One of the things that I appreciate
about your pastor. Is I really believe he's got
a pastor's heart. A man after God's own heart.
And that is always exciting and a blessing to see. The kind of
preaching that I love. Where's John? He's here somewhere. Oh, the kind of preaching I love
is when I hear preaching and lets me know I'm saved. That
I love that kind of preaching. When I hear preaching makes me
wonder whether or not I'm safe. I hate that kind of preaching.
I love it where I know this is. And I remember Paul and I talking
once I love preaching when I hear the preaching, I think of all
things that kind of thing I want to preach on while I'm here that
you hear things that I want to get that and then and I love
preaching where I think I can't add anything to that. I'll just
sit down and shut up. Now, would you turn with me to
2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3, verse 18. Let me give you the title of
the message. Grow in grace a command. Grow in grace a command. Verse 18, but grow in grace. That's in the imperative. But grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to Him be glory,
both now and forever. Amen. In verse 15 of this chapter,
Peter said, and account that the long suffering of our Lord
is salvation. Beloved, if he's long suffering
toward you, you're saved. Look in verse nine of this same
chapter, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise. as some
men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward. Every believer, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
I think it's interesting that verse is used to try to promote
God wanting everybody to be saved. No. He's long-suffering to usward. Not willing. that one of us would
perish. And listen, if he's not willing
for anyone to perish, they're not going to perish. His will's
always done. His will's never thwarted. He's
never disappointed. It always happens exactly as
he wills it. As a matter of fact, when the
Lord spoke of his person in Exodus chapter 34, when he was proclaiming
his name before Moses, And the Lord passed by before him and
proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long
suffering, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. If you're
guilty, Under no circumstance will he clear you. If you understand that, how he
can forgive iniquity and transgression and sin, and yet by no means
clear the guilty, you've understood the mystery of the gospel. What
a blessing to you. Now go back to our text. And
to count that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation, even
as our beloved brother, Paul, also according to the wisdom
given unto him hath written unto you. As also in all his epistles,
Paul wrote at least 13 books in the New Testament. He was
the man God used to expound the gospel more than any other man.
And Peter acknowledges that. He talks about our beloved brother
Paul. You know, even after Paul rebuked
him in Galatians chapter two for moving tables, he still says
our beloved brother Paul. Speaking in them of these things
in which are some things hard to be understood. You know, there's a lot of stuff
in the Bible that's hard to understand. It's hard to grasp, it's hard
to comprehend, and I want to say this carefully, but there's
a very real sense in which I don't understand anything I believe.
I just believe it. I believe it because God said
it. And that's enough. I don't really need to understand. I don't understand how God is
one God in three persons. Do you? I can't grasp that. I can't comprehend it, but I
believe it with all my heart. I do believe it. I don't understand
how I'm eternally united to Christ. How I've always been one with
him. I don't understand that. I don't understand how God never
began to be. I believe though. Now, just because
you can't understand something is no excuse not to believe it. The Bible is the word of God. That's not hard to believe. If
it's not hard to believe that God created the universe, I believe
that, don't you? Somebody created this, all this, and nobody created
him. He's eternal. And if he's able
to create the universe, he's able to write a book and keep
it preserved. And all we know of the living
God is found in this book. Paul wrote of these things. Some
things hard to be understood. That's no excuse for unbelief.
What he goes on to say, which they that are unlearned, and
unstable rest, twist, pervert change. That's what they do. As they do also the other scriptures
that tells us what Peter thought of the writings of Paul. He thought
his scriptures, they do with Paul's writings, what they do,
the other scriptures under their own destruction. Don't miss that. You twist what Paul says or what
God says in his word, you do so to your own destruction. Verse 17, ye therefore beloved,
seeing you know these things before, beware, lest you also Beware, lest you also, that ought
to hit every one of us like a ton of bricks. How many people have
you seen leave the gospel? Beware, lest you also being led away
with the error of the wicked. Fall from your own steadfastness. And here's the only way that
that will be prevented, but grow in grace. That's how that will be prevented.
