ACQUIRED Thru FAITH-V—2Peter 1:2a(:1-4)
Attention:
The FAITH of God’s people taps into the vast resources that are only available to them by God’s hand.
Personal SAVING faith, that is centered in Jesus Christ as Savior & Lord, gains/acquires everything that is essential for living empowered as God has always intended!
Your Christian faith truly completes you!
Need:
God’s people are continually surrounded by & bombarded by people, cultures, & societies that are the product of flesh-driven priorities.
However, God’s people—Christians—supernaturally inform that world that there is a ‘settled hope’ that can be theirs in Jesus Christ alone!
Only God’s people have everything of REAL importance at their disposal by faith! And thru what Christian faith acquires, the Christian’s work & influence presents to a world lost to sin, the ONLY EFFECTIVE opposition to personal, local, & global ungodliness!
The apostle Peter informs those who are faithful to Jesus Christ, that they are completely/amply/fully supplied for godly living.
God’s people are completely/amply/fully supplied for godly living thru their faith in Jesus Christ.
?What does saving faith in Christ attain/acquire for God’s people?
ACQUIRED Thru FAITH-IV—2Peter 1:2a(:1-4)
So far in this series, we have found that,
Some provisions acquired thru faith in Jesus Christ, are...
1. TRUSTWORTHY APOSTLES(:1a)[parts-1-&-2]
2. CHRISTIAN FAMILY(:1b)
3. The SINGULAR, PERFECT SAVIOR(:1c)
Today we’ll find that...
4—A provision acquired thru faith is...
MULTIPLIED GRACE & PEACE(:2a)
Explanation:(:2a)
:2—“Grace & peace be multiplied to you...”
“Simon Peter” desires that all, who are of the same faith which honors God’s design(:1), should ALSO be those who receive God’s “grace & peace.” Peter introduces the same concept in his earlier letter—1Pet. 1:2.
Paul expressed this same desire continually in his communications with the various churches(Rom. 1:7; 1Cor. 1:3; 2Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:3; Eph. 1:2; Php. 1:2; Col. 1:2; 1Thes. 1:1; 2Thes. 1:2; 1Tim. 1:2; 2Tim. 1:2; Tit. 1:4; Phm. :3).
John does the same in Rev. 1:4.
*So God’s people obviously need to live within the empowering confines, boundaries, & protections of God’s “grace & peace.”
•Ps. 17:8—David, the man after God’s own heart, wrote a prayer to YHWH God, stating,—“Keep me as the apple of Your eye; Hide me under the shadow of Your wings,”
•Ps. 91:1—“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
From the very moment that you are saved, you should have been & should be, steadily growing in your faith,....So that God’s “grace & peace” become ‘first-nature’ to us! And in order for that to happen, the choices made by the flesh, must become relegated or subjected to being ‘below our dignity’ as it were!
BUT WHY is it vital that God’s people INCREASE in the “grace & peace” of God?
*In order for us to understand the importance of the “multiplication” of “grace & peace” in our lives, we must first get our heads & hearts around what “grace & peace” are all about.
“Grace”—
•A good ‘acronym’ for understanding God’s “grace” is: ‘God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.’
•That acronym reminds us, that NOT even God’s own people, much less those who are not, can EVER approach Almighty God by their own merit!
•God’s riches in Christ DO NOT come to anyone because they are deserving of them!
Eph. 2:4-10—“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), & raised us up together, & made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, & that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
*It is simply BECAUSE GOD LOVES YOU, that He has GIFTED or GRACED you with the OFFER of His heaven & His presence! For you & for such as you, God has ‘leveled-the-playing-field’ by His “grace.”
Due to His “grace”, God OFFERS everything that is afforded thru His name, Himself, His Heaven, His Kingdom, & all of creation.
The reception of His offer hangs upon one condition...
•IF you want to ‘take God up on His offer’—everything that is afforded thru His name—THEN you individually & willfully, MUST place personal faith in Jesus, Who is the Son of God & God the Son. Trust the Cross-work of Jesus!
