Here in 2 Peter 3, the apostle
Peter is writing to the beloved. He tells us that four times in
the chapter. He tells us he's writing to the same people that
he wrote the first epistle to. And in 1 Peter 1, he tells us
that he's writing to the elect, God's elect, those who are in
Christ Jesus, those who've been called out of darkness into his
marvelous light. That's who he's writing to. And
here in chapter 3, 2 Peter 3, he's urging us to be mindful
of some things, to remember some things. And the first thing he
tells us is to be mindful of the words spoken before by the
holy prophets, who they're all about. We know who the prophets
wrote about, don't we? They spoke of Christ. Remember
that. Remember who they're all about and how the Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world and he fulfilled everything that
the prophets, that the scriptures declared concerning him. Here
in 2 Peter 3, he's specifically writing about the promise of
our Lord's coming, the promise of His return. He tells us that
there have been, he mentions Noah's day, scoffers, mockers,
and that there still are today who deny the promise of His coming.
They deny the Lord Himself. They don't believe on Him whom
God hath sent. But nevertheless, Peter reiterates
that the day of the Lord shall come. It shall come. And he goes
on to tell us about the security and the surety of God's promises
to his people, to those he's writing to. You probably know
it, but look with me at verse nine here, 2 Peter 3, verse nine,
glorious verse. He said, And remember who he's
writing to, God's elect, God's people. Repentance. What a glorious promise.
And I'll tell you this, you read through the scriptures and read
through Peter's epistles, read through this chapter. There is
no doubt that the apostle Peter was standing on the promises
of God. And that alone, all his hope
was in God's promise to save his people, to be long suffering
to them, to not be willing that they should perish, but that
they shall come to repentance and believe on Christ. Is that
our hope too? Are we also standing on God's
precious promises to us? We've received his exceeding
great precious promises, as Peter also told us. Look right here
in verse 13. He said, nevertheless, we, according
to his promise, that's our hope. According to his promise, we
look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. God has promised to save us.
Christ came to save sinners. All those whom the Father chose
for Him to come and redeem, He came and redeemed them. And the
Spirit comes and quickens us and gives us life and faith in
Him, and we shall be saved. You know, in verse 9, it's a
controversial verse when it shouldn't be, but where it says, He's not
willing that any should perish, Know this, brethren, that's His
people, that's those He chose to save. Praise God, He's not
willing that they should perish, but that every single one of
them shall come to repentance. You know what that tells me?
Salvation's not up to me, it's up to God, and God shall not
fail. God purposed to save me, praise His name, I shall be saved,
all right? Now, I wanna focus for our Bible
study on verses 17 and 18, but I wanted to preface the message
with what the chapter has to say leading up to it. Look with
me at verse 17. Peter writes, Ye 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.
Now, it's sad to say, but we can clearly acknowledge the fact
that many people have been, are, and continue to be led away with
the error of the wicked. Our Lord talked about a straight
and narrow way, and He talked about a wide, broad way, and
He told us, few are going that straight and narrow way that
leads to life. He said many are going that broad way that leads
to destruction. It's just a fact. God said it.
I wouldn't say it if He didn't, but He did, and I must. So we
need to beware, lest we also be some going that broad way
to destruction, okay? And He tells us right here in
verse 16 that there are some unlearned and unstable who rest.
They pervert. The scriptures make them say
what they wanted to say. They corrupt the scriptures to
their own destruction. That's what he told us right
there in verse 16. Now that got me thinking, you know, if we're
God's people, we shall be saved. And yet he still tells us to
beware. Beware. In another account, it
says, give diligence, make your calling and election. Sure. I
need to know. I need to know that I have this
hope. I need to know that I'm one of God's people, that I'm
one of whom he came to save. I thought of this verse that Paul wrote
in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 12. He said, Wherefore let him that
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Brethren, we need
to beware. Beware. There are not many messages of
this book. I know I've seen it on church
signs where they come and give marriage counseling and how to
be a parent, how to raise your kids, and how to get through
arguments and all these things. The scriptures give great guidance
on all these things. They do. Whatever it is, if you
want to know what's the right way to handle it, I promise you
can find the answer in here, and we'd be wise to look for
it. But let's not be mistaken. There's one message of this book.
