Turn back in your Bibles to that
third chapter of 2 Peter. And I want to read the last verse. It would be the last verse of
this second letter of Peter. And if you notice, it begins
with a conjunction, I believe. Is that right, teacher? I think
so. That contrasts the things that
have been said now to the things that are to be done. He says, but grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory
both now and forever. Amen. The Apostle Peter is, by the
Spirit of God, giving us words of instruction, those of us upon whom the end
of the age shall come. He has said that skeptics will
abound, scoffers, those who scoff at the word prophecies, promises
of God, unbelief. And he describes this day in
which we live as a day when death of every kind surrounds us. Men and women are dying. Most are spiritually dead already. And our world, as it is right
now, is dying. Just death everywhere. And yet
He uses the word, speaking to someone, saying, grow, grow. How could anyone in any sense
grow in such an environment? Well, those that he writes to
here are those who have life in the midst of all this death. They have life in Christ. They know Him who is life. And though it is a virtual desert,
every way and in every sense all around them, they live. And they live because He said
this, Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in
him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life." Though
there is a spiritual drought all around the Lord's people,
They have a well of water, and it is not drawn from anywhere
in the world, but is a well of water in them, springing up into
everlasting life. It is the water of God's Spirit,
It is the water of God's Word. As a matter of fact, as they
are described in the Psalms as a city that is besieged on every
hand in every way, and the world has shut them off from everything,
listen to how He describes them. He says of this city, there is
a river, the streams thereof shall make glad the city of God,
the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. Though a desert
surrounds the Lord's church, Though they are shut off from
every source and supply that they would need for their soul's
welfare, cannot get any of it from the world around them, yet
there is a river that flows in the midst of this city, the streams
thereof that make glad the city of God." And it is to these people that
these words are spoken. If you look back in verse 17,
he says, Ye therefore beloved, they are beloved of God with
an everlasting love. And they have been shown some
things, they've been given some knowledge. He says, "...therefore
seeing you know these things before, beware lest ye also,
being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your
steadfastness." He says, beware. You know some things. You've
been taught of God some things. You are to beware lest you fail
in your steadfastness and grow. And the word grow there means
something like increase. Increase. And that is the description
of God's elect, His believing people in many ways throughout
the Scripture. In Psalm 92 it says, "...the
righteous shall flourish like the palm tree, he shall grow
like a cedar in Lebanon." Likened to a palm tree, likened to a
cedar tree growing. Hosea records, he says, I will
be as the dew unto Israel. He shall grow as the lily and
cast forth his roots as Lebanon. And then Malachi 4 says, But
unto you that fear my name shall the Son of Righteousness arise
with healing in His wings, and ye shall go forth and grow up
as calves in the stall. He's talking about those that
are in grace. He's talking to these who were
chosen in grace, redeemed by grace, called by grace, saved
altogether by grace. They have been given all things. They are described as complete
in Him, having need of nothing. But yet He says by the Apostle
Paul in Ephesians 4, But speaking the truth in love, may grow up
into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ. They are complete, they have
the all-sufficiency of divine grace and provision, and yet,
he says, grow. And I thought about it, if this
is viewed as from God, which it is, this is a command. And if we view it as coming from
our Heavenly Father, it's loving instruction. If we view it as coming from
the Apostle of God, it's sound doctrine. And if we view it as
coming from a fellow sinner, who himself has been saved by
the grace of God, one weak such as we are." That man, Simon Peter. Then it's a word of encouragement. It's a word of admonition. But whatever it means here, I
am sure that it does not mean an increase in our holiness or
our righteousness. I'm sure of that. And I say that
because those things do not admit to any degrees. If God is holy, and He is, what
would be necessary for Him to be not holy? The least imperfection. If He is unrighteous in any way,
then He is not righteous, the righteous God. So, it does not
mean such things as so many have made them to be. These things
are not progressive. They are positional. And when
I say they are positional, I say what the Bible says, and the
Bible says they're in Christ. We have those things in infinity
in Christ. We are made the righteousness
of God in Him. He is our only holiness. And we do not get better and
better. That's what some people think
this means, that we can get better and better, and yet the Apostle
Paul, who surely did grow in grace and in the knowledge of
Christ, you find him in Romans 7 crying out in his age and in
his maturity, O wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? But I know one other thing that
is also so clear, not just here, but everywhere in the Scripture,
and that is the two things that are spoken of here, they are
inseparably connected. This growth is inseparably joined
to grace and knowledge. Grace and knowledge. And when you read the scriptures,
And it talks about faith. It has always joined with knowledge. He says, faith, which is the
gift of God, comes by hearing or is given by God through our
hearing, and that hearing is through the Word of God. Grace
and knowledge. Paul writes this to the Colossians. He says, that you might walk
worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good
work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Increasing in the knowledge
