Now, in 2 Peter chapter 1 in
verse 5, the word begins, and beside this,
beside this. Now, we'll review for a moment.
We know that verses 1 through 4 is one sentence. That's one
sentence. Peter began there and he tells
us that the believer has obtained Through the righteousness of
God our Savior, Jesus Christ, through the wisdom and knowledge
of God and our Savior Jesus Christ, through the power, the divine
power of God, the believer has been given all things. that pertain
to life and godliness. We've been born again. We've
been given all things. We've been given faith. We've
been given grace. We've been given peace. We've
been given exceeding great and precious promises. You know what
the defect in a false promise is? The defect in a false promise
is uncertainty. We saw that. What makes God's
promises certain? Let me give you these four things
again. The first thing that makes God's promise certain is they're
by God's grace, freely given to whom He will. That's the first
thing. Grace means He didn't choose
us because of something in us and therefore He's not going
reject us because of something in us. His promises are sure
because they're by His grace. Number two, His promises are
sure because they're by two unchangeable things. God who cannot lie, God
who does not change. They're by two immutable things,
His decree and His oath. His decree and His oath. And
then thirdly, They're sure because they're promises that are accomplished
by the Son of God, Christ Jesus himself. And fourthly, they're
exceeding great and precious and sure to the believer because
they're effectually worked in the heart by the Holy Spirit
of God. What are they? We saw that they're
promises of forgiveness of sin, no more offering for sin. The
promise that because Christ was made sin, he's made his people
the righteousness of God in him. His righteousness, Christ himself,
the righteousness he is, is imputed to his people, the believer.
Reconciled to God in the body of his flesh through death. Reconciled
to God. Brought in harmony with God. We have the promise of God's
providence that He's going to work all things together for
the good of those that love Him, for the good of those that He's
called, and everything He's working is right according to His purpose.
There are absolutely no accidents with the God of heaven and earth.
We have the promise of eternal life. Eternal life. You who believe right now have
eternal life. You have it. That's His promise. We've been given the promise
that we're joint heirs with His Son. Joint heirs. The inheritance that goes to
His Son, we'll partake of that as joint heirs with His Son.
We've been given the promise of resurrection. That after we
die, our spirits go to be with the Lord immediately, and in
the end, He'll raise our bodies. He'll save us body, soul, and
spirit. We've been given the promise
of reigning with Christ in His throne. forever, exceeding great. If any part of those promises
were left up to those whom God saves, that would make the promise
defective because there'd be uncertainty in it. But because
God doesn't leave one promise in our hands to fulfill, it's
sure and exceedingly great, as sure and exceedingly great as
God is precious and great, and as sure as Christ has written
it all in his blood. And then by this, Peter said
in verse 4, we've been made partakers of the divine nature. Christ
has been formed in us by the Holy Spirit so that the same
life that flows from the vine flows into the branches. The
same life that is in the head flows into each member of his
body. He makes us one with Him. He gives us fellowship with Him.
He makes us possessors of the consolation of Christ, of everything
that's His. Christ in you is our hope of
eternal glory. That's what is our hope. And
then by this He says, we have escaped and delivered from the
corruption that is in the world through lust. God the Father
has translated you who believe out of the power of darkness
into the kingdom of His dear Son. We're not already perfect
in our flesh. We're full of sin in our flesh.
