Second Peter, let me read these
first eleven verses. Simon Peter, a servant and an
apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained life-precious
faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus,
according as his divine power hath given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness. And how did He give us these
things? Through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to
glory and virtue. Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers
of the divine nature, 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 to knowledge
temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness,
and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity.
For if these things be in you and 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
is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that
he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the Reverend, brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you
do these things, you shall never fall. And for so an infant shall
be administered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." There in verse ten it
says this, Therefore, the rather brethren, give diligence to make
your calling and election sure." That's what I want to talk about,
making your calling and election sure. When the average professor
of religion, when they look at God's Word and read it, they're
blind to certain words in it. We were blind to words in it
until God opened our hearts to make us see these things. And
they're blind to words like election, predestination, calling even. And they never
see the wonderful, the blessedness of these wonderful truths. But
now take election. It's a Bible word. We love this
word. It's the word of God. I remember years ago when Henry
told this, he said that, and he told me the preacher's name
and I don't remember, but he said he was going to write a
book on election. And he was going to title the name of the
book, The Most Hated Doctrine, in the Bible, election. And I
believe his brother Barter told him, said, oh no, no, no, don't
name it The Most Hated Doctrine. He said, name it The Most Blessed
Doctrine of Election. You know, it is, it's The Most
Blessed Doctrine of Election. You know, when you go through
the scriptures, you find out what it means. And, you know,
it's a doctrine of praise. Paul says, "'Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, according as He hath
chosen us.'" That's a doctrine of praise that's chosen us in
Christ. It's a doctrine of thanksgiving. Paul told the Thessalonians,
thanks be unto God, brethren, because God has from the beginning
chosen you unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth. So it's a doctrine of thanksgiving.
It's a doctrine of eternal love that God has from the beginning,
beginning, chosen you unto salvation. And I tell you, it's a doctrine
of salvation. Galatians is not salvation, but
it's unto salvation. And oh, we thank God that He
hath chosen you unto what? Salvation? And it's the doctrine
of holiness unto self-sanctification of the spirit. It is the blessed
doctrine of faith, faith, belief for the truth, and then of unity. Brethren, we're bound always
to thank God for you. It brings us to doctrine of praise,
and thanksgiving, and love, and salvation, and sanctification,
faith. And that's what He said back
there in verse here of 2 Peter, he says, you
know, to them that have obtained the light, precious faith with
us. So we have this doctrine of election, glorious doctrine,
blessed doctrine, wonderful doctrine. And the apostle says here in
verse 10, work for the brethren, give diligence, give diligence. Now, he's writing to God's people.
He's writing to those that are scattered abroad. to those who
have been given the knowledge of eternal life, been given everything
that pertains to life and godliness through God himself. And he says,
make your calling and election sure. And he says, give diligence
to do it. Give diligence to do it. Don't be lazy. Don't be lazy. Don't be slow. Don't be a little
warm about it. Don't doubt it. Don't be doubting
about it. Don't be in an idle state. You
see, the scripture says, it's not he that doubts it, but he
that believes it. is saved. And there's no joy
and peace in doubting, but there is joy and peace in believing.
And Paul told the Thessalonians, he says this, brethren, knowing
your election, knowing your election of God. How can I know I'm one
of God's elect? I believe I am. I believe I am. How can I know that I am? And
when you go through the Scriptures, the first two people you find
in the Scriptures, you find Reformation and election. The first two men
you find in the scriptures. The first two men after Adam
and Eve. Cain and Abel. Cain was cursed of God. Abel
was chosen of God. And then you go from there, you
go to Enoch. You look at all the people up
to Enoch. And Enoch was the only one who
walked with God. And then you look at the whole human race.
God said, it's all come up before me, and the wickedness of man
has come up before me. His thoughts on evil continue. I'm going to destroy this whole
shoot match. I'm going to destroy everything.
But I'm going to save one man, and I'm going to save his family
for that one man's sake. No way. And then you come down,
and then all the nations and all the people on the face of
the earth, and God said, Abraham, you go out. And then Abraham
had a son named Isaac, an Ishmael. Isaac was the one God loved.
