Sermon #61 Through The Bible Series
Title: 2 Peter
Grow in Grace and Knowledge
Text: 2 Peter 1:1-4
Date: Tuesday Evening — July 27, 2004
Tape
# Y-36a
Readings: Larry Brown & Larry Criss
Introduction:
(2
Peter 1:1-4) “Simon Peter, a servant and
an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with
us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: (2) Grace
and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our
Lord, (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: (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 is in the world through
lust.”
The apostle Peter wrote his first epistle to God’s
saints who were suffering the horrible trial of persecution under the Roman
Emperor, Nero. His second epistle was written shortly afterward, just before
his death (1:14), and is addressed to the same suffering saints. Their
circumstances had not changed.
The first epistle dealt with the hard, hard trial of persecution, of suffering for Christ’s sake. In that epistle Peter urges us to persevere in the faith, assuring us of God’s great grace in Christ and urging us to follow the example our Savior set before us (1 Pet. 2:21-24).
(1
Peter 2:21-24) “For even hereunto were
ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye
should follow his steps: (22) Who did no sin, neither was guile found in
his mouth: (23) Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he
suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: (24) Who his own self bare our
sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto
righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
In 2nd Peter the inspired apostle deals
with a trial even more difficult to endure, and urges us to remain steadfast in
faith in the face of the ever-increasing onslaught of false religion. In these
three chapters Peter urges us to remain steadfast and persevere in the faith,
assuring us again of God’s great grace to us in Christ and urging us to “grow
in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (3:18).
In 1st Peter we are taught to rejoice in hope in the face of great
trials. Here, in 2nd Peter, we are taught to remain faithful to the
truth in the midst of great falsehood.
Precious Things
In these two epistles the apostle Peter reminds us of
the many blessings of grace our God has given us in Christ. In fact, he tells
us that the Lord God has, according to his divine power, “given unto us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that
hath called us to glory and virtue” (1:3). Among these many gifts of grace,
Peter names six that he calls “precious.”
1. He tells us that the trial of our faith is more
precious than gold that perishes, because the trials of our faith in this world
will make heaven more glorious than it could otherwise have been (1 Pet. 1:7).
2. In 1 Peter 1:19 he tells us that the blood of Christ,
by which we have been redeemed, is “the precious blood of Christ,”
because it is the effectual, sin-atoning blood of the Lamb of God, who was
foreordained as our Redeemer.
3. He tells us (1 Pet. 2:6) that we who God’s spiritual
temple are living stones in the house of God, built upon Christ, the precious
Corner Stone and Foundation Stone laid in Zion.
4. Then, he says, “Unto you therefore which believe he
is precious” (1 Pet. 2:7). — Truly, Christ is precious to all who believe!
Everything about him, all that he is, all that he has done and is doing is
precious!
5. Peter begins this second epistle by telling us that
the great gift and grace of faith that we have obtained from the Lord is “precious
faith” (1:1). It is that which we have obtained “through the
righteousness of God and (even) our Savior Jesus Christ.”
6. Then, in 2 Peter 1:4, he tells us that the promises of
God given to us in Christ are “precious promise,” precious because they
are “yea and amen in him,” because they are unalterable and sure.
As I read these three chapters again this morning, I
thought to myself, “Bro. Peter, you could not have written anything more suited
to the needs of God’s saints in this present day.” It is as though Peter knew,
way back then, what we would need today. That is because this Book, the Word of
God, is written by divine inspiration and is written specifically for God’s
saints in every place, circumstance, and time. Its message is God’s message for
you and me, right now. Every word in these three chapters is pertinent to us
and filled with instruction for us. It is specifically addressed “to them that have obtained like
precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ.” May God give us grace to
receive and obey his message to us.
Grow in Grace
In chapter 1 Peter’s admonition to us is to grow in the
grace and knowledge of Christ. He knew that the secret to spiritual strength is
Christ, knowing Christ and that the source of spiritual strength and knowledge
is the grace of God.
