Thank God for gathering us together here.
As you all know now, the theme is The Making of a Man of God, and the text is from 2 Peter 1:1-12. I suppose you are familiar with the text now, but I want to read it from a different version.
Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have received like precious faith with us through 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;
seeing that His divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that called us by His own glory and virtue;
whereby He hath granted unto us His precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.
In the Word of God, we find this term, “the man of God,” or “a man of God,” both in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
In the Old Testament, we find that Moses is called a man of God. You will find that in Deuteronomy 33:1: “Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel.” You also find it in Psalm 90:1: “A prayer of Moses, the man of God.”
Now, we are all familiar with Moses: how he was drawn out of the water; how, by faith, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God; how, by faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of Pharaoh, because he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.
He was in the wilderness and saw that vision of the burning bush. He heard the voice of the angel of the Lord, and he was faithful in doing the will of God, leading the children of Israel out of Egypt.
On Mount Sinai, he received the law. He pleaded for the children of Israel, interceding for them, and God answered his prayer. He was a man who lived so close to God. For forty days and forty nights, he waited upon the Lord; and when he came down, his face shone.
He was called the servant of the Lord. Now, this is the type of the man of God that we find in the Word.
Then, of course, you find Samuel. Samuel is also called the man of God.
In 1 Samuel 9:6, you find that when Saul was trying to find the lost asses of his father and could not find them, the servant suggested, “Behold now, there is in this city a man of God; we can inquire of him.”
Again, we are familiar with the story of Samuel: how he was born out of the travail of the soul of his mother; how he was dedicated to God before he was born; how he was a Nazarite for life; and how, as a young boy, he ministered faithfully in the house of God.
God spoke to him, and through Samuel God began to appear again to the people. Through Samuel, God began to speak to His people.
As you look at Samuel’s life, you find that he was a man of prayer. How he prayed, and prayed, and prayed. Even after they rejected God and wanted a man as their king, Samuel said that he would continue to pray for them. He was a man of prayer, and that is right.
Now, that is the type of the man of God we find in Scripture.
David also is called the man of God. You find that in 2 Chronicles 8. David was a man after God’s own heart, who did the will of God. He served the will of God in his generation.
Through his many experiences, he knew God in a very intimate way, and he wrote many songs that expressed his knowledge of God. So that is David, another man of God.
As you read on, you find that Elijah was called a man of God. Elijah was one who stood before God, a man who knew God in such a way that his prayer was so powerful that, when he prayed, the heavens were shut for three years and a half. He prayed again, and God answered his prayer and brought rain.
A man of God is a man who stands for God during a time of apostasy.
After him, we find Elisha, who was also called a man of God. You find that in 2 Kings 4. He was a man who received a double portion of his master’s spirit.
Sometimes we think that a double portion of Elijah’s spirit means mainly power. We think he must be doubly powerful, like Elijah. But actually, if you study very carefully, you find that the double portion of the spirit of Elijah is the zeal for the Lord. That is the portion. Elijah was zealous for the Lord, and Elisha was doubly zealous for the Lord. He was also called a man of God.
Again, in the Old Testament there are other places. For instance, in 1 Samuel 2, a man of God came to warn Eli, and his name was not even mentioned. Then again, in Jeremiah 35, there was a man, I think, called a man of God.
So, in the Old Testament, you find a number of people who were labelled especially as a man of God, a holy man of God, or the man of God.
When you come to the New Testament, you find that in 1 Timothy 6, Paul says, “But thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love,” and so forth. Timothy was called the man of God, and he was exhorted to flee from the love of money and to pursue after godliness.
You also find in 2 Timothy 3:17 that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work. So the term is more general and is applied to more people.
From reading the Bible, you find that “the man of God,” or “a man of God,” is a term used both in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
What we would like to consider is this: Is being a man of God something very special? Is it just for a few who can reach a spiritual height and be called men of God? What really is a man of God?
I personally feel that, if we go back to the very creation of man, when God created man, how did He create man? He created man in His own image, according to His likeness.
In other words, so far as God’s thought of man is concerned, He is after a man who is like Him. That is the reason why He created man in His own image. He never did that with other creation, not even with angels.
