Now it is. Morning, everyone. Alright, we're going to be in
2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1, and looking at verse
5, which says, And beside this,
giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue
knowledge. Now the Apostle encourages us
here by way of reminder that we're given great, exceeding
great and precious promises in Christ and he details these promises. He unfolds these in the text
that we're going to look at this morning and what we'll see in
next week as well. But before we look at these,
we need to understand always be reminded that everything that
we have, every blessing that we have is in Christ. And I like to remind us of that
because my whole religious life I didn't understand that. I didn't
see how every blessing that we have of the Lord is in Christ,
His Son. It's because of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. It's because of what He did and
what He accomplished for His people. It's never outside of
Christ. We never grow beyond Christ.
We never receive anything good or kind or blessed of the Lord
outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must always remember that
it's all in Him. Everything's in Him. And so our
God, in grace and mercy, He sent His Son into this world. to deliver
his people from the condemnation, from the wrath of God that is
due to them because of their sins. We justly deserve the wrath
and the condemnation of God because we ourselves are sinners and
we've earned that. And Christ was sent of his Father
into the world to be the Lamb of God. He's the Lamb of God
to make atonement for the sins of the people that we ourselves
committed, and as the Lamb of God, the sins of the people were
laid upon Him. They were laid upon Him so that
He Himself is perfect and holy and righteous and just, and He
is the fit Savior. He's the one who is fit and able
to do this work, because we can't do it. We disqualified ourselves. We ourselves are disobedient.
We ourselves are corrupt and vile and have offended holy God. We did that which was evil, but
he never did that which was evil or wrong or wicked in any way
so that he is the fit man. He is the perfect sacrifice sent
of God to bear their sins and to make reconciliation, to make
atonement for the people to put away their sins, to carry them
away out of the sight of God so that God now has peace with
us and that he's established reconciliation between God and
men. in spite of the fact that we
ourselves earned death, right? The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, his son,
Romans 6, 23. So Christ died to justify us
from our sins and the condemnation that we earned and to redeem
us unto himself, right? He purchased us. He delivered
us out of that condemnation and wrath and justice that's to be
poured out upon this world for their wicked works. He delivered
us out of that, that stream of condemnation, that stream of
wrath that's coming. He purchased us so that we are
taken out of that and brought to Himself so that we are now
in Christ, entered into the Beloved, the family of God. He's adopted
us as sons and daughters and brought us into the family of
God, and He did this with the purchase price of His own blood.
That's why the Scriptures speak of us being justified and reconciled
by the death of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, now,
because of Christ, we're reconciled to Him, and we are made righteous
before God. God doesn't see us now as sinners
deserving His wrath and condemnation, but He looks upon us sweetly
in love because of what Christ has done for us and he shows
us mercy and grace and kindness even though we don't see how
we deserve that. but we see how Christ is everything
and made everything to us and that that he's done this work
and so because now we're saved he's not just pleased to have
saved us but he's pleased to now bring this light to our understanding
to make these things known to us and to give us everything
that we by his divine power and grace can enter into this work
to enter in to the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of His Son, Jesus Christ. He's done all that. He's worked
all that for us. And that's why Peter says there
in the opening of this letter, in verses two through four, we
read, 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, like the
understanding of Him, to know that He is God and that He is
through the knowledge of Him that hath called us by glory
and virtue, by the excellency of His power, He's called us,
it's what He's done, whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises that by these, right, he's given us these
promises that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust. Now this morning we're going
to look at The next gift, I don't think we'll have time. If we
have time, I'll look at virtue and knowledge, but I believe
we're just going to get to virtue this morning. Now, we saw how
faith was given. He gave us faith so that we might
know the things that have been freely given to us in the Lord
Jesus Christ. But now we're going to look at
virtue. And so our title is Grace Grown, right? First, we saw grace
given last week. Now we see grace grown. where
the Lord grows us in grace. He's going to grow us in grace,
and we're going to look at virtue specifically. And so we'll just
have one division, the grace of virtue. And let's read verse
5 again. And beside this, giving all diligence,
add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge. Now, what
does this virtue mean? And we do well to understand
that everything we have is all given to us in Christ. And what
are the things that he establishes in our hearts? What are the things
that he fixes in our heart? But faith, and hope, and love,
right? Those are triumphant graces that
he works in the hearts of his people. Faith, hope, and love. And so built upon these gifts
that are given to us of faith, hope, and love, now being alive,
being made alive in him, the scriptures reveal to us, they
teach to us that we walk in a circumspect manner, in a careful manner before
the Lord, that is, we do what's right before God and before men.
