So you can once again, above
God, I'd like you to turn with me to the chapter that we read
together, 2 Peter 3, and the text you'll find in verse 18. But grow in grace, and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to him be glory
both now and for ever. Amen. It comes to the close of Peter's
general letter to the churches. He seeks, by way of his letter,
to encourage them and to strengthen them in the things of God and
to explain to them the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that there is to
be a waiting period, as the angel said to the apostles, that this
same Jesus whom you see going up into heaven, this same Jesus
will come again in like manner. And so there is a period of waiting
for the believers of the Lord Jesus Christ. This world is going
to continue on until Christ comes again and so the apostle seeks
to remind the readers that this earth was framed by the word
of God. It was God through Christ who
spoke the world into being. It was God who brought the first
judgment upon the world in the days of Noah. That great flood
came and flooded the whole earth and even in the times of Noah
there were those mockers There were those who ridiculed. There
were those who said, why should we follow the ways of the Lord?
There were those who rebelled and turned against God. And at
that time, the scripture tells us that the earth was filled
with violence, just as it is. Today, nation rising up against
nation, people rising up against people, anger in the heart of
many. And so the scripture tells us,
as it was in the days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son
of Man be. that he will come as a thief
in the night. And as the Lord continues to
sustain this world, he is continuing to work out his own purposes. As we heard last Wednesday, that
the gospel is continuing to advance, that Christ is continuing to
build his church. And until that body, the body
of Christ, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is fully formed,
that all of those that Christ died for then this world will
continue, that the gospel must go into all the world. So it says that the day of the
Lord will come as a thief in the night, and the witch, the
heaven, shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth also, and the works
that are therein shall be burned up. And so he seeks to bring
us or bring the early church to that remembrance he seeks
to remind them of the passing away, the limited time that this
world has. He tells us that as the first
world was done over or judged by water, this second judgment
would be by fire, that all of these things are going to be
burned up. In verse 13, he says, looking
for and hastening unto the coming of the days of God, wherein the
heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat, that we as believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ are looking for new heavens and a new earth wherein
dwells righteousness. We look around about us and we
see unrighteousness, we see people motivated by sin and selfishness,
we see people governed by the kingdom of darkness, going about
their own business, rejecting God, rejecting God's word. But
the people of God are not focusing upon the things that they can
see around about them for they understand that this world is
not it. They understand that the things
that this world has to offer are just fleeting and passing.
Yet the things that Christ has to offer are eternal treasures
that cannot be taken away and so he tells them if all of these
things are going to pass away, if we are people waiting for
the coming of their master, if we are to be people who know
that Jesus is going to come as a thief in the night, seeing
then that we know all of these things, what type of people are
we to be? in all holy conversation and
Godliness or in all holy lifestyle, way of living. In verse one he
says, I seek to stir up your pure, pure minds by way of remembrance. We read through the Bible, we
see constantly the Lord seeking to bring to the memory things
that have taken place and things that will take place. I was speaking
today with an old lady and she said to me, you know, I can't
remember the beginning of the Lord's dealings with me. I tried
to think back of when it all began and how the Lord has led
me and brought me through to this point. But she says, I can't
remember. It's gone from my mind. So I
tried to encourage her, we're not saved by that one time experience. When the Lord began to deal with
a person it may be that they forget that moment, they forget
that time, they forget that blessing, but the Lord doesn't forget.
And I said to her, you know, how about now? Do you believe
and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? She said, oh, yes. Yes, I do. And I said, well, that is all
that matters. You don't need to remember that
you're dealing with the beginning of your experience, but what
you need to know is now. Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you walking with him? Do
you desire to be with him? And so we constantly forget.
