When the pandemic hit, I stopped my series in 2 Corinthians, my series in Mark, and I picked up 1 Peter. Some have been asking if I'm going to continue to 2 Peter. I decided yes, because you can hardly do one letter without the other. So 2 Peter, we're launching a study just now. I'll read verses one through three, page 1018 in the church Bible. This is God's word. Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. We stop there in our reading from God's holy word. Seek to illustrate. Illustrations become more and more difficult because a lot of the things that I might start to say, say, oh, well, you could just look it up on your phone. Smartphones have changed the way to illustrate, so you gotta pretend with me, and I'm actually covering it a little bit. Let's say you're out for a bike ride on the Bug Line bike trail, and you came to a roadway, and a man stopped you and asked you for directions how to get to the store. Here's the kicker. His phone battery is dead, and you don't have your phone because you're on a bike ride. Neither of you has a paper map, okay? Are you with me? All you both have to go on are your words to him. It's not important where you would like for the roads to be placed. It's only important where the roads are actually placed. The other thing that's important is whether or not you have knowledge of where those roads are actually placed so that you can tell him so he can drive his car to that store. And what's true for these ordinary things in life is even more important when it comes to matters of life and death. Now let's run that story again. This time, a life is at stake. This time, that man needed your directions to get to the hospital because his son was bleeding severely. He's on a motorcycle, and he has no room for you to go along. The boy's life could only be saved by you giving him accurate information of which roads to take from here to the hospital. What's true for matters of life and death is even more important for matters of spiritual life and spiritual death. What if a man approached you and needed directions how to reach Christ by faith? Would you have the ability just with your words to be able to express how to get to Christ? We would need to tell that man knowledge of the historical events about the life of Jesus but knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ. If we were to give directions about eternal life, what we're actually doing is introducing that man to Jesus Christ, the person whom we know. We're introducing another human being to the God that we know. I think I have to replace this battery. Does that sound right? Have you heard that? Let's do that. I was gonna say talk among yourselves, but that probably wouldn't be good. Otherwise, I can switch to the pulpit mic. We did switch it this morning. Sometimes batteries, you know. My grandpa used to tell my dad, cars will never be a success, because you always have to work on them. Rechargeable batteries. All right, we're back. So there's an old saying, it's not what you know, but who you know. All that we mean by this phrase is that for landing a job, it's not enough to have skills and a degree. You also build a network of personal contacts with people whom you know. Again, what's true in ordinary things in life is even more important when it comes to spiritual life. Think of whom we know. We know the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of all. So that's my main point. If you're looking at your handout or your outline, we know God. That's the way to summarize this whole sermon. We know God. That means by faith we know the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father and we have his spirit. What does it mean then to know God? These three things. Number one is the point, amazed. Number two is compound blessed. And number three is supplied with all of our needs. So number one, amazed. God lets us know himself. That's the first thing we have to pause to see, and it's an amazing privilege. We can know God. We can get to know God the creator himself. This isn't our idea, as if we're approaching God and building a tower of Babel all over again to try to get to him. It's God's idea to allow us to get to know him. He reveals himself to us. He has shown himself to us. And so we start here in our study, verse one, Simeon Peter. is perhaps an authentication that Peter himself is the author, for he used the Aramaic background of his first name, Simeon. That was his given name. Others might have only heard his name, Simon. But he gives his full original name, Simeon, followed by his current name, Peter. Two names for one person. The first name Simeon, or Simon, is the name he had from his birth. The second name Peter, which means rock, you might remember, is the name that Jesus gave to Peter. In the Bible, we get to read about the whole man, this complete and complex person, Peter. He was a real man who lived a real life in real time, has a real history with a mixed track record of failures and successes. By starting with his full name, his full given name, Peter is hiding nothing. He's writing to us and communicating. He's not afraid to bring those two aspects together. Who he was since his birth and who he was since his second birth. Because he's been given grace by the Lord Jesus Christ. Who was Peter and who did he become? As we keep reading, he reveals that very quickly next. Verse 1 goes on to say, After Christ's salvation of Peter and Christ's appointments of Peter as the rock on which he would build the church, Peter then served the church as a servant. Throughout the Bible, the term servant of