If you would turn with me to
the epistle of Peter, 2 Peter, his 2nd epistle, chapter 3 please. 2 Peter chapter 3, I want to
begin in verse 17, just two verses I want to consider this morning.
2 Peter chapter 3, beginning in verse 17. The title and the
question this morning is, What is it to grow in grace? What
is it to grow in grace? In verse 17, Peter writes, Ye
therefore, beloved, this is written to believers, those who are accepted
in Christ the Beloved, seeing, beloved, that you know these
things before, Beware lest ye also, being led away with the
error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness." Now
Peter here first warns and admonishes the professing believer to stay
focused on Christ. He says, seeing that you know
these things that I've been writing to you, you know how the heretics,
deceivers, and scoffers are going to come. You can write it down. They're coming. And they're going
to do their best to lead you away from the truth. So beware,
take heed, lest you also be led away with their error. Don't
fall away from your own steadfastness. Don't give up your loyalty and
your faithfulness to Christ. And I suppose most every believer
would say, well, that's not going to happen to me. And I've seen
it happen to a lot that have said that. I've seen it happen
to preachers, gospel preachers, sovereign grace preachers. Continue to be steady, firm,
committed, devoted, dedicated to the cause of Christ and His
gospel. Now you know these things before.
In other words, you know them beforehand. You've been forewarned. So be on guard lest you be led
away from the truth of the prophets and the apostles by the error
of the wicked. Friends, let me say this. Satan is not hanging out in bar
rooms and in brothels to make converts. He's already the father
of such. Our Lord is speaking of those
there who are of their father, the devil, and the lust of your
father you shall do, He said. Our adversary, the devil, is
seeking whom he may devour, not those in the bar rooms and brothels,
but those in the churches. those among the beloved people
of God. He's able to disguise himself
as an angel of light. The word angel means messenger. The light is the gospel. So Satan
disguises himself as a messenger of the gospel. I made the comment
in the first hour that I blame a lot of the mess that we have
on in religion today on preachers. False preachers that don't know
God. They're not telling people the
truth. And they are messengers. They disguise themselves as messengers
of the gospel, but they're not at all. Satan is trying to lead
you away, and he does so with the error of the wicked. And
I say, without apology, And I hope it doesn't offend anyone, but
I say without apology this morning that this free will works religion
that we have in the world today is very prominent. It's satanic
and of the devil. Now those are pretty strong words,
I know, but nonetheless true. Anything that attempts to take
our eyes off Christ and His finished work of redemption for the sinner
and point them to the sinner himself who must do something,
some work of righteousness in order to be saved is satanic. Peter says, don't be removed
from the simplicity that's in the gospel, that's in Christ.
What is that simplicity? Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Paul said, of whom I am chief.
He came into the world to seek and to save those that are lost. That's a simple message. It's
not that people don't understand it, it's that they don't believe
it. In order that these brethren
to whom Peter writes might know how to stand and be preserved
from falling into error, and that includes you and I who believe,
he gives them and us some sound advice and direction. And it's
found in verse 18. He says, but grow in grace and
in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, To Him
be glory now and forever. Amen. Now I've used this passage
in the past to warn sinners. And I've used this verse of scripture
to encourage sinners like you and me of our need to grow. And I've used this text as the
proof behind being one of God's elect children, because everything,
I mean everything that is alive grows We being alive in Christ
must grow. And growing is the proof of life. You see, there is no growth where
there is no life. A stillborn child doesn't grow
because they're dead. And there's no spiritual growth
where there's no spiritual life. One does not grow who's dead
in trespasses and sin, not spiritually. No growth in grace where there
is no grace, and there's no spiritual life where there is no grace.
And Peter's encouragement here to grow in grace, well, if you
have life, you must grow. Brother Mayhem once said, you
don't take a stone and bury it in the richest soil known to
man and expect it to grow. You can saturate it with sunshine
and bathe it with water, but it will not grow. Why? Because it's a stone. It's the same with our stony hearts.
