Now let's look over at 2 Peter
chapter one. Now this message entitled Bearing
the Fruit of Faith is a message as I began to study it and to
work with it, I come to realize that there's no way that I'm
going to be able to fit everything that I need to say as inspired
by the Lord in my studies in one message. So I'm just going
to start and we're gonna go through as time allows, and then I'll
quit and then pick up with it again. But last week I preached
on the first four verses, basically, of 2 Peter. And these first four
verses of 2 Peter describes the grace of salvation, all of salvation,
which is totally, completely, 100% the grace of God and based
totally, completely, 100% on the merits of the righteousness
of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Look at verse one, Simon
Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that
have obtained like precious faith, that God-given faith that brings
a sinner to Christ, And he says, you've obtained that with us
through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.
He's laying the foundation. First, there's the foundation
of our whole salvation laid there, the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. What is that righteousness? It's
the merits of his obedience unto death as the surety, the substitute
and redeemer of God's elect, his people. That's the ground
of salvation. And then the fruit of that righteousness
is what? That like precious faith. You know, people talk about,
well, there are degrees of faith, and there are. But all faith
is alike in one sense, and that is this, in that it always leads
a sinner who knows by revelation that if God were to judge him
based upon his best efforts, He would be damned forever. It
always leads such a sinner to put his whole hope and assurance
and salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God manifest in
the flesh and based upon the merits of his righteousness alone. In other words, this like precious
faith, which is the gift of God. That's what the Bible says. It's
not in us naturally. It's not of our own goodness.
It's alike in the sense that we have the same Savior who did
the same work. You don't have one who believes,
well, Christ died for everybody and now salvation's conditioned
on me. And then those over here who believe that salvation's
conditioned on him. It's all alike. We know that
salvation is conditioned on Christ and he fulfilled those conditions.
That's the like precious faith. And then he says, look at verse
three of 2 Peter 1. He says, according as his divine
power hath given unto us. Now this is key. This is a gift
of God. This is salvation. He's given
unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Everything
that salvation is, is a gift from God. Every blessing of it.
blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
And how did this come to us? He says, through the knowledge
of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. Glory meaning
all blessedness, all salvation, and virtue meaning godliness,
our spiritual walk. And we'll see that. And he says
in verse four, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises, That's the promises of all grace here and all glory
hereafter. The gospel promises, this is
the gospel. And that by these, these promises,
you might be partakers, partners, fellowshipers of the divine nature. Brought into fellowship with
God, the very nature of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
through the Lord Jesus Christ, faith in Christ, and having escaped
the corruption that is in the world through lust. That's repentance
of dead works. Brought into fellowship with
God, out of fellowship with the world. Now, beginning here at
verse five, He speaks of this, he says in verse five, and beside
this, giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue, add to
virtue, knowledge. Verse six, add to knowledge,
temperance, and to temperance, patience. Add to patience, godliness. Add to godliness, brotherly kindness,
and to brotherly kindness, charity. Now I'm gonna stop there. That's
not really where the message, the full message ends. But just
think about this, what he's talking about here are the fruits of
faith. God lays the foundation, laid
the foundation of our whole salvation in the person and work of Christ.
And when he brings a sinner into fellowship with himself, he lays
the foundation in that sinner's heart, the foundation of faith.
And this, what he's talking about here now, when he talks about
adding to this, He's not talking about, he's not saying, well,
we're to add something that God didn't put in us. As if, well,
he did his part, now we've got to add the rest, where he didn't
fill in. We gotta fill in the, that's
not what he's saying. And I'll show you that. But what he's
talking about here in these verses is the power of Christ working
in and through us, His children, by His Spirit, by His Word, to
bring forth fruit unto God. You know the Bible speaks of
that. That we're married to Christ, we become dead to the law. Romans
7 speaks of this, Romans 7, 4 through 6. We become dead to the law
by the body of Christ. That means the law cannot condemn
us. That means we have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law and justice. That means God cannot and will
not impute sin to us. He's imputed Christ's righteousness
to us. And we're married to Christ by
faith as the Holy Spirit brings us into a saving union with Christ
that we should bring forth fruit unto God. We don't produce fruit.