And then he had Isaac. Jacob had two sons. Isaac had
two sons, Jacob and Esau. And God said, Jacob have a love,
Esau have a hatred. So as you see, election all the
way through the Bible. Well, how in the world then can
we make our calling and election sure. How can we do it? Well,
the answer's in the text itself. The answer's in the verse scripture
that we're looking at. First of all, by your calling.
By your calling. Have you been called of God?
Now look with me over here in Romans chapter 8. Have you been
called of God? Make sure. Make sure. You know,
and when it says here, he says, when you make sure, You don't
make sure to God. God knows them that are His.
He knows all of His own people. But you make sure to yourself.
It's yourself that you make sure to. God already knows who you
are. But look here in Romans 8, verse 29. We're talking about
calling. We start with our calling because
calling is the first thing that happens in time. Our election
is eternal. Our election is in Christ before
the foundation of the world. But our calling is in time. And
how can we know our election? By our calling. For whom He did
foreknow, He also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image
of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among men that
were bred. And moreover, whom He did predestinate, what's the
first thing He done to them? Already predestinated of God,
loved of God, known of God, chosen of God, the first thing He done
was call them. Then He called them. That's the
first thing He does to somebody. He said, My dear, call Him. And
there's two calls throughout the scriptures. There's a general
call. I give that every single time
I preach and every time anybody else is preaching is preaching
the gospel. It goes out to all. It goes to everybody. We tell
everybody the same message. We preach the gospel. We exhort
men, call on men, persuade men to come to Christ, to believe
on Christ, to come to Christ, to rest in Christ, to turn from
themselves and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's to everybody
we preach. But then there's an effectual
call. And it's a call that actually brings men to God. My call, the
general call, don't do anybody any good. But when the Holy Spirit
comes in the effectual call, it's a call that actually brings
men from where they are and brings them to God Himself. They tend
to write, oh, let me show you that. Well, look with me, first
of all, over in John 16, just a moment. I think it's John 16
where I want to go. Yes. You know it's an effectual
call. That's why Paul says, you know,
God has saved us and called us, called us with a holy calling. For you see, you're calling,
brethren, not many wise men after the flesh. Oh my, how many of
you think you were wise after the flesh? How many of you knew
a whole lot of things? We were nobodies from nowhere,
absolutely zeros. God passed by the schools. the
Ph.D.' 's, and the colleges, and the seminaries, and passed
by people that had great, great power and wealth of that. And
he, what did he do? He comes and calls people like us. For
you see, you call, and not many wise men answer the prayer. Not
many mighty. How many got any power or influence in this world?
Not any noble. Not many. People like us. And then, beloved, the Holy Spirit
does this calling, and there's an order to His calling. Look
what it said here in John 16, in verse 8 and 9. He says, He
will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
Now let me say something about this world. He don't go out into
the world and reprove everybody. This world that he's talking
about here, this is the world of God's elect. This is the world
of every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue, and people, because there's
a multitude of people that he don't ever go to. There's whole
nations that he's passed by. So when he talks about reproving
the world of sin, he's not talking about going out here and trying
to convince everybody. That's not what he's talking
about. There's lots and lots of people never reproved of sin.
Lots and lots of people never talked about righteousness. Lots
of people don't know anything about judgment. I mean lots of
them. And then he says when he has
come, he will reprove the world of sin. Now what is in verse
9 says of sin? He convinces of sin. This is
what happens in our calling. In the calling convinces you
of sin. When He has come, He'll convince
you of sin. That word convinces means convince. And in this calling,
have you been convinced of your sin? Convinced of your sin, not
somebody else's sin. Now, the preacher can't convince
you of sin. The church can't convince you
of sin. The Holy Spirit convinces you of sin. It convinces you
of the guilt of sin and the curse of sin. And He convinces you
of that. And secondly, look what else
He does there in verse 10. He convinces you of righteousness.
