Peter opens his second epistle
in this way. 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
have 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. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith
virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance,
and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to
godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity.
For 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. Wherefore, the rather brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if ye
do these things, ye shall never fall. For so an entrant shall
be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. 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. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you. Now what a prayer that is for
his hearers. It's a common sort of opening
in the epistles and words that we are used to. But to pray that
those who hear his epistle should have grace and peace multiplied
unto them is a great prayer. He could hardly ask for something
greater and you could hardly receive something greater. to
know and experience the grace of God and the peace of God is
a rich blessing indeed in the foolishness of your natural
state in the blindness of your sin and the deception of this
world and its ways and its thinking and its wisdom You may feel that
you lack many things, you may desire many things, you may wish
for many things. But rarely with such wisdom will
your desire be for the grace of God and the peace of God.
And yet that is the very thing that you need most of all. And
it's the very thing that Peter prays for those whom he addresses
as having obtained like precious faith. This is what you need. And yet as he goes on to say
in verse four, those who are granted this grace, this peace,
through this like precious faith, are those that have escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust. And if you know
nothing of this precious faith and this grace and this peace,
it's because you have yet to escape the corruption that is
in the world through lust. It's that corruption, that lust,
that desire after the things here and below which perish and
with which you will perish, that keeps you from ever knowing and
desiring the things of which Peter speaks. By nature we've
fallen from God. By nature we are sheep that have
gone astray. By nature we seek after our own
ways, our own will, our own desires, our own glory. We seek the riches
of this world, the status and the power that this world can
bring unto us. We seek the pleasures of this
world. We desire so many things. But we don't desire God. We don't
desire His grace. We don't desire His peace. By
nature our hearts are at war with God. They are at enmity
with God. They are set against God and
His ways because God is our Creator. God is sovereign and God rules
over both us and this world. And the natural man, the fallen
heart of man, hates to be ruled over. He hates a sovereign God
before whom he is accountable. He hates the idea of a God that
will call him to account for everything he has done, fought
and said. He despises this. He runs away
from this. He buries his head in the sand.
He pretends it cannot be. He convinces himself that it
cannot be, because as the psalmist says, as a fool, he says in his
heart, there is no God. And yet, in his folly, God is
still there. And no matter what the natural
man says, like a little grasshopper running around, jumping about,
beavering about his own business, above him, the sun still shines. Above him, God still sits upon
his throne. Above him that God whom he pretends
and convinces himself does not exist reigns on high. Above him that God gives him
the life to go about in his corruption seeking and fulfilling the desires
of his own heart. Above him that God reigns. And
as the hours and the days of the natural man's life ebb away,
he takes one hour, one day, one week, one month, one year, closer
to that day when he will pass from this world into eternity
to stand before that creator whom he has pretended does not
exist. Burying your head in the sand
and pretending that because you do not see God today with your
natural eyes that He is not there and you will not meet Him is
sheer folly. That God you pretend is not there
is the very God that keeps this world alive. He's the very God
that causes the sun to rise each day. He's the very God that causes
the rain to fall. He's the very God that gives
you life. He's the very God that causes
the food, the crops to grow, that you feed upon. He's the
very God that causes the atoms in your body to remain in their
place so that you do not collapse into nothing. He's the very God
that gives you breath to breathe. He's the very God that causes
your heart to beat. He's the very God that allows
you with the strength and the life which he gives you and sustains
every day to go about in your own foolishness, seeking your
own desires and pretending he doesn't exist. Then how accountable
you will be to him when you stand before him and he says, what
have you done with the life I've given you? What did you do every
day I kept you alive? And every day I made the truth
known. Throughout the world, I sent
preachers with my word. I published the Word of God. I made it available and known.
