Peter's Recipe for Apostolic Success

The speaker is assigning the audience to study a specific text, 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 2-11, and pay careful attention to its message. The text discusses the importance of adding certain qualities to one's faith in order to prevent backsliding and ensure spiritual growth. The speaker emphasizes that these qualities build upon each other and should not be seen as mere tasks, but rather as ingredients that, when combined, create a strong and victorious Christian life. The speaker also highlights the importance of recognizing that Jesus has already provided everything we need for life and godliness. I have a little assignment for you this upcoming week. I want you to go through this text again and study it out for yourself. There's some very significant things in what I'm going to be ministering to today, and so I want everybody to hear it. I want everybody to write it down. Everybody, teenagers, everybody, Sunday school teachers, before you leave the sanctuary here and go do what you're going to do, I want you to write this down. And I want you to study this out. I want you during the week sometime to open up your Bible, and I want you to look at these verses again, and I want you to read very carefully and consider what it's saying sometime during the week. The scripture is 2 Peter chapter 1, and it's going to be verses 2 through 11. 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 2 through 11. I'm going to read it now before you head out, and then we'll continue on once our Sunday school classes leave, the teen class and stuff. 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 2 through 11. Again, I want you to study those verses again this upcoming week sometime when you have a little quiet time, when, you know, turn your phone off, unless your Bible is on your phone and then turn off your notifications. I want you to pay attention to what you're reading this week, and I want you to think about it. I want you to study what we're about to read here. 2 Peter chapter 1, starting in verse 2, grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Savior, 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 we 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, it's going to give us a list now, 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 if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But 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 give diligence to make your calling and election sure, and get this, for if you do these things you shall never fall. You have just been given the recipe for how to not backslide. Verse 11 is the last verse. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. And so for those of you that are going into your classes, by all means do that. You can go ahead and do that now, but study those verses out this upcoming week. Amen. I want you to open your Bibles at home and study out those verses. We're going to be talking about them here in the sanctuary, but study those out because there are a lot of very specific and significant things that are in there. Amen. Thank you for giving to the cause. Praise God. Amen. Let's just pray and ask the Lord to help here as we go into the preaching of the word that he will help us. Amen. And minister to us as we hear these words. Jesus, we're here for you. We're here because of you. You have set our feet and we sit in heavenly places, Lord God, with you. In Jesus name, open our eyes today, Lord God, that we might see in our ears that we might hear in our hearts to understand your word today, Lord God. In the name of Jesus, help us to catch the significance of this in Jesus name, in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Very good. I don't know how long I'll talk here. There's a lot of scripture, but a lot of that is self-explanatory. I do want to read one more verse to you. You don't have to turn there. You can just listen to me. And it is Isaiah 57 and 15. It says, For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place. And this is the part that is significant for us. I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Amen. We have the ability as children of God to sit in the high and holy place that God sits. That place is God's place, but that place has also been made to be our place. Amen. Amen. So, I brought up my Bible on my iPad, and I have it to 2 Peter chapter 1 here, the verses that I read to us already. And I just want to go through that list. Any time the Lord, in his word, gives you a list, that list is always significant. And usually what happens is everything on those lists, each thing on that list builds upon the last one. The one that you do first gives you the ability and the knowledge and whatever to move on to the next one. And the next one, when you start gaining that, it's because you were able to do the one previously. And those lists of things build on each other. They are a lot of times sequential, such as the case here. This is a sequential list. I haven't really seen this before, to that there is a recipe that you can do. It's not a recipe that you bake in your kitchen or you put together a meal. It is a spiritual recipe that if you will put those things together inside of yourself, it protects you from falling. You will not fall into sin, you will not backslide. If you will do what is in the Scriptures here, you will walk triumphantly through the pearly gates into glory and the place that is being prepared for you, if you do these things. I am not much of a cook, I'm a fair baker, but not much of a cook. But I have seen my wife and been the recipient of very, very many good meals over the years, as you might be able to tell. And I have watched her put together recipes and put together ingredients that turn out to be this delicious thing, time after time after time after time. And I have noticed that some of the best things that she makes, where the end result is so good and so flavorful, I watch sometimes what she puts in and my mind is going, ugh. That's because I want to bring a lot of that home. I've tried it. She will put in things that I don't like. She will put vinegar in stuff, but it doesn't taste vinegary when it's all done. It just added to the whole thing and turns out into this awesome flavor that I eat way too much of. And it goes like that. And so it's not the individual, we focus on the individual things on this list, but as you're adding all of these things on this list that we're going to go through, the end result, the Lord puts all of that together and it's not just a bunch of individual things that you do. Well, it's not a bunch of tasks. Well, I have to do this. Okay, well, okay, now I have to start doing this, now I have to start doing this. This is not a task-oriented