Let's open our Bibles again to
2 Peter 1. The title of the message is Give Diligence to These Things. I was sitting here thinking about
the title. I thought people were going to
think, boy, Frank's going to put a burden on me. Something
I've got to be diligent about. I'm going to have to work up
this diligence. That's not the point of this at all. The point
of the message, the point of this diligence that Peter talks
about here in his epistle is that you may be fruitful and
that you have the assurance of faith. That's the purpose of
this diligence that he speaks of. Now, we saw in the past couple
of weeks that the first four verses of 2 Peter are all one
sentence. And we've seen in that sentence
that God has given his people the gift of light, precious faith.
But now that faith does not stand alone. Faith is justified before
men by our works. That's what we read to open the
service in James chapter 2. And also in this first sentence,
we've seen that when God gives his people life in the new birth,
he makes us partakers of the divine nature. Now that's a sentence,
isn't it? I mean, that sentence is a mouthful. God gives us faith and he makes
us partakers of his nature. But now this life that God gives,
just like faith, it's a gift. It's a gift of God. And this
life is begun. Faith is begun in a believer.
But now don't stop there. Don't stop there. We need to
seek maturity and growth in grace. It's good that you're a babe
in Christ. I'm thankful that you're a babe
in Christ. I'm thankful for God's mercy.
But now don't stay there. Don't stay a babe. We don't want
our children staying babes. We want them to grow. Well, God's
children should seek to grow from a babe in Christ to be a
young man, a young woman in Christ, and then seek to become an old
man, an old woman in Christ in the faith. We should give diligence
to growing more mature, growing in grace. Give diligence to pressing
on for the mark for the prize of the high calling in Christ
Jesus. Now, our text begins in verse 5, where Peter says, and
besides this, giving all diligence Now if you look in 2 Corinthians
chapter 8, this diligence that we're going to look at, diligence
is actually one of the graces that God gives His people. In 2 Corinthians 8 verse 7, Therefore as ye abound in everything,
in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, and in all diligence, and in
your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. Paul
writing to the Corinthians about the grace of giving, but these
things he's writing about, faith, utterance, knowledge, love, they're
all graces, just like diligence. He includes it in the graces
of God. So, this diligence is not a work
that we've got to muster up in ourselves. It's a grace. It's
one of the graces that God puts in His people. But now at the
same time, this is a grace God puts in His people. At the same
time, we're to be serious about this matter of growing in grace
and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word that Peter uses,
diligence, means to make haste or to be earnest. It's the same
root word as the word our Lord used when he told Zacchaeus,
make haste and come down. It's the same root word as this
word, diligence. When our Lord says, Zacchaeus,
you make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy
house. But Zacchaeus skedaddled down that tree. I mean, he got
down that tree in a hurry. He made haste. But he was also
earnest to climb down quickly without slipping. He made haste. He's very earnest about this
thing coming down because the Lord's going to go to his house.
And this is what Peter is telling us. Make haste about these things. Now, be serious about them. Don't
just treat these things as something that's not important. Make haste. Be serious about them. These
things that Peter is going to talk to us about are important
because faith without works is dead faith that can't save anybody. So Peter says give diligence
to add. Does that sound like he's getting
ready to tell us about works? Give diligence to add these things.
Add some things to your faith. Well, he's not talking about
works. He's not telling us something that we have to do. This addition
is an increase that God must give. If there's going to be
an increase, God must give it. If there's going to be an addition,
you can rest assured God gave it, because we can't create that
addition. Yet, we are to seek the Lord in these things. Why
not just sit around and say, well, you know, God will add
these things to me if he wants to. No, we're to seek them. We're
to diligently seek these things. You know, it should not surprise
us that the more we seek the Lord, the more of these graces
he adds to us. That's not surprising at all.
Now John Gill says all these things that Peter lists here
to be added to our faith, Gill says they're the chorus of faith.
This is the chorus that goes along with the verses of faith.
