In 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 1,
Peter begins his epistle, 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. Now this second epistle Peter's
writing, he's the old apostle now. Soon he knows he'll die. He'll be crucified upside down.
If you look over in verse 14, of chapter one. He says, knowing
that shortly I must put off this, my tabernacle, even as our Lord
Jesus Christ has showed me, he knew he was an old man about
to depart this world. And before he goes to be with
the Lord, he's got some things that he wants to remind us of
and teach us. And his message is for believers,
that that's who the gospel really is all for, for believers. They're
the only people have ears to hear it. His message is to them
who have obtained like precious faith. Believers have obtained
faith and you've obtained it not by works, not by merit, but
you've obtained it as a gift of God's grace. And Peter says
you've obtained like faith. All faith is alike. It's the
same. God gives every one of his children
the exact same faith, faith in his son. Now, he doesn't always
give the same degree of faith. There are different degrees of
faith. Some are stronger, some are weaker, but it's the same
faith. There's one Lord, one faith,
one baptism. Paul called it the common faith. And it's all the same faith that
comes from the same source, from the Father. It's a gift of his
grace. It's all the same faith that
has the same object of faith, Christ. It's the same faith because
that faith all has the same result, the salvation of our souls. It's
like faith. And this like faith is saving
faith. The saving faith is not just
the belief that a historical figure, Jesus, once lived and
died roughly 2000 years ago. That's not saving faith. Saving
faith is not even believing some things that we read in the Bible
that we believe to be true. It's not believing some things
that the preacher tells us and that our parents told us. Saving
faith is a rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's looking to Him and
Him alone is putting all of your hope in Him. Saving faith is
complete dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ to provide us everything
that God requires. Saving faith is a full belief
that Christ is all my salvation. And saving faith is confidence
that he will do what he said he'd do. That's what Paul said.
I know whom I have believed. I'm persuaded. I'm confident
that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. That's saving faith. And Peter says saving faith is
precious. It's like precious faith. Saving
faith is precious because faith in Christ is rare. You don't
find it often. This is where God gave it. It's
precious. Saving faith is precious because
it's saving faith that receives Christ, who is preciousness.
That's what Peter told us in his last letter. Under you, therefore,
which believe, he is precious. He is preciousness. And this
faith that receives Christ is precious because he's precious.
Saving faith is precious because it gives us life. Life. People understand this. Life
is precious. Physical life is precious. You fight to hang on to it. You
fight to preserve it because it's precious. Well, how much
more precious is spiritual life? Eternal life. It's precious.
And we have that eternal spiritual life through faith. The just
shall live by faith. Saving faith is precious because
it gives us the impossible. Faith gives a sinner the impossible
to please God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. This is precious faith. Precious
faith is precious to sinners. It's not precious to everybody
in the whole wide world, but if you're a sinner, faith is
precious. Sinners are justified by faith. Sinners, enemies of God, have
peace with God through faith. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. So this faith is precious faith. And this faith is always a gift
of God. We didn't find it. We didn't
earn it. We didn't merit it. It's a gift
of God. It's a gift of God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ. And it comes to us through the
righteousness of God. We'll see this in a minute, that
righteousness, just like faith, is a gift of God. Imputed righteousness
is a gift. It's not something we deserve.
