Good day, friends.
Good day very much to our musicians that
have come to help.
They've just made many such good works, even
after a little.
We also have some playgrounds and plants.
The plants are here.
And they probably will help us last night.
Others will be playing.
And also those who have come that will
be bringing you a special, special few.
At this time, we'd like to ask Mr.
Martin Greenfield, Mr. Thornton G.
from Durham, to give us a special number
that I know is right on top.
♪ ♪ All is the
gift of thy peace, ♪ Peace in the
reigning within.
♪ This I give thee, ♪ For God's
sake's sake, ♪ Let me know happy I've
been.
♪ I'm glad we meet thee, ♪ Good
morning, good morning, ♪ Good morning, good
morning, ♪ I'm glad we meet thee, ♪
Good morning,
good morning, ♪
Good morning, good morning, ♪ I'm
glad we meet thee, ♪ Good morning,
good morning, ♪
I'm glad we meet thee.
Thank you very much.
Now we're gonna stand and sing just before
our message number nine.
Number 9-0.
I've been hearing a lot of folks talking
about this.
Well, let's sing about it.
Let's be right.
♪ ♪ May
my Father love me, my God, ♪ And
bless my family and my children young, ♪
Be gracious, Father, and praise the Father, ♪
May my Father love me, my God, ♪
May, may, I give to Christ
my gift of love, ♪ May, may,
I give to Christ my gift of love,
♪ May my Father love me, my God,
♪ And bless my family and my children
young, ♪ May my Father love me, my
God, ♪ And bless my family and my
children young, ♪ May, may, I give
to Christ my gift of love, ♪ May
my Father love me, my God, ♪
May my
Father love me, my God, ♪ And bless
my family and my children young, ♪ May
my Father love me, my God, ♪ And
bless my family and my children young, ♪
May my Father love me, my God, ♪
And bless my family and my children young,
♪ May my Father love me, my God,
♪ And bless my family and my children
young, ♪ May my Father love me, my
God, ♪ And bless my family and my
children young, ♪ May my Father love me,
my God, And
I think that most of you have received
a copy of the outline.
If you haven't, perhaps as you raise your
hand, one will be passed to you.
For anyone who didn't receive a copy, they
are a very efficient job by the ushers.
This second epistle of Peter has to do
with Paul's teachers in the last days.
Peter's first epistle has to do with suffering
with and for a well-known Christ.
But now his second epistle comes to the
fact that during the latter days, a great
onslaught would be made against the truth of
God.
We've held onslaught against the truth.
This country has seen it.
Robert Ingersoll, the avowed infidel who went slashing
against the Christian faith.
But Peter is dealing with something different.
He's dealing with men who would arise within
the professing church and seek to undermine it
while still taking their place within.
And he saw their attack as taking neat
forms.
At least as you read this epistle, you
find that it is rather a three-pronged
attack.
First of all, it's a face-to-face
attack on the inspiration of the Word of
God.
And we expect to be speaking at some
length on that subject as we come to
it.
But just to remind you as to how
timely the epistle is, there's a seminary in
the eastern part of this country that for
thousands of years has always been noted for
being true to the Word of God.
And in the last few years, one of
its professors has come out with a book
entitled The Inspiration of the Church.
And in that book, he teaches the very
opposite.
He teaches that the Bible is a fallible
book.
But after all, it does have contradictions in
it.
It does have errors in it.
It's a good book, and you shouldn't get
rid of it for that fact, but the
sooner we're willing to face the fact that
it is an errant book, the better, he
says.
As far as I know, he hasn't been
asked to resign from the faculty of that
church.
This is what Peter is preaching.
That this very thing would happen.
That men in its theatrical office would arise
to deny the inspiration of the Word of
God.
And then the second part of that attack
would have to do with the coming again
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I don't think I have to say
to anyone here today the fact that the
coming again of the Savior is downgraded in
Christendom today.
And a great deal of controversy has gone
on, so that by many this subject is
just not evident.