thing. And if you make it a task-oriented thing, you're going to miss the point. And you will lose, and you will get bored, and you'll just kind of stop the process because, well, these are just a bunch of tasks. The final result is what you need to be focusing on, because the Lord takes all of these individual things that it says we need to add into our life, and He does the same thing that my wife does with her cooking, puts it all together and turns it into this awesome thing that doesn't look anything like the individual ingredients that first started going into it. Anybody that's ever done any baking or cooking knows exactly what I'm talking about. Anybody that's eaten good cooking, you may not realize where it all came from, but that's what happens. Amen. And so, there are a lot of really cool stuff. First and Second Peter are not terribly long books. Peter does not, he gets right down to the point when he talks. I guess it's kind of like what he was like in real life, just kind of no fluff, just get right down to it. And so, I'm just going to read through this again, but I'm going to comment as I go, and I can look up various things on my iPad here as I go, so that's what I'm planning on doing. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. According as His divine power hath He given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. I want to stop there. A lot of people don't realize, and even some apostolics don't believe, that everything that we need in this life is given to us by Jesus Christ. We don't have to look to this world for any kind of satisfaction, in other words. He has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. How? Through the knowledge of Him. As we learn more about Jesus, we learn that He has taken account for this thing in life, and then He's taken account for this thing in life, and then, oh, this thing in life happens. Oh, Jesus accounted for that one too. It is impossible for life to throw anything at you that has not been covered in the Word of God, and that Jesus cannot satisfy that need, that requirement, that desire, etc. Crickets. Most people in this world, many people in this world, I guess I'll put it that way, they go to church, they've got their church thing, they do their church thing, they pray, they read the Bible and stuff, and then they go and they do real life. And they kind of leave the spiritual stuff aside, or maybe they'll pray a little bit through their day, but now I've got to figure out this life thing. Well, Jesus has already given you everything you need to make you successful in life. If you will not separate your spiritual life from your real life, if you will not have that mindset, every apostolic especially, your mindset should be everything in life is spiritual. Everything in life is spiritual. You take your Bible, you take your prayer, you take your relationship with Jesus, and you apply it to absolutely everything in life. Everything in life is spiritual. We don't have a secular life. We have life, and that life is a spiritual life. And everything pertaining to that life has been given to us through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. No matter what your need is, whether it's professional, whether it's personal, no matter what that need is, no matter what area of your life that need falls into, Jesus Christ has given you the answer for that thing. He's given you the answer for it. Amen. And so, He's given us all of that. There is great security in that, because you know then instinctively, if I'm running into a problem, if I have some need that's seemingly going unfulfilled, I don't have to try and figure it out. The answer is right here. The answer is in here. All I have to do is look in here for whatever it is that I'm facing and I will find my answer. Not only will I find the answer, but it will give me the road map of what to do. It also lets me know what to stay away from. It gives me a right path for my feet. What does the Word of God say? It's a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Amen. That's because everything in this life is covered in this book and He has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him. So verse 4, it says, Partakers of the divine nature. We are partakers of the divine nature of Jesus Christ, how? By enacting the great and precious promises that He has given us, again, in this word. Before you and I received the Holy Ghost and had access to the power of God, we can compare our own lives before we had the Holy Ghost and were baptized and then after we had the Holy Ghost and were baptized. How many of you would say that your life has improved greatly since you were baptized and received the Holy Ghost? Raise your hand if you think your life got better. Amen. Hopefully none of you think your life got worse. Your life and my life got better. Some of us were very, very intent on destroying our own lives before Jesus Christ got a hold of us. That wasn't our intention. We weren't waking up in the morning going, I wonder how I can shoot myself in the foot today. But we did, time after time after time after time. Isn't it amazing that once we got baptized and we were filled with the Holy Ghost and we started making different choices, how much better our life became? Life got better just because we started making different choices. We started doing things differently. And there is something that happened to us, the Bible calls us new creatures, new creations in Christ. And the Bible says here, where we're reading, that we have been given exceeding great and precious promises. These aren't even your average promises. Every promise from God is good. But these are exceeding great and precious promises. These are promises that knock it out of the park. These are promises that if we will simply act on them through the knowledge of Jesus Christ, these promises given to us give us access to Jesus Christ's own divine nature. We have access to His nature. We don't have to listen to our fallen nature any longer. We have access to another nature, a nature that is Jesus' own nature. We have access to the nature of the man who never fell one time, never committed one single sin. His nature is supernatural. His nature is powered by God. That's His nature. That is the nature of Jesus Christ. His nature is not natural. His nature is supernatural. And we have access to that nature because of exceeding great and precious promises. It is a divine nature. What does that mean? In practical terms, that means you go around doing your mundane tasks, whether it's going to your job or washing dishes or buying groceries or just running errands, and you can do those things having access to a divine nature. In other words, Jesus Christ comes alongside of you and adds His strength to your weakness. He