We've got to be given new hearts. When the seed of God's Word falls
on stony ground, what happens? The Lord told us, He said, and
some of the seed, the Word of God, fell on stony ground, where
it had not much earth, and immediately it sprang up, because it had
no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was
scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. You see, when God plants a seed,
by the preaching of His Word. And when that live seed is planted
and watered in good ground, ground that the Lord Himself prepared
by true gospel preachers through preaching, God will cause it
to grow. And fruit will spring up and
increase. He said some 30, some 60, and
some 100 fold. And that's what Paul's talking
about when he said, I have planted, and Apollos has watered, but
God gave the increase. All preachers are are gardeners. We plant the seed, we water the
seed, and then we wait for God to give it increase. And sometimes
God increases it 30 fold, and sometimes 60, and sometimes 100.
So what is it to grow in grace? You know, I'm amazed at how few
really know. You can just talk to someone
for a short while and find out they have no idea what grace
is or what it is to grow in grace. Do you know what it is to grow
in grace? Well, if you understand that
grace is free favor from God, and that's what it is, Grace
from a God who loves without measure. Grace from a God who
loves unconditionally. How then can grace grow? And
this is where folks miss it. There is no growing of God's
grace. What'd you say, preacher? I'll
repeat it. There is no growing of God's
grace. God's grace is not progressive.
God's grace doesn't increase. The moment that a sinner believes
and trusts in Christ, he or she, by the grace of God, right then
and there, are justified and complete in Him. If we live to
be a hundred, we cannot be more justified or more loved than
we were the minute that God saved us. We cannot be more forgiven
In the first moment, we believe and trust it in Christ. We cannot
grow in the grace of election. And now, as a God, we were always
elect according to the foreknowledge of God. Is that not right? It's the same with justification.
We can never be more justified than we are the moment that we
are in Christ, the first moment that we believe. If I was justified
before the foundation of the world, if I believed on Christ
yesterday, then I am justified today and I will be justified
tomorrow because in God's eyes, I was justified before the world
was ever made. You cannot be more perfect. Perfect means perfect. Perfect
means free from flaw or defect. It means to be faultless. Now
unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present
you what? Faultless. Before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our Savior,
be glory, majesty, dominion, and power, both now and forever.
Amen. It's not God's grace that grows. I can't receive more justifying
mercy. I can't receive more pardoning
grace. I got it all when Christ became
mine. All of it. To the believer, Paul
wrote, and you are complete in Him. to be justified, perfect,
thoughtless, is to be so before the presence of God in His glory.
You see, God is the one that we've offended, and God is the
one that we must appease. Our text says nothing about God's
grace growing. Does it? No, not a thing. It tells us to grow in grace. There's a vast difference God's
grace never increases. Grace is always infinite. It
cannot be more. It's everlasting and it's eternal.
It's bottomless and shoreless. When combined with the infinite
nature of God Himself, it can never be less and it can never
be more. It's always the same. But we
can and we must grow in grace. In order to stand, we must. In
order to remain steadfast, that's what the word means, to stand,
we must grow in grace. You know, I'm telling my age
here, but when I was a young boy, I'll never forget it. I
wanted it so bad and I finally got it. I wanted an evil, keneval
stunt cycle. You know who Evel Knievel is,
right? And it was a little toy plastic motorcycle that you would
wind up and then release. And it, on two wheels, would
go across the floor. And you could put a little ramp
up. And it would jump the ramp. And
you'd pretend like there were semis that it was jumping over. And you'd be like, look at my
Evel Knievel. He's a stuntman. But that Evel Knievel stunt cycle
only rolled upright as long as it rolled. And when it stopped,
it went down. Boop. As long as it was moving forward,
it stood on the two wheels. And I thought to myself, so it
is with you and I. As long as we're in motion, as
long as we're moving forward, as long as we're pressing on,
we are being steadfast and we're growing in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior. But if we stop, down we go. If we stop moving forward, we
fall down. And I'm talking about growing
in grace. Now listen, I'm not talking about
progressive sanctification. That's a term that we hear a
lot of today. And if I understand the word
sanctification, and I'm confident that I do, it means pure and
holy. To be sanctified means to be
pure and holy. How pure and holy? As pure and
holy as God Himself is. And the only way we can be that
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30,
Paul declared that in Christ, every child of God is made righteous,
is sanctified, and redeemed. But of Him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Now, when a sinner grows in grace,
stay with me, when a sinner grows in grace and in the knowledge
of Christ, he's made wiser. But he or she cannot be more
righteous, more sanctified or redeemed than what they are made
in Christ. His holy nature, His perfect
righteousness by the efficacy of His grace and mercy as our
covenant head has already made us perfect. That's why the thief
on the cross would be with the Lord that very day in paradise. Why just hours before he was
reviling the Lord, cursing the Lord, blaspheming the Lord with
his buddy. And something happened. And when that something happened,
he could have not been more pure, holy and righteous than he was
right at that moment. No growing in that. And the Lord
told him, he said, today, today, you're going to be with me in
paradise. He could have grown in wisdom
if he had lived longer, if they had taken him down, yes. He could
have grown in wisdom and in knowledge of Christ, and he had only been
around Him for a short time, so there was much for him to
learn about the Lord. But that thief could not have
been more righteous, more sanctified, and more redeemed than he was
right then. He could have grown in grace.
