In Jason Dohm's sermon on 'An Introduction to 2 Peter,' he begins by establishing the primary themes of the epistle, contrasting them with 1 Peter. While 1 Peter prepares believers for suffering by emphasizing the blessings of the Gospel, 2 Peter focuses on warning against false teachers and the importance of spiritual growth. Dohm underscores Peter's dual identity as a bondservant and apostle, highlighting the significance of being owned by Christ and sent forth with His message. The sermon emphasizes the necessity of possessing 'like precious faith' grounded in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Dohm stresses the multiplication of grace and peace through the knowledge of God and warns against the prevalence of false teachers. He encourages believers to grow in grace and knowledge as an antidote to false teachings, drawing parallels between 2 Peter and Jude. The sermon concludes with a call to be better students of 2 Peter, recognizing the importance of discernment in a world filled with deceptive doctrines.

Our text today is in 2nd Peter, however as an introduction we'll be reading the entire book. I'll be reading from chapter 1 of 2nd Peter. Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also, for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For he who lacks these things is short sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For this reason I would not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. Yes, I think it is right as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.

Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease. For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His Majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain, and so we have the prophetic word confirmed which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts knowing this first that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation for prophecy never came by the will of man but holy man of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

But there were also false prophets among the people even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed by covetousness. They will exploit you with deceptive words. For a long time their judgment has not been idle and their destruction does not slumber. For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly, and delivered righteous lot who was oppressed with the filthy conduct of the wicked, for that righteous man dwelling among them tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds.

Then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. And especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries. Whereas angels who are greater in power and might do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.

But these, like natural, brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin beguiling unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. But he was rebuked for his iniquity.

A dumb donkey speaking with a man's voice restrained the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest to whom the gloom of darkness is reserved forever. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lust of the flesh, through licentiousness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption. For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.

For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, a dog returns to his own vomit and a sow having washed to her wallowing in the mire. Chapter 3. Beloved, I now write to you the second epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by the way of reminder, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the Holy Prophets and of the commandment of us, the Apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming?

For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. For this they willfully forget that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of water and in the water By which the world that then existed perished being flooded with water But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat.

Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, without spot and blameless.

And consider that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the scriptures. You, therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen. Let's pray.

Father, your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. You have given us exceedingly great and precious promises. You have promised, Lord, that this world will pass away with all that is in it, that it will be dissolved. And, oh Lord, what manner of people ought we to be if this is true? Father, may you continue to teach us through your word today.

Through this time we have in the first two verses of 2 Peter, God, I pray that you would teach us, that you would feed us, that you would bless Jason. Lord, as he comes and stands before you and before your people. You would fill them with your spirit. Father, humble our hearts this morning. Help us to come to your feet as children with faith, as children recognizing their own weaknesses, needing to be taught by their Father.

Lord teach us today. We thank you for this time. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well today we begin a new book, but it doesn't feel like it because we just finished 1st Peter and now we're into 2nd Peter. So we've not left our author at all, though we pick up some new themes in the new book.

But today is set aside to be an introduction to the letter of 2 Peter. Last week, as I mentioned, we finished 1 Peter where Peter has labored long and hard to make the Lord's people ready for suffering. Paul said that all those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. So if you're going to be a Christian, you better learn to suffer because there's going to be suffering in the life of anyone who wants to live a faithful life. And so Peter, as a concerned spiritual father, comes and helps us.

He makes us ready to know how to not just survive suffering but to flourish in the middle of suffering. And he does this in a really interesting way in 1 Peter. He piles up the blessings of the Gospel so that next to the blessings that flow from a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, sufferings can be seen for what they really are, which is momentary, which is fleeting, which is a light affliction that is followed by glory. And even in this life, we can know the goodness of God. We can experience the sustaining power of God so that our sufferings, which can seem really sharp and painful in the moment can be seen and known for what they really are, which is nothing compared to the goodness that God offers in the Gospel.