Just one. There's one message of this book,
and it's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's the great hymn
book, H-I-M. It's all about Him. It's all
about Him. Well, there's so many people
that open this book and they don't see him. And I'm telling
you, if we miss him, we can read the scriptures every day for
our whole life, live a hundred years. And if we don't see him,
we're not going to be saved because life eternal is knowing him.
We must have him. We must be in him. It must be
one with him. Verse 17. Again, it says you
therefore beloved seeing, you know, these things before beware.
lest ye also, being led away with the air of the wicked, fall
from your own steadfastness. As I read that, I can't help
but pose this question. What is my own steadfastness? Does that imply that in some
form or fashion I am keeping myself, that I will fall if I'm
not being aware, if I'm not careful that I might fall Listen, if
we're saved, God saved us, and He's keeping us. We don't keep
ourselves, but what is He saying? The word steadfastness means
stability. Let me ask you a question. Whatever
your hope is, what's your stability? When it comes to your steadfastness,
the steadfastness, the surety of your hope, what is it? I'll
tell you mine. It's not me. It's not me in any
part. It's the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him alone. He's my rock. We just finished building a church
building. We've been working on it for
years now. And if you haven't listened to him, Gabe brought
some fabulous messages last week talking about the rock. To build
a building, you gotta have a firm rock. You gotta have a firm foundation
before you build, or else when the storm comes, the wind blows,
the rain falls, your house is not gonna stand. It's gonna fall.
It's gonna wash away. Brethren, when it comes to our
hope before God, we need a hope that will stand. We need a hope
that will endure to the end. I need a hope that will save
me. My steadfastness is a person, and it's not me. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ, he himself. I thought of the account where
the Lord asked Peter and the disciples, who do men say that
I am? And he said, well, some say you're Elijah, Jeremiah,
one of the prophets. But he said, who do you say I
am, Peter? And he said, thou art the Christ, the son of the
living God. You remember what the Lord told
him? He said, you're blessed. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, flesh
and blood hath not revealed it unto you, but my Father, which
is in heaven. And he said, thou art Peter, and people err right
here. But he said, upon this rock,
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. What was the rock he was talking about? Well, I
see two choices. It was either Peter, or it's
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God, It ain't Peter. The rock was
not Peter. I know the Catholics like to
think so, but it's just not the case. If Peter were the rock,
if he were our steadfastness, would that give you any hope
at all? Seriously. We'd be as lost as the next person.
But if our rock, if our hope, if our steadfastness is the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, what a hope we have. It shall
be well with us. Now, I know, and Peter knew,
that if left to myself, I will surely fall. I want to mention
a few accounts to you. You recall when our Lord came
to his disciples and he was going to wash their feet. Remember
that? And he came to Peter, and Peter, he saw a great problem
with that. He said, Thou shalt not wash
my feet. Old thing to say. As I think
about that, honestly, I can relate to Peter. I can think, you know
what? I should be washing your feet. That's how I would feel. Doesn't that sound more right
to you? But do you remember what the Lord said to Peter? He said,
Peter, if I don't wash you, you can have no part with me. He
must wash us. And I'm so thankful, I'm probably
gonna mention that again, but when our Lord would rebuke Peter,
Peter heard it. God gave him ears to hear it
and faith to receive it, to receive the rebuke, to receive the correction.
And as we look at this message today, I pray God will put that
in us to receive the correction. Because I'm telling you right
now, Peter needed a lot of correction and so do I, and so do you. So Lord corrected him there.
There was another time when the Lord told Peter and his disciples
how that he must be betrayed into the hands of sinners and
led away and crucified. He must die. And Peter rebuked
him and told him, no, be it far from you, Lord. It says Peter rebuked the Lord. You think how foolish, right?
I'm telling you, Peter couldn't keep himself. He didn't save
himself. He wasn't keeping himself. So when He's telling us, beware
lest you fall from your own steadfastness, He's not saying you're keeping
yourself. I want to establish that, okay? When our Lord told
Peter that He was going to deny him and forsake him, Peter...
He denied that he was going to deny him. He denied that he was
going to forsake him. And know this too, I'm mentioning Peter
because we're looking at Peter's epistle, the epistles that God
caused Peter to write. But whenever, I think it's easy
to glance over this, but usually when Peter, like when Peter was
going to forsake him. Likewise, all the disciples.
