Last week, I ended the lesson
with a statement about the ending of 2 Peter 1, verse 1. The statement is concerning the
obtaining of like precious faith, that is, the same faith as the
faith of the apostles. That's what he's talking about.
like precious faith with us. And this faith, he says, is through
the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. How is righteousness involved
in this thing of believing? Why would he make that statement?
Why would he include that statement, talking about the obtaining of
like precious faith? Well, true saving faith is not
coincidental. I've heard so many testimonies
by men and women over the years who make the obtaining of that
faith to be coincidental. I just happened to hear. I just
happened to go. I just happened to be. I just
happened to read. True saving faith is not coincidental. It's not accidental or born of
chance. Faith is the gift of God. It's the gift of God. God gives
faith. It's His gift. He gives it to
whomsoever He will. It's His to give. It's His to
withhold. He gives faith. And because it's
God who gives this faith, righteousness is involved because everything
God does is righteous. It's righteous. It's purposed. It's planned and predestinated
of God. You can read II Thessalonians
2, 13 and 14 and Ephesians 1, 11 through 13. It's purposed,
planned, executed, predestinated of God. And because it's the
gift of God to chosen sinners, it must be given righteously
and justly. The gospel is set forth to chosen
sinners in such a way as to make them see that God is just in
his justification of the sinner, and therefore just in giving
him that faith. You can read that in Romans chapter
3, verses 24, 25, and 26. That's what that states all through
there, both Old Testament faith and New Testament faith. So what exactly does all that
mean? It means that the arrangement
of God's providence for you to hear, and the sending of a preacher
to you, and the enabling of the sinner to believe was purchased
by the blood of Christ. And being purchased by the blood
of Christ, it can be freely given to you by the grace of God, and
he can be righteous in his giving. Does that make sense? That's
what the Scriptures teach about true saving faith and about obtaining
such faith. All right, now let's look at
verse 2. 2 Peter 1, verse 2. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Grace and peace are benefits
obtained through the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no grace, no
mercy, and no peace outside of Christ. These are benefits obtained
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And the grace of God toward us
is infinite because it's given to us in Christ who is God. It's infinite. It's not limited
or given by degrees to the believer. God's love and grace, they spared
nothing. God spared not his own son. It
spared nothing. It's infinite. It's infinite.
And it'll spare nothing in the salvation of His elect. But our
knowledge of this grace and our knowledge of this peace is limited. And therefore, He speaks of believers
growing in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace
doesn't grow, but we grow. And we grow in that grace, in
that infinite grace. We know more and more about it. We receive more and more of it.
Grace for grace, that's how John described it. We grow in grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And these are the very words
Peter uses to close this epistle. As the believer's faith matures,
There's going to be new discoveries. I'll never forget reading one
of Spurgeon's listeners, followers, members of the church. They came
to him and they were weeping and telling him, he said, Pastor,
I believe what you're preaching, but I don't have dying grace. And Spurgeon looked at him and
he said, are you dying? He said, no. He said, well, you
don't need dying grace. When you come to that place when
you're dying, God will give you dying grace. Right now, you need
grace to live. You need living grace. You need
believing grace. You need walking grace. You don't
need dying grace till you're dying. And this is the way it
is. We make new discoveries as this
faith matures in us. As we grow in grace and knowledge
of Him, we make new discoveries of those things obtained through
Christ. And we experience those things
as we go along the way. There'll be new discoveries of
God's favor and grace and a growth of internal graces, or what's
called in the Scripture the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace,
faith, long-suffering, all of these things. And this growth
comes through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Our knowledge of God is synonymous
with our knowledge of Christ. We know nothing about God except
what we know in our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I know about
God. John said, we know that the Son
of God has come. and given to us an understanding
that we might know Him that is true. That's how we know Him. Our Lord said to Philip, he that
hath seen Me hath seen the Father. And you can say the same thing
of the Spirit. Men talk about knowing the Spirit
and they talk about this knowledge being independent of their knowledge
of Christ. There is no such thing. You don't
know anything at all about God, be we talking about the Father,
or the Holy Ghost except what you know in Christ. In fact,
the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is called in Scripture the Spirit
of Christ. He's the Spirit of Christ. He's
the one that manifests this knowledge to us. John said this one. He said the life was manifested
and we've seen it. and bear witness and show unto