If we would be strong in faith, we must have an
ever-increasing knowledge of our utter weakness in ourselves. A knowledge that our only acceptance with God is
Christ, and that our only hope of salvation is the grace of God feely bestowed
upon us and given to us in Christ. — “When I am weak, then am I strong.”
If we would be strong in faith, if we would grow in the grace and knowledge of
Christ, “He must increase, and I must decrease.”
The Same Gifts
Peter begins this epistle by assuring us that all
believers have the same gifts of grace. We do not all possess the same gifts of
ministry and service; but all believers do possess the same gifts of grace
(Eph. 1:3-6). We tend to think of the apostles and prophets as men who had
greater grace than we have; but that was not the case. They were all, just like
us, sinners saved by grace. Peter tells us in verse one that he is writing to
people just like himself, who “have obtained like precious faith with
us” and have obtained it in exactly the same way, through the merit,
virtue, and efficacy of Christ.
Then, in verse 3, he tells us that God has “given
unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.” Someone once
said, “Even the weakest believer holds in his hands all that the
mightiest saint ever possessed.” That is exactly what Peter tells us
here. All that we need to live forever before God is ours in Christ. And all
that we need to live in this world in godliness is ours in Christ, too. In
other words, Peter is telling us that God has given us in Christ everything
needed to handle whatever comes up in life, and to handle it with grace.
Do we understand that? Very few do. Multitudes there
are who are always looking for something more than Christ and the grace of God
in him. They want something new, something different, some new experience, some
new revelation, something greater than grace! — Something greater than Christ!
May God save us from such folly. If Christ is all (and he is), then Christ is
enough!
This is what that means in the context of 2nd
Peter. — If we have everything in Christ, we only need to know more of
him, and we will have all that it takes to handle the problems we deal
with in this world. I don’t need tranquilizers. I need grace. I don’t need
drugs. I need Christ. I don’t need a psychologist or a psychic. I need Christ.
And having Christ, I have all I need for “life and godliness.” I don’t
need something to make me feel good. I need grace to grow in faith, to grow in
the knowledge of Christ.
Faith in Christ is the gift of God’s grace; and the
faith we have obtained of God through the righteousness of God, and the grace
and peace that sustains us in life come to us “through the knowledge of God
and (even) of Jesus our Lord” (v. 2). And, believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ, God has given us “exceeding great and precious promises: that
by these we might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust” (v. 4). In other words, Peter
tells us that being born of God, believing on Christ, we have (past tense)
escaped everything in the world that once held us in corruption through our
lust.
The Influence of Grace
In verses 5-11 Peter calls for us to grow in grace,
and faith, and the knowledge of Christ. He calls us to give diligence in making our calling and
election sure, as Paul puts it, working out our own salvation, because it is
God who works in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure. The grace of
God that brings salvation teaches us how we are to live in this world (Tit.
2:10-14). John Gill wrote…
“The
Gospel, and the precious promises, being graciously bestowed and powerfully
applied, have an influence on purity of heart and conversation, and teach men
to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and
godly; such are the powerful effects of Gospel promises, under divine influence,
as to make men inwardly partakers of the divine nature, and outwardly to
abstain from and avoid the prevailing corruptions and vices of the times.”
(2
Peter 1:5-8) “And beside this, giving
all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; (6) And
to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
(7) And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
(8) For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye
shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ.”
If we are born of God we have all this in Christ, but
we must diligently work at discovering it and applying it in our lives. The
secret to living in this world in the enjoyment of peace is faith in and
obedience to God our Savior.
“Trust
and obey, for there’s no other way
To be
happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
The knowledge God’s grace and promises in Christ, and
the application of them to our lives will keep us from being barren and
unfruitful. There is a knowledge
of Christ that is barren and unfruitful. As James tells us, “Faith without
works is dead.” And those who have a dead faith are spiritually dead. That
is what Peter tells us in verse 9. — “But he that lacketh these
things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged
from his old sins” (v. 9). Their professed faith is just that, a profession
of faith that has cleaned up their lives outwardly; but they are still
spiritually blind.