This week we begin 2 Peter. I'm already loving it. We've Been through 2 Peter a number of times this week and it is quickly becoming a dear friend to me. There's a lot of gold to be mined out of these three chapters as I'm sure you noticed. There were a bunch of portions as we came to them in the reading, I'm thinking, wow, I can't wait to get to that section.

And there are about five or six of those. In the early church, There was some debate about the authenticity of 2 Peter, whether it was really a work of Peter, and whether or not it was authentic, whether it belonged in the canon. But by the fourth century, those debates had subsided and it was heartily agreed that it did have a place in the canon. And they got it right. This is a letter written by Peter And it is a letter that fully deserves its spot in Scripture.

One of the questions about 2 Peter is the similarities to Jude. When we get to 2 Peter chapter 2, which is almost exclusively devoted to false teachers, and we go and put that side by side with Jude, they really very, very closely parallel one another. Some commentators say that Peter borrowed from Jude. The other half of the commentators say that Jude borrowed from Peter, which means that they don't know. I don't know either.

And I submit to you that it does not matter who borrowed from whom, but that this is an example of a united front of the leaders of the people of God against false teachings. And we should be grateful that one of them was borrowing from the other so that there's a stern and careful warning against false teachers, especially in this day and age where the Church of God is awash in false teachers. It's a blessing to have these things repeated. We get to chapter 2. We'll be doing a lot of cross-referencing over to the book of Jude.

In chapter 1, here in our first chapter, verse 14, Peter speaks of the Lord's predicting Peter's death. And that could have been lifted right out of John chapter 21. If you go to John 21 and you read verses 18 and 19, you'll see that Jesus tells Peter a lot about Peter's death. And here in 2 Peter 1 verse 14, Peter references Jesus having predicted his death. That is a fingerprint of Peter on this letter.

If it's not enough for you that Peter says that Peter writes this letter in verse 1, In verse 14 we have another fingerprint. In chapter 1, also in chapter 1, verses 16 through 18, our author speaks about being on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. This is another fingerprint of Peter on the book of 2 Peter or on this letter. In chapter 3 verse 1, Peter references his first letter by calling this his second epistle. So here's another fingerprint of Peter on this letter.

So Peter's fingerprints are all over these three chapters, this letter. And I think there's much to command the authenticity of both the letter and its place in scripture. Probably 2 Peter was written in 64 to 67 AD, somewhere during the span of those years. And it was probably written then when Peter was imprisoned in Rome, at least that's what, that has a strong tradition behind it. Even though you won't be able to find a verse in the Bible that says those things, the best tradition or the best history has this letter being written in 64 to 67 AD by Peter when he was imprisoned in Rome.

Nero, the emperor, commits suicide, takes his own life in 68 AD. And tradition has Peter being martyred before that. So the writing of this letter was certainly before then. I want you to look with me here in chapter 1 at verses 14 and 15 where Peter writes, beginning in 14, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent. Peter's talking about his body here as just this, this thin dwelling that will barely protect you from the elements.

When he speaks of putting off a tent, that's what he's talking about. He's talking about this decaying body that would just barely protect you from the elements. He talks about the putting off of his body in death. He says, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my disease." So Peter has a sense that he's coming to the end of his life and so He's making provision to his fellow disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He's making them ready, knowing that soon he'll be dead. And so, in a sense, this is a last will and testament. This is a parting shot from a disciple of Jesus Christ, from an apostle. And he's making sure that his spiritual children are firmly established, Because he's not going to live forever and man does he know it. And man is he anticipating that his death will come soon.

So he's taking care of his spiritual children. And he's particularly, especially, wanting his spiritual children to be able to recognize and fend off false teachers. If the primary theme of 1 Peter was suffering, so that Peter's objective in writing 1 Peter was to make the Lord's people ready to suffer. Then the primary theme of 2 Peter is false teachers and making people ready, the Lord's people ready to deal with false teachers. I believe that the last two verses of this letter, turn there, the very last two verses of this letter serve as a powerful summary statement for the whole letter.

