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, 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.
But those who are not hungry for the word of God, but are looking for entertainment and recreation, more than likely will find a church that offers them what they are hungry for. The preaching and teaching of God’s Word attracts people who are hungry for His Word.
Illus: One of the best ways to keep the church filled with sincere Christians, is to preach the Word of God, because, only those who are hungry will stay. Those who are not hungry for the Word cannot get out fast enough.
God instructed Peter, saying, “feed my sheep.” In 1 Peter he fed us some delicious spiritual food that will cause us all to grow in the Lord. But now we have come to 2 Peter for some more. 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. Look at verses 1-2. “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,”
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... "
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?
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.” 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.
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.”
Peter depicts those he is writing to as having once been in the prison of sin. Look at verse 4. “…that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
Look at the word “escaped”. This is what happens when a man escapes from prison. What kind of prison were we in before we were converted? A prison of “corruption.”
And now, He wants to give those of us who have "obtained" salvation through Christ, some other gifts.
HOW DO WE OBTAIN THESE GIFTS?
Look at verse 3. "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:”
We did NOT obtain them through human power, or political power, but through DIVINE POWER. Peter is saying that salvation through Christ is the foundation of the Christian life.
We have to look at the Christian life as a building program. Before there ever is going to be a building, there has to be a foundation to build on. THE FOUNDATION IS ESSENTIAL!
Did you know that you will never hear anyone say, “My, what a gorgeous foundation!” on the most beautiful building in this town? Why? Because the foundation, (Christ), cannot be seen. In fact, if you did not build on the foundation, most people would not even know it was there.
Christ is the foundation of our Christian life, and no one can see Him unless we build our Christian life on Him, using the materials he has given us to build with.
Let us look at what we should use to build on the foundation of salvation.
I. WE NEED TO ADD TO OUR FAITH - VIRTUE
Look at verses 5-6, we read, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge. And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness.”
The first gift is the gift of building material that is called VIRTUE.
Illus: Remember the woman in Mark 5:25-30 that had the issue of blood and came to the Lord? She squeezed through that crowd, and she had the faith to believe that if she but touched the Lord’s garment she would be made whole. When she did this, the Lord turned to His disciples and said, “Who touched me?” And they were quick to tell Him that many touched Him. But he wanted them to know someone touched Him that had genuine faith, and He said that he felt “VIRTUE” leave His body.
In other words, the good from within Him flowed into her, and she was healed. This is a perfect picture of salvation. The good from within Him flowed into us. At Calvary He took our sins and we took His righteousness.
The only way we can live a virtuous life is for His righteousness to flow from Him to us.
God wants those of us who have OBTAINED SALVATION THROUGH CHRIST, to add virtue to our faith. But look what else we should add to our faith.
II. WE NEED TO ADD TO OUR FAITH - KNOWLEDGE
Look at verse 5 again. We read, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge.”
WHAT KIND OF KNOWLEDGE? The knowledge of knowing Him.
Illus: Every pastor knows the joy of conducting a wedding ceremony. What makes the ceremony special is that two people who had been going in separate directions, crossed paths, and they have never been the same since.
If we humans can have that effect upon each other, how much more will we be effected when we come to know the Lord Jesus?
There are three life-changing experiences:
(1) Get married. You will never again be the same.
(2) Have a child. You will never again be the same.
(3) Receive Christ as your Savior. You will never again be the same.
When a person comes to know the Lord, he will never be the same! He can never go back and enjoy the pleasures of sin, because he has tasted the joy of the Lord.
Illus: Once a person receives Christ, sin makes them sick. It is like people who are slaves to cigarettes, and they go to the doctor and get a shot, and every time they take a puff of that cigarette, the smoke makes them nauseated.
When a person accepts the Lord, he will be the most miserable person on this earth, if he tries to go back to the sins that the Lord have saved him from. He is now a new creature in Christ, and that new creature does not love what the old creature loved.
One of the first gifts that God wants to give us after salvation is THE GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE, WHERE WE COME TO KNOW HIM.
Illus: When a baby is born into this world, it has much to learn. The very first lesson is for them to learn something about the ones who made it possible for them to be here, DAD and MOM. Most of the time, the very first words that come out of their mouth is "Da-Da!" and “Ma-Ma"!
When we come to Him though salvation in Christ, He wants to give us the gift of KNOWLEDGE SO THAT WE CAN COME TO KNOW HIM! But He wants to give us another gift to build on.
III. WE NEED TO ADD TO OUR FAITH - TEMPERANCE
Look at verse 5, we read, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge. And to knowledge temperance;”
The definition of "temperance " involves two things.
1. MODERATION
2. ABSTINENCE
There are some things we abstain from because they are sinful, such as drugs, alcoholic beverages, pornography, and gambling. Without a doubt, these are sinful, and every Christian should stay as far as they can from these things.
But, there are some things that are not sin in themselves, but we are allowed to do them in moderation. For example: Owning a television is not a sin.
Illus: Owning a television is like possessing a gun. A gun does not kill. A gun is no more than a piece of metal. A gun has never killed anyone. It is the people who have misused guns that have killed others.
