If you would turn with me to
2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3. If I were to give this message
a title, it would be called, Growing in Grace. Growing in Grace. Now in these
verses we see that there had been some in the apostles' day
who had wrestled with certain expressions in the epistles of
Paul. which Peter said were hard to
be understood. They'd wrestled with these things,
Peter said, to their own destruction. There are many things, friends,
in the Scriptures that are hard to be understood, especially
and unless God Almighty is pleased to reveal them to us. There are
many things in the Holy Bible that I do not understand. I don't. But by faith, I believe them.
I heard a man say one time the scriptures contain both milk
for babes and meat for strong men. I'm going to be honest with
you, I don't know how. Christ was made to be sin. One
whom the Scripture says knew no sin. But I know that He was. Because that's what the Scriptures
teach. And that's what God's Spirit
has bore witness with my spirit to be so. I know it. I don't
know how. But I know that Christ was made
to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. How much do you believe it? I
trust my soul to it. My only hope of righteousness
is that Christ was made to be sin for me. I don't understand
how a depraved sinner like me can be given the perfect righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ in exchange for a horrific unrighteousness,
but I believe it with all my being. Some things are just not
to be understood. but simply believed. But Peter
in this particular passage of Scripture doesn't say that these
things are impossible to understand. He says they're hard to understand,
especially to unlearned and unstable men and women who wrestle with
them to their own destruction. So therefore, Peter warns believing
men and women to take heed lest they, as it says in verse 17,
being led away with the error of the wicked, should fall from
their own steadfastness. My message this morning is taken
from the 18th verse where the apostle says, but grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be glory
both now and forever. Amen. Now in order that we might
know how to stand and how to be kept from falling, as Peter
has spoken, he gives us an instruction. to grow in grace. That's the
way to stand is to grow. Now most of you parents recall
how your children first learned to walk. One of the most joyous
things to see. A little boy or a little girl
gets to that age where they're able to pull themselves up on
an end table or a coffee table and they stand there for a little
while and then they fall and they pull themselves back up
again and After a while, they begin to take little steps, only
to fall after a step or two. Each day, they seem to inch their
way along a little further, but time and time again, they fall,
but they keep getting up. You see, they're growing. They're
growing. And soon it seemed as though
with my children that they just took off. Boom, they were gone. They'd learned to walk, but they
still had their falls. And yet, standing became quite
easy to them. And falling while standing usually
only happened when they lost concentration or were distracted.
That's what Peter is teaching here. That's what he's saying
to believers. Before you become distracted
with things that are hard to understand, grow. Grow in grace. Now let me first say that there
is a sense in which there is no such thing at all as growth
in grace. Well, what do you mean? You just
said grow in grace. Well, this is what I mean. If
we understand the word grace as free favor, which is what
it is, and the love of God towards His people, which is by grace,
there is not and there cannot be any growth in that at all. The moment a sinner believes
and trusts in Christ, he or she is by the grace of God, there
and then justified and complete in Christ Jesus. And if we live
till our hair turns gray, and some of us are already there,
we will never be, you will never be more justified and never be
more loved than you are right now. No more so than the very
first moment in which you believed and trusted in Christ. As I live,
let my grace grow. Let my faith increase. Let my
zeal become stronger. Let my love become warmer. But
I shall not be more in grace than I was before." Now I think
you know what I'm saying. God will not love me more. He
will not have a deeper and purer affection in His heart for me
than He had the very first moment He saved. His grace fully justifies
me. His grace fully accepts me. The first moment I came to Him
with all my sin, He can love me no more on that glorious day
when I stand before His throne in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm
made perfect in Christ Jesus. I cannot be more than perfect. How can I improve on perfection? So I, in that respect, cannot
grow in grace. I cannot receive more justifying
mercy. I cannot receive more pardoning
grace. For I've had it all at once.
