We're going to start a new study
this morning in the book of 2 Peter. You'll notice, if you look at
the top of the page, that it's called the 2nd Epistle General,
or the 2nd General Epistle. They're called general epistles,
both 1st and 2nd Peter, and they're written for the most part to
disperse Jews who were all over that side of the known world,
and more than likely due to Roman captivity and Roman dominance,
they were sent here and sent there. But anyway, through those
captivities, they were scattered all over that whole area. And
so in his first epistle, he calls them strangers scattered abroad
all over the And I don't mean that that his epistles are not
to be read or only to be read by Jews only. But that which
he writes to the Jews is good for any believer. What God has
to say is written to spiritual Jews. And the Jews that Peter
sought were believing Jews, which were a part of that and understood
the mystery. But if Paul was God's apostle
to the Gentiles in particular, does that mean Paul never preached
to a Jew? No, he preached to Jews everywhere
he went. But in general, his ministry
was toward the Gentiles. That's God set him apart, especially
for that ministry. And if Paul was God's apostle
to the Gentiles in particular, so Peter was God's apostle to
the circumcision or to the Jews. I thought about this as I was
studying this, and it's a wonderful, gracious melting together of
the Jews and the Gentiles which took place under the hearing
of the gospel and took place in the spiritual age. It must
have been an extremely difficult thing Those who had, with thousands
of years of history of being known as God's elect and God's
Israel and all of the things of God, all of the fathers, the
men, the prophets who wrote the Old Testament and all of these
things, all of them being Jews, Christ himself being born a Jew,
it must have been an extremely difficult thing after all this
time to accept the truth that God's elect are chosen out of
every nation, every kindred, every tongue, every people under
heaven. And there was such a grace, this
to me is a miracle of grace in itself, the melting together
of the Jews and the Gentiles to form the church of the living
God. And both Paul and Peter, They
both had to be given a special understanding of this very thing.
You remember, God took Peter and laid out that before him
and had all this manner of stuff that the Jews were forbidden
to eat. And he said, nay, Lord. The Lord told him to eat. He
said, no. He said, I ain't eating that.
We're forbidden to eat that. He said, don't you call unclean
what I've made clean. And he taught Peter something
about the saving of the Gentiles, and then he taught Paul the same
thing, something about this. But they both had to be given
a special understanding of this great mystery of the Gentiles.
Paul said this about his own ministry. He said, unto me who
am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that
I should preach among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ,
and to make all men everywhere understand this great mystery
that's been hidden before the world was. And I tell you, I
well remember the first time I heard the truth about spiritual
Israel. I remember. and for the first
time begin to see some foundation of God's promises. See, that's
what I couldn't get a hold of. If these things were given to
the Jews, all these promises given to the Jews throughout
the Old Testament, and just in a spot or two are the Gentiles
even mentioned in the Old Testament, and all of those things written
to the Jews, then how do people everywhere just commonly say
this applies to me? I couldn't understand that. I
just couldn't understand that. And I remember the first time
that I actually understood that God has a spiritual Israel, a
spiritual Israel. And for the first time in my
life, I began to have some foundation, something solid that I could
look to and understand that these promises might be for me, could
be for me. And so it is, I can say with
some understanding, that his epistles were aimed at the Jews,
but just as useful and just as pointed to the Gentiles. All
right, let's begin this morning with Peter's introduction of
himself. Peter was known by all kinds
of names, Simeon, Cephas, Peter, Simon, And on and on the list
goes. He's known by many names. But
here he mentions only two of them. He calls himself Simon
Peter. Simon was his birth name. His
mother gave him that name. His mother and father gave him
that name, Simon. That's the name he was called
by his parents. That's the name he was known
by all those that he grew up with. You ask any of his childhood
friends, They wouldn't know who you're talking about if you said
Peter, but they knew who Simon was. They grew up with him. His
own brothers and sister knew him as Simon. That's what he was called by
his parents. That's why he's known by all those that he grew
up with. And this passage come to my mind
as I thought about his name. They had all quit the ministry
after the crucifixion of Christ. Peter said, I'll go fishing.
