allowing us to gather together.
We thank Thee for the privilege and the honor of just being able
to get together with Your people and to worship and fellowship
around Thy Word. And we thank Thee, O Lord, that
You've saved us and purchased us, redeemed us. We thank the
Holy Spirit that we're regenerated. Oh, we could never do this ourselves.
And we thank Thee for the great work of regeneration which has
been done in each believer's life. And, O Lord, We just praise
you. Our mouths are full of praise
and thanksgiving for what you've done for us, Lord Jesus. May
you be glorified and honored today. And again, may our hearts
be lifted up to look to thee. In Jesus' name, amen. The name
of the message is Examine Yourself. Now, we finished our study in
1 Peter, and that was a wonderful study. And I'd like us to open
our Bibles to the book right after 1 Peter today, which will
be 2 Peter. And we'll be looking at chapter
1. Today's message will be from this little book. We're not going
to go through the whole book right now, but we may sometime
in the future, down the road. But Peter is again writing to
God's elect who are suffering, the suffering saints, who are
going through various trials, and we see that right at the
beginning in verse 1. Now, a lot of misunderstanding, a lot of
misunderstanding of certain verses would be cleared up if people
looked at who the book, that the verses that people try to
use for certain things, if they would look at who the book was
written to, it would solve a lot of problems. It would solve a
lot of problems. But people rip verses out of
context, and sometimes preachers rip verses out of context. That's
why you always hear me, let's read the context. Because it's
always vital for us to look at the context of what we're going
to study. Now turn, if you would, over
to 2 Peter 3.9. Now in this book is found a verse that is often
taken out of context. Often. Brother John, you and
I talked about this when Brother Alan was up here and he preached
on this verse. Who is the us-word? Who is the
us-word? Well, the us-word we'll find
out very quickly. He's God's people. He's elect.
Look at this in 2 Peter 3, 9. Now people take that verse and
they say, see, God wants to save everybody. That's what they do.
I've heard it many times. As a matter of fact, a couple
years ago when I was in our Before I came out here, and I
was in Oregon, I was sitting at a kitchen table with my mother-in-law
and her friends, and she brought this verse up, and I said, that's
not, that doesn't mean everybody, mom. Oh, yes, it does. Well, we opened the scriptures
up, and I said, no, it doesn't. Who is the book written to? Let's
look at verse one. Let's look at verse one. We can
quickly see who the us word are, who the Lord is not willing that
any should perish. Look at verse one. It's those
who have obtained like precious faith through the righteousness
of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Look at this. Simon Peter, a
servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained
like precious faith. That's God's born-again blood-bought
people, beloved. That's not just everybody. No,
it's those who have obtained Like precious faith with us,
how? Through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus
Christ. We know where our righteousness
comes from. It comes from Christ and Christ alone. It doesn't
come from anywhere else, only from him. Now, three points here
about this like precious faith. And again, the us word in 2 Peter
3.9, is the same ones who are spoken
of here in verse 1 who have obtained like precious faith. Now here
are three points about this like precious faith that Peter is
writing about. It's like in that it's the same. It's the same faith as the apostles.
My faith and your faith is the same faith that the apostles
had. It's in Christ. It's in Christ, because we only
have one object of our faith, and that's Christ and Christ
alone. So there's one faith. It's a common faith. One faith,
which is common to all believers, though not in the same degree,
of course. But it's in the same source, and it has the same object
of belief, which is Christ. He's the one we look to. He's
the one we look to. And it has the same results.
This saving faith, number two, is precious because it's worth
more than 10,000 worlds. It's worth more than anything
that we can ever come up with, or more than anything that can
ever be gathered together in wealth. Through faith we are
justified. We're made heirs of God, beloved,
and joint heirs with Christ. This is magnificent. This is
absolutely magnificent. So nothing comes close to it.
It's so precious. And this faith comes to us in
and through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Faith is a gift of God. He gives
it to us. It's a gift. Again, what comes
first, faith or regeneration? Regeneration, of course. And
then faith is given to us, and repentance is given to us. They're
gifts from God. Where the righteousness of Christ
is imputed, faith is also given to receive it. Abraham was chosen
of God and accepted in the beloved, and he was an object of God's
special grace and revelation, just as every believer is. Just
as every believer is. Therefore Abraham believed God,
and his faith was accounted to him as right standing with God. But his faith, who was the object
of his faith? Christ. Christ. Who was the source of his faith?