And a television is no more than a composite of wood, metal, plastic and glass. It is not sinful, but we can make it a sin:
• By watching the wrong kinds of things
• By consuming too much of our time, watching good cowboy movies, etc.
• By neglecting to spend time with the Lord because of television
We might know the Lord as our Saviour, but if all our time is spent on building our lives on golfing, fishing, hunting and watching television, the lost world will never know we are saved.
Look at Hebrews 12:1, we read, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”
Some things in our lives are not sin, but they are definitely weights that we have got to be willing to lay aside, if we are going to run this race in a way that pleases the Lord.
But look at the next thing we are to build on.
IV. WE NEED TO ADD TO OUR FAITH - PATIENCE
Look at verses 5-6. We read, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge. And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness.”
The definition of “patience” is: “self control.” Did you know that in one split second, you can lose your temper and completely destroy your Christian testimony? We who have OBTAINED salvation, are instructed to add to our faith - SELF-CONTROL.
In the Christian life, many things happen that we do not understand. When these things happen, we can do one of two things:
1. LOSE CONTROL
2. TRUST THE LORD
The lost world will never know that our lives are built on Christ if we do not have self control. The lost world will never see that our faith is built upon Christ, if we do not have SELF-CONTROL. We are to build with “PATIENCE”.
V. WE NEED TO ADD TO OUR FAITH - GODLINESS
Look at verses 5-6. We read, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge. And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness.”
Godliness is: "God like-ness." The lost world will never see that we are building our lives on Christ, unless we become God-like. The thing that makes us different from sinful man, is that through the gift of godliness we can become God-like.
We often refer to the ungodly by saying, “He/she is full of the devil!” What we mean by that is that you can see the devil so clearly in their life.
But also there are some godly people who have become so GOD-LIKE, that:
• You will never find them engaged in gossip
• You will never find them talking in unbelief
• You will never find them trying to do harm to someone
Their every action is a God-like action.
Illus: Some of the teenagers used to wear WWJD bracelets. They wore that as a reminder that as they face certain situations in life, they should ask themselves, “WHAT WOULD JESUS DO if He was facing what I am facing?”
That is a good question that we need to ask ourselves constantly. But look at the next gift the Lord wants to give us to build on-
VI. WE NEED TO ADD TO OUR FAITH - KINDNESS
Look at verse 7. We read, “And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.”
Some of the meanest people who ever lived on this earth are living around us today. We do not want to take time to talk about the evils of our society. Everyone here would concur this is an evil society. But if anything good can come out of a dark evil society, it is our kindness. Remember; light shines best in darkness.
And today, it is a wonderful thing to find that many who have built their lives on Christ, are letting their light shine for the Lord in this evil environment in which we live. But it is sad that not all who profess to be saved, are living a life of KINDNESS. What a bad testimony they are to a lost world.
If you and I are a part of the "Body of Christ", I cannot hurt you without hurting myself, and you cannot hurt me without hurting yourself. We are to build with “BROTHERLY KINDNESS.”
VII. WE NEED TO ADD TO OUR FAITH - ASSURANCE
Look what verse 8 says, “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.”
Some Christians have no assurance of their salvation. And it is easy to understand why; they do not bear the fruit a Christian is supposed to bear. I am sure that if I lived the way some Christians live, I would doubt my salvation also.
Then Peter says, "For if these thing be in you, and abound…” then you will not be “Barren nor unfruitful.” Peter says those who do not bear this fruit are like this.
Look at verse 9, "But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. "
Peter compares a Christian who is not seeking the things in these three areas as being someone who:
(1) Is “blind, and cannot see afar off.”
(2) Has “Forgotten" what God has done for him, and that they were purged from these old sins.
Peter closes by giving us two "WHEREFORES".
A. THE FIRST "WHEREFORE"
We should have proof, if we claim we are “saved." Look at verses 10-11, "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Notice these words in verse 10, "...for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.” Some, who claim to be saved, give you the impression that the Christian life is one big struggle. That is how they live day by day.
Why? Because they make a profession that they are saved, but to look at their lives, you cannot help but to wonder, “WHAT ARE THEY SAVED FROM?”
But God’s Word says that if we build on this foundation (Christ), with these things, he said, “Ye shall never fall.” Now let’s look at…
B. THE SECOND "WHEREFORE"
Look at verses 12-15, “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. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.”
Paul wanted to assure them that as long as he had breath in his body, he was going to remind them that those who know the Lord should live their Christian lives like this.
Conclusion: We need these things in our lives to build on Christ.
I. WE NEED TO ADD TO OUR FAITH - VIRTUE
II. WE NEED TO ADD TO OUR FAITH - KNOWLEDGE
III. WE NEED TO ADD TO OUR FAITH - TEMPERANCE
IV. WE NEED TO ADD TO OUR FAITH - GODLINESS
V. WE NEED TO ADD TO OUR FAITH - PATIENCE
VI. WE NEED TO ADD TO OUR FAITH - KINDNESS
VII. WE NEED TO ADD TO OUR FAITH - ASSURANCE
