No, this evening. You know what
I mean. It's just good to be here. Must
be praying for Brother Scott. He called me a minute ago and
he's had an infection for a few days. He's just not feeling good.
And so I told him we wanted to mention him. The way he says it, he said, oh,
you don't have to say anything. I said, I want to say something. He's worthy to be spoken of.
We pray for all those in our midst that are going through
not only physical, but all types of trials. Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1. I've had this verse of Scripture
on my mind for a few days, and I pray if I've had it on my mind
and I've done some reading on it, praying about it, I pray
the Lord would bless it. Verse 10, 2 Peter 1.10, Wherefore,
the rather brethren, Give diligence to make your calling and election
sure. For if you do these things, you
shall never fall." Let's pray together. Our Father, for the sake of Your
only begotten Son, He who has come from You the Word Himself,
God in flesh, human flesh. For His sake, for His honor,
we ask you to bless the Word tonight to our understanding.
Lord, this evening that we might be comforted. This is your command
to your preachers to comfort your people. Comfort us. By Your Spirit, bless this word
we ask for Christ's sake. Amen. Above all things. That's what he said. Wherefore,
the rather. Above all things. Brethren, fellow believers, Give
diligence, be prompt, earnest, make haste, and endeavor to make, that is, to act or to
perform your calling and divine selection. Make that sure. That is, make that which you
stand upon. Make it stable. Make it sure. If you do these things, if you
make or if you act or perform, I'm just telling you what these
words mean. These things you shall not at
all stumble. I've entitled this message this
evening, These Things. There is written within the heart
of every believer, that new heart, that new man, that new creation,
that creation that is created in righteousness,
the union of the Lord Jesus Christ united with His everlastingly
loved object of mercy. That's just one with Christ. If Christ be
formed in you, this is so amazing when I just read those things
and understand something of what it's saying. I can understand. I can observe. I can perceive
just seeing something of myself. That which is in Adam. The disrespect. The way we're thinking. But that
new creation born from above The new man, the new birth, joined
and united in what the Scripture describes as a new man, a new
creature. Can any man be a new creature? Within every new creature there is a desire, a longing
to make his calling and election stable, sure. And it's an earnest desire. He
wants to know. I promise you, those of us, those
of you who have sat under the gospel for years and years and
years and years, you hear something like this, make your calling
and election sure. And you know what you think?
I want to hear what Scripture's got to say about this. Isn't
that so? That's exactly what you're thinking.
That's what I'm thinking. I want to know. Tell me, I've
said before, you tell me one more time. You tell me one more
time how the Lord has put away my guilt. Tell me one more time.
Tell me what Scripture says about salvation. Tell me what the Scripture
says about making your calling and election show. Oh, thanks be unto God, our merciful
God who has by His Holy Spirit given us a record. He's told
us in this Scripture right here what the absolute surety of our
foundation in the Lord Jesus Christ is and how it's manifested. And it is manifested. I'm telling
you, You could not give diligence
to make your calling and election sure. The Apostle Peter, under
the inspiration of the Spirit of God, would never have written
that. But you can. Give diligence. Be earnest about
it. Sincere about it. If you do these
things, that's what he said in verse 10. If you do these things,
When I got to reading that passage of Scripture, starting with the
first verse and up through verse 10, I noticed how many times
something was mentioned basically like that. Look at verse 3, "...according
as His divine power hath given unto us all things, pertaining
unto life and godliness." Whenever you read Something like
that. These things. All things. You want to know what is the
Scriptures saying? What's it talking about? These
things. These fruits. The evidence of
our justification before God. If He has said that we're justified
freely, and I understand Justification is the declaration by God Almighty
that the acts that they hate, that they perform, Paul the Apostle
said, there is in me no good thing. I see in me. I know there
is. And to know that That when I
sin, and I know I do if we say we have no sin, we make God a
liar. But to read that the scripture
declares that I am justified before the law, that the guilt
of that which I find myself performing, that God will not impute that
to me. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute, charge to his account, iniquity. Whenever I find that there's
some evidences of justification before God, I want to know the
fruit, the effects. What are these things? How do
I know what they are? I can tell you this in verse
3. I can tell you something about
them. These things are things that pertain to life and godliness. Look at that. According as His
divine power, They've given unto us all things that pertain unto
spiritual life and godly behavior. A believer acts like a believer.
