Father, we come this morning in light of what Your Son Jesus has done in obedience to Your will, but also in love for us.

And Father, we come because we know Your Son has said, if we come, we will not be turned away. We know that in our earnest coming to You, we are fully received and given the promise of perseverance to be kept. Your love and Your grace and the power of Your cross, Lord Jesus, will keep us to the end. And so we thank You. We thank You for the call to turn our eyes to You and see salvation,

to see a righteous Savior who makes us righteous and brings us into the presence of the Father. Father,

we thank You for Your written Word. And that in it, the fullness of God has been revealed to us in the Spirit that we may know You. That we may know You. So Lord, set our hearts ablaze to know You. And not seek to know anything else but Christ crucified.

To let all the world know You. Pass away.

That we, Lord, would be found in Christ.

We thank You for Your many blessings. We thank You for this space in which we stand. We thank You for the last two months of labor and help we’ve had. We thank You for… Lord, we thank You for… We thank You for… We thank You for this place to come and to gather and to remind one another of who our Savior is and who He is in us and all that You desire to accomplish through us as Your church. Thank You for the fellowship of the saints. Thank You that we can every Sunday look upon one another and see how grace works. Not just in us, but in others. How You’re keeping each of us. Lord, oftentimes through our encouragements and our love and our prayers for one another. So Lord, You’ve truly given us all things. All things. And we do pray, Lord, that Your Word would cut deep into our hearts and into our souls. Father, that we would be sanctified in Christ Jesus fully. Lord, bless our tithe, our offering. We pray that we would give cheerfully, sacrificially. We pray You would grow our finances. Lord, we pray You would grow our church. We pray as we give our all in finances and in service and in prayer, You would multiply our fellowship, that we would the more make disciples and reach the lost, Lord, and do faithful ministry unto You. So Lord, we put all these things in Your hand as they can only come by… by Your power. Lord, we trust these things to You. And we pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Well, good morning. It’s wonderful to be with you. Amplified by modern technology for the first time in this new place.

And you know, not that I can’t yell already, but I’ll yell even louder if it helps you. I like hearing kids in the background. It’s not a distraction, so don’t feel bad if your kid’s noisy. I’m going to be in 2 Peter, chapter 1,

verses 3 and 4. 2 Peter 1, verses 3 and 4.

And the Apostle writes this, 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, 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.