Make
Sure
“Wherefore the
rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if
ye do these things, ye shall never fall” (v. 10). — We do not make our
calling and election sure to ourselves by these evidences of grace. It is God
the Holy Spirit who makes our calling and election sure to us by giving us
faith in Christ (Heb. 11:1). As James speaks of us justifying our profession of
faith before men by our works, Peter here tells us that we make our faith in
Christ manifest and sure before one another in the same way. — “For so an
entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (v. 11). If you and I have that faith
which is made manifest and shows itself by love, these graces: virtue,
knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love (vv.
5-7) shall be added to us abundantly as we leave this world and enter into
heavenly glory.
The Basis of Faith
In verses 12-21 Peter directs our hearts to the source
of and basis of our faith — The Word of God. If we would grow in faith and in
the knowledge of Christ, we must ever be established in the revealed truth of
God, ever remembering that which God reveals to us in his Word. The apostle
reminds us that the gospel we have received is the testimony of men who were
eye-witnesses of Christ’s divine majesty (vv. 16-18).
(2
Peter 1:16-18) “For we have not followed
cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. (17) For he
received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to
him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased. (18) And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we
were with him in the holy mount.”
·
Peter, James, and
John saw the glory of Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration (John 1:14).
·
They heard the
testimony of God the Father from heaven.
Yet, we have an even more sure Word than the mere
eye-witness account of those faithful men. In fact, Peter says in verses 19-21
that the basis of his faith in Christ was something far more sure and
dependable than his own experience upon the Mount of Transfiguration. The basis
of all true faith, the authority for all that we believe as the children of
God, is not our experience, but the written Word of Inspiration.
(2
Peter 1:19-21) “We have also a more sure
word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that
shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your
hearts: (20) Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of
any private interpretation. (21) For the prophecy came not in old time
by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost.”
This is Peter’s doctrine in verses 19-21. — We believe
that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of God, in whom alone God is
well-pleased and in and by whom alone God is well-pleased with us, because he
has perfectly fulfilled everything written in the Old Testament.
False Prophets
In chapter 2 Peter identifies false prophets and warns us of their subtlety. He is not talking here about atheists and agnostics. He is talking about wolves in sheep’s clothing. He is talking about men who claim to be the servants of God and preachers of the gospel, who profess to love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Watch how he describes them (vv. 1-3).
(2
Peter 2:1-3) “But there were false
prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among
you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift
destruction. (2) And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason
of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. (3) And through
covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose
judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their
damnation slumbereth not.”
·
They are sneaky,
deceitful men.
·
They bring in
damnable heresies.
·
They deny the Lord
Jesus Christ, by denying the efficacy of his work and his dominion as Lord.
·
The ways (Pro.
14:12; 16:25) they preach are pernicious ways to hell.
·
They speak evil
of the Way, the Way of Truth — Christ and his finished work.
·
They are
motivated by covetousness.
·
They make
merchandise of men’s souls.
·
They shall be
damned.
Because there are many (following the very men of whom
Peter here speaks) who point to this passage as a “proof text” to deny Christ’s
effectual atonement for the sins of God’s elect and his effectual redemption of
his people, and to prove the blasphemy of universal atonement and universal
redemption, I must call your attention to the language Peter uses here.
The word used for “Lord” in verse 1 is despothv (despotes). The word translated “bought” is agorazw (agoradzo).
Peter is not suggesting that there is some sense in which Christ
made atonement for or died to make salvation possible for reprobate men. He is
telling us that as a man, as the God-man our Mediator Christ bought the right
to rule over and dispose of all things for the salvation of his own elect (John
17:2; Rom. 14:9; Phil. 2:9-11). As our Mediator, our Savior bought the field of
the world that he might redeem and save the treasure of his elect hidden in the
field (Matt. 13:44).
Remember,
these are men who profess to believe, love, worship and preach the Lord Jesus
Christ in all his fulness. But they deny him in the very message they preach.
· Those who preach conditional
grace deny his effectual grace.
· Those who preach conditional
election deny his effectual election.
· Those who preach conditional
atonement deny his effectual atonement.