It's a gift of God. And every single time where righteousness
is imputed, faith is given. Always. Because it's faith that
receives Christ. It's faith that receives Christ,
who is our righteousness. Now he goes on in verse 2. He
says, Grace and peace be multiplied unto you. through the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord. Now this is his prayer for every
believer. This is a general epistle to
every believer and this is Peter's prayer that we would receive
multiplied stores of grace. Just heaping stores of grace
from our God and peace. Now we have received faith in
our Lord Jesus Christ and we've also received multiplied grace
and peace through Christ too. Peter says it's through the knowledge
of God and through the knowledge of Jesus, our Lord. If we want
more grace, what we need to do is pray for an increased knowledge
of Christ and there'll be more grace. Every one of us would
like more peace. Well, if we want more peace,
the way to find it is pray that the Lord will reveal more of
himself to us. that he'll reveal more of himself
through the Word. This Word is the manifestation
of God. If we want to have more peace,
we need to learn more of him. That's where it comes from. The
more we know of Christ, the more we know of our Father, the more
peace and rest we'll have. Now he goes on in verse 3. He
says, 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. Now, so far,
just in these first verses, we see we've received faith, a gift,
faith from God. We receive grace and peace from
God. We receive everything, absolutely
everything, through Christ. God has given his people everything. He's not withheld anything. He's
given us everything that pertains to life and godliness through
his divine power. Absolutely Everything that is
ever going to be required of us, God's given His people. Everything,
everything belongs to God. And He giveth it to whomsoever
He will. And He gives it freely to His
people. You think about what He's given us. God's given dead
sinners life. God has given the ungodly godliness. God has called the unrighteous
to glory and virtue. Now that sounds like a contradiction,
doesn't it? That's impossible. Well, it is
impossible unless you have divine power. He's given us those things
because He has divine power. And when God calls, He always
equips to answer the call. Every time. Only God with divine
power can tell a lame man, take up your bed and walk. That's
divine power. Where He gave the command, He
gave the power to obey. Only God can tell a man with
their hand, stretch forth their hand. And He did. Only God can
call a dead man from the tomb and watch him come forth because
of divine power. With the command comes the power.
Only God can tell a fisherman like Peter, come to me. Go ahead,
walk on the water and come to me. And he did, until he took
his eyes off Christ, started looking at the waves, and then
only Christ could reach down and save him, put him back in
the boat. That's divine power. And when God calls a dead sinner
to Christ, through the gospel, He gives you an ear to hear the
call. He gives you life. He gives you faith to believe
and respond. He calls a sinner, a dead sinner,
to life. and godliness. He calls us to
glory and virtue. And we'll see more about that
virtue here in a couple of verses. Now he goes on, verse 4, he says,
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,
whereby? By the divine power of God. by
these precious promises are given to us through the divine power
of God. And it must be that way because
it takes the very power of God to be able to keep these promises.
I suppose words are cheap. Anybody can make these promises,
but only the one with divine power can fulfill them. And these
promises are not little things. These are great promises, exceeding
great promises. They're exceeding precious promises. So cling to them because of how
precious, how great they are. Look over Hebrews chapter 10.
Let's look at a few of these promises. You know, God has given
his people an entire covenant of promises, an entire covenant. Hebrews 10 verse 16. Now, this is the covenant I will
make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my
laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.
And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now that's an exceeding great
and precious promise. To a sinner it is. Their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. I'll give them a new
mind. I'll write my laws in their mind.
I'll give them a new heart. I'll put my law in their heart. And I will not remember their
sins. Well, how can God promise not
to remember our sin? Because he's going to send his
son. He's going to send his son as a substitute who will shed
his precious blood to blot out the sins of his people. It took
divine power to fulfill that promise, but he did. The whole
covenant of promises he's given us. Look back in Isaiah 43. Here's another promise. But now, thus saith the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name, and thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee. That's a promise. I will be with
thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. That's a precious promise. He's
not promising you that you won't go through the water, that you
won't go through the deep rivers, that you won't go through the
fire. You will. But when you go there, he says,
I will be with thee. That's a precious promise. Look
over in John chapter 10. John 10. God's promised that
he will send his gospel to his people and they will hear it.
They will believe it and they'll come to him. He promised that
in John 10 verse 16. And other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring. They shall hear
my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. That's
a promise. Not one sheep for whom Christ
died is going to be lost. He will call them to himself
and they'll come to him. There'll be one fold and one
shepherd. Look over a few pages of John 14. See, these promises
go on forever. We have a promise from our Savior
to be with Him eternally. John 14, verse 1. Let not your
heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. And if it were not so, I would
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. I will come again. We were talking,
we went over to my mom's house yesterday evening. We were talking
on the way back home. And Jen asked the man, I don't
know where this question came from. She said, what do you remember
about the first day of school, first day of kindergarten? And
she said, well, I remember being kind of scared. And I remember
trying to figure out how you were going to come back and get
me. Because Jan told you, I will be back to get you. I won't be
late. And here this little five-year-old is in this great big school.