adds His foreknowledge to your lack of knowledge of what's about to happen. He's already been in your day before you woke up and started it. And you can have access, you do have access to that divine nature as you go throughout your day. And because of that divine nature, you are not living your life alone. You're not living your life, you're not making your choices, just you and you're just trying to make the best choice that you can. Because you have access to the divine nature, Jesus Christ can come alongside and can prompt you at various times. There's been many, many times, just speaking personally for a minute, there's been many times I was going to take a certain action and I felt this little check like, oh, no, don't do that. And so I took another course of action, something that I felt better about, and that turned out great. There have been times where I have ignored that little check. Turns out horrible. What is that? That's Jesus trying to help you through your day. That is access to His divine nature. Every action of Jesus Christ results in the parting of a Red Sea, some big dramatic, wow, look at this. Most of it is very, very subtle, almost imperceptible. But it's direction and it's guidance and He's there. The Bible promises He'll never leave you and He'll never forsake you. And so that is Him right there with you, helping you do the things that you do on any given day. That is us being partakers of the divine nature. Peter is telling us that that is normal. We are supposed to do that as apostolics. That is the way an apostolic lives their life. They live, actually are living out the life of Jesus Christ, is living His life through us is what is supposed to be happening. We are not our own. We are bought with a price. Amen. And so this leading of this divine nature happens so that Jesus is directing our steps. Jesus is directing our steps. We don't try to direct our own steps and then ask Him to bless what we're doing. What we do is we follow the leading of the Holy Ghost to the best of our ability and we do what He is directing us to do. He is automatically blessing what He is directing us to do. We don't have to ask Him to bless His own direction, bless His own actions. Those things are already blessed because they've originated from Him in the first place. Amen. If you come up with this grand plan of something and you're asking the Lord to bless it, not sure if He's in it or not, it didn't come from Him. The reason we can be partakers of the divine nature according to the scripture here is because we have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. We have escaped that. We don't have to deal with that. We don't have to settle for that. We don't have to try to make decisions from that place anymore like we did prior to the time we were saved. Before we escaped the corruption, that corruption was all through us. It was a part of us. It influenced us and we made our life's decisions based on the corruption that we were not yet delivered from, escaped from. But now that we have escaped the corruption, we can be partakers of the divine nature. It is a better way to live. It's a different way to live than this world. And this is just the way that Peter is describing it. Verse 5, and beside this, so this is the list, starting of the list. And beside this, giving all diligence. What does all diligence mean? Give it all you got. That's all diligence. All diligence. They've had the Olympic games on the TV in our work area at work. And so I've caught some of the sporting events that have been going on and I've noticed that with every single event that I've seen, there's not been one athlete who was in a running race that was just jogging it out. Their whole goal was to get to the finish line before the guys next to them, or girls, whatever the case may be. And they were giving it just flat out as fast as they could go, whether they were swimming or running or whatever the event was, that was it. That was them giving all diligence. That's the biblical term for what they were doing. That's all diligence. And so, the list that we're about to read is something that we're not supposed to just look at and go, eh, when I get time, yeah, that'd be nice, wouldn't it? No. The reason that Peter is telling us to give all diligence to what we're about to read is because it's that important. It's that important. If these things in this list are really able to keep us from falling, this is something we need to work on with all diligence. So verse 5, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, is the first one. Virtue. Virtue. These are things that we add to our faith. Well, I thought faith is all we needed. Everything we get from God, we get through faith. What else do we need? Peter is giving us a list of all the things that we need to add to our faith. And these things, if the Bible is instructing us to give all diligence to this, these are not optional things. These are not optional things. How many of you, I have to deal with software at work, how many of you have dealt with software that there are things in that software, or you bring up a web page, there's a lot of times this will happen to where you have to give information to this website, whatever website you're on. How many of you have tried to move on from that page and it wouldn't let you because you didn't fill in a necessary blank? I hate those things. But there's a reason why they're in there. It's because whatever information you're giving, the people that have to take that knowledge from that page, they need that information to do their job. And so I can't tell you how many times I didn't see the blank on a page and I forgot to put in my email address or my phone number or something like that, and I go to click next and I get this, it takes you right back to the same page but it highlights the thing that I missed in red. Oh yeah, and then other times, yeah, then you've got to re-input all that. This list is like that. These things are not optional. You cannot move on in your walk with God without adding these things to your faith. Extremely important. It's because they can keep you from falling, according to the scripture here that we just read. So to your faith, you need to have virtue. Virtue. What does that mean? I'm glad you asked. It means excellence. It means a virtuous course of thought, feeling, and action. In other words, when you have virtue, you are trying to always do the right thing. You're always trying to do the right thing. Virtue is what you use when you are tempted. When you are experiencing temptation. When you are being tempted to do something that you know Jesus wouldn't like or at least beyond a questionable area, maybe a little sketchy, you're not sure. It is your virtue that will keep you from giving in to the temptation. Your virtue. Always doing the right thing. This is the thing that kept Jesus from giving in and turning the rocks into a loaf of bread when He hadn't eaten for 40 days. Virtue. He knew He had to do the right thing. And doing the right thing at that time, because His fast was not over, was saying, okay, virtue. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. He enacted virtue to keep from falling into Satan's temptation. Virtue. Always doing the right thing. It means moral excellence and purity. This is the first thing on that list that we add to our faith. Not only do we need faith, we need virtue, according to Peter. That's the first thing on the list. And these things are sequential. These things build on each other. After virtue, the next one to add is knowledge. The Greek word is gnosis. It means knowledge. It also is applied for science. It means general intelligence and understanding, specifically, of the Bible. Peter is saying that when you are trying to be morally pure, and it is important to you to only do the right thing, then you start adding knowledge. Why? Because if you haven't ruled out all the sinful stuff, it is going to affect how you study the Word. If it really doesn't matter some things, it is going to affect how you look at the Word. But if being virtuous and always trying to do the right thing and not given a temptation ranks way up there with you, that will influence how you study the Word as well. And you will get a proper interpretation and correct knowledge when you add knowledge only after you've added virtue. You will see the Scriptures through a different lens when you have virtue in your life versus when you don't. And so we've added virtue to our faith, and now to our virtue we add knowledge. You see, we're not adding knowledge directly to our faith. We're adding knowledge to virtue. This is like a chain. These are like links in a chain. The first link in your Christian chain is faith. The next link in your Christian chain is virtue. The next link in your Christian chain is knowledge. You don't attach your knowledge to your faith. You attach your knowledge to your virtue. You attach your faith. And then you get another link in the chain that you need to put in. And guess what? That doesn't attach directly to faith either. That attaches to your knowledge. And to your knowledge, temperance, temperance, temperance. That means self-control, self-control, self-control. The virtue of one who masters his desires and passions, especially his sensual appetites is the original meaning of that word temperance. It means self-control. The virtue of one who masters his desires and passions, especially his sensual appetites. That's what that word temperance means. And that temperance attaches to the knowledge that you are trying to gain. This is the way it works. When you're brand new to the faith, you have that faith. And so you may not understand a lot. Your typical person who comes into church may not understand a lot. I didn't even know where all the books of the Bible were when I first came in here. I had absolutely almost zero Bible knowledge. The stuff that I'd been taught as I was a child was mostly wrong. I'm not exaggerating. And so I didn't have to unlearn anything because I didn't know anything. And so the only thing that I knew was that I had repented of my sins. I'd been baptized in Jesus' name, which meant that I was forgiven of all of that stuff. Jesus was my slate queen. And now I had the Holy Ghost, which means I had supernatural power to live a life above sin. I didn't have to keep doing the stuff that I was doing. And I'd already told God, I'm going to stop drinking. I know how that's going to work. He delivered me from that. All this stuff. All I knew was my new life is going to look different than my old life did. It's the only thing I knew. That's a really good place to start from, actually. Because if my new life isn't going to look like my old life, well, I guess I've got to figure this out. What's this new life supposed to be like? And I didn't have any Bible knowledge. See, I had to go out and go back into the real world the very next day after I got saved. And I didn't have time from, what was it, it was a Sunday night to the Monday morning to all of a sudden understand what the Bible all said. But I still had to go out there and I had made this commitment, Jesus, I'm going to live for you now. And the world wasn't giving me any breaks. Yeah, we'll just kind of take it easy on you for a while, for about six, eight months until you get some of that figured out so that, no, that didn't happen. That didn't happen. All I had was a desire to only do the right thing now because I wanted to please this Jesus that had just wiped my slate clean and taken out every mistake and every stupid thing I'd ever done in my entire life. I don't want to live like that anymore. Now I want to live for you. I've repented. I've said I'm not going to do that stuff. Okay. So I went out into the world the next day with this strong desire. I'm living for Jesus now. I know I'm living for Jesus now. I know He's in here. I didn't have any idea what the Bible said about how to do any of that. But I had virtue. I had the desire to only do the right thing now. And that virtue carried me over, not perfectly, I had to repent and stuff. But that virtue carried me into, as I learned things, I would read things later on and go, oh, that's why I'm not supposed to do that. Oh, that's wrong. As you get those pieces of knowledge in place, you're adding those things to the desire to only do the right thing. This is the path of a new convert. And Peter is laying it out perfectly. This is the path, if you want to do it properly and do it the way the apostles did it and do it the way that Jesus taught them to do it, Peter is laying it out here for us step by step. And it's not in the book of Acts. It's in the book of 2 Peter. Step by step. What? Inch by inch? Life's a cinch? And so, to our faith we added virtue. To our virtue, that desire to only do the right thing now, we add knowledge. And now we know how and why we want to do the things that only a virtuous person would do. As we add those bits of knowledge, that gives us understanding which gives us power to follow up on the virtue. We can't add knowledge until we get the virtue. Okay, so now we're getting knowledge and to that knowledge then, the next thing on the list is self-control. Because now we have some understanding about this is wrong, why it's wrong, this is right, we can do this, no I need to stay away from that. And so, now we have to control ourselves based on the fact that I know that's wrong. I know that's wrong. This is where the new convert joy starts to fade away just a little bit. Because when people first get the