2018 of the church Bible at 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 4 Continuing after this morning. We looked at the first three verses. We're just looking at one verse tonight Very important verse 2nd Peter chapter 1 and verse 4 This is God's Word by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. May God bless our reading of his word. If you said that you knew someone famous, such as Nelson Mandela or President Jimmy Carter, those of us around you might ask, well, what is he like? And as Peter started the letter of 2 Peter, he emphasized that we know God. We saw that this morning. We saw that in the first three verses. And you know God, right? That was what the takeaway was. So someone might ask you, well, what is he like? What is God like? We also uncovered how God blesses us this morning. Why does God bless us? It comes back to the same source, the kind of God that He is. So what do you believe about the kind of God He is? What is He like? Let me illustrate. World War II was almost over. The news of the armistice had reached the troops, but the actual order to cease fire was still on its way to the front. And then a bursting shell tore open a soldier's flesh, and it was clear he was going to die. News came to them that the war was over, and as blood flowed out of fatal wounds, the soldier, noticing the irony of dying when the war was almost over, said, isn't this just like God? And every theologian says, no, no, it's not just like God. It's a complete misunderstanding of the nature of God. It brings us back to the question, what do you believe? What is God like? Here's a better story. An early church leader named Augustine, once accosted by a heathen, an unbeliever, showed him his idol. He held up his idol and showed Augustine. And he said, here is my God, where is yours? And Augustine replied, I cannot show you my God, not because there's no God to show, but because you have no eyes to see him. What is your God like? Let me quiz you, for example, a little more specifically. Is your God kind or stern? And how do you know that? On what are you basing that answer? On your own preference of what God should be like according to you? Or on what God has revealed about himself in his word that he's actually like? What does God say about himself in his word? Is he insistent, yielding, or indulgent? Is he dogged or pliable? staunch, flexible, or blindly benevolent? What sins would it take for God to cut us off? What would it take for God to take us back? On what basis is God pleased with us in the past, in the present, and in the future? When it really comes down to it, is God forbearing or condemning? What is God really like? We must not dwell only on God's goodness, but also on His holiness. We must not dwell just on His grace, but also on the justice of God that makes His grace amazing, and being willing to pay for us with the price of His own Son's life on the cross. Is that old-fashioned? Is that puritanical? Well actually the truth is yes it is, but the question is a poor question because it suggests that it therefore is irrelevant. Let's ask a better question. Is it biblical? Yes, it is, and if it's biblical, then it's thoroughly relevant and applicable to every person in the modern world. See, Peter in our passage is rejoicing in the fact that we know why God gave us his promises. We relish this morning in the fact that we know God and that he gave us his promises, and tonight he uncovers why, the reasons why God gave us his promises. It was not so that we could sin with abandon. Sin like crazy, that's not the reason. Rather, there are two purposes God had in giving us what he promised us. Number one, to participate in the divine nature. Number two, to escape corruption. Or to say it more expansively, number one, God gave us what he promised us in order that we could get so close to God that we actually participate in the divine nature. That's from verse four. And also from the same verse, verse four, the second point, God gave us what he promised in order that we would escape the corruption of the world caused by the evil desires in our own sinful nature. So the main point is that since we know God, as we uncovered this morning, we know why he gave us promises. So let's go to verse four, by which By which what? So it's a carryover from the sentence in verse three where there's glory and excellence discovered. So I'll read verse three and four together. 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 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises. so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire." By God's glory, we get God's promises. By God's excellence in character, we get God's promises. How do the promises come to us? Peter uncovers that for us here. It's through the wonderful character of our God. It's what he's like. He's admirable, for example. He's praiseworthy in character. He's generous because he's also good. When God stood in the burning bush and appeared to Moses, God said in Exodus 34 that he was abundant in goodness. There's the Hebrew word kethed, which is translated love. The ESV in that place says abounding and steadfast love. Beautiful way to translate that. Another way to translate that word is loving kindness. Another way to translate that is simply goodness. That he's loving, which is why he's good. And he's good, which is why he's loving. And at