Sovereign Grace Chapel, located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. All right, good morning, if you'll
turn in your Bibles to 2 Peter chapter three, and we'll begin
in verse one. 2 Peter chapter three, verse
one. This second epistle, beloved,
I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds
by way of remembrance. that we may be mindful of the
words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the
commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Knowing
this first, that there shall come in the days scoffers walking
after their own lust and saying, where is the promise of his coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were.
from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant
of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the
earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the
world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. But the
heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word, are kept
in store, reserved under fire against the day of judgment and
perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack
concerning his promise, as some man counts slackness, but is
long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. The earth also and the works
that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these
things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to
be in all holy conversation and godliness? Looking for that and
hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens
being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to
his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth
righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in
peace without spot and blameless, in account that the long suffering
of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul,
so according to the wisdom given unto him that written unto you,
as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things,
in which are some things hard to understood, which they that
are unlearned and unstable rest. as they do also the other scriptures
unto their own destruction. But 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,
but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. be glory both now and forever,
amen. The Apostle Paul, inspired by
the Holy Spirit, is putting the saints in remembrance.
That's what the title of the message is, by way of remembrance.
Stirring them up. These are things you already
know. These are things that are already in you. If you be God's,
He's in you. You're taught of God. That conscience, that heart,
sprinkled by the blood of Jesus Christ, when God borns us again
by His Holy Spirit, Christ revealed in us the only hope of glory. We must always be reminded, always
be reminded, to look to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
The promise of the Holy Spirit is given to us by God's free
and sovereign grace in Christ Jesus. And giving us that knowledge
that Christ is the only righteousness, the only acceptance that we have
before God the Father. The only hope. Christ is the
only way to the Father and that God the Father in eternity In
the covenant of grace, He chose a people and He predestinated
them unto salvation from their sins. In the only begotten Son,
Jesus Christ, in that He would be sent, Jesus Christ would be
sent in human flesh and in our nature, but without sin. Born of a virgin, Yet born of
the Spirit of God, without sin, to redeem his elect with his
own blood on the cross, God ordained the time of salvation. We turn over to 2 Corinthians
6, verse 2, and he tells us, For
he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day
of salvation have I succored thee. Behold, now is the accepted
time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. And that Christ would suffer.
He came in the flesh to suffer and how he suffered. He came
to do the will of his father. He set aside his robes of glory
for a moment and put his will aside to do the father's will
as a servant. And he learned obedience through
suffering. He was made perfect, God Almighty,
in flesh. Made perfect through suffering
for us. That he would shed his atoning,
sin-atoning, effectual blood for the remissions of sins for
all of God's elect. and that he gave and trusted
him too. Who first trusted in Christ?
God did. He redeemed us. He brought us
into a perfect righteousness. He brought that perfect righteousness
and that perfect obedience. Christ Jesus brought him to the
Father, to his law, and to his will unto death on that cursed
tree. And he was buried, because he
died. He who is life died for his elect. He was buried, and we were buried
with him. And he arose the third day according
to the scripture, which is all about him. He rose victorious,
successful, accomplished all that God gave him to do. He rose
again, he's alive, he's victorious over Satan, over sin, all his
enemies, and death, and the fear of death. We're resisting. He took it away. He justified
the ungodly, the just for the unjust, as he put away all our
sins. He alone finished God's work.
