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All we can do or say 288.
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The conference, the first time that was given out at the conference, I was struck by the references to it, the emphasis that was given to the grace of Christ and to the glory of Christ, and the hymn that we just sang at the beginning of this meeting. We were asking God to preserve His flock and I believe we have the grace of our God and the glory of Christ brought before us in second Peter chapter one.
As that which is our preservative as we reach the end of our journey and get near to our home.
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 through the knowledge of God.
And of Jesus our Lord, 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 the to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us, exceeding great and precious promises, that by these He might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue.
And to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, And to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. For that these things be in you, and abound they make you, that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and have forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
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Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, For if you do these things, you shall never fall, for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yeah, I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance.
Knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me.
Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my deceased, to have these things always in remembrance, 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.
For he received from God the Father honor 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. And this voice came, which came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Where unto you do well, that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.
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.
Peter knew that he was reaching the end of his life.
He had been told of the Lord, that he would end up his life as a martyr for the Lord.
And he loved his brethren, he cared for them and he wanted to do was exercise of God to write this letter to encourage them in those things that would be profitable to them to if I can use today's expression to hang on to go on to the end in anticipation of what was before them and him.
Which we have in the end of the chapter is the glory and the presence of the Lord Jesus in that glory.
And, uh, so we can thank God that what was on Peter's heart as beneficial to his brethren at that time is ever more so beneficial to us at this time as we reach the very end of this period of time called the day of grace. And there is so much that's against, and yet there is every provision for us to safely reach the everlasting Kingdom.
Peter always looks at salvation as that which is at.
The end of the journey. And so he looks at it as that which will take us safely all the way. And, uh, what a wonderful thing the chapter starts with it speaks first. Well, really starts with Simon Peter and, uh, just a word to the young people. Take heed who you listen to.
There are lots of voices in the world and uh, here's a good voice from God to listen to. Here's a man of experience. But more than that, he has a word from God for us. And so we want to take heed to it. We want to listen to what God has given Simon Peter for our, our prophet and our blessing this afternoon. But then he goes on to address those who what have obtained like precious faith.
Tremendous words. We perhaps could spend the whole time on just those words.
Precious faith.
Perhaps there's some verses there that would be suited with what you've just said. Psalm 71 and verse 1718 and 19.
Oh God, thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works, now also when I am old and Gray headed.
Oh God, forsake me not until I have shown not thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to everyone that is to come. Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high who has done great things. Oh God, who is like unto thee. I just feel that that the walk that Peter had with God and those verses display that walk to.
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I'm so thankful.
Uh.
Peter's ministry as having a wilderness character, and certainly it does. It's very different from Paul's ministry. And Peter brings before us that fact that we're still here in this world, that it's a wilderness world where there's nothing to sustain the new life, the new man, that if we're going to get through it, it's going to be like for the children of Israel in a physical wilderness in the Old Testament, all his provision for them.
And in regard to the opening comments that have been made, might be helpful just to go back and read a couple of other portions. First of all, in Exodus chapter 16.
The scriptures I'm going to read perhaps help us to understand the character of Peter's ministry and especially the 2nd Epistle of which the 1St chapter we've read but just a couple of verses in the 16th of Exodus and verse nine. And Moses spake unto Aaron, say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, come near before the Lord, for you have heard your murmurings.
And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel.
Thus they look toward the wilderness and behold the glory of the Lord.
Appeared in the cloud and then in the Psalms again, this time in the 84th Psalm.
Psalm 84.
And verse 11.
For the Lord is a son and a shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. Well, as I say, Peter brings before us that character of the wilderness.
And in Peter's ministry, as he says, we are strangers and pilgrims, and there's a character that's in keeping with that. But we notice with the children of Israel that when they got into the wilderness, they very quickly became discouraged. Why? Because they lost sight of the glory of the Lord, They lost sight of the end of the journey. And it seems that Peter particularly in his second epistle, because second epistles always denote days of ruin and weakness and failure.
They always denote what we refer to as the last days, and Peter in writing to the Saints in that regard. He brings before them two things, grace and glory. And when the children of Israel turned around at the Word from God's servant in the 16th of Exodus, what did they see? All the sand and rock, and the hot shimmering wilderness that lay between them and the promised land.
