Thanks to let me share with you We're looking again this morning at the book of 2nd Peter and looking at our early is our great salvation We're so blessed and so by God's design to the blessing We had And speaking how 2nd Peter is written to warn us about false teachers to be able to give us a foundation to protect ourselves from them. But we come to verse three and four of chapter one. I think it's the greatest two verses on salvation you can find in the Bible. Verse three and four. I'll just read it to you. 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, which having escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust. I mean, that's a real mouthful, those two verses, and they're mindful, too, when you start studying them. and it's a heartfelt loss of truth. It's just a basic realization that life in general, even for those who are true believers, it's not easy going through life. None of us escape the troubles in life. These sinful bodies that we have are fallen, live on a fallen planet, there's temptation, there's sin, failure, Disappointment, rejection, frustration, unfulfillment, weakness, pain, sorrow, loneliness, fear, anxiety, alienation. All of that, I'm trying to list a few things. All of that that comes at us in varying forms, and it's just part of our life experience. And the question is, where do we find resources to deal with that? I mean, to deal with it effectively, to deal with it triumphantly. Where do we go to solve the issues of life? Can we turn to God? Does he care? Does he love us enough to dispense some supernatural help? Some doubt that. Herman Melville wrote, the reason that the mass of men fear God and at the same time dislike him is because they rather distress his heart and fancy him all like brain, like a watch, end quote. Some people I suppose think God is just some machine that did creation and just left it to go on its own and everything, he doesn't really care much about it, but is that true? I mean, does God care? Does God love us? Has God given us resources to deal with the issues we face in life? I mean, are we sufficient? Are we kind of self-contained? Are the psychologists right? that even though you have God and you have Christ as your savior, that you're still inadequate and you probably need therapy to really to deal, to be adequate. I mean, even if we know God has just given us a small dose of supernatural grace, barely enough to squeak by, Maybe enough to save us, but not enough to sanctify us? Maybe enough to save us and sanctify us, but not enough to glorify us? I mean, if we come to God through Christ, are we really sufficient, or is there more? Is there something different, something more? And that leads us really to a discussion on the attributes of God. And I took it as a liberty looking through my theology books that I have at home, and systematic theology books, and I was looking for the attribute of generosity. Is there an attribute of God of generosity? And I couldn't find it anywhere, any of my books that I have. Maybe 10 books, I went through the Red Decks trying to find something that said something about the generosity of God. I mean, have Christian theologians also sort of questioned whether God's really very generous? I mean, is he a little stingy, God? Does he just give us barely enough to get us out of hell and not a lot more? Well, you look at scripture, just for a minute, I've got a few verses starting in the Old Testament where God has explained. And God gives his own first-person assessment of himself, his character. He says in Exodus 34, six, I am merciful, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. And Limitations chapter three, verse 22 and 23, Beautiful verses. The Lord's compassions fail not. They never fail. And they're new every morning. Small is thy faithfulness. Know what it says? It says great, great is thy faithfulness. The psalmist said the Lord will command his love and kindness in the daytime and the night his song shall be with me. And Psalmist also said, oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness. And he provides what we need in the daytime, he provides what we need in the nighttime, so we ought to praise him for it. And scripture says that God is very generous, when you go through the Bible. And all the issues of life, it says he's great, plentiful, tender, abundant, above all the heavens, and from everlasting to everlasting. His grace is as far as the heaven is above the earth. That's how great his mercy is toward them that fear him. And in Psalm 121, the psalmist wrote, I will lift up mine eyes to the mountains from which cometh my help. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will never slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will protect you from all evil. He will keep your soul. He will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth forever. You know, something enough, he says, he'll take care of everything, answer everything. When you get to the gospel, in the gospel, the gospel of John, John 1, 16 says, of his fullness have we, have all we've received of his fullness, for of his fullness. And when we received Christ, we didn't just get a part of Christ. When I received him, I say, I just didn't get a little bit of Jesus. I got his fullness. In John 10, 10, Jesus said, I'm coming that you might have life and have it just a little bit, right? A little bit by a little bit. Now you have it more abundantly. I come to you might have life