All right, if you'll look over
in 2 Peter 1, I've gone through these first verses in the book
of 2 Peter, where the apostle Peter is encouraging believers
who have been brought, who have obtained, as he said in verse
one, like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, He lays the foundation
of our salvation. The ground of our salvation is
the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. His
righteousness imputed to us. What is his righteousness? It's
the merit of his obedience unto death as our surety. The one
upon whom God charged our sins. before the foundation of the
world and the everlasting covenant of grace. And he came to this
earth and stood in the place of his people as our substitute,
dying on the cross to put away our sins, to pay that debt to
God's law and justice. He was buried, he arose again
the third day because out of his death comes life, comes righteousness,
whereby we stand before God forgiven of our sins and justified in
his sight. All of that. His merits, His
blood, His righteousness is the ground of our salvation and because
of that God lays within the hearts of His people in the new birth
the foundation of faith bringing us to look to Christ, look away
from ourselves, Now, in verse 10, look at 2 Peter chapter one
and verse 10. This is the main verse that I'm
going to go with, but I'm going to do some verses around it too.
He says in verse 10, wherefore, or for this reason, the rather
brethren give diligence. Now listen to this, he says,
to make your calling and your election sure. For if you do
these things, you shall never fall. Now that's an exercise
that we're to engage ourselves in if we claim to be believers,
if we claim to be followers of Christ, be diligent to make our
calling and our election sure. Now the doctrine of God's sovereign,
unconditional election of sinners to salvation. is probably one
of the most hated and denied and even feared doctrines, even
amongst many who call themselves Christian today. I've had people,
you know, when I deal with election, God's electing grace, and I'm
gonna tell you right up, I love the doctrine of election. I love
the preaching of election because I know if God had not chosen
me, I would have never chosen him. election out of God alone
in his electing grace is the source of salvation, election
is unto salvation, election is in Christ and so people today,
I've had people when I preach this on our television message
say they don't like it, they don't believe it, they think
it's unfair and unjust And they just cannot perceive of a God
who would choose some to salvation and leave others to perish in
their sins. And the objections come. That's not just, that's
not fair. The problem they have is that
the Bible, God's word, clearly and often states that salvation
has its origin in God's purpose to save a people whom he chooses. unconditionally in and by the
Lord Jesus Christ and He does not choose everyone without exception
for salvation. Now the Bible tells us that and
there's an obvious problem with those who deny or even ignore
the doctrine of election and one of the examples of that problem
is right here. God commands, give diligence
to make your calling and election sure. Now, how can we give diligence
to make our calling and our election sure if we deny election? I'm
trying to make sure something that I deny? That doesn't make
any sense. The Bible speaks of men and women
as being in either one of two categories. You can read about
this in Romans 9, 22, and 23. We're either vessels of wrath
fitted for destruction or vessels of mercy aforetime prepared for
glory. That's what it says. You say,
well, I don't like that. Well, that doesn't matter. And
you may get mad at me, but I'm just telling you what the Bible
says. Your argument's really not with me, it's with God. Take
it up with him. The gospel message, but now here's
the thing, and I want you to notice this. The gospel message,
the preaching of the gospel, the evangelion, as they say,
that's the good news. We go into all the world and
preach the gospel. You know, people have all kinds
of sinful reasoning in their mind when they hear the doctrine
of election. They'll say, well, if I believe that God only elected
some, then why preach to everybody? Well, God says to preach to everybody.
But here's what you need to understand. The gospel message does not address
men and women as elect or non-elect. It addresses all men and women
as sinners in need of God's sovereign mercy and grace in Christ Jesus. In need of his blood to cleanse
me from all my sins. In need of his righteousness
to justify me. That's who I am. I'm one in need. I'm in need of his power and
his will to regenerate me. My will won't do it. If left
to myself, I will not choose him. I'm in need. That's how
the gospel address, we're sinners. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. So the question we have to ask
ourselves is this, am I a sinner? Am I one who is in need of a
righteousness that I cannot produce? and cannot contribute to? Am
I in need of forgiveness which I cannot earn and cannot deserve? Do I see my need for Christ as
He's revealed in God's word, the true Christ, the one who
is God manifest in the flesh, the one who came to die for His
sheep, as He said, for His sheep alone, not for everybody without
exception. If He died for everyone without
exception, that doesn't meet my need as a sinner. because
if he died for everybody without exception upon condition of our
doing our part, we're doomed. That's what the scripture teaches.
