Be Diligent to Supplement Yo..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Please open up your Bibles to the second letter of Peter. And by God's grace, we continue with our studies on these short series that I desire and I hope that is the desire of the Lord for us to study and to meditate together on verse or better the topic that is given to us in verse 18 of chapter three.

which is about growing in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, it is my desire, and as I said, I hope that this is the desire of our Savior, that we will meditate together as a church on this very important topic of the Christian life, of how are we going to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. This, according to the words of the Apostle Paul, is to grow in conformity to Christ. And in the words of the Apostle Peter, here in verse 18, is to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And as I said last week, the answer that the Apostle gives to this question on how are we to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, The answer that the Spirit of God gives through the Apostle is contained in the first 11 verses of chapter 1.

There the Apostle very practically and very clearly explained to us how we are supposed to grow spiritually. So it is my desire, and once again, I hope that this is the desire of God and His Spirit in Christ, that we will meditate together on how to grow spiritually, how to grow in conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ, or in the words of Peter, how to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And this afternoon, beloved of Christ, I'm going to invite you to meditate upon the topic of giving diligence to supplement our faith with virtue. That is the statement that is found in verse five of chapter one, in which the apostle calls us to make every effort or to be diligent, to add or to supplement our faith with virtue or with goodness or with moral excellence. So what I want us to do by God's grace, and I hope ultimately for the preeminence of Christ in our hearts, is that we will meditate together about being diligent in supplementing our faith with virtue.

As you can see there, I'm connecting chapter one with chapter three and those verses there in the end of chapter three. So what we're gonna be doing, beloved of Christ, is that we're gonna be reading chapter one in which we are going to be getting the context of everything that I want to share with you this afternoon. And then once we finish chapter one, then we're gonna jump and we're going to read those two verses in the end of the letter. The apostle starts with the burden of growing, spiritually speaking, and he concludes his letter with the same burden that we will grow spiritually, namely, in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. If the Lord Jesus and his spirit is not with us, there is no point in speaking and uttering words, and there is not even point in being gathered together.

So may the Lord help us, not only as we read these words, to pay attention to them, to get the context as we read by faith and for the glory of Christ, but also, beloved, I pray and I desire in the Lord that we will preach and that we will hear the word that is preached in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ so that we will be made more like him. So I'm going to invite you now, your hearts, your minds, your souls, We are not doing this just to play church and not just to appease our consciences on a Sunday so that we will be moving on for the rest of the week. We are doing this for the Lord Jesus Christ, the lover of our soul, the savior of our soul, the one who was given for the salvation of wicked people like us so that we will be gathered together now to read his word and to claim that we're speaking on his behalf. So might the Lord help us as we read and as we utter words. Chapter one of Second Peter.

Simeon or Simon, Peter, a 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 and Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so near-sighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more diligent to confirm your call in an 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 our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me, and I will make every effort, so that after my departure you will be able at any time to recall these things. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses 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 this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamb shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. But men, or holy men of God, spoke from God as they were carried along by the holy. Spirit, that is chapter one.

Now we jump to chapter three. And then in the concluding verses, the apostle, after he has spoken of these false prophets that are threatening all of these glorious realities, in verse 17 says, you therefore, beloved, you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care. that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability, but grow, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now unto the day of eternity. Amen.

This is the word of the Lord. May the Lord Jesus Christ help us as we do all of these things in his name. Beloved of Jesus Christ, brothers, sisters, dear soul, it is the desire of my heart and of my soul that we together will meditate about how to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not coming here as one who is going to instruct you on how to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, but rather one that is learning with you from the scriptures and from the Holy Spirit on how we can kill self, and become more like the Savior Jesus Christ. So the agony of my heart is not so much for yours, it is, but it's for my heart, that we all together will die to self and will grow in likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ, or according to the words that the Spirit of God gave to Peter, that we will grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Beloved, there is no more urgent thing for the life and for the soul of a Christian than to grow in Christ's likeness, than to grow in the likeness of our Savior, than to die to self. and to have the Lord Jesus Christ enthroned in our hearts. That is my desire, beloved of Christ. And what I said to you is that this afternoon I want to point your attention to a very practical instruction that the apostle has given to us, primarily there in chapter 1 in verse 5, in which he is calling us to be diligent or to make every effort to supplement our faith with virtue. So I'm going to call your attention and your mind, your hearts, beloved of Christ.

In this endeavor that the Spirit of God has given us, in this task that Christ has given us as a church of answering this question of how to grow spiritually, how to grow in Christlikeness, or how to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we will, in that endeavor, to meditate together about that instruction given to us in verse five in chapter one, that we will be diligent. We will make every effort to add, to supplement our faith with virtue. I'm going to call your attention to meditate about being diligent, that we will be diligent, that we will make every effort, that we will meditate and think about supplementing our faith. And then to the end, I want us to think about this concept of virtue. What are we going to add to our faith?

Peter says that is virtue, what we are to supplement our faith with. So we are to understand what Scripture says when the Spirit of God commands us to supplement our faith. with virtue. And I cannot move on to what we're gonna be doing today without reminding you, beloved of Christ, dear soul, of the things that I said to you last week that are vital and very important for us to continue and to move through this short series of answering that very important question for our soul. And the things that I wanted to bring to your attention and to your heart last week is that if we are going to grow spiritually in the knowledge and in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, if we are going to die to self and Jesus Christ is going to be enthroned in our hearts, if by faith, indeed, we're going to kill the flesh and who we are so that Christ will be enthroned in our hearts, then it's vital, that it's essential, and that it's important that you must believe that this working of holification or sanctification, it started primarily from the divine.