He walks after Christ. He longs after Christ. He hungers
after Christ. Paul said, for me to live is
Christ. His life, for me to live, is Christ. I'll get it right
in a minute. Look at verse 4. These things, they're exceeding
great and precious promises that are given unto us. This is not something that I've
earned. It's certainly not something I've deserved. They're promises given. But the
beauty of that word promise, I've read that verse of Scripture
I don't know how many times, and I saw something today I'd
never seen before with that word. I find myself wanting to look
up words. I want to know what that word
means. Tell me. Promise. Exceeding great and
precious assurances. That's what it means. Assurances. Promises. Assurances by God Almighty
to His people. It's God's profession of the
assurance of them being able to know where they stand with
Him. Verse 4 says that we might be
partakers By these things, these precious things, we might be
partakers of the divine nature which have escaped the corruption
that's in the world through lust. By these professions of assurance,
these great promises from God, a believer understands his association
with the Lord of glory. and it is through the knowledge
of who He is. God has given some great promises, assurances. Okay, what are they? Tell me what the Scripture has
got to say. Peter said, Give diligence. Make
your calling and election sure. the assurance, the evidence of
our association in mercy and grace with Almighty God is summed
up in one great, exceedingly great and precious gift whereby
you might know. Here is the absolute number one
gift from Almighty God that is an assurance to His people that
Almighty God has established a merciful and compassionate
relationship with them before the foundation of the world.
Here it is. Faith. Faith. Look at verse 1. Simon Peter. a servant and an apostle of Jesus
Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through
the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ." Like
precious faith. What is the evidence that Almighty
God has shown mercy? When you make your calling and
election sure, if it's going to be founded upon the rock of
ages, the foundation that does not move, what is it? Here it is. You believe God. You believe God. Faith, like
preciousness. Not temporary faith. Not faith
that doesn't endure to the end. It's sustaining. It's a gift. It's a promise.
It's an assurance. It's given unto you. Faith by
which a man or woman comes to Christ. And they trust Him. And they
know Him. And they live upon Him. And it's
a faith that works by love. You follow after Him. You love
His commandments. You love His Word. You love His
direction. His commandments are not grievous.
That which is revealed within these scriptures, you see it,
you love it, you believe Him, you long after Him, you fellowship
with Him, you talk to Him. Your heart is
drawn out towards Him. It's personal. Precious faith. Why? Because the object of that
faith is precious. There's no other faith like this.
It's given from heaven. From the same source. It's like
precious faith. The faith by which I believe
God is the faith by which every believer in this congregation
tonight believes God. precious faith. And Peter said
it's obtained through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus
Christ. Or it's obtained, the literal
of that is through our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. How is it obtained? It's through
His righteousness. He earned that righteousness imputed to
everyone that believes. He bought that privilege. The
privilege for me to believe God tonight costs the blood of Christ. Light, precious faith. It is
the righteousness of our Lord and Savior. By that power of
Almighty God, God has shined in our hearts give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know, when His divine power
opens our understanding, that's when we realize faith has been
given. Until Almighty God imparts life, there's no true faith. It's a nominal faith. There's
a lot of things that a man can believe without true saving faith. I've said before, demons believe.
That's what Scripture says. Demons believe. But I'll tell you this, they
don't believe that Christ died for them. They don't believe
that He's their substitute. They don't believe He's their
representative. They weren't chosen in Him. They're not His
bride. They believe that He is Jesus
Christ. They believe that. There is a
nominal belief. There is a head belief. But just
like precious faith, that is the assurance. That is the promise. It is His divine power that has
given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
That promise, that assurance. I am telling you, you wake up
in the middle of the night, and Almighty God has given you a
heart to believe Him, that is a great promise and assurance. I know that for every believer,
they've experienced the joy and the privilege to be able to just
talk with Him in the middle of the night and to wonder Bob that
he'll hear me. He hears me. Man, there's been
times that I've thought to myself, of all the people, I know there's
a remnant. I know it's a small remnant.
But I'm telling you, it's a number that no man can number. But that
God Almighty would have time to hear my cry. I think about Hezekiah. He prayed. The prophet says, the Lord's
heard your prayer. Man, that's come back to my mind
before. And I said, Lord, that You would
hear me. That You would give me an audience. Do you know that's
a great promise? That's assurance. Our God is a mighty God. But
the Scripture says there's something else. There's some evidences. that's going to go with what
is the great evidence. Faith. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. That faith is not of yourself.
It's a gift of God. It's given unto you to believe.
Faith! Faith! But then I got to thinking about
this. How do I know that my faith It's
true saving faith. Like I said, I know, Rob, I know
the demons believe. What is the faith? Faith, it's
the evidence. It's the substance of things
hoped for. It's the evidence of things that are not seen.
But what is it? What's the evidence of faith?
Faith is that great assurance. Faith is that great promise.
But what's the evidence? Well, here it is. Verse 5, And beside this, giving
all diligence while you are making that calling and election sure,
add to your faith. Now let me just stop right here.