No, that's not what they saw. There was plenty of that between them and the Promised Land, but that is not what they observed. They saw the glory of the Lord in the cloud. In some way, Jehovah was pleased.
To reveal himself to them. And I believe as long as they kept that before them, they journeyed on. The problem was they often lost sight of that. They looked around at the present circumstances. They looked back sometimes to Egypt from whence they had come, and that is what discouraged them. That's what cast them down and caused them to murmur and complain.
But, brethren, as long as we keep the glory of the Lord before us and what is ahead, we're going to be encouraged to go on. We're not going to see the removal of all the difficulties of the wilderness way, but we'll be encouraged to go on.
And so when we come to the 84 Psalm, it's interesting that it's a Psalm for the sons of Korah. And we know Korah was one who failed miserably in the wilderness, and God came in his governmental ways and so on. But nevertheless, the children of Cora died not. And here they write this Psalm or they have this Psalm for them, and they say two things here. The Lord will give grace and glory.
Rather than grace is what meets us in our present need and glory is what comes at the end of the journey. And if we get a fresh sense from taking up a chapter like this of grace and glory, then I believe if the Lord leaves us here when we go home on Monday, we're going to be strengthened and encouraged to go on, even in the wilderness difficulties. And so let's keep these two things before our souls that Peter brings before us grace.
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That meets us in the present need, the present circumstance. But, brethren, if we lose sight of the glory, too, what comes at the end, we're not going to be encouraged to go on.
One of the things that Peter speaks of that the apostle Paul doesn't, uh, speak of in the same way is those things that are precious. And here in the first verse, we have that word used and Peter uses it and umm, perhaps he used it, umm, used to the Spirit of God, no doubt because, uh, when he was, umm, with the Lord Jesus, it says they all forsook him and fled. But the Lord Peter denied the Lord three times and with owes and curses. And it's as if he said, umm, it wasn't worth anything. It wasn't suffering with, for Christ and with Christ, it wasn't worth it. And uh, he gave it up as it were, walked away from it. But then, you know.
After Peter was restored to be identified with that blessed man, there was nothing more precious to him and to be identified with those that were precious to the heart of the Lord Jesus as well. And so he addresses them to those that have attained light precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. He counted himself among those that had received Christ as Savior and he is talking to those that were of his countrymen, isn't he those that were Jews that had been.
Saved, and now they had identified themselves with that rejected man. And So what a blessed privilege it is for us in these days to identify ourselves and have precious thoughts, and the value for Christ himself, and a value for those that are brethren.
They're gentiles.
It's a little more difficult for us to enter into what it meant to write these words to those who were of the Church of God but had been born Jews.
For them, they had put their faith.
In the Lord Jesus Christ, who had been rejected by the nation as their God and Savior.
And then putting their trust in Him, it cut them off completely from any hopes connected with this present world.
To be occupied and to take up the place with himself that associated them with Him, and, as we see in this chapter, with the glory.
It wouldn't be a bad thing practically if there was something that.
It's not going to be this way, but that everyone of us was cut off in this room from anything that would make this world have any attraction to us as having any hope for present advantage and satisfaction or any long term hope.
So Peter, uh, associates them with God and Savior Jesus Christ as that which takes, sanctifies them, sets them apart from all the things that they weren't going to have and couldn't have as a hope anymore, which was connected with the earth.
That's the character of Christianity in contrast to Judaism in their right places.
Judaism had faith in that which was seen.
And will be seen when the Lord Jesus reveals himself to them in the Tribulation.
Christianity associates itself with the unseen, and so their precious faith was that which.
Associated them or brought their hearts into connection with their destiny, which was heaven in contrast to earth. And if we're going to live the Christian life, we have to have that faith, that precious faith which is connected with the unseen, that which only the eye of faith can see. And Peter.
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Didn't have to dwell on that, particularly with the Jew, but.
Or who won? Who was born a Jew? But we need it. We need to recognize that the world is an attractive place to the natural man and our natural hearts. But it's a terrible snare to the Christian life.