the same time, in that same passage, God is a God who will not leave the guilty unpunished. We have to hold all these pieces together if we're talking about the biblical God. God does not let people skate by. He does not let people get away with things. He has both heaven and a place of damnation under his control. How can God be loving yet punish people? Because the same God who's filled with love is also filled with glory at his own justice regarding law and right and wrong. He's just and right and fair. As he says here, Peter uncovers in verse four his precious and very great promises. Promises. This is a passage about promises and gives us the reason why God gives us promises. A promise, as you know, is a giving of one's commitment. If you say you'll do something, you'll actually do it. And so the great promise of the Old Testament is for Christ to come. And Christ is the seed of the woman who was promised. Hebrews 11.39 says that all the Old Testament believers died without having received what was promised. What was promised is Jesus to come. And that Old Testament promise was finally fulfilled when Jesus Christ came. And Paul celebrates this in Galatians 4.4. Why would God do this? And to answer this, we come to our first point of just the two reasons uncovered in this verse. Why would God promise this? Why would God fulfill His promise? Our first point, to participate in the divine nature. So that through the promises, you may become partakers of the divine nature. The great promise of the New Testament is that the Spirit of Christ would then be sent from heaven upon God's people. That promise, too, has been fulfilled, which enabled Peter to write this letter. He's carried along by the Holy Spirit in even writing. It's a book from God as much as it is a book from Peter. It's written by the Holy Spirit as much as it's written by Peter. And yes, this promise was fulfilled. After Christ died and rose, He ascended to heaven and sent the promised Spirit upon us. In fact, Jesus would ask the Father to send the Spirit. Listen to Jesus saying it in John 14, 16. That was John 14, 16. And Jesus being one with the Father also participated in sending the Spirit upon us. In Luke 24, 49, And again in the book of Acts, Chapter 1, verse 4, That was Acts 1, 4 and 5. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit sent by God the Father and is Himself the Spirit of God the Son and God the Father. Listen to how Paul confirms this in Galatians 4, 6. God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. We receive this Spirit. What does that mean for us? It means that God made us heirs. inheritors of the blessings of heavens. Precisely what Paul wrote in Romans 8, 17. We are children of God, and if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. When Paul was saying goodbye to the elders at Ephesus as he was leaving, Paul said in Acts 20 verse 32, So a little bit on the inheritance and the promises fulfilled, first the coming of Christ and then the coming of the Spirit. Now back to our big question, why would God give us promises? We have a purpose clause in our verse, verse four. See those words, so that, in verse four? This phrase reveals the reason why the promises were given by God. So that, through them, that is through the promises, you may become partakers of the divine nature. The promises of God give us Christ. The inheritance is so that we participate in Christ. We get to know Christ. We receive Christ by faith. We hope in Christ. We become sons of God, the Father, along with Christ, and we become brothers and sisters of Christ, our elder brother, because of He, the only begotten Son of God. We receive the Spirit of Christ and the ministry of the Spirit of Christ. To have a place in heaven reserved for us is our gift. We behave like citizens of heaven. We know that already now we have the glory and that the best is yet to come. What's the purpose of the promises? That we might participate in the divine nature, that we will participate in Christ. Notice verse three says, as it begins, his divine power has granted something, and then as you move to verse four, you see our participation in the divine nature. Divine power, divine nature, do you see that? Verse three, divine power, verse four, divine nature. The power of God gives us the nature of God. The word nature here, we have to be careful with. It's not referring to utter essence. We don't become God. We're not given the nature of God himself. We remain human in nature. The word nature here refers to quality, the quality of life, the nature of something, the result of its development or condition. It's the character of something. What we've been talking about all along tonight, what is God like? His very traits. What are we like? Well, we are to be like Christ, like God. We are to be Christ-like. We partake in the divine character traits. We're godly. You can think of the word disposition. If you think of that word, it's how somebody usually rolls, right? Our basic disposition, our approach to life. It's how we typically function, how we usually approach things. When we set aside our sinful nature, our approach to life, the broken quality of living, and instead pick up the divine nature, the Christ-like way, the godly quality of living, we're partaking in the divine nature. We're partaking of immortality, and we're already living together with God by