I want you to open your Bibles
to 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 1. I'm just going
to read the first four verses of this second letter of Peter. It's called a general epistle
because it's written to all believers. I'm sure that as the Holy Spirit
inspired Peter to write these words, he had in mind those who
were going through trials and sufferings, as he did in his
first letter, and those who needed the comfort and joy and peace
that comes from looking unto Christ. and finding our hope
and our assurance in Him. But it begins 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," that
is, by these great and precious promises, you might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust." Now in these verses we have, I believe,
four precious gifts from God. And that's what I've entitled
the message, just precious gifts from God. Now, salvation, all
of salvation is a gift from God. What that simply means, I know
sometimes you feel like you're stating the obvious, but we know
by experience and by revelation that that term, gift from God,
salvation being a gift from God, is not obvious to the natural
man, to the unbeliever. Even though many can say that.
They may say, well, it's a free gift. But if you listen to them
long enough or hear them preach or witness or talk about salvation
long enough, you'll see that at some stage, to some degree,
in some way, they will introduce works into the mix as, not as
the result or the fruit of salvation, but as forming some part of the
cause of it or the ground of it. So when we say that salvation,
all of salvation is a free gift, that means, I put it this way
quite often, that means we cannot earn it and we don't deserve
it. We cannot earn it and we don't
deserve it. The scripture says that those
who are given salvation by God, salvation, that we don't earn
and don't deserve, that we're blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places. Now that means what it says,
we're blessed with all spiritual blessings, not just some. Now
there are times that we as believers don't realize it and don't enjoy
those blessings, but we're still blessed with them. All spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And that's by
Him. And He is the gift of God. We'll
see that in just a moment. But let's look at these verses,
these precious gifts from God. And the first gift that He mentions
is the gift of like precious faith. Verse 1, Simon Peter,
a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them. Now here's who
he's writing to. To them that have obtained like
precious faith. Faith that is equally precious
to all of us who have it, and faith of the same kind. Paul,
in writing to Titus, in the book of Titus, called it the faith
of God's elect. It's faith that God gives us
by which we have the assurance of being one of his elect. He
also called it in Titus the common faith. Now not everyone has this
faith. And if any have it, it's the
gift of God. Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter
2 and verse 8, for by grace are you saved through faith, it says. And then it goes on to say, and
that not of yourselves. That faith is not of yourselves.
It's not the operation of your own choice. It's not of yourselves. But it's the gift of God, it
says. Not of works, lest any man should boast. And this is
the mutual faith of God's elect. It's the mutual faith of Christ's
sheep. Christ said, my sheep hear my voice. They know me.
I know them. He said, they follow me. It's
following Christ. In Romans chapter 10 and verse
17, it says this. It says, faith comes by hearing. and hearing by the Word of God.
And the hearing there means more than just hearing it with the
physical ear. It means to hear it with the spiritual ear. Turn
to Matthew chapter 13. I want to show you something
here. When the Lord began to speak in parables, you know,
in his public ministry, he started out, he began preaching the gospel,
telling the people that heard him that They had no hope of
salvation, but in Him, the God of all grace, that they could
not find righteousness in the law, but only in Him who was
fulfilling the law. And he preached the gospel of
God's grace, salvation by grace. And then he began to be rejected. Many people followed him for
the miracles, for the loaves, the fishes, for all the healings.
But when they heard his message and what he was saying, they
rejected him. Why? Because the natural man
receives not the things of the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. The natural man, that's man as
he's born in the state of nature, as we're naturally born, does
not receive, will not receive the things of the Spirit of God,
neither can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned.
He doesn't have the spiritual ear. That's spiritual death.
Now you can hear what I'm saying right now. And you can understand
to a point what I'm saying. But let me tell you the difference
between the spiritual ear and the physical ear. Do you believe
what I'm saying from God's Word? Do you love what I'm saying? Is it your life? Is it your hope?
You see, that's the difference. That's what faith is all about.