of God. And then to the Thessalonians
in 2 Thessalonians 1, he says, We are bound to thank God always
for you, brethren, as it is meat, because that your faith groweth
exceedingly. And the charity of every one
of you all toward each other abounds." If you turn back to
1 Peter chapter 2, look at what he says in that second verse. Now he's contrasting also as
he does in that 18th verse of 2 Peter 3. He says, "...wherefore
laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and
evils, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the Word, that you may grow there Bye. And when he addresses the Lord's
people, all the apostles, prophets, Christ Himself, throughout the
Scriptures, we find some being described as newborn, some as
Peter describes them as babes, some he calls young men, Some
he speaks of as being mature, some as fathers, some as the
hoary heads. But he's always talking about
their maturity or their growth in the things of God. But when Peter speaks here of
our growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, what is
it to grow in grace? Well, if you simply said, grow
in knowledge, there is a kind of knowledge, even of biblical
knowledge, which does not demonstrate or manifest any real growth at
all. It's growth in the head. But the knowledge as we find
it here spoken of by the Apostle is a knowledge that is joined
to grace. We grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I thought about it, as we
grow in grace, we grow to see more and more our need of grace. Grace never makes anybody haughty. We grow to see more and more
of our need of grace because we learn more and more about
the condition that grace meets. Grace is for the guilty. Grace
is for the undeserving. Grace is really for the hell
deserving. Grace is for sinners. Grace is for those who are helpless,
unable to save themselves. Grace is for those that are lost
and apart from God. Grace is for these who are described
as acting as enemies toward God. Grace is for these who are spiritually
paralyzed and spiritually blind. and so left to themselves, powerless
and helpless, that they must be saved by grace, and that grace
that's in Christ Jesus. And the more we learn about grace,
and the more we have knowledge, true knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that humbles a sinner. When you stop and think about
it, and the only way you'll know is by finding out what it says
in this book. The only way we really find out
what we really are as sinners, and the condition we're in, is
by virtue of what God says in His Word that we are. And what
he says in his word, that it took to save such wretches as
us. What grace involved. It involved the Son of God leaving
heaven, taking on Himself human flesh and dying for us. Dying as a substitute in our
place. I like what an old writer had
to say about this. He said we grow stronger and
stronger in the belief that a work or conditional system would not
suit our needs. In other words, the farther we
go as those saved by grace, the more sure we become that the
only way we could ever be saved is by grace. Have you learned
that? He said, such a system would
be good enough if we were good enough. That's the problem, isn't
it? But while it is true that the
evil I would not that I do, which is what Paul said, we must not
make our eternal all depend on so frail a peg as human faithfulness. Better not hang the hope of your
salvation on that peg. Better not trust and lean on
the arm of the flesh in any way. And the farther we grow in grace
and in the knowledge of Christ, the more we sense, the more we
feel, the more we understand, the more we know that we could
not ever, such wretched, helpless creatures as we are, such sinners
as we are, ever be saved other than by the grace of God in Christ. And then I think this also, and
that is, as we grow in grace, we grow to see and understand
more and more just how opposite grace is from works. Turn over to the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter 3, and listen. Listen to this man who was Saul
of Tarsus, who when the Lord saved him became Paul the believer
and then Paul the apostle. But listen to him as he, in Philippians
3 here, says in such a stark contrast what he was, what he
did, what he thought, what he trusted in as a Jew and a Pharisee. Verse 8. He says, "...Yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord." You see, when the Lord saved
him, He opened His eyes, that first
experience of grace, the revelation of Christ to His soul, the revelation
of the truth of Christ in His Word, when that came to the Apostle,
that grace came to him immediately that began that moment and that
growth wherein he saw How inferior what he once trusted in to what he'd been given in grace. He said, now I count it all but
loss. You mean your profession of religion? You mean your record of morality? You mean that knowledge that
you thought you had gained under Gamaliel? You mean your position
as a Pharisee, the respect of your peers, all those things
that we know you once so dearly clung to and trusted in? I count it all but loss. Let me tell you this. That is
the hardest thing for a self-righteous sinner, and that is what we all
are by nature. That is the hardest thing for
us ever to do. And it is a thing that continually
raises its head to us, this business of trusting in past experience
or trusting in what we've done or not done. It's so hard that
only grace can deliver us from it. He says, "...for whom I have
suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that
I may win Christ." and be found in Him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformable unto His
death." And the longer he lived, the
more he was taught of God, the more he saw how directly opposite,
how totally opposed is law and grace, or works and grace, or
law and the gospel. And he finally, in Romans chapter
5, or rather Romans chapter 11, he says, And if by grace, then
it is no more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. You cannot mix
the two. And the more we grow in grace,
we more and more are enabled of God to see that distinction. That it is not part of me and
what I've done, but it is all of Christ and what He's done.