That's all it is. Our old man is still the old
man. But one of these days, one of
these days, we're going to see him as he is and we'll be like
him. We'll be like him. We have been
delivered. That's a salutation. We begin
our letters, dear John. That's quite a world of infinite
goodness in one sentence, isn't it? One sentence. So he says
here in verse 5, and beside this, or upon this, knowing this great
grace of our God, who's worked all this for us in our hearts,
making us a new creation, he says, giving all diligence, Let's
talk about diligence for a moment. Diligence has two meanings. It
carries two meanings. It means haste and it means earnestness. Not hasty as in being foolish
and being trying to get something done and get it over with. Not
that. It means hastiness as in giving a continuous effort to
every moment with earnestness, meaning with your mind fixed,
determined in one direction. Let me give you an example. The
Scriptures teach us that whatever the Lord commands, He gives the
power to do it. And whatever He commands us to
do, He is the power by which we do it. You see, this is God,
this is Christ our Head speaking right here. He's speaking through
the Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Peter. But it's as directly
him speaking as if Peter wasn't even involved. This is him speaking,
and he says, give all diligence. What happens when he speaks like
that to the heart of one of his children? I'll give you an example. Same word, same word for diligence. Zacchaeus had climbed up in a
tree, and he didn't know the Lord, and he was curious, and
he had climbed up in this tree, and he was looking to see the
Lord Jesus Christ walking through a crowd. And the Lord Jesus Christ
knew him, and knew right where he was, and he came right to
him, and he looked up in that tree, and he said, Zacchaeus,
make haste, give diligence, and come down. That's what he said
to him. I must abide at thy house." Can
you picture the earnestness and the sure-footedness when he spoke
that power into Zacchaeus' heart? Zacchaeus was looking at every
rung of that tree limb when he was coming down it and making
sure his footing was sure all the way down that tree, and he
wasn't wasting time getting down that tree because God spoke to
him. And when God speaks, we'll give
all diligence. I'll give you another example.
When Christ was formed in the womb of Mary, the Scripture says
she was so thrilled with what the Holy Spirit said unto her
that she made haste to get into the hill country to go tell her
cousin Elizabeth the good news. She made haste. Can you picture
her on that trip to Elizabeth's house? She was making every step
count as she was making her way to tell that good news. That's
the word diligence. Verse 5, beside this giving all
diligence add to your faith. There's two things I want to
say here. First is remember that all addition Add, he says, all
addition is the fruit of the Spirit. So that you and I aren't,
these aren't things for us to pat ourselves on the back or
try to make folks look at us and say, well, look how far I've
come. That's not what this is about. This is the addition of the Spirit.
When he says give all diligence, we'll give diligence to add.
And then secondly, notice, and I'll tell you that Paul even
said diligence is a fruit of the Spirit. He said that, diligence
is a fruit of the Spirit. grace of God. And then remember
this, that this is your faith. This is cultivation of your own
garden. We're not digging weeds out of
somebody else's garden. This is add to your faith. This is speaking to you personally,
to me personally. Second Peter 1.5, he said, beside
this giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue. What is virtue? Well, in the
Old Testament, virtue is is commonly interpreted praise. Let me give
you a scripture. The people have I formed for
myself, they shall show forth my praise. They'll show forth
my virtue. They'll show forth that they're
partakers of my nature. There's a whole different new
creation made in a believer than there is in a man who's pretending
to have it. We see this word in two different
ways. We hear this word saying two
different things. Two can't walk together unless
they're in agreement. And this agreement is not made
until God creates true spiritual virtue in a believer by his own
making. Now, what is it itself? What
is virtue? Well, it's First of all, it's
that which comes from God, that which is moral virtue. You hear that talked a lot about,
moral virtue, that which is of man. The moral virtues of man
change from generation to generation. What's considered to be morally
acceptable in this day and time 100 years ago would be looked
at as craziness. And 100 years before that, crazier
than that. We're not, as a whole, this mankind's
not getting better. We're not, we're going downhill,
not uphill. And every good gift, every perfect
gift is from above. It comes down from the father
of lights with whom is no variableness, no shadow of turning. at all. These are fruits that are the
same. Any growth that tells you to look at you and it tells you
to excel because by your strength and draws attention to you, that's
wisdom that does not descend from above. It's earthly, it's
sensual, and it's devilish. That's not this virtue. God-given,
God-grown virtue is that which adorns the doctrine of God our
Savior in all things. It adorns the truth that we believe,
the God we believe, He who has saved us. It adorns Him. It strives
to adorn Him. That's what true virtue is. Let
me give you something in Philippians 4.8. This is what Paul said. Philippians 4.8. He said, Finally,
brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are true, Whatsoever
things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things
are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are
of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise,
Virtue is praise to God. That's what it is. If God's created
this in you, think on these things. That which is true, that which
is honest, that which is just, that which is pure, that which
is lovely, that which is a good report. That's what virtue is. All right, but now look, all
of these, go back to our text, 2 Peter 1, 5, all of these, he's
saying add to virtue and then to virtue knowledge. These things
aren't necessarily like stair steps like that. These are all
part of the new nature created in a believer and we're growing
in these things together. You know, each believer is growing
in these things all together. And this is important to note
because when you talk about virtue, we need some knowledge, don't
we? We need some knowledge about what virtue is. And so he says,
he says here, to virtue knowledge, that means knowledge of what
is good and what is right. not according to what the world
says is good and right, what's true and just and honest and
pure, but according to what God says is true and honest and just
and pure. Where do we get that? Where do
we get that knowledge, that understanding to know how to walk and deal
with our brethren and to walk in this world and deal with those
that we face on a day-to-day basis? Where do we get that knowledge?
