If God Is For Us, Who Can Be Against Us?

So today, we are, well, last week, we ended our final sermon, as you know, in our series on raising godly children. And there was a lot that many of us learned from it. And one of the things that we learned at the very end is that our children are in God's hands. And that God is merciful. He is sovereign. He is just. He is righteous. But we need to let God be God and that God gives grace. He gives mercy and that we're to live in light of that by exercising obedience, by exercising a life of faith, giving ourselves to the commands he has given to us. Now, this week, we're going to take a detour. And next week, we're starting our sermon series.

Part two on the book of Luke. We're going to be studying the gospel of Luke together and continuing our study in that. And I'm very excited about it. But this week, we're going to be studying and seeking to understand the grace of God. What it is, what it means for us as Christians to know grace and to live a life according to God's grace. And so we'll be in the book of 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 1 to 8. So let's stand now. as we hear the word of the Lord. Hear this from 2 Peter 1, verses 1-8. This is God's word, and it is eternally true. Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God.

And of Jesus our Lord, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. For by these he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence. And in your moral excellence, knowledge. And in your knowledge, self-control. And in your self-control, perseverance. And in your perseverance, godliness. And in your godliness, brotherly kindness. And in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, They render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. What I want us to see here is right out of the gate, the central theme of the letter of Peter to the Christians is the grace of God. In Peter's opening statement, it's right there.

The Apostle Peter begins his second letter to the Christians he's writing to. And what he does is he greets them with a blessing and a word of encouragement. In verse 2 he says this, Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Now this greeting, it would have been common, just like any letter you write, you write and you open the letter up with a greeting. Dear so-and-so, I'd like to write to you because of this. And so there's typical ways that letters open up when they're written. And they kind of have the same sound, the same feeling, the same language. They start with dear. I'm writing to you to say. And so Peter opens his second letter with a greeting. But this greeting is no mere formal statement.

greeting that he gives is a serious declaration of what the Apostle Peter ultimately desires to see happen in the lives of these believers. We know this to be true because we find that this letter ends on the same note it started with. At the very end of Peter's letter, which was written under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Peter further the Christians he's writing to grow in spiritual maturity and godliness. In chapter 3, verse 18, he says this. He says, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied to you. Peter's great longing then, and it should be ours also, is that we all would abound and increase in grace, that God would multiply it to us and that we might grow in it and become more transformed into the likeness of Jesus, that we would put off the old self and we would put on the new self more and more each day. And so if you're a Christian, God's plan and desire for you is that you would grow in grace, stay the same, that you would not stay.

content with the status quo conformed to Jesus Christ. That's God's desire for you. And that should be our desire for ourselves. Now, in order for grace to become a reality in our lives, it's we have to understand exactly what God's grace is. Now, why? Well, because grace today is so easily misused and abused and it's abused. Most particularly in the church. Christians today talk all the time about grace, don't they? Grace this and grace that. It's almost become an empty buzzword with vague meaning that is used and repeated so often in Christian circles that it has virtually lost all its significance and importance. There's no substance to it. It's something that we all say and we all assume. It's like the word blessing.

We say the word blessing all the time, but if you ever stop and ask, so what is a blessing? I won't get into it, but a blessing today is vague. It's sort of a blessing, a nice little blessing. That's the way we think of grace. We have a cheap and vague understanding of grace. For many professing Christians today, grace has become... A spiritual justification for living a life in direct disobedience to God without any thought or worry of the danger it poses to their soul. Or many, and I would say this is often the case with most Christians, is we simply remain in a state of spiritual immaturity, spiritual apathy, content to coast through the Christian life.

with very little effort to make progress in holiness. We have an attitude of spiritual indifference towards obedience. I'll do enough to get by. I won't do anything heinous. I won't do anything that I perceive and that other people would think is obnoxious. I won't sin obnoxiously, little as I need to, because after all, I'm under grace. That's us. And I'm convinced that the church's lack of progress in holiness, our church's lack of progress in holiness, is due to our severe lack of understanding of the grace of God. And so we need to understand it so that we can grow in it. We can't assume the doctrine of grace. We can't assume we know the grace of God just because it's talked about all the time. If that were so, If we understood everything we talked about and lived by everything we talked about according to God, why is it that Paul consistently in every single one of his letters, it seems like, is constantly bringing up the same things? I told you, don't do this, do this. Remember, you're dead to sin. Remember, put off the old man. Remember, you have died with Christ and your life is hidden in God.