We're not looking to be offensive, we're not looking to exercise
ourselves in the lusts and the passions of this flesh, because
he's teaching us and showing to us and revealing to us Those
things are what sake the wrath of God coming upon men and upon
this world. He's showing us these things.
He's teaching us that certain things we ought not to do or
practice because they're not convenient. They're not good.
They're not edifying to the body of Christ. He's teaching us.
bringing us along in that understanding and the knowledge of those things
so that we don't look to the Ten Commandments. We're not looking
back to the Law of Moses to understand how to walk before God and men.
and how we are to treat one another. We're not looking to those 10
commandments. Virtue implies a high moral character
and one who does that which is right, but that's not how, we're
not walking by the law of Moses. And that's what I really want
us to understand this morning is that we're walking by the
divine power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not looking to the law,
but looking to Christ. We hear the voice of the Son
of God. And the Lord teaches us, like
he says in Luke 6 31, as ye would, that men should do to you So
do ye, or do ye also to them likewise. That's what they call
the golden rule. We just treat others the way
we would want to be treated. We have a tendency to expect
others to show us some liberty and some wiggle room in our actions
and behaviors, and we tend to be exactors of others and get
offended very easily, but he shows us to be patient and to
be kind. and loving to one another because
he's patient and kind and gentle and loving to us. And so he teaches
us that in the heart so that we're patient and kind and gentle
with one another because that's what we really need and that's
what he shows us to do. So this virtue, therefore, is Christ
in us. It's something that He works
in us, and we hear His voice, and we hear Him. It's a new creation
of Christ in us. It's the seed of His righteousness,
His Spirit dwelling in us and living in us. It's what Peter
wrote of in 1 Peter 1.23 when he said, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever." So this virtue here is Christ. It's Christ in you. It's Christ in you, brethren,
the hope of glory, Christ in you. So it's His goodness, it's
His righteousness, which He has made us before God. And so that
this wonderful, magnificent, generous, gracious, kind Savior
dwells in your hearts by love. He dwells in your hearts and
He's teaching you and instructing you and being patient with you
and leading us along in Him, in His mercy and kindness. Right? And that's why Paul said
of us in 2 Corinthians 5.17 that we are a new creature. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. We're no longer walking by the wisdom and the instruction
and the way that the flesh moves and has its being in this life,
but we're walking and living and moving by the Spirit of Christ
in us, teaching us and leading us. So that now we're walking
by the Spirit of Christ. We're not walking by the flesh. We're not walking by the Law
of Moses according to the flesh. We're not walking by the Law
of Moses by the Spirit either. We're not looking to those Ten
Commandments We walk in the virtue which Christ
has formed in us, which is Christ himself, his righteousness, his
goodness, his wisdom, his teaching us. Turn over to Romans 8. Romans
8, verses 1 through 6, we'll look at. Romans 8, 1. And this is what Paul is teaching
us. He says, Romans 8, 1, there is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For the
law of the spirit of life, he doesn't say the law of Moses,
but he speaks of the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus,
that is his virtue, his life, his divine power, hath made me
free from the law of sin and death. For what the law, now
he's speaking of the law of Moses here in the Ten Commandments,
which many people today tell us that we're to walk by and
that we're to sanctify ourselves by, even if they don't go so
far as to say that you're justified by it, but they teach, oh well
you sanctify yourselves, you make yourselves holy and you
set yourselves apart from this wicked world by your looking
to the law of Moses. We don't look to the law of Moses. And he's saying, for what the
law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending
his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh. So that, we know that, that when
you practice sin, when your focus and your drive is on those things,
and people have different things that really float their boat
and that they go for, but when you're practicing those things
that your flesh loves, it works death in you. It just works death
in you and it's just, it's an empty, wicked, vile place to
be. But Christ comes and he destroys
that work in us. He destroys the works of darkness
and the power that that has over us. Right? We see this growth
but it's him teaching us and he delivers us, breaking us from
those things that had us so bound and so kept and so so easily
turned by those things and that sin that so easily besets us,
each of us, whatever it is that we are attracted to in the flesh,
He's separating us. He's destroying that work and
bringing us out by His grace and mercy and peace that He shows