When He created man, He purposely said that He would create him in His image, according to His likeness, because behind it all, God wants man to be like Him.
God wants man to receive His own life, because only man has the capacity to receive God’s life. Not only to receive God’s life, but to be in such relationship with God that he will know what God’s will is and will do it. He will be a person who can be God’s instrument to represent God on this earth.
Now, if this is God’s concept of man, then, brothers, to be men of God is not something extraordinary. It is the will of God for every man to be a man of God.
If we do not reach that, it is because we fail God’s purpose. So I really feel that when the brothers chose The Making of a Man of God, the first thing we need to understand is that this is not something just for a few. This is something that God wants all of us to be.
Because of that, we should have that desire: we want to be men of God. If we have such a desire, then you will find that God has already made provision for us so that we may be able to be what He wants us to be.
That is the first point I would like to lay down before we really go into 2 Peter.
When I was told that the theme this time would be 2 Peter 1, it meant very much to me in a very special way, because it brought me back to 1930, when I was fifteen years old.
That was the time that the Lord met me. I had sought for Him for a whole year before that. It is very strange. As a boy, as a young man, I was growing up in a Christian family. I knew the Bible, and I came from a very devout Christian family.
We had family devotion every evening. My father would gather all the children together—we had seven—and he would read from a big Bible. We would all kneel down, and he would lead us in prayer every night.
I was educated in mission schools from kindergarten to college, and I was a church member. But I never had a desire for the Lord. I felt the world needed a Savior, but I did not.
Not until 1929 did something happen to me, and since then I began to seek for Him. I wanted to be saved. I knew the Bible. I knew the truth. But somehow it evaded me.
For a whole year I sought most earnestly. Whenever there was a revival meeting in my town, Shanghai, many famous preachers from the West came to Shanghai—Paul Rader, and so forth. You know, I heard them all, but I was not saved.
Not until July 1930 did the Lord meet me. After the Lord met me that afternoon, I went to my room, opened the Bible, and it was 2 Peter 1.
For the first time in my life, the Word became living. It began to speak to me. In the past, I had read the Bible many times. I would not say from cover to cover, but I knew the Bible quite well. Yet I did not understand it. It was impersonal; the Bible and I were two different things.
But that afternoon, when I read 2 Peter 1, it seemed as if my heavenly Father was talking to me—so personal. That impression is still with me. So when I heard “2 Peter 1,” immediately it brought back that memory. I really love 2 Peter 1.
We will have three sessions for it, and God willing, tonight we will share together on the calling that you find in 2 Peter 1:1-4.
Then, God willing, tomorrow afternoon, we want to share on the making of a man of God, from verses 5-9. Finally, the third session, on Sunday morning, God willing, will be on the blessing of a man of God, from verses 10-11.
First of all, this second letter of Peter was written to people who had received like precious faith with him. They had the same faith as Peter had.
In 2 Peter, we do not see that he addressed certain people and named them, as in 1 Peter. Peter, being an apostle to the Jews, had a burden mainly toward the Jews, even though the Lord used him to open the door to the Gentiles.
In 1 Peter, he mentioned that he wrote this letter to the sojourners of the Dispersion. The Jewish people were dispersed out from Palestine to distant places. He mentioned Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia—these places.
In other words, these were Jews who were not in Palestine, Jews who were in the Dispersion. They were there as sojourners, going through, not rooted.
They were not only Jewish people in the Dispersion, but they had become Christians. They believed in the Lord Jesus, and Peter wrote to them to encourage them.
Who were these people? They were those foreknown by God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
In other words, they were Jews—we would say Hellenistic Jews, Jews in the Dispersion—but more than that, they were Christians. They were foreknown by God, sanctified and set apart by the Holy Spirit unto the obedience of Christ, and received the sprinkling of the blood of our Lord Jesus.
You find the three Persons in the Triune God working together, that they might really come to a like precious faith with Peter. These are the people to whom this letter was written.
Especially in 2 Peter, you find that he wrote this letter as his last will and testament, because he knew that he would soon be with the Lord. With that in view, he wanted to share what was uppermost in his heart with his people.
