The Source & Means of Grace & Peace

Transcript

GR 1955
06/05/2016
The Source and Means of Grace and Peace
II Peter 1:1, 2
Gil Rugh

As I mentioned earlier today we are going to look into Peter’s second letter. So if you would turn in your Bibles, II Peter chapter 1. We just worked through the first letter of Peter and we pick up with this second letter of Peter which would have been written evidently not too long after the first letter.

Peter’s first letter was written to Jewish believers scattered outside their homeland of Israel, the “elect sojourners of the diaspora” as he puts in it in the opening portion of that letter. This letter is written to the same group of people. He doesn’t start out that way but when you come over to chapter 3, verse 1 he says: “This is now beloved the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder.” So he indicates that it is basically the same audience receiving his second letter.

In the first letter suffering, difficulty and trials were a theme. Persecution and particularly persecution coming from the outside was a permeating emphasis through the letter; being faithful under pressure, trials, persecutions.

In this second letter he is going to deal with trials and difficulties again but particularly problems that come from within the church from within and among believers and the trials, the threat there is to the faithfulness of their testimony with false doctrine and corrupt lifestyle that was being promoted by false teachers.

If you come to chapter 2, verse 1: “But false prophets also arose among the people just as there will also be false teachers among you and they will secretly introduce destructive heresies.” So that danger from within which is a greater danger than that which comes from without. We are more armed and on guard against opposition that comes to us from the realm of unbelievers but it is unsettling to have opposition and error promoted by those who claim to be friends, to believe basically the same thing we believe, to have the same purpose as we have, the claim to desire to honor the Lord with their lives and ministry even as we do and yet their teaching and their life denies what they are saying.

This second letter has to have special interest too because it is written in the shadow of Peter’s impending death and you see again something of Peter’s character as he writes a letter like this in light of verse 14 of chapter 1: “Knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent.” He said “there is no doubt about this because the Lord Jesus Christ made it clear to me.” He expects to give his life and he wants those that are left behind to remain strong in the truth. So he writes this letter to encourage them and again, you see something of the character of Peter that you appreciate he is not bemoaning his coming death, he is not writing about the fear that overwhelms him or despair. His concern is that the truth be held onto by those who continue in ministry after the Lord sees fit to take him. Being firmly establish in the truth is essential for God’s people.

Many years ago Martin Lloyd Jones began a series on II Peter and I understand it was the first book study that he undertook. Some of you have read some of Marlin Lloyd Jones’ material and he started out in the fall of 1946 when he began that study to say “The trouble still in the church is a matter of foundations.” And he goes on to talk about in his day the idea was we need to bring the people together and have people united in a broad front with many people so that the church has a great impact through the sheer force of its number and so on. But he said, “What good will that be if the foundations are not sound?” And then he concludes: “What the Bible is concerned about is truth and in a very extraordinary manner it ridicules our pathetic faith in big battalions and great numbers.”

And we see something of that still plaguing the church with experienced evangelicals going to make their impact and bring about change if we can get the right political influence and bring believers together to vote for the right person or party or whatever and you know we need to come back and say, “You know, it’s the truth that is God’s power for salvation.” “It is not by might, nor by power,’ says the Lord. ‘But by My Spirit.’” and the Spirit works in the context of the Word of God.

Peter begins this letter in a normal way as most of the letters of the New Testament do. He introduces himself. He says who he is writing to and then he gives them a greeting. But these are not just things to pass over because remember he is writing under the inspiration of the Spirit and there is serious truth in what he says.

He begins by identifying himself in verse 1 as Simon Peter, that dual name, in fact the only letter that opens up with a dual name like that, Simon Peter but he is referred to that way in the Gospels and in the book of Acts.

Interestingly here, as you have in your margin, what we have brought into English, Simon is really Simeon in Greek and that name for Peter is only used twice. Here and in Acts chapter 15 at the Jerusalem Conference. James refers to Simeon, Simon, a form of that name.

Interestingly I saw here, a few months ago they were talking about the most popular names for new babies, boys and girls. Well the most popular name in New Testament times for a Jewish boy was Simeon so if you ever get a test on that or you want to pick up a Jewish name that was popular in Biblical times, the most popular name for a boy. I think from 100 B. C. to 100 A. D., don’t hold me on that but if I remember correctly, the name Simeon; at least as they pour through records and archeology and that is the name.

