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I've been thinking lately about a God has given us a nature that we can enjoy what he enjoys. We all know that we have that nature, but God would have us to live the life that we have. And I'd like to suggest a chapter because I I believe that we can all plead guilty to being cold in soul and knowing these things but not enjoying them.
And so we have that great privilege.
To enjoy the very same thing that God enjoys that the Father enjoys about the Son and that the Son enjoys about the Father. So I'd like to suggest second Peter and the first chapter. I believe that it is a chapter that gives us tools to enjoy that nature which every believer has.
And so I was thinking perhaps of, uh.
Maybe I could just explain why I am suggesting this chapter. It says that the ninth verse Speaking of believers.
But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off. He's nearsighted those eternal things and have forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. I think perhaps, if we're honest, we can all plead guilty at some time in our life in these things. But we don't have to settle for that. We can enjoy these promises. We have the Spirit of God.
You say the second chapter, the 1St chapter of Second Peter did that. Is that what I said? No. Yes. OK.
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Second Peter, chapter one.
Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained light 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 us to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by thee He might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, and besides 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 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. But he that locketh these things is blind, and cannot see far off.
And I've forgotten that he was cursed from his old sins. Wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make her calling an election sure where if he do these things, he shall never fail.
For sowing upon 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.
So you know them, and we established in the present truth. Yeah, I think it's me, 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 assured me. Moreover, I will endeavour that He may be able, after my deceased, to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly divisive 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, to whom I am well pleased. I'm this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mountain.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy whereon we do well. Let ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in his dark place until the day dawn, when the Daystar arrives in your heart. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. Where the prophecy came down in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
When studying the 2nd epistles, we must remember that the Spirit of God has before us the breakdown of the Christian testimony. Remember that when you read the 2nd epistle.
Second Timothy, second Peter, second John, so on. And they've used, uh, various aspects of the breakdown and gives the believers resources in view of the breakdown on the Christian testimony. I think what you get before us in second Peter is the, uh, the letting go of practical godliness in life.
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And being preserved.
By the sovereignty, by the Lord, by God's sovereignty. Excuse me.
Divine means of being kept in an evil day.
It's very interesting to me to see.
In scripture, how often you get 2 lines of truth side by side, the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man, and you get it here in this chapter. Our preservation therefore, is not all on God's side. He wants us to be responsibly exercised in it. And so you'll see in the 1St 4 verses the sovereignty of God brought up what He gives in order that we might be preserved in the past.
And then from verse five on through the end of the chapter, we have to give to there's responsibility on our part. And he mentions how that we need to give diligence to various things that will work together for our practical preservation.
And the instruction to go on in a day of ruin in the second Epistles is not so much instruction in connection with going on for the Lord amidst the darkness of heathendom, but amidst the professing Christian testimony at the time. And I think when we read the 2nd Epistles in that light, it really gives more important to what? To what we read, just as a matter of a point. Sometimes we read Second Timothy chapter 3, where it speaks about the last days in perilous times. And perhaps in our minds we think of that in connection with violence and corruption and all the things that are going on in a physical way in the world.
Well, there are certainly many scriptures that bring before us that the last days are characterized by outward violence and corruption and.
We certainly are very aware of it in the day in which we live, but that's not what Two Timothy 3 is talking about.
The perilous times there in the last days are that which has taken place in the Christian profession. And when you read it in that light, I say it really gives impact and import to it. And when we take up an epistle like Second Peter here to realize that he's encouraging the Saints to go on and bringing before them the resources that they have in God and in Christ in the midst of the ruin of Christian profession.
Because brethren, we can go on. There's, there's light and instruction, there's resources to go on for the Lord's glory, even in a day when the truth of God and practical Christianity and, and practical holiness is being, is being given up. We don't have to compromise. Timothy was told in his day to continue. And I say that because I think sometimes, and maybe when we're younger, but not so young too, we look around.
As the condition of things amongst believers, the condition of things in that which we refer to as Christendom or professing Christianity, and we say, can we really go on in the truth of God?
Can we really go on as gathered to the Lord's name? Can we really go on and take up the principles that are laid down for us and the pattern in the early Acts and so on? Yes, we can. There's provision to go on.
To to the very end. And so we don't have to compromise. We don't have to say, well, everybody's doing it and Christians are doing it here and there and we've got to give a little bit. We don't have to compromise.