you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested
unto us. All right, verse 3. 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, let's begin here. Divine
power. Divine power. Most of the Bible
dictionaries insist upon separating this word power into two definitions. They say that the word power
has to do with strength, ability, might, or God's capacity. And then secondly, they say that
it means authority or right. like in Romans 13, where he's
dealing with these designated authorities. And he said, the
powers that be are of God. There are no powers except that
of God. And power there is talking about
authority. It's talking about his right, the right of rule. And he tells us to be subject
to these higher powers. But in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse
3, it's apparent to me that both are true. He is both the right
and the authority of God, and he is the strength and capacity
to give what he's purposed to give. It means both. And so it does in some other
places. It means that over in John chapter 1. He came unto
his own, his own received him not. He came into the world,
the world knew him not. But as many as received Him,
now listen to this, to them gave He power to become the sons of
God. What kind of power did He give
them? Well, He gave them the right and privilege. He gave
them His authority. He had the authority to give
them that. Our Lord said one time, as the father can forgive
sin, He said even so can the son. He has the authority. But it goes past authority. It
also has to do with strength. It said, which were born. How
were they born? They're born of God. So he's
talking there not only about authority, but he's talking about
the power, the ability. God has the ability to make you
sons of God. He has the power. All right. Secondly, look back
at 2 Peter 1, verse 3. What has God given us by His
power? He says here, all things that
pertain unto life and godliness. Everything you need is given
by the power of God. Now, I'm going to tell you something. I know lots of folks who absolutely
love the gospel, say they do. and seem to rejoice in it, but
they never have any assurance. They never have any real peace
in their life. They can't settle down and have
that kind of assurance that believers have. And the reason for it is
because they're looking to themselves for the power. They're looking
within themselves for some evidence of this power to overcome sin,
to overcome the world, to overcome this and to overcome that. Here
He says, He has given us in Christ all things that pertain unto
life and godliness. He gives them to you. He gives
them to you. How does He give them? Through
His power. Through His power. He not only grants you the privilege,
but He enables you. He makes you meet. Isn't that
what He says over in Colossians 1? He thanked the Father that
He made us meet to inherit. or to enjoy that inheritance,
to receive that inheritance of saints and light or enlightened
saints. That's done by the power of God.
Now, the broad sense of this verse is all things. All things. Take it just as far as you want
to go with it. All things. Eternal election. The everlasting covenant of grace,
the appointment of and agreement for divine mediator. All things. Go back into eternity. Go forward
into eternity. All things. All things. The appointment
of a substitute, redeemer, federal head and savior. The appointment
of the Christ. And then the union of God and
man in one glorious person. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. All things. You see what it says?
All things. As our representative, he must
live a perfect life, unbroken, hard obedience on our behalf,
which he's done. Which he's done. And so that
power gives these things to us. Providence must be arranged,
ordered to accomplish God's purpose. He worketh all things. Worketh
every day. Worketh all things. after the
counsel of his own will. Churches must be established.
Preachers sent. Sinners gathered. The gospel
preached. You go on and on and on. In the broad sense, this
verse is talking about all things, all things, even the presence
and power of the Holy Ghost, which is given. And then when
a man believes, that faith has to be preserved. The old hymn
writer said, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.
It must be preserved. We're kept by the power of God
through faith. And the fruit of the spirit must
be manifest. It must manifest order in our
lives and temperance must have its effect on God's saints. And
then after all that, he dies and he needs one with divine
power who can raise him from the dead. All things means all things.
That's the broad sense of the verse. But if I look at it contextually,
if I look at this thing in the context of what Peter's saying,
it has to do with the things of the spirit of God which enable
chosen sinners to believe. That's the context in which this
all things are given. And that has to do directly with
God's providence and the calling of a pastor and enabling him
to preach and arranging his providence so that the sinner can be gathered
and the preacher can cross his path. All things. Well, how do
I know that this is the meaning of it? Look at the last line
of the verse. through the knowledge of Him
that hath called us to glory and virtue." To be a believer,
a possessor of true saving faith, necessitates the calling of God. It has to be a calling. You're not going to seek Him.
There's none that seeketh after God. That's what the Scripture
said. It didn't say some man looked and couldn't find anybody
seeking Him. It said God looked down from heaven to see if there
was any who did seek Him, and there was none that sought Him.
