All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn to the book of 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter 3. I'd like to read one verse of scripture. 2 Peter 3, 18. 2 Peter 3, 18. But grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. to Him. Be glory both now and forever. Amen. Someone once said a person may
know something of the doctrine or the belief or the teaching
of grace. They may know something about
it. The proclamation of God's grace, they may know something
about it God's favor and acceptance in Christ without knowing the
grace of that doctor. They may know something of the
doctor. They may have a head knowledge and be able to give
a good confession, outward confession, of the truth that we preach. They may understand it. They
may talk about God's electing grace, redeeming particular grace,
and not know the grace of it in their heart. may have a head
knowledge out of heart knowledge. Grace. Grace encompasses the
whole of God's attitude toward a people of his eternal love
and choosing. That's grace. That's God's grace. That word grace encompasses everything. I will be gracious. unto whom
I will be gracious. That word grace declares God's
good pleasure passed by the transgression of a sinner of his choosing. It's God's good pleasure. It's
like that few hairs of that beard from Ezekiel. It was God's good
pleasure. You just take a few of them.
God shows grace and mercy to whomsoever he will. And grace is bestowed. Turn with me to Romans 11, 6.
Grace is bestowed upon men. It's not earned. You can't earn
the grace of God. Romans 11, verse 6 says this. If by grace, Well, verse 5 says,
even so then at this present time also there's a remnant according
to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it's no
more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace,
but if it be of works, then it's no more grace. Otherwise, work
is no more work. What he's saying is this. Understanding
what the word is you're using. I'm saved by the grace of God.
Well then, if you're saved by the grace of God, then it has
nothing whatsoever to do with your works. If it has to do with
your works, then that means that grace doesn't mean grace anymore.
It's by the grace of God. So, grace is that state before
God that is in contrast with condemnation. Now, when it comes
to our passage today, our Lord is exhorting through the Apostle
Peter to grow in grace. Grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now there's a sense concerning
God's grace, His favor, His acceptance in Christ. There is that truth
concerning the grace of God toward the vessels of His mercy. There
is that grace, that pardoning, delivering grace established
upon the particular atoning sacrifice of Christ. There is that grace
that cannot change. It cannot grow. It doesn't increase. God's love toward his people
doesn't increase. God loves. You cannot increase
your favor You cannot increase your standing
before God. You cannot increase being justified
freely by His grace. You cannot increase that. Almighty
God has saved His people, and He saved them to the uttermost.
And everything that God has bestowed, it does not grow, it doesn't
change. It's the fullness of that which
God has been pleased to show. But in our passage today, there's
a sense in which we're exhorted but grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord. The effects of his grace grows. The effects of his grace. His
grace toward us doesn't change. Isn't that comforting to know
he's not gonna love me more than he loves me right now? That means
he doesn't love me right now as much as he will love me. He
loves me all that he'll ever love me. He loves me as he loves
his son. Wow. Boy, that's a, that's a
thoughtful, isn't it? But here we're exhorted to grow
in grace. You know what? Love for God grows. Love for him increases. I want you to turn to Philippians
1, Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1, verse 9 and 10. Philippians 1, 9 and 10. And this I pray that your love
may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. that she may approve things that
are excellent, that she may be sincere without offense till
the day of Christ. Love for God grows. We're frail creatures of the
dust. You know, I've said this concerning
love. And this is the truth of my next
point right here. Love for each other grows. It
grows. Love grows. I want you to look
at 1 Thessalonians 3. 1 Thessalonians 3. And the point that I was getting
ready to make was this. You know, as you know someone
more. 1 Thessalonians 3, verse 12 and
13. And the Lord make you to increase
and abound in love one toward another and toward all men, even
as we do toward you. To the end, he may establish
your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even your father,
our father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all
his saints. You know, I got here, I got here
21 years ago. And when I got here, there was
a bunch of people here. that I didn't know. I didn't
really know you. I mean, I knew who you were,
I knew you attended this assembly, and I knew Brother Scott. And,
but I, you know, and as far as my love and affection, you love
those people there? Well, yeah, yeah, I do. But you
know, after 21 years, I love you more now than I did then.
You know why? I didn't really know you then. You know, you take a man and
his wife, you let them be together, they first get married. They
love each other, sure they do. Or they wouldn't have gotten
married, hopefully. But you know, after a while, you begin to know
that person more and more. You know how they think. You
know how they feel. You know, you just, you love
them. You love them more and more. I told you somebody asked me one
time, do you believe in love at first sight? No. I mean, maybe
lust, first sight, but not love. You got to know somebody. Think
of the love that God has for his people. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. How? Because he's known us everlastingly.
