May it please Almighty God to
bless us together as we meditate in His Word this morning. Let's
turn then to the second epistle of Peter and the first chapter
that we read, and we'll read verses 10 to 13. The second epistle
of Peter, chapter 1, and reading from verses 10 to verse 13. Wherefore, the rather brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if ye
do these things ye shall never fall. For so an entrance shall
be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Wherefore, I will not
be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things,
though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I
think it meet, or I thinks it right, as long as I am in this
tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. We know a bit about Peter from
the word of God that he was always forthright in the things that
he said and we're grateful for his testimony and for his example
and yet we know that dear Peter was also we have the example
of him when he was left to himself so that he denied the Lord Jesus
Christ as the Lord had said on those three occasions. But of
course it had an effect upon Peter when he realized what he'd
done. We're told he went out, he left
the assembly, went out and wept bitterly. Well with that as a
background we realize that Peter in his letters speaks very clearly
about the things of God and the importance of knowing the truth
and the importance of remembering and the importance of being diligent
in these things. And so he tells us in these verses,
wherefore the rather brethren give diligence. And I suppose,
if we're honest, we live in a day when there's not very much diligence
done in the things of God. We all find excuses to do this
and that, and we don't spend time as we should. And if we
do spend time, whether we're diligent in really earnestly
reading the Word of God, meditating in the Word of God, and praying
to God. And yet, how vital it is to realize,
as the Apostle tells us here, in these verses, we're passing
through time. We're not here very long and
then we should enter into eternity and how important and necessary
it is to know that we are indeed born again in the spirit of God,
that we are a child of God. And that's why Peter tells us
here, wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling
and election sure for if you do these things you shall never
fall. Now I'm sure we should recognise
and realise that every true believer does receive in one way or another
a call from God. A call from God perhaps to awake
because by nature we're asleep By nature we're in darkness.
And what a blessing it is when the Holy Spirit comes and we
use that word, made spiritually alive, the scripture uses the
word quickened. And we have that wonderful word
in the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, and the second chapter
where Paul the Apostle, when he wrote it, he makes mention
of this great truth and he says, and you hath the Lord Quicken
made, that means made spiritually alive, who were dead in trespasses
and in sins. And he goes on and says, wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath even as others. So it's
quite clear that everyone that is born into this world is born
into this situation and into this condition. But the apostle
goes on and says, but God, who is rich in mercy, isn't that
a glorious statement to think that you and I deal with a God,
a great God, the ruler of the universe, the creator of all
things, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith
he loved us. And again, it's worthwhile just
thinking about that, to think, has God loved me? I'm not worth
being loved. I've been too far off, I've been
too wicked in my life, I've walked too contrary to God. I haven't
followed the ways of God. Why should God love me? Well,
it's a wonderful and glorious truth to realise and to know
that God has loved us. And you and I will only know
that by the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. When the
Holy Spirit makes us, as we read here, spiritually alive. We were
dead. And we've been now made spiritually
alive. Well, what a mercy this morning
if we can come and realize that God in his love toward us has
made us spiritually alive. Once we were dead, now we are
alive. The truth is, that only you will
know whether that's true and only I will know that's true
in our own life because no one can look into somebody else's
heart but God looks there and God sees what we were like and
what a mercy it is therefore if God in his love to us shows
us his mercy and his favour And therefore, here we have this
grand statement, wherefore the rather brethren give diligence
to make your calling and election sure. And if we are not sure,
and we may not be sure, we need to ask God to show us and direct
us in the right way and to give to us to know that we are those
whom God has called, that God has loved, that God has had mercy
toward, because the Word of God is very clear and you can read
it from beginning to end and again and again. There are so
many, many examples to prove that you and I need that blessed
work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. so that we do understand
therefore what the Apostle said when he made that statement.
And you, and may it be you and may it be me, hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. So we were born spiritually
dead, we were born spiritually alive naturally, but we were
born spiritually dead. And therefore what a blessing
if God in His love toward us, has called us and made us spiritually
alive so that we can rejoice in what He's done. And just going
on a few verses because I don't want to really miss out such
a glorious verse as the eighth verse in this second chapter
where the Apostle tells us this great and wonderful truth For
by grace, and that means the unmerited favour of God, we don't
deserve God's favour and we don't deserve therefore His grace.
