Well, for the sermon today, I'm not going to be in 1 Peter, as so many of you told me after the service last week, I said, especially Tony, who's been preaching in 1 Peter, and he came up and he said, you're not going to do 1 Peter when that's what I'm doing, are you? We're in 2 Peter today. Chapter 1, verses 1 through 11. And today I want to talk to you about the knowledge of God. Why is it so disdained in our day to have knowledge and especially knowledge of God? Why do so many people pit knowledge against Christianity as if faith is the exact opposite of knowledge? I believe that when the rubber meets the road, it's because The knowledge of God imposes itself upon the way that we live our lives, and far too many of us want a God that will let us live our lives however we see fit. But Christianity is not a matter of living however you see fit, because this results in words like that Peter says that are ineffective, unfruitful corruption. that will not allow you to escape a fallen world that is doomed to perish with fire. Rather, Christianity is a matter of, here's more words Peter gives, righteousness, grace and peace, life and godliness that comes through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. Without an increasing amount of holiness in a life, no professing Christian will see the Lord. But they will be seen as, here's some more words Peter says, nearsighted to the point of blindness. They will trip over Christ and fall into the pit where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now that's my basic short summary of our text this morning, which I want to look at this morning. I'm starting a new series on 2 Peter, but I'm really in the midst of a series that I began with Jude. And as we will see, especially in chapter 2, which we'll get to in a couple of weeks, reading Jude and 2 Peter together is like reading Kings and Chronicles or Matthew and Luke together. They are complementary letters. that have so much overlap that they're either both pulling from a common source or one is taking his material straight from the other. So that's why we're doing 2 Peter right after we do Jude. Now 2 Peter is also similar to Jude in that both of these letters were among the last in the New Testament to be formally recognized as canonical books. In fact, the authorship of both of these letters has been questioned, even though both letters clearly give the name of the author in the first verse. And not only the name, but some identifying mark that goes along with it, like Jude, the brother of James, or Simon Peter, the apostle of Jesus. How come some people question the authorship? Well, there's a lot of reasons that I don't want to get into this morning, and none of them are convincing. You can go to a commentary and read about this if you are interested. But suffice it to say, liberal scholars come to the scriptures presupposing the worst, and so they're sure to find it. All I can say is that It's not an acceptable alternative to me to accept these books as forgeries and yet also as God's Word. If a book says it's from Peter and the church has said this is in the canon, it's either a forgery or it's God's Word. It can't be both. Those seem like contradictions to me. So, 2 Peter begins by identifying the author in verse 1, Simeon Peter, A servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. Of course, you're very well acquainted with this man if you've been a Christian for a week. He's probably the most famous person in the entire New Testament after Jesus himself. Peter was the chief of the apostles. He was their leader. The one Christ set aside and changed his name and gave a great promise and charge. But of course, Peter was also the most transparent of the apostles. As soon as Christ gives him the charge, Jesus calls him Satan for failing to grasp the necessity of the crucifixion. So Peter was a flawed man, which gives me hope for my salvation. He was not the first pope. He did not, as Irenaeus claims, found the church at Rome with Paul, since Paul himself says that he did not found the church at Rome in the Book of Romans. It seems to me that the gospel's portrayals of him, and many scholars believe that Peter himself is the man that conveyed most of the stories to Mark, that he was always doing the wrong thing. When you read the book of Mark, when you read Matthew or Luke, Peter always did the wrong thing. One commentator says, he rushed ahead when he should have waited. He slept when he should have prayed. He talked when he should have listened. He was courageous but careless in his ways. This is Peter. This is the one who is writing the book to us here. But you see, this Peter had faith. And the faith that Peter had was true faith. More than this, Peter had learned to grow strong in his faith, and this led him to grow stronger in his deeds as well. Peter was not content to stay where he was, as many of us are even in this room spiritually. And this gives us a very personal way of reading through this passage today. It's not like this is some guy writing a bunch of a list of do's and don'ts. This is Peter, the apostle, the flawed man who is growing in his faith, now telling you to do the same thing. Peter was not just preaching what he did not practice. He, more than maybe anyone else who has ever lived, could relate to what he's telling his hearers right here. Now that leads me to the next question. Who are his original hearers? The answer is we don't know for sure. They might have been Jewish Christians from the dispersion, as he seems to indicate in his first letter. They may be Gentile converts scattered all over the Roman Empire. Now perhaps Peter, the Jew, has this in mind when he says to his audience, These words, those who have to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours. See, he might be distinguishing between Jews and Gentiles here. Whichever the case may be, it is certain that his audience and my audience, which is you today, will all equally