So let's read these and wrap up the introduction and then we'll get right to an exposition of the first couple of verses. This is 2 Peter chapter 3 verses 17 and 18 where Peter writes, you therefore beloved, since you know this beforehand, he's just talked about people twisting the scriptures, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. But grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

In this summary statement for the whole book of 2 Peter, we have three things that summarizes the chapters. Number one, we have Peter saying, beware of false teachers. This is one of the primary things that you have to come away from 2 Peter with. A warning against false teachers. Beware of false teachers.

This is Peter's problem statement. This is the problem that he's trying to address, false teachers. Number two, we have Peter saying, grow in grace. Don't stand still. Grow, progress, move forward.

Grow in grace. And thirdly and lastly, we have Peter saying, grow in knowledge. Grow in knowledge. Know the Lord. Know his ways.

Grow in knowledge. MacArthur notes that the word knowledge appears in some form 16 times in these three chapters. Wow, is that a lot. Knowledge in one form of the word or another occurs 16 times in these three chapters. So more than five times a chapter on average.

Growing in the grace of Jesus And growing in the knowledge of Jesus is the antidote for false teachers. And we'll be saying that in various forms, every sermon throughout these three chapters. The problem statement is beware of false teachers and then Peter hands us the antidote for that, the anti-venom, to keep you from being poisoned to death by false teachers. He hands us the antivanum on a platter and it's growing in grace, growing in the grace of Jesus and growing in the knowledge of Jesus. So we're going to be there every week for the duration of 2 Peter.

Let's pray and then go to the text. Father, I thank you for Peter's second letter to your people. I pray that You would cause this to be such a blessing among us. Help us to grow in the grace of Jesus during these weeks. Help us to grow in the knowledge of Jesus during these weeks.

In His name we pray, amen. So originally it was going to be verses 1 through 4, but that's way too much to chew in a single week. So I've paired it back and we're going to talk about verses 1 and 2 this week, and then next week we'll come back and look at 3 and 4. So let's read verse 1 again. Peter begins the letter this way.

Simon Peter, a bond servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ." This is the from of the letter and the to of the letter. The author introduces himself, it's Peter, and he names his target audience. Peter says he is two things here in our introduction. So here's Peter laying claim to two titles, to being two things. First Peter says he is a bond servant of Jesus Christ.

He is a doulos, that's the Greek. He is a slave or a servant or a bond servant. It's rendered all of those things in different places. He's owned by someone, that's what he's saying. Peter is saying he is the property of Jesus Christ.

He belongs to Jesus. He is the Lord Jesus Christ to command, to send wherever Jesus wants to send him, to say whatever Jesus wants him to say, to do whatever Jesus wants him to do, to refrain from whatever Jesus wants him to refrain from. Literally, this Greek term, doulos, or slave, or servant, or bond servant means devoted to another to the disregard of one's own interests. Did you get that? Total devotion to the master.

Devoted to another to the disregard of one's own interest. In other words, there might be this set of things over here that have always been my interests, that have always been my concerns, and I'm setting those aside to look after your interests. It is total submission to a master. Peter is saying that he is the property of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus took ownership of this man, our author, Simon Peter, the first time he ever met him.

Jesus took ownership of Simon the first time he ever met him. The first time he ever met him. Jesus took ownership of Simon the first time he ever met him. The first time he ever met him is in John chapter 1 And in verse 42, the first time they met, Jesus says, you're not Simon. You're Cephas.

You're Peter. You imagine meeting someone for the first time, and they say, you're not your name. You're not James. You're not John. You're not Gary.

You're not Yvonne. You're not Allison. You're new name. The first time you ever met. You better be meeting the Son of God.

Somebody's taking that liberty. The first time they ever met, Jesus said, doesn't matter what your mother and father named you, your rock, your stone. Jesus changed his name and laid claim to this man. This is amazing to now see Peter saying, I'm a bond servant. Jesus Christ has laid claim to me.

So that I'm now fully devoted to his interests. I disregard my own interests and his interests are the interests that I serve. One commentator that I read this week says that some of the early church fathers took to calling Peter Simon Rock instead of Simon Peter because they objected to the centuries having worn away the force of his name. Because Peter doesn't mean rock to us. Cephas doesn't mean rock to us.