What do you mean He convinces you of righteousness? First of
all, that you don't have one. Secondly, the only place you
can get one, the righteousness of Christ. He convinces you that
you don't have one. You might have been religious,
you might attend services, you might have made a decision, you
might have went to an altar sometime, but when the Holy Spirit comes,
and we're talking about making our calling sure, He convinces
you of sin and of righteousness. If you make confess to those
two things, that's what happens in your calling. And you say,
He, He convinces you of the righteousness of Christ. And he goes and he
convinces you that Christ by himself is the only one who put
away sin. He himself established righteousness. And he said himself, I go, because
he said in verse 10, because I go to the Father and you see
me no more. And by the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father proved That the obedience and
righteousness of Christ is what's only acceptable to Him. And then
look what it says here. And in verse 11, He convinces
you of judgment. Because the Prince of this world
is judged. Oh, and He convinces you of judgment.
He says, you know, you come to God any other way. You come to
God, you come to God any other way than through the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's like painting yourself with
dung and calling yourself pretty. And I'll tell you, and you know,
and saying, oh God, look at me, look how pretty I am. That's
what it amounts to. But the believer, when God comes
and teaches him and convinces him of sin and righteousness
and judgment, God cleans him, clears him from the judgment
of God. There is therefore now no condemnation. Oh, you remember in this calling,
when God made you to know that the condemnation's gone, the
sin's gone, the righteousness is established, and you know
you're not under the judgment of God anymore? Ain't that what
he says down here in verse 33 of Romans, chapter 8? Well, you
don't need to turn back. I'll just quote it to you. He
says, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's Christ that died. Who is he that condemned us?
It's God that justified us. And our Lord Jesus judged Satan,
He judged sin, He judged death, and He destroyed everything in
His power to condemn us, and He done it for those whom He
has elected, and He made them to know Him through His calling.
Not by power, not by might, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.
And look with me in Luke 19 just a moment. I'm going to go through
a few callings here and see if we can make our calling and election
sure. Look in Luke 19 with me just
a moment. Everybody here knows about Zacchaeus, how that he
and our Lord was going through Jericho, and there's a man named
Zacchaeus which climbed up into a tree. Wanted to see him, he's
a little bitty fellow, very short in stature. Ran up and climbed
into a sycamore tree because the Lord was fixing to come that
way. And oh, I tell you what, this calling, it convinces of
sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Make it sure. Make it sure to yourself. Here's
the first thing about it. It's a call to come down. Look
what he said there in verse five. And when Jesus came to the place,
he looked up and saw him and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make
haste and come down. That's the first thing he does,
come down. Come down from that high opinion of yourself. Come
down from the high opinion of others about yourself. And it's
a humbling call, a humiliating call. Come down! Come down! Preachers
in the day time to get folks to stand up for God. Stand up
and give Jesus a hand clap. Stand up and lift your hands
before God. And the Scriptures tell men to
do everything else but that. To come down! Come down! Oh my, telling men to patronize
God. And, O Beloved, come down, come
down from your good work, come down from your self-seeking,
come down from your pride, come down from your morality. And, O Beloved, come down. And look what else. It's not
only a humbling call to come down, but look what else it says
there in that verse in verse 5. And make haste, for today
I must abide at thy house. It was an affectionate call.
I'm going to abide at your house. I will go home with you today. I wouldn't invite myself to your
house for nothing. I wouldn't just say, I'm going
to go home and eat dinner with you today. You know, I wouldn't say, I'm
going to go to your house. I wouldn't do that. But the Lord Jesus can.
And when He does, you're tickled to death that He did. Ain't that
right? And look what they said about
him down there in verse 7. And when they saw it, they all
murmured, saying that he's going to be guest with a man that is
a sinner. That's who Christ goes home with.
He goes home with sinners. Oh, beloved, it's an affectionate
call. And then it's an abiding call. Look what else he says
there in verse 5. It's an abiding call today. I must abide. I must
abide. at your house. I must abide."
