of all the different books in
the Bible to 2 Peter. And Peter wrote this second letter
just before his death. So in a way, these are Peter's
last words to us. And in his last words, he writes
this letter to encourage God's people to persevere in the faith
and to grow in the faith. You know, a good way for us to
be protected from the air of false prophets and false religion
that's all around us and the air of sin rebellion and unbelief
that's in our own hearts is to grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the first four verses of
this letter, Peter gives us four gifts of God's grace that he
gives to everyone that he saves. And that's the title of our lesson,
Four Gifts of Grace. And these four gifts, all four
of them, are absolutely necessary to our salvation. There can be
no salvation without all four of these gifts of grace from
God. And anyone who preaches a gospel that does not include
all four of these gifts is a false prophet. So you steer clear of
them. Let's see if we can't see clearly these four gifts of God's
grace. The first one is this. God gives
faith, saving faith to everyone that he saves. Verse one, Simon
Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that
have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. A saving faith is a gift
of God. It's obtained. Saving faith is
not earned. It's not deserved. It's not something
we suddenly one day I decide I'm going to have this faith
is obtained. And I can tell you when we'll
obtain it. when God gives it to us as a free gift of His grace. The Apostle Paul said in Ephesians
2 verse 8, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves, that faith is a gift of God. Look at Titus
chapter 1. God gives this faith in Christ
to everyone that He saves. Titus 1, look what Paul says
here in verse 1. Paul, a servant of God and an
apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and
the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness. Paul
calls saving faith the faith of God's elect. All of God's
elect have the exact same faith. They all have a complete reliance
on Christ to be everything that we need in our salvation. The
faith of God's elect means this. that every believer believes
the exact same thing about how God saves sinners. Peter calls
it like faith, because it's all alike. Saving faith is all alike. It's the same. It has the same
source and the same object. True saving faith believes we
had to be elected in Christ before time began. Had to be. Because
we couldn't be chosen because of anything good in us. Because
there's nothing good in us. True saving faith always believes
that. True saving faith believes that Christ is all my righteousness.
I don't have any obedience of my own. If I have any obedience,
it's Christ's obedience. Faith always believes that. True
saving faith believes that Christ is the only sacrifice for sin
that I could have. If Christ didn't put my sin away,
I've got no hope. Saving faith always believes
that. True saving faith believes the Holy Spirit must irresistibly
call me to Christ. If He doesn't call, I'll never
come because I'm unable to come. I'm born dead in trespasses and
sins. He's got to give me life. He's
got to call me. He's got to draw me to Christ
or I'll never come. And true saving faith believes
this, that I will persevere to the end. Now that's not presumption. That's believing Christ. I believe
I'll persevere to the end because of who my Savior is. Christ has
finished all the work of salvation. Christ is all I need, and He'll
never fail. See, that's not presumption to
believe I'll persevere to the end. That's simply believing
Christ. And that same faith is in every
believer. I don't care where you find them.
There's one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. Every believer
has the same faith. And this faith unites the weak
believer to Christ just as much as it unites the strong believer
to Christ. This same faith in Christ purifies
the heart of the young believer just as much as that faith purifies
the heart of the old believer. Salvation is not by our works. It's the faith. God gives this
faith to everybody he saves. And that makes this faith precious. Faith is a precious gift of God. Saving faith is precious because
faith lays hold on Christ, who is precious. Peter said, unto
you, therefore, which believe, he is precious. If he's precious,
faith that lays hold on him must be precious. Oh, to lay hold
on him who is precious. That's what makes faith precious.
Saving faith is precious because faith lays hold upon the precious
promises of God. Salvation is in Christ, not our
works. That's what God promised us.
We'll get to verse four in a minute, but Peter tells us in verse four,
whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. We lay hold, we believe those
precious promises by faith that God gives. That makes faith precious.