That's what the gift of faith is all about. It's not just to
hear it. It's not just to admire it, it's not just to agree with
it in some intellectual way, but it's to say, that's my only
hope. It's like the sick person who
has a terminal illness reaching out for the cure. And there's
only one cure, and that's what it is. When a sinner is saved
by the grace of God and given that gift of faith, he sees,
he or she sees that his only hope is in Christ and His blood
and righteousness alone for my whole salvation. I must have
Christ." You remember when the multitudes left Christ and He
turned to His disciples and He said, well, you go away also.
And Peter spoke up and he said, to whom shall we go? You have
the words of life. We've got no place else to go.
And that's the way it is with us by nature in our sins. We've got nowhere to go. We can
run to the law. But all the law will do is condemn
us because we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God,
even the best of us. And that's what people can't
understand. Somebody says, well, I'm a sinner, but I'm not as
bad as so-and-so. It doesn't matter. You see, by
deeds of law shall no flesh be justified, declared righteous,
not guilty in God's sight. And so when they began to hear
the Lord's message of salvation by grace, which excluded their
pedigree, the fact that they were physical children of Abraham,
which excluded their circumcision, which was their entrance into
that old covenant through the males, which were the representatives
of the families. And when he excluded their works
and all of their religion that they thought recommended them
unto God and left them with no hope of salvation but the sovereign,
free grace of God through the blood and righteousness of Christ,
then they began to say, well, I'm not going to have that. You
mean to tell me, are you telling me that all my prayers all those
years meant nothing? Paul said they meant less than
nothing. He called them dumb. You mean to tell me that all
of my religious exercise and trying to be good and trying
to be charitable, that it did not recommend me unto God? Absolutely
not, my friend. Listen, let me tell you, I know
that's offensive to the natural man. You see, salvation doesn't
come by my works or my efforts. It comes by the grace of God,
and that's free. And you might notice sometime
When you read through 1 Corinthians 2 there, where it says in verse
14, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, look back up at verse 12 sometime. And it says, we
have not received the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit
of Christ, that we may know the things that are freely given. In other words, that's what the
natural man won't receive. That which is freely given, without
any qualification, without any conditions, you see, without
any stipulations on the sinner. Christ met all the conditions
for his people. Well, when they hear that, you're
either going to believe it, submit to it, and love it, or you're
going to ignore it, reject it, or hate it. Well, what's the
difference there? Who makes the difference there?
If you're one who receives it and loves it and believes it,
is that because you're better than the fellow that doesn't?
Well, if it is, then don't talk about salvation by grace. I'll
tell you what makes the difference. Look at Matthew 13. This is why
our Lord began to speak in parables. At the end of all these parables,
he always said, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. He
wasn't speaking of physical ears. And so it says in verse 10, the
disciples came and said unto him, why speakest thou unto them
in parables? And he answered and said unto
them, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of
the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. That understanding,
that hearing ear was given to his disciples, but not to the
Pharisees. That was God's judgment upon them for their rejection.
He says in verse 12, but for whosoever hath, to him shall
be given, and he shall have more abundance. But whosoever hath
not, from him shall be taken away, even that he hath. Therefore
speak I to them in parables, because they seen, they've got
physical eyes, but they don't see the spiritual things. They see and they see not. Hearing
they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled
the prophecy of Isaiah, that's Isaiah, the prophet. It said,
by hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing
you shall see and shall not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed
gross. Now what that simply means is
their heart is grown hard. When you reject the gospel, when
you reject God's grace, when you walk away unaffected by it,
it's what happens, your heart grows hard and it says, and their
ears are dull of hearing, their eyes they've closed, lest at
any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their
ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted
and I should heal them. They don't want to let go of
their self-righteous works. They don't want to let go of
their experiences. They don't want to let go of
their religion. They don't want to let go of
their pride and come as a sinner seeking mercy who deserves nothing
but wrath. A sinner seeking grace who doesn't
deserve nothing but damnation. Lord be merciful to me the sinner. But look at verse 16. He says,
but blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they
hear. Your eyes are blessed. Let me
tell you something, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, if
you have this like precious faith, you're blessed. Blessed by the
grace of God. You didn't deserve it, you didn't
earn it, neither did I. You say, well, why me? And not
somebody, don't know. Scripture doesn't tell. The only
answer the scripture gives of that is in Matthew chapter 11,
where he says, for so, Lord, it seemed good in thy sight.