And, oh, as he called, are you grateful that the Lord come and
that He humbled you, brought you down? And then look in John
11 for you. Let me show you. Oh, what a call.
Come down. And, you know, once God brings
us down, and then this calling, as old Scott Richardson said,
you know, God makes your headquarters in the dust, and that's where
you stay. Make your headquarters in the dust. And that's one of
the things that grieves us about ourselves more than anything,
than making our calling and election sure. When we find ourselves
lifting ourselves up, find ourselves imagining ourselves to be something
when we're nothing, that's why it says, come down. And it's
a constant, constant coming down. Look in John 11, verse 43. You know, everybody here knows
the story of Lazarus. How did he die? And he was buried.
He had been buried four days. And, oh, my, they came, and his
sisters were so upset and so heartbroken. And our Lord Jesus
Christ stood outside the grave, and he says this in verse 43,
after he had prayed for his father. And he done it just so everybody
would know that they had sinned. And when he had thus spoken,
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. Not only is it a
call to come down, but it's a call to come forth. Lazarus dwelt
in the grave of sin. He dwelt among the dead. He dwelt
in darkness. And he was corrupt, said, Oh,
Lord, don't take that stone away. He's dead and he's corrupt and
he stinks. And ain't that the condition
we were in? Dead in darkness and dwelt among the dead and
corruption. And we were so corrupt that we
stunk. Stunk. And then he says, come
forth. Who did he come forth to? Came
forth to Christ. Christ called him. came forth
to the light, came forth to Christ, who is the light, came forth
to an open confession and allegiance to Christ. Look what is said
here in John chapter 12 and verse 1. He came forth to an open confession
and allegiance to the Lord Jesus. He said here in verse 1, Then
Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus
was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There
they made him a supper, and Martha served. But Lazarus was one of
them that sat at the table with him. He came forth to Christ. Now he wants to be with Christ.
He wants to be around Christ. And, oh, beloved, it's a call
to come forth. A call to come down. A call to
come forth out of the dead. A call to humble ourselves. And
then it's a call to come in. Come in where? You know, when
God built the ark, when Noah built the ark, And Noah built
a ark. There was one door to get into
that ark. And the scripture says, you know, and most folks would
say, you know, you go into the ark. But the scripture says that
God stood there and says, Come thou into the ark. Come thou
into the ark. When he says come, now if I was
to tell you something, you know, I say go here or go there. But
he said come. That means that that's where
he was at. You come in here with me. You come in here where I'm
at. You come in here where there's
safety. You come in here where there's security. You come in
here where there's salvation. You come in here where judgment's
going to be born. You come in here where salvation
is sure and steadfast and the wrath and judgment of God will
fall on me and not on you. And oh beloved, and that's what
he means. Come in. Come in to the presence of Christ.
Come in to fellowship with God and His Son. Come in to the very
life of God that's in Christ. And, O beloved, come to the blessed
truths of the gospel, the truths of justification by faith, the
truth of forgiveness of sin through Christ in Him alone, the blessed
truth of God's absolute sovereignty. I mean, everything's of God. We
don't, you know, When I read this morning, the world's hurt,
God said, and He shakes the mountains and tears down some mountains.
