Last week, we considered the reality that Christians,
that Peter's writing to, and Christians who know
Christ, we considered the reality that all Christians
have the same kind of faith. Saving, justifying
faith. Faith of the same character, the same
nature. And some of the reasons that it's the
same is because true saving, justifying faith,
always shares the same object. It rests on the
same thing. It receives the same realities. That
faith that saves has the same object that it
believes upon, that it rests on. The Lord Jesus
Christ, His gospel, His work, the cross, the
atonement, the work of God in redemption. That's
the object of the Christian's faith. But it's
not just that we share the same object or that
this faith is the same kind of faith. We also
recognize that Christians who have justifying
faith all share and partake and receive the same
privileges, the same blessings, the same benefits
from that salvation. So every believer who has
true, genuine faith in Christ receives the forgiveness
of sins, the righteousness of Christ. They are
pardoned by the grace of God. They receive eternal
life. They are indwelt by the Spirit of God.
Every Christian receives these same privileges.
So I want to encourage every believer here today
based on those truths that we studied last week.
If you have true, justifying faith in Christ,
then you have all of Christ for all of time,
regardless of the condition of your heart this
morning. If you have true, justifying faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters,
you have all of Christ's righteousness. It's
all reckoned to your account. It's all yours.
You are justified. And made right in the sight
of God. Regardless of what you're struggling
with today. Regardless of what you're going through.
Regardless of what issues you face right now
at this moment in your faith. If you're in possession
of that faith, you have all of Christ's righteousness.
And that means that you're standing before God
is settled. It's established. You are right in
His sight. There is therefore now no condemnation
for those in Christ Jesus. If you're here today
and you have true, justifying faith, then that
means you have eternal life regardless of what
physical ailments or issues or physical trials.
you might face. Brothers and sisters, we share
in, we partake in these glorious, saving, gracious
realities regardless of the condition of our
hearts, the situation in our lives. They're realities
that we share and we partake in by faith as believers.
But, These realities evidence and show something
very, very clearly. That though Christians share
in these realities, though Christians have the
same kind of faith, we don't all have the exact
same experience in the Christian life of those
glorious realities that we partake of by faith.
There's a diversity of Christian experiences
that we undergo as believers in this life, as
those who have hearts that are deceitful, as
those who have unique situations and troubles
and trials. There's no uniform Christian experience
across the board. Though we take part in these
grand realities, It's clear and obvious that
some people have greater experiences of God's
grace and some people have lesser and more diminished
experiences of those grace in their souls. Why
is this? How is that? Some people enjoy greater
and lesser assurance in their lives. Some people
experience lesser and greater joy and peace in
their lives throughout different periods in their
life. Though we share a great deal in common
in this life, brothers and sisters, we're all
going to have unique Christian lives. Nobody's
going to be just like everybody else. Peter understands
this. This is why he writes to his recipients
as those who are in possession of this same like
faith, but he says, Grace and peace be multiplied
to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our
Lord. I want to consider two things this morning
with you brothers and sisters. I want to first
consider the blessings to be multiplied. Grace
and peace. But I also want to consider the means.
of these blessings being multiplied in the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord. So first, consider
these two blessings which Peter longs for and
he desires and he wishes and he expects to be
multiplied in the life of his Christian recipients.
He first says, grace be multiplied to you in
the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Peter
really, really likes the word grace. He has an
affinity for this word grace. I can't help but
think that one of the reasons that Peter loves
the word grace so much is because of how much
grace the Lord himself showed to him. I can't
help to think that his thinking of grace isn't
connected to his recollections and his memories
of the Lord Jesus Christ and how much grace and
mercy the Lord Jesus showed to him. We read in
1 Peter, Chapter 5, verse 10. He says, After
you have suffered for a little while, the God
of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory
in Christ, will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen,
and establish you. To him be dominion forever
and ever. Amen. Through Silvanus, our faithful
brother, for so I regard him. I've written to
you briefly, exhorting and testifying, listen
to this, that this is the true grace of God.
