Introduction & The Believers Resources
2 Peter 1:1-4 · Roy Smith · Sep 27, 2020
1 & 2 Peter (2020-21), No. 36
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261920247908

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning, folks, I've got an awful lot to cover today. So I told Roger that it is, you know, four verses per Sunday to each week, or four each week. I could probably spend on each verse, a full hour minimum. So we're going to be moving a little fast, but I am open to questions as we go here.

What I'm going to do is I'm going to start with a look at the New Testament and the history of the New Testament is in these first five books, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, as well as Acts, a book of transitions. Then we have the letters and they have correction and direction in them. And then we have prophecy. The Church, Israel, and the world in the future is pretty much covered.

But bottom line, we're dealing right here with the letter section, 1st and 2nd Peter. So far we've covered in review 1st Peter, and if you remember, it's now in light of eternity, as far as like an overview of that book. We got that out of Chester McCulley's book, Comfort in Suffering, which you can get it online at the website there. Three sections, Salvation, Submission, and Suffering, is what we, in review, have seen so far. Today we're going to go to second Peter.

The title of this particular one, Introduction and the Believers' Resources, covering verses 1 through 4, there are three reminders for Christians in 2 Peter. I got these out of Joshua McCulley's website. The second lesson in the New Testament a series of lessons that he has. Chapter 1 of 2 Peter has a reminder about God's certain provisions. Chapter 2, man's apostasy. And chapter 3, Christ's certain return. All of this is in the light of Peter going through what I guess I'm going through as well.

His swan song, he gave what he considered under the direction of the Holy Spirit, of course, to be reminders of the most important things that he had already covered with the folks that he was writing to. One of the favorite passages that I find in this book is one that begins, now I'm going to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. When I was at Biola, I heard that at least once a week from the professors when we were given tests. It was an interesting phrase. I'll never forget it.

Today we're going to begin a two-part series. One is Introduction and the Believer's Resources. Two is the Believer's Needs. First eight verses of 2 Peter. I'm going to read first of all out of the King James Version here. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, our Lord. According to His divine power, He has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through us. In a second version, New American Standard 1995 version, Simon Peter Rabban, servant 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. When I read that, I almost want to stop and say, wow. Anyway, let's go on. 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 in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. The first two words, Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ. It began.

Who obeys, and I imagine Simon Peter's father Jonah and his wife had that in mind to some degree when they gave him his earthly name. Peter, or Petros in Greek. Both in Hebrew, which is Cephas, and the Greek Petros, it means stone. And Jesus gave Simon this new name, Peter, back in chapter 17 of Matthew. A further name that Peter himself uses about himself is doulos or servant.

It's a very important word that he uses. I'm not going to go into it because I think I could spend the rest of the morning on that. But the word servant is exactly the word that the Lord Jesus used of himself. He came to seek and to save those who were lost. He came to serve.

The whole conjunction and, and then we have the word apostolos or apostle, personal representative is what's behind that meaning. And then Jesus, the deliverer. And then Christus, Christus Christ, the promised one. This is one of the key passages in the Bible that gives evidences that Jesus Christ is the one and only focus of Christians. Peter as well as Paul, as well as the other apostles, used this kind of a delivery of their messages to focus that they are the representative, the personal representative of our Deliverer, our promised Savior, Jesus. My original word order translation, that's a little literal here, Simon Peter, servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.

Now we go on to the second phrase. To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, but to those and The next word there is equal or like of the same kind. I highlighted in blue that this is the accusative feminine singular. We're going to come into the need to know that in just a little bit. We'll come back to it. But what are they equal or of the same kind to?

Peter is very specific. He says us. And in what way are we like Peter? Who received by divine will is the next word that he uses. I've given you three of the lexical guys definitions of that word. I'm not going to go into it in detail because I just don't have time but It is a form that is a participle that is active, who received, but it has a passive connotation. It is by God's will that we received, just like Peter, equal like him.

And then we have that same form, the accusative, feminine, and singular for faith. So it is a equal faith that we're talking about. And this is very important. If you don't get anything else, get this. This is not a verb. This is not what we do. This is a noun. It is a body of truth believed. And we have received it. My translation here is at this point to those like us who received faith. The next phrase in this verse is beginning with the preposition in.

And in this case, just like it's translated up above there, I've chosen the instrumental dative to mean by, by means of, rather than in, locative. Remember there's dative, locative, and instrumental in this preposition. And it has to do with the context that we can tell just what it is. And it's very evident that this is instrumental by the context. We'll get to that.

