2nd Peter chapter 1. I just want
to read a few verses from the beginning of the chapter, so
just the first four verses. 2nd Peter chapter 1 and verse
1. 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 Saviour 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 ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust. Amen. May God bless to us this
short reading of his word. It is in knowing the Lord Jesus
Christ, that believers experience God's grace and peace. Peter writes that he wants grace
and peace to be multiplied to these believers, these possessors
of like precious faith. So Peter is talking to believers. But it shows us that faith very
often can be a little thing, a small thing. And the fact that
Peter says he is looking for faith to be multiplied and grace
and peace, these gospel graces to be multiplied, shows us that
it is in the experience of faith, it is in the knowledge of God,
that the blessings and the graces of God are experienced and enhanced
and developed and grown. There is no grace outside of
the Lord Jesus Christ. and there is no peace outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all spiritual knowledge is
discovered, is received, and is enjoyed through faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if we have but little faith,
then the discovery of the grace and peace of God will be but
little. If we have but little faith,
then the reception of grace and peace in our daily lives will
be but little. If we have but little faith,
then our enjoyment of the Lord Jesus Christ and the blessings
that he gives will be but little enjoyment. And therefore, it is incumbent
upon us all to strive and labour and engage to the increasing
of our faith. that we might grow in grace and
in a knowledge of the truth. Faith is a gift. And it is a gift of purpose. What do I mean by that? Well, I remember as a child,
Always being delighted. I had a lot of ants when I was
young. I was in a fairly big family. And come birthday time, it was
always good to see what my ants were going to get me for a birthday
present. But I always preferred the gifts
that I could play with above the gifts which sat on a shelf
for me to look at. Well, that's just how a child
thinks, right? They want to touch it. They want
to twist it. They want to bounce it. They
want to see how far it will go. Not just a little glass snow
globe. Faith is a gift with purpose. It has to be. handled. It has to be touched. It has
to be worked with. It has to be used. It is given to us to be exercised. The exercises of our faith will
be the challenges that we face day by day. Tomorrow is Monday
morning, and for a lot of people, Monday mornings can be challenging. For the believer, he faces his
Monday morning with the gift of faith. And he has tried the
Lord. He has exercised himself in these
challenges of life by proving the faithfulness of God in the
midst of his difficulties. That's what I mean when I say
that faith is a gift of purpose. It is to be used. Faith is like
the match that lights the lantern. that illuminates the path that
lightens our journey. Faith is the key that opens the
lock of the chest that reveals the
treasure. And as we exercise living faith,
It searches after Christ. It looks for Him. Indeed, it
hungers and thirsts after Him. It longs for Him. It longs to
meet Him. We come together as faithful
people longing to meet the Lord in the scriptures, in the gospel,
under His word, in the fellowship of believers. We have a passion. We have a burden because we have
a hunger after spiritual things. Faith grants that. Faith gives
that. And faith is fed in that. These are the things that bring
us together. These are the things that cause us to desire the Lord
and after the Lord. A man or a woman that has faith
will not be content with formal religion. You can get it in a
hundred churches, but they'll not be content with formal religion
because faith seeks, faith demands spiritual reality. This faith that Peter is speaking
about, he calls it precious faith. And it is faith that is also
called common faith. Well, how can something that's
common be precious? Well, water's precious, air's
precious, very common, but you'd be without it for a little while
and you'll soon know how precious it is. Faith is precious, but
it is common to all believers. And yet the commonality of that
faith does not speak about the degree of that faith. For some
people will have little faith and some people will have greater
faith. But all of us men and women of
faith should be seeking to grow that faith in order that we might
know more of the experience of Christ. and deepen our understanding
of His work in our lives. Are you anxious for your soul? I wish people were anxious for
their souls. Are you anxious for your soul?