So 2 Peter is really very, very precious, because that was the last will and testament of Peter. This is the background of 2 Peter.
But, of course, spiritually speaking, this letter is written to us. Why? Because even though we are not Jews by race, we are sojourners. We are strangers and sojourners on this earth.
God has foreknown us. He has separated us by the Holy Spirit, sanctifying us, and we have come into the obedience of the faith of Jesus Christ. We have been sprinkled by the blood of our Lord Jesus.
So, dear brothers, on that basis, this letter actually is addressed to us. Every word in that letter is really very precious to us.
Now we come to this faith through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. I would just like to point out that this term, “the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ,” is used in the New Testament only here—nowhere else.
In Romans, we find the righteousness of God: how the righteousness of God comes to us who believe in the Lord Jesus. The righteousness of God means that He is righteous in forgiving our sins and in justifying us. Even when He justifies us, He is just. That is the righteousness of God.
This righteousness of God has come toward us. But here you find the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. In other words, it is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is the only time you find it in the Bible.
What is the righteousness of Jesus Christ? It means His righteousness. While He was on earth, He lived a life of righteousness. He was the Righteous One.
Because He is the Righteous One, He is qualified to be our substitute, to be our Savior. No person, angel, man, or whatever, can be our substitute—but only Jesus, the Righteous One.
He does everything right in the sight of God. So God said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Everything in Him is right.
Because He is such a Righteous One, God can accept Him as our substitute. When He died, we died. When His blood was shed, our sins were forgiven. When we believe in Him, we are saved.
So, brothers and sisters, this righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ is His alone. It qualifies Him to be our Savior. When we believe in Him, Christ Himself becomes our righteousness.
We are clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Today, our standing before God is because we are clothed with Christ. When God looks at us, He sees Christ, and therefore we are accepted.
First of all, you find that there is a calling that comes to us. We are all called by God, by His glory and virtue.
Our calling is a tremendous thing. We do not realize what our calling is. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, we are so satisfied when we realize that our sins were forgiven. We thought that was great—and it is great.
We who were under the lordship of sin, we who were condemned, with our consciences burdened, we who had no future—one day, when we believed in our Lord Jesus and accepted His redemptive work, the load was gone. We all say, “That is great.”
To us, nothing is greater than that. But, brothers and sisters, we are not just called out of hell. We are not just called so that we may get out of hell and get into heaven. No.
What is our calling? What is God’s calling to us? He says He called us by His glory and virtue.
When God calls us, He calls us according to His glory. That is to say, unless His glory is satisfied, He is not satisfied. He is not satisfied merely to forgive our sins, deliver us out of hell, and bring us to heaven.
To us, that is tremendous. But to His glory, that is only a little. It does not measure up to His glory. So you see, how great is our salvation? How great is our calling? He calls us according to His glory.
Unless His glory is satisfied, He will not be satisfied. Now, that is our calling.
In the New Testament, you find that sometimes the Bible calls it the heavenly calling. Hebrews 3 speaks of a heavenly calling. We are called with a heavenly calling, that we may walk on earth as heavenly people and take up a heavenly character.
Then you find that our calling is an upward calling—Philippians 3. A calling on high, not just on earth, but on high. In 2 Timothy, we find that it is a holy calling. We are called with a holy calling. Here, you find that we are called by His glory.
So, brothers, we need to have our understanding enlarged. How great a calling we have been called with—not merely to be saved, but to be called into glory. He wants to lead many sons into glory. That is His glory.
Not only that, but He calls us by His virtue. The virtue here means His own character—what He is in essence.
He is the supreme good; therefore, His calling must be superior. He is love; therefore, His calling must satisfy His love and must measure up to His love. How much He loves us! He wants us to be like Him, to be men of God.
Now, that is our calling. If we realize this is what our calling is, then, brothers and sisters, I feel there should be within us a strong desire: “Lord, if this is what You call us to be, that is what we want to be.”
We cannot be contented with anything less.
I think the problem with believers today is a lack of vision, a lack of seeing what God has called us to be. Therefore, among Christians, we are so contented with what we have received that there is not that desire, that longing, that eagerness to press on.
How much we have missed because of that. So thank God, brothers, we are all called by His glory and virtue.