It's all of grace. and works, even what are called
good works in Scripture, they in no way make up any part of
the conditions or the foundation or the basis upon which we're
justified by God. He says it again. To Timothy,
speaking of God, saying, "...who hath saved us, and called us
with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began." Nothing that I do in time can
ever add anything to what was given me in Christ by the grace
of God before time. And there are so many in our
day who blend in a very subtle fashion a mixture of works and
grace. They can't even speak the word
grace without following it immediately with some kind of a message following
greater than what was already spoken about grace concerning
works. These preachers in our day, some
of them claiming to be grace preachers, they are scared to
death of grace. Grace is joined with the power
of God. We are saved by grace and we
are kept by grace. The Lord's people will not be
abandoned by God who has purpose to give them grace in Christ
Jesus. He'll keep them, He'll guide
them, He'll preserve them, He'll watch over them. If they fall,
He'll raise them up, whatever it is. And as we grow in grace, we grow
to see more and more how that all of God's grace is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We just sang that hymn. How can
it be? There is only one way that it
can be. How could He love one such as
we are? How could we ever have His favor? How could we ever enter into
His presence, receive His blessings? Only by that grace that is in
Christ. You see, we grow in grace when
we learn more about Christ. The knowledge of grace is the
knowledge of Christ, and when I say that, I mean it is the
knowledge of His person, and His works, and His accomplishments,
and His enthronement. The more you find out about who
He is from this book, The more the Spirit of God teaches us
in our heart about who He is, Jesus, not some martyr, not some
simple teacher, but the very Son of God in human flesh. And we go to know and experience
and grow in the grace of God. The more we find out about Him,
the more He's elevated and exalted in our minds and hearts, the
more we're abased and the more we know of His grace. But I'll tell you what, we grow
in grace when we find out more and have greater knowledge of
what He actually did on that cross. There are not very many people
who know what went on. When He cries out on that cross,
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? In all that is involved
in that one statement, God forsaking God? God forsaking a man who
in himself was absolutely perfect and totally sinless? God dealing
with him as if he were a sinner? Why? Because he bore in his own body
the sins of his people on the tree. Because when God purposed
to deal with His Son as the substitute of His people, as their representative
before God, as their surety in the matter of their sins, when
that hour came that the death blow of divine justice was to
come and fall upon Him as such, God turned His back on His Son. He's of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquities of us all." Don't talk about grace to me
without talking about the cross death of Christ. Don't minimize His death by making
it universal. Grace, free, sovereign grace
is in that one who lays down his life in the place of somebody,
who pays the actual debt of a sinner, and whose death, whose work,
whose labor, whatever we want to call it, is an absolute total
100% success. People say, well, I believe Christ
died for everybody. Well, there are a lot of things
fools believe. That's not what the Bible says. And you can butt
your head against divine truth forever, you'll bust your skull
if you please, but you'll never alter what God says. He said,
I lay down my life for my sheep. That's the only grace there is.
Particular grace. That's why we identify with that
term, sovereign grace. That means God in Christ is being
gracious to whom He would be gracious, and in His grace in
Christ, He is saving them from all their sins, according to His will. The more we know that grace is
of God, that all grace is in Christ. Paul said, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. In Romans 5, he says, "...for
if by one man's offense death reign by one, much more they
that receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." All grace is in Him. And all grace is in His perfect
person and perfect death and total successful accomplishment
of salvation on the behalf of His people who are described
as His elect, as described as His church, as described as His
bride. He's the Lord Jesus Christ who
shall save His people from their sins. His grace reigns in righteousness
through the doing and dying of Christ. And as we grow in grace, we're
found more and more at the throne of grace. You know what we're seeking?
