2 Peter: Growing Grace and Knowledge

2 Peter, Chapter 1, we're going to be reading verses 1 through to 11. So on Page 1222 in the Church Bibles that we handed out now. Some in Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. To those who through the righteousness of our God and savior, Jesus Christ, have received faith as precious as ours. Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him, who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them, we may participate in the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness. And to goodness knowledge and to knowledge self control and to self control perseverance and to perseverance godliness and to godliness and mutual affection and to mutual affection, love. But if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our lord Jesus Christ.

But whoever does not have them is short sighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. If you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our men. Steve, thanks very much.

And as ever, if you could keep that passage open in front of you, that would be really, really helpful. My name is Tom Sweetman. I'm the assistant pastor here. And as Steve said, we're beginning this 3 part series just in the first chapter of 2 Peter, and we had 1 to 11 red, but we're really going to be focusing on just the first 4 verses versus 1 to 4 of that chapter. Just to re encourage you again about the media fast.

If you've never done it before, I hope you will join us on that first week of February as we take a break from media to feast on the word of God, but also to enjoy community with 1 There's a whole load of eating together that takes place in the media fast. And I think lots of people would say that it's been a a great way of getting to know others in the church family, And we also like to have a bit of a special focus every year, and we've read different books of the bible. We've done Psalms, for 2 years. We've done Proverbs. We did Luke's gospel.

But this year, Lord willing, we're hoping to read the whole of John's gospel. In that first week of February. There's some big chapters in there, so it's gonna be a challenge. And we're going to be focusing on the big theme of John's gospel bowl, which is the triune God's mission to reach the nations for the glory of his son. So mission is going to be the focus of the week, and we're going to try to incorporate some evangelism training into the week as well, and so it's gonna be a really, really good and hopefully fruitful time for us as a as a church.

Should we pray together? Let's pray. Peter says grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our lord. And so, father, we do pray that you would help us to get to know you better now through your word. We pray that at the end of today, we might be able to say that our knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord has grown.

And we know, as it says here, that as we get to know you, your grace and peace is multiplied and is made abundant in our lives. And so please, lord, help us to see that specifically, to see your abundant grace and peace for sinners like us. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Oh, men. Oh, men.

I saw this week that the the sixth of January was the the anniversary of Spurgeon's conversion. Charles spurgeon was a was a Victorian Victorian preacher. Hopefully, that's going to come on. There we go. Picture of him.

Charles Virgin was a Victorian preacher, and on the sixth of January 18 50, that was a hundred and 70 years ago, He was saved by God through the preaching of a methodist minister who commanded him to look to Jesus Christ and to live. And that is what he did. And from then on, Charles spurgeon lived a a pretty incredible life. He was 1 of these characters that you might call a giant of church history. At the height of his ministry, He was preaching 13 times a week.

13 times a week. He could make himself heard in a crowd of 23000 without any audio equipment, or amplification, or microphones, 23000, he could make himself heard. He sold 56000000 copies of his sermons in 40 different languages, and that was in his lifetime. 56000000 copies of his sermons, 40 different languages in his lifetime, this is the 18 hundreds. He opened orphanages, He ran a preachers college.

He had an amazing sense of humor. He was faithful in 36 years of marriage, Now, as he would say, it's all of God's grace, but I think we would agree. It's a pretty phenomenal output. For 1 man in 1 life, isn't it? And I don't know if you've ever had that experience when you've been reading a biography or reading about the apostles perhaps.

And you've compared your life and your output to theirs. And it is easy to feel like a bit of a shrimp in the shadow of great whales like that, isn't it? From history? And that compared to them, what is our faith? I mean, when we read about what they believed and who they believed in, We say, well, Lord, it's the same.

It's the same Jesus, it's the same gospel, but wow, look look at the difference. And there is something good about that. If it leads us to praise God for them, then that's good. If it leads us to say, Lord, would you would you help me I'm not that person, but given the opportunities that I've got, would you help me to maximize them for the glory of Jesus? That's a good that's a good fruit of reading.

Those kind of biographies. If it leads us to say sorry to the lord, for where maybe we have been a bit lazy and not use the opportunities that we've been given, well, that's good as well. But it also can become quite unhealthy, can't it? If we're locked into a kind of religious mindset, we might believe that unless we can measure up to those giants, or forget them, unless we can measure up to the person next to us. Then the faith that we have is not genuine.