Last week, we looked at verse 1 and 2. And the big picture, the big picture, the big point last week was this. God has done it for you. God has done it for us. Salvation is what He gives. Remember the word obtained there doesn’t mean it’s something you did to grab at it. You didn’t grab that. It means an inheritance. You obtained it as one who, by nothing that they did, they were given the right to receive a faith. It’s what He gives. It’s what God gives. And it’s only logical then if you go to verse 2. He says, make grace and peace be multiplied to you. So you can’t be multiplied in something that you don’t already have. But Peter’s prayer is the grace and peace that you’ve been given via faith is multiplied to you. And here’s the word in verse 2 that propels us into verses 3 and 4. And then really beyond that through the rest of this chapter and really the theme of this book. And it’s the word knowledge. He says, in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. So he’s mining down deeper then what it means for you and I to have knowledge of Christ. Christ. Knowledge of Christ. What’s the problem in 2 Peter? The problem why Peter’s writing is this. These faithful believers are being influenced by false teachers propagating something other than the gospel. They’re teaching false doctrine. They’re teaching things that are apart from cavalier what the apostles had established. So what’s really important to Peter is that they’re not that these believers remember, know, think about, value, treasure, knowledge of Christ. So it’s more than what God gives. It becomes more particular in this way. The knowledge that God gives of Christ, that is a treasure given to you. It’s not general. It’s specific. It’s Christ. And it’s not something anyone can have. It’s a treasure given. It’s what God has done. It carries on again in verse 3 here by His. Now who is His? His is most likely specifically Christ. It follows logically from what He says about Jesus in verse 1. He says, a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. So Peter really has a great case all right there for the hypostatic union meaning Jesus is all God and all man. So Jesus is God. He’s on theory to the Father. This is God He’s referring to. And it’s God’s divine power. And what is it done? It’s granted to us all things. It’s granted to us all things. It’s granted again to be granted something is to be given something. It means you have received a gift. It translates bestowed. Divine power wielded by Christ. What has it done? It has bestowed upon you all things. All things. The gift’s not lacking. You’re not being shorted. You ever buy like one of those furniture kits and you gotta put the thing together and it’s complicated and the directions are usually in a different language or someone in a different language who tried to write it in English and you end up missing like three or four bits or pieces and it’s so frustrating because now you don’t really have everything that you need. Or I remember several Christmases ago Jessica and I gave our nephew it was we ordered it and it’s what he wanted and we thought it was a Star Wars helmet of some character you know one of those soldiers and he he opened this thing and it looked so realistic I thought it was cool and you open it and you can see the joy in his face and then we were kind of looking at it because on the back it was flat and he turns around it was flat and we realized this is not a helmet you wear it’s something you hang on the wall in your bedroom and you have never seen a child more dashed to pieces that he did not get a helmet but something to hang on his wall sometimes we get gifts and it’s not what we wanted it’s not exactly what we asked for it’s the wrong brand it’s the wrong size this is not happening this is God bestowing and giving a very perfect gift to you and he’s giving to each of us everything that pertains to life and godliness to life and godliness and they’re not two different things you could say life parenthesis godliness or godliness parenthesis eternal life Peter’s not in fact thinking about life like you’re alive now oh and you can be godly Peter has in mind you have an eternal life in Christ Jesus and having eternal life means you are godly becoming godly and those who are becoming godly are those who are gifted eternal life Paul says in 1st Timothy it’s because of eternal life we grow in godliness we grow in godliness so what has Peter said he’s saying God has so wielded his divine power to gift us everything we need so that you and I would have eternal life godliness and that’s going to go on forever and ever in righteousness that’s what God has given to you and that’s and it’s what he’s given to me and it’s what we gather to sing about and it’s what we gather to preach about and it’s what we have said as Christians is the centerpiece of life it’s eternal life given by God but how has God given you eternal life how has God made you godly has God snapped his fingers and said there now you’re good I just did it no it’s very specific it says through what it’s through knowledge through knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence so it’s not less than your cognitive mind and what you think about and what you can process right I mean you have to start with knowledge Paul says in Romans faith comes by hearing right and what is it that people hear they hear knowledge they hear the word about Christ so it’s not less than that but what’s different here is qualitative in that it’s not just knowledge you hear but it’s knowledge that saves it’s knowledge that saves it’s a saving knowledge it’s a saving and you can know it because if you go on he says knowledge of him who called us and when you hear called us you can think about called in a lot of ways you you know call your children inside when it’s dinner time you call for the dogs you know you call someone on the phone what that sense is getting at really is an authoritative summons you’ll see that same Greek word used more in the Bible in the fashion of authoritative summoning it’s the same word used in the Gospel of Mark when Jesus called or authoritatively summoned James and John it says they left their father Zebedee in the boat immediately they followed Jesus he commanded them to come he commanded them to believe knowledge about Christ

I want you to by what means has this been done to to what end who is this that could give such an authoritative summoning to people to have eternal life and godliness well he says it’s Jesus who’s called us and it’s by his own glory and goodness or moral perfection or virtue Christ authoritatively summons us by his own majesty his authority as the one who is morally perfect that’s saving knowledge and that friends is why you are sitting in your chair today and

and happened to Martin Luther over a great span of years of trying his best to attain God by means of good works and by learning happened the same way for John Bunyan years of just asceticism and trying your hardest and beating yourself up feeling you’re not good enough happened the same way for Charles Spurgeon who felt the weight of his sins and nothing could be done for him and each of them in a moment was the gospel finally revealed and it wasn’t just what they heard it was what changed their very selves it’s what saved them it happened for the apostle Paul in a flash of a moment it happened it happened at Pentecost for many thousands of people in the flash of a moment it happens for young people we saw Leland get baptized last week it happens for old people who are the very end of their life and make a confession of faith maybe even on a deathbed it happens for 1990’s sitcom actors Kirk Cameron happens for unlikely converts atheistic philosophical brilliant men like C.S. Lewis

it happened to you has it happened to you it happened to me on brown shag carpet my liver and I was a child I said to my dad I want to give my life to Christ what’s the commonality friends in any of this what’s the commonality between the young and the old what’s the commonality between the very wise and smart and just the average between the very good and the very bad between those who sit in prison and will for the rest of their life or the very good and the very bad or horrible crimes or someone who is a model citizen what’s the commonality you see there’s no commonality there’s no merit there’s no qualification there’s nothing to speak of other than this these are sinners helpless in need of a savior and we find in each of those and in your heart and in mine Jesus by the grace of God wielding divine power to give eternal life via saving knowledge of his own person and work in life in death and in his resurrection and you say mustn’t we believe mustn’t I do something to contribute mustn’t I mustn’t I you must believe but Peter already has said that faith is is given to you it’s a gift to you who can say anything about being a Christian anything about a crucified savior anything about the Bible and say anything that has to do with self have you emptied your Christianity of you yet you still trying your best for Jesus every day you still thinking your doing good on your own you think you’re wiser smarter than the next guy to figure something out

