Thank you, John and Robin. 2 Peter now, 2 Peter chapter
1. We looked at this a few years
ago, but I was thinking about it recently and decided to preach
it again. Verse 1, there's a phrase here,
Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, He's writing
to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through
the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Like
precious faith is the title of the subject. Like precious faith. The message right before this
on all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, there's just no
way to simplify all the treasures. and of wisdom and knowledge except
to say, it's all in Christ. Simply put, it's all in Him. But you keep digging and it's
way over our heads. But I want this to be very simple.
So simple that the youngest person in here, child, can at least
understand what faith is. Okay? And I hope we'll all ask
ourselves, Do I have this faith? Do I have this faith? All right?
He says it's to them that have obtained like precious faith.
Them. Who's them? Those that believe. Those that believe. Whosoever
believeth. That's who this is to. He talks
about grace and peace be multiplied, and escape, Those that believe. To them that
obtained, not attain. Attain means something you work
for and you get it by your effort. No, this is obtain. It's given
to you. Okay? Like precious faith. Like. It's the same. It's the
same. Very simply. There's only one
faith. Only one thing. One way of salvation. Like precious. Everybody knows
what a little bit of precious means. Something very dear to
you. Something very rare. Precious
means rare. It's valuable. Precious stones
and gold. Faith. As I said, faith is belief. It's trust. It's confidence. Have faith in things. We have faith in people. Don't
we? We all do. You wouldn't get in
your car if you didn't have a certain amount of faith in it, you know.
If you're afraid of it, which you believe, trust, or people,
things, we have faith. Well, Bible faith, the faith
that this is talking about here, is faith in a person. This faith
is not what you believe, but who you believe in. Okay? This faith is in a person. Bible
faith is in our God and His Son, Jesus Christ. You with me? All right. Now, many say this. Many say things like this. Somebody
goes through something difficult. you know, something very traumatic
or whatever, and they say his or her faith got them through
that. Somebody holds up in some difficult situation, they say,
well, they had strong faith. You ever heard that? And most
of the time, they never mention God's name. They never mention Christ's name.
Well, his faith brought him through that. He had strong faith. Faith
doesn't save us. Faith is not in faith. It's a
person. Here's faith. My God got me through
this. My Lord brought me through this.
Now that's faith. I don't have strong faith. I
have a strong Lord. Okay? Faith is in a person. Faith's
in a person. All right? We'll give you five
things. You taking notes? Five things. All right? What is faith? Where do we get
it? Is there more than one? What's it worth? How do we know
you have it? Isn't that interesting? What is faith? Where do we get
it? Is there more than one? What's
it worth? How do you know you have it?
What is faith? Go to Hebrews 11. This is a chapter
that talks a great deal about faith. What is faith? I'll tell you what it is. First
of all, it's to believe in God. I know everybody says that. What
they mean is, I believe in the existence of God. But if you
don't believe in a sovereign God, you don't believe in God.
Okay? This faith, true faith, believes
in the God of the Bible. This faith believes in the God
who's the creator of all things. The God in whose hands everything
and everyone is. This faith believes that God
is God. They believe in God. They asked
David one time, Psalm 115, said, David, here's our God. We've
got him. We got our little gods on a shelf
here. I got our little gods here. Our little gods there. Our God,
he's outside our heart's door. We let him in when he want to.
That's not God. You don't believe in God. David,
where's your God? He said, our God. Our God. Everybody's God, whether
they know it or not, is in the heavens, and He hath done whatsoever
He hath pleased. This is God. This is God. The One who does whatsoever He
hath pleased. Because He does. That's to believe in God. Hebrews
11 says, "...faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen." That is an unseen God. And verse 3 says,
through faith, first thing, we understand the worlds were made
by the Word of God. You don't believe in God if you
believe evolution. You do not. You cannot. You don't believe in God if you
believe some kind of evolutionary creation. There's lots of so-called
Christian sisters that believe in some kind of evolutionary
creation. They believe, well, the world is billions of years
old, but God did it this way. Well, you're still a monkey is
what you are. That's the reason you believe
that. We have this understanding by faith that God made everything
in six days. Can't do that. He did. You can't
make wine out of water in a second, can you? By speaking it. He did. We understand that things that
are made were made of things that were not made, that He just
spoke and it happened. We believe in God. Look at verse
6. It says, Without faith it is
impossible to please Him. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is. Come to God. What does that mean?