I set the heavens in their motions. I caused the sun to rise each
day as a picture of the reality of the warmth and the life and
the glory there is to be found in my Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what did you do with this
knowledge? And will you stand before him
and say, well I buried my head in the sand and I sought my own
ways and my own will and I hoped that I would not stand here this
day. Is that your excuse? You are bound by the corruption
that is in this world through lust and that corruption brings
about the folly of the natural mind, the natural wisdom of man
that flees from a God from whom he cannot escape. And it is a
wonderful thing, a wonderful mercy, if there comes a day in
your life, in my life, in the life of any man or woman in this
world, when God intervenes and brings them to escape the corruption
that is in this world. and brings them by God's grace
and mercy to obtain like precious faith with Peter and the us of
whom Peter speaks. It is a wonderful mercy if God
looks upon you as a sinner whilst you are running afar off and
comes upon you and stands in your way and turns you around
and sets his love upon you and sets his grace and his mercy
upon you to bring you who were once at war and enmity with him
unto peace with him for that is the only way that you will
escape the wrath to come It's the only way that you will escape
the corruption which currently grips you. It's the only way
that you will come to stand before a God who creates and sustains
you without fear, with peace, knowing that what awaits you
is an entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. This is a wonderful passage that
Peter writes of comfort to those who are brought to this knowledge.
Comfort to those who come to receive like precious faith. Comfort to those who know what
the grace of God is because the grace of God plucked them out
of oblivion. plucked them out of the desperate
state in which they were by nature, brought them to escape the corruption
that is in the world, and brought them to that point where an entrant
was ministered unto them to bring them into the everlasting kingdom
of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. One day your life will
be brought to its conclusion upon this world. Like your fathers
before you and their fathers before them. Like your mothers
before you and their mothers before them. Each and every one
of us has a time on this world and that time comes to a conclusion
and we pass from this world into the next and we will either enter
into the kingdom of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, or
we will enter another place full of corruption, where those that
never escape the corruption in this world go, where they are
sentenced to an eternal damnation, where their soul, where the worm
of their flesh never dies. where they experience the wrath
of God forevermore. Because they never turned from
their sins, and they never turned from the foolishness of this
world, and they never turned from the corruption of this world,
and they never turned unto God for His mercy, they never cried
out for mercy, they never cared for God, they went their own
way, and the wrath of God burns against this rebellion. It burns from on high now against
such rebellion. But when that day comes, there's
no escape in it. Then will you in foolishness,
like a child who closes its eyes and thinks that others cannot
see them because they cannot see them. Will you in your foolishness
just shut your eyes, shut your ears, shut your mind unto God
and His ways, shut your mind unto the Gospel and pretend that
because you do not think on these things, pretend that because
you do not consider them, that they're not there. Will you go
through your life until old age, shutting the thought of God and
Jesus Christ out from your mind and your attention, and hope
that because you do so, he's not there. But if you do, you'll
be in for a shock because he's there. He's there every day. He's there every day preaching
the gospel. He's there every day preaching
the gospel from on high unto this world. Every day the sun
rises. Every day the light shines forth. And every day Christ on his throne
preaches the gospel so that those for whom he died might through
that gospel obtain like precious faith and come to know the grace
of God which brings salvation and the peace of God that reconciles
those who were once afar off unto the Father. Now it's this
peace and this grace of which Peter speaks and which Peter
prays that his hearers might have multiplied unto them. Grace
and peace. This grace and peace comes unto
them through the precious faith which God has granted. And that
precious faith that they come to receive is founded upon the
righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. This passage has a beginning
and an end. It has a journey. It begins in
verse 1. It speaks of precious faith through
the righteousness of God. And it results in an entrance
into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now if you want to ever enter
into that kingdom, you must come this way. You must start at this
beginning. Those who have this faith have
an entrance ministered unto them. into the everlasting kingdom.
Those who experience the grace and the peace of God will know
what it is to live and reign with Him forevermore. But without
this beginning, without this grace, without this peace, and
without this faith, and without this righteousness
of God, There is no beginning, no ending that results in entering
into this Kingdom. You cannot enter into the Kingdom
of God except you have the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ. You cannot enter into the Kingdom
of God while still bound by the corruption that is in this world
through lust. You cannot enter into the kingdom
of God whilst yet in your sins. You cannot enter into the kingdom
of God whilst yet you cling on to this world and its pleasures
and its ways. You cannot enter into the kingdom
of God whilst still being entrenched in the wisdom and the folly of
this world. you cannot enter into the kingdom
of God as a sinner and it's because man cannot enter into God's kingdom
as a sinner with the guilt of sin still upon him with the nature
of sin still within his heart within with the accountability
for all that he has done which is against God still unanswered
with a price unpaid, with the law finding him guilty, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God in that state. He comes before
God on that last day and God looks in the books and says,
why did you do this? Why did you do that? Why did
you not worship my son? Why did you not love God with
all your heart? Why did you not love your neighbour
as yourself? Why did you not? And we have
no answer. Then we will stand before Him
guilty. And there will be no entrance into the Kingdom of
God. There's no entrance for sinners.