God. He gave it to him. Just like he gave it to us. To
we who believe. So with that in mind, let's read
verses 1 to 11. And in his sheep will hear the
gospel truth, and their beliefs. They're believed. Look at 2 Peter
1. We're starting verse 2 here. We'll read verses 2 to 11. Grace
and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of
God and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given
unto us all things that pertain unto the life and godliness through
the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue,
whereby are given unto us And that's those who have obtained,
like precious faith, given unto us great and precious promises,
that by these ye may be partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And
beside this, given all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and
to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance,
patience, and to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness,
and to brotherly kindness, charity, which is love, which is love. For if these things be in you
and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor
unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he
that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off,
and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore
the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election
sure, for if you do these things you shall never fall. For so
an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the
everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now
Peter opens again with a salutation, which Paul often used in writing
to the saints of God. So this must have been how they
greeted one another. in the early church. He says
grace and peace. Grace and peace. Grace and peace. Notice grace always precedes
peace. No grace, no peace. No grace, no peace. And the grace
of God comes to us in Christ and we only have peace with God
through Christ and Christ alone. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. And so Our peace grows as we
learn more and more about Christ, because we rest in Him more and
more. As we learn more of His sovereignty, as we're taught
by the Holy Spirit of God, as He illuminates the Scriptures,
we are comforted more and more, knowing that our great God is
in full control, and that our Savior will keep us. Keep us. And the only way to grow in grace
is by the power of the Holy Spirit, beloved. That's the only way
to grow in grace. He teaches us the things of Christ,
and as a result of that, again, we have more peace amidst the
storms of life. Note, through the knowledge of
God and of Jesus our Lord. So again, the more we learn about
our great God, the more peace we have while we travel through
this world. Now Peter is going to bring forth
the believers calling and take note how the work of the Holy
Spirit is brought forth here in the fact that regeneration
is a work of God. It's a work of God and it's performed
by the Holy Spirit of God. Now I mentioned on Wednesday
night that there's different forms out there. that some of
the guys have identified, different people, and they say, there's
what's called, Brother Henry used to say, decisional regeneration,
where people pray a prayer, and then they think that they're
saved. But there's no Holy Spirit regeneration, or they walk an
aisle, or they get baptized, and they think that they're saved.
The baptism is baptism, what's called baptism or regeneration.
And they believe that, well, once they're baptized, they're
good, they're saved. That's a false gospel. There's only one way
to be saved, and that's through Christ and Christ alone. And
there's only one who can regenerate us, and that's the Holy Spirit
of God. No one else can do that work. No one else can do that
work. Let's look at verses two to four.
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord. Look at this. According as his
divine power, Who's at work here? God's at work, beloved. God's
at work, not man. Man can't do anything. Remember
the little baby in the wilderness? Couldn't do anything, couldn't
help himself, nothing. According as his divine power
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,
through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory
and virtue, whereby are given unto us, and this is in Christ,
exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust." Take note that regeneration
is all according to the divine power of God. The scriptures
plainly proclaim it here, according to as His divine power, as God's
divine power, hath given unto us all things that pertain unto
life and godliness. Regeneration is a work of God,
and God alone. It does not come by anything
that man can do. Anything. Whether it be praying
a prayer, or walking an aisle, or getting baptized, or works,
it cannot come. And we appreciate people being
moral, but that doesn't save you. Doesn't mean you're regenerated
just because you're moral. A lot of moral people go into
hell. But look at this, note also the
calling is by the Holy Spirit of God. Look at verse three,
according as his divine power hath given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him
that called us to glory and virtue. So not only is regeneration by
the Holy Spirit, but our calling to Christ is by the Holy Spirit
and by his power. It's all by his power, all by
his power. The calling is by the Holy Spirit
of God, in verse 3, and those who are the objects of God's
divine love are partakers of the divine nature. We're born
again by the Holy Spirit of God. We see that in verse 4. Born
again. It is God, the Holy Ghost, by
his quickening and regenerating power and grace, who gives us
spiritual life. We who are born dead in trespasses
and sins cannot give ourselves life. Just as a corpse can't
give itself life, can it? Have you ever seen a corpse get
up and reanimate and start walking around? No. No. And I mean by itself. See, this
is what religion says. You just come up and make a decision.
I don't know any corpse that can make itself alive. This is
a work of God. You must be born again. This
is a work of God. And we see that in verse 4. They
are born again by the Holy Spirit of God, whereby are given unto
us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust. It is God, the Holy Ghost,
by His quickening and regenerating power and grace, who gives us
spiritual life, gives life to those who are chosen by God in
eternity in Christ. And they're born again dead in
trespasses and sins and by God's power and by His amazing grace
they are regenerated and called all by the almighty power of
God, all by His power. And it is then, after we are
regenerated, it is then that we discover the truth of God
the Father's electing love. We don't know about it before
that. And when we find out about that, oh my, It's incredible. And this electing love has been
running in streams of grace from all eternity, just as a river
underground flows and runs. It's the same with God's grace.