There is nothing that we can do to move ourselves into being more like the person of Jesus Christ. So it is necessary and it's very important that you understand that and that you believe that your process of growth, that your process of sanctification, that your process of Christ-likeness, that your process of dying to self, It starts primarily in the heavenly abode, in the person of Jesus Christ, as the Father has been pleased to make us like Him in the Beloved. There's nothing that fallen people and even Christians can do in and of themselves. to make themselves like Christ. It is His divine power that has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by or to His glory and virtue.

It is Him, beloved of Christ. If you want to remove the burden from your soul, if you want to remove the burden from your shoulders of being more righteous, then you are to set your eyes on the person of Jesus Christ, because He is the one that has accomplished all on your behalf, and He is the one that through His knowledge and by His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. That is evidence in your life, as I said last week, and I'm not ashamed to repeat it because it's important for your soul, in your process of self-examination. If you examine yourself not in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, if you examine yourself just purely in your flesh, the result of it is going to be a burden upon your shoulders that is impossible to be carried in your own strength. The glory of this gospel of Jesus Christ is that He has saved us not only by what He accomplished upon the cross in the beginning of our salvation, but it's also that we live by faith in the Son of God.

And therefore, self-examination of your soul and of your sins must be done in light of the accomplishments of Christ and the reality and the conviction that He is victorious and that no one will take the place in which our King is now seated and thrown in heaven. Nobody, not even Satan, can do anything to remove Christ from the due place at the right hand of the Father. Hence, all self-examination of your sin, beloved of Christ, is meant to be done in light of this glorious reality, that independently of the darkness and the wickedness and the unrighteousness of the sin that we are confessing and the sin that we're coming and bringing before the Lord, The cross is more mighty, mightier, more powerful, more glorious, and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses the reddest of our sins. That is a very essential, important thing. You know, practically speaking, that that is your life because of how you deal with your personal sins, how you deal with your confessions.

If the result of your repentance and your confession is peace, That means that you believe Christ when you were saved and that you continue to believe Him because the cross is powerful and mighty and Christ is our propitiation at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us even when we sin as believers. If the result of our repentance and our confession is peace because we are in agreement with the Lord Jesus Christ, then that means that by his grace we do believe that he is the one that starts the process of sanctification in the believer. If not, we may say with our mouth and with our heads, but we are still striving in our own flesh to become better Christians in and of ourselves and in our own strength. I cannot have any other words to point to you to the most important reality that is that. And I suppose that I will remind you of it as many times as I'm preaching from this pulpit about this particular topic.

The second essential thing that you must remember before we move on to what we're going to be doing today is not only that your process of sanctification starts with God and not with you, but that when God decides, and He does because He sanctifies all His children, When God operates sanctification in us, when God makes us grow in the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is going to be a transformation of our faith. There is going to be a transformation of our faith. Spiritual growth is not something that is static and unchanging. But faith, once is by the sovereign and divine will, acted upon by the power of the Spirit and by the mercies of Christ, then the faith of that believer will be transformed. And according to James, that is a faith that is alive.

A faith that is not dead. And according to Peter, that is a faith that supplements itself with virtue. And then adds to that knowledge and self-control and all of the virtues that we have there in verse 5 of chapter 1. There's no such a thing as spiritual growth that only has faith in the mind of a person beloved. This is very important for our self-examination, but this is also very important when we are, by the love of Christ, helping souls that are around us, when we are to discern the ways of our brothers and sisters, when we are to discern by the Spirit of God through the scripture, the ways of the church and the ways of our brothers and sisters.

If we are going to care for our spiritual growth, how are we not going to care for the spiritual growth of those who we say that we love? So our faith and their faith is to be passed through the test of what scripture says. And that is that when God is making a person grow, it is moving a person to growing Christ-likeness, there is going to be a transformation of their faith. In supplementing that faith with all of these virtues that we have here in front of us, and I hope by God's grace in the next four weeks we will examine together the first one of those virtues. And the third one, the third thing that I wanted to share with you also, very important, not only that is God the one that initiates this process of growth and that there is going to be a transformation in our faith, very important is that in light of the sovereign control of God and the sovereign power of God upon our lives, that the providence of God has determined that is required and that is necessary that we will be diligent.

that we will be diligent. Beloved of Christ, there is no contradiction between the sovereignty of God and the providence of God as it is executed for His people. It is God's power according to Peter in chapter 1. Verse 3 to 5, that it is God the one who has kept us, who is keeping us for a salvation that is ready to be revealed. And the keeping us, or the guarding us, or the protecting us of God by His power is through our faith.

There's no contradiction. It's God the one that keeps us, and guards us, and protects us. But He does it providentially through our faith. And in that sense, beloved of Christ, the Apostle calls us to be diligent. To be diligent in growing in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, in growing spiritually speaking, in growing in Christ likeness and in conformity to the Savior.

Beloved, dear soul, we are to be diligent or according to the ESV, we are to make every, every effort. That does not give room for being a slothful. That does not give room to be lazy when it comes to the health of our souls. That does not give room for us not to care about our spiritual growth, but rather established upon the truth that He is the one that provides all things for us. Then we are to be diligent, not because it starts in us, but rather because we have the solid promise that it is His divine power, the one that is granting to us all things that pertain to this life of Christianity.