Hebrews, uh, brings that out in chapter 12, and he says, uh, there in chapter 12, maybe just reading from verse 26, Whose voice then shook the earth. But now he hath promised, saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
And so all those things that they had in Judaism were going to eventually be taken away anyway, as far as the nation was concerned. But those that had taken Christ as Savior, they laid hold upon the person of Christ and his finished work. And it separated them really in a very practical way from all that was there in Judaism.
And it had brought them into new relationships. And so when we get saved, whether we're saved you or a SA saved Gentile, there are relationships that we leave behind. But isn't it wonderful to consider, brethren, the relationships that were brought into? And so Peter, as it were, he says, maybe relationships in an earthly sense, natural sense, are severed. But it's like precious, like precious faith with us.
There are others, he says, who have believed Peter was a Jew himself and he had believed.
When he preached on the day of Pentecost, he said to the Jews, repent and be baptized and save yourselves from this untoward generation. It was necessary that they detach themselves from the Jewish nation that had rejected the Lord Jesus and cried away with him, crucify him, but they were brought into new relationships. And so for a Gentile too, to make this very practical and bring it down to us here this afternoon.
Maybe there's someone here and your parents or other loved ones aren't glad that you're here at all. Maybe you've had to walk away from the enjoyment of some earthly relationship. But look around. You have brothers and sisters that you wouldn't have otherwise. In fact, a lot of us in this room wouldn't know each other if it wasn't that Christ hadn't saved you. Christ saved me, worked further, and gathered us to the name of the Lord Jesus.
That's what's brought us together in a new relationship. The other thing too, that we have to understand with these ones that Peter was writing to, they had lost everything as far as what was promised in Judaism.
Because when we go back to the first epistle, we find they'd been scattered from their homes. What had been promised to them for faithfulness under the Jewish order of things, they had now lost. They'd lost their homes. They'd been scattered from Jerusalem, from Judea, and from their homeland. They might have wondered, have we missed out in some way? But as Peter tells them in that first epistle, he says, no, you have an inheritance now that's not tangible, not something that you see with the physical eye or you touch in a physical way.
But he says you have an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you.
You have now a living hope based on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You've been brought into new relationships now with those of like precious faith. He says you have something far beyond what was ever promised to you under Judaism, and now you have the power. He's going to go on to talk about all things that pertain unto life and godliness. You have the power to walk in the good of it, the power to enjoy it, and you'll never lose it. Well, brethren, while we see, this was particularly a comfort to the Jewish believers.
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In the days when Peter wrote, can't we, as Dawn have said, apply that to ourselves? Brethren, we have something we'll never lose. Can we see it physically? Is it tangible? No. Whom not having seen ye love. And uh, we have with the things that are not seen are eternal. And we could go on with other scriptures, but is it any less real to faith? No, it's very real to faith. Can we lose it? Brethren? We can never lose it. We can enjoy it now and we'll enjoy it in a deeper way for eternity.
There's something else that's unique to Peter's ministry. Brother Robert mentioned how he brings out so many times the word precious, and it's a beautiful subject to trace through the book of Peter. Notice those references to the word precious and what is precious to God and what ought to be precious to us and so on. But something else that's unique to P Peter's ministry, you have in the second verse, and that's knowledge.
And he goes on to speak of grace and peace being multiplied. How?
This seems a strange way that grace and peace are multiplied, and it's not something you particularly get in Peter in Paul's ministry, but it is unique to Peter, and that is knowledge.
You know, we often speak of how knowledge isn't what preserves us and we need more than knowledge and the heart needs to be affected in Christian.
Christianity and so on. And that's very true, brother. But I've been struck in going through Peter's ministry to notice how he stresses knowledge. In fact, at the end of the epistle he's going to stress it again. He brings it out at the beginning of the epistle.
You get it during the Epistle, and the very last verse of the Epistle speaks of the need to grow not only in grace, but in knowledge.
And you might say, why does Peter stress this? Well, there may be other thoughts, but I've just enjoyed it in this simple way. Brother, if you and I are going to walk for God's glory through this wilderness scene.