We're not fruit producers. But we bear it, like an apple
tree bears the apples. And so we bear the fruit of the
Spirit. The Bible speaks of that in Galatians
5. We bear the fruits of faith.
And so this is the power of Christ working in and through us by
His Spirit and by His Word to bring forth fruit unto God. Perseverance
in the faith, that's what He's talking about. By the grace and
power of God. Our perseverance is not by our
power. It's not by our goodness. It's
not even by our own will. It's by the power and the goodness
and the will of God. And that's what we read over
there in Ezekiel chapter 36. He said, I'm gonna put my, I'm
gonna give them a new heart. That's a gift from, if you have
a heart, what is the heart? The mind, the affections, the
will. It's your inner person. and what you desire to do. And
if you have any heart that desires to please God, to follow God,
to believe God, it was given to you. It wasn't in you naturally. Now, that's not to say that you
don't have other desires, bad desires, fleshly desires. It's
a warfare, but we'll talk about that in a minute. But he's given
us a new heart. He's taken away the stony heart,
that is the heart that is incensed against God and his word, against
his way of salvation, in unbelief and darkness, and he's given
us a heart of flesh, submissive, meek, that desires to bow to
Christ, especially in his way of salvation. And so that's the
power of God. And what he's talking about here
is true Christian obedience in diligent efforts And it is an
effort to be conformed to Christ. Now there's a lot of misunderstanding
when it comes to the subjects of the fruit, fruit of faith,
or the fruits of faith. I say fruits plural of faith,
and fruits singular of the spirit, even though he lists all the
fruit in Galatians 5. There's a lot of misunderstanding
when it comes to these subjects, the fruit of Christian living,
the fruit of faith, and good works. People, what are good
works? A lot of people have it wrong. Some people, there are some people
who say, well, there are no good works at all. But I beg to differ. I believe the Bible does speak
of good works. The book of James, specifically,
you know, that people have a lot of trouble with, but they should.
James chapter two talks about faith and works. And what he's
talking about there is not being justified before God by our works,
but the justification, the validation of our faith. Is our faith real? You say you believe in Christ,
you say you've submitted to his righteousness, you've repented
of dead works, is that faith real or is it just a mere profession?
And James says, well, faith is validated by works. and what
kind of works we can talk about. But he's certainly not preaching
salvation by works. James preached the law of liberty,
which is the gospel, salvation by the grace of God. So if somebody
says, well, there are no good works at all, well, James said,
faith without works is dead. You know, there's two principles
laid down in the Bible. And that is, faith without works
is dead. And works without faith are dead.
Dead works. That's why we have to repent
of dead works. And then others say, there are others who claim
that either good works for salvation or good works to keep salvation.
And that's just as wrong. That's heretical. That's a denial
of the gospel. That's a denial of Christ. Some
say this, they say that the good works that the Bible speaks of
is limited to just two, faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works. Well, the Bible specifies, James specified some good works
that are built upon or fruits of faith and repentance. And
then others say that good works are not our work at all but Christ's
work in us. Now there's some truth there.
You know, Paul spoke of that, and I'll just show you here,
Galatians chapter two. Look at Galatians chapter, and
the reason I think I need to say a lot about this and do more
than one message is that this is part of being skillful in
the word of righteousness. We need to know these things.
But look at Galatians two, look at verse 19. Now Paul says, for
I through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto
God. Now what Peter's talking about
in 2 Peter 1 is living unto God, our lives. He's talking about
the Christian walk. Well, what does that walk involve?
The Christian life. What does that life involve?
Well, Paul says in verse 20, I am crucified with Christ. That
is, I'm justified before God. When Christ died, I died. When
he was buried, I was buried, when he arose again. Nevertheless,
I live. I'm living, I have spiritual
life, that's what Paul's saying. I died with Christ, he's my representative,
he's my substitute, he's my surety, and I died with him, representatively,
legally, and so I became dead to the law by the body of Christ.
But nevertheless, I live. Out of the death of Christ comes
life for his people, spiritual life. evidence by faith in Christ. And so he says, yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. And so some people take that
verse, they say, well, it's not us doing it, it's Christ in us.