But the sad fact of it is that
there are very few Christian fellowships, Christian schools,
Christian colleges, Christian seminaries, that would be willing
today to stand and be counted and to
say outright that Jesus Christ would come back
today to our services.
That's what he was saying.
And then the third area of the attack
of these false teachers, Peter said, would be
in the sphere of morals.
He said, this wouldn't be ungodly people condoning
immorality, but this would be religious teachers who
would be spreading this false doctrine.
And as we go on, we hope to
be able to quote some leading authorities in
the religious world today and hear some of
the things that they're saying about the new
morality.
In fact, it's so bad that a lot
of the specific leaders of our country aren't
frankly shared.
Just let's look at the outline, first of
all, in its broader detail, and we'll see
how Peter traces his subject.
First of all, we have this malutation in
the first two verses, every word of which
is meaningful.
It would be helpful to start our study
of second Peter, but that's not the case.
Every word of God is pure.
Then you have God's wonderful provision for his
people in name of apostasy, a fact that
we're not left to our own devices, but
God has made full and sufficient provision for
us that we don't have to fall.
Before the onslaught of these men.
God has done his part.
We have to do ours, too.
The believer has a certain responsibility, and that
responsibility lies in the area of Christian character.
We're exhorted to go on and tell of
it spiritually, so that we will not be
prey for false teachings.
Verses 12-15, the need is constantly mine
to release known truths.
And how true that is.
I can remember Dr. Ironside saying that he
used to go over the truths of the
word of God again and again.
For one thing, he realized he never had
the same audience twice, but another thing, he
realized that there's a danger of letting these
things slip.
Somebody came to me recently and said, You
know, in our assembly, we never hear the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ the Father.
That was close to the significance.
And said, Then you have the trustworthiness of
the message concerning Christ's power and coming.
And so, in this section, verses 16-21
of chapter 1, you have the Apostle Peter
bringing together two things.
First of all, the inspiration of the scriptures,
and secondly, the coming again of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Now, in the second chapter, he has the
rise of these false teachers, and they're described
in great detail.
The word of God is wonderful.
I would put a finger on these things,
and one can only say, after reading a
chapter like this, and looking about the world
today, I stand in awe.
That's body words.
And then in chapter 3, you have believers
forewarned of the last day's suffers.
And then finally, you have Peter's closing exhortation
and benediction, the last two verses of chapter
3.
Now, this is a fairly short epistle, and
I trust that the Lord will speak to
all of our hearts through it.
Shall we now turn to chapter 1, and
we'll read the first 11 verses.
Second Peter, chapter 1, verses 1-11.
Says, And Simon Peter, a servant and an
apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have
obtained life's precious faith with us through the
righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ,
grace and peace be multiplied unto you through
the knowledge of God and of Jesus our
Lord.
According as his divine power hath given unto
us all things that pertain unto life and
godliness through the knowledge of him that hath
called us to glory and virtue, provider 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 to us.
And beside this, giving all diligence, and to
your faith, virtue, and to virtue, knowledge, and
to knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience, and
to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness,
and to brotherly kindness, charity, or love.
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.
For he that lacketh these things is blind,
and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten
that he was purged from his old sins.
Wherefore the rod of brethren give diligence to
make your calling and election sure.
For if ye do these things ye shall
never fall.
For so an infant shall be ministered unto
you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Now, first of all, you have Peter's salutation
in the first two verses of this chapter.
He introduces himself as Simon Peter, a servant
and an apostle of Jesus Christ.
I think that's beautiful.
That word servant really means bond-servant, or
bond-slave.
And he even puts that here before an
apostle.
He's going to speak to believers on the
subject of latter-day Christians.
He's appealing to them first as a slave
of Jesus Christ, then reminding them, too, that
he speaks with the authority of an apostle
of the Lord Jesus.
But to me, the beautiful thing is that
there's no pretension here.
You know, some men today, or down through
the years, have claimed to be successors of
Peter.
And it's quite amazing the names that they
have taken to themselves, such as one of
them is Pontifex Maximus, that means Chief Bridge
Builder.