and he alone accomplished salvation for us. With his one time sacrifice
as a sinner's substitute, he appeased the holy justice of
God that we had offended. For his sheep he gave himself,
presented himself as the high priest, and he himself he offered
as a sacrifice. to God Almighty for the sin,
the propitiation. And God was satisfied with his
son. That's the only sacrifice he was ever satisfied with, his
blood. And God set him on the right
hand of the throne. And that's where he rules and
he reigns right now. There is a man in heaven, a God
man who rules and reigns over all his creation. He is above
all and before all, He has the preeminence. He's our mediator of that covenant
of grace. He's our intercessor, because
we don't even know how to pray. We're so wicked, we don't even
know how to pray. And He's our only advocate, only
advocate to the Father. He made peace with His blood
that He shed. between God and man. Now there
is no condemnation to them that walk, not after the flesh, but
after the spirit. In the faith that God gives,
a God-given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. In
Romans 8, 26, we read, likewise the spirit
Also help with our infirmities, for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought. But the Spirit itself makes intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth
the hearts knoweth what is in the mind of the Spirit, because
he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will
of God. And we know that all things work
together for the good of them that love God, to them who are
called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate them he also called, and whom he called them
also he justified, and whom he justified them also glorified. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? We're in him. He's in us. What do we have to fear if we're
in Christ? The gospel dispensation. that God is long-suffering towards
His elect. And He delights in mercy. It was done in eternity. It's done, because God, God said
it, God thought it, it's done. But Christ had to come. He had to accomplish what the
Father had purposed. And in his time, each and every
one of God's elect, he has set a time for you to reveal himself to you in the
face of Jesus Christ. He is sovereign and he is over
all his creation. Acts 15, 18 says, known unto
God are all his works before the beginning of the world. His
work of salvation. It's all of God, by his free
and sovereign grace in Christ Jesus. God has allotted that
time of salvation. God has ordained those times
in the generation. Think of all the brethren from
the beginning, starting with Adam and Eve. Adam fell. And we fell in him. He was our
first representative head. And we have his nature. We're
born with his nature. We're totally depraved. We're
born sinning. Come out of the womb, speaking
lies. He has scattered his elect all
over the world and in the ages and in the generations. But time, as we read here, time
is no limits to God. God's not limited by time. He's
sovereign. He's over everything. He controls
it all. But time is of no limit to God,
and He is long-suffering. The only reason this world is
standing right today is because He's got His elect in it to call,
and He's gonna call His elect. And when that last one is called,
at His appointed time that only He knows, this world's gonna
be gone, because there ain't gonna be no use for it. Christ shall not lose one. God
has allotted His time of love to each and every one of His
elect. He appoints that preacher. He
sends the preacher to deliver, to deliver His word, an instrument. a sinful vow instrument that
God uses as his means to preach to another sinful person
about a wonderful Savior. And only God makes his word effectual. If you just hear the preacher's
words, if God's not in it, it's just a bunch of a bunch of garbage. It's gotta be God who sends His
Word through His instrument. And only He can make it effectual.
It goes out to do exactly what He sent it out to do. It's the
Word of God. Everything belongs to God. It's
God's Word. It's God's instrument. It's God's
people. And He loves you. He loves His
people. He's loved you from eternity.
If He's loved you from eternity, He loves you now. He loves you
now. He gonna love you for eternity. Only He draws you to Christ and
reveals Himself to you in the face of His Son. He calls you
out of your darkness. You're in bondage. Bound by Satan, bound by your
own sins. He delivers you into His light. He is the light that lights the
world. There's nothing hidden to God. Out of your bondage of
sin and to his liberty in Jesus Christ, under his grace, for
we fell in that garden with our first representative Adam, and
we have that evil, that evil God-hating nature. He shook his face. Adam willfully
sin, Eve was deceived, she sinned. But when Adam sinned, he willingly
sinned. He shook his fist in God's face
and said, I will not have this man to rule over me. Who is this
God? I will make my own decisions. Sounds a lot like self-righteous
will worship, doesn't it? Because that's what we're born
into. We were in Him and we sinned. We willfully sinned. Spiritually dead. Dead. Spiritually dead. Cannot understand
the things of God. Don't want to understand the
things of God and hate the things of God and anything that represents
Him. Won't listen. Don't hear His
Son. And the wages of sin is death. Because when he sinned,
when Adam deliberately sinned, willingly sinned against God,
God told him he was going to die. Now physically he did. He started dying. But he spiritually
did. He was born upright. He was created
upright. I'm sorry. He was created upright.
God created him upright. Just like the angels. But unlike
the angels, God chose a people. out of the human race to save. The wages of sin are death, and
God will not let one sin go unpunished, not one single sin. We are at enmity with God. But before there ever was a sinner,
God had already chosen a sacrifice to appease his holy justice. He already chose his son to be
that propitiation. He chose him to be the one that
would redeem his people before his people were ever even created.