more abundantly. In Romans 8, 17, it says, we're not just heirs, but we're joint heirs with Christ. And all that God gives to Christ, he gives to us. And there's a wonderful scripture in 1 Corinthians chapter three, when we went studying that some time back, but 1 Corinthians 3, 21, this statement in the middle of the verse, for all things are yours. To who? To the believers. All things are yours, the believers. You say, yeah, but that's kind of, that's a certain kind of believer. That's not every kind of believer. Well, Paul wrote it to the Corinthian church. And if you want to talk about like the lowest rung on the ladder for spirituality, that was a Corinthian church. I mean, they had all kind of sin they had to deal with. And so all things belong to you. It's the nature of God to be generous. And when God gives salvation, it's the fullness of salvation. It's grace upon grace. It's mercy upon mercy. It's all that God can give, actually. He gives all that he can give. Then he goes on to say in verse 22 of chapter three, first Corinthians, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all things belong to you. And so Paul belongs to me and you, Apollos belongs to you, Peter belongs to you, all the great teachers that the Lord has provided to the world belong to you. Life belongs to you, death belongs to you, things present belong to you, things to come belong to you, everything belongs to you. And then there's that cap in verse 23, and you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God. I mean, we're all wrapped up in whatever God and Christ possess, we possess. I mean, we possess the world, God made it for us. We possess life, spiritual, eternal, in Christ. We possess die, because to die for us is gain. And we possess things present, that really covers everything in life, every element of life, everything in this life, everything we experience, the good, the bad, the pleasant, the painful, the joys, the disappointments, health, sickness. God gave it all to us to work it out for our good. And we possess things to come, eternal reward, the glories of heaven, the new heaven, the new earth, the millennial kingdom, and we belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. And it's all wrapped up in this, in the same package. I mean, it's just incredible thoughts that Paul was sharing. And in chapter two of 1 Corinthians, verse nine, Paul wrote, the eye has not seen, nor ear has not heard. Neither has it entered into the heart of man all that God has prepared for those that love him. And they tell us the only, we only use 10% of our brain all the time, about 10%, that's what I've read. With some of us it's apparent, some of us it's not apparent. But with most of us it's more or less not probably. Well, if we only use less than 10% of our brain, I can tell you right now that I use a very minute part of God's grace that I have in Christ. I use a very small part of it. When God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. I mean, do you have all you need? Yes, you do. Do you have more than you need? You have all. You have all grace, super, abounding, overflowing, you're always completely sufficient for everything. You have an abundance of every good deed. And the word sufficiency, it means self-sufficiency. To be self-contained, it means that the independent, of external circumstances. It means to be particularly independent of the services of other people. I find that interesting. It's not that we're independent of other people. We're self-contained. We have within us grace upon grace and upon grace and Christ abounding to every need of life. And so if we are sufficient always for all things, Paul is saying that the believer by divine grace is made sufficient, made competent, capable to meet the demands of him or her out of this life. We look at life and we see everything in life. We see all the trials and the troubles that come and there's no reason if you're a Christian to imagine you're not sufficient. You always have all sufficiency in everything the Bible says because a generous God has dispensed superabounding grace which you have not even yet conceived and let alone used yet in your life. Ephesians 1.13, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. We have it all. He's blessed us. with every spiritual blessing, I mean everyone, and chapter two of it says, and in the ages to come, from salvation on throughout eternity, we're gonna experience the surpassing riches of the grace and his kindness toward us in Christ. Grace upon grace upon grace. Chapter three of Ephesians, verse 17 says, I want you to be rooted and grounded in love. and I want you to be able to comprehend with all the saints what's the breadth and length and depth and height. I mean, you can get a grip on what, can you get a grip on what you have in Christ? Can you get a grip on that? It's breadth and it's height and it's length and it's depth and you get weary. I mean, Christians are wandering around looking for something more. All the time, believers are looking for something more. More what? Well, 2 Corinthians, Colossians chapter two, verse eight, I'm sorry. It says, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and vain deception, vain deceit. According to the tradition of men, according to the rudiments, or the principles of the world, rudimentary principles of the world, and not after Christ or according to Christ. Don't let anybody capture you in the human system. And verse 9 