Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I wonder, brethren, if it be the Lord's mind to consider Second Peter chapter one?
Brother Doug read from this morning.
It deals with the.
View of the coming Kingdom, and we're getting close to times when there will be major changes in this world that we live in.
Of course we are looking forward to our heavenly portion, but it has to do with a lot of practical matters.
That, uh, concern our living down here in view of that coming Kingdom.
There's something else I'd be glad to submit to something else too, but I suggest that.
Second Peter, chapter one.
Simon Peter, a servant of an apostle and 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 has given unto us.
All things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these uh ye 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 the knowledge temperance and the temperance patience.
And to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness cherish. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you, that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful.
And the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see a far off, and is forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Where if you do these things, he shall never fail. I never fall. Where soul and 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 means as long as I am in the 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 has showed me moreover.
I will endeavor that he may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance, For we have not followed, uh, cunningly devised fables. We mean no one 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 which came from heaven, we heard when we were with Him in the holy mountain. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Where unto ye do well, that ye take He.
As unto a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Knowing this first, 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.
It's helpful to remember as we consider what, uh, Peter has written, that he deals more with the side of the Kingdom.
Or the government of God.
And in first Peter, it has been mentioned at times deals with government of God in the House of God.
Whereas in second Peter you have the government of God in the world. And so in the third chapter of second Peter, you have what is called the day of the Lord, when the Lord Jesus is going to be introduced into power and glory in this world. And we have a preview of that day in the end of this first chapter. The third chapter also speaks of the day of God.
00:05:17
Which is that eternal day.
So God has something to say not only in his house, but he has something to say in this world.
And it's interesting to kind of get that perspective. When you have Paul's ministry, it's more directed and about the church, which is the body of Christ or the House of God. When you have John's ministry, it's more the family of God in view. But here we have the Kingdom of God and God.
Authority.
Exercised in this world today, in His house and in First Peter, Chapter 4 is perhaps a key verse to First Peter and verse 17 it says the time is come that judgment must begin.
At the House of God.
And if it first begin at us, because we are his house, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
Well, in the end of Second Peter, we have what's going to be the end of this present order of things that we know today. So God is going to intervene in the affairs of this world as well, directly and very severely. And we're getting close to those days, brethren, and we should be aware of where we are.
And walk accordingly.
2nd epistles usually denoted declension, and certainly we have that character here portrayed in the in this epistle.
But, umm, I think that we need to, uh, recognize that the Kingdom of God is, uh, in scripture presented in two different ways. It is, uh, going to be manifestation of all the glory of Christ in that coming day when, uh, the Kingdom will be established in its outward.
Form and character in the Millennium, but now, before that day.
God would have us to display the moral qualities of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink, but righteousness, uh, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost in Romans chapter 14. So umm.
The Kingdom of God is not ceremony, it is godliness, and that is a character that should be manifest here and now in our pathway. Paul preached to the Kingdom of God in that character, in its moral character.
And that's what we have developed here in this first chapter. All these beautiful qualities, we all have them, but they're not developed in many of us. But we have the capacity, we have the divine nature, we have the power in the Holy Spirit. Why aren't we manifesting, uh, some of these beautiful characteristics, uh, that are, uh, enumerated here for us by the apostle? Well, we have the old nature which must be kept in the place of death.
But it's beautiful to recognize that the Kingdom of God is not now in in outward manifestation, but it is in the believer, and it should be displayed in our walk and conduct in our ways. Is that right, brother?
The first chapter of Revelation, John speaks of himself in the Kingdom and patience, tribulation and patience. Kingdom, patience and tribulation are connected together, and that's the characteristic of the Kingdom, now isn't it?
If you confess the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are not appreciated in the world where fasting through.
But in the coming day, it will be the Kingdom will be in power and glory.
00:10:10
Lukes gospel I believe it is when the Lord Jesus was here he said the Kingdom of they asked him when it was coming, when is this Kingdom going to come and he answered them, the Kingdom of God is among you. It was present then in his person. He is the head of the Kingdom of God and he being here on earth.