It means to worship God. And if you believe He is God
as He is, you will fear Him. That's the beginning of wisdom.
You will fear Him. You will fear this God, which
brings about many things. It brings about guilt of sin.
It brings about showing you the fear of the law and show you
Christ and on and on it goes. But this is where it begins.
You believe in God. Believe God is God. All right? John 17, 3 says this, this is
life eternal. And faith is just another word
for eternal life. Okay? This is life eternal, Christ
said, that they might know Thee, the only true God. And Jesus Christ, hymn to Isaiah,
sing. So faith is to believe in God,
faith is to believe God. To believe God. Look at 2 Thessalonians
2. 2 Thessalonians 2. Faith is to believe God. There's
a difference between believing God is God, where it goes together. But you believe God, meaning
you believe everything God says is true. You believe God is true,
His word is true, and nothing else is. That's right. We believe God,
His Word is true, His truth. You believe the truth of God. Alright, look at 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 13. Well, go back to verse 9. It talks about this spirit of
Antichrist, the working of Satan with powers and signs and lying
wonders with all deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that
perish because they receive not the love of the truth. What does
that mean? They rejected the truth. They don't love the truth.
That's true. But it also means God didn't
give them a love of the truth. He's given us a love of the truth.
But they might be saved. Verse 11, for this cause God
sends them strong delusion. Who does? See, this is a God
that does everything. He said, I'll choose their delusions
for them. And they'll be so real, they'll
look at them and say, look, look, look, there it is, that's right. Verse 12, that they all might
be damned who believe not the truth. What's the truth? What's
the truth? That's what Pilate asked our
Lord standing right in front of him. He didn't know the truth
standing in front of him. What is truth? Our Lord didn't
even answer him. Because he doesn't give an account
of his matters to anybody. He's not trying to tell people
what the truth is. Verse 13, But, but, but, oh,
we're bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved,
forloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning before
the world chose you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. Which brings me to my next point. What is faith? To believe in
God? It's to believe that God is true,
His Word, everything He says. Paul said this, let God be true
and every man a liar. That's fact. That's what I believe. Like David, I esteem all thy
precepts concerning all things to be right and I hate every
false way. Everything contrary to God's Word is a lie. God of
this world, and people that believe it said they're going to perish. I believe that. And I wouldn't
believe that unless if he hadn't revealed it to them. And believe
for the truth. And next, believe God's Son who
is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So
help me. God. He's the truth. Believe God's
Son. As I said, faith is life. Faith is life. He that hath the
Son hath life. Faith in the Son. Faith on the
Son. Here's saving faith. I believe
Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, the life. I believe. that Jesus Christ is my wisdom,
my righteousness, my sanctification, my redemption. I believe that
Jesus Christ is my prophet, don't need another one, my priest,
I sure don't need one of those, my king, my righteousness, my
advocate, my mediator, my intercessor, my, he's everything. Name something,
he's it. This is faith. I don't have faith
in me. I don't have faith in my preacher.
I don't have faith in my flesh. My faith is in Jesus Christ alone. Peace out. It's to believe on
the Son, to cast all your care on Him. My hope, here it is,
here's faith. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus Christ's blood and righteousness. I don't trust
the sweetest frame or feeling or experience or anything that's
ever happened to me. I hold it completely with all my heart,
mind and soul, lean on the name of Jesus Christ. Because on Christ
the solid rock I stand. Will you stand? Will that stand? That's faith there's no other
kind. There's no other kind. When he
says, the truth, the way, the life, that's no other kind. Well,
that's my third point. Here's my second point. Where
do you get this faith? I'd end up and one day decide,
I'm going to believe this. Or by studying, I search, well,
here, there it is. It's a gift. Brother Joseph read
that, didn't he? By grace you save through faith.
