2 Peter 1

2 Peter 1:5

THREE STEPS 2 Peter 1:5. THIS Letter, as we have seen, was written expressly to establish the early Christians in some of the greater fundamentals of their holy religion; and for the further purpose of preparing them against the persecutions and suffering which they were then enduring. But the words of inspiration are peculiar in that their significance is never wholly lost by change of conditions or the stretch of time. Their ability to adapt themselves to the times, and peculiar circumstances under which they are found, prove them to be living Epistles, not dead-letters.The Word of the Lord is not merely the Truth of the day and hour of its first utterance, but is the Truth of this morning and this hour; because when God spoke He had us in mind as well as the ancients. If to them, who read the original manuscript, it seemed as fresh from Heaven as if the Holy Ghost had moved in the hand that wrote; we of this time find its age serving to discover only new beauties and a greater measure of Truth. It is the eternal Word! In bringing to you the few words in our text, I can have no loftier hope than that they shall help us all toward that end to which their author refers, when of Christ he says,“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature”. What nobler end of living can any man have than that? To be like God! Yes, even to be so like God that the world shall see in us the divinity, that escapes “the corruption that is in the world through lust”, and ascends by gradual steps toward that perfect holiness which is Heaven’s chiefest condition for the entrance of men!To step Heavenward is at once the most noble and important business of life. Our text speaks of three steps toward the most ideal life.Let us study them a while, and seek to plant our feet upon them if possible. He who succeeds in this ascent is the man of greatest success, even though he spend four score years, much of labor and more of suffering, in the effort. The Hindu’s best hope is to get back to Nirvana and be lost.

Thank Heaven for the better thought of getting up to God, and being saved. An hour is too short a time in which to count all the steps, but thirty minutes is long enough to get some conception of three of them. I want to point them out to you today, in just the order of the Apostle’s arrangement.FIX FAITH AS THE FIRST No man has taken a step Heavenward until he has believed. He may have practiced virtue, after a sort; he may have discovered knowledge of many things; and to knowledge he may have added a good degree of temperance or self control; and to temperance a measure of patience. But there the ladder stops, and Heaven is as far beyond his reach, since Godliness is wanting; for Godliness, the last rung of the ladder, the one close up to the portals, the one whose hooks take hold of Heaven, is impossible without faith.On one occasion Jesus likened a hearer of His Word, who did it not, to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. There could be but one end for such a house, but one destiny for such a man. In the storm they are alike certain to go down.If God’s Word may be credited, he who hopes to build toward Heaven and lays not faith for his foundation stone is as foolish as that builder who seeks to construct his house upon quicksand. Every addition, no matter how beautiful, is only another weight to carry it downward and deeper.

He who hopes to climb to Heaven must find a rock for his ladder to rest upon. That rock is laid in Christ, but only the man of faith can use it in glorious ascent.But we need more in this life than a firm footing.We need an eminence from which to look off against danger, and from which to look upward whence cometh our help.

Faith is the only step great enough to give a man such an eminence. Elisha’s servant found a mountain top a good point from which to view the enemy coming against his master; but alas for the infinite stretch that seemed between him and the God of help. With eyes upturned to the far away stars he saw no prospect of assistance, and in his despair of unbelief could only wring his hands and cry, “Alas, my master! how shall we do”? But that eminence from which the enemy could be seen, with the addition of faith, lifted Elijah so close to Heaven that he looked into the face of God, asked help of Him, and “behold, the mountain was (suddenly) full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” come for his defence. Oh, what a step Heavenward it is to believe; how close up to God we are lifted by faith! If any enemy to one’s good name, an enemy to one’s rightful future, an enemy to one’s health, an enemy to one’s life is seen coming, he who can mount the eminence of faith can commune with God and be safe.We remember in Old Testament history how the Ammonites and the Moabites were coming against Israel to destroy her.

An excited messenger reported to Jehoshaphat, “There cometh a great multitude against thee”, and we presently read, “And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord” (2 Chronicles 20:3), and in the prayer which he offers we remember the climax and the conclusion, “O our God, wilt Thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee” (2 Chronicles 20:12).How speedily the Prophet comes with the Lord’s answer, “Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s”.Oh, for the eminence of faith. It is a step Heavenward indeed to believe, and to such heights are we lifted thereby that seeing our enemies, we can turn with confidence to our God.