Beloved of Jesus Christ, it does not matter the intensity of my words and doesn't matter the intensity of my desire to communicate this to you. If the Spirit of God does not convey that to your heart and you receive it by faith, we simply are just speaking to the earth. Just remember the importance of these things that I believe I'm telling you under the authority of the Scriptures and just very simply just interpreting what is written there. So, in that order of ideas, I want to point your attention to diligence in supplementing our faith with virtue. The Apostle calls us in verse 5 to be diligent, to make every effort to supplement our faith with virtue.

As I said, beloved, this diligence does not give us any room for us to be a slothful or for us to be lazy. We are to understand. how to be diligent. And as I said to you last week, I desire to be very doctrinal. But at the same time, beloved of Christ, I want to be as practical as possible and under the light that the Lord has given me from the Scriptures.

And of course, In the and on the authority of what is written, I want to point your soul to very practical matters. So that you will have answers on how to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So before I address on how are we going to be diligent, because that is the important thing. We know that we are called to be diligent. This is not the only time that the apostle calls us to be diligent.

In chapter 3, he says that we are to be diligent, that we will be found holy at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want just to throw words at you and say that you're to be diligent, and you're to be diligent, and you're to be diligent. I desire to tell my soul and your soul how to be diligent so that you will supplement your faith with virtue. And I want to tell you how to supplement your faith with virtue. But I cannot point you to the how to be diligent, beloved of Christ.

If first of all, I do not point your heart and your soul to the reason why we ought to be diligent. Why is it required of your heart, dear soul? Why is it required of you, brother and sister, that you will be diligent in your spiritual growth? Why God requires of you whatever your name is and your heart is? Why does Jesus Christ require of you that you will be diligent?

Then your heart and your mind may say, for the glory of God, and that is true. For the preeminence of Christ in all things, according to the Apostle Paul in Colossians, and that is true. So many reasons why we ought to be obedient. But I want to point your attention to something that pertains to our heart. And that is that the reason why we are to be diligent in growing in Christ's likeness, beloved of Christ, is because if you have not realized yet, we are very weak.

We are incredibly weak. We are feeble. We are needy. Apart from the intervention of God, there's absolutely nothing that we can do in and of ourselves. apart from the intervention of the Spirit of Christ, and apart from spiritual matters operating in our hearts, then we are so needy, so weak, and so feeble, that if our life is dependent on our workings, and if it's dependent on our diligence in the flesh, we will not only be saved, but if for some reason we will be saved, then that salvation will be gone immediately.

Beloved of Jesus Christ, the sooner that you realize your neediness and how weak we are without Jesus Christ, the better for your soul. The sooner that you come to the acknowledgement that in your own strength and in your own power, you're not going to accomplish absolutely anything, the better for your soul to bear fruits of Christ's likeness. You have a witness within you that is telling you that you are enough, that you are sufficient, and that you can fix all things according to your own power and your own strength. That is the passions of your flesh that are making war with the Spirit of Jesus Christ that is trying to put that flesh to death so that Jesus Christ will be enthroned in your heart. Beloved of Jesus Christ, We are in absolute need of being strengthened by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ on a daily basis, on a minute-by-minute basis.

Apart from the grace of God, the next statement that will come out of my mouth will be blasphemy against the Savior that I'm professing to preach about. Apart from the grace of God, in the next moment you will stood up to curse the Lord and to leave this place with your hand on high. It is the grace of God, the one that keeps us. It is the grace of God, the one that sustains us. It is the grace of God, the one that gives anything that is worthy of praise in us.

So knowing that he has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, it is our absolute need to be diligent because if we are not diligent, then we fall away. Because we are not strong. We are not powerful. We are not smart. We are not who we think that we are.

And as soon as we kill that in ourselves, it's the best thing that can happen to the heart of a man and of a woman. That we are to derive diligence from our neediness. that we are to derive diligence from our need and our weaknesses and our feebleness. Just like when the person who is healthy and is living a normal life in the things that they eat or the things that they do, and they know that they should change their habits, and they know that they should change their ways in the way that they live, it is not only until they come to the realization that there is something in their bodies that is killing them, that is secretly taking their lives, That their need will move them to be diligent in acting or living or moving or doing the particular things that they knew that they were supposed to do. But because they did not have the realization of their neediness, their feebleness, how weak they were, they were never really moved to do those things.

Beloved of Christ, the reason why we consider ourselves to be strong is because of our pride. And pride in us is one of the roots of the many sins of our lives. It's better for us to acknowledge how weak we are. And even in the midst of the congregation that we will know of our weaknesses and our feebleness so that we will not be pretending to be the super Christian in front of another. When in the secret place, we are suffering and struggling.

When in the secret place, we are having difficulties that I don't want to expose, so that my reputation among my brothers and sisters will not be changed. That is of the devil. And that is what prevents the church from going united and united. Be strengthened in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says to Timothy. Be strengthened in the grace, not because Timothy is strong and wise, but rather because Timothy is weak, because he is needy and he is feeble.

It is a good thing to be strengthened in the grace and to be established upon the truth. It says, the author of Hebrews chapter 13, Why? Because the heart of man is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. Apart from the strengthening grace of God, then we are feeble and needy, and we are in the worst of the states. Beloved of Jesus Christ, come to the realization and defeat of Jesus Christ, of how needy and weak and feeble your soul is, so that you will see indeed the need of being diligent in the pursuit of all of these matters.

Remember the boasting of the Apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians, Chapter 12. Speaking of the glorious revelation that had been given to him. No other man has received the revelations of this Apostle. And the Lord, to keep him humble, gave him a thorn in the flesh. Many times the Apostle came to the Lord to say, take this from me.