So Peter says, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue. Now
virtue, you know, we hear that word, we think of morality. It
means that, but it means more than that. It means Christian
virtue. Christian virtue really encompasses
all the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
goodness, faith, meekness, all these things are included in
Christian morality. And virtue also means courage
and strength of your faith. And that certainly fits because
the stronger our faith is, the more we'll love others. The stronger
our faith is, the more faith we have in the Lord Jesus Christ,
The more long-suffering we'll be with one another. The stronger
our faith is, the more gentle and meek that we'll be. So this
virtue is all the good fruits of the Spirit. Now see that you
add virtue to your faith. Well, now, how do I do that?
By asking God for it. Be diligent. Ask God to give
you this virtue because the increase is going to come from Him. So
add to your faith virtue and to your virtue knowledge. Now
this knowledge means more than just knowing things. It means
understanding. There are lots of things that
I know, I've read about in a book or some teacher told me, I don't
understand at all. I mean I could recite them back
to you but I don't understand. This knowledge means an understanding.
Now a believer already knows who God is. You already know
who Christ is. So what Peter is talking about
here is a knowledge. an understanding of God's Word
and God's will. And we gain that knowledge, we
gain that understanding by reading God's Word and hearing God's
Word preached. And that takes diligence. Now,
I mean, that just takes an effort, doesn't it? For you all to get
here on a Wednesday night especially, I mean, every service, but it
seems like on a Wednesday night, now you've got to put forth some
effort into this thing to get here, don't you? I mean, you're
out working all day, I understand. It takes effort, but it's worth
it because this is where God gives understanding. This is
where God's word is preached, and this is where he's going
to give this knowledge, this game. This is how his sheep are
going to be fed and grow through the preaching of the word. So
give diligence to this. Give diligence to God's word.
Give diligence to the preaching of God's word. Set your affection. on things above. Now, I'm not
telling you to completely ignore the life and the responsibilities
that you have in this world. Take care of those things, but
set your affection on things above. Set your affection on
God's Word and earnestly be diligent about asking God to bless His
Word to you. Asking to. You'd be shocked how
often He does. Before the service, you ask God
to give you a blessing from His Word. You'd be surprised how
often He does it. Be diligent about this. It adds to your knowledge
temperance. A temperance of self-control.
Now, there are so many things to be enjoyed in this world.
And I hope that I never become a grouchy old man that just hates
everything about the world. There are good things to be enjoyed
in this world. Enjoy them. You believers, they're
for you. God provided these things for
you, his children, on this earth. So enjoy them. in their place. Enjoy them in moderation. Don't
get carried away with any particular thing or enjoyment in this world.
Don't get carried away with it. I still think, as much as I've
read on this, I've never heard a better definition of this than
what John Chapman gives. John says use those things and
don't let them use you. That's temperance. That's self-control. And if you're going to be addicted
to anything, Be addicted to the gospel, like the house of Stephanas
was in 1 Corinthians 16. Be diligent about this. Be earnest
about using all these things, all these blessings that God
gives you to enjoy in moderation. And then add to your temperance
patience. Now, patience. That's a tough one, isn't it?
Being patient. Patience is more than just suffering
silently. gritting your teeth and just
bearing through the trial until it's over. Patience is much more
than that. Patience is patiently waiting
on the Lord in all things, but especially in the time of trial.
Patiently waiting on the Lord. How can you patiently wait on
the Lord? Because you have faith. Remember, all these things are
what you add to your faith, right? Well, you have faith that believes
God. You have faith that more than
knows, understands. God's in control of all this.
He's working out all this for His glory and for my good. Well,
then I can patiently wait on the Lord. That's patiently waiting
on the Lord. It comes from knowledge. Patience
also includes patience with other people. Now, if I know who I
am and what I am and I understand this has come from that knowledge,
I understand how patient the Lord is with me every day. Well,
that'll help me be patient with other people, won't it? You know,
people may do things just to get under my skin. I'm just like
them. I probably get under their skin.
So, maybe if I'm patient with them, they'll be patient with
me. And this patience is also patience with myself. This is
the truth. I am my own biggest disappointment. I disappoint myself all the time. And you know what that does?
