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Please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We continue our consideration of
2nd Peter and this afternoon we are going to consider a very brief
passage from 2nd Peter chapter 1 verses 10 and 11. I’m going to begin reading at
verse 3 and read through verse 11 to fill out the context a bit. And before I
read this remember that the Apostle Peter here is addressing a situation
where he is confronting a heresy that is an antinomian heresy, a heresy that
uses the grace of God as an excuse for sin. So let us hear God’s holy word.
2nd Peter chapter 1 I’ll begin reading at verse 3 and again you can find that on
page 1207 in your pew Bibles. His divine power has granted to us all things that
pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to
His own glory and excellence by which He has granted to us His precious and
very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine
nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because
of sinful desire. For this very reason make every effort to supplement your
faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self
control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with
godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with
love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing they keep you from
being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For
whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind having
forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore brothers be all
the more diligent to confirm your calling and election for if you practice
these qualities you will never fall for in this way will be richly provided for
you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May
God add His blessing to this reading of His holy word and let’s pray for the Lord
to bless the preaching of His word this afternoon. Well Heavenly Father we thank
you for your grace and mercy given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ and we thank
you oh Lord that you have given us your word it is indeed a lamp unto our feet
and a light into our path. We would pray that by your Holy Spirit you would open
our minds and our hearts this afternoon to receive wondrous things from your
word and illuminate and lighten teach us with your spirit and feed our souls Lord
as we consider this portion of Holy Scripture and Lord once again we ask that
you would set a guard over my lips that I your unworthy servant may only speak
that which is faithful to your word. Be with us now and bless us Lord and may
Jesus be exalted in the preached word this afternoon we pray these things in
His name and all of God’s people said amen you may be seated. If you’re
following along in your sermon outline you’ll notice that there are quite a
few numbers quite a few words that you can follow along and count keep track of
if you find that helpful the words diligence calling election virtues fall
and holiness. Well you folks are aware of the late Dr. R.C. Sproul at least many of
you I’m sure sure are aware of him and in his book chosen by God the reformed
theologian R.C. Sproul says the following about the text that we are
considering he says this he writes here we see the mandate to make our election
sure to do so requires diligence we have a pastoral concern here Peter links
assurance with freedom from stumbling one of the most important fact actions
I’m sorry one of the most important factors that continues that can
contribute to a Christians spiritual growth a consistent spiritual growth is
the assurance of salvation there are many Christians who are indeed in a
state of salvation who lack assurance to be lacking in assurance is a grave
hindrance to spiritual growth the person who is not sure of his state of grace is
exposed to doubts and terrors of the soul he lacks an anchor for his
spiritual life his uncertainty makes him tentative in his walk with Christ I tend
to agree with dr. Sproul’s assessment of this passage on the pastoral
implications of it this passage is indeed dealing with the issue of our
duty as professing Christians to give diligence to make sure that we are
chosen by God from eternity past for eternal salvation to make sure that we
have indeed received God’s saving effectual call to faith and repentance
and indeed that therefore that we in responding that to that call can be
assured that we have been chosen in grace from eternity past the context of
our passage for this afternoon makes it clear that we do this by adding to our
faith the virtues that Peter mentions back in verses 5 through 7 and let me
just read those verses again on a recent Lord’s Day we we considered these
various virtues and ultimately these virtues are not virtues that we work up
within ourselves by our own sheer willpower or strength or merit but these
are virtues that are the fruit of the Holy Spirit this fruit that the Spirit
works within us and that we are to work out in our lives and so it says beginning
in verse 5 for this very reason for the reason mentioned in the previous context
he says for this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with
virtue or moral excellence and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with
self-control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with
godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with
love I believe this is a not an exhaustive list of the of those virtues