Holy Ghost, they're all bubbly, they're excited, life's new, everything's great, Jesus is wonderful, I just love Him, and we're just floating on this cloud and everything is just great. That's because we haven't gotten any knowledge yet. That time is just bliss, it's just ignorance is bliss, well it really is, it really is. So now, we're getting all of this knowledge, this is right, this is wrong, got to do this, shouldn't do that, all of those types of things, and now we're adding temperance to our knowledge that is self-control. I'm going to stay away from that because the Bible says it's wrong. Because the Bible says I shouldn't get involved in that. Because the Bible says that only stupid people do that. The Bible has all of these things that we're supposed to do, not supposed to do, and we add that knowledge to us, and then we get faced with something in life and we go, nope, that violates that scripture, I know where that one is, I'm going to stay away from that one. Amen. Temperance. Temperance. Temperance. I can't quote it, the Lord just brought it to my mind, but essentially the Bible says that he that governs his spirit is stronger than somebody that takes a city militarily. You need to have the ability to govern your spirit, control yourself, it's just talking about temperance, that's all it is. Talking about temperance. Temperance. Yes, the Lord does expect us to control ourselves in some areas. Yes, it's not okay with him for us to just walk in any old thing our flesh feels like doing. Temperance. And we do it according to knowledge because it's built on virtue. I want to do the right thing, I want to do the right thing, I don't want to do the wrong thing. Amen. It burns down inside. Amen. Without that virtue, that first link in the chain, the rest of this doesn't work. Why? Because you're missing a link that attaches all of that stuff back to faith. Okay, so, to temperance, we add something else that we love, patience. We love that, not patience, patience, patience. Putting up with something that you wish you wasn't there. Putting up with a situation that you really want to see that go away. Putting up with something that you just can't seem to move forward in some area where the most thing you want in this world is just to move forward and get past this. Sometimes the Lord hangs us up, purposely, because to our temperance we have to add the next link in the chain called patience, patience. I don't even need to look that one up in the Greek, it means put up with it, until it goes away. But I will look it up for the sake of scholarly things here. And just like I thought, it takes put up with it, so to speak, and it adds cheerful to it. The Bible is even more complete than I would have been. Let me just read it to you. Hopeful or hopeful endurance, constancy, enduring, patience, patient continuing, you are in God's waiting room is what you're doing. It means steadfastness. In the New Testament, I'm just reading the Greek definition of the word patience. In the New Testament, the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings. The characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings. Well, that says it all right there. Even the greatest trials and sufferings cannot take us off our course if we have added patience to our temperance, to our virtue, to our faith. There is a patience that we add that comes from God that can allow us to stand through the greatest trials, the greatest testings, the greatest temptations, the things that would tend to knock us off of our course. They can't do it when you have patience added to temperance, added to virtue, added to knowledge, added to virtue. Even the strongest ones. In other words, Jesus has designed your walk with God to withstand the greatest storms that life can throw at you. If you will add these things the way the Bible describes it, that is the life which Jesus has given us which is designed to take you through the greatest trials and storms that life can throw at you and come through it successfully. Any ship that goes out to sea, they don't stop. They design it to withstand the greatest waves it could possibly encounter out there. If it's possible to encounter 70 foot waves out there, and it is, and they do, you don't design a ship to withstand 30 foot waves and say, set sail, have a nice trip. Hope you don't meet any storms today. Unfortunately, many Christians live their lives that way, afraid of the storms, afraid of what might come, and those are the folks that have not gone through this process and added these things deliberately onto their faith, building that chain, building that chain, building that chain. Amen. Jesus, if you will do it right, if you will do it the Bible way, your life will withstand the greatest storms that can come your way, and you will come through them successfully. That is the power of patience. And then to patience, the next link in the chain, comes godliness. Godliness is the next link in the chain and the thing that we add to our lives, godliness. It means piety. It means reverence, respect toward God. In other words, somebody who is godly reveres and honors the things of God above all else. That is godliness. That is godliness. I don't have to tell you, you can probably give me stories that would raise the hair on the back of my neck how ungodly the world is that we walk in today. I have a few stories back at you. We live in an ungodly society. We are truly headed for the days of Noah and the days of Lot. We are headed for those days just like a freight train, nothing stopping it. The Bible says we're going to get there. And there are some strong indications that a lot of those pieces are in place, ungodly stuff, that we have to put up with. A godly person in an ungodly society is going to glow in ways that you don't necessarily want to if you're trying to blend in. A godly person, if you want to add godliness to your patience, you are in the perfect laboratory today. Here's the way it will start with you. I am going to stand for the things of God and stand up for what's right, no matter what anybody around me does or says. I am going to stand for what's right, as Jesus would if he was standing in these shoes. Get ready to stand out from the crowd. You don't do that? No, I don't do that. It doesn't take much godliness. If you've got a dark room, even a 5 watt light bulb when it goes on, everybody's going to go. And this world is full of darkness. And you are the lights in that world. If you have godliness added to your patience, because your godliness will cause you to need lots of patience. If I'm willing to compromise, if I'm willing to blend into the crowd, then I am not respecting the things of God more than the things of this world. My focus is on me and my security and I've just got to get