Our minds are fragile and as we get older and older and older
there are things that we forget completely. And so the apostle
writes to try and stir up the memory. And you know as you begin
to speak to old people and you begin to ask them questions and
you ask them about their childhood and then their teenage years
and slowly things come back. their memory is stirred up and
the things that they had long forgotten are suddenly brought
to the surface and they remember oh I remember praying about this
and I remember the Lord answering my prayer about that and I remember
being in despair here and how the Lord blessed me there and
so the memory is stirred up and so this is what the apostle seeks
to do he seeks to stir up our memory cause us to remember that
this world is passing away. He understands that we are prone
to materialism and worldliness and sin and so he seeks to remind
us you know all these things that you're so prone to going
after they're just going to be burned up one day. that they're
just going to have to be left one day. And then looking at
all of these things, seeing all of these things, that they're
going to be dissolved. What type of people ought you
to be in all holy conversation and godliness? seeks to stir up our minds to
godliness and holiness that we may be steered away from worldliness
and unrighteousness and to be people who are looking for and
seeking to hasten the coming of the day of God. If you remember
I think it's in Thessalonians and he says Wherefore comfort
one another with these words. It should be a comfort to the
Lord's people that Jesus Christ is indeed going to come again. As Christ died and rose again
it is a comfort that he rose again from the grave as the first
fruit of the resurrection. that those who are laid in the
grave now will one day be raised again as Christ comes again and
if we are alive when Jesus comes we don't need to worry we will
not be left behind because the scripture tells us that we will
be changed in a moment in a twinkling of an eye we also will be gathered
up with the saints to be with Christ forever and ever and so
it says it's something that we should be praying for or seeking
the hastening of, the bringing about
of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, how can that be? How can that be? If we know that the gospel must
go forward and continually be advancing, then one of the ways by which
the hastening of the coming of the Lord is to continue to preach
the gospel, to continue to advance the kingdom of God. Whether we
be like Henry and Millie and Sam and Hannah and other missionaries
who have gone out into the world and are proclaiming the truth,
or whether we are those that remain behind and hold them up
by prayer or hold them up financially, We're all part of that. Think
of England and how England was so greatly used for the advancement
of the kingdom of God. The amount of English Bibles
that have been published throughout the whole world. We listened
to Graham Cottingham. Graham Tutor the other week and
all the different languages that they publish the Bible in and
send it throughout the whole world. What are they doing? They're
seeking to advance the kingdom of Christ, the knowledge of Christ,
the word of God in the whole world. So they're seeking to
hasten the coming of the Lord because they know that this gospel
must go out into all the earth. And so with that knowledge, with
that stirring up of our minds, he says we ought to be people
who are prepared, walking in holiness and in godliness and
people who are aware of the great opposition that rises up against
the church. Not only is there worldliness
and sin that can bring us down, but there's also false doctrine.
And we see in the early church, the Jews, the Judaizers that
sought to infiltrate the gospel to bring about a sort of works-based
grace he tells us to beware of infiltrations
or false doctrine. Therefore beloved seeing ye know
these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the
error of the wicked fall from your own steadfastness. So that's how he closes his letter. I have reminded you, I have told
you of the dangers and the pitfalls that Christians can fall in.
I have warned you of the wolves in sheep's clothing, I've warned
you of the false doctrine that can come and suppress and seek
to add to the grace of God. So he says beware lest you be
led away with error and as we look over church history we see
that so many errors that come into the church. So many false
doctrines that people gather around and become led astray
or become lukewarm or become people who have a zeal for God
but not according to knowledge. And so the Christian is called
to walk a pathway that causes him to be aware.
Aware of his surroundings. But he tells us how we might
be able to do so. Grow in grace. He warns him, do not be led astray
with the error of the wicked lest you fall from your own steadfastness. So they are to be steadfast,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, but growing grace.
