Certainly good to be here today.
I've been blessed to sing the songs of Zion, which give glory
unto the Lord. He's certainly worthy of all
praise. I'm gonna be looking here in
2 Peter, in the first chapter. I'm gonna read the first 13 verses. We've looked at this last week,
but we'll look at it a little further. Says 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 beside this, giving all diligence,
add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge, to knowledge
temperance, to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and
to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity.
For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that
ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things
is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that
he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if ye
do these things, ye shall never fall. For so an entrant shall
be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Wherefore, I will not
be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things,
though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I
think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you
up by putting you in remembrance. And we'll stop there, but we
have rejoiced in considering the faith that's been given to
us. Now it is an important matter
when we speak of faith that we understand most clearly that
faith, the faith that, when the scripture's speaking of faith,
it doesn't mean faith in the sense that the world speaks of
faith. The world considers faith to
be an activity of The flesh, it considers it to be an activity
that a man, he can just have faith. You know, sometimes we
encourage one another, well, you gotta have faith. You know,
you got to think positively. You got to press on. And there
is an aspect of faith, but the faith that Peter's speaking about
here has nothing whatsoever to do with that. That's not something
the faith that he's talking about is a faith which we have obtained. It's not a faith that we have
earned. It's not a faith that we came
up with. It's not a faith that we stirred
up within ourselves. It's not a faith that we encouraged
one another to have, but it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. Faith is the gift of God. And
so we must never forget that as we go into the scriptures
and we look at what the scriptures say about faith. Because what
we're talking about is that faith which comes from the Lord and
is operable in the people of God because of that work that
the Lord has done. It's not something we bring to
the Lord. You often hear that men say,
well, you need to bring your faith to the Lord. Well, you
can't bring your faith to the Lord because you don't have any.
Not the kind that He's looking for. Because the kind that He's
looking for is the kind of faith that He gives to men. And so
it is. Our faith, if you were to sum
up what our faith, that faith that we have been given is, it's
Christ. Christ is our faith. He is our
hope. He is that one in whom we. He
is that one in whom we expect to receive all things according
to the good pleasure of his will. And so that is the operation
of faith that's given, that is to obtain. He said, as he wrote
to those strangers and sojourners in the world, being the children
of God, he says that to them that have obtained, like precious
faith. So the scriptures are written
to the children of God. And his message here is to the
children of God. He's not trying to get people
to become the children of God. He is writing to those who are
the children of God. And as a man comes to know who
he is by the grace of God, he'll realize that he does not have
anything that he can work up in himself to bring himself to
the Lord. Now, Brother Al brought that
out very plainly today as we looked at David's folly in seeking
to bring the ark of God back to Jerusalem. And he didn't do
it like the Lord said to do it. And the Lord showed him what
his faith was worth. He showed him what his effort
was worth. And he killed one of the men that he had selected
to carry the ark back to Jerusalem. They thought that was a glorious
thing. They were gonna do it with pomp and circumstance. They
were gonna come up with a better way. The Lord had already told
them how the ark was to be moved. But they said, yeah, that's kinda
old-fashioned. We'll do it our way because this'll
work better. We'll get it there quicker. You
know, and we'll build a brand new cart. We'll do all these
things and we'll say, Lord, look at what we've done. The Lord's
not interested in what you've done. He knows what you've done.