And this faith, look here back in 2 Peter 1 verse 1, he says
they've obtained like... and that word obtained now means
given and received, that's what it means. It's given and it's
received. And let me tell you something,
it's always received where it's given. always received where
it's given, never rejected where it's given. And then he says,
this like precious faith comes to us through the righteousness
of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Now, if you have in your concordance
there, it may have a different translation of that. which would
read something like this. This like precious faith with
us through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus
Christ. And that's a better translation. And what he's saying here is
this. Faith, believing in Christ, is not the cause of salvation,
but it's the fruit of salvation. It's the fruit of the righteousness
of our God and our Savior Jesus Christ. It's the fruit of His
work. Turn to John chapter 12. I want
to show you something. Here's an illustration of that
that our Lord used. In other words, believing is
not a condition that I meet in order to attain salvation. It's
not a qualification that I have to come up with in order to recommend
myself unto God. Believing is the fruit and result
of the death of Christ on the cross, His righteousness alone. And he says this, look at John
chapter 12 and look at verse 20. It says, there were certain
Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast, that
is at the Jewish feast in Jerusalem. The same came, therefore, to
Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him,
saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. We want to see this man. And
Philip cometh and telleth Andrew, and again Andrew and Philip tell
Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying,
Now listen to this. He says, The hour is come that
the Son of Man should be glorified. He's talking about himself. The
time has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. And
here, listen to what he says, verse 24. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, except a corn or a seed of wheat fall into the ground
and die, it abideth alone. You take a seed, a wheat seed.
lay it up here on this pulpit, what's it going to do? It's not
going to grow, not going to be any, but you put it in the ground
and it literally dies. What it does, it corrupts away,
you know, it fades away in that sense and dies and sprouts up
wheat. So he said it abides alone. But
if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. And then he says,
he that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his
life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life. Loving
your life means rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ and God's way
of salvation in him and by him. Loving your life means trying
to establish a righteousness of your own instead of submitting
to the righteousness of Christ as your only way and ground of
salvation. Now, hating your life in this
world means receiving Christ. In other words, you recognize
that this world is not your home, this world is not the way, your
life in this world is temporary, it's dying, it's going to go
away, and your only hope of eternal life is in Christ. So he says
in verse 26, if any man serve me, let him follow me, and where
I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him
will my father honor. But go down to verse 31. Now
he talked about if a seed of wheat, he said, the hours come
which he must be glorified. What's he talking about? The
seed of wheat falls into the ground and dies, bring forth
much fruit. What's he talking about? Verse 31, he says, now
is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this
world be cast out, talking about Satan and his work of condemnation.
He said, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw
all unto me." And this he said signifying what death he should
die. If he's crucified and dies, lifted
up from the earth, and does his work of redemption on the cross,
finishing the transgression, making an end of sin and bringing
in everlasting righteousness, what's he saying? I will draw
all. Now that word men there is in italics. That means it
was supplied by the King James translators. It wasn't in the
original. And he says, I will draw all unto me. Now, who are
they all there? Well, that's not all without
exception because all are not drawn to him. Who is it? It's all who are drawn to him.
It's all who believe in him. And he says that's the fruit
of his death. If he's lifted up, his people will come to him. Look back at John chapter six
and look at verse 37. John 6 and verse 37. He says
it this way here. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Somebody said, well where does
that leave me? I'll tell you exactly where it leaves you. It leaves
you with no hope of salvation but Christ and him crucified
and risen again. It leaves you with no hope of
forgiveness, but by His blood. It leaves you with no hope of
being justified before God, but His righteousness imputed. That's
where it leaves you, that's where it leaves me. You say, well,
what if I'm not one of those all? Well, I'll tell you how
you can tell right now. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ? You come to Him. He says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. He won't turn anybody away. He
never has. You see, the doctrines of grace
does not teach that God will turn any sinner away who wants
salvation His way. Because if you want salvation
His way, I'm going to tell you something, that's a gift from
Him. That's faith. Because His way is the way of
Christ. I am the way, the truth, and the life, He said. No man
cometh unto the Father but by me. Now, if you want it your
way, then you'll be rejected. If you wanted His way, the way
of grace, the way of His glory, look at verse 38 of John 6, For
I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the
will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will,
which has sent me, that of all which He has given me, I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. That's what Peter's talking about
over in second. That's the gift. We're going to be saved. He that
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? Somebody said,
but you must be willing to believe. You must be willing to receive
him. Well, what does the Word of God say? All, all whom the
Father giveth me, Christ said, shall come to me. They will be
willing to receive and believe. And this faith is precious. Peter
called it like precious faith. It's precious. Because it is
a gift from God. It is a blessing of grace, but
it's precious because of the object of faith. You see, faith
is not an ending of itself. Somebody says, do you have faith?