Stand firm in it. He reads, he writes in 1 Peter,
verse 1, or verse 3, he says, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
according to his great mercy, has caused us to
be born again to a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. He says in verse
2, May grace and peace be yours in the fullest
measure. Peter loves grace. What is he talking
about when he refers to grace? Well, I think
he has to be talking... about the whole system
of salvation, this whole gracious redemption
that has saved his soul from wrath, from sin,
and the effective working power of God by his
Spirit to change and transform those he has saved.
He's got to be referring to the whole system
of saving doctrine and truth of the gospel that
is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's got
to be talking about that, but he's also got to
be talking about the fact that God works in him
to change him and transform him, that his grace
is effective in his life, like Paul talks about
in 1 Corinthians 15, for his grace did not prevail
toward me. Talking about the work of God in his
life, effectively working, effectively changing
him. He's got to be talking about the manifestations
of his grace in his life, such as peace and joy
and contentment, steadfastness, perseverance,
these different ways. That grace makes itself
known in the life of God's people. The different
ways that God's work makes itself known in the
life of God's people. He's got to be referring
to faith and repentance, those blessed evangelical
gospel graces that God has given to us, that
God has graciously bestowed in our lives so that
we can trust Him, that God has provided us with
faith. He's got to be talking about the reality
that God has given us repentance and godly sorrow
over our sin, brothers and sisters. And he has
to be talking about the reality that he wants
to have greater views and greater sights by faith
of that grace that God has bestowed on him. Peter's
got to be talking about all of these different
things. But he's not just talking about grace,
is he? He's also talking about, and he also desires
and longs for this other blessing to be known
in greater degree in the life of the believers
that he's writing to. What is that blessing?
It's peace. Grace and peace be multiplied. When
he speaks of peace, I think we should just take
that as The prosperity of soul and life that
comes as a result of God's grace working in our
life. So joy, satisfaction, fulfillment, all
the blessed things which flow from God's work
in our lives. Now it's almost as though Peter
is telling us that there's a relationship. between
grace and peace in the life of these believers.
He doesn't write, peace and grace be with you.
He writes, grace and peace be multiplied to you.
And it's always in that order. He wants both
of these blessings to increase and multiply and
grow and to be known and experienced in greater
ways in the lives of these believers. But it's
almost as though peace isn't going to grow and
multiply unless grace grows and multiplies in
the life of the believer. Can people enjoy peace
in their life if they've never experienced grace?
in their life? Brothers and sisters, can you
experience peace with God and peace in your soul?
Supernatural peace that surpasses knowledge and
understanding in your soul if you've never tasted
of the grace of God? No, sir, you cannot. You
have no peace in your life if there's no grace
in your life. So peace and grace are related.
They're connected. They move together. They work
together. They cooperate. As one increases, the
other will increase. There's a relationship.
But I think there's one other thing that Peter
wants us to be clear about in this text. And
that is that these are both in the realm of Christian
experience. These are both things that Christians,
by faith, enjoy and experience. So how does a
believer enjoy and experience grace in their
life? God, by His mighty, sovereign power working
through the Spirit of God, works in us. That's
His grace effectively working and changing in
us, brothers and sisters. Impacting us, influencing
us. transforming us. That's in the realm of Christian
experience. We must experience that in our souls
if we are true, born -again believers. His work
in our lives. There's nothing purely theoretical
about God's grace for the believer. It comes
into the realm of Christian experience. But what
about peace? This is the easy one, right? We
all know that... The peace he's speaking of is
peace that we need to be in possession of. Peace
that we need to know more of. Peace that we need
when things get hard. Peace that we need when
life is difficult. It's in the realm of Christian
experience. It's something that can be multiplied.
Something that can be diminished. It's something
that can change. Something that can fluctuate.
Peter wants it to grow. Peter wants it to expand.
He wants it to increase. He wants it to blossom.
And that's because it's in the realm of Christian
experience, brothers and sisters. Now knowing
this, there are certain things that are implicit
in this greeting by the Apostle Peter. It's implied
that all Christians True Christians have experienced
God's grace and enjoy peace to some degree and
some measure in their life. Every single one.