It's illustrated, no doubt, in the life of Daniel and his three friends in the first few chapters of Daniel.
Difficult day, many brought from Babylon. I don't know how many of those young men were brought in to be schooled, to stand before the king. A lot of them compromised. But Daniel and his three friends said, no, it's a different day, yes, we're in a different place, yes, but we're going to stand for the truth. And so with what we have here in this epistle, brethren, these are days of giving up, days when we see the seeds of apostasy on every hand, days when there's compromise.
Uh, even amongst the Christian profession. But we can go on for the Lord's glory and do it to the end as well.
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There's an author in the Christian world by name of Francis Schaeffer. Some are familiar with them perhaps, but he, uh, he made this, he makes a statement that, and I think he wrote, wrote the book. It says the God that is and, and that's kind of a, umm, I kind of like that statement. The God that gives, and I believe that is where we have to start is that God is, and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
And that's not necessarily.
The, the, the, the lost, because the lost don't seek God. It's those that have life that seek God. And so if we want to know what God's will is, Jim has to comment on, we don't look around at the, at the, at all that is going on out there and compare. But we have to know, I believe as the starting point is to know what God's will is. And so we start with God and then we see what his will is and if we really want to know his will.
Was read to us this morning in first of Peter chapter 5 and I'll just read it. Uh, verse five says likewise, ye younger submit yourselves unto the elder. Yeah, all of you be subject 1 to another and be clothed with humility. And it seems to me as the second Peter has taken up, uh, as uh, the apostle Peter speaks here. He doesn't pronounce himself as the apostle, but in deep humility.
He presents himself as Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, but he's a servant first. And in humility he addresses the Saints. And I think that this is necessary in the day that we live in is to recognize that we're just a bunch of zeros, we're nothing. And it's really Christ. And that's what the the Lord uses Peter here to bring out. And in humility he seeks to bring before the Saints before his departure the.
Promises, these great and precious promises that God has brought before, uh, the Saints and given to the Saints and in the same way as the apostle Paul as he prayed in chapter one of uh, Ephesians that he wanted them to enter into the.
Knowledge of those things, and then he wanted them to enjoy those things. And so Peter, uh, in humility speaks and teaches the Saints in this way. So it's, uh, incumbent upon us as well, isn't it? So Simon was what he was by nature. Peter was what he was by grace. And it's very interesting as Robert says, that he uses these both names here. He doesn't in the beginning of the first epistle there, it's Peter, an apostle.
As He brings the truth before the Saints there, but here He takes his place as it were, and identifies with the failure that has come in amongst the people of God. And brethren, we all have to identify with the failure that has come in amongst the people of God.
And when you go through scripture, the men and women that were used in blessing to God's people.
At times of failure and ruin where those not those who'd stood apart and said well, I, I, I haven't had any part in this. I've been faithful. No, they are those that have identified with the failure that has come in again, Daniel.
Identify Daniel was confessing his sins, you say, what sins did Daniel have to confess? He was a upright, righteous man. He had purpose of heart, but there he takes his place amongst the uh, with the failure that had come in the ruin that had come in amongst the people of God. And that is always the way of blessing. So he, Simon Peter again, Simon is what he was by nature when he acted in the flesh in Luke's Gospel chapter 22.
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The Lord didn't address him as Peter. He said, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat. He took him up on that ground because he wasn't acting on the resources that he had been given by grace.
But here he takes his place, as Robert said, in humility. He takes his place a month with the failure that had come in. And again, what we have here is believers in the midst of the Christian profession.
In the midst of failure. And it is never assumed in many of the 2nd epistles that everyone that makes a profession is a true believer. And it's important to see that there are expressions in Timothy and Peter and some of the epistles that you're not going to understand, that you're going to misconstrue if you don't realize that it's not assumed that every person he's writing to is a true believer. And that that is especially true in the epistles that are written to Jewish believers, if I can put it that way, like Hebrews.
Like Peter and and James is another one. Those are and the Jewish believers understood this from their Old Testament history. There went up a mixed multitude out of Egypt and God brought to bear circumstances in the wilderness that brought out the reality or the lack thereof that within their heart. And with many of them, God was not well pleased and they fell in the wilderness as First Corinthians 10 tells us. So again, it's Christianity. It's it's a exhortation to true believers to avail themselves of the resources they have and to live practical godly lives in the midst of the Christian profession. And so he begins here by addressing those of like precious.