He's always known us. We didn't know him, but he knew
us. So love, love grows, grow in grace, grow in, you know,
Things that are alive grow, increase. I love, I like to watch these
little videos of little kids, you know, just babbling and they
ain't saying nothing. They think they're saying something,
they ain't saying nothing. But it's just cute to me, you
know? I just think it's just the sweetest sound. Laugh. Have
you ever heard a little baby laugh? I mean, just from the
bottom of his belly. I mean, that's the cutest thing
in the world. But you know what? If he grew up, and that boy or
girl, and they got to be 12, 16, 18 years old, and they're
still babbling and stuff like that, something's wrong. Something's
wrong. There's a maturity. There's a
growing. So love grows for God. Love grows for his people. Faith,
faith grows. Faith. Look at 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians 1, 2 Thessalonians
chapter 1, verses 1 to 3. 2 Thessalonians 1, 1 to 3. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus,
under the church of the Thessalonians, in God our Father, in the Lord
Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace. From God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ, we're bound to give thanks. We are
bound to thank God always for you, brethren. It is meet because
that your faith groweth exceedingly. And the charity of every one
of you all toward each other aboundeth. So love for God grows,
love for his people grows, faith grows. That which the Lord imparts
grows. You know how our faith grows.
You know how faith grows? It grows by trial, trial. First Peter, First Peter 1.7,
the scripture sets forth. Now this is a hard thing for
us to learn, but this is the only way. Somebody says, Lord,
give me more faith. You know what you're asking?
First Peter 1.7, that the trial of your faith being much more
precious than that of gold that perisheth, though it be tried
with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at
the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love,
in whom though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. So faith is gonna grow. God's gonna grow. He's gonna
try our faith, gonna prove our faith. We grow, grow in grace. God graciously, by His Spirit,
bestows the fruit of God's Spirit. You know, this is the fruit of
God's Spirit, love of growth. Oh, and the manifestation
of that love, joy, peace, long-suffering, Patience, that's what that is.
Gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. All these
are the blessed effects of God's grace and we're admonished to
grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. So we
hunger and we thirst after that growth. But I want to just ask
us, because this is going to be a short, short-term message,
the last time. How do we grow? How do we grow? Now, I know this. As far as growing,
humanly speaking, you know what I'm going to have to do? I'm
going to have to eat. I'm going to have to drink. I'm going to have to breathe.
You grow. God has given means of growth. God's given means of growing
in grace. Here's the first one right here.
He's given us the blessed desire. Turn to 1 Peter 2. He's given
us the blessed desire to hear the Word of God preached. 1 Peter
2 verses 2 and 3. First Peter 2, 2 and 3. As newborn babes, desire the
sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. If so be
you've tasted that the Lord is gracious. If God has shown grace
to you, then desire the sincere milk of the word. God's word, God's proclamation
of the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. Every time I
stand up here to preach, and I've told you before, 66 books,
where am I gonna go? Well, wherever I feel the Lord's
given me a desire. I don't wanna pick a passage
that I don't have a burning desire to look at. They're all good,
but I have to wait on the Lord to get, but you know what? I
can tell you this, there's gonna be a pattern. I'm going to lay
something down every time I preach right here. There's a pattern. There's a blueprint. I'm going
to lay it down on here. I want to hear, I want to proclaim these
truths. Man's ruined in the fall. God's redemption through the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the surety of God's regenerating
grace by his Holy Spirit. Now the truth, that's the good
news. I fell in Adam. Tell me how God
has brought me back. And tell me how he's going to
get me and keep me. Tell me that. So that pattern,
how am I going to hear that? How am I going to hear it without
hearing it? How do you hear? How do you hear?
Well, Jeremiah 3.15 says, I'm going to send you pastors. I'm
going to give you a pastor. after my heart, and they're gonna
feed you with knowledge. Look at Romans 10. Romans chapter
10. How are you gonna grow? How do
you grow in grace? Hear what God has to say. Hear what he's got to say. Romans
10, 13. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they've not believed? You cannot believe on somebody
that you've not been told. You gotta hear about somebody.
If I told you, I said, there's somebody in my mind, I want you
to trust them. What am I thinking? You don't know. How are they
gonna call on him whom they've not believed? How should they
believe on him whom they've not heard? How should they hear without
a preacher? Consider taking these scriptures.
and finding the sense of them, and setting forth and understanding
the sense of, you know what it's going to take to get there? God's
going to have to talk to you and tell you something. And he's
been pleased to take a preacher, a lump of coal, a lump of dust,
and teach a lump of dust, a frail creature of dust, to give him
understanding set forth and tell God's people, that's how we grow.
I got to eat. I got to eat of the bread of
heaven. I got to drink of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I got to grow. I got to breathe of him. I got
to drink the water of life. I've got, I'm not going to grow.
If you're not sitting under the gospel, hearing the gospel of
God's free grace, The Spirit of God is not blessing that.