But the grace of the Lord was sufficient according to the words of God unto Peter. Why unto Paul? Because when Paul was weak, there he was strong. Beloved of Christ, have you experienced that? Have you experienced that it's in the moment of your weakness?

In the moment in which there's no way that you can take of your own strength, and your own power, and your own might. That in that moment, the grace of God is so clearly manifested unto you, that you see not the power of you, but the power of Christ in your life. That is one of the powerful things that fasting does. That shows you how weak you are. So that the cries of our souls will be the one that empower us and will make us strong.

That is the reason why we are to be diligent. Not because you are so good and you belong to a reformed Baptist church and you do this and that, and therefore you have the ability to be diligent, but rather because if you're not diligent, beloved, if you're not diligent, if I am not diligent by God's grace, by his divine power, then we fall away. How are we going to be diligent? How are we going to be diligent as brothers, sisters, Reformed Baptist Church, Cornerstone? How are we going to be diligent practically?

If I'm telling you that the reason why we are supposed to be diligent is because when we see in ourselves, we see the weakness and the feebleness and how needy we are, Then the manifestation of diligence is when we naturally remove the eyes from self, and we place that, our eyes and our souls, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Diligent in seeking the Lord. The way that you are diligent to add to your faith all of these virtues is by seeking the one in whom your strength and your power is. Diligence in seeking the Lord. Seek the Lord constantly.

We are called to be diligent in coming to the presence of Christ. Because it's only in the presence of Christ and abiding in His love and who He is that we will remove our eyes from self. We will never be empowered to remove our eyes from self-sufficiency if there is no other place where we should direct our eyes. And that place and that person should be always our Lord of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ. So then how are we to be diligent in this pursuit of supplementing our faith with virtue?

The answer to that is that you are to be diligent in seeking the Lord. But not even that is sufficient. Because I don't want to leave your soul only by telling you, seek the Lord. I don't want to just to your heart, seek the Lord in this particular way or another. Beloved of Christ, I want to tell you practically from the Scriptures and from the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ, how we are to seek the Lord Jesus Christ.

I might offend some of you in the very practical details that I'm giving you. If I'm wrong, approach me afterwards in the love of Christ and tell me in what aspect I'm wrong from the Scriptures. Because if I am not wrong and the words that I'm going to tell you are from the Scriptures, then your confrontation is not with me, the one that preaches, but with the one that has given this word. How are we to be diligent in seeking the Lord? If we are going to supplement our faith, I'm telling you that you're to be diligent.

And this diligence is summarizing seeking the Lord. How are we to seek the Lord? Well, the Apostle Peter and the Spirit of God gives us a clue in the chapter that we have just read. I'm going to point your soul to one item that is given to us in chapter 1, and then I'm going to take it to the canon of the New Testament to give you the second one. I want you to pay attention carefully to the development of the argument and the thought of the Apostle.

Be with me, beloved. The Apostle has said that it's His divine power, be with me, that it's His divine power what has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, right? And this is through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this Lord Jesus Christ has called us through His glory and His virtue or His excellence. that through that we will receive these exceedingly great and glorious promises by which we are partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption of this world.

So, He's the one that has done all of these things. From there, He calls us to make every effort to supplement our faith with all of these virtues that have as the climax, as the pinnacle, love. So we are to add to our faith virtue and each one of these glorious characteristics that end in love. He says that if we do not have those qualities, then we're going to be unfruitful and barren in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if we do have those things, then we're going to produce fruit in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you lack, he adds there in a verse, if you lack those things, then you are so nearsighted, having forgotten that your sins have been cleansed. For this reason we are to confirm our calling, he says, so that we may not fall. For in this way there will be richly provided to us an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our God, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He adds in verse 12, Therefore, Therefore, there in verse 12, it says, therefore, I, this is Peter, the apostle. Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have.

The Apostle, in the Spirit of Christ, he says, you believers, you already know this and you have these qualities from faith to love. Because once we are saved, the life of Christ is given to us and we have those qualities. What we are called is not to have them as if something new will happen in us, but rather to grow in them. Because the life that is given of Christ to the saved person has this faith, and this love, and all these virtues in some level, on some extent. So he says, therefore, I, the apostle, the one who by the Spirit writes the Word, intend to remind you, always, that you, of these qualities, Of all of these qualities, he concludes that passage saying, so that when he will depart, or after his exodus, or after he dies, In verse 15, "...

and I will make every effort so that after my departure you might be able at any time to recall these things." How is the apostle interested in reminding these people of these qualities and this spiritual growth? And how can the apostle who is about to die make sure that they will recall all of these things after he dies? because of the glorious scripture that he will speak about from verse 16 onwards. Beloved of Christ.

Just as these people needed the apostolic reminder of these qualities so that they will not fall away and they will grow in the knowledge and in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. They received this apostolic reminder by the letters and perhaps by the exhortations of the apostles. We as the church received the same exhortation and we received the same reminder. by the prophetic word that is fully confirmed, given to us in the Scriptures. The first way in which we are to be diligent in seeking the Lord, it is through the Scriptures.

And if you did not know, or if that was not sufficient biblical evidence, let me just show you what the same apostle says in 1 Peter chapter 2. Go to 1 Peter chapter 2. It says in the first two verses. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all the slander like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk and some of your translations will say of the word that by it you may grow up in salvation. Thank you so much.

You read my mind. Beloved of Christ, see there in verse 2. Long for the pure spiritual milk of the Word, that by it you may grow up, and the ESV says, into salvation. Beloved, dear soul, dear brother and sister, you cannot seek the Lord apart from the Scriptures. You cannot be diligent in supplementing your faith with virtue and these other characteristics apart from the Scriptures.

