Add To Your Salvation…

Many people take great delight in trying out different restaurants in town.

Sometimes you can hear folks around church saying, "Let's get together, I have found a G-R-E-A-T restaurant!”

When a RESTAURANT serves good food, at a reasonable price the customers will keep coming back for more, even if they have to travel a long distance to get there.

The same thing is true for a CHURCH. When a church preaches and teaches the Word of God, people who are hungry for God’s Word, will be there every time the doors are open, ready to partake of what God has for them to enjoy, even if they have to travel a long way to get there.

Notice I said if people are HUNGRY FOR GOD’S WORD.

But those who are not hungry for the word of God will not walk across the street to hear the the preaching of God’s Word.

The preaching and teaching of God’s Word attracts people who are hungry for His Word.

God instructed Peter “feed my sheep.”

• In 1 Peter he FEEDS GOD’S PLEOPLE some delicious neutritional spiritual food that will cause CHRISTIANS to grow in the Lord.

• But now as we come to 2 Peter we come to receive some more spiritual food.

The food that Peter has served was nothing like what some restaurants serve. For example, have you ever been hungry for a good steak, and you went to a restaurant to get one, and the steak that you ordered was so tough that you could not eat it?

Illus: This reminds us of the story of a man and his wife who went to a steak house for a good steak. The waitress brought the man his steak, and he took one look at it and licked his lips, and got his utensils ready to eat. But:

• He sawed it

• He stabbed it

• He jabbed it

• He threatened it

But still he couldn't cut it.

He called the waiter and explained to him how tough the steak was.

The waiter examined the steak, and said, "Sir, I am sorry, but I can’t take it back, you've already bent it."

As we begin reading Peter's second letter, we immediately see two things.

There are several things in these two verses that we need to consider:

(1) WE NEED TO CONSIDER WHO HE IS ADDRESSING

Look at verse 1, “...to them that have obtained... " He is writing to Christians who have obtained salvation.

Illus: Can you imagine a postman sorting out his mail for delivery, and coming to an envelope with the words, “To Them That Have Obtained" written on the front of it? He would be confused, not knowing where he should deliver such a piece of mail.

WHAT IS PETER SAYING TO THE CHRISTIANS IN 2 PETER who have obtained?

Peter is saying that this letter is not for everyone, it is “...to them that have obtained like PRECIOUS FAITH with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. "

He makes it clear that these have obtained salvation.

How?

He says, “...through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”

That is, he took our sins upon Himself on the cross of Calvary and we took His righteousness.

These who have “obtained” this precious faith through Christ are the ones he is addressing.

(2) WHAT IS HE WRITING TO THEM ABOUT?

He wants them to know that God the Father has some MORE GIFTS that He wants to bestow upon them after salvation.

You see what many christians do not know after they have obtained salvation through grace there is more gifts God give them to cause them to grow in the Lord.

We might wonder why many who attend church never grow in the Lord. That is in 20 or 30 years of attending church they have not grown in the Lord one iota!!!

This could be because:

(1) No one has taught them after they have obtained salvation there are some things they should ADD TO THEIR SALVATION. This could be why they have never growned in the Lord.

(2) Also, it could be the reason they have never gowned in the Lord is because they have never been born again.

Before you have growth you first must have a birth.

But in II Peter he is addressing those who have obtained.

We are saved by grace ALONE but after we are saved there are some things we have to add to our salvation. WE CALL THESE GIFTS GROWING IN GRACE!!!

WHAT ARE THESE GIFTS?

Look at verses 3-4. "According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”