When Peter said, I go fishing, likewise, all the disciples.
They all went right along with it. So it wasn't just Peter.
And that gives me comfort and assurance in knowing it's all
of us. Whatever I see in Peter, buddy, I pray I can see it in
myself too. I pray we can relate to him. Lastly, when the Lord
told Peter that Satan desired to have him, you imagine being
told that by God, that Satan has desired you, that he might
sift you like wheat. If he stopped right there, I
think, well, I'm a goner. That's it. There's no hope for me. If
I'm keeping myself, that's it. But he said, but Peter, I pray
for you. Now there's something I can hope in. I pray for you
that your faith fail not. Where's our faith come from?
It's the gift of God, isn't it? He's the author and finisher
of it, isn't he? And not only that, but he prays for us, makes
intercession for us. I'm so thankful. that not only
can I not save myself, but it's not, well, God saved me, but
now I must not lose it. Well, if you lose yourself, if
you ain't careful, you might lose your salvation. That's not
possible. It's just like being led away with the air of the
wicked. There's a scripture that talks about if it were possible,
the very elect would be deceived, but praise God, it ain't possible.
God's people, they're not gonna be deceived. We're not gonna
fall away believing a lie. He'll see to it that we believe
the truth, that we believe on Christ. Peter told us in 1 Peter
1, verse 5, that we're kept by the power of God. He summed it
up well, didn't he? I mean, looking at what we just
looked at and what we just talked about, we know that we're kept
by the power of God, don't we? But I'm thankful the Lord gave
us a verse that says it, just so we can be sure. All right. And back in our text, look at
verse 17 again. You therefore, beloved, seeing you know these
things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the
error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. but grow
in grace. Now, the apostle Peter, he knew a thing or two about grace. You know, before, he was just
a wretched, sinful fisherman. But one day, God's grace came
to him. And I would love to bring a message
on this sometime. If you read the account of when Peter was
out here fishing, it looks like He and some men were in a boat,
him and his brother and some men were in a boat. And then
there was a boat seemingly right beside them with James and John
and Zebedee, their father, and some men in that boat. And Luke's
account tells us that the Lord went and he climbed into one
of those boats and he sat down and started ministering to the
people there. And Peter and these experienced fishermen, they'd
been toiling all night and they caught nothing. Couldn't catch
a thing. And know that spiritually, he was gonna go on to say, I'm
gonna make you a fisher of men, from now on you're gonna be a
fisher of men, you're gonna catch my people. But know this, we don't do the
catching. We fish as God enables us to,
but they didn't catch a single fish until the Lord spoke the
word and he brought those fish into their net and the boat started
to sink. They caught nothing until the Lord said, catch the
net over here. And I love this. The first thing Peter said, we
see his foolishness. We see our lost estate. Master,
we've been doing this all night. We're experienced fishermen.
We know what we're doing. But at your word, nevertheless,
at thy word, we'll do it. If you say so, we'll do it. I
can sense a little arrogance in his response. And yet they
did. And then you imagine the fear
that overcame him and them when they saw the result. And it was
a quick result. Buddy, fear came over them. Fear
ran through that man, Peter, for the first time in his life.
And I love the next thing he said. He said, depart from me,
for I'm a sinful man, oh Lord. Why would you have anything to
do with me? Is that not our reaction when grace comes to us? Here,
God comes to us, we're just living our sinful life. You know, by nature, we don't
acknowledge God. I know people will say the name God, they'll
throw the name Jesus around like it's their favorite byword. There's
no reverence of Him, no acknowledging God is holy. I love the song
we sing, holy, holy, holy. Just establish how holy and just
and right He is. We don't know that, we don't
care to know. until God in His grace comes to us. And when God
in His grace comes to us, our life's never gonna be the same.
From that moment on, Peter's life was never the same. It was
never the same. Was he still a sinful man? You
better believe it. But was he a man totally dependent
on the grace of God? You better believe it. God's
grace came to Peter and Andrew and James and John in the form
of a person that day. And nothing's changed for you
and me, brother. And I know our Lord is not physically walking this
earth in a body right now. He will come back. Mark it down.
But when God's grace comes to us, it comes in the form of a
person. We hear about God's grace in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I pray, I pray that if we haven't
experienced that yet, I pray we might. I pray we might. I
wanna show you this familiar text. Turn to John chapter six.