In his person, the Kingdom was here.
But not yet established in a more formal way until the Lord Jesus went back to the glory.
And so the Kingdom of God does exist today in the world.
And everyone in this room that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ belongs to the Kingdom.
We are in the Kingdom of God. We don't take it up very much, but the last verse of the Acts, the apostle Paul in the very last recorded historical things about him in that epistle, not a pistol, but in the account of the ACT, it says preaching the Kingdom of God. And so we are in this room in the Kingdom of God.
And that's one side of Peter's ministry, but Bob already mentioned, and that we have to sort of see the two of them together at the other side. Peter presents to us the thought that we are in the wilderness on our way home to the glory. And consequently we have the two things brought mixed together and commingled in what he has to say to us. And so right here in the very beginning.
Peter likes the word precious and he talks about precious faith and then he talks about precious promises.
Because we don't participate yet in the Kingdom and its power and glory character, which won't happen until the Lord Jesus comes back to reign. And then we will see the Kingdom in in its outward manifestation. That's already been said. And as a result, it takes faith to walk today in the Kingdom in the way that honors God. And as Peter calls it, it's it's a precious thing to have that faith to walk.
Because faith has to lay hold of things that can't be outwardly seen. The day will come when man will see outwardly the display of the glory of God in the Lord Jesus reigning. And he won't need faith to lay hold of it. It'll be publicly displayed. But we need faith today to walk in it. And, and it's a precious thing. And yet at the same time we have to lay hold of that which is now only in a promise to us.
And so he calls it precious promises to encourage our hearts to look on beyond the present.
To see that which is ahead of us. But the other side that Bob mentioned too is brought in. It's the government of God. Why? Because God is presently dealing in his governmental ways with all that belong to the Kingdom. The government of God is not that which is eternal. It's connected with time. And so he brings us into it and he says, I'm going to deal in your lives.
According to the character of what is pleasing to me in the Kingdom and in my nature being manifested in it. And so we come under the government of God in our daily lives. If we do not live according to the principles of the Kingdom, if we don't live it out, then God puts His hand upon us. And because we are the most responsible, as as we had in first Peter 4.
It begins with the House of God, and so it is for us to recognize that we have established the grace of God that is everything to our blessing, but at the same time in responsibility we also are being dealt with by God governmentally in our individual and collective lives, and so we need to live with that as a serious matter.
To display what Peter exhorts us in this chapter. To live out that which would glorify God rather than have him have to bring his governmental ways upon us.
Perhaps it would be helpful to read those verses in Luke 19 where the Lord speaks a parable.
00:15:05
Uh, in Luke's Gospel chapter 19, we'll read verses 11 and 12.
And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable.
Because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the Kingdom of God should immediately appear.
He said therefore a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself.
A Kingdom and two return.
The thought when the Lord Jesus was here was that he was going to establish a Kingdom.
Then and there on earth.
And the Lord is telling them it's going to be different.
He's going to go into a far country and receive a Kingdom, and then he's coming back. Well, that far country is heaven, and that's where the Lord is gone, and he's there forming a Kingdom now. And the Kingdom is forming right now here on earth. And we enter into that Kingdom when we believe.
And on his authority, we're still left here to display that and continue the preaching of it.
By how we live and so on.
Then he's going to receive that Kingdom in the far country heaven, and he's going to come back with his Kingdom already formed to govern on earth. So that it that helps us to understand the different characters that the Kingdom takes. And our part of the Kingdom with association with the Lord is to be on him as he is in heaven and be a part of the heavenly side of it.
Faith is a precious thing, brethren.
It says in 2nd Thessalonians 3 that all men have not faith.
It also says in Romans 10, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
It's beautiful to see those who have a hearing here. Sometimes you speak the word to somebody you notice they are not predisposed to here.
Too bad.
But there has to be a hearing here.
The hour is coming and now is the Lord Jesus said, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. So true blessing comes through hearing.
Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So how precious it is to have that faith that lays hold on those things that are not seen. Sometimes people say, well, I live in the real world. I only believe what I see.