There's no entrance for sin. That kingdom is a kingdom in
which dwelleth righteousness. As Peter writes elsewhere, there
is not one spot of sin in that kingdom. Then not one man, woman
or child will enter into it covered in sin or carrying one unanswered
sin with them. They can only enter if they are
perfectly righteous. and they have no righteousness
in themselves. You have no righteousness in
yourself. You are guilty by nature. You're
guilty of all the things you've done which are against God. You're
guilty of all the things you have fought which are against
God. You're guilty of all the things you have said which are
against God. And you're guilty of having a
nature, a heart, which is sinful in its desires. Such a nature cannot be led into
God's presence except His wrath is kindled against it and except
the furies and fire of that wrath meet with that sinful nature
and those sins and burn them up. If you try to come before
God as a sinner you will be struck down dead. In the Old Testament
under the law God instructed a way for the priest to come
into the holy of holies for the priest to come on behalf of the
people into the presence of God and that priest could only come
a certain way and any other way meant certain death certain death
for the priest who came on the people's behalf and figuratively
in him certain death for that people Now if he came on God's
ordained pathway, if he brought with him the sacrifice of blood
for that people, a sacrifice, a picture of that people's sins
being taken away, washed by blood, of a price having been paid for
their sins, of death, the sentence of death having been exacted
upon them, exacted upon a sacrifice in their place. If he brought
that blood of the sacrifice which said, yes their sins have been
atoned for, a price has been paid, death has been brought
down upon the sacrifice. If he brought that blood of that
sacrifice. and sprinkled it upon the ground
as he walked, and walked upon the blood-sprinkled ground, then
he could come into the Lord's presence, because he came as
one who had an offering for sin. He came as one who could come
as it were in type and figure, without sin. because sin had
been answered, sin had been judged, sin had been taken away. But
if that priest or any other man came into that place, came into
the tabernacle, came in under the mercy seat, came in before
the Lord's presence any other way without blood, or standing
on ground that had not been sprinkled by that blood, then he would
have been struck down dead in an instant. And what was true in the type
and the figure is true in the reality. If you will come before
God without blood, with any sin upon your hands, without the
very righteousness of God, the perfection of God, then you will
be struck down dead. You will have no entrance into
the Kingdom of God. Then the entrance into the Kingdom
of God is made very plain from the beginning of this chapter.
To stand upon the price having been paid. To stand upon the
judgement of God having already come down upon the sinner. The sinner can only come before
God if his sins have been judged and taken away, if they have
been blotted out. If the righteousness of God has
come down upon his sins and judged his sins and blotted his sins
out, if that has happened, then that man can come before God. having received precious faith
and standing upon the righteousness of God and his Saviour Jesus
Christ. That's his grounds for entrance
and he receives it through the grace of God that brings the
peace of God into his soul. That's where he starts. That's
where this letter starts. That's where the story starts.