Saving faith is precious because the only way a sinner can be
justified, the only way a sinner can be made without sin is by
faith. We're justified by faith. In
Romans 5 verse 1, Paul said, therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. For a sinner to be made without
sin, is more precious than I have
words to say. That's what makes this faith
so precious. By faith, we're justified, made without sin,
not guilty. Saving faith is precious because
the one and only way you and I can please God is by faith. Without faith, it's impossible
to please Him. And saving faith is precious
because a dead sinner can only have life through faith in Christ. The just shall live how? By faith. Now, life is precious. I know
you all know that life is precious, but if you don't believe me,
just do look at what we do to hang on to physical life. We
go to great extremes to hang on to this physical life that
is at best temporary. Well, how much more precious
is life eternal? We have life eternal through
faith in Christ, and that makes faith precious. So the first
gift God gives everyone he saves is faith. The second gift that
God gives everyone he saves is righteousness. Verse one again,
Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ to them that
have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of God and our savior, Jesus Christ. Now, we who believe we
have obtained this light, precious faith through the righteousness
of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. The righteousness of
Christ is his obedience, his obedience to the law, his righteousness,
his obedience is what makes faith precious. The Lord Jesus, if
he was not perfectly obedient to the law, our faith would be
vain. It would be worthless if he wasn't
perfectly righteous. But since he was perfectly obedient
to the law as a man, that makes our faith in him precious. And
that makes us righteous in him. Now, the righteousness of Christ,
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus is the righteousness that
he earned as a man. As a man, he obeyed God's law
perfectly. He earned it all by himself as
a man. Then how can the righteousness
of Christ be our righteousness? How can that be? It's through
faith in Him. Look at Romans chapter 4. Righteousness
is imputed. It's charged, it's reckoned,
given to us through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is
what Paul tells us about Abraham in Romans 4 verse 1. What shall we say then that Abraham,
our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if
Abraham were justified by works, he hath were of the glory, but
not before God. For what saith the scripture?
This is how we determine the answer to every question. What
does scripture say? What saith the scripture? Abraham
believed God, and it was counted. It was reckoned. It was imputed
unto him for righteousness. Now look over at verse 23. Now
it was not written for his sake alone, for Abraham's sake alone
that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall
be imputed. If we believe on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses
and was raised again for our justification. See, righteousness
is imputed to God's people through faith in Christ. Righteousness
and faith always go hand in hand. Whenever God imputes righteousness
to someone, he always gives them faith to receive that righteousness.
Faith and righteousness always go hand in hand. Now we talk
about imputed righteousness. If you and I are going to be
righteous, it's going to have to be in Christ through his righteousness
imputed to us because we can't obey God's law. So we talk about
righteousness imputed. That doesn't mean that God calls
a sinner righteous even though they're not righteous. That's
not what that means at all. God only imputes what's really
there. God can't pretend. He can't play
like. God only imputes what is really
there. If God calls a sinner righteous,
he calls them righteous because he's made them righteous in our
Lord Jesus Christ. Christ's obedience is their obedience. It's not Christ's obedience is
like their obedience. Christ's obedience is actually
their obedience. When God looks at his children,
he looks at them as seeing that they have done everything the
Lord Jesus did as a man. So it's not like they're righteous.
They are actually righteous through the doing and the dying of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Always remember this. I say this
often and I'm going to keep saying it often because I really do
think it helps us understand righteousness. Righteousness
is not a thing. Righteousness is a person. And
that makes righteousness much more precious to the believer.
Righteousness is not a doctrine I read about on paper somewhere.
Righteousness is a person, the person, the Savior that I love.
So, Psalm 71. If God will enable us to believe
that and see that, we'll say just what David says here about
righteousness in Psalm 71. Verse 15, my mouth shall show forth thy
righteousness and thy salvation all the day, for I know not the
numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of
the Lord God. I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of
thine only. That's the second gift of grace
that God gives to everyone he saves. He enables us to see Christ
as our righteousness, that we're righteous in Him. Now, the third
gift of God's grace that He gives everyone He saves is the knowledge
of God. Verse 2 in our text, 2 Peter
1. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord. Now, everyone God saves is going
to know this. We're going to know who it is
that saved us. We're going to know it's Christ
that saved us. Look at John chapter 17. This
is our Lord's high priestly prayer. And in this prayer, He tells
us that knowing God is salvation. Eternal life is to know God.
John 17 verse 3. And this is life eternal. that
they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent." Everyone God saves is going to know God. Now,
that does not mean God's people are going to know everything
that there is to know. Far from it. We're not going to know everything
there is to know about anything. Certainly we're not going to
know everything there is to know about Almighty God. But everyone
of God's children are going to know this. It's Christ who saved
me. He saved me by himself without
any input from me whatsoever. Every believer is going to know
this, that the Father sent the Son into the world to save sinners
like me. In John 17, look here at verse
7. Our Lord says, Now they have
known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are thee.
For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me. and
they have received them, and have known surely that I came
out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send
me." Every child of God is going to know that Christ, the Father
sent Christ into this world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Now, we talk about this knowledge.