There's a lot of things that you don't see that you believe.
Can't you trust God when he speaks?
Because God is true.
You can call and question what I say. You can call and question what anybody else may say in this room. But when God speaks, God cannot lie.
And you need to listen to what God has to say.
And through that means, faith is received.
It's the gift of God as well. God gives that faith to the hearing here. Oh, how precious it is to have that faith. And it's interesting how he puts it here, like precious faith, because once we have that faith, we find others that have that same faith. We notice that it's not a matter of social distinctions or nationalities.
Wherever you travel in this world, you find those who have that light, precious faith. When the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is mentioned, there's an immediate, warm response.
00:20:05
How? How beautiful.
The the list of packages that Peter mentioned here in the first chapter.
This is, uh, very similar, uh, enumeration also in relation spoken by Paul in chapter 5 on the starting at verse 22. And we know these things, uh, are referred to often as the fruit of the Spirit. And I think, uh.
Things that, uh, are that concern us all and that we're all very, uh, interested in, uh, in, uh, manifesting in our lives. And, umm, I, I, I just, I, I just refer back to John chapter 15 where Jesus speaks about, uh, abiding in him, abiding in the vine that, uh, I accept you abide in me. You cannot produce any truth apart from you cannot do anything. Uh, I really think that there's a real link there. And, and, uh.
A bird comes to mind and says not only are they here.
Uh, not the period, but the viewers that, that are flat. And, uh, I see the, uh, the commandment that Jesus is saying in order to produce this fruit in John 15. It's very clear that.
Yes, we abide in the vine and we but we do that by keeping this demand. And he makes it very clear that keeping his demand is loving each other as he has loved us.
A lot of people say, well, brother, that's, you know, what are you implying? Are you saying that we should just go out and love other people? I mean, you know, as an act of the will. That sounds legalistic. The point is it's not legalistic. It is a deliberate out of the world. It's not legalistic. Legalism is when we apply oil in, uh, accordance to a, a, a rule that is, that is, uh, that is stated in order to receive a benefit, the doer receive the benefit in this case.
The team, we see a lot of things that, I mean, I, I know that's uh, either things, uh, I believe we all, we all know about, we all really desire, umm, we will uh, glorify the father by producing fruit. It says, umm.
It says that His joy will will be full in us. His joy we will make His joyful. It says our joy will be full. Uh, there's all kinds of promises in here, and it's in these 17 verses from 1 to 17 in John 15.
Guarantee, benefit our promotion either. This is something that I think is very key in in all of our lives as as Christians and in our desire to please the Lord.
Says through verse one, through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. I think it's worth going back just to put our eyes upon it. The verse that John quoted a little bit earlier in Romans chapter 14.
Connects itself with this chapter in Romans 14 and verse 17. It says the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. The Kingdom is brought out in different aspects, and we've been talking about different aspects of the IT and really bringing them, sort of mixing them together, which is fine.
In Matthew's Gospel when it speaks of the Kingdom of heaven.
For the Kingdom of the heavens, it's the same Kingdom, but it is that which is looked upon as the King himself being absent, and so he's in heaven and his subjects are on earth. In Colossians chapter one, it speaks about the Kingdom of the Son, of his love, Speaking of the Lord Jesus. And when it's the sun that is the center thought, then we have what we've talked about of His coming glory and his reigning.
Over the earth. And so he is going to come back and he we will have an official public Kingdom over which he reigns for the 1000 years of the Millennium and so on. But when it's the Kingdom of God, it's a different aspect of the Kingdom. It's already been commented on, but it's so central to what's here in first Peter.
00:25:19
The Kingdom of God is that which brings out a Kingdom which reflects the nature of God. So it's moral. So we have it here in Romans 14. It's not meat and drink, it's not some outward thing among men or even in official thoughts of glory, as it will be in the Kingdom of the Son of his love. It's the same Kingdom, but it's a different aspect of it. It is.
As Peter says, we have been made in this chapter. We've been made partakers of the divine nature. If we had not, we could not reflect the nature of God.