For by grace, i.e. saved through faith, and that
means that God gives us faith to believe the truth of God and
to rejoice in the truth of God. And that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. God
won't allow us to boast about our own abilities, but he will
allow us to boast about what he has done for us in our souls. So what a great blessing, therefore,
if we can realise this wonderful mercy. We started our reading
this morning in this 10th verse and it's good that we have done
but also there are descriptions prior to that where the Apostle
speaks in the earlier verses of this chapter how we should
order our life and how we should occupy ourselves and he tells
us in the 4th verse of this first chapter, whereby are given unto
us exceeding great and precious promises. And that's a glorious
statement. It's very great. It's very comprehensive.
And we may not understand it, but if we read the Bible, we
will find there are many wonderful, wonderful, great and precious
promises that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature,
that's the new nature, that's the spiritual nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And he goes on, and beside this,
giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue,
knowledge. You see, it's good to desire
spiritual knowledge. We should never think, well,
I don't understand that, so I'm not going to read anymore and
I'm going to give up. We should pray on that God will
give us a right understanding of his word. And so here we have
this statement given to us here, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust and beside this giving all
diligence, Add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge,
and then he goes on to knowledge, temperance, to temperance patience,
and to patience godliness. You see, we need to be patient
sometimes. We're often impatient. We want often everything now. We want God to explain things
now. Well, God doesn't work to our
timetable. The difference is that you and
I work to God's timetable and God has a time when he will graciously
and wonderfully bless us and give us, therefore, this knowledge
and give us patience. And we need, therefore, patience.
And he says, and to patience, godliness, and to godliness,
brotherly kindness. It's a good testimony of God's
favor and grace toward us where we're kind one to another. We seek each other's good. We
don't try and find fault with one another. We try and find
and see what is good in one another. And then it says, and to brotherly
kindness, charity, which as I said is love, for if these things
be in you and abound. And again, we often pass over
these things, don't we? But here we have, if these be
in you and abound. That means they're really evident
in our lives. It's not something that we think
of perhaps once a week or something, but they abound in our lives. They make you that ye shall neither
be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the great blessing to a
believer is to desire to know the Lord Jesus Christ and to
realise what he's done, his great and wonderful sacrifice that
he made. When you think that Almighty
God, which he is, The second person in the Trinity came down
into this sinful world and to suffer and to die that he might,
through that, redeem our souls. That means to make us once again
one with God. You see, because of our sinful
condition, because of our nature, We've departed from God. But
what a blessing to know that the Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to redeem us. You know, this is the truth of
the gospel. And in order to do that, the
cost required, the penalty he had to pay on our behalf was
to die, give his life upon that cross at Calvary. Now then, he
says, and that these things will make you that you shall neither
be barren. We won't be barren, we'll be
healthy. We'll be fruitful in the things of God. We'll be able
to testify and speak of what God has done for us, how he's
made us spiritually alive, how we passed from death to life. And so, and he tells us, but
he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar
off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. So this morning, you know, the
situation is that you and I have either had our eyes opened, spiritual
eyes, to understand and to see these great and glorious truths,
or otherwise We are still blind. We don't see. And again, as I've
said, it's only you that knows whether or know whether you are
still blind or whether you are now able to see. That God has revealed the truths
of the gospel to your soul and to my soul. And if he has, what
a wonderful blessing that is. What is where? What are we? The Bible tells us we're a new
creature. We're a changed person. The spirit
of God has entered into us. And now we are those who believe
the gospel and those who rejoice in the gospel. And that's why
we're told, wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make
your calling and election sure. We shouldn't just think, well,
I don't understand these things and I'm not going to try and
find out. The Word of God is clear. You
and I, my friends, are to be diligent in these things. We are to search out these things. We are to earnestly pray for
these things to God. And we shouldn't give up and
we shouldn't be impatient. The Bible has a very able verse
and it says this, your time is always but my time is not yet. God has a time to bless souls. He has a time to hear and answer
our prayers. And that time is a right time. And we may feel impatient, but
my friends, we need impatience, as we've already read here, and
what a blessing when God gives it to us. And so he says, for
if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. No, we shall be blessed,
but we need an honest heart. We need a spiritual desire. to earnestly seek for these things. It says then in the 11th verse,
for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the
everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is a great word, isn't it?
Ministered unto us abundantly. See, God is able to abundantly
bless us. Sometimes we seem to doubt that.