Knowledge of God and the love of God are the same thing. Not only will God's elect know
Christ, they'll love Him. You know, there are things I
know that I hate. There are things I know I don't
like. I wish I didn't know them. But to know Christ means that
you love Him and you love everything about Him. You love His way of
salvation. Not only if I know God, not only
will I know, how God can save a sinner like me and still be
just and still be God. But I want my salvation to be
that way. I want my salvation to be done
in justice through God crucifying, sacrificing, punishing his son
in my room instead as my substitute. If I know Christ, not only will
I know, but I'll love that salvation is all in and by and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. I want it all in Him. If I know
God, not only will I know I'm totally depraved. That's a doctrinal
fact. I don't have to look very far
to find out I'm totally depraved. I'm unable to choose God. I'm
unable to do anything to get God to save me. But if I know
God, I'm going to love God chose to save sinners like me. Not
because there's any goodness in them, just because He would. If I know God, I'll love that.
If I know God, not only will I know that salvation is through
the obedience of Christ, it's all in His righteousness without
any of my works. Not only will I know that, if
I know God, I'll want salvation to be that way. I'll love that
salvation is all of grace without any of my works. If I know God,
I love that. If I know God, not only will
I know I need a sacrifice, I need Christ to be my sacrifice, but
I'm going to love that Christ is my sacrifice because His perfect,
precious blood cleanses me from all sin. If I know God, I love
that. If I know God, not only will
I know that I can't keep myself, I'll want it that way. that Christ,
not only did He save me, He's going to keep me. He's going
to preserve me by His power and by His might. And without Him,
I can do nothing. I'll love that if I know God.
So the more I learn of Christ, the more I grow in grace and
the knowledge of Christ, who He is and what He's done for
His people, the more I'll enjoy grace in my heart. Peter says
in his salutation here, grace and peace be multiplied unto
you. Well, how's grace going to be multiplied unto me? I already
know God's grace. I've already experienced God's
grace in my soul. But the more I learn of who Christ
is, the more I'm going to love His grace. The more I'm going
to enjoy His grace. The more I learn of who Christ
is, the more I'm going to love His calling grace. His regenerating
grace, His keeping grace, His sanctifying grace, His sovereign
grace to save sinners. The more I know of Christ, the
more of His grace I'll enjoy. And the more I learn of Christ,
the more peace is going to be multiplied in my heart. Every
believer already has peace with God, don't we? We have peace
with God through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, through
the blood of His cross. But the more I learn of Christ,
The more I learn of His sufficiency, the more peace I'll enjoy. The
more I learn this, that Christ really is all I need. If I've
got Him, I've got it all. The more God teaches me that,
the more I learn that through my experience and through the
gospel, the more peace I'll enjoy in my heart. The more I learn
that Christ really is all my righteousness, that I don't have
to keep the law to please God, the more peace I'll have in my
heart. The more I learn how Christ loves his people, he loves sinners,
and he's not willing that any of them should perish. And I'm
going to deal with that in a message here in a few minutes, Lord willing.
But the more I learn of his love for his people, the more peace
I'll have in my heart. Even though the way I tread is
going to become more difficult and more stormy, the more I learn
of his love for me, the more peace I'll have in my heart.
Now here's the fourth gift of God's grace he gives to all of
his people. It's the new birth. Verse three,
according as his divine power has given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him
that have called us to glory and virtue. Now these exceeding
great and precious promises, they're all the promises of the
gospel. They're the promise of righteousness through the obedience
of another. It's the promise of a sacrifice
that will take away sin. You know, for thousands of years,
they offered the bullocks and the lambs and the rams and the
goats. None of them took away sin. The exceeding great and
precious promise of the gospel is Christ, the lamb of God is
coming and his sacrifice will put away the sin of this people.
That's an exceeding great and precious promise, isn't it? These
promises are the promise of life through the death of a substitute.
And I began to look these up. I was going to read some of them
to you, and there's too many. If you want a little homework
assignment, you want something that will bless you. If you've
got an age topical Bible, look up promises to the righteous.
There are pages and pages and pages of them. You'll see exceeding
great and precious promises. They'll thrill your soul. Exceeding
great promises, precious promises. There are too many of them for
us to look at, but I do want us to look at this exceeding
great and precious promise given to us in verse four. It's the
promise of a new birth, the promise of a new man who's not born in
the image of Adam, but who's born in the image of Christ.
Verse four, 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 when Peter says here, we're made partakers of the divine
nature. He's not saying a believer is made a little God. He's not
saying that in the new birth, we receive the essence of who
God is. We become the essence of who
God is so that the finite becomes infinite, so that we become omniscient.