I frankly don't get the connection, but that's
one of his cousins.
Another is Holy Father.
Peter speaks of himself as a bond-slave,
an apostle of the Lord Jesus.
As a bond-slave, he reminds us that
he and we do not belong to ourselves,
that we've been purchased, that we belong to
another.
And as an apostle, he reminds us that
he was divinely commissioned, he was one sent
by the Lord.
I suppose the parallel today would be the
word missionary.
And so, he speaks of him as a
bond-slave missionary.
Very, very beautiful.
I think it's significant that the way a
man thinks of himself tells us what he
puts first in his life.
What am I?
What are you?
What is central in our lives?
One of the things we have to guard
against today is putting a lot of other
names, other words after our names.
Things that really don't count in the annals
of eternity.
It's so easy to put after our names
subordinate things.
And forget the real purpose for which they
are given.
Some time ago, I went over to the
library of a seminary near us, and they
publish books giving the titles of all the
theses that people have written in order to
get a doctoral degree, a PhD degree.
And so, just for my own information, and
perhaps with a streak of naughtiness, I took
down two of those volumes to see what
men were spending their lives on today.
And you know, it was quite amazing.
I knew that there would be some things
that wouldn't be too important, but I never
guessed that men would make, as the aim
and ambition of their lives, some of the
things that I'm going to say.
For instance, one man wrote a thesis on
mineral deficiencies in the tomato and the poplar.
And another one on sediments in Chesapeake Bay.
And another on the browning reaction in potato
chips.
Now you think that's not good, but it
is.
I have a long list of them here,
in fact, if you'd like to hear some
more.
The Sugar Mites of Kansas.
The Nervous and Cold of Shivering.
I wonder what he got out of that.
And then this was in 3D.
The Summer Habits of Wyoming Antelope.
And I was thinking, a hundred years from
today, what's this?
I said, I like what Peter wrote.
One servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.
I noticed that the Apostle Peter characteristically speaks
of the Lord Jesus as Jesus Christ.
Paul characteristically speaks of him as Christ Jesus.
Peter accompanied with the Lord Jesus, and of
course Jesus was the name given to him
in humanity, and so he normally refers to
him as Jesus Christ.
Christ is his name, and ascension and glorification
is his name as the anointed of God.
But I guess it's not fair to say
this, but I hope that we all have
clear views on the fact that the Lord
Jesus is a man with a glorified body
in heaven today.
People have such vague, mystical ideas of the
Lord.
They think of him as a spirit being,
an ethereal being in heaven.
But the Bible tells us that the Lord
Jesus, the one who was crucified on the
cross of Calvary, is in heaven today with
the mark of Calvary upon him.
And that's the one who personally is going
to come back for his waiting people, and
that's the one whom the unsaved have to
deal with.
Not some mystical, vague thought of an infallible,
but the God-man glorified at the right
hand of the throne.
Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus
Christ, he says to them that have obtained
life's precious faith with us.
Actually, we don't know exactly to whom this
epistle was written.
The first epistle was written to Jews of
the dispersion, Jews that had been scattered throughout
the countries of the then-known world, countries
such as are named in Acts 2.
I suppose it would be easy to assume
that this epistle was written to the same
people, but it doesn't say.
It says to them that have obtained life's
precious faith with us.
And so that makes it very applicable to
ourselves today.
I like that expression, life's precious faith.
You know, of course, that the word precious
is used frequently by Peter.
I think it's significant that he speaks of
our faith as being precious, because we're living
in a day when one of the great
keywords is tolerance, or toleration.
Doesn't get excited about anything.
And after all, people are entitled to their
opposing views.
Now, Peter says here that our faith is
precious, and it deserves to be guarded, and
deserves to be defended.
Those who obtain life's precious faith.
That also has been translated to those who
have obtained an equal standing with us.
An equal standing with us.
I think that's the way it is in
some of the other versions of the New
Testament.
Now that's a nice thought too, isn't it?
God in his wonderful grace has reached down
salvation to Jews and Gentiles.