benefit from this letter, because it is true of all of you that you have obtained a faith by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, of course, I'm assuming that you've obtained a faith, because I believe that church is for Christians, those who profess faith in Christ, to gather and come together. So I'm not speaking to a bunch of unbelievers, but I'm not kidding myself to think that you all really have faith. And if you don't have faith in Christ, today is the day of salvation. I began this morning by talking about knowledge of God, which we will come to very shortly in verse 2. But Peter mentions faith before he talks about knowledge, if you read the text. And so the question might be asked, what kind of faith is this? You see, you've obtained faith, he says. What kind of faith? If Jude is parallel at this point, then we may be certain that it is an objective faith, because Jude at the beginning of his letter talks about the faith once for all delivered to the saints. But it's probable that it's more than this, at least for the majority of Peter's audience, and I trust for the majority of you today. Now, if there's an objective faith, which is the doctrine, the beliefs, the traditions that Christians hold because of the scripture, There is another kind of faith as well, and it's a faith that we might call subjective faith. It's a faith that goes from the outside to the inside. It comes through the ears, and it travels into the head, and it finally goes down into the heart, and then ultimately it goes out into the extremities, the way that you live your life. This kind of faith is more than head knowledge. It is your ability to trust and believe in God, including who he is, what he has done and what he says. This is the faith that everyone who is baptized takes an oath and swears that they possess and they will be held accountable to that profession of faith. But now, Peter does not leave it at that, and this is what I love maybe more than anything else about the scriptures. As we will see, Peter will very quickly launch into a full-blown list of commandments, but he will not do it before making sure that you know that your ability to keep those commandments comes from the grace of God through a host of promises that are yours in Christ. Now, this is how he starts his letter, like almost every book in the New Testament. It gives promises and grace and all of these good things that God has given. Then and only then does it start telling you what to do. I know I emphasize this over and over and over again, but it's because my goal in life, brothers and sisters, is to beat the legalism out of you. So that you will trust in Christ and not in your obedience to keep God's law. Now, let me look at these things at the beginning of the letter with you. First, this faith is yours, Peter says, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So that's how the ESV reads. By the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. That is, you have obtained this faith through, now listen, the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Now, I'm going to try and make a couple of points here. that I think are very interesting and important. The first is that the very heart of the gospel is right here at the beginning of Peter's letter. This is the most important piece of knowledge that you can have as a Christian, which is this. Faith comes by righteousness. You hear that? Isn't that interesting? As you will see, the righteousness that you possess is not perfect. And for this reason, Peter gives commandments so that you may supplement your faith with good works because you don't already possess those or you possess them imperfectly. Partly dirty righteousness is not righteousness. And so Peter tells you that the righteousness out of which your faith originates is Christ's righteousness. Now, Peter isn't using the word justification here, but it's clear enough that this is what he's talking about, since it is Christ's righteousness that allows you to obtain faith. If you will be saved, then you must have faith in the righteousness of God, that it will be credited to your account so that you might stand even though you continue to sin. You need to get it out of your thinking once and for all that God is pleased with anything that you do apart from Jesus Christ. And yet the flip side of that is God is pleased with you in Christ. And that's the most wonderful news you can ever hear. That even when you're imperfect, God's pleased with you because of Christ's righteousness. Now, let me tell you about the second important thing. This is the righteousness of God, which is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Now, that sounds like what I just said, but I want to make a point here. The point is that God and Jesus are the same person here. Now, often in confrontations with heretics like Jehovah's Witnesses, we search the scriptures to try and find one that will show them that Jesus is God. Here's one of the clearest of all in the entire Bible. Let me tell you about the grammar. You cannot translate it literally because it doesn't make any sense in English. But you can give all of the words in the translation. It goes something like this. It says, Righteousness of our thee God and Savior Jesus Christ. Righteousness of our thee God and Savior Jesus Christ. Here's the point. One article, the word the, governs both God and Savior. Peter does not need to add the word the again. Now, this is the identical construction that you find, for example, in verse 11, where it calls Jesus both Lord and Savior, the Lord and Savior. It's almost comical to me. I went and read the New World Translation, the Jehovah's Witness Bible, just to see how they were going to butcher this one, and they did. It reads, Righteousness of our God and the Savior Jesus Christ. It totally distorts the grammar in order to make it look as if Jesus is not God. But this is not acceptable because the grammar and for another reason. This righteousness that you obtain faith because of belongs to both God and to Jesus Christ. Do you see? Both are in the genitive form showing clearly that the righteousness comes from both. This is because both are one. And when Jehovah's Witnesses come knocking on your door, feel free to use this verse. Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God. Our God and Savior Jesus Christ. But this is more than just an apologetic against Jehovah's Witnesses. And the verses which follow are treasures that you need to store in your heart because in them you understand completely that faith is not something that you do. It does not depend upon you for its origination. It does not depend upon you for its completion. But it is given as a faith. Faith is given as a gift so that God gets all of the glory. Now, Peter in verse 10 talks about making your calling and election sure, doesn't he? He didn't use the word elect at the beginning here, but it's nevertheless obvious that those who are in Christ are elect people. First, Peter wants grace and peace to be multiplied to you in verse 2. But that presupposes that both of them have already come. So faith is something that comes by grace. And we read that in Ephesians today. And through both, you have peace with God, which means that God is no longer your enemy, but your friend. God has graciously, while you were a sinner, while you were an enemy, a child of wrath, loving darkness and sin, granted you faith to believe in Jesus. So Peter says that the grace and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. Grace and peace are multiplied in the knowledge of God. Do you hear that? Contrary to some hyper-Calvinists, faith, grace and peace do not come apart from the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. Again, you do not have God apart from Christ. The Apostle Paul says that faith comes through hearing. And what do you hear? You hear words. It becomes the knowledge of God. Obviously, this is a saving knowledge that Peter is talking about because God's divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. The faith that God gives is a powerful faith. It leads to life, not to death. To godliness, not to wickedness. And this again comes through knowledge, it says in verse 3. Knowledge that God has called us to His own glory and excellence. Why is it the Reformed people like to talk about theology? So many other people like to talk about experiences. It's because the Scripture says that faith comes through knowing about God. And if you don't know about God, whatever faith you say you have isn't real. And it's not real knowledge of God. And it doesn't lead to the things that we're going to talk about here in a few minutes. These things that God gives to you show you the glory and excellency of God. See, that's the point of why God gives them to you. And when you see these things, then you no longer want to sin. It's that way with anything, isn't it? If you love Colorado mountains, you will not feel at home in any other. Maybe you would in Nepalese mountains, I don't know, because those are pretty nice. If you've experienced a filet mignon, you will not want chop steak again. If you've met God and seen his beauty and understand his glory and known of his excellent virtues, including all of those that saved you as a wicked rebel, then you will not want to sin anymore. Or put it another way, sin will not feel like home to you like it once did. It will be uncomfortable because you know that it displeases your God. But there's even more of the grace of God that comes your way through the faith that's granted to you as a free gift of God's grace. And it says these are very great promises that allow you to become partakers of the divine nature and allow you to escape the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire in verse 4. I like that word promises. I use it all the time. God's promises. When we think of promises, when I think of a promise, I usually think of the future. But Peter connects the future promises to the present, doesn't he? He says our hope is that we became partakers of the divine nature. Not as a pantheist means, as a Buddhist means, but we become, not that we become part of God, but rather scripture uses metaphors like a head and a body. Christ is our head and we are His body made up of many parts. Bodies partake in the life of the head. You would have no body without a head. It would be dead. And if we partake in the divine nature in this way, then every moral attribute of Christ belongs to you in increasing measure. My friends, angels long to look into the mysteries that you are hearing in these first four verses. We're even now escaping from the corruption of the world, it says. That's a present, or it's an active aorist participle. We are now escaping, is the best way to say it, from the corruption of the world. It's not just a future promise, but it's present. Now, think about this in light of the present world. All around you things are decaying, rotting, putrefying, disintegrating, falling down. Cities burn. Houses crumble. Bodies are injured. Memories are lost. Emotions fleet away. Friends abandon you. Books are burned. People are forgotten. This is the corruption that belongs to the age that is passing away. It is full of wickedness and evil and greed and depravity, pride and disobedience, sinful passions, murder, hatred, jealousy, and all of these things. But you, with your faith, are escaping the world for an inheritance that never rots, never decays, never changes, never fades away. Where are you to fix your hope? Fix your hope on these things, the things that are above. And when you start to fear and worry about life, it's because your eyes are looking at all these things that are rotting away in front of you. Your inheritance is God Himself, the glorious, excellent One who gives you all of these treasures and promises. Therefore, Peter says, make every effort to supplement your