How dare we fail of faith in God when enemies are all about— enemies of body, enemies of mind, enemies of soul; enemies material, moral and spiritual. Every man must feel at times, as poor old Tulliver in “Mill on the Floss,” “the world is too many for me.” You need, and I must have, that help from God which cometh only with believing.But “faith” does more than insure a firm footing and furnish an eminence that lifts one close to Heaven.It joins the soul exercising it with the very God, and causes it to rest in peace. Watson has called faith “the vital artery of the soul. When we begin to believe we begin to live. Faith grafts the soul into Christ, as the scion into the stock, and fetches all its nutriment from the blessed vine.”Butler’s “Bible Work” has one of the finest passages upon faith, as presented here by Peter, the opening sentence of which is, “Take the Holy Scriptures and see how often Christ is there spoken of as an indwelling Christ, present now, formed within, living in the believer and the believer in Him, the very Life of life”. But never did this thought of coupling the believing soul with its Saviour by faith, get clearer expression than at the meeting at Bethany, when to the sorrowing Martha, Jesus said, “I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die”.

Glorious persuasion to feel that one’s life is linked with the very life of God, and is as eternal as the ever-existing One.He, whose hopes have such a basis, has rest and peace. In this world of work and worry, of danger and despair, of sickness and suffering, of temptation and trial, of disease and death, there is need of rest.

Sleep can refresh the body, give temporary relief to the overstrained mind, muscle, and even cause the aching heart to forget its sorrow a while. But with the rising of the sun the man is in the crucible again, and cries in anguished tones,“Oh, where shall rest be found, Rest for the weary soul? ’Twere vain the ocean’s depths to sound Or pierce to either pole. “The world can never give The bliss for which we sigh; ’Tis not the whole of life to live Nor all of death to die.” Oh, what an outreaching of every soul after that upon which it can rest in peace. I know of no satiety for that yearning save in God.Dr. M. B. Wharton tells the story of a visit to the bedside of a sick girl. He was expected to make a talk from God’s Word, and as he turned nervously in search of some appropriate Scripture, she said, “Mr. Wharton, if you have no decided preference as to your text, I have one I would much like you to talk from.” So Wharton ventured to ask, “And may I know what it is?” to which the answer came quickly, “Yes, it is this: ‘Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me’.”Ah, doubtless that sufferer had learned upon an invalid’s couch that best lesson for every man to know, that in God there is rest and peace; and yet to know that you must believe.Fix faith as the first step toward Heaven, and let us see what next!PUT VIRTUE FOR THE SECOND STEP I have noticed builders laying stone upon stone. They were not content to smooth their surfaces and so fit them closely, but to make them fast they covered one with mortar and laid the other into that. Just such an idea is in the original of our text. It is not, “Add to your faith virtue”, as in the common version, but instead it is, “lay virtue into your faith”.But what is virtue? Men usually think of virtue as life’s element of cleanness, moral purity, and stainless character. We employ it most often as if it were a synonym of innocence.

If it were no more, it would be worth our while to prize it, and love it above many pearls. If there is one man, or one woman more akin to angels than another, it must be that individual who has retained or better been recovered to innocence, whose character has least of stain.Victor Hugo expressed a truth often illustrated, and one worthy of emphasis, when he caused his hermit Conventionist in his last hour’s talk with the good priest Myriel, to say, “Monsieur, innocence is its own crown!

Innocence has only to act to be noble! She is as august in rags as in ‘fleur de lys’.”Yes, and innocence has its beauty. Purity is beauty! The blossoming flower is never again so sweet after it has been touched with dirty fingers, or covered with the dust from the nearest road. So man has lost his chiefest attraction when his innocence is gone. Oh, that we could appreciate that, in the days of our greatest danger. Boys sometimes get the notion that meanness is manly, that vandalism is courage, and that to be smart is to be sinful! How often do we witness illustrations of that priest’s wisdom whose name we have already called, Myriel, who said to his timid, burglar-fearing sister, “Have no fear of robbers and murderers.

Such dangers are without and are but petty. We should fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers, vices the real murderers! The great dangers are within us. What matters it who threatens our heads or our purses? Let us think only of what threatens our souls”. That is wisdom! Purity of thought, of intention, of action.

It has its own crown, and its tiara shall be in style in Heaven.But innocence is not the primary, nor indeed the most important trait of virtue. The word, we remember, is from the Latin root—Vir—meaning, “a man”, and manliness is virtue’s best definition.The Stoics took away from this more aggressive and profitable notion, by their philosophy of suffering, without a murmur, for virtue’s sake. It will be a good day when we get back to the old and the most real meaning of the term. We need men who can do more than grin and bear. We need men whose uprightness is positive and to be depended upon. The world is skeptical and the churches of Christ are weak because so many men of better pretentions stoop to meanness.

Oh, for men who are always strait, whose lives are set by the plummet of righteousness, and squared by the level of uprightness in purpose and action—men, who can be depended upon, who will not lie to you, nor about you; who will not steal for you, nor from you; who will do the manly thing though it require a sacrifice of self. Strait men!A writer in a recent paper said, “I sat in the station awaiting the arrival of a train.