That's not yourself. It's a gift of God. Ephesians
1.19 says that we believe according to the working of His mighty
power. Where do you get this faith?
You don't get it. It's not something you go get.
It's you receive it. Simon Peter. and Andrew, his
brother, were out fishing in a boat. Okay? Fishing was their
life. Their nets. Every day, day in,
day out, they'd go fishing. They'd come back, they'd wash
their nets. Next day, they'd go fishing. They'd wash their
nets. They weren't religious. It doesn't seem like they went
to church at all. Okay? James and John. Boats,
nets. This world was their life. All right, one day. They're washing
their nets, like always. They're out there washing their
nets and someone came walking by. Simon, Andrew, follow me. And he walked off. You know what happened? Simon
and Andrew dropped their nets and started following this person
and called them. Same way with James and John.
Went right down the shore there. James, John, follow me. They dropped their nets. They
left their father, whom they loved. They left their home.
They left their families. And they started following this
man. How? Why? How? by His power, by His
grace. And He began to reveal Himself
to them, reveal the truth in them, who He was, why He came. He chose them. He said, you didn't
choose me, I chose you. Where do you get this faith?
You don't get it, it gets you. It's He, it's person. It's person. You don't come to a knowledge
of the doctrines of grace. You're not saved by coming to a knowledge
of the doctrines of grace. That's being a Calvinist. You're saved knowing Christ. How do you know somebody? He
reveals himself to you. He comes to you. How does he
do that? What I'm doing right now. It's a mystery. Preaching. Like the woman at the well. On
and on we could go with that. The woman at the well, you know,
she came to get water like she did every day, but, oh, bless
God, one day somebody was sitting on that well, the well was sitting
on the well. And began to, he changed her,
called her. She dropped her water pot. You
see, Christ comes, you drop everybody and everything. Yeah, you will.
This is faith. Why? It's Him. you become married
to. Those men, they were united to. And that woman at the well, and
everybody that met him, everybody he came to were united from then
on to him and forever united. It's a relationship with a person. It's not doctrine. It's a person. Faith. All right. Is there more
than one kind of faith? Is there more than one? In our
text, look at 2 Peter 1, very simply, it says, "...to them
that have obtained like precious faith." That is the same faith. And Ephesians 4 says there's
one Lord, one faith, doesn't it? One hope of your calling,
one baptism, one Father, God and Father of all His people.
One faith. One. One hope. One faith. That's one person. It's all in
one person. All these things are in one.
One person. The like precious faith. Paul wrote to Titus one
time. He said, he wrote of the common
faith. The faith delivered to the saints.
Common faith. All of God's people all over
the world believe the same one. Start to say things. The same
one. Have you heard people say they're
different faiths and we're all going to go, you know, they have
this faith and they have that faith and we're all going to
go the same. No, sir. That's a lie. It's one
faith. And it's in one person. Quoted John 17 3, I'll quote
it again. This is life eternal that they
might know thee, the only true God. You were not saved if you believed
in a God who loved you and loved everybody and wanted to and can't
and you let him into your heart. You were not saved when you believed
that God. That's another guy. You were not saved if you believed
in a Jesus that loved you and shed his blood for you and everybody
in the world and you finally made him Lord of your life. If
you made him Lord of your life, you better unmake him. It's the
wrong one. You got the wrong one. Salvation
is to come to know the one who has always been Lord of your
life and just one day he gave you life. Didn't have life, Joseph
read. And you hath he what? Quickened
who were what? Dead. Christ comes to a person
through the preaching of the gospel. They might be religious. They might think they know God.
They might think they know Christ. But if it's not this God and
this Christ, they don't know Him. And He comes and makes Himself
known, saying, I am God. There He is. John 6.45, our Lord said, They
shall all be taught of God. And every man that hath heard
and learned of the Father does what? One thing comes to me. That's what the Father teaches.
Who Jesus Christ is. The Spirit. And sends you to
cry. And you go to cry. Simple illustration. I've used it before. There were
four of us kids in my family. We had one father. One mother. Okay? We all knew the same father. We all knew the same father.