through my day here. And so my focus comes off from God and it comes to me and it's like I've just got to survive this and get out of here. I'll read and pray and read my Bible when I get home. It's not the way it works. A person that is practicing godliness in this world is not going to sacrifice, it is not going to compromise, it is not going to do anything that would violate that godliness and holiness. It's a mindset. The things of God are the most important to me, I am not going to give them up. It is the thing that I stand on, those are the things that define me, therefore that's just who I am. Sorry people. But not sorry. That's godliness. And to godliness, there's another link in the chain, brotherly kindness. Brotherly kindness. That word kindness is the word Philadelphia. They're going to be very kind down there. It means affection, brotherly love, love of the brethren. Love of brothers or sisters, brotherly love. In the New Testament, the love which Christians cherish for each other as brethren. Because when you are practicing godliness and you find somebody else that is practicing godliness, it's like a magnet. And in this world where godliness is quickly disappearing, those of us that still consider that important are precious. You folks are precious to me. You hold the same ideals, the same things are important to you as they are to me. I can relate to you. I can't relate to those people out there. I can relate to them from the way that I used to live, but I can't relate to them the way that I currently live. But I can relate to you. I love you. You're important to me. That is brotherly kindness. And that gets added on, the next link, to godliness. Amen. From godliness comes brotherly kindness. And that brotherly kindness, the last link in the chain, is what we've been preaching about for about two or three months here. Charity, God's agape love, gets added on to brotherly kindness. Amen. That chain, the links in that chain, is your links for successful Christian living. Because now, he's described all those links in the chain, so to speak, the way that I'm describing it today. And now, the next couple of verses, he describes what happens when we do or when we don't have those things. Verse 8, this is why I want the church to study these verses out so carefully this upcoming week. Amen. Verse 8, for if these things be in you, Peter's laying it out, if these things be in you and abound, he doesn't just want them to be in you barely, he wants you to abound in these things. These things are what you are. These things are what Jesus has made you to be. So this is your life. These things are in you and they abound. So if 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. Let me pause there. We already added knowledge. That was one of the links in the chain. What is he talking about this knowledge? This is the overall knowledge of what this Christian life is supposed to be, what Jesus likes and doesn't like, etc. If you have those links in the chain, if you have added all of those things that we have just talked about, you shall not be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. That means that all of the rest of the knowledge of the Bible, Jesus opens it up to you. You will be in a place where you can understand all mysteries like the Apostle Paul did. There is nothing. You will not be barren. You will not be unfruitful. You will be completely fruitful and Jesus will talk to you all the time and give you stuff. Your life will be absolutely full and overflowing with spiritual knowledge, natural knowledge, wisdom that will get you through this world. Everything that you need to make life possible. Remember, He gave all things to us pertaining to this life. This is where that knowledge comes from. If you want to get through this life and live your life like Jesus did, you have just received the recipe to do it and you will abound in all knowledge. You will not be fruitful, barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Anything you want to know about Jesus Christ, who He was, what He did, what He said, where He went, why those things were important, how He lived His life, you will know and understand those things because He will show you those things because you have added those links in the chain and the base links of everything that was important to Him are important to you and so now He can add to you all of the stuff that you would ever want to know about Him. That's the way it works. Line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. You add a link to the chain here, you add a link to the chain there, those things become important to you and you add to the next one, you add to the next one, you add to the next one. Amen. So, that's what happens if you have those things and they abound. But verse 9, He gives the opposite direction because not everybody has these things. Not everybody adds these links to the chain in their life. So verse 9, But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. If you lack the things that we have talked about, those links in the chain, the Bible says that that person is blind. It is the word typhlos. It means physically or mentally blind, as if smoky. You can't see clearly. It means mentally blind. It's not talking about physical blindness. It's talking about mentally blind. The person that has not added those links to the chain in his life, and those concepts are important to him, is blind and cannot see afar off, and the worst part about it is he has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. I can do that. It doesn't matter. That's what that looks like. Oh, why does that matter? I can do that. You're blind, sir, ma'am, who thinks that? That's where you're blind, and now you know, if that is the case, where your blindness is coming from. You can go, and you can look, and you can add those things. Amen. If committing sin is no big deal, if we can do that, and we consider it, well, I'm saved anyway, those types of things, we're missing the very first link in the chain, which is virtue, and that's why none of the other stuff has connected to the faith, is because virtue is missing. I've got to do the right thing. I've got to do the right thing. I've got to do what pleases Jesus. I've got to do what pleases Jesus. I can't just do what my flesh wants to do. Virtue. Virtue. Virtue. Virtue. But Peter goes on, and now he goes back to the, if you have these things, in verse 10. Therefore, the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Putting those links in the chain, adding those things to your faith, is what makes your calling and election sure. You are responsible for making your calling and election sure. Your calling and election is not automatically sure. The Bible says we have to make our calling and election