And you know, when the spirit of God comes upon a man and he
sees what he's done, he won't be happy with it. We often, I've
said this before many times, but a lot of times you have people
saying, well, you know, the Lord knows my heart. You ever heard
anybody say that? As if, well, you know I'm all
right with the Lord because the Lord knows my heart. Well, brethren,
if anything ought to ever strike fear into your heart, it is to
consider that the Lord does indeed know your heart. And the scripture
says, your heart is desperately wicked. Who can know it? And
so don't talk about bringing your heart to the Lord. You've
heard people say, well, give the Lord your heart. The Lord
doesn't need your heart. He doesn't want your heart. The
Lord will give you a new heart. Oh, what a glorious thing it
is to obtain like precious faith with us how through the righteousness
of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. That's where our righteousness
comes from. You don't have any. Our righteousness,
the scripture says, is as filthy rags. Now we know that. You know, these are simple things,
are they not? But it's the very heart of the
gospel message that we know and understand that all righteousness
resides in Jesus Christ. Now men have a righteousness
of their own, and they're satisfied with it. Religious men are satisfied
with their righteousness. David, he was satisfied with
his righteousness. He said, man, we're doing this
for the Lord. And I don't doubt that he was
sincere. People think, well, you know,
he was sincere. Sincerity doesn't mean anything. Because if what you are holding
on to is not the righteousness of Christ, your sincerity is
of no use whatsoever. Oh, that the Lord might give
us a mind and heart to understand that we have obtained like precious
faith through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. He is the righteousness of God.
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord. Paul said, oh, that I might know
him. that I might be conformed to
him, that I might be made in his likeness, oh, that I might
be acquainted with him. And that's how it is that the
blessings of God come upon men is as they know the Lord. Now,
how can you know the Lord? See, a lot of people think, well,
we can just learn about him. We'll get the Bible and we'll
read and we'll know about the Lord. He can't be known. He dwells in the light to which
no man can approach. He can't be discovered. He's
immortal, he's invisible. He inhabiteth eternity. And so
how can a man know him? Job thought he knew the Lord,
did he not? But when the Lord came into his
presence, he said, I've heard of thee by the hearing of the
ear. But he said, now mine eye seeth
thee, and I hate myself, and I repent in dust and ashes. To
be brought into the knowledge of Jesus Christ is to be brought
to a knowledge of ourself as what we are, and to contrast
his righteousness with anything that we might think would be
righteous in ourself. Now this doesn't give man a whole
lot of hope, does it? in himself because you don't
have any hope in yourself. But you see, our hope is Christ. His righteousness. The faith
that comes from him. According as his divine power
hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
Now what does that say? He has given to us all things. We don't lack anything if we
be in Christ, if we have this like precious faith, if we have
the knowledge of the Son of God that He is the righteousness
of God, that He is our righteousness only by His grace and according
to His mercy. How did we get it? It was given
to us. And what does it encompass? All things. that pertain unto life and godliness. How? Through the knowledge of
Him. See, as a man comes to know Christ
and His righteousness, then all things become clear in his mind. As long as a man thinks that
he is going to enhance his position before God by doing something,
then he is gonna live outside of the mercy, blessing, and glory
of God. But as the Spirit of God is pleased
to work these things in us and bring us to an understanding
that Christ is our righteousness, Christ is our example, Christ
is our hope, then indeed through the knowledge of him that hath
called us. Now what has he called us to?
Has He called us to remain in the world as we were when He
found us? I mean, did He call us to just
to have an eternal place in heaven? Did He call us just so we might
escape hell? I think we talked about that
last week when I was growing up. That was the main thing that
we were taught that salvation was for. keep folks out of hell. Well the scripture says that
God's people were never appointed under wrath. Lord Jesus Christ didn't die
to keep his people out of hell. He died that we might be brought
out of darkness and into the light. He died that he might
atone for our sin. because he determined to do that
as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He has cleansed
his people, he's called his people. That's what he says here, he
has called us to glory and virtue. Now he's called us to glory,
our glory is where? It's in Christ. Now you know
a lot of people sing about heaven and talk about heaven as though
heaven is the goal. In other words, that gonna be
just in a place of bliss and happiness and no trouble and
all our pains are gone. And surely all those things are
true. But you see, the glory of heaven
is Jesus Christ. And if a man does not glory in
Christ, in the present time, how's he gonna glory in Christ
for eternity? You see, this is what the people
of God are called to. I often think, when I think of
that aspect of things, you often hear people about walking on
the golden streets of heaven. A lot of songs, you know, talk
about walking the golden streets. Well, there's no golden streets.