We didn't have a different father. Now, my older brother knew him
a little better than I did when I was young, but it's the same
one. And I grew up and we didn't have
a different conception of the same father. Right? Somebody comes along and says,
I know your father. Yeah, he's my father. Oh, really? Well, where's he from, our father,
where's he from? Well, he's from Michigan. Describe him to me. Well, he's
6'5 and has red hair. That's not my father and that's
not your father. Describe your God to me. And
we'll see if we got the same God. Well, my God just loves
everybody. He wants to say, oh, hold on,
that's not my God. That's not God. God doesn't want
to do anything. You find that in the Bible for
me. You find one place in the Scripture where it says God wants,
you won't find it. You know what it says? God will.
God will work, and who shall let Him? God's purpose. He said, I've spoken it, I'll
do it. This is the God of the Bible.
Is that your God? Jesus Christ, standing outside
your heart's door. We don't have the same Christ.
Don't have the same Christ. Different. Like precious faith. What is
faith worth? What is it worth? Well, our text
says precious. To you who believe, He's precious. Precious. That's not an old southern
saying. You ladies like to say, well,
isn't she precious? It's a Bible saying. And the
word means valuable. The word means there's nothing
else like it. The word means it's something of great worth
and value. And nothing else like it means
something vital, precious, like blood. It's precious. Blood is
precious. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. Well, to you who believe, you know this, you are not redeemed
with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with
the, what? Precious blood of a lamb. He's precious. Blood's precious. We talked about that flag last
Sunday, remember? They don't dare. You never let
that flag hit the ground. Flag carriers would never let
that flag hit the ground. That red represents blood shed
for freedom and all that. You never let it hit the ground.
And those soldiers, that's why they're so firm in their grasp
of that flag. We're not going to let this hit
the ground. Nobody's going to trod it underfoot. Well, the scriptures talk about
those who trod underfoot the blood of the everlasting covenant.
How do they do that? When people say that Jesus Christ
died for everybody in this world, and people are walking all over
and they don't care. No, I hate that. I hate that. Helen, that blood
is my salvation. That blood didn't spill on the
ground. Christ shed His blood. That high
priest, when he took that blood of that lamb, do you think that
blood just, you know, he just let it spill? Oh, it's precious!
And he got that blood and put it in a basin. Don't let it drop.
This is not going to be wasted. He went in a holy of holies with
that precious blood, fear and trembling, John, fear and trembling. This blood represents our Lord's
atonement. God, if God accepts this, we're
atoned, we're covered. And he went in that holy of holies
and poured it carefully over the mercy seat, covering that
broken law. Oh, is God going to accept this?
And every drop of Christ's blood was shed for whoever He died
for, to put away their sin. That blood is my salvation. And
people that talk about a universal atonement, that's trotting underfoot
the blood of the covenant. Are you with me? I'm trying to
make it plain, but that's another gospel. There's no four-point
gospel. This is the heart and soul of
the gospel. A particular, effectual, eternal redemption. Christ's blood redeemed His people. Whoever Christ died for, they're
saved. Brothers and sisters, is that your hope? If your hope's
in anything else, even in your faith, you don't have a hope.
But if the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us, is that
your hope? Then you're cleansed. Smile. What's it worth? Inestimable. It's invaluable. One drop. And something precious, you don't
want to lose it, you don't want to trade it, you don't want to
sell it, you give all for it. Our Lord told the story of the
pearl of great price. And the fellow sold everything
he had to obtain that pearl. And Christ said, I'm the pearl. And what's it worth? There's
no other kind of faith. People either believe Christ
is all, and they trade everybody and everything for Him, and they
would never give up the worship of Him, never quit worshiping
Him, never quit gathering with Him. He's their life. It's a
marriage. It's a union. They can't do without Him. They
can't do without this Gospel. What's the Gospel worth to you?
Huh? Everything. They can't live without
it. And you can't worship virtually. You've got to be where he is.
