Thank you for leading us again, thanks Jake, and some really good hymns related to the message this morning, starting with "Jesus Paid It All." Some of the words that we sang there are so important to understand, and that's what we're going to talk about—trying to understand our salvation a little more this morning. 

We'll go back to some familiar texts, but it's important, I think, for us to take what Peter is saying here. Last week we began our study in this second epistle, and Peter's writing to Jewish believers scattered among the Gentiles in the region of Asia Minor. We saw last week that Peter's primary concern is that we would know. He uses the word "know" 16 times in these three chapters, and he wants us to have knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He wants us to know and understand our salvation; that's what we're going to talk about this morning. 

He wants us to be able to recognize, to know false teachers and false teaching, and he also wants us to know the hope of Jesus' coming. In our text today, we're going to see that Peter wants us to know and understand and believe the truths and promises of our salvation in Jesus Christ, and that he wants us to build on that salvation in holiness. We'll get to that more next time—kind of part two of this message. He wants us to live in light of who we are and to affirm, believe, and trust that we are new men in Christ, having been born again to a living hope, having the very life and power of God living in us to produce fruit for the glory of God and as a witness in this world. 

Peter wants us to know our salvation, and he wants us to live in light of it. If we are going to be fruitful, if we are going to live holy lives as God intends, it also requires diligence on our part. Peter says, "Giving all diligence." Knowing our salvation is crucial to bearing fruit; believing these truths, choosing to trust and believe God for these things is vital. Yielding to His life and power, abiding in Him, walking in the Spirit, and letting the Word of Christ dwell in us richly—these things are key to seeing fruit produced in our lives. But these things require diligence on our part; all diligence. 

Paul frames it this way in Romans 6: he says, "Know, reckon, and yield." We must know the truth. This requires diligence in study, in fellowship, in hearing the Word preached and taught, and applying our minds to the Word of God and seeking through prayer to know what is true. We must reckon these things to be so. This requires diligence in faith, in trust, in choice. The word in Romans 6:11 is "logizomai," which means to count up the facts, to reckon a balance sheet. God has told us the truths of our salvation, and Peter reiterates this in our text today, asking us to believe what he says to be true. 

This requires continual diligence and discipline of the mind on our part. We must take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ if we're going to be fruit bearers. We must reckon God's Word, His truth to be so. And we must yield—that is, present our members under righteousness in consistency with who we now are in Christ. This is the essence of abiding; this is the essence of looking unto Jesus as we run this race, understanding our desperate need for and dependence on Him every day, for without Him we can do nothing. 

We must give all diligence, but we must do this in the right sphere, at the point of the battle, in the mind, if we are to bear good fruit out through our members. Peter wants us to know our salvation, and he wants us to give all diligence to live it out. His writing is not as linear as Paul's, but the very same message, the very same teaching, is here, and we will see that in our text this morning and perhaps next time as we work through these first 11 verses. 

Let's look at 2 Peter 1:1. "Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us 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, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." 

"But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure; for if you do these things, you will never stumble. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

I've got six points on your outline; we'll get to the first four I think today. Like precious faith, all things, exceedingly great and precious promises, a basis for holy living, giving all diligence, and neither barren nor unfruitful. 

Well, first we see that we, as believers in Jesus Christ, every believer has obtained a like precious faith in Jesus. The emphasis here is that the faith that all believers have is a common faith, the same faith; it's a faith of equal value. The word translated "obtained" speaks of casting lots. The idea here is that it is given by divine allotment. However, there's something really interesting here; the verb is in the active voice. The active voice represents the subject as the doer or performer of the action. So the subject in this sentence would be "those." 

This is very interesting to me. Many commentators say that this is teaching that faith is the gift of God, and they try to support that with Ephesians 2:8 and 9, which we don't have time to go into that passage, but faith is not the gift in Ephesians 2:8 and 9; salvation is. The rules of Greek grammar demand that salvation is what Paul is talking about when he talks about the gift in that passage. So why did Peter use the active voice here in speaking of an allotment of faith from God? 

Well, I believe two things. One is that we see the sovereignty of God as well as the responsibility or will of man involved in salvation. This is taught clearly throughout the Bible. We struggle mightily with reconciling these two, but God doesn't. The Word of God teaches both, holding the tension without apology, and I think we should receive these truths just as we do the humanity and deity of Christ, or just as we do the triune nature of the one true God. We don't understand everything that God does, but we know that God tells us the truth.

The other thing I see here is that Peter's using the phrase to represent salvation. He's talking about being saved; the salvation we receive. He's moving toward a great explanation of that salvation in the following verses. So it's interesting to study and consider, but the main point Peter is making here is that all believers have a faith, a salvation of the same value. We're all equal in Christ. 