I'll tell you, He tore down some mountains in Turkey this morning,
7.2 earthquake. That's what He means when He
tears down the mountains. He tears them down. He causes the
flood. I mean, He causes everything. And we're going to have to say,
God, it's you. There's nothing we can do about
it, but we got nobody to go to but you. And when you put your
hand in everything that goes on, you do it in wisdom, you
do it in righteousness, you do it in glory. And beloved, to
come to God's absolute sovereignty and believe it that there's not
anything in this world that God himself is not the first cause
of. He's the first cause of that
baby getting sick, just to assure you and I here. It's a great,
great sign of affliction. Oh, what a fire trap we're going
through. What a fire trap! That when God brings them forth
through that, they'll come forth as to the praise and glory of
Christ, and we cause how many people is prayin', prayin' earnestly
for? We wouldn't pray that way if
that baby wasn't seen. We take it for granted. We take
life for granted. We take joy for granted. We take
peace for granted. Until we see God's sovereignty
come down into our lives and bring some darkness and bring
some trouble. And then we start getting dead
earnest about praying then. Then we start getting concerned. Oh, to come to God's absolutely
sovereignty. That's a whole other ballgame
there. That's not an easy thing to come to, you know it. And
then come to Christ's eventual atonement? Oh, my, this is what
we've been called to. And Christ's atonement actually
atoned. And I mean, beloved, He didn't
just try to save you or me or somebody else, and His atonement
wasn't for everybody, but only for His elect. And that's why
the Lord Jesus says, Come unto Me, and I'll give you rest. And then look with me over in
Philippians 3, just a moment. Philippians 3. We'll find out when God's sovereignty
comes and brings these trials and brings these fears and brings
these anxieties into our hearts and into our lives. You know,
He holds the breath of every living soul. And, beloved, I
tell you, When he does that, we find out just how much we
fear him, we find out how much we love somebody, we find out
how helpless we really are, and how we can't change nothing.
But ain't you grateful? Now listen to me. Aren't you
grateful that you know this blessed fruit, so you can go to Him and
know Him, who is able to do all things, and can do it if He pleases? Would you hate to be in the arms
of chance, or fate, or Arminianism, where they say if something happens
bad in your life, it's God chastising you, it's God trying to get your
attention, God trying to make you show how much you need Him? No, no, ain't you grateful that
we know Him? And then look what it said here
in Philippians 3.14. We talk about a call. Call, come
down. Call, come forth. Call, come
in. Call now here to come up. Look
what it says here. I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. A high calling. Why does he call
it a high calling? Well, could you be called to
anything higher than being a believer? To knowing Christ? to having
fellowship with Christ, to enjoy Christ, to have this high calling
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ? I mean, we're called to high
call. And then look over here in 1 Timothy 1, verse 9. Here's
another. Not only is it a high calling,
but it's a holy calling. We're called to high things,
high doctrine, high truths. To a high profession, to a high
and holy God, to a high and holy Christ, to our high priest, we're
called to high things. And 2 Timothy 1, 9 says this,
God who has saved us called us with a holy calling. I mean,
God called us a holy calling. Only a holy God, He's the only
one who can do it. He calls us, not only is He holy,
but He calls us with a holy calling. I remember praying one time and
asking this question, because I started off in Pentecostalism.
I started off in this business of sanctification and living
holy lives and preaching holiness, what people call holiness. And
a man called the other day and wanted to talk to me because
he had heard a message on the spiritual gifts and wanted to
know the best. And Mary said, well, is he a
full gospel preacher? And Mary said, oh, now that he
knows that he meant that I'm a Pentecostal preacher. And I
said, no, he's not a full gospel preacher. I said, he's a preacher,
what? Charismatic. Charismatic. I said,
no, he's not a charismatic preacher. Maybe I'm a charismatic personality. I'm not a charismatic preacher. I'm not charismatic. But anyway,
the thing is that I remember holiness is something I do, or
holiness is something God does for me. And that back there is
the verse of Scripture God gave me to teach me the gospel. Open
my eyes to the truth of it. God has saved us and called us
with the holy calling, not according to our works. So this holiness
has nothing to do with us. And He called us to a holy calling.
And, O beloved, the holiness of God, the holiness of the Scripture,
the holiness of Christ. And then look at Hebrews 3.1.
Let me show you another, Jack, quick. Oh my, this calling. Make your
calling a lecture. And that's the first thing. The
answer's right in the verse of Scripture itself. Calling. And then look what it says here
in Hebrews 3.1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly
calling. High calling, holy calling, heavenly
calling. And you know why it's heavenly?