That’s what “grace” does for you & for every person! God has made it so that you do not have to compete with anyone on any level regarding your salvation. You don’t have to compete with me, & I don’t have to compete with you, & neither of us has to compete with anyone else!...We are saved solely by God’s “graciousness” towards us. And THAT is made active & effective in a person’s life, BY FAITH.
•Whether you are a pastor, a deacon, a Billy Graham, the Pope, a ministry head of any kind, or a denominational leader, NONE of us gains an ‘upper hand’ toward attaining the salvation God offers us solely by His “grace”!
*There is ANOTHER ASPECT of God’s “grace” that we need to consider...And that is:
•God’s Lordship or Mastery over your life, is only maintained thru a true appreciation & application of His “grace” toward you!
•That is to say, that the person who is SAVED by “grace” thru faith, is expected to live-out their ‘saved’ life empowered by that “grace”!
So the person saved by “grace” thru faith, is always & ever THANKFUL to God. Such people cannot BRAG about the assurance of their going to heaven, because it was received as a gift!
And as a result, people saved by God’s “grace” readily give their all to & for the Lord!
•So “grace” WORKS in & thru those people who put their trust in Jesus.
•1Cor. 15:10—the apostle Paul writes of himself,—“But by the grace of God I am what I am, & His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
•So “grace” works & produces an outcome.
•The saved person also recognizes that there is a need for God’s “grace” to reign in the lives of ALL people.
The result of that being, that people who are saved by God’s “grace” thru faith alone, are mission-minded people! They desire & apply their labors & resources, to reach people of every age with the Good News of Jesus!...And that Good News being, that absolutely ANYONE CAN be saved from this body & world of sinful compulsions, by God’s “grace”, thru faith in Jesus!
You & I should always carry the comforting awareness that we are saved ONLY by God’s “grace” thru FAITH ALONE!
•The reminder of that, will keep you FROM BEING ‘full-of-yourself’, conceited, narcissistic, vain, self-absorbed, & egotistical!
•A ‘wakeful awareness’ of God’s “grace” will PROTECT you FROM the possibility of living by your own personal standard. Because by your own personal standard, you will always draw the conclusion, that ‘I’m much ‘better than’ someone else’, &/OR that MY way is the only way!
•The recognition of God’s “grace” toward you, will make you a kinder, more compassionate person.
•By God’s “grace”, you will live by the love of God, rather than by the ever shifting ‘glittery-loves’ of man.
“Grace” is not earned. It is God’s GIFT to you! Because He wants you to be in heaven with Him! And His “grace” is given to you by your personal willful faith! Why?...Because He knows that in your own power, you CANNOT & WILL NOT earn it!
*That’s “grace”!
*And all those upon whom God has bestowed his grace, ALSO experience His “peace.”—NAC.....
“Peace”—
To my knowledge there’s no helpful acronym for “peace” like there is for “grace.”
*Generally speaking, “peace” is an absence of ‘disturbance’—physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, soulish, etc..
*Heaven is a place where there is no ‘disturbance’ of God’s desire, values, principles.
*So, God’s “peace”, among God’s people, here on earth NOW, would manifest itself as: an absence of ‘disturbance’ regarding your relation & service to Him.
Mat. 11:28-30—Jesus said,—“Come to Me, all you who labor & are heavy laden, & I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you & learn from Me, for I am gentle & lowly in heart, & you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy & My burden is light.””
2Thes. 2:1-2—“Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ & our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.”
*That does NOT mean that every OUTSIDE ‘disturbance’ to your faith can, or even should be ‘physically’ removed!
•Islam attempts to ‘physically’ remove any ‘disturbance’ to it’s faith—by killing, destroying, & forced indoctrination. And that is one of many reasons that you know it’s a false religion!
*When your so-called ‘Christianity’ attempts to FORCE others into it’s mold, it has lost it’s ability to bring God’s “peace” to the situation. Only God can bring that “peace”!
In our heart-of-hearts we all want to live within the confines “peace.” We desperately want “peace” in our lives!