None that seeketh after God. To be a possessor of true saving
faith necessitates the calling of God. And when we're talking
about the calling of God, we're talking about an effectual calling.
Now, in the Scriptures, there's two callings talked about. There's
a general calling. And there's an effectual calling.
There's a general call that's going to go out this morning
to everybody gathered in this place. There's a general call
commanded of God to believe on his son, commanded of God to
repent of our sins. commanded of God to believe the
Holy Scriptures, to believe the testimony of God. There's a general
call that goes out. It'll go out on the recorded
sermon. It'll go out onto the Internet.
It'll go out as far as the Lord's pleased to take it. There's a
general call. But there's an effectual call,
and that call goes out to His elect, and it's effectual. It's affection. It'll bring life
into his soul. It'll bring conviction in his
soul about sin. Sin won't be this flippant thing
that he laughs and jokes about and says, the devil made me do
it, and he has a little chuckle and goes on his way. It brings
conviction of sin. It brings conviction of righteousness. It brings conviction of judgment
satisfaction. This gospel, Paul said, which
I preach, and which is according to the scriptures of the prophets,
according to the commandment of the everlasting God, it's
made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. That's
a general call. That's Romans 16, 25, and 26.
And I can't help it if antichrist religion, this antichrist religion
of my generation has turned the commandment of God into an invitation. I can't help that. They had no
authority to do it. They just did it. They did it
because they thought they could put a few extra people in the
pews. They did it so that they could make their denomination
acceptable. I'll never forget a man, a news man was asking,
he was interviewing Billy Graham, and he asked Billy Graham, he
said, now one time, he said, your doctrine was that of a Calvinist. Is that right? He said, that's
exactly right. Well, he said, if I have any
understanding of what the Calvinists believe, he said, your doctrine's
not in tune with that anymore. He said, oh, no. And he said, well, What made
you leave that doctrine? He said, it was ruining my ministry. And it will, if you have one. But it won't ruin his. It won't
ruin his. And I can't help it if antichrist
religion has changed the commandment of God to believe on his son
into an invitation. All power in heaven and earth
given unto me, our Lord said, go you and preach the gospel. The scripture said, kiss the
son, lest he be angry and you perish from the way. So there's
a general call that goes out, and there's a call that falls
on the ears of all who hear the gospel. Hebrews chapter 4, verse
2. He's talking about, he uses for
an example, Israel in the wilderness. And he's telling us, he said,
today is the day of salvation. He said, today, if you hear his
voice, don't harden your hearts. That's what Israel did back in
the wilderness. They hardened their hearts in
the day of provocation. They hardened their hearts against
God. And God swore by himself that their carcasses would fall
in the wilderness. They'd never enter into his promised
rest. And so they did. And he says here in Hebrews 4
verse 2, for unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto
them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed
with faith in them that heard it. But oh, thank God, there is an
effectual call. A call that passes from the ear
to the head and from the head to the heart. I want you to look
at this with me. Carefully here in verse 3 of
2 Peter chapter 1, how do we know if God's doing the calling
or just the preacher? How can I tell? How can I tell? When God calls, He gives to the
one He's calling a saving knowledge of God. That's how you can tell. A saving knowledge of God. He doesn't talk him into coming
to the front of the church. He doesn't talk him into a profession
of faith. He doesn't talk him into joining
the church. He doesn't talk him into going
into a pool or being sprinkled. He doesn't talk him into some
kind of rededication and on and on and on it goes. He gives to
that man a knowledge of the true and living God. And it's a saving knowledge.
He shows to him the uncompromising perfection of his character,
which has infinite love and goodness and mercy, but it cannot compromise
his righteousness and justice. And false prophets and false
professors alike have no knowledge of the saving glory of God. That's
why they preach what they preach. It's nothing for them. Well,
here's how God saves sinners, and you're taking a racer and
race it off the board. That's not how God saves sinners.
God saves sinners through His Son. And it's through the knowledge
of Him that has called us to glory and virtue. He's given
to us all things that are necessary, needful, and suited to spiritual
life through the knowledge of Christ. And through Him we have
all things that pertain unto life, all things which give us
the right to it, and all things which equip us to it. All right,
2 Peter 1, verse 4. 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, Brother Mahan wrote this, and
I thought it was worth rereading. He said, by His glory, His power,
and His righteousness, our Lord has given to us exceeding great
and precious promises. Through His glory, His power,
and His righteousness. And he's given us these things,
and therefore, they're sure. Now, there are several things
here. First of all, how do we know these promises are to us?