Faith. Those are real, aren't they, Bruce?
There are two kinds of professing Christians. There are those who are merely professing and there are those who are sincerely professing. And we like to think that we're looking into the faces of those who are sincerely professing to be believers. So it's not wrong to be a professing believer. We, we should all be such. We profess that we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But as I say, there are some who are merely professing. It's only an outward speak, but the life and the life is not there.
But yes, getting back to what you say there, Jim, about the light precious faith, as we mentioned, the chapter has two parts to it really, and that is God's part, what He's given him for us to be preserved. And then our part, what we need to be exercised about doing, and the 1St 4 verses really bring before, is what God has done, God's part, we might call it. He's given us light precious faith, which is the Christian revelation of truth to occupy our hearts and souls and build us up.
He's given to us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, and He's given us the greatest promises. That's verses 1, three, and four. These are the things that God has given in order that we might be preserved. It doesn't guarantee that we will be preserved because we have to give to there needs to be exercise and diligence in this matter, and that's taken up from verse five on through to the end of the chapter.
And the tendency in this day and age is to go to sleep. And so this is a dying man's exhortation, isn't it? Yes, he says. Uh.
12Th verse Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them, and be established in present truth. Yeah, I think at me, 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 tent for Tabernacle.
Even as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me, so his desire is that the Saints might not go to sleep.
Spiritually.
Just as we begin this portion as well, it's interesting to notice that the apostle Peter is the one that uses this word precious. And he doesn't seek to hide the fact that he had failure in his past. He was truly humbled. And he addresses the Saints in a humble way and he presents to them something that's precious to his heart. And he says, you know, you have the like precious faith, the very same faith that we have as apostles.
We were brought into blessing as the into the knowledge of the Lord Jesus as our Savior and through the righteousness of God and of our Savior Jesus Christ. And he speaks of this grace and peace be multiplied unto you.
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Through the knowledge of God. But there was once a time in Peter's life when he didn't see that it was worth suffering for Christ, and he denied the Savior three times. We read of that in John's Gospel, chapter 21.
Asked Peter those three questions because there was 3 denials and he really needed to be publicly restored in that way. But here Peter uses this word precious. He uses it in a way that even the apostle Paul, even the apostle Paul doesn't use, and I believe he uses it seven times. And so there may be someone here that has had failure in the past. Life hasn't been walking with the Lord.
And, umm, perhaps it's a time of, uh, searching things out and realizing how precious Christ is. Peter, after he denied the Lord, learned that the Lord was everything. Paul, you know, he said Christ is everything.
This is, uh, in contrast with that. It was not a faith, but now this is the faith of Christianity, isn't it? I just want to say a word about that too, because again, it's helpful to keep in contact. Sue Peter is addressing here. It's those who had been saved, who had been under the Jewish order of things. They've been brought up in a very different way and in the way they've been brought up and what they've been taught, it was very right in its place, given by God in the Old Testament and so on.
But I find, I think too, you find with Peter that another thing that is unique to Peter is that he speaks about knowledge or full knowledge. And that's a contrast with the Old Testament as well, isn't it? Because in the Old Testament they had a service to do for God, but they didn't have full intelligence as to why they carried it out. If I can illustrate it this way, if you had stepped up to the brazen altar as the sacrifices were being offered from day-to-day.
And ask the priest or the Levites why there are certain things done in a certain way. Why are there certain sacrifices and animals for certain sins? Why do the birds have to have the head pinched off and set aside? Why do the crop and the feathers that have to be set aside? Why is CER certain things not always burnt? And so on. They would have said, we can't tell you, but this is the way it is. And we saw what happened to Nadab and Abaya when they offered strange fire and didn't do it. According to God's mind it wasn't an intelligent service.
And they didn't have full knowledge. But if you notice Peter's epistle here begins and ends with an exhortation to knowledge. And that interesting he he exhorts us in the second verse, or he speaks in the second verse of grace and peace be multiplied unto you notice this through the knowledge. And Mr. Darby has a footnote in his translation and says it's really the thought of full knowledge. It's the same that Paul uses in the I think it's the 17th verse of the.
Book of the first chapter. Let's just look at it for a minute. Let me read it. Ephesians chapter one and verse 17. I think it is.