If a person is indwelt by the Spirit of God and
new life and new principles being implanted within
them and that rocky, stony heart, Has been taken
out. And the heart of flesh has been put in them.
A heart that loves the law of God. With the law
of God written on it. A heart that walks in the
precepts of the Lord. And his statutes. A heart
that responds to the gospel. A heart that has
its affection set on Christ. Brothers and sisters.
That heart. Has experienced and known grace.
And that's the reason it's the way that it is.
That's the reason that it does what it does.
That's the reason that it feels what it feels.
Because of God's grace in it, working in it and
upon it, changing the person. Every true Christian
has experienced God's grace. Brothers and sisters,
I don't want us to be fooled. Fooled. I don't
want us to have the wool pulled over our eyes.
You cannot be a Christian if the gospel has not
broken into the experience of your life. You
cannot be a Christian if Christ does not effect
your heart. You cannot be a Christian, brothers
and sisters, if you never feel compelled to holiness
and godliness, if it doesn't touch and affect
and change your desires and your longings, your
wants, your direction and your orientation in
life. The gospel always breaks into our experience,
into our souls, brothers and sisters. It changes
the very core and being of who we are. That's
the nature of the gospel. It's transformative.
Have you experienced the grace of God in your
life? Or is it just an idea that's far and distant
and far off? They're all ideas and thoughts.
It's all a part of tradition. It's all things
you've known about. It's like reading a book
about something. You know about it, but you don't
know the thing itself. Brothers and sisters,
that's not true Christianity. That's not the
gospel, brothers and sisters. The true gospel
and true Christianity always affects the person.
It affects our experience in life. It breaks
in to Christian experience. It must. I don't
tell you that to be harsh and mean. I tell you
that, brothers and sisters. Because if Christianity
and the gospel and Christ is purely theoretical,
it's purely a sense of the mind, it's purely
intellectual, then I fear for your soul. Christ
changes us. He changes the core of who we are.
It affects our daily living, our daily experience,
our daily life. So I don't say it to be harsh
and angry. I say it because I want you to be
saved and I want you to experience the grace
of God in your very soul so that you can be affected
by the living God, by His truth. This is implied
in Peter's greeting. But it's also implied, brothers
and sisters, that all Christians have varying
experiences of that grace. If this grace can
be multiplied and increased, then does that not
imply that every single reader and recipient
that he's writing to has a different experience
of that grace. There's not going to be a recipient
that Peter's writing to that has the exact same
experience of God's work in their life. You know
why? Because we're all born again at different
times. We're all going to be at different places,
points, stages, and times in our life. sanctification.
Nobody's the exact same. Everybody has a different
personality. Everybody has a different providential
situation. Brothers and sisters, everybody has
different temptations and different trials and
different struggles in their life. There's no
two similar Christian experiences. Peter's telling
us this in this. So that means that my Christian
experience is not going to look identical to
a brother or sister's Christian experience. And
that means that your Christian experience is
not going to look just like everybody else's
Christian experience. God did not make you just
like everybody else. He did not make me just
like everybody else. He did not make... another
person like the other person. We're all different.
Though His grace work in the life of believers
through a same kind, a like precious faith, brothers
and sisters, that work is going to produce varying
effects in our souls at different rates and in
different ways to varying degrees in our life.
Now, that encourages us. To be very cautious
about holding ourselves up as a standard for
the Christian life. That cautions us from holding
ourselves up as a standard for what somebody
else's Christian life ought to look like. No,
brothers and sisters. That's dependent on God's
work in them. In their situation. In their life,
are there universal truths? Yes. But brothers
and sisters, we have to be very cautious about
these things, but we also have to be very encouraged
by these things. My Christian life is not going
to look just like everybody else's Christian
life. You're not going to be in the same place
as everybody else, brothers and sisters, and
that doesn't mean there's something wrong with
you. We're different. God works in us by His
grace and by His mercy, by His Spirit and accompaniment
of His Word, brothers and sisters, but that work
is going to show itself in our lives in very
different ways. Don't compare yourself to other
Christians unless you're saying, I'm going to
follow after them as far as they follow after
Christ. We're all different. We're all going
to have varying degrees where we experience and
enjoy God's grace and his peace in our life.