Well, we're involved in this thing. We're not like ventriloquist
dummies, you know. We're told, Peter says, give
diligence. You give all diligence, that
means you've gotta make an effort. But Paul's saying here, it's
not us. In other words, we're not the
source of it, we're not the power of it, Christ is. The only reason
that I have these desires and bring forth this fruit is because
God has done a work of grace. in satisfying his law and bringing
forth a righteousness that justifies me. And so he says in verse 21
of Galatians 2, I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. So whatever
he's talking about here, in his living, I live unto God. That
is not how I'm made righteous before God. I am made righteous
before God based totally upon the work of another, my surety,
my substitute, my redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. So whatever
Peter's talking about over here, when he says give diligence to
add to your faith, virtue, whatever virtue he's talking about, knowledge,
whatever knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly
kindness, Charity, whatever he's talking about, those things do
not make up my righteousness for which God accepts me and
forgives me and justifies me. Those things are not my righteousness
before God. Those things are not meritorious. They cannot save me. I'm not
saved by my works. And if I add, for example, virtue,
if I add to my faith virtue, That emphasizes the fact that
I realize I have no merit, no work I do can earn or merit salvation,
can make me righteous, or make me holy. These works do not sanctify
us. Now these works are sanctified,
I'll show you that in just a moment, but they don't sanctify us. We're
sanctified by the Father, by the Son, and by the Holy Spirit,
by His grace. So these are not works, these
are not fruits that make us righteous. For our righteousness before
God, whereby he justifies us, whereby he gives us life is exclusively
the work of Christ, exclusively his righteousness imputed to
us. And so understand that. And everything
that is listed here as the fruits of faith emphasizes that. and
is based on that. We're not the source, we're not
the power that produces the fruit of obedience or good works. But
God has designed and worked it so that we are the conduits of
his grace and his power. Isn't that what he said back
here in Ezekiel 36? Look at it again, verse 26. A
new heart also will I give you. This is the spiritual aspect
of salvation. If you're saved by the grace
of God, if you've been born again by the Holy Spirit, you have
a new heart. That's what some people call
a new nature. Okay, but that new heart is what
gives us the God-given desires for salvation. God-given desires
to honor him and to glorify him and to follow him. He said, a
new spirit will I put within you. I will take away the stony
heart and give you a heart of flesh. Verse 27, I will put my
spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues. God says
it, that's what he does. And he's, I'm gonna, you're gonna
walk, but he's the cause. You're gonna live, but he's the
power. You're gonna fight the warfare,
but he's the victor. You see, but you're gonna do
it. Now, he said, I'm gonna cause
you to walk in my statues and you shall keep my judgment. Now
that involves mainly believing the gospel, but there are other
things too that stem out from that. And he says, and you'll
do them. So all of these things, understand
that. We're saved not by works of righteousness which we've
done. We're saved by the righteousness of Christ. And so we're not the
power or the source or the life of this fruit. It's Christ living
in us by his spirit and by his word. And so God does this with
our full cooperation. And how does he do it? It's not
by any natural goodness or willingness that he finds within us, because
we're sinners. And if you say, well, we have
a new nature, and then they say, well, we have an old nature.
Okay, we have the flesh. And there's sinful flesh that
still has sinful desires, selfish desires, wanting to please ourselves,
but God has put within us a new heart that desires to please
him. And there's where the warfare comes in. And Paul spoke of that
in Galatians chapter five. We have a warfare of the flesh
and the spirit, and it's a daily warfare, it's a constant warfare.
The victory's already been won because Christ has won the victory,
and we look to him. So he works in us with our cooperation
by giving us a new heart. Over in the book of Jeremiah,
he says basically the same thing. Let me read this to you. This
is a prophecy of the new covenant too, just like in Ezekiel. But
in Jeremiah 31, listen to this in verse 31. He said, behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judah. And back then, by this
time, the house of Israel had already been dispersed, and the
house of Judah, that's the southern kingdom, it was a divided kingdom. And what he's saying here is
in the days of the new covenant, it's not gonna be a divided kingdom,
it'll be spiritual Israel under the gospel, under the headship
of Christ. And he says in verse 32, not
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in
the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the
land of Egypt, which my covenant they break, although I wasn't
husband unto them, saith the Lord. Israel broke that conditional
covenant because that conditional covenant was given to them by
God to show them their sin and their depravity, their need of
God's grace. But under the new covenant, spiritual
Israel, God's elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation,
believers, they're not gonna break that covenant. Now that
doesn't mean they're not gonna be sinners. I'm a sinner saved
by grace, but I haven't broken that covenant, because that covenant
is a unilateral covenant between God the Father and God the Son,
in which I'm brought into it by His grace, election, justification,
redemption, and he's brought me to believe the gospel, and
that's the terms of that covenant. Salvation conditioned on Christ,
who fulfilled those conditions. And though I'm still a sinner,
and though I still struggle, and though none of my works equal
the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ,
the covenant is not broken. Because the covenant's not conditioned
on me or you, it's conditioned on Christ and he fulfilled it
all. But look on in Jeremiah 31, look
at verse 33. He says, but this shall be the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, saith the Lord. I will put my law in their inward
parts. That means he's gonna give us
an inner desire to follow him. Not the Ten Commandments, he's
talking about God's word, Christ's word. And write it in their hearts
and we'll be their God and they shall be my people. You see that? It's the same thing. Now here's
the fact of the matter. Go back to 2 Peter 1. When God
the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual life in the new birth, you must
be born again. What does that mean? That means
we're given that new heart, new spirit. The law of God, the word
of God is written on our heart. He gives us eyes to see, spiritual
eyes to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
To see ourselves like we've never seen ourselves before. Whereas
before I thought salvation was conditioned on me and all I had
to do was get a preacher to fan that spark of goodness and get
me to decide for Jesus. No, I see better now. I've been born again. I see now
that I was a depraved sinner who had no hope of salvation. If God had left me to myself,
I would have never made the right choice. And it gives us ears to hear.
