II Peter 1:1-4 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 Saviour Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, 3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 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 lust.

The subject is how we can have the divine nature of Christ.

This is a marvelous thing especially in light of who we are – that we are sinners in the sight of God.

We will go either one way or the other – either we will have the divine nature of Christ, or we will fall into the corruption of this world. There is no in between.

I know all of us want to have the divine nature. Nobody wants to fall into the condemnation of this world because all this world will be destroyed.

How can we have the divine nature? (1) Salvation (2) Scriptural baptism (3) Service – a complete dependence and trust in Jesus Christ.

We must be saved by the grace of God. If you don’t have salvation, you haven’t even begun on this journey of having the divine nature. Notice that our salvation is through the righteousness of God and our saviour Jesus Christ. It is not by our righteousness that have salvation, rather it is through the righteousness of God that we have salvation. We don’t have any righteousness. Isaiah 64:6 declares that all our righteousnesses is as filthy rags before God. The Bible also declares in Romans 3:10 that, quote

In order for a person to take the nature of Christ, they must first realize they don’t have any righteousness. It is not by any good works we do that we have the righteousness of Christ. We must realize we don’t have anything and all our good works are filthy before him. Jesus is our saviour, and we don’t save ourselves. Jesus saves us. WE need to be born again by the precious blood of Christ. So we all come to Christ as a lost sinner and he gives us his righteousness.

Verse 2 – You can be saved and have no peace. That may sound strange, but it is true. II Peter 2:7,8 – Lot was a saved man, yet he had no peace because he didn’t have the proper knowledge of Christ. His righteous soul was vexed with the filthy conversation of Sodom and Lot. He had much unrest because of the sins those wicked cities, but stayed, never learning what God wanted him to learn. How can I have peace? Learn what God has for you. I am a good (bad) example of this. I was saved when I was 12 years old, but was 24 when I began to learn for myself what the Bible said. I had gone to church, heard a lot of preaching, but had never sat down with the Word of God, learned the doctrines of the Bible for myself. It is good to go to church and read your Bible, but it is better to study and mediate the scriptures for yourself. That is more important than just reading the Bible without understanding.

Verse 3 – Notice that God has given you everything you need for now and eternity. If you are saved, you have it all. God has provided it all for you. God has given you everything for now and eternity. Think about that!!

There are two things mentioned here: (1) life and (2) godliness.

Life – See Matthew 6:19-34 –

Godliness.

1. John 3:12 – "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?"

2. Luke 16:11 – "If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?"

How has he given us that? Though the knowledge of him that has called us unto glory and virtue. Jesus has not left us alone, but has called us to salvation, and has given us everything we need to have his own divine nature.

What is godliness? It is reverential respect or piety toward God. This is not just in outward appearance, but is a matter of the heart.

1 Timothy 6:5-6 "Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain." Compare the gaining of material possessions, which God can and does give his people, with ungodly gaining of material possessions, which is not given of God.

See verse 11 – "But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness."

II Timothy 3:5 – "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."

Verse 4 – God has given us exceeding great and precious promises that we might have the divine nature. If you want to be a partaker of the divine nature of God, you must know and practice the promises of God.

I Samuel 17 - David went to fight Goliath with the promises of God and found victory. The Israelites ran from Goliath because even though they knew the promises of God, they didn’t live the promises of God, therefore they had failure. God gave David victory because he put into practice the promises of God.

I Kings 17 – God will take care of us exactly like he took care of Elijah.

God will do the same thing for us. If we will only put into daily practice the promises of God If you do not know the promises of God, if you don’t believe them, if you don’t practice them, you will fail.

Matthew 6:19-34 – Live for God everyday, and he will provide everything you need for this world.