faith. Now, do you see how he started this? Where does faith come from? It doesn't come from you. It comes as a free gift of God. He's given you all of these treasures. This faith is yours. Therefore, supplement your faith. Another translation says, giving all diligence, add to your faith. Now, usually, like in our worship service, we talk about the law, then the gospel. Because the law drives you to Christ. And then the gospel comforts you, but here it's just the opposite. It's the gospel, then the law. And it's because Peter's using the law in its third use. to stir you up by way of reminder. Our faith is not perfect in this life, but our righteousness in Christ is because of the gift of God. So to ensure that your faith is genuine, God commands through the Spirit to make your calling and election sure. I'll talk more about the calling and election here in a little bit. But how do you do that? Now here's this list. of seven attributes of God that you are to have in increasing measure, it says in verse seven. Seven is the perfect number. It's the number of completion, because in six days God created the world and on the seventh he rested. These seven attributes are not a complete and total list of everything that you have to have, but it is a list of have all of the virtues of God. And I found it kind of interesting, I might be stretching this a little to make a preaching point, but I think generally it works. These seven attributes seem to begin in your mind, move outward through your body, and then out of your body altogether to those who are around you. And this is very important to say from the beginning. Christian virtue always has other people as its final goal in mind. You ever heard that from a pulpit? Not a lot of people seem to care a lot about that in our day. Selfishness has no place in Christianity. Too many people think of spiritual disciplines, for example, as those things that help me attain greater closeness with God. And they completely forget to take those disciplines and apply them in their relationships that they find themselves with after their quiet time is over. You may not think that the first attribute begins in the mind, but I think it does. Virtue. Virtue is the same quality that's given of God in verse 3. Now, in the ESV, it gives two different words. One's excellence and one is virtue, but it's the same Greek word. While virtue is ultimately a character trait that shows itself in generosity and going beyond the normal call of duty with others, Virtue is an attribute that must be cultivated first in the mind. I learned this lesson well in a philosophy class that I took at seminary. We had to read a book on epistemology. Epistemology is the study of how we know things. The main thesis of that rare book on epistemology was that even in how we learn, we have to be intellectually virtuous. At the very beginning of ethics, in other words, how we acquire knowledge, it is obvious that many people are intellectually lazy and dishonest. We come to God and His Word with an agenda. Or maybe we don't come to it at all because we don't want it to upset us too much. Many people are not inquisitive about knowing more about God. Other people are not teachable. They only agree with the things from a pulpit that they already believe. Many people are not attentive. Other people are not observant. Many people take their knowledge as a badge of pride. Others debate with an arrogant and haughty spirit, anyone who disagrees with them. We do all of these things when we learn, when we teach, when we talk, when we read. But virtue is the ability to do all things well and with honor, all things. And I think if we cannot learn well, then we cannot act well. Because in order to act upon something, you first have to know it. And if we will not act well, then we will be shown to be nearsighted and blind. So I focus on virtue of knowledge. How you acquire, how you believe, how you take your knowledge, talk about it with other people. How you sit in a sermon. Acting like you would rather be anywhere else? Falling asleep? Not paying attention? These are all acts of intellectual dishonesty. Only when we have virtue coursing through our veins will knowledge be of any value. If there is an order to these attributes, then I'm right. Peter says that we're to add knowledge to our virtue. What does the Proverbs say? It says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. It's the end of knowledge. It's the beginning of knowledge. Virtue and the fear of the Lord comes before knowledge. The fear of the Lord is a virtue and without it, no one knows anything truly. or as it is known by God. People may know facts, but they will not know reasons. They may know trivia, but it will never be married to wisdom. Truth is not just some chemical reaction in a test tube that you can figure out a way to repeat. Truth is embodied in a person. Therefore, knowledge of God is knowledge of Christ. And knowledge of Christ and of His whole word is the way that you supplement your faith. So you add to your faith virtue, and to virtue you add knowledge. But many people like to just stop at the head. They go on a big head trip. And that's not what Peter does. Rather, when you have true knowledge of God, it begins to work its way down into the lower extremities, the way that blood moves all around your body. With much knowledge comes much pride. The more we know, the easier it is to become puffed up. And again, most people think of self-control as being purely the realm of the hands, feet and tongue, but it begins first as a discipline after acquiring knowledge. Christianity that is head knowledge without the ability to show self-control in the way that you deal with others intellectually is a false religion. If you can show self-control in the way that you use your mind, and convey your knowledge to others, then you will be one step closer to using your knowledge to control your whole body. Now, self-control is what you have