That keeps me looking to Christ, keeps me depending upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, because I'm so disappointed in myself. I know
I've got no reason to have any hope and dependence upon myself.
I'm always disappointed in myself, but I'll never be disappointed
in Christ. And as much as I'm disappointed
with myself, God will never be disappointed with me in his son. That's patience. That gives that
patience. Now be diligent to add this.
It'll give peace to your heart. It'll give you peace. Be diligent
to add patience. And to your patience, add godliness. Godliness. It's a fear of the
Lord, a reverence of the Lord in your heart. Not just some
outward kind of piety we show, but it's a reverence of the Lord
in our heart. And that reverence is in our
heart. If it's really in your heart, It'll show itself in how
you conduct yourself in this life. If I have a reverence,
a fear of the Lord in my heart, then I'm going to live my life
like all creation and every event of providence is of the Lord.
That's godliness. Well, now, if it's all the Lord's
and he's working all this after the counsel of his own will,
then I'm just not going to get too bent out of shape about it.
That's a godly walk with the Lord. Walking with the Lord daily
like Enoch walked with God. And that godliness can only come
from an understanding. Not just a knowledge, but an
understanding of who God is. So be diligent to add this godliness. And then be diligent to add brotherly
kindness. I heard Dan in his prayer ask
that we all love one another. That's what this is talking about.
The word actually means to cherish one another as brothers and sisters. I like that word cherish. Let's
cherish one another as brothers and sisters. And the best definition
I heard of this is this, of brotherly kindness, is loving someone without
looking for a reason to love them. That's brotherly kindness,
is being compassionate and not nitpicking at other people's
faults, but covering their faults with love. Now, this is important. Be diligent to have brotherly
kindness, because love is the chief attribute of a believer,
isn't it? Our Lord says by this, so all men know you're my disciples,
that you have love one to another. And this kind of brotherly kindness
that doesn't look for a reason to love somebody else, just loves
them anyway. That's the love of God's family. That's a family
love in God's house. Is that how Christ loves you?
That's how He loves me. I can tell you that. God never
found a reason in any of us that would cause Him to love us. He
didn't look for a reason. He loved us anyway of His own
free will, His own sovereign love for His people just because
He would. And what did God's love cause
Him to do? We're full of faults and sin. So God sent His Son
in His love and mercy to His people to cover our sins with
the precious blood of His own Son. Now, give diligence. Now, this is important. Give
diligence to add that kind of love to your faith, that we love
one another with that same kind of love. Every believer would
honestly really like to honor their Savior. Wouldn't you like
to honor your Savior? Well, I'll tell you one way to
do it in your daily walk. Imitate his love to his people
and add brotherly kindness to your faith. Then to your brotherly
kindness add charity. Now charity is love for all men,
not just your brothers and your sisters, not just those who are
of the household of faith, but all men, unbelievers out in the
world. That's right. A believer ought
not to have a clannish love. We just love one another and
we're not going to like anybody else, let anybody else in. That's
contrary to grace. Aren't you glad God didn't love
you that way? Because we're foreigners. We're
strangers from a household of God. How are we going to preach
to the lost if you don't love them? How are you going to go
out into all the world and preach the gospel if you don't love
people? We must love them if we're going
to preach to them. Give diligence to this. How are we going to
preach to the lost if we don't love them? God help me to love
people. Give diligence to this now. Add this love to your faith.
Faith and love go hand in hand. You can't separate the two. Now,
verse 8, Peter goes on, he says, Here's why you give diligence
to this, to adding these things. For if these things be in you
and abound, they make you that you should neither be barren
nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. If
these fruits of the Spirit are in you, God's given an increase
so that you're not unfruitful or barren. And it's interesting,
the definition of this word barren, is lazy. Lazy. You've given all diligence to
add these fruits to your faith, and God gave the increase. Now,
God still gave the increase, but you weren't lazy. Now, you
can't be lazy about these things. You give diligence to them. And
if these things be in you, it shows that your knowledge, that
your understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ, it bears fruit.
