Please turn in your Bibles to 2 Peter. In the Pew Bibles, it's on page 1207, 1207. It's a small book in the back of your Bible just before 1 John. We'll be reading from 2 Peter 1, focusing on verses 1 to 11. But I'll read through verse 15. 2 Peter 1, verses 1-15. all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire for this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as the Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure, you may be at any time to recall these things this has been the reading of god's word let us pray that he'll illumine our hearts lord god would you please make your word profitable to us by your holy spirit illumine our hearts that we might understand teach us your ways oh lord we ask in jesus name amen so this summer i desire to exhort here a few times as the summer intern and i want to go through the book of second peter because it's short and hopefully will be profitable to all of us so second peter is the second letter that peter has sent to these people coming after first peter and peter is very concerned with what is afflicting these churches and the way that they ought to live as christians in first peter it seems that his concern is more suffering and persecution externally, but here in 2 Peter, Peter's concerned to address things that might upset the church from within, including apostasy, unbelief, and especially false teachers. He really focuses on false teachers in the second chapter of this book, but it's important and is throughout. Peter wrote to this congregation, but he doesn't name a specific church or place. So this book was likely circulated around to multiple churches and is what's called the Catholic epistles, or that's to be read to all churches. Peter, in these first 11 verses, has something of a mini-sermon, and I intend to follow the outline he did. He begins with the gospel up to verse 4, just telling these Christians what God has done. And then in verses 5 to 7, he gives an exhortation of how they ought to live their lives, and virtues they ought to seek. And then verses 8 through 11 are an encouragement to these churches. So my three points would be the empowerment of the elect, and then the empowered efforts of the elect, and encouragement for the elect. So beginning with the empowerment seen in the gospel, Peter begins in verse 1, writing this letter, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Peter begins his gospel presentation by speaking about faith, because that is the beginning of the Christian life. It is the gift of faith from God. He uses the word obtained here, which might better be said received. That word could be translated as received, and it emphasizes the passive receiving of faith from God. Faith is a gift to us. And Peter emphasizes also that there's only one faith in the Lord Jesus christ who is our god he says they've obtained a faith of equal standing with ours saying peter as an apostle doesn't have a different faith than those christians he's writing to in fact we all have the same faith in jesus that puts us on an equal standing meaning before god we are all dressed in the righteousness of jesus christ our god we have christ's righteousness so whether someone's an apostle or a pastor elder or just a member in the church anyone with true faith is on the same equal standing before God declared righteous Peter goes on describing this faith he says in verse 2 may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Faith is also knowledge. And it isn't just a list of facts that we need to know about Jesus, that he lived 2,000 years ago and that he died on the cross. Those are good things to know, but the picture of knowledge here and the biblical idea of knowledge is extremely intimate, right? It says, Adam knew his wife, Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain. Knowledge here is a metaphor for marital relations, even. It is the most intimate thing that could be described. And we, as the church, as God's elect, are also in an intimate marriage relationship with Jesus. the church is described as christ's bride and we are in that covenantal marriage relationship with jesus christ as well in that covenantal relationship we receive covenant blessings and that's what peter's saying in verse two may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of jesus christ so this grace and peace are covenant blessings that we get by true faith in jesus christ a gift of grace and peace with god but knowing christ is true faith and it is having eternal life as well in john 17 3 jesus praying to the father says this is eternal life that they know you the only true god and jesus christ whom you have sent so we see we're receiving blessing upon blessing. They're being multiplied to us in knowing and having faith in Jesus Christ. Then Peter moves in verse 3 to talk about Christ's divine power. He says his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. So in our covenantal relationship with Jesus, he has called us. He knows his people, he knows his sheep, and he's called us because he's chosen us. And what has he called us to? Glory and excellence. He's called us to glory and excellence, but not on our own. It says his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. That means we have all the power we need to live a godly life. God gives us the desire and the ability to live righteously. God enables us to live the godly life that he demands of us. What is necessary for this godly life doesn't come from us. It doesn't come from the strength man, but is a gift of grace that we receive in union with Jesus Christ. Peter, continuing to talk about these covenant blessings, says, by which, in verse 4, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises. So we're granted promises. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, when we believe in him and know him intimately, we receive promises. They're precious and very great. These are the promises of the covenant. We described grace and peace, eternal life. God says, I will be your God and you will be my people. He adopts us and he gives us hope of a kingdom and an inheritance that cannot perish. He promises us the new heavens and new earth, as Peter later describes in this letter. And we cannot forget that he grants us the forgiveness of sins. We are forgiven when we believe in the Lord Jesus. God gives us justification and sanctification. He declares us righteous. We get the verdict that you are righteous in Christ jesus because of his merits but also he gives us sanctification that he will make us like jesus he will make us reflect his moral attributes he will make us holy in this life and ultimately in glorification we will be pure without stain or wrinkle and without sin that is the covenantal the precious and very great promises that he gives to us and peter says so that the purpose of this is that through these promises you may become partakers of the divine nature what does that mean partakers of the divine nature it means that we're covenantal partners with God, that we share in his divine moral attributes. Calvin says, nature here is not so much about essence, but quality. This means partaking the divine nature does not mean that we're becoming God in some way, because God is uncreated. No creature could ever cross that divide. it would be impossible. But we come as close as we can to God, being creatures, and we share in his communicable attributes by living godly lives and reflecting God's character as he sanctifies us. Calvin says, we will be one with God as far as our capacities allow. In union with Jesus Christ, we get as close to god as any creature can be and he will cause us to reflect his beauty and his goodness peter ends this gospel proclamation with saying we've escaped from corruption having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire he's telling us that we were under the power of corruption slavery to sin the tyranny of of the devil, but now we've been transferred from that to the divine power of Jesus Christ working in us. It's interesting that he says the corruption is in the world because of sinful desire or lust. Thinking of Adam in the garden bringing corruption into the world, it's a warning to us that corruption comes from the hearts of men. Peter then moves to an exhortation to us of how we ought to live, bearing in mind how corrupt our hearts can be, he tells Christians, firstly, in this gospel proclamation, that they should be certain of their position with God. We should know how we relate to God if we have true faith in him. We have those covenantal promises. This is our motivation to gratitude. Knowing God, having these promises, motivates us and equips us to follow his will. So that brings us to this list of exhortations, the empowered efforts of the elect. We cannot forget that we can't do this on our own, and we always need to rely on the power that Jesus Christ gives to us. So this list of virtues here, he mentions virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. This is a list of virtue similar to the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians. We get a few of these lists in the New Testament that are describing how Christians ought to live. No one of these lists is entirely complete, but they give us an idea of what the Christian life looks like. This is what it will look like for us to live in the new heavens and new earth. This is how we ought to live in heaven. It's how we will live, and some of that's coming back now. We have the promises, and we have the Holy Spirit now, so we can live how we ought to in heaven now, here while we're on our pilgrimage towards heaven. We're empowered by God, but Peter also calls us to put forth effort. In verse 5, he says, for this very reason, remembering the gospel that he's just shared, for this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue. He calls us to make every effort. He's telling us to be diligent. He means exerting all of our efforts, and he's emphasizing the importance of moral formation and virtue for christians we are to lead virtuous holy lives and make real progress in our christian characters as we live here on earth remembering always that our efforts are only efficacious by god's grace the canons of dort says that we ought to strain towards the goal of perfection that's what's being described here with peter striving effort diligence straining to live a virtuous life there's kind of two sides of sanctification one is putting sin to death avoiding hating killing sin the other is being made alive in christ leading a righteous life seeking to follow his will. It's the positive aspect that we're focusing on tonight. The Christian life isn't just about avoiding certain things, but we ought to be certain people. And that's what we see. Peter's calling us, God is calling us to a certain way of life. So let's think about these seven qualities or virtues that Peter is describing here. Each of these ought to be a character trait of each christian that if someone were to look at you they would say he is self-controlled she is persevering these are the character traits that ought to define us christians but peter begins again add to your faith virtue he's starting with faith again the beginning of the christian life true faith in jesus christ and this is the root of all the virtues he's addressing people who already have faith and he says add to that faith virtue when he says virtue he's describing moral excellence and this moral excellence expresses itself in acts and actions that demonstrate the character of christians this is opposed