And it just means Peter. It's just another name in the book of names. And so the intended force has been lost through the century. So some, some of the early church fathers wanted to reclaim that. So they started calling him Peter Rock so the force of it wouldn't be lost.

What Jesus had done by taking the old man and saying, you're not that anymore, you're this because I've laid claim to you. Listen to this, it's very important. We have no choice but to be a due loss. I have no choice but to be a doulas. I have no choice but to be a bond servant.

And you have no choice but to be a bond servant. I'm going to be a slave and so are you. And the only question is what master will you serve? Peter is a do-loss. Peter is a slave, a servant, a bond servant.

But he's not unique in that. Every man or woman or boy or girl who is on the face of the earth or ever has been, has been a slave. And they've had a master. Paul in Romans 6 talks about the two masters. He says that you're a slave to sin and lawlessness, or You're a slave to the gospel and to righteousness.

It's the same word. Paul uses the same word in Romans 6. And Romans 6, over and over and over and over again, it's translated slave. It's the same word, it's do-loss. You're a do-loss to sin and lawlessness all of your life unless God is merciful to you and buys you out of your slavery to sin and lawlessness because of his mercy and brings you into a much sweeter kind of slavery.

He buys you out from under the cruelest of masters and lays claim to you and makes you his. And how sweet it is to be a slave in this household. Because it's not just being brought into slavery, it's adoption. Paul does not offer us A third option. It's either or.

Either a slave to sin and lawlessness, or bought out of this and brought into another kind of servitude, a sweet kind of servitude. A servant of the gospel, obeying the gospel, a servant of righteousness having been brought into another household, that you might declare the praises of him who brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light. In 1 Peter, which we just finished up, in 1 Peter 1 verse 18, Peter spoke of not being redeemed by corruptible things like gold or silver. Not being bought by gold or silver or any of these corruptible things in the world, but being bought by the precious blood of Christ. You and me and everybody else will be a doulas.

You'll be a slave. Who will you serve? Consider Those who introduce themselves as bond servants, as slaves. Paul does in Romans 1 verse 1. He says almost exactly like this introduction, I'm a bond servant and an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul and Timothy do in Philippians 1, verse 1, bond servants. Paul does in Titus 1, verse 1. He's a bond servant. James does in James 1 verse 1, he's a bond servant. Peter does here.

Jude does in Jude 1 verse 1, He's a bond servant. This is a kingdom where the most eminent are slaves. Welcome to the kingdom of God, where those of the highest rank are slaves. Do you want to be first? Do you want to be preferred?

Then you must be the servant of all. Because this is derived from Jesus. He is the Lord. He has set the pace. He has shown the way.

He has blazed the trail. And now those who are his must follow him. Being a bond servant, being a slave, being the property of Jesus Christ is simply following in his steps. Philippians 2 verse 7, he, Jesus Christ, made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant, Dulos. That's Jesus.

That's what the incarnation is all about. Jesus taking on the form of a bond servant so that when we get to John chapter 13 and he's washing the feet of his disciples. This is completely in character. Not just a symbolic gesture, but completely in character. Jesus took on the form of a doulos, of a slave.

And now his people do likewise. So first Peter says that he's a bond servant, then Peter says that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ. He's a bond servant of Jesus Christ and he's an apostle of Jesus Christ. A messenger of Jesus Christ. One who is sent forth with orders.

That's literally what the Greek word means, apostolos. One sent forth with orders, an ambassador on the king's business. So Peter lays claim to being a bond servant and he lays claim to being an apostle, one sent forth with orders. In Ephesians 2, Paul speaks of us being built up into a temple. Sound familiar?

It's just like 1 Peter. But this is Paul also in Ephesians 2 talking about us, the people of God, those who have partaken of saving faith, being built up into a temple, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. So we have our part, living stones being built up into this temple, but this temple, this building that's being built up is sitting on a foundation. And the foundation is the apostles and the prophets with Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone, the one that can bear the weight of the whole building. There are other foundation stones and the apostles are foundation stones for the whole temple.

