I'd like for you to take your
Bibles and turn with me to 2 Peter 1. We're going to be looking at these
verses, and I'll read them for you here in a moment. But we're
going to be looking at the first five verses, 2 Peter 1. Now, I find this to be true no matter
where I go. I find it to be true now and
I found it to be true a long time ago. I found it to be true in my own
experience and in the experience of those who come to Christ. But when you deal with these
matters of God's absolute sovereign grace, when you stand and proclaim
salvation by grace alone, through Christ alone, by faith alone,
through the Word of God alone. When you stand and proclaim these
things, men are going to attack you. They are going to say things.
They are going to make accusations. And I find this, that it is the
suspicion of those who are out there, whoever they may be, And
it is the accusation of most that I engage in a conversation
with that pastors who preach the free grace of God preach
a gospel that gives men and women an excuse to sin. Now, I have
been affiliated with grace churches and grace pastors for thirty
years. I have never met one. who preaches
the gospel but leads men to live licentious lives. I've never. I've sat under them week by week,
went verse by verse throughout the whole New Testament, sat
and listened to them for years and years and years. When I travel,
I get their tapes. I download their messages and
I listen to them along the highway. I've never heard one time any
of them even give a hint to anybody they preached to that they were
free to live a life of sin. I've never done it. And yet that
is the accusation that's hurled at us all the time. All the time. I get it on the internet. I get
it in the mail. I get it in conversations. That somehow by not preaching
duties enforced by consequences, that you leave a man without
responsibility. Listen to this. Paul said in
Romans chapter 3 verse 8, now you may doubt my calling, but
you can't doubt his. This was a man of God. This was
a man God separated, he said, he separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by his grace. and revealed his Son in me, that
I might preach him among the heathen." You may put a question
mark on me, and that's okay. But you can't put one on him.
Now, I want you to listen to what he said over here in Romans
chapter 3, verse 8. I'm just going to tell you what
this verse is saying. He said that it was slanderously
reported of him that he taught men and women to do evil that
the goodness of God might be magnified. Now, that's what men
accused him of. This was an apostle. This was
a man caught up to the third heaven, taught by Christ himself. He went out and he preached this
true grace of God in Christ, and everybody said that. That's
what they said. Those who wouldn't receive it
said that. And it was a charge often leveled
at the Lord during his ministry, that he lived a loose life and
that he overindulged. And because he went down and
ate with those publicans and sinners, they called him a gluttonous
man and a winebibber. They said, you live a loose life.
You hang out with sinners. You hang out with sinners. The
gospel of God's free, sovereign grace does not lead to a life
of licentiousness. merely wipe the slate clean so
he can go fill it up again. That's not what it's all about.
Grace is not an open-ended account for you to run up some more on
your bill. That's what I'm saying. The gospel
leads men and women to godliness, carefulness in their life, carefulness,
careful how they answer questions, careful how they appear in public,
careful how they represent the Lord they love. They don't just go out here and
look any way they want to and talk any way they want to. And
if you do, you don't know God. That's just the truth. Just the
truth. The gospel leads men and women
to godliness and carefulness in their dealings and temperance
in all things. Now, look here at 2 Peter 1.
Let me see if I can show you some things here that will help
you with this. He begins his letter. Now this
is a general epistle. Peter's got wind through the
other apostles of these churches, and they're just little bands
of believers. Some maybe not even as big as what we have here
this morning. And they're scattered. They're
scattered all over the country. They're in Galatia and Cappadocia
and all over the place. Asia. They're just everywhere.
All these little churches. And so he writes two general
epistles, and John writes a general epistle. And these general epistles
were written to these little churches and these little places
out here all over the place. He called them strangers scattered
abroad. And he writes this in his second
epistle. He said, 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 Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you," now listen, "...through the knowledge of God and of Jesus
our Lord." Now, everything begins in the child of God when he obtains
the faith of God's elect. Now, here's what messes you up.