Whatever He calls, He will perform. You remember that verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:24: “Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.”
Because our calling is so tremendous, if it is left to us, we will never be able to perform it. Let us be honest. But thank God, He who calls is faithful; He will perform it. In other words, His grace is sufficient for us.
The next thing we see is that He has called us by glory and virtue, and by His divine power He has given to us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
When He calls us, with His divine power He has given to us. You see, He has given to us. Here you find that not only does He call, but when He calls, He performs and He provides. He has given to us something, and that something is to fulfill that calling.
What has He given to us? He has given to us life and godliness—all things that relate to life and godliness.
Without life, that calling can never be fulfilled. We are called for glory. We are called to take up His character. We are called to be like Him. We are called to be men of God.
How can we fulfill that calling? To us, there is no possibility. It is just like trying to train a monkey and make that monkey a man. He may be able to perform a few tricks, that is true, but very soon he will return to his origin.
We would be like that. Some people may have the notion that God calls us to be like Him, so we will imitate Him. We will try our best, and we will try to perform it.
Now, outwardly, you may do a few tricks. When people look at you, they may say, “Oh, how pious you are. How like God you are.” But who knows your heart? We may be able to do that, but that is not real.
The only way we can really respond to that calling is that His divine power has given us life—His own life. Brothers, to be a man of God, you need life.
Adam was created according to His likeness and in His image, and God put him before the tree of life, as if saying to him, “Now you are ready. Receive My life, and then you will be what I want you to be.”
But unfortunately, instead of taking the tree of life, Adam and Eve were tempted, and they took the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, they rejected God’s life. They tried to develop their own soul-life—their reasoning and thinking—to develop themselves to be like God.
The result was that, instead of being like God, they became like Satan, like the devil.
First of all, you find that God’s divine power gave us life. Thank God, the tree of life, although Adam rejected it—God said that because man had already eaten of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, if he should attempt to eat again of the tree of life, he would live forever in a miserable way.
So God, out of His love, drove them out and sent cherubim to guard the way to the tree of life so that they could not get to the tree of life anymore. You would say it was a punishment, but in another sense it was an act of love. Otherwise, they would be miserable forever.
But thank God, on Calvary, when Christ was crucified, the tree of life appeared to us again. Whoever looks to that tree, the divine power will give him life.
Brothers and sisters, we are so occupied with the blood side, the atoning side—and we need it. We need it, because without it we have no right to eat the tree of life.
But we often forget that what God, by His divine power, has given us—the most important thing—is life. More than just the blood, His flesh, His life, is given to us.
With His life given to us, all the potential and all the possibilities are now open to us. So we want to thank God for the life of Christ that has been given to us. Every one of us has His life in us. This is eternal life.
Eternal—not just in the sense of forever and ever in time, but eternal life in the sense that it is glorious.
That is the basis for our fulfilling God’s calling.
What is eternal life? Sometimes we think of eternal life just in terms of time: it lasts forever; that is eternal life. Some people even think eternal life is like an insurance policy. You cannot use it today, but when you die, then it becomes effective and you can use it.
But what is eternal life? In John 17:3:
And this is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Him whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.
What is eternal life? Eternal life is the living knowledge of God. You know God in a living way. You really know Him—not merely know of Him, but really know Him—and you know the One whom He has sent.
Because you know Him, He is in you, and He is that life within you. The more you know Him, the more that life is built up within you and manifested from you.
So life is the basic thing. In Scripture, you find that the most important thing between us and God is in the matter of life. How we need to see that life grow into maturity.
It is not that the life in you is imperfect, because Christ in you is perfect. The moment you believe in the Lord and His divine power has given you life, that life is complete and perfect.
But because your knowledge of that life—your knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus—is limited, you experience life in a small way. As your knowledge increases—not mental knowledge, but spiritual knowledge, experiential knowledge of God and of His Christ—you enter into more possession of the perfect life that is in you.
That is something we need to pursue.
He says that all things pertain unto life and godliness. What is godliness? As we have already said, godliness is being like God.
Being like God does not refer to outward things. It refers mainly to inward character-building. How can we be built up inwardly with the character of God?