Colossians 2, 3 says, in whom? In Christ, in our God, our head,
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So let me give you
three simple things that's going to be involved here with growing
in knowledge. Growing in knowledge. First of
all, if you're risen with Christ, Set your affection where Christ
is. Set your heart where Christ is.
He's above. He's not here below. In other
words, don't have your heart set on this world. It's fun to go to a talent show
and play the guitar and have fun and do all that, but don't
try to make a living doing it. Don't try to make a living doing
it. because you're dead, and your
life is hid with God in Christ. When He's coming, we'll appear
with Him. So set your affection on things above. Secondly, it
involves this, give all diligence to continually come to His throne
of grace and ask Him. He's the fountain of all this
grace. He is the one who gives all this grace. He's a rewarder
of them that believe Him and come to Him and diligently seek
Him. We don't have any understanding
of anything whatsoever. We have to come to Him who is
the wisdom. Be always coming to Him and asking
Him for understanding. In every situation, in every
decision, in every big or small, and everything. It may just seem
like a mundane thing and you take it for granted and take
it for granted that you know how to do this thing and that
you're doing it right or whatever. Be constantly asking Him for
understanding, for wisdom, knowledge. And then it's going to involve
giving diligence to His Word, to seek Him in His Word, to read
it and to think about what He's saying and what He's teaching
us in His Word. Read this word prayerfully. Read it asking God to show me
what it, what do you mean God? What, he, this is, these are
his scriptures. They're God breathed. He wrote
this word. He's the only one really that
can, the only one truly who can give us an understanding of what
he says in his word. A believing, a believing understanding. So, and this is what he said
through Micah. He said, he hath showed thee, O man, what is good. Whatever this book says, that
God says is good, that's what's good. You can just mark it down. That is what is good. And he
says, he showed us what is good, and what doth the Lord require
of thee? To do justly, to do justly, deal
justly, and to love mercy. In other words, me personally
do that which is just to my fellow man, and as far as my fellow
man towards me, Deal with every one of them as if they're not
just at all. Be merciful. Be merciful. And walk humbly
with thy God. Walk humbly with Him. He's ruling
and reigning. Alright, let's go back to verse
6. He says now, and to knowledge temperance. Temperance means avoiding excess. Our fleshly lusts are the excess. Our fleshly lusts and that which
the flesh desires doesn't have free reign anymore because when
the Spirit of God enters in, He takes over. Christ is the
new master. He's the master of the heart
He's made. He's created anew. And so the Spirit of God seduced
the old flesh in us. Sin shall not have dominion over
you because you're not under the law, you're under grace now. You're under His power. But there's still in every believer
an old nature. There's still in every believer
the old me. And the old me likes the old
me, and the old me wants to live in excess. The old me wants to
go after that which is easy on my flesh, go after that which
pampers my flesh, go after that which feeds my flesh, go after
that which the flesh covets after in all regard. And that's against
the new me, that's against the new man, the new heart formed
in you. So temperance, avoiding excess,
is another way of saying put off the old man with his needs
and put on the new. What does that really mean? So
to the spirit, not to the flesh. That's just a simple What do
you, where do you think the gardens, the fruits are gonna grow? If
you've sowed to the flesh, that's where the fruits are gonna grow.