when an authority is not present to keep you in check. It's like when you're driving down the road and you don't see a cop. What kind of things go through your head? It's the ability to temper yourself It's the ability to limit the alcohol without a friend telling you to stop. It's the ability to watch the mouse clicks on your computer. It's the ability to hold your tongue. It's the ability to watch your feet. Self-control is one of the most lacking virtues in American society. We are the fattest country in history. We call immorality sexual freedom. The Internet has given us the ability to be anybody we want in a chat room. And I've seen time and again how people say things in chat rooms that they would never say to a human being in real life. Self-control is looked upon as a vice, not a virtue in America. Yet millions of people are enslaved to the very passions that they think liberate them. Even Aristotle said that without self-control you cannot live a virtuous life. You must be working on your self-control. And you have the power to do this because God has given you His Holy Spirit. But you know what happens with self-control is that it often falters. It wanes. And when it does, it's because perseverance is lacking. So Peter tells you to add to self-control steadfastness. Steadfastness is the ability to persevere to the end. It is a resolution that you make. It is the desire to see a thing through. It is the fortitude to finish the race. It does this especially in the midst of great trial and persecution or suffering. In fact, anyone can be steadfast when nothing is at stake, when everyone is acting well, when life is easy. When you have peer pressure to do the right thing, it's easy. You don't need steadfastness. It's when it's hard to have self-control that steadfastness becomes the kind of endurance that Peter's talking about here. When you're tempted to sin and give up control, be steadfast in your intention not to fall. This will produce godliness in your life. Godliness is what Peter tells you to add to steadfastness. Remember, it is the divine power that has already been granted to you that gives you all these things that pertain to life and godliness in verse 3. Again, it's the same word. Peter's not telling you anything new. He's not telling you to get something you don't already have. But what he's telling you is vital. For a Christian to not have Christ-likeness is a contradiction. And the very thing that Peter will begin to elaborate in the coming chapters of the letter. Many were professing faith in Christ, but they were using grace as a reason and an excuse to sin. This is an intolerable situation. Completely contradictory for a professing believer. Now finally, the last two virtues deal with others. You're to have brotherly affection and Christian love in verse 7. Now, the first term is Philadelphia and the last term is agape. And you know, I thought I've heard many sermons on agape and how it is unconditional love of the kind that God has shown to us. And we evangelicals love to talk about agape. But I started thinking, I really haven't heard very many people talk about Philadelphia love. Now maybe it's just me. By the way, you know why Philadelphia is called the city of brotherly love. It's the word means. Brotherly love is the kind that a brother has for his brother. In the church, this is the kind of love that is to be extended to every single professing Christian, no matter if you like them or not. I've heard former people from this church talk about how they have no family in Colorado except for their immediate family unit, and they're talking about their wife and their kids. But this is an utter failure to understand that the local church is the family of God. We have closer ties with one another than two unbelieving biological brothers can ever have. Yet how many times do we not even act like that at all? We often act as if our biological family is the most important. And perhaps those of us who have extended family in this church have been guilty from time to time of not extending brotherly love to those who may not feel like they get it here. Because it's just easy to hang around with your family. This is not to be the case in the church of Jesus Christ. May it never be said of us that we favored daughters over sisters in Christ. May it never be said that we stay in our cliques that we've grown up with to the detriment of the lonely people that sit in the back each week in the church. I don't know why, but it seems to me that sometimes people spiritualize agape. It's not easy to spiritualize brotherly love. This is a love that you extend in the body with your hands, with your mouth, to those that you do not know, to those who you do not like, but who claim the name of Christ. This is especially true in the church. Can you leave here today without growing in your brotherly love towards one another in this place? If you can, then you do not exhibit agape either. Because this kind of love is unconditional and it comes only when a person has experienced the love of Christ personally. Friends, Peter says if these things are yours and are increasing. They keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Simply put, if they are not increasing. And or if someone lacks these qualities. then they are nearsighted so as to be blind, he says in verse 9. You say, I'm a Christian. I don't care about these virtues. I care about six of them, but not seven of them. I'll deal with the ones that I like and disregard the rest. If that is you, then you are nearsighted so as to be blind. You think that you see, but you don't. Verse nine is important because it talks about those who profess Christ, who have been baptized, and yet show no sign that Christian virtue is growing in their life. And notice it says that they have forgotten that they were cleansed from former sins. Almost every commentary, old and new, sees this as a reference to baptism, interestingly enough. The word for