Now in the second epistle of
Peter, Peter is writing to believers born of the Spirit of God, and
he says in verse 2, 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 life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that hath
called us to glory and virtue. 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. Now there are some here this
morning who don't know anything about this grace and this peace
of which Peter speaks. May this be the day that the
Spirit of God reaches down and takes possession of that which
is His, binding the strong man and making you full of light
and understanding by His presence in you. Now brethren, the knowledge
of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ is how God will multiply
in the believer larger discoveries of His grace. And as he makes
larger discoveries of his grace in our hearts, so we see that
his grace is unchanging, unchangeable grace, the more peace we have
in our hearts. Grace and peace are multiplied
through the knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It means two things. It means Knowledge of God and
of Jesus our Lord has to do with God's wisdom in teaching us,
His children, and it has to do with His children learning more
of God our Savior. Personally, intimately, in spirit
and in truth, the Lord said, this is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou
hast sent. A right knowledge of God and
of Jesus our Lord is absolutely necessary to spiritual life. It's absolutely necessary. It's
absolutely necessary to spiritual growth. There are several times
here in these first few verses of Scripture that Peter says
that. Verse 2 he says, Grace and peace
be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus
our Lord. In verse 3 he says, 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. Verse five, he says, besides
this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and to virtue
knowledge. In verse eight, he says, 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. The best study for one of God's
elect children is to study God in Christ. That's the best study
that a sinner can engage in, the very best study. His name,
his nature, his person, his work, his attributes. Nothing improves
the spiritual man as prayerfully hearing the gospel and studying
the word of God. Our pride's made small by God's
fullness. Our cares are drowned in the
deep sea of God's word. The man who spends his time hearing
and studying God, studying how God saves sinners in Christ Jesus,
will be, by the grace of God, rooted and grounded. He won't
be tossed to and fro by all the smorgasbord of half-truths being
propagated in this world today. He'll be settled. When you hear
this word consistently, you are settled. When you do not, you
are not. I've seen that in you. I've seen
that in you personally. I know that to be so in me. When
you hear this word consistently, you're consistent. When you consistently
hear the word that points you to men and to other men and how
to fix things and be a fixer, you are consistently inconsistent. That is so. That is absolutely
so. Believer, to know yourself will
make you absolutely miserable, but to know your God will make
you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. The means
that we We come here and we hear the gospel. And so that means
we come here and we prepare our hearts. Beforehand, before we
come, we prepare and we arrive early. We read and we ask the
Lord to give us a hearing ear. All this is involved in preparing
ourselves just to hear his word. And then once the word is preached,
we don't just forget it as soon as we've heard it. We get up
and immediately start talking about things and the word is
just gone in an instant. And we get halfway home. What did the preacher preach
in the first message? I can't even remember the text. Meditate on these things. Hold
these things in our heart. Go home and search the scriptures
and see if these things are so. And search the scriptures throughout
the week. Whatever we have our minds set
on, that's where our treasure is. And that's where our hearts
are going to be. That's so. Very important that we know,
this is what James said, wherefore my beloved brethren, let every
man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to write. At least
give it enough time to digest as it took the preacher to prepare
the food for you. At least give it that much time.
Brethren, be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Now,
all of that's important, and the knowledge that we have of
our Lord and Jesus Christ is very important. But none of,
no knowledge, I don't care how much knowledge of God and the
Lord Jesus you get, I do not care how much you get, it will
profit you and me absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing if
it has not been accompanied by His divine power. And that's what I want to talk
to you this morning about, His divine power. Verse 3, according,
now he said there in verse 2, grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
How is it going to be multiplied? The same way it began in us. We were called by His divine
power. Verse 3, 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. God gives to His child, unto
us, in us, all things that pertain to life and godliness when He
gives Christ in the heart, when Christ is formed in us. And through
His wisdom, in divine power, God calls us to glory and virtue. The preacher can't do this. The
church can't do this. Mom and Daddy can't do this.
