial And
this is the common lot of those who know this saving fight, this
justifying fight, this fight that was the fight of the apostles.
Because Peter goes on to say there in chapter 4 of his first
epistle in verse 12, Beloved, think it not strange concerning
the fiery trial, which is to try you as though some strange
thing happened unto you, but rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers
of Christ's offerings, that when his glory shall be revealed,
ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. Isn't that strange? This is the experience of those
who have faith. They know what it is, you see,
to be in the midst of the fiery trial. These two come together,
do they not? What does the Apostle Paul say
at the end of the opening chapter in his letter to the Philippians? It was given to you in the behalf
of Christ, not only to believe on Him, he says, but also to
suffer for His sake. and the faith you see and the
suffering that comes with faith this was Peter's experience this
was Peter's experience all we knew what it was did that man
to be in the sieve to have his faith sifted in the sieve of
Satan where there is saving faith and there is the trial and there
is an outward trial in a sense, there is an outward aspect to
that trial of faith how in that first epistle we see Peter addressing
himself to the strangers strangers he says scattered all
these are God's children is it not in this world I know that
God in his goodness and in his mercy He brings us and he sets
the solitary in families. We have the doctrine of the local
church and as Baptists we believe of course in the gathered church.
We don't believe in a territorial church, a state church, you know
like they do in the Church of England where they divide the
country into two provinces and then into different dioceses
with a bishop over each diocese and then each diocese divided
into parishes and the whole country you see is one big church so
they would say well we don't believe that we
believe that the church is made up of those who have been called
out by the grace of God and God gathers his children together
and He forms them into local churches. But how often God's
children feel themselves in this world to be strangers. Isn't that our experience? We're
not always in company with the people of God. We have to mix
with the men and women of the world and we find ourselves so
often very much alone and isolated. It's a great trial. But here
is Here is Peter and he addresses those in the first epistle and
speaks of them as the strangers. For they're strangers, they're
pilgrims in this world and they're scattered abroad and often times
they feel themselves to be isolated and alone. And this is the experience
of the godly I say, it's the experience of the psalmist. What
does the Psalmist say there in the 102nd Psalm at verse 7? I
watch and am as a sparrow alone, he says, upon the housetop. Do we not sometimes feel like
that in our experience? We wonder really, do any of God's
children ever have the sort of thoughts and feelings that we
have? When we're struggling with our own natures and when so many
sins arise within our hearts, we think surely God's children
don't know these sort of things. I'm one who is so different to
everyone else. I'm like a speckled bird. God's
children, you see, they're scattered. It's part of their trial. We
see it in Elijah. What does he say? In all the
bitterness of his soul, I, even I only, am left, he says. And
yet how wrong he was. How wrong he was. There were
7,000 in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal. He was not all alone. But you
see, so often God's children think like Elijah, we think we're
alone, no one's like us, we're different. And it's so much parts
and parcel, it would appear, of being a child of God, being
a Christian, feeling to be so much alone. See how he writes
here in the second epistle. He says, There were false prophets
also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers
among you, who privily shall bring indomitable heresies, even
denying the Lord that bought them. and bring upon themselves
swift destruction, many shall follow their pernicious ways,
by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of."
God's children, you see, even amongst those who would profess
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, sometimes are evil spoken of,
dismissed, extremists. That's how people talk about
God's children. and many trials, not only from
those who are altogether without, but also those who are within. There's a remarkable little hymn
in the book, 223, which speaks of the outcasts. The outcasts
of Israel, Lord, pity outcasts, vile and base, the poor dependents
on thy grace, whom men disturb as call, by sinners and by saints
withstood, for these too bad for those too good condemned
and shunned by all. Troubles in Israel that's what
God's children are sometimes accused of being just as was
the case with Elijah there are trials in trials that come from
without but then there are also those trials the trying of faith
that comes from within and we've already intimated something of
this, concerning that that is in our old nature. What does
Peter say here at verse 4? He says, of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Believers
are partakers of the divine nature. In other words, they're born
again. They're born from above, they're
born of the Spirit, and when they're born again they have
a new nature. But they also possess that old nature. This is why
they have to mortify, put to death the deeds of the flesh. Remember what John says writing
in his first epistle, in 1 John 3 and verse 9, he says, Whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin, Because his seed remaineth
in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. That's the
new seed. That's the divine nature. It
cannot sin. But there's the old nature also.
