Series: 2 Peter
Title: His Divine Power
Text: 2 Peter 1: 2-4
Date: November 27, 2011
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Peter is writing to believers born of the Spirit of God by the Divine Power of God.
2 Peter 1:2: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.
Some here do not yet know this grace and peace of our Lord. May this be the day Christ binds the strong man, enters in, takes possession of that which is his, making you alive and full of light by his glorious presence and power.
Brethren, through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, God multiplies to the believer a larger discovery of his grace. The more we know that salvation is all of his free, unchanging grace the more peace of heart we enjoy.
GRACE AND PEACE ARE MULTIIPLED “Through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.”
Knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord has to do with both God’s Wisdom in teaching his children and with us learning more of God the Savior personally, intimately, in spirit and in truth. The Lord Jesus said
John 17: 3: And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
A right knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord is absolutely necessary to spiritual life and spiritual growth. Four times, in eight verses, Peter says:
2 Peter 1:2: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, 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:…5: And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;…8: 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.
The best study for one of God’s elect is God in Christ—his name, nature, person, work, attributes. Nothing improves the spiritual man as prayerfully hearing the gospel and studying the word of God.
· Our pride is made small by God’s fullness
· Our cares drowned in the deep sea of God’s word.
· The man who spends his time hearing and studying God in Christ will be rooted and grounded and no more tossed here there by the smorgasbord of corrupt half-truths promoted by idolaters.
Believer, know yourself and that will make you miserable; know your God, and that will make you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
That means we always need to prepare our hearts to hear the gospel of God our Savior: the night before, by arriving early, reading and asking the Lord to give you a hearing ear. And after the message do not soon forget what you have heard. Go home, study to see if these things be so and think on these things throughout the week.
James 1: 19: Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
Title: His Divine Power
I. GRACE AND PEACE ARE MULTPLIED THE SAME WAY WE WERE CALLED, BY THE DIVINE POWER OF GOD
Though we may study to learn more of the Lord, an increase in knowledge of Christ is given to the believer even as it began in us…
2 Peter 1:3: 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.
God Gives Unto His Child All Things That Pertain to Life and Godliness, Through His Wisdom, When In Divine Power God Calls Us to Glory and Virtue. The call of a preacher cannot do this. This is the powerful call of grace whereby the Spirit of God make us altogether new creatures, giving life to the dead —
“Lazarus come forth” —
“Zacchaeus come down.”
Note: God does call and convert his elect bringing us to glory and virtue: that is to “honor and praise” him, to live a life of virtue, a life of doing right by the Spirit of God, and to the hope of glory hereafter with him.
But it is “by his “glory—his exceeding power” and by his virtue—“his excellent power” that he call his child into his marvelous light.
Ephesians 1: 19: And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
Chrysostom says: "The conversion of souls is more wonderful than the resurrection of the dead."
Oecumenius: "To raise us from spiritual death is an exercise of the same power that raised Christ from natural death.
2 Corinthians 4: 7: But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
1 Peter 2:9: But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
· Called by his Divine Power
· Called by his Exceeding Glory
· Called by his Excellence
· Called into his Marvellous Light
II. BY HIS DIVINE POWER ARE GIVEN EXCEEDING GREAT AND PRESIOUS PROMISES
2 Peter 1: 4: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:…
These are not merely promises made to us, but promises which God fulfills/performs in us in the new birth whereby Christ—who is all life and godliness—is formed in us. It is then that God makes us partakers of the divine nature, delivering us from the corruption that is in the world through lust.
What are these exceeding great and precious promises? They were promised long ago by God concerning the new heart God would put in his elect by the Holy Spirit.
Jeremiah 31:31: Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: :32: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34: And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Ezekiel 36:25: Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26: A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 37:12: Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13: And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, 14: And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.
Peter is telling us that when the Lord God raises a sinner from death to life by the power and grace of his Spirit, when we are born of the Incorruptible Seed, when God sprinkles our hearts with the clean water of his grace and puts a new spirit in us, he makes us new creatures in Christ.
III. BY HIS DIVINE POWER GOD MAKES THE BELIEVER PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE.
2 Peter 1: 4:…that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
He does not mean that we have become partakers of the divine essence. And he does not mean that we now possess the attributes of divinity. The divine nature is the nature of Christ, and the holiness of God. It is to have Christ himself imparted to us and formed in us by the Holy Spirit.
Colossians 1: 27: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
For as much as the children were flesh and blood, God the Son became partaker of flesh and blood, taking not the nature of angels, but the nature of his elect—that he and his people might be one flesh. Christ makes his children partakers of the same spirit that we may be one spirit; for “he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” Our Head is our Husband and we are “members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” Believers are eternally united in one—in flesh and spirit—as the branch and the vine. It is by Christ being formed in us making us partakers of the Divine nature and possessors with Christ of all that is his by his glory and virtue.
It is an amazing mystery to the believer that the Son of God partook of the nature of his elect, lived and died for us, so that through the Holy Spirit his sinful children are born of his Spirit and made partakers of the Divine nature making us righteous in him and fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.
IV. BY HIS DIVINE POWER THE BELIVER HAS ESCAPED CORRUPTION
2 Peter 1: 4: 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.
Our Father has delivered us and translated us:
Colossians 1: 12: Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
2 Corinthians 6: 14: Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15: And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16: And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17: Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18: And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. 7:1: Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Having these promises fulfilled in us by the Divine Power of God—his cleansing us, his walking in us and making us his children in the new birth, his bearing witness in the new heart that we have redemption and forgiveness, that we have peace and reconciliation, that we have and shall be presented perfect to God by Christ who washed us, that coming out he will receive us and be a Father unto us and we his children. So that by His Divine Power the Spirit of God delivers us out of our corrupt fleshly lust of trying to perfect ourselves and delivers us into the perfect, complete holiness of his dear Son.
Our holiness, our righteousness, our sanctification before God in Christ is perfect. Believers are holy! Believers are delivered into Christ who is the perfection of holiness. And we are perfect in him.
Believers, grow in Christ, in grace and knowledge of him. But we do not, by our works, add to Christ’s work, making ourselves better in God’s sight. Perfect cannot be improved!
Our Lord did not become more of a man, or even a better man, than he was in the beginning of his incarnation. He simply grew in his manhood. So too, the believer grows in grace; but does not become more holy, or righteous. Brethren, you are as fully complete in Christ as Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
The sin and lust of our old man is still with us. But by the Divine Power of God, God has delivered us and by his grace we have escaped.
Galatians 5: 24: And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
When and how?
Galatians 2:20: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
1 John 4:4: Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
Review:
1. By his Divine Power He Calls Us
2. By his Divine He Fulfills His Great and Precious Promises of Making Us New Creatures in Christ
3. By his Divine Power He Make us Partakers of the Divine Nature
4. By his Divine Power He Has Made Us to Escape the Corruption that is in the world through lust
It is by this same divine power, through the knowledge of God and our Savior Jesus Christ, that grace and peace are multiplied unto us.
Let me end by putting you in remembrance.
2 Peter 1: 5: And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 8 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. 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. 10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 12 ¶ 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. 13 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
Ephesians 4:21: If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23: And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24: And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Colossians 3: 2: Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3: For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Amen!