And what he's saying to us and adding to your virtues and so on, is the thought is to bring out in our lives that which reflects the very nature of God, as love, as light, as holiness, and so on that are seen in Him are to be seen in US. And so God wants a Kingdom in which his subjects are morally.
Just like he is.
And that's God's intent with us, that he worked for us and in US.
To produce in US subjects for himself which reflect his own nature. And that's really the emphasis of this first chapter. So he says by precious faith through the righteousness of God. If you didn't have the righteousness of God involved in it, then it would not be that which is according to God as a Kingdom. We all live. Most of us probably at least live in the United States or Canada and.
Outwardly and so on. We are citizens of these countries and it doesn't really matter what we are inside.
We're citizens anyways, regardless of the character of our lives, we are citizens of the, those, some country or another. Uh, outwardly, yes, we belong to that realm, that Kingdom, if you will. But with God, that's not the thought. He wants what's inward, and he is working in us to produce that which will be consistent with himself. And that's the only thing that God can rest in.
He will never rest in anything less than that which is consistent with his own nature.
You are going to read that verse in Romans. Righteousness come first.
There's no true ground of peace without righteousness.
And there's no true ground of joy without righteousness and peace. I think there is a an important order to those 3 expressions. But God has to save us.
And make us righteous before himself, or there cannot be peace.
Between ourselves and God, and God cannot find peace in anything less.
Then that which is consistent with his own righteousness. And if you don't have righteousness, you can't have peace and you won't have joy. At least you you might have pleasure in sin, but you'll never find your joy in God. As it says in Romans 5, we joy in our God. Why?
Because we have hearts that He has given to us through new birth, which find our pleasure in the same things that He finds His pleasure in, and consequently we find ourselves joying in God Himself.
Isaiah 32 and verse.
17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. So this is what I believe describes the coming Kingdom of the Lord Jesus, when he will reign in righteousness.
The effect of it will be peace.
And what a glorious day it will be for this world when he reigns.
00:30:06
What is righteousness?
Is it doing that? Which is right?
Is that a good definition?
That too simple.
But as long as you add to it, if you did everything right, nothing would be right unless the motive was right. And so true righteousness is acting in consistency with what God is. But it to act consistently with God according to Himself must not only be the ACT itself, but everything with God is also. What motivates that act is equally essential.
And so.
There are many instances of people doing things outwardly right.
Right.
Who are not approved of God because the motivation for what is done is not consistent with what God is.
Our brother Dawn before was commenting on the fact that.
Outwardly, many of us are citizens of the United States and Canada and from a natural standpoint, uh, it doesn't uh, make any difference, uh, what we are inside. I was just thinking of some questions that were put to Jonah in the first chapter of Jonah, and I believe that this portion shows us that the position and the walk go together.
In the eighth verse of the first chapter of Jonah, it says.
Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose 'cause this evil is upon us.
And there were some pointed questions that were asked.
What is my occupation?
Whence comest thou?
What is thy country?
And of what people are thou? So the walk had to be in accordance with the position, didn't it? And in this case it didn't seem to be the case. In connection with Jonah, we often sing the lines of that hymn called from above. And heavenly men by birth, who once were but the citizens of earth. As pilgrims. Here we seek a heavenly home, our portion.
In the ages to come. So that has to agree, doesn't it?
The walk comes in very prominently here, doesn't it?
The Apostle.
He tells us what we possess in Christ, a divine nature.
And we have a full revelation of God. No longer is it, uh, hidden, uh, Christ has, is the full manifestation of the very nature and character of God. And we possess that life, that divine life, that eternal life now in Christianity is the life of Christ. So we can't excuse ourselves as not having the capacity.
Because we do have uh.
The divine nature and we also have the knowledge of God revealed in Christ and uh.
Expounded to us in the Word of God in the scriptures so we don't have an excuse for failure.
But we should have an exercise to manifest these beautiful qualities, which were, of course, fully exhibited in all their splendor, uh, come fullness in the person of Christ. But we do have that nature, brethren, and that's the abundant entrance, I think that we have in the 11Th verse. It's often referred to, uh, in relation to the end of the pathway.