John chapter six. John 6, verse 66. It saddens
me to hear about how people talk concerning God. They don't talk
about Him in the way that He's to be talked about. They don't
talk about the God who does what He will, with He will, how He
will, why He will, with whom He will. who upholds all things
by the word of his power, who no man can say unto him, what
doest thou? When God's grace comes to us, we can't resist
it. That's what I want you to show
us here. There's no turning it down. It's not an offer that
we reject, okay? Look here at John six, verse
66. From that time, many of his disciples or earthly followers
went back and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto
the 12, will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. What I see from that is once
the Lord Jesus Christ, once God's grace came to Peter, he could
not help but follow Christ, stay with Christ, and keep coming
to Christ. He just couldn't help it. Why?
It wasn't a choice he made. When our Lord told Peter and
Andrew and James and John, when he said to them that day, follow
me, They did not sit down and think about it. They didn't have
a round table. They didn't have to weigh the
pros and the cons. First of all, there were no cons.
James and John, it says, they left their father right there
in the ship because the Lord didn't call him. They left their
nets. They left the boats. That was
their life. You understand that? It wasn't just, well, I left
my wallet. I left my computer. They left
their life to follow him. Why? Because he said, follow
me. And that was a powerful command
that they could not resist. And not only could they not resist
it, if you'd asked them, they wouldn't have wanted to. It would
have made no sense. You know what? When we find ourselves
believing on Christ, it makes no sense. Carnally speaking,
it just defies all logic. God's thoughts aren't our thoughts.
His ways aren't our ways. You know, we like to make logical
decisions, don't we? Probably shouldn't quit our job unless
we have a backup plan, right? That's not how God works. God has His
way. It comes to pass exactly as He
purposed it to come to pass. His people believe on Him. They
follow Him. And you ask us why? We find ourselves
wanting to. We find ourselves coming to Him.
And we know He did it. We didn't make a choice. It saddens
me to see parents convincing their little kids to decide to
follow Jesus and give Him their heart and confess Him and all
this stuff when they don't know Him. When they don't know their
sin. They don't know the Lord God Almighty. They don't know
Him. But if God's grace ever comes
to us, we'll know Him and we'll follow Him, believe on Him. I
just mentioned it, but when the Lord saved him, he didn't have
to confer with flesh and blood. He didn't have to think about
it. I like what Paul said. He said, when it pleased God.
We know what Paul was out there doing, don't we? Saw the Tarsus
persecuting the church, the Pharisee of the Pharisees, Hebrew of the
Hebrews, circumcised the eighth day. But when it pleased God,
who separated him from his mother's womb. That's how it works. God,
who called him by his grace. God, who called him and revealed
Christ in him, that he should not preach man and man's works
and man's will and man's ways, but preach him, Christ, among
the heathen. He said, I didn't confer with
flesh and blood either. He said, God called me and off I went.
I'm a chosen vessel unto him. Praise his holy name. Paul and
Peter both, and you and me, I pray, have been saved by God's sovereign,
irresistible, saving, and we sing it, amazing grace. That didn't try to save, it didn't
start to save, saved, continues to save a wretch like me. Now,
being saved by grace, we've established that, right? Peter had an exhortation
for us, for God's people, and that exhortation is grow in grace. We just read it, but grow in
grace. As I think about this, I acknowledge
growth is a beautiful thing. My wife recently had a baby boy
growing inside of her for, we believe, 41 weeks and one day. Now, here's a fact we can't deny. If you had seen her, you would
have been able to clearly acknowledge, like me, as those weeks went
by, you know, when we found out she was pregnant at, I don't
know, four, five, six weeks, You may not have been able to
tell at first. But when she was 20 weeks, 30 weeks, I promise,
by the time she was 41 weeks, you knew something was growing
inside of her. It was obvious. It was obvious. There was something
growing there. There was life there. And at
God's appointed time, he was born. I'll tell you the story
later. It was quite miraculous. But in those two months since
he was born into this world, you know what we've been doing
every day? Her more than me because she's home all day. We've been
watching him grow. I have a daughter who just turned
two. She's a lot bigger now than she
was two years ago. I've been watching her grow. I delight
to watch her grow. I delight to watch my son grow. It breaks
my heart. I kind of hate it in one way
because I want him to stay little forever, but I know that's not
how it's supposed to be. We delight to see him grow. If our babies aren't growing,
something is wrong. We take them to the doctor. Why
aren't they growing? Why aren't they gaining enough weight? What's
wrong? Growth is a good thing, all right? If God has saved us, and if we're
saved, God has saved us. If God has saved us, we're saved. He's given us life. We have life. We have life more abundantly.