and qualities that we are to seek to add to our faith in Christ but indeed that
these are a representative list and again the emphasis here on these virtues
shows that that the kind of faith that we have saving faith is not the kind of
that leads to passivity but it’s a faith that bears spiritual fruit in active
living in active pursuit of holiness and so with all of this in mind brothers and
sisters as we turn to our text for today verses 10 and 11 I want us first of all
to consider our Christian duty to be diligent in making our calling and
election sure our Christian duty to give all diligence to make our calling and
election sure it says in verse 10 therefore brothers and I want you to
notice just a couple things as I start off our consideration of verse 10 you’ve
perhaps heard the saying whenever you read the word therefore what’s the
question that should arise in your mind what what is it therefore so therefore in
other words in light of what Peter has been saying thus far in this section of
chapter one therefore what’s the takeaway what are what are we to do with
what he’s been saying well therefore brothers Adelphoi in the Greek he is
addressing them in the judgment of charity assuming the best about them he
says therefore brothers be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and
election now what does he mean by the calling that he refers to here in the
scriptures we read of different aspects to God’s call there is what we would
call the general call of the gospel that goes out to everyone who hears the
gospel and God means business through the general call whenever the gospel is
shared with an unbeliever whenever an unbeliever hears the gospel call to
repent of sin and to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation from
sin whenever an unbeliever hears that call that is a call from God himself
that is a call that is seriously meant God means business when he calls you
through the gospel and you must respond and if you don’t respond with true faith
and repentance that just compounds your guilt and your judgment but many who
hear the general call do not respond in fact we would all reject the general
call of the gospel unless the Holy Spirit gives us the effectual call the
effectual call comes through the general call but it takes a mighty
supernatural act of the Holy Spirit to produce a response of true faith and
repentance to the general call to faith and repentance so I believe in this
context here that it’s quite clear that Peter is referring to what we would call
the effectual call where the spirit actually causes the sinner to respond
with true faith and repentance having caused that sinner to be born again or
regenerated by the Holy Spirit so he’s saying give all diligence to make sure
that not just that you’ve heard the general call to repent and believe and
have made some kind of superficial quote decision for Christ but that you’ve
actually responded from the heart with true faith in Jesus Christ and repentance
unto life but he also says give all diligence to make your calling and
election sure or to confirm your calling and election and that would be God’s
choice of us it’s not a choice based upon our choice of him it is a choice
that is his we choose him because he first in eternity past chose us it’s not
to say that we are not responsible in our choices that we make with respect to
the Lord but the priority is with God’s choice of us God doesn’t look down the
corridor of time and see that that at a particular point you’re gonna respond to
Christ and on the basis of foreseeing your choice he chooses you no that’s not
how it works he chooses you and me brothers and sisters simply because he
chose to choose us for reasons known only to himself not because we deserve
it not we because we are worthy it’s an unconditional election and yet it is an
election that we discern as we see the fruits of that election in our hearts
so with all of this in mind we are called here to give diligence to confirm
or make sure our calling and election but that should raise the question make
it sure to whom are we to make our calling and election sure to God or to
others or to ourselves again I believe in the context here it’s quite clear
that he is speaking of making your calling and election sure to yourself to
ourselves as we examine our lives and our hearts for the fruits of that
election the Bible scholar Edwin Blum writes that the word make in the Greek
it’s poiesthai is in the middle voice and thus implies to make for oneself to
make sure the Greek word for sure is bebeon it’s a word used of confirming
something as in the legal terminology of validating a will so a Christian he says
by growing in grace becomes assured of having been called and elected by God so
then how do we make our calling and election sure to ourselves do we respond
to an altar call when the preacher says all eyes closed head back heads bowed
you know raise your hand is that how you make your calling and election sure or
by responding to the call to pray some kind of formulaic sinners prayer no we
grow in our assurance of salvation by giving all diligence to grow in the
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we do this
by adding to our professed faith the virtues that Peter mentions here in
verses 5 through 7 and again and as I stressed when I preached on that
particular passage this is not Peter telling us to work for our salvation or