You've been taught since you was this big that faith is a
decision. It's just a changing of your
mind. That's what messes us up. When
we talk about faith, well, I made my decision for Jesus. I accepted
Jesus as my personal Savior. I joined the church. I came down
the aisle. I made commitments. I turned
over a new leaf, and we won't call that faith. Now, Peter wrote this letter,
and he said, I'm writing to those who have obtained like precious
faith. Now, if you can just If faith
is just a decision, then it's not precious, is it? If anybody
can do it, then it's not precious. Now, if you want to, you can
go out here and gather yourself a pocketful of these rocks out
here in the parking lot and pretend like you've got a treasure, but
it's not a treasure because they're common. You can get them anywhere. But now you get you two or three
gold nuggets in your pocket, now we're talking about something
different. You see what I'm saying? Faith to this generation is a
common thing. It doesn't mean anything. It
doesn't stand for anything. It doesn't accomplish anything.
It has limits that man sets on it. It's according to his will. It's according to his mind. It's
according to his nature. It's according to his abilities. In the Bible, faith is a miracle. That's what faith is. Faith is
a supernatural gift. It's a supernatural gift. He
wrote in his first epistle to those people, the same people
he's writing to in this one, and he called them elect according
to the foreknowledge of God, now listen, through sanctification
of the Spirit. There has to be a setting apart
of the Spirit of God. There has to be something to
stop your path, stop your walk. Stop your wants. Stop your desires. There has to be an intervention
of God. God the Holy Spirit intervenes
in a believer's life. He intervenes. He stops that
path. He stops that desire. He stops
that way. He brings it to a screeching
halt. If you want to get a vision of it, go over to Acts and read
about the Apostle Paul. He was on that way, going down
there to get some more paper so he could go hold their coats
again. He didn't want to get any blood
on him, but he'd hold the coats of them so they could stone them.
He was on his way down there. He's up on that big white Charger,
prancing down through there with those big broad fractures on.
God smote him, throwed his face in the dust and said, you went
far enough. That's far enough. And he brought it to a screeching
halt. That is what faith accomplishes. Faith will stop you dead in your
tracks. It will stop that pretense of
religion. It will stop that self-righteous ambition. It will stop the whole
mess. Boom! Right now. Now you are
going to listen to me. Now you are going to listen to
me. God began to speak. Faith is a supernatural gift. It is through sanctification
of the Spirit and it is unto obedience. I'll tell you how
you know when God puts faith in a man. He obeys. Huh? I don't want to hear that mess. People go and do what they want
to do. I know the Lord. No, you don't. No, you don't.
You don't know God from a billy goat. People who know God obey. They obey. What do they obey? They obey anything that has to
do with God. I don't care who it is, if it's the President
of the United States, the Sheriff, if it's your child, if it's your
mother and father, whatever that authority is that God set in
place, you're going to bow to it because you recognize whose
authority it is. You're going to bow to it. I'm
telling you, it's unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. That old dead conscience can't
do anything for God. Unless you mix man in it some
way, he won't have it. He ain't drinking it. He don't
like it. He won't have it. I don't care
how you can put all the, what do they call that when they put
the little lettuce and stuff on there on the plate and decorate
it all up? I don't care how you do it, he
don't want it. He don't want it. Unless you put a little bit
of man in there, you don't have to put a lot, but just put a
little bit of man in there, he'll swallow it. He'll swallow it.
But when it's all Christ, he don't want it. He don't want
it. Until his conscience gets sprinkled
with that blood. And he says over in Hebrews chapter
9, he said when the Holy Spirit of God sprinkles that dead conscience,
it purges it. Huh? What does it purge it from? Dead works to serve the living
God. That's what happens. That's what
he's talking about here. Sanctification of the Spirit
is unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ that purges
that old conscience, purges that old life, purges those old motives,
purges that old conduct and old habits, that old understanding,
and you serve the living God. And you can't do this on your
own now, I'm telling you. Faith is as much a miracle as
the dividing of the Red Sea. It's as much a miracle as that
Jordan River when God pushed the river back and let them walk
across on dry land. Faith is the work of God in you,
and it takes into account the new birth, spiritual understanding,
sprinkling of the old dead conscience. We are begotten again, Peter
said, unto a lively hope. A lively hope, a living hope,
a living principle. Over in John chapter 1, he says
basically the same thing. In John chapter 1, he says Christ,
he sets him out before us as the everlasting Word. Everything
God intends to say, he intends to say it through the second
person of the Godhead. He called his name the Word,
the Word, the communicator, the advocate. And by him he creates
all things and he speaks in that creation. It tells us in Romans
chapter 1 that we are without excuse because God gives you
some testimony in his creation. created man and put in him a
conscience. And you can't get away from it.