If you've sown to the spirit, that's where the fruits are gonna
grow. You know, if you had a, that's simple, isn't it? If you
had a garden in your own yard, and you had a garden over in
somebody else's yard, and you're planting crops in somebody else's
yard, well, where do you think the fruit's gonna be growing?
Be growing in that yard, not in your own garden. The new man
is the spirit. The new man, the inward man,
so to that man. And the old man, give diligence
to grow in temperance, to live in moderation in all things.
This is how Paul said it, this I say, walk in the spirit and
you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The lust of the
flesh. We have liberty in all things. The believer has liberty. But
the liberty I have, I may have liberty in something that may
be a great stumbling block to somebody else, and it may be
a great hindrance to somebody else. And so temperance helps
us to understand that we're seeking the welfare of our brethren,
honoring Christ rather than our belly. Our belly's something
more important than just ourselves. Verse 6, he says, and to temperance,
patience. Patience is much more than the ability to stay calm
in a traffic jam. God does give us patience. Now,
we do grow in patience, but the Scriptures speak of patience
as waiting on God. That's what patience is. God
doesn't operate on our timetable. He just doesn't. We have to wait
on God. To be patient is to endure hardness. It's to endure hardness rather
than to take the path of least resistance. It's to continue
faithful to God while you wait on God to do what God will. That's
patience. We all may say something to each
other at times where we've kind of lost our cool-headedness or
whatever, and we pop off something to one another or something like
that. Well, that is impatience. But this is an enduring patience
we're talking about. This is a patience that is staying
and lasting. Enemies may become those in your
own house. Patiently endure. It may be that
your enemies become those that were your closest brethren. Endure,
patiently endure, patiently wait on the Lord. It may be that the
whole world turns against you. patiently wait on the Lord to
do what He will. We need God for that, don't we?
If we know anything about ourselves at all, we know we need God constantly
for that. We can't do that unless God is
our strength, unless He's the one that's giving us the strength. The stony ground hearer receives
the word with gladness, but he has no root in themselves, and
so endure but for a time. Afterward, when affliction or
persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they are offended."
This patience is rootedness, having Christ being rooted and
grounded. The scripture describes water
as, well, you know what water is. Water takes the form of whatever
is around it. That's what water does. It takes
the form of whatever's around it. The believer is no longer a wave
of the sea tossed about by the wind, every wind of doctrine.
He becomes fixed, he becomes steady on Christ, set on Christ,
his affection on Christ, by the new birth, by God dwelling in
him and keeping him so that he patiently waits on his God. God's going to give the increase
in His people. He's going to give the increase
to His church. He's going to give the increase in the hearts
of His people individually. He's going to give the increase,
as far as He's concerned, calling out His sheep and bringing them
into His fold. And He's going to do that. And
He says to us, I'll pour water upon him that is thirsty. Floods
upon the dry ground. James 5-7. I read this to you
just the other day, but James 5-7. When you plant a garden, do you
just run out there the next morning and expect to get fruit? You have to wait a while, don't
you? Look at this, James 5, 7. Be patient therefore, brethren,
be patient. Be patient therefore, brethren,
unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth
for the precious fruit of the earth, the farmer. He waits. He has long patience for it.
Until he receives the early and latter rain, be ye also patient. Establish your hearts, for the
coming of the Lord draw nigh." Paul said, if we're hoping for
that which we don't see, then with patience we wait for it.