the Lord is reserved for highly respected servants such as Moses and David. Servant of the Lord is a special key phrase. And Peter helped to build the foundation of the church as one of the apostles. He led the church by putting together both of his names and both of his job titles. Simeon, Peter, servant, apostle, we now get a clear message. And the message is that we'll be studying this letter written by a man who knows the fullness of guilt and the damage that it causes. And he also knows the fullness of grace and the beautiful restoration that it brings. That's where we get drawn in to this letter. We read this and resonate with Peter because we're failures. And that's the point. From our very first words, the writer is drawing us in and saying, the letter's not just for ancient people, it's not just for super godly people, this letter is for all of us who are living today. It's a living word from the living God to us, a message we can resonate with, a message we can be amazed about, that a person like me, a total screw-up like me, can get to know God. How can that be? We can stand amazed. Think of it, on the night that they betrayed Jesus, what did Jesus say? Jesus said, And then he quotes Zechariah 13, verse 7. We find this in Matthew 26, verse 31, where Jesus said, You remember how Peter responded? Peter being told that he would scatter from Jesus. High intensity, full drama, all in Peter. How he responded? Peter said this in Matthew 26, 33, I will never. Peter also said in verse 35 of Matthew 26, even if I must die with you, I will not deny you Jesus. Strong words, Peter. The words were so forceful that it was as if Peter had pointed his finger at each of the other disciples around and said, he might fall away, he might fall away, he might fall away, but everybody get one thing straight. I will not fall away from Jesus. Matthew writes down that all the other disciples said the same. Of course they're going to say the same. What else is there to be said at a time like that? What could Jesus reply? Jesus said what became famous around the world. Jesus said, truly I tell you this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. And we know the end of that story. All the other disciples denied Jesus. And Peter, even Peter, denied Jesus that very night, right after he denied the third time the rooster crowed and he was undone by his own failure. So when we read these four words to begin his second letter, Simeon, Peter, Servant, Apostle, we're supposed to recall the epic failure story. Peter fell and after falling he became consumed with guilt. How might you feel? How quickly could you get over that? But Peter's life did not end tragically. Peter's life did not stay trapped in various unpredictable or predictable cycles of either escaping from guilt or medicating his guilt, whatever he might decide to do with a life-stopping guilt. That's not how the story ended for Peter. Instead, Jesus came to Peter and Jesus restored Peter. Read about that in John 21, where the Lord Jesus said to him three times, do you love me? And at the third time, he was undone again because he realized it was three times to match the three times that he denied Christ. And yet Jesus says, feed my sheep. He restores him, not just as a man, He restores not just his soul with forgiveness, he restores him to a place of youthful service as a servant and as an apostle who is to feed God's people. So when Jesus Christ restored Peter, Peter came to know something about Jesus Christ, but better than that, Peter came to know Jesus. He already knew Jesus, but he came to know Jesus, that this is the one who restores our souls. This is the Lord God of Israel. Peter believed that he was restored. This personal knowledge of the person of Jesus is precious to Peter. That's why he writes it in his initial words of this letter. The author writing to us something crucially important. He knew he was going to heaven only because of the righteousness of Christ and because of the grace of Christ. To whom is he writing? He knows very well to whom he's writing. As he says in verse 1, Those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. How do we know God? Faith, he writes. Faith in what? Faith in the teaching of the apostles. To come to know God means to understand the letters of the apostles. It means to believe what is written here by Peter. Here he's writing to people who, yeah, we're on a third battery now. I guess we have to switch over. I must be on fire, using up battery power. All right. Please bear with us. So when we read these four words, Simeon, Peter, servant, apostle, we're supposed to recall what he did, and then by faith, recall how he was restored. To come to know God means to understand the letters. To know God means we receive faith as a precious gift, a faith that the apostles themselves had. Equal with them, it says in verse one. Equal standing with ours, faith equal to Peter's faith, a faith that has come to us through the righteousness of God our Savior, which is amazing. What is amazing is what it means about our souls, our spiritual lives. Here's what it means. We could fall down and really become a train wreck of a person. but still finish our spiritual race and be in heaven together with Jesus. It's been done before. I'm not inviting you to do it, but I'm saying that as a comfort and encouragement to us because we constantly mess up. This is the gospel. He brings us the gospel in these first words. It's amazing. Well done, my good and faithful servant, is what we will hear ahead of us, all because of the grace of Jesus. In our spiritual life