Now the title of my message is
Fellowship with the Divine. Fellowship with the Divine. I
took that title from this phrase in verse four of 2 Peter chapter
one. Partakers of the divine nature. The word partaker there is a
word that means partner. It is a word that means fellowship. Fellowship. with the divine nature. The divine nature is the nature
of God himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so what
the Apostle Peter is talking about here as he was inspired
by the Holy Spirit to write is sinners being brought into a
fellowship with God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
How is that possible? You know, before Adam fell in
the garden, He had perfect, uninterrupted fellowship with God. And that
fellowship was lost, totally lost, when Adam disobeyed God. Brought the whole human race
into sin and death, which alienated us from God, spiritually speaking. We were ruined by the fall. We're
not born physically, into fellowship with God. We're born as lost
in our sins, spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. But here,
Peter is talking about a fellowship that has been restored. And what
kind of fellowship is it? Well, over in 1 John 1, in 1
John 1, the Apostle John begins his first epistle by talking
about this. In verse 1 of chapter 1 of 1st
John, he says, that which was from the beginning, which we
have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have
looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life.
Now the word of life there is who? That's Christ. He is the
living word. He is the incarnate word. And it says, for the life was
manifested, verse two, and we have seen it and bear witness
and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father
and was manifested unto us. This eternal life, which comes
from the Father, is manifested unto us through Christ, who is
our life. And he says in verse three, now
listen to this, that which we have seen and heard declare we
unto you, this is the gospel, that the gospel of salvation
by the sovereign grace and mercy of God in Christ, based on his
blood, his righteousness imputed, that includes all the promises
that God gives unto his people of eternal life and glory, that
which we declare unto you that you also may have fellowship
with us. Now the word fellowship there
is the same word that's translated partakers. Back in 2 Peter 1
and 4, it's the same word, same root word. Fellowship. And he says, and truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. So he's talking
about fellowship restored. For sinners who fell in Adam
into sin and death, who are by nature alienated from God. Colossians 1 says, alienated
in our minds by wicked works. In other words, because of our
determination in our natural state of sin and death, spiritual
death, We desire fellowship with God based upon our worthiness,
our works, and that alienates us from God. But he's talking
about here how sinners, who are by nature alienated from God,
have fellowship restored, and how is that possible? Well, let
me begin with this. I've often said, salvation, and
that's what Peter's talking about, salvation is a multifaceted jewel. which value, the value of which
cannot be defined, cannot be limited. More than we can imagine,
this salvation that God has given to his people. I wrote a book
about it called What Is Salvation? And I divided salvation into
four realms. And the first one was the eternal
realm. Think about it. The salvation that we enjoy by
the grace of God through Christ and based on His righteousness,
is an eternal matter. It wasn't an afterthought. It
wasn't plan B. It didn't just kick in when we
believed. It was God's election of His
people in Christ before the foundation of the world. Salvation is older
than creation. That's what the Bible teaches.
Ephesians 1, 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world,
that we should behold him without blame before him in love, before
the foundation of the world. Paul wrote to Timothy about this,
talked about our salvation, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. So salvation is an eternal matter. How valuable is that? Much more
valuable than anything we've experienced in our lifetime,
because everything's dying, everything's going away, except salvation. Eternity. And then secondly,
salvation is, there's a legal realm of salvation. Whatever
God does, he must do it on a just ground. If he chooses us, it
must be on a just ground. If he gives us any blessing,
of eternity, eternal life, it must be on a just ground. God
is known by the judgments that he executes. He must be both,
if he saves us, if he loves us, if he's merciful to us, if he's
gracious to us, it must be on a just ground. God must be both
a just God and a savior. And what is that legal realm
of salvation? It's God justifying his people in Christ. And Christ,
the merits of Christ, is the ground of our justification.
What is it to be justified? It means that we're forgiven
of all our sins. The debt of our sins has been
totally paid. We're redeemed by the blood. It means we've been declared
righteous in the sight of God, not by our works, but based upon
what Christ did in his obedience unto death as our surety, our
substitute, our redeemer. It's his righteousness imputed.