God speaks to you. He gives you the light of conscience.
And so if you never hear the gospel, you're still guilty.
And you're still without excuse because God made Himself known. And it tells us John 16, verse
4, and it says, "...in him was life, and this life is the light
of men." And that life, that testimony of life, it was in
the world. And the world didn't know what
it was. They didn't know. They didn't recognize it. And so he came to his own. He
set just a portion of this world aside, called it Israel, and
he came to his own. He came to them in the ceremonies,
in the priesthood, in the sacrifices. He came to them in the washings,
in the labors, in the tabernacles. Even the tent stakes picture
Christ in that work. He came to his own, but his own
received him not. But, he said, to as many as received
him, to them. Why did they receive him? Because
he gave them power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name. Now, wait a minute. You're saying
that the power of God given to men to become sons is in faith? That's exactly what I'm saying. even to them that believe on
his name who were born." That's how you get that faith. Not of
blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man,
but of God. Listen to this scripture. It's in Ephesians chapter 2.
He says, By grace are you saved through faith. And that, not
of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works. lest any
man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in." There are three things concerning
the work of God in men, and four men, of which this world is totally
ignorant and blind. The first one is sin. They don't
understand what sin is. The second is righteousness.
They don't have a clue what kind of righteousness he's talking
about when he uses the word. They don't know of God's essential
righteousness, and they don't know anything at all about that
imputed righteousness of Christ. And they know nothing at all
about judgment. Look with me for just a second
over here in John chapter 3. Here's a wise man. Here's Nicodemus.
He came to the Lord. The Lord said he was a master
in Israel, a master of theology. And he was a decent man. Although he had those same tendencies,
he wasn't like Paul was before Paul's conversion. And he saw
some things, and he came over, and he wanted to kind of patch
things up between those Pharisees and Christ. So he came there,
and he was looking for some common ground. And the Lord just stopped
him dead in his tracks. He said, Nicodemus, you must
be born again. You've got to be born again.
You can't perceive the kingdom of God. You can't enter the kingdom
of God. You're not going to understand anything I've got to say until
you're born again. And then he goes on and he gets,
of course, all of you are familiar with John 3.16. It tells us that
the coming of Christ into the world was an act of God's love. Verse 17, he tells us this. God
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him
is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already."
What do you mean? You don't have to hear the gospel
and reject it to be condemned. You were born condemned. You
were condemned in the fall of Acts. You came forth from the
womb speaking lies. That condemnation is in your
nature. It's in your mind and in your
heart and in your will. It's in your whole being, condemned
already. He that believeth on him, though,
is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. He's condemned. This is the condemnation. Where's
the proof? Where's the evidence? Here it
is. Here it is right here. I just don't believe I'm that
bad. I'm not like that. What evidence
can you bring? Here it is. Here's the condemnation. Light has come into the world,
and men love darkness. rather than light. Huh? There it is. There's evidence. Testimony of God laid to our
charge as to our real condition and state of being is that we
hate light and we love darkness. I'd rather watch TV than come
to church. No, that's just the truth. That's what people say. There's a game on. basketball
right down to the finals. Can you hurry up because I got
to get home in time for the game. We hate light, love darkness.
What's that mean? Picture a grocery store. You
go in here at Brookshire's down here in Spring Hill and you pass
the cash register and you're looking there and there's aisles
all down through here. You look down this aisle here
and It's just white and glistering with the righteousness of God
and Godlin's things all up and down through everything you could
ever dream of, eternal life, all these things, all up and
down this aisle, just glistering and white with the glory of God.