And he put his coat on. They went down to the dock. The
others followed him. They got in the boat, put the
nets out, began to fish. And then the Lord appeared to
them over on the land. And this had happened earlier
in their experience with Christ. And they'd fished all night and
hadn't caught anything. And he told them, he said, hey,
you should cast your net on the other side. As soon as he said
that, John said, that's the Lord. That's the Lord. And Peter recognized
Him, covered himself, and swam over there to the shore and pulled
those nets in, and they were full of fish. And the Lord already
had some fish over the fire cooking. And the Lord looked to Peter, and
He said, Simon, son of Jonas, That's his natural name. He's
the son of Jonas. He said, do you love me? Do you
love me? That's his name. That's Simon.
Simon. That's his natural name. Our birth name is what ties us
to our parents. and theirs to their parents. And so it says, by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men. We all have that identification
with our parents, all the way back to Adam. But God gave Simon
a new name. He said, you're not going to
be called Simon anymore. I'm going to call you Peter. Thou shalt be called Peter. Peter's
a spiritual name and a name tied forever with his revelation of
the rock Christ Jesus. And yet in this world, the believer
wears both. He wears both. And he's aware
of both. One to remind us of where we
came from and what we were and what we are by nature, and the
other to identify us as a beloved child of God. Listen to this scripture. Our
Lord is talking about Himself being the shepherd. He said,
He that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice. Now
listen to this. And he calleth his own sheep
by name. By name. And he leadeth them
out. It says in the Scriptures, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called. And that calling
is more than just the calling of the Gospel there. He actually
called them and gave them a name. Their names were written in the
Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. Before
ever they were born, before ever they did any good or evil, before
ever they experienced anything in this world, their names were
written. What names? Those names by which
he called them. And they were written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. Whom he did predestinate, them
he also called. and put their names in His book.
Put those names upon the heart of the Savior. Now, go back to verse 1 and look
at this. Simon Peter, here's a man who
understood what he was by birth and what he was by nature, but
had some hope of eternal life, had some hope of salvation, someone
who knew the Lord. And then he says this, Simon
Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. All of God's
ambassadors are servants. They're chosen to serve. They're
appointed to serve. Their work demands their service. And the Lord confirms this. He said, you call me master and
you do well, for so I am. You're my servant. I'm your Lord. I'm your master. But they're
servants, but not just any kind of servants. They're bond slaves. Anybody here know what a bond
slave is or anything about a bond slave? A bond slave was a man
who, because he was penniless, because of whatever that happened
caused him to lose everything he owned. And he sold himself
into slavery. Isn't that what he tells us in
Romans 7? He said, the law is spiritual,
but we're carnal sold under sin. We've been sold under sin, just
like Joseph was sold out of the pit. And this, he becomes a slave. He's a slave. He's a servant. And so he serves. But the master paid his debt.
And under the Old Testament law, the servant who had sold himself
into servitude after he'd served whatever amount of years he agreed
to serve, after his debt was fully paid, he was free to go. He was free to go. But in some
circumstances, the servant Now understanding who his master
was and something of his benevolence and something of his mercy and
grace on him, didn't treat him like any old servant, but treated
him like one of his own children. Allowed him to marry, allowed
him to have children, took care of his children, gave him beyond
anything he ever expected as a servant. And so this servant
comes to town, and he's free to go. There you go. Your debt's
paid. You're free to go. There it is. There's the open
door. I don't want to go. I want to stay here. Yeah, but
you don't owe a debt anymore. I don't want to go. Why don't
you want to go? I love my master. I won't go
out. That's a bond slash. And then
they took him and they stood him up by the doorpost, probably
at the front of the door, a gathering outside, a public gathering,
and they took an awl and they bored a hole in his ear. Now,
I don't believe he'd run around with a hole in his ear. I believe
that was for a ring. And I believe they put that ring
in and that's what identified him as a bond slave. Peter was a bond slave, a servant
of Jesus Christ. He wasn't a servant of himself.