Do I see my need of Christ, God manifest in the flesh as the
surety, the substitute, the redeemer of his people who met every condition
for my salvation and secured it. as he's revealed in God's
Word. Do I want to be saved? But not
only do I want to be saved, do I want to be saved God's way
or do I want my way? The Bible says in John 6, 45
that God draws all his people unto himself and he teaches them
his way in Christ. It's by his grace. And to all
who come to him for salvation, you know what God says of them?
They're his chosen people. They're the elect. Who are the
elect? They're believers. Do you believe
the gospel? That's what you need. The first
question you need to ask yourself is not, am I one of God's elect
or am I not? The question you need to ask
yourself is, am I believer or am I an unbeliever? He says here
in verse 10, wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make
what? Your calling. Calling comes first
here, that's significant. And then your election sure.
He doesn't say make your election and then your calling. You see
first, let me make this point. This is not speaking of us making
our calling and election sure as if to make our salvation sure.
We can't do that, God already did that. If that were the case,
the only thing that could be sure is our failure. We're not
the surety of our salvation. Our faith is not the surety of
our salvation. Our repentance is not the surety
of our salvation. Our obedience and our works,
they're not the surety of our salvation. The surety of our
salvation is Christ. Believers are sinners saved by
grace, and salvation can only be made sure in its effectiveness
and in its continuance through Christ, our surety. He's called
the surety of the covenant. Everything in that covenant is
made sure and certain because all the promises of God are in
him, yea, and in him, amen. King David on his deathbed in
2nd Samuel 23, he said, although my house be not so with God,
God has made a covenant with me that is ordered and sure in
all things. And this is all my hope and all
my joy, all my salvation. Well, David wasn't speaking of
himself as the surety. He wasn't saying that it was
ordered in all things and sure because I've been so good or
I've done what was necessary or I've done what was needed.
No, it was ordered in all things because God ordered it and it
was sure because Christ is the surety of it. What can wash away
my sins? Nothing but the blood of Christ.
You see, there's nothing that I do or that I'm unable to do
that makes the forgiveness of my sins sure. You know what makes
the forgiveness of my sins sure? The blood of Christ. He died
for me. So this is not speaking of us
making our salvation sure. If we do what's necessary, it's
looking to Christ. We're commanded here to be sure
that we're objects of God's electing grace and sovereign mercy. How? How can I know that I'm one of
God's elect? How can I know that I'm one whose
name was written in the Lamb's book of life? Written there before
the foundation of the world. The Lamb that was slain. How
can I know that God chose me? Well, how? He says it right here.
Make your calling and election sure. or make every effort to
confirm your calling and your election. So we have to first
deal with the matter of our calling before we can know our election
or rightly and scripturally claim to be one of God's elect. And
what is a believer's calling, a true believer's calling? It's
God drawing him to salvation through Christ. Over in the book
of Romans chapter eight, You wanna look at that with me. Look
at verse 28, Romans 8, 28. He says, and we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God. Now the
Bible teaches us that no person, no human being fallen in Adam
by nature loves God. The love of God has to be shed
abroad in a sinner's heart by the Holy Spirit in the new birth
as that sinner is drawn to Christ. That's how the love of God is
shed abroad. You see, this is not human love. This is godly
love to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. And what is his purpose? It's
not to glorify you or me, not to make us feel good, it's to
glorify himself in Christ. In verse 29, he says, for whom
he did foreknow, that means whom he did foreordain, he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, so that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called. In other words,
if he predestinated you unto salvation, if he elected you,
if he loved you, he's gonna call you. and whom He called them,
He also justified. Our justification before God
is evidenced by our calling unto Christ. What is it to be justified? It's to be forgiven of our sins
based on the blood of Christ. It's to be justified, accepted
with God, fully exonerated, fully blessed based upon Christ's righteousness
imputed to us. and whom he justified, he also
glorified." You see there, that's that calling. And we could go
on and on with this. The calling, it's a powerful,
make your calling sure. What is this calling? It's the
powerful, invincible calling of God by the Holy Spirit that
results in, by the power of God, bringing sinners to receive Christ,
to believe in Him, to rest in Him for all salvation. to submit
to him as their righteousness before God. It's the calling
of God in the gospel, the truth. You see, this calling, he says,
make your calling sure. You know, a lot of people, even
many people who come to what we call a knowledge of sovereign
grace, they'll claim to have been saved under the calling
of a lie. A false gospel, a gospel of works
and conditions and freewillism. Well, if that's your calling,
you're just fooling yourself. The calling is the calling of
the Spirit through the preaching of the truth. Paul wrote in Romans
1 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and to the Greek also, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. That doesn't come under the preaching
of a lie. That doesn't come under the preaching
of what some people call Arminianism. Freewillism, that's a lie. That's a false Christ. That's
a false salvation. Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians
2 in verse 13, he says, we're bound to give thanks, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath chosen you from the
beginning through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel, the gospel wherein
the righteousness of God is revealed. In the book of 2 Corinthians
chapter 13 and verse 5, we're commanded to examine ourselves
whether we be in the faith. What is the faith? It's the gospel,
not a lie, not a false gospel. The calling here is the calling
of God by the Spirit through the preaching of the gospel.