That's always the big question, isn't it? Boy, that's a wow. I see that promise. I see the
glory of it. I see the effectualness of it. I see that it was accomplished
in him. I see that this thing is sure. How do I know when he
wrote that promise he was writing to me? How do I know that? First of all, because we understand
that all God's elect in Christ are one people. Do you know that? Are you aware of that? They're
just one people. They're not Jews and Gentiles.
They're all the people of God. They're just one people. And
all those people are in Christ. And being in Christ, they are
partakers of these promises. Paul said, they are not all Israel
which are of Israel. That is, they are not all Israel
which are of Jacob, neither because they are the seed of Abraham
are they all children. They which are the children of
flesh, he said, these are not the children of God, but the
children of the promise, accounting for the seed. And then in Galatians
3.26, he said, for ye are all the children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus. Do I believe on Him? Have I received
Him? Do I stand in Him? Is He my hope? Is He my rest? Then these promises
are to me, because that's how they're given. They're given
in Christ. And if you be Christ, Paul said,
then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Our Lord said, all that the Father
hath given me shall come to me, every one of them. How did He
know that? Because God said, I'm going to
teach every one of them. Isn't that what He says on down
there in John chapter 6? He said, you don't need to murmur.
Nobody's going to come unto me except to be drawn to my Father. For it's written, they shall
all be taught of God. Therefore, every man that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father, he cometh unto me." God's
going to teach them. You reckon if God's the teacher,
they're going to get taught? I guarantee you they're going
to get taught. All right. Secondly, how do we
know that these promises are given to us? Because they're
all given in Christ. He that hath the Son hath life. I don't need to worry about all
these other things. I just need to worry about one thing, embracing
Christ. If I have Him, I have everything
God has promised for the sinner. Paul said, you're complete in
Him. He said this, he said, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ. And if we were blessed in Christ
there, There's no reason to think that we shouldn't be blessed
of Christ now. Is that right? And next week,
and the week after that, and the week after that. I got to
thinking, I wrote an article, it'll be in next week's bulletin,
Lord willing. But everywhere I go anymore,
if I go buy a hamburger, the lady waits on me and she tells
me when she hands me my stuff, she says, have a blessed day.
And I go down to the grocery store, and they pack up all my
groceries, and I get a whole sack and start to walk out, and
they'll say, have a blessed day. And I know what they're saying.
They're saying, I hope you have a good day. I hope your day is
filled with happiness and joy. I hope you don't have no trouble.
I hope you don't get no bad news. I hope all this. And I suppose
it's okay to say that, but they're trying to incorporate a little
religion into it. And it's no wonder it's just
an abomination to God because it kind of goes sideways with
me. Brethren, believers are blessed
of God from all eternity. This world associates blessing
with riches, good health, no trouble, downhill. That's what they call blessings.
But the blessings of God are not necessarily synonymous with
that. My soul, read Hebrews chapter
11 about those men of faith. They lived in dens of the earth.
They were cut off from the world. They were hated, despised, martyred,
butchered, out and out butchered, alive, trying to get them to
recant of the faith. We're blessed in Christ. And
because we're blessed in Christ, we're blessed forever. Isn't
that what He is? God over all, blessed forever.
And if you read Ephesians chapter 1 and you read those first three
verses, you'll find out that God the Father blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ according as
He's chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
Predestinated us under the adoption of children, revealed Christ
to us, redeemed us from our sins, and on and on it goes. Clear
down here, and now we find ourselves obtaining that salvation by faith. And in that obtaining of that
salvation by faith, he said, for you are predestinated. That's
how you got that inheritance. That's how you obtained it. You
were predestinated of God way back yonder when he blessed you. By him who worketh all things
after the counsel of his own. We're blessed. And we're blessed
if the doctor looks at me tomorrow and shakes his head and says,
you've got cancer. I'm still blessed. That cancer ain't got
nothing to do with my blessings of God. And if a man knocks on
my door and says, you won the sweepstakes, I'm blessed. It don't matter. Don't matter. These blessings are not affected
by the things of this world. These blessings are sure in Christ,
and we're blessed. I can't help but have a blessed
day.