I'm just going to go over those words very quickly and then we're
going to observe the Lord's Table. Faith is that great promise. Do you believe God? Do you believe
God? Do you believe God? Has the Lord
given you a heart? This is true saving faith. Number one, true saving faith
absolutely will not look to the person that's believing
for anything that I've done to merit my salvation before God.
Faith does not Faith looks to Christ only. Faith looks away
from self. It's like that song we sang last
Sunday. When I look within, all is dark and wild and vile. Can I deem myself a child? Well,
if I look inside, I don't have any hope. But true faith looks to Christ and trusts Him. Cast all of your hope on Him. Lord! I like Peter. They had been fishing. The Lord
came to them. He said, have you got any fish? No. No, we don't. He said, cast your net on the
other side. Peter said, Lord, we fished all night. We fished
these waters all night. But at Your Word. Boy, I love that. at Your Word."
Listen, this is enough right here. Can you see Your Name? Can you see? Can you show me
tonight the Lamb's Book of Life? Can
you show me tonight Your Name written in the Lamb's Book of
Life? Now you know there is a Lamb's Book of Life. Can you show me
Your Name written? The answer is no. No. How do you know it's there? The Lord Himself has told me, you believe Me and you'll never
fall. It's enough that I can believe
God. Now you show me in the Scriptures
one more thing that the Scripture sets forth that is the evidence
of salvation and regeneration. Show me one more. There's not
another one in there. What must I do, Paul? What's
the evidence? What is the evidence of salvation? What must I do to be saved? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Period. Nothing else. What's the evidence of that faith? What is evidence of faith? Add to your faith, verse 5. There's another word that I checked
on today. You know, if I were to read that
in light of free will, false religion, I would assume that
that word add right there means. Something. Obviously that I need
to do. Obviously, according to my understanding,
there must be a few other things that I'm going to have to perfect. That faith with. Surely, according
to this scripture. That there's there's some works
that are needful for me to perform because it says for me to add
to my faith. So evidently my faith must be
a little bit lacking. And once I add, the word add
means the supply given. The supply given. That word add right there has
absolutely nothing to do with you. Nothing. Nothing. The supply given. This is not something that the
believer contributes to faith. Aren't you glad? I'm so glad. Lord, thank you for not leaving
it up to me to do something. These things that follow are
the effects of like precious faith." Why? That you might make
your calling and election sure. How do I make my calling and
election sure unless the Spirit of God tells me what the effects
of precious faith is? Here they are. Making your calling
and election sure. Here's the evidences of the Holy
Spirit's supply, the supply given. That's where it means add, the
supply. Here is the evidence of His supply that proves that
the Lord Jesus Christ is all of my hope, that I believe Him
by faith. Here it is. Besides this, giving
all diligence, The supply given to your faith that has also been
given is, number one, virtue. Stability. Firmness. Strength. That's what virtue
means. Ephesians 6, then, finally, my
brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Only in Christ do I overcome. How am I going to add strength
to my faith? I can't. But I'll tell you this,
the Spirit of God supplies it. Why? Because I'm kept. That's
how I'm kept. Here's the second thing, knowledge. Knowledge. Here's the definition
of it. A seeking to know. A constant
investigation. Knowledge. Now, I would have
just assumed, Pat, that that just meant, you know, knowledge.
I mean, I've learned a few things. I've kind of picked up a few
things. Here is the evidence. Making your calling and election
sure. Here's the evidence of the first one, virtue. God's
kept you. He's kept you believing. Second
thing, knowledge is there's a constant investigation. This word knowledge right here
is from the base of the word to know in Philippians 3.10 where
Paul says that I might know Him, that I may know Him. And the
power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings
being made conformable unto His death." Knowledge. It's not something. That word doesn't mean something
that I've picked up and I've kind of retained and now I know.
I know about election. I know about predestination.
I know about substitution. The word means a constant investigation. Do you think the Apostle Paul
knew the Lord Jesus Christ? Sure he did. Sure he did. But
he said, oh, that I might know Him. That I might know Him. I sit down. I come here. I sit down. Before I can start,
if I'm honest with myself, I say, Lord, help me today. Guide my thoughts. Show me. Christ, Holy Spirit, illuminate
my understanding. Cause these Scriptures to be
alive to me. All that I might know Him, I
might understand and perceive. That constant to seek, to investigate,
that's the evidence of true faith. It hungers after Christ. Number
three, temperance. Self-control. It is the Holy
Spirit's direction, strength, and the ordering of the steps
of His people. And it's evidenced by their desire
to be kept from the power of sin. That's it. I don't want to be an embarrassment. Number one, I don't want to be
an embarrassment to Him. I don't want to be an embarrassment
to you. Just the thought of doing something that would bring reproach
on the name of our Savior and to be an embarrassment before
you, His people, in this community, grieves me. If I'd go out and
do something out of just arrogant pride and stuff, just get caught Find my name in the paper. I
mean, that's bad enough. Oh, just going home. Man, there
will be times I'll go home. I told you this. I'll go home
at night after preaching to you. I'm so embarrassed. I just want
to crawl up a chair and just shut up. I'm serious. I'm so embarrassed. Help me. I don't know if I can.