That's what he said in 1 Corinthians 1 that I read at the beginning.
Under you which are called. And this calling, it comes in
and by the new birth. Look at John chapter one. Listen to these verses. This
is so significant, people just don't believe it. He says in
verse 11, talking about Christ, John 1, 11, Christ came unto
his own and his own received him not. Now that's the nature
of man. Some people say he's talking
about the Jews there, the unbelieving Jews, and they're included. He
came unto his own and his own received him not. The natural
man, 1 Corinthians 2, 14, receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. But look at verse 12. but as many as received him. Now he came unto his own and
his own received him not. They didn't receive him, that's
us by nature. But as many as received him,
there's some who've received him. To them gave he power, and
the word power there is not ability, it means a right. He gave them
the right, the title, the privilege to become or to be called the
sons of God. What right or privilege do I
have to call myself a son of God? And he says, even to them
that believe on his name. That's believing. Now, how did
they come to believe and the others wouldn't receive him?
Were they better people? Those who received him, were
they better than the ones who didn't receive him? Well, if
salvation is conditioned on us, upon our believing, then we'd
have to really say yes. We were less obstinate. We were
less rebellious. We were less unbelieving. We made the right choice. They
made the wrong, but that's not the case. Look at verse 13. Those
who received him, who have the right to be called the sons of
God, who believe on his name, they were born, which were born,
not of blood, not of physical birth and pedigree, Nor the will
of the flesh, I believe that means the works of the flesh,
not of the works, you weren't born by physical pedigree, and
that was significant for the Jews because they claimed to
be children of Abraham, well that's not what brought you to
faith in Christ. And it wasn't by the works of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, it wasn't your will, it
wasn't your choice that caused you to be born again, but you
were born of God, that's what it says. Christ said in John
3, you must be born again or you cannot see the kingdom of
heaven. You can't understand it. You
can't value it. You can't judge it or estimate
it rightly. There was a book written years
ago on how to be born again. And the basic lesson of that
book was, here's how you're born again. You believe, you make
the choice, you make the decision, and then you're born again. That
is not what the Bible teaches. If that is your calling, it's
not the calling of God's elect. And if you claim that that gives
you assurance of salvation, you're standing on the sand on the sinking sand. You see,
this is a calling. Listen, this calling that Peter's
talking about is the calling of the Spirit through the preaching
of the gospel that cannot be refused. Why? Because it's the power of God
in the salvation. It's the power of the Spirit.
It's the convicting, convincing work of the Spirit by which he
brings sinners who by nature are spiritually dead and unwilling.
He gives them life. He gives them a new heart. God
said in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, I'll cause them to walk in
my statues. He brings us to faith in Christ
and repentance of dead works. This is what he talked about
over here in 2 Peter 1. Verse one, Simon Peter, a servant
and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like
precious faith. It's a gift. It's obtained. It's not worked up in you. It's
not stirred up within you by some flowery preacher or emotion. It's obtained by the grace of
God through Christ. And he says it. You've obtained
like precious faith, faith is the gift of God, with us through
the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. It's
because God has chosen us from the beginning, Christ redeemed
us, we're justified in that we obtain this faith through the
Holy Spirit who gives us life. And look at what he says in verse
three. According as his divine power, not your free will, not
your own power, but his divine power. He has given unto us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge
of him, which hath called us to glory and virtue." And how's
that knowledge come? It's not natural. By nature,
we don't know God. By nature, we won't receive Christ.
