A Greeting to the Faithful..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Let's read together with reverent hearts each one of the words in First Peter chapter one from verse one to eleven. Simeon, Peter, I servant and apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 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. 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. And 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. Amen.

the Word of God. And as I said, brothers and sisters, this evening we are going to be addressing the first two verses in which the apostle is going to be given not only the introduction to this letter, but he's going to be presenting himself as a servant and a slave. as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. But before we get into the content and the topic of these two verses, beloved of Christ, it's very important for me that we remember that last week I tried to present to you the general message and the structure of the second letter of the apostle Peter. a letter that has been given by the Spirit of God through the ministry of this apostle to these churches, the same recipients of these letters, the first letter of the apostle, but also by the providence of God, by the ministry of the Spirit that in other times spoke to the fathers by the prophets.

In this last day, He has spoken to us through the Son and through His apostles and prophets, in this case, in the second letter of Peter. And the message of this letter, if we are going to summarize the message of this letter, We said last week that this would be an apostolic warning. This will be an apostolic exhortation against the destructive power of false doctrine, against the destructive power of false teachers. In other words, the Apostle Peter is concerned with apostasy in the church. He knows that there will be false teachers in the church who will apostate from the faith, who will leave the faith.

And he's burdened with that, with the fact that there will be false teachers. But he's much more concerned and burdened with the many souls of Christians who can be taken away, who can be carried away, in his own words, by these false prophets, by these false teachers. Because, brothers and sisters, to be taken away, to be carried away in the language of the Apostle Peter is the same to fall away from the faith, to apostate from the faith, to be destroyed. To be follower of the false teachers who are to teach and to guide in false teachings, in lies, is to be destroyed, to apostate from the faith. So you see, to be an apostate, it is not only just that you fall from the faith and that you become an atheist or that you just simply neglect the faith entirely.

To be an apostate, according to Scripture, goes beyond Becoming an enemy of the faith involves more than that. It's not only that you become an atheist or that you leave the faith completely, but rather, according to Scripture, to be an apostate, it is to fall away from sound doctrine. To be an apostate, to be a false teacher, is just simply to depart from the faith. It's just simply to leave sound doctrine. That is the testimony of Scripture in the New Testament.

According to the Apostle Paul in 1st Timothy chapter 4, he says that the Spirit, the Spirit of God expressly says that in the last times some people will depart from the faith and this departing from the faith, this leaving the faith, The apostle defines it not by people becoming atheists or by people becoming enemies, clear enemies of the faith, but rather he defines this departing from the faith of these falling from the faith as people devoting themselves to deceitful spirits. and teachings of demons. So they changed the truth, the sound doctrine of the gospel, and they devoted themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. This is what is departing from the faith according to the New Testament. The same spirit in the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 4 also says that there is going to be a time in which people will not endure sound teaching.

But rather, these people are going to change sound teaching and having each in years, they will put a gift for themselves, accumulate for themselves teachers that will suit their own passions. These teachers have departed from the faith, have departed from sound teaching. And these people are accumulating these type of teachers so that they will speak according to their own passions. And they will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. So brothers and sisters, not all apostates, not all false teachers become atheists.

Some of them, or better, many, many of them, they remain as professing Christians. The thing is that they are given to teachings of demons, calling them the Word of God. And this is something that is fearful. Remember what the Bible says about the heart of men, not only the heart of wicked men, but the heart of every single man before glory arrives, that the heart of men is deceitful above all things and is desperately wicked. It only takes, beloved brothers and sisters, for a thought to enter into our minds and to convince us of something, and then we can be completely given to that, even blindly.

This is how feeble, this is how vulnerable, this is how weak and wicked our human mind is. May the Lord have mercy on all of us, because this is the destructive power of false teaching. This is the destructive power of false teachers and false prophets. And this is what the Apostle Peter is concerned about in this whole letter. So the Apostle is given, as I said last week, two main things here.

He's speaking to us of the nature of this destructive power of false teachers primarily in the whole chapter 2, but also, of course, he's interested in giving an apostolic warning, an exhortation to us, the church, to each one of us. that we are not supposed to believe that we are firm. We are not supposed to believe that we are not going to fall, that we are not going to supposed to believe that we are okay, that we are to come to Christ and in faith always depend on the Lord. And then we are to pay attention to the many warnings and exhortations that are given for the church in the Bible. So the Apostle Peter, in light of these destructive power of false teaching of false doctrine, he gives an apostolic warning, an apostolic exhortation to us, to the church, not to be carried away with these errors.