You should be. We were hearing last night about
people that pass into eternity. And they've maybe shaken their
fist at God all their lives, maybe in reality, maybe metaphorically,
but wanting nothing to do with God. Well, they've got something
to do with God now. Are you anxious for your soul? Grace is tasted. in knowing Christ. If you're
anxious, it's the knowledge of Christ that will help and alleviate
your anxiety. Are you tried? Are you tested
in your heart? Then peace is received. Peace is felt through knowing
Christ. Let me just give you a couple
of examples. People talk about experiencing
the love of God, but experiencing the love of God is not some warm,
fuzzy feeling that life is going along okay. The meaning of the love of God
and the experience of the love of God is much more important
than that and has to do with an appreciation of the significance
of Christ's sacrifice in order to manifest and apply the love
of God to individual sinners. If we are going to understand
the love of God in any real way, we've got to understand what
it cost. We've got to understand what
it took for that love to come to us. And we're not going to
know the love of God until we know something of what it cost
the Lord Jesus Christ to bring it to us, to our experience. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans
chapter five, verse eight, God commendeth his love towards us. in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. If you want to know something
about the love of God, you need to know something about the death
of Christ. If you don't know anything about the death of Christ,
you don't know anything about the love of God. If you would
know something more of increased experience of the love of God,
you need to know something more about the extent and nature of
the death of Christ. People are looking for forgiveness.
But forgiveness is not to be found in bearing our souls to
some priest or confessing our sins to one another. That doesn't
give us forgiveness. It might alleviate our guilt
and our conscience a little bit. And it might give us like an
immediate hit. But for us to know forgiveness
with God requires something much more significant. It has to do with understanding
the power of God, the effect of the substitutionary atonement
of the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who carried our sins away
from the sight of God and enabled that forgiveness to flow to us. 1 John 1, verse 7 says, But if
we walk in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth
us from all sin. If we're looking to experience
the graces of God, and the peace of God, and the felt experience
of God with us, that is obtained through the knowledge of what
God has done in the person of Jesus Christ for sinners like
us. Spiritual blessings flow from
spiritual understanding. And you don't get your spiritual
understanding at a university or a college. It doesn't come
with the doctor of divinity that gets put behind somebody's name
because they've passed a Greek or a Latin test or they've produced
a good paper on some esoteric theological question. Spiritual matters flow from spiritual
understanding. Spiritual blessings come from
knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith exercised is faith that
is tested, and it happens in the crucible of the trials of
this life. Grace and peace are God's daily
manna for his people, but they have to receive that by faith. It is God's goodness to us that
sustains us through the days of our life, but we appropriate
that by faith. It is our faith that enters into
the experiences of God's goodness and enables us to enjoy them
and receive them. It doesn't come from worldly
wisdom, though we spend so much time pursuing worldly wisdom,
do we not? It doesn't come from worldly
entertainment, though we spend so much time entertaining ourselves
in this world. It doesn't come from all the
passions that we have, of the hobbies and the crafts or the
work. that we have in this world, it
doesn't come from that. The world's wealth, the world's
wisdom, the world's sources will not lead us to Christ one inch, but faith draws us nigh to him. We must know God's purpose in
salvation. We must know God's provision
in Christ. And we must know God's presence
in providence. It is being able to say with
a quiet confidence, my God has this. I'm safe in his hands. Now some of you who are listening
to me perhaps will be thinking to themselves and maybe mumbling
a little bit under their breath and saying, you know, it's all
very well for him to say that, but he doesn't know my life. And that's true. I don't, I don't. What is it they say? I have not
walked a mile in your moccasins. And I've not stumbled under the
same load that you have been called to carry. Our trials and our needs in this
life are as individual as we are. And nobody is ever going
to be able to experience things the way that you do, or indeed
have to experience things the way that you have had to. But I'm not asking you to take