If you're not hearing the gospel of God, he blesses the gospel
of God's grace, the gospel of the sovereign grace of God. That's
how you grow. You grow thereby. So we hear
the message of the gospel. And then the second thing, here's
how we grow. You hear these scriptures, you
hear them preached, and you need that. But let me tell you something. Turn to Acts 17. There is something
about these scriptures that needs to also be realized. Read them daily. Read them daily. If you're not reading them daily,
start. Start. You see, that sounds like
law. That's not law. This is what
scripture says concerning Acts 17, 11. Asri 10, 11, Acts 17, 10 and
11. And the brethren immediately
sent Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who coming thither
went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble
than those in Thessalonica. that they received the word with
all readiness of mind. They heard the preaching of the
gospel. That's what it says. They heard it. They're listening
to it. And you're listening to what I'm saying. They received
it with all readiness of mind. And I hope and pray that I've
been here long enough to where you'll trust me. And say, well,
if Marvin said that, I think, I trust what he said, but that's
not good enough. That's not good enough. I'm just a frail creature. They received the word with all
readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether
those things were so. They were more noble than those
in Thessalonica. Why? Because they took these
scriptures and they searched them every day. Try what I'm
saying. Believe not every spirit. Don't
believe everybody that stands in a pulpit just because they're,
they say, well, I'm a preacher. Well, I'll tell you what I'll
do. Let me take the scriptures. And let me see if I find any
validity in your statement. If you're saying what these scriptures
are saying, then okay. Hear the gospel preached. Hear
the truth of the word of God, but then search the scriptures
daily, whether these things be so. And then lastly, concerning
growing in grace, we have the blessed means and privilege of
communion with the Lord in prayer, in prayer. You think about these
three things, hearing the scriptures, searching the scriptures yourself,
find out, search the scriptures, find out if these things are
so, and then prayer. Matthew 6, 6, Matthew 6, 6, The Lord speaking. Thou when thou prayest, enter
into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door. Let me just say this. Find time
to get along with God. These things that I'm telling
you, this is scriptural. Hear the word of the Lord preached.
Make much. Give yourself to hearing the
gospel preached. I try. I honestly try. I try
to seek God's direction and guidance and take these scriptures and
find out and just look them up, look up the words and find out
what it's going to say. Come in here. Come in here. Here. Hear what God has to say
through God's ordained means of preaching. Preaching. He called you by our gospel.
That's what Paul said to the church at Thessalonica in 2.13. He called you by our gospel. Check out what I'm saying. Make
sure it's so. Because if I'm wrong, shame on me and shame
on you for believing me. This is the standard right here
in this book. and then seek the Lord in prayer. Get into your
closet, find a time. I don't really have time during
the day, then quit something else. But find some time to be
with God, and when you pray, not if you pray, when you pray,
get into your closet, shut the door, get by yourself, pray to
thy Father, which is in secret. Your father, the father, actually,
I looked that word up, it means hidden. You pray to the one that's
hidden. You pray to the one that's hidden.
He's been pleased to hide himself from this world, but he's gonna
reveal himself to his people. You pray to the one that is in
secret. And the father which seeth in
secret shall reward thee openly. The most blessed part of prayer
for me is to remember I don't know what to pray. And so it's
the most comforting thing for me to just say, Lord, I don't know where to start.
I don't know where to start. I don't know what to say. But
I want to talk to you. I just want to talk to you. And
as we pray, we grow in the realization of our frailty. Oh, I'm telling
you, you talk about growing in grace. Now that right there,
try praying and realizing how gracious the Lord's been to us
to not deal with us after our works. I just, Lord, I don't
know what to say. And then the next thing I know,
I'm thinking of a football game. to grow in the grace that God
has shown us, to grow in the realization of what he's shown
us in his blessed son. We grow in the knowledge of prayer,
realizing our Lord prayed. Our Lord prayed. And that frail
effort that I make, that wandering, you know, and I'm trying, I'm
trying, I'm trying to keep my mind. and I can't do it. Lord, thank you for grace. Thank
you for mercy. Thank you for your compassion.
Thank you for your understanding. Thank you for your long-suffering.
Grow in grace and in the knowledge. 2 Thessalonians 5, 17 says, pray
without ceasing. I can pray right now. You don't
know what I'm doing. You can't see what's in me. But
here I can be right here begging God, Lord, please, please help
me. Grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, and I'll wrap this last part right here.
Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, the scripture says, last part to him be glory both now
and forever, amen. Do we not have great reason?
to give praise and honor and glory unto the Lord right now,
right now, right now. Lord, that you've given me a
heart to want to be here, be with God's people, to hear what
you have to say, to Him be glory now. But oh, what about forevermore? What about forevermore? I know
according to your scriptures, There's coming a time when we'll
stand before God, all the four and 20 elders, casting our crowns,
the crowns of His glorious person and being and righteousness.
Just say, Lord, to you be honor and glory and praise. I don't
know how to enter into that right now, but I can tell you this,
He's worthy. He's worthy to give glory and
honor now and forevermore.