Here's the question you ought to ask. Faith in what? Somebody
says, do you believe enough? Enough for what? You see, it's
not how much faith that you have, it's in whom is your faith. In
whom? Is your faith in Christ, or in
self, or in church, or in works, or in whatever experiences? If
it's anything but Christ and Him crucified and risen again.
And because of this faith, this gift of faith, we enjoy the blessings
of faith. Look at the second verse. Here's
the second thing. The second gift is knowledge
of God in Christ. Look, verse 2. Grace and peace
be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus
our Lord. Paul said this in 2 Timothy chapter
1 and verse 12. He said, I know whom I believed
and am persuaded that I'm able to keep on believing. Is that
what he said? That's a misquoted. But you know, that's what most
people believe. You hear people say, well, if
you don't keep on believing, you'll lose your salvation. You know
why? Because your faith's not in Christ.
Your faith is in your faith. And you're not going to make
it, because your faith will waver. There'll be times where you feel
like you're real strong in the faith, and there'll be times
when you feel like you don't have any faith. Just let something
bad really happen. And you get the why me Lord syndrome
and all that. Just like Job. Job started out
well but then he started justifying himself and he came to the end
of his rope and he said, I've seen thee, I've heard of thee
with the ear, but now mine eyes seeth thee, the eye of faith,
and I repent and sackcloth and ashes. If our salvation, if attaining
salvation and keeping salvation, is conditioned on us at any stage,
at any time, in any way, we will lose it. You can bank on it. And if you think you don't, it's
because you're self-righteous. That's exactly what it is. You
see, Paul said this in 2 Timothy 1. He said, For I know whom I
have believed and am persuaded that he is able, Christ is able,
to keep that which I've committed unto him. I haven't committed
it unto me or unto you. I've committed it unto Christ
and he's able. Hebrews chapter 7 says he's able
to save to the uttermost. them that come unto the Father
by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession." You see,
my works cannot save me and my sins cannot damn me because my
hope is in Christ. He is my works. He is my righteousness. And he's all the righteousness
I have before God. And that's a knowledge that God
gives his people. That's where grace and peace
come from. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5 21. That grace
and that peace which I have is not in myself. I heard a fellow
one time, I told you all this years ago, He said, well, I don't
have any assurance. And I said, I asked him why.
And he said, well, he said, I don't doubt Christ, but I doubt myself. And I told him, I said, well,
when did the gospel ever command you to look to and trust in yourself? Because if you're looking to
and trusting in yourself, you don't have the faith of God's
elect. You don't have that light precious faith. The gospel says,
look to and trust in Christ. Not yourself. You ought to doubt
yourself. I ought to doubt myself. I mean,
we'll blow it big time. But Christ never will. He's the
same yesterday, today, and forever. And that's a knowledge that comes
only from God. Faith and knowledge go together.
Christ said in John 17 and verse 3, this is life eternal that
they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. God who is both a just God and
a Savior. through the blood and righteousness
of Christ. God, who has already judged me for all my sins, how? On the cross of Christ. Because
He took my sins, they were laid upon Him. He bore my sins on
the cross, and shedding His blood, He drank damnation dry. And he
paid my debt in full to God's justice. And he gave me a righteousness
in return, which lasts through eternity. It's not the righteousness
of man. It's the righteousness of God
in him. And that's a knowledge that only God gives. It's a knowledge
of God. It's a knowledge of our sin.