to false teachers who are indulging in immorality, lust, and vice. Peter says, add to that virtue knowledge. This is knowing Jesus Christ, as we described before, that intimate knowledge of Christ, but also knowing the scriptures, knowing true doctrine, and knowing how to live the christian life this true knowledge comes from true teaching opposed to the false teachers they produce ungodliness vice and sin so by knowing the scriptures by knowing true doctrine you are protecting yourself against being deceived by false teachers and being blown about by every wind of doctrine what this means to have this knowledge is to grow up in your faith to move beyond spiritual milk progress in knowledge the more that you know your lord your god and your savior jesus christ the more you will love him and the more you will seek to follow his will that's what peter's describing here and he says add to that knowledge self-control self-control basically means temperance it's having good things in moderation self-control is opposed to being out of control or indulging the flesh in second peter 2 19 talking about false teachers peter says they promise freedom but they themselves are slaves to corruption, for whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. So what overcomes you? What do you struggle to be self-controlled in? Is it your anger? Do you struggle to control your emotions? Is it alcohol? Do you fail to have alcohol in moderation, finding yourself leaning towards drunkenness or is it food can you not have self-control around food think about these things is it social media social media seriously taxes all of our self-control surely but the truth is that we're no longer enslaved to sin we've been freed from that corruption, and we no longer have to lose control in these things. God, by his Spirit, is empowering us to be controlled and to live self-controlled lives of temperance, and that's what he's calling us to. He says, add to that self-control steadfastness. Steadfastness means in the face of adversity, suffering, or persecution, having conviction about what you believe, holding to the true faith that you have in Christ, it's something like perseverance through trials. And if you do truly believe in Jesus Christ, you will persevere to the end, and nothing can separate you from the love of God. He says, add to this steadfastness godliness. Now godliness here means something like piety. It's a proper religious attitude towards God. It's a practice of true religion. It's not just coming to church or just reading the scriptures, showing up. It's not an external thing like the Pharisees, but true godliness and piety is from the heart. When you come here to church, you worship from your heart, truly. You attend to the means of grace. You're hearing God's word. You're praying from your heart. When you receive the sacrament, it is from a place of understanding. These are what's described in piety. It's attending to the means of grace and loving god from your heart a practice of true religion now when we gather together we must remember that we have a covenantal god who's relational and this god desires for his people to meet together and he expects that his gift to you would express itself in virtue and in relation to others. So Peter says, add to piety brotherly affection. There are so many commands in scripture that say, love one another. There's so many one another commands, but we can only practice that if we are gathering together, if we know each other, if we spend time together, if we're grieving together and growing together. That is the only time we can do those things. So we are called to meet together and love each other with brotherly affection. The last virtue, the crowning virtue that Peter describes here, is love. Now this is the crowning virtue because this is the end and aim of the christian life this is what jesus describes as the most important commandment to love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength that and love your neighbor as yourself love is the end of the christian life paul says in first timothy our aim is love and in first corinthians he says if he doesn't have love he has nothing and he gains nothing this is not a passing emotion of love but a self-giving love expressed in action this love even extends towards sinners this love extends towards your enemies as we were sinners and we were god's enemies yet he loved us so love is the ultimate way in which we can reflect God's character. So Peter crowns this list of virtue with love. He then moves on to an encouragement in verse 8, an encouragement to the elect. He says, for if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord jesus christ so he's desiring for these christians to be effective and fruitful he says if you have these qualities and are growing in them and later on he says in verse 12 i intend always to remind you of these qualities though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. Peter's expecting that the Christians that he's writing to have this. If they have true faith in Jesus Christ, you have these qualities, and you will grow in them. He describes somewhat of a tree analogy here, saying he wants you to be fruitful. Now, if a tree is not growing and doesn't produce fruit it's likely dying but what peter's saying is that if you have these qualities then you are growing in them and he's calling us to put in effort to strive for them now part of this tree metaphor might be based on what christ says that by their fruits you will know them that every good tree bears good fruit but an important thing to remember is that no christian ever arrives in the christian life you never meet the goal of sanctification thinking i've got these virtues and i'm done see what peter's describing is increasing