It means that sin cannot be laid to our charge. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies,
that's the legal realm. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who's even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. We can't be condemned. If we're
in Christ, there's no ground to condemn us. Our sins are gone,
they're taken away, they're purged. The just, Christ, died for the
unjust. It means we've been declared
righteous. Romans 4, 6, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth
righteousness without worry. That's the legal realm. And that's
the ground of our whole salvation. And then thirdly, there's the
spiritual realm. Now this is what Peter is talking
about in chapter one. And that's what he's talking
about with sinners being made partakers of the divine nature.
The spiritual realm of salvation is the application of spiritual
life to us in time. God giving spiritual life to
his people out of Christ. And it's called the new birth.
You must be born again. It's connected to our election
before the foundation of the world. In other words, all whom
God chose before the foundation of the world in Christ, all for
whom Christ died, it's connected to our justification, all for
whom Christ died must be given life, must be born again. None
of them can perish. And so it's connected to all
of that. The scripture says the justified shall live, not die,
shall live by faith. And then fourthly, there's the
glorified realm, and that's our final glory when Christ comes
again the second time. We'll leave these vile bodies,
we'll be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and we'll exist in
glory forever and ever and ever in spiritual bodies, perfect.
All of that. Now what Peter's doing here in
2 Peter chapter one, He starts out by laying the foundation
of all of that. Look at verse one. This is the
foundation. He 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. Or through the righteousness
of our God and our Savior Jesus Christ. And what he's saying
is because Christ by himself as the surety, the substitute,
the redeemer of God's chosen people because he laid the foundation
of our whole salvation, our whole relationship with God through
his obedience unto death, his blood, his righteousness imputed. Because he did that, God sends
forth the Holy Spirit to lay the foundation of faith within
our hearts. Righteousness imputed, Christ's
righteousness imputed is the ground of our salvation. Faith is the fruit of our salvation. And by that, he brings his people
out of fellowship with the world and into fellowship with the
divine. That's what he's talking about
in verse four. You may partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And
then beginning at verse two, Peter begins to consider all
the blessings of God lay in this foundation. In other words, these
are the blessings that we who are saved by the grace of God
fully possess because of the righteousness of Christ, because
God chose us, because Christ died for us, because His righteousness
is imputed to us, and these are the blessings that we possess
by Him Blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. And these are the blessings that
we are brought to see and realize and know by God-given faith. That's what he's talking about.
And look at these blessings. Look at verse two. He talks about
grace. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you. Grace comes from God. Grace is
a free gift. Grace and mercy, for example. You can't earn them, you can't
deserve them. So whatever grace is, is something that we don't
earn or deserve. God, it's a gift of God's grace,
but again, it's got to be based on a just ground. Grace reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
So it comes from God, based on the righteousness of Christ imputed.
And then peace, grace and peace, is made between God and sinners
based upon that same ground. And that same peace is known
and realized by us when the Holy Spirit brings us to be reconciled
unto God, based on that same ground. That's what 2 Corinthians
chapter five is all about, how sinners are reconciled to God.
Because God made Christ to be sin, Christ who knew no sin,
for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
And that's what that peace is all about. So grace and peace
be multiplied unto you through the knowledge. There's another
blessing. We know this to be so because
God, not because we're all Einsteins or because we're all intellects.
We know this to be so because God has made us to know it. God
has revealed it to us. God has taught us by the spirit
through his word. that these things are true. This
is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God,
in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. You see, this is the testimony,
this is the report, and this is knowledge that's revealed
by God to his people in the preaching of the gospel, wherein Christ
is made known in the glory of his person, as God in human flesh,
God man, God manifest in the flesh, and the power of his finished
work, his work of putting away our sin by one offering, he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. How do I know that? Just a feeling? No, it's because
God has taught me through the word, through the preaching of
the gospel. That's a blessing. He said, they
shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest. And
this knowledge of God comes through the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't
know God without knowing Christ as surety, substitute, and redeemer
as the Lord our righteousness. You know, when the Lord told
his disciples that they would be persecuted and that they would
be thrown out of these religious assemblies of the unbelieving
Jews, They'll throw you out of the synagogue. He said, they'll
do this because they neither know me nor my father. But we're told that we're given
an understanding of these things, of the father and the son, and
salvation through him because we are brought to Christ through
the power of God in his word. So that's through the knowledge.