says, for in him, that's in Christ, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And in him, you've been made complete, verse 10. It's an absolutely marvelous statement. In him, you've been made complete. Now in spite of all this revelation about God's amazing generosity, nobody writes about that, really. And in spite of all the revelation about God's amazing generosity, Christians still think that God's stingy and he hasn't given them the salvation grace. Maybe they got enough for salvation, but they don't have enough grace to be sanctified. Or maybe they have enough grace to be sanctified, but they don't have enough grace to be glorified. And you might lose your salvation or maybe, You have enough grace to be saved and enough grace to be somewhat sanctified and enough to be glorified, but not enough grace to handle your problems day by day. And enough grace to be glorified, but you know, you've been cheated in terms of the resources necessary for life. And that is an unthinkably thankless attitude toward a generous God. The words of Solomon, who's wiser than a lot of people in this world, Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 3.14, he said, here's something I know, I know this, he said, that everything God does will remain forever, and there's nothing to add to it, and there's nothing to take from it. That's good, I mean, whatever God gave, you can't add to it. You can't diminish it, and I mean, are we sufficient in Christ, or do we lack resources? Do we need more Jesus? I've heard people say, I need more Jesus. Do we need more supernatural power in our life? Do we need some kind of human help? I mean, some kind of therapy, some kind of psychology beyond scripture, do we need something beyond scripture? No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly, it says in Psalms 84, 11. Nothing's missing, nothing. Well, why do so many people doubt that? Well, one reason people doubt it because I believe a lot of them really aren't saved. They're running around looking for something because they never did. They weren't saved. They don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I mean, so they are insufficient. They just think they're saved. Another reason people doubt it, because they're ignorant. Okay, I fall in that category a lot in my life. Ignorant, just plain ignorant. Don't know what they have. And that's why Paul said to Ephesians, I want that the eyes of your understanding to be enlightened, so you'll know what the riches of his grace is. And another reason some people don't experience it is it isn't, even though they're truly saved and they're sufficient, even though they may be well taught, and know they're sufficient, but they're not walking uprightly. If you're not walking with the Lord, you won't have the resources you need. The resources, everything is not available. But for the true Christian, the obedient Christian, there's a complete self-contained sufficiency. I think that's, you think of it in terms of Romans chapter eight. Very, very strong, Romans eight, verse 32. He who did not spare his own son, but deliver up for us all. He's talking about God. God. God didn't spare his own son. God sent his own son, Jesus Christ, into the world to die on a cross for our sins. And if God didn't spare his own son, which was the most he could give, right, the most he could give. Paul says, how would he not with him also, that's with his son, freely give us all things? Here's his reason, if God gave us the most, the sacrifices of his own son, how could we even imagine that he'd hold back the least of, the least, I mean, the good things which he purchased with the death of his son, what that death purchased for us. I mean, does that make any sense? I'm trying to make sense of it. I mean, if God gave us the most, I mean, he wouldn't hold back the least. And you say, well, yes, God gave me his best gift, the son, forgave my sins and the sacrifice of the son, but he won't give me enough peace to handle this situation in my life. No, if he gave you the best, why will he hold back the least? I mean, all this speaks of the great reality that in Christ we're sufficient, we have a sufficient salvation. And I'm not discounting fellowship, you need to be in fellowship. I'm not discounting wisdom and mutual care, pastoral care, kindness, counsel. What I'm saying, when it comes to spiritual resources, we are by the indwelling Spirit of God, Holy Spirit, through the miracle of salvation, we're self-contained, sufficient believers. Salvation isn't a stingy gift. And in Matthew 22, verse four, Jesus kind of likened salvation to a wedding feast. There in Matthew 22, and the reason he used the wedding feast is because it was, at a wedding feast, when everything is done, you do it lavishly. And when you became saved, it was God dumping lavishly on you what a person would do at a wedding feast. And remember Luke 15, when the prodigal son came home, The picture's the sinner coming to the Lord. What did the father do? Get the best robe. Let's get a ring on his finger. Let's get sandals on that man's feet. Let's kill the fatted calf. Start the music and let's dance. They were dancing in the scripture when the son came home. You can look that up in Luke 15 if you disbelieve me. That depicts, it's a celebration, it depicts salvation. God isn't saying, well, there's salvation, but don't expect any more. It's full-blown, lavish, wedding feast celebration with everything that God could