Believers are called to actively grow in grace by adding specific virtues to their faith, building upon the foundation of the new birth and participation in the divine nature. The sermon outlines a progression of seven qualities—virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love—each inherent in the preceding one, which must be diligently cultivated. This diligent addition of virtues is essential for spiritual fruitfulness and to avoid spiritual barrenness, as faith without corresponding works is considered dead. The ultimate application is to daily exercise these qualities, reflecting Christ and living out the divine nature imparted through salvation.
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We want to turn to Second Peter tonight, chapter one. We continue where we left off last week on this great subject of growth and grace. Second Peter, chapter one, we begin our reading at verse five, where we read, and beside this, that this here has reference to the things that we have obtained because of the new birth that are outlined in verses one through four. Verses one through four form the foundation for growth and grace.
And in verse five, he says, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience. and the patience godliness, and the godliness, brotherly kindness, and the brotherly kindness, charity, or love. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and have forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things ye shall never fall. Now may the Lord bless the reading of his words. The assurance that we are saved is that we have been made partakers of the divine nature. The rendering of verses three and four, fifth, or fits with every other portion in the word. You'll notice verse three, according as his divine power has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
And Ephesians one tells us that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. Colossians two in verses nine and ten tell us that we are complete in Him. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and we're complete in Him. So when Peter says that His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, He has given us exceeding great and precious promises in verse four, and then that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature.
to think that Christ condescended to take on human nature. That's almost incredible. God became a man. Paul, when he wrote to Timothy in First Timothy, three sixteenths, one of the great three sixteenths of the Bible, he says, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. and to think that the Lord Jesus condescended to take upon him human nature. But now, to think that you and I, by virtue of the work of Calvary's cross, are made partakers of the divine nature, he now shares his nature with us.
Now, always remember, it is birth that determines nature. There is no other way for nature to be determined apart from birth. It has been God's program to the universe. A horse is a horse because it was born a horse. It will never be anything else. But a horse. A bullfrog is a bullfrog because it was born a bullfrog and will never be anything else. And that's why the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and it will never be anything but sinful flesh. But he also said, but that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
And that's why you and I have been born of incorruptible seed. We've been saved by His grace. We have been born of God. And it's because of our new birth. that we possess the divine nature. It is birth that determines nature. Now, in the passage that is before us, he tells us that the divine nature must be daily exercised in the endeavors of moral living. You and I are living in a sinful world, and we cannot live like Lot did.
For Lot is brought to our attention in the second chapter. It tells us that he vexed his righteous soul from day to day with a filthy conversation of the wicked in seeing and in hearing. Lot put up, and he was a righteous man dwelling in the midst of that awful immorality, and day by day he vexed his righteous soul. He did nothing about it. You and I are not permitted... to do this if we're going to grow in grace. If we're going to grow in grace, according to verse five, we must give all diligence to add something, to add to our faith.
Now Peter here is anxious that believers do not frustrate the grace of God. You say, how can you frustrate the grace of God? It can be done. It can be done by shifting back to a system of work. Paul said in Galatians two, verse twenty-one, I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Now, to frustrate the grace of God means to set it aside, appreciating what it did, but not setting it aside when it comes to living. The Word of God declares that those who are saved by grace continue to live and to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior.
Colossians two, verse six says, As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. In other words, Peter is saying the same thing James said. Remember what James said? Faith without works. is dead. Peter is saying, don't frustrate the grace of God. Don't set it aside by resisting and being content with faith without work. He doesn't want us to be that way. He wants us to add to our faith these various things.
blessed things that are needed to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. Now we want to spend a little time in verse five. Because verse five is quite interesting, especially the opening word. And beside this, giving all diligence. Giving you'll notice is a participle. And we want to notice exactly how it's used. What Peter is saying is apply all diligence. diligence. Now, what is your definition of diligence? Be diligent, the word of God says. Apply diligence.
Well, diligence denotes something. It denotes quick movement or hate in the interest of a cause or a person. Now, I kid a certain man who comes here on a Sunday. He's an excellent roofer. He's an excellent Smith. And it's Mr. Freeman Webster. No matter where you meet him, he always has the same speed. I've never seen that man speed up for anything. And I kid him about it. Someone told him that they could put a stick of dynamite in his back pocket, light the fuse, and he wouldn't walk any faster.
So... I kid him about it, you know, he's semi-retired and we have a good time together. I had him work on my roof and I'll tell you, I had a leak and the man knows what he's doing. He's the best around in my book. But nevertheless, diligence means to, it means quick movement, quick movement, haste and interest. calls for an attitude of earnestness and zeal. Diligence is just the opposite of sluggishness and self-indulgence. Now our text here says, besides this, giving all diligence.
Now that word all, that's an inclusive word. It underlies the comprehensiveness of what we're supposed to do. The diligence can't be half-hearted. It can't be selected. I'll do what I please. I'll pick what I like and what I don't like. I just won't do. That isn't what it says. It says giving all diligence. Giving all diligence. Now, diligence here in this passage is the part of the believer that brought alongside of what God has already done.
Now what God has already done is outlined in verses three and four. It is the new birth. It is that new life in Christ which is ours. Human effort, beloved, must follow the work of God. Ephesians two ten says, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. The Word of God declares in the Epistle of James that faith without works is dead, and human effort must follow the work of God. Now it's interesting when you study this verse, the participle construction of this sentence, it indicates that such human effort is subordinate to the divine bestowal and it flows out of it.
Unless there has been a divine work performed on the inside, there are no works to come to the outside. Now that's in line with what he's written in Philippians two. Turn back to Philippians for a moment, verses twelve and thirteen. Philippians chapter two, verses twelve and thirteen. It says, Wherefore, my beloved? as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
If God has never worked salvation in, it can never be worked out. There must be this. the inward work and that's what Peter is telling us in verses three and four of chapter one in his second epistle but in verse five he says give all diligence add to your faith but now there's something else when you study this text is the error is tense of the participle it calls for effective action on the part of the reader And now notice what else he says.