And she thought, how's Mama going to find me? How's she going to know
where I am? I don't know everything there is to know about the return
of Christ. But I can promise you this. He's
coming. He will come to get His people.
He promised. And He will keep His promise.
Look over in verse 26 here of John 14. I'm sorry, look at verse
16 first. He's promised us comfort. In John 14, verse 16. And I'll
pray the father that he will give you another comforter that
he may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth in the
world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. That's a precious promise. Look,
in verse 26, he's promised to teach his people. He's not going
to leave us ignorant. He's going to teach us. In verse 26, but
the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send
in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things
to your remembrance whatsoever I've said unto you. In verse
27, he's promised us peace. He says, peace I leave with you.
My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto
you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. He's promised peace to his people. And all these precious promises,
we go on and on and on and on the precious promises of God
that we cling to. These are promises Only God has
the power to perform. Only God can give peace to the
heart. Only God can forgive sin. Only God can promise I will come
and take you to myself. Only God can promise to make
you like Christ. Only God can promise those things.
And I'll tell you another thing that makes these promises so
precious. The fulfillment of these promises are entirely based
on God. These are unconditional promises.
He doesn't say, I'll do this if you do this. He doesn't say,
I'll give you peace if you obey me or if you keep doing my will,
you keep following me. He doesn't say, I'll promise
to forgive your sins if you do this first. He says, I will,
I will, I will, I shall. These promises are unconditional
promises based purely on the mercy and grace and love of God.
precious promises. And by the power of God, by these
exceeding great and precious promises, God's elect, his children,
are made partakers of the divine nature. Now that sounds like
a mystery. That doesn't sound like it. That
is a mystery. To the natural man, being made a partaker of
the divine nature is a mystery. And I do not deny that that's
a mystery of Scripture. And I know I cannot explain everything
there is to know about this, being made a partaker of the
divine nature. And even if I could explain it,
you couldn't understand it. We can't understand it all. But
I'll tell you this, with every fiber of my being, I believe
this, because I just read it. Partaker, made a partaker of
the divine nature. Now I know this, salvation, God's
salvation, is not only a work of Christ for His people. Now it involves a work of Christ
for His people, but it doesn't end there. God's salvation is
also a work of grace in His people. It must be both. If it's God's
salvation, it must be both a work of Christ for His people and
a work of Christ in His people. It must be both. Both are necessary. And this work of Christ in us
is what Peter is talking about here, made a partaker of the
divine nature. Now how can a man or a woman
who is born a sinner, nothing but sin, shapen in iniquity,
how is it possible that we can be made a partaker of the divine
nature? Now people read that and they
just, you know, they go off and go wild, you know. You can't
be made like God. You know, if you believe that
you're made a partaker of the divine nature, you believe you're a
little God. Oh, you know, we're not made a partaker of the essence
of God, of who God is. We're not made independently
to stand on our own like God. We're not made equal with God.
We don't partake of his omniscience. We don't partake of his omnipresence. We don't partake of his divine
power. That's the foolish talk of someone who doesn't understand
the New Birth and just denies scripture. We're made partakers
of the divine nature through a vital union with Christ, by
being joined to Christ, by being put in Christ. He's the head
and we're the body. We're joined inseparably to Christ
so that we are made everything that He is. That's the simple
truth of federal headship. Two Adams, the first Adam and
the second Adam. When we were born the first time
into this world, every one of us were born flesh. Flesh. We're born of the flesh. We come
from the flesh. We're made a partaker of Adam's
sinful nature. John preached about the fall
of Adam Wednesday night. Immediately after Adam fell,
he became sinful. He became scared of God. He used
to walk with God in the cool of the evening. Now he's scared
of God. He's hiding from God. He hates God. He blames God for
his sin. I would have sinned except for
this woman you gave me. It's your fault. He become hateful
to his wife who he loved. And now he's hateful to her.