Simon Peter. We are well familiar with him. He received the names, come back to John chapter 1, just a little bit. We are not going to talk a lot. We did some of this on the introduction to I Peter, just a little reminder. In John chapter 1 you have how Peter was brought to contact with Jesus. Verse 35: “The next day John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked and he said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God.’” This is John the Baptist, the one whose responsibility, remember, was to prepare the way and introduce Him as the Messiah to the nation. Here he declares Him as the Lamb of God. The two disciples who heard him speak, they followed Jesus. They were followers of John the Baptist but when he points out that Jesus is the Lamb of God they turn to become followers of Christ. And Jesus, in verse 38: “Turned and saw them following and said to them, ‘What do you seek?’ They said to Him, ‘Rabbi,’ which translated means teacher, ‘Where are you staying?’” In other words they are interested in more contact with Him. “He said to them, ‘come and you will see.’ They came and saw where He was staying. They stayed with Him for that day. It was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him (followed Christ) was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.” “So he first found his brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah.’” And the translation of the Hebrew Messiah is the Christ, the Anointed One.

So Andrew brought his brother to Jesus, Verse 42: “Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas which is translated Peter,” both meaning a rock or a stone. So that is how Peter becomes a disciple of Jesus Christ. Evidently a believer already and a follower of John in light of his brother being identified with John but here he is connected with the ministry of Christ.

Back up to the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 4, Matthew chapter 4, verse 18: “Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen.” It is good for us to be reminded that Peter was a common man, a fisherman. We might refer to him in our day as a blue collar worker. He was a man about a job, working. Everyday get up and take the nets and go out fishing and then collect the fish and sell them in the market. In the evening he might be found mending nets and so on. He’s an ordinary working man, if you will, with his family and yet he is so mightily used of God. Different than Paul that had some of the better education of the day; was from a family line of Pharisees, a Pharisee of the Pharisees and what we might say the more upper echelon in Judaism. Both men will be used mightily of God but Peter, a man we appreciate so much and as we often observe his openness and sometimes almost a blundering into things and you can see he is an ordinary man who made his living by fishing and after the death of Christ he didn’t know what to do. He said, “I am going back to fishing” but God had other plans for him. His work would continue after Christ’s death and resurrection.

Verse 19: “He said to them, ‘follow Me, I will make you fishers of men.’” “And immediately they left their nets and followed Him.” And they go pick up two other brothers who were in the fishing business with their father, James and John, his brother. So these two families obviously would have known one another. They are in the same business, fishing on the Sea of Galilee. They become key followers of Jesus Christ. Most well-known of course, Peter and John of each of these families and used to write much of the New Testament.

Come back to II Peter. You know we wouldn’t have done it this way. We might have looked for men more like Saul who we know as Paul but God takes people and it is His power working in them that makes their lives so effective. It is a reminder to all of us. God calls us to Himself. It is so that we might be used of Him and serve Him.

So when Peter opens this letter he says, “Simon Peter, a bond-servant.” It is the first thing he says about himself. That hyphenated word we have in English, I don’t know quite why it was picked out, a bond-servant but it is just the word doulos. Doulos was a word for slave; a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ; a slave – one who lived his life under the authority of another. One whose life belonged to his master and that is how Peter saw himself.

In an earlier study we looked into John 13. It was one of our references and when Jesus was going to perform the role of a servant to Peter, Peter said, “No, You can’t do that.” That is why he saw himself as what? A slave of Jesus Christ and that is one whose life is not his own.

Back up to chapter 1 of I Peter, I Peter chapter 1, verse 17: “If you address as Father the One who impartially judged according to each man’s work conduct yourself in fear during the time of your stay on earth. Knowing you are not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers but with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” He was purchased, redeemed by Christ for Himself to belong to Christ so now he is His slave. A life devoted to Him and it is a position of honor.

In Biblical times a slave could be viewed in a position of honor depending on whose slave he was. Some slaves had positions of authority and influence and power because they served someone of great importance. That is how Peter viewed himself. His life is not his own as Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “Your life is not your own. You were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” But there is no higher honor than to be a slave of Jesus Christ, a slave of God Himself.