The scripture tells us that the natural man is spiritually dead. As we are born into this world,
we are spiritually dead. There is no life, spiritual life
in us. Although we have a living body,
yet spiritually we are dead. We are barren, unable to produce
any good, any spiritual life, any fruit for the honor and glory
of God until we are born again. we are in the kingdom of darkness
we are outside the covenant of grace and when we are born again
of the spirit of God we are brought into a relationship with the
Lord Jesus Christ we are brought into a relationship with God
and it's like the seed of God has been planted within our hearts
We turn to the Gospel of Luke. Chapter 8, the Lord Jesus uses
an illustration, a parable of a man who went to sow seed. And as he is sowing the seed,
the seed falls on different types of ground. And the disciples
do not fully understand what the Lord Jesus Christ is preaching
about. And so they ask him, what do
you mean by this parable? How can we understand what you
are saying? And so he begins to explain to
them that the seed is the word of God. That the sower is the
minister of the word. That he's gone into the field
of the world and he is casting seed. He is casting the word
of God. He's preaching the word of God. And the ground by which that
seed lands varies in accordance with the different hearts of
the people. The types of people who are hearing
the word. says those by the wayside are
they that hear then cometh the devil and taketh away the word
out of their hearts lest they should believe and be saved. And so there are those who sit
under the ministry of the word whether it's in a congregation
like this or whether it's at school and you're speaking or
whether it's in Sunday school or whether you're preaching on
the streets or wherever you are proclaiming the word that seed
goes forth. There is nothing wrong with the
seed but the problem lies in those who hear. Some the seed
is snatched from their minds immediately by Satan and it has
no effect upon them whatsoever. They forget the word completely. They just go on in their daily
life having no concern as though the word has never even entered
their minds. It's gone. But then there are
those whose hearts are like rock. They
are they on the rock are they which when they hear receive
the word with joy and these have no root which for a while believe
and in a time of temptation they fall away. The seed lands on
the rock it sprouts up almost immediately it looks promising.
There is great growth. when times of trouble comes,
when their faith is tested, when they experience opposition and
persecution, times of hardship, then they leave. The word has
no root, it's not mixed with faith and they abandon the Christian
religion they say well this is Christianity I don't want anything
to do with it it's just there's no depth to their faith. A nominal Christian who is just
there for the material blessings that there are to offer is there
for a while but then they fall away. that which fan among thorns
are they which when they have heard go forth and are choked
with the cares and the pleasures of this life and bring no fruit
to perfection again they hear the word again it enters into
their mind again it enters in into their hearts but it is choked
There's too much going on in their life. They're not interested
in following the Lord Jesus Christ. They're not interested in the
pursuit of holiness and godliness. There's no faith. They're just clogged and bogged
down with the cares and the riches and the pleasures of this life. I think that 14 can be applied
even to a Christian, a believer in the Lord Jesus. Someone who
has heard the word, the word that has been planted in their
hearts, been planted in good ground and it has germinated
and it has grown and they've began to bear fruit. But they then become neglectful. As we will see later, they become
neglectful of the means of grace. They become neglectful of the
word of God. They become neglectful of prayer. They become neglectful with fellowship
and they become materially minded. They become worldly minded. They
become Christians whose faith is choked. and it looks like they've abandoned
the faith. Up there, you could say the flower, the
fruit has been choked by the world. But that on the good ground are
they which in an honest and a good heart having heard the word,
keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. Patience being
endurance. We saw that there were those
who abandoned the faith because of the trouble, but those whom
the seed of the word of God who have truly been born again of
the spirit, that the seed takes root within their hearts. It pushes forward, it pushes
upward. and it bears fruit to the honour
and glory of God. And even in times of opposition,
even in times of persecution, they endure, they continue on. They're not drawn aside by the
cares and the riches and the pleasures of this life. I know
they weed their hearts, they turn out the buyers and the sellers,
the worldliness. And that faith grows strong and
bears fruit to the honor and glory of God. And so that is someone who has