or race, we can wipe out really bad and still be restored. We can have deep and painful regrets and yet still know the rescue of Jesus and find a place of service. for him and his kingdom. Notice, however, just how exclusive is the statement of the Apostle Peter, who personally knows Jesus. Are there many religions that lead to Jesus? Are there many roads to God? And is Jesus just one of those acceptable spiritual pathways? No. Peter here settles one of the major issues of world religions all across our world, even today, in the very first verse of his letter. Can we know God through good works? No. Are we good? We're not good enough. Can we know God through Buddha or Muhammad? No. You must adopt a faith in Jesus, just like the apostles' faith in Jesus. There's no exceptions. There's no wiggle room. Can we know God through private meditation or pilgrimages or experiences, or through any religion, or mixtures of various religions of our own choosing, we just kind of pick from here and there and make it our own? No. The only way that we can know the only God who is, is the same way that Peter has got to know him, and that he shows us here, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And it's by the faith that is the same as his, a faith of equal standing with ours, the apostles. And how about your failures then? How can we be rescued? By the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. We can't know God without Jesus at the center of our belief system. It takes the righteousness of Christ given to us by the instrument of faith for us to come to know God. If we don't have the knowledge of Jesus, we cannot have knowledge of God at all. Muslims do not know God. Jews and Judaism do not know God. Mormons do not know God. Only those who have received the righteous robe of Christ by faith have come to know the living God at all. Now, understanding this exclusive claim to Christianity straight from its official representatives, the apostles themselves, writing in the Holy Bible, what is our response to that? We're amazed. We're amazed that we get to know God. Of all the religions, of all the places, of all the things that people say and believe, we're amazed that we have the truth. We should be amazed that of all people, we are the ones to whom God has introduced himself. He has revealed himself to us through his word and his spirit. God has let us come to get to know himself. He's shown us himself. Paul writes about this in Romans 128. Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. It comes in the words of the Lord Jesus himself, Matthew 11, 27. All things have been handed over to be by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. And here, again, Jesus was speaking to God the Father in prayer, in what we call the high priestly prayer. In John 17, he's speaking about both himself, kind of in the third person, referring to himself, and he's speaking to the Father with abundant clarity and specificity. Listen to this short statement, John 17 3. This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. That's clearly supporting what Peter is saying here, and Peter, in fact, got it from our Savior. The prophet Hosea tells us what God desires from his people. Hosea 6, 6, I desire the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Paul wants to make it so clear that even boys and girls can understand. Philippians 3, 8 to 10, I want to know Christ. Amazing. We have this privilege of knowing the Creator God. Brings us back to our study of what Peter wrote here in verse two. Second point from verse two, we are compound blessed. We know God, what does it mean? It means we're compound blessed, super blessed, blessing after blessing. Verse two, may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Multiplied here means to greatly increase in number or extent, to cause, to increase in all ways possible, to grow in abundance. The benediction of God is ours in multiples. What governs our lives is not our own abilities, or our own determination, or our own technique, or our own equation for success and faithfulness. That's the religion of self-help. and not the Christian gospel of grace and blessings coming to us from God. The gospel of grace teaches that what governs our lives is the flow of gifts from God by the knowledge of him and all the many blessings that come out of this relationship of us knowing him. We need the knowledge of God and we have the knowledge of God. Therefore, we have all these other blessings. And Peter begins and ends his letter on the same idea, the knowledge of God. Listen to the last verse of 2 Peter. 2 Peter 3.18, We're amazed to get to know God, and we're urged to grow in our knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus. This is where the compound blessings come. We have the grace of rescue. We add the grace of growing and being sanctified, becoming more like Jesus. We add the gift of peace. We multiply in the gifts of the Word and the Spirit, the fellowship of brothers and sisters in Christ. We keep on adding blessing after blessing. We have the ability to serve God, so we serve him. There's blessing in that. We have opportunities to help others, so we help them. We encounter needs and our needs are met by Christ through his church. We have more blessings than when we had first believed. It just keeps getting better and better as we walk with our Savior. And that's not without trouble. He spent the whole first letter telling us what to do about our trouble. Where do we find all these blessings? Verse 2 says, So this is true knowledge of God. It's intensive religious