So back in II Peter. He first calls himself a slave. Puts himself into perspective since his life is not his own then whatever God chooses to do with him, however Christ chooses to use him, when Christ decides this will be the end of your life, it is soon Peter has a ready acceptance of that. Now recognize Peter is a family man. He is a married man. You know in the Gospels he had a wife. It would be normal, I expect he had children. The rest of his family is not developed but all of the world will come to an end. I am going to die. I am a slave of Jesus Christ. He has made known to me my life will end shortly. It is imminent. It could happen at any time. What is his concern? Finish well, be sure that I leave behind the people that are grounded in the truth and in possession of the truth.

And connected with that of being a servant, a slave, he is an apostle of Jesus Christ. And this is the particular realm that he carries out, his serving. He has been appointed an apostle. We talked about the fact that we have all been gifted by God to be members of the body of Christ of which Christ is the head. There are no extraneous parts in the body. No parts that God in His grace has added to the body that don’t have a role to perform, a ministry to carry out, something that contributes to the body being nourished and being built up to maturity in Christ.

Peter’s gift was that of an apostle, a position of honor but remember Paul said that and he wrote in the Corinthian letter that we have studied recently that the apostles might be viewed as the scum of the earth. It seems that they are appointed to the greatest suffering, the most difficulty and some of the greatest trials. Paul gives examples from his life.

Peter knows what it is to suffer. In the book of Acts are recorded the difficulties he had, the imprisonments he had here and he anticipates his imminent death which we are told was a death by crucifixion upside down if history is correct. He had the life of an apostle but he is a representative of Jesus Christ, one sent by Him and we looked through when we studied the first letter, the qualifications of an apostle. He had to have seen Christ after His resurrection from the dead. For all of them except Paul there was a requirement to have been part of Christ’s earthly ministry. Peter lays this out in Acts chapter 1when they pick a replacement for Judas.

They were entrusted with the truth of the Gospel to provide the leadership in the gathering of God’s people, the church in carrying the Gospel. Their ministry was accompanied and validated by miraculous deeds as the New Testament was brought to completion. We see that in Peter’s life in the book of Acts as well. And the apostle and prophets are the foundation for the church.

Go back to Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19: “You are no longer strangers and aliens. You are fellow-citizens with the saints, are of God’s household.” He mixes the metaphors here a little bit. God’s household, God’s family and then he talks about it like a building. “Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together, growing into a holy temple and you are being built together into a dwelling of the Holy Spirit;” so these pictures of God’s family, of a body, of a building, of a temple all picturing the same thing. All the parts brought together. The foundation is the apostles and prophets meaning the truth revealed through them. Talk about New Testament prophets here in the context of their ministry with apostles. They were those who received new revelation in addition to the revelation that had been given throughout the Old Testament. You have to be aware of that. That is the foundation and Christ is the cornerstone. These things have been set.

Reminds you there are movements today where supposedly the gift of apostleship has been revived in the church. People think the gift of prophecy is present. Then if that is true then there is new revelation and that becomes a serious issue. We ought to understand there is no new revelation. We have all that God intends for us to have. We are building on that. This is the foundation that God has given us, His completed Word. And so Peter is part of that.

Come back to II Peter. Over in chapter 3 of II Peter he will refer to those false teachers who are infiltrating among believers who in the last part of verse 16 of chapter 3 of II Peter which the untaught and the unstable distort as they do the rest of Scripture. They distort Paul’s writings. They distort the rest of Scripture to their own destruction. That is what Peter is dealing with but the truth of God’s is clear. We have something objective, unchanging. It is sure. “Heaven and earth will pass away. My Word will not pass away,” Jesus said. Every jot, every tittle has to be fulfilled.

So we have a sure Word, an unchanging Word. Peter is one of the spokesmen for that. This common ordinary fisherman on the Sea of Galilee with evidently no particular formal training to be a professor, a teacher, someone whom you would have gone to, to be taught on an intellectual level. This is why some unbelievers question the authenticity of Peter’s letter. They say the Greek is too good a quality to have been written by just a fisherman but God does remarkable things. Since it is inspired if it says it was written by Peter, I take it that yes, he was a fisherman who had learned a good language. Just like there have been some good people who are pretty good with language and have learned some things even though they had not done a lot of formal schooling for it. Regardless here is the man so used of God.