been born again of the Spirit of God. By our nature, we're
barren. But when the seed enters into
our hearts, that heart of good ground, it bears fruit, it germinates,
it brings forth faith, true living faith, and then fruits of godliness
and holiness, causing someone to follow and obey the Lord Jesus
Christ. we looked at on Sunday briefly about the Lord Jesus being the
divine. As we saw that he says, in the
world you shall have trouble but be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world. sorry chapter 16 verse 33. These things have I spoken unto
you that you might have peace in the world you shall have tribulation
but be of good cheer I have overcome the world. And we saw that that
believer is grafted into the Lord Jesus Christ that he is
the true vine and they are the branch. And it's only as they
abide in him that they can experience true nourishment, the true blessings
of God, that strengthening and enabling to continue. He says, abide in me and I in
you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself. except it abide
in the vine, no more can ye except you abide in me. I am the vine,
ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, you
can do nothing. And so the believer is taken and placed into Christ
Jesus. they are enabled to draw from
him as they abide in him as they draw from his spirit and his
spirit enables them to persevere and to continue to crucify the
flesh to put to death the lusts of the flesh to enable them to
to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and
so this grace the undeserved favour of God is like the soil
by which the seed is planted. It is by grace we are saved through
faith. And this grace that has been
provided is all-sufficient grace. It does not rely upon you and
I. It does not rely upon the grace
of Christ or the love of Christ, the works of Christ and our works. The grace of God in Christ Jesus
is sufficient. It provides all the nourishment
needed for the believer. As we see the sap that is drawn
up through the vine and into the branches. All is drawn from
Christ. It is his spirit that gives us
that ability to grow in grace and this grace as a seed bed
by which that seed is planted, it has all the nutrients needed
to enable the believer to grow. In chapter one of Peter, He tells us there from verse
5, And besides all this, giving diligence, add unto 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
or love. If these things be in you and
abound they make They make you that ye shall neither be barren
nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
so he tells us how we are to grow or what is to be expected
in that growth. Faith. We know that faith is
the gift of God. It is given to us by the Spirit
of God that enables us to trust Christ and virtue. is godly living and so what we
see in this chain of spiritual growth is first
of all what takes place on the inside is then seen on the outside. Faith is invisible. It is the
gift of God's Spirit. It is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It is something that
is within the soul, yet it is revealed by a godly living. forgotten the word that is there
in my mind. There's a word that is very simple
to understand but I can't virtue. It's basically living out the
faith or godliness. and to then virtue knowledge
and to knowledge temperance. So again it comes within. Knowledge
is something that is within our minds and that knowledge of the,
as we saw, the passing of this world, that this world will dissolve. And he says what manner of persons
ought you to be? He says this knowledge temperance. temperance is restraint, the
ability to hold back, the ability to rein it in, the ability not
to overindulge in the things that this world has to offer. So we think the knowledge that
we have of Christ, all that Christ has done, we have the knowledge
of the limited nature of this world and that should be seen
in the way that we live. that we are able to restrain
ourselves, restrain sin, restrain overindulgence, restrain lust. So it's the inward nature manifesting
itself externally. What we know is seen by the way
that we live. And to temperance patience. Patience
again is endurance, the ability to wait. Children are not very
good or even adults are not very good at waiting especially in
this country we are extremely impatient because we're so used
to things happening in a moment. We don't like waiting. People
get irate in traffic jams, they get irate in the NHS waiting
rooms, they get irate if they've got to wait on the phones. We
are extremely impatient. Yet the fruit of the Spirit is
patience and ability to endure. knowing that Christ is in control. And so to that knowledge that
we have, we add to that temperance or the ability to restrain. But
then it is patience, the ability to wait, wait for the Lord's
appearing, wait for the Lord's timing. And we know that God
is, speaking reverently, never in a hurry. He has an eternal
perspective. The scripture tells us, we have
read already, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years.