And that is why what Peter says at the beginning of this letter is very liberating. He is the servant and the apostle of Jesus Christ, And he says, or better than that God says to us, that if you are a believer in the biblical Jesus this morning, Even if your faith feels weak and you feel very frail in your faith, like you're barely clinging on to the good news, He says that your faith is as precious as the apostles. That is an incredible thing to say, isn't it? When we read about these spiritual giants or the apostles, we might think, gosh, I wish I had your faith. But Peter says your faith is as valuable and as precious as theirs.

Verse 1, Simon Peter, a servant, and an apostle of Jesus Christ. To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, have received a faith. As precious as ours. And so perhaps you are here today, and you would say you fit into that category, your faith feels weak and fragile. You might be thinking why can't it be better or stronger or like so and so's?

But Peter says to us, and these believers, through the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ, you have received a faith as precious as ours. That is amazing grace, isn't it? And that is what I want us to focus on this morning, because in these first 4 verses, in fact, the whole chapter in fact, the whole bible The emphasis is upon God and his generous grace to sinners like us. You can see in verse 1, Note the words. We have received a precious faith, as Marie helpfully drew our attention to in our prayers.

The faith that we have is a gift, we have received it. Verse 3, his divine power has given us everything that we need. Verse 3, we have been called by God's glory and goodness. Verse 4, God has given us very great and precious promises. It is all of God's grace.

From beginning to middle to end, God and his grace to people like us. I read a great tweet over the Christmas break from 1 of the other pastors in the Commission Network, Chuckwood Andy Mason, and he said, What an encouragement to know that in 20 20, Christ will do in us and for us, immeasurably more than all our resolutions will ever do. Resolutions for him are good and noble and necessary, but rest in him is better and more important. And over the next few weeks in this chapter, if we can see that In this part of God's word, then then that will be great. So 3 things for us to look at this morning, first point kind of continuing from the introduction, and the first point is this.

We have received a precious faith. Have a look once again with me at verse 1. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who threw the right us of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received or other translations have it have obtained a faith as precious as ours. Now, when you read the whole letter, that statement becomes incredibly important, because Peter is writing to a church or probably a group of churches, and 1 of the things that is troubling them is the presence of false teachers. There are false teachers who have come and they're plaguing the church.

And 1 of the things that false teachers always do is make you feel like the faith you have is not genuine. That it's a fake compared to what they are bringing and offering. I don't know if you've ever seen that program. It is a bit of a specialist program, I think. Called called fake or fortune.

I'm not a regular viewer, but I've seen it once or twice. It's got Fiona Bruce in it, and she is alongside an art critic. And what they do is they get members of the public to bring in pieces of art and paintings and they will do a whole load of research on that particular art to tell you whether or not you're looking at a genuine article or whether you are looking at a fake. So I don't know how exactly they do that, but they are able to marshal a whole load of expertise And at the end of the show, it all works up to that final 5 minutes where they reveal to the owner of this painting whether it is the real McCoy or not. And it can be quite troubling and upsetting for some of these people who have held on to these precious pieces that have been in their family for years to be told on than actually the thing that they've treasured as an original is in the end nothing more than 1 of probably many copies.

And that is exactly the kind of thing that false teachers do. They claim to have the real faith in the real Christ, and they tell you that what you have is not that. It is a copy. It is a fake rather than a genuine peace. But Peter is saying to these churches, no?

Your faith is the same as ours. The Christ that you trust is the Christ that we know. The gospel that you have believed is the gospel that we preach. And therefore, it is genuine. If it is the same as the apostles, it is genuine, and it is precious.

And actually, that is something that we've seen throughout the series in 1 John, as well, haven't we? A genuine faith is faith in the word and the testimony of the apostles. The idea and this is a reasonably common idea that you can believe in a Jesus who is mainly 1 of your own creation, who relates to you on your own terms, and mostly approves of everything that you do or say, and that you can relate to this Jesus outside the Word of the Bible is a foreign idea to the new testament. Peter doesn't say interestingly that if you trust in Jesus, you have a precious faith, because there can be all kinds of Jesus's, can't there? All kinds of them.

