We're turning this morning to 2 Peter chapter 1. We were in this portion of scripture last Lord's Day and we want to come back to it again today and we'll read this portion again through. We'll read from the commencement of the chapter. 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 1. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. For these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather brethren, giving diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if ye do these things ye shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me. Moreover, I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. for he received from God the Father honour and glory. When there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. In this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawns And the day star arise in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God speak, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Amen. I know the Lord will add his blessing to the reading of that portion of the Word of God to us. Verse 5, 6, and 7. are the three verses that we are meditating upon, with the thought of adding to our faith, as the opening line of verse 5 suggests. And beside this giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness. and to brotherly kindness, charity. We want to conclude our thoughts on this this morning, this thought of adding to our faith. Let's just take a moment and ask the Lord for help as we come around his word. Our Father, we do acknowledge our need of thee afresh as we come to the word of God. We thank thee for the opportunity of having it in our hand, of reading it. And now Lord, we're coming to meditate upon it. And Lord, thou hast ordained that this is the chief means of worship. It is the consideration of thy word. And we pray that thou will bless us as we meditate upon thy truth and as we give thee thy place among us and acknowledge thy word as truth, even as the end of this chapter highlights that holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Lord, what we have is thy word. inerrant, inspired, unchanging. And we pray, Lord, that thou wilt bless it to us now as we come and meditate upon it. Direct our thoughts, Lord. Take away everything and anything that would not be of Thee, Lord, and give us words of the Lord. that will be used by thy spirit to speak to our hearts this day. So bless us now and close us in with thyself, and grant me help to preach, I ask in Jesus' name. Amen. In writing this second general epistle to those that have obtained like precious faith, Peter is desiring that these believers go on with God and that they would increase in their experimental knowledge of the Lord. It is one thing to have a knowledge that brings them to Christ and saves them, but Peter would have them to increase in their experimental knowledge of the Lord. And we have drawn to your attention the last two verses of this epistle, right down at the end of chapter 3, where you really have the two-fold summary of the whole epistle, where it says, Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware, lest ye also be led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. So Peter there is setting out at the conclusion what it is he has been seeking to teach in this general epistle. He wants them to have this experimental knowledge and that experimental knowledge will safeguard them against being deceived by the false teachers that were abroad even in Peter's time. Certainly the same thing is applicable to us. How do we withstand the false teacher? How are we able to detect them and be able to mark them out as we are commanded in the scriptures? That will only happen if we grow in grace and in our knowledge of the Lord. That will be one of the outcomes as we'll come here to see and dwell upon a little more. So there is the existence of their faith already. And then there is that which Peter would have them and ultimately the Lord, by inspiration, would have them to add to their faith. And that opening statement in verse 5 indicates this very plainly to us. It says, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith. Beside this, there's something they already have. And Peter is outlining that in the opening verses of this chapter, where he points out the fact that they have obtained like precious faith. They are the children of God. It is not something they're hoping to be. some future stage, they have already obtained it. It is their possession. In verse 1, they have obtained this life precious faith. Well, if you have obtained something, you are the recipients of it. You're the holder of it if you have obtained something. And they are the children of God already. So there is this faith that they have that is saving faith. It has brought them to Christ. It has made them the children of God. The divine power is at work in their lives. Verse 3 mentions that. about this divine power that is at work and what the Lord has done. He has given unto them all things that pertain to life and godliness. And then there's these great and exceeding promises, precious promises that are mentioned in verse 4. So there's that which they have, but then there's that which they now need to go on and add and they are to grow. And that's what we really are dwelling upon and wanting to pursue a little bit further this morning and notice what Peter has to say here. We noticed last time that the Christian life is