verse 4 goes on to tell us how much it doesn’t have to do with us and how it has everything to do with the kindness and mercy of God verse 4 by which he has again bestowed gifted I mean like give a present is the sense of how you would have used the word and what is what is he given in that knowledge precious 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 what is this deeper gift in the knowledge saving knowledge of Christ I think it’s two fold the first promise is the promise of what we will be what we will be and what we won’t be is God’s I think that verse has been mangled over the centuries to somehow infer we will attain deity deity deity deity it’s not at all what he’s saying and you know it’s not at all what he’s saying because of the line that follows you will become partakers of the divine nature comma having escaped from the corruption that’s in the world because of sinful desire the partaking of God’s divine nature is not going to make us more than we are it’s going to restore us to what we ought to have been you see that you and I are not fully human Jesus is fully human because Jesus is holy and morally perfect and righteous so what the cross does it doesn’t elevate me to be more than a human God never intended me to be more than a human it elevates me to be a human in the image of God so what did Adam and Eve lose in the garden they lost the Imago Dei the image of God that was marred what does Christ do when he saves me with the knowledge of his cross he restores to me the image of God the divine nature of God imprinted on me which is a moral character which is holiness in heart and soul and mind in outward obedience unto the Father this is what it means for you not to partake of the divine nature so the promise and Peter says you better count it as precious is that you will be what you ought to be in Christ Jesus despite what you fail to be despite what you’re not quite yet Peter says if you believe the gospel it’s a precious promise you will be as you ought to be but then the second bit of this promise is Christ’s return that Christ comes back that Christ makes all things new so it’s not just you’re going to be morally perfect and that’s great you’re going to be clean and holy that’s good that’s not the full thought and it’s not the full thought because again Peter’s overarching theme is right knowledge against false teachers so if you go to chapter 3 verse 4 in 2nd Peter Peter lays out the problem they will say where is the promise of his coming so you see how the false doctrine the false teachers are pushing against this idea of a bodily return of a savior where is the promise of his coming for ever since the fathers fell asleep all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation so Peter is encouraging these suffering saints struggling along in their sanctification struggling on to believe God is good struggling on to believe it’s worth the suffering that the knowledge of Christ has in it a very precious promise that you and I will be as we ought to be and when Christ comes back all things will be as they ought to be

and in fact there’s no reason to see the promises as two different things because in 1st John John says it like this in chapter 3 he says beloved we are God’s children now but what we will be has not yet appeared but we know that when he appears what’s going to happen when he appears we shall be like him as he is Christ returning is when we are new body new souls always what God intended us to be in Christ Jesus so we press on we press on until the return of Christ we press on until he calls us home but we have these very precious promises that we will escape the corruption that’s in the world and notice this in verse 4 he says escape the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire now don’t let yourself off the hook and go ah yes Jesus is going to save me from that bad world out there well they are sinful I’m just hanging on in my holiness no no Calvin makes the point God shows us the world around us that we may see the world is in us when he says by sinful desire or lust in other words you and I until we are made perfect in Christ we have lusts we have desire for worldliness for corruption for sin so this is a mighty big precious promise God’s making that in believing the gospel given by the power and grace of God to sinners we will be in our becoming in our becoming in our becoming in our becoming in our becoming in our becoming holy righteous free use Peter’s language partakers of divine nature waiting for the fullness of it when all things are made new

so I want to say so I want to say treasure should be treasured duh treasure should be treasured even at the happy loss of everything else Jesus tells the parable of the man who finds the treasure in the field what does the man do he doesn’t like save up like I’ll get there someday but I got all these other things I got to take care of I got all these other obligations no the man sells everything that he has and he buys the field it’s his treasure friends this verse draws each of us to treasure the knowledge of Christ and it bids us wake up and look what’s in your hand if you’re not doing it you have been given saving knowledge of Christ