Over here in aisle 2, it's just one little can that says, Rebellion,
on it. Just one little can that's sitting
there on the shelf. Where's man going to go? He's
going to go down that aisle and get that can every time. Every
time. I don't care, you can put all
those aisles and fill them full of the treasures of God. He's
going to go get that can. Go get that can. Why? Because
that's what he loves. That's what he loves. That's
what is common with his own nature. That's what seems right. He said
there's a way that seemeth right unto a man. Why does it seem
right to him when it's absolutely abomination to God? Why does
it seem right? Because that's who he is. You see, that goes just fine. That goes just fine. People say
it all the time, but they don't believe it. I talked to them
one time. I said, take a bunch of kids
and stick them in a room. Tell them, fill it up full of
toys. Y'all can have anything in here, but now don't go in
that door. Don't go in that door. Go outside and watch. See where
they go first. They go straight to the door.
Straight to the door. One lady told me when I told
her that, she said, well, she said, that's just their nature. I said, that's what I've been
trying to preach to you. That's your nature. That's what it is. And you can't stop it. You can't
control it. That's the ignorance and darkness
of sin is to make you think you can do something that you can't.
You can't do it. The Pharisees thought they could
keep it all. They couldn't do it. They made
men believe that they could. They couldn't do it. What's that say over there? Let me find it real quick over here
in Romans. I bear them record they have
a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for they being
ignorant," ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about
to establish their own righteousness. Any man who goes about trying
to establish his own righteousness is ignorant of the righteousness
of God. You cannot exalt the righteousness
of God any higher than you do when you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. He perfectly honored that law.
He exalted that law as high as it could be exalted. And he is
the end of the law. Listen to what Paul says. He
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. That's the problem. We don't believe. That's the
problem. It is not that man has no will
or that he is not an agent responsible to God. It is that his nature
is bound in chains of darkness, and it loves darkness. It prefers
darkness over light. And he will never believe until
God, who commands the light to shine out of darkness, shines
in his heart and gives him the light of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. He will never believe. Never
believe. stumble and stammer around in
the dark. Faith must be obtained of God. And when this faith is obtained,
listen to this, 2 Peter 1, verse 3, this obtaining is according as
his divine power hath given unto us all things. that pertain unto
life and godliness. All things, now listen, through
the knowledge of him that hath called us unto glory and virtue. When a man begins to hear the
gospel, he begins to discern his sin. First thing he notices is that
his tree has a lot of dead limbs on it. That's the first thing
he looks at. Boy, you know this thing, I need to tidy things
up here. I went out after that windstorm
and I had limbs all over the backyard. Made me think about
trimming that tree and I'll put it off till the next time. If
I ever want to crash into my house, I'll get up there and
trim it. But this first thing man notices, he notices he's
got some dead limbs in the tree. And so he said, well, I'm going
to go down here and cut some of these things off. I don't
need to have a tree like this. I need to take better care of
it." So he goes down there, and he joins the church. And he gets
out that saw of the law, and he gets up there, and he whacks
off that limb, and he whacks off this limb, and whacks off
that one, and whacks off this one. And he's in pretty good
shape. He's in pretty good shape. Tree just full of dead limbs,
And so he cut some of them off. Then the second thing he begins
to see is that upon a little closer inspection, there's a
lot more dead limbs than he thought there was. And so now he begins to see things
that he never saw. He don't love enough. He don't
pray enough. He don't live clean enough. He
don't read enough. He don't attend enough. He don't
give enough. So he makes a new commitment.
He dedicates now. Dedicates. He joined the church,
but he was a little loose. Now, I've set my mind. I'm going to do this thing. I'm
going to do it. Boy clenches them fists, and he dedicates,
makes a commitment, determines to walk the straight and narrow.
And he cuts off them limbs, and they fall down to the ground.