Now there are many who want a gospel where they can come some other
way. Where they can come another way
that bypasses this. That bypasses the need for judgment. That bypasses the wrath of God
in judgment. That bypasses the death of Christ. That bypasses the absolute judgment
of the sinner and his sins in the sacrifice. In the sacrifice
that God provided for his people. In the sacrifice of the shedding
of blood. In the sacrifice of that one
offering for sins that was acceptable before God. For in the Old Testament,
the priest sacrificed bulls and goats and lambs as a figure,
as a picture of this sacrifice. But none of those sacrifices
really, truly took away the sinner's sin. But they were a picture
of the one sacrifice to come, of the Lord Jesus Christ, of
God's own Son. of God himself in the person
of his son Jesus Christ. They were a picture of that one
sacrifice, which could take away sin, and did take away sin, and
judged sin according to the very righteousness of God. such that
the sinner, cleansed by that sacrifice, washed by the blood
of Christ, could stand, and does stand before God, perfect according
to the very righteousness of God. Perfect before God, not
just according to the law, but according to the very nature
and righteousness of God in himself. God in his own being can look
upon this man, can look upon this woman, found in Christ,
washed by his blood, and find no fault in him. And as a consequence, through
his gospel, God puts in the heart of that man and woman that's
come to that place, that come to that meeting place between
God and man, that has come to the cross, that's come to the
place of sacrifice, that has come to that place where the
righteousness of God met them as they were in Christ and judged
them, judged their sin, judged their sins and taken it away.
God comes to them and meets them at that place and puts within
their heart precious faith that opens their eyes and lets them
see what happened on that day many years ago when Christ, the
Son of God, when Jesus was led out of Jerusalem, led out to
a place called Golgotha, nailed to a tree and lifted up and in
the darkness bore the sins of his people, and was made sin
in their stead, that they in him might be made the righteousness
of God. Having given them faith to see
that, to look upon it, and to see themselves crucified with
their Saviour. To see God judging not just Christ,
not just sinners in Christ, but judging them in Christ. To see themselves in Christ. To see what they were, and what
they are by nature, blotted out and taken away. To see themselves
dying with Christ. but being washed in his blood
and then to go to the grave by faith and to see themselves with
him in the grave but rising forth and coming forth as Lazarus came
forth living, he who was once dead now lives to see themselves
by faith living with Christ to see themselves risen from the
dead and reigning with him They have this faith given of God,
precious faith, that lets them see this. It's not until God
gives them that faith that they can see, but when they see it,
they experience the grace of God that says unto their soul,
I'm no longer bound by the corruption of this world. I've been freed. I've escaped. I'm righteous in
God's sight. I'm righteous with the very righteousness
of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. And He's given me faith
to see it, to lay hold upon it, to believe it, to know it, to
trust in it. He's given me grace. He's shown
me mercy. And I'm no longer at war with
God but I'm at peace with God. Oh, the joy to be brought there. There's no other way to enter
into the kingdom of God. Christ says in John's gospel
that you'll only enter into the kingdom of God, the kingdom of
heaven, if you're born again. And to be born again is to be
brought to this place in verse one of Peter's second epistle
where you obtain like precious faith. Once you were dead, but
now you live. Once you were blind, but now
you see. Once you were full of sin, but
now you're full of the righteousness of God. Once you were full of
the desires in this world and for this world, but now you are
full of the love of God and a desire to know and to love His Son,
Jesus Christ, who loved you and gave Himself for you. Precious
faith. Everything stands upon this righteousness. Everything stands upon what this
righteousness points to, the cross of Jesus Christ. Everything
stands upon the judgment of God on that day when he crucified
his son for sinners. Everything stands upon those
sinners being brought to hear the gospel, being brought to
a knowledge of these things. and receiving the grace of God. Receiving faith and being brought
to peace with God. Then what a prayer it is that
having been brought to that point that Peter can pray for God's
people. Those with this faith. Those
believer if you've been brought here like you. What a prayer
he prays that you who have this faith you who were once dead
in your sins who've been brought to feel this blood washing you
of every sin what a prayer it is that he says that that grace
that you've come to experience that peace which you've come
to know should be multiplied unto you through the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord not just that you should know
grace not just that you should know the peace of God but that
it should be multiplied that it should abound that you should
be awash with it that you should know these riches which cannot
be measured cannot be contained there's no limit to the grace
of God there's no limit to the peace of God If you're brought
here, you will drink and eat of something which can never
be exhausted. You will never exhaust the grace
which is in the Gospel. You will never exceed the peace
which comes through Jesus Christ and His blood. It's there to
be multiplied, and it is multiplied. Peter prays this because he knows
it will be answered. He prays this for the people
unto whom he writes, for all the children of God that have
obtained like precious faith. He prays that this might be because
he knows it will be. And he knows it will bring their
salvation. And he knows that an entrance
will be ministered unto them abundantly. that they shall be
ministered, for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you
abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. He knows that this shall be their
abundant riches. Because he knows the great grace
and power of the Gospel. This is Peter who writes here.