With the glory before us and the hope before us and so on. It must be based on knowledge. We cannot set aside knowledge as unimportant or irrelevant if we are going to expect to walk through this wilderness world with power and testimony as strangers and pilgrims, as Peter exhorts us to do.
And that's why we must go back to the Word of God. Where are we going to get the knowledge?
To live for God's glory? How are we going to know what pleases the Lord in our pathway?
What direction to go through this wilderness? There must be the going back to the Word, and there must be the foundation which is knowledge. And so God has given us this knowledge. Everything we need is laid out here for walking through this world. But the problem is we sometimes act. Maybe we even follow our heart. But you know, we can follow our heart.
But not follow it intelligently, and it may get us into a lot of difficulty following our hearts. We might follow our conscience and we might end up in the wrong place because the heart and the conscience always need the light and the knowledge of God's Word if they are going to act or go in the right direction.
I was looking at, uh, second Peter chapter 3 and verse one, Second Peter chapter 3 and verse one, the second epistle. Beloved, I now write unto you. There has to be a reason why he's writing this epistle, which we've been discussing here and listening to the brethren. It says in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. And we also have that back in chapter one and verse 13.
Yeah, yeah. I think it uh, uh, meat or fitting as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. And now we move back to chapter 3 and verse two, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken by the Holy Prophet and of the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Umm, in his writing, he wanted to encourage the faithful, didn't he? We was looking at like precious faith.
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And so it is the faithful ones, those of other of like precious faith that he wanted to encourage them. And that ye may be mindful. Who is he speaking to? He's speaking to the beloved ones that ye be may be mindful. And when he comes to that topic of knowledge, knowledge has to begin somewhere and it has to continue through our lifetime and then has to have a full knowledge or an end to it, a completion of it. And if you look at verse 3 together.
According as His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain to unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue. The glory and virtues are the attributes of God of Christ, aren't they? And so we see here the beginning of knowledge, and knowledge has to begin at a point, and it is through. And He uses that word through in here.
Of the knowledge of him that has called us and that's where our knowledge begins at. If you back up to verse 2, grace and peace be multiplied. While multiplication is telling me that through my lifetime it is building a lot like verse five add to your faith. It's multiplying, isn't it? It's continuing and through the knowledge of God in Jesus our Lord. Now if you go down to verse 8 for these things be in you and abound, They make you that.
Ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful. What's the opposite of barren and unfruitful? That's, that's full of knowledge all the way, uh, these virtues in the life that we have now. And, and so anyway, it is the full and completeness of knowledge in verse 8 here. So we won't be bearing and unfruitful. The opposite of that is to, to, uh, be fruitful for him and to not be idle, Baron means to be idle. And we don't want to be idle in our lifetime. So.
We we can see that there is a completeness, a fullness in in verse eight in knowledge.
I'd like to read two other verses. Umm, connection with knowledge. First is in John 17.
John 17.
And verse three. And this is life eternal, that they may know the only true God.
And Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent for, commenting on that, uh, turn over to Romans chapter 5.
And verse.
Verse 2 By whom also?
That is, by our Lord Jesus Christ. You also have access by faith into this grace, wherein you stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
It's important to know things.
But more important than knowing things is knowing the knowledge of God and of his Son, Jesus Christ. It's really the essence of eternal life. God has so chosen that we come to know him.
And knowing him involves knowledge of himself. What does God think? What does God feel? What is his attitude toward this and towards that, Likewise concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we grow in that knowledge, we will also grow in the sense of knowing God as a God of grace. And so Peter was looking forward to the growth.
As he mentions in the beginning and in the end, growing grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We want to be careful with that word grace in the sense that we don't want to limit it to the little phrase unmerited favor, as if that gave us a full sense of what grace is. Yes, it is unmerited favor, but the way Scripture uses it, it has multiple aspects to it that make it a much, much fuller thought than simply unmerited favor.
And so.
We, it's something from our standpoint, we can grow in, we can grow in our souls in the appreciation of how we stand with God as we know him better. And we start out even as believers with this sense in us of well, God's going to do it because I was good this week. In other words, we, we always tend naturally to revert back.