We are being built up on these foundation stones of the apostles. So Peter is laying claim in saying he's an apostle of Jesus Christ to authority. After Jesus, the chief cornerstone, These guys are it. So there's a chief cornerstone and it's Jesus. But after Jesus, in terms of authority, these guys are it.

To the point where, when the New Jerusalem is being described in Revelation 21, the foundations have names and it's the 12 apostles of the Lamb. And don't talk about authority. Your name is on the foundation stone of the New Jerusalem because you're one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Again, we may see this as mutually exclusive. You're a slave or you're in authority.

You're a bond servant or you're an apostle. But that's just not thinking biblically. These are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they're mutually interdependent. Because apostles have to follow Jesus and Jesus himself was a bond-servant.

Now, who is Peter writing to? Who is Peter writing to? Those who have, quote, obtained like precious faith. That's who he's writing to, End quote. Those who have obtained like precious faith.

Let's take that word by word. Faith. People who used to trust in self, people who used to live for self, people who used to worship the God of self, which is self, now forsake trusting in self. And they trust in Christ. And they forsake living for self.

And they live for Christ. And they have forsake worshiping the God of self and they worship Christ. It is a total transfer of trust from self and any merit that I thought I had to Christ and His person and His work. That's faith. This faith, Peter says, has been obtained or received in other translation.

I actually like received better. I think received fits the Greek better. In Greek, this is A rarely used word in the Greek that means to obtain by lot, rolling the dice, okay, to obtain by lot, to receive by divine allotment. So that's how Peter saying these people got their faith. It was apportioned to them.

It might have seemed random that They ended up with this faith, but it was never random. It was allotted to them by divine appointment. That's how they got this faith. It was given as a portion. This is the faith.

It was obtained. It was received. It was given as a portion. Like. They have a like faith.

A faith in common. It's not an individualized faith. So that I have one kind of faith and you have another kind of faith and the saints in the past had another kind of faith. Nope, it's a like faith. It's a faith in common.

Listen to Paul in Ephesians 4, 4 through 6. Paul in Ephesians 4, 4 through 6, Paul writes, there is one body and one spirit just as you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Those who have obtained faith, those who have been given a divine portion and have received faith from God, participate in one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

If you're a drug dealer, a murderer, a prostitute, there's one way for you to be saved, by grace alone, through faith alone, in the person and work of Christ, so that Anyone who is ever saved is saved the same way. He is saved through the same mechanism, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. You've heard the expression that the ground is level at the foot of the cross and so it is. A king comes and occupies the same ground as the prostitute if they are to be saved. There is no hope for the King without Christ.

There is no hope for the most respectable citizen without Christ. Not an ounce more hope than for the prostitute, the drug dealer, the murderer. We have a like precious faith. This faith is precious. Those who have obtained this faith don't need this explained.

How precious it is. Because they know, they've been shown by God that there was no hope without it. Without the work of Christ there was no hope for them. So God takes a blind woman, a woman who was happily blind. She was blind because she was clenching her eyes shut.

It was a self-imposed blindness. She had never seen beauty and never known how to value. And she just wanted to be left alone to wallow in her sin and rebellion and would have happily remained in that state to the last minute of her life. But God laid claim to her and opened her eyes and shown her what she never would have seen. And it was beautiful and she went away and for joy over it sold all that she had to possess it.

This is the nature of this faith that is received, that is appointed to you as a portion by God if God decides to show His mercy to you. God takes a blind man, a happily blind man, one who has never seen beauty, one who has never known how to value anything, one who would have been happy to the last moment of his life to wallow in his sin and rebellion. And just because God is merciful, God opens that man's eyes and allows him to see beauty for the first time. It's a precious faith. How precious is sight to the blind man?

How precious is sight to a blind woman who's never seen and all of a sudden, light. That's how precious this faith is. What is this like precious faith that they have obtained grounded in? Peter tells us this faith is grounded in something, the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is the ground for that faith.