The Lord Jesus in John chapter 3 when he speaks of the necessity
of that new birth. He must be born again. What does
he say? That that he is born of the flesh is flesh. that that
is born of the Spirit is spirit. And this is the believer you
see. There is the new birth, there is that divine nature,
there's that seed within him that cannot sin, but there's
the old nature. And so what does Paul say? He
speaks of the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh, and he cannot do the thing that he would. This is
the conflict. This is part of that good fight of faith. And
we read of it in some detail, do we not, there in the 7th chapter
of the epistle to the Romans, you know, how Paul speaks of
his own experience there. All wretched man that I am, he
cries out, you shall deliver me from the body of this death.
He feels the old nature is a terrible burden, the body of sin and death,
and he has to carry about with it. Who can deliver him from
this? I thank God, he says, through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Oh, there is that trial, you
see, that trial of faith. There's the life of God in the
soul of a man, but how that life so often seems to be overwhelmed
by the old nature. The Hymn writer says, true faith's
the life of God. Deep in the heart it lies, it
lives, and labours on the low. though damned it never dies.
For there is the trying of faith, where there is real faith, friends,
we have to examine ourselves and prove ourselves and know
ourselves. We have to give that diligence
to make our calling and our election sure, to see to it that this
is our faith, this faith that was the faith of the Apostle,
of Simon Peter and the faith of the other apostles to them
that have obtained, he says, like precious faith with us. The nature of it then. It's different
to those other faiths. And we see it because it's that
faith that is so sorely tested and tried. God proves it. And that's what makes it such
a precious thing. It's like precious gold. But
let us turn in the second place to consider the source of the
precious faith. What makes a thing precious to
us so often? Is it not the one who gave us
a gift? You receive a gift from a loved
one. How precious it is. Maybe we have some letter that
we received from our parents. The last letter we ever received
from a dear mother. We don't want that destroyed.
We want to keep that letter. It's precious. Because of the
one who wrote to us. Or when our little children give
us some simple little thing. It's brought off to preschool
and They make some little model and they come home and they present
it to us and we can't destroy it. It's precious. It's the giver
who makes the gift so precious to us. And who is the one who
is the giver of faith? Faith, friends, is the gift of
God. Faith is the work of God, this
saving faith. It is provided by God. It's not
a duty that we have to perform in order that we might be saved.
It is clearly the gift of God. And that's what's really emphasized
here in this verse. To them that have obtained like
precious faith with us. The verb, to obtain. Now, I know
I've said this before, but I'll say it again because I think
it bears repeating. This verb, to obtain, literally
means to obtain a thing by the casting of a lot. It's associated with the casting
of lots. And we know what it is, maybe
as children playing with our friends, and we would sometimes
draw lots. when we divide into different
teams, we draw the lots. And what does the wise man say
concerning the lots? Proverbs 16.33, The lot is cast
into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. We think it's just a chance thing. You take that lot instead of
that lot. And you don't know. It's a chance
thing, but it's not a chance thing. The fictitious powers
of chance and fortune I defy my life's minutest circumstance
is subject to his heart. The whole disposing thereof is
of the Lord's. And so this faith, you see, the
obtaining of like precious faith, it is sovereignly disposed of
by God. God is the one who gives the
gift. And God gives it to this one, but he's not given to that
one. Solemn is it not? But it is that
truth, that truth of the sovereignty of God. That truth that is unfolded
to us in the doctrine of God's eternal election. God disposes
of his gifts as and when and where he will. By grace are you
saved. through faith and that not of
yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man
should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should work
in them. For God is not only the giver
but this faith is also the work of God. His workmanship His workmanship
created in Christ Jesus. What do we read again in Colossians
chapter 2 and verse 12? We have that faith, Paul says,
that is of the operation of God. Faith that is of the operation
of God. It's a sovereign operation of
God. It's the gift of God, yes. But it is also the work of God. Where is the source of this faith,
you say? It comes from God. It is God's
gift. It is God's great work in the
soul of the sinner. It is that that we see as the
consequence of the new birth, is it not? There can be no saving
faith until there is the communication of that newness of life. Regeneration must come first
before ever there can be any saving faith. But then this faith