a developing life. We thought about that. How with this sum of saving knowledge, that's the starting point. That brings somebody to Christ, makes them a child of God. But there is to go on, and really it is the work of sanctification that we're thinking about here. Because this is part of sanctification, growing in grace, growing in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. It's part of that work of sanctification. And sanctification is a process. Justification is an act. It happens once, in a moment of time, when somebody is justified before God. Justification is an act, but sanctification is not an act. Sanctification is a process. It starts the day that we are saved. It starts the day we're justified. And sanctification continues on to the very hour and moment the Lord takes us out of this world or he comes back again a second time. So it's this process of sanctification that Peter is here dealing with. that he would have us to add these things. And he lists them for us there in these verses 5, 6 and 7. Virtue, Knowledge, Temperance, Patience, Godliness, Brotherly Kindness, Charity. And the point that we were making is that one grace is developed out of the exercise of the previous one. There is a way in which that is expressed in the original that is worth noticing and I think it's important for us to notice that. That in this increase, in this growth of grace, it is as we exercise one grace that that will lead us on then to the exercise of another grace. It doesn't mean that we will perfect that first exercise of grace in any of these things. It's not that we will be fully filled with virtue and that there is no more prospect of being increased with virtue before we move on. No, that's not what it's being taught here either. But it is as we develop virtue, then we will develop what follows knowledge and then on to temperance and so on. And the more virtue we have, the more knowledge will come. Now we did work our way through a number of these last time. There were two that we didn't, the last two, brotherly kindness and charity that we didn't get to. And I want us to think about those first of all now, this morning, and then there's something else I want us to go on here to think about a little bit further. So having worked our way through these, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, that brings us now to brotherly kindness. There's going to be developed in the Christian a tender affection towards our fellow believer, particularly for our fellow believer. That's what is being drawn out here. before we get on to charity and we'll think about this in a moment. But before we get to charity, that general love for our fellow man. Peter emphasises here the love and the concern and the affection that is going to be in the heart of the child of God for a fellow believer. And there is to be a difference. There is to be affection for our fellow believer for a number of reasons. First of all, we are all children of the same Father. Every child of God is just that, a child of God. So when we have this brotherly affection one for another and show brotherly kindness We're showing affection for children of the one Father, for servants of the one Master. Again, we have all the one Master. Christ is our Master. As Paul tells us there in Colossians, we serve the Lord Christ and every other faithful child of God who's serving the Lord Christ, who truly belongs to the Lord. They too are serving the Lord Christ. And again, here's a reason for us to have this brotherly kindness. We're members of the same family. We're traveling to the same country. We're on our way to glory. We're heirs of the same inheritance and the same promises. There's much you see that makes us all stand together and bond one with the other. Turn over to Galatians 6 and you'll notice there how Paul puts it in Galatians 6, verse 10, he says, As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. So it's reversed here, the order that Peter gives. Peter's talking of brotherly kindness and then he comes on to charity. Well, Paul here in Galatians 6 and 10 talks about the good that we do to all men. And then he says, especially, especially unto them who are of the household of faith, the child of God has a special affection and a special concern and a special interest in fellow believers, wherever they are to be found across the globe. The Christian is to think first about fellow believers. If you go back to 1 Peter chapter 1 and look at verse 22 there, This is something that Peter has mentioned in his first letter. 1 Peter 1 verse 22 says, Seeing ye have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. You have been purified, he says, and as a result of the Spirit of God being there, there is to be unfeigned love of the brethren. As you know, you can do something feignedly. Which means you can do it in a pretense. You can pretend to have affection for someone. Pretend to have affection for a fellow believer, but in truth you don't. It's a pretense. Because somebody has an umbrage against a fellow believer, or they've fallen out with a fellow believer, or they've a grudge against a fellow believer, and they're doing it feignedly. But Peter says it's not to be like that. It's to be unfeigned love of the brethren. without pretense, real and sincere and genuine, because they are a fellow believer. And then he says at the end there of verse 22, see that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently. So