And one has no objection to that. But doesn't God want us now to have that abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior? Something for the present pathway, something in our lives down here.
It's beautiful in that second verse, John, that the knowledge of God is mentioned. I've enjoyed it.
00:35:03
There's two mathematical terms that you have in this chapter. One is in verse, two is multiplication and in verse.
Five, it's addition.
Multiplication is what God does for us.
Addition is what we are to do and our responsibility.
But how do we get grace and peace multiplied? It's through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
And that's what Christianity really is.
It's the knowledge of God we have been brought to know God. Tremendous blessing.
In the Old Testament times there was a knowledge of God, but we can say partial, but it's when the Lord Jesus came.
As the sun into this world that we have.
The complete revelation of all that God is.
And now, in the measure that we get to know him more, brethren, the focus is on our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sometimes like to think of it in Judaism the focus was more on what man was.
Could he perform?
Could he do those commandments that were given in the law?
And man was manifested to be a complete failure.
Now in this present age, God has turned around and he said I'm not going to deal with what man is any longer. Now I want to show you who I am and we have the complete revelation of all that God is in the person of the Lord Jesus. Think of it when man did his worst in nailing the Son of God to that Christ.
God takes that awful crime.
In human history and turns around and says now this is what I'm going to use to bring blessing in calculated blessing that you cannot fully comprehend. And he opens his heart. He shows who he is. Yes, God is righteous and from the darkness of those three hours of darkness of Calvary we see as in no other point of time.
The truth that God is light and God is love. Tremendous to think about it, but in the measure that you and I get to know more who our God is, brethren, it's not who we are, brethren. The more you start looking at brethren, the more you're going to see failure. It's turning around to see and to understand who our God is. Who is he, What is he like? And in the person of the Lord Jesus, we see the full.
Revelation of who God is, and the more you get to know that, the more grace.
And peace will be multiplied to you. Do you ever need of more grace in your life?
You feel the lack of peace. Get to know your God better and you will find grace and peace multiplied. Notice how he mentions further down in the chapter the knowledge of God as well. Notice in verse 3.
According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain into life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us by glory and virtue. Then in verse 8, These things be in you and abound. They make you, that ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The end of this second epistle, the very last verse, is grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Oh, may the Lord give us a desire to know Him better.
That was the desire of the Apostle Paul, that I may know him, Brethren, every.
00:40:02
Little bit of knowledge of him.
Awakens a desire to know him even more.
This is why grace comes before peace, does it not? I'm not aware that any other epistle we have the order reversed.
I believe in order to enjoy peace with God and the peace of God.
We first of all have to appreciate His grace.
Which is God showing favor to us who deserve nothing but judgment.
But you know, God, in his grace he shows the very best to the very worst. That's what's taking place now. Under the law, there was no peace.
Because, of course, the law looked for some good in math.
And it wasn't there. A man strives to attain God's holiness through his own effort.
Absolutely futile and no peace in that whatsoever. But if we enjoy in our souls the fact that we're saved by grace, it brings in before us the sacrifice of Calvary that he was delivered. Lord Jesus, God's Son was sent. He was delivered.
For our offenses, but raised again for our justification, therefore.
Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.
And with respect to our circumstances, sometimes we seem to trust God to deal with our sins, but we seem to be upset about the difficulties that come into our lives as though He's not.
Able to deal with those as well. But you know, the fact is, as we contemplate His favor toward us, we realize that God is for us and that whatever the difficulty is that He allows, it's designed for our good.
All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
Of course, in four.
We do have.
That which I believe is required in to enjoy the peace of God, and that is that there be prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving.
So I speak to myself, if I find that I'm uptight about my situation, well, has there been that prayer, supplication and Thanksgiving connected with it? Because.
You know God has showered us with.
Blessings untold infinitely.
And we always have so much to give and thanks for. But where there's prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, I believe the peace of God comes in and keeps our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. This is what we need today, but it's all a result of this grace.