Not only apart from the Scriptures seated on your hands, on your lap, on your library, but longing like an infant, like a newborn infant, longing for the pure spiritual milk of the Word, that by it you may grow up into salvation. Beloved of Jesus Christ, how are you going to seek the Lord? This is not a mystical activity in which you put yourself on your knees in a dark room and you start to sing and to hum strange noises. This is by the Word of the Lord initially. The apostle says, therefore, I intend to remind you always of these qualities.

You know them, and you're establishing the truth. But before I depart, I will make sure that you will be reminded, and that after I depart, you will remember those things. The prophetic words. We are to be diligent in the Scriptures, beloved of Jesus Christ. Seek the Lord.

Then the question is, how am I to relate to the Scriptures? How to seek the Lord? How to seek the Lord through the Scriptures? How can I be diligent in seeking the Lord through the Scriptures? Beloved of Jesus Christ, I don't want to throw words to you in the air that can be interpreted in a variety of ways.

In which I say to you, seek the Lord and be diligent and give yourself to the Scriptures. Because the Scripture is sufficient for us to even answer the question of how to seek the Lord through the Scriptures. And now it is under the authority of the Scriptures that I'm going to call your soul to this that Scripture says of itself, that your relationship to the Scriptures should be. Independently of who you are, where you come from, how long have you been a Christian, your gender or whatever. If you're a mom, if you're a dad, if you're a child, whatever.

If you have been saved by grace through faith, then the Scripture speaks of itself. That the Christian should relate to it in a particular way. In a particular practical way. Come with me first to Psalm 1, and I want to show you the heart of the Christian as we relate to the scriptures. Go to Psalm 1, and this is a very famous psalm that you may have present, of course, in your heart.

Psalm 1. Let's read the psalm. This is the heart of the saint. This is the heart of the Christian to the scriptures. And the way that the psalmist is going to give us and speak to us of the heart of the saint in relation to the scriptures is by comparing to that heart to the sinner.

It says in verse 1 of Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by the streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked. will perish. Beloved of Jesus Christ. Beloved soul, brother, sister, independently of your age and how long you have been walking with the Lord.

For us to be diligent in seeking the Lord, we are to have the heart of this person here. That we are to delight in the law of the Lord. That is that the affections of our heart are taken by the words that the Lord has given us in Scripture. Compare that to the way and to the walking of the sinner who is walking in the counsel of the wicked, standing in the way of sinners, or sitting in the seat of the scoffer. Walks, stands, and sits.

From my process of walking, standing, and then sits. Taken! Taken completely by the wickedness of this world. The contrast to that is the heart that delights itself in the law of the Lord. Apart from delighting ourselves in the law of the Lord, we will be walking the way of unrighteousness, taken captive by the wickedness of this world, and standing amazed by the things that this world has to offer.

And lest that we realize then we are taken captive and seated there in the seat of the wicked, of the scornful, of the sinner, partaking of all of these things, our heart is to be delighted in the law of the Lord. But once again, when they would say, how are we going to delight in the law of the Lord, beloved of Christ? How are we going to delight and how are we practically relate to the law and to the commandments of the Lord? Let me tell you six things. Six things that the Scripture says that the Christians should do when they relate to the Scriptures.

Six things that the Scriptures through the Old Testament and the New Testament speaks very clearly as a description of the relationship of the Christian, of the Saint of God to the Scriptures. Characteristics that are describing the heart of a person as that person relates to the commandments of the Lord. Let me just simply mention them and then point you to some of the Scriptures that will speak of this. Beloved, your heart, your soul, your life is to be characterized by these six things. First, we are to read the Scriptures.

Another thing that I have to prove or speak much of it. But we are to read the Scriptures. Second thing, Christians and people of God are called to study the scriptures. We are not only to read the scriptures, beloved, but we are to study the scriptures. The third thing, not only to read and to study the scriptures, but we are to meditate on the scriptures.

We are to meditate on the scriptures. Fourth thing, we are not only called to read the Scriptures, to study the Scriptures, and meditate the Scriptures. We are called to memorize the Scriptures. We are to put the Scriptures in our soul. We are to treasure up the Scriptures in our heart.

Fifth and very important, if we have read the Scriptures, if we have studied the Scriptures, if we have meditated upon the Scriptures, and if we have treasured up the Scriptures in our heart, then we are to obey. The Scriptures. Because there is no point in having all of this contact with the Scriptures, if the heart of a person is not moved to obey the Scriptures. And then the sixth and very important Beloved of Christ. If we read the Scriptures.

If we study the Scriptures. If we meditate upon the Scriptures. If we memorize the Scriptures. And if we keep the commandments of the Lord. Then we are to proclaim.

the scriptures. We are to teach one another. You can go to Psalm 119 and I'm gonna take you there because I know that we are now getting tired. But you can go and read in 119. Oh Lord, teach me your status.

We need to study the Scripture. What is studying the Scriptures? It's comparing the Scriptures with the Scriptures. It is coming to the context of the local church to learn the will of the Lord in the Scriptures. Beyond reading the Scriptures from cover to cover.

Not a portion of the Scripture, beloved. We are to read the Scriptures. Beloved of Jesus Christ, how many times have you read the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation? How many years have you been a Christian and how many times you've read the Scriptures? We can speak of all rusty and nice theology and things.

How are we going to grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ? If we don't read the scriptures. If we are not taught by the law according to Psalm 119. If we do not meditate in the law of God according to Psalm 1 day and night. If we don't treasure up his words in our hearts that we may not sin against him according to Psalm 119.