And by God's grace, as we live in this world, as we walk here,
we'll grow. Now, it's only gonna be by his
grace, but by his grace, we'll grow. I wanna show you this.
Turn to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2. Look at verse one. Wherefore, laying aside all malice,
and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may
grow thereby. If so be ye have tasted that
the Lord is gracious. You who have experienced the
grace of God, Don't you desire to grow in it? Don't you long
to grow in that grace? Don't you desire to taste more
of it? Larry took us out for Mexican
last night. I love Mexican food. Every bite I took, I just wanted
to taste more of it. I do right now. I just want more.
But what I desire to taste more than anything As the days continue
to go by, I want to taste more and more and more of God's grace. You know, people are so busy
focusing on their works, their works, their works, their works.
I'm interested in grace. Not saved by works, but saved
by grace. Oh, Lord, give me more grace. Give me more grace, please. If we've tasted of His grace,
and I like the way it works, that it's not saying we've, we've,
consumed a massive meal of His grace, we've tasted it. And I
like that because it's just like we see Christ by faith, but all
we see is a glimpse of Him. We're just getting a little taste
of God's goodness to us. And if we have tasted of it,
if we have tasted of His grace in Christ, oh, we're dying for
more, aren't we? What does it mean to grow in
grace? Does it mean to become more holy? Does it mean to become more righteous,
more accepted in the sight of God, more justified, more sanctified? Not at all. Growing in grace
has absolutely nothing to do with improving or bettering our
standing in the sight of God Almighty. Again, I know that's
what most people are trying to do, trying to either earn that
acceptance or make it a little more, earn a little better spot
in heaven. There's one spot in heaven, that's
at the feet of Christ. And every single one of God's
people's gonna be right there. Some may have committed outward
murder, some may have been outwardly pretty good people, but they're
all gonna be at his feet, all his people. Sin is sin. We're all under sin. All have
sinned to come short of the glory of God. And we all need a savior. We all need a sacrifice, a substitute
to redeem us. Not better than any other. Who
makes us to differ? Having been saved by the grace
of God, here's what the scriptures say about us. Ye are complete
in Him. He's the head of all principality
and power. He's the head of the church, the body. We're complete
in Him. Doesn't say you might be. You
are. You are complete in Him. It says,
He hath. What a what a great way to say
this. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified, those who've been made holy, set apart, chosen
by God the Father. We are complete. He hath perfected
us forever. It's finished. It's finished.
Well, now you gotta, no. Christ prayed in John 17, He
said that they may be one, Father, even as we're one. And He said
we are one. We're one, we're in Him. You
understand, it can't get any better when we're in Him. We
can't add to it, we can't take from it, and again, by nature,
we all try to do that. Churches all across the town,
I'm sure, are trying to add to what He's done, or take from
it, or both. Listen, we're complete in Him.
Ain't nothing to be done. Even believing on Him, this is
the work of God that you believe on Him whom He has sent. It's
His work that we believe on Him. God works in us to will and do
of His good pleasure. We're the recipients of His work,
we're His workmanship. So what then does it mean to
grow in grace? I don't know how else to say
it other than spiritual maturity. As long as I'm alive here in
this earth, I pray that I might grow in grace. I might grow in whatever God
has for me. I want to grow as a believer,
whatever that means. Now, Peter, as I thought about
him and studied him, he undoubtedly grew. And here's how he grew
by the things he experienced. He grew by the things he experienced.