And the child of God did not know about these wondrous truths. They were neither known or seen
or even thought of until the child of God is regenerated by
the Holy Spirit of God. And it is He who opens the eye
of God's blood-bought people to see the original and eternal
purpose of God the Father in choosing the church in Christ
before the foundation of the world. And in predestinating
the church in Christ to the adoption of children, and we marvel that
we are among that number. We absolutely marvel. The everlasting
love of God the Father is manifested to the believer when they are
born again. Again, we have no clue about
it before we're saved. We do not understand it. We don't
care about it. But after we are born again of
the Spirit, oh, that's all we want to hear about. We want to
learn. Tell me more and more about Christ. Tell me more and
more about my sovereign Almighty God. Tell me more. I can't get
enough. And we hunger and thirst after
righteousness, don't we? It's not necessarily the knowledge
that we're seeking to gain, although we are growing in knowledge and
grace. But we want to know more about our Savior. We want to
know more about Him who's redeemed us with His own precious blood. Not that we can boast in that
and say, well, I know all this stuff. Not for that, no. No,
that we might glorify Him. And as we grow in grace, beloved,
does not our praise grow too? Does not our wonder and awe of
our great God grow? It does, doesn't it? It does.
It's absolutely stunning to the believer. Have you ever thought
That the kindness and love of God was manifested to you in
Christ. Have you ever thought of that?
The kindness and love of God was manifest to you who are His
blood-bought people in Christ. Just let that sink in. It's absolutely
wonderful. And it's in Christ and through
Christ, not our works, that we have been saved. It's all according
to His mercy. He has saved us by the washing
of regeneration, born again, and renewing of the Holy Ghost
which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Ponder this great truth, beloved. We, being justified by His grace, should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. all through Christ and Christ
alone. Just ponder that. Contemplate the vast ocean of
mercy here before us. Ponder it day by day. Go home
and think about it. Meditate on it. As you walk through the storms
of this life, think of the unspeakable grace of God which called us
from darkness to light. Think of the state you were in
and I was in before God called us. He called us from darkness
to light, from the power of sin and Satan unto the living God. And beloved, it's all by His
almighty power. Just contemplate that. Just think
about that. All by His power and might, and
it is He who has granted us faith and repentance toward God. And
it is He who has given us a hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. A hope
that we never had before. A hope that we never had before.
Brother Tim, you and I have talked many times about how we were
before. Didn't have a care in the world about the things of
God, about who Christ was. But now, oh my. That's who we want to hear about.
Tell me about Christ. Tell me about my Savior. Think
again of the state we were in when the Holy Spirit calls us
dead and trespasses. That's graveyard dead, beloved.
That's graveyard dead, spiritually. Physically alive, but spiritually
dead. Dead. And this great work of
regeneration is wrought. And you know that there's not
a spiritual mercy after we're born again that we cannot claim
in Christ? Oh my. Just as the creation of
this world, darkness was upon the face of the deep before the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And what
did God say? Let there be light. That's a picture of regeneration,
beloved. And what happened after God said,
let there be light? There was light. Oh my. Oh my. So it is with the child
of God in the new creation. It's all darkness upon the face
of our mind and in our hearts until God commands the light
to shine out of darkness and it's shined in our hearts to
give us the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. He must be born again. He must
be born again. Now look at verse 4. Whereby
are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by
these ye may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped
the corruption that is in the world through lust." Note we
are giving exceeding great and precious promises. Now we could
spend weeks just going through them. Weeks. And we know that these precious
promises are all in Christ and Christ alone. but ponder this
blessed truth set here before us. And remember who Peter's
writing to. He's writing to saints who are
suffering for their faith. We looked at that in 1 Peter.