Nobody can do this but God. This is the call of grace whereby
the Spirit of God makes us all together new creatures. Wherein
He makes a dead thing, well, I was going to say He makes a
dead thing alive. He don't do anything to the dead
thing. He makes alive a new man within us. in us. When he said Lazarus come forth,
he came forth. When he said Zacchaeus come down,
he came down. This is God who speaks and he
makes life come. God does call and He does convert
His elect, bringing us to glory and virtue. That is, to honor
and praise Him, to live a life of virtue, a life of doing right
by the Spirit of God, and to the hope of glory hereafter with
Him. To glory and virtue. We're going
to look at this a little later in another study. Our focus this
morning is His divine power. By His divine power, by His glory,
Look here, it says, through the knowledge of Him that hath called
us to glory and virtue, and the other meaning here is by glory
and virtue, by His glory, that is His exceeding power, and by
His virtue, that is His excellency, His power, He calls His child
into His marvelous light. I want you to see something in
Ephesians 1, 19. Ephesians 1, 19. One of the old, old, old writers
said the conversion of souls is more wonderful than the resurrection
of the dead. The conversion of souls is more
wonderful than the resurrection of the dead. And that's exactly
what the Apostle Paul is saying here in Ephesians 119. And what
is the exceeding, he says here, verse 18, the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his
calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us who believe. According to the working of his
mighty power, which he brought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly
places." Another old writer said, to raise us from spiritual death
is an exercise of the same power that raised Christ from natural
death. And that's exactly what we see
here. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, Paul said, that the excellency, some of the newer
translations translate that word virtue, excellency, were called
by glory the exceeding greatness of his power which he brought
when he raised Christ from the dead and by his virtue, by his
excellency. And Paul said we have this treasure
in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power might be of God
and not of us. Peter said He called us out of
darkness into His mighty, marvelous light. We've been called by His
divine power, we've been called by His exceeding glory, called
by His excellence, called into His marvelous light. That's the
first thing we see. Grace and peace will be multiplied
the same way it began, by His divine power, by His glory and
His virtue and His calling. Secondly, it's going to be by
His divine power or secondly, this is not really four different
points, this is the same point just divided four different ways.
By His divine power, He gives us exceeding great and precious
promises. Look at verse four. He says,
whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.
Now these are not really promises that are made to us, that God's
going to fulfill in the future. But right here we're talking
about being born again. We're talking about something
God does by His divine power. These are promises which God
fulfills and performs in us. They're given us in this manner,
that He fulfills these promises and performs them in us in the
new birth. That's when Christ who is all
life and Godliness is formed in us and it's then that God
makes us partakers of the divine nature. It's then that he delivers
us from the corruption that is in the world through lust. What
are these exceeding great promises, great precious promises? What
do you mean that they're given us? What do you mean that they're
fulfilled and performed in the believer by his divine power?
I'll show you what they are. Jeremiah 31, 31. This is a promise that God made and the promise he performs when
he operates upon a sinner in this divine power. Jeremiah 31,
31. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by
the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant
they break, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord, but
this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel. After those days, saith the Lord,
I will put my law in their inward part. This is the promise that
he's given, that he's fulfilled, that he's performed when he rebirths
anew a sinner. I will put my law in their inward
parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they
shall be my people. And they shall teach no man ever
man his neighbor, and ever man his brother, saying, Know the
Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them unto
the greatest of them, saith the Lord. For I will forgive their
iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." That's quite
a promise, isn't it? You know when you get that promise?
When God makes you a new creature. He performs that promise in the
act of making us anew. Look over at Ezekiel 36, 25. We don't get in on any other
promises until God fulfills this promise in His people. Ezekiel
36, 25. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give
you a heart of flesh. That's a promise, isn't it? When's
that promise given to us? It's given to us when He works
this exceeding great power in His people. Ezekiel 37, 12. He says, Therefore prophesy and
say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people,
I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves
and bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that
I am the Lord when I have opened your graves, O my people, and
brought you up out of your graves. and shall put my spirit in you,
and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. Then
shall you know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed
it, saith the Lord." That's when we're going to know. Peter's
telling us that when the Lord raises a sinner from death to
life, by His power and His grace, when we're born of incorruptible
seed, when God sprinkles our hearts with the clean water of
His grace and puts a new spirit in us, He makes us new creatures
in Christ. And this is when these exceeding
great and precious promises are fulfilled in us. Alright, here's
the third thing. By His divine power, God makes
the believer partakers of the divine nature. Again, I said
to you, this is not four different things. This is what God does
when He operates in a child of mercy. Verse 4, at the end there,
it says that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature. Now what does that mean? Well,
it doesn't mean that we become partakers of the divine essence
of who God is, it doesn't mean that we possess the attributes
of divinity. The divine nature is the nature
of Christ. When we're born of the incorruptible
seed, we're born of with his nature. We're born with the nature
of Christ imparted into us, formed in us by the Holy Spirit. When
you were born the first time, you were born of corrupt seed
by your father, and you came forth with the nature of your
father, that nature which your father has been trying all his
days to get you not to have and not to act like. He gave it to
you, and I gave it to mine. that sinful, rebellious, God-hating
nature that hates all authority and wants to have nothing to
do with any authority whatsoever. But when Christ is born in a
sinner, when the Spirit of Christ comes into the heart of a sinner,
he's born of incorruptible seed, and he's made a partaker of the
divine nature. This is what Paul told the Colossians,
to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Paul said, it's my utmost desire. He said, I travail in birth till
Christ be formed in you. That's what he told the Galatians.