The whole purpose of the letter, as I said last week, is summarized in the last two verses of chapter three, in which the apostle calls us to take care. to pay attention that we may not be carried away with the error of the apostate, with the error of the false teacher, with the error and the subtlety of the lawless people, and to follow their ways, but rather to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to be prepared, to take care, to know these things, to be prepared for these things so that we will not be carried away by them. So then when it comes to false prophets, the apostle concludes extensively in chapter two of the reality that there is going to be false teachers among the real church. There will be false teachers and false prophets among the real people of God. And these false teachers are going to destroy themselves in judgment, but also They are going to carry with them many deceived souls.

These men were in the truth, according to the apostle. They were walking in the truth, and they even had escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Savior. But they have fallen, or they will fall. from the faith to which they were walking in, because they are not followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they are followers of themselves. This is the terrifying truth that the Apostle Paul implicitly says in Galatians chapter 1 verse 10, that there are men who seek the approval of men, not the approval of God.

There are men who try to please men, not God. And these men, because they try to seek the approval of men and they try to please men, they become servants of themselves and not servants of Christ. All of this, all of this situation in the life of these false teachers happens because they have doubted or they have questioned the authority of the Word of God. As I hope the Lord might give us grace to study in chapter three of this book. They have not denied the authority of the Bible openly and saying, we reject Scripture and we reject the Word of God, but they have done it in a subtle way, in a deceitful way.

They have done it in a covert way. They diminish the practical authority of Scripture. They put themselves at the judges of the Word of God, and they do not let the Word of God judge them. They consider themselves to be wise enough to conclude what the Word of God is. They are wise enough to consider themselves wiser than God.

This is their distraction. May the Lord have mercy on us, on all of us. May the Lord have mercy. So, brothers and sisters, as a loving father, Our God, our God, the one that our brother spoke of, the one that has manifested His glory within us and among us, the one who has manifested His glory through Jesus Christ, our God is concerned, of course, with His children. So through inspiration of the Spirit, our God gave Peter, the apostle, a burden on this matter.

He did not work only the words that are going to be given to us, but he also worked through Peter the apostolic and genuine desire to care and love the bride so that this exhortation will be given to us. Peter is exhorting here the church not to be carried away by these deceitful teachers, not to be taken by these destructive ways. And the way, as I said last week, that he's going to exhort the church and that he's going to exhort us through this letter, it is by showing us three things. The first thing is speaking to us of the divine power of God in us to prevent us from falling into those errors. That is the whole section that we've read from verse one to verse 11 in chapter one.

That is the workings, the divine workings of God in us to prevent us from falling away from being carried by the power and by the charisma even of these false teachers. But also through the letter, he's going to speak to us of the divine power of the word of God that leads us to follow Christ and not to fall away through the lies of Satan through these false teachers, which is the second half of chapter one. And also in the later section of this book, in the final section of this book, after he has explained to us what the false teachers are, He is going to give us an exhortation of the divine power of awaiting the day of the Lord, of having the hope on the day of the Lord. And this will also purify us and keep us from falling. This is the context of verse one and verse two.

It is this section of in which the apostle is going to speak to us of the divine power that is within us to prevent us from falling. So when I'm saying the divine power in us, to prevent us from falling away. I'm talking about what God actually does in us, believers, to prevent us from leaving the faith, from apostating from the faith, from becoming a leavers of the faith. What God actually works in us to to prevent us from this destruction of Satan, this destruction that we would naturally go for, this destruction that we justly deserve. This is the hell-bound race in which we were committedly given to.

This is the hell-bound race in which we were happy to run, the destruction, destination that we had in front of us and that we were moving towards. But God having saved us, now it is concern about keeping us in the way of salvation and protect us into preservation, eternal preservation. So God works divinely in us to preserve us and to keep us by His power. That is the first exhortation that the apostle is going to give in this letter to the church from verse one to verse 11. And the first of these workings of God within his people, the first of those divine interventions of God, if you want, within the people of God, the first of those glorious doings of God in us by his spirit and in the name of Jesus Christ is called faith.

Faith is the topic, is the substance of verse 1 and verse 2, the one that we have in there, that belongs to this bigger section of the workings of God in us to prevent us from falling. Faith, the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things that we have not seen. The faith that is required of us to please God. The faith by which we entered into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith, brothers and sisters.

is the first of the divine workings that Peter will point us to. Faith is the first of those powerful doings, of workings of the Spirit of God in us, that through the admonition and through the counsel of Peter in the Spirit will prevent us from being carried away and being taken into the destructive power of false teaching, that we might not think that we are safe, brothers. and sisters, that we might not think that we are strong enough, that we might not think that we have understood everything that needs to be understood, and that we may not think that there is no need on us to be warned about these things. Because as I said to you, the heart of men is deceitful. is wicked, even in this time of glory.