Now there's another question here. Who is Peter talking about when he says, "you and us," or "those and us"? Many believe, and I have thought this myself, that Peter's talking about Jew and Gentile in this context. "To those who have obtained like precious faith with us," he says. Who's the "us" here? Well, it could refer to Jews in contrast to Gentiles, but as we look further in the chapter, I'm not sure that's the best understanding. 

Look down at verse 16, 2 Peter 1:16. He says, "For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty." This verse seems to indicate that the "we" or the "us" may refer to the apostles here. In 2 Peter 3:2, if you look at that verse, Peter says that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles, and of the Lord and Savior. Certainly the "us" here is the apostles. 

Well, you can sort that out on your own and decide what's right, but the point Peter is making here is that every believer has a salvation of faith, of equal value, of the same kind—what he calls a like precious faith. I like that phrase, don't you? We have a like precious faith in Jesus.

Well, next in our text, as we begin to know our salvation, we see "all things." 2 Peter 1:2 reads, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." 

One of the most important truths concerning our salvation, really understanding our salvation, is that it is full and it is sufficient. It is, at least in the sense of justification, complete. I can't overemphasize this point, so I decided to give an illustration that might gain your attention. My devout Roman Catholic buddy was over the other day, and he was helping me do some work. He said the most interesting thing. It was the third time he'd brought this up to me in the last couple of weeks, so he clearly was struggling with this issue. 

It concerns what's called the Lord's Prayer, particularly where it says, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others." He said he'd like to change that to "forgive us our trespasses more gooder than we forgive others." He doesn't like that law, that demand for perfection. I told him I had an answer, but he said he probably wouldn't like my answer. I pressed ahead, and then he got a little agitated and raised his voice, starting to talk about becoming perfect in this life through the church, the exercise of the sacraments, some saints, and such. Then he said this: "Johnny, there is no salvation apart from the Roman Catholic Church." 

And I said to him, "Do you know why I like you?" He said, "Why?" I said, "Because you're intellectually honest." The fact is what he said is the official teaching, the bedrock of the Roman Church. You cannot be saved outside of it. You cannot be saved apart from the mediating priesthood to say the Mass and perform the sacrifice and minister the sacraments to you. 

Their dogma is adamant: Salvation is yet to be accomplished. We must, by our good works, our suffering, our giving, our religious participation, contribute to, I quote from Vatican Council, "to what was lacking in the sacrifice of Christ." I say, praise the Lord! Praise the Lord that the biblical truth is that our salvation is complete, that it is full, that it is finished because of what Jesus did and what Jesus did alone. 

Hebrews 1 says, "When He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of God." When do you sit down? You sit down when the job is finished. What's it say? "He by Himself purged our sins." Salvation is complete. We have peace with God. We've been reconciled through faith in Jesus alone and what He accomplished on the cross. Justification happens not as a process over a lifetime of works and rites and rituals based on what Jesus did plus what I do. Justification happens at a point in time when a man turns from trusting in himself, in religion, in his goodness, and places his faith in Jesus' finished work alone. That man is saved forever. He's justified. He's made right with God. It is finished. It is complete. 

What Peter is hitting at here is related to sanctification—living out our salvation in this life. The second aspect of our salvation is being conformed outwardly to the reality of who we are inwardly because of what God has done in us in salvation. Peter tells us that in this, listen to this, God has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. 

To living, to all that we say and do in this life, to godliness, holiness, fruit-bearing. Do you believe that? God has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Let's look at Peter's words to try to know and understand this great salvation better. Maybe, just maybe, knowing our salvation will change our expectations on how we live. 

All things. 2 Peter 1:3: "As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." 

First of all, we see that it is His divine power that has given to us all things. The source of salvation, of regeneration, of the divine power we receive in Christ, is God and God alone. He, by His grace, gives us as a gift salvation, and this through the knowledge of Him who called us. The salvation comes to us first by knowledge of Jesus. We must understand who we are and who Jesus is. This is a key to understanding salvation. 

We, as lost men in Adam, are indeed lost—sinners by nature, against God, enemies of God, continually and perpetually satisfying the lusts of our flesh and our sinful desires. We in Adam cannot please God. Jesus is God, and He became a man, lived a perfect life, and died a death that He did not deserve in my stead, in my place, for my sins, and He died to take the wrath of God that I deserved. 

Let's go to that passage in Matthew 6 and try to explain this salvation a little better. Matthew 6:11. This is Jesus talking to His disciples in the context of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 6:11: "Give us this day our daily bread." Now look at verse 12: "And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen." 