Peter who was always with Christ, Peter who longed to be close
unto Christ, Peter who was there when Christ rose, Peter who was
one of the first following the women to see the tomb, Peter
who was there on the day of the Transfiguration, as he hints
later on, when he heard the voice crying out unto Christ for the
excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Peter who could confess unto
Christ with God given faith, thou art the Son of God. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of God. No man could confess this, except
God gives him faith and opens the eyes to see. Peter saw. Peter saw Christ with the natural
eyes. But Peter, unlike so many others,
also saw Him with spiritual eyes. So many saw Christ, so many saw
the miracles of Christ, who would later turn against Him. and who
on that day cried out that he should be crucified, away with
this man, we will not have him to rule over us. Yet Peter was one who had his
eyes opened. His weakness as a man was shown
in how he denied Christ at that hour when Christ needed him.
But he was brought unto great contrition and sorrow. because
ultimately in his heart, in that new heart, there was faith. And he loved Christ, and he wanted
to be with Christ. His flesh was weak, but his spirit
was willing. Here, Peter is one who knows
what it is to walk with Christ by faith. Who knows what it is
to suffer for Christ by faith. who knows what it is to be delivered
from all that is in this world and to experience the abundant
grace and peace of Almighty God. Yes, he prays that these things
should be multiplied. according as his divine power
have given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness
through the knowledge of him that have called us to glory
and virtue what a thing to say according as God's divine power
have given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness
through the knowledge of him that have called us to glory
and virtue What does this knowledge of Jesus Christ bring? What a
knowledge there is when God speaks His Gospel in power unto the
soul of a sinner. When He makes known His Son unto
us, not just in the natural wisdom, not just with a natural knowledge,
not just that we know about Him, but when we know Him, when we
hear His voice, when we're given this light precious faith what
a knowledge and a power there is that comes through the gospel
that grants unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness
there is knowledge of what we are by nature there is knowledge
of what we need to be delivered from there is knowledge of the
depravity of man and his own natural heart but there's a knowledge
of the glorious righteousness in God himself of the glorious
holiness of God of the wondrous nature of God of the wondrous
love and mercy there is to be found in Jesus Christ. There's
a knowledge of His everlasting, His eternal life. Faith brings
into the soul of man a knowledge of a life that has no beginning
and no end. When you're born again of God
on high, when the Holy Spirit, under the preaching of the Gospel,
under the power of the Gospel, quickens a dead sinner unto life
and puts faith in the heart, their life doesn't commence then. They receive a life that has
never had a beginning. For them they begin to experience
it from that day forth, but they receive an eternal life. They
receive the same life that Christ has. His divine power have given
unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. True
life, everlasting life, eternal life is that life without beginning
and without end. I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end, Christ says. He ever was and ever is. And all who have his life, all
who are brought to salvation through him, all who are washed
in his blood, receive the same life without beginning and without
end. What a life this is. Whereby,
Peter says, 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. There's a natural nature, an earthly nature, the nature
of man, the nature of the first Adam, which perishes, which is
full of sin. But there is another nature,
a divine nature, a nature of the second man, the last Adam,
Christ, which is without sin, which is righteous and perfect,
which is eternal in its being. And all those who are brought
to faith, all those who are delivered from the corruption in this world
are brought to a knowledge and a partaking of this divine nature. Surely this is given unto us
all things that pertain unto life and godliness. True life
and godliness is found in the divine nature. If you're born
again of God, you are a son of God. You have a nature equal
to God's, the divine nature. You're one with God, you're one
with Christ your Saviour. He is your life. What a difference there is in
that nature and the nature we are born with in this world. Oh what a difference. And oh
how it comes unto us all through a knowledge of Christ. All through
the preaching of the Gospel. How important the Gospel is. How important to hear the power
of the Gospel. For the Gospel is the power of
God. It's the power that brings this
divine power unto us, that pertains unto life and godliness, that
brings us to be partakers of the divine nature. What power
