If you'd like to follow along,
I'm going to be in 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter one, and beginning
in verse one. Simon Peter, a servant and an
apostle of Jesus Christ. To them that have obtained like
precious faith, with us through the righteousness of God and
our Savior, Jesus Christ. 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 of him
that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust." And I'm going to stop
right there. I'm gonna tell you something
you already know. Matter of fact, that's usually
what I do anyway. It's okay, it's all right. I'm
gonna tell you something you already know. The religious world,
religious people, take faith for granted. They take it for
granted. Little is thought of faith unless
it's said of it. Now, do you know why? I'm gonna
tell you something else you already know. Most people, most religious
people think they already have faith. And therefore, because
of that, they don't have to think about it. They don't have to
think about it. And I am talking about the vast
majority of religious, church-going, and as Earl used to call them,
professing believers. They profess to believe. They
think. And they teach, and I've heard
it, that God has given every person in the world faith. Now it's up to you to do something
with it. Well, that's wrong. That's wrong. Matter of fact, it's dead wrong.
It's dead wrong. I know this because Paul wrote
this. Second Thessalonians chapter
three and verse two, and that we may be delivered. He was telling
somebody to pray this. And that we may be delivered
from unreasonable and wicked men. For all men have not faith. Let's be clear. Right now, today,
there are still unreasonable and wicked men. Why are they
unreasonable and wicked? They do not have, I'm gonna say
this, precious faith. Precious faith. That's my title,
Paul, precious faith. So now Peter here in the second
epistle writes to believers. To them that have obtained like
precious faith with us. With us, he's including himself
in this. Like precious faith, with us, through the righteousness
of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I like that word, precious. I
like it. Because that means, this is scripture. This is the scripture. Written
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, holy men of old, wrote it down. And they use this word precious
here for a reason. And the reason is the faith of
the believer is precious, precious. Now that word, of course, means
valuable, but not only that, of great cost, expensive. And it also means this, of the
highest esteem. That's what precious means. There's
nothing more valuable of any higher esteem than something
that is precious to you. You understand, people go back
in to a burning house to get out their pictures of their kids
growing up and trying not to lose certain things, why? Because
those things are precious to them. Peter is saying here, the
faith of God's elect is precious, is precious. The faith of the
believer is of the highest esteem, incredibly valuable, and definitely,
it was of great cost, at great cost. Now, I wanna tell you five
ways, try and go through these fairly quickly, one of them won't
be, but five ways that precious faith is precious. The first
thing, and I use this word on purpose, scarcity. Precious faith is scarce. It's scarce. What's that mean? That means it's rare. There's
a rareness to it. Because generally, in order for
something to be valuable, it's not something everybody has.
It's not something everybody has. Because precious faith is
not common to every man, and I don't care what any preacher
says. I've heard all about God's given to everyone the measure
of faith, okay? Well, you look at the everyone
that Paul's writing about there, and then you look at this verse,
what I just read a little while ago, all men have not faith. When he was talking about everyone
there, he was talking about believers. Every one of God's believers
have precious faith. Now, but precious faith is not
common to every man. As a matter of fact, few men
and women have faith. You know who said that? Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ said that. Enter ye in at the straight gate,
For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many there be which go in
there at. Because straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few, and what
he meant by few, there was few, there be that find it. The way
of precious faith is not only straight, It's narrow. It's narrow. And few there be that find it,
because few are given faith. Most go. Many there be. Most
go the way of destruction. And that's the way this book
is always taught. Many go to destruction, and few
are on the narrow way through the straight gate because precious
faith is not found on the broad way. Now the second thing, the
second way precious faith is precious is because it's personal. Precious faith is personal. The
precious faith is the faith of God's elect. And that precious
faith is individual to every single believer. You understand,
I can't give you my precious faith. It is our faith, it says
it overall. I'll get into why it says that
later on, but it does say our, but here's the thing, if it's
not your faith, it's of no value to you. It's intensely personal. Jesus Christ said, Jesus said
unto her, I am the resurrection and the life, what? He, he, individual, that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. It's an individual
precious faith. Romans 3 and 26. Paul wrote it
this way, to declare, I say it this time, his righteousness,
that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. Every single one of God's chosen