us and teaches us through this gospel. Why? That the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit. So that it's Christ who's justified
us, it's Christ who's sanctified us, and we now walk being grown
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We have His Spirit, we have His virtue in us, performing all
things necessary which pertain unto life and godliness. He's
doing this work in us. Why? Verse 5, For they that are
after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are
after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. So that we cease
looking back to that law of Moses for wisdom and guidance and to
know how it is that we're to walk before one another and to
determine whether or not we can feel safe that we're justified
or feel like we're sanctified now because we're keeping that
law. We don't look to that anymore
as a barometer or a determination for how we're to walk, we rest
in the Lord Jesus Christ walking in the light that he's given
to us and as he grows us in this faith and in this virtue and
in the knowledge that he's given to us. Because to be carnally
minded, verse six, is death. But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. So that's, in a nutshell, that's
that virtue that he's working us. He's teaching us. He's teaching
us. He's not going to leave us in that darkness and that deadness
and being just pulled under by the undertow of sin all the time
and being pulled in there. He's going to separate us from
that. It may be a patient work. And there are some things that
are hard to go away. But He knows exactly how to deal
with us and how to instruct each of us and teach us in the way
that we should walk. Just trust Him. Keep looking
to Him. He'll do it. He'll do that work.
You can depend upon it. You don't got to look back to
that law to figure it out. You keep looking to Christ. He
knows exactly how He's going to lead you in the way, brethren. So this virtue is working in
the disciples. Turn over to Acts 4. Acts 4,
and we'll drop in on verse 34. In the early churches, there
were needs. There were needs among the brethren. It was a
tough time, and it wasn't easy to make it. They didn't have
social nets to catch people when they were falling out of control.
They had needs, and so the Lord laid it in the hearts of the
people to care for one another and to provide for one another
as the Lord provided for them and cared for them. In verse
34, we read, therefore, neither was there any among them that
lacked, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them,
and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid
them down at the apostles' feet. and distribution was made unto
every man according as he had need. And then they single out
one brother in particular here, verse 36, and Joses, who by the
apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted the
son of consolation. He was a comfort to the brethren.
He is a Levite and of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold
it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet.
So we see here the Lord's made this man, he's a good man. And
as we would look at Adam, he's been made a good man. He has
a good heart. He's walking now by the Spirit
and he's serving the brethren. He's being kind and a comfort
to the brethren because that's what Christ has worked in him,
a desire to do that and to be used in that way. But it's not
his flesh, that's what Christ has worked in him. That's his
divine power. That's his virtue, the virtue
of Christ formed in him so that he has that willing heart and
that desire to be used in that way. That's not the flesh. But what we're seeing here is
that, and what Peter's showing us as we look at this, is that
we don't simply have faith and then it just dies there. We have
this faith and belief, but rather it moves us to action. It moves
us to walk in the Spirit, right? We walk in the Spirit. And turning over to James chapter
2, James chapter 2, you probably know where I'm going with this
one, but in verse 14, James writes, what doth it profit, my brethren,
though a man say he hath faith, and have not works, can faith
save him? Now we know he's not teaching
us that we're saved by works. He's just saying that true faith,
you're gonna, there's gonna be action there. The Lord's going
to use us. He's going to bring about needs, and he's gonna bring
about a willingness to meet that need. There doesn't have to be
need. The Lord can provide everything, but he allows there to be needs
that we might be exercised and walk, according to the Spirit,
to walk in those works which he's ordained before the foundation
of the earth that we should walk in them in the Spirit of Christ.
It pleases him to bring about these things that we serve one
another. And he says, he gives an easy
example, if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily
food, and one of you say unto them, Bargain peace, be warmed
and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which
are needful to the body, what doth it profit? If one of you
brethren show up at the house in this weather, and you don't
have a coat, and you're hungry, and you're cold, and I say, oh
man, I hope the Lord blesses you and takes care of you, have
a good night, and you go away, You understand, I haven't done
anything for you. What kind of faith is that? Like, who am I?