to rely on our good works or our or our attempts at adding these things to our
faith as if they were meritorious in certainly friends the Bible makes it
clear that there is a basic fundamental sense of safety and assurance that comes
from simply trusting in Christ and resting in his gospel promises alone but
that basic sense of assurance will only grow and develop into a full-orbed
assurance sense of assurance of salvation as we give all diligence to grow in
Christ lazy Christians Christians that are just you know aren’t serious and
diligent in pursuing holiness and growth in grace are very likely Christians who
don’t have a full or sense of their assurance of salvation I’m reminded of
what our confession of faith says in chapter 18 sections 1 & 3 in fact I’d
invite you to turn there the back of your Psalter hymnal Westminster
confession of faith chapter 18 I’ll just read sections 1 & 3 section 1 this is on
page 929 in the back of your Psalter hymnal this is the chapter of the
assurance of grace and salvation section 1 reads the as follows it says although
hypocrites and other unregenerate men those who are not true believers those
who have not been born again may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes
and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God and a state of salvation
which hope of their shall perish yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus
and love him in sincerity endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him
may in this life be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace and
may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God which hope shall never make them
ashamed amen to that and then on the next page section 3 reads as follows and
again the Westminster divines are here speaking not of the basic sense of
safety and security and assurance that comes simply from trusting in Christ but
notice the language they use the language of infallible assurance even
true Christians experience doubts at times about their salvation especially
if they are backslidden or if they fall into serious or scandalous sin but
nevertheless this is speaking of an assurance that is absolutely confident
and bold it says this infallible assurance doth not so belong to the
essence of faith but that a true believer may wait long and conflict with
many difficulties before he be partaker of it yet being enabled by the Spirit to
know the things which are freely given him of God he may without extraordinary
revelation in the right use of ordinary means that would be the word and the
sacraments of and prayer attain thereunto and therefore it is the duty of
everyone to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure that
thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost in love
and thankfulness to God and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of
obedience the proper fruits of this assurance so far is it from inclining
men to looseness in other words to moral laxity and immorality so friends we make
our calling an election sure by giving all diligence brothers and sisters do
you see how vitally important it is for us to make progress in our Christian
lives we are called to adhere in this passage therefore brothers be all the
more diligent to confirm your calling an election for if you practice these
qualities you will never fall we’ll talk about what that means in a few moments
but clearly this is a top priority in our lives as believers to give all
diligence while our salvation is grounded in Christ and his saving work
alone our personal subjective sense of assurance will only be strengthened as
we press forward in our walk with the Lord not as we press forward in in in
kind of a legalistic pharisaical sense of you know getting on a religious
treadmill and you know trying to make ourselves acceptable to God by our own
works or efforts that’s not what Peter is talking about that’s not what I’m
preaching to you this afternoon but rather a diligence that is grounded in
grace and expresses itself in gratitude and and pursues a new obedience out of
gratitude for God’s gift of salvation given to us again our salvation is
grounded in Christ and his saving work alone but our sense of assurance will
only be strengthened as we press forward in our walk with the Lord are you
forward in your walk with Christ that requires gospel motivated diligence not
pharisaical motivated diligence the diligence that says well it maybe if I
act a little better God will be more pleased with me that’s legalism if you
are in Christ God is already pleased with you not because of your performance
but because of Christ’s performance because of Christ’s work for you but we
grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord out of gratitude for this gift of
salvation we press forward we press forward in our pursuit of holiness and
a new obedience though our sins and backslidings as believers certainly
cannot destroy the work of Christ or threaten the security of our salvation if
we be true believers in Christ our sins and backslidings as believers can
nevertheless destroy our comfort in Christ and they can do great damage to
our sense of assurance of salvation spiritual stagnation and backsliding in
the Christian life can bring a great deal of grief into the life of a true
child of God and can rob us of our joy in the Lord dear ones if we are not
moving forward in our Christian lives then the natural tendency will be to