possibly dispense to us. That's how God works. The best of everything. All that leads us to verse three. I'm sorry, that was getting us into verse three of 2 Peter chapter one. I don't know if you probably didn't know that, but that's where we're going. Verse three says, according as his divine power hath given to us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. As Peter introduces his letter, he starts talking about our salvation. Being sure of our salvation is the first place to take a stand against false teachers. Make sure you know your say before you deal in, you know, try to protect. Make sure you get your salvation nailed down. I mean, so that's where you start with your stand against false teachers and false teaching. So he starts talking about our salvation. And false teachers are, again, gonna be his main theme in the book of 2 Peter. But he starts out, again, he starts out by where we take a stand. That's knowing we're saved. That's where we take a stand. Against false teaching. And he's already started talking about the source of our salvation. That's in verse one. And he talked about the substance of our salvation in verse two. And now he's talking about the sufficiency in verse three and four of our salvation. And frankly, I think, again, one of the greatest statements in the Bible on our salvation. Great statement. So the sufficiency of our salvation, we can't say everything that ought to be said. We don't have the knowledge of it all. I don't have the time either. It's not in school class. But just to share a few words to hang our thoughts on, when you look at these two verses, it really ought to cause us unending joy when we see the immensity of our sufficiency in Christ, just how awesome it is. And the first word to put down is the word power, or I'll outline power, key power. And these, I got five words, I'll just take us through the two verses. according as his divine power. So the power is the source of our sufficiency. Whatever sufficiency has been given to us is because of supernatural energy, not because of our power, not because of anything we did, not natural power, not human power, but divine power. So Peter begins with a well-founded assurance that in our salvation benefits, the power of God is in full operation. And that's a tremendous thought if you have time to think about that. Paul said it this way, now unto him that's able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think according to the power that works in us. What power? The power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Resurrection power operates in us. And we can do what we can't even think of, we can't even speak, divine power, his divine power, and he probably goes back to modifying Jesus as our Lord, the power of the Lord Jesus, he says, it could go back to God, but it isn't written that way, the term. But it's enough to say his power inherent in the word of God is deity. But the fact that he has divine power, leading us to assume he goes back to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord, whose deity some people might question, So he says, Jesus our Lord, and he says his divine power, Jesus is divine, he is the divine, he's God, his divine power. According to Matthew 24, verse 30, it says the Lord Jesus had great power. According to Mark 5, 30, great power came out of him to heal. According to Luke 4, 14, his ministry in Galilee was done with power. According to Luke 5.17, the power of the Lord was present in him. And Paul said in Romans 1.4 that Jesus Christ was the Son of God with power. And so Paul rejoiced in the power of Christ that dwelt in him, 2 Corinthians 12.9. And the Christian can never experience a power failure. We've had the lights go out sometimes where we live. The worst we had, it was out five weeks. We had an ice storm here, down the towers back some years back. We were out five weeks up there where we had power. But God's power never fails. It never goes off. It can't. It's there, divine power. The moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, divine power is granted to you, I mean, to Christians, and the word granted has given to us. It's actually a compound word. It means generously given. According to his divine power, hath generously given unto us all things. And to really spend a little more time looking at that word, but we're not. There can never be a power failure. These things are not naturally found in us. They have to be given to us. And Jesus, our Lord, by divine power, generously, continuously gives them to us. Second word in our outline that's gonna hang our thoughts on this is on provision. What has this power granted? Provision. What provision? Well, he's granted us, here it is. all things that pertain unto life and godliness, all things. Absolutely unbelievable statement apart from the fact that it's in the word of God. I mean, none of us, if you looked at our lives, practical lives, we would assume that we have everything necessary to live in godliness because we stumble and fumble. I mean, if you think of what you do, you have a life like that and you have everything you need. But the word everything is, Peter's emphasizing full sufficiency. The sufficiency is full. And we have everything related to what? Everything pertaining to life. Tremendous statement. Life is the essential reality. Everything related to life, we have life. We have a new life in Christ. Everything related to sustaining that life, we have. That's