He could have grown in knowledge of Christ. But Christ could not
have been any more in him than that very moment he believed.
And it's Christ in us that's the hope of glory. That's what
Paul wrote to the church at Colossae. He said, to whom God would make
known what is the riches of his glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles. And this is the mystery which
is Christ in you, the hope of glory. There's only one hope,
it's the hope, and it's the hope of Christ being in the center,
and that's God's glory. That's where God gets all the
glory. You don't get any, and you don't want it, do you? Jesus
Christ is the glory of God, and we have God's glory in us if
we have Christ in us. Now listen, the young believer
who's only been converted for a few months does not know and
understand as much of God's grace, as much of faith and love for
Christ as a man who has been walking with the Lord for 30
or 40 years, engaged with Christ. But the young believer cannot
be any less saved. He cannot be less pure, he cannot
be less holy, and he cannot be less righteous and just. God doesn't look on the outward
appearance. You know, men dress in a way and act in a way and
carry on in a way that makes them appear to be holy. That's
what the Pharisees did. They wore the big, long robes
and stuffed their robes with prayers and walked around and
people said, oh, look, there's a holy man. They were the farthest
thing from it. God didn't look on the outer
appearance. Where does God look? On the heart. The work God does in salvation
is in and on the heart. The man or woman who's grown
in grace and in the knowledge of Christ for many years is not
more loved, more justified, more accepted or forgiven. Why? Because any sinner that's in
Christ or any sinner that has Christ in them has all that God
requires and all that Christ provides, all of it. Those who
have grown in grace may have more grace in their lives. They
may have more knowledge and understanding of their Savior. They should. They may have grown in the grace
of God and in the knowledge of Christ, but the grace of God
in them has not grown. It's still as perfect, pure,
and holy, and infinite as the fact God put them in Christ and
put Christ in them. And it's not different for the
newborn child of God. The Lord Himself said, My Father
which gave them Me. Now He didn't say there that
gave me them. He said, My Father which gave
them Me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them
out of My Father's hand. If God gave you Christ, and that's
what He did, You cannot be less saved than the one that's walked
and served Christ for 50 years. It's the same blood that washed
both of you clean. You will not have experienced
what they've experienced. You may not know what they know.
You may not understand what they understand. But you're no less
righteous, you're no less sanctified, you're no less redeemed, you're
no less perfect. Perfect's perfect, right? Now,
from what I've read, Mr. Spurgeon, great preacher, called
the prince of preachers, believed that progressive sanctification
and growing in grace were the same, but he differed a great
deal in his thoughts on the subject of progressive sanctification
from what folks do today, who claim to believe sanctification
is progressive. Today, they call themselves reformed. You've heard the word, reformed,
reformist. And they've made progressive
sanctification a whole different thing than what Mr. Spurgeon
believed it to be. Men and women today believe that
by a work of righteousness that they do, that they are saved,
the more they improve, the more they're saved. The more saved
and sanctified they are, It's because of something that
they themselves do. Well, you cannot be more than
all. And you cannot be better than
perfect. Today, progressive sanctification simply means that salvation is
of man and not of the Lord. It is saying that God made salvation
possible, but that you had to do something to solidify it. You had to do something to make
it certain. That's satanic. That's to deny
what this whole book teaches. These who trust in the work of
righteousness, that they themselves do believe that they're going
to have a bigger mansion on a higher hill in glory. I've had people
tell me that. I'm not trying to just be cute.