comfort from the words of this Peter. I'm asking you to take
comfort from the words of another Peter, from the words of the
Apostle Peter. I'm asking you to look with me
today at these couple of verses that we have in verse 3 and 4. Having begun, having established
in our thoughts the reason for the letter, the author of the
letter, the faith of which the author speaks, Let us move into
these next couple of verses and just draw some sweetness, if
the Lord will allow, from these sentiments. The Apostle Peter
is speaking by words of inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and these
words are designed to uplift us. They're purposefully written
to comfort and help and encourage the Lord's people, the Lord's
weak people, his tried people, and his suffering people. So
for more than 2,000 years since Peter penned these words, they
have stood the test of time. And if they are squeezed, they
still provide sweetness for the Lord's people. So let us, by
faith, endeavour to squeeze these verses a little this morning,
and we will see if they provide any good for our souls. Just
before I do that, let me quote a verse to you from John chapter
20. Verse 31, you're all familiar with it, I think. It says this,
these are written. that ye may believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have
life through his name. When we turn to the Scriptures
as believing people, when we come to the Lord's Word as men
and women of faith, we are looking to grow in our knowledge of Him. We are looking to be able to
take and receive something from these words and verses that will
bless our hearts and encourage our souls. And I believe this
message ought to and will bless every child of God because it
points us to the great and precious promises of God our Saviour in
the Lord Jesus Christ for us. And if the Lord will, I hope
that you will be able to say as you leave this place that
there has been some sweet comfort in these great and precious promises
for us today. So I want you to notice in verse
3 that the Holy Spirit leads the
Apostle Peter to declare that whatever is spiritual, whatever
is of faith, whatever may be known of Christ is a gift from
God. It is the divine power that has
given unto us. Anything that we would know of
this light, precious faith, anything that we would know of the grace
and peace of verse one and two comes to us according as his
divine power hath given it. So we are always going to be
beggars before the glory of God. And yet we will be beggars who
know something of the faithfulness of a God who delights to give
according to our need. So we are to ask and we are to
seek with the promise that we shall find. Believers are fitted and then
believers are filled according to the goodness of God. God empties
us before he fills us. He teaches us of our need before
he provides the satisfaction of that need. And that is what
this Christian Pilgrim Walk is all about. God fitting us and
then filling us according to His goodness. He prepares us
and then He provides for that need. 1 Corinthians 2, verse
14 says, The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. but spiritual men
and women receive the things of God, and they do discern them
because they are spiritually attuned and able to receive of
God's goodness. And here we're told in this little
verse, these two verses, three and four, of five spiritual blessings. Five spiritual blessings that
are freely given by His divine power. Now, I have thought about
this in my reflection and my preparation. I've thought about
what is that divine power? What is that talking about? According as his divine power
hath given unto us. What is that divine power? Is
it the Holy Spirit that he's talking about there? Is the Holy
Spirit the divine power? Is it God the Father himself? Because that's what we're talking
about in the previous verse. Verse 2, through the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord. Or is it indeed the Lord Jesus? Is he the divine power? Or is it the power of Christ
rather than Christ himself? Is it the power of God? Is it
the power of the Holy Spirit? For while the Holy Spirit is
the power, the power has power. Or is it the gospel, which is
the power of God unto salvation? Answers on a postcard. But I'll tell you this, that
whether this is the Father that's giving these blessings, or whether
it's the Son, or whether it's the Holy Spirit, or whether it's
through the Gospel, or whether it's the power of each of those
together, or however it comes to us, it has to come by grace,
and it comes from God to His people. And these five blessings
that we are given here come from the power of God. As I was thinking about that
and trying to work out which one I would settle upon, I thought
to myself, you know what? A starving man doesn't worry
about where the bread comes from, right? I sometimes wonder if our trouble
in believing the testimony of God is the sheer scale and size
and wonder of the marvellous blessings that he has for us.