why we have to believe that a Christian is eternally secure. Why? Because you have everything that pertains to that life. That's why we believe a Christian has to persevere. Why? Because they have everything which is necessary to sustain that life. That's why we believe in any vicissitude or struggle, trial of life, you have everything you need because all that you need in life You have, you have it in its fullness. You have it in abundance. You have it in perfection. Everything, and he adds, and godliness. Everything you need to be godly, you have. That beautiful word, Eusebio means true reverence. virtue, reverence and worship, act of obedience, everything you need to be reverent, holy, pious, a godly person, you have it. You don't need to be begging for something more. You don't need to be asking for something more, some ecstatic experience, some ecstatic gift, some miracle, some wonder, some sign. You have every spiritual resource to sustain and perfect that eternal life that's in you, and every spiritual resource to manifest that life in godly living, to make it known. Let me say it again. You have every spiritual resource to sustain and perfect the eternal life that's in you. and you have every spiritual resource to manifest that life in godly living. All you need is there, all of it, and it's never a question of sufficiency. The grace that's so powerful to save is also so powerful to sustain, the same grace. And it's equally powerful to manifest itself in our conduct, the same grace. So another word, third word, procurement. So we had power provision, the third word's procurement. How do you get this powerful provision? Verse three, through the knowledge of him that hath called you. I call this the glory and virtue. That's a statement. I mean, how do you get it? Through the knowledge of him. You say, what does that mean? Well, it indicates to me that you have to know Christ, right? You have to know Christ. You have to know Christ, the word here, it's a simple word, it means knowledge, sometimes it's translated deep knowledge, true knowledge, but it's used interchangeably with simple words like to know, but it's saying you have to know Christ. It's not a superficial knowledge, it becomes kind of a surface awareness, like over the facts that Jesus, yeah, Jesus lived, I read that, see it in the Bible stories. He died and he rose again, all that stuff, I agree with all that stuff. It's not some shallow acquaintance with the story of Jesus Christ. But do you know him? You have to know him. And you remember Matthew 7, 21, many are gonna say on that day, say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, and then I'll confess to them, depart from me, I never knew you. But Lord, we preach in your name. We taught Sunday school classes in your name. We might have performed miracles in your name. You know, we cast out demons in your name. I didn't know you, Jesus says. What do you mean, no? Well, we're talking about a kind of a knowledge. We need to say something about it. We've got a couple minutes. It's not a superficial, shallow knowledge. but to know in the deep and intimate sense, like in the Old Testament when it says Cain knew his wife and she bore child. A deep knowing. Joseph was surprised when Mary was pregnant because he hadn't known her. It means intimate sexual contact in those contexts there. It's talking about intimacy. And when it says the procurement comes through the knowledge of him, it means that intimate relationship that a person can have with Christ by faith, by truly knowing Christ in the sense of intimate communion with him. When one comes to the true knowledge of Christ, he receives the power of God through Christ, which brings his life every spiritual provision his life could ever need to be sustained and manifest itself in godliness, make itself known. You say, how does that personal knowledge take place? Well, when I understand that Jesus lived and died as God in human flesh, when I understand that he died for all my sin, when I understand that he rose again, when I understand that he's Lord of all, and I come to him and say, I believe in you, I turn from my sin, I repent, I turn from my sin, I give you my life to follow you and be in obedience to you, Lord Jesus, that brings one to the true knowledge of Jesus Christ. And in that true knowledge, the power comes and the provision is granted and it's necessary to ask for anything more. It's not necessary. We're not born like poliwogs. I used to use this example teaching a long time ago, poliwogs. I mean, we lived on a lake for many, many years, and something you find on a lake, you don't find in the ocean, you find poliwogs. They're almost like little, little circles, little apostrophes in the water, little, And I think some Christians think that's what we're born as, as pollywogs. I mean, this little thing, it's a little comma or apostrophe, you know, that little tail that wiggles. And so you eventually get your arms come out and the legs come out in a pollywog and it becomes a frog. But when you're born in the family of God, you're born sufficient and self-contained. Nothing new will be added from the day of salvation to your life. You get it all. Develop new life, so. We need to learn to grow, and we do need to grow, but all the resources are there. My God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Thanks for letting me share with you this morning. I'll have to unhook the little sunny school wagon there.