There's not a multitude of streets. that John saw, he saw one street
of gold. That street of gold is Jesus
Christ. He is the street of gold. And
we're not gonna be worried about gold. What value would gold have
when we're in the presence of Christ? I mean, what glory would
gold have? I mean, gold would be worth nothing when we have everything. in Christ. Oh, what a glorious Savior He
is. He's called us to glory and virtue. Now, virtue, we talked about
that a little bit last week. Virtue is a characteristic. The Lord has
called us out of what we were to something else. That's the
work that the Spirit of God performs in the people of God. He works
in His people both the will and to do of His good pleasure. Now,
how do they get the Lord to work in them according to His good
pleasure? They don't. He works in them according to
his good pleasure, but he does work in them. He calls them,
and he gives God's people, as they're called to glory and virtue,
they're called to desire those things. Now, you can't give a
man a desire for something. You can put a plate of collard
greens in front of a child, and nothing you can do will make
him desire to eat that. Now you can make him eat them,
but you can't make him like them. Because the Lord has to give
a man a taste for something for him to like it. Now there's a
lot of foods that I don't like. And there's a lot of foods that
I like now that I didn't used to like. Because my tastes have
changed. You see, that's one of the works
that the Lord does in his people, is he causes their taste to change. And often, those tastes change
at a very slow pace. But they're still the work of
God. Because you see the Lord will
give to every man the measure of faith as it pleases him. And
he works in his people according as he sees fit. But he does work
in them because everyone is called out of darkness and into the
light to glory and virtue. Now that word virtue we mentioned
last week is a word that means manliness. Now when we think
of a man being a manly man, we think of someone who has certain
characteristics. Now certainly, what the world
calls a manly man is not a manly man, but the point is that there
is a consideration that we have of someone who has a certain
character if he has virtue. And so that's what the Lord has
called us to. He's called us to be virtuous. and his spirit
is working in us to bring us to that place. Now if you, somebody
asks you, are you a virtuous person? You might say, compared
to what? You know, all of us have certain
virtues, but we're not talking about certain virtues, we're
talking about he's called us to virtue. And our example, the
standard of our virtue, is Jesus Christ. And when you ask the
children of God, how do you measure up? They say, woe is me. Because they know that his righteousness
is a pure righteousness. It's not mixed with unrighteousness. See, all that men do is mixed,
everything we do. And until we leave this world,
Everything we do will be mixed. Paul said, oh the good that I
would, I do not. And the things that I don't want
to do is what I do. And that's because of the nature
that we have. But the work of God is calling
us to virtue. Now why would Paul lament that
if he did not have a desire? to walk in that way. You see,
he said the good that I would do. It is my desire, it's my
longing. I want to be made like Christ.
I don't want to be like I am. See, we're not patting one another
on the back and saying, oh man, you're really doing great. No,
we're looking at our standard of Christ. And by the work of
the Spirit in us, we're desiring to be like Him. And we're lamenting
the fact that we're not like Him. And so that's, we keep that
in mind as we look at what he's going to tell us in this chapter. 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's
in the world through lust. Now how many of y'all have escaped
the corruption that's in the world through lust? But we have. because we're in Christ. See,
we have escaped it. But our calling is to escape
it. And he works in us, both willing to do of his good pleasure
in bringing us to that understanding. But our understanding is that
Christ is the goal. Christ is the prize. See, we're
not trying to win the Citizen of the Month Award. We're not
trying to get people to say, well, what a great guy he is,
but we're designed to walk with him. And so he says here, beside
this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and to virtue
knowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, to patience
godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness
charity. Sounds simple enough, doesn't
it? But when you read those things,
do you look at them and say, well, you know, I'm doing pretty
good. No, each time you read them, what are you reminded of?
You're reminded of the fact that Christ has all of these things
in abundance, and we are so sorely lacking in those things. But you see, the work that he's
speaking about here, the escaping of the world, the corruption
that's in the world through lust that comes through the knowledge
of him that hath called us to glory and virtue, is that we
see these things and they are our desire. And he says here,
beside this, giving all diligence. Have you ever given all diligence
to something? You see, the Lord Jesus Christ,
he gave all diligence to the redemption of his people. And
what did he do? He laid down his life for them. See, that was all diligence.