He takes people up from the scrap heap,
as it were, and he gives them equal
standing before himself in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
I think that that's one of the truths
that makes me a worshiper more than the
other.
Dear, so very dear to God, I could
not nearer be.
For in the person of his Son, I
could nearer be.
Dear, so very dear to God, I could
not nearer be.
The love wherewith he loves his God.
Such is his love to me.
Now, Peter says that we who obtain life's
precious faith are in equal standing even with
us.
Who do you think that us is?
Well, it could mean the Apostles.
And once again, that would be a blow
at the pretension of those who claim to
be Peter's successors.
Or it could mean, us could mean Peter
and those who were with him when he
wrote the letter.
Or, if you assume that this epistle was
written to Gentiles, as some do, then the
us could refer to the leading Jews.
The fact that the leading Gentiles are brought
into the same place of Peter as the
leading Jews.
But then the next thing he says is
that we have obtained life's precious faith through
the righteousness of God and our Savior.
Now, this is lovely, and it teaches us
that God didn't give us this precious faith
unrighteously.
He didn't save us through weeping at our
sin or weeping at our guilt.
The whole thing was carried on in the
most righteous way.
God caused our sin to be placed upon
his own beloved son.
Christ paid the penalty that our sins deserved,
and God is absolutely satisfied, and now he
has a righteous basis upon which he can
go out to ungodly sins.
So, that's a lovely expression, isn't it?
Through the righteousness of God and our Savior.
God could not pass a sinner by.
The law demands that he must die, but
in the cross of Christ he is raised.
His righteousness yet wonders great.
The sin of life from Jesus' head is
in his blood.
His debt is paid.
Stern justice could demand no more, and mercy
can dispense her sore.
You know, there's something else very beautiful in
this version of Scripture.
You don't get it in this version, in
King James Version, but it really says, Of
our God and Savior.
Of our God and Savior.
Like all people, the Greeks had a way
of saying things, and if they had wanted
to express the idea of two different people,
they could say, Of our God and of
our Savior.
But when they said, Of our God and
Savior, that was a way to then say,
They're one and the same, equal here in
all respect.
And that's really what you have in verse
1.
Our God and Savior.
And so I think it's wonderful that in
the very first verse of his epistle, dealing
with false teachers, that the Apostle Peter introduces
us to the glorious truth.
That our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is
God over all, blessed forever.
Then he says, To the great and each
be multiplied unto you, through the knowledge of
God and of Jesus our Lord.
A perfect grace that reached us in the
first place when we were in our sins,
and brought us near to God.
Grace.
God acting worthily and graciously toward those who
did not deserve it.
But grace here means something else.
I think grace means undeserved favor along the
way in Christian life, undeserved strength for all
that is necessary.
And peace, of course, is the calm and
repose that comes to the heart that has
been touched by the grace of God, and
that knows the grace of God in a
day-by-day experience.
Now, it's interesting to know that grace and
peace can be multiplied.
It's not just a simple addition, it's a
multiplication.
And this holds up the possibilities of Christian
growth.
You know, they tell us that in a
physical sense, that we don't use a fraction
of the mental ability that we have.
They say that our brains are so constituted
that there's tremendous possibility there that even Einstein
used it very, very little.
But, you know, if that's true in a
physical sense of the human brain, I often
think how much more wonderful it is to
think of spiritual possibility, and what a small
fraction of that we ever use.
It's wonderful to think that the power that
raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead
has been placed at our disposal.
Just think what a dynamo that is.
But what kind of courage do we draw
from it?
110?
220?
Just what could it be?
Well, I fear that most of us would
have to say that we really haven't scratched
the surface.
The spiritual possibility.
Grace and peace can be multiplied over the
years.
How?
It is through the knowledge of God.
Now, I say every word of God is
pure, and nothing, not a word of Scripture
is without significance.
And I think it's very significant, once again,
that in an epistle dealing with latter-day
teachers, that Peter should use this expression, the
knowledge of God, and mind you, he uses
it over and over again.
Grace and peace are multiplied through the knowledge
of God.