The next word is a noun as well. It is by righteousness or uprightness. And it has the idea here of one who is perfect. The one who is perfect is in focus in the next two words, the article and the noun of the God, the specific one is mentioned. It's pretty hard to skip by that if we could spend a lot of time on that, but I don't think I will.

And then is the God of us. It is by the righteousness of our God. And then we have a classic phrase here with and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Savior word is one set by God to deliver kind of a word that is used in Joshua to deliver Israel. Christ is literally the promised one. And the formation here is, I don't know if I can do this or not. Can you see my mouse moving? Yes. Yeah, okay. When you have this conjunction And then you have three words in this form right after it. It's called the genitive absolute or I'm sorry, my mind went blank there, but there's another word for that. But these are equals. And what we're being equal to is that God, Our God, our Savior is equal with Jesus the Christ. Isn't that something? This is one of the strongest verses in the entire New Testament for the deity of Jesus Christ.

My translation on that is, and I'm having trouble seeing folks, I'm sorry. I've got one eye and when I can see out of the second one, things go out of focus. By the righteousness of the God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Pretty specific. That verse has an awful lot in it, doesn't it? Can you see why I think we could talk about that for a long time? Let's see if I can get this page to change. There we go.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. We begin with grace, the unlimited unmerited blessings of God, all based on the finished work of Christ on Calvary. Isn't that something? Grace to you is his first words of greeting and peace. I want to notice something here.

Peter is, when he writes, and I think that this letter was written by Peter probably directly. I didn't mention this at the beginning, but maybe I should have. The style of the Greek text, the koine that is used in 2 Peter is really different from 1 Peter. Which leads a lot of Bible textual critics to say Peter probably didn't write it. But I really think that they have that position because they don't want to believe what he says by the Holy Spirit.

And so I think we need to discount any criticism because Peter in his own way as an older man knowing that he's got a short time exceedingly specific in his three reminder chapters. Anyway, he goes on here after this piece with a very unique word form, optative, aorist passive, That means it's wish, may it be multiplied, and that's referring to peace. So it is grace to you, and as well, peace, may it be multiplied.

That's pretty literal, what he's saying here. And I've already given you my literal rendering. Now, verse three begins with a preposition again, N, in the instrumental, and it shows that this piece is multiplied by abundant knowledge of God. I'm going to, I didn't give it here, but let me get the word, epigenosis. And it's important to notice that this is a feminine singular here. because we're going to see that and why that's important in just a little bit. But there's a preposition, epi and gnosko here, two words put together into one. It's true knowledge, not just knowledge, by abundant or true knowledge.

Freeberg goes along with that and it refers back to the faith that we have received. You'll see this when I finish here, how they all tie together. And then we have Thu-te-yu, which is of the God. So this is true knowledge about the God, very specific, even Jesus, Deliverer, the Lord, of us. Isn't that something? By true knowledge of the God, even Jesus, the Lord of us.

Short verse, lot in it. Taking the first phrase of verse three, there's a conjunction here that's adverbial in form from which has a, because it adds to the verb knowledge, the translation is according as or seeing that or based on this is the way that the translation here has it. all things come on there we go to us the divine of power of him everything relating to life and God-likeness has been given. Boy, that's a lot packed in there, isn't it? Maybe it'll help if we look at it from the literal rendering here. Seeing that all things to us, the divine power of Him, Everything relating to life and God-likeness has been given.

The word order given through Peter is significant because notice here, there's a feminine singular again, life. Another feminine singular, God-likeness. Does that ring any bells in your mind? Feminine singular, we've had several times already. Peter and the Holy Spirit is giving us clues that there's a lot to be tied together here, an awful lot. Let me read that again.

Seeing that all things to us, the divine power of him, everything relating to life and God-likeness has been given. This is perfect has been given. Do you remember that the perfect sense in Greek means something that has happened in the past with abiding results up to the present. It's abiding in its focus. The next word here is dia or through, by way of, would be a good rendering of that. And then we have this word, the true knowledge again. Again, it is the same form word, but there's an article this time, the specific true knowledge.

And then we have of the one who called or summoned And it is, I could talk an awful lot about this one, but basically there's a purpose behind every one of these when you come across it, either participles or verbs. And I'd like you to keep that in mind. What is that purpose? Because we're going to see it when we tie this together at the end. And then he has called us Again, that's very specific. This is who has been called. Us. Through or by way of glory.