drift backwards let’s say that you’re taking a swim in in the ocean and let’s
say there’s a strong undercurrent if you’re if you’re there out in the strong
undercurrent and you’re just treading water what’s gonna happen the currents
gonna carry you where it’s going and we are living in a fallen sin-cursed world
where there’s a strong current to take us away from the Lord to unground us
from Christ so if you’re just treading water in your walk with the Lord if
you’re just stagnant and sitting there and not progressing well then the
natural tendency will be to drift backwards if that happens for any
significant period of time then it will likely injure your sense of assurance
and make you unfruitful in your Christian faith again dear listener by
the grace of God and out of gratitude for God’s gift of salvation are you by
the grace of God giving all diligence to make your calling and election sure not
sure to God but sure within your own soul sure to yourself and then Peter
goes on and he gives us here some wonderful promises about what the Lord
promises to those who give all diligence let’s next consider the
wonderful promises made to those who give all diligence in making sure their
calling and election the first thing that he mentions is that if by the grace
of God we are giving all diligence pressing forward in our pursuit of
holiness pressing forward in our walk for the walk with the Lord we will never
experience a serious fall or setback in our faith says in verse 10 be all the
more diligent to confirm your calling and election and then notice the promise
for if you practice these qualities the qualities that are mentioned back in
verses 5 through 7 you will never fall in other words if we as believers are
continually making progress in the virtues that were mentioned in verses 5
through 7 we will never stumble or fall now what does Peter mean to what is
Peter referring when he speaks of such a fall now some commentators believe that
Peter is referring here to falling away and thus losing one’s salvation but
here’s where we need to compare scripture with scripture the Bible makes
it very clear that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus and Jesus makes it very clear for example in John chapter 10
that no one can snatch us if we are Christ’s sheep no one can snatch us from
the Father’s hand so it is not possible for a true born-again believer to fully
and finally fall away from the faith and thus lose his or her salvation the Bible
teaches us that the true born-again believer cannot and will not fully or
finally fall away from the faith and lose his or her salvation true
believers can fall into grievous and even scandalous sins the classic example
of that of course is King David who when he ought to have been with his men in
battle during the season of battle he decided to give himself a vacation and
he’s strolling around on his roof and he notices an attractive woman taking a
bath next door and you know the story the the account of David’s affair with
Bathsheba where he was guilty of falling into very serious sins of adultery and
even murder he he plotted to have her husband put on the front lines of battle
and killed grievous wicked sin on David’s part a sin that eventually he
repented of by the grace of God as he was confronted by Nathan the prophet but
nevertheless that was a serious setback in his walk with the Lord this we’re
talking about David the sweet psalmist of Israel the one described in scripture
as the man after God’s own heart this is why the scriptures warn us take heed
that you think you stand lest you fall for all of us are subject to temptations
and so again I don’t believe Peter is talking about falling from salvation for
that is not possible for the one who is truly in Christ I’m more inclined to
agree with commentators like Edwin Blum who point out that the meaning of this
term here fall the meaning suffer a reverse or misfortune which is what the
word can mean fits the context well here in this passage so he’s not talking
about losing salvation but he’s talking about suffering a reverse or a
misfortune in your walk with the Lord in other words friends it is possible to
suffer a reverse or misfortune in our walk with Christ through such things as
spiritual laziness or stagnation or backsliding into sin or neglecting the
means of our spiritual growth or neglecting to practice the Christian
virtues that we are to add to our faith it’s possible to neglect those things
and fall into those things without completely falling away from the faith
backsliding is a very serious and grieving thing grievous thing but a
backslider is not in the same category as an apostate someone who completely
abandons Christ willfully persistently consciously friends sometimes a believer
will fall into serious sin because he has neglected his duty to be diligent in
growing in his faith but if by the grace of God we are continually adding
Christian virtues to our faith by cultivating those virtues in our lives
these virtues which are ultimately the fruit of the spirit they don’t they’re
not the fruit of the flesh they’re the fruit that the spirit works within us
and that we are to work out that’s what Paul means when he talks about working
out our salvation he doesn’t say work for your salvation but work out that
which God has worked within you and if we are continually doing this continually