people will believe in him. Will believe in him. They will
believe in Jesus and they will believe Jesus. Every single one
of his chosen people come to Jesus Christ by precious faith,
precious faith. John 6 and verse 37 says this,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And, let's
personalize it, and him, that cometh to me, I will in no wise
cast out. All are gonna come, but they're
all gonna come individually. All are gonna come because they
are all called out by name by the Son of God, the good shepherd
calls his sheep by name. And they hear him and they follow
him. Why? He gives them precious faith,
precious faith. Everyone given to the Son comes
to the Son by precious faith. Now, the third thing I wanna
tell you about why faith is precious is companions. I know that's kind of a funny
way to put it, but there are some companions to that word
precious, especially in Peter. That's all I'm gonna deal with,
okay? Matter of fact, I purposely avoided
the word like precious faith. Well, in the Greek, like precious
is one word. It's a compound word. They took
two words and put it together. The second word, of course, is
precious. But that first word, where it says like precious faith,
it doesn't mean common. It means equal. We have an equally
precious faith. So what are we equal to? Well,
the other things that Peter calls precious in these two epistles,
both epistles. Exceeding great and precious
promises. That's in 2 Peter 1 and 4. I just read it. Whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye may
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust. What are the promises? exceeding great and precious
promises. They're the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ. They're the words of his prophets.
They're the words of his apostles. They're the words of his ministers,
where you're quoting what the book says. Jesus Christ's words are precious
to precious faith. His promises are precious. All
his words are true. Here's the other thing. His word
is life. That's what the scripture says. His words are life. He has promised
life. He has promised love. He has
promised redemption. He has promised justification
and righteousness. He has promised reconciliation.
And one of his precious promises that he has promised. is his
precious faith. Because believers, and this is
something that maybe I need to preach on one day or something.
You can, Paul, if you want. Partakers of the divine nature. Now, I can't explain that. But by God, by his grace, I can
believe it. We are partakers of the divine
nature. There's only one divine. That's
Jesus Christ. God. Ah, man. Precious faith and precious promises. Equally precious. The next one, if you wanna look,
you can back up to 1 Peter 1. Beginning in verse 18. 1 Peter 1, verse 18. For as much as ye know that ye
were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot. who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you, who by him do believe in God. What? Because of his precious faith
that he gives, who by him, by Jesus Christ, do believe in God,
that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your
faith and hope might be in God. We are redeemed. What? Redeemed? That's past tense. Yeah. His precious blood was
shed. It's not being shed. His precious
blood was offered to the Father. It's not being offered. God has
accepted him and that he raised him from the dead and he accepted
his blood as the perfect sacrifice and him as the perfect substitute,
Jesus Christ. Oh my. I don't like that, I do. The precious blood of God. I
was gonna point at Mason but he's not here. Understand? The blood of Jesus Christ was
the blood of God. That's what the scriptures say.
Oh, it's precious. It's precious. And equally precious,
like precious, faith. Oh my. That's why faith is precious. Why? Because of his blood. Because
of his blood. He is declared to be precious. Without shedding of his precious
blood, there is no remission. Therefore, with the shedding
of his precious blood, there is remission. There is remission. There is, and that word is freedom. There is freedom, oh my. Next thing's in 1 Peter 2 and
verse 4. To whom coming as unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Precious. I like that. Precious. Remember that stone
in the wilderness? The one, the rock that followed
them? Who was it? That rock was Christ. That was a living stone in the
desert. Moses spoke to it, or hit it
the first time, and it gave forth water. Moses was supposed to
speak to it the second time, but he hit it again. Now that
was Moses' problem, but that rock still gave forth water.
and that rock followed them. That living stone is precious,
precious, life-giving water. That rock was Christ, chosen
of God, and the congregation of Israel drank the water that
came from that rock. That rock was precious. That
rock is precious. And continue on to verse six,
wherefore, also it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay
in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, precious, and
he that believeth on him shall not be confounded, not be confounded,
understand? Talking about the chief cornerstone,
precious, and we're talking about faith, believing, precious. Oh my, I like that. Equally precious. He's the chief cornerstone. He
that believes on him shall not be confounded. The chief cornerstone
is a person. Elect and precious. He's the
foundation stone. Because without him, there is
no foundation. You can't have a building without a cornerstone. Or you can, but you're building
on sand, and that has its own trouble. There's no structure
without him. There's no building without him.