brings us to this point? The power of the Gospel. I am
not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of
God unto salvation. Have you heard this gospel? Not
just with the outward ear, not in word only, but in power. Oh, what promises there are for
God's people. God promises unto all those for
whom Christ died, everyone for whom he suffered will receive
the divine nature. will have eternal life, will
enter into his glorious kingdom, will be clothed in righteousness,
will be delivered from the corruption of this world. Oh as you walk
through this world, believer, do you feel the effects of your
flesh? Does it weary you that you fall
into sin? Does it weary you that this world
is full of sin? Are you cast down by things you
see and hear every day? Well, fear not because you've
been delivered from them. Yes, you still have the flesh
until that day when you are separated from it. But in God's eyes, in
God's reckoning, it's already been judged. You've already been
delivered. It's gone. and you'll never be
held to account for it God does not look upon your flesh anymore
everything you do and say which is sinful in His eyes has already
been judged you've been delivered and all He sees when He looks
upon you believer is the perfection of His Son He sees the blood
and passes by Like that angel that came upon Israel when they
were delivered from Egypt, the destroyer came in the night and
saw the blood above the door and passed by. He passed them
over. Because the Lamb had been sacrificed
on their behalf and the blood had been shed and applied. Has the Lamb of God been sacrificed? on your behalf. Has his blood
been shed for you? Has it been applied to the door
of your heart? Is there blood over the lintels
of the door of your house? Does he pass over? If he does,
you stand in Christ righteous, delivered. And as a consequence,
The grace and the peace which is multiplied unto you will bring
forth fruitfulness unto God through the following graces. Peter writes,
besides this, giving all diligence out to your faith, virtue, and
to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge, temperance, and to
temperance, patience, and to patience, godliness, and to godliness,
brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity, love. For
if these things be in you and abound, they make that you shall
neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now you may look on those things
and say, well I come so short. I have faith but so little virtue. I have knowledge but not knowledge
like I'd like to have. I know so little as I feel I
should. I have temperance. But not much,
I have little patience. Am I godly? Am I kind? Am I loving? You may feel to
come so short. And yet the gospel brings these
things forth. And in God's eyes when he looks
upon his people he sees nothing but this. He sees nothing but
faith, nothing but virtue, nothing but temperance, nothing but patience,
nothing but godliness and kindness and love because they're all
the graces of God that he brings forth through his divine nature
in their souls. And as they walk in the Gospel,
and as he preaches the Gospel unto them, and as he by faith
sets their gaze upon the Saviour, so he brings these things forth
in their hearts. For if these things be in you
and abound, they make that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ will bring fruitfulness in these things. But a knowledge of other things will make you barren. So many,
having come to Christ, think they must go off in their...
and strength and try to live a certain way and do this and
that but they cease to look under Christ they cease to look under
his gospel their knowledge of Jesus Christ wanes they become
knowledgeable increasingly of their own nature and their own
sin and what they feel they should do and not do in order to in
order to correct it and contain it. So they strive on with a
legal religion, striving in their own strength and efforts to live
as they think they should. But that's not to abound in the
knowledge of Jesus Christ. When Peter exhorts to add to
your faith all these virtues, he's making plain that it comes
through a knowledge of Jesus Christ, and that's in the Gospel.
Keep looking by faith unto Christ, and as you do, you will walk
in a walk that brings forth this fruitfulness. You will not be
barren. He that lacketh these things
is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that
he was purged from his old sins. He that lacks these things is
he that tries to produce them in his own strength. And he who
ceases to listen to the Gospel, he who ceases to look unto Christ
by faith, and he who ceases to remember that when Christ delivered
him upon the cross, he delivered him from all his sins, past,
present and future. He has been purged from all his
old sins. And he who takes his gaze away
from Christ becomes unfruitful. Peter's exhortation is clear.
All stands in the Gospel. All stands in Christ. You came
in to this pathway by receiving light precious faith. You received
grace and peace from God on high. You were clothed with the righteousness
of God because God judged Christ on your behalf upon the cross.