It's also implied in this text that every single
Christian can in fact have a greater experience
of God's grace and enjoy peace in greater measures
in their life. If it can be expanded and multiplied
and grown, brothers and sisters, that means that
I always have room to grow into it. That means
that you always have room to grow in grace and
knowledge and the love of God. This is implicit
in the text. There's nobody, nobody, who's a
believer in Jesus Christ. There's nobody in this
room who has reached a point and a place in Christian
life where they are beyond growth. Every single
person has growth ahead of them in this life,
brothers and sisters. Grace and peace be multiplied
to you. Everybody can experience further degrees,
further manifestations of God's grace in our
life. Brothers and sisters, do you want to know
more of Christ? Do you want to know more of God's
Spirit? Do you want to know more of the fruit
of the Spirit? Do you want to know more of walking
with God and having a sense of His presence in
your life? Do you long for that in your very
souls? You can have it. Grace and peace be multiplied.
It's yours for the taking, brothers and sisters.
Peter is greeting the readers with this. He's
desiring, he's expecting, he's looking, he's
wanting this, he's longing this for his Christian
recipients. If you're a Christian, you can know
Christ in greater and further ways. If you are
a believer in Jesus Christ, you can know godliness
and holiness in further and greater ways in your
life. You can honor Christ in further and greater
ways in your life. There is more ahead of us.
Don't grow. settled and content with what you've
known in the past and what you're experiencing
by His grace now. Brothers and sisters, long
and seek and look for the work of God in our
souls more and more and more. Stir up hunger
and longing and desire in your soul more and
more and more for these things. There's more
of His grace to be known. By all of his people
who are in possession of saving faith. And this
ought to be the aim of every Christian. To grow
in grace and peace. Every single believer ought
to have This one grand design in their mind for
their life. To grow in the grace of God. Is that
not what Peter wants for his readers here? To
know more of grace, to know more of peace. That
is the longing of every true believer. Every
person. that has been regenerated, and that is
filled with the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit
of God, will have a desire and a longing for
more holiness in their life. Why? Because the
Spirit of God dwells within them. Because the
seed of God has been implanted within them. Regeneration,
brothers and sisters. Their very natures have
changed. And the Spirit of God dwells within
them. Their affections are now toward holy things.
Grace and peace. The work of God. His holiness
and His righteousness. There's no true Christian.
That does not desire to grow. Every true Christian
desires to grow in grace. That is a universal
experience. Do you want to know Christ more?
Are your affections on God? Is your life God
-worthy? Do you care about pleasing Him and honoring
Him because He is worthy of it? Have you tasted
and seen that the Lord is good and you want more?
Brothers and sisters, that's a definitive mark
of the true believer. To long for more grace
and mercy because they know how desperately they
need it. Christians are those who know they are
sinners. And they know their brothers and sisters
in Christ are sinners. And they know that they're
failures. They know that they're frail. They
know that they're weak. Christians are those
who know that they need the grace of God. They
know that God has been merciful to them because
of their sin. And they are those who know that
they must grow in grace and peace. They can't
do it on themselves. They know they need the
help of the Lord. So this all begs the question,
how does the believer grow in grace? You hear
all of this. How do you grow in grace and peace?
How do you come to enjoy the grace of God and
further in greater ways? How is grace and peace
multiplied in the life of the believer? How does
it grow? How does it thrive? How do we nourish?
that in our lives. How do we seek that out? There's
all kinds of wrong ways to do it. There's all
kinds of bad ways to do it. I think there's two
extremes that people go to. The one is complete
inactivity. I don't do anything. I just sit back
and throw my arms back and I pray that God deliver
me from this sin. God help me. I can't do anything.
God saved me from this. I can't do anything.