Now, there's a warning to us here, and it's kind of in a two-fold
warning. There is a knowledge that's not
saving knowledge. There's a knowledge that does
not bear the fruit of righteousness. It's a head knowledge. We teach
everybody to have head knowledge. Every one of our children has
a head knowledge of the gospel. Every one of them do. You've
got a head knowledge of facts and figures and doctrines and
truths from God's Word. But there's a knowledge that's
not heart salvation. That's not heart understanding
because it's not God-given. It's what your parents taught
you, what your pastor taught you, what your teachers taught
you, not what God put in your heart. See that in verse 9? But
he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar
off and hath forgotten that he is purged from his old sins.
See, a man who only has a head knowledge is blind of spiritual
things. A head knowledge doesn't let
you see the corruption of your own nature. It lets you see sin
in other people, but doesn't let you see the exceeding sinfulness
of your sin. A head knowledge doesn't do that.
Only faith can give you that kind of sight. A head knowledge
won't let you see the sun. You can't see the beauty of Christ.
You can't see your need of Christ. If all you have is a head full
of doctrine, you can't see your need of Christ. A head knowledge
doesn't give you spiritual sight. So you're blind. You can't see.
You can't understand. God's grace to sinners. Someone
who has a head knowledge just has a form of godliness and he
denies the power thereof because he's blind. He can't see it.
He can't see all the way back to the fall of Adam and he can't
see forward to salvation in Christ. And this is what all the writers
typically have written about these verses. But it looks to
me like, in context, Peter's still talking to believers. In
context, what would it look like to you still talking to believers?
Is it possible for a believer to be barren, lazy, unfruitful? Great it is. I can tell you from
experience it is. Is it possible that a believer
could forget how we're purged from our old sins? I mean, is
that really possible? Well, not for long it's not,
but in a moment it is, isn't it? I'll give you a good example
of it. Even a believer for a moment,
and the Lord may let it last for a time, but at least for
a moment, we've forgotten. We've been purged from our old
sins by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll give
you an example of it. We sin and we think, oh, why
did I do that? I must not be saved. Anybody
that would do what I did, anybody would think what I thought, anybody
that said what I said cannot be saved. I better straighten
up my act. I'm going to not do that anymore.
I'm going to start keeping these laws and living my life better. And then, you know, get things
straightened up. Wait a minute. Did we forget how we're purged
from our old sins? Not by our keeping of the law,
not by our obedience, not by our doing, but by the doing and
dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. I was talking to Todd Myvert
today. And he said, what's in my mind, he said, there's not
a day goes by I don't think I must not be saved. I'm my own biggest
disappointment. What happens when you think that?
Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Because it's
possible to have a head knowledge without heart salvation. And
because that old man is still trying to pull you back under
bondage to the law. Because we forget. because we
forget the salvation is in the person, the doing, the dying
of our Lord Jesus Christ. That causes us to lose the assurance
of faith. So, verse 10, wherefore, the
rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election
sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall. Now, we've
seen this. Give diligence to add to your
faith virtue, your virtue knowledge. to your knowledge temperance,
to your temperance patience, to patience brotherly kindness
and to brotherly kindness charity. Give diligence to that and give
diligence to this too. Give diligence to make your calling
and your election sure. Be earnest about this. Do it
with some haste. Time is of the essence. There's
no time to waste. Now, how can I know I'm one of
God's elect? How can I know that? Sometimes
I think I can't be. So how can I know? How can I?
When I have that feeling, I must not be saved. How can I know
I am one of God's elect? Well, I can't go into glory and
look into the Lamb's Book of Life and find my name, can I? I can't do that. I don't have
access to that book. I have access to this one. Open
this book and see what God says. God gives a description of his
elect. Well, find out what God says
and see. Does he describe me when he describes his people?
I know I'm one of God's elect if I have faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. God only gives his elect a gift
of faith. So if I have faith, if I believe
Christ, if I'm looking to Christ, I must be one of God's elect
because God only gives that gift to his elect. But it's interesting
the way Peter phrases it here. You could know your election
by your calling. Make your calling and election
sure. If you make your calling sure,
you'll make your election sure. So, I'm going to give you five
or six things here about making your calling sure. If your calling
is sure, your election will be sure. First, you know you're
one of God's elect if God called you by His grace. Now, if your
parents called you, if your pastor called you, if your friends called
you, That's not a good calling. You can't be sure of that calling.