•We want to be able to walk, work, & play without fear, any-where, any-time, & any-place we choose. So “peace” is closely aligned with personal freedom.
And so we want what “peace” offers: Tranquility, Freedom, Harmony, To be Unhindered, Safety, Security. All those things & more are the result of God’s “peace”!
•However, AS Of NOW, GOD’s “peace” is not ‘put into action’ in it’s fullness, BECAUSE ‘lost people’—“the sons of disobedience”(Eph. 2:2; 5:6; Col. 3:6)—abound everywhere, & Satan is “the prince” over them(Eph. 2:2). That’s why our world is so topsy-turvy—changing with the wind & at the drop-of-a-hat!
•Jesus OFFERS individual, internal, spiritual “peace” to ALL people, now & forever.
The PROBLEM in our world is, that ALL have not RECEIVED God’s OFFER of “peace” thru Christ Jesus!...Nor will all of them ever do so!
This world can never reach it’s optimum potential, until God is allowed total & complete control!....
•Thus, ONLY God’s people can populate the Kingdom of God!....
So, we live in a world that has submitted itself to sin’s fleshly desire rather than to God’s....
And so, since there is no “peace” for the wicked(Isa. 48:22 & 57:21), then there is likewise, no ‘outward’ “peace” for God’s people, who all live AMONG the wicked.
•Jn. 17:14-19—Jesus in prayer to God the Father—“I have given them[disciples] Your word; & the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.”
BUT FOLLOWING the Last Day--Judgment Day, we will experience “peace” on a scale & a level that we cannot know in this life!
So TODAY we can only get a TASTE of the sweetness of God’s “peace”, thru the personal transformation that the Holy Spirit brings to those who trust Him.
Until the world at large fully submits to God, God’s people must keep themselves from the blasphemous efforts at “peace” that the world advocates, those efforts, having been & being, spurred on by the devil.
*Submit yourselves to God thru Christ Jesus!
•God’s people who live consistently in God’s “peace”, may ask:
?Why can’t we all just ‘get along’?
?Why does a rough, scary, or dangerous part of town even exist?
?Why would a person want to kill another person or other people?
?Why do people so need to escape their LACK of “peace”, that they resort to drug use to make all the chaos & insecurity ‘go-away’ for awhile?
?Why do we have ‘drug problems’ in America?...It’s NOT so much the fault of the ungodly suppliers of drugs, but rather the demand of many multitudes of people who have no “peace” because they are without Christ!
?Why are people so greedy, that they are willing to utterly ruin people’s lives to get what they want?
?Why does prostitution exist in the world?
?Why are people so greedy, that they are willing to utterly devastate an area/land to get what they want?
?Why does human trafficking exist?
?Why does a government see fit to forgive college debt, with MY hard-earned money, for those who freely chose to borrow money for their college intent & lifestyle?
?Why do so many people & their politicians, cling to a belief that humanity is inherently good?
•Jesus warned His 12-disciples:
Mat. 10:16—“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents & harmless as doves.”
*That’s “peace”!
“Peace”—eirhnh—Noun Nominative Sing. Fem.—1) A state of national tranquillity; 2) Peace between individuals, i.e. Harmony, concord; 3) Security, safety, prosperity, felicity, (because peace & harmony make & keep things safe & prosperous); 4) of the Messiah's peace; 5) of Christianity--The tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, & so fearing nothing from God & content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is; 6) The blessed state of devout & upright men after death. Strong—probably from a primary verb eirw(to join); Peace(literally or figuratively); by implication--Prosperity.
“Be multiplied to you”—
The apostle Peter desires that God’s “grace & peace” “be multiplied” in God’s people.
That “multiplication” or abundance of God’s “grace & peace” sought among God’s people, is sought for an obvious reason... That both “grace & peace” are fundamental Christian virtues.
•Because both “grace & peace” are fundamental to the way every Christian ministers, intersects & involves him/herself in the world.
So it is BENEFICIAL for God’s people & His Kingdom, whenever both “grace & peace” are present & increasing. As such, it is plain that the power of “grace & peace” together, transforms the individual Christian.