Ephesians chapter one, yes, and verse 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in and again it ought to read in the full knowledge of him. That's what marks Christianity, the full revelation of the Lord Jesus and the truth of God because of what was accomplished on Calvary's cross to the glory of God and the fact that the Lord Jesus now is arisen, ascended.
But it has to be the basis if we're going to go on in practical Christianity. You know, first Timothy takes up the need for sound doctrine. Second Timothy is the need for sound practice. But you've got to have sound doctrine to have sound practice. Paul said, thou has fully known my doctrine and then manner of life and purpose. And he gives a list of things there. And I believe that many times we get tripped up in our Christian pathway.
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Because what we do is not based on sound doctrine or teaching. We must have knowledge. And so when Peter ends his epistle, he says growing grace. Oh, we need that, brethren. We need grace to go on in the last days.
And we need all the grace that God can give us and it's it's endless it of all we received of his fullness and grace on grace. But brethren.
We also need knowledge, and how are you going to have knowledge of how to live the practical Christian life? You've got to read the Word of God. You've got to know our standing first you've got to have sound teaching, but then to have sound practice, you've also got to have the practical exhortation of the Word of God. And I'm afraid there are many Christians who have a real heart for the Lord. They want to go on for the Lord. They're doing many things.
That seem good, but when you really search it out, it's not based on sound doctrine. Sound practice, I say again, must be based on sound doctrine. So he begins here with the knowledge and it's full knowledge.
Wonderful that we have the full revelation of God's mind in Christ.
We've been given the Lake precious faith, which is the revelation of Christian truth that has been conveyed to us through the what was given to the apostles, and as a result we have the full knowledge of God. The Old Testament Saints and Judaism, they had a knowledge of God, but that we have the full knowledge of God because all of the revelation concerning the things of God, the purpose of God, has been brought into the light through the precious faith has been put into the hands of the Saints.
Proverbs 9 and 10 says that the fear of the Lord in the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding. So we get the three, the wisdom, knowledge and understanding and they all it begins with God, the knowledge of God.
Who He is, not just as to our sins, you know, and putting our sins away, but the full knowledge of God.
And that comes with communion, isn't it?
What, uh, Bruce has said about the sovereignty of God and that, that like precious faith, it shows that my sins have been put away on a righteous basis. And the one who's done it, doesn't it say, it says like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God. It was done on a righteous basis and the one who did it was our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So those are sovereign things like.
He said that they forced. The 1St 4 verses are what God has done and there are things that our brother said you can't even sin away. But then there is the responsibility of living the life that we have and that comes later.
We are to earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the Saints. That's Jude 33Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. (Jude 3).
The faith there again is the Christian revelation of truth, where the earnestly contend for it, not by arguing with everybody involved, the various things in the Bible, but by living it and walking it and holding it, practicing it. But it's interesting that it was once delivered to who? The apostles? No, to the Saints. It was delivered through the apostles to the Saints. But the Saints are the custodians of the truth of God. Don't get this idea that it belongs only to the learned among us and the.
The gifted among us, the truth is for all the Church of God, for all the Saints of God. It was delivered through the apostles to the Saints. You could have us all to know these things.
So just to make it clear, faith is taken up in different contexts in Scripture. Sometimes faith is the confidence that we have in God or in the Lord Jesus, but sometimes, and especially when the article law is in front of it.
It's not so much confidence in God, but it's the deposit of truth that has been committed to us.
And again, brethren, we need to be on our guard in the days in which we live, because there's a great movement sometimes to look for new truth or new life.
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You find in it's a principle with God all through his dealings with man from the Old Testament on that he never gave fresh light or revelation at the end of a dispensation.
There's recovered light sometimes during a dispensation or an administration, but never fresh light. And so that which was laid, Paul spoke of the foundation being laid, the apostles and prophets.
The New Testament writers, Paul himself being a wise master builder, they laid the foundation of truth, that which we have in our hands.
In the epistles, and that hasn't changed. And to look for fresh light or revelation at the end of a dispensation is dangerous, its shaky ground at best. That doesn't mean we can't have a fresh enjoyment of the truth.
We should, we've taken up this chapter perhaps many times before you've read it in your personal reading. We ought to have a fresh enjoyment of it during these meetings as we seek in the power of the Spirit of God to take it up. But it's not fresh, fresh light. And so again in the second epistles you often have that confirmed. Timothy, continue thou in the things that thou hast learned, that which was all had already been taught to him.