It has the idea of radiance and brightness and splendor. The essence word there that is magnificent. And then a conjunction and. excellence and has the idea of goodness or worthiness, the excellence. One of the things that I find hard to do sometimes is tying this together as you just look at the words, but I'm trying to use original word order, literal paraphrased translation so that I stay word for word and only add a few words here or there. Through the true knowledge of the one who called us, through his glory and excellence is a literal rendering here.

Notice that the through is twice mentioned. The next verse four begins again with Dia. It's the abbreviated form, or through, or by way of. And then we come to these. That's a plural form in the feminine. These, and it refers back to the faith, His glory, His excellence. All of them are feminine. All of them refer to Him. and the body of truth that we have been given that relates to his glory and his excellence. Then we have this word here, which we get the precious out of.

It has the idea of valuable, costly. By the way, Peter loves this word. He's used it many times. I won't go into all of the places, but you can look it up yourself in both 1st and 2nd Peter. He is one author that the Holy Spirit used to repeat precious over and over.

Very valuable, very costly as well. Anyway, these are very valuable to us. by way of these very valuable to us and then we have the words magnificent, large, great promises. Wow. This is one of those verses that I memorized when I was just coming to know the Lord and then later on in school. I was so thankful for it that God made so many promises that I could trust him, that he had me in mind, not just in a general way, not just in a what we might call religious way, but a specific and personal way. He promised me precious, magnificent, large, great promises.

And just like the other parts that we're reading here today, they have been given again, perfect, passive, perfect, something that's done in the past with abiding results. For by way of these, the precious to us and magnificent promises have been given. The next phrase in the middle here is, begins with Hinnah, in order that, here's the purpose, through, by way of, these, and it refers back to the neuter promises.

Notice that there's such an agreement that we can't mistake it. You may become, again, this is a subjunctive of potential, But it is aorist, which is factual, and it's middle, which means that it not only affects you, but it is done by others to you.

Both are in that. Let's see if I can get this to change. There it goes. Of God, likenesses or divine. It's related to God by nature. And it's a sharer is what is in view here, a partner of His nature. This is the literal rendering I have. In order that through these you may become of God-likeness, sharers of His nature. Isn't that wonderful? Why? He refers back again to the promises. The production of the promises is in order that through these you may become God likenesses, sharers of his nature.

And then the last phrase, I'm sort of rushing here a little bit, having escaped of the in or within world, the organization, by means of lust, corruption. And the literal rendering of that is having escaped that in the world by means of lust, corruption. And I put commas in there just to help us see the actual connection here to those three little phrases.

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 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. In order that by then you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now my word order literal paraphrase translation.

Simon Peter servant and apostle of Jesus Christ to those like us who received the faith by the righteousness of the God and Savior Jesus Christ. Grace to you in peace, may it be multiplied by true knowledge of the God, even Jesus, the Lord of us. Seeing that all things to us, the divine power of him, everything relating to life and God likeness has been given through the true knowledge of the one who called us through his glory and excellence. For by way of these, the precious to us and magnificent promises that have been given in order that through these you may become of God likenesses, shares of his nature. Having escaped that in the world by means of lust, corruption, If we just read it that way, there's going to be some areas that you might have missed.

So let me add to that a little. And I'm going to do this. A key word here is the faith. And the reason that I'm highlighting it is the faith refers to true knowledge two times in this series of verses. The result of the faith is peace may be multiplied. The result of true knowledge is everything relating to life and God likenesses has been given through the true knowledge. And then it goes on.

His glory and excellence called us. Isn't that something? Not only does the true knowledge produce life and God-likeness, but His glory and excellence called us. It is out of His essence that we have been called. And it goes on, more is there. These, as far as this word these is concerned, the true knowledge, His glory and excellence, the faith, produces the magnificent precious promises. And I want to notice something here. At the very end, It says, these again, and it refers to promises, it is through these promises we become of God-likeness, sharers of his nature.

You talk about inner relationships. How in the world in one hour, 10 or 40 minutes, can we begin to enter into these relationships in any degree of depth? But can you see how the Holy Spirit so carefully and grammatically tied all this together, layer upon layer? I'll tell you, that's an awful lot. Yeah, yeah. Rich verses for sure. A couple of thoughts here and actually a question and a comment.