striving by the grace of God to grow in Christ to cling to Christ to continue
walking with Christ in good times and in those other times well we have a
wonderful promise here if we are giving all diligence to make our calling and
election sure then we can be assured we will be able to stand strong in our
faith steadfast and immovable and the Lord by his grace will preserve us from
suffering a serious setback or fall or reversal in our walk with the Lord but
not only that not only will we be preserved from falling with respect to
our walk with Christ we will also by the grace of God receive a rich welcome into
God’s eternal kingdom look at verse 11 it says for in this way there will be
richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ John Albert Bengal writes you may be able to enter not as
having escaped from a shipwreck or from fire but as it were in triumph the
Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians chapter 3 and that’s a tricky passage in terms
of exegeting it but Paul talks about those who build on the foundation of
Christ with gold silver precious stones but then he also mentions those who
build on the foundation of Christ with wood hay and stubble I once did a Bible
study on that passage in college and I had I said would stay and Hubble and I
got mixed up but what is this wood hay and stubble what’s he talking about I
believe Paul in that particular passage is addressing Christian teachers in
particular Christian teachers who preach the gospel the basic gospel but then
they add on to that gospel wood hay and straw they add on worldly things worldly
ideas and philosophies and so forth and Paul goes on to say that they will lose
their reward in other words they will lose souls entrusted to their care
because of their carelessness in their administrations yet they themselves will
be saved yet only as through but in contrast to that kind of being saved and
praise God if you’re saved it’s better to be in than out by the grace of God but
nevertheless Peter talks about being richly provided with an entrance into
the eternal kingdom again to quote from dr. Blum he says the future for the
Christian who diligently pursues holiness is very bright he will be
welcomed quote richly the Greek term is pluceos the NIV translates it as receive
he will receive a rich welcome a welcome into what a welcome into the eternal
kingdom he will not barely quote make it into the kingdom or be saved only as one
escaping through the flames and he refers there to 1st Corinthians 315 but
he will receive his Lord’s well-done good and faithful servant and by the way
don’t you want that it’s not that we deserve it it’s not it’s it’s a reward
of grace not a reward of works and what will we do if we receive that
commendation on the final day the crown of glory we will cast our crowns before
him recognizing that it is his grace alone that has enabled us to be there
and to present that to him beloved do you want to receive a rich welcome into
the kingdom of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ do you long to hear your
Lord say to you well done good and faithful servant then by the grace of
God and out of gratitude for his free gift of salvation in Christ diligently
pursue holiness in your heart and life but you can’t pursue that which you
don’t possess and so if you’re here today or if you’re listening through the
internet and you’ve never personally repented of sin and come to trust Jesus
Christ alone as your Savior from sin Jesus calls you through his gospel
Christ died for sinners just like you and me he paid the penalty for sin on
the cross of Calvary and he rose from the dead on the third day after his
resurrection he appeared to multiple eyewitnesses he was seen by hundreds of
people after his resurrection this abundantly proves him to be the son of
the living God in power and it proves the gospel to be true and the gospel
calls you and me to repent of sin and to trust Jesus Christ alone for salvation
and you can be assured that if you believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ you
shall be saved so by the grace of God come to Jesus Christ and having come to
Christ walk with him take his yoke upon you learn of him be his disciple by the
grace of God and pursue holiness not in order to make yourself more acceptable
to God because if you’re in Christ you’re already accepted God looks upon
you as his beloved child you’re clothed in Christ but in order that you might
honor him and glorify him in your daily life out of gratitude for his gift of
salvation let us as Peter exhorts us here be all the more diligent to
confirm our calling and election for if we practice these qualities we will
never fall praise God amen let us pray heavenly father we thank you and praise
you oh Lord for the richness of the gospel the Lord we recognize that your
grace does not teach us to be spiritual sloths does not teach us to be
spiritually negligent or to give ourselves over to sin rather as the
scriptures tell us your grace teaches us to pursue holiness so help us Lord by
your grace to be a diligent people and may our diligence be motivated not out
of a desire to earn your grace for we could never do that but out of gratitude
for the grace that you have already given to us in Christ for isn’t it is in
his name that we pray and all of God’s people said amen let’s close our time
today by rising and we’ll sing as our closing hymn 448 union with thee 448