I suggest that's why grace dispersed and then peace.
We live in a culture today where it's sometimes we use the word humanistic.
It's centered on man.
And right over here, there's a Burger King.
And it says have it your way.
You can do it the way you want to get it. You know, young people, it's this tremendous challenge. I, I find a lot of young people not happy in their Christian lives.
And I really believe it's because we've come under the influence of the culture we're passing through and we're introverted. We're looking at ourselves. And I have to confess, too, that I went through a time when I was very unhappy as a Christian. And I, I remember when the Lord brought it to my attention that I was just looking at it myself. Even as a Christian, you can do that. That's not Christianity.
Christianity is to turn around.
And to get to know who God is. Oh, what a wonderful thing it is to leave what we are behind and to be occupied with who our God is. That's what Christianity is. That's what will multiply grace and peace in your lives. So how important it is, this knowledge of God. Verse 3. John has been speaking about it too. His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain into life and godliness.
00:45:13
Like you say Wally, we get up tight at times.
Why do we get uptight? Because we thought we were in control of things, and things are not under control like we want them to be, so we get up tight. Yeah, that happens to us all. I don't think anybody can claim exemption from that. But if we can step back and realize that God is for us in every single circumstance of life that He allows, He has something to teach us, and it's an opportunity.
Somebody has said difficulties are a platform upon which we display the sufficiency of our God in every situation. I like that. May the Lord help us, brethren.
He's supplied us all things that pertain into life and godliness. He has not left us here in this world to fend for ourselves.
No, He supplied us not only with that divine nature.
But He has given us all things that pertain unto light.
Wonderful.
Another place we read.
Knowledge. Puff it up.
And this world is full of knowledge, and the rate at which knowledge is increasing is phenomenal.
And.
Man is greatly puffed up by the knowledge that he has been able to acquire and is acquiring.
Not recognizing that the very capacity to to gain it comes from God in the way he's been made. But nonetheless he takes great pride in what he knows.
And naturally speaking, if we're talking about what we are in Adam, so do we. Our knowledge puffs this up. And it's important in light of that to see what's said here about the knowledge of God, because it's not that kind of knowledge.
It is not a knowledge which puffs down. The knowledge which puffs up is connects itself with an learning of facts and information. And we can be puffed up by that. We can say I know this fact and I know that fact and I know this doctrine. And we can have a lot of religious or spiritual knowledge and find ourselves when we think of what we know more than someone else.
Be quite puffed up about it, but the true knowledge of God cannot be known apart from having received the divine nature. If I picked up in my hand this morning an Ant, and I put this Ant in my hand, and I look at it and it looks at me, the Ant is no doubt conscious of me and my existence.
But it does not know me. It is incapable of knowing me because it does not have a life. It does not have a nature with a capacity to know me.
But our God has chosen in His counsels of a past eternity, that He would have us as creatures before Him who have that capacity to know Him.
To have the knowledge of himself and consequently he has worked.
Righteously, as we have in verse one, through faith as we have in verse one.
To make us capable by new birth, of having a life in which we may know God.
That how God thinks, how God feels, what is holy to God, becomes in us the same, because we have obtained that same character of life in Christ.
That we may know God and the consequence of it is in US is.
Human knowledge puffs up, but the true knowledge of God humbles. You can't have the true knowledge of God and find any pride in His presence. Job is an example of it. Job said after his trial or at the end of his trial. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear.
00:50:15
You might say Job knew about God, but he didn't know at that point he was learning a lesson.
That would bring him into the true knowledge of God. And he says, But now mine seeth thee.
And what was the consequence in him? Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. And that is the true knowledge of God. And so we have it perfectly in this chapter, brought out before us. The true knowledge of God is perfectly expressed in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God is God, we see, not we. He exists beyond time and space and created things and so on. But in order that we might know Him and have the knowledge of Himself, He has done it in a way that gives us the the capacity to know Him, because God has manifested himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when we see him, we see God in man. And so the Lord here in John's gospel, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And the nature of God is perfectly expressed in manhood in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we put our eyes on the Lord Jesus, when we, as the verse says, see no man save Jesus only.