So he is writing. That is who is writing, Peter, the fisherman but the fisherman who was called out of the fishing business to be a fisher of men, slave of Jesus Christ and apostle of Jesus Christ. He is writing to those who have “received the faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” So these are the recipients and we noted that these are the same individuals evidently that he wrote the first letter to since as we noted in chapter 3, verse 1, he said this is his second letter to those “believing Jews outside the land of Israel.”

“They have received a faith of the same kind as ours,” of the same kind.” You have in the margin, of the same value. It is word that carries the context of honor, of a like honor as ours. Their faith, these are true believers as he said in his first letter. They are elect, chosen, sojourners of the diaspora, those that God who by His grace in I Peter chapter 1, verse 3: “Has caused to be born again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” They have a faith that is of like value, like honor as other believers do. There are not different kinds of saving faith. There is saving faith and the value and honor or one person’s faith in Christ that has brought them salvation is of the same kind, if you will. That is why we have it translated in our version “Of the same kind.” It is the same value, the same honor. It is saving faith. It is work of God, our salvation from beginning to end as he said as he opened his first letter. “You have been elect. You have been chosen of God who caused you to be born again.” That is His sovereign work. So it is from beginning to end.

He is writing to believers and their faith is in the truth that Peter has been entrusted with proclaiming. Remember when he went to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile in Acts chapter 10? You can go there and you can read the Gospel he shared with them in an abbreviated form, something of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We call that the faith. That is what we believe. If your faith is in anything else then it is not a faith of the same value and honor.

Everybody has faith. Some people believe in their church. Some people believe in the sacraments. Some people believe in their good works. Some people have faith in their faith, whatever that means but saving faith is in the truth that God has revealed and Peter will bring this out in this letter as well as he did the first. That is what brings salvation. It is that message that is proclaimed.

Come back to I Peter chapter 1. I don’t like to take these things for granted. Verse 22 of I Peter 1: “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls.” Verse 23: “For you have been born again. Not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable. That is through the living and enduring Word of God.” So their faith is in the faith as we often talk about it.

There is great similarity between 2nd Peter. Not only in chapter 2 but in the letter overall with the letter of Jude and Jude began by saying “we need to earnestly contend for the faith.” Our faith is in the faith. Faith is that body of truth typically concerning Jesus Christ, we call the Gospel and our faith is in that and faith in the truth.

So the purifying of souls comes from being born again by the living and enduring Word of God. “For the Gospel was the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” as Paul wrote to the Romans in chapter 1. And then he comes down, verse 24 and 25, the transitory things. “All flesh is like grass. It’s glory like the flower of grass. As the grass withers the flower falls off. The Word of the Lord endures forever.” What did Peter say? “This was the Word which was preached to you.” So reminding them of their faith in the Word of God, that body of truth that must be believed if you are to be born again. It cannot be one of the things that you believe. I made reference to the signs you see around in your yards. We have seen them in different places in the country. Jesus, I believe in You. But if that is just one of the things you are trusting you don’t have saving faith.

So this is the danger and this is the kind of corruption Peter has to deal with. This is the kind of danger that the Jews struggled with when dealing with fellow Jews who said “We also believe in Jesus but you must also believe in the Mosaic Law and keep it and be circumcised” and so on. Well, that is not saving faith but it becomes confusing.

So here at the beginning he says, back in II Peter chapter 1: “You have received a faith, the same value, it is a faith, the same honor. It is a saving faith like ours. The faith that saved me saved you.” It comes in the context, “By the righteousness of our God and Savior.” That whole expression “By a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” The righteousness that was provided in Jesus Christ that is saving faith. That righteousness that transforms a life, which provides righteousness in Christ and transforms us so that our lives are characterized by righteousness which becomes an issue and Peter here as well, the godliness of the life. This righteousness, a righteousness we have judicially and practically in Christ.

The false teachers have corrupted it all and he will get into this more in detail as we move into chapter 2 and into chapter 3 and those who are corrupting the Word of God, twisting the Word of God and it results in their own destruction.