Trying to throw her under the bus. Just utterly depraved and
sinful. Just the most intelligent man. Whoever lived, it becomes stupid. Why? Because he's spiritually
dead. He died. He lost all spiritual
sense and light and understanding. And he's hiding from God in the
bushes because he's fallen. He has become everything God
is not. And you and me, when we were
born, became partakers of that nature. When we were conceived,
we became partakers of that nature. Can anybody, can any of us deny
that description of Adam I just gave is me and you? Can you deny that? That's a description
of us because we became partakers of Adam's nature. And when we
were born, we were born real sinners. In reality, sinners. We love darkness and hated light.
We love sin and iniquity and hated righteousness. And that
was real. That wasn't a description of
who we'd be one day when we reach the age of accountability. Nobody
can tell you what that age is, but you didn't become a sinner
someday when you reach the age of accountability. That's not
a description of what you'll be someday down the road. That
is the description of who you are, who I am when we're born. We are born sinners, partakers
of Adam's nature. There was an excellent article
in the back of the bulletin just I just go on and you read that
this hit that article by Charlie makes this point. Not only was
Adam's sin imputed to us, his sinful nature was imparted to
us in us so that we are sinners. We drink a nickely like water.
Partakers of Adam's nature. But when by God's grace, we're
born again the second time, we're born from above, from the spirit,
and we are made a partaker of Christ's righteousness of his
nature. And we are born of the spirit,
really and truly righteous. We're born with a nature, the
nature of Christ that can not sin. It's a nature that loves
righteousness and hates sin. It's a nature that loves God.
It's a nature that loves his word. That's why these promises
are precious, because you love his word. We're born with a nature
that loves God's way. No longer do we want to go our
way. We look for his way. We're born with a nature that
loves God's son. And that's not a description
of who you'll be someday when you wake up in glory. That's
a description of who you are right now. That's a description
of the new man who's born of God. We are made partakers of
everything that Christ is. His holiness. His righteousness,
His sinlessness, His righteousness is imputed to us and a new nature,
a new righteous, holy, sinless nature is imparted to us, put
in us. And I'm telling you, based on
God's Word, it must be both. A work of Christ for us and a
work of Christ in us. Now, we're still flesh, aren't
we? We are still in this flesh. When
we're born from above in the second birth, that old man doesn't
die. He doesn't die. He doesn't change
one single bit. The new birth does not change
our sinful nature. That which is born of flesh is
flesh. It'll never be anything but flesh. You're born again.
There's a new man born who never existed before. But that old
man is still totally depraved. And those two men, Those two
natures are going to live in the same body, fighting a life
of warfare until this sinful flesh dies and is put in the
ground. Then the new man, the man who
has been born from above will be finally separated from this
fighting and this warfare with this flesh and that new man whose
spirit will go be with the Lord. That's when they'll be separated.
Two distinct natures. And through the power of God,
that's so. That can only be. That can only
be true through the power of God. And through the power of
God, we have escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust.
Now, we haven't escaped the corruption of our nature. That old man is
corrupt. He'll never be anything but corrupt.
He's alive and well. But I tell you what we've escaped.
We've escaped the controlling, ruling nature. The ruling power
of Adam's nature. We've escaped the power that
rules the world. The children of disobedience.
The spirit that right now worketh in the children of disobedience.
Now, we're born just like everybody else in this world. Sinners.
But now, God made a difference. Through His divine power, God
made a difference. He gave you a different walk.
He gave you a different talk. He gave you a different attitude.