He was to continue and he learned the truth from the apostle Paul and so on. And so, uh, again, we, we will get to it. But Peter's not writing something new. He's giving them the same truth, reminding them Paul said to write the same things to you is not grievous, but then to me it is. And for you it is safe. For to me it's not grievous and for you it it is, it is safe. John said no new commandment right I unto you, but that what you have received from the beginning.
Confirmation that that which has been laid down at the beginning, brethren, is the truth of God, the foundation.
And it does not change, but just to go on a little bit because the long chapter and we only have 3 readings, you speak about the resources that we have that God has provided and the two, there's two things in the second verse, grace and peace.
And so, as has already been quoted, we have grace here. And of all we received, of His fullness and grace upon grace now.
We often think of grace as that which saves a person, and we all if we know the Lord as our Savior here this morning.
We're all saved by the grace of God, and John Newton wrote that hymn we all love to sing, Amazing Grace That Saved a Wretch like me. But there's more to the subject of grace than that. There is a preserving, enabling grace of God that gives us the power to go on, and it's available to everybody, whether you've known the Lord Jesus for one day or for 60 or 70 years.
It's available of all we received of His fullness and grace upon grace. Do we need more grace? Do the days get more difficult? He giveth more grace, He said to Paul, My grace is sufficient for thee.
And that grace is not only that which saves and preserves us. But then, as was alluded to, Peter had experienced the restoring grace of God. Peter had failed, and failed miserably, but he was restored.
Because there was some spark of good in Peter? No, simply on the grounds of pure sovereign grace. But then there's something else goes with it, and you often have these two things connected.
In the opening of epistles, peace now again we think of having peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and that's certainly the beginning. And I hope everyone here, based on the work of Calvary and having availed ourselves of that finished work, have peace with God because He himself has made peace through the blood of his cross.
But there's something more to consider in in the subject of peace. You know the Lord Jesus at the end of his pathway.
Left his peace with his his own, He said, My peace I give unto you.
What piece is that? That was the very same piece that the Lord Jesus had as he walked through a troubled world. And who had more conflict outwardly? Not inwardly, of course, but who had more conflict outwardly than the Lord Jesus Christ? He was the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was misunderstood. Even his own didn't understand him. His own forsook him and fled. Peter denied, denied him three times.
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The Lord Jesus walked through this world in obedience to His Father.
With a perfect peace. And He has left that peace now. So that you and I, no matter how dark the day gets, no matter how much we see the seeds of apostasy song, no matter how difficult it is to live righteously for God's glory, you and I can walk through this world with the wonderful resource of the very peace of the Lord Jesus Himself.
And taking all of our circumstances from him. Thus the Lord did that.
So not only has he given to us the precious faith, the Christian revelation of truth.
And verse three tells us that he's given it unto us all things that pertain unto godliness, life and godliness. And I still remember being in a Bible reading years ago when Brother Saxton asked the question, what would these things be? Well, he set the cat among the pigeons there because we were all put back. So I could ask that question here this afternoon, this morning, what would these things be?
Well, I suppose to start off with, we would say he's given us the Scriptures, He's given us the Holy Spirit, He's given us Christian fellowship for encouragement. He's given us a high priest, He's given us the Advocate, given us gifts to the church that help us to understand the truth and to walk in it, shepherds, and so on. I give you a short list, but you could go on and on. He's giving us many, many things that pertain to life and godliness. There's no excuse for me not to go on. Preserve when you think of what God has provided on his part.
Which as I said already, regardless of all that God has made, it is a provision for us to be preserved. That in itself is not enough. He would have us to be responsibly exercised. And we're going to get that up from verse five onward. And it's so that the life can be manifest in a practical way, isn't it? In Peter's ministry here? It's not so much the life we have. That's true. John brings that out, but it's the practical manifestation of the life we have. It's living in a such a way because we have life.
And because we have the resources, I don't know if you mentioned another resource is the Spirit of God. That's the power for the the divine light. The divine life is a perfect life. It's the very life of Christ, but it has no power of itself.