Now, I don't doubt that many of you are very diligent in the
things that you do, but that's not the diligence that he's speaking
about here, because that's not good enough. But he said, be
diligent. Now what's he doing? He's exhorting
God's people to be like Christ. Now how can we? If I told you
today, start acting like Christ, where would you begin? But see, the Spirit of God gives
God, when we read these things, we say, man, how can I do that? You know, how's it possible?
Now, sadly, there are many that'll tell you, they go through these
things and they'll list them out and they'll tell you how
to be virtuous and they'll tell you how to be faithful. They'll tell you about knowledge
and temperance and patience and all these things. Those are all
good. You know, if there was something
I could teach you and tell you and give you a definition of
these things so that you would do them, I would do that, but
I can't. Because it's not in us, as men walking in this
world, to be these things. But you see, Christ is these
things for us. And he works in his people. Simon
Peter denied the Lord very shamefully. And Peter was
not a weak man. Peter was a strong man. He was
a manly man. So he was one of those men that
could do it. And he believed he could do it. And the Lord
showed him that he couldn't do it. But the Lord, working in Peter,
gave Peter the grace to write this book because, you see, he
humbled Peter. And when Peter said, add to your
faith virtue, he understood that this was a work of the Lord.
But he's exhorting God's people after these things. And we do
need to be exhorted. I've had men tell me, oh, you
don't need to exhort the people of God, they're just gonna do,
no. The Lord has designed the exhortations
that are in the scripture to stir us up, to focus our mind. Now, is this done in the flesh?
No, it's the work of the Spirit that causes us to do these things. You can go to a seminar on Brotherly
kindness. And you won't be any more brotherly
kind after you've gone to the seminar than you will before
you went. But as the spirit of God works
in us, he gives us brotherly kindness, does he not? He gives
us a hunger for it, a desire for it, a delight in it. And
he calls us to see how little kindness and brotherly love that
we express But it is our hope, it is our constant desire to
be found to be like Christ. I mean, do the children of God
desire not to be like Christ? Is that possible? That the Spirit
of God can awaken a man and a man has no desire to be like Christ? Can that happen? I don't know. I've never known anybody that
perfectly exemplified it, but I know this, that when the Spirit
of God works in the children of God, they desire it. They
long for it. They want to be kind to one another. They want to be brotherly. They
want to help one another. They want to love one another.
May the Lord give us grace. to be diligent and add these
things and just seek after them, not have a list. Well, now we've
got that one and we're good. I remember one time a person,
this has been years ago, a person told me, I think there's like
nine spiritual gifts that are listed in the scripture. And
they say, well, they got seven of them. They're working on eight
and nine. This is not about that. You know,
it's not about men trying to do something or have a checklist. Well, I got that, now I gotta
add this. I've got this ingredient here,
now I'm gonna add that. That's not what he's saying.
He's saying these things, because listen to what he says here.
And if these things be in you and abound, they make that you
shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in what? in the knowledge of
Jesus Christ. See, as we know Christ, these
things, as a man comes to know Christ, then there's a work of
the Spirit in him that I can't explain. I don't know how it
happens. And it's never perfect. See, that's what men often think.
Well, I can attain unto this. No, you're never going to attain
it. But you're going to, by the Spirit of God, have greater desire
after it. Because it's a goal we cannot
achieve in this world except through Christ. Are we diligent? Yes. The Lord sees. He saw of the travail of his
soul and is satisfied. Now what was the travail of his
soul for? To bring his people. out of the
corruption of the world through lust, and he sees his people
as those whom he has accomplished that for. What a glorious Savior
he is. See, he's not left us high and
dry. He didn't do something for us and then said, now y'all gotta
finish the work. I've done this much, but it's
all up to you to do the rest. No, the Lord's a Savior. See,
He obtained eternal redemption for us. And He has redeemed us. He has bought us. He has delivered
us. He has brought us out of darkness
and into the light that we might walk with Him. What a glorious,
what a glorious Lord He is. And oh, you know, do you ever
get discouraged that you're not what you should be? Well, welcome
to the club. Because that's exactly what Paul
said. I want to. Oh, that I might know
him. See, we count all things else
but dung that we might win Christ. We're running for the prize.