there is to be this brotherly kindness, to go back to the term that he uses here in 2 Peter 1. There is to be this brotherly kindness that we show one toward another. among the people of God. And then charity, that brings us on to the last one here. And added to this brotherly affection for one believer to another, there is this concern for mankind generally. We are to have this wider love for our fellow man. God is made of one blood, all nations, we're told in the Scriptures. We're all children of God in the sense that we are partakers of the same nature. We are liable to the same afflictions in this world and therefore we are to sympathise with others in their calamities. We are to seek to relieve them in their times of need. We are to seek to promote their welfare in body and soul whenever we have opportunity, to use the language of Paul there in Galatians 6 and 10, wherever we have opportunity. This is something that ought to occupy the child of God. You see, the child of God ought to be the very best neighbour and the very best citizen that there could ever be in any country, in any society. They ought to be that, because of what the word of God teaches us and the development of these graces within us. While there is the aspect of what we believe doctrinally, as we know as well, there is very much that aspect of practical Christianity. where we live out that which we believe and we have come to hold to. So it is the development of these graces that brings us step by step through them and will bring honour and glory to the Lord. Maybe I should say as well that it is only those who truly know the Lord who can really seek after the well-being of their fellow man. Because you take someone who doesn't know the Lord, doesn't recognize the authority of the Word of God, secularists, and there's plenty of them today, and yes, they might run humanitarian organizations, and they might have an interest in the well-being of their fellow man, but they only go so far. They only go so far. They have no interest in the well-being of their soul. They have no interest in looking after the well-being of someone spiritually. And after all, it's spiritual things that's the root cause of many troubles. Many of the necessities of life come about by the fact that it's a neglect of spiritual things. Either they're following false religion and all the wickedness and the misery that comes with false religion. I've thought that often these past few days, when you see that mass migration of people from Muslim countries, it's some indictment of Islam, when people want to leave in their scores and their tens of thousands, that they want to flee Islamic countries. Because that just testifies to the misery of Islam in places like those countries, in Syria and so on, that you've witnessed in the news this past week or more. The vast majority of the troubles of the world stem from spiritual things, but those who are secularists, those who have no acknowledgement of God or his word, they don't seek to attend to the well-being of people's needs, spiritually speaking. A few Sunday nights ago there we were thinking about William Booth and the Salvation Army, and William Booth started off by having a desire to meet the needs of people who were in poverty in the slums of the East End of London, but he realised as well The best way to minister to these people is to see them converted. That will change their lives. Yes, they make the physical, material necessities that needed ministered to and provided for, but the way to change society, the way to change these people is to see them converted and brought to Christ. That will change how they live. But in many organizations today that claim to be humanitarian, they forget about what's the root cause. They won't want to acknowledge it. The root cause of trouble in this world is spiritual. Sin. And it's only when you deal with sin and its consequences that you really are ministering to somebody's welfare. And only the child of God can do that. Only the child of God can do that. That brings us on then to the third thing. We thought about developing Christian life, we thought about the particular things Peter would have us to add to our lives. What I want us to notice here now as well is the importance of adding these graces to our lives. Because Peter emphasises this as well. He stresses the importance of it and he stresses it both in a negative way and then also in the positive way. And that's what he goes on here to say in the subsequent verses and I want to draw your attention to them because there are certain conclusions that are to be drawn and inferred if these graces are not found within us. Look for example at verse 9 here. It says, But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. So here's the negative side of this. He says if these things are not here, if we lack these things, oh, we might have a profession that we are saved. We might have a profession that we are saved, but Peter says if you lack these things, if there's not this development and this growth and this increase in the knowledge of God as he has outlined here, if we're not seeking to go on with God in our lives, Peter says here's the conclusion you have to come to. If you lack these things, you're blind and you cannot see afar off and you've forgotten that you've been purged from these old sins. What a testimony for any Christian to have words