The end is that you will have an entrance ministered unto you
abundantly to enter into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. and your journey in between,
if you have your gaze set by faith upon Christ alone, will
be one in which you are fruitful. But if you depart from the Gospel,
if you turn your gaze away from these things, if you turn to
your own strength and your own will and your own effort, God
will leave you to discover that you have no strength. and that
you will fall and stumble, and that you will soon become blind,
because you cannot see that which can only be seen in the Gospel. When God gives you faith, He
gives you faith to look through the Gospel unto Jesus Christ. Faith is not given to look unto
self. Faith is not given to look unto
the law. Faith is not given to look unto
a legal religion which brings glory unto man. Faith is given
to look unto Christ. And when faith sees and beholds
Christ in the Gospel, the one that sees Him makes His calling
and election sure. Wherefore thereof, O Brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if ye
do these things, ye shall never fall. How do we make our calling
and election sure? Not by anything we do. Not by
some effort to make ourselves good or right. Not by constantly
looking within our hearts and constantly questioning our experience. but simply by looking by faith
under He who first spake our name in the Gospel. How did we
come to know any of the things of God? How did we come to know
the truth? How did we come to know His Son? How did we come to know salvation?
How did we come to know the grace of God or the peace of God? Through
the Gospel, through His Son, through Christ alone. Then how will we know whether
we are elect, whether we're chosen of God, whether we're one for
whom Christ died? Through his Gospel. How will
we know that our call in an election is sure? Through the Gospel.
By looking unto Christ, by faith. If we look any other way, we
will doubt. If we look unto ourself or how
we live, we will see so much sin within that we will be caused
to doubt and stumble. But if we look out from ourselves
and look up by faith under Christ, if we stand upon the Gospel,
then we will feel our calling on election shore. And God, by
His grace, as He sends His Peters under His Church to comfort His
people, to write unto them, to preach unto them, to lift up
the weary arms, to lift up the weary gaze, to set the gaze of
faith upon Christ. God in his grace will cause grace
and peace to be multiplied under his people. He will find those
who've forgotten that they were purged from their old sins. He
will find those whose eyes have shut. He will find those who
cannot see afar off in his church. He will gather them in again
by his gospel and he will remind them by his gospel of what Christ
has done. He will remind them of His divine
power that pertains unto life and godliness. He will remind
them of those exceeding great and precious promises that makes
them partakers of the divine nature. He will remind them how
He has delivered them from the corruption that is in this world
and how they've escaped it. He will remind them of His love
and His mercy. He will remind them that fruit
comes through a knowledge of Jesus Christ. He'll remind them
of His Son. He'll remind them of His Son's
love for them. He'll remind them of the price
that His Son paid for them. He'll remind them of the blood
that was shed. He'll remind them of the cries
from the cross, Father forgive them, they know not what they
do. He'll remind them of that cry, it is. Finished. He'll remind them of the words
of Jesus Christ unto Lazarus. Lazarus, come forth. He'll remind
them of Christ's words unto those he healed. Son, thy faith hath
made thee whole. He'll remind them of his love
for those who were lost. He'll remind them of that blind
man who could say, once healed, once I was blind, but now I see. He'll remind them of his son.
And he'll say, your salvation stands not in you, not in your
works, not in your effort, not in your will, but in my grace
and my peace, which I multiply unto you. and through which an
entrance is ministered unto you abundantly, abundantly into the everlasting
kingdom of your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He'll remind us
through his Gospel that he came into this world to save sinners. And if He came for you, He's
leading you into the Kingdom of the Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. You will not be plucked out of His hands. You will not
perish. You will not be left to your
own. You will not be left to perish. You will not escape His salvation. You're His. He loved you before
ever this world came into being. He loved you before ever He set
one step upon the earth of this world. He loved you before you
were born. He loved you before you went astray. He loved you
when you went astray. He loved you when he died and
suffered for your sins. He loved you on that day when
he found you far off, lost, and brought you by his gospel to
his feet. and he loves you every day until
that day that he brings you into eternity to stand before him,
entering into the everlasting kingdom. Oh child of God, if
you've heard this gospel, if you believe this gospel, if you
know this gospel because God has given you precious faith,
be sure know that he will multiply his grace and peace unto you
and one day you will enter abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.