Memorize the scriptures. If we do not keep his statutes, obey his word, that is to obey what he says according to Psalm 119. And then a glorious passage in Colossians chapter 3 that you should all pay attention to in chapter 3 verse 16 if you go there very quickly. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Speaking to the Christians in general.

Teaching and admonishing one another. It's not speaking to elders. It's not speaking to pastors. Speaking to the Christians. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. Singing psalms in hymns and spiritual songs with grace in your hearts. Or thankfulness, it says the ESV. That is that when the Word of God dwells in you richly, then your heart is filled with grace or thankfulness. And the result of it is that we teach one another, we admonish one another, that we sing in all wisdom because our heart is filled with grace.

The grace of the abundance of the Word of God. Beloved of Jesus Christ, do you have grace in your heart? Do you have grace in your heart? No knowledge of the Scriptures in your mind. Do you have grace in your heart?

Do you have water in your well? Do you have the substance of the wisdom of God that can only be given by reading the Scriptures? Studying the Scriptures, meditating upon the Scriptures, treasuring up the Scriptures and memorizing the Scriptures, obeying the Scriptures by the grace of the Lord, then being proclaimers of the Scriptures. Because now the abundance of our heart is just His grace. that our mouth cannot be closed to bring instruction to our brothers and sisters, to bring encouragement one to the other, so that the church will not be a passive activity in which only one man or two men are speaking of matters, but rather the church is building herself up, is speaking the truth in love by the power of the abundance of the scriptures in the hearts of each one of the saints.

Beloved of Jesus Christ, you are never going to grow spiritually if you're not diligent in seeking the Lord through the Scriptures. In seeking His face, in knowing who He is and what He has done through the Scriptures. Being diligent in reading and meditating and all of these things that I have said. Beloved of Jesus Christ, we live in times in which the default of Western world is laziness. It's not fullness.

We have nice seats and a good building and a nice car and a good home. And in the same way that we live our lives in comfort, we want to approach Christianity. Beloved of Jesus Christ, even the reading plants of Western world, the Bible in one year, 80 hours takes you to read the entire Bible. 80 hours to read it entirely. I don't want to put any burden on your soul, beloved of Christ.

The only thing that I want to show you is that we are to move ourselves from the ways of just simple religion and confirm our heart in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. Otherwise, generations are going to pass and the world is going to come and take the church and do whatever the world wants with the church. Of course, we know that the Savior is going to rescue us. Of course, we know that He has promised that He will take us until the end. But that does not take that the church is to strive and to be diligent and to be light and soul to the world.

Beloved of Jesus Christ, never ever this is going to be accomplished by the comfort of our sofas and by the comfort of our beds and by the comfort of peaceful lives. Sometimes would be better that the Lord will bring persecution, and that the Lord will bring times of no peace, so that we will wake up. And then we will see, beloved of Christ, of what is needed for us to walk in the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. So that we will indeed be earnestly be contending for that faith, and not by the comfort of our religiosity. Beloved of Jesus Christ, I don't have any other words but just trying to explain to you from the light the Lord has given me in these things what we can do to grow in this.

Give yourself to prayer and ask yourself if the things that I have just said in our relation to the scriptures are the same. Of course, we are to add to that prayer. Because beloved of Jesus Christ, once we give ourselves to the scriptures, once our heart is filled with the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, once we have indeed seen the Savior who saved us, and the riches of our heart is not our thoughts or our flesh, then our mouth will be naturally and spiritually open, not with any mystical thing, to speak any mystical thing, but rather to praise God. With the abundance of His Word in our hearts, that we will sing unto Him a new song, that it is not birth or that it is not produced in the flesh, but rather in the Spirit of Christ that is enthroned in our hearts. Beloved of Jesus Christ, He has called us and saved us unto this glory.

Now let me just point you to the last thing, because I know that we have gone for very long. I didn't expect that I was going to speak so much about the Scriptures. But if you're going to take anything from that Beloved of Christ, Read your Bible, study the Scriptures, meditate upon the words of our Savior. Keep them in your heart. He has provided to you a mind to read, ability to do this or that.

Do that for the glory of the Savior. Obey the Word and proclaim the Word one with the other. As you know, there are some brothers in somewhere else that they ask themselves often, do you have grace in your heart? And we ask sometimes, we just mean this in the morning, do you have grace in your heart? That is, has the Lord spoken to you through his word?

Has the Lord in your time of seeking the Lord, have you been spoken by the Lord so that you have grace in your heart? Do you have grace in your heart? Or do you have your thoughts? Or do you have your mind? Do you have the concerns of this life?

Do you have the grace of God that it will move you naturally to utter the words of God for the encouragement and the admonition of the saints? Beloved of Jesus Christ, that with much prayer, in diligence, in seeking the Lord. But let me just point your attention to this glorious characteristic that we're called to supplement our faith with, and that is virtue. And please pay attention to me on this one. I know that it is now very long, but let me just point you to this.

The Apostle is calling us there in verse 5 to be diligent in supplementing our faith with virtue. What is virtue? What is this virtue, this goodness that perhaps you have there in your translation? Or this moral excellence? What is that that we are supposed to supplement our faith with?

What is the first of these virtues that Peter is calling our attention to? What is that? The simple definition of that word, beloved, is just that this is moral excellence, as your translation will say, or just simply good works. That is, that our faith has to be initially supplemented by good works, by righteous works, by works that are according to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me just simply, perhaps, feed a little bit your perception or teach your perception of virtue or good works from a biblical perspective.