knowledge. It's a spiritual understanding by faith of who God is and what he's like. It's recognition of the truth. It's definite information and facts and it's acknowledgement. There's a historical story that the Bible presents. Our Lord Jesus took on human flesh. He died in our place and rose again. He ascended to heaven and sent his spirit. Knowing all of this, knowing this about God, gives us blessing after blessing. And Peter's reminding us of something important here, especially for those of us who embrace what we call the Reformed faith. with all of our carefulness in our teachings, everything from the Heidelberg to the Westminster Confession. Ready? The knowledge of God is not just an intellectual or an academic exercise. The knowledge of God is not knowledge about God. The knowledge of God is a firsthand experience of relational intimacy with God through a lifelong trusting in Christ Jesus, our Savior. There's no substitute for that. You can have all the knowledge intellectually, but if you don't know our Lord Jesus Christ, you're still not there. Verse 2 says we get more grace and more grace because we know God. We're not saved by doctrine. We're not sanctified by doctrine. We're saved by Christ and we're sanctified by Christ. And it's because we know him. Verse two says we get peace and more peace because we know Jesus our Lord. Compound blessings because we know Christ was point two. We move to point three. We know God and what does that mean for us? We're amazed at how we're supplied. We're supplied with all that we need. Verse three, his divine power is granted to us. Ready? All things. His divine power is granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. He has bestowed upon us, given to us with a sense of formality. He has dedicated himself as if God swore to provide everything that's needed. It's a very formal sense of giving here, granted. It's yours and I promise to. And it's given, not earned, received, not won by our achievement. Tell you what, if you're good enough, then I'll pour out blessings. No, no, no, no, no. The gospel of grace is that he has dedicated himself to pour out blessings. And it comes from God, from no one else, from no one less than God. It's not delegated to angels. It's God himself, by his own divine power, that he's granted to give us all things. He's given us everything we need to finish well in our lives. Pandemic? No pandemic. Our relationship to God is enough for us in a good marriage or hard marriage. It's enough for us in parenting. It's enough for us in our workplaces. It's enough for us in an election year. We have all things in our wheelbarrow, all things in our toolbox, all things in our kitchen pantry. It's in stock. Everything that's needed for my Christian walk is in stock. We have it. We're comforted, respond with praise. Because everything I need for life and godliness, he says, that's a godly life. A life led for God, in the presence of God, in the sight of God, with God on our minds, God on our hearts, seeking him. If I need that, he supplies what's needed. Does your life need more restoring? And some of the remaining areas of your previous failures that have leaked over into current failures, is that where you are? Give your life over to the rule of Christ again and again. Let Christ tell you what to do next. Let Christ call the shots. Let him guide you toward the heavenly home. Let him tell you how to live the godly way with your unique current circumstances. What does today look like for a godly woman? What does today look like for a godly man or boy or girl? Where do we go from here, Lord? Let Christ define it for you through his word and empower you to live your life unto him in his strength. What a lifelong, beautiful blessing is here in verse 3 for us to unpack. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Christ, knowledge of him. How does God bestow his gifts, all things that we need? Through knowing Christ. It's the center of it all. We come to know God and God's gifts become available to us more and more through Christ Jesus and knowing him. Knowing Christ is a priority for us. It is, right? It's a priority for us. Peter's not showing us knowledge about God. He's pressing us to see that we live in vital relationship with God by faith in him, hope in him, and love toward him because of his love for us. He goes on to say this in verse 3 by saying, Glory is what you see with your eyes. Excellence is items we can't see, but you can pick up another way. We become aware of with our minds and our hearts. The word excellence is referring to character, the very character of God. What is God like? Would God ever do that? his valor, his virtue, his uprightness, his own good character. God's called us by showing us the knowledge of his glory in what we see, and the knowledge of his excellence in character that we cannot see, but we can pick up about what God is like. Through God's power, all things concerning life and godliness are available to us through the knowledge of God. It's truly glorious. It's a pathway filled with God's own goodness. What have we seen today? We know God. Which means that we're amazed. We get to know God. Number two, we're compound blessed. The blessings just continue to flow from him. And third, that we're supplied. All that we stand in need of is accessible. The warehouses of heaven are full of grace, of whatever we might stand in need of. So I want to bring you three concluding applications to your own life then. Number one, don't settle for knowing about God. Keep going till you know God himself. Number two, look to the God you know