What he says is, your Jesus is the same as our Jesus, and therefore it's genuine, and therefore it is real. So that is always the measure of saving true, genuine faith. Does it flow from the testimony of the apostles? Or not. We might want to divide them and just say, no, I can have God on my own terms, independent from what is here, But whatever that thing is, it's not the genuine precious faith that Peter talks about here.

So you can imagine, as he's writing this, to comfort them, that it would be a very great comfort in the presence of false teachers, The faith that you have is the same as ours, and therefore it is very, very precious. But still, we might be thinking, well, how can that really be true of me? Because When I read about people like Peter and John and Paul, I've got to say my life doesn't look very similar to theirs. How how can the faith that we have be as precious as theirs? Well, let me try to kind of illustrate it for you in another way.

Within 10 square miles of this place, there are there are all kinds of people. There are people who are on the poverty line, and there are people who are very wealthy. But when they open their taps, The same water comes out. It is drinkable, clear, pure water. And no matter who is receiving it, it has those qualities, doesn't it?

So at the end of 1 tap, might be the queen brushing her teeth. She's opening water from the Temms Basin, and she's brushing her teeth with it. But the end of another tap might be an extremely poor person who is hand washing their clothes, perhaps. But here's the thing, irrespective of who's at the other end of the tap. The water is equally precious.

It's the same water. Why? Because it comes from the same source, through the same channels. There isn't a special reservoir for the particular rich, so that they can have the quadruple filtered TEM's water and a special reservoir for the poor, who virtually are drinking ditch water, It is the same thames water that comes from the same source through the same channels. And that is the point I think, Peter is making.

The reason our faith is as precious as theirs, is because it flows from the same source, through the same channels. It flows from the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ through him, that channel from Jesus through Jesus. Same reservoir, same channel. No matter what our situation is, whether we are feeling very weak or feeling very strong, whether we are rich or poor, whoever we are, If we have trusted in this Jesus, we have the same precious faith because it comes from the same reservoir. The love of the father through the same pipe, His son, The Lord Jesus.

And you notice it comes through his righteousness. And in this case, that seems to mean his fairness. And the point then is, that when it comes to salvation, God has no favorites. Same reservoir, same channels. 1 writer says this about the verse.

Can anything speak of God's wonderful impartiality more? Than the truth that we stand in the same relation to him, as did all the generations of believers in the past. And just as a aside, that that is an amazing point, because if you think about other religions and philosophies on earth, There are all kinds of things that people do in order to obtain something from God. So they might go on pilgrimages, or they might try to reach a certain mental state, or they may pray in a certain way, and it's all done to obtain something from God. If we can just do this, in this way, we will obtain something from him.

But in the gospel we're told that every true believer in history has already obtained everything that they need. In Christ, in his shed blood, in his resurrection, in the gift of faith, we have obtained all that we need in Jesus. And not in ourselves. So I hope this first point is is encouraging to you. If you are a follower of the biblical Jesus, You have the real authentic, precious faith, as precious as any other Christian who has ever lived.

The person next to you, if they are trusting in the biblical Jesus, their faith is as genuine and precious as yours. It's a great level of this, isn't it? The faith that we have equally genuine, equally precious, because it comes through Jesus and not ourselves. That's the first thing. Secondly, we have abundant grace and peace.

Have a look at verse 2. Grace and peace be yours in abundance, through the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our lord. Now, the word abundance there really means to multiply or to reach capacity So if you imagine an overflowing cup, like the overflowing cup of Psalm 23, it is not just full to the brim, it is actually overflowing, it is at capacity and then some. And Peter is saying to us Christians, I want you to know God's grace and peace in that way. Not to see him as stingy, But as he really is, as the god who loves to set the table for us, to keep our plates full, to keep our cups running over, to fill us to capacity with his grace and with his peace.

And you can see in verse 2, how he does that. Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus, our lord. And in this chapter, knowledge is a big deal. If you have a look at verse 2 and verse 3 and verse 5, and verse 6, and verse 8, that word knowledge keeps coming up. And in this instance, it's more than just information not merely something that you know in your mind.