like that said about them. That they're spiritually blind, they can't see spiritual realities, that their lives have been so taken up with the things of this world and the things of time and sense that they have no view and no vision at all for spiritual things. They can see the importance of spiritual things. They can see that they are to be first in their lives. They are to have the primary place. And as we know, that's a tendency we can all fall into, Christian. Every one of us. We can fall into a place where we get the emphasis on the wrong things and the wrong priorities in our lives. And we can get so taken up with the material and the physical and the things of this world that we forget we are to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. And our whole lives can be taken up with these things and the things of God are pushed to the side, forgotten about. And there's no development, no growth in grace. We're not giving ourselves to an increase in these things because we're just so occupied with the things of the world. So Peter says, if this is not in us, if we lack these things, it's because we're spiritually blind. We can't see spiritual realities. The greatest of all realities are unseen realities, at least to the physical eye. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 18 says, While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Now it seems there's a paradox there. But if we understand it to refer to the contrast between physical sight and spiritual sight, then we will understand the verse. We don't look at the things that are seen. We don't look at the physical things, the material things, the temporal things, because that's just it. They're only temporal. They're only passing, fleeting. The Christian is somebody who is to look at those unseen things. They're to have spiritual eyesight and spiritual perception. Why are we to look at those things? Because they're eternal. They're the things that last. When everything else is gone, these are the things that will remain. And it's those things the Christian is to have their eye upon. So we can be blind. Then the other one there is that we can't see afar off. There's no looking forward to glory. We're just consumed with the here and now, with the present. We can't see far off, we can't see beyond. This world and the things of this world, there's no knowledge, no interest. no growing desire for heaven and for glory and for Christ, we can't see you far off. And then we've forgotten, surely that must be the saddest thing of all for Peter there to write in verse 9, you've forgotten that you were purged from your old sins. Imagine forgetting, to live as if we've forgotten that the Lord had purged us. Now remember, he's talking here to believers. He starts off in chapter 1 here in verse 1 to talk to those who have obtained like precious faith, and when he comes down to verse 9, he's talking to those that are believers. He's not talking here to those who are unconverted. He's talking to those who have obtained like precious faith. They are the Lord's, and yet they can get to this place where they're spiritually blind and not able to see afar off, and they've forgotten that they're perched. They're forgotten. That's how they live, as if they've forgotten that the Lord ever had saved them and brought them to himself. How sad and tragic that would be, if that was to be the Lord's commentary on any of us. So Peter deals with this in the negative sense. But I want you also now to look at the positive here, because he goes on then to highlight here certain outcomes that will be achieved if these things are present in our lives. And that takes in verse 8 and also verses 10 and onward there for a little as well. First of all if you look there at verse 8, if these things be in you and abound, he says, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So here's a starting point for us to notice. If these things are present, if there is this development and growth and grace, an increase in the knowledge of the Lord, here's what's going to happen. Here's the outcome. We're not going to be barren and we're not going to be unfruitful in our knowledge of the Lord Jesus. We pointed out last Lord's Day, and it's worth mentioning here again, because knowledge is listed there through verse 6 in this series of graces that we are to add. Peter's here is talking about this experimental knowledge of the Lord. There's a saving knowledge that saves the soul and brings somebody to Christ. But there's this experimental knowledge, this going on to know the Lord more and more. And if these things are being developed in us, that's what Peter is saying. We're not going to be barren and we're not going to be unfruitful in this experimental knowledge. Turn over to the Philippines. Let's just bring in Paul here. Here's this man. He's been on the road a little time. as a child of God. He's been saved for a number of years now. And he's writing to this people in Philippi. Chapter 3, verse 10. We know the words so much. But here's his desire. He says that I might know him. Well, Paul is a saved man and he's been saved for years. But here's this man with this burning desire in his soul to know the Lord. Not in a saving way. He already knows the Lord in a saving way. What he wants is an experimental knowledge, and he wants to know more of God experimentally. And he outlines it there in the rest of the