But grow in grace. and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, here's something that cannot
be separated. Growing in grace. And in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior. Jesus. Christ. Living things. Grow. OK. You know something I don't
want for myself that I'm scared of? I'm scared of being stagnant. I fear being like the church
of Ephesus and losing my first love. I fear being like the church
at Sardis, having a name that you live in your dead, living
on past experiences, past things. I fear being like the Laodiceans,
lukewarm, neither cold nor hot. I want to grow, whatever that
means. Turn to 1 Peter 2. Now this is a scriptural concept.
This is a scriptural principle, this thing of growth. First Peter
chapter two, verse two, as newborn babes desire, and you know, that
word is sometimes translated lust. Cray for, earnestly desire
the sincere or the pure milk of the word that you may grow
thereby. So we see this certainly is a
scriptural concept, this thing of growing. I want the pure milk
of the word that I may grow thereby. Even the Lord, and here's another
thing I don't understand at all, but I just believe. He was said,
the Lord Jesus Christ was said to grow in wisdom and stature,
and in favor with God and with men. Now, all I can do is read
that and believe it, and I can't much explain it to you. I don't
feel any need to. There it is. Even the Lord grew
in that sense. What is growth and grace? To speak of growing in grace
without knowing what grace means in the first place is an exercise
in futility. A lot of times, people bring
messages on growing in grace, and they give you 10 or 12 steps.
Here's what you need to grow. Never even tell what grace is.
If you do that, you've not said anything about growth in grace.
It's just been some kind of works is all it is. So first, when
we talk about growth in grace, we've got to know what grace
is before we can understand what growth in grace is. And let me
cut through the chase. Let me save myself some time
and yourself some time. In this thing of grace, what
about election? What about election? Election is the fountainhead
of grace. God's electing mercy in Christ Jesus. What about this
thing of election? Because what you and I really
believe about grace is seen in what we believe regarding election. I love election. Somebody told
me recently, he said, you're always bringing that election.
I said, I'm always going to by the grace of God. I love election.
I got no problem with that. If you've got a problem with
it, that's your problem. I love God's electing grace. Every believer does. But what
is meant by election? It's called in Romans 11.5, the
election of grace, but turn with me to Romans chapter nine, and
this is where we can understand, I think, as well as we can, what
is meant by grace. Romans chapter nine, verse 11. For the children, talking about
Jacob and Esau, for the children being not yet born. neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand. Not of works. Not of works. But of him that
calleth. How much do works enter in in
election? Well, the kids weren't born. They didn't have any good works
to recommend them, and they didn't have any bad works to disqualify
them. It didn't have anything to do with their works at all.
All it had to do with was the sovereign will of God. That's it. Not of works, but the sovereign
will of God. The only reason for election
was God's sovereign choice. No other reason. And if you have a problem with
that, you've got a problem. You got a real problem. God's
elect love election because election tells them that salvation really
is all of grace. Grace is only grace when God
only makes the difference. That's grace. You put man in
there anywhere. I don't care what doctrine you're
talking about. If you make some aspect of salvation dependent
upon what you do, it's no longer grace. God saw the wickedness of man
was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil. continually. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And if you and I are ever saved,
it's because we're going to find grace in the eyes of the Lord. I think of that passage in Exodus
chapter 11 verse 7. When God was given instructions
regarding the Passover, he said, but against the children of Israel
shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast, so that
you may know how that the Lord doth put a difference. between
the Egyptians and Israel. What's the difference? The Lord. Not your works, not your desires,
nothing. The Lord. Who maketh thee to
differ from another, and what do you have that you didn't receive? If you put man making the difference
in any doctrine, you can call it what you want, but it's not
grace. And let me tell you what growth
and grace does not mean. This is very important. Let me
tell you what growth and grace does not mean, because I know
every believer in this room is very interested in this thing
of growing in grace. What does it not mean? Well,
notice it doesn't say grace grows. I don't grow in election. I don't
become more elect. I don't become elector. I don't grow in justification.
I don't become more justified. I don't grow in redemption. I
don't become more redeemed. I don't grow in holiness. I don't
become more holy. You know, the only time the word
holier is used in the scripture, God speaks of those who say,
stand away from me. I'm holier than thou. And he
said, these are a smoke in my nostrils. I'm as holy right now
as I will be when I be in glory. And the only way we know that's
by faith. You don't know it by the way you feel. This shows
how much the flesh does drag us down. The point is you don't grow in
these things because grace doesn't grow. Turn with me for a moment
to Colossians chapter one. Or Colossians chapter two, I'm
sorry. Verse nine. For in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you know what else
is in him? You. You are complete. Now, complete means complete. It means you don't lack anything.