And then he starts back down the tree, and he looks over there,
and lo and behold, right on the trunk of the tree, there's this
big old infected place, and the bark's blistered and peeling
back. Never saw it. Never saw it. Couldn't see it
from where he was at. But he's come down a little bit now, and
he can see it. And boy, he runs back to the
church. He gets him some salve. Brings
it out there and puts it on there and he takes that tape and tapes
that thing around and feels pretty good about it now. I've nipped
her in the butt. I've got this thing. So he comes
down. And when he gets down to the
bottom, he looks and it was all for nothing. The root of the
tree rotted. Rotted. All those things he'd
been attending to up here in the tree. All this while looking
way up here in the top at these branches. Looking at all these
dead limbs and looking at all these things. Climbing up there
and inspecting all these things. Discovering all these things.
He gets down to the bottom and it was all for nothing. Because
the root was rotted. It was rotted. The tree was doomed. The tree
was doomed. Because it was ruined at the
root. Ruined at the root. Over in Matthew
chapter 12. The Lord begins to speak to the
scribes and Pharisees. He called them hypocrites and
blind. He said, you are blind leaders
of the blind. You do what you do. You are religious. I know that. But you do what
you do to be seen of men. You do what you do for men's
applause. And he goes on and on and on. You give counsel who were never
called to give it. You give direction Never knew
the way. You're given instruction who
never had revelation. You're called good-evil and evil-good.
You don't know what you're saying. You're blind. And everybody that
follows you is blind, and you're all going to fall in the ditch. Now, listen to what he said.
He said, Either make the tree good, and its fruit good. or make the tree corrupt, and
its fruit corrupt. For the tree is known by its
fruit. Matthew 12, verse 34, he said, O generation of vipers,
how long can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of
the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out
of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things, and
an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. And
many other things he said to them. and exposed them for what
they were. Exposed them for what they were. And they were offended. That's
what happens. That's what John said of where
in John chapter 3. He said when a man approaches
this light, he's reproved. The light reproves him. It exposes
him and he don't like it. He backs back off into the darkness. You don't keep coming to the
light. It just comes a little way and then it comes back. He
don't like it. It offends him. And his disciples
said, Master, don't you know that you've offended these men?
Now, listen to what he said. He said, Every plant which my
heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Rooted up. He's not going to prune the limbs.
He's going to take her out by the roots. I warn you that any
man who tries to persuade you, influence you, convince you that
by doing something to reform your life, you'll somehow be
drawn closer to God and enjoy a sweeter communion with God
is an enemy of your soul. You cannot get any nearer to
God than you are in Christ. In Christ, you're one. You're
one. You can't get no closer than
that. What they're doing, whether they
realize it or not, is dragging you back to the same ground on
which these Pharisees stood. Turn with me to John chapter
15. God did not put Adam in the garden
to be a tree. He put him in the garden to be
a partaker of the promised seed. He grafted him in. Adam was plucked
up by the roots and cast out of the garden. Listen to this,
John chapter 15, verse 1. He said, I am the true vine. Just one. Go into the book of
Revelation sometime and just read all the way through. Just
read all the way through the book. Don't worry about picking
up this and that. But here's what you're going to find out.
As you begin to hear these things preached in the Word of God,
you begin to see some things. Boy, those pictures will just
come alive to you. He said in that day, in that
place, there was going to be a tree. Huh? We're going to have
access to it. That's what he's talking about
here. He said, I am the true vine. And my father is the husband
man. What's that? He's the farmer.
He owns the field. He chose what to plant, where
to plant it, and what was going to be produced. He's the husband
man. Every branch in me that bears
not fruit takes it away. Takes it away. All his branches
bear fruit. Uh-huh. What's he talking about
here? He's talking about false professions
of faith. That's what he's talking about.
Empty professions of faith. I'm in Christ. Where's your fruit? Cut him off. Cut him off. Every
branch in me that bears not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch
that bears fruit, he'll prune it a little bit. He doesn't cut
it off. He just prunes it a little bit.
Why does he do that? So it will produce more fruit. He'll encourage it. He'll encourage
and produce. Sometimes we have to have these
things. Sometimes God's purposes are false. He'll take a little
prune. He'll cut a little here, cut
a little there to produce more fruit. Now listen to this, verse
3. You're clean through the word
which I've spoken to you. You're clean. You're pure. Your
conscience has been purged. Your heart's been established.