Remember, you're no longer a slave to sin. Remember, you're alive in Jesus Christ. Consistently. Don't assume just because you've heard the word grace that you understand what it means. Don't assume that just because you've grown up in a church that you understand what it means. And don't assume that because you're a Christian, you totally understand what grace is. After all, Peter commands us to grow in it. And if he commands us to grow in it, it means that we haven't fully attained it yet. Peter says grace. He opens his letter up and he declares grace and peace. Peace what? Well, peace, the happiness that comes from experiencing and understanding and knowing the grace of God. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. What is grace?

Grace is, number one, there are three things that grace is, and we'll go through each of them. Number one, grace is God's unmerited favor toward you. Grace is God's unmerited favor toward you. Look at verse one in our text. He opens up and then he says, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness of God and Savior, of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. We see in this verse that grace is completely unearned. It's not initiated by us. You have received a faith by the righteousness of God, our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's completely unearned, grace. It's freely given to us by the kindness and mercy of God. There's nothing you can do. There's no form of obedience.

list of commands that you can do to ever earn the grace of God, to ever earn God's favor, God's acceptance of you, God's endorsement of you. You cannot do anything. Grace is completely in the hands of God and grace is completely given to us by God. And so grace is unmerited favor. God's unmerited favor towards you. Grace is God's favor to you, which is in no way earned by you. And this is something that's wonderful. It is something that as we grow in our understanding of it, we grow in joy, we grow in peace, we grow in contentment, we grow in where our spirit is at peace. We are at peace. And so it's wonderful.

And we could talk for hours and hours. We could talk endlessly about the unmerited favor of God toward you. Grace is also more than this. This is something that the church talks about. The church understands that grace is God saying, yes, I accept you. Yes, I smile upon you. Yes, you have my favor. Not because of anything you did. but because of Jesus Christ. And amen to that. We must know that. We must know what all grace is. Grace is not simply how God treats you. Grace is also something that God does in you, works in you. And so number two, grace is God's power at work within you. Grace is God's power at work within you. Grace isn't simply...

God's favor towards us, but it's also the power that God gives to us to obey the law, to obey his commandments, to walk in his ways. Grace is power, power to say no to sin and fleshly lusts. And it is the power that leads believers to godliness and eternal life. Look at verse three, seeing that what his divine power has granted to us. What? Pertaining to life and godliness. Grace is power to obey God. Grace is the ability by the Holy Spirit that is applied to our hearts, God's grace. It's the strengthening that we need, the vitality, the energy to say no to our flesh, to say yes to God. Listen to this also, this reality spoken of in Titus chapter 2, verses 11 to 14.

The Apostle Paul says this about God's grace. He says, for the grace of God has appeared. So there's grace doing what? Bringing salvation to all men. What else? Instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age. Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, for us, so there's the unmerited favor, he gave himself for us to redeem us, he did it, from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession. Does anybody know what it says after that? That's what many of us would say. To purify himself a people for his own possession, holy and blameless, hell-less, you have in Jesus Christ and you have it and you must know it and you must grow in it.

and your knowledge of it, is to make you obey the law of God. Grace makes us able to obey the law of God. Grace causes us to obey the law of God. And it's done cooperatively with us, with our will. Grace is God changing our desires, changing our will to be conformed with his will. And so we begin to love the things that God loves, and we begin to hate the things that God hates. And we begin to be conflicted about our sin. You want to know how you're a Christian. You say, I don't know whether or not I have the spirit of God in me. I still sin and I say, are you conflicted? Is there any conflict inside of you? That may be one of the first signs of grace in your heart. Grace makes us able to obey God. Not only that, God's grace has a purpose. And that purpose is to conform you.