But if God calls you, you're calling sure. I'll illustrate
it with Samuel. You remember Samuel was a boy
and I gave him to Eli. I said, for this child I pray,
now you take him. I'm giving him to the Lord, returning
him to the Lord. And he served with Eli. And 1
Samuel 3 says, but Samuel didn't know the Lord yet. He served
with Eli, working there in the temple one evening. Samuel and
Eli went to bed. They had different rooms, apparently. Samuel had him in a little bed
over here in this little room. God called Samuel. Samuel didn't
know it was God. Samuel follows Eli. So he ran
in there and told Eli, here I am. And Eli said, what are you doing?
He said, well, you called me. He said, no, I didn't go back
to bed. Crazy boy. Samuel went back to bed. Here
a minute, God called him again. He ran back into Eli and said,
here I am. Eli said, I didn't call you. You should go back
to bed." He did. God called him a third time.
Samuel faithfully ran in there to Eli and said, here I am. Now
Eli figured out what's going on. Eli knew it was the Lord
who called Samuel. Samuel didn't know, but Eli did.
He told Samuel, you go back and lie down. If he calls you again,
you say, speak Lord, for thy servant heareth. And the Lord
called him again. God called Samuel. God revealed
Himself to Samuel. Samuel followed God the rest
of his days. And the same thing, God will
do the same thing for you and me. God will call you. And you'll
hear. I'm telling you, I'll preach
to you until I'm blue in the face. It'll never do you a bit
of good. But when God calls you, oh, you'll hear. And you'll believe. And you'll understand. If God's
the one who called you, you'll call Him, sure. in your election
shirt. God only calls us elect. Second,
God calls people who are dead in sins. God called me from the
death of sin, just like he called Lazarus from the grave. Frank,
come forth. And I came forth. He did that
for you. HB, come forth. You're dead. You can't come forth.
But with the call, he gave me life. And you came forth. Now, if you were dead in sins,
if you were born dead in sins and you stay dead in sins until
God calls you by His grace and gave you life, then your calling
is sure and your election is sure. Third, God calls people
who are rebels, just like old Saul of Tarsus. I can just see
Saul riding down that road to Damascus on his big white horse.
He can go put some Christians in jail. And here in a minute,
he doesn't even know what happens. He wakes up laying on the ground
in the dust. And God says, Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? He said, Who are you, Lord? I
don't know what you call them. And God sent him a preacher.
God blinded his eyes. God sent him, made him helpless.
Somebody had to lead him by the hand to a preacher who preached
to him Christ. And God made that rebel a son
of God. That's what God does for all of his people. Gave him
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And just like Samuel, Paul followed
God the rest of his days. Now, were you born a rebel? And
did you stay a rebel until God broke you? Called you and made
you a son and daughter? Well, if you were, then your
calling's sure and your election's sure. Fourth, God calls sinners
to humility. Now, you'd think that's unnecessary. Who could be more worthless and
humble than a sinner? You know, God calls sinners to
humility. They don't know they're so low
and worthless until God calls them. God calls his people to
humility, just like he called Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus come down
and he came down. He got rid of all his pride,
all his pretense, and he came down humbled before the Savior. Was God humbled you like that?