“It is the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” This is one of the great statements in the New Testament along with a number of others about the deity of Jesus Christ. There has been much written on the Greek structure here of this passage. “It is the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ” and you have that one article with the two nouns here, God and Savior connected by that word and which is Greek is the Greek word kai. “Our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” The word refers to the same person. Here is clearly declares that our God is the One who is our Savior, He is Jesus Christ. The deity of Christ is clearly set forth here. He is our God and Savior.

So this will come under attack. You come to chapter 2. The false prophets arose among the people. “There will be false prophets, teachers among you. They will introduce destructive heresies even denying the Master who bought them.” They will deny Jesus Christ. He is God in the flesh. He is not all there is to God. He is completely God Himself but so is the Father. So is the Holy Spirit; the three distinct persons forming the triune God. Jesus Christ was nothing less than God. He did not become less than God when He was born at Bethlehem. That is why Colossians tells us “All the fullness of deity dwells in Him in bodily form,” because the characteristic of God is eternality. He could never be less than God but He added to His deity humanity so that He was fully God and fully man. The depths and mystery of that I don’t know that we will ever understand through all eternity. We will understand a lot more of it than we do now but you know God is infinite. We will never exhaust the knowledge of Him. For us in our created state we always think of things having a beginning and an end and to think that God is so vast. I will always be a created thing, even in eternity. I will never have to confront death. An end of my existence but I will never transition from being a created being to being God like some of the heresies of some of the cults and I will never know everything there is to know about the infinite God.

Now if you want something to give you a headache. Set a bottle of aspirin out and start thinking about that. In a hundred, billion, trillion, whatever you want to add to it years, there will still be more to know about God; endlessly. You know pretty soon, I think I will take a nap. There is just no way to grasp that.

“Jesus, He is our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” That does not mean that God the Father is not God and God the Holy Spirit is not God.” I realize this is truth we all agree to but we have to make reference to keep the persons distinct. Yet there is only one true God.

There are other passages. We don’t have time to go through those but one or two. John’s Gospel, chapter 1 is perhaps the most familiar to us. In John’s Gospel we are told: “In the beginning was the Word.” We could translate this, “In the beginning the Word already was.” When you get to the beginning the Word, which is a title for Jesus Christ in this context already was in existence because He brought the beginning into existence because God has no beginning but all things were brought into existence through Him. “The Word was with God, the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” He was God, He was with God because there are distinct persons in the Godhead but He Himself was fully God and “all things came into being through Him.” That is why I said there was no beginning before Him but He precedes the beginning because He brought the beginning into existence.

For us Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created it.” Well Jesus Christ was there because He was involved in bringing that beginning into existence and the Father, the Spirit always work in complete harmony together.

A passage like that, turn over to Titus chapter 2 and that makes a great study for you sometime on the deity of Christ and the passages. For those of you who have studied Greek, Mary Harris has a great book out examining the various passages on the deity of Christ, examining the Greek structure of each of these and well worth your having if you have taken some Greek.

In Titus chapter 2, verse 13: “Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.” Again, He is called our great God. He is. He is our God, He is our Savior and that is why He can be our Savior and this ties.

There are many other passages but come back to the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 43. In the Old Testament sometimes it is difficult to distinguish the persons. By that I mean you are not sure it is talking about God the Father or God the Son in a passage because when you just refer to God it could refer to the Father, the Son, not as normally the Holy Spirit although He is fully God. Isaiah chapter 43. This whole issue of being the Savior, chapter 43, verse 11. The end of verse 10: “Before Me there was no god formed, there will be none after Me.” He is the eternal God. Nothing precedes Him, nothing follows Him. “I, even I am the Lord and there is no Savior besides Me.” There can be no savior but God.

Over in chapter 45 of Isaiah down to the end of verse 21 and “There is no other god besides Me. A righteous God and a Savior. There is none except Me.” He is the only God. He is the only Savior. “Turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is no other.” There has never been any other way of salvation, place of salvation, Person of salvation but the eternal God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He alone is God. He is alone the One who can save and the ultimate provision of that salvation was when God, the second person of the triune God took to Himself humanity with His birth at Bethlehem so that as the representative of humanity He could take our place. “He is the propitiation for the sins of the world,” I John 2 says, that provision that God made for all humanity. That centers in the person of Christ. The Father is part of that salvation obviously as is the Holy Spirit and each carry out their particular roles.