and I stand perfect in Christ. But our text doesn't say anything
about grace growing, does it? It doesn't say that grace grows. God's grace never increases. It's always infinite. So it cannot
be moved. It's always everlasting. His
grace cannot be more. And in the nature of God, it
can't be less. But our text tells us to grow
in grace. One of the old writers wrote,
if we are in the sea of God's grace, we can't be in a deeper
sea. But let us grow now that we're
in it. We cannot be more in it than
we are or than we've always been. We're in God's grace and we're
in a covenant. An everlasting covenant, I might
add, and we're in union with Christ. We cannot be more or
less so, for we are eternally secure through the blood of our
Savior. But while it cannot grow more,
we can grow more in it. So we must grow in grace. Now, don't confuse growing in
grace with a doctrine called progressive sanctification. When
God saved me in Christ, dear friends, when God saved you in
Christ, as I've already said, I was set apart. That's what that word sanctify
means, set apart. And when He set me apart, I was
perfectly sanctified. in Christ. Perfectly sanctified. And to suggest that we can become
more sanctified is to say that we can improve upon perfection. And we cannot. Spiritually speaking
now, I stand perfectly holy and righteous before God Almighty
right now. Right now. But until the Lord
return for me and glorify this body of death in which I live,
I must grow in grace. Growing in grace is not growing
upwards. It's growing downwards. That's a hard lesson to learn,
isn't it? You see, when our depravity, our sin, as horrific as it is,
is revealed to us, when we see our utter hopelessness and lack
of the power to do anything on our own, we're uncovered and
it's made manifest to us by God's Spirit that we must grow. Don't
measure your growth in feelings. Don't do it. Don't measure your
growth in feelings. If we're in Christ, we're in
Christ by faith and not by feelings. Whether our feelings are good
or bad, whether our feelings are high or low, we are no more
or no less a child of God regardless of our feelings. It's our faith,
not our feelings that unites us to Christ. You see, we need
to learn to trust Him in darkness as well as in light. We need
to trust Him in distress. We must learn to lean on Him
when we cannot see Him. And when it seems like there
is nothing to walk on, we keep walking and we walk on the ground
of the fact that our foundation is on a sure foundation. That
foundation being Christ Jesus. Now, I've given this a lot of
thought this week. Couldn't help but to think of
Peter. He's the one, by divine inspiration,
who penned these words. And having learned over the past
years a little about human nature, as I know you have also, God
reveals what we are to us, doesn't he? He shows us what we're capable
of. That's what keeps us ever clinging
to Him. But having learned a little about
human nature, I'm sure there were times when Peter felt that
he must have grown in grace. There were times that I felt
like I had, but it doesn't have anything to do with feelings.
In the Gospel of Mark, we're told that our Lord told His disciples
that He would soon be delivered up to the chief priest and that
he would suffer and die as a criminal on a cross. Look there with me
in Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14. Let's look at
verse 27. Mark 14, 27. And Jesus said unto
them, being His disciples, He said, Every one of you, all of
you, shall be offended because of Me tonight. For it's written,
I will smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered.
But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee. And here's our friend Peter.
In verse 29, Peter said unto him, Although all shall be offended,
yet will not I. Lord, every one of these other
eleven, I've been watching them. I know how fickle they are. I
know what they're capable of, but not me. Not me. I won't. And Jesus said unto
him in verse 30, Verily I say unto you, Peter, that this day,
even in this night, before the cock crow twice, you will deny
Me three times. And Peter, he's beginning to
be madder, more vehemently, it says. If I should die with thee,
I will not deny thee in any wise. If they take me with you and
tell me they're going to hang me on the cross next to you,
I'll gladly go." That's what he said. That's what he was saying.
And then notice that all the other ones chimed in. Likewise,
I also said, they all. Everyone said, me too. I will
too. You know what happened. Exactly
what the Lord said. All that our Lord told Peter
and the others came to pass exactly as He told them that it would.
So I'm afraid that if growing in grace has anything to do with
feelings, that I will most of my life feel lost. Look down
at verse 72 in this same chapter. And the second time that old
rooster crowed, and Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said
unto him before the cock crowed twice, Thou shalt deny me thrice."
Three times. And notice those next words,
"...and when he thought thereon, He wept. Now, let me ask you,
do you think that Peter at this particular time felt the grace
of God? Do you think at this moment he
had a sure confidence in his faith of Christ? Do you think
at this time he felt as though he had really grown in grace?