What does that mean? Well, we're limiting God. We don't have a little God. We have a great God. We have
an all-powerful God who is able to do far more, exceeding abundantly,
than we can ask or even think. And when we come to our God in
prayer, we should come believing that he is a great God, that
he is an almighty God, and he is a God who answers prayer. And we should therefore desire
to come in faith, believing this. And so he says here, shall be
ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, it's worth just pondering
that statement, isn't it? You know, God's kingdom is not
something that comes and goes. God's kingdom is everlasting. And if you and I, my friends,
hear this wonderful voice of God speaking to us through the
Scriptures to our heart, then we can believe that we have a
place reserved for us in that everlasting kingdom. Everlasting
is a word which is really beyond our comprehension. We're in time,
we understand time. We don't understand things which
are everlasting and yet the kingdom of God, heaven and glory is everlasting. And what a wonderful blessing
therefore. if this is granted to us an entrance by faith into
this wonderful kingdom and then when we die to enter in to that
place in the physical sense and so he tells us wherefore I will
not be negligent this is Peter speaking he realizes he's got
a great weight on his shoulders and he says wherefore I will not be negligent
to put you always in remembrance of these things though you know
them and be established in the present truth it matters not
whether we are aware of these truths bless God if we are but
if we are we should rejoice in them and we should love to hear
about them and we shouldn't say oh well I know all about that
and I haven't got to listen today. It's a blessing to actually physically
desire these things. We have a little verse in the
Acts of the Apostles which is very appropriate to this situation. In the 13th chapter of the Acts
of the Apostles and the 42nd verse, read this which tells
us first of all let me go back a couple of verses 38 and the
we read being known unto you therefore men and brethren that
through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins
and by him all that believe are justified from all things from
which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. Because
the law of Moses was a perfect law which you and I are not able
to keep because of our sinful nature. But here he says, and
by him that through the Lord Jesus Christ all that believe
are justified from all things. How wonderful, isn't it? To realise
we have the Gospel. And how wonderful if God gives
us grace to believe. Word of God tells us, doesn't
it? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. That was the words that the apostle
gave to the Philippian jailer, my friends, when he asked, what
must I do to be saved? And the answer was, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And so here we
have, and by him, all that believe are justified from all things.
from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware,
lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets.
Behold, ye despises, and wonder, and perish. For I work a work
in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though
a man declare it unto you. And when the Jews were gone out
to the synagogue, this has been spoken in the synagogue, The
Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them
the next Sabbath. They didn't want something different,
something to tickle their fancy. They wanted the great truths
of the Gospel to be proclaimed again. so they could rejoice
in them. They could thank God for the
wonderful blessings that there were. And they asked that this
might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now, when the congregation
was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed
Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God. And we're told, and the next
Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word
of God. Well, clearly it was a wonderful
time in the history of the church. And what a wonderful thing it
is to know that we today worship the same God. the same Almighty
God who is able to do for us far more exceedingly abundantly
than we can ask or even think. So coming back then to this statement,
wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance
of these things, though you know them, and be established in the
present truths. Well, it really means that these
things are very important and they are very important. You and I think in our lives
we have very important things which occur in our life and we
do. But this speaks about our eternal life and that is far
more important really if we understand the reality that we do possess
an eternal soul and you and I will spend eternity either in heaven
or in hell and what a blessing it is if you and I therefore
have the wonderful evidence that we are a true believer and that
we are those who have received God's call that we do understand
the necessity of believing that we are blessed with gracious
anticipation of that glory which is reserved for all true believers
and therefore that today we are not negligent in these things
oh how important it is You know we live perhaps really in a bit
like the Seventh Church was described in the Revelation, the church
in Laodicea, what were they? They were lukewarm in the things
of God. And so many people today are
lukewarm in the things of God. If it suits them, they'll spend
a little time on the things of God. If it doesn't, they won't. And they'll spend time on the
poor things of this world. And yet, you see, Peter here
recognises the importance of these things Therefore he comes
and he makes this amazing statement. How necessary it is. I will not
be negligent. to put you always in remembrance
of these things, though you know them, and be established in the
present truth. And this was no new desire. It was the desire of God's servant
Moses. You will remember, of course,
Moses was a man of God and he was greatly used of God. and
in actual fact he wrote the first five books of the Bible Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy and the book
of Deuteronomy really he gives there an account to the children
of Israel of what they should be doing and what they should
be thinking and how they should be walking and what they should
do when he wasn't there because he realized he wouldn't be there
forever. And so in the 8th chapter of
Deuteronomy we read this, all the commandments, this is Moses
writing, all the commandments which I command thee this day
shall ye observe to do that ye may live and multiply and go
in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers.