Jesus is talking to Jews living under the Law; Jesus is a Jew living under the Law. This passage sits in the center of the Sermon on the Mount. What is Jesus trying to teach in this sermon? Picture Him standing on that mount with crowds of legalistic, religious Jewish people. Look back to chapter 5, verse 17. 

Chapter 5, 17: Jesus says, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the prophets; I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the Law till all is fulfilled." Whoever, therefore, breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does and teaches them he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you,"—now here's a massive statement—"I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

Jesus came to fulfill the Law. He says in verse 20 that our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the most righteous religious people according to the Law on the earth—the religious leaders. It would be like today saying you must be more righteous than the Pope, you must be more righteous than Mother Teresa in order to go to heaven. What is He saying? He's raising the bar, using the Law in every statement. 

The rabbis taught, "Do not murder," but I say to you, the real essence of the Law—the far-reaching nature of the Law—is this: if you're angry in your heart, you've committed murder. Keeping the Law is not just outward conformity. Remember the rich young ruler when he came to Jesus? "All these things I've done since my youth." What was Paul's testimony of Saul? "Righteousness according to the Law, I was blameless," he said. But now it's all dung; it's useless. I cast it all away for the sake of having the righteousness of Christ through faith, he says in Philippians 3.

It's not outward conformity, which no man can do, but it's even more far-reaching to the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Look at his conclusion to all of these teachings in Matthew 5:48. "Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." This is an earth-shattering, certainly religion-shattering statement. What does the Law of God require? What does God require in order to enter His heaven? Just perfection. 

Now, if you have ever sinned, then you are disqualified from being perfect. And if you are seeking to establish your own righteousness through works in the Law, through religion, then you have built your house on the sand, as Jesus says in the end of this striking sermon. He taught with authority, and it says the people were astonished. The truth is this: our salvation is based on the righteousness of Christ, not on our own. 

Turn over to Romans 3:19 with me; see a clear statement by Paul in Romans 3. Peter wants us to understand our salvation. Romans 3:19, listen to what he says; pay attention to these words. He says, "Now we know that whatever the Law says, it says to those who are under the Law, that, for the purpose that, every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God." 

"Therefore, by the deeds of the Law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the Law is the knowledge of sin." What's that tell us? It tells us you can't be made right with God by keeping the Law. It's pretty clear. Look at verse 21—some good news. "But now, the righteousness of God, apart from the Law, is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the prophets." 

"Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." You can't be perfect, right? No one's perfect; we all have sinned. He says, "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a full satisfactory payment," that's what that word "propitiation" means—a full satisfactory payment by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness. 

It doesn't get any clearer than this: Jesus said we must be perfect, perfectly righteous, to enter Heaven. Paul says that the purpose of the Law is to show us our sin, that we might realize our guilt—not for us to keep in order to earn our way to Heaven. The only way that we can be righteous or perfect is to receive God's righteousness, and that's done through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Faith is accounted to us for righteousness; our sins are imputed to Christ on the cross, he goes on in Romans 4 to tell us, and His righteousness is imputed to us through faith—faith alone in Jesus alone in what He accomplished on the cross.

But this is not all, my friends. It's vital we understand that. First of all, but in this salvation that Peter wants us to know and understand, God not only justified us, imputing His righteousness to us and our sins to Christ on the cross—that's a positional truth, right? We're positionally righteous in Christ. But He also regenerated us; He also caused us to be born again. 

This, along with His life in us, gives to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. His divine power is given to us, all things that pertain to life and godliness. In verse 4, He says, "That through these promises you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust." 

I want to talk about that—partakers of the divine nature, escaping corruption. This speaks of regeneration. Later in the epistle, Peter's going to talk about the false teachers escaping the pollution in the world by coming into the church. What's the difference between pollution and corruption? When you think about pollution, what is that? We think about maybe the smoke that's been plaguing us all summer from the fires up north. What about corruption? When I think of corruption, I think like cancer in your body. It's corrupted. Pollution is on the outside. Corruption is on the inside. Peter says the believer has escaped corruption. 

Paul explains this to us in Romans 5. I want to go back to Romans 5:12. Romans 5:12—we're going to understand our salvation; we can't miss what Paul says here. "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned." 

"For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is the type of Him who was to come." What Paul is saying is, because of Adam's sin in the garden, the whole point here is the one act of one man has an effect on the many, okay? So his sin in the garden caused death to spread to all men. 