Come back to II Peter, the beginning verses here; a number of other verses. Peter will emphasize Christ as Savior through this epistle. We don’t want to take time to count here how many times he refers to, one, two, three, four times and refers in each chapter, He is the Savior, He is the Savior. That is true. There is only One God. There is no other God. He is the only Savior and in Him is found salvation.

The clarity of how that would be carried out comes with the coming of Christ and the realization that God becomes a man. That was anticipated in the Old Testament but the clarity of that does not come until He actually comes and carries it out, “The righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

His desire for them, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you.” Now he is writing to those who are God’s elect since we have the same group as we had in chapter 1, those who were born again by the power of God. And as the first letter talked about, those who have a faith as this letter just referred to of the same honor, the same value, the same kind as we have it that saving faith. This is all connected to the righteousness God has provided in our Savior, Jesus Christ. I want that grace that brought that salvation, that peace to be multiplied to you.

You know grace is not something you just get at that time when we trust Christ as we talked about. This is the beginning of a life. Peter’s desire - that enabling grace will be overflowing in their lives which means that their service for Christ will be of greater effectiveness. Their lives will manifest in a fuller and greater way the power of God transforming them; that they would experience His peace. Their trials, their conflicts that they are going through that are yet before them. Peter realizes he is going to face death shortly but God can bring a peace to a heart.

You know, what is the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace. You know I visit with troubled people. I often want to begin here, your relationship with Christ. You know if you are struggling to find peace it doesn’t mean there aren’t unsettling things that come into our lives as God’s children. But if we are really His children one of the things that we want to learn is what? To trust Him more, to draw more upon that grace. I can be honest with Him. “You know Lord, my heart is troubled and yet You provide peace for Me and it is Your grace that brings that peace to my heart and mind and the situation I am in, the problem I am facing, the pressure that I experience doesn’t mean I can’t have Your peace.” That is part of how we grow.

So he wants that to be multiplied to them. But Peter goes through this. He knows what it is like. He is crumbled under the pressure when he denied the Lord three times. That wasn’t the only time that he stumbled. Paul wrote to the Galatians in Galatians 2 and said, “I had to rebuke Peter for what, being afraid of what the Jewish believers from Jerusalem would think about a meeting with Gentiles so he stumbled. And when those Jews from Jerusalem came he just quit eating with Gentiles.” Why did he do that? He was afraid. He was afraid of what they would think, of what they would say. I mean Peter knows what he is writing about. “I want God’s grace to be multiplied in your life, His peace to be multiplied to you.” And that comes in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord and you can’t take God and Jesus our Lord here again grammatically to refer to the same person. It could in this context refer to God the Father and Jesus Christ since again they are joined together in the work and sometimes the distinctness of the person is clear, the persons in the Godhead; sometimes just coming from God because there is only one God; sometimes it is clear it is from God the Father, it’s from God the Spirit.

This knowledge, that word ‘knowledge’ is the key word in the book of II Peter and somewhere I wrote it down, yes. Different words for knowledge are used 16 times in these three chapters. An average of five times he talks about knowledge, knowledge, knowledge. “This grace and peace are multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.”

You know ignorance of the truth is something that causes believers trouble. Now the unbeliever is in trouble his whole life and he has no true knowledge but believers, we get in trouble. Remember earlier today we looked into Ephesians and we are to be growing and maturing in the Word of God so that we are not like children blown about here, easily unsettled, easily made fearful. We outgrow some of those fears. You know often children go through a phase where they would like a light at night. You know, I don’t want my room to be completely dark. Would you look under my bed? Well, what do you think got under the bed last night? All of us experience fear of one kind or another. We outgrow those things, some of those things we hope with the passing of time.

You need the knowledge. We are grounded so that we are not blown over here. We are not unsettled here. Sometimes as a pastor one of the most frustrating things is in certain situations you know you think is anybody learning anything? I was dealing with someone a number of years ago who had a strong well-known ministry who said, “Gil, I am not accomplishing anything. I would just like to quit.” He said, “You know, I teach people for years and years. Something comes up and it is like they never heard a thing. Sometimes I think nothing is happening.” We want to be careful we are grounded in the Word. We know it so well it is like our second nature. You know they tell you to do things repetitively so it just becomes the natural thing to do. You automatically so to speak respond. It is so ingrained in you.