It was Christ, this is a mystery I know, but Christ Jesus is God
the Son. He who is Spirit, because the
children were partakers of flesh and blood with a human nature. He came to where we are and He
took, not the nature of angels, but He took with His divine Godhead
the nature of a man. So that in Christ Jesus is God
man. the God-man. And he did that
that through his work, through what he did, through his accomplishment
of satisfying eternal justice for his people, he might make
his people by this new birth, by this exceeding great power,
by this divine power of God in regeneration, that he might make
us of one spirit with him, that his spirit might come into us
and make us one spirit with him. He that is joined unto the Lord
is one spirit, the scripture said. so that we have our head
and our husband, to whom we are joined together as a bride with
her husband, and we too have become one flesh of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. And in spirit, we're one with
him, eternally united in one in flesh and spirit as the branch
and the vine. It's by Christ being formed in
us, making us partakers of the divine nature, that we're made
possessors of everything that Christ possesses, that everything
that is His by His work that He accomplished. We're joint
heirs with Him. That's an amazing mystery to
a believer. It's an amazing mystery that the Son of God partook of
the nature of His elect children. It's an amazing mystery that
He lived and died for us. It's an amazing mystery that
through the Holy Spirit His sinful children are born of His Spirit
and made partakers of the divine nature. making us righteous in
Him, holy in Him, fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light. That's an amazing mystery. By
His divine power, by His wisdom, through the knowledge of Him,
He has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
He has born us again. He's called us by this irresistible
call. It's by His divine power that
He's given us the exceeding great and precious promises of literally
performing those things, sprinkling our hearts, giving us a new heart
and a new spirit within us. It's by His divine power that
He makes His children partakers of the divine nature. And here's
the fourth thing. It's by his divine power that
the believer has escaped corruption. At the end of verse 4, he says,
let me just read the whole verse. Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped past tense. having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust. We saw this Thursday night. I want to look over there again
at Colossians 1.12. Colossians 1.12. This is what God does in this
power. He comes and regenerates His
child. Colossians 1.12. It says, we give thanks unto
the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
son. Now, you're either in one or
the other. You can't be in both. You're either in one or the other.
You're either under the power of darkness or you have been
translated by the Father into the kingdom of His dear Son.
2 Corinthians, let's look there. We see some of these promises
that God fulfills in us whereby He makes us to escape the corruption
that's in the world through lust. Look at 2 Corinthians 6.14. He says, be ye not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers, with falsehood, with false religion,
with those who hold to a lie. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? The answer to that question is
none. Answer those questions. None. When God has delivered
us from the power of darkness, when he's made us to escape the
corruption that is due solely to the lusts of our flesh, when
he's delivered us from that, there won't be any communion
anymore with righteousness and unrighteousness. What communion
hath light with darkness? We're talking about This is what
we're talking about. What concord hath Christ with
Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? What agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God. Now here's some promises. Paul's saying this happened because
God gave his promise in us and performed something in us. God
hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them. and I will
be their God." Can you imagine God bowing down to an idol? Can
you imagine God joining with idolaters? If He's walking in
His people, you think His people are? You think His people will?
When He's translated us and He's made us to escape the corruption
of that lust of our flesh, we're going to escape it by His power. He said, I will dwell in them
and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall
be my people. Wherefore, come out from among
them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing, and I will receive you and will be a father unto you,
and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty,
having therefore these promises. Not just promises made that we
hope will come to pass, having these promises performed in us
by His exceeding power and greatness. God who sanctifies, the sanctifier
who really sanctifies so that people really understand He is
our sanctification and don't just sit with the lips but then
act like it ain't so and everything else they do. Having therefore
these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from
all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in
the fear of God. Ah, see, you've got to perfect
the holiness. Listen to this. When you have
these promises fulfilled in you by the divine power of God, He
is cleansing us. He is walking in us and making
us His children in the new birth. He is bearing witness in the
new heart that He has made when He makes this promise that we
have redemption, we have forgiveness, we have peace, we have reconciliation,
we have and shall be presented perfect to God by Christ who
has washed us, that coming out He will receive us and He will
be a Father unto us and we His children. When He does this by
His divine power, He delivers us out of the corruption of our
lusts, that corruption of trying to perfect ourselves, into the
perfect, complete holiness of His dear Son. It's being brought
out of something and put into holiness of His Son entirely
new. Our holiness and our righteousness,
our sanctification before God in Christ is perfect. Believers
are holy. Believers are delivered into
Christ who is the perfection of holiness and we're perfect
in Him. But believers grow. We do grow. And we're going to look more
at that in the next lesson. Believers grow in Christ. We
grow in grace and knowledge of Him. But we do not, by our works,
add to Christ's work. We do not make ourselves better
in God's sight. He has perfected forever them
that are sanctified. And perfect, you can't get better
than perfect. Our Lord didn't become more of
a man or even a better man than he was when he was incarnate,
in the beginning of his incarnation. He grew in his manhood. And so,
too, the believer grows in grace, in this new man that we've been
made, but we do not become more holy or righteous at all. It
has been done by God. We have been delivered. This
is the message. If you look over at Colossians,
you'll see. I showed you this Thursday night. Christ is the
fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you're complete in Him. The
word fullness and the word complete are the exact same word. It's
the same word that Christ said when he said, I didn't come to
destroy the law, I came to fulfill it. And it's the same as to say
this, brethren, you who have been delivered by the power of
Almighty God into the holiness of Christ Jesus are as fully
complete in Christ as Christ is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. It don't get more full than that. It don't get no more
full than that. The sin and the lust of our old
man is still with us and will be. Will be. But by the divine
power of God he's delivered us and by his grace we have escaped. We have escaped. This is what
Paul said in Galatians 5 24. They that are Christ have crucified
the flesh with the affections and lusts. When did we do that
and how did we do that? In Galatians 2.20, Paul said,
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. That's when my affections and
my lusts were crucified. When Christ was crucified. When
Christ took over and took dominion in the new man wherein he dwells. Look at 1 John 4.4. We'll bring this to a close.