We are gaining the true knowledge of God by the occupation with that perfect revelation of Himself.
And I might say, to reveal what God is to us.
Reveals to us what we are, what we are in the flesh, and that makes us say I don't want that and turn away from ourselves because goodness resides good in its essence, resides in God alone, not in a creature. And So what we are is the reflection of what God is in us in our new nature, we'll never be good.
Independent of God.
We're only good as what God is in US.
The 17th chapter of Acts we see the Apostle Paul in Athens, which was the center, perhaps of the apex of human learning.
He's found there at Mars Hill, and he encounters the philosophers there, the Epicureans and the Stoics, all having their reputations and.
In verse 21 it says for all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new things.
And the apostle Paul.
Takes the opportunity to reveal.
The true God to them.
In the midst of all of the human learning. And so in verse 22 it says, Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as he passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship him.
Require I unto you. And so the first thing that he reveals unto them is the fact that God was the one that gave each one breath.
God was the Creator, and so the Apostle Paul takes that opportunity to reveal who that unknown God was. And we are living, as has been mentioned today, in a culture where there is little knowledge as to who God is and what He has done and what has been accomplished for each one of us. So may we have the boldness to declare that.
To those roundabouts, just as the Apostle Paul has done on in this particular case.
00:55:02
I'd like to suggest that in the first couple of verses that perhaps the thought more is connected to, uh, our salvation and what God has done for us in Christ and the cross, and then in the 3rd and the 4th verse and onward.
It is how to live in the enjoyment of these things, and above the world around us. Notice how it says in the third verse and the 4th that it says, According to his divine power, hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us by glory and virtue. I was thinking about the children of Israel.
When they first went into the wilderness, that the Lord gave them manna, which was food from heaven, which was Christ, which was to sustain them in their wilderness path, to give them the energy to go on. And so it says here that in order to live this.
Christian life, the power that is needed for it.
It speaks of through the knowledge of Him and one finds in my own life.
That if I don't stay close to the Lord through the reading of the word of God.
And, and, uh, umm, you know, to get from that word a portion for my soul for the day that, umm, when, when uh, the interacting of things in the world, uh, take place, they affect me as to how I go on. And so, uh, to me, it is a game. It's like the mana. And it seems to me that Peter is bringing before them here.
That it is the through the knowledge of him and how do we get it? Is it not in this blessed book? It's wonderful to know Christ as our circumstances as our Savior, but to arrive to rise above the things in this world is constant communion with him. I wonder if that is what we have, uh, brought before us because he goes on in the fourth verse to say by the she might be partakers.
Of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
The partakers of the divine nature is really the manifestation down here of that divine nature.
And we are exhorted here to, uh, use diligence, giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue and so on. Moral courage and the glory to which we are called should motivate us and, uh, energize us. We think of the glory that is before the child of God. Umm, it should give us that moral courage to press on.
The little while that might remain to us and another thing I was thinking of, brethren, is the need for self judgment because we all.
Know that there is that old nature militating against us continually, uh, seeking to, uh, draw us back into the world and our old sins. We need that constant diligence to, uh, keep the old nature in the place of death where God has put it. God doesn't even try to improve it. And none of these, uh.
Beautiful qualities can come from the old nature. It's impossible. But we do have that capacity and we have the.
We have the provision that God has made to us, as our brother mentioned in the precious revelation that we we have in our hands.
This book is full of exceeding great and precious promises.
Oh brethren, like Brother Dave was mentioning how important to be reading the Scriptures. God means us to take His Word seriously. It is the living and abiding Word of God. There is nothing, no publication up to date as this book in today's world to read it to lay hold of those.
01:00:06
Exceeding.
Great and precious promises. This book is full of them. God means this to to lay hold of them, and it says that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature. In other words, live in the enjoyment of it, that life that we have in Christ, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
But then John was mentioning verse five and we want to get on a bit more, says beside this giving all diligence.