So, both “grace & peace” together, bring transforming power to all that the Christian encounters & touches with his/her faith!
“Multiplied”—plhyunw—1Aorist Passive Optative(the mood indicating the strongest possible wish) 3rd Sing.—1) To increase, to multiply—1a) To be increased, (be multiplied)Multiply; 2) To be increased, to multiply. Strong—To increase(transitively or intransitively); from another form of plhyov[A multitude]. Used 12X.?From another form of—plhyov—Fulness, i.e. A large number, throng, populace.
Argumentation:
Eph. 3:14-19—“...I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven & earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted & grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width & length & depth & height-- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
*Of Multiplied “Grace”:
Gen. 6:7-9—“So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man & beast, creeping thing & birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” “...Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.”
Joel 2:13—“So rend your heart, & not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious & merciful, Slow to anger, & of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.”
Neh. 9:17—“...You are God, Ready to pardon, Gracious & merciful, Slow to anger, Abundant in kindness.”...
Ps. 116:5—“Gracious is the LORD, & righteous; Yes, our God is merciful.”
Isa. 26:10—“Let grace be shown to the wicked, Yet he will not learn righteousness; In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, And will not behold the majesty of the LORD.”
Acts 20:24—“But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, & the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”
Rom. 3:24—“being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”
Col. 4:6—“Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”
2Thes. 2:16-17—“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, & our God & Father, who has loved us & given us everlasting consolation & good hope by grace, comfort your hearts & establish you in every good word & work.”
Titus 2:11—“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,”
Rom. 11:5-6—“Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.”
2Cor. 8:9—“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”
2Cor. 9:8—“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”
Eph. 1:7-8—“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom & prudence,”
1Pet. 5:10—“But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, & settle you.”
Of Multiplied “Peace”:
Php. 4:6-7—“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer & supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; & the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts & minds through Christ Jesus. ”
Real “peace” must flow into your life, from & thru God. And “peace” can ONLY be yours thru God, when you approach God thru Christ Jesus. Without a saving relationship with Jesus, NO person can experience “peace.”
1Cor. 14:33—“For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.”
Isa. 26:3-4—“You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, For in YAH, the LORD, is everlasting strength.”
Jn. 14:26, 27—Jesus speaking of His peace He offers,—“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, & bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Rom. 15:13—“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy & peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Within the Scriptures, God is variously referred to as: “the God of peace”, “The Lord of peace.” “Jesus” is called the “Prince of peace.”
Rom. 16:20—“And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.”
•In order for God’s “peace” to reign, there has to be an absence of disturbance from Satan’s deceptions!
Php. 4:8, 9—“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue & if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things. The things which you learned & received & heard & saw in me, these do, & the God of peace will be with you.”
Illustration:
Consider the deplorable social & political climate of America. We can now easily envision the downfall of our country.
All people are responsible & answerable to God for submitting themselves to Him thru Jesus. Separation from God, will absolutely bring about America’s demise upon our own heads.....
Even during turbulent times, we may experience a taste of ‘economically-driven’ so-called ‘peace.’ But that is NOT lasting. It is NOT eternal.
God has always made all people individually responsible & answerable to Him. And He does that so that each of us & all of us can experience the “multiplication” of His “grace & peace” that God so wants to grant to the world, as He does to His children.
MULTIPLIED GRACE & PEACE
*Add MULTIPLIED GRACE & PEACE to your portfolio/repertoire of faith!
Application:
?Has YOUR faith acquired for YOU, God’s MULTIPLIED GRACE & PEACE?
?What provisions are acquired thru YOUR Faith in Jesus?
CONCLUSION:
Action:
A provision acquired thru faith is...
4. MULTIPLIED GRACE & PEACE(:2a)
1. TRUSTWORTHY APOSTLES(:1a)
2. CHRISTIAN FAMILY(:1b)
3. The SINGULAR, PERFECT SAVIOR(:1c)
Pt#2a only! presented 03/10/2024am to:
Salem Baptist Church
1618 Salem Road
Bennettsville, SC 29512