If I can illustrate it this way, and, and I know it's a repetition, but you might have out in the parking lot this morning one of the best engines that money can put in a vehicle. But if you go out and start that engine, it may not start. You say, why? I've got a perfect engine, the best engine that money can buy. Well, you need an unseen commodity in that engine to make it start. It needs power. So you put gasoline in that engine and now you go out and you turn the key and there's an immediate spark and you have all the power you need to get you down the road to your destination.
We have divine life, that's true. John brings that out in his ministry in a very real and precious way.
But we also have the power for that life as well, and that power is the Spirit of God. Another resource we have is prayer. You know, it's interesting that when Paul, when Saul of Tarsus was saved.
That when Ananias was told to go and see him, you can just imagine Ananias now, Lord I I've heard about this man and he's only come here to take us captive and to have us killed and to try to stamp out the name of Christ.
I And now you're gonna send send me to him. The Lord gave him a confirmation. He said you'll find him in a certain place. And behold, he prayeth immediately on Saul of Tarsus conversion. He was in the attitude of prayer, because prayer is the very breath and power of the divine, of the divine life. It's often the proof for confirmation that there's been a work of God in the soul. So all these things are given to us.
And they're given to us so that the life we have might be practically manifest in the midst of Christian profession and ruin. Can we say priesthood, you ask what they are, and advocacy. If we fail, all of these things are given to us that we might carry this life out. The throne of grace. Yes, yes. Another thing.
It's helpful to make a little list. I did it one time when I was younger in the back of my Bible. And as you go through the scriptures, if you come upon one of the provisions that God has made, jot it down in the on a, on a notepad or in the back of your Bible as those things that pertain unto life and godliness. And it's very helpful to be able to go back to it. You're going through some situation, you feel burdened, cast down. How can I go on? Go back to your list and you'll find that your list will be ongoing too.
00:45:31
Yo, I don't know as you'll really ever get to the to the end of it because as you read through the scripture, you'll keep finding another little something that God has provided those things that pertain all things, not just some things.
But all things, let me use another illustration. When we were in business, we used to send men out on jobs into the field, but we never sent a person out on a job to a factory. We were in the Fire Protection, equipment installation and service business.
But we never sent a man out into the factory without the proper tools. We made sure that everyone who went out to the factory to service the equipment had the proper tools. The only thing is sometimes.
Something was left back at the shop or they ran into something they'd never run into before and they didn't have the right wrench or the right piece of equipment. Sometimes they had to come back to the shop. We were always ordering new tools because sometimes the equipment changed and the factory would change the sizes of the gaskets and the screws and the nuts and the bolts and the gauges and the stuff we we would use. We didn't always provide everything with all things that were needed for the job.
But brother, we will never, never, never face any dilemma, any situation, any hurdle in our practical Christian pathway where we have to say God hasn't provided the tool for this one. There's all things that pertain unto life and godliness. The divine toolkit is full, and if we're willing to reach into it and get the right tool, it's there for us. So you're telling us no excuses. That's it.
OK.
I have a list of all things that somebody gave. It's not mine, but #1 The Word of God. And two, the prayer. We had all these things, but it's good to repeat them. Three, the Holy Spirit, we have a divine.
Visitor dwelling in us that we have, we have divine life, uh, the Lord's intercession, the hope of the rapture advocacy. We have the armor and there's angels too at our disposal. So there is no, no, no excuses. God has provided everything for us. We have the life and the power and the spirit of God to carry these things out.
It's interesting to see too that he is equipped us with these, uh, great provisions, but he's also encouraged us.
With great, great promises. That brings us to the next verse. And I'd like to point out the fact that this next version, the King James Version, is not really the best rendering. It says whereby we are given a given unto us are the the exceeding great and precious promises. But it should read has been given unto us the greatest promises.
And what great promises we have been given now to draw upon Brother Sacksteader again he asked what were these things be? Of course the Catamona pigeons took place again, if I recall, in that Bible reading. So may I ask that question here again? So what would these?
Well, one that comes to mind is the promise that he's gonna come again and receive us unto himself. I If we don't get a hold of that promise, brethren in our souls, we're gonna get discouraged pretty quick.
And Peter always brings glory before us, doesn't he? He brings the end of the thing before us.
What's going to encourage us to go on in a day of ruin? It's the end. It's having the the the end in view. So that's just one. There's many, but that's one on the way there, he said. I will never leave you nor forsake you. What a precious promise that is.