That, of course, was the land of Canaan. And thou shalt remember
all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years
in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee and to
know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his
commandments or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered
thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest
not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might make thee
know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth live. Well, that was a great and wonderful
statement that he made then. But as you go on in this same
eighth chapter, he comes down to the 16th verse where he tells
them, Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers
knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove
thee to do thee good in thy latter hand. And thou say in thine heart,
My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord
thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that
he may establish his covenant, that he swear unto thy fathers
as it is this day. Well, there we have a statement
by Moses. He wanted the children of Israel
to follow the pattern that had been set before them. He didn't
want to change. And what a mercy it was, therefore,
that God gave him that word to declare and that word to speak
and we should be very thankful therefore that we have a record
of that in the Word of God to encourage us. And so he goes
on to tell them, wherefore I will not Be negligent to put you always
in remembrance of those things, though you know them, and be
established in the truth. And then finally in this 13th
verse he says, yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this
tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. It's good, isn't it, for us in
the day and age in which we live to be stirred up in our spiritual
life it's very easy to become lukewarm it's very easy to settle
down and think well things are carrying on as they always have
done and I assume they will but the great desire should be that
we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus
Christ. Again, it's good to look back
in our lives to see perhaps what God has done for us, what he's
revealed to us, perhaps in the last few months, perhaps in the
last year, because we do want to grow spiritually. We don't
want to stagnate in the things of God. We don't want to just
carry on seeing, well, I'm just like I am and I can't change
things. We must desire that urgency, must desire the health of our
souls, desire that we may indeed bring forth fruit. And what does
fruit do? It brings glory to God. because it's the evidence of
His work in our souls. Sometimes people are under the
impression that the Lord speaks to them, the Lord works in their
heart, and they come and they join the church, and then they
stop. And then their spiritual experience
stops. Well, it shouldn't stop at all.
It should be that which continues. because we should desire to grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. We should desire that we are
indeed healthy in the things of God. And so what a blessing
it is to desire that we are found then in this good way and this
right way that we're stirred up, stirred up to remember how
easily We just carry on. And I've seen some people's testimony. It stops and there's nothing.
It's empty. There's nothing. My friends,
we don't want to be like that. We want to be healthy in the
things of God. We want to know more of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We want to know more of his amazing
grace. We want to know more of his wonderful
love. We want to be conscious that
he's gone to prepare a place for us. And as he said, if I
go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive
you unto myself, that where I am there, he may be also. Again, some people turn away
from speaking about passing out of time into eternity where we
sung about it in our second hymn but it's good you know to ponder
these things to realise here we have no continuing city but
we see one to come and it's good for us to be stirred up in our
spiritual life to remember these things and the relevance of them. And that's why we have an account
like this, that God in his good and gracious mercy has directed
Peter to write these things. And you see, Peter never forgot
that occasion when he was on that mount of what we term transfiguration. He never forgot it. And my friends,
what a blessing it is when God comes and speaks to our hearts
through his word and we never forget it we never forget it
it's that which is his word to our soul well we might say well
Peter you needn't have written about that he couldn't help writing
about it because the Spirit of God directed him and also of
course it was very relevant in his experience because he realised
the reality of these things so we should be very thankful and
when Paul wrote to Titus he also reminded him about the need for
these situations in the third chapter of Titus we read this
well let me read the 7th verse that being justified by His grace,
we should be heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And I hope we're all there. This
is a faithful saying. And these things I will, that
thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might
be careful to maintain good works These things are good and profitable
unto men. These are not my words, these
are the words of God, the words that the Apostle was directed
to write to Titus and how good they are and how we fail in this
day and age in which we live. He says, I will that thou affirm
constantly. That means often, doesn't it?
It doesn't mean perhaps once a year. It means constantly that
they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain
good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men. Well, we're blessed, aren't we,
with these words of direction. for our encouragement. And so
here we have this account recorded by the Apostle Peter. May we
thank God for it and realise the relevance of these words
to us today. Wherefore, the rather. Brethren,
give diligence to make your calling election sure again it's a good
exercise to do because you and I don't want to get to the gates
of heaven and find that we're missing a certificate that we
don't know all God's people will know and what a relevant and
important it is for us to know. Wherefore, the rather brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you
do these things, you shall never fall. For so an entrance shall
be ministered unto you abundantly. into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Wherefore, I will not
be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things,
though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I
think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you
up by putting you in remembrance. Amen.