That's a fact. How do we know we have it? How
do I know I have it? Paul said, know ye not your own selves,
how that Christ is in you. Alright, let me give you a few
questions and I'll quit. How do you know you have this
faith? I just said, is he valuable to
you? Is he everything to you? Have
you heard? Have you believed this gospel? Has he called you by his grace? Has he? For whom he foreknew,
he did predestinate. Whom he predestinated, he called. And whoever calls, believes.
How shall they call on Him that they have not heard and believed?
How shall they believe in Him that they have not heard? How
shall they hear without a preacher? But whosoever calls, they heard
the gospel, they believe the gospel, and they call on the
Lord. Lord save me or I perish. And
that ain't a one-time thing. It's a constant thing. Lord,
save me, I pray. Lord, you never quit calling.
You never quit calling. You never quit coming. To whom
coming? Lord, save me. That's why we come to hear the
gospel. Lord, He gathers us out of this world to hear His gospel,
to hear the call one more time. Come unto me. Have you heard? Do you believe? Have you called?
Do you love to hear Him preach? You know, everybody in heaven
that was given this faith, this life precious faith, they're
hearing one thing. They're doing one thing. One
thing that they love to do while they're here on earth. Hear Him. Mary Magdalene, what was she
doing while she was on earth? One thing, sitting at His feet,
hearing Him. She's just happy as a hog in
mud. Boy, she's happy now. Do you love to hear Him glorified? You know, I'm not arguing doctrine
when I argue about Christ dying for His particular people and
God loving a particular people and being effectual. I'm not
arguing doctrine here. I'm arguing His glory. I'm arguing
who God is and who Christ is and what He did and who He did
it for. This is His glory. To Him be all the glory. The
salvation is not in the hands of anybody. It's completely in
the hands of Jesus Christ. He didn't leave it up to anybody.
He accomplished it. I'm not arguing doctrine here. I'm arguing His glory. Do you
love to hear Him glorified? So somebody that really believes
God is God and Christ is God, you can't preach Him too sovereign.
You can't preach Him too high. You can't preach Him enough.
Where are you going to preach this Sunday, preacher? Our sovereign
Lord. Good! I don't want to hear anything
else. You love somebody. You love Him. Love His glory. Love His glory. Does the truth offend you? See,
if you love His glory, you love to hear Him preach, you love
to worship, when you hear the truth, does it offend you? Anything. Anything in this book
offends you. When the preacher stands up and
says, you're a nothing, you're a nobody, from nowhere, nothing
you ever do, count for nothing. Nothing. You're a big zero. You're a nobody from nowhere.
In fact, you're lower than low. You're a worm. That's what you
are. You're just nothing but a worm.
Does that offend you? Well, if you're a worm, you can't
offend a worm. You're a dog. You know that woman? Yeah, you. Dog. That offends you? All dogs go
to heaven. They so do. That woman, that
Syrophoenician woman, the Lord ignored her. She needed an answer. You don't have to. You don't have to. He said, I've
only come for the elect, the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
I didn't come for a Gentile dog. He called her a dog. He said, I only came to save
the elect. What did she say? Truth. Truth. It's all true. Everything you say, every word
out of your mouth, truth. What you say about what you've
done and what you say about me is truth. But just give me some crumbs. Does it offend you? Then there's
trials. Everyone that believed, Peter
said, the trial of your faith works patience. Patience, experience.
Experience, hope. Fiery trials. God's face is going
to be tried. Several ways. Several ways. It's going to be tried by God.
Fiery trial. He put Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mosheel in a fiery furnace.
God did that. Man didn't do that. God did that.
Ooh, did they have faith? Did what? It was in a person. A person. They said, here's what
they said, you throw us in the furnace, it doesn't matter. Our
God will save us one way or another.
If you throw us in there, we're done with you. We're done with
this world. Our God saved us forever. If he brings us out,
he did it. It's faith in a person. Daniel! Lion, den of lion. We live in
a place, a lion, roaring lion. What's our hope? That our Lord
will stop his mouth. Daniel, is thy God able to deliver
thee? Is he able? That's faith. Fiery trial. Here's faith. God sent the Sabeans
and the Chaldeans to kill everybody and everything that Job had.