It is only when glory comes that the sinfulness that remains in us is taken. But until that point arrives, our hearts are deceitful, that you may not be deceived by Satan and by your heart, thinking that we are strong enough and that we know the things that we know and that we're okay with that. Otherwise, all the exhortations and the warnings of the New Testament are going to be closed to your eyes, and you're going to be blind to the words, not of the apostles and the prophets, but you're going to be blind to the words of the Spirit of God. That is the concern of the Apostle Peter in this section. Real saving faith as the first of the workings of God in us to prevent us from being carried away, to prevent us from the destructive power of false teaching.

He's talking about real saving faith. He's not talking about fake faith as that of those who have heard the word. But when the devil, when Satan comes, he takes away the word that has been preached into their hearts so they do not believe. He's not talking about fake faith as the faith of those when they hear the Word of God, they receive it into their heart and they receive it with joy. But because they have no root in and of themselves, they just believe for a little while and in time of testing, in time of tribulation, they fall away.

The Apostle Peter here is not talking about fake faith like that of those who hear the word, but as they go on their way, they are just choked by the curse and the riches and the pleasures of this world and the things that are passing away. And they are concerned with the riches that they're accumulating, and they do not give fruit. But rather, beloved of Christ, the Apostle here is talking about real saving faith, the faith of those who, hearing the Word, hold it fast in an honest way, in good soil, in a good heart. And when they receive it, when they hold it fast, when they put it into their hearts by the work of the Spirit, they bear fruit with patience and endurance until This is the first thing that Peter will address in his letter, his faith. This Peter, who as he's opening this letter, calls himself Simon, Simeon, Peter, given his Hebrew and his Greek name.

Not that being Hebrew or Greek is important, but rather to show that he's not anymore a Jew according to the order of the earthly Jerusalem under the system of Moses, but rather that this Jew, Peter, Simeon, Simon, this Jew is now a Jew after the order of the heavenly Jerusalem through the person of Jesus Christ. that he's not a citizen anymore of the earthly Israel, but rather that he's a citizen of the spiritual Israel of God. And by virtue of this heavenly citizenship that Peter now has in the person of Jesus Christ, he's not only Simeon Peter or Simon Peter, but also he's a servant of the Lord, and a slave of his Lord. By the faith that he's going to speak to us about in these first two verses, Peter is now a servant and a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having been a servant and a slave of sin, he's now a servant.

He's not a slave of righteousness in the person of Jesus Christ. Having been a slave and a servant of unrighteousness, now he's united to the person of Jesus Christ. And being a slave or a servant of Christ is one that belongs and is utterly submitted to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, one that has been taken captive. by the beauty, by the power, by the authority of Jesus.

This Simon Peter, a servant and a slave. It is a slave of Jesus Christ, who is the owner of freedom. He's a slave, a servant of Jesus Christ, who is in himself the suffering servant. But Peter here, as he is introducing to us the topic of faith, he does not only present himself as a slave, but also being a slave of righteousness. He has been given by the Spirit the role of an apostle of Jesus Christ, one that was chosen by the Lord himself to give his life to speak on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ.

One that would set the foundation of truth for the church, one that will labor in the building up of the church as the pillar and the foundation of the truth. One that, as he says, if you put your eyes in verse 16 of chapter one, that he has not followed cleverly devised myths, but he was an eyewitness. of the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the Simeon or the Simon Peter, this slave, this servant given completely to the authority as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, a messenger, a carrier of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. One Peter that in the condition of a servant would have no authority.

But because he's a slave, a servant of Jesus Christ, And now an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ has all the divine and perfect authority of God speaking through him to exhort us and to speak to our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the Peter, the apostle and the slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's now speaking to us, brothers and sisters, on behalf of the Spirit. And he is going to address our faith, our faith. So the contents of these two verses, brothers and sisters, I have wanted to divide it in three different categories and speak better to you on characteristics of real saving faith that we find here in these two verses that will prevent us from falling, that will prevent us from being deceived by the words of Satan through false teachers.

Characteristics of faith that will empower us, working within us as a divine working of God within us, that will keep us and protect us from falling the path of destruction, from falling the path of those who had been decreed to be condemned because they have not obeyed the words of God, as Peter says in his first letter. I want to point your attention and your heart, I hope, by the Spirit of God, beloved of Christ, to three characteristics of real saving faith that will prevent us from falling away that the Apostle implicitly gives us here in these two verses. Three characteristics of real saving faith that will prevent us from falling into the path of destruction. The first of those characteristics is the value of real saving faith. The value of real saving faith.