is also a faith that is procured and purchased by the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. Look again at the words of the
text. They have obtained, like precious
faith with us, it says, through the righteousness of God and
our Saviour Jesus Christ. It is through, or literally in, the righteousness of God and
our Saviour Jesus Christ. That's how faith comes. The righteousness,
what is the righteousness, must be before the faith. Because
the faith comes through the righteousness. That's what the verse is saying,
is it not? Here we see the great truth of
eternal justification. The eternal justification. that
was purposed from eternity but it must come into the soul experience
of the poor sinner he must come to experience that righteousness
but that righteousness is an eternal righteousness God justifies
the ungodly the faith isn't that that comes
to cause the sinner to be accounted
righteous, the righteousness is already there in the great
eternal purpose of God and that righteousness was accomplished
here in time through the ministry, the life and death of the Lord
Jesus Christ and we obtain like precious faith through that righteousness
it's interesting what the Apostle Paul says in the beginning of
Romans chapter 5. You know, in the original New
Testament Greek, there's no punctuation. The punctuation as we have it,
of course, in our Authorized Version is that that was introduced
by the translators. Now, Romans 5.1 reads like this,
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. But I agree with those who say
that the punctuation is not really correct because it suggests,
you see, that we're justified by faith. Rather should we read
it like this, therefore being justified, comma, by faith we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The justification
is first, the faith comes after, the righteousness is first, the
faith comes after, it's eternal justification. It's that that
was purposed in the eternal covenant between God the Father and God
the Son. It's that righteousness that
was accomplished here in time by the Lord Jesus Christ when
He was made of a woman and made under the law and stood in that
law place of His people and obeyed that law and was obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. And it's that righteousness
that now becomes a reality in the soul of the sinner when he
receives that justifying faith well that really brings me to
consider our third point which is the object the object of precious
faith so to say something with regards to the nature of the
faith it is that faith that is different to all those those
other faiths that are spoken of sometimes it is that faith
that is sorely tried and tested and proved it is God who is the
source of it it is the gift of God, it is the work of God it's
that that was procured and purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ when
he came to fulfill all righteousness And then thirdly, the object.
The object of precious faith. Now, some say, how can we explain
what faith is? You might say to me, Pastor,
can you define to me, can you tell me just what faith is? Now
we do have a definition in the Bible. Remember Hebrews chapter
11, the great chapter on faith that speaks of the faith of those
in the Old Testament Scriptures in the opening verse there. Faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. The substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen. But I can't really think
of any other Scripture that doesn't readily come to mind that we
might say gives us a definition of faith. Rather, than faith
itself what the Bible does is to constantly set before us the
object of faith this reminds us does it not that it is the
object of faith that is all important and what is the object or who
is the object? here we have an epistle addressed to them
that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ we have the object the
object the object of faith you see is the Lord Jesus Christ
himself looking onto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith
you know the words there in Hebrews 12 looking onto Jesus looking
away from every other object that's the force of the verb
to look to look away from everything else looking only onto Jesus
the author and finisher of our faith he says back in Isaiah's
prophecy look onto me and be his side and so faith is likened
to a look it's a cycle of faith in that
sense and what does the eye do? well the eye is that through
which we see things, we look and the eye of course is something
that we never really see I can see a reflection of my eye but
I can't look at my eye, I can look at my hand I can look at
other parts of my anatomy, my body, but I can't look at my
eye I can only see my eye when it's reflected in a glass and
faith you see is that that looks away looks away from self oh
it's the object that is all important and the object is Christ it is
the person of Christ it is the work of Christ And what does
Peter say? I say that we keep on using this
word precious. We have it there in 1 Peter 2
and verse 7. Unto you therefore which believe
he is precious. He is precious. Is not the Lord
Jesus Christ precious as a man? Or we sought this morning to
try to say something concerning the reality of his human nature.