His Spirit, by His Word, and it will never end, since we will never die. We partake of the thoughts of God in the sense that we study His Word, repeating God's thoughts after Him, as Isaiah wrote. As far as our human capacities allow, as people made in the image of God and remade in the image of God through redemption, we join in God-like qualities of living in terms of our character, our outlook, our words, and our speech. We enjoy a peace that passes all understanding. That's part of this divine nature. We enjoy holy thoughts, creative actions, and healing words. When God removes the way we were by the fall into sin, we become something different. We start to live in a way that God designed for us to live. After God takes away the errors and wrongness of our disposition in the old flesh, we participate in the blessedness of God's way. It's reversing the curse. Think of how Peter wrote in the first letter. 1 Peter 4, verse 13, a key verse as we studied that. 1 Peter 4, 13, rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. It's a package deal. Rejoice in his sufferings, participate in his sufferings, but also rejoice when his glory is revealed. We get sufferings now, glory later. We participate in both. We were given God's promise in order that we may more and more participate in God's characteristics as glorious as they are. Paul writes in Galatians 3.29, How did we get to be believers or offspring of Abraham as believers are also called? How did we get to be this? by the promise of God. We are heirs according to promise. Paul is just as excited to show us these blessings as Peter is here to show us these blessings. Here's Paul writing Galatians 4, 7. See, you're no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. One who inherits, right, an heir. The apostle who wrote the book of Hebrews also is excited to show us these high privileges that are ours in Hebrews 3.1. Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling. The key point is that brothers and sisters in the Lord are all of us people who share in a heavenly calling. What that means is that we all have Christ. This is what he means when he says, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature. Hebrews 3 verse 14, for we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. And so, reason one, for God's promises was so that we would participate in the divine nature, which means being children of God the Father, so we share in Christ by faith, we receive his Holy Spirit, which brings us to point two. What's the second? the other reason why we're given God's promises, and it's to escape corruption. Verse 4, So through God's promises, we've escaped from the corruption that's in the world. It's past tense. Having escaped. And what is it that causes corruption? He actually lists it out here, sinful desire. The dominion that sin has over us is according to the delight that we have in sin. Does sin have control over you? Only if you give it the keys. The keys to your heart, the keys to your life. Pastor John Owen was born in England in 1616, the same year that William Shakespeare died. Owen was born four years before the Pilgrim set sail for America. Pastor John Owen had a ministry virtually in the middle of the great Puritan century, roughly 1560 to 1660. The great years of so many people seeking after God, great books that we still cherish today. Owen was born in the middle of this movement and became its greatest pastor-theologian, an author as well as always approaching his work in a pastoral way. Why am I telling you this about Pastor Owen in the middle of my sermon? Because the greatest of the pastors and one of the greatest centuries of biblical pastors has something to say on our topic tonight. Pastor Owen said there's only two problems in the church. Problem number one is dealing with the unconverted, and problem number two is dealing with the converted. Problem number one is persuading the unconverted, those who are under the control of sin, that they are in fact under the control of sin. That's a real problem, to persuade them that they are. And problem number two is persuading those Christians, those who are no longer under the control of sin, that they are in fact no longer under the control of sin. It's a problem, it's tough to do, to persuade Christians who are no longer under the power of sin, that they are not under the power of sin. That's what he's talking about here. As he's unpacking for us why the promises of God were given for us, he says, Believers are the firstfruits of God's new creation. As the firstfruits of his new creation, the guarantee that those firstfruits will become a glorious final harvest is already with us. It's God's promise. That's where it's going. That's where this is all heading. And when we see that, we have begun to resist temptation. Peter wrote here at the end of our verse, 2 Peter 1, verse 4, about sinful desire. That's what's connected in here. Desire. You know, humans have two desires, good or bad. You could test yourself. You must ask yourself, as a Christian, after I count the full and final cost, what do I desire more? The right path or the wrong path? And those are opposites. One, the path of glory to God, as he uncovered in verse 3. And the other is the path of sin and wrong, as he uncovers at the end of verse 4. or the wrong that relishes in the corruption that's in the world. He