Once we have addressed the value of real saving faith, beloved of Christ, then I want us to meditate upon the source of real saving faith that is given to us there in these two verses. And after we have meditated upon the source of real saving faith, then I want us to think about the benefits of real saving faith. This is characteristics of real saving faith. Those who are genuine Christians, those who are in Christ, those who have been inserted into Christ by the power of the Spirit. This is not for the fake Christian.

This is not for the utterly or externally better professing, Christian, this is for the genuine son or daughter of God, the value of real saving faith, the source of real saving faith and the benefits of real saving faith. He addresses this after he has introduced himself by saying that his letter is given to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, Then he says, May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. First of all, let me point your attention to the value of real, enduring, saving faith. And this value of real, enduring, saving faith, beloved of Christ, we find it in the statement of the apostle that says, of equal standing with ours." The Apostle says that the faith of the recipients of this letter, and of course, the faith of all believers throughout the ages until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the faith, your faith, if you are in Christ, is of equal standing with ours.

These are the words of the Apostle. And when he says a faith of equal standing, he's speaking about the value of saving faith. Literally that means I faith as precious as, or I faith of the same value as, or I faith of the same worth or honor. He's speaking about the value of the faith of the believer. And of course, we will not understand the value of that faith if we remove ourselves from the comparison that the Apostle is giving us in the text.

He says, a faith of equal standing with ours. He's comparing the value of the faith of the recipients of this letter with our faith. It's very important that we may understand what he is comparing so that we will understand what he's trying to teach us by the spirit of the value of the faith. Now, it is very important for us to understand this comparison because brothers and sisters, some people have said that what the apostle is actually comparing here is the faith of the Gentiles, which is the recipients of this letter. This would have been primarily Gentile people.

And then he's comparing the value of the fate of the Gentiles with the faith of the Jews. They would say, just as Peter was sent by the Spirit of God to preach the gospel to Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, and it was revealed to this apostle that the gospel and that the promise of the Spirit was not only for the Jews, but also was for the Gentiles. Then he has come to the realization and the understanding that all Gentiles and Jews are children of Abraham, and therefore the faith of the Gentiles is of equal standing with the faith of the Jews. That the faith of those who are away from Israel is of the same value, it is of the same preciousness, it is of the same worth and honor than the faith of those who belong to the community or to the country of Israel, to the Jews. I'm going to submit to you, brothers and sisters, that I think it's not very difficult just to simply to follow the text to understand that, first of all, this is not the comparison that Apostle is actually doing.

It's not a comparison between Gentiles and Jews. But actually, he's given us some important information in the use of pronouns. He is comparing a faith of equal standing, and he's comparing that with our faith. So we are supposed and we need to understand that comparison. As you will go and read through chapter one, this first 11 verses, you will see that the apostle Peter sometimes refers to the congregation as including himself and the believers as all the body of believers and sometimes he will refer to the church as you speaking only of them.

The only other time in which the Apostle is going to present this comparison again between we and you or ours and yours as he has done it in verse number one it is in verse 16. And this will help us to understand who he's talking about when he's comparing the faith of the believers. So go with your eyes, beloved of Christ, and with much reverence, as we always do, let's read another portion of scripture. This one is given to us in chapter one in verse 16 through 20. Here the apostle is going to compare again these two pronouns, the third plural, we or us, with you.

He says in verse 16, for we, did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you, he's comparing there, the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now he's going to give us information about who these we are, who these people, or these us, or these we. But we were eyed witnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard these very boys born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain, and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts."

And he continues to speak about the Word of God. Brothers and sisters, he's very clear, and I'm pretty sure that many of you had already read this passage in this particular way, that when the apostle is comparing this value of the faith of the recipients of this letter, he's comparing that with the faith of the apostles. The apostles were the ones who were eyed witnesses of the majesty of the Lord. It was the apostles, or at least Peter, that heard the voice of the father saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased on the mountain. Some of them had been with the Lord in that particular moment.

They had received the prophetic word. This is the comparison that we have in verse one. It is the faith of the apostles, that is, those who had seen, those who have heard, those who have experienced the Lord, those who had touched the Lord, those who had been in fellowship with the Lord. The faith of them was of equal or ease of equal standing than the faith of the believers, those who have not seen the Lord, those who have not touched the Lord, those who have not heard the word of the Father in the same way that the apostle Peter and the other apostles did. Peter is saying that the faith of the Christian, beloved of Christ, is of equal value, of equal standing to the faith of those who were in presence with the Lord.