I've had people tell me that. They believe they're going to
have a bigger crown with more jewels. And they carry on as
though it's going to be so heavy that they're going to need a
neck brace to hold their heads up wearing it. All who trust in what they themselves
do instead of trusting in Christ, who did it all for the chosen
sinner, is not growing in grace. They're growing in self-righteousness. And in the end, they're gonna
say, they're gonna stand before God, and they're gonna say, Lord,
Lord, oh, He's my Lord. Lord, Lord, haven't we done many
wonderful works? It doesn't have anything to do
with what you've done. All your works of righteousness
are filthy rags. We've done many wonderful works
in your name. And Christ, you know what He's
gonna say? You know. Depart from me, ye
that work iniquity. Your works are works of iniquity.
I never knew you. There's nothing progressive about
something that's finished and complete. There's nothing reformed
about something that's perfect. Growing in grace is not measured
by time. Often out of the mouths of babes,
God speaks loudly and clearly. Some grow in grace in five minutes
more than others do in five years. It doesn't have anything to do
with time. There have been many times in
my life as a believer that I've grown more in an hour than in
a year at other times. Growing in grace is at the discretion
of God. It's He that teaches us. Any
man say that he's taught, he's taught of God. It's the grace
of God and the grace belongs to Him. It's His grace to give,
right? Growing in grace doesn't have
anything to do with being older. There are older saints that struggle
with assurance, peace, and rest. And also growing in grace has
nothing to do with feelings. Many seem to think that they're
not growing in grace because they don't feel like it. Well,
I don't feel like I'm growing in grace. Well, it doesn't have anything to do with
how you feel. I've heard men say, I don't feel
as alive under God as I once did. I don't feel as if I'm as
hungry for the gospel as I once was. Do you know that the word
feeling is an emotional estate? or a reaction to something. That's
what false religion strives on. Emotions. Today's salvation is
measured by the emotions that's shown outwardly from a man or
woman instead of the faith, faith in Christ that comes from within
the man or the woman. Worship is no longer something
done inwardly in the heart. It's something done outwardly
with the hands. You know it's up. You see it. That's why churches mimic the
world. Churches today have praise bands. You know, I made a living for
a short while as a musician. It wasn't much of a living, but
I did At least pay my bills with a little help from my parents.
But I never thought that some of the best paying jobs in music
today would be found in religion. I have a friend that is a drummer,
plays professionally as a drummer, and he played nightclubs on Friday
and Saturday nights, and now he plays in a Methodist church
on Sunday morning, and he makes more money playing at the church
than he does in the nightclubs for two nights. He plays for
about 30 minutes on Sunday morning and makes more than he does playing
three and four hours Friday and Saturday night. Something's wrong with that. The so-called churches, what's
called churches today, are just mimicking the world. And the
reason is, today, religion is all about emotions. You know,
oh man, I could really feel the worship today with the band played
and sung. How do you feel? I feel good.
You know, me and Jesus, we've got a good thing going. I overheard
someone talking not long ago, and they said, I'm changing churches. And the other person said, well,
why are you doing that? And they said, well, my church is dead, and
I don't feel the Spirit move. We're not saved by faith. It's
not by our works. It's not by our emotions. We're
saved by grace through faith. And that grace and that faith
is God's gift to us, and it's in the Lord Jesus Christ, nowhere
else. And if you get away from that,
then you've gotten away from life, and you've gotten away
from truth, and you don't know anything about grace. It's the
gift of God. Many think that because their
youth has passed, that they're no longer growing. Growing in
grace doesn't have anything to do with being young or old. It
has to do with being in Christ. A fire is lit with straw and
kindling. And it's done at the bottom.
And then we pile bigger pieces of wood on top. And when a fire
is first lit, there's a flame and there's a great deal of smoke.