What a sovereign God. To atone for our sins. Because we don't have any righteousness. Our righteousness is a filthy
rags. Our dead works are an abomination to God. Even the things that
we think are good. It's not what we think. It's
not what we do. It's who's in us. But God, before the world was,
chose that perfect sacrifice for himself. That righteous lamb
without spot, without blemish, without sin, the only one, the
only one who could redeem his people would come in the flesh
as a man and never cease to be God. He laid his robes aside for only
a moment for his sheep. to suffer and to die for him.
So behold that Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the
world. The Lord Jesus Christ, our substitute, our only hope
of glory, sent to shed his blood for the remission of sins for
all his elect. Not for everybody. We know that.
Not for everybody. Only those God had chosen before
the foundation of the world. He would come and bear all our
sins in his body as a man. He took our guilt and our shame. I could take the place for you
if they were going to kill you, but I could never take your guilt
and shame away. But he did. He made it his own. The punishment
Punishment that we deserve. The wrath of God, the judgment
of God. We broke his law, we broke his
commandments. That punishment we earned and
we deserved, he took every bit of it. Every single one of his
chosen. Not just mine. And they're racking
up all the time. I'm sinning right now. Couldn't
even tell you what it is, but I know I'm doing it. We could never pay for that for
an eternity. It would. You never pay for it. But he
did. And we ran him. We ran him. We ran him from eternity. We
ran him when he came, when he suffered, when he bled, when
he died, when he was buried. And thank God when he rose again
and justified us by his righteousness, his acceptance, because herein
is love. Herein is love. You know exactly
where I'm going with this. 1 John 4, 9, 10. In this is manifested
the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten
son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love. Not that we love God. He loved
us even when we hated him. But that he loved us and sent
his son to be that propitiation for our sins. Christ paid all
the ransom with his own blood. And he warns us here in verse
three. He warns us about the scoffers. Those are the mockers. that would be, and they must
be, as God said they would be. He sends all these, He's in control
of all these things. We're to suffer for His namesake.
We're called on to be killed, to die for His namesake. To live is Christ, and to die
is gain. that inward working of the Holy
Spirit that borns us again and creates that new creature in
us. He doesn't take that form, that
flesh, and do something with it. No, we're gonna be carrying
around that old nature until He separates us from it. But
we're not under the dominion. We're not under dominion of sin
anymore. He's made a new creation in us,
born of the Spirit. In Christ, Jesus revealed Christ
in us that hope of glory. He has made us new creatures
and we are no longer of this world. He was done out of this
world, we're not of this world. Because we're like him, he has
made us to be his children. We're not like him yet, but we're
in him. He's in us and one day we will
be. One day we will because he is
our head. He's the federal head. He's the
representative of his elect. The last Adam. Adam was just
a type of what was to come. Born of his spirit, born of the
will of God, Christ revealed in you the hope of glory. He
quickens us, gives us the faith, God gives us by His grace, gives
us the faith and the spiritual life to believe on Jesus Christ,
gives us with His Holy Spirit to teach us all things of God,
all things of Christ. He testifies of me, God said.
Christ said He testifies of me. The Holy Spirit says, This is Christ. This is the Messiah.
This is the one who came. Christ does the will of God. He says, I came to do the will
of my father. What he says, that's what I'm do. And what does God
the father say? He said, this is my son. This
is my son who I am well pleased. Hear ye him. So he gives us that gift. of the
spirit of God that dwells in us forever. We're sealed and
he teaches us all things of Christ. John 15, 26, but when the comforter is come, who I will send unto
you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth
from the Father, he shall testify of me, thank God. And ye shall
also bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. Beloved, we are taught of God,
led by his Spirit. I and my Father are one, and
we will make our abode in you. This is one triune God. Only
one God, only one gospel. Only one Savior, Jesus Christ. Only one faith, and that's in
Him. That's the faith of Jesus Christ. He's the one who's faithful. And He's gave us faith to believe
in Him. And He's the one that keeps us and makes us stand in
Him.