What does it mean?
I think it means through coming to know
God more and more.
That's how you grow in the Christian life,
through coming to know him.
And, of course, that brings us right down
to the word of God, because that is
first and foremost where we come to know
him.
You know, all down through the history of
the church, men have been professing to have
greater knowledge than is contained in the Bible.
And, of course, that's just what all teachers
do.
We'll come to that in chapter two.
In the early days of the church, a
group of people known as Gnostics arose, and
they said, We have the knowledge.
I mean, what you have is very nice.
The Bible, well, it's good, but it isn't
enough.
It doesn't go far enough, and you'll be
ever so happy when you are initiated into
the deeper mystery that we have.
And this goes on down through the years,
and in every dispensation, in every generation, young
people are caused by the world to feel
that their Bible isn't enough, you know.
You go off to college, and you feel,
Well, you've got to have this in order
to be effective in the world, and then
you have to have this and that and
the next thing.
And Paul, in writing to the Colossians, speaks
of those things.
He says, Philosophy and high-sounding nonsense.
Now, that's just about what they are.
And I tell you, it is wonderful to
realize the sufficiency that we have in the
Word of God.
God has given us all things that are
necessary for life and godliness, as we shall
see.
So here he says that grace and peace
are multiplied unto you through the knowledge of
God and of Jesus our Lord.
You want to grow in the Christian life?
You want to be able to resist the
false teachers when they arise and as they
arise?
Well, Peter's answer is, Go on in the
knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
This is a knowledge that really counts.
Other knowledge might be important in order to
gain the livelihood here on earth, but this
is a knowledge that will endure throughout all
eternity.
Once again, he says in verse 2, Peter
doesn't hesitate to put God and Jesus our
Lord on the same level.
I can't understand, people, I can't understand the
cultists denying the deity of the Lord Jesus
Christ, because all through the New Testament, the
fact of his deity is stated and the
fact of his deity is implied.
I believe it's stated here in verse 1,
Our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
And I believe it's implied in verse 2,
God, the knowledge of God and of Jesus
our Lord.
In other words, he equates them, he makes
them equal.
The knowledge of God, the knowledge of Jesus
our Lord.
Then he says, verse 2, brings us to
his provision for his people in days of
apostasy.
What has he done for them?
It says, according as his divine power hath
given unto us all things that pertain unto
light and godliness.
And how?
Through the knowledge of him that has called
us to glory and truth.
We think of the power of God stretched
out in creation.
We think of the power of God stretched
forth to deliver his people through the Red
Sea.
We think of the power of God stretched
forth in raising the Lord Jesus from the
dead.
Here's the wonderful thing, that divine power has
been exercised in giving us all things that
pertain unto light and godliness.
God doesn't satisfy simply to save us, he
makes full provision for us along the way.
And so I refuse to develop an inferiority
complex when the learned professors come and say
that the Bible isn't sufficient.
I find that I have all things that
pertain unto light and godliness.
Notice the order.
Light first, and then godliness.
He had to give us light before we
could ever have godliness.
Of course, this is the greatest mistake of
illiberal Christianity today, and of the social gospel.
They would put the godliness first.
They would have been lifting themselves up by
their own bootstraps, but God knows what he's
doing, and he knows that if he didn't
give us light as a sovereign gift through
faith in his Son, we never would have
it.
He has given us light and godliness through
the knowledge of him that has called us
to his own glory and virtue.
Now, there's the divine side of it, and
there's the human side too.
He has given us these things, and they're
reserved through our coming to know him.
He doesn't give us godliness on a platter
and say, Here you are, my dear friend,
take it.
He's made the provision for us, but there
must be the growth and development in our
own lives.
When a baby is born, that baby has,
in a sense, all that it's ever going
to have.
It'll never get any more ears, eyes, nose,
mouth, it'll never get any more brains, for
that matter.
But, God endows that infant with the possibility
of growth and development.
And, of course, the baby grows through food
and through drink and through exercise and through
reading, and that's exactly what we have here,
I believe, a picture of God endowing us
with spiritual light, making full provisions for us
along this journey, and yet our responsibility is
there.