The question relates to the fact that in verse one, did you mention that receiving the faith by the righteousness of God was an active verb? I mean, in other words, the receipt of faith is our actions, right? This is not passive. Is that what you said? Yeah, we received it, but we received it in a passive form because it is by the righteousness of God that we, he designed it that way. But all do not receive it. So that's a responsibility of us to receive it, correct? Am I interpreting that correctly? Could I get together with you and go over that again? I don't remember where I'm at here on that receive. No, I think you said in verse one that who received the faith, it seems like then God gives us the faith, but I, but you said. No, no, no, no, no, no. Think it through with me.

It is coming out of his righteousness that we have this body of truth. No question. This true knowledge. Okay. And it is that which we received, not our action, not active. It is not an active thing that we do. that we get this. It is God giving us a body of truth. That's the whole point here. This is a noun, not a verb. Bob's pointing out that we have to act upon that body of truth, right? The received part is that, Bob, is that You're saying that that's active because we have to receive it? Well, that's what I thought Roy had said.

And in a sense, the righteousness of God and Savior Jesus Christ is for all of us from eternity past to eternity future. But yet the faith is really our response, is it not? We're not given the faith. The faith is a human response to everything that God has done. I would agree with you if that was a verb. It is not a verb. It is a noun. So would it be more like a called invitation? No, it is the faith, the body of truth, the true knowledge, the true knowledge.

Notice the blue here all the way through. These are feminine. They all agree. His glory and excellence, okay? And these agree. These agrees with promises. And the result is life and God-likeness. Peace is going to be multiplied. His calling comes out of His glory and excellence. God-likeness and His nature comes out of these promises being believed by us. And it's in the mood of potential. that we have these promises producing the God-likeness and His nature being revealed in us. I don't have time to go into all of those details, but everything here is based on factual body of truth, the faith. I'll point to it so that we're specific.

This is a noun, Bob. It's not a verb. Not according to my interlinear text. What it says there, it says, to them that have obtained, and the tense of the verb is active, and it's not passive. But it's not a verb. But according to the interlinear, it's a verb. I know, but it's wrong.

And that's why, just so that you know, that's why the New American Standard here translates it with, by the righteousness, by means of the righteousness, we have this faith. That's why the faith is effeminate, okay, and it is in agreement with true knowledge. Two places.

And that's why His glory and excellence agrees in the case here with these. And that's why promises agrees with this these in the text. Every one of them have a significant relationship that builds line upon line here. that it is out of God's righteousness and our Savior, Jesus Christ, we have this body of truth so that our peace may be multiplied, so that we have life and God-likeness, so that it is repeated again, God-likeness and His nature.

I tell you, it's just layer upon layer upon layer in these four verses that is very specific that God is the actor and only here, down here under promises, is there a potential involved that you may become of God-likeness, shares of His nature. That's why I'm pointing at it. I hope that helps a little bit, Bob, and that's why I spent so much time going through this trying to be careful and that's why the new american standard translated it the faith or faith it isn't the is not there don't get me wrong but faith is a noun that's why they use by instead of in if you use in the preposition in if instead of by then yeah it sounds like that ought to be a verb but it isn't it's a noun But the issue is not faith, Roy, it's the verb, it's received. Anyway, no matter what, the epic gnosis really, the only way I think we accomplish that by faith and his great grace is to be in the word, right?

I mean, that's where we really get to know the Lord Jesus Christ is in the word. And that's going to be amplified in the rest of 2 Peter. Boy, is it ever amplified. More sure testimony is repeated over and over. Right, good. Okay. I don't have time to go into that right now. What I've done here is just a few illustrations.

Philippians, in Philippians 1.9, I think that's, I can't read it. Anyway, is it time to end? Yeah. Well, let me just real quickly show them to you. I have three illustrations and you can read those in by way of reminders, just like Peter. OK. And also I've got a two facts.

His name is significant and the three ways that he talks about himself is significant. Because his name Simeon, given to him by his parents, is in contrast with the name Peter, which was given to him by God himself, Jesus. And slave is the position that God put him in as the servant of Jesus Christ. And the ministry of servant is just like Jesus Christ, who came to seek and to save those who were lost. Also, there are reminders in 2 Peter, and here it begins with God giving us the full body of true knowledge, the faith, which includes his promises, so that now he may use that believed true knowledge to multiply our peace and to conform and transform us into his likeness.

God's doing all of this out of his infinite glory and grace. Heavenly Father, thank you for this time together. And though I've stumbled, I pray that you would apply it to each heart in the way and in the magnitude you have designed. In Christ's name, Amen.