sure. Why would we have to waste our time if our calling and election was automatically a sure thing? What would be the point? This would be the most useless scripture in the entire Bible, if our calling and election was already sure, and Peter is saying, make your calling and election sure. It's like somebody telling you, you need to make your hair gray. Really? It's getting there pretty well on its own, thanks. How do you make your calling and election sure? Add those links in the chain. Add those links in the chain. That is what makes your calling and election sure. It is a process that you are responsible for. Because, I'll start in verse 10 again, because I was commenting too much. Wherefore, the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, ye shall never fall. If you do these things, what things? The links in the chain. If you do these things, if you do these things, ye shall never fall. You want to make it to heaven? Put the links in the chain. That's what Peter is saying. This is a conditional promise. If you do these things, you shall never fall. What happens if you don't do them? We read that in verse 9. That person is blind, cannot see afar off, and forgotten he was purged from his old sins. Anybody that's forgotten he's been purged from his old sins will have no problem turning around and walking right back into him. That person is backslid. And as we've covered in other lessons and stuff, remember the tree? That path leads to reprobate. If you continue, if any person continues down that path, they've forgotten they were purged from their old sins, so they start living in their old sins again. No big deal. I can do this. I'm okay. Eventually, that person becomes reprobate. A reprobate person is not only not saved, but it is not possible for them to be saved. Reprobate. That's why this is so important. But, if you do these things, the links in the chain, ye shall never fall. To the point in verse 11, which is our last verse for the day here in our reading, it says, for so an entrance, entrance to what? Entrance to heaven. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you will take the time and take the steps and add to your faith virtue, and then virtue add knowledge, and then knowledge add temperance, and then temperance add patience, and then patience godliness, and godless brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness add your charity. If you will do those things, that is where an entrance will be ministered unto you. Jesus Christ will make it a way and minister to you in such a way where he will keep you on course. It is not just your own willpower that will have to get you there. It is not just your own whatever. I have to figure this out. I've got to make sure I walk this way. Jesus Christ himself will come alongside and help you and minister to you an entrance into heaven. That is as close to once saved, always saved as the Bible gets. And it depends on what you do. Adding those links in the chain. That is when an entrance shall be ministered unto you into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let's raise our hands for a minute and worship the Lord. Let's worship the Lord. There is a recipe, amen, that if we will put it together starting with the very first ingredient, you will find a life successful. You will find a life successful. You will find a spiritual life and you will be able to walk the thing that Jesus walked and talk the thing that Jesus talked and do the things that Jesus did. Amen. The same as his apostles did. This is the process the apostles took part in. This is what the apostles did. This is what Jesus taught them. Amen. If he had not taught them that, Peter would not be teaching this. Because the apostles were giving us the knowledge that Jesus gave to them. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. This is as basic as it gets. This is fundamental Christian living. This is what is in the baseline of every single apostolic. All of the things that are in, oh man, this is so vital and so important. This is our foundation. This is our foundation. Because this is what was Jesus' foundation. This is what made Jesus tick. This is what motivated Jesus. This is why Jesus went out and did the things that he did and faced the hostile crowds. Amen. This is ultimately what Jesus went to the cross for. Amen. So not only was he the only one that had these things in his life, but he could make us partakers of the divine nature and he could give these same things to us so we could live the life that he lived and have the same victories that he had and walk through this life successfully and have heaven literally ministered to us so that we could go that direction and end up where we want to end up. Amen. Peter literally gave us the recipe to do it. This is the recipe. Amen. Literally verse 5 through verse 7 in 2 Peter 1 is the recipe. Amen. For how to do it and how to do it right. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. It is this chain, so to speak, in Jesus' life that Satan was attacking when he tempted him those three times in the wilderness when Jesus was fasting. These are the things which hold up to temptation and if this chain breaks, that's when a temptation is successful. Any temptation in your life that is successful and you give in and you do the sin, one of those chains, links in your chain, broke. Thankfully, we have a little tool in our toolbox called repentance. Repentance. Repentance repairs the chain. Repentance repairs the chain. Repentance repairs the chain. Because without the blood of Jesus, none of this works anyway. Without the blood of Jesus, none of this works anyway. But with the blood of Jesus, we can not only add these chains, links in the chain, and attach that to our faith, but we can make those links in that chain so strong, strong enough to where they will not be broken in the strongest storms of life. That is what Jesus gave us. That is what Jesus gave us. According to these scriptures, that is what Jesus gave us. Praise God. Just close by just a couple of more things of scripture. I pulled up some scriptures here about who we are. And in light of what we just learned, think about that as I read a couple of these scriptures to you. Ephesians 2 and 10, it says, These links in the chain that Peter gave us is the reason why we can live out Ephesians 2, verse 10. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Amen. 1 Corinthians 3.16 says, Amen. 2 Corinthians 5.17, See, you didn't have any of them links in the chain as an old creature, but you can add those things to your life as the new creature. Behold, old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. That's not automatically. You have to choose to still give up the old things and take on the new. How do we take on the new? We just talked about it. Build that chain. Build that chain. Virtue being the first link. And all things will become new. Amen. Amen. Amen. Here's one. Genesis 1.26 and 27. And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. If that is true in your life, the people around you will be able to tell you it is or it is not. You walk into a convenience store and say, I don't want coffee. I just want you to come to church. Be careful what you share, because it will be used in a sermon illustration. Somebody is being transformed to be made into God's image. My tail is wagging. Amen. Amen. Amen. Last scripture. Romans 8.37. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us. Through Him that loved us. Amen. Build your chain. Build your chain. Build your chain. Look at these verses of scripture this week. Study that out. Figure out where you're at. And build your chain. Build your chain. Build your chain. It's not a one-time deal. Once you've made the links in your chain, then you go back and you make them stronger. And you make them stronger. And you make them stronger. And you make them stronger. And you make them so strong that not Satan or anybody else can snap that thing through the strongest temptation. Remember what we said. Jesus Christ has designed this thing to withstand the greatest trials and temptations and storms that this life can throw at you. But it's up to you. It's up to you. But it's up to you to strengthen the links of the chain. That part is up to you. Praise God. Let's all stand today. If you want to pray about this further, the altar is open. You can come and pray. You can pray where you're at if you want to. But let's spend a little time. Amen. Amen. There are very few. There are some lists, amen, that the Bible gives us. And all of them are worthy of study. But this one is of particular interest to God for us today. Amen. With shame gone in many of our lives now, and that deliverance process is taking place, you are open to be able to build these links in a way that you have not been free to do up until just recently. Amen. It's time to start that process because you are coming at it from a new and a fresh perspective. Amen. Amen. Amen. If you're not sure that chain is there, just start with the first one. Start with virtue. Start with virtue. You have a made-up mind. I am not going to sin one single time the rest of my life. I'm not going to commit one single sin the rest of my days. I'm going to live like Jesus lived. I'm going to walk like Jesus walked. I'm going to talk like Jesus talked. I am not going to let myself get sucked into the old sins and the old things my flesh likes. I am going to rise above it. Whatever that means, whatever that looks like, whatever it takes, that is what I am going to do. I'm going to put that link in my chain because that's what attaches to my faith. Amen. That's what makes it powerful. I'm going to make that first link in the chain. Amen. I don't know what that looks like. Jesus is going to have to come alongside and help me. But if I have my made-up mind in that, he will help you and give you the things that are necessary for you to accomplish that. Amen. I never want to have broken free from being an alcoholic, except I made up my mind ahead of time. I am never going to drink again. I am giving that up. I am repenting. I don't know how to do it. You're just going to have to help me, Jesus. I didn't realize I was adding virtue onto my faith, but that's exactly what I was doing in my very first prayer of repentance. And God honored it. And God responded to it. And virtue was added to my faith. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. The Bible has much to say, all of you ladies in here, about the virtuous woman. The virtuous woman. Add virtue to your faith and you become virtuous. You might want to add that onto your reading list, what happens with the virtuous woman when you add virtue to your faith. The simple made-up mind that I am never going to sin again as long as I live. That is my goal. I'm not going to do it. I'm going to reach for that, and I'm going to reach for that. And if I fall, I'm going to get back up, and I'm going to keep reaching for that goal. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for giving us the recipe for success. Thank you, Jesus, for laying it out step-by-step for us. We don't have to wonder how to make this work. We don't have to wonder how to make this work. We don't have to wonder how to make this work. We don't have to wonder how to make this work. We don't have to wonder how to make this work. We don't have to try and just try things by trial and error without any guidance, Lord God. You have literally laid it out for us step-by-step, by step-by-step. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Amen, amen. Oh, I love you, Jesus. I love you, Jesus. I love you, Jesus. I love you, Jesus. He's talking to some of us today. Amen. He's talking to us. We're receiving it. We're receiving it. We're receiving it. Amen. Let these scriptures just get way down deep in your spirit. Amen. So vital. So important. Amen. Figures it was Peter that just lays it out there just like it is. Amen. He'll be an interesting character to meet someday. Amen. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. He won't be far hard to find. He'll be there sitting with Jesus, with the other apostles. Amen. Isn't it amazing that a man that fell so far just cursed right in Jesus' presence. I don't even know that guy. Blankety blank. Get away. I can't even imagine. Rising to death. Amen. If you think you're overcoming some things to try to live for God, you're going to have to listen to Peter one day. And your story better be a good one. Praise God. That's why my original Bible study teacher said as soon as he gets to heaven, he's going to find the nearest rock and he's going to crawl under it because he's going to be standing next to people that literally gave their lives as martyrs and suffered way more than you and I ever could think of. And he didn't know how he'd be able to stand there with his head up next to that kind of sacrifice. Amen. I might be under the rock right next to him. Amen. Or I might be throwing my crown at his feet. Praise God. Well, that's what the Lord had for us today. God bless all of you today. Thank you for coming to the house of the Lord. And I will hopefully see you next Sunday. Amen. Definitely not Wednesday. I don't know if I'll be here for prayer on Saturday or not. Depends on my wife. Amen. So I will do what I can and I'll be here as much as I can. If we're not here, you'll understand. And don't ask her how she's doing. She's recovering from surgery. That's how she's doing. And I'll be recovering from her recovery. I appreciate it. Amen. God bless all of you today in Jesus' name. Amen.