We've not attained it yet. We've not got the trophy in our
hand, but we're looking for it. But he that lacketh these things
is blind. Are God's people blind? No, we
can see. Now we see through a glass darkly,
and we don't see things sometimes as we ought to see them, but
we can see. Because what is it that we see?
What was the first thing that blind Bartimaeus who sat by the
wayside. And the Lord, he said, Lord,
did I not have my sight? What was the first thing that
he saw? He saw the Savior. And he said, I will give you
your sight. Oh, what a glorious thing. Rather
than want a sight, as one might say, a sight for sore eyes, to
see Christ. He is that one. But he that lacketh
these things is blind. In other words, the man that
has no desire after these things that Peter's speaking about,
he doesn't care anything about godliness, he doesn't care anything
about virtue, he doesn't care anything about temperance, patience,
brotherly kindness, he has no desire after these things. He's
blind. He can't see. And he hath forgotten that he
was purged from his old sins. Now, some have taken that to
mean that someone can actually have his sins taken away and
then come back to be blind. That's not what Peter's saying.
He's saying this man never has seen And he doesn't understand
anything about what the taking, he is as the man who hears all
of his life that Jesus died for everybody. And he just says,
well, you know, everything's gonna be all right. And he has
no knowledge of what it is that Christ came to do. He never had
the knowledge. He never, his sins were never
taken away. He has forgotten anything he
ever knew because it was wrong. And so if a man is blind and
he cannot see, he has no knowledge of the forgiveness of sins. Wherefore
the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election
sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall. As Peter's
saying here, well, If you keep working at these things, that'll
keep you from falling and you'll be made elect by that? No. How does the election of God
take place? It takes place according to the
will of God. And our election is sure because it's in Christ. But you see, as the Spirit of
God works in us, he reminds us. How is it if you have a desire
after the things of God, if you desire to be found in Christ,
how is it that you came to that place? How did you come to that
place? Did you figure it out on your
own? Did you just wake up one morning and decide you was gonna
follow the Lord? No, if you hunger and thirst
after righteousness, the righteousness is in Christ. It's because He
has taught you these things. And as these things are taught
to us by the Spirit of God, our election is made sure in our
mind and heart. Now, can we climb up to heaven and see our name written in the
Lamb's Book of Life? Would you want to if you could? No, we can't know it. We can't
know that. And doubts and fears often grip
us. But I'll tell you what, the only people that really desire
to have their name written in that book, who desire to be covered
in the righteousness of Christ are those who are covered in
the righteousness of Christ. It makes our calling and election
sure. It impresses it upon our mind.
It gives us hope. as the Lord teaches us through
His knowledge, the knowledge of Him, that we have hope, and
that our election is sure. Now you can ask me tomorrow if
I know if I'm one of the elect, and I'll tell you, I probably
don't. But oh, when the Spirit of God is pleased to give me
understanding, I can look And I can say with
Paul, I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I have committed unto him against this
day. That's to have your calling and
election sure, dear brother, because your hope is in Christ.
And that's the place that the exhortations are designed to
bring us. Not to bring us to say, well,
we did pretty good. But to say, oh, our hope is Christ. Oh, that the Lord might bring
us there. And it might be said that we have obtained like precious
faith. Because the only way to have
it is for the Lord to give it. And he is the savior of sinners.
I'm glad. You know, we'd be in trouble
if he said he came to save the righteous, wouldn't he? I would. I wouldn't have any hope at all.
But he came to save sinners. And therefore, we have hope.
And he says to sinners, come unto me, all you that labor and
are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Now if a man knows
himself to be a sinner and he desires to be free from it, the
Lord is the savior of such as called upon his name. Just like
Bartimaeus, they said Bartimaeus rise, he called it thee. What a glorious thing.