It's as precious as the faith of the chosen ones of the Lord, as precious as the faith of the apostles. The faith of the normal Christian, you and me, the faith of the normal Christian is of the same worth, of the same value than the faith of those who did see, touch, and hear the Lord. You see, we have, by the grace of the Lord, a relationship with Him that does not require us to actually see Him, touch Him, or hear Him in the same way that the apostle did. That is that the Lord is as close and in us and working in us as He was to them. With them, He was in the body.

They saw Him, and they touched Him, and they experienced the Lord. But by the faith, real saving faith, The Christian is as intimate with the Lord as the faith that had the Twelve and the Apostles. That is, that we have no need to see, to touch, or to hear so that we may be able to love the Lord Jesus Christ. The same Lord Jesus Christ is the blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed in him. This is what the apostle Peter says in his first letter that though we have not seen him, we love him.

And though we have not seen him, we believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and that we are filled with glory. Brothers and sisters, sometimes we think of the apostles and we think of great men of God as having a faith that it is of great value, that it is of great worth and is of great honor. But by the Spirit of God, The faith that we have that has saved us and united us to the person of Jesus Christ is of equal standing, is of equal honor, is of equal worth than the faith of those who did see the Lord Jesus Christ and who did touch the Lord Jesus Christ and who heard the Lord Jesus Christ and all of those Words that express this fellowship between the Christian and the Lord Jesus Christ speak, hear, touch, commune. They become a reality for the Christian who has not experienced those things in the flesh with the Lord, but in the Spirit. Now, of course, brothers and sisters, this does not mean that all Christians have the same amount of faith as the Lord Jesus Christ himself speak of a faith bearing fruit 30 fold and 60 fold and 100 fold.

And he also speaks of people having little faith. We're not speaking about the amount of faith or how big the faith of a person is because people may have different amounts of faith if you want. But what we're talking about here, it is that the worth, the value of the faith of the normal believer. It is the same value, it is the same worth, it is the same preciousness than the faith of those who were eyewitnesses of the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ. It does not matter who you are, or when you were born, or your gender, or your power, or how rich you are, or how much you understand the Bible, or how good it is, whatever doctrine that you want to be good at.

If you have believed by the Spirit, if you do have a genuine faith, then that faith is as precious. That faith is of equal standing. That faith is of the same honor to the faith of those who were among the Lord Jesus Christ. The faith of those who walked in the Lord and with the Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder, brothers and sisters, no question why the Bible speaks of us as believers after the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, walking with the Lord and walking in the Lord and walking in the Spirit of God.

No wonder, no question why the Bible calls us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, to dwell with the Lord Jesus Christ, to commune with the Lord Jesus Christ, that the Lord Jesus speaks to us through His Word, that we can hear His voice. All of these things that in the eyes of the flesh require the presence of the other person, they become a reality by real saving faith because that faith is precious, is as precious as those who were with the Lord. This is Our living hope. This is Jesus Christ, our living hope. He's not dead.

That's what Peter said in his first letter, that He's our living hope. That He's not an abstract concept that simply abides outside of our mind. He's a person and He's living. And because He's living, then by our faith and in the Spirit, in the truth of His Word, we can know the Lord. And the Lord can know us, of course.

We can experience the blessings of communion with the Lord by real saving faith. Brothers and sisters, the only reason why our faith is of the same worth, it is of the same value, it is of the same preciousness, of the same standing to the faith of Peter and those who were with the Lord and those apostles that were very close to him. It's not because of us. It's not because we have the ability to produce this preciousness and this value in our faith, but rather it is because of the source of our faith. That is from where our faith comes from.

It is the place where faith is given to us. And that is the second point that I wanted to mention to you. It is not only about the value of real saving faith, brothers and sisters, but also it's about the source of this real, enduring, saving faith. The apostle says in verse one that to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by or through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, He says that we have obtained, or at least the audience of this letter, and of course all Christians, that they have obtained a faith. And this faith is as precious and has been given through or by the righteousness of our God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, note that this faith is not achieved or reached, but rather this word obtained speaks of the passive role of the person. I'm not doing that the person does not do anything, but rather this word in the Greek speaks of a complete monergistic role of the one that is the source of faith. Giving that faith and allocating that faith that those who have faith is because they have received that faith, is because they have been determined to receive that faith. That is what the original language means, that those who have received this precious faith, they have received it as a gift. This precious faith that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, if we are in Christ, it is given to the Christian as a complete gift.

This thing which is precious, this thing which is valuable of the same worth of those who saw the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the Christian does not have a need to be convinced through history and through books and through evidence that the Lord Jesus Christ existed. It is only required that there will be in the heart of that person is spirit given faith. So then that person will have a faith that is so precious that will convince him of the existence. and the life of Jesus Christ.