That is what we want with the Word of God when immediately something comes up, the Word of God. That is why it is good to memorize the Word of God, have it saturating our lives because the first thing comes to my mind in this situation, here’s what God said. I grab on to that. Sort of like the Psalmist. You know if Your Word had not been my counselor I would have perished. That is the way we have to come to it.

So grace and peace are multiplied to us in our knowledge of God and Christ Jesus and we have never grown enough in that knowledge. He is the inexhaustible God. The better I know Him the better I know the salvation provided in Christ. The more that fills my life and saturates me the more peace, joy and stability I have in every situation. That is a blessing. We are not just knowing and patterns can come as we have been believers a long time. Well you know, I have studied the Word a long time. But do I know it as though I could have exhausted my knowledge of God? You know what happens? And you are all here Sunday night. You who are here are more committed in many ways. The more you study the Word, the more you are into it. I confess sometimes I feel like I am going backwards.

When I began my pastorate I puzzled over what will I do when I have taught them all the Word of God? Idiot. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. And you know what happens? The more I study a book I say, “You know, we ought to go back through this because there is so much that was left out.” And then I add to that with this mind I have, this brain, stuff keeps falling out. I will go back to portions of the Word of God and say, “Wait a minute. I forgot that was there.” Wow, you know, I am not only struggling to keep learning more I am trying to keep struggling to not forget what I already learned and that is the process that goes on and that is why it concerns me as the church of Jesus Christ becomes less interested in serious grappling with the Word, less time in the Word, beginning shorter, lighter sermons but less time. Well how will we grow? We become more susceptible to being maneuvered around, blown around, confused, then we develop more problems. I just don’t have peace. I don’t know what to do and I don’t have the joy and then you know it is just like all of a sudden life starts spinning.

Some of you have problems like I have with Ménière's and you know sometimes if I am not careful things just start to move. I don’t even like to talk about it because then it starts to seem to move but you know then if you don’t get that solved it is moving more and more and more and more and all of a sudden it crosses a line where you know I can’t stop it. That is what happens spiritually. You know it is like we get unsettled and the more unsettled I get the more unsettled I get. That is where I have to have the anchor to be grounded.

This is what Peter says he is writing about. “So that when I am gone you will be holding on the truths still. This is truth that God has given you.” He says, “I know I am not telling you anything new but until my life is over I will keep telling you what I told you” just like you keep reminding your kids and they say, “I know, I know.” “I know you know but you listen again.” Why, because you know they will walk out the door and what, forget or get distracted.

We are God’s spiritual children. He wants us to be grounded for our benefit. Don’t you want your peace to be multiplied? Don’t you want the grace that He gives to be abundant in your life? Well, it is in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. Well, I know Him. I have trusted Him but the more we know Him the better it gets. He says, “Our Lord Jesus Christ.” And just note. We will see this as we move along. This title, “the Lord” is used 14 times in this short letter. So he talks about knowledge 16 times, uses the various words. He talks about the word Lord, kurios, 14 times and the word despot, one time. We talk about the Lord and knowing Him. This is what it is all about and then we grow. We have a peace that stands guard at our hearts and minds. We have the abundance of God’s grace that is sufficient for us in every circumstance, every situation. We are not unsettled in the world around us. We are not distracted and confused and turned aside by the error that would infiltrate among us because we are growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your love for us. That love that provided salvation in Jesus Christ, that love that was bestowed upon us freely because You had paid the price that was required for our redemption. Lord, it is the salvation that grows. It is complete and yet it is not finished. It is growing, we are growing, we are maturing. You, by Your grace are using Your truth to nourish us. Lord we would be hungry like new born babes longing for the pure milk of Your Word to grow. What a privilege it is to learn more of You, to come and understand and appreciate in a deeper, fuller way the person and work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Lord we desire individually and as a church to be a testimony of our grace and Lord to experience the sufficiency of that grace and your provision for us in every situation and circumstance You choose to bring into our lives. We commit the week before us to You. Lord what a privilege to look forward to each day and know that You have set before us the path that we are to walk and honor You. Use us to bring glory to Yourself we pray in Christ’s name, amen.