They are going through it, beloved. They are being persecuted on
all sides for their faith, some even to death, some even to death. And ponder these truths when
we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God ponder the blessings
which arise out of regeneration. The new born soul is brought
into all the privileges of airship, pardon, forgiveness of all her
sins. And I mean all. Past, present
and future. Christ paid for them all, didn't
he, on Calvary's cross. All of them. Mercy, the mercy of God that
we receive and the peace that we have with God through Christ. In Christ who is our sanctification
we have a union with Him in eternal life. These instantly fall when we
are born again by the Holy Spirit of God. So ponder this great
truth that we are redeemed and justified freely by the grace
of God in Christ plus nothing. Christ is then seen and known
and enjoyed by the born-again believer. When we didn't see
Him before, we didn't know Him and we definitely didn't enjoy
Him. But now, after the Holy Spirit regenerates us, oh, we
see things in a whole new light, don't we? We see things in a
whole new light. And He is made, Christ is made
to God's people, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. He is everything to us. This
one dear sister here and I were talking one day, you take Christ
away from us and we have nothing. Nothing. He's everything. He's
everything. Matthew Henry's father wrote
a book called Christ is all in all. That's a good title. He's all in all. He's all in
all. And the blood-bought saints are
born again by the Holy Spirit of God and have obtained like
precious faith. As we saw in verse 1, all according
to the power of God. All according to the power of
God. They are partakers of the divine nature, born again by
the Holy Spirit of God, and have given to them in Christ exceedingly
great and precious promises. Think upon that this week. Think
upon that when the storms of life come, because they do come,
don't they, for every one of us. Oh, what exceedingly great
and precious promises we have in Christ, and in Christ alone. My. Now let us read verses 5
to 9. And beside this, given all diligence,
add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge
temperance, and to temperance patience. into patience, godliness,
into godliness, brotherly kindness, into brotherly kindness, charity.
For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that
you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things
is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that
he was purged from his old sins. Now the child of God having now been born again by
the Holy Spirit of God and made alive by the power of God. They're kept by the power of
God. And then they will grow in the grace and knowledge of
God as the Holy Spirit teaches us and guides us and directs
us. And their faith will grow. And their knowledge of God will
grow. As they are taught again by the Holy Spirit of God the
things of Christ. Remember the Holy Spirit will
never speak of himself. Here teach us and point us to
Christ and Christ alone. And these who are born again
will have the fruit of the Spirit manifested in them all by the
power of God. A lot of people try to muster
up the fruit of the Spirit in their own doing. And by their
own works, when I was in religion, they used to always say that.
But this fruit of the Spirit must be manifested in the believer
all by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. And when we are
to make our election and calling sure which we'll see later on,
we are to examine ourselves. And that's every believer. Examine
yourself whether you're in the faith. Now the fruit of the Spirit,
again all by the power of God, is love, and that's love for
God and love for the brethren, all the brethren, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance,
which is self-control. That's the fruit of the Spirit.
Again, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, and temperance. Now look at what Peter brings
forth. In verses five to seven, add to your faith virtue, and
to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge, temperance, which
again is self-control, and to temperance, patience, and to
patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly
kindness, charity, which we know is love. Always remember that
these fruits, these are fruits and effects of justification. And in no way do they contribute
to our justification. We are justified with God through
Christ alone. These are simply fruits, simply
fruits. And again, it comes from the
Holy Spirit working in us. I can only know truly if I'm
sick and you can only truly know if you're sick. People ask all
the time, well, do you think such and such is saved? I always
say, well, I can only know Brother Tim, we always say, I can only
know I'm saved. Right? I had somebody once tell me when
I was in religion, after the Lord had saved me, and this is
a dear friend of mine, we were talking, and they said, well,
you were saved, and I've mentioned this many times, they said, you
were saved back then. I said, no, I wasn't. And they
said, but you knew all this doctrine, you knew the five points of Calvinism,
you knew all that stuff, and I said, I was lost. I had a head
knowledge of all this stuff, but I was lost. And so people
can know things and talk like they know things, because I talk
like I knew things, but I was lost, beloved. I was lost. And they said, well, no, surely
you were saved, and I said, I'm the only one who can know if
I was lost or saved, and I was lost. And now I'm saved. Oh my. That's the truth of it,
isn't it? So examine yourself or see that
later on here in our text. Note how the Holy Spirit has
Peter bring forth that the believer is by regeneration made partakers
of divine nature and thereby having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust, we have all things given
unto us and that pertain to life and godliness. And that which
is given to us, again, is a gift from God. It cannot be said to
come by any means of man's merit or man's works, nothing. We're
just simply receivers of this grace. This is a gift. Faith is a gift
which has been given to us from God and it cannot, again, be
said to come by anything we do. We know that in ourselves. We
know this. We've been taught this also.
We who are God's blood-bought people have been taught. that
in ourselves is nothing to merit our justification before God.
In fact, in ourselves we merit by our own works condemnation,
don't we? We wholly admit that. The old
preachers used to say we take sides with God against ourselves.
And that's so true, isn't it? It's so true, we do. This is what makes grace so marvelous.