Even though there wasn't even a law from Adam until Moses, there was no law. So it wasn't like men transgressed the law and that's why they died; they died because they were in Adam. You keep following—it gets better. Verse 15 says, "The free gift is not like the offense; for by one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abounded to many." 

"And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness—there you are again, see that? Righteousness is a gift—He gives to us His righteousness, will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ."

"Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation, even so, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men resulting in justification unto life." So if the problem is one man's act, what's the solution? Religion says the solution is do good and do good and do good so you can be good—do enough good to make up for your bad. 

One problem is you've disqualified yourself from being perfect already. So if the problem is one man's act, what's the answer? One man's act. That's what he says here. "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous." Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death..." Now here we're moving on into sanctification—regeneration.

"So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." The essence of what Paul's teaching here is the one-time action of the one man affecting the whole human race. Adam's sin in the garden affected every man born in Adam, and that's every man, woman, and child except Jesus because Adam wasn't his father.

What does it say? "Through one man's disobedience many were made sinners." This is who they are—in Adam, sinners. This is who we were. And Paul goes on to say that in Adam we are slaves to sin; we are under the Law; we are destined for eternal death. But the good news for those who place their faith in Jesus is that because of His one righteous act on the cross, we can be made righteous. 

If you look back at verse 18, the end of verse 18 says, "Through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men resulting in justification," and there are two really important words there—"to life" or "unto life." These words speak of the one who believes in Jesus. He has had life—the divine life, Peter says—the divine nature imparted to him. We have become partakers of the divine nature. 

And so the man in Christ is not under the Law; he's not under the controlling, dominating power of indwelling sin; he's not destined for death, but he lives under grace unto righteousness and possesses, now today, eternal life. This is the outline of the rest of the section in Romans 6 to 8: dead to sin, dead to and freed from the Law, living according to the Spirit, possessing and destined for eternal life. That's who you are if you believe in Jesus. 

Let's just focus on what Paul says in the first verses here. I want you to see this in chapter 6, verse 1, responding to what he's taught in 5.12 to 21: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" This is the accusation, isn't it? "Well, you can just do anything you want because you're saved by grace. Just believe, and it's all good." 

Paul says, "No way, not possible, certainly not." Why? Verse 2: "How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? For do you not know..." Paul wants us to know too. What does he want us to know? He wants us to know that when we believed in Jesus, we died; we were crucified with Christ, he says. We were buried with Jesus, and we were raised to newness of life with Him.

Verse 6 says the old man was crucified with Him in order that this body controlled by indwelling sin might be rendered powerless. For he who has died has been freed from sin. We have to know first, right? That's what we're doing; we're knowing. Then we've got to believe: Do you believe that's true of you? Are you dead to sin? I don't want to ask; I don't want to tell me how you feel—I only want you to tell me your experience. I don't want to hear that. 

Do you believe what God says about you is true? That's the next step. When we believed in Jesus, we were united with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection. We died; our old man was crucified, that man in Adam, and we were raised to a new kind of life with Jesus. So the act of regeneration refers to God crucifying our old man with Jesus on the cross and releasing us from the controlling power of indwelling sin in order that we might now present the members of our body unto righteousness. 

In Christ, we have a new heart; we have a new spirit; the Holy Spirit lives in us; Christ lives in you. We're dead to sin, dead to the Law, freed from the bondage to fear of death. My buddy was telling me the other day, "You've got to die in a state of grace," and we were putting these big 6 by 12 beams up 14 feet in the air, and he said, "You better hope that beam doesn't fall on your head, Johnny." 

I said, "Well, if it does, I'll die in a state of grace." Why? Because Paul said, "Having been justified by faith, we stand in grace." We don't move in and out of it when we commit a mortal sin and kill our salvation. We stand in grace. So I have no fear of death. We've been released from that bondage. 

We have a new nature—not an old and a new, but a new nature. We are in Christ—not in Adam and in Christ; that's not possible. We are in Christ, and all of these things are true of us. As Peter said so succinctly, "God has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness." 

He fully equipped us, and I would add, He fully expects us to live a holy life that brings Him glory. This is what Peter means when he says we have escaped the corruption—that is, the dominating, controlling power of indwelling sin in our bodies that controlled our members and produced fruit unto death. 

Indulge me in one more passage—Romans 7:4-6. Romans 7:4-6; listen to Paul describe this concerning the law. "Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead." Why? Why do this, God? Why did you crucify us? Why did you kill us—the old man and Adam? Why did you unite us to Christ? Why are we married to Christ? In order that we should bear fruit to God. 

This was necessary in order that we live a holy life—that we add to our faith virtue and so forth and so on, like Peter says. "For when we were in the flesh..." that's in Adam—"the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit unto death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by." Why? "So that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." 