God's in heaven. Christ is in heaven. And we're
called to heavenly things, to consider heavenly things, consider
heavenly things in Christ. So it's high things, holy things,
heavenly things that this call calls us to. So I say our calling. I'll tell you something now,
back over in our text in 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 1. This call is to faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. This call is to faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It says there again in verse
one of chapter, first chapter here of 2 Peter, Simon Peter,
a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained
like precious faith. Precious faith. And, O beloved, we're called
to faith in Christ. We're not called to a creed,
not called to a position in doctrine. But we're called to a person.
To a person. To a person. And I wish folks
could understand this. I love doctrine. I love truth.
I love the blessed thing. But you take it away from Christ.
And what do you have? You take Christ out of election.
Then you're not chosen in Him. You're just elected. You take
Christ out of faith. And what do you have faith for?
You take Christ out of this calling, heavenly, high, holy calling.
What have you got? Skeletons, lifelessness. And
that's why the Scriptures, our Lord Jesus says that when He's
the Holy Spirit come, He shall receive of mine. And what will
He do? He'll show it unto you. What
is He going to show you about it? He's going to show you the
things of mine. What's mine? Well, the Scripture
says all things are His. The Father loved that the Son
had given all things unto His hand. He'll show you His glorious
person. Oh, what a glorious person Christ
is. We read this, somebody read it
last night, or I don't remember who read it, but it says this,
you know, this one thing, this one thing have I desired, that
I may dwell in the house of the Lord and behold the King in His
beauty. Behold the King in His beauty.
Is Christ a glorious person to you? Not just a Savior, but I
mean His person. You know, there's people that
you really, really thank the world. And I mean, boy, you just...
Well, this person, this is the Lord Jesus Christ. His person
is who we love. His person's who we know. And
what about His work? If He wasn't who He was, His
work would... But His work, because of who
He was, He shows us His work of redeeming sinners, His work
of substitution. And, oh, beloved, I tell you,
Any preaching, any preaching by anybody that leads you to
look away from any, to look to anything, whether it's a spiritual
gift, being baptized with the Holy Spirit to a higher life,
or anything that takes you off of Christ, anything better than
salvation and trust in Christ is not the preaching of the Holy
Spirit. You're complete in Him. You're complete in Him. And,
O beloved, we see by faith the Lord Jesus Christ, who God revealed
unto us. And then look here with me then
in verse 5. Be diligent to make your calling
and election sure. And we claim election, how the
only way you can know is by your calling. And look what he said
here. Well, you've got these great
and precious promises. And by these great and precious
promises, by God giving you everything that pertains to life and godliness
through knowing God, knowing Christ, and because we're partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruptions in the
world through lust, and besides all these promises, because this
life that we've given, because of this calling, besides this,
giving all diligence, don't be lazy about it, add to your faith,
Add to your faith. Be sure your faith results from
necessity. Can you not believe on Christ?
When you come to Christ, you come because you can't do anything
else. You believe because you cannot
do anything else but believe. And that's what his faith he's
talking about, too. When you cannot do nothing but
believe, then he says, add to your faith. Add to your faith. Virtue. What's virtue here? Well,
it means a moral goodness, not your moral goodness, and only
in the sense that you make impression on other people by your character
and by your conduct. You know, he says, the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, and against such there is no law. And when folks behold
these things in you, that's virtue. And then add to your faith virtue
and the virtue knowledge. What knowledge is he talking
about here? Well, knowledge of the will of God, knowledge of
the Word of God, knowledge of God's will that we may do it,
knowledge of the scriptures that we may walk in them, knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified, knowledge of the
blessed doctrines of God's grace, and then as a knowledge, temperance.
You know what temperance means here? It means take heed to your body.
Don't be excessive in what you do with your body. And then take
heed to your soul. Be temperate to your soul, what
you do for your soul. Don't be lifted up with pride
and self-confidence. Be temperate in your conversation.
Be temperate in your life. Be temperate in how you think
and where you go and what you do. And then add to temperance
patience. You know, patience doesn't mean
just like you're sitting in a doctor's office and you have to wait two
or three hours. That's not the patience he's talking about here.