There's a lot of self-serving people in this world. He wasn't
a servant of himself, but of Christ the Lord. He didn't have
an agenda. People have an agenda. You know
that? You ever notice that? They have
an agenda. He did what he was told to do. He was not free to get creative. He was to serve his master, do
his master's biddings. He was not a servant of self
or going about self-serving. He was not the servant of Satan
being led about to do his business. That's what the Lord said to
the Pharisees. You're of your father the devil. What he tells
you to do, that's what you do. You're his servants. You're his
children. Paul said, no you not, that to
whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are
to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or
of obedience unto righteousness. He wasn't the servant of self,
and he wasn't the servant of Satan, and he wasn't the servant
of sin. Contrary to popular opinion,
sin hath no more dominion over the believer. That's what Scripture
says. It's had dominion over you your whole life. It's dictated
everything you ever thought, everything you ever felt, every
idea you ever had. Sin reigned unto death. Isn't that what the Scripture
said? Sure it did. Sin reigns. It reigns in men. That's why I can't go along with
this whole idea of free will. There ain't nobody free. Sin
reigns in ungodly men and unconverted men. It reigns. It reigns over
their thoughts, their reasoning, everything. It reigns. But the believers, that's not so with the believers. Not so. Sin hath no more dominion. That man knows what sin is now. He never knew what sin was. Preachers
stand up and talk about this thing about sin, being by nature
children of wrath and all of this. He looks at himself and
says, that's not me. I don't do that. I don't do those
things. Sin still reigns in his reasoning and in his mind and
in his heart. The believer, he knows what sin
is, and he knows what it's done, and he knows that because of
it, God's going to destroy this whole world. He's going to burn
it to cinders because of sin. And He's going to destroy every
unbelieving man right along with Him. Listen to this, Romans 6,
verse 14. shall not have dominion over
you. For you're not under the law,
you're under grace. You're under grace. And as sin
hath reigned unto death, even so shall grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. He wasn't a servant of self,
he wasn't a servant of Satan, and he wasn't a servant of sin,
but he was a servant, he said, of Jesus Christ. How did he serve
him? How does a bond slave serve his
master? In whatever capacity his master
decides for him to serve. Whatever it is. Whatever door
he opens to you, you go through it. Whatever He calls you to
do, you do it. All right. Look back at verse
1 again. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I wish I had the words to describe
the glory of the one we serve. See, this is why we need to pause.
This is why we do these verse-by-verse studies. We need to pause and
think about what it is we're reading. We just read through
it. We say that name Jesus Christ
so many times, repetitively, that it means nothing to us.
Thought came to me this morning. If I was to stand up here and
say, I come here this morning, and
I represent the glorious Joe Bazooka. Everybody in this place
just look around like, who is Joe Bazooka? But see, we say that name Jesus
Christ, and they don't know any more about who he is, why he
came, what he did, and where he is than they do Joe Bazooka. Isn't that so? That's what the
gospel's for. It's to tell men who He is, show
them the testimony of God to confirm who He is, why He came,
what He did, where He's at, what He intends to do yet. And I wish
I had the words to describe something of the glory of this man we serve. I've spent years here, eight
years here. telling you something about His
glory, and I haven't got that far. John said if everything
that he did, he said, I suppose if it were written down, the
world couldn't contain the books. Oh, His glory. His glory. This is God. And now what does
Scripture say? Christ came, who is God over
all, blessed forever. This is God we're talking about. This man who was born in that
cow stable in Bethlehem, Judah, was God Almighty. Born of a virgin. Here he is as a man, and yet
ever with God. The God-man. In the beginning. He was with God, and He was God,
and He is now God and shall forever be the Son of God. He created
all things. This one that is our Savior,
this one that we hope in, this one that we try to preach and
promote, this one was God Almighty in that little tiny baby, and
He created everything that is. I defy you to find a scripture
anywhere that doesn't Throw creation into his lap. He's the one who
created. By him, all things were created,
and without him was not anything made that was made. He is the
creator. The word was made flesh, the
scripture said, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. And this one that we serve is
the surety of the everlasting covenant of grace. God's promises
are all yea and amen, Paul said. Do you know why? Because they're
all promised through him. They're all promised through
him. There are no promises outside of Christ. People talk about hoping for
mercy and hoping for life after death and hoping for this and
hoping for that. There ain't no hope outside of Christ. There's no mercy outside of Christ,
no grace. None but Him purged our sins. By Himself, it says over in Hebrews
chapter 1, purged our sins. None but Him reconciled us to
God. None but Him made us the righteousness
of God. None but Him satisfied divine
justice. None but Him exalted the law
and made it honorable. Thou shalt call his name Jesus. That's the New Testament name
for the Old Testament Joshua. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
Joshua, for he shall save his people from their sins. The word or name Christ has to
do with the office of the Savior. Christ is not only who he is,
that name not only describes who he is, but what he is and
what he's been appointed to do and what he has accomplished
for the glory of God. A preacher, why are you telling
us all this? Because there's a world of knowing before servitude. That's right. You cannot serve him ignorantly. You serve him as you know him.
The more you know Him, the more you want to serve Him. The more
you know Him, the more careful you are in your service of Him.