It's a knowledge of the great salvation that he gives in Christ. And look at verse 3. Now here's
the third gift. Life and godliness. And notice the language here.
Verse 3. According as His divine power... Did you see that now?
That's God's power. It's not our power. Hath given... See, whatever he's going to talk
about here, we didn't earn it, we didn't deserve it. He's given
it unto us all things. How many things? All things. You know, this idea that God's
done his part and you do yours? No, he's done it all right here.
He's given us all things that pertain unto what? Life, eternal
life. You mean I don't have to earn
any of it? I mean that exactly. Somebody
says, well, where do our works come into play? Well, I quoted
it back in the Sunday school class. Ephesians 2 10 we are
his workmanship created in Christ Jesus Unto good works not because
of good works not on account of good works not based on good
works, but unto good works Which God hath before ordained that
we should walk it you see the works of a believer That are
presented before God under the blood of Christ I might add are
the fruit, the result, the effect, not the cause in the ground,
not the earning power. You see, we don't serve God.
I'll talk about that in just a minute. We don't serve God because of
what we can get out of Him. We serve God because of what
He's freely given us already in Christ. The motive of true
obedience is not mercenary earned rewards. The motive for true
godly obedience is grace and gratitude and love. How about
that? How about that concept? Serve
God because you love him. Not because you're afraid he's
going to kick you out of the family. or not because you think
you can earn higher rewards than the person sitting next to you.
That's a mercenary. That's a hireling. That's not
a servant, a bond slave of Christ. And so he says, given unto us
all things that pertain to life and godliness. What is godliness?
Godliness is following Christ. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. Godliness has to do with the
life of faith, the life of grace, the life of obedience, motivated
by grace and gratitude and love. He says, through the knowledge
of Him, that comes through knowledge. You can't serve God unless you
know Him. And the only way you can know
Him is through Christ. And he says, through the knowledge of
him that hath called us to glory, that's the glory of salvation
by his grace in Christ, and virtue. Now what is virtue? Most people
would think of virtue as morality or charity. Moral excellence,
even courage. But what this virtue is, is the
life of faith, the life of grace, the life of obedience of a servant.
Not trying to earn his way into his father's favor, but because
he has been freely given all blessings. in Christ. That's what virtue is. And then
look at verse four. Here's the fourth one. Precious
promises. Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises. Now notice they're given again.
Peter doesn't get off this, does he? It's given. You didn't earn it. I hear these
preachers on TV all the time talking about, you do this and
God will do that, you know, it's like they're earned. No, sir.
No. They're blessings in obedience, but it's not earned blessings.
They're given. And these promises, the promise
of salvation, the promise of eternal life, the promise of
righteousness. Romans chapter 5 talks about
the gift of righteousness. I don't make myself righteous
by my work. God makes me righteous by the
blood of Christ. And that's a gift. The gift of
blessings, these are all promises. 2 Corinthians 1.20 says, all
the promises of God in him, in Christ are yea and in him, amen,
sure and certain in him. And he says it's by these precious
promises, verse 4, these promises that you might be partakers of
the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust. Now, as you know, that phrase,
partakers of the divine nature, is one of those phrases that
is taken out of context and twisted and turned. Most of it, most
people, when they think of being partakers of the divine nature,
they speak of the infusion or the impartation of the very nature
of God in the new birth. And that is not what this is
talking about. They talk about that the believer
has the very nature of God Himself. I even heard a fellow say that.
First of all, that's impossible. I even heard a fellow say this.
He said that when we're born again, we have created in us
a divine nature. Now that's wrong. First of all,
if it's a divine nature, it cannot be created. Nothing divine is
created. God is the Alpha and the Omega.
He's the I Am. The eternal, ever-existent One.
He has no beginning and no end. Divinity, anything divine in
nature now. Now we have things that come
from God that are created. God is the creator. But God Himself
in His nature, the divine nature, cannot be created. It has no
beginning and no end. If it can be created, it's not
divine. So that's not what it's talking about. And one of the
misunderstandings is the word partakers. Now when you think
about partaking, all right? Today. Usually the first thing
that comes to mind is eating. Right? You're going to sit down
and partake of a meal. You're going to consume food.