You're thinking, what is wrong with that guy? Like, he didn't
even help me. That's rude, you know? So he's just saying, he's
just giving an easy example that we're going to serve and take
care of one another. And he says, Even so, faith, if it hath not
works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast
faith, and I have works. Show me Thy faith without Thy
works, and I will show Thee my faith by my works. Thou believest
that there is one God, Thou doest well. The devils also believe
and tremble. But wilt Thou, O vain man, but
wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead."
So the Lord's gonna teach us. He's gonna show us needs and
have us walk on those things. And brethren, think about it. The Lord has given you actionable
faith. He's showing, He's proved that
the faith that you have is real faith. When you consider what
the Lord is doing here, That's an act of faith. That's living
faith. There's a lot of groups meeting
together across this land. They meet together and they watch
videos or messages online, but they never grow. There's no establishment
of a work being witnessed by the fact that they call a man
and have a man there. Why? Because you're paying a
man's salary. That takes faith. That's not
an easy thing to do, and people don't want to do that. Even though
there's wealthy people that probably could do it, they don't. And
yet here you are, a small little body, and the Lord's given you
faith. He's done this work. He's shown
that it wasn't just talk, talk, talk, but there was a willingness
to do it, and then you did it. He did that, He showed that,
He's given you faith, living faith that trusts Him. Because
it's not an easy thing to do that, and you know that, you
see that all across the world. So that's the virtue. That's that living faith that
he works in the hearts of his people so that they continue
to grow forward, that they grow and move forward. It doesn't
feel like much to you. You think, I don't even think
about it. That's right. You don't even
think about it. The Lord just does it. He works it in his people
and gives them a desire by his divine power working in us. Turn
over to Galatians 5. Galatians 5, verse 22. It says in Galatians 5, 22, but
the fruit of the Spirit, here it is, Him working these things
in us, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, So these
are all foundational things that he creates or forms in the new
man, in his people. It's what he works in us, born
in that inner man. And he says there in Galatians,
against such, against those things, there's no law. There's no law
that has to be written for somebody who's bearing those fruits. There's no law that you need
to be looking to or following when the Lord is bearing those
fruits in you by His Spirit. And why would He say that? Because
again, He's teaching us, you're not looking to the law of Moses
to know how to walk toward one another. He's bearing that fruit
in us And there's no law necessary to instruct a person who's bearing
the fruit of faith and love and gentleness and meekness and temperance
and kindness to one another. What do you need a law for? You're
already doing it. You're living it. You're living
the very principles. You're loving your neighbor.
You're loving your God. You're loving others as you're
supposed to love them. He's worked that in you. He's
given that to you. Now hold your place there in
Galatians 5, because we'll come back there. Just put a marker
there. And turn over to 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1, verse 8. We're to understand that our
rule of life isn't the law of Moses. Our rule is the gospel. He's bearing that rule out on
us. He's working that in us so that
there's a truth there. In 1 Timothy 1, verse 8, he says,
but we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully. Knowing
this, that the law is not made for a righteous man. If you sit
in religious circles, you think that the law is made for a righteous
man to show what kind of right, how righteous he is before others. But he says the law is not made
for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient,
for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers
of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers. for whoremongers,
for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers,
for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing
that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God which was committed to my trust." So that
we who are looking to Christ and know the power, the divine
power that Christ has worked in us and saved us and delivered
us from darkness and is teaching us and instructing us, we preach
and exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. We're lifting him up, declaring
that he is the one who saves his people from beginning to
end. He does the justifying and the sanctifying. He's teaching
us and bearing out these fruits in us, and he's the one performing
these things, and so that he's doing this, this work in his
people. But if the ministry is a ministry
of the flesh, then you're not exalting and lifting up Christ
before the people, you're exalting and lifting up Moses before the
people. and you're pointing the people
to Moses and you're walking according to the law of Moses and you're
charging the people, now you need to be doing this. You need
to start doing this and stop doing that and start whipping
and beating the people and charging them that so that Because you're
looking through those things to bring out their righteousness
and their sanctification according to the flesh. Now, again, still
holding your place in Galatians, look over in Romans 3. Romans
3 verse 19. And he says, now we know, verse
19, that what things, soever the law saith it saith to them
who are under the law, right, for unrighteous persons who are