God did that. It wasn't those people. It was
God that did that. God did all that. And he covered Job with
boils from the bottom of his... You ever had one boil? It's one
of the most painful things you'll ever have in your life. The bottom
of his feet, he couldn't walk. Top of his head. You see, last
week my head was covered with sores and pre-cancerous things. I couldn't touch my head. Job
was covered. He couldn't even wear clothes.
Who did that? The virus? God did that. You know what Job
said? Here's faith. Naked I came into
this world from my mother's womb. Naked I shall return. The Lord
gave this, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of
the Lord. The Lord. This is the Lord. That's
faith. He said, though He slay me, I'll
trust Him. Now, you can't come by that naturally. It's supernatural. Faith to be
tried by this world, people and things. People and things will
try you. This present trial that's going
on, and I hesitate to call it much of a trial. But it'll make, it'll show who
really loves, who really believes God, who really believes the
gospel, and makes this what we're doing more precious than ever.
It's time to go ahead and make it more precious. I've got to
have this. There's nothing else to have. No one else to have. I've got to have His worship.
I've got to have His people. I've got to have this gospel.
I've got to have a man stand up and tell me who my God is.
My breath is in His hands. That if I die, He's going to
do it. Nothing else is going to do it.
He's going to do it. And I'm going to say, blessed
be the name of the Lord. My troubles are over. You're
not going to hear that at home. Faith is going to be tried. What's
the world saying? Stay at home. What's God saying?
Gather with the saints at the river. Gather together. David said, I was envious, I
was foolish, I was troubled, I was fretting and fretting until
I went into the sanctuary with God's people and I had peace,
such peace, believing God is God. David had nothing but trials
his whole life. He had enemies all around, all
over this place. The whole world was against him.
And one inside of him. What's his hope? Read the Psalms.
Just start reading the Psalms. My God. He's my God. He's my fortress. He's my high
tower. He's my refuge. He's my shield. He's my salvation.
He's my savior. He's my keeper. He's the one
that sends it. He's the one that takes it away. He's the one that
does it. He's my salvation. You believe a person and his
perfect love will cast out fear. Fear. Does God love you? Well, then
smile. Rest. And it eclipses this faith,
eclipses everybody and everything. You believe God. You believe
God. You've got to have Christ, you've got to have this gospel,
and there's all sorts of trials that prove who needs it, who believes in it. Now I'll
close with this story. John Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress
started out with a man with a burden on his back, this heavy burden
on his back, weighted down, and he was miserable. And somebody
gave him a book, and he's reading this book, that's why he had
this burden on his back. By the laws and knowledge of
sin, had this burden on his back, had this book in his hand, okay?
And somebody told him, you see that wicked gate? You see that
straight and narrow way? And not many going in it. But
you've got to go through that. And you get through that, you
look, and there's a cross. And you get to that cross, you
look to that cross, and look up to the one hanging on it,
and you say, that burden on your back will fall. It'll drop. And you'll see what's the story
of this whole book. It's that one hanging on the
cross. So he did. And he began to tell his family.
He began to tell his neighbors about this. He has a burden.
They don't have a burden. They don't have a problem. They're
not looking at the book. He began to tell them. So finally
he said, I'm leaving. I got to go. I got to go through
that gate. I got to get to that cross. I got to look on Him.
And that's what we do when we gather here. I got to hear a
man hold up my Lord. I got to see Him with eyes of
faith. I got to see Him with my burden of a burden on my back.
All right? So he's leaving town. His wife
said, honey, don't go. You don't have to go. I do too.
His neighbor's saying, you fool. You fool. You're going to leave
all this? Going to leave your home and family? Well, you're a fool.
You know what he did? You know what he finally did?
He put his fingers in his ears. Both ears so he couldn't hear
what they were saying. And he cried when he was leaving that
city of destruction. Life! Life! Eternal life! You can have this... That's right. Soon to be damned place. Give
me Christ or I die. I'm leaving. I'm going to the
celestial city to be with my Lord and my love. He's precious
to me. Ain't nothing here precious to
me. He is. That's faith. There's no other
kind. There's no other kind. Anything
less is not faith. Okay. John, let's sing a closing
hymn.