I can't make myself do it. All I have to do is
submit myself to God and he will take care of
the rest. Because any activity, any work on my
part would be carnal. So we just allot our inactivity
and our passivity and our complacency spiritually
to God. Why am I not growing? Because God hasn't
delivered me. Why am I not overcoming this besetting
sin that God is displeased with? Because He hasn't
brought me out of it. Why am I dishonoring Him?
Because He hasn't strengthened my faith. That's
one extreme. The other extreme is saying that
it's all about you. That I have to do everything.
This is what Paul is addressing in Galatians
chapter 2 and chapter 3. Where he talks about
rebuilding the law. Have we started by faith?
And now we're perfecting it by the law? By the
flesh? Brothers and sisters, we have to remember
that sanctification, just like justification,
is by faith. We don't do nothing. That's not
what the Bible teaches. And we don't do everything.
We go down this middle path. And what is that
path? Faith and obedience. We do everything that
we can and we obey what we can. We pray and we
ask for help. Brothers and sisters, if we are
going to be justified, it's by faith. If we are
going to be sanctified, listen brothers and sisters,
if you are going to be sanctified in your life,
if you are going to grow in the grace and peace
of God, it's only going to be by that God -given,
saving, justifying faith that He has given to
you. Peter actually tells us quite clearly in
the second half of this verse the means by which
we grow. He tells us how we can obey, His command
in 2 Peter 3, verse 18, where he says, You therefore,
beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your
guard so that you are not carried away by the
error of unprincipled men and fall from your
own steadfastness. But listen to what he says.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's a command, brothers
and sisters, for every believer. To grow in the
grace of Jesus Christ. So how do we do it? Peter
tells us, and this leads us to the second thing
that we have to consider. The means of the blessings
being multiplied. Peter says this. Grace and
peace be multiplied to you in... the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord. That word in could
also be translated through, meaning in or through
the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. So
these blessings are multiplied in or through
the knowledge of God. Immediately, Peter introduces
us to this connection, this correlation, between
growth in grace and peace and growth in knowledge.
These two things that work together. This is
a regular theme throughout the epistles and especially
in Paul's writings. Consider a few verses with
me that correlate. Knowledge with growth in the
Christian life. We read in Ephesians chapter
1, verse 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
Him. So how does this spirit of wisdom and revelation
get cultivated? In the knowledge of God. We read
in Philippians chapter 1, verse 9. And this I
pray, that your love may abound, may grow, may
increase, may be multiplied, brothers and sisters,
still more and more. In real what? Knowledge
in all things. Discernment. Again we find. This
love. Increasing. Growing. In what garden brothers
and sisters. In what grounds. The knowledge of
God. We read in Colossians. Chapter 1. Verses
9 through 10. For this reason. Also. Since the
day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray
for you and to ask that you may be filled with
the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom
and understanding, so that you will walk in a
manner worthy of the Lord to please Him in all
respects, bearing fruit in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened
with all power, according to His glorious might.
Growth, steadfastness, power, vitality in the
Christian life, health in the Christian life.
Where does it flourish? Where does it grow and
expand and multiply and go upward? Where does
it progress and mature and develop, brothers
and sisters? In the knowledge of God. Those are
the grounds. where it grows, where it blossoms.
It's a theme we see over and over and over. This
is where transformation, this is where Christian
growth and maturity grows. And knowing God as
He has revealed Himself in the Scriptures, and
in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we want to grow in grace, and we want to enjoy
peace in greater ways in our life, if we want
to see the work of God bolstered, then brothers
and sisters, we need to give ourselves to the
knowledge of God. To knowing Him as He has revealed
Himself. Is there a better topic? Listen, brothers
and sisters, is there a greater storehouse of
treasure and content that we can study, that
we can consider, that we can meditate on, that
we can dwell on in our lives, than the knowledge
of the living God who has saved us from our sin
in Christ? There's no better thing to place your
mind on. There's no better thing, brothers and
sisters, to set your mind on than the very things
of God. If you want to grow in your life, then
give yourself to knowing Him, to knowing Christ,
to knowing who He is and what He's done. Brothers
and sisters, read the book. Read the Bible. And
consider the great and the mighty works of God.