And this is a gift of God. It is by grace that we have been saved through faith. And this is not our own doing. This is not our own work, but rather it is the free gift of God. This faith This enduring, saving faith that will prevent us from falling, brothers and sisters, is a complete, 100% gift given by God and is not a result of our own righteousness, so that we may not boast in who we are and the things that we do.

we have obtained, we have been determined to receive this precious faith. But perhaps the most important thing that I want you to pay attention to, it is rather the means and the instrument by which this faith is given. According to the Apostle Peter in this text, he says that we have obtained a faith that is of equal standing with ours, with that of the apostles, by or through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. That is that the instrument by which faith is given as a gift to the Christian is the righteousness of God and Savior, Jesus Christ. That is that the source, the place where faith comes.

If there is a place of departure where faith departs and makes it into the salt and into the life of a believer. That place is the righteousness of God. It is the means. It is the death. It is the source from where it comes.

It is the righteousness of God and the Savior, Jesus Christ. Of course, I want you to note the clear and obvious connection that the apostle is trying just to make here between the deity of Christ and his condition of a Savior when he calls him God and Savior, Jesus Christ. But what the most important thing that the Apostle is trying to point us here, it is that the source of the means by which this faith is given to the Christian, it is the divine righteousness of God. His righteousness, brothers and sisters, is His perfect and moral justice. His righteousness, the righteousness of God, is that which is right and perfect in God.

There is no hint of crookedness or imperfection in God. He is perfectly moral in character. God is good and there is absolutely no evil in Him. This is the righteousness of God. So the faith, the genuine faith of the believer, comes through this perfect righteousness of God.

It is derived from this perfect righteousness of God, or proceeds from this perfect righteousness of God, or originates from this perfect righteousness of God, is taught from the perfect righteousness, the perfect moral justice of God. In other words, The faith of a Christian is the result of the perfection, the moral perfection, the perfect righteousness of God in and of himself. When we see, brothers and sisters, a person who by grace through faith is being saved, now this is the working of the righteousness of God. So when a person who has been living his or her life as a lost sinner for many years, And then this person comes to a point in which faith is given. The Spirit has visited this person and this person is saved.

That what we see there is the workings, the operations of the righteousness of God. The perfect righteousness of God is transferred or given to a sinner upon faith. The perfection, the moral perfection of God, it is given. It is the means by which this person is saved. Now, we know that this is the imputation of the righteousness of Christ upon the person that believes.

It is the exchange. It is the transferring of the righteousness of Christ given to that person by faith. But the glorious thing about these, brothers and sisters, is not so much that we receive this gift of righteousness, that righteousness is imputed or given to us from God himself, that the righteousness of God is given to the sinner. But the glorious thing about this is that while God does so, He remains righteous. That by the fact that God is now giving righteousness to an unrighteous and unwicked sinner, That by doing so, God remains righteous and perfect.

There is no change in God. There is no alteration in God's righteousness when He gives of His righteousness unto a person. By God giving faith to sinners from or out of His righteousness, He does not become imperfect. But why? Why is that the case?

Why is that the case that something that it is holy and perfect comes and transfer gives righteousness to that which is unrighteous and that which is imperfect? And he does not change and he remains being just and righteous. Why, brothers and sisters? Because God does not give his righteousness to sinners by virtue of the sinner. But God gives of His righteousness to sinners by virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is perfectly righteous.

This is the glorious exchange of the cross. God can be both the just and the justifier of the wicked. God can be the person who is found to be just when judgment comes. And also He can be the justifier of the unjust. He can be the justifier of the wicked only because of the person of Jesus Christ.

There is no accusation that can be brought to the divine tribunal from Satan, accusing God as an unjust God, because what he did was perfectly righteous. And this only happens because of the person of Jesus Christ. For our sake, God made Jesus Christ to be seen, and he did not know sin, so that in union with Jesus Christ by this faith, we may become the righteousness of God. It is because by faith in Christ, we can come to God, not having a righteousness that is from our own obedience to the works of the law, but rather a righteousness that comes through the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteousness that is from God Himself, as the Apostle Paul said in Colossians and in 2nd Corinthians. Brothers and sisters, I know that we are used to speak of these concepts of righteousness by faith and given to us by brothers and sisters.

The righteousness that the believer has is the righteousness of God Himself. Think about, brothers and sisters, how great was the chasm, how great was the distance, how great was the separation between God and us, how immense and unapproachable was Mount Sinai. It was the thunders and the smoke in Mount Sinai in the low, how unwalkable was the path of our own righteousness, how burdensome was the sin of our own nature, but praise be to God. Praise be to God who knows the heart of men, still He lets them be. Praise be to God that knowing the unrighteousness, unrighteousness of sinners, He lets them live.