There's a world of knowing behind the man who becomes His servant.
The man who sees His glory will serve Him. Oh, Isaiah, when he saw the glory
of God, And God said, who you going to send? He said, send
me. Send me. I'll go. I'll go. The New Testament said Isaiah
said these things when he saw the glory of God. All right,
now let's examine those to whom Christ's servant is writing here. Who's he writing to? to them that have obtained like
precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and
our Savior, Jesus Christ. He's talking to believers. Talking
to believers, those who have obtained like precious faith.
Now, on any given day, you can go into any funeral home And
you can go into that chapel, you see a parking lot full of
cars, you just go in, go in there, sit down quietly in the chapel
and listen to what this man has to say. And you'll hear a preacher
comforting the surviving relatives and friends, pointing out all
of this dead man's good traits and good deeds and assuring them
that he's now in a better place. He's there with the angels. He's
looking down on you this morning, smiling. And then they'll proceed to quote
the promises of God and apply them without any foundation to
the man who died an unbelieving rebel. All God's promises are directed
to his elect. To his elect. Peter tells us
in his first epistle that he was directing this epistle, this
letter, to the elect. according to the foreknowledge
of God. He wasn't talking to the world in general. He's talking
to His elect. Well, you say, you preach to
the world in general. I do, but I'm preaching to God's
elect. And if they had a mark on their
forehead, I'd just preach to them. I wouldn't waste my time,
because nobody else is going to believe that. Nobody else
is going to be broken by this. Nobody else is going to be made
meat to enter in and share in this inheritance. He directed his letter to the
elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Now listen
to this, through sanctification of the spirit, this enabling
of the spirit of God unto obedience, which is faith. So how does a
man determine if he's one chosen of God, given to Christ, and
one for whom all these promises were made. Now listen to me. All of God's elect shall receive
the benefits of electing grace. Do you understand what I'm saying?
They're going to be given the benefits which was purposed of
God for them to have. The greatest of those benefits
is Christ. But then what Christ did, we
didn't know anything about until somebody told us. And we'd have had no understanding
of it if he didn't enable us to understand it. The man he
sent, he couldn't have told you about these things if God didn't
enable him to tell you. And then providence had to be
arranged for you to hear it. All of God's elect shall receive
the benefits of electing grace. Christ coming into this world,
living under the law, his death on the cross, his resurrection,
his ascension, his present reign and glory. And benefits of electing
grace such as providential arrangement and the sending of a preacher,
the hearing of the gospel, the work of the spirit, and the gift
of faith. By grace are you saved through
faith. Faith don't save a man at random. By grace are you saved, through
faith. Now listen, and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Men obtained faith because God
gave it. He purposed for them to have
it, worked in them, making them able to receive it. He said,
For ye are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto these good
works. None but believers have the right
to the promises of God, and so Peter describes this faith as
coming to them and into their possession. Now listen to this,
by the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now
let me read this to you and then next week we'll get into it a
little bit more. Romans chapter 3 verse 24. This is all about faith. He begins
in just a few verses above this there in Romans 3 telling us
that now at this time, this salvation of God is brought to us without
the works of the law. This righteousness of God is
given to us without the works of the law. This is something
freely given to us. And then he tells us in Romans
3, verse 24, being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth, that
is, in the Old Testament ceremonial law by the unblemished sacrifices,
by that unblemished lamb, that substitutionary goat, and so
on, all through there. He's setting forth the Savior
in picture and time. Whom God set forth, now watch
this, to be a propitiation, that is, the means which enable God
to save sinners. Now watch this, through faith
in His blood. What's that mean? That is faith
that understands and believes his death to be ordained of God,
purposed of God, and freely given of God. Why? To declare the righteousness,
listen to this, to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins through the forbearance of God, that he might be just
and justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. We have obtained like precious
faith with these men like Peter, Paul, and John, and Luke, and
all these men through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus
Christ. And then John tells us in the
Gospel of John, in chapter 1, he said, but as many as received
him. To them gave he the power, that
is the right and privilege to become sons of God. If you have
faith, you were given that faith by the righteousness of God in
Christ who bought that opportunity, who bought that gift. He bought,
he gave you the right and privilege to become sons of God and all
based on his accomplishments and his work. So you see how
the elect of God are known? They're known by faith. Do I
believe? Then I'm His elect. I'm His elect. There's no other way to know
your election of God except to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.