The patience he's talking about here is just going on about your
life and whatever's going on, you just go on with it, knowing
that God will do what's necessary. Patience. Oh, my, when you're
faced with trials, you need patience. When you're faced with reproach,
you need patience. When you've got trouble in yourselves
and you feel like you've got no reason to go on, you've got
to be patient. When you've got so many things
wrong with yourself, you've got to be patient. God will work
and continue to work. It's just waiting on God is what
it amounts to. And then after patience, godliness.
And all this means here is the fear of God, the fear of the
Lord. The fear of the Lord. Godliness is the fear of God. I've been trying to pray for
my family now, my children especially. Put the fear of God in them.
If He ever puts His fear in them, I believe that they'll come running
in here and sit down, and they may not tell you they have the
fear of God in them, but they'll come and want to know what God's
got to say. Put the fear of God in them.
And oh, God put His fear in us. It's the fear of the Lord. It's
the inward and outward worship of God. And oh, beloved, And
then look what he says, not only godliness, then brotherly kindness. And I know without brotherly
kindness, godliness won't amount to anything. You can have all
kinds of religious professions, it's just a vain show without
brotherly kindness. Being kind to one another. And
then look what he says, charity. Charity. And all that word charity, we
know what it means. It means love. Charity to all
people, even our enemies. Love them that hate you and despitefully
use you. And Beloved, he says there in
verse eight, For if these things be in you and abound, what things?
Virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly
kindness, charity. If these things be in you and
abound, They make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful."
Now watch this, unfruitful in what? In the knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what this calling's about.
Oh my, these qualities are ours and they increase in us and they'll
keep us from being empty and unspiritual. in our spiritual
life. But look what it says there in
verse 9. This is a quickening here, and folks always read this
and they wonder what can it mean. But he that lacketh these things
is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that
he was purged from his old sins. Now let me give you some illustrations
of people just like that. You remember when David took
Bathsheba, and then he killed Uriah? Nathan came to him and
began to tell David, he says, this man, wealthy, wealthy man,
had everything that there was, but there was a fellow, one of
his servants, had a little ewe lamb just like his child. And
when somebody came, he said he took that ewe lamb away from
that man and slayed it to feed that wealthy man, to feed his
neighbor, his friend that came in there. He said, what do you
think ought to be done to a man like that? First thing, David
said that he ought to die. David had already forgot. And Nathan said, you're that
man. That's what that means right there. We can get in such a state
and get so cold and so lifeless and so self-righteous and so
far away that we can actually forget how far God has brought
us from. Do you ever feel like you've
got that cold? And got that indifferent? I have. I have. And I'll tell you again, I pray
that none of you ever get in the spiritual condition I get
sometimes. I hope you never do. Oh, beloved, and I'll tell you
another one, Simon Peter. You're going to deny me. Oh,
no, no, no, no, not me. Not me. Not me. And that's why
it goes on to say that he's blind. He can't see afar off. As far
as he can see is where he's at right now, what's going on right
now, what's happening right now. And he's forgetting as he looks
and he judges and he finds this rat, and then he gets involved
in this, that and the other, and then first thing you know,
he's forgotten that God purged him from his old sin. And that's
why it says, word for the brethren, Give diligence to make your calling
and election sure." And then he says what he says in verse
11, "'For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you,' and
what he means here, an abundance entrance into what? Into the
everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those by their
diligence making their calling and election sure will have an
abundant supply of grace and mercy given to them, abundance
of grace and strength given to them, to help them through this
life and help them through what goes on. And when this life is
over, there will be a triumphant entrance into the kingdom of
our Lord Jesus Christ forever. So make your calling and election
sure. And, beloved, I want to know,
and I've said this before and I know you say it too, I want
to know that I know Christ. I do not want to miss Christ. I don't want to miss Him. I may
miss the doctrine, I may miss step, I may fall into the grievous sin, But I want to know Christ. I
want to know Him. And I want to know that I know
Him. I don't want to get to the end of this life and then say,
do I really know Him? I want to know Him. I want to
know Him. Make your calling and election
sure.