It's just the thought of having to come back and face you. There
have been times that I felt so fine. I want to be an encouragement. Temperance. Self-control. David
said in Psalm 19, 13, Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous
sins. That is, arrogant sins of pride.
Let them not have dominion over me, then shall I be upright and
I shall be innocent from the great transgression or from much
transgression. Keep me. Lord, I don't want to embarrass you.
Lord, I don't want to be disrespectful to you. This is serious. Number four. Here's another evidence of light
precious. Patience. Patience. That is, an abiding
under that only grows in trial. It is an abiding under knowing
that Almighty God who has by His gracious hand of good providence
sent that lot to me and has kept me under, under His dominion,
under His control. Under his wing, patience. James 1.3 says, knowing this,
that the trying of your faith worketh patience. The trying
of your faith evidences that God's kept you. That's what it
is. Patience. Godliness. Respectful devoutness. Acts that are actually performed
by the new creature. You do that which is your heart
to do. Why do I do things for Glenda? Why do I do anything? Why do
I do anything respectful to her? I love her. I just don't want
to be my heart toward my wife. of the heart that a believer
has toward her husband. Brotherly kindness. Fraternal
affection. We've got a lot of associates
in this world. But I'll tell you this, a believer
to another believer is a precious thing. Why? There's like precious
faith there. There's fellowship there. There's a bond there. There's
an everlasting love that's been shown there. Charity. Love. That word that identifies
a believer with the Lord Jesus Christ in Christ's character. I want you to turn to 1 John
and we'll wrap this up. 1 John 4, 7 to 10. 1 John 4,
7 to 10. Ye are of God, little children,
and have overcome them, because greater is He that is in you
than he that is in the world." They are of the world. We are of God. Therefore speak they of the world,
and the world heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth
God, heareth us. He that is not of God, heareth
not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and
knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us because that God sent His only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through Him. Hearing His
love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His
Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Here is the way that love is
manifested. This is love. God is love. This is love. God gave. His only begotten Son. Now, if
you want to know, you talk about love. Here is the sum of love. Here's the evidence of the sum
of love. God is love. God gave His only
begotten Son. He had a people. God gave them. Now, the Spirit of God who has
quickened us by grace has given us faith to believe that. And
we trust God's Word being so that the Lord Jesus Christ has
been sent to redeem us. Life imparted manifests itself
toward Almighty God and to God's people by love. That which He did for us is manifested
in us. We love Him. We love His Christ. We love His gospel. We love His
people. We love His praise. We love His
glory. We love His honor. His love is the source of our
loving. His love is the first cause of our love. What is the
evidence? of God's assurance to His people. What's the evidence of God's
assurance to His people that He's shown them mercy? They believe
God. Faith. What is the evidence that is
manifested through God's people? I cannot see faith in you. Faith is your evidence, Bob.
Faith is evidence to you. You believe God. I can't see
your faith, but I can see the effects of it. The effects of
it is good works. What are those good works? That's
what we just read. Virtue, knowledge, temperance,
patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity, Faith is the
evidence to you. These works are the evidences
to the others. James says, you talk about faith
without works. He said, I'll show you my faith
by my works. What are they? There they are.
Right there. Look at verse 8. But if these
things Be in you these things that we just read, and they abound. They make you that you shall
neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things,
no stability, no love for the brethren, no love for Christ,
no steadfastness. He that lacks these things, blind,
cannot see, far off, hath forgotten. that he was purged from his old
sins. I've told you this before. I'll mention it again. When it
says he's forgotten, it doesn't mean that he was once purged
from his old sins and then he just forgot about it. That's
not what it means. It means that there is a spirit of forgetfulness
that he ever was purged. The wording there causes you
to think, well, he was purged and he just maybe forgot about
it. He just sometimes slipped his mind. He never was purged. Tonight, we're going to do something
that the Lord says, you do this in remembrance. We have a heart
of remembrance. For those that these things are
not found in, there is a spirit of forgetfulness. It never was
there. It's blind. Wherefore, the rather
brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do, if these things
be performed in, if the Spirit of God has supplied these things
to you, if you do these things, you shall never fall. May Almighty
God add His blessing in the evidences and the assurances that He gives
to His people. I'll ask the men if they'll come
forward and we'll have the Lord's statement.