There's a wonderful merging of the divine and
the human.
God, he has his divine power, has given
us all things that pertain unto life and
godliness through the knowledge of him that has
called us to glory and virtue.
And so, once again, we're sent back to
the word of God.
Get to know the Lord, meditate upon the
Lord, gaze upon the Lord.
It reminds us of what Paul wrote to
the Christians, but we all with unveiled faith,
beholding as in a glass the glory of
the Lord, are changed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as by the
spirit of the Lord.
And so that's what Peter is saying here.
The days he's writing about are days of
apostasy, when the voice would be heard, if
the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous
do?
And Peter answers the question, go on being
righteous.
Go on growing in the knowledge of God
and of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Now, the latter part of that verse is
interesting, because he has called us to glory
and virtue.
And other translations say he has called us
by his own glory and virtue.
Now, if you take the first, it means
that God has a glorious destiny for us.
He's called us to be glorified with him.
If you take the second, it means that
it's by those attributes of his character, by
his own glory and excellence, that he has
called us.
And it's by his glory and virtue that
we are given unto us exceeding grace and
precious promise.
Here's the second mention of the word precious
in this chapter.
Precious promise.
Peter has been saying, God has not left
us defenseless.
God has not left us without provision for
the church.
And now he's going to speak of that
provision.
What are the promises?
I believe that these promises are promises that
have to do with redemption, forgiveness of sin,
adoption into the family of God, sanctification, and
eventual glorification.
Exceeding grace and precious promises.
It says that through these we might be
partakers of the divine nature.
Here we are at the beginning again.
God has made provision, promises in his word,
that we might come into the possession of
the divine nature.
This can refer, first of all, to salvation,
and then to our increasing conformity to Christ.
First of all is the promise of salvation.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved.
When I avail myself of that, when I
trust the Lord Jesus, I do become a
partaker of the divine nature.
But then there are other promises in the
word of God that have to do with
growth.
And as I grow, I become more and
more conformed to the image of God.
I become more God-like in my behavior.
What I'm especially interested in the latter part
of that verse is having an escape from
the corruption that is in the world through
love.
If you're a Christian and you ever tend
to become discouraged, you can thank God for
this alone to give us escape from the
corruption that is in the world through love.
Think of what lies behind those words.
The corruption that is in the world through
love.
Think of the immorality.
Think of the degradation.
Think of the misery.
Think of the uncleanness.
All that goes with a life that lives
without God and without Christ in the world.
Now, mind you, it isn't by chance that
Peter is using that expression here, because when
we get to chapters 2 and 3, we'll
find that the false doctrine of these latter
-day false teachers lead people right into this
type of behavior.
The corruption that is in the world through
love.
I'm sure that no one of us is
half aware of all that the Lord Jesus
made us from, and probably eternity will be
a perpetual unfolding of all that Calvary has
meant in our lives that we didn't even
know.
And so may our hearts be spurred to
go on for the Lord in the day
when his name is being denied, and when
the truth of his coming is being laid
aside, and when men are turning aside from
the foundations of the Word of God to
humanism and a man-made religion.
And above all, I pray that as a
result of our studies together in second year,
that we'll all go forth with a real
determination to stand up and be counted for
the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are many who are wishy-washy about
it today.
It's a great day to be faithful to
Him.
Let us rise and sing two verses of
191, as we conclude this service.
191, standing on the promises of Christ my
King.
191, standing on the promises of Christ my
King.
He is risen from the dead, He is
risen from the dead, He is risen from
the dead.
He is risen from the dead, He is
risen from the dead, He is risen from
the dead, He is risen from the dead.
He is risen from the dead.
to be praised, and thy greatness is unsearchable.
We pray thee, O Thou who didst bestow
us food convenient during these days, we pray
above all that Thou keep us, Lord, O
keep us pleasing to thyself, and still feeding
me, from the hour of our receiving, promised
joy in heaven.
The act is of the Savior's name.