This is the knowledge of intimacy. It's the knowledge of a relationship with God. And here we're told that as we get to know God through Jesus, Grace and peace keep multiplying to us. Maybe you've had this experience. It seems to happen online quite a lot.

Where you meet someone, and in the first few hours or days, they appear to be a certain way. They are charming to you, and they are kind to you. But then as time goes on, and you begin to really get to know that person, you discover that that maybe is not who they who they really are. The person that you met at the start is not the real person. Well, God, wonderfully, is nothing like that.

It's not as if he gets you in the door with the promise of peace, but then as you get to know him, that begins to fade. If we can talk like this, he doesn't charm you at the restaurant with his grace, and then when you move in with him, you discover that that is not actually who he is. It is the opposite. The more we get to know him, the more we live with him, The more we realize that we were only ever scratching the surface at the beginning. There are layers of grace and peace there is a depth to his kindness that we could never have imagined.

And sometimes we think it's bound to run out soon, don't we? 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, 50 years, there there must be a limit to this supply of grace. Surely, I'm gonna exhaust it, and God is gonna get fed up with me. Surely, he's gonna kick me out of his house, and I'm gonna drain the bottom of his supply of kindness. But it's not what he says.

As we get to know him, his grace and peace comes to us in abundance, it keeps coming, and keeps multiplying the more and more we get to know him. And therefore, the simple application is is thank thank you lord. Thank you lord that your grace and peace have been multiplied to me in Jesus and just keep coming. And Lord helped me to get to know you better. I want to know you better so that I can taste even more of your grace and peace.

Because knowledge of God means a depth of understanding and experience of his kindness to us. So let's get to know him better together. Secondly, then we have abundant grace and peace. Lastly, we have everything that we need for a godly life. And that's in verse 3.

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life, through our knowledge of him, who called us by his own glory and goodness. Here's something else I read over Christmas, which I I found very helpful. And it's by a chap called Paul Tripp. And it's a bit of a long quote, but but worth worth looking at together. He says, I think many of us have a strong belief and understanding in salvation past, the forgiveness we have received in Christ.

And many of us have a pretty sturdy hope of salvation future, the eternity that we will spend with Christ. But we are not as sure about the present benefits of the work of Jesus in the here and now, and then he goes on to explain what they are. Jesus came so that I would have everything I need to fight the discouraging battle with private sin. Jesus came so that I would have everything I need to have a peaceful relationship with my angry neighbor. Jesus came so that I could stand against the temptations of racism and prejudice.

Jesus came so that I could forge with my spouse, a marriage of unity, understanding, and love. Jesus came so that I could parent my children with patient wisdom and grace. Jesus came, so that I could face the realities of life in a fallen world without doubt or despair. Jesus came so that I would be granted not only the promise of daily forgiveness, but also the promise of fresh starts and new beginnings. Jesus came so that the hate in my heart would be replaced with love, and the anger in my heart would be replaced with peace.

Or in the words of this passage, because of Jesus, you have everything you need for Godliness here and now. Jesus came so that we would have everything we need for a godly life. Look again at verse 3. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life. And what is that?

Through our knowledge of him, who called us. In other words, Jesus didn't just die and rise for your past and for your future, but for your today, so that you might live for him. And maybe you think to yourself, well, that cannot be true. You know, surely there is some thing more that I must do than Jesus to live a Godly life, haven't I got to wear this particular thing or pray in this particular way, or Do this particular duty for him? No.

It's not what he says. It's groundbreaking, really. Simply by being Christians, we have what we need to please God, and that is Jesus Christ. We could live a thousand lifetimes, doing as many good religious works as we can, But if we are without Christ, we cannot please God. And, yet, alternatively, we might feel extremely fragile, and that our lives aren't really counting for much.

And yet, if we have any faith in this saving Jesus, We have everything we need to please God. Everything we need for a godly life is found through faith, in this Jesus Christ. Look how he puts it in verse 4. It's the same kind of truth, really, but in a different way. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life, through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Through these, he has given us his very great and precious promises So that through them, you may participate in the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. So, how do we live a godly life, verse 3? Through our knowledge of God who called us. How do we escape the corruption of the world verse 4, through God's precious promises? How do we become partakers of the divine nature?