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To limiting God's heart to what our hearts are like. And if somebody is good this week, maybe we're good toward them. And if they're bad, maybe, well, we withhold the good and so on from them. And yes, God does treat righteously and justly and all those things too. But God's heart toward us as his children is in a fixed position, that of our favor with Him, and it never changes.
We all stand here or sit here as children of God. If anyone's not, this doesn't apply to you. But for us who have like precious faith, we sit here in the in a standing before God of his favor.
But we have to grow in the appreciation and understanding and knowledge of that truth. It doesn't just come immediately into our souls in a way that we don't tend to revert back to the sense of merit with God. I merit God's goodness because I'm a little better than you are where I was a little better than you this week or whatever. It's not that, brethren, and it's.
Uh, sometimes Peter recognized it took a long time.
To learn the true knowledge of God. And God isn't like us. And yet we need to learn Him so that we can enjoy Him and appreciate Him and quit. Or if you will, practically give up on thinking good of ourselves as being the cause of God's goodness toward us.
I could just read the three verses that I found knowledge, the word knowledge in the second Peter here. The first one is the the second verse of our chapter of our chapter.
Uh, it says through the knowledge of God.
And Jesus our Lord, the second one is, uh, verse three, through the knowledge of him and then.
Uh, the, the verse that Jim mentioned, the last verse of the chapter, it says and grow and grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's kind of strange what you just said, Don.
It's not what you know, brethren, it's who you know.
And it's not who you know, but it's who knows you that's even more important. And God knows us, and his heart is toward us. And so it's the knowledge of that. It's not that we know him, although we we want to grow to know him. But as we grow to know him, we'll find out what his heart is toward us. And that's peace. It has a lot more to do.
First Thessalonians chapter four, I think it uses something like 10 times, he says in chapter First Thessalonians 4 verse 13. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren.
And so Peter here has gone to a lot of effort. He says he wasn't negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things in verse 12. And God has made provision for us at great expense to himself at great.
Effort to himself and the use of the apostles particularly to write these epistles. And he doesn't want us to be ignorant. That's really the opposite of knowledge, isn't it? Having a knowledge of the things of God, we can be ignorant. So it takes diligence.
He wanted them to be diligent in the searching these things out. They knew God, that's what it says here. They had a knowledge of God and of our of Jesus, our Lord. They want, he wanted them to know the Savior, the Savior's heart and those things that pertain unto life and godliness. And it's possible for us to receive Christ as Savior, to know it, to have a sense in our souls that were saved for eternity and yet to be really not as cognizant of the blessings that are ours.
In heavenly places in Christ, that we ought to have knowledge of.
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And enjoyment of God didn't just give it to us that we might know, but that we might enjoy it too. And this is what Peter wanted them to come into, the knowledge of it and the enjoyment of it.
Just as a little safeguard, I might say this because maybe there's someone sitting here this afternoon and you say, well, there are some who have a greater intellect and capacity and some who are more readers and studiers than others. And I, I don't have the knowledge that I should or I'll never obtain maybe the knowledge that I should, that others have. But that's not really the point that we're making here because it's not merely through the intellect that we take in these things.
In fact, it's interesting that Peter is the one who speaks so much of knowledge.
And it was said of Peter and John in the early days of Christianity, they were ignorant and unlearned fishermen. Is that interesting? But.
Peter is the one that talks about the knowledge of God and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus and growing in grace and in the knowledge of God and so on.
Paul was the intellectual. He was the one that had, as we would say, the mental capacity to go to the best university of the day. You can you say I can see why Paul brought out the things he did, but what about Peter? Peter was an uneducated man, but by the Spirit of God, he's given a wonderful line of ministry and truth that is passed on to us by inspiration.
And it was Peter who was raised up in the early days of the church with the keys of the Kingdom and so on, and to open the door to the Jews and to the Samaritans and to the Gentiles and so on. And so I only point that out to encourage us that it's not merely intellectual capacity. Thank God for a keen mind that vows to the Word of God. We're thankful for that. And we've seen that in the early days of the church. We see it today, perhaps those who've had a keen mind and they've bowed to the Word of God.