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Isn't that the verse before it says through the knowledge of him that have called us. I think it's by glory and virtue. So the glory is before us. We, we read about that. We, we could read in the third chapter some of the things that are, uh, it says, umm.
The ninth verse we just the Lord is not slack concerning His promise as somehow.
Count Slackness, but his long-suffering to us were not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. You know these are all things in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements from Yeltsin's fervent heat. The earth also in the works there therein shall be burned up.
And so we, we look the first looking for and hastening under the coming of the day of God, wherein the heaven shall be on fire. So all of these things where it shall be dissolved and the elements, you know, nevertheless, we according to his promise, there's a promise. Look for the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Does that excite our souls that someday we're going to be with the Lord Jesus?
Over the new heaven and the new earth where dwell in dwelleth righteousness, where sin is gone. Is it that we're going to reign with the Lord Jesus through that day. The Millennium does it. Those are things he's called us the glory. And in the 14th of John, I've enjoyed this that he told his disciples. He said now I I'm going to my Father's house, but don't worry.
There is room for all of you in my father's house are many of those. And I'm going to come back and I'm going to take you to my father's house and you are never I'm never going to leave you again. When I rain, you're going to rain. When I when I come down to be over the the new heaven and new earth, you're going to be with me in that close relationship as a bride.
Are these you know, are are these, you know, pie in the sky?
These are real things where most of our life, which is just a little bit here, this is where we're going to spend eternity. So these things ought to excite us.
So we often make promises, but we often promise more than we can carry out too. I've made promises where when I had the time came to fulfill the promise, I had to shake my head and say, I promised more than I had the resources to fill. Or maybe when we made the promise, we had the resources to carry it out, but between the promise being made and the fulfillment of it, something happened and we lost the resources and we had to shake our head and say.
I was sincere when I made the promise. I had the resources to fulfill it. But the time has come when I can no longer carry through on the promise. But I want to read you 2 verses from the Old Testament to show that God, the greatest and most precious promises that God has made are promises that He either has or will fulfill. God has never made a promise that He can't or won't fulfill. And when we get discouraged, brethren, when we see failure in our own lives.
Or in the lives of our of our brethren, maybe in the local assembly, maybe in the family circle. It's good to go back to the promises that Scripture gives us, because all the promises of God in him are yay.
And in him Amen to the glory of God by us. But I want to go back to the Old Testament.
To show how on two occasions the people of God went back to the promises that God had laid out at the beginning.
The first is in Joshua chapter 23 where we have Joshua at the end of his life giving some of his final words to the people of God before he passed over off the scene.
Just notice the 14th verse of Joshua chapter 23 and behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth, and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing hath failed.
Of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you, all are come to pass.
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Unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof. Now before I comment in this, go to 1St Kings chapter 8 and we come over a little further in the history of the people of God. This is Solomon's prayer, the dedication of the temple. Blessed be the God, be the Lord that hath given rest unto His people, Israel, according to all that he hath promised.
There has not failed one word of all His good promise, wherewith He promised by the hand of Moses His servant. Now you'll notice in both occasions much failure had come in amongst the people of God.
We say, how can we claim the promises of God when there's been so much failure in our own lives? Well, if you lead the wilderness journey of the children of Israel from the Red Sea to this point, there had been lots of failure.
But we see God's faithfulness too, in spite of the failure, and Joshua reminds them of the promises.
And the faithfulness of God that had brought them there thus far. But then you read from the days of Joshua to the days of King Solomon, and there was plenty more failure. Every page, it seemed, is stained with failure. And so on.
What does Solomon remind the people of God of their own faithfulness? No, he couldn't. But he reminds them of the faithful promises, and he takes them right back to what was laid down at the beginning, what was given to Moses. Not some new promises, but the faithfulness and the security of the promises that were given at the very beginning. So again, Peter, in writing to these Jewish believers, they could think back to the Old Testament.
Of the unfaithfulness of, of their predecessors and think, oh, how can we be? How can we stand by MO, Joshua or Moses or Solomon? Oh, he says, remember, you have these great, the greatest and most precious promises. They're secure because of the righteousness, the righteous basis on which their base, they, they, they, they rest as you brought before us, brother Vern and brother. And can't we rest on those promises too?