Has He humbled you by showing you who you are in the light
of who Christ is? Has God humbled you so much you
don't put any confidence in the flesh? And the only reason that
you can find to have any rejoicing at all is in Jesus Christ? Then
you're calling sure. Your election sure. If you see,
look at 1 Corinthians chapter one, if you see, you really see
this, you understand you are nothing but sin, you're nothing
but wretchedness and vileness, then your election must be sure,
because that's the only people that God has chosen. This is
the only people God calls. Look at 1 Corinthians 1 verse
26. For you see, your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world." Is that you? Foolish? God has chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God
has chosen the weak things of the world. Is that you? Too weak
to do anything for yourself? Too weak to do anything to please
God? Well, God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty and base things. Are you base, vile,
just a scrape in the bottom of the barrel? Well, I hope so,
because God has chosen the base things of the world, and things
which are despised have God chosen. Yea, and things which are not,
to bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh should
glory in his presence. But it is of him, are ye in Christ
Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption, that according as it is written, He that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. Do you need Christ? I mean, do you need him because
you cannot save yourself? Is Christ all to you? Then your
calling's sure and your election's sure. Fifth, God's call is a
sovereign call. It's a sovereign call to his
people. God called Lazarus out of the
tomb. God called Saul. God called Zacchaeus. They didn't
call him. God called them. Well, if God
called you the same way, with a sovereign call, not because
you had to, not because you did something that made him indebted
to you so that he should call on you because you did something
for him, no. If God didn't owe you anything, but damnation,
but he called you anyway, purely from his sovereign grace and
mercy, then your calling is sure. your election is sure. And last,
God calls his people to obedience. God has obedient children. When
God called Saul, put him down there in the dust, what did Saul
say? Lord, what would you have me
do? You say it, I'll do it. He made him obedient. The Lord
called Zacchaeus down from that tree, went to his house. That
old chief, gave half of his goods to the poor, and everything he'd
stolen, he restored fourfold. Now, I thought about that, just
the math of that. Unless he got a tremendous return
on his investment, it looks to me like Zacchaeus had to give
away everything he had. I mean, or close to it. Why'd he do that? Nobody told
him he had to. He's an obedient son. He did
it. Look at Luke chapter 19. Nobody told him he had to. He didn't do it because he had
to. He did it because he saved. He did it because the Lord revealed
himself to Zacchaeus' heart. In Luke 19 verse 9. Zacchaeus said, if I were taken
anything from any man by false accusation, I would store him
fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, Tell you why this happened.
This day salvation come to this house for as much as he also
is a son of Abraham. For the son of man came to seek
and save that which was lost. Zacchaeus gave away everything
he had because he had a new heart. He had a new nature. He was going
to be obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, are you obedient
to the gospel? Are you? The gospel tells you
don't put any confidence in your flesh, but all your confidence,
all your hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you obedient to that? Then your calling is sure and
your election is sure. And someone that God's called,
someone who God has chosen will never fall. Never. Because God won't let him. You
cannot fall as long as you're in Christ. So verse 11, back
in our text. For so an entrance shall be ministered
unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ." That is a sure thing. Now, my calling
is sure, my election is sure. Can I really be sure that I am
one day going to awake in glory in the likeness of the Lord Jesus
Christ? Yes, you can. You will have the
redemption of your body and soul. Well, how can you be so sure?
How can you be sure of that? One last scripture, Romans chapter
11. Tell you, if you've made your calling
sure, your election is sure, your ultimate glorification will
be sure. 4, verse 29, Romans 11. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. You can be sure because God won't
take it back. He gives it to you eternally.
Give diligence to this so you have the assurance of faith,
so you won't be barren and unfruitful. It's for your joy, for your assurance.
All right. Well, the Lord bless that to
you. Let's bow in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, how we thank
Thee for this blessed portion of Your Word. And we do beg of
thee that you give us the grace of diligence, that we could add
to our faith virtue and knowledge and godliness and temperance
and brotherly kindness and love. Father, we pray that you give
the increase, that you would add these things, that we'd be
not barren and unfruitful, that we'd be children of the Father,
children of our Father who bear witness of his grace and goodness
to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. And we beg of thee the diligence
to look into thy word and make our calling and our election
sure. When we give diligence to these
things, we see it's all of your grace. It's all of God's goodness
and mercy to us. And that gives us such assurance,
such peace, such salvation from its beginning to its ending.
is all in and because and through our Lord Jesus Christ. And we
do thank thee for him. How we thank you. And we would
ask of thee that in your goodness to us you allow us to bear this
fruit that we can in some way honor our Savior and be a part
of this glorious work of calling out the lost to repentance and
to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Fathers, you've been merciful
to us. We pray you would be merciful to others.