How might we participate in the divine nature? It's amazing sentence, verse 4, through God's precious promises. So just to underline it again, everything that you and I need for life and salvation and godliness is in that very great promise of the gospel. And what a precious promise it is, isn't it? A promise that if you trust in him, the blood of Christ will cleanse you from all sin.

The trust that if you that the the the promise that if you trust in him, you will be united to Christ himself. You will become a partaker of the divine nature That is the precious gospel promise that we can escape evil and live with God forever. And so just practically, you can see how that might apply to the battles that we do have in life. You see, what is the best way to fight anger in your heart? What would be the best way to do it?

You could read a book on it. And that would be that would be a very helpful thing to do. But at root, it's going to be getting to know Jesus better, isn't it? And remembering that in him, you have already escaped the corruption of the world, and you have become a participant in the divine nature and that 1 day you will see him face to face. That is a massive promise in 2 Peter.

This work has begun, and we have all that we need but it won't be completed until we see Jesus face to face. But then, in the meantime, what do we do in our battles? We apply who we are in Jesus. To those battles? Or what about sexual sin, pornography?

What what is the best way to fight it? You could give up a smartphone. You could ask a friend to hold you accountable. Those would be very wise things to do. But getting to know Jesus, remembering that in him you have a new nature, that 1 day you're going to see him face to face, that you have already escaped the evil in the world, that 1 day you will look at him, and you will be pure as he is pure, and let that hope purify you now, that that is what Godliness is, isn't it?

Basically. It is applying the sufficiency of Jesus to who we are now, to who we are so that we can fight our battles with our gospel identity. That in many ways is the summary of this passage. The gospel, with all that that includes for past, present, and future, is what we need for life, and for godliness. And that is why I just love this tweet I shared with you at the beginning.

What an encouragement to know that in 20 20, Christ will do in us and for us immeasurably more than all our resolutions will ever do. Resolutions for him are good and noble and necessary, but rest in him is better and more important. And so this morning, however, your faith is feeling, Remember that if it's in this Jesus, it is a precious gift from God and by it you are saved. However, empty you might feel. God promises that as you get to know him, he will multiply his grace to you.

He will fill you to capacity, with his peace and kindness, so that we can live for his glory until we arrive 1 day with him. Let's bow our heads and pray together. Heavenly father, we do thank you for what this part of your word teaches us about you, and we thank you that all of us here who have been enabled to trust in the Jesus of the apostles in the true historical Jesus. Have a faith that is genuine. And have a faith that is very, very precious.

We thank you lord that this faith is a gift, and that it has come from you, our father. And it has come to us through your son in the power of the Holy Spirit. We thank you that whoever we are, that that this faith is true of us, and forgive us for when we sinfully compare ourselves to 1 another. Thinking that others' faith is not as good or that our faith is better and stronger and more real. Father help us to be humbled by this truth.

That all alike who have trusted you have that same equal precious faith. And, lord, we thank you that as we do come to know you through your word, we can never ever exhaust your supplies of kindness. We thank you that the more we become familiar with who you are, The more grace and peace comes to us. It keeps multiplying. It keeps pouring over into our lives.

And lord, we thank you for that. And how how wrong it would be then for us to be ungracious, unkind people. When you give it to us in such abundance. And, lord, we thank you for clarifying for us what Godliness is. It is your son.

It is trusting in your son. And pray that you would forgive us for when we think Godliness is just outward. It's superficial. It's something that we can use to elevate ourselves rather than seeing that in Jesus, we have what we need to please you. And we do live a life that is pleasing to you because of your son.

Help us to keep remembering that. We pray for our town here in Kingston. This year. And we know that of all the needs that we see, the greatest is the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus. We pray that you would forgive us from thinking that solutions are superficial, that anything else can solve the problems we see in our country but Jesus.

We pray that you would help us this year to hold out the good news. We we would love more people who, right now, are currently lost. And very far from Christ, can come and join us and say he is more gracious and more peaceful and more wonderful than I ever knew. Who knew God was so kind? We want people to come to see you for who you are and to experience your goodness in Jesus.

So please be kind, and please would you bless the Ministry of our Church that more people might come to know you. And we pray that this year, all of us as members of Cornerstone would would please have this 1 ambition to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus that we might live lives for your glory. And we ask this all for Jesus' sake and honor. Our men.