Now look at verse three. Listen to this. He says, according
as his divine power. Now think about that. It's not
your power. It's not my power. It's God's
power. Same word that Paul used in Romans
116, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. We get
our English word dynamite from it. And that's what it is. According his divine power, hath
given, Now that's free gift, this is grace, mercy. He hath
given unto us, unto his people, all whom he chose, all whom,
who have like precious faith through the righteousness of
our God and Savior Jesus Christ, he hath given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness. Now, is there anything accepted
there? Is there anything that he hasn't
given us? of life, eternal life, think
about it, and godliness. That's something to consider. You see, this is what the natural
man will not receive. He says, through the knowledge
of him, verse three, that hath called us to glory and virtue.
The natural man won't receive that. So in other words, if we
receive it, what does that tell us? That God has given us life. and this glory and this virtue.
Think about it. Eternal life, the glory is eternal
life and all blessings of life in Christ. All grace here, all
glory hereafter. What is virtue? That's godliness.
What is godliness? Walking by faith, God-given faith,
looking to and resting in Christ, motivated by grace, love, and
gratitude. That's what it's all about. And
how do we come to that? Through the knowledge of Him
that hath called us to glory and virtue. Through the knowledge
of Christ. Eternal life is to know Him.
And He's precious to us. And that gives us all things
that pertain to life and godliness. Not just some of the things.
It's not that He just gets us started. And then we end up,
we finish it or close it by what we do. It's not part him and
part, it's all things that pertain unto life, eternal life, spiritual
life. Godly life, all things that pertain
to godliness, walking by faith, looking to Christ, resting in
Him, having our hearts sealed and having our hearts established
with grace. All of those things through the
knowledge of Him. The more I know Christ in the
glory of His person and in the power of His finished work, the
more that I can walk in life and godliness. And so that brings
us to verse four. Whereby, okay, all of this that
he's talking about, are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises. You see, all of this is the product
of God's promise in the gospel. It's a promise that was set up
in the covenant of grace before the foundation of the world.
It was a promise that was revealed after the fall in Genesis three.
in the promise of the seed of woman. It's a promise that was
established in the justice of God through the sacrificial system,
which pictured Christ, our sacrifice. And it's all these promises are
made sure and made certain in Christ. That's what 2 Corinthians
1.20 tells us. All the promises of God are in
him, yea, and in him, amen. And it's by the revelation of
these precious promises, and those are promises revealed in
the gospel of salvation and final glory through the Lord Jesus
Christ based on his righteousness, that by these promises you might
be partakers, partners, fellowshipers of the divine nature, that is
the nature of God. You're brought into fellowship
with God. through the revelation of all
these truths, all of these blessings, all of these promises. And you're
brought out of fellowship with the world, having escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust. Now think about
it. Fellowship with God. Unbreakable fellowship, eternal
fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. How
is that possible? Through Christ. by the grace
of God, through the Lord Jesus Christ. For it is in the Lord
Jesus Christ that we know Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible
says that in Him, for in Him bodily is revealed the glory
of the Godhead. And we're complete in Him. It's
through Christ that sinners are brought into fellowship with
God. And our fellowship with God is based upon His righteousness
imputed. Our fellowship with God is brought
about by God-given faith in Christ as we realize how all of the
promises of eternal life and godliness, all blessings of salvation
are perfectly ours and completely ours and eternally ours by Him. Not because what we do or what
we've earned or what we think or try to do. It's through the
gospel It's through these gospel promises revealed to us by the
Holy Spirit as he brings us to Christ, faith in him, that we
enter into the joy and peace of this fellowship with the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It's through these gospel promises
revealed to us by the Holy Spirit as he brings us to God-given
repentance of dead works and idolatry that we lead the fellowship
of this world. And that's what he's talking
about. Consider this. Now there are people who look
at verses like this and they want to talk about what they
call the two natures of believers. And I've heard that term and
I used to use that language. I don't now because I don't think
it's biblical. But I have never broke fellowship
with anyone just over the use of those terms. Most people,
when they talk about two natures of a believer, they're talking
about the flesh and the spirit, which those are biblical terms. We can talk about the warfare
of the flesh and the spirit. A true believer is a person of
two minds and two desires. We have the flesh, which is sin,
sinful desires, sinful motives, sinful thoughts, That's the flesh. We can't get away from them.