said, no, no, no, don't relish in the corruption of the world. You have escaped from the corruption that is in the world. So these are opposites. Which do you really want? Glory or corruption? In 1 John 5, 19, we know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. There's two kingdoms. The Apostle John knew that the whole world is under the power of the evil one, and those who are in Christ are under the power of God and his kingdom. Again, Paul supports this and echoes in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 6 and following. Christ has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, Will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? And he continues down in verse eight, 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18. And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. So we're being transformed into the image of Christ. It's the same thing Peter's saying here. that we are given the promises of God because we have escaped from the corruptions in the world because of sinful desire. He has rescued us, basically. What have we seen tonight? Since we know God, we know why he has given us promises. Number one, to participate in the divine nature. Number two, to escape corruption. My concluding lesson includes a couple stories. I want to tell you a couple stories about Pastor John Owen. I know I mentioned him already, and I'll tell you why I'm telling you the stories after I tell you the stories. Pastor John Owen was only 26 years old. He was not converted yet. He went with his cousin to hear a famous Presbyterian preacher of his day. You won't know the name because it was the 1600s, but I'll give you the name anyway. It's Pastor Edmund Calamee at a church in Aldermanbury. But it turned out that Pastor Calamee, the famous preacher, couldn't preach that day, and they had some unknown, unnamed country preacher taking his place for that message. Owen's cousin, because he had come to hear Pastor Calame, the big name, wanted to leave before the sermon. John, John, let's go. But something held John Owen to his seat to stay for that message. The simple, still unknown, country preacher took as his text Matthew 8, verse 26. Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? It was God's appointed word and God's appointed time for John Owen's awakening to new life in Christ. Owen's doubts and fears and worries as to whether he would be truly born anew by the Holy Spirit were all gone in a moment. He felt himself liberated and adopted as a child of God. When we read the penetrating and practical works of John Owen today on the work of the Spirit, for example, or the nature of the true communion with God, it's hard to doubt the reality of what God did on that Sunday in the year 1642. But that story doesn't stand alone. I got a second story about Pastor John Owen. Another event in those early years in his life in London was Owen's marriage to a young woman named Mary Rook. He was married to her for 31 years, from 1644 to 1675. She died in 1675, and he died eight years later, in 1683. I've basically told you everything that anyone knows about her. We have virtually nothing else about her. But we do know one absolutely stunning fact that must have colored all of Pastor Owen's ministry for the rest of his life. We know that Mary, his wife, bore him, bore them 11 children. All but one died as a child. And the one that made it to become a young adult, his daughter, also died as a young adult. So what we know about Pastor John Owen is that he experienced the death of 11 of his own children and the death of his wife. That's one child born and lost on an average of every three years during Owen's adult life. We don't have one single reference of Mary, of the children, or of his pain and grief in all of the books of his writings. It's like this many volumes. But just knowing that the man walked in the valley of the shadow of death most of his life gives a little clue to the depth of God's dealing with him and his seeking after God that we find so precious in his writings. God, you'd have to admit, has a strange and painful way of forming the kind of pastors, forming the kind of theologians he wants us to have. What Peter is writing to us here is that God has given us promises, precious, precious promises. And it's not the promise to be without pain and difficulty. It's the promise instead of participating in the divine nature and having escaped the corruption that's in the world by sinful desire. These seem old, boring, and dusty, but they're gold. This is where the blessings are. receive the gift of fulfilled promises, participate in the divine nature, and escape the corruption of the world, all because Jesus' death and resurrection. I end with what Paul wrote, to echo these phrases again from Peter, Ephesians 3, 5, and 6, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Let's pray. Lord, make us aware of the greatness of what you've given to us. Enable us to grasp it and to participate in your holy character. Make us more like Jesus. Do to us, do with us, whatever you need to do to make us more like Jesus. We praise you that we have escaped the corruption of the world. Help us to stay clear away from it. Give us good desires and holy desires, and give us right living, all as gifts, fulfilling your promises to us. In the strong name of our risen Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.