And I more and more into the likeness of Christ. It is to increase in you greater knowledge of God, greater love for him, greater hatred and turning away from your sin and greater diligence and obedience to God. Spiritual maturity enables you to grow up boy pants. That is the grace of God. We say that's all well and good, but so grace is something that God. The way God sees me, the way that God treats me, God gives me favor. It's not anything I can do. And you say, grace is something that God works in me. It's power that I need to obey God so that I'm not striving with no success. So how do I grow and increase in the grace of God? We need to ask one question before that. The grace of God.

insight into who you are, your failures, your shortcomings, your weaknesses, your sins. And there are areas where if you look and think right now, there are areas where you say, I'm not growing in grace. Why am I not? So why don't we grow in grace? Well, there are many reasons, but one in particular is this, that we have forgotten the grace of God. We have forgotten. the grace of God. We've forgotten the grace of God because we don't have it in our mind. We're not focused on it. We're not meditating on the unmerited favor and the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. And so we forget it there. But we've also forgotten it in another way. We've forgotten it because we have rejected it. And so when Scripture uses the term forgotten, it doesn't simply mean that you couldn't remember it.

To forget something according to God is to reject it, is to willfully put it away. And that is so often what we do. We reject the grace of God. Why do we reject it? Well, we reject it for several reasons. Some of us may reject the grace of God because we're all about proving to God that we're worthy of Him. That we have something that we can contribute to the work of God in our lives. And so it's pride. It's pride. It's the rich young ruler who says, Lord, what must I do? What does Jesus say? He says, well, you know the Ten Commandments. And he says what? Well, I've kept them all. So what must I do to get an A plus and inherit eternal life? Some of us.

Reject the grace of God because it's all about us proving that we can earn the thing that God sent his son to earn for us. And so we become self-righteous. We become proud. Some of us reject the grace of God because we take it for granted. And we say, I know that I was baptized. I know that Jesus died on the cross for me. I know that I've been in a church for a long time. I'm not living in any open outward rebellion against God. And so I don't need to make progress. I don't need to strive. I don't need to toil. I don't need to sweat. This is good enough for God. Because nothing I do can earn the favor of God. And so I can just rest easy. And so we're apathetic.

Towards the commands of God. We're apathetic towards knowing him. We're apathetic towards prayer and reading his word. We're apathetic towards worship. We don't raise our voices when we come here on Sunday mornings. We barely open our mouths. Our hearts are cold and it's just dead religion. We've rejected the grace of God. We've rejected the power of God to grow us in holiness. We don't want to run because we're tired. We're lazy, spiritually lazy. And we like it that way. Find a church that allows us to live in that state. Or we'll live as much as we have to, so long as we can hold on to our comfort and ease. The grace of God. The grace of God because we absolutely hate it. Because it calls us to action without us getting any credit.

You ever notice that? Gospel truth is a truth that makes much of God and very, very, very little of you. God calls you to live in a way else would look at you and say, wow, look at you. You're doing good. My goodness. Look at that family. Look at how those kids listen to you. Look at that marriage. at the money that you make. Look how good of a steward you are with your resources. The grace of God says you get no glory. You get absolutely no glory. God gets 100%. And this is the great problem we have. Even with our own salvation, we want some kind of credit for it. What must I do to be saved? The response of the apostles and the fathers of the faith have always been, Nothing. And we go, well, at least I get credit for believing. I mean, that's some credit to take. I mean, I believe. And so and then you have Jesus say, you didn't choose me. I chose you. And we go, well, that was that was Jesus. And I mean, he was they did choose him and he did. He did choose them. But I mean, he's just he's being hyperbolic.

He's not really being specific. And then we read in Scripture that the faith we have is a gift from God. Repentance is a gift. That everything that you have is because of the grace of God. Everything you own, everything good in you. Even the pagan who's living a life of sin has a degree of the common grace of God. Anyone is able to do anything good as we would see it. It's due to the grace of God. The fact that we can't get credit. But we're expected to work in such a way as we would expect credit for it. The grace of God. And yet grace is how we make progress in the faith. Be a Christian and ignore and reject the grace of God. You cannot. Because a Christian knows the grace of God.

grace of God and the Christian has the grace of God. How do we grow and increase in the grace of God? Well, look at verse three again, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Here it is through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. And so we see this Christian growth in God's grace comes from knowing God. Where knowledge of the glory and goodness of God is neglected, grace does not flow. Knowledge of God is the source from which God's endless supply of grace into our lives comes. We must remember, we do not study scripture for its own sake. We don't read the Bible because it's one among many helpful books. We don't read it because it's the thing that Christians do.