Have they all been fulfilled? No, not all. There's still some to be fulfilled. His promise to come again. But Byrne was bringing before us later on in the epistle about the day of of the Lord, the day of God, and so on.
But does that mean he's failed in his promises? I say again, he's never made a promise that he can't or won't fulfill.
And we've had already read to us, uh, this the promise, the assurance that he'll keep, uh, us as well. And that's profess for Thessalonians chapter 5 faithful is he that calleth you who will also do it. So we have those verses that you've brought before us, Jim, that he would keep those promises.
To Israel but will he keep promises that he's made to us absolutely. And there's a verse for you that says he's going to do it and he's he's faithful to his word. Getting back to our chapter in the middle of verse four. We find that the divine end of these provisions and encouragement that he gives us is for what reason that we might be partakers of the divine nature. Now this is not vital partaking vitally partake of the divine nature through new birth. This is.
Practical partaking of it, to enjoy the things that God himself is enjoying. Now we're having fellowship with God on the highest token there can be so as to be partakers of the divine nature. I think that's beautiful to see that, uh, he would draw us into fellowship with himself and have us to enjoy the things that he enjoys and feed on the things that delights his heart. That's really to partake in a practical sense in the divine nature.
So our children have the very life that we have, but they don't always partake of the in the family circle of that life in the way that we would, we would like them to. And so it, you know, there's a meal provided and the family sits down. One of the children doesn't come to the table. Another child doesn't eat the food that has been provided. There's activities planned. The some of the children refused to participate in the activities. It's very practical. They've partaken of our life, our nature.
We've given them life as parents, but we want them to enjoy in a practical way that which has been provided for them in the family circle. And that's why we said earlier here it's not so much a question of the life we have.
01:00:04
But it's the practical manifestation of that life. A son or a daughter may not practically manifest in their life. The family that they belong to, they may not give proper testimony to it. You think of it in connection with royalty. Sometimes the Queen of England's children and grandchildren haven't acted in a way that is in keeping with being heir to the British throne or part of the British royal family.
And I'm sure it's a grief to the Queen of England and other members of the family that seek to live more in a morally upright way and give testimony as to who they belong. It's not that they aren't royal of the royal family. They're partakers of that.
But they are acting in, in a practical way. So maybe that helps us understand what Bruce is, is saying. We all, every one of us here who know Christ as our Savior, every one of us here who have, uh, let me rephrase it. Every one of us here who have divine life, have the life of Christ.
And this partaking of the divine nature in a practical way leads to what, as he goes on to say, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. There's the way in which we're going to be preserved and escape at all. We're enjoying something better. We're enjoying enjoying something higher, something that captures the soul.
Enthralls the heart and it keeps us separate from the corruptions that are all around. If we're not enjoying something better, we're headed for trouble because the heart has to have something to be occupied with.
Now some may look at this and say partakers of the divine nature. Sounds like we're partaking in deity or something. No, no, no, no, no. That's nobody's talking about.
As Jim has said, life has been imparted to each one of us through Newbury, but God wants us to enjoy that life and fellowship with Himself. That's partaking of it in a practical way, and that's what the thought is in the verse and the and the purpose of it is that we might be preserved from the corruptions in the world.
The heart must have something as an object before, before we get the other side of things where we need to separate and need to be exercised hard, taking up first with what is positive before we turn our back on what is negative. Always God's order for preservation in life. You turn it around the other way, you got legality.
He brings in, in verse two as well a second point I could mention, and that is the lordship of Christ, the lordship of the Lord Jesus. So grace and peace, a calmness and a peace as we go through this world. And it's he desired there be multiplied through the full knowledge of God and our uh, and of Jesus, our Lord, acknowledging the Lord Jesus as our Lord. So having a heart engaged with him and also acknowledging his authority.
Will preserve us.
Just in connection with what you said, you find it with the patriarchs in the Old Testament, as they're brought before us in Hebrews 11. They didn't receive the promises, but they saw them afar off and embraced them. And what was the result? They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, and they looked for a better country. It was, as Bruce said, that which Wiener souls through their hearts from that which was around them.
They they embrace those promises. Abraham looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker's God. They look for a better country. It's what spurred them on and gave them the proper character of what we have in Peter's ministry, where again we are to be strangers and pilgrims. But if we don't have those promises firmly implanted and enjoyed in our souls and the glory ahead, we're not going to have that proper care.