living in this, you know, just practicing sin, the law was given
to those under that law, that every mouth may be stopped and
all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the
deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight, because that's not why the law was given. It wasn't
given to justify, to make us righteous, to create some kind
of righteous power in us. It was given to shut our mouths
because we're not righteous. We're sinners. And the Lord has
to show us that we are an offense to him naturally. We've broken
his law. We've done that which is wicked. For by the law is
the knowledge of sin, right? He shows us what we are by nature
before God, that we don't keep the law perfectly, that we don't
love others, that we don't love the Lord God. We love ourselves
and want to do what we want to do according to the lust of our
flesh, whatever that may be. But it doesn't make anyone righteous. It either says you are righteous
or you're a sinner. And every one of us is going
to hear You're a sinner because we're all fallen in Adam. That's all that we're going to
hear. And the thing is, is that we're to trust Christ. We're
to exalt him, to lift him up before men because Christ said,
I'll draw all men unto me. I'll give them my spirit. I'll
work the divine power in them and turn them from the love of
the sins of this flesh and turn them to love me. I'll create
that love and that faith and that hope in the heart. The reason
why people don't and why they exalt Moses is because the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. That's silly. How can you preach and exalt
Christ and speak of grace and mercy and expect the people to
do that which is righteous? That's foolishness, they tell
us, right? They teach you can't do that. You can't tell a person that
they are safe and secure in the Lord Jesus Christ and expect
them to do anything that's good. and right, and kind, and loving. And so, what do they do? They
preach Moses. They preach Moses. But to us
which are saved, we know it's the power of God unto salvation.
That's why we preach Christ, because that's how He's teaching
us. That's how He's instructing us, and warming our hearts, and
turning us from the love of this world to love Him, and to see
His glory, and His might, and His power. But if there's no
spirit, If there's no divine power being worked in the people,
well then you've got to teach them the law of Moses and you've
got to start whipping and beating the people because otherwise
you're not going to have anything to glory in when you stand before
the great white throne of God in that day, right? You're going
to stand there and all you're going to have is a bunch of rotten
fruit, but they think that by their whipping and beating of
the people and getting them to do things, they're going to say,
look Lord, you couldn't do it by the law, but I did. I got
him to obey the law of Moses. Look what I did, Lord. And those
people are going to be ashamed in that day because he's going
to expose that that's not righteousness, but that's unrighteousness. And
that's using the law unlawfully. And that's not what the Lord
gave the law for. So back in Galatians 5, in Galatians
5, Verse 24, and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh
with the affections and lusts by the law of the spirit or the
law of Moses. Nope. He says, if we live in
the spirit, let us walk in the spirit. And that's why Paul also
said, are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are
you now made perfect by the flesh? Galatians 3.3. Are we saved by
the gospel of Christ and then we have to turn back to the law,
back to thorns and thistles to produce any fruit? Or do we stay
in Christ and continue to walk in his spirit, trusting him that
he's going to work his works in us as it pleases him and as
it's good? We walk looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. Not unto Jesus the author, but
Moses the finisher. of our faith. We walk according
to Jesus, the author and the finisher. He's going to begin
it and he's going to bring it to its end. You can trust Christ. He's the divine author who works
all this. Alright, let's just close with
Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3. Go to verse 16. Ephesians 3,
16. Paul writes that he would grant
you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened
with might by his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith, rather than Christ dwelling with you
by whipping and beating you, but by faith. He works this by
faith in us, that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able
to comprehend or understand with all saints what is the breadth,
and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God, that now unto him that is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the
power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church, by
Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. So, brethren, look to Christ
and rest right there in Him. He's able. He's begun the work. He'll finish the work. in you,
and you just rejoice in Him and trust in Him. And you who don't
know Him, look to Him. Cease from your vain works of
righteousness. Cease from trusting in your own
self. Look to the Lord, the Savior
that's been given to us to deliver us from the coming wrath of God
that's coming upon this world. So look to Him. Let's pray. Our
gracious Lord, Father, we thank You for the power the grace and
the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let them fill our
hearts, Lord. Fill us by your Spirit and work
in us your divine power. Cause us, Lord, to continue to
walk in this faith and this work which you've begun in us here
among us in Missouri here. Lord, pour out your Spirit upon
us. Keep us and teach us and fill us with love for our God
and for one another. We pray this in Jesus' name,
our Lord and Savior. Amen.