We hear the gospel in a different way, whereas before it was offensive
to me because it shot out at my pride and my refuge. But now it's a beautiful thing
to hear the gospel. And so when the Holy Spirit,
when he gives us that spiritual life, that new heart, he puts
within us a new heart, a new spirit, a new life, new knowledge. Now I know God, before I didn't
know God. Over there in Jeremiah he said,
they shall all know him. From the least of them to the
greatest. New desires. Now I have a desire to glorify
God. Before I didn't even know what it was to glorify God. Before
I thought it was just giving him credit. But I was giving
him credit for things that dishonored him. New motivations. Walk in
newness of spirit, Paul said. What is my motivation now? grace,
love, and gratitude, not mercenary earned rewards, not legalism. And then new goals concerning
his glory and our salvation by his grace and based upon the
merits of Christ, righteousness imputed. And he writes his law,
his word, upon our hearts, our minds, our affections, our wills.
He puts within us a desire to war against the flesh. Those
desires to glorify and honor God and follow Christ and be
conformed to his image within us are in opposition to our desires
to please ourselves and to live a selfish life. And he puts within
us a desire to fight that warfare and to follow the leading of
the Holy Spirit who guides us by his word. And so that's what
God does. God imparts. People talk about
impartation. All right, here's what God imparts.
He imparts to us, as some of the old writers say, and I love
this, the resurrection life of Christ, by which he produces
within us the fruit of faith and obedience. Christ spoke of
that in John 15. He talked about he's the vine. We're the branches. I'm gonna
go into that a little bit more in another message. But he said
he's the vine, we're the branches, and the branches bear fruit,
not of itself. You cut the branch off the vine,
it's not gonna bear any fruit. The vine is the source and the
power of the fruit, and Christ is the vine. And by his grace
and power, he preserves us, and he causes us to live and to walk
by faith, to persevere. And he does this. for us. Well
let me give you a couple things and I'm going to close this message
and we'll start off here next week giving you some more. But
listen to what he says in verse five. Look at verse five. He
says, and beside this, other words, on this very account,
that's what he means. And again I want you to understand,
he's not talking about we add things to what he has left out. to beside this has to do on this
very account. And somebody asked me this one
time, said, well, how do you know when you read these scriptures
that that's the case? Well, go back and read it in
its context. Look at verse three again. According
as his divine power hath given unto us what? All things that
pertain unto life, spiritual life, and godliness, a godly
walk. Through the knowledge of him,
that hath called us to glory and virtue. See, we start out
in the Christian life. We start out in the Christian
walk having been freely given all things that pertain to life
and godliness. And how do we know that? Through
the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.
We know God through Christ. We're not trying to earn our
blessings. We're not trying to fill in the
blanks here. We're not trying to fill in where
God left it empty. He's already given. And so when
he says, and beside this, what he's saying literally is on this
very account, because this is already given you freely, unconditionally,
based upon the merits of another, giving all diligence, all efforts, All efforts add to your faith
virtue. All grace here and all glory
hereafter. All based on the merits of Christ.
All things that pertain to life and godliness. So again, I'm
stressing here. This is not anything added to
the merits of Christ for righteousness. Christ is all my righteousness. His righteousness imputed. I
have no other righteousness. but his righteousness imputed.
And if I understand that, I'll understand what virtue and knowledge
and temperance and patience and kindness and brotherly love and
charity is. They're fruits of the only righteousness
that I have before God, the imputed righteousness of Christ. And
so this is not anything added to the merits of his righteousness.
This is not anything to complete or rival his righteousness. This
is not something that I put alongside his righteousness and present
to God for my acceptance or for my reward. It's the evidence
of spiritual life born out of his righteousness, mainly the
evidence of faith, and we'll talk about evidences later on. But here's what he's saying.
From this position, sinner saved by grace, justified, sanctified,
already holy in God's sight, from this standing, and living
in the state of grace that God has brought me to because I'm
already fully saved by God's grace in Christ, I'm already
fully justified based on his righteousness imputed, I'm already
fully sanctified by his grace, already fully furnished under
every good work, then add this, seek diligently to be engaged
in this endeavor to walk in the Christian life. There must be
as a result or fruit the response of gratitude and love. And so
when he says giving all diligence, he means consciously and eagerly
make an effort. And he says add to your faith. This addition is simply talking
about growth and grace and knowledge. So when he mentions these things,
these are not works that make me righteous. These are not works
that sanctify me, that set me apart. These works are set apart,
and I'll show you that when the light of the gospel shines on
them. But we'll see that as we continue through on that subject. All right.