That knowledge comes by the Spirit revealing Christ to us. He reveals
who God is and who we are and who Christ is and our need of
him. So when we look at passages like this, 2 Peter 1.10, give
diligence to make our calling and election sure. Here's what
we need to be concerned with. It's not necessarily saying,
am I one of God's elect or not? No, here's what I need to be
concerned with. Here's what you need to be concerned
with. Do you believe the true gospel? Do I really believe in
Christ? Do I really know that He is the
Lord my righteousness? Can I sing with full knowledge,
revealed knowledge, that my hope is built on nothing less than
Jesus' blood and righteousness, and I dare not trust the sweetest
frame? but holy lean on Jesus' name,
on Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
Is that what I believe? Because that's the evidence of
being one of God's, that's the evidence of salvation. If I do
believe that, as the scriptures assure us, then my election was
of God before the world began. And I know this because my calling
was of God to faith in Christ. I would not have come to Christ
apart from his irresistible, invincible calling. Now, in 2
Peter 1, he shows us that this powerful
calling, whereby we know God's election of us is accompanied
with godly virtues given to us in our salvation. And that's
what I dealt with last week. Look at it in verse five, beside
this, And that means, and I made the point that this is not talking
about, he says, beside this, giving all diligence, add to
your faith, virtue. He's not talking about we add
by our power or our, once we're saved or once we're called, that
we add onto what God left out. That's not what he's talking
about here. The words here mean that we are to work out of what
we have been freely given. That's what he's saying. In other
words, take the arsenal, take the equipment, the furnishings
that God has freely and fully given you out of His grace through
the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, and
you operate out of that, add virtue to your faith, that's
godliness, and to virtue add knowledge, all of this. Knowledge,
temperance, temperance, patience, patience, godliness. I went through
all these things last week. Get that message if you missed
it. To godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity,
love. And here's a list of spiritual
qualities that all believers should be diligent to cultivate
in our lives because they're given to us by God through Christ.
These are not grounds of our salvation. These are not causes. of our salvation. These are not
conditions of our salvation. These are not things we do in
order to earn favor from God. These are not things we do in
order to earn his blessings. They're all freely given. These
are not things that make us righteous in God's sight. Christ is our
righteousness. These things don't even add to
his righteousness. They're not part of the righteousness
by which God justifies me and gives me life. They are not any
part of a righteousness within us, because none of these things
we find in ourselves in perfection as far as our operating them. In other words, I wanna be virtuous,
but my virtue, which God has given me, as it comes through
me, and there's that warfare of the flesh and the spirit,
It is not equal to the perfection of righteousness that I can only
find in Christ. My knowledge is yet incomplete. Temperance, godliness, brotherly
kindness and charity, these things, see, these things are not my
righteousness before God. They are accepted with God because
like myself, they're washed in the blood and presented to him
for his glory. But look at the next verse, look
at verse eight. He says, 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. These things do
accompany a sincere God-given faith in Christ. And notice what
he says here. He says, and if these things
be in you, he doesn't say now if you do these things, He says, if they're in you, if
they're in you, you know that they were not in you naturally,
not this kind of virtue, knowledge, temperance, all of these things. They're not in any center naturally.
If they're in you, you know, they were put there by God. They're
the fruit of his grace in Christ. You know that they're not works
by which you gain or earn God's favor and blessings. You know
they're not works by which you're made righteous. You know that
your exercise of any of these things still falls short of the
perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ.