You got it all. You can't get any more love.
You can't get any more accepted. You can't get any more saved.
You're complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. One other scripture,
Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 10. By the witch will, speaking of
God's will, by the witch will, here's how supreme his will is,
by the witch will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. Perfectly completed. never to
be repeated. Cannot be added to. Cannot be
subtracted from. Sanctified once for all. Now the reason Our salvation
can't be added to and is so sure and so complete. Somebody quoted
some verse from this scripture, but I thought about it more happy,
but not more secure are the glorified spirits in heaven. Yeah, they're
happier than we are, but they're not more secure than we are because
we're already there in the person of our beloved. But the reason
all of this is so sure is because it's all dependent upon Him. If anything were dependent upon
me, two things would be true. Number one, it wouldn't be grace.
And number two, be doomed for failure. That's so. So what is this thing of growing
in grace? Grace doesn't grow, but there
is such a thing as growing in grace. Now let's read the whole
verse together again in 2 Peter 3, verse 18. But grow in grace, and. The thought isn't finished. If all you say is grow in grace,
you've only quoted half the scripture, given half the truth, and the
half the truth is not the truth at all. Grow in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Growing grace is growing in the
knowledge. That's not just talking about
a cognitive knowledge. That's talking about the knowledge
of love. Adam knew his wife, Eve. It's not talking about just learning
things about him. I love that passage of scripture
where the Lord said, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me,
For I am meek and lowly in heart. You know, when you learn of him,
yes, you learn of his absolute sovereignty, but you learn of
his meekness and his humility. The creator of the universe is
humble and meek and lowly. And he's the one person that
you can be around and not feel threatened and judged. The Lord
Jesus Christ. You're not going to really feel
if you're around me, I'm going to judge you for something. That's
how self-righteous I am. I mean, I wish it wasn't like
that. But I'm going to judge you. I'm going to find some fault
with you, and you're going to feel, boy, you know, not him. Not him. He's meek, and he's
lowly in heart. He's the most, oh, he's so approachable. He's so approachable. Come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. Oh, the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you what, folks
who have the knowledge of him, this means something to them,
just like we heard. To him be glory. I mean, that's
that's what we desire. To him be glory. He gets all
the glory. None goes to me. I don't want any. He gets the
glory. This growth. Is inseparable,
inseparably connected with the knowledge. of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. I love what Paul said. He said,
I know whom I have believed. Somebody says, I know what I
believe. Well, good, but do you know whom you believe? You see,
what you believe is determined by who you believe. I know whom
I believed, and I'm persuaded. This is what happens when folks
know him. I'm persuaded that he is able. That's what I'm persuaded about. He is able to keep that which
I've committed to Him. Now, if you believe in works
for your salvation in any way, that's a failure to commit. You
commit the entire salvation of your soul to Him only, and you
look nowhere else. I know whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded. He's able. That's what I'm persuaded
of, his ability. What about you? Well, let's forget
me. I'm persuaded he's able. He's able to keep that which
I've committed to him against that day. And if you have this
knowledge of him that causes you to say with Paul, I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord, of whom I've suffered the loss of all things and kind
of a what? Dumb. I've lost so much for Christ.
Oh. That I may win Christ and be
found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is the law,
but that which is through the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness,
which is of God by faith, that I might know him. Now, if you
know him, you know, you don't know him very well. Don't you
know that? You know, you don't know him
very well. He's too big. He's too glorious.
He's too immense. He's too, you know, your knowledge
is just like that. And your desire is that I might
know him. I love that passage of scripture
in Acts chapter four, verse 13, it says, when they saw the boldness,
of Peter and John and saw that they were unlearned
and ignorant men. There's nothing to these guys. They took knowledge of them that
they had been with Jesus. Now you can't be with him. And Not be zealous for his glory.
Not desire his honor. You can't be with him and be
proud. You can't be with him and not be bold with regard to
him. Not a forced boldness, but a
boldness from conviction that he is who he says he is. They
took knowledge of them. They saw their ignorance and
unlearned this and so on. They said, but they they were
forced to this conclusion. Here's where this came from.