We used to go out, my granddad, and we'd plant his garden. And
I can remember, after planting his garden, I can remember how
excited I was. I had hope. I had hope that what
we planted was going to grow. And I'd go back and when I'd
be at his house, I'd go out and look because I had hope. If you
have hope for something that you don't see yet, you patiently
wait for it, don't you? But you have that hope. That's
what patience, God-given patience is, having that hope in us, Christ
in you. 2 Peter 1.6, he says, into patience,
godliness. And this is so important. Godliness
is the fear of the Lord in the heart. That's what godliness
is. Fear of the Lord in the heart.
It changes our attitude in everything. What do you mean by having the
fear of the Lord in our heart? If you and I really, truly realize,
and the more we grow to realize, that Christ Jesus the Lord, by
making Himself the least, by coming into this earth and by
going to the cross and making Himself absolutely the least
for God the Father and for His brethren, so that there He is
regarded not by God, crying out, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? neither regarded by the earth,
by anybody in it. That's least, that's least. He did that out of love for his
brethren. If we realize how fully he accomplished that, and we
realize that God the Father has truly handed into his hands that
man, Christ Jesus, As God, He has all power. But that man,
Christ Jesus, has been resurrected and He has all power in heaven. I don't even know what the armies
of heaven are. But it's got, if there's some
great, I've seen some, we've got some pretty good armies here
in the earth. But they ain't bad, I guarantee you they're
more powerful than the armies in this earth. But He's the head
of those armies in heaven and the inhabitants and armies in
this earth using everything at his disposal. If we really realize
that he really truly is in his children doing willing and doing
of his good pleasure, that he is in the midst of his church,
where he himself has done the gathering, where he himself has
gathered his people, whether it be two of them or three of
them or thousands of them, where he has gathered them, he says,
I'm there in the midst of them. If we truly realized in our dealings
with each other, when we're just two of us are together and he's
brought us together, If we truly realize He is right there with
us, hearing every word, regarding everything, turning the hearts
of His people whichever way He will, working everything in this
world according to His will, so that what we do is going to
be His good pleasure. Ultimately, what takes place
is going to be His good pleasure. You and I would work out all
the mundane daily affairs between each other and in this world
with fear and trembling. That's godliness. The more we
grow in that realization, the more we grow to understand, the
more we will work out everything with fear and trembling, knowing
that I don't have to try to make anything happen. I don't have
to fret when anything doesn't go the way I think it ought to
go. I don't have to do that. I can truly submit to Him. And if I have to stand for His
Word and say that which is so when I'm faced with opposition,
this is so of you. He will give the strength to
stand. He will give the strength to
do so. If we knew, that's exactly what Paul was saying in Philippians
2. He's not telling you, I'm so sick of hearing men talk about,
preach on these things right here and try to point men to
themselves and try to, oh, I hope you see in me something much
better than you saw in me 10 or 15 years ago. I can't stand
that message. You know why? Because it's taking
the glory away from Christ, my Redeemer, and it's putting it
on a weak little, sick little, ugly little worm. That's why.
Ain't nobody wanting to look at you and me. Nobody wanting
to see you. The believer wants to see Christ.
We want to see the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not wanting to look
at you look at me. And you're not wanting me to
look at you. We want to see Christ Jesus. And men will take that
verse in Philippians 2 where he says, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling. And oh, that means you've got
to work out everything so everybody's looking at you and everybody's
seeing you and somehow by that you're adding to your salvation.
If you read the first chapter, Paul says, I know that all this
that's going on with me being in prison is going to turn to
my salvation. Did he mean he was talking about
that he thought being in prison was going to save him with God
eternally? No, he meant right here in whatever
takes place in day-to-day mundane goings-on here, it's going to
turn to my deliverance, it's going to turn to my good. And
so he's telling them when you're the least in the kingdom of God,
when you've got the Spirit of Christ in you and you know what
it is to to come down and to be humble before Him. He said,
as you've done in my presence, much more now in my absence.
It doesn't matter if I'm there or not. Christ is. He's there
in your midst, working in you, both the will and the do of His
good pleasure. When we know that, brethren, ah, it just, that's
godliness. That's growing in godliness.