Faith, saving faith, draws on an alien righteousness. It's drawing out of a well. What is it drawing? An alien Righteousness, not that Jesus Christ is some sort of a space alien. That's not what the Puritans mean when they speak of an alien righteousness.

It means it's totally outside of ourselves. It's not your righteousness. Good thing, Because God in Isaiah says that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags before him. So it's a good thing it's not your own righteousness. That it's completely outside of yourself.

That it's an alien righteousness that is the ground for our faith. Turn to your Bibles to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3, 21 through 26. Romans chapter 3, 21-26, Paul writes this, But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.

For there is no difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness. Because in His forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness. That He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. There is nothing inherently anything about faith.

People have faith in all sorts of things and on many occasions that makes them idiots. There's nothing magical about faith. There's nothing inherently good about faith. People have misplaced faith all the time. So the real question is, What is the faith grounded in?

The only virtue is in the object of faith. If the object of faith is worthy, is solid, then you have something with that faith. If it's not, then it's misplaced and a waste or worse. The faith that Peter is talking about is saving faith, and it is grounded in an alien righteousness. In a righteousness that is completely outside of yourself and a good thing that it is.

It is grounded in the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ and his work on behalf of sinners is the object of faith which gives the faith its value. Here in verse 1, Peter calls Jesus Christ our Savior God. Unmistakable in the grammar of the Greek. So I hear from the commentators.

Unmistakably, one. God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, said in the same breath meant to be one and the same. Jesus is God and so he can be Savior. So we have Simon Peter here in verse 1, his name saying everything. He used to be Simon.

Jesus put his hand on him and said, you're mine, laid claim to him and Peter became property of Jesus Christ. Writing to those of faith that is grounded in the righteousness of Christ. Verse 2. Verse 2. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. It's easy to treat this like our own greetings. How are you? I am fine. It's easy to treat this like our own robotic greetings, where I don't really care how you are and you don't really tell me the truth.

But they're preliminaries and it's understood to be that way. And I'm not plumbing the depth of your soul and you're not laying yourself bare before me. We're just trying to warm up for what we really want to talk about. That's not what Peter's doing. Peter's not warming up.

This is not the power of positive thinking. This is not good thoughts be upon you. And then we move on to what we really want to talk about. Grace and peace are real fruits of the gospel that those with saving faith have access to. And Peter wants the Lord's people to abound in them, to be drowning in them.

Grace, charis in the Greek, Undeserved favor. You didn't earn one ounce of it. It was unmerited. It's just simply God's goodwill. It's His loving kindness that you didn't prepay for.

It's at His discretion. And He wants to lavish it on His people. Have it. You didn't earn it. Those who have saving faith are partakers.

Have it. Have more of it, and more of it, and more of it. Let it not just be added to, but multiplied. Peace flows from that undeserved favor. When the grace of God is poured out on you, the war is over.

You were waging a war. And it's a fool's war. It is a war against Almighty God who called everything into existence just by His word. He didn't start with stuff. He just called it into existence.

And you were at war with him. But if God has given you this undeserved favor and granted you faith and repentance, the war is over and you can rest. Peter wants the Lord's people to have a super abundance of grace and peace, of this unmerited favor and the peace that surpasses understanding, rest in God. He wants us to have a multiplication of it. In other words, however much you have now of grace and peace, let's say You've got this amount, he wants you to have this amount, multiplied, not added to, multiplied.

More grace, a lot more grace, more peace, a lot more peace, Super abounding. Now just like obtaining faith was grounded in the righteousness of Jesus in verse 1. So we had this good thing, faith, But it's only good because it's grounded in Jesus' righteousness. That was verse 1. Now in verse 2, we have grace and peace grounded in something.

Peter says, they're grounded in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord. So just as there was ground for our faith and it was the righteousness, not our own righteousness, but Jesus' righteousness, so also the grace and peace of verse 2 are grounded in something, the knowledge of God. Do you want more grace and peace? Do you really want it to be multiplied to you? Do you want to super abound in the undeserved favor of God and in peace, resting in God?

Want to super abound in that? Peter tells us where to go, the knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ. They are in the knowledge of God. It comes through, King James renders it through instead of in. It comes through, grace and peace come through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus.