I can assure you he didn't. He didn't feel like he'd grown
in grace. I can assure you that when this overwhelming remembrance
of what his Lord had said to him that he would do, that he
vehemently said, I won't do it! Though all these others would.
Not I. Not I, Lord. I'm just sure that
he felt like a lost man. Shamed. Embarrassed. So much
so that the scriptures say he wept. Martin Luther once wrote,
you've heard this, probably can quote it. Feelings come, feelings
go, and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God,
not else is worth believing. Though all my heart should feel
condemned for one of some sweet token, there is one greater than
my heart. whose word cannot be broken.
I'll trust in God's unchanging word till soul and body sever. For though all things shall pass
away, His word shall last, stand forever." Now I'll tell you when
I think Peter had grown the most in grace. Remember now, he had
denied his Lord three times. Afterwards, he had watched his
Lord be falsely convicted, judged, murdered on a cross between two
notorious criminals. He saw his Lord buried in a tomb. But his faith had never been
so strong, dear friends, nor had he grown more in grace than
when his Lord showed himself to Peter and the others after
he had resurrected." Now look at John 21 that I read earlier. I won't read the same verses,
but look at verse 1. Gospel of John 21. Here we have an account of the
Lord showing Himself again for the third time to the disciples. Verse 1 says, And on this wise showed he himself. And there were together Simon
Peter and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana, and in
Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.
And Simon Peter saith unto them, I am going fishing." That was
what he did before Christ called him. He said, I'm going fishing.
And what they said unto him, they didn't say, oh Peter, I'll
not do that now. You know, the Lord's left us
with the work to do. You know what they said? They
said, we're going with you. We're going fishing with you.
We also go with thee. Verse 3. And they went forth
and they entered into a ship, and that night they caught nothing."
Much like the first night that Peter came face-to-face with
the Lord Jesus Christ. They caught nothing. Christ said,
"...cast your nets on the other side." And Peter said, Hey, we're
professional fishermen. Verse 4, "...but when the morning
was now come, Jesus stood on the shore. But the disciples
knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus said unto them, Children,
have ye any meat? And they answered him, No. And
he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship,
and ye shall find. And they cast therefore. They
were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. Therefore,
that disciple whom Jesus loved, being John, he said unto Peter,
Peter, that's the Lord. And notice these next words.
Now when Simon Peter what? Heard! that it was the Lord. He girded his fisher's coat unto
him, for he was naked, and he did cast himself into the sea.
Peter grew in grace when he once again heard that it was the Lord. When he heard it was the Lord,
what did he do? He cast himself into the sea. And he swam to
shore as quick as he could. This is how we grow in grace
too, dear friends. We hear again and again and again,
this is the Lord. We don't preach a doctrine. We preach a person. We don't
preach works that man does. Man has no works of righteousness. We preach Christ. We tell sinners
what God Himself has done. And what do believers do? They
cast away themselves. They cast away their cares. And they continue to lean on
Christ and Christ alone. We've all denied Him and wept,
haven't we? But when we saw Him again and
heard again His love for us, as rotten and sinful as we are,
we cast ourselves and our feelings away and being naked, no righteousness
of our own, that's being naked, we came again to our Lord. That's how we grow in grace.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The Word
of God. Christ teaches the Word. Faith
come by hearing, and hearing of Christ. I believe, honestly,
all who know the Lord can truly say and admit that our feelings
don't have a thing to do with our faith and God's grace to
us. If we look to feelings, we find
no real hope of growing in grace. Our feelings, our faithfulness,
are fickle in their best state. They're vanity, the Scripture
says. Man in his best state is what?