verse, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death. This is this increasing, developing knowledge of the Lord. And Peter now says, if we have that, if these things are increasing in us, as we live our lives from week to week and month to month, year to year, in our Christian walk in this world, if these things are developing and increasing, We're not going to be barren or unfruitful. How much more commendable that is, if we have these things in us, this experimental knowledge, this going on to know the Lord experimentally, day by day. And as we live our lives, there's that walking with the Lord, that fellowshipping with him. The Lord is not a stranger to us. So there is this fruitfulness. We'll not be barren or unfruitful. If we take another one, verse 10 this time, it says, Wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. So again, he's concentrating here in verse 10 on the positive. He says, If you do these things you'll never fall. What things? Make your calling and election sure. So here's another outcome that's going to be found in our lives if these things are given attention and there's diligence given to these things, we'll be making our calling and election sure. Sometimes people misunderstand that text of scripture and maybe even get troubled by it. Make your calling and election sure. And there are some who think that it's some kind of a theological, doctrinal evaluation or calculation that you make. Oh, I believe in election. I believe in a factual calling. I believe I'm elected. I believe I'm factually called. I've made my calling in an election. Sure. Well, that isn't what Peter is speaking about because surely we have to take it in the context of the portion that we're thinking here about. It just doesn't stand all on its own. And if we do that, as is often said, a text out of context becomes a pretext. It has to be looked at in its context. And the context is this adding to our faith. And surely the words are at the end of verse 10, for if ye do these things, well the obvious question is, well what things? Well that brings us back to verse 5, add to your faith. Add to your faith. And what Peter is actually saying here is that if there is this increase, this desire for spiritual development, this growth in grace, that is the evidence of our calling and our election. That is how we make our calling and election sure. It is that there is this evidence in our lives. This will be the mark of someone who is truly called of God and is among his people. This will be the mark of someone who is truly the Lord. There is going to be this evidence in their lives, this desire. Oh, it may be wicked things. It may be not what we would desire it to be. We may lament how little of these things there is found in us, but it's going to be there nevertheless. It might need development, but there will be a consciousness and a yearning and a desire and an evidence that it's there and some degree of development there will be found. That's making our calling and election sure. It is not some thing in our mind, theological understanding of some doctrine. As important as that might be, that is not making our calling and election sure. Making our calling and election sure is having the evidence in our lives that we are a child of God. It is exactly the same as what the Lord Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7 verse 20, Wherefore by their fruit ye shall know them. Wherefore by their fruit ye shall know them. And he goes on in verse 21 there of Matthew 7 to say, Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. And what is the will of his Father? That we add these things to our lives. This is making our calling an election sure, Christian. And it guards against, you see, carnal security. If somebody says, oh, I prayed a prayer so long ago. Oh, I called on the Lord. And there's absolutely no evidence in their lives of any spirituality or any growth in grace or any desire for growth in grace. How can there be any conclusion there that somebody's saved? There is no grounds for it. You know, a backslider cannot have assurance of salvation. They have no grounds for assurance of salvation if they are backslidden. None whatsoever. And therefore, if somebody is backslidden, it ought to trouble them. Trouble them greatly. For there is one thing you cannot have, and that is assurance of salvation. You have got no grounds for it. None whatsoever. Making your calling and election sure, making my calling and election sure, is my life showing evidence of being a child of God. Is there the evidence? Is there the fruit that bears witness to the fact that I am a child of God? If there is not, then there is a serious question cast over that person. They certainly cannot have any assurance that they belong to the Lord. There is no evidence of it in their life. Making our calling and election sure is demonstrating that these things, there is a desire and there is the presence as well of these things in us. God's grace will bring it about. If we go back just to those opening verses that Peter has mentioned here, he talks about the divine power. He talks about what the Lord has given to us, all things that pertain to life and godliness. He talks about the great and precious promises that we might be partakers of the divine nature. This is what God's grace will do in the life that he saves. And those that are elect, and those that are effectually called on to the Lord, this is