treasuring the saving knowledge of Jesus saves me from treasuring this world and excusing my sin treasuring the knowledge of Christ keeps me from loving this world wanting this world and it keeps me from being okay with sin in my life it cannot be this saving knowledge of Christ keeps me otherworldly could I even use the word satisfaction satisfied it’s not like man I sure would love to have a whole bunch of money but I agreed to this Jesus thing so I’d really rather have the whole bunch of money I’d really rather have massive houses and cars and success and every sexual pleasure I could possibly think of and all the success and accolades and man that’s really what I want but I agreed to this thing no I mean that’s terrible that’s not the gospel the gospel is I’ve been given what? a new nature he says you’re participating in what? the divine nature so that you desire the things God desires and you hate the things God hates so be afraid when your soul on a daily basis is not warring against your sinful inclinations is not hating more and more the way of the world is not longing more and more for Christ to return and make all things new we cannot we cannot have a bare minimum Christianity we cannot do it we cannot say I am not as I once was good enough that’s not good enough it’s not good enough because Christ says knowing him is becoming just like him in holiness and righteousness and someone who has that saving knowledge cannot rest till they are just like Jesus and the world around them is just like Jesus do you want Jesus that much? I’ll push you here I’ll push you here in lazy Christianity I’ll push you here

treasuring Christ means there’s nothing I’ve done that could possibly have helped me get what I have in Christ pride at the same time treasuring Christ means there’s nothing I could do wrong to lose what I’ve been given in Christ so I can’t be so prideful as to think I did something to merit that salvation but then I can’t be so prideful as to think I did something so bad to lose that salvation you think you can foil the divine power of Jesus you think if Jesus has started a good work in you he’s not going to finish it friends there is freedom in this treasure by the divine will and divine power of God

so let the treasure of Christ stir up in you in awe and wonder that you have been given everything in Christ and everything you have is enough and it should draw us into all worship and all obedience and all sacrifice and all zeal for Jesus all the time amen all the time I want to commend our sister Alicia because you know she’s been coaching the boys soccer team Zeke and Dawson are on it and they had this tournament game right now right now as we speak and as you imagine not everyone on that team and pro Jesus but you know Alicia made it clear hey I’m not missing church on Sunday everyone called all the parents around we’re going to be there I can’t let Zeke you know miss church either we just can’t do that we can’t be there if you want to play you can play she set it up got a different coach friends you have to be there you have to get that serious about your sanctification that you’re willing to tease out tease out your time your activity your commitments down to the nth degree that’s the kind of seriousness Jesus wants from us that’s the kind of joy he demands from us can I say joy Jesus doesn’t want us just to be committed he wants us to make a difference to sacrifice with joy I’m not doing that because I’m not going to miss out on this overwhelming soul-filling mind-freeing peace-giving gospel of Jesus it’s altogether better it’s altogether better

the third thing if I treasure the treasure of God the treasure of knowing Christ then I will share the treasure this is a treasure that can’t be hidden and this is a treasure that the more you give it away the more you have it the more you give it away the more you see other people rejoice in this treasure the more you have it to see the kingdom of God go forth friends we’re in a new season as a church and I know we’ve said it so many times and I think for a good reason God has by his good providence has given us this just place in town where there are people walking up all the time this building and they’re going to Publix and they’re going to Walmart and they’re driving by and we’ve been given a very great I think responsibility and privilege here to steward well to preach the good news of the saving knowledge of Christ to sinners let us have all joy and all commitment and all zeal and desire and love for the name of Christ for the name of Christ and if I’m not longing to and I’m not desiring for other people to hear that great gospel message oh I gotta go back to the treasure and remember how wonderful that treasure is how it bids me die to what I want bids me die to what’s comfortable bids me die to how I would like to spend my time in life and it bids me follow in the footsteps of Jesus and do just as he did and what did he do? he began his ministry in evangelism repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand Christ says repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and so friends we’re called in in Christ in the spirit to do no less treasure the saving knowledge of Christ treasure the saving knowledge of Christ and we’ll go even deeper into that next week let’s pray

Father your grace abounds to sinners oh but much more than we can Lord even see how much wilder free radicals your grace and your compassion and your mercy Lord as we thought we found the ends of it and our sins your grace is so much wider and so much deeper as your word says as far as the east is from the west oh Lord open the eyes of faith to treasure knowing you and to treasure being known by you

for in you Jesus are all the treasures of wisdom and you are all the treasures of knowledge in you Jesus are the mystery of the ages to come so Lord let us have nothing else so we love you oh God we worship you

Preacher: Chad Cronin