And then we have spiritual life given unto us. God said, I'll
put a new spirit within you. We're going to talk about that
more next week. We have spiritual life given. We have the presence
of the Holy Spirit himself within our hearts. And that's how Christ
dwells within us by his spirit and by his word. But he has given
us a spiritual life. You can call it a spiritual nature
if you want, that's okay. If you don't take it too far
and go beyond what the Bible teaches. But we have flesh and
spirit, there's a battle. There's a warfare within us.
Paul spoke of it in Romans chapter seven. He spoke of it in Galatians
chapter five of the warfare of the Holy Spirit against our flesh.
but he's given us a spirit. The Holy Spirit testifies with
our spirits, the life he has given us, spiritual life he's
given us within, that we are the children of God. But there's
some who take this verse to be talking about the new nature
of a believer, and they define it this way, and listen to this.
Partakers of the divine nature, they'll say that when we're born
again, we have created within us a new divine nature that cannot
sin and cannot be contaminated. Now first of all, that's not
true. And secondly, that's not what this verse teaches. For
example, just consider this. Divine nature. If something is
divine, it cannot be created. It has no beginning and no end.
By nature, the word nature here means the constitution, the makeup
of divine. We have human nature. That's
our constitution. There's the nature of angels,
that's their constitution. God has the divine nature. Now
we can say we have life from the divine, God created life,
but he didn't create divine life because divine life is not created.
He said, I am. I have no beginning and no end. He's the great I am. So this
is not talking about the creation of a divine nature in me. Secondly,
consider this, we don't have anything within us that cannot
sin and cannot be contaminated. Now we have spiritual life, but
the flesh, the presence, the indwelling of the flesh keeps
us from doing that which is perfect. The only perfection that we can
claim is the perfection of the law that we find in Christ, his
nature alone. His divine work alone. And so
when I, for example, when I pray, is my prayer a righteous prayer? Only as it is presented to God
through Christ. The prayer is the motivation
and the desire of spiritual life within me, which you can, again,
you can call it a new nature if you want, that's okay. But
even my prayers must be washed in the blood of Christ, presented
to him even through my mediator, my intercessor. We have a great
high priest who's passed through into the heavens. That's why
we go boldly to the throne of grace. My acts of obedience. They're not perfect within themselves,
and they're certainly not the actions of the flesh. But they're
the evidences of life within me. That's what the scripture
says. My attempts to love my brethren, my attempts to love
God perfectly, my attempts to obey Him and serve Him, they're
not perfect, you see. Even my praises and my worship
have to be presented before God. through the blood of Christ,
based on his righteousness alone. What I'm saying is this, the
only righteousness that I have before God to present before
him is the imputed righteousness of Christ. And so when you read
this passage here, partakers, that word partakers is not a
word of infusion or impartation, it's a word of fellowship. We're
brought into partnership. Fellowship. The divine there
is God. The nature there is the nature
of God himself. And here's what Peter's saying.
That when the Holy Spirit comes and brings us under the preaching
of the gospel, wherein he teaches us the knowledge of these great
and precious promises of God in the gospel, which is the promise
of all things that pertain to life and godliness through the
knowledge of Christ, God manifest in the flesh and the knowledge
of His righteousness to put away my sins and to justify me before
God. That's how the Holy Spirit gives
me faith to believe in Christ, to run to Christ, and I'm brought
into a fellowship with God Himself. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I'm brought out of fellowship with the world. Look at verse
four at the end of it. Having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust. Now understand here, that
corruption and that lust includes their religion. It includes their
morality. which they believe recommends
them unto God, and that's legalism. Not only do I escape the corruption
of the immoral world and the lust of the immoral world, I
escape the corruption of the religious world, which is sinners
trying to establish their own righteousness before God. Sinners
trying to come before God and be saved by their works. What he's talking about is we're
brought into fellowship with the divine, by faith in Christ
and repentance of dead works. That's what he's saying. Partakers
of the divine nature, fellowship with the divine. Well, may the
Lord bless his word to our hearts.