But, brethren, He's given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, and we have the capacity now to take in and enjoy the knowledge of God.
The knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and to grow in the things of God because He has given us those things that are necessary for it. And maybe you don't feel like you're an intellectual, but read the word of God.
Read about the person and work of Christ, read the truth, take it in and pray about it and you'll find that the Spirit of God will take of those things and give you an enjoyment of an and an understanding of it.
That the unregenerate man who may have the sharpest mind in the world will never be able to take in and understand.
Women, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet a Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship, ye know not what we know, what we worship for salvation of the Jews. So the Jews had a a revelation of God. They had a knowledge of God. But now we have, as Don read already in uh, John 17. And this is life eternal, that they may know thee, that is the Father, the only true God.
And if we reject the Lord Jesus Christ, we do not have a knowledge of God. And the word used here, Mr. Davis, is a little footnote that says full knowledge of God. We now have the full knowledge of God in our Lord Jesus Christ, and that's the knowledge spoken of it Just reiterating what's already been said. It's not the doctrines that you can enumerate or this point or that, but the only way we can know God in the full knowledge of God is through the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, modern man.
Is as much an idolater as ancient man, because modern man wants to create a God that's pleasing to him. That's our nature. But the only way we can know God is through the Lord Jesus Christ.
I wonder if I could just share a verse in first John chapter 2.
That indicates that.
The early stage of Christian development is to know the Father. Umm first John 2 verse 14.
I have written to you, Father, because you have known Him, that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong in the word of God, of my death in you. Excuse me.
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Well, let's back up in verse 13. I write unto you, fathers, because you have known Him. That is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I read out of you, little children, because you have known the Father.
There's a, there's a progression in this chapter of, of Christian development and it's stated that, that, that the children know the father. There's a relationship that God wants to wants to build there. There is a, a nearness that God wants to have with the children with, with, you might say the, the one who is.
It is just beginning in the Christian pathway. And sometimes I feel that we, we don't allow that to take place. We, we take a young believer and we try to take them beyond the relationship they have with the Father and try to develop them before they're ready. And we don't allow that relationship to be established between the young believer and the Father that they might know him, the Father.
Of the.
If I put an Ant on the table here in the center, I can spend the rest of my life communicating in whatever way I'm capable with it, but it'll never know me.
It will never know me as I am because it does not have my life and nature.
And God wants us to know Him. He wants us to know him so much that he has chosen to give us a life and nature like Christ, which is of himself. And it's because of that that we can know God. A man who does not has already been mentioned, has not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. He's dead toward God. He doesn't know God.
He's not capable of knowing God. He does not have the knowledge. He has knowledge about God. He knows something of the knowledge of God in the sense that God is holy and righteous and so on, as revealed even in creation. But the full or knowledge of God is beyond his capacity. But when we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We receive the life of Christ and that divine nature.
Why? Because God wants us to have it so we can know him. And we don't want to confine knowledge. And it hasn't been confined this afternoon. It's been brought out, really. But I'm just gonna say the words The true knowledge of God isn't just in the brain. That's not really the primary place where we know God.
We know him in the heart.
I know you know the heart of God, and if you don't know the heart of God, you don't know Him.
The true sense of knowing somebody is if and just the measure in which you know somebody is the measure in which you can say to somebody else. Given this situation, this is how they'll act.
And if you don't have any idea how they'll act in a given circumstance and situation, you don't know them or even in measure, they're a stranger to that degree to you. But God wants us to know Him in the sense of knowing He's given to us a holy life so that we will look at things in a holy way. He has given us of His love so that we can feel toward others in the same way that He does and have that same fixed disposition.
Toward their good that he has, and it's in those things that we really want and will gradually grow to know our God. As the apostle Paul said. Everything else he put aside for one reason concerning the Lord Jesus that I may know him. That's number one, number two and #3 and all the rest priorities.
Of that man's life, that I may know him.
We go one step further with that and tomorrow at the remembrance meeting you cannot remember him if you don't know him.
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Those that are unsafe cannot remember him if I told you about a person.