It's something that pertains to my faith. It's not a helpful thought for the weak. We study it because through it comes the knowledge of God and through that grace and peace are multiplied in your heart and they produce fruits of godly living in you, in your marriage, in your children, in your workplace, in your church, in your city. The kingdom of God expands. grows. It increases. It increases in you, in your heart. It increases in everything around you because it's the grace of God at work. It's God's power at work within you. Understanding of grace today in certain Christian circles, that's very unhealthy. It is the kind of understanding of grace that acknowledges the fact that God is the one who initiates it. God is the one who gives it. The problem is it teaches that grace is something that Should be automatic. That grace is something that you receive help from God. It's like a Coke machine. And all you need to do is say it enough times. Think about it enough times. And out comes the Coke. Out comes grace. And so you'll hear Christians talk on and on about grace. No different. What's missing? What's missing is that grace obligates us.

To love and obey God. It obligates you. Grace commands something of you. It does command you to do something and respond. Look at verse 5 to 8 in our text here. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence. And in your moral excellence, knowledge. And in your knowledge, self-control. And in your self-control, perseverance. And in your perseverance, godliness. And in your godliness, brotherly kindness. And in your brotherly kindness, love. Something from you. What that doesn't is called cheap grace. We'd rather have a cheap grace than a costly one. We would rather have a grace where maybe we can stomach the idea that I don't get any credit for what I do. Maybe we can stomach the idea.

That God is the one that initiated and God is the one that provided and God is the one that granted me his son, forgiveness, faith, repentance, new life, anything from me. Don't expect me to strive. Expect me to endure hardship. So grace, love and obey God. What does Jesus say? He says, go and make disciples of all nations. Baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to understand all my grace that I have given. But what it says, teaching them to obey. The whole New Testament is filled with the Apostle Paul saying, God has done this for you in Jesus Christ. He's done everything to accomplish salvation for you. Therefore, do this. Therefore, say no.

Pursue peace with all men. Therefore, be kind to one another, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you. Grace expects something. Grace always has a therefore. God's done this, therefore do this. And you say, how does that work? How does it work if God has done everything that's needed and I can't earn the favor of God and it comes to me by faith? Why am I expected to do anything at all? Well, because why would you expect your children to do anything at all? Is my son any less my son because he fails me? He's my son because he was born my son. And so what if he's my son for me to expect anything from him? What do I want?

from my son. What do you parents, fathers and mothers want from your children? You want gratitude. You want thankfulness. You want them to respond to what you've provided for them. My favor, thankful that they have my favor and I want them to live accordingly. And that's what the Christian life is. That's what grace living by grace is. It's depending on God to give you strength by his Holy Spirit to make the The effort, the successful effort to fight against and kill your sin and run hard after Jesus Christ, the motivator is not to earn the favor of God. The motivator is a heart of thankfulness that could never repay the salvation that's been given to them. And so all you have left to do is to say thank you. Why are some of us...

not making progress against our fight against our flesh, whether it be anger, whether it be lust, whether it be lying, whether it be bitterness. We've ignored. We've sought something other than what God has provided. We've ignored the very thing that God has given us to allow us and enable us to obey. We've sought. When we fail, we just look inside ourselves for something that we can find. That's worthy of God. Something. And so we play this, he loves me, he loves me not with our hearts. And we look inside there and say, is there anything that I can do that would cause me to sleep well at night? Is there anything in there? Is there any progress that I've made that will allow me to be at peace right now? Increase in the grace of God because we don't know the grace of God. We don't seek to know God.

And you must know the grace of God. You must know it. You cannot grow in grace if you don't know grace. The power of God's grace comes only to those who know and believe in the promise of it. It comes to those by faith who rest in, not in anything of themselves, but in what God has done. And you can't be content as you are now and somehow think. That you'll grow in obedience to God. You will not. You will not grow in obedience to God. You must know God intimately, personally, truly, meditating on his word daily, praying, fellowshipping with him. You will not grow in grace apart from relationship with God. And so the real question is not how do we grow in grace?

The question is, do we want to grow in grace? Obligation. Obligation only gets you so far. And you know, if you have children, you know that that's true with them. What's the motivator? Love. Love is the motivator. That is what we're thankful for your redemption in Jesus Christ. Have you tasted of his goodness personally? Not just things that God has brought about, circumstances that have worked in your favor. Have you experienced inside of you the love of God? The power of God's grace in you increases as your knowledge of His favor toward you increases. And so, how do we grow in the grace of God? Well, we meditate on it. You say, I don't feel anything. I don't feel like growing in the grace of God. But I know I should. And I say, great. Meditate on the mercies of God. Give yourself to...