All right, now let's look at the Next thing, and we'll just
close here, but verse 7, 2 Peter 1, 7, and to godliness,
brotherly kindness, and a brotherly kindness charity. The love of
God's in the believer. The same love that God is in
the believer because God's in the believer. So how did God
love his children? Here in his love, not that we
loved God. but that God loved us and sent
his son the propitiation, satisfaction, mercy seat, atonement for our
sins. Not that we love God, but that
He sent His Son to die for those who didn't love Him, who didn't
regard Him, who didn't treat Him with any kindness, who had
nothing to do but spit at Him. And yet He sent His Son to lay
down His life for His elect. He says, Beloved, if God so loved
us, if He loved us after that manner, after this manner, that's
the manner we ought to love one another. Growing in brotherly
love is growing to love without looking for a cause in my brother. That's what growing in brotherly
love is. Growing to love without looking
for a cause in my brother. It's growing to overlook my brother's
weakness, my sister's weaknesses and flaws, not nitpicking and
complaining about them to everybody that'll listen. That ain't growing
in love. Love covereth the multitude of
sins. I don't have time right now to
read it, but be sure to go home and read 1 Corinthians 13, 4
through 8. See what charity does. See what
love does. It never fails. It never fails. So the more we grow in truth
that God loved us when we were enemies, that's the more charitable
we're gonna be amongst our brethren. And then this word charity, brotherly
kindness, add to brotherly kindness charity, we'll be more merciful
to those who are yet lost and without Christ. We know what
it is. We remember what it is to not love him and to be an
enemy. All right, let's Let's just close by reading these last
verses out. 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 sin. One
of them is born of God. He has these fruits in Him because
of the new birth. And because God's dwelling in
Him and the Spirit of God's in Him, He's going to hear and He's
going to do, He's going to give all diligence. And God's going
to grow Him. God's going to continue to grow
Him more and more in grace. And the more He grows in grace,
the less He's going to be drawing attention to Himself. And the
more He's going to want you to see Christ. Be sure of that.
The other one is blind and he can't see past the end of his
nose, backwards or forwards. He can't see backwards and he
can't see forwards. And he hears the gospel, James
said, and straightway forgets what manner of man he pretended
he was going to be. Go and hear the next person talk
about what manner of man he ought to be and say, that's the manner
of man I'm going to be. Go to the next one and hear the truth
and say, that's the manner of man I'm going to be. and go out
straight away and his tongue be set on fire of hell and burn
up everybody and everything except for the own chaff that he is. Verse 10. 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 entrant
shall be ministered to you abundantly and to the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Christ our head, ministered
grace to us when he became surety for us in eternity. He ministered
grace to his children, those given him of the Father, when
he came and fulfilled the law and redeemed us from all iniquity
by his own blood. He ministered grace to us when
he sent the gospel to us in truth. He ministered grace to us when
he sent forth the Spirit into our hearts and made us new. And
he'll minister to us abundantly so that we increase with the
increase of God, so that our foot is sure and we will not
fall from all his grace. You know what this word diligence
has in it? It gets its strength, I'm told
in the various dictionaries, it gets its strength from a word
that means foot or footstool. That don't mean your foot. It
gets its strength. Remember when Mary sat at his
feet? That's where it gets its strength.
Sit at his feet and learn of him. Hold the head from whom
the body by joints and bands have nourishment ministered and
increase with the increase of God. Wherefore, I'll not be negligent
to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know
them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it's
meet, as long as I'm in this tabernacle, to stir you up by
putting you in remembrance, knowing that I shortly must put off this
tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me. Moreover,
I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my decease, to have
these things always in remembrance. Peter was old when he said that.
If we could remember what the Lord taught Peter, that his flesh
was just a tent and not put any confidence in it, he was going
to put it off before long. That's growing in grace. That's
an old, old believer that's been through all the huffing and puffing
and saying, look at me, everybody, and got to the place where the
Lord just said, Peter, you're nobody. And he knew it. He knew
it. They wanted Christ to have all
the glory. That's growing in grace. Amen.