But he says, they do make you that you shall neither be barren
nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The
knowledge we have of Christ, who he is, what he did, why he
did it, where he is now, his resurrection, his righteousness
imputed to us, that knowledge, the peace that we have with God,
reconciled to God through his righteousness, by his grace,
blessed of God, that knowledge will make us fruitful to the
praise of the glory of his grace. That's what he's saying. This
is bearing the fruit of faith. But verse nine, he says, but
he that lacketh these things, verse nine, is blind, cannot
see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old
sins. Now, first of all, the Bible
is clear that anyone who has been truly purged from his sins
by the Lord on that cross, Anyone for whom Christ died, anyone
whom Christ redeemed is and always will be saved. Christ did not die for any, He
did not purge any sins, old, present or new, of anybody who
perishes in those sins. If He purged my sins, my sins
are gone. They cannot be charged to me,
you see that? It cannot be lost because Christ
is my surety. Christ is my substitute. Christ
is my redeemer. Christ is my intercessor. His
blood has paid the price. Our sins cannot be charged. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that
justifies. Who can condemn us? Christ that
died, risen again. So I'll say this, commentators
will differ on this, but anybody who uses that verse to say, well,
that a believer for whom Christ, one for whom Christ died can
be lost and die in his sins, that's not what this verse teaches. You're taking it out of its context,
that's not what Peter's saying. But some commentators say, well,
he's talking about a believer who has strayed, lost sight of,
That word where it says he's blind and cannot see far off,
we get the word myopic. It's like he's nearsighted, but
he doesn't see far away. That's what I am, why I have
to wear either contacts or glasses, because I can't see far away.
Anyway, some commentators say he's talking about a believer
who's lost sight of the glorious fact that he's been purged. from all his sins. And believers
can do that. If Peter is describing a believer,
he's describing one who strayed from the diligence that he spoke
of earlier. He's short-sighted. He's looking
on things of this present time and not in view of eternity.
And what does he need? Wherefore the rather, brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Now there
are some commentators who, gospel commentators who look at this
verse and say Peter's describing an unbeliever who merely professes
or claims to have been purged from his old sins. He's a false
professor who merely claims to be purged from his own sin, but
whose claim is empty and false because his faith is not accompanied
by this fruit or the works. James spoke of that in James
chapter two. Beginning, I believe, at verse
14, he says, when he talks about works, faith without works is
dead. Not talking about works as the ground of our assurance
or the ground of our salvation, but works as the proof of our
faith. Do I really believe in Christ?
Do I really love him? Do I really follow him? Do I
really have a desire to be like him? See, that's the issue there.
But either way, Let me make this clear. The only evidence of salvation,
friend, is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The issue in making
our calling and election sure is not looking within ourselves
to find evidence. The issue is looking to and resting
in Christ as our whole salvation, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. But we do have to ask ourselves,
is our faith in Christ real? Is it valid? or is it just a
false, empty claim? Is it a true God-given faith?
How do we know that our faith is truly God-given faith? Worked in us by His Spirit, bringing
us to Christ for all salvation. It's not by searching within
ourselves to see if we measure up in any of these areas of godliness.
We don't. Our love for Christ and for His
people it still falls short of the standard of righteousness
that can only be found in Christ. And we always know that we cannot
achieve, no matter how diligent we are, and we ought to be diligent. There's no doubt about that.
When it comes to these things, listen to what he says here.
He says in verse 10, wherefore the rather give diligence to
make your calling and election sure, for if you do all these
things, you shall never fall. Why will we never fall? Because
God preserves us this way. And he says in verse 11, for
so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the
everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And
so he says in verse 12, 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. I'm going to keep
telling you about salvation by God's grace in Christ. Yes, we're to be diligent, to
be virtuous, to be loving, to be kind, all these things. But
we have to always know that we cannot achieve the perfection
of righteousness. With our diligent and sincere
efforts to live godly life, perfection of righteousness can only be
found in Christ. Now, who is your righteousness? Who is your sanctification, your
wisdom? Who is your redemption? Who is
your salvation? Who is your assurance? It's Christ. But knowing we have this perfection
in Christ, being reminded of that, who Christ is and what
he's done and why he did it, where he is now, as evidenced
by our faith in him, that's what stirs us up in the diligence
of godliness which God has given and put within us to be fruitful. That's what does it. That's our
motivation, you see, in all these things. So understand this now. The only real evidence of salvation
is faith in Christ. Do I know him? Do I trust him? Do I believe in him? Is he all
my salvation and all my righteousness? That's the evidence that I'm
one of God's elect. All right.