I just mentioned how that our Lord rebuked him on many occasions
and God caused him to hear each and every one of them. And then
he went and did it again and God corrected him and he did
it again. He sinned again. Is that not us? But you know,
God works all these things together for our good and for his glory. He uses each of these things
for our learning, for our growing, for our maturing. But nothing
that Peter experienced after God came to him, called him,
saved him, nothing that he experienced improved his standing before
God. Nothing. Because the works were finished
long before Peter was ever born, before the foundation of the
world. Growth in grace. You know, I
think we naturally think of that and think, well, I'll start doing
this, I'll stop doing this. I'm going to tell you this, growth
in grace is a downward growth. We grow lower and lower and lower. lower and lower and lower. But
you know what increases? As we grow in grace, here's what
increases. Our dependence, our need, our complete reliance on
God, Christ. I'm just a poor sinner and nothing
at all, but Jesus Christ, he is my all in all. A believer
who's grown in grace will not boast of his or her works. Here's
what he or she will say. He giveth more grace. Where my
sin abounded, grace did much more abound, and it continues
to. Yeah, life is hard. We go through trials, disappointments,
but His grace is sufficient for me. What's sufficient for you?
His grace. Well, you grew and you know how
to handle things. No, I'm relying on His grace. Well, you're strong
in the faith. There's one who's strong in the
faith, and that's Christ. He giveth more grace. He increases
His people in faith. But understand this, He's the
one that has to do it. We don't do it. He must do it.
He must do it. Turn over just a page or two
with me to 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5, look at verse 10. He
said, But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal
glory by Christ Jesus, After that ye have suffered a while,
make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. To him
be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. By Silvanus,
a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose I've written briefly,
exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God
wherein ye stand. We're standing, we're established,
strengthened, settled. We're trusting in the free sovereign
grace of God. God has given us a good hope
through what? grace, and grace alone. Now back in our text, 2 Peter
3.18. But grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory
both now and forever. Amen. We grow in grace by growing
in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we don't
grow ourselves. Can't stress it enough, we do
not grow ourselves. We grow as Christ is continually,
it's not a one-time thing. We grow as Christ is continually
revealed to us when we come here. Is that not our desire? Is that
not what happens week after week, service after service? Christ
is revealed to us and in us again and again and again. That's how
we grow. That's how we grow. You want
your faith to increase? How did he tell us faith comes?
By hearing. Hearing what? Just hearing any
old preacher speak? No, hearing the word of God. Hearing by the
word of God. We don't grow by keeping the
law, but we grow by looking to Christ. God caused us to look
to him and we grow by looking to him and trusting in him and
him alone. I want to show you one more verse
here. Turn over to Acts chapter 15. Acts 15. I rejoice to tell you that God's
grace and the Lord Jesus Christ are inseparable. They're one.
It's like God's grace came to Peter in the form of a person,
and it always does. They're inseparable. Acts 15,
verse 11. And this is Peter writing. He
said, but we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we shall be saved, even as they. Peter was hoping in God's grace.
Peter was trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. If
we have God's grace, then we have the Lord Jesus Christ. If
we have the Lord Jesus Christ, then we have the grace of God.
We have everything that's anything. We have all in all. Christ is
all. Now lastly, how do we grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? How do we grow in that?
Well, before we grow, We must be born. The Lord told Nicodemus,
you must be born again. We're not gonna enter into the
kingdom of heaven unless we're born again. Now, mention our baby. That baby grew before he was
born. But life was there before he
was born. That's how the Lord's purposed it here. Upon conception,
there's life. And the evidence of that life
was the baby grew. There must be life. before there can be growth. God,
in His grace, must reveal Christ to us. Initially, He reveals
Christ to us. When it pleases Him to do so, He reveals Christ
to us and in us. And then, by God's grace, as God's willing
and pleased to grow us, we grow in that grace. We grow in that
knowledge of our Savior. So then they go, we're His workmanship,
we're His work. Now, growth being of the Lord
and coming after there's life, it's true physically and it's
true spiritually. We know that. Now, we grow as we're fed. Every
day, my wife makes sure that our kids are fed. They come before
me, did you know that? She feeds me too. Those kids
come first, they need to grow, they're young, they're newborn
babes, they need to grow into full grown adults. It's what
we're working towards, it's our prayer. Now, you may recall after
Peter went fishing and the Lord came to him and he asked him
three times, Peter, do you love me? And he told him all three
times, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. If we desire to grow,
we need to be fed. You're here today because you
want to be fed. That tells me you all desire to grow. You all
desire to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. And to you and to myself, I say,
come and dine. What are we feasting on? His
word that speaks of him. As we grow, we will surely cry
like John. John the Baptist, he must increase,
but I must decrease. pray God might cause us to grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, amen.