And I told you some details about that person. Everybody that listened to it could walk away and they could have a head knowledge that I gave you information of about that person. You could pass it on to somebody else, but you still didn't know that person. I'd be the only one sitting in this room that knew that person.
I have an example of that. There was a man named Lisa Trapper in Minnesota and he took his wheelbarrow down to the lake lake and he walked along and kicked the fish and he carried it back and put it in his garden. Now everybody has a head knowledge about Lee the Trapper, but nobody in this room knows Lee the Trapper. But I knew him. And each and every one of us that know Christ as our personal Savior, we know the Lord. We have the Spirit that helps inside of us that we can cry out ABBA Father, and He is our Father, isn't it? That's the true part of it. We know Him.
And we know whom to know His life eternal, don't we? And therefore we can worship and remember Him tomorrow.
You have to know him to remember him. Those that don't know him cannot remember at all. That's the first part of remembrance, isn't it?
Stop here in Ephesians.
118.
The eyes of our understanding being enlightened.
That he may know what is your hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints.
So it's all through the Lord Jesus Christ again. That's what we have here.
The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, verse 17 to Father of glory.
That he may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
It's interesting when the disciples came in John's Gospel to the tomb early, they were satisfied to see an empty tomb and know that a work was accomplished. But Mary Magdalene, when she came, the only thing that would satisfy her heart was a person and the disciples. It was enough to have a word from the angels and to see the garments, but nothing would suffice Mary but the person of the Lord Jesus. In fact, her heart went out so much to the person of Christ.
That she desired to be close to him, even if it meant being close to his dead body.
Now she didn't perhaps have the knowledge and the sense of understanding that the other disciples should have had at least, but she had a heart attracted to the person of Christ. And it's interesting that she's the one that is given the word, go tell my brother. She's given that wonderful revelation that he had not only risen from the dead, but that he was going to ascend back to God and the Father.
And not only his God and Father, but their God and Father. But the knowledge, the revelation that was given to Mary, that she was to convey to the Lord's brethren, was the result of, first of all, a heart attracted to himself.
And so, as we've said, brethren, we can't have knowledge in the sense of information.
In the right light, unless we have the knowledge of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what's going to set information and information as important as we've been saying. But what is going to set doctrinal information, if I can put it that way, in its proper order and light?
Is to have a knowledge of God through the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus. Again in John he said, have I been so long time with you, and hast thou not known me? He that hast seen me, hast seen the Father. He had fully revealed who God the Father was.
He was the express image of His person as He walked here in this world. He conveyed that knowledge. Now he says, You've seen it in me, and he that hast seen me hath seen the Father. And brethren, That's what we need to get a hold of first.
And then when the heart is engaged with the knowledge of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
All the other things are going to fall into their proper perspective.
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One more thought in regard to Peter having gained knowledge of the Lord, what was the experience in Peter's life which helped him to come to know the Lord best, or maybe helped him in a great way? It was. It was when he had failed the Lord, and the Lord came to him in grace and restored his soul. He came to know the Lord then.
And that didn't leave him for the rest of his life. It taught him what he then exhorted the Saints in the end of the book to do.
Grove and grace and in the Knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
So we may be going through difficult times in our lives and we may fail.
But if we allow the Lord to use those experiences.
For his glory and our blessing, we're going to come to know the Lord through them. So we see this coming out in Peter, don't we, that he was able to pass along the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
And of and of God through, through even those experiences that he passed through.
Whereas for now.
Whereby I gave an answer exceeding great and precious promises.
Once we have all these things obtained which we spoke of, that the Lord Jesus Christ by faith.
Then we have given these or we have been added on these things here.
We have already spoken about glory, but then we get the divine nature.
That by these he might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. So we have now received the same nature that the Lord Jesus has.
Not, not that you only had here on the earth that he has now in heaven.
We have received that with him.
And only by that we can escape. Or we have escaped already. At least we should have.
The corruption that is in the world through lust, well, we know.
Everything is lost that.
Brings.
A sin makes people sin.
And I get letters like that every week.
And the first 4 verses of this epistle, Peter talks about things that have been given to us of God.