But that's not what this word partaker is here. This word partaker
is translated in other verses as fellowship. It has to do with
a partnership. That's what it means. It has
to do with being a sharer in something. We share in something,
okay? We're partners in something.
We are fellowshippers. For example, this exact word,
and different forms up, but this exact word is used several times
in the New Testament. One time, the Lord was talking
to the Pharisees about how they applaud the prophets who are
dead. But they don't believe the message of the prophets.
It'd be like this. One of the Pharisees applauding
Moses. But he didn't believe what Moses
wrote. But Moses is dead. He didn't really have to deal
with that. And he can say anything he wants to about Moses. Applauding Isaiah. Honoring Isaiah. All that old
great preacher Isaiah. But Isaiah's dead. And he doesn't
believe the message that Isaiah preached. And so they would brag. They said, well, now we didn't
kill the prophets like our fathers did. And that's what Christ said
here. He says, we, you say, we would
not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
We would not have been a partner with them to kill the prophets.
Of course, they were lying because he was telling them if the, if
the prophets were right here before you telling you their
message, you'd kill them. But they said, we're not partners
with them. We're not in fellowship with them in that, in that belief
and in that goal. Another place, Paul was talking
about those who attended the sacrifices of the altar. And
he said about Israel, Israel after the flesh, national Israel,
are not they which eat of the sacrifices? They eat of the sacrifice,
they consume the meat of the sacrifice, but aren't they partakers
of the altar? They're not eating the altar,
I hope. They're not consuming the altar, but they share in
that altar. They're partners in that kind
of worship. They're denying Christ, is what
he's saying. In another place, he talks about believers being
partakers of the sufferings. Partakers of the sufferings.
that believers go through when we identify with Christ. We don't
consume or eat those sufferings, do we? No. We're partners in
that. We suffer together because we
identify with Christ in the message of grace and with each other.
And then in another place, he talked about being a partaker
of the glory that shall be revealed. That's when Christ comes again.
We're not consumers of that. We don't eat that, but we share
in it. We're partners. We're fellow
sharers, fellow shippers in that hope. And that's what it means
here. Listen to it. Whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these, these
promises, promises of grace, you might be fellowshipers, partners,
fellow sharers of the divine nature. Now what is the divine
nature? I'll tell you exactly who that
is. That's God. That's God. It's through these great and
precious promises that we who are sinners saved by grace are
brought into fellowship with God himself, the very divine
nature. Now let me show you that 1 John
chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1. These precious promises of salvation
by God's grace in Christ and through the Lord Jesus Christ
We who have these promises given to us, we who are saved by the
grace of God, we're in fellowship with God. The Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, the divine nature, we're in fellowship with.
Look at what John says, 1 John 1. That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, that's the gospel, which we've seen with
our eyes, they walked with Christ, which we've looked upon and our
hands have handled of the word of life, these promises, the
promise of God. For the life was manifested and
we've seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us, that
which we've seen and heard declare unto you that you also, like
us, may have fellowship with us. We want you to have fellowship
with us. We want you to partake with us.
And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son,
Jesus Christ. We're in fellowship with God
in Christ. Colossians 2, 9, for in Him, in Christ, dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit, bodily,
and you're complete in Him. When we come to Christ, this
gift of God, When we're given this faith, this knowledge, all
things that pertain to life and godliness, these promises, when
we're brought to Christ, we're in fellowship with the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And look back at 2 Peter 1.4,
he says, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust, we're not in fellowship with the world anymore. The corruption
of this world, the corruption of their immorality, the corruption
of their religion, That's, and that's a lust that every man
and woman has by nature. That's right. That's why, until
we're given life from Christ, until we're given the hearing
ear and the seeing eye, now we're in fellowship with God. Now we're
partakers of the divine nature. We're not partakers with the
world. We're not in fellowship with the world. But by God's
grace, through these gifts of grace, through Christ, we're
in fellowship with him.