that we often find ourselves stumbled by the sheer scale of
God's goodness and the sheer magnanimity and magnitude of
his grace. Well, I think that's how we will feel
when we've thought about what these verses tell us. Just before
we look at them, turn with me please to Corinthians, 1 Corinthians. We've turned to 1 Corinthians
a couple of times. Chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse
9. These are verses that are often
used to speak about heaven, and I've used them to speak about
heaven. To speak about what we're going to encounter in a day to
come. But actually, within the context,
it doesn't have to be heaven. It is also in this life, in this
world, that we are talking about these gifts being revealed to
people of faith. Look what it says there in 1
Corinthians 2, verse 9. But as it is written, I hath
not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. So maybe the answer is that the
power there is the Spirit because these are the very things that
God has revealed. God hath revealed them unto us
by his Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the
deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things
of a man, save the Spirit of man which is in him? Even so
the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak not
in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy
Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual." So, Here
is the Apostle Paul telling the Corinthians that eyes not seen
and ears not heard the things that God has prepared for his
people, but the Holy Spirit has revealed them unto us. That's
what Peter's talking about here in verse three. That his power
has given us these things. His power has revealed these
things to us. Okay, here's the first of the
five that we have before us this morning. All things are given
to us that pertain unto life and godliness. What did I just
say about the magnitude of these things being so big that it stumbles
our belief? That's what the apostle is telling
us here. that God has given to us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness. Now I don't know
what you want to do by way of cataloguing those all things.
Sometimes when we're writing a contract, if somebody's doing
a bit of business or selling a property or trying to put a
piece of legislation together, they'll have a catch-all clause
at the end of the contract so that all the eventualities that
are enumerated and named in the contract, if any of these things
happen, then it's going to make the contract null and void or
whatever it might be. And then at the end, the smart,
lawyer or the smart solicitor. Solicitor is a different word.
Right, the smart lawyer. He puts a catch-all clause at
the bottom which says, and anything else. That's what Peter's done here.
This is a catch-all clause, only instead of putting it at the
end of the contract, he's put it right up front so that we
know that there's nothing going to be withheld to the people
of God who approach their saviour by faith. All things that pertain
unto life and godliness. Is there anything that we can
possibly need as believers in this world? Is there anything
that we could possibly be lacking as to those glorified saints
in heaven? Everything pertaining to life
and godliness is freely provided for his people. As believers,
as people of God, we have all things pertaining to life and
godliness. Now certainly God gives all things
as far as natural life is concerned. He gives us our health and our
strength, our food. He gives us rain. He gives us
sunshine. He gives us air to breathe and
water to drink. So natural life is certainly
sustained by God. But here it's spiritual life
that's in view because we're talking about this like precious
faith. All we need for spiritual life
is given to us by God. Everything in earth and everything
in heaven, all things. We need righteousness, It's given. We need holiness. It's given. We need spiritual eyes and ears. It's given. We need a gospel. It's given. We need a preacher.
It's given. God gives us everything that
we need in order to have that experience with Him. Romans 8
verse 32 says, 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? The dearest thing to the heart
of God was his own precious son, and he gave him for you, and
he gave him for me. What else is he going to withhold
from us then? Everything we need for the full
enjoyment of blessing. Everything to prepare us for
fellowship with God is freely given to us in Christ. That's
what I meant when I said we are fitted and then we are filled. God gives us a desire, God gives
us a hankering, God gives us a hunger and a thirst and then
he gives us the satisfaction of those feelings of need and
emptiness which he generates in the heart of his people. And soon he's going to provide
us with a heavenly mansion and we're going to think that everything
that he had given us heretofore was just the first course for
the fullness of the feast that is set before us in glory. Do
you ever wonder how joy and happiness and gratitude can be complete
in heaven if people aren't there that we want
to be there. I don't have an answer to that.
But that's one of the all things that God is going to give us.
That is one of the all things that he is going to provide.