He lets them to continue with His workings and His doing. passing over these sins. Why? Because in the person of Jesus Christ there is justice and there is righteousness. God does not consume in his fury and in his wrath the world when the first thing came into the world because he knew that he could have waited for the one who was going to come and fulfilled all the requirements of obedience to God so that in him The punishment of his people will be poured, and these people will be united to him by and through the righteousness of God.

There's no work. There is no good deed. There is nothing good that we can done that can come close to the righteousness of God. Any sinner, any sinner, independently of the wickedness of their sin, When any sinner convicted by the spirit in great desperation and anguish believes in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, then this person, he or she can confidently turn to heaven, turn to the divine court, relying on the work of the Savior Jesus Christ to hear from the mouth of God his or her name being spoken of as innocent. justified.

Every single sinner, every single person that is not in Christ, there's no sin that has been committed by a person that cannot be covered by the righteousness of God himself in the person of Jesus Christ, so that he or she will receive a faith as precious. as if we had seen the Lord of glory in front of us, as if we had been that day with John and Mary in front of the cross, seeing our Savior upon that cross, giving up this spirit and saying, it is finished, a faith that is of equal standing as if we had been there with the Lord the last night in the supper with Him, knowing that He was going to die, a faith of the same value and the same standing and the same honor of being with Him even now. Brothers and sisters, this is the faith that we have in the person of Jesus Christ that has granted us and given us the righteousness of God Himself so that we can present ourselves before the presence of God Almighty. because we are found to be righteous, not because of us, but because of Christ, who by His righteousness gives us life. Not only a judicial statement, brothers and sisters, just either the righteousness of Christ, it is not only limited to His this judicial or legal statement in which we are innocent, but then the blessings of Christ restored in heaven for us are given to us by faith.

We are justified by faith. The righteousness of Christ is given and imputed to us, but once faith is given, life, the life of Christ is given. to the saint, is given to the person that has been united to the person of Jesus Christ. So then the apostle in verse two can speak of grace and can speak of peace. Brothers and sisters, apart from real faith, the concept of grace and the concept of peace is alien to our ears.

apart from real saving faith of equal value and standing to that of every single saint in the history of redemption, apart from real saving faith and union to the person of Jesus Christ, then grace and peace are completely away from our understanding. Grace is not only this that is given for free or that we do not deserve but rather grace brothers and sisters is this divine action of God in us or on us not only that we do not deserve something that is given to us from God but actually is the active operations of God on us it is on our favor workings of God it is on our side workings or operations of God this is the the grace of God there are some saints around the world that will ask themselves do you have grace do you have grace do you have grace this is it is God working on you it is the operations of God are in you and only this can be true for a person when there is real saving faith Has God come and visited you and He is working in you? You do not deserve that God will work in you. There is grace on you, the grace of God working in and through us, but not only the grace of God, also brothers and sisters, the peace. The peace of God that can be multiplied to us.

An objective peace of knowing that we are not in enmity with God anymore by the faith that we have through the Lord Jesus Christ, but also a subjective peace that comes from our communion with the Lord Jesus Christ that surpasses all our understanding. A peace that abides in our emotions and in our feelings. A subjective peace that is derived from the objective peace that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ. knowing that we have been forgiven, knowing that we have been cleansed, knowing that we have been restored, knowing that we have the righteousness of God. Now we can enjoy and walk in the life of Jesus Christ and have the peace that surpasses all understanding only through the person of Jesus Christ.

All of this can be multiplied to the believer only when they have real saving faith. And this is in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. The Apostle Paul In his gospel, in chapter 17 in verse 3, he defines eternal life as the fact that we know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom God the Father has sent. This is eternal life. It is knowing God and knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, not intellectually, but our lives have been changed in a drastic way so that we are new creatures in the person of Jesus Christ.

And this is eternal life. that not that we know him, but that he know us even from before and that he chose us in Christ so that we will be made the righteousness of God. This is eternal life. This is the great desire of the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter three of growing in the knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ, in the excellency, he says, of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to be found in the power of His resurrection, that is to grow in Him, in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. These are the benefits of our saving faith, that these words that are spoken to us, they have a meaning.

When the Spirit of God says grace and peace unto you in the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ our Lord, these words have meaning. They operate in us because of the saving faith that we have in the person of Jesus Christ, which is of equal value, which is of equal standing, real saving faith. Brothers and sisters, as I was meditating this morning on the contents of this message, I asked myself, why did Judas betray the Lord? What did it take for Judas to betray the Lord? Think about it, beloved.