They've been with Jesus. You know what you want for yourself?
With anybody likes anything that you say or not, you want them
to be forced to this conclusion. They, they are what they are
because they've been with him. I repeat the question, what is
growth in grace? Well, it has something to do
with growing in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. And this is what it is, bottom line. Growth in grace
is growth in love to Christ. That's what it is. Growth in
grace is growth in love to Christ. You see more of the beauty of
his person. You see more of the excellence
of his character in all ways. You see more of the power of
his words. You say with Peter, thou hast the words of eternal
life. Now to talk about love to Christ
and not bound to his word. is useless. It's not even real. Love to Christ. Thou has the
words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that
thou art to Christ, the son of the living God. I love that scripture
to you, which believe he is precious. That's true with regard to all
who believe. Oh, he's precious in his person. He's precious
in his righteousness. How precious is his precious
blood? How precious is his intercession? How precious is his grace to
you which believe he is precious? Now, do you know how you can
tell if someone is growing in their love to Christ? Not by them telling you they
are. Yeah, I love him a lot more. By their growth in this thing
of humility. That's what is seen in love to
Christ is growth in this thing of humility. What did Christ call the greatest
faith he had seen in Israel? There was a man who sent his
servant to Christ saying, I didn't think myself worthy to come to
you. I wasn't even more. I'm not even
worthy to come into your presence. I'm sending somebody else. And
I knew that you that I'm not worthy to have you come under
my roof. Speak the word only. And my servant shall be healed. Now we would give this guy a
self-help book. He needs to give a higher opinion of himself.
Good grief. But you know what the Lord said about this man?
I say unto you, I've not found so great faith. No, not in Israel. You remember that Syro-Phoenician
woman? The Lord said to her, it's not me to take the children's
bread and throw it to dogs. How would you feel if the Lord
said that to you? You came from mercy. He says it's not appropriate
to take my gospel grace and to throw it at the dogs like you.
You know what her response was? Truth. If I ever heard the truth,
that's the truth. I'm a dog. But I'm your dog. And I'd be so grateful for any
mercy, even the crumbs that fall for the dogs to eat. I'd be grateful
for any mercy of crumbs of mercy that come my way. You know what
he said to her? Oh woman, great is thy faith. Now what the world calls great
faith and what Christ calls great faith, two totally different
things. But based in great faith, there is great humility. What is humility? It's a just
estimate of yourself. When that publican beat on his
breast and cried, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He had a just estimate of himself. And if you and I cry out, God
be merciful to me, the sinner, the worst man, the worst woman
to ever live. Present tense. That's the closest
thing we're ever going to come to the truth about ourselves. Growth and grace is growth and
love to Christ. And the evidence of growth and
love to Christ is humility. Now, growth in grace is maturity. It's maturity. It's growing in
grace. When you become mature, that
means you stop acting like a child. You know, we love babies. We
don't like 30-year-old babies. We don't like 40-year-old babies.
We don't like 50. We don't like 70-year-old babies.
You know, grow up. We love babies. We don't like
old babies. And growth and grace has something
to do with spiritual maturity. You stop acting like a child,
but being so easily offended, won't speak to people, always
ready to correct others. When others around you, they
feel judged and condemned and threatened, that's being a baby. That's being childish. I want
to grow up from that to where people, growth and grace is maturing.
And I'll tell you what, spiritual maturity is a lower opinion of
yourself and a higher opinion of your others. Now, do you remember
when Paul said, I beseech you by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service. and be not conformed
to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God." What's the first thing he said after that? I say
to every man that's among you, not to think of himself more
highly than he ought to think. First thing he said when he spoke
of proving that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Turn
to Ephesians chapter 4. Let me show you what the scripture says
about this concept. Ephesians chapter 4. I'm not
going to make much comment on these two scriptures I'm going
to read. Verse 11, he gave some, Ephesians
4, 11, he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints,
the maturing of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for
the edifying, the building up of the body of Christ, till we
all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ, And with this maturity that we
be henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried
about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning
craftiness, whereby they lie and wait to deceive, but speaking
the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which
is the head, even Christ. Turn to Hebrews chapter six, verse one. Therefore, leaving
the principles, the ABCs, the building blocks, the foundational
truths of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on into perfection,
maturity, not laying again. And here's where the immaturity
comes from. You've got to lay this again. You're not grounded
on it. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works.