There is nothing that will moderate our eternal joy. Nothing that
will mitigate our peace for all eternity. And he will give us
all things pertaining to life and godliness. Second thing he's
going to give us is glory and virtue. Glory and virtue. This too is a wonderful blessing. This is what God has called us
to, glory and virtue. And that's a reference to the
effectual call. Sinners like us have been called
to experience and to possess glory. When we think of glory,
we think of God. We think of the presence of God.
But what Peter is telling us here is that that glory is ours
and it is freely given to us and virtue That goodness, that
rightness, that holiness and perfection is given to us. Sinners like us are fitted with
virtue, the perfect attributes required for our perfect surrounds
and company. We often feel like strangers
in this world. There will be no strangers in
heaven. because we will be fitted with glory and virtue for the
presence of our God. Indeed, we are already being
prepared for that, and that is the blessedness of our standing
in Christ as we are justified and glorified in our Saviour,
Jesus Christ. All things are freely given for
life and godliness, and that includes glory and virtue. Things never earned, things never
bought, things never fought for, things never simply discovered,
but things freely given by God. Third thing that we're given,
according to Peter's little phrase here, is exceeding great and
precious promises. So God is going to give us all
things pertaining to life and godliness. God has given us all
glory and virtue, and God gives us exceeding great and precious
promises. He has called us to glory as
his heirs. That which is the possession
of Christ is our possession, for we are heirs and joint heirs
with him. All the promises of the covenant
of grace and peace in the triune purpose of God is ours as an
inheritance, and these are the great and precious promises that
we possess. Every blessing that a loving
father desires to lay upon his dearly beloved son flows equally
to us. The reason why we don't believe these
things is because they're too big for us to grasp. It's too
much for us to get our finite heads around the extensiveness
of the goodness and the grace and the wonder and the blessings
that are here for us. Every honour that God will place
upon his son, for all that he endured, for all that he fulfilled
and accomplished, every honour which comes to Christ is ours. And we will share in those honours
as the body of Christ and as that one who is united to him
as his bride and as his people. This oneness with Christ, this
head and body picture that we are given by the apostle speaks
to us of the bride and the groom and the marriage being the union
of two into one so that when the blessings flow to one, they
flow to the other. This is our Cinderella story.
This is the prince that finds the girl down in the ashes, the
servant, and he lifts her up and he says, my house will be
your house. My parents will be your parents.
My life will be your life. My glory will be your glory.
And it's all freely given to us in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the exceeding great
and precious promises that God has for his people. And he is
a God who cannot lie. The promises of God in him that's
in Christ are ye and in him. Amen. Unto the glory of God by
us. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse
20. The fourth thing that we see
here in this catalogue of blessings is that we shall be partakers
of the divine nature. It just seems to stagger belief,
the language that Peter is employing here in order to describe our
blessedness in Christ. Partakers of the divine nature. Now that doesn't mean that we're
going to be God or that we're going to be gods or that we shall
be infinite or individually divine. That is God alone. There is but one God. But we shall be like him when
we see him as he is. I don't know how to explain that. I don't know how to get my head
around that. But I don't know what higher
honour could be expressed by words than to say that we will
be partakers of the divine nature. What higher description could
Peter have given to a sinful man or a sinful woman than to
say that such a thing is in God's plan and purpose for us. That
our very bodies shall be the temple of the Holy Spirit, that
Christ will indwell us and we will be joined to him, that we
will in him have fellowship with God the Father. John chapter 14 verse 23 says,
Jesus answered and said unto him, if a man love me, he will
keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto
him and make our abode with him. Okay, that's not that God and
Jesus live in the same house or in the same street or in the
same town as us. That is that God lives inside
us. God enters into our hearts. Our bodies are the temple of
the Holy Spirit and God joins himself to us and we become partakers
of the divine nature. God dwells in his people spiritually,
granting his gracious presence to us as a friend and as a companion
and with a comfortable closeness. in our prayers and in our worship
and he gives us that wisdom and that guidance amid the fears
and the troubles that we face and when we fall in this life. These are the blessings that
God has for his people and these are the blessings which we lay
hold on by faith. And if it's above and beyond
our comprehension to plumb the depths of these blessings, does
that not just reinforce the wisdom and the value of Peter writing
at the beginning of this list of blessings that all things
are ours? Because the failure is just the
failure of our knowledge. The failure is just the failure
of our ability to imagine the extent and the length and the
depth and the breadth of these blessings to us from God. And
that's why Peter is encouraging us to deepen our faith, to deepen
our understanding, to increase our knowledge, and to learn more
of the extensiveness of these blessings for us. We stand on
the edge of a sea of wonder, and all we do week by week is
dip our toes in the waves. And there's an ocean there for
us to enjoy. Great and precious promises,
superlative upon superlative. And added to all of that, here's
the fifth one that Peter gives us, and this is the last one.