· Those who preach conditional
salvation deny his effectual salvation.
· Those who preach salvation
by man’s works deny his redeeming work.
· Those who preach salvation
by man’s will deny his sovereign will.
· And those who deny the
efficacy of his work and accomplishments as the sinners’ Substitute deny him
altogether, no matter how loudly they profess to love him.
In verses 10-21 Peter gives
us a more detailed description of these false prophets. He tells us that all such
men are presumptuous, self-willed, and ignorant men who speak evil of God’s
true servants and of the gospel of his grace that his servants preach, because
these are “things they understand not.” They are men with eyes full of
adultery, who cease not from sin, ever “sporting themselves with their own deceivings.” Like Balaam, they “have forsaken the
right way” because they love “the wages of unrighteousness.” Be
warned! All preachers of free-will/works religion are a curse to your children,
beguiling unstable souls. They promise liberty, but bring bondage, the bondage
of corruption. If you follow them, you will follow them to hell.
(2
Peter 2:18-21) “For when they speak
great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the
flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them
who live in error. (19) While they promise them liberty, they themselves
are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is
he brought in bondage. (20) For if after they have escaped the
pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse
with them than the beginning. (21) For it had been better for them not
to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to
turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.”
Word of Comfort
Yet, even as he describes
the horrible perversity of false religion and warns us that those who follow
the false prophets will perish with them, Peter assures us that trusting
Christ, following him, God’s saints need not be alarmed (2:4-9). God knows
exactly what he is doing. He is saving his own elect. His purpose is sure. He
spared not the angels that fell; but he saved his elect angels. He spared not
the old world; but he saved Noah and his family. He spared not Sodom and
Gomorrah; but he saved Lot. And though he will destroy all who “stumble at
the Word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed” (1 Pet.
2:9), “the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations.”
Christ’s Coming
In chapter 3 Peter concludes his epistle by assuring
us of the certainty of Christ’s coming and the certain salvation of God’s elect
before Christ comes again in his glory, urging us to live in anticipation of
eternal glory.
In the opening verses of this chapter he reminds us
again of false prophets, “walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where
is the promise of his coming?” He tells us that these scoffers are
willingly ignorant of the Scriptures (v. 5). Then he explains to us that the
reason Christ has not yet returned to the earth is just this — God has not yet
saved all his elect (vv. 9 and 15).
(2 Peter 3:9) “The Lord is not slack concerning his
promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
(2
Peter 3:15) “And account that the
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul
also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you.”
The elect family is not all in the Ark. God’s Lots
have not all yet been brought out of Sodom. But they will be! Then, Christ will come and make
all things new (vv. 8-14). Be patient. God does not judge time like we do. He
is not in a hurry.
(2
Peter 3:8-14) “But, beloved, be not
ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day. (9) The Lord is not slack
concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to
us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance. (10) But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the
night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are
therein shall be burned up. (11) Seeing then that all these
things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all
holy conversation and godliness, (12) Looking for and hasting unto
the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be
dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? (13) Nevertheless
we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein
dwelleth righteousness. (14) Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for
such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot,
and blameless.”
Final Admonition
Peter’s
final admonition is found in verses 17-18 of chapter 3. It is twofold:
1.
First, he urges us to be steadfast in the faith of the gospel. — “Ye
therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also,
being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness”
(v. 17).
We
must ever guard against the influence of false prophets. The surest way to
avoid the subtle influence of false doctrine is to cling to plainly revealed
truth, refusing to even give an ear to anything new.
2.
Second, he urges us to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ” (v. 18).
As we
cling tenaciously to that which we know, let us constantly seek grace to grow
in grace, in the gifts of grace (faith, hope, love, etc.) and in the exercise
of grace. We grow in grace only as we grow “in the knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ.” Learn everything you can about Christ. Look for him
in his Word (John 5:39). Seek not only to know all you can about him, but also
to know him (Phil. 3:10), growing continually in the knowledge of your need of
him and the bounteous grace of God that is yours in him, ever seeking his
glory. — “To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.”