He's not saying that at all. This is what Peter's saying.
In the new birth, there's a new man born. and he's born in the
image of his father. Just like our first birth, we
are born in the image of our father Adam. In the second birth,
we're born with the nature of our heavenly father. In our second
birth, there's a new man born, and he's born looking just like
his heavenly father. Now, you can't deny this. In
our first birth, we were made heartakers of Adam's nature,
weren't we? We act just like Him. We sin just like Him. We
don't believe just like Him because we've got His nature. We're made
partakers of Adam's nature through His seed in the first birth.
Well, you can't deny the seed. Then in the new birth, in the
second birth, there's a new man born who's been made partaker
of Christ's righteousness, of His righteous nature. That's
what the word partakers means. It means companions. It means
fellowshippers. And it means sharers. A believer
is a sharer of Christ's righteousness because we have union with Him.
If we have union with Him, we're sharers of everything that He
is. A believer is a sharer of Christ's righteous nature because
Christ is in every believer. Let me show you that in Galatians
chapter 4. The new birth is Christ being
formed in us. Galatians chapter 4 verse 19. My little children of whom I
prevail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. See,
that's the new birth. It's the nature of Christ being
formed in a sinner. And if you look over Romans chapter
eight, I'll show you this. There is no salvation without
the birth of this new sinless man. If Christ is not formed
in us, if he's not born in us, there's no salvation. Romans
eight, verse eight. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. But you're not in the flesh,
but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you.
If he's been born in you and dwells in you, that's how you're
the new man. That's how you're saved. Now,
if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. If Christ has not been formed
in you, you're none of his. You don't have spiritual life.
That new man must be born in us. Isn't that obvious? We've
got to have a new holy nature born in us because in this flesh
we cannot please God. And the nature of the new man
has got the nature of our heavenly Father. The nature of the new
man is holy. Look at 1 John chapter 3. The nature of the new man who's
been born of God is holy and cannot sin. Any more than Christ
can sin. That's how we're made partakers
of the divine nature. 1 John 3 verse 5. And we know that he was manifested
to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth
in him sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. Now that man who's born of God
cannot sin. And the key to it is the seed
from which he was born. Look down at verse 9. Whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in
him. And he cannot sin because he's
born of God. He's born of God from the seed,
the incorruptible seed of God that cannot sin. If we're born
from the incorruptible, sinless seed of the word of God, that
new man cannot sin. And that new man is a partaker
of the nature of Christ. He's got the nature of Christ.
The new man believes God because he's born with the nature of
faith. The new man loves God because he's born with the nature
of love. That's his nature. Just like
it's Adam's nature, the nature of this flesh to sin. It's the
nature of the new man to believe God and to love God. Now, we
say this new man cannot sin. Don't mistake what we're saying.
Everything a child of God does, everything a believer does, everything
that a newborn child of God does in this world is sin. Everything
we do is sin because we're still carrying around this old sinful
nature. So everything we do is sin. But
yet we've got a nature that cannot sin. And you can't understand
that. unless you've got two natures.
The only person who can understand the new birth, the only person
who can see two natures in me, is somebody that's got two natures.
Only the new man can see the old man. Only the new man can
see the sin and depravity of the old man. Every believer has
two natures. One nature that cannot sin, that
never will sin. And one nature that can do nothing
but sin. And you know, we see that in
Peter's letter here. We see that by the name that
we know Peter by, Simon Peter. Simon is the name his parents
gave him when he was born of the flesh, when he was born of
Adam's nature. Peter is the name the Lord gave him when he was
born of the spirit. Two natures, two names that every
believer has. There are two different warring
natures in every belief. We live with the civil war for
as long as we live on this earth. But here's the good news. That
old man is just as strong as he ever was. That old man is
just as sinful and rotten and depraved as he ever was. But
that old man doesn't rule anymore. Now there's a new king on the
throne. Christ sits on the throne of the hearts of his people.
So the new man rules. And that's how we escape the
corruption that's in the world through lust. The old man, all
he wants is sin. All he wants is rebellion and
unbelief. But the new man is not going
to let that old man overrule. He's not going to let us be overcome
with the sin the old man desires. The nature of Christ in us guarantees
that sin won't reign unto death. The nature of Christ in us guarantees
that righteousness is going to reign eternal life through Jesus
Christ, our Savior. All right. I hope I'll bless
you. I hope we've seen hope. We have some evidence of seeing
in ourselves that God has given us these four gifts of his saving
grace. All right. The Lord bless you.