Beloved of Jesus Christ, James speaks of good works as a qualifier of our faith, right? Faith that does not have works is a faith that is dead. Sometimes we as Reformed people tend to oppose the concept of good works because we believe in a salvation that is purely by grace through faith, and that is true. But we will be going against James if we don't speak about good works. A faith that is real and that is alive will produce good works of righteousness.

It is not by the good works that we are saved, but rather these good works are a qualifier of the genuineness of the faith that the Lord has given us initially. Now, one of the characteristics of those good works, beloved of Christ, is that those good works are not things that are kept in secret in our hearts. But rather, good works are to be shown and are to be seen by others. Right? This is the whole point of James in chapter 2.

Show me your faith by your works, he says. That is, let me see the works that you did so that I will confirm the genuineness of the living faith that you have in your heart. Now, works that do not prove that my faith is genuine. But the absence of good works speaks of the nature of my faith. The scripture is very clear that we are to produce good works.

But now, beloved of Christ. I want you to see this from this glorious word of virtue, or this glorious word of moral excellence, or this glorious word of goodness, as you will have it there in your different translations. There is a purpose for works. There is a purpose for the good works of the Christian. And that is not so much to qualify the genuineness of the faith of the believer.

Think about the question that I'm formulating. So perhaps in your mind, you can answer that from the scriptures. What is the purpose of the good works of the Christian? What is the purpose of the good works that we are called to naturally have? Come to Matthew chapter five.

Beloved of Jesus Christ, if I have, by God's grace, only one of us listening and hearing these words by faith, Just see this, how we'll remove the burden of self-righteousness. What is the purpose of virtue in the Christian? Or what is the purpose of goodness in the Christian? Or what is the purpose of moral excellence in the Christian? Or in other words, what is the purpose of good works in the Christian?

Matthew chapter five, verse 13. You are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others. Now pay attention to this. So that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Beloved of Jesus Christ.

Let your light, is that our light? I am the light of the world. The one who follows me does not walk in darkness, but in light, right? Let his light shine in us so that our good works may be with a purpose at times of judgment for the unbeliever, but also for the glory of God. Beloved, The Lord God of Israel and the Lord God of our Savior through the ages has been very concerned about people remembering His works.

Tell your children about what I did when I took you out of the land of Egypt. Tell them how I destroyed the enemies through the wilderness. Tell them and remind them of the mighty things that I have done. Jesus Christ came to this earth. Not to destroy physical enemies, but to destroy a spiritual enemy that took us captive.

And that we were dead under that enemy's sin. He destroyed that so that He will give us life. And then when that life is manifested through our good works, glory is brought to the One who saved us and redeemed us. The Apostle Peter makes exactly the same point in 1 Peter 2 from verse 10 to verse 12. In which he says, once you were not a people, but now you are a people.

That once you were not a nation, but now you are God's people chosen, a peculiar people. You have been chosen to proclaim the excellences of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Then He says that we are not to allow the passions that are within us, that are making work to rule over us, but rather that we are to live godly lives. He speaks of keeping our conduct honorable before the hidden of the Gentiles. That when they see our good deeds, they may glorify God in the day of visitation.

Beloved of Jesus Christ, I know that you are tired, but let me just, by God's grace, point you to this. Come again to 2 Peter. There is a statement there that I don't want to say. I'm pretty sure because that will be just, yeah, that word that I cannot pronounce. But if you come to 2 Peter chapter 1.

Beloved of Jesus Christ. Our good works, let me just perhaps just to mention this, and then I can point you to this. Our good works in Christ, because if you remember in Ephesians chapter 2, it says that we have been saved by grace through faith. And this is not of our own doing, but this is the doing of God that we may not boast. And then he says that we have been created in Jesus Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand in him or for us.

Good works were created and prepared beforehand in the person of Jesus Christ. And we were prepared for those good works. Because beloved of Jesus Christ, good works is the glory of God shining through us for a world that is wicked and that is dead. That is that good works is not the ability of me coming to the scriptures and assessing that which is righteous and then just simply go on doing it. But rather good works, virtue, goodness, and moral excellence is my apprehension of God's glory and what He is and what He has done for me so that I will be so utterly taken by God's glory that I will become an earthen vessel in which the glory of God abides.

As Paul says in 2nd Corinthians, and that what I will do will not just be following a list of precepts and things to do, but rather it will be the glory of God being manifested through me for the judgment of the hidden and the accusation of their consciences for the glory of God when they come to salvation. Beloved, pay attention to this in verse 3 and verse 4. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge. Pay attention to this because Peter uses lots of statements and it's sometimes difficult to follow what he says. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who, now pay attention, called us to his own glory and excellence.

He has called us to his own glory and excellence. That word too could be also by. That is that he has called us, he has saved us by or through or to his own glory and excellence. That word excellence is the same word virtue that we are required to add to our faith. Beloved, He has called us to, or through, or by His own glory and excellence.

How does that work? How does God call us? How has God saved us through His glory, and His excellence, and His virtue? Salvation can be described and explained in many ways. But allow me, under the authority of Scripture, to explain salvation in this way, beloved.

A person that is born in Adam is not only dead in his or her trespasses, but is also utterly blind to the law of God and who he is. But when God, by the mercies of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished, visits that person with the proclamation of the gospel and gives the Holy Spirit that opens the eyes and the heart of that person, then the eyes of that person are open to the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And just as God said, let light shine in the beginning of creation, then the same light will shine in the heart of the person that is lost. Because now this person is seeing and beholding the glory of God that is unapproachable and unattainable in the person of Jesus Christ. And once that person has seen that glory, namely in love and in forgiveness of my trespasses, That person is utterly drawn unto Him in repentance and faith.