His commandments. Give yourself to studying his word. Prayer. Personally. Privately. With his people. Pray for God to change your heart. Take baby steps. Take steps. And this will produce fruit. Fruits of obedience in your life. It will produce fruits of obedience. To you personally. In your marriage. The grace of God. The grace of God. Recap, three things. Number one, know it. Know the love that God has for you in Jesus Christ. Think about it. Meditate on it. Think about the election. Think about the grace of God. Think about the fatherly care and love that God has for you. That he sent his own son. That he's given you everything that you need for life and godliness. That he calls you, not an enemy, but he calls you a son.

And that you have all of the inheritance of a son. You're made an heir with Christ. You get all of the riches of God's grace. Number two, believe it. Have faith in God's promises. He says something in his word. And you feel something that's maybe exactly the opposite. Believe God's word. Don't believe your emotions. Trust God's word. You say, I can't stop doing this. I've been sinning in this way. I've given myself to this. And I can't stop. No longer slaves to sin. Don't believe your emotions. Don't trust your emotions. They're so deceiving. Believe the truth of God's word. And tell yourself what to think. Tell yourself how to feel. Faith in God's promises. Lastly, persevere in the grace of God. Make every effort.

That's a sign that you have the grace of God. Those who don't have the grace of God, those who do not know it and haven't experienced it, they don't know the love that God has for them in Jesus Christ. They have no faith in anything outside. They have no faith in God and his promises. And they make no effort towards following commandments of Jesus. So we must grow in the grace of God. Peter says, grace and peace be multiplied to you. He expects it. He expects that his people, he expects that we will do that. And he will accept nothing short of it. And neither should we. There are four tools that God gives us in his grace. And historically, they've been called the means of grace in the church. These are the tools that God gives the church to grow and to mature. What are they?

The first one is this, the Word of God. The Word of God preached, read, and heard. You will grow in the grace of God. You'll grow in maturity if you give yourself to that. Second is prayer. Prayer will grow you in the grace of God. It will make you more like Jesus. It will change your heart. And where God's Word, if God's Word, Just a little hint. If God's word is dry to you, try praying. Pray. Get in front of God and pray and ask him, God, please start praying. Keep praying. And prayer is what God uses to change our hearts as well as the word. Number three is fellowship. Fellowship with believers causes you to grow in grace. Are you in fellowship with your brothers and sisters here? Not just are you around.

them. You can be around and not be in fellowship. Fellowship doesn't mean that you're sitting next to them or that you're even having a conversation. It's the quality. Are you sharing your burdens? Are you sharing your struggles? Are you asking for prayer? Are you confessing your sins? Are you rejoicing? Are you encouraging? Are you asking for those things? You'll grow in grace. Lastly, Lord's Supper grows us in grace because it does two things. It demonstrates God's unmerited favor toward us. When we see the elements of bread and the cup, we're reminded of the sacrifice that God made. We're reminded our hearts are lifted up to heaven for the grace of God. It's not just a memorial meal. When we take it by faith, we're spiritually feeding on Christ. Not physically. The elements are bread.

Fruit of the vine in the cup. Spiritually, we're feeding on Christ by faith. And we grow in grace. And so grow in the grace of God. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we come before you because you are a gracious God. You delight in saving sinners, Lord. Father, we're unworthy. We know we're unworthy. And yet, Father, you've declared us worthy, not because of anything good in ourselves, God, but because of the worthiness of your Son and his work on our behalf. And God, I pray that there would not be any part here That falls short of the grace of God. That there would be no immoral person, Father, like Esau who rejected your birthright. Father, I pray that you would protect us from falling short of your grace. Father, I pray that you would cause us to turn to you. That you cause us to seek you as you have sought us.

Allow us to be content. Father, send hardships and suffering, Father, in our lives. Do what you will to keep us in your grace. Father, if it takes difficulty for us to persevere, to grow in you, Father, I pray that you would help us, that you would give us whatever we need. But Father, do not allow us to be the same. Father, protect us from hypocrisy. Give us joy in your salvation and the fruits of eternal life. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.