Consider what He has done. Have you considered
how He delivered His people from Egypt? And the
miracles and the mighty things that He worked
and accomplished and He did that He brought about?
Have you considered His provision for them in
the wilderness? The parting of the Red Sea? Have
you considered how the walls of Jericho fell
flat to the ground by His sovereign power. Have
you considered who He is and what He has done
in the person and work of Jesus Christ? Calvary?
Brothers and sisters, have you considered the
blood of Christ? Set your mind on these things.
Give yourself to these things. The knowledge
of God. Who He is. What He's done. And as he's
revealed in the person and the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So these blessings are multiplied
in or through the knowledge of God. Now it can't
be mere head knowledge. It can't purely be intellectual
content that Peter is talking about. Because
it's possible for people to have a knowledge
of the Bible as they have a knowledge of their
physics textbook. It's possible for people to
understand the things of God with their mind,
yet never really understand God with their hearts.
To have a true, deeper, spiritual, effective,
transforming knowledge of God. So it has to be
the knowledge of God that's deeper. There's something
different about this knowledge that Peter's talking
about. This knowledge does something to our very
souls that it transforms us and changes us. It's
not mere intellectual head knowledge. So what's
he talking about? Well, he helps us in the second
part of the verse. He says that these blessings
aren't just multiplied in the general knowledge
of God, but he says that these blessings are
multiplied in or through the knowledge of God
and of our Lord, Jesus Christ. And of Jesus,
our Lord. So he's not simply talking about Head
knowledge. He's talking about gospel knowledge.
He's talking about the reality that somebody
has to be in Christ and they have to be in possession
of that God -given faith so that they can look
to God and they can seek to know God in and by
and through faith. He's talking about the fact
of gospel. Knowledge. Believers need to seek
to know God. They need to give themselves to
the knowledge of God. But brothers and sisters,
the knowledge that we have and the knowledge
that we gain concerning God and His Son, the
knowledge we have from the Word of God, from
His revelation, do you know what we have to do
with it? We have to apply it to our lives. And
we have to submit to Jesus Christ as we submit
to His revelation as Lord. The knowledge we gain
from the Word of God is useless to us if we do
not submit to that knowledge. The knowledge that
we gain from studying the Bible, from reading
books, the knowledge that we gain about God and
who He is and what He's done, it's pointless
and vain if we don't give our lives to submitting
to it and living in accordance with that knowledge
and applying it to our situations and our lives
by faith. Head knowledge is useless, but head
knowledge is where it starts, and that knowledge
has to make its way to our hearts in obedience
and faith. I fear there are many, many people
who know a great deal about Christianity. I fear,
brothers and sisters, that there are many, many
people who have been raised in the church, who
have grown up in the church, and they know about
Christ, they know about God, they know about
the world. They could tell you all the Bible
quiz questions there are. But their hearts are
not in submission to Jesus Christ as Lord, and
their hearts are in rebellion. to His revelation.
Therefore, they will not grow in the grace and
peace of God. But if we give ourselves to the
knowledge of God, and we take that knowledge
and we apply it to our situations and our lives,
what we know about Him and who He is in every
situation, and we apply it, And we live by faith
according to what he's revealed. That knowledge,
brothers and sisters, will transform our souls.
That knowledge will affect us. The Spirit of
God will work in us and through us, transforming
us. And how do we do these things? By faith.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 3. If you recall, Paul
is talking about Moses and the veil and glory
and the old covenant. And he's talking about
the new covenant. And then he talks about how
new covenant people who have the Spirit of God
are an unveiled people. He talks about the fact
that the veil has been removed when they turned
to the Lord. The veil has been taken away. And
then he talks about how they're transformed into
one image, the same image, Jesus Christ. But
they're transformed from glory to glory. How?
And by what? By beholding the Lord Jesus Christ.
By beholding him. What is the beholding? It's
faith. It's looking at Christ in the Gospel,
in the Scriptures. And as we gaze at Christ by
faith in the Scriptures, as He's made known,
do you know what happens? Do you know what God
does through His Spirit? Brothers and sisters,
He transforms us from glory to glory. In chapter
4, He talks about how we're renewed inwardly,
day by day. He transforms us. He changes us.