and growing in them always as a living plant would grow that we should always strive to produce fruit but not every tree grows at the same rate so looking at your brothers and sisters your neighbors here you might not be in the same place as them but growing nonetheless is an encouragement to the christians and sometimes if you look at a tree you can't see it growing but if you were to look at a larger swath of time or you're able to see a time lapse you can see trees growing now for the christian you might not always see the progress but it's god's promise that if you believe in jesus christ he will lead you along his path and be putting these virtues in your heart and growing you in them according to his word and his spirit we might think how do you grow in these virtues it's not always or really ever a snap of the fingers that we are suddenly self-controlled that's not my experience and i think it's not the experience of any christian that you are just suddenly self-controlled but rather god is working in you and by his providence will put you in a scenario where you ought to be self-controlled and by his power enables you to be self-controlled in that moment. So God brings you through situations that might be not how you would choose to grow in self-control, but rather somewhat of a test for you to grow in sanctification. Peter then, in verse 9, has a warning to Christians, a warning to believers, for whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he's blind, having forgot that he was cleansed from his former sins. This is a warning that is striking, and perhaps you might feel it as you hear this list of virtues. You might think, I don't have that quality, or I'm not growing in that quality. Peter is saying, if a Christian doesn't have these things, then he's blind. He's blind to what Christ has done. Christ has forgiven you of your sins. He's washed you and cleansed you and given all these covenantal promises that we described. And you're blind to that, not seeing what he has given you and his goodness and grace to you. And you're blind not seeing the path that he desires for you to walk on. He's saying, look and see. This is what Peter's doing here. Look and see how God would have you live. Don't lose awareness of the grace that God has given you and then in verse 10 continuing encouragement peter says therefore brothers be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election for if you practice these qualities you will never fall we see here we can confirm our calling and election this is not to say that calling or election are in any way based on us because elections unconditional god has chosen you from before the foundation of the world according to his good pleasure and nothing else but rather the confirmation here is a subjective confirmation in the christian life if you see progress and you see the godly life that you're striving for you can have comfort that if you're becoming like christ only christians that our elect can become like christ this is the comfort that we get that if you are possessing these virtues and growing in them you will never fall because you are god's elect our confessions say this that good works are fruit and evidence heidelberg 86 says we are assured of our faith by its fruits the canons of dort says that assurance comes from god's promises and from a serious and holy pursuit of a clear conscience and of good works. This is what we confess and what we believe, that godly living is a comfort to Christians. But that does not mean that you'll do it perfectly, that we will all be perfectly virtuous and always be growing and increasing, but rather it's an assurance that if you are seeking and desiring to live this godly life, Only Christians truly have that desire. Peter then, wrapping up his sermon in verse 11, says, For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. God has called us, elected us, given us faith in Jesus Christ, given us all these blessings and promises, and he's calling us home. We're pilgrims on our way to God's kingdom, on our way to the heavenly Jerusalem. And the way forward is sanctification. God will sanctify all of his people. So the way that this is an entrance into the kingdom is that that is how God is leading all of us. He's leading us home, making us more like Christ. And we will enter into his kingdom. And when we arrive, he will wash us of all imperfections and sin. and we will be glorified and be truly sanctified there. Now, in conclusion, Peter kind of wraps up in verses 12 to 15, just saying he intended to remind the Christians of these qualities, though they know them and are established in the truth that they have, established in the gospel. They know these qualities. This is an exhortation to stir them up. He's trying to stir them up by way of reminder. And he wants them to be able to recall these things. So brothers and sisters, that's what I am trying to do tonight. Is to stir you up to this godly living. To stir you up that you would stand fast in this truth. The truth of the gospel. That by true faith in Jesus Christ, we receive eternal life. The covenant promises of justification and sanctification. That we are empowered by God to lead this life that he's called us. christ's divine power is working in all of you who believe this is our comfort that if you live this way as god has called you and as he is causing you to do you will never fall and you will enter into his kingdom let's pray together lord god we thank you for your word that we can hear from the apostle peter lord how we ought to live that we can hear of these covenant promises we thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, and we thank you for all the benefits that we have in union with Him. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.