He gave you a different desire because he gave you a new nature
that desires new things. And we know we don't do these
things perfectly. Far from it, because we're still
tied to this flesh. But that's our desire. That is
the believer's desire. I desire to live a day, to live
a moment without sin. That's my goal. To live this
day without sin, I already blew it. This already blew it. And
we hate it. But that's still our desire to
live without sin. It's our desire to learn more
of the Savior. It's our desire to grow in grace
and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, these first
four verses, Peter's talked to us about what God's done for
us. Now he's going to tell us what
the Lord's done in us, the effect of his work in us. Look at verse
5, he says, but beside this, giving all diligence, add to
your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, to knowledge temperance,
to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness
brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. Now give all
diligence, he says. And that word diligence is earnest
striving. Strive earnestly to add these
things to your conduct. I'm about out of time. We won't
look at all these scriptures, but I looked up yesterday's diligent,
diligence. We are told many times in scripture
to be diligent, diligently obey the Lord, diligently obey his
word, to diligently follow him, to diligently worship him. Be diligent about these things.
You know, this time of year, you hear the story a lot about
the birth of Christ. And I looked this up yesterday.
You know what Herod, that evil king, you know what he told those
wise men? He said, you diligently search for the child. And then
you come tell me where he is. Well, they did what he told them. They diligently searched for
the child and they found him. But then they went out another
way. Then they go back and tell Herod where he was. And you know, the
same thing's true today. Scripture says the Lord is a
rewarder of them who diligently seek him. If you diligently seek
the Lord, you'll find him. You will find him. That's one
of those precious promises from God's word. You'll find him.
So be serious about these things now. We'll see this next week
in our lesson in verse 10. Peter says, Rather, brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you
do these things, you shall never fall. Be serious and diligent
about these spiritual matters. So be diligent to add to your
faith. Well, wait a minute now. You're
starting to sound like a heretic. Add to your faith? We're saved
by faith alone. Absolutely. But we're told to
add to our faith. Faith without works is dead.
So add to your faith virtue, morality. That's what that is.
Honesty, integrity before men. And spiritual virtue. What's
spiritual virtue? What's the fruit of the Spirit?
Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness,
temperance, against such there is no law. Virtue. And after
your virtue, knowledge, knowledge of God, knowledge of his will,
knowledge of the scripture, knowledge of the truth of the gospel. I
tell you, knowledge will be what protects you from going the way
of error. Every test is easy if you know the answers. It's
just easy. with knowledge. You can't get lost when you know
the way. Knowledge. And add to your knowledge
temperance. Self-control. Just avoid excess. You know, we think of temperance
as avoiding excess of drinking wine. Well, that's true. But
it's excess of anything temporal. Eating, drinking, the tongue. Avoid excess of the tongue, avoid
excess of hobbies and these different things. Enjoy them in their place,
but temperance. And add to your temperance, patience. Well, that just proves right
there, we need to pray that the Lord will give us all these things.
I don't care how diligent you are, be diligent in prayer that
the Lord will add these things to you because only God through
his divine power can give patience. That's what it takes. And we
need lots of it. We need patience to go through
trials. We need patience to deal with
ourselves. And patience to deal with people.
I remember Henry saying one time, if you're going to deal with
people, you've got to have patience. It takes patience. And add to your
patience, godliness, fear of the Lord. Both outward worship
and inward. Godliness, fear of the Lord.
And add to your godliness, brotherly kindness. Love for the brethren. If there is no love for the brethren,
that faith that you claim that you're going to add to is vain. Without love, faith is vain.
Without love of the brethren, it's just a vain show of religion. Where God gives faith, He puts
love in the heart. He does. Now show it and add
to your brotherly kindness charity. Not just love for the brethren,
but a love and compassion for people, all people. Yeah, they're
lost. Yeah, they're religious. And
yes, they've missed Christ, but we did too. God, through His
divine power, called us to faith and virtue. Faith and love always
go together. Where there's true faith, there's
always love. They're inseparable. And diligently
seek these things that you might be more Christ-like. Because
he says in verse 8, if these things be in you and abound,
they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things
is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that
he was purged from his old sins. If the Holy Spirit has put these
things in you, they'll grow and they'll abound and you'll be
a fruitful person, fruitful in the gospel. The person who's
without these things is blind. They're blind because they're
still dead. They can't see. They can't see near up. They
can't see afar off. They can't see Christ. They can't
see themselves complete in him. They can't see Christ afar off. How he purged our sins with his
own blood. All right. Rock with.