And as a matter of fact, nothing will stand without this chief
cornerstone. And all that is built upon this
cornerstone shall stand. Why? Because he is precious. He's precious, the cornerstone.
And the precious cornerstone is believed on by precious faith.
And then verse seven, we come to the main thing. Unto you therefore which believe
with precious faith. He is precious. He is precious. But unto them
which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed,
the same is made the head of the corner. Now here's the thing
I want to point out. It doesn't matter whether you
believe or not, whether you have precious faith or not, he's still
the head of the corner. He's the chief cornerstone, he's
the living stone, he's precious whether we know him or not. I'd
rather know him. I like knowing him, I really
do. I like thinking I'm a partaker of the divine nature. I can't
explain it, but I can preach it. I can believe it. I don't
feel like it, but he says it. And precious faith will tell
you that every word he writes is true. Everything he said is
true. Oh, I like that. There's no building without the foundation. and there's no foundation, our
foundation is Christ. There's no foundation without
Christ. Oh my, he is precious. But unto those of like precious
faith who believe, you get to know he is precious. Isn't that
great? Isn't that great? I like that. The living stone is Christ Jesus,
The chief cornerstone is Christ Jesus. The only begotten well
beloved son of God is our Lord Jesus Christ and he is precious. Oh my. And we see him and believe
him by his precious faith. Because that's the next point
of why faith is precious. It's because of the source of
precious faith. The source. The reason precious
faith is equally precious is the source of precious faith.
Because there is a singular source of the precious faith. And I
said the precious faith. Because also, I wanna point out
here, there is a singular precious faith. A man or a woman who has this
precious faith has this precious faith because of a divine operation. What am I saying? I'll say it
again. Precious faith is not an operation
of man. Having precious faith is a divine
operation of God. Looking unto Jesus, The author
and the finisher of faith. Now I know it says our there,
it's in italics. This is one place I like to leave
it out. Because our faith is true. But here's the thing, that
word there, faith, is singular. He's the author and the finisher
of faith. Who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. What did Paul also write? He
wrote one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. He is the creator and the perfecter
of precious faith. And one precious faith is all
there is. Now how can each and every individual
have that singular same one precious faith? I don't know. I don't
know that any more than how we can all wear the same robe of
righteousness because there's only one and it's him. But guess
what? It's God and I don't have to
know how, I just need to believe it. No, I'm not advocating blind
faith, I'm advocating scriptural faith. For by grace are ye saved through
faith. You know I had to get there.
Through precious faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the
gift of God. What? Not of works. Our works are nowhere ever told
to be the source of precious faith. There's only one author
and one finisher. One creator and one perfecter.
And guess who that is? It's the same one that gives
it. Faith is the gift of God. So not only is he the author
and the finisher, he's the giver of precious faith. What does
it say? Whosoever believeth by precious
faith that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth him
that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. The precious
faith is his faith. And if Jesus Christ does not
give you precious faith, you don't have precious faith. And think about this. I can tell
you something. A person who has precious faith
also knows that at one time, he didn't have precious faith.
You understand? I was listening to Henry Mahan,
and he said something, and I got tickled. He said, people tell
me, he said, I've believed all my life. You know what Henry
said? That's too long. That's too long. I like that.
It is. It's too long. I've always believed.
No, you haven't. Because if you think in that,
you don't believe now. Because a person who has like
precious faith knew at one time they did not have that like precious
faith. They did not believe. And the
last one, the last reason that our faith is called precious
is the object of precious faith. The object. Because faith, precious
faith, has a singular source, Jesus Christ. and a singular
object. So let's start with the negative. What is not the object of faith?