what God's grace will do in their lives. And where there is that in evidence, Christian, weak it might be, little it might be, but it's there nevertheless. That's making our calling an election, sure. That's showing the proof of being a child of God. And people who claim to be a backslider and they are content in their backsliding, There has to be a serious question mark over that. I am not their judge and the Lord knows their heart. But they certainly cannot have any assurance of salvation. And if they pretend to have assurance of salvation, it's but a false hope. They could not have any. Because there is no evidence at that hour of a desire to go on with God at all. So he's saying to them, if you add these things, you are making your calling and election sure. Let's move on quickly. There's two others here I want you to notice. Look at verse 11. For so an entrance shall be administered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If these things are in us, he says, there will be an entrance into the kingdom. Well, that's true for every child of God. But he says it's going to be ministered to you abundantly. You see, it is the child of God who is developing and growing as a child of God who will die in triumph. They are the Christian that will die in triumph. They are the Christian that will have this abundant entrance into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. They are those who are going on with God. As you know, those comments made in the scriptures of being saved yet is by fire. Look at 1 Peter 4, verse 18, it says, For if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall they ungodly and the sinner appear? If the righteous scarcely be saved. And then 1 Corinthians 3.15, If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. If you want an example of that in the scriptures, you think of Lot. You would not know, you would not have concluded by reading Genesis that Lot was a child of God. You would be hard pushed. When you read of Lot's end in Sodom, and being brought out, what happened to him after he was brought out, you would be hard pushed to think this man was a child of God at all. And yet Peter tells us there in 2 Peter 2, he calls him just lot, verse 7, 2 Peter 2 verse 7, and deliver just lot. You would be hard pushed That was an example of a man whose works were all burned up, literally, all burned up in Sodom. But he was saved so as by fire. He was saved so as by fire. But is that the type of entrance we want into heaven? Or would we rather, as outlined here in 2 Peter 1 and verse 11, that there would be ministered unto us this, an abundant entrance into heaven? This glorious entrance, this entrance in triumph and victory into heaven? Well, if we want that entrance into heaven, then there needs to be the development of these graces in our lives. We need to be increasing. and growing. And then that brings us to the last one as well that runs through this whole letter and we've mentioned it already that it's one of the primary motives for writing that we would be guarded against being deceived. We've already read verse 17 of chapter 3 here, 2 Peter 3, 17, where Peter talks there about being on our guard lest we would be led away with the error of the wicked. How do we safeguard that Christian? In an evil day when there is much false teaching about, it's growing in grace. It's increasing in these things. That's the safeguard. It's the person who is not growing and who is not developing that is in danger of being deceived by the false teacher. They're not getting satisfaction in Christ and in the things of God, and they end up being taken in with something else and following after it, and it's error. Sadly, many people are. They end up following some of the cults or whatever. They end up following false teaching. But it's because there's no growth, there's no increase, and they're still spiritually immature. And therefore when somebody comes along, and it is, just to use the language of Peter there, we read it in verse 16, cunningly devised fables. When somebody comes along with a cunningly devised fable, oh it's appealing, alluring, and somebody's taken in by it, and before they know it they're deceived, and they're convinced that the lie is the truth. You try talking to some of those people who come around your doors, the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons, you can barely get through to them. Everything you say is filtered through what they have been taught and instructed in. And you might be saying it in one particular way, they're interpreting it in an entirely different way because they have been indoctrinated by those who are over them to listen and to interpret what you're saying in a particular way. And they have been taken in and deceived. And we can be taken in and deceived if we are spiritually immature. If there's no growing and developing, that's a great danger. We can end up believing something that is not the truth. So Peter is here emphasizing the importance of this. Yes, we may have saving faith, but let us add to that these things and for these reasons that he gives, both negatively and positively. May the Lord even speak to our hearts today and lead us on with himself. And if you're here this morning, I don't know your heart, but the Lord knows it if you're cold of heart. I trust the Lord would stir you and speak to you today, lead you on out after himself. Let's bow together in prayer.