This is what makes it so incredible. is the fact that we are saved
by the grace of God alone, through Christ alone, all according to
his works and merit, all by God's almighty, all by his power. And these are fruits that we
looked at here in verses five to nine. These are fruits and
evidences of the new birth. And as a consequence, if these
things be in the Lord's people, and they will be by God's power,
They will not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. They're growing in the grace
and truth of Christ. They will know and understand
and love the fact that salvation is in Christ alone. They will
know and understand the fact that they have no merit in themselves. They will know that they cannot
justify themselves before God by their own merit. They know
that. They've been taught these things. And they know that their
justification before God is found in Christ and Christ alone. Note
the contrast in verses eight and nine, for if these things
be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be
barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things
is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that
he was purged from his old sins. Notice it's not by anything we
do in ourselves, and this is made very clear, very clear here. Again, salvation is holy by Christ,
regeneration is a work of God, we've seen that in our text.
And therefore we give all glory, all glory to our Lord Jesus Christ. Brother Henry comments on these
two verses. As these qualities are yours and increasingly abound
in you, they will keep you from being empty and unfruitful in
your spiritual life. He that is without these graces
and growth is short-sighted, seeing only what is near him
and what concerns him, ignoring what God has done for him. or
what he professes that God has done. So salvation, again, is
holy of Christ. It's a work of God. It's a work
that God wrought in us. We're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. Regeneration is. The new birth is not wrought
by us, but it's wrought in us by the Holy Spirit of God. And
as a result of having been given by the Father to the Son before
the foundation of the world and having been redeemed by Christ
at Calvary's cross, We are therefore quickened by the Holy Spirit
of God and we obtain like precious faith through the righteousness
of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. And this is a killer to all spiritual
pride, all pharisaical righteousness, this is a killer to that. All
supposed merit in ourselves is cast away by the believer in
Christ as we know that The precious salvation that we have in Christ
from beginning to end is all by the mercy of God, all by the
mercy of God in which we have received in and through Him and
enjoyed by us all. And this is all by grace, and
grace alone, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now let's
look at verse 10. We'll look at that quick in verse
11, and we'll focus on verse 10. Peter brings forth that we
should make sure of our calling and election of God, as we cannot
look into God's book of life or his eternal decrees. Therefore,
how are we to know that we are chosen to eternal life? Look
at what it says here. Wherefore, the rather brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if you
do these things, you shall never fall. for so in entrance shall
be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Again, how are we to
know that we are chosen to eternal life? Look at verse 10, "...by
our calling, whom he predestinated, he called If we can find that
we have been called to Christ by God's Holy Spirit, we may
conclude that we are chosen to salvation, and a close examination
of ourselves will reveal whether or not we are called of Jesus
Christ. Ask yourself this, have I been
called out of darkness into the light of the glorious gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have I been called out of tradition
and ceremony and self-righteousness? Have I been called out of sin
to the light of the knowledge of God and the Lord Jesus Christ?
Is Christ my life? Is Christ my all? Is Christ my
Lord? We can examine ourselves for
the presence of the aforementioned graces, too, that we saw in verses
5 to 7. In faith, virtue, knowledge,
temperance, patience, goodness, brotherly kindness, brotherly
love, He or she that is without these spiritual graces has reason
to doubt His election of God. And do I see first the Kingdom
of God? Am I determined to win Christ
and be found in Him, to be called of God and accepted in the Beloved?
Is this my diligent concern? To grow in His grace and knowledge?
Is He the primary object of my faith? If He is, I shall never fall.
That doesn't mean I won't sin, because we sin all the time.
We sin all the time. We fall into sin. That means I'll never totally
fall from the mercy and grace of God and Christ, because it's
He who keeps me. It's He who keeps me. Those whom
Peter has been writing to, those whom have made their election
and calling, sure shall have an abundant supply of grace,
beloved, and strength to carry them through the trials of this
life. the storms of this life. And
when this life is ended, they will have a triumphant and glorious
entrance into glory to see our beloved Savior face to face. Face to face. What a Savior.
What a King. What a Redeemer. Heavenly Father,
we thank Thee for Your goodness and mercy and grace towards us
in and through Christ Jesus our Lord. And O Lord, may we examine
ourselves as Peter has exhorted the Saints here to do, and what
we looked at today, may we examine ourselves. And, O Lord, we thank
Thee for Your mercy and grace, which You have given to Your
blood-bought people in and through Christ, in Christ alone. We thank
Thee for the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit of God, who,
when we were dead in trespasses and sins, has made us alive in
Christ Jesus, all by Your almighty power. We give You all the glory
and honor and praise, in Jesus' name. Amen.