He sanctifies us. He renews us. He grows us in
grace and the enjoyment of peace in our lives.
So if you're here today and you're a true born
-again believer and you want to grow in grace,
and you want to enjoy peace in greater ways and
greater measures and greater degrees in your
life, do you know what you need to do? Do you
know what you need to do? You need to give yourself
to the knowledge of God and submit yourself to
Jesus Christ as Lord, and you need to apply the
knowledge you have gained, the knowledge you
have, to your life and your situation. That means...
Now you go to the Word of God. And if you want
to live by faith in your marriage, you know what
you do? You go to the Word of God. You ask God
for help. And you say, Lord, teach me. Help me
to understand what you teach about marriage.
You study the Scriptures. You see what this Scripture
says. And you see what this Scripture says. And
you find the principles. You take all of those
texts and you draw out the principles of it,
the teachings of it. And then what do you do?
You take that knowledge. And you apply it to
your life and you live in like manner. And whenever
the carnal and the fleshly desires pop up, whenever
the flesh seeks to rebel against God, you submit
to Christ because He's Lord. Do you know what
we call that? Living by faith. You apply what
you know about... God. Give yourselves to reading
your Bibles, brothers and sisters. We live and
die by the Word of God. Take time to be with
God. To seek Him out. Give yourself to good books.
Give yourself to discussions where the knowledge
of God is on display and actively at work. There's
a tendency. When people are talking about the
things of God. For certain individuals. All over
the place. To hear what's taking place. And to
remove themselves. To a more practical. More
pleasurable. Or an easier discussion. But brothers
and sisters listen. You know what's good for
your soul? You know what's good for your heart?
The knowledge of God. Give yourselves to learning
about who Christ is. About what God has done
for us. God has saved our sins. Saved us from
our sins. He saved us from His wrath. He saved
us from hell. He has given us everything that
God can give. He has been abundantly merciful.
He has given us every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places. Learn about that God who has
been so gracious in Christ. Learn about that
God who has been so merciful to you and your
soul. The God who will guide you unto death and
even beyond the grave. The God who will raise
you in glory. Study and give yourself to that
God. Learn about Him. Praise Him and worship
Him as a result of That study. And obey and submit
to those glorious realities. Put down the flesh.
Mortify sin and the lust of the flesh. Love God
more than people you shouldn't be loving. Set
your affections on Him. Choose Him in every situation,
in every way, in everything. Brothers and sisters,
it's faith and obedience. There's a real danger.
We have to understand this. There's a real danger
in always learning and never applying and never
submitting. That's a real danger. Because that
says something about your heart. That says something
about your soul. Are you taking in information?
Are you learning about who God is? Yet you're
unwilling to submit to those glorious realities
in your heart. That's a dangerous place to be,
brothers and sisters. It's a scary place to be.
We must learn. and live by faith, and submit
to Christ as Lord. And don't ever forget that
our peace in life is bound up with our knowledge
of God and our submission to Him. It's not just
grace. Remember, it's the enjoyment of peace
in our life as well. I dare say, That those who
are bitter and angry and frustrated in life,
that those who have tumult in their soul, and
those who are discontent and angry in life, those
who are miserable in circumstances, brothers
and sisters, one of two things. They're not growing
in their knowledge of God. Or they're not submitting
to Christ as Lord in their life. But listen,
if we give ourselves to growing in the knowledge
of God, and we are actively submitting our lives,
our hearts, and our souls to the risen Lord Jesus
who died for us and gave Himself for us, then
brothers and sisters, the Spirit of God will
cause your soul to flourish. The Spirit of God
will cause your soul to grow and multiply in
grace and peace. And you will enjoy a greater
measure of peace in your life. You will enjoy
a greater degree of peace in your circumstances.
You will have more joy and more contentment and
more fulfillment and more satisfaction in Christ.
But brothers and sisters, we have to submit and
we have to grow in the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus. So we've considered the blessings that
are to be multiplied and we've considered the
means of these blessings being multiplied.