I'm going to give you in quick succession three places that speak of the knowledge of God. The first is Daniel 11 verse 32. Listen to this, Daniel 11 verse 32. Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery. This is talking about God opposing the wicked.

Those who do wickedly against the covenant, he shall corrupt with flattery. But, the people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits." So the wicked are set in opposition, are compared with those who know their God. The wicked are brought to destruction. Those who know their God go forward in strength. The people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits.

Why? Because the knowledge of God is the conduit through which flow grace and peace and the multiplication of it. How about this? John 17 verse 3. John 17 is the high priestly prayer that Jesus prays as his life is coming to a close.

In John 17, Jesus says, and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Again, John 17 verse 3, and this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Thirdly, finally, a turn in your Bibles to Philippians 3 and then we'll close. Philippians 3 is a great cross reference to both of these verses from 2 Peter chapter 1. Paul wraps it all up for us in Philippians 3. I'll read verses 7 through 11.

Paul writes in Philippians 3 verse 7, but what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." You know the things that Paul suffered and endured. Paul came out of the background not suffering those things, not enduring those things, but he does not look back longingly for a second. He says, that's rubbish, literally, that's dung. That is dung.

All that stuff back there that used to be gained to me is garbage now, that I may gain Christ, that I may know Christ. Brothers and sisters, the soul that knows Christ has a perpetual feast before it. He sets a table before us in the presence of our enemies. He sets a banquet in front of us in the presence of our enemies. He sets a banquet in front of us in the presence of our enemies.

This is the life of knowing your God. To know Him is to be satisfied in Him. I'm not talking about knowing about Him. I'm not talking about having been through a want us so you know some scripture verses. Bless you if you've been through Iwanis.

The Word is sharp. It's active. But knowing about God is not the same thing as knowing God. It isn't. It isn't.

It isn't. It isn't. The churches in our nation are filled with people who know about God, and they do not know Him. Many do not know him. Many do know him.

Many do not. Don't confuse the two. To know him is to be satisfied in him. Are you satisfied in him? For all my flaws, and I know them better than anyone.

For all my sins, and I know them better than anyone. I'm satisfied in God. I don't know him like I wish I knew him. But I know him. I don't just know about him.

Oh, come to him. Oh, all who are thirsty, Come and drink. This is Isaiah 55. This is the offer of the gospel that those who find themselves thirsty can come and drink their fill, can be satisfied in knowing not about God, but in knowing God. In conclusion, two exhortations that really have very little to do with today's text and have everything to do with our study of 2 Peter as a whole.

What kind of student were you in 1 Peter? Almost half a year we invested for good or for ill, almost a half a year in 1 Peter. What kind of a student were you? Be better in 2 Peter. Come more ready.

Come having read through the text more times. Keep me honest in my preaching. Come more ready. Take better notes and then use them after the fact. Keep them.

Really nail the memory verse. Okay, 11 verses. I don't think we'll have another one during our time in 2 Peter. So this is it for 2 Peter. Learn Chapter 1 verses 1 through 11 inside and out.

Inside and out. So that if you get woken up in the middle of the night and somebody says, the intruder says, what is 2 Peter chapter 1, 1 through 11? In the middle of the night, you can just spit it out. Like James said, you won't be sorry. There is no downside to being a better student of 2 Peter than you were of 1 Peter.

None. Just takes a little intentionality. Number two. Finally, recognize the importance of the subject of this letter. The church is awash in false teachers.

They're everywhere. And if we'll allow it, Peter will make us better able to recognize and fend off false teachers. Honestly, I'm looking forward to that. Because we're going to find that the focus isn't so much on any one false teaching, the actual doctrine, but on false teachers, the ones who purvey false doctrines, who can be very subtle and disorienting and can present themselves in very pleasing ways. If we'll allow it, Peter will make us better able to recognize false teachers and fend off those false teachers.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. I pray over this study of 2 Peter that you would come and help us. That you would cause it to be such a fruitful time. In Jesus' name, Amen.