More grace. I'm so thankful You stop and
think about anything in this world. And everything in this
world that you'll ever possess, things, whatever it is, it'll
all run out. They say our water is going to
run out. They say our oil is going to run out. It will. Whenever God quits supplying
it. Not before then. But one day all these things
will run out. And you know you can go to a
bucket, you can go to a well and keep dipping and dipping
and pumping and pumping and sooner or later you run out. Not the
well of grace. Because the more we grow in grace,
the more that we Not only realize our need of it, not only realize
the sufficiency of it, but realize the bounty of it. That in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we are not only allowed, but we are instructed to come for
more grace. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
4. Hebrews chapter 4, and listen
to what Paul is saying in Hebrews 4, talking about the superiority
of our priest over every other. Verse 14, "...seeing then that
we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus
the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not
a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without
sin." You ever ask somebody for a favor
and then it turned out you had to ask them again and maybe they
were the only one that could help you or advise you in something
and you kind of come to them after a while and you say, oh,
I just hate to go to him. I've asked him so many times
to help me. I've asked him so many times
about this. I still don't understand. I just
hate to keep going back and back. He's going to weary of me. Not
our God. He says our priest is touched
by the feeling of our infirmities. Tempted in all points like as
we are, the difference between us and Him is He didn't sin. He didn't succumb to them. Let us, therefore, come boldly
unto the throne of grace." You see, in Christ, God's made
His throne, that throne of righteous judgment, He's made that throne
to His people, the throne of grace. That we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. A good evidence of growing in
grace is that we are more often found at the throne of grace. We are more often found not trusting,
resting in our own self-sufficiency, not trusting in our own strength
or our own wisdom, but seeking more grace from God. And this is what James said.
James says, or grace. Wherefore he saith,
God resisteth the proud, but he gives grace unto the humble."
Those who grow in grace, who've grown in grace, they are found
much more often at the throne of grace. And they're asking
at that throne to the Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest,
through Him, through His merits, through His intercession, through
His mediatorship, for more grace. I tell you, we can't get enough
grace. We need grace. And as we grow
in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, we grow in assurance. That's right. You see, the more we trust in
self, the less assurance we have. The more we look at self, I promise
you if our look is an honest look, the less assurance we'll
have. But the more we find out about
Christ, the more we find out about how we've been solely and
completely saved by God's grace in His Son, the more we find
out about God's grace, the more assurance we have. The more we
take our eyes off of Him, the less. assurance we have. The more we look to Him, the
more we learn about Him, the more we read about Him, the more assurance we have. Somebody said, well, I'm trusting
the Lord Jesus, but I don't have any doubts about Him, but I have
doubts about myself. Well, if you have any doubts
about yourself, that means you're looking to yourself and you really
ought to have doubts about yourself. Not so to Christ. How could I
know that salvation is all of His grace? How can I know that
He is that King who rules in righteousness and peace, grace? and not be assured that what
He did in my place and for me will suffice. And then I'll say, of course,
we cannot grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ without
growing in graciousness. Mean, haughty, proud, self-righteous
men and women who always condemn others, always
find fault in others, always are correcting others, they know
nothing about grace. You see, the more we grow in
grace, the more we realize what we don't know. The more we grow
in grace, the more we realize that if left void of God's grace
to us, we'd be the worst devil in an instant that has ever been. And then, if I have been shown
grace by God, How could I not ever be gracious
as I am enabled to be to you? You say, well, I don't
forgive, I don't forget. Well, you don't know anything
about grace. Mean, stingy people, they know
nothing about being given everything by God's grace. And what religion is always,
they say, trying to seek to increase by law preaching and by their
special classes and their seminars and their teaching of what they
call godly living at the expense of preaching Christ crucified. What they seek is their goal. the free and sovereign grace
of God in Christ, experienced by a sinner, rested in totally
by a sinner, is the only true motivation to good works and
gracious conduct. You see, if I'm saved by grace,
what I do does not have any effect on my salvation. And at the same
time, if I'm saved by grace, my being saved by grace has every
effect on what I do. If I've been saved by grace,
is that not a cause for free obedience? If I've been saved
by grace, given everything in Christ, is that not a reason
to freely give? If I've been saved by grace,
a sinner, wretched sinner, saved by the grace and mercy of God
in Christ, is that not a reason to treat others with kindness
and gentleness and understanding? It is if I grow in grace and
in the knowledge of Christ. And then lastly, let me just
point this out to you. Look finally at this in that
last verse again. Because grace gives all the glory
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, to Him be glory both
now and forever. Grace gives to Christ all the
glory. And the more that a sinner saved
by grace grows in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, the more we glorify Him. He that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." Grace in our hearts makes
us give to Christ more and more all the glory. Not just in time, but according to what Peter says
here, Grace will glorify Christ forever. That means to the day
of eternity. To Him be glory to the day of
eternity. All the glory. All the glory. So rather than this being an
elective, Rather than it being a step up,
higher position, he says, grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be glory, both now and
forever. Amen. Our Father, this day we
praise You for the glory of Your grace. We pray for more grace, that
we might grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. May we be found among those increasing
in that Spirit-taught knowledge that we might be found growing
in grace, growing to know more clearly, feel more fully these
things that I've mentioned. And may all glory be to You,
both now and forever. For we pray in the Lord Jesus
Christ, that unspeakable gift. Amen.