And beside this, giving all diligence add to your faith. Now that word add there, and I like Rutherham's translation on this, he says supply. And that's really what it says. Supply something. Supply. It specifies that the test that they are to effectively perform. Add. Add to what? Add to something you already have. Now, when he says, in your faith supply, virtue, knowledge, godliness, brotherly kindness, self-control, and the other things, it is accepted that they already have the faith.
Now, you can't add to something you don't have. If you don't have the faith, you can't add these things to it. What Peter is telling you is necessary here for growth and grace, you can't add these things to it unless you already have the faith. An ungodly person, you can say, now add virtue and knowledge and all these other, these seven things that Peter outlines. But if you don't have the faith, you can't add it to it. It is presupposing that you already possess the divine nature because you have been born of God.
Spiritual life begins with life bringing faith. When God in the new verse brings the life, the faith brings from it. As we read in the first verse, we have obtained like precious faith. That means that we didn't always have it. We obtained it, and we obtained it through the new birth. Now, he adds something else. All these words are important. He said, and beside this, giving all diligence add to your faith. It's a personal thing.
My faith in Christ was not good enough for my children. My children have to have a personal faith in Christ. It is your faith. This is a personal thing. And there is this matter of trusting Christ personally. It becomes your faith when we are born into the family of God. This faith becomes a very personal thing. But he also says, add to your faith that faith which is a very personal thing must obtain its full potential in spiritual fruitfulness to daily exercise in moral living.
In other words, this must be a daily thing in our walk with the Lord. It cannot be a spasmodic thing. Last night I was down at Duke Hospital and I visited a man there from my Meben Bible class. He's been on the prayer, I think he's been mentioned for prayer, Brother Bill Sykes. And he's had heart surgery. And as I was coming back, I was listening to Brother McGee. And I was quite interested in what he had to say. He said he was East preaching in a church.
There was a young pastor there. And he asked him, did you read this book? McGee said, no, never heard of it. Did you read that book? No, I never heard of it. Did you read another book? No, I never heard of it. Had a great library. The man said to McGee, well, what do you really read? He said, I read my Bible. It's amazing how books can take the place of the Scripture. No book is ever called De-Faith, but the Word of God is in the Epistle of Jude. And we're to earnestly contend for De-Faith, and that's the body of revealed truth.
And McGee asked this man, he said to him, how much time a week do you spend with the Bible? And he said he had to admit it was less. than one hour. Add to your faith. Now, what he says here, there are qualities that need to be nurtured. They're brought in alongside of our faith for the child of God to add. And if we're going to grow in grace, they must be added. And if we don't add them, we're not going to grow in grace.
We're just going to be kidding ourselves in this area. And not all these words that you find in the King James translation, do you find in other translations? In other words, some of the words are changed. There's a variety of renderings. Some are not. But there's one translation that puts it like this, seven things are excellent, knowledge, self-control, Endurance instead of patience, godliness, brotherly affection, love. But basically when you examine it, they all come out equal.
There are seven, no matter how you look at it. Peter lists here seven qualities or traits of character in this moral development. Now you need to watch something here. This is not put down haphazardly. Each one of these things is inherent in the one that precedes it. You can't have the second one before you get the first one. And you can't have the fourth one before you get the third one. That's the way it is written here. Add to your faith virtue. And to virtue you add knowledge.
And to knowledge you add temperance. or self-control and the temperance you add endurance or patience or perseverance as it's translated in another text and to patience you add godliness you see it's hard to imagine in the workplace a man is being godly who is impatient for the godliness flows out of the patient. You see, and to godliness, brotherly kindness. And to brotherly kindness, the crown of them all.
Love, love. So each is inherent in the one that precedes it. It's supplemented and it's perfected by the new. And all of them, no matter which one you find here, they are empowered by a living faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot add one of these. But God has given unto us according to verse three, all things that pertain unto life and godliness. and since He has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, now there is a desire for growth in the child of God, for being born again.
Newborn babes desire, we read in the first epistle, chapter two, verse one. Newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby since there is a birth, since there is a new nature, since there is a faith a precious faith, a personal faith that has been obtained now, he says, add these things to it. Why is it important? Because faith without works is dead. Now, I want to go over each one of these in a special way.
There are seven of them, but I only have three minutes to do it, and that isn't long enough. So having stated that faith without works, he's dead. I want you to drop down for a moment to verse eight. It says, For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and have forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Faith without works, it will never bear fruit.
It will never bear fruit. These things are added by us by personal living, by personal appropriation of the grace that God provides. It basically amounts to the the fruit of the Spirit in the life. Now how can you add fruit? You can't. We simply work with the Spirit of God in our lives, unhindering Him from producing in us and through us that cluster of fruit that is mentioned there in Galatians chapter five.
Apart from a living faith, these things can never be added. And as far as God is concerned, there is no such thing as a dead faith. All his faith is living. Because through faith, we have obtained life. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God to our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let us look at these seven things in the next week till we get together. in order that we may add them to our faith by a diligent moral attitude toward God and toward His Word.
Now let's pray. Our Father, we stand amazed that we're partakers of the divine nature. We stand amazed at the condescension of our Lord Jesus, that he's willing to take on human nature. But then he gave us his. And all we can say is thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. Not only did Christ die to do a work for us, but he died in order that he might do a work in us. And oh God, I pray. As our word has been preached, that a genuine work will be done in us, that others will behold Christ, that we will not be barren nor untruthful in this ungodly world for Jesus' sake.