The more we are built up in that way, the more we are conformed to the image of God’s beloved Son. Christ is formed in us, and when He is formed, then He will be manifested.
You see something when it is formed. If it is not formed, you cannot see it. When we first believe in the Lord, some people may say, “Are you a Christian? How do I know you are a Christian? You do not look like one.”
That is because it has not been formed yet. But thank God, the life is already there, and gradually He will be formed. That is godliness.
All the potential is already there in the life. When the life grows and is developed, then more and more we enter into godliness, to be like God, and we become men of God. It is manifested.
Just like that woman, when she saw Elisha passing by her home, she told her husband, “This man is a holy man of God.” You can see it because it was formed in him.
This is something that God wants us to be.
God calls us by glory and virtue, and by divine power He has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Then, thirdly, He has given us precious and exceeding great promises, that we may be made partakers of His divine nature.
How can this life grow into godliness? By the many precious promises, the many exceeding great promises, that God has given us.
He promises us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He promises us that He will give us His Comforter, His Spirit, and the Spirit will dwell in us to be our Comforter and our Teacher.
He will teach us in all things, great things and small things, that we may abide in Christ. He promises that His grace is sufficient for us.
You will find that in the Scriptures there are many, many promises. These promises are for one reason: that the life within us may manifest itself and grow forth. That is what all the promises are for.
Here you find that God has provided everything for us, and the end result is that we may be partakers of His divine nature.
Maybe we need to remind ourselves here that there is a kind of teaching going on today. Not only today, but if you read history, you find that such teaching can be traced back to the third and fourth centuries, among the Greek fathers.
That is the teaching of deification. The objective of the so-called mystics is to be in union with God, to be deified.
To them, it is more than being like God; it is to be God. That is a teaching you have way back in the third and fourth centuries, and you find that it is being revived in our days.
Maybe you have heard such terms as, “God became man that man may become God.” They try to quote the words of Athanasius in the early centuries, but what he meant is different.
Yes, he did say, “God became man that men may become the sons of God.” But he said that our Lord Jesus is Son by nature, and we are sons by grace. So he qualified it.
Today, you find such God-man teaching. In other words, we are God-men; we are both man and God, both divine and human. But if you read the Bible, you will find that the Bible always says, “men of God.”
There is only one Person who is the God-man, and that is our Lord Jesus, Emmanuel. He is the only God-man, because He is both God and man.
Aside from Him, you can have many men of God, but you cannot have many God-men. God created us as men. That is what God wants us to be. He does not want us to be angels; He wants us to be men. So we will remain men forever.
But thank God, He so loves us that He wants us to be united with Him in life—not in His Godhead.
In the Godhead, there is only the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—not a fourth Person. He is God alone, and we are men. But we can be sons of God.
Sons of God does not mean that we become gods. It means that we have received His life, and in life we can be like Him. I just want to remind us of this because there is such a teaching going around today.
Finally, you find at the end of verse 4 a contrast:
Having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.
There is a contrast between this and the preceding phrase: “partakers of the divine nature.” Naturally, we find that we are flesh. Man has become flesh.
We were corrupted by the world through our flesh: the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. That is what the world is. The world uses these things to corrupt us.
Because we are flesh, we have been corrupted. But thank God, His salvation is so complete that He has delivered us, that we have escaped from the corruption in the world through lust. Our privilege is to be partakers of His divine nature.
That is the greatness of His salvation.
So here, brothers, this is our calling. I pray that the Lord will really stir within us a strong desire that we want to be what the Lord has called us to be.
Remember, He has made every provision for it. All we need to do is, by faith, enter into it.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, as we meditate on Thy Word, our hearts are warmed. We want to thank Thee for the greatness of Thy love toward us. We thank Thee for the greatness of Thy salvation.
We thank Thee that Thou dost not only forgive our sins and deliver us from the corruption of the world through lust, but Thou dost even want us to be partakers of Thy divine nature.
Thou hast already given us Thy life. Thou hast given us all the promises, that this life may grow into maturity and glorify Thy name.
So, Lord, this is our prayer: we want to be men of God, not for ourselves, but for Thy glory. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.