But afterwards, there's not much in the way of a blaze. Just coals
of fire. that produce a great deal more
heat. You see where I'm going. So it
is with grace. And you who are older may have
lost some of your flame and some of your smoke. But with that
loss, there's more of a solid fire. That's right. The body is warmed more by coals
than by straw. And a strong wind can blow out
a flame, but not coals of fire. In fact, a strong wind will cause
the coals to burn hotter and greater. Though you're less fiery, you're
more consistent to provide warmth. That is growing in grace. Growing in grace, does it have
anything to do with feelings? What does it feel like to grow
in grace? Do you know? I certainly don't. Feelings vary
from one minute to the next. But let me tell you something
that doesn't. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever. He's the Lord that changes not. If I'm saved, it's by His finished
work. And if I'm saved by that finished
work, then I am forever saved since He never changes. And I
may not feel as though I'm growing in grace, but I sure feel good
about Him never changing. And if He ever loved me, He loves
me still. If I didn't do anything to save
myself, I can't do anything to lose my salvation. And that's not my excuse for
sin either. That's the truth. Salvation is
not conditioned on how I feel or what I do. Grace is not merited
by what we do. Faith is not given or determined
about how mature and experienced I am. Salvation is of the Lord. It has nothing to do with me. Well, preacher, I have to believe,
don't I? Yes, you do. And the Lord has
to enable you and make you willing to even do that. Without the knowledge of Christ,
there can be no grace at all. And if there's no grace at all,
there can't be any growth in it. How can we know if we're
growing in grace? Well, do you love Christ more
today than you did yesterday? Do you know more of Christ today
than you did the day before? Do you love His people more? We know that we've passed from
death to life because we love the brethren. He that loveth
not his brother abideth in death. Growing in grace and in the knowledge
of Christ will make us more zealous for Him. Where do we find this
zeal? In the knowledge of Christ and
nowhere else. Did Christ come into the world
to save sinners? Did Christ shed His blood for
me? Did Christ die the just for the
unjust? Was He made sin that you and
I might be made the righteousness of God in Him? Is Christ the
Good Shepherd who giveth His life for the sheep? Did He bear
our grief? Did He carry our sorrows? Was
He stricken, smitten, and afflicted of God? Was He wounded for our
transgressions? Was He bruised for our iniquities?
Was not the chastisement for our peace put on Him? Was not by His stripes we were
healed? Were we not healed by His stripes?
How can we not be zealous over Him? Are we not like sheep gone
astray? Have we not turned everyone to
our own way? Has not the Lord laid on Him
the iniquity of us all? Was He not oppressed? Was He
not afflicted? Did He open up His mouth to defend
Himself? No! Because we were guilty. Was he not brought as a lamb
to the slaughter? Was he not taken from prison
in judgment? Was he not cut off from the land
of the living? For the transgression of his
people, was he not stricken? Did he not make his grave with
the wicked? Did God see the travail of his
soul? Was God satisfied? by His holiness of nature, by
His righteousness of life as a man, by His faithful substitution
as mediator, by His procuring an everlasting righteousness
for His people, by the justification of His people for His people,
by His full payment of sin's wages, by His bearing our iniquity,
His fulfillment of the law, His satisfying of God's holy justice. Should we not be zealous for
Christ? Paul said, I was once zealous
for the traditions of my father's, but when it pleased God, who
separated me from my father's womb and called me by His grace
to do what? To reveal His Son in me, that
I might preach Him among men. It's impossible to lighten the
seal when you've not grown in grace and in the knowledge of
the Lord Jesus. Christ is everything to the believer.
Everything. Everything. You know, I'm amazed
at the arrogance that's found in religion today. I'm almost
finished. Some of the meanest, some of the harshest, some of
the rudest, arrogant people I've ever met are religious people. I knew someone who was a waitress
one time. They said, I hate to work on Sunday. I said, why? They said, we get the church
people and they don't tip. But those who have truly grown
in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ are made
to be humble. If we would increase in grace,
we must decrease in self. Humility is found at the feet
of Christ. We'll never see ourselves as the worms we are until we
see our Savior dying for such worms as we are. Humility is
found at the feet of Christ. We'll never know our nothingness
until we see His greatness. We'll never see our sin as horrific
until we see what happened to the perfect Son of God when our
sin was put on Him. Have humilities to grow in grace
and in the knowledge of Christ. How do I know? Because Paul said,
Humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of God, that
He may exalt you in due time. Oh, you've got to come down to
be risen up. You've got to die to self. That's
the way up. The way up is to go down. The way to become rich in grace
is to become poor in spirit. The best way, the way to be set
among princes is to be a beggar in the dunghill. In order to
be raised up, we gotta be brought low before God. God resists the
proud and gives grace to the humble. And this, my friends,
is what it is to grow in grace in the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. May God enable you and may God
enable me that you do just that. Grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the One who loved us and gave Himself for us. And may He do
so for His glory, our good, and for Christ's sake.