He exists outside of time and a day as a thousand years. And
so God has his own timings and his own purposes and it's us
that want to rush everything. That if we could just add to
our knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and be
willing to wait and to endure then that is a spiritual growth. You think of a small child. They see their dinner on the
table. They want it immediately. They begin to cry and make all
manner of noises. They're frustrated. But as a
person grows they understand that they can wait for their
dinner. There's a time when everybody sits together and we say grace,
we pray and give thanks for the food and then we eat. We have learned patience by our
knowledge. And let us be as children, immature
Christians. Let us be those who have grown
in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
godliness. God-likeness. The Christian is
a person who is a work in progress. they are being shaped and moulded
by the Spirit of God, they are being shaped and moulded by life
experiences to be conformed to the image of Christ and to that
godliness, brotherly love as Christ has loved them so they
are also to love one another to love God with all of our heart
soul and mind and our neighbor as ourself and kindness brotherly love and kindness a
kindness that is seen a kindness that is visible to others and
love not the love of the world which is passing and fleeting
but the love of Christ that love that is of grace, not based upon
the behaviour of the person, not based on things that we like
about certain people but that true love as Christ has loved
us so we are to love one another. Was there anything in us that
Christ loved? Was there something good in you
and me that caused Christ to choose us? Or did he love us
notwithstanding all of our sin? And that is the love by which
you and I are to love one another. But grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Real growth is seen. It is evident for people to see. As a farmer plants his seed in
the ground he will not say it is growing until he sees it coming
out. Then he knows that that seed
has life. And so we cannot say we are believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ, that we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and there's
no evidence of that spiritual growth in us. The Apostle says,
but grow in grace and grow in the knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour, Jesus Christ. How does the seed grow? The scripture
tells us that unless the seed fall into the ground and die,
it remains alone. We have to die to ourselves. and dying to self, then there
is spiritual growth. Then there is fruit that is evident
for others to see. What does the Bible tell us about
the Word of God? The Bible says that man does
not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds out
of the mouth of God. Our bodies need physical food
and our spirits need spiritual food. We're going to grow in
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and we're
to be men and women, boys and girls of the Word of God. It
is the Word of God that gives us the true knowledge that we
need, that the Word is truth. And in feeding upon the Word,
we're enabled to endure, we're enabled to grow, we're enabled
to persevere. Prayer. Prayer is a means of grace. When
we pray, we communicate with our creator through the Lord
Jesus Christ. It is a means by which we can
grow and build our relationship with the Lord Jesus. It is a
faith-strengthening and encouraging exercise to pray. We come to
God and we unburden our hearts before him and we see his intervention
in our lives, in the providences, in the workings out of his will
in our life. That is faith strengthening. That causes somebody to grow
in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as they
walk with him. It is said, isn't it, that you
don't know somebody until you live with them. Well, you can't
fully know Jesus Christ until you've walked with him. Until
you've walked in his will, until you have been directed and guided
by him, you can't fully know him. Think of those two on the
road to Emmaus as Jesus spoke to them. They listened to his
word. he expounded the scriptures and
then when he broke bread as they realized who it was and he vanished
out of their sight but they said did not our hearts burn within
us as he talked with us in the way and that is how it is with
Christians as they walk the way of life Christ is with them and
he talks with them, he speaks to them through his word, he
speaks with them through providential experiences, he speaks to them
through the ministry of the word and they are strengthened. Those
men ran all the way back to Jerusalem. They were strengthened by the
word of Christ and the revelation that they had experienced. Have
you ever known that? ever known what it is to be strengthened
by the word of God? You come in maybe even tonight
and you're tired, you've been at a difficult day, maybe even
thought I can't be bothered to come to the service tonight but
then there are times when you leave and you're strengthened,
you're encouraged, you're filled and you're enabled to continue
on. You've grown in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It was a faith strengthening experience for
you. You met with Jesus. He spoke
to you and blessed you under the Word. But also, we grow by God pruning and cutting
us. The Bible tells us that God deals
with us as children. If we're enabled to live a life
of sin and God never intervenes, that shows us that we are without
a heavenly father. But God deals with his people. He will not allow his children
not to grow. As he comes and he checks that
vine and he sees there a branch that is elongated and bearing
no fruit, he cuts it. He brings something
into the life of that person to bring them back to him. As
the fruit tree must be pruned back to enable it to bear more
fruit, as the vine it must be cut back. So God cuts back his
people. He brings things to chasten them. He may chasten them through the
word. and they're challenged and convicted by their sin. He
may bring something difficult into their life like a sickness
or something to bring them to their senses, to bring them again
to him. But all is done in love. All is done so that they may
grow in grace, that they may draw more nutrients from that
soil, that they may grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As I said, you don't know somebody until you live with them. And
you don't fully know Christ until you've walked with him and experienced
the blessings, but also the disciplinary actions that he brings into the
lives of his people. This growth never makes somebody
independent. You may think because as we bring
up our children we want them to grow up and whether they get
married or they don't get married but you want them to be self-sufficient.