the life of faith that he lived here as a man upon the earth
and God says I will make a man I will make a man more precious
than fine gold a man than the golden wedge of Elphi in Isaiah
13 verse 12 there's a man and he's more precious all this in
my faith is precious because it has to do with this man the
Lord Jesus Christ And who is this man? It's the God-man. He's
a man, yes, but he's also God. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of Godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
God was manifest in the flesh. He is both God, and he is man? There are those two natures,
there's a human nature and there's the divine nature, his deity,
and he is one person? Oh, what a mystery! But what
a blessed mystery it is, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, he saves us in
a sense, in his very person. We make much of his work, and
rightly so, we speak of his work and ultimately his obedience
unto death. We speak of his blood, the preciousness
of his blood. But friends, the preciousness
of his person. He saves us in his person. Do
we not see in this man gods and man brought together? Remember
how in Job chapter 9, dear Job, we long for a dies man. A dies
man, he says, to put his hand upon us both. one who could put
his hand upon Job one who could put his hand upon God and stand
as it were in the bridge and there is one you see a dice man
who puts his hand upon God and puts his hand upon man that's
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ he is truly the God man
he is God and our Saviour Jesus Christ
that's what it says here at the end of this verse they obtained
like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and
our Saviour Jesus Christ and Jesus of course as you know is
that human name or they shall call his name Jesus for he shall
save his people from their sins the preciousness, the preciousness
of the person unto you therefore which believe he is precious.
Can I say that tonight in all sincerity? Can I say that the
Lord Jesus Christ is precious? Can you say that? Can you say
in all sincerity as before God himself that the Lord Jesus Christ
to me is all precious that's why my faith is so precious
because it has to do with him but not only his person there's
also the work of the Lord Jesus Christ like precious faith with us through
the righteousness says Peter through the righteousness of
God and our Savior Jesus Christ and now Peter is speaking really
the same language as we find in the Apostle Paul You see they
speak really with one language because they're all speaking
these men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This book
doesn't have men as its author, it has God as its author. This
is the Word of God, they don't contradict one another. Peter
and Paul say the same thing. What does Peter say? There in
Philippians chapter 2 and verse 8 where he expresses something
of his desire. all his desire was to be found
to be found in him that is in Christ not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law but that which is through the faith of
Christ the righteousness he says which is of God by faith like
precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and
our Saviour says Peter For now the Lord Jesus is that one, of
course, who was obedient. He was obedient in life, he was
obedient in death. That's the righteousness, is
it not? He has paid the terrible penalty that was due to the sinner
who was the transgressor. When he died, he died as a substitute
He died in the sinner's room and instead he shed that precious
blood to cleanse the sinner from all the filth and guilt of his
sin. Ah, but also he was obedient
in life. He honored the Lord of God, he
magnified the Lord of God. God spoke from heaven and said,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He fulfilled
all righteousness. And so He clothes His people
with that garment of salvation, those robes of righteousness. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done for sinners by coming into this world. Oh, how God delighted in Him.
Remember how Peter at the end here does speak of how the Father
owned Him there in the Holy Mount, the Mount of Transfiguration.
He received from God the Father honour and glory when there came
such a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my well-beloved
Son in whom I am well-pleased." So God is well-pleased with him.
And friends, if we have that faith of the apostles, that saving
faith, we'll be well-pleased with him, well-pleased with his
work, recognizing him as that one who has come and for us in
our places obeyed that Holy Lord of God. He's honored all the
Lord in terms of its precepts by His holy obedience in life,
but also in His death He's made the great oblation, He's borne
the penalty. And so we read of that redemption.
Redeemed, says Peter there in the opening chapter of the first
epistle, in verse 17, redeemed with the precious blood of Christ,
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Oh, he's precious,
is he not? He's precious to all those who
know themselves to be sinners, who feel themselves to be sinners,
who see that there's nothing in themselves that can in any
sense commend them to God, that all their salvation is bound
up in this blessed person and the great work that he accomplishes.
or that we might be those then friends tonight who know something
of this faith of which Peter speaks who is this epistle for? it's addressed to a particular
people to them he says to them that have obtained like precious
faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ
grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord. Amen.