And consumed by the beauty of what has just taken place. All of that immediately. And all of that for the glory and through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our salvation, beloved, starts by the manifestation of the glory of God by faith. And our life continues to be a continuous and ongoing beholding of God's glory.

Are we seeking the Lord every time through the scriptures and through prayer as in a religious way? No. We are seeking who he is and what he has done in the person of Jesus Christ. When we read the scriptures, I was just doing this in an intellectual exercise. No.

We are seeking the one who loved us and gave himself for us, who he is and what he has done. When we study the scriptures, are we doing it just with the purpose of accumulating knowledge in our heads? No. We are doing it with the purpose of knowing and studying this glorious salvation of the one who loved us and gave himself for us. When we are meditating upon the scriptures, are we just simply meditating as a spiritual exercise?

No. We want to know him deeper and deeper, the one who loved us and gave himself for us. When we are treasuring up His Word in our hearts and memorizing our words, are we doing it for the sake of just simply paraphrasing the Scriptures when we speak? No! We do it so that when we are fallen, and when we are down, and when we are depressed, and when we don't feel that we want to do anything, And I don't even want to open the Scriptures.

Then He will speak to me, not with an audible voice, but with a Scripture that is just tore up in my heart. And He will speak to me and remove me from my fallen state to give me the grace that abounds. Because it's in His presence only that I can do what I cannot do in my own flesh. When we obey the scriptures, we do it for our own self? No, we do it to please the one who loved us and gave himself for us.

And when we open our words and open our mouth, do we do it for ourselves? No, we do it for the one who loved us and gave himself for us, that he may be pleased. in taking captive your hearts and give you a greater weight of His glory, so that whatever you eat or drink, you may do it for the glory of God. That is not thinking when you're eating or you're drinking, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and you're eating and drinking. This is a natural manifestation of beholding the glory of God in the secret place.

So your conscience is absolutely free. And now you're giving yourself entirely to live a virtuous life. Because you have supplemented your faith with virtue. Diligent in seeking the Lord. Diligent in seeking Him through the Scriptures, seeking Him through prayer and seeking Him in the secret place.

Beloved, you can come to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. You can read this book and read that book. You can read the news and follow the famous preacher or the YouTube video or whatever you do. If you have not seen the Lord by and through Jesus Christ, nothing can be done to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. None of your works are virtues because you're doing it perhaps for your own glory.

None of your works are centered for God or in God. Perhaps you are doing it for your own. What is the cure and the healing process and the solution for empty works or works that are good works that are just done for self or works that are powerless? Beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You have no, I'm just gonna take that back because the same word applies.

We may not have full understanding of what good works that are not done for the glory of God, what the impact is. Let me tell you, beloved of Christ, let me just bring this to your conscience as I am bringing it to my own conscience even right now. We might not be fully aware, and this is fearful, of how good works that are not done genuinely for the glory of God affect not only our personal spiritual growth, but the church. When the things that we do and the things that we move and the things that we push and our endeavors are simply with a label of the glory of God, But in reality, are empty works for self, so that I will receive the glory of those who hear and those who see me, and not for the glory of God. You see that that word of glory of God is so difficult to define and to express.

But it's only when we behold the glory of God through the person of Jesus Christ, by seeking him diligently, that he protects us and keep us From eating and drinking through the motions for self. Preaching and studying through the motions and for self. Moving the chairs and doing this through the motions and for self. Praying and reading the scriptures through the motions and for self. Life without substance.

Beloved soul, there is only one, and his name is Jesus Christ. You have a book and in that book it tells you everything about him. I can tell you that he's altogether lovely. I can tell you that He is very good. I can tell you that He forgives many times and that He's never tired of doing so.

I can tell you that He receives even the worst of the sinners. I can tell you that He died upon the cross because He loved your soul. And I can tell you that whatever He says is true. And I can tell you that when you behold His glory in the gospel, then your soul is taken to a place in which you don't want to depart. I can tell you all of those things.

but if they are not reality in your soul by the same spirit, then my words are nothing, and this exercise of religion is completely empty. It is your duty, it is your call, that by the mercies of the one who died upon that cross, you will be diligent in coming to him as the scripture says, because there is a promise that when you indeed come to him by faith, as Jesus said to Martha, if you believed, you will see the glory of God. If you believe like a child, like a newborn, like an infant, if you approach Him, He's the one that takes all your burdens. He's the one that takes and cleanses all your thoughts. He's the one that purifies your heart.

He's the one that takes your soul and strengthens it. He's the one that makes you diligent in reading and studying and meditating. He's the one that blesses your secret tongue. with lies that no writer has written about. He is the one that illuminates your soul with words that nobody has put in a book.

He is the one that speaks to your soul and edifies your heart in ways that no systematic theology or book or video will do. He is the one that will bring your soul to that place in which you will say, well, I am weak, then I am strong. Because in that place is where I died to self and you, Christ, are alive, alive and alive. And I don't want to be in another place but at the feet of the Savior. And this is the call, beloved, for every one of us.

And when these may be given to us by the glory of Christ, then we will be indeed loving one another, being united with one another, as the scriptures have called us to. And then we will be growing in the grace and in the knowledge of the Savior, not just with religion, not with just simply doing practices, moralistic practices, beloved, but rather by the power of the Spirit. And we may say, we have witnessed the truth of the scriptures and the power of the Spirit in applying those scriptures to our soul. Be diligent in supplementing your faith with virtue for the glory of God. Amen.