cleansed is often used of ceremonial washings. If the word does not refer to baptism, now think about this, but it actually refers to the cleansing of Christ, then it's difficult for me to see how this verse would not be teaching that you can lose your salvation. And yet Peter tells you in the very next verse that we're to make our calling and election sure. An election is not something that an individual with true faith can lose. Yet election is not something that every Christian sees as a blessing. In fact, some people curse it. There's a couple of reform denominations, for example, that teach people that they can never know if they are elect. And it's not a lot of them, thankfully, but it's a couple of them. I remember Dr. Joel Beeky talking about this in a seminar that I heard. In fact, he did his entire doctrinal thesis on this because he was so torn up inside about what his church taught about this. He lived in doubt and anxiety, never knowing if he was actually saved and being told that he could never know that he was actually saved. But the scripture wants you to know that you are saved. And it gives you ways that you can see this if you believe. You're not to look to the doctrine of election, you're to look to Christ. Do I look to Christ, you say to yourself? Am I trusting in Him alone for my salvation? Then I know I am saved. Do I have Christian virtue growing in my life? Then I know that I am saved. But on the other end of the spectrum, many fundamentalists and evangelicals are taught that really, in reality, they elect themselves by their own free will. But if that's the case, how can election ever be sure? All you have to do is unelect yourself. Choose not to believe. Choose to leave the faith. But Peter would have remembered the words that Jesus told him. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide. This kind of election and good fruit was not something given to Judas, but it was given to Peter and Peter understood it well. He addresses the saints in the first letter to the elect in, and then he gives the name of the city. This was an important doctrine to Peter. And now he calls upon you to remember. Remembering is a theme that I talked about two weeks ago when I came to Jude. But Peter says that you're to remember by way of warning you about forgetting. It's kind of the opposite. He uses a different word. Those who are blind have forgotten that they were baptized. Their illumination is now a fog. They care nothing about their past confession, but only about the present evil choices that they're making. They haven't lost their salvation. They never had it to begin with. Do not be as those who are blind and so cannot see the provisions and promises of God. If you do, then you will one day die and you will one day be judged and you will be found guilty and you will be punished accordingly and you will go to hell. But if you do remember, then there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, he says in verse 11. Again, as Peter began, so he ends this section with the promises of God. Always, always, always the scripture bases the commandments upon the promises so that you may understand where the power to obey comes from. God has held out to you the blessing of eternal life in an eternal kingdom with the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is the longing that every heart has but few will attain because they do not have a faith that is bearing fruit. Do not be as these, beloved of God, but do everything in your power to get rid of the sin that so easily entangles you. Add to your faith the virtues of God in increasing measure because you trust the promises more today than you did yesterday. It is so easy for you to hear these things that you're to do and forget the promises. And you focus on what you're to do. But the only motivation you're going to ever have or care about to do the things that you're told to do is to remember what Christ has done for you. And to think often about those things. It's the only thing that's going to get rid of the bitterness and the anger that comes from people that are raised and reared in religion that don't have Christ. They need to know the promises and you need to remember the promises. And then you need to do what Peter says. And you need to plead with God to purify you, to discipline you, to never forsake you so that in the end it might be well with your soul. This is true knowledge of God. Knowledge that need not be disdained or pitted against Christ, who is the power and wisdom of God and the knowledge of His mystery. Jesus is the ultimate end of our knowledge. And it's for God's sake and for Christ's sake that He gives all of these things to His people. Let's pray together. Lord, there's no doubt that we all fall short of what Peter is saying But Peter knew that better than anyone. And so he gives us the hope that comes from Christ alone. Please, Lord, help each one here today to hear and to understand your word. Open up hearts that do not yet trust in Christ. From the littlest of us in here to the oldest, may no one leave here darkened in their mind and their understanding. futile in their thinking and wicked in their ways. Lord, save all of us, we pray. Help us to make our calling and election sure. Cause us to take seriously the need to add to the faith that You have given to us these virtues that reflect the very character of God. Help us to desire and to want to add these things to our lives, to not be content to be where we are even this moment. It is the mark of a Christian to want to grow, to want to change, to want to be more like Christ. And I would pray that you would fuel these thoughts in us so that we might, as our responsibility would have it to be, Bring these things in increasing measure in our lives because we know that you have already put them there by your Holy Spirit, who also gives us the ability to do anything that we do. And it's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.