What was that that it took for Judas to betray the Lord Jesus Christ? A man, Judas, who had been chosen by the Lord, a man who had seen the miracles and power of the Lord, a man who had witnessed the love and compassion of the Savior, a man who had listened to the astonishing teachings of the Lord, and a man who had experienced the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, just as the other disciples had done it. What did it take for Judas to consider, even in his mind, betraying the Lord for 30 pieces of silver? What was that that took place so that Judas will consider giving or betraying the Lord Jesus Christ? A man who had seen the Lord multiplying the fish and bread, a man who had seen face to face the one who is owner of every beast of the forest and the cattle on a thousand hills.

What was that that it took for Judas to become an apostate, to leave Christ, to depart from Christ, to be an anti-Christ? The Gospel of Luke in chapter 22, verse 3 says that Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot. That Satan entered into... that when Judas went with the Lord, Satan entered into Judas. And when Satan had entered into Judas, then he went to the chief priest in order to betray the Lord Jesus Christ.

The word enter literally means that Satan arose to go into Judah. That Satan as a roaring lion came to Judah to devour him and he was allowed to come into Judah to take him. That he arose trying to attack and he was given permission to come into Judah and to enter into Judah. Satan was given sovereign permission not only to come around Judas, but actually to go into Judas and make him his child, the child of destruction, to complete his evil working. Satan arose and entered into the person of Judas so that he would do what he was supposed to do according to Scripture, to betray the Lord, a betrayal unto death.

a betrayal unto judgment, not only unto his body destruction, but the destruction of his soul. What a different story, brothers and sisters, compared to the story of another betrayer, Peter, the one who is also given us this letter here, the one who, in his personality, was always very quick to come to the Lord and say that he was going to do the things, that he was ready to go with the Lord both to prison and to death. A soul that was always very quick in emotions and in the flesh to say that he was never going to betray the Lord Jesus Christ. But also, the soul of a person who ended up betraying the Lord Jesus Christ in a different way, but he also ended up betraying the Lord Jesus Christ. We're also told by Scripture that in the case of Peter, it was Satan that came to request, to require Peter to be sifted, to be shaken, to be tested in his faith, and that Peter actually went and betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ, as we know in this story.

The only difference, brothers and sisters, it is that Peter had been the recipient of real, saving, enduring faith. Judas, even though he had been chosen unto the ministry of the apostles, even though he had seen the Lord Jesus Christ, even though he had been in the midst of the Lord Jesus Christ, just as Peter, he did not have saving faith. So the Lord, when he came to both of them, the Lord Jesus Christ prayed for Peter so that the faith of Peter may not fail, and then also pray for the restoration of Peter so that he will be the means by which his brothers will be strengthened. Peter was a recipient of the righteousness of God. Not because of himself, but because of the infinite sovereign grace of God.

And as a recipient of this glorious faith and the righteousness of God, then grace and peace were given unto Peter. to endure so that his faith may not fail, so that he will endure until the end. The other one was a son of the devil, was a faithless person, was a person that was with the Lord but had not believed in his heart in the Lord. You see, brothers and sisters, faith is only the workings of God. We don't need to see, we don't need to touch, we don't need to be with Christ.

We need the Spirit of God working in our hearts and giving us faith to be saved initially and then to walk in our life with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the glory of justification by faith. alone. And this is the uniqueness of justification by faith. Among all other blessings in Christ, justification is unique.

And it's unique because we will be as justified today as we will be justified in eternity. You see, when it comes to sanctification, there is going to be greater states of sanctification. You grow in sanctification. And when you enter into glory, then sin is completely removed from you. And then sin is no more.

So then you are glorified. So you grow in sanctification, and you're growing glory. When it comes to adoption, we are fully adopted once we become Christians. We are adopted as the children of God. But there is an important aspect of communion and fellowship in adoption, which will be consummated once we are with the Lord Jesus Christ.

But when it comes to justification, It does not matter the sins that we've committed. Once we have received by the Spirit of God the blessing of faith working of us, in us, and we are justified before the Lord, the state of our justification, it is as precious as it will be a million years into eternity. We will not be more or less justified. Once a person has declared to be justified and righteous before the divine court, then that person is justified because of the person of Jesus Christ. And the fact that this justification does not change, or the fact that this justification is immutable, is because the righteousness of this justification is the righteousness of Christ, the righteousness that has been given to the Christian by Christ, by God himself, a righteousness not of our own, and a righteousness that has the power not only to make us innocent, but a righteousness that has the power to give us everything in our life that pertain to life and godliness, as the apostle will move into his argument as we progress through this letter.

May the Lord give us grace to grasp these things. In Jesus' name, amen.