The object of your faith had better not be your faith. I believe
that I believe. OK. Now, I've heard that before,
seriously. Now, I understand. Well, anyway,
I'm not going to go into that. They've been believing too long,
too, I think. The object of faith, precious
faith, is not your belief, it's not the church, it's not the
preacher, it's not the assembly, it's not the gathering, it's
not even anyone you know except Jesus Christ. He is the singular
object of precious faith because precious faith does not follow
man or men. Precious faith hears the voice
of the good shepherd and follows him, follows him And this is
the will of Him that sent me. This is John 6, verse 40. This
is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth
the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life. And I will raise Him up at the
last day. The Son is the object of precious
faith. Jesus Christ, precious faith
believes on him. Precious faith believes in him. And precious faith believes him,
Jesus Christ. Understand, I do, I remember
and really like what Walter said one day about talking about believing
and trusting. Trust what he says. Trust what
he says. You can go ahead and tell your
wife that I believe you, but I can't trust anything you say,
but I'm not gonna do that. Because it's a lie. You say you
believe Christ, but you don't believe his word? You say you
believe in Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, but you have no
desire to do what he says? Something's wrong somewhere,
because that's not Precious faith, that's not precious faith. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting
life. Jesus said unto her, I am the
resurrection and the life, he that believeth in me. Though
he were dead, yet shall he live. Precious faith believes that
Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. And no man
can come unto the Father but, not through me, by me, by me. I like that. Because precious
faith is of Jesus Christ, on Jesus Christ, and in Jesus Christ. He is the singular object of
precious faith. I like that, I do. And what did Peter say? Grace
and peace be multiplied unto you of like precious faith. Because there is no grace and
peace, oh, without precious faith. He's our peace. So there's no
peace without his precious faith that he gives us. And let it
be multiplied abundantly. I like that. We have an abundant
peace with God because of the precious faith given us by the
Holy Spirit. And here's the thing. God has
no animosity. You like that word? I like it.
God has no animosity toward any believer who has his precious
faith. Absolutely, as a matter of fact,
he calls us Sons of God. Sons of God. Partakers of the
divine nature. Come back to that. I like that.
None went out through the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, our
Lord. Grace brings knowledge, the knowledge
of God and Jesus Christ, our Lord. Oh, I like that. The source of faith, the object
of faith. And I love the companions of
faith, his promises, his blood, his stone, the stone, the cornerstone,
and most of all, him, who is all of those. The faith of Jesus
Christ is precious, and his faith is the precious faith of God's
elect. It's the precious faith of God.
The precious faith is the gift of God. And one last thing. Precious faith shows, brings
forth obedience. Obedience. And I know a lot of
people don't like to talk about obedience. They don't want to
talk about it. You guys got to talk about work. Well, of course we
are. How you gonna read Hebrews 11
and not talk about somebody's works? Now we're not gonna talk
about the source of the works being us or being you. No, by faith Abel offered a more
excellent sacrifice. By faith Abraham, by faith Isaac,
by faith Noah, by faith Jacob, Joseph, and Moses, they offered
sacrifices. Enoch walked with God. Well,
by faith, by precious faith. And he was not. By faith, Noah
built an ark. By faith, they all obeyed God. And by this precious faith, these
all died in precious faith. Oh my. How? There's one more thing about
precious faith. We are kept by the power of God
through precious faith. Oh, my. You understand that what
you were saying before service, Paul, about where two or three
are gathered, there I am. There am I. What? Not outside,
not above, not below, in the midst. Oh my. He keeps us by his precious faith. And he will continue keeping
us by his precious faith until the last day. I like that, I
do. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
again at this time and this place. Lord, thank you for your blessings. which you have given us your
great, exceedingly great and precious promises through our
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the greatest gift of all
that you have given us. And thank you for your precious
faith. And thank you for having us believe
through your workings of your mighty power. Our Lord and our
Savior, Thank you, Lord. Be with Paul as he comes to preach.
Bless everyone that's not here. Bless everyone that's here with
your word and your will and your way in this day.