Are you Sure?

Sermon transcript

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

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