I've given you rest and peace. You're clean. Now, abide in me. Don't run off to the law. Don't run over here and jump
in the pool. Abide in me, and I in you, as
the branch cannot," did you get that? "...cannot bear fruit of
itself, except it abide in the vine. No more can ye except ye
abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him the same, bringeth forth much fruit." For without me,
you can do nothing. That's what you can do. Nothing. I tell you, we had a, on our
little five acres up there in Kentucky, I had a cherry tree
I got from my sister. And we kind of nurtured that
thing around, and it grew up, pretty good sized tree. And just
before we left, everything bloomed and had fruit just before I left.
But we got out under that tree, and you could set a big kitchen
bowl, I mean a nice sized bowl, set it down and stand still in
one place and pick that bowl full of cherries. It was loaded
down. But I had a little line where
a fence row used to be. They divided up a farm and I
just had a section of it and that fence row run through the
back side of my property. And there was wild cherry trees
all down through there. None of them ever produced anything
but a berry that birds eat and dirtied my car. That's all that
tree was good for. That's all that tree. Without
me, he said, you can't produce this fruit. All you can do is
produce that little aggravating berry that's going to stain things. That's all you're good for. You
can't do it. You cannot produce these things.
Salvation is not pruning limbs. It's being grafted into the vine. Faith draws out of Christ all
things that pertain unto life and godliness. Peter said these
things all. come through the knowledge of
him that called you to glory and virtue, and in that calling,
in that work of God in the heart, are given unto us." Now, listen
to this, verse 4, 2 Peter 1, 4, "...exceeding great and precious
promises, that by these you might be partaker of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
love." These things all come from knowing God. Knowing God. Listen to this. This is in 1
John. 1 John is just a few pages over there from 2 Peter. And
later on this afternoon, I'd like for you just to read through
there. It's a very short book. Just read through there. And
I'm going to quote these things to you to save a little time.
He said, He that saith, he knoweth God, And keepeth not his commandments
is a liar." The man who knows God obeys God. Now, he's not talking here about
the Ten Commandments. He's not talking about going
back under that old ceremonial law. He's not talking about incorporating
a few things and bringing them over with him. What he's talking
about here, these commandments, what are them commandments? It's
to believe and be baptized. That's the main commandment,
is to believe and be baptized. Baptism is as much a commandment
as believing. Men want to make it into being
an option. He said, you're a liar. You're a liar. Faith obeys God.
It obeys God. He commands us to rest in Christ. He commands us to love one another,
to remember him at his table. to forsake not the assembling
of ourselves together, to look for his return, to preach the
gospel to every creature. That all comes from knowing God.
Know God. Listen to this verse. He that
knoweth God, heareth us. He heareth us. Isn't that what
Christ said back there in John chapter 10? I'll tell you. He
said, I'm going to tell you exactly why you don't hear me. You're
not my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
here are my boys. Huh? That's all God's saying.
That's all God's saying here. He that knoweth God, heareth
us. Listen to this. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. You can't love and not know God.
You can't do it. He said we know that If we know,
he said, that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we're going
to have it. We're going to have it if we
know him. 1 John 5, verse 20, And we know
that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding,
that we may know him that is true, and that we are in him
that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true
God in eternal life. It comes from knowing God. I'll tell you why I don't stand
up here. with a whip and beat you to do this and do that and
be this and dress like that and all this kind of nonsense. I'm
trying to establish in your heart true faith. True faith is what
tells you who God is. When you find out who God is,
you love one another. When you find out who God is
and what he did for you in Christ, you love him. When you find out who you are
and where you were and how far he had to go to get you to bring
you back, you'll be thankful. You'll be gracious. You won't
be looking down your nose anymore. You'll be down here looking up.
Huh? I'm telling you, this is how
the fruit is produced. It's produced from the vine.
From the vine. You have to be grafted in. Who
does the grafting? He said, my father is the husband,
man. Takes the work of God.