Now look back up in verse 12 of chapter 5 or verse 11. He
says, of whom we have many things to say, speaking of Melchizedek,
and hard to be uttered since you're dull of hearing. For when
for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that
one teach you again what be the first principles of the oracles
of God. And it becomes such as have need
of milk and not of strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is
unskillful in the word of righteousness. He's a baby. But strong meat
belongeth to them their full age. Even those who by reason
of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil,
they can tell the difference. And here's the foundational truths.
He says we have to be grounded on and we can't be laying this
foundation over and over again or we'll never grow up. Repentance
from dead works. Do you know every work you had
or I had before God regenerated me was nothing more than a dead
work. There wasn't any truth to it. It was hypocrisy, sin. Repentance from dead work, faith
toward God. Christ is God. We trust him as
God. And then he speaks of verse two
of the doctrine of baptisms and that's union with Christ. That's
what that doctrine is, union with Christ. That's what baptism
says. When he lived, I lived. When he died, I died. When he
was raised from the dead, I was raised from the dead. The doctrine
of the laying on of hands, and that's not talking about laying
on the hands of some man and all of a sudden he pooped, he's
healed, you know, boom, boom, no. That's talking about the
transference of sin. That's what that's talking about,
the high priest laying his hands on the head of the sacrifice
and symbolically transferring the sin, which is what literally
happened when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross. And
of the resurrection of the dead, he was delivered for our offenses,
raised again for our justification, all that means. And eternal judgment,
everything God does is eternal. Whatever he does is eternal.
Now, if I have to be always laid back down, if I don't get that
down, superstructure's never going up. There will be no growth. Now, let me close with this thought. You know, a phrase that I hear
people use a lot that I be quite honest with you, I dislike it
is how to live the Christian life. How to live the Christian life. Well, let's say for just a moment,
it's a good phrase. What's that look like? I know exactly what it looks like.
Because the Lord tells us. To live the Christian life is
to be poor in spirit. You have nothing. It's to mourn. To mourn over your sin. Not about
the way you used to be, but the way you are right now. It's to
be meek before God. Whatever he sends me, it's right.
It's to hunger and thirst after righteousness. It's to be merciful. Having experienced
the mercy of God. It's to be pure in heart. You
know one thing that you learn when God saves you is you've
got two separate natures. You've got a pure heart and you've
got an evil heart. And you see that more and more clearly. It's
the pure heart that sees the evil heart. It's to be a peacemaker. It's to be persecuted for righteousness
sake. You make such an issue of his
righteousness being the only righteousness, folks don't like
you for it. Now what is it to grow? It's
to become more poor. It's to mourn even more. It's to be more meek before God. Whatever he sends my way is right,
just, holy and good. It's to hunger and thirst after
his righteousness. When you when you hunger for
something means you feel like you don't have any food in your
belly. It's got to come from outside
of you. And that's that's hungering for his righteousness. It's becoming
more merciful. more forgiving, having seen his
mercy to you and his forgiveness to you. It's seeing those two
natures more clearly, the pure heart, the new heart, given,
and the old man. It's to become more of a peacemaker,
not a troublemaker, a peacemaker. It's to make such an issue of
his righteousness being the only righteousness that you just become
stronger and stronger in it. That is growth in grace. Now let me tell you two things
in closing about growth and grace. Number one, it takes grace to
grow in grace. Amen? It takes grace to grow
in grace. And I've already read this passage
of scripture. Desire the sincere milk of the
word that you may grow thereby. If you do that, everything else
can be fine. If you have an appetite for the
word, boy, it's a dreadful thing to lose your appetite for the
word. There will be no growth where there's a loss of appetite
for the word. desire the pure milk of the word
that you may grow thereby. Now the problem with most religious
talk about growth and grace, they put the cart before the
horse. They put the effect before the cause. If you do this, this,
this, this, this, this, and this, and stop doing that, that, that,
and that, and become this, this, this, and this, you'll grow.
Yeah, you'll grow in self-righteousness. You'll grow in darkness. Oh,
crave the pure milk of the word. that you may grow thereby.