Some one said of a man passing, ‘He has been a soldier; I know by his walk.’ The man was an erect, firm-treading man who had alighted from a train, and had evidently been an object of interest to his fellow-passengers. ‘Aye, and he has been a soldier, I know by the way he carries his pack,’ said another. ‘Aye, and by his manners,’ observed a third.”That is what the world needs—men who walk straight morally; who carry their burdens gracefully, and whose manners attract their fellows, please them, and furnish them noble example.Do not be afraid to use such stepping stones as virtue, lest you fail! Moses did not fail, Joseph didn’t; Daniel didn’t fail; Christ did not fail; Paul didn’t fail, and ten thousand others who have imitated their example of manliness, have been marvelous successes. It is the coward who fails; the sluggard who lacks for success; the base that lose most heavily. The King whose servant you are shall see in you a royalty akin to His own, if you show Him manliness in every act of life. That is what Pharaoh saw in Joseph, Pilate in Christ, and Agrippa in the grand Apostle Paul.You remember how the hero of Felix Holt said to Esther, “I’m proof against that word failure. I have seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.”His success is as certain as the justice of God, who can answer all temptation to wrong as Chrysostom answered Eudoxia when she gave him his choice between renouncing his faith or meeting death, “Go tell her I fear nothing but sin,” were the noble words to the Queen’s executioners.The world will be lifted closer to the skies, and we will catch the breath of Heaven oftener when men take from Christ the virtue of manliness, for to be manly is god-life and full of grace, and virtue needs it to guide her efforts to noble ends—heavenward.But since we are soon to rest from this study, let us have our work in some shapeliness. IS THE OF THIS FIRST FLIGHT In the Protestant world, intelligence, knowledge, if you please, is the watchword of Christianity. The more a man knows the closer to the ideal it ought to bring him. Christ told His hearers on one occasion that their errors were in consequence of ignorance. “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures”, and Paul had hope of pardon for his persecutions because he could say, “I did it ignorantly”, and yet after absolution was granted the fact of a fatal mistake remained. Solomon was right when he wrote,“Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. “Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. “Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her” (Proverbs 4:5-8). Faith needs knowledge upon which to feed, and virtue as your second step, if you would climb.But what is knowledge? Not mere heaps of information, surely. Some people imagine themselves rich because their homes are full of rubbish; and there are many heads that would be more hollow than gourds if all was removed from them save what was worth retaining; That man is not necessarily to be counted wise who knows how to scrape dollars together, but is indifferent to nobler pursuits. If he has knowledge of the sort to be desired, then John Bunyan’s man was no fool, even though he was scraping trash into heaps with a muck-rake and ignoring the proffered crown that an angel held within his reach.If to gain and enjoy some of the honors of this world is wisdom, then Christ made a mistake when to the scribes and Pharisees He cried, “Ye fools and blind”! for they were honored men!But Christ was not wrong. Such powers do not evidence the knowledge of which our text speaks— the knowledge of Truth.Dr. Basil Manly, addressing a class of students in an eastern college, congratulated them on being engaged in the pursuit of Truth, saying, “Some one has said, In the world there is nothing great but man, in man nothing great but mind.” I add, that for man’s mind there is nothing great but Truth.

No delusion, no fancy, no rapturous fading vision can equal the attractiveness and the value of solid, substantial Truth. And if Truth, as to the material universe, has interest and importance, what must be the worth of that Truth which concerns our future, the duties that await us Here, and the glories reserved for us hereafter.”Truly, and wisely did Christ speak, when to His hearers He declared, “Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free”.Ignorance is bondage and galls like the chains of Egyptian slavery.

Truth is the guiding star of life, leading us ever toward Canaan and freedom, guiding safely by day as the pillar of cloud and casting the brightest light upon the paths of night, like the pillar of fire, helping on to God.How glad we ought to be for the capstone of knowledge; for the revelation that shoots every believing heart through and through with its rays of light, dispelling all damp, discovering and curing all disease, and driving out the deadly enemies of the soul. Without that knowledge to-day America would be more rude and far less civilized than China; and your soul, my brother, would be as dark, and your hopes as fallen as that of the drooping heathen. Oh, how we ought to prize the wisdom that opens a highway into Heaven.A native prince upon hearing the glad tidings of salvation as set forth in the Gospel, only wrung his hands and cried, “Would God you had come before our fathers died”. Friends, shall we despise what a heathen so highly esteemed? Shall we treat with neglect the very knowledge that saves, and hope that time will last until we have had our folly out, and are ready to think eternity.Willie Webb, a dying boy in Bloomington, Ill., was heard to say, “Eternity, eternity, eternity!” But a brain racked with pain and half delirious is unfit to grapple with that momentous word. Better give to it your calmest mood, clearest mind, and most earnest thought, for until that is sure all else is insignificant and despicable.It is told that St. Columban said to his son Lucinus, concerning his ardent love of study, “My child, many out of undue love of knowledge have shipwrecked their souls!” to which the son speedily replied, “My Father, if in my research I learn to know God, I am safe for ever!”