altogether vanity. But thank God. Now listen, this
is good news. These things of faith and grace
have absolutely nothing to do with anything in you done by
you. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And they have everything to do
with our Lord's faithfulness to us. The disciples had gone
fishing, but Christ came to where they were, stood on the shore,
waited patiently. And it's the same with us. I
thank God that He never gives up on me. Don't you? Don't give
me what I deserve. No, sir, I don't want what I
deserve. As I said, I go fishing just
about every day. Man, I'm telling you, it don't
take much to discourage me. I'm going fishing. But there
he stands, calling me to... What does he call me to do? Dine with him. Come eat with
me. Let's sit down together. Let
me tell you about my love for you. My grace to you. Friends, my love for him is cold. I admit that. But I love him
nonetheless. And he says to me, sinner, lovest
thou me? Yes, Lord, I know my love is
cold. I know my faith is fickle. I wish it weren't, but I do love
you. I do love you. If you love me, then forget about
yourself. Cast all your care on me, for
I careth for you. 1 Peter 5, 7. Walk by faith with
me and in me, and you feed my sheep. Now if you look back at
2 Peter 3, our text, I'll wrap this up. What did Peter say in
verse 18? But grow in grace. But notice
that second part. and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Now this is God's Word to you
who desire to grow in grace. Growing in grace comes in one
way and in one way only. This is the thing that is always
connected to growing in grace. It's in the knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Is that not what he said? Word
for word, that's what he said. It's in the knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In fact, there cannot be any
grace at all except as we know Christ. There can't be any growth
of grace at all except as we grow in our knowledge of Christ. Those of you that know Him say,
oh, I long to grow in love. And we do. I want to know that
I love Christ. I do. Am I His or am I not? That gives me anxious thought,
the writer said. I want to feel that my heart's
going out after Him and my soul is knit to Him. I do. I want
to know that. Well, you know the way to grow
in love to Him? It's to know more of Him. The
more you know of the Savior, the better you'll love Him. The
more you discover His beauties, His excellencies, His virtues,
His perfections, His glories, the more your soul will be drawn
towards Him. I can assure you of that. I say
to you who do not love Christ at all, it's because you don't
know Him. That's why. For if you knew anything
about Him, you'd love Him. And you'd love Him in proportion
to your knowledge of Him. He's all together lovely. And what is the reason why so
many of us groan because our faith is so feeble? It's because
we don't know enough of Him. Oh, one says, oh, when I look
at myself, I think, oh, what's become of me? Then I search to
see if there are not some evidences of grace. That's me. I'm telling you, that's me. I
look at myself and I think, what in the world has happened to
me? My love is so cold. No evidences
of grace in me? Well, it's wrong. It's wrong
because you don't have any business to look there. Salvation is not
looking to self. You not grow in faith or grace,
dear friends, by looking at yourself. One look at Christ Jesus is worth
a thousand looks at yourself. And if you have more faith, you
better keep your eye on Christ. Mr. Spurgeon once wrote, I wrote
this in a notebook, long time ago and found it not long ago.
He said the sweet flower of faith was first planted in Christ's
precious blood and it must be watered by it every day. Know more of Christ. Think more
of Him. And your faith will increase.
Our weak faith would soon get strong if we lived more on Christ. The more we live, the more we
love Christ, the more we'll love one another. And I'll leave you
with this. To grow in grace is to grow downward. To grow in grace is to grow in
humility. What a precious grace that is. But it's become quite rare Humility,
where can I find you? Where is humility found? Where are you? It's found at
the feet of Christ. You've got to come down. You've
got to come down. It's there that I behold myself
at his feet as a lost, ruined sinner purchased by divine love. That woman that came into Simon
the Pharisee's house, where was she? She's at his feet. She's washing his feet with her
tears and wiping them with her hair. That's where she was. That leper who came and said,
Lord, if Thou will, You can make me whole. Was he standing face
to face with the Lord Jesus Christ? On his knees, begging for mercy
and grace. And what did the Lord say to
him? I will. The way to Christ and humility
is at His feet, friends. You've got to grow downward.
If you will truly be humble, you must look at your Savior
and know more of Him. And then you'll sing in your
heart that old hymn, Alas, and did my Savior bleed and did my
Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? We'll never know our own nothingness
until we see our Savior's greatness. When we grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we'll be sure to
grow in humility. I'll tell you that. One old Puritan
said growing believers think themselves to be nothing, but
full grown believers think themselves to be less than nothing. Oh,
I know I'm less than nothing. Less than nothing. Now listen,
I'll leave you with this. The nearer we get to Christ,
the smaller self will appear to be. Self and Christ can never
come close together. When I stand near self, you can
write this down, when you stand near self, Christ is small. When I stand near Christ, self
is small. Self is small. May God grant
us to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. That's my prayer for
me and for you.