Before the 1St exhortation for us to do anything and brethren, when God exhorts us, it's always on the basis of what he's already provided so that we can properly respond and carry out the exhortation. And so we're going to get exhorted before the chapter is over, but.
It's important for us to see the heart of God. He thirst in verse one he's given like precious faith and then he speaks of his divine power in verse three is given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness and so on. And then it says verse four have given unto us exceeding great and precious promises and so on. And so these things are things that are given to us.
To receive, to enjoy, to value. And then he says, having given you these things, now this is what you need to do. And so we want to enjoy these first four verses in the because they express that which God has given to us and we haven't really spoken about it. In verse three, he says the things that pertain unto life and godliness.
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What did we have before?
The things of death, the.
Things of corruption, the things of ungodliness. We were part of a spoiled and corrupted world, and that's the way we lived and that's what we were. But now God is saying no. But I want you to know me, and so I am giving to you all that you need as to life itself and a nature that is godly and so on, and the knowledge of these things.
So that you can live as my children in a way that will be my joy and your joy.
The comment on that word? Godliness.
It probably conjures up some image in your mind, particularly if you're young, as to maybe what it means, but.
I puzzled over that word some years ago and I looked up its roots and to me I found it helpful to see that it means to if I can just put in my own words to, well, reverence God in your life.
Does everything in your life or my life that I do show a reverence to God?
That's what the word, broken down literally in Greek, means to, well, reverence.
In English that doesn't go together very well, but we know what it means when something is well cared for.
And so in your life do you is God reverenced in the things that you do? And then another word that may be difficult to understand or is virtue. Another has translated spiritual courage, valor.
Really speak to the Christian position, doesn't it? They didn't, uh, they weren't indwelled with the Spirit of God before the church was formed. So the Spirit of God came upon them in Old Testament times and so on. But we have the power of the Spirit of God dwelling within that gives us the power and the appreciation to be able to, uh, the capacity to be able to enjoy these things. And umm, we also have, uh, you know, the entire written word of God. They had a, part of the revealed word of God, the Old Testament.
And umm, how thankful we should be. We have the entire word of God, He, uh, we have, umm, the, umm, priesthood of Christ. We have, uh, the Lord Jesus on high, uh, interceding for us, uh, in our weakness. And then his advocacy, because we do fail. And if we fail, we have an advocate with the Father. We have all things that pertain unto life and godliness. God has not withheld anything to, uh, from us.
So in the Old Testament they had a knowledge of God to a certain extent, that is the Jew. They were given the oracles of God and he was revealed to them as Jehovah. But it was a knowledge of God more in connection with what God's holy standard was. And what was laid down for them was the law. And if they didn't keep it, there were penalties and so on. But they really weren't given in a general way. At least they weren't given the power and capacity to keep it. In fact, that's what the law showed.
It showed God's standard, but it showed too that man left to himself, even though he had the knowledge of God's standard, he had not the power of capacity to lift himself up to God's standard.
Or to keep God's law. But now he brings before these Jewish believers that they have the full knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ, revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. They have one who has accomplished to God's glory.
The pathway of faith and the work of redemption, as Robert has just said, One who is living for them at the right hand of God as their object and their resource and all the other things that pertain unto life and godliness. And brethren, if that is true for them and for us, then we have no excuse, do we, if we don't exhibit moral piety in our lives and live for God's glory from day-to-day?
What excuse do we have? We have both the power and capacity to live in this world.
And to exhibit Christ in in our lives, and to walk with power through this wilderness, and to in the end have an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom. And when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, then our life is brought into review. What excuse are we going to give the Lord Jesus for some failure in our lives? What excuse are we going to give him for not exhibiting moral piety or.
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Courage in our spiritual courage, or whatever expression, virtue or whatever expression you want to use. What excuse are we going to give him? We're going to hang our heads and realize that we had it all. The problem was we didn't avail ourselves of the resources that we had.
OK, I wanna get home when I'm gonna take my my heart and joy.
But then I'm gonna try and find out, and I'm a lot of yeah, I'm gonna call you and just let me know if you're gonna do anything. Well, I'm kidding.
You know, right?
If I'm going to go home after.
My colleagues.