What's that mean?
It means that we need to put it on the priority list.
All diligence.
These are important things, brethren. This world is coming down to the time when the whole world system is going to be changed. I really don't think we grasp it as we ought to.
We live in a democratic government. We're thankful for the liberty we enjoy here.
But this is going to be replaced and not too far in the future.
Are we ready for this? Are we giving diligence?
In our Christian lives to these things.
Or are we just?
If we have time, we read the word. If we don't have time, well, it'll have to be another day. Brethren, we need to be diligent. He mentions it in verse 10 as well. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence.
Let's be serious in our profession of Christianity.
Let's let God's Word mandate in our souls.
Not so much a matter of our human wills, it's a matter of obedience to him and his Kingdom. So the more we read, the more we obey, there's going to be the proper Christian attitudes in our lives. So we are to give diligence to add now.
And to the faith that we profess.
In verse one, it's called precious faith. But now here in verse five, he says add to your faith. And there are 7 qualities that are mentioned in this list that we are to give diligence to add to our faith.
The first is.
Virtue.
Moral courage.
Don't just talk about having faith.
Let it be evident in your life.
James says faith without works is dead. If you say you have faith, let it be evident. Don't just talk about it. Let it be evident in your life, the way you live.
And so on.
In this list.
Nice to think of this coming from Peter.
We all know what Peter was like. You made a lot of blunders, didn't he? And, and he, uh, he hadn't found out, uh, what it was to have an object outside of himself, to look at the knowledge of God that he's writing about here. Peter was Peter. Peter looked within and he had his own, his confidence in himself.
I like to think of this.
Him writing these things here is fulfilling what the Lord told him to do after he was restored. The Lord told him, when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And that's what he's doing here. He's strengthening us. He's telling us how to walk on water.
Peter walked on water for a while, and then he got his eye off the Lord. What was that? He forgot faith.
He looked on the waves, and then he began to sink.
So here he's telling us how to walk on water in that sense, to walk by faith.
01:05:01
He's telling us how to have moral courage.
He when that made.
Suggested that he was one of the disciples. He denied that with oaths and cursing. He did not have moral courage to stand up for his Master, his Lord.
He then converted and now he's telling us how to do it.
And so on.
Uh, isn't that wonderful that the Lord can take a Peter and write a book like this for us?
And then that virtue, that moral courage, needs to be tempered with knowledge.
There are people that speak of faith, but it's not the faith of God because it's not the faith that acts in view of the revelation that we have in the Word of God. So we need knowledge, brethren. That's why we have meetings.
To have knowledge as well, but knowledge isn't it any everything either. And so we're to add to knowledge temperance.
And to temperance patience.
But maybe you can be so patient that you've sacrificed godliness. And so, he says, add to patience godliness.
And then you can be so godly that there's no show of brotherly kindness in you.
So add to your godliness, brotherly kindness.
And a brotherly kindness. The last one is charity or love. That's the agape love. Brotherly love is the file.
Those are important distinctions in the Scriptures.
And sometimes I hear people say, well, there's no love in this place.
My brother don't show me any love.
Do you realize that the love that it speaks about here at the end of this list is a love that loves when there's nothing lovable?
So if nobody else is showing love, you better start. Don't point your finger at anybody else. You start showing love. It's a love that loves because of who God is. It's not a love that loves because who the object is. And if you realize that it really helps. Sometimes there's a brotherly love that's the mutual appreciation one of another. And there ought to be that brotherly love. In fact, it says the first verse of.
Hebrews 13 Let brotherly love continue. Yeah, there should be.
But sometimes it appears to be lacking. In that case, what are you going to do?
Add love, add that agape love, that love, that loves in spite of all that love, that loves, because God is love. Oh, how important to add these things, brethren, to our faith, to give diligence to go over these lists, this list from time to time to examine our lives. Is this true in US? We profess the faith.
But let's be evident by these characteristics.
May we sing 297.
297.
Transported with the View I've Lost and Wonder, Love and Praise 297.
Nsnoise.