You want them to go into the world, get a job and continue
on. That is not what takes place
in the life of a believer. God never wants us to be driven
away from him but this growth makes us more dependent upon
him. We're more aware of ourselves,
aware of our sin, aware of our weakness and we are aware that
we need him more. The longer you walk with the
Lord Jesus Christ, the closer you will walk with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Think of when you're first converted, there's that
text I've said already, a zeal for the Lord but not according
to knowledge. So much is done in our own strength. I'm going
to do this, I'm going to do that, here, there and everywhere. But
as you grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, then you
walk closer to him. and you walk with him, your steps
are more stable and more secure, more steadfast, because you've
grown in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus and you know how he
works, you know how he deals with you, you know his timings
and you're patient and you wait for him. And our growth, it can
be stunted. Fruit trees get diseases. vines
get diseases. My father-in-law has a vine,
he said it's gone mad this year, so much growth but for the amount
of growth that has taken place there's very little fruit, a
lot to be seen but not very much to take away. We can be diseased as growth
is seen. So disease can be seen. We see
it in the lives of ourselves. We see it in the lives of others.
Growth gets stunted. The seed gets choked by worldliness
and the concerns and the cares of this life. And so sin is a
great disease for the Lord's people. causes us to drift away. God
doesn't want us to drift away when a believer sins. But that's the effect that it
has. Our sin should be dealt with and we should come to Christ
in repentance and sorrow for that sin and confess that sin.
But often it's the case that the sin causes us to drift further
and further and further away. We begin to neglect reading the
Bible. We begin to neglect prayer. We
begin to neglect even coming to the house of God, mixing with
the Lord's people. We begin to neglect thinking
about God and then we become materially minded or worldly
minded. But God, if we are his, will
bring something to bring us back. The scripture says, be sure your
sin will find you out. As you become lukewarm and cold
hearted, others will begin to notice. May the Lord give you that true
repentance to come to him and to ask for his forgiveness, his promise never to cut you
off but he might cut you back that if he cuts you back, he
cuts you back to make you grow, that you may grow in grace and
learn from your experiences and in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus Christ is the
centre. Jesus Christ is the motivation
to grow. Jesus Christ is the reason by which we search the
scriptures to gain more knowledge about him. As we live with somebody
we know more about them but as we walk with Christ we know and
learn more about him, as we come to his word we learn and know
more about him and our knowledge grows and our love deepens to the Lord Jesus. but grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory
both now and for evermore. Amen. Amen. Well, let us sing the hymn number
355 to the tune Salzburg, 861. The God I trust is true and just.
His mercy has no end. Himself has said my ransoms paid,
and I on him depend. Number 355. Of thy trust is true and just,
His mercy has no end. Himself has set thy ransom's
fate, ? And I on him depend ? ? Then why so sad, my soul? ? ? Thou bad thou hast a friend
that's good ? Be boldly, dear, abandon fear, Be boldly with
his blood. So rich a cost can every loss
? No pain be tried by far ? ? Keep Christ in view and God be true
? ? And ev'ry man adore him ? Now may the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship
and communion of the Holy Spirit, to be with you each now and for
evermore. Amen.