1 John 4, 4. He says there, every spirit that
confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not
of God. And this is that spirit of antichrist where you've heard
that it should come even now already is it in the world. And
then John says this, you are of God, little children. and
have overcome them. Because greater is he that is
in you than he that is in the world. They that are of the world,
they are of the world, therefore speak they of the world and the
world heareth them. We are of God, he that knoweth
God heareth us, he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby
know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. That's mighty
dogmatic, isn't it? No, that's just saying this is
what God does. That's what God does. Either
he does or he don't. Either John's true or John's
a liar. Either he's speaking by the Spirit of God or he don't
have a clue what he's talking about. One or the other. One
or the other. So by His divine power, He calls
us by His glory and virtue. By His divine power, He fulfills
His great and precious promises of making us new creatures in
Christ, giving us a new heart. By His divine power, He makes
us partakers of the divine nature, possessors of all that is Christ,
joint heirs with Him. And by His divine power, He's
made us to escape the corruption that is in the world through
lust. And it's by the same divine power through the knowledge of
God and our Savior Jesus Christ that grace and peace are multiplied
unto us by that same divine power. I want to end by putting you
in remembrance. This is what Peter is doing here
throughout this epistle. He says here, and we'll look
at this next time in depth, he says in verse 5, and besides
this, giving all diligence, giving all diligence, Let me describe
giving all diligence. Whenever my father, when I was
a little child, and my father would call me and tell me something that was very important, he would
grab me and grab all my attention. And I would listen to every word
he said. I would hang on every word he
said. I would, if he got up and walked
into another room, I would walk right with him, listening to
every word he said. If he sat down at the table, I'd sit down
right beside him and listen to what he said. If he got up and
walked outside, I'd go with him and listen to every word he said.
I would give all diligence to hear what he was saying. That's
how we grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, but giving all diligence. And he says, giving 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. 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. You know
what hinders us from learning and being fruitful in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ more than anything? Being drunk. in this world, having our minds
and our hearts clouded with the things of this world. You look
up there sometimes and you see that moon, it's just full and
bright and shining. It gets all its light from the
sun, all of it. It has no light in itself at
all. That's me and you. And sometimes you look up there
and it's so bright and shining so full and it's just full of
light. And sometimes you look up there
and you just barely can't even see any light. You know what
the problem is? The world has come between the
sun and the moon. You know what hinders us more
than anything? These things here are not If God says add these
things, he's gonna see to it they're added. These are fruits
of his grace. This is for our own benefit,
brethren, because when we're not giving diligence to add these
things, we're giving diligence to something else, the lusts
of our flesh. And that's when we're unfruitful,
we're drunk with this world, we have our minds focused on
something else. So, he that lacketh these things
is blind, and cannot see afar off, and forgotten that he was
purged from his old sin. It's not that the believer's
not still purged. It's not that God has not still
done this work. It's just that we're too blind
and we become dim-sighted. We can't see that it's done.
We start worrying. Cares come in. 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. 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 meet as long
as I'm in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in
remembrance. It's exactly what Paul said when
he said, if you've heard him and been taught by him as the
truth is in Jesus, put off the old man. concerning the old man
which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed
in the spirit of your mind. I'll give you a delightful little
book to read about this, about focusing our mind, our attention
on things of God. William Mason's, what's it called,
Kathy? It's the Pocket Companion, Believer's
Pocket Companion. It's just delightful. Where our
treasure is, that's where our heart will be. Set your affections
on things above, not on things of the earth, for you're dead
and your life is hid with Christ in God. Amen.