for everything you need. And number three, be fruitful in your knowledge of Christ. So number one, don't settle for knowing about God. Keep going until you know God himself. We've uncovered this already, I wanna defend it or support it further through the words of a prophet, Jeremiah. Listen carefully, Jeremiah 9, 23, thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me. Doesn't that sound exactly like what Peter's writing here? The thing that is important is knowing God. It's not about the might, it's not about the wisdom, it's not about the riches. If there's anything that you're going to trumpet, anything that you're going to talk a lot about, about your life, it's that, I can't believe I get to know God. This is so awesome. is what we are constantly a commercial for. It's what we constantly gush about. This letter of 1 Peter, God gave us to rescue us from falling. We get to follow Peter, who is a front page messed up guy. How do we get to follow Peter? You got anybody else? We get to follow Peter. We get to read Peter's letter. It's meant to tell us about ourselves because we have the same problem since Adam. We're front page failures. And we're not falling anymore, thanks to Christ. But it's not enough to just stop our fall. It's not enough to just cleanse us. We get to know God and walk with him like Adam walked with God in the garden in the first place. And then the whole of life becomes a creature-friendly environment. We get to walk with God like the whole thing's the Garden of Eden. We get to walk with God and all the other blessings keep coming. We get to know God. Don't settle for knowing about God. Don't read your Bible to know about God. Don't read theology to get to know about God. Let it draw you to Him. We know God thanks to Christ, so let's brag on Christ. He's an awesome Savior. He took somebody like me, like me, can you believe it? And brought me to God. We know how to get up after failure. We know how to finish well, thanks to Christ, through the pen of Peter. It's the value of Christian testimonies. Why do Christians stand up in front of other Christians and tell them all they messed up in the past, but then Jesus saved them? What's the value in that? The value is, I'm nothing, he's everything. That's exactly what Peter's doing. Peter's whole story is on display. What's the best-selling book in the whole world? The Bible. Anybody can read about Peter. Front page failure, front page servant and apostle. It's the value of Christ's great rescue. So don't boast in knowing about God. Boast in knowing God. That was number one. Number two, look to the God you know for everything you need. Verse three. His divine power is granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. You need anything? Anything at all? You need anything? In short supply, you run out of something? We come to God for everything we need for life and godliness. You're a Christian, right? You're a Reformed Christian maybe even. You're a well-read Reformed Christian even, but do you still have needs? Do you still have flaws? Do you still have faults, things we're still working on? You have frailties and persistent weak spots? You've experienced the awful reality of falling into sin, which is a sin against knowledge for you. But is that true for you? Is that it? Did Jesus give up on Peter? Should you give up on yourself? Should we give up on you? The gospel of Christ's righteousness is our comfort in this. There's nobody past the reach of our Lord Jesus. Our ability to stand before God today as rescued and reclaimed persons depends on the gifts that come from God to us. He gives us everything we need. Look to him. Don't turn to false gospels that tell you to dig deeper within yourself. There's only one place to turn because there's only one Christ. Look to Christ for everything we need for godliness. He alone can bring us all the way home to heaven. It brings us to our third and last concluding lesson. Be fruitful. in the knowledge of Christ. Like verse three. Sorry, verse two. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Be multiplied. The blessings keep flowing. It's a blessing to be around people who are a blessing. And the more you get blessed from God, the more you're a blessing to everybody around you. Everybody in your life is blessed by you. Be fruitful in your knowledge of God. And he's gonna go on to say this, Lord willing, as we cover it in the future. Verse eight, if you let your eyes drop down to verse eight. If these qualities, which he's just uncovered, qualities of godliness, if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's verse 8, 2 Peter 1 verse 8. You wouldn't want to be ineffective and unfruitful and your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, would you? We have this high privilege of being those in this world who know our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's our privilege in order for us to be fruitful. Abraham was blessed in order to be a blessing. We're learning, right? From Pastor Tony's excellent sermon series. We are blessed to be a blessing. We are given the knowledge of Christ in order to be fruitful. So go and live for God. Live like you know the king of the universe. because you do. He's your root, your trunk, your branches, your fruit this week for his glory. Don't settle for knowing about God. Keep going until you know him. Look to the God you know for everything you need and be fruitful in the knowledge of Christ. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this letter from Peter, the same Peter who fell down hard. We take Peter's life and teachings and