freedom from corruption that is in the world through lust. You know we're all aware I suspect
of our weaknesses and our failures and the rising of the natural
man and the inadequacies of the flesh and the proneness that
we have to have that lust drag us, whether it's physical, whether
it's emotional, whether it's whatever way it is, after the
will of the wisps of this life. We've said a lot about these
blessings this morning. My time has gone, and maybe in
a sense I've said too much, but just hear me on this last gift. This is the blessing of conversion. This is the blessing of new life.
This is the blessing of the new birth. This is the blessing of
God coming into our heart and changing it, deposing. the ruler that has ruled in that
heart all the days of our life, setting up a new throne, establishing
a new kingdom with Christ himself sat upon it. And that doesn't
mean to say that we are without sin. That would be a foolish
thing for any of us to try and suggest to one another because
we know the reality of our daily lives. And nor shall we, while
we carry this flesh in this world, ever be free from sin. But neither, for the believer,
will sin reign in our mortal bodies. No more, never. Never will sin reign in our lives. Never will Satan be back upon
the throne in our lives, because a new, King rules in the heart of every
child of God. Christ rules in the believer's
life, not lust, not sin, not self, but Christ rules in a believer's
life. And we have escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust, and we are free in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 6, 12 says, let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it
in the lusts thereof. Because Christ is in control
of our lives, sin, we're not under any compunction, we're
not under any duress, it is but our lust, it is but our flesh
that leads us into this sin. Christ is king in the life of
a believer. Brothers and sisters, is not
Peter's language magnificent? Is it not wonderful that we have
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust? Is
it not wonderful that we are partakers of the divine nature? and graced with the divine presence
in our lives, in this world, in our homes, in our job, in
our relationships, that Christ is living in us and with us,
that we have exceeding great and precious promises of life
and salvation, of glory and virtue and all things that pertain to
life and godliness freely given to us? Is it not wonderful language,
magnificent language that Peter sets before us here? Do we believe it? Nah, it's too good. It's too much. I can't believe that. But it's exactly right. It's
exactly right. Blessing upon blessing, grace
upon grace, mercy upon mercy. And there is but one means of
enjoying it all. Only one means whereby we can
enjoy all of these blessings. One method by which these multiplied
blessings are brought home to our hearts, applied to our souls,
enabled to soothe our minds, feed and nourish our spirits. One means. through the knowledge
of Christ. Faith. Faith, that's it. You can work your little fingers
to the bone. You can strive and you can battle
and you can engage all you like. That's the one way. It's faith. It's deepening our knowledge
of Christ, what he has done, what he has accomplished, how
he has served us, and all of the blessings that are here for
us. Faith is the appropriating means. It is the convincing proof. It comes to our soul with comfort,
and it secures all the privileges of God's goodness to his people. If you've got faith, you have
the match that lightens the pathway of
your life. You've got the key to the glory
of the treasures of heaven. are the most blessed person on
the face of this earth. And you are an heir and joint
heir together with the Lord Jesus Christ of all things pertaining
to life and godliness. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us and encourage our hearts in them. Amen.