When we were in the flesh—in Adam—the sin dwelling in us was aroused by the Law. All you have to do is spend a little time with your grandsons, right? "Silas, don't touch that." I mean, you can hit him and hit him—I don't know. It's in him. You don't have to teach him that. It's in him. The law arouses that sin in him to be disobedient, and it produces the fruit of the flesh out through his members. 

I'll tell him, "Now, stop it." He'll go, "Shh." "Don't you shush me, boy." It's in there. But now, but now, he says, "We have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by." So that you see God's purpose and plan in saving us, in regenerating us? So that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. 

We're going to get more into the application of the truth of our salvation next time—how we live in light of it when we finish this section of Scripture. But notice God's plan is not for us to look to the Law of Moses—not to live under the Law in order to be holy, but rather to look unto Jesus, to know and reckon our salvation, and then to live by the power of the Holy Spirit who imparts strength to our inner man—to live by the life and resurrection power of Jesus Christ in us, to walk by faith, the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. 

Paul wants us to know our salvation; Peter wants us to know our salvation because it's only by first knowing and understanding the truths—the great and precious promises of our salvation—that we can begin to reckon them to be so. That we can dare to believe what God says is true about us, and then by His grace and power, to live it out. 

I have to say, I’m not going to do this because this is not consistent with who I am. This does not help in what I most deeply want in my life—to bring glory to God and be a witness to men. I'm not going to do that. Or I am going to do this, even though I don't feel like it. Right? I'm going to do it because it's the right thing to do. Because it brings glory to God. Because it's consistent with who I am and it furthers what I most want. You have to work that out in your mind. 

These are exceedingly great and precious promises that Peter refers to by which we have received the divine nature—by which we have escaped the inner corruption of sin and Adam. These are the promises for the one who will repent and turn from trusting in himself, in religion, in his own goodness, and cast himself wholly at the foot of the cross and seek forgiveness and reconciliation only in the finished work of Christ. 

When a man realizes his sin and need through the law—the true nature of the law is Jesus preached in that Sermon on the Mount—can you imagine being a sincere Jewish guy in that time, listening to that sermon and then walking home? What would you have to say? Man, I built my house on the sand. I'm in trouble. I'm in deep trouble. That's what Jesus wanted out of that sermon. 

When he ceases to try to establish his own righteousness and receives righteousness by Christ—the righteousness of Christ by faith—then God performs the work of regeneration in him. He causes him to be crucified, buried, raised to newness of life—a life of grace, of righteousness, of eternal life—and he has escaped inner corruption. 

These are amazing truths. And this, my brothers and sisters, is the basis of our life of holiness. I think about what Paul says in Romans 12:1 and 2 when he says, "It's your reasonable service." That word "logic" is in that word too. It's reasonable for you to present yourselves a sacrifice to God. You should expect that out of your life because of God's grace, because of what God has done. It's not that God's asking us to do something contrary to who we are, but that has to be worked out in the mind—in trusting and believing, knowing the Word of God, applying our mind to that, and then taking those thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. 

It's a battle. The struggle is real, as they say. But you better understand the battle. My friends, God saved us for the expressed purpose that we might live a holy life, showing His grace, showing His mercy, showing His power, His goodness—the life-transforming power of the gospel. He equips and empowers every believer to live for Him and to be a witness in this world. You lack nothing. 

He's given to you all things. And next time, we'll see that we must apply these truths—we must stand on this firm foundation. We must live out who we are, living consistently outwardly with who we are inwardly. This is biblical sanctification. This is God's purpose and intent in saving us and leaving us in this world until the great day when we are fully and finally delivered from the very presence of sin and glorification—when He comes for us. 

Remember the promise of His coming. Well, next time we'll see how Peter instructs us to apply these great truths of our salvation—one day at a time, by faith—so that we will be neither barren nor unfruitful in this life. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful for Your gift—the indescribable gift, Jesus Christ—and salvation through faith in Him. Thank You for Your grace, Your mercy—that even when we were Your enemies against You, Christ died for us—that You loved us so much and demonstrated that love at the cross. 

Thank You for the work of salvation, regeneration—the new birth. Thank You for equipping us, giving to us all things to live a life that will bring You glory—that will show Your power, show Your goodness in this world. We just pray for lost men to see that. We pray for opportunities to tell them about Jesus—to preach the gospel, tell them the good news, to love them as You love them—that men might be saved. Thank You that You're faithful; thank You that You're sufficient; thank You that we can trust You. In Jesus' name, amen.