What can you say? Hope I do as
well. I'm back to 2 Peter. Make your calling and election sure. The apostles were not afraid
to use that word, election. It's a Bible word. It's of God. God chose us. As I heard someone
say, I believe it was Henry I heard say some years ago, it is a doctrine
of praise, the doctrine of election. is a doctrine of praise. Election does not shut men out
of heaven. It opens the door to heaven.
We shut ourselves out by our sins. You will not come to me
that you might have life. Our sinfulness, our darkness,
we shut ourselves out. And Peter says here, Make your
calling and election sure. Let me read something to you.
I just thought of this as I was sitting here. In Revelation 13,
in verse 8, there's a book written, the Lamb's Book of Life. And in that book is written every
name that the Lord chose. Everyone. Their names are in
that book. In verse 8, And all that dwell
upon the earth shall worship him, that is, that beast, whose
names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. Everyone, he says, will worship
that beast, that Antichrist, except those whose names are
written in that book. They're not going to because
God has saved them, called them by His grace, revealed His Son
in them, and they worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Every name is written in that
book. Now, the main concern, without question, of every believer ought to be, and I'm sure this
wavers, there's one thing I have learned in 54 years is that there's
nothing really consistent with me except being inconsistent.
Because we waver. We're hot and then we're cold.
We're on fire and then the next thing you know, Peter, look at
Peter. Lord, I'll not deny you. I'll
die before that." No. Then what happens? A maid, not
an army, a maid, standing by a fire, says, I know you. And
he says, no, you don't. You were with him. I don't know
the man. I don't know the man. And he
said that three times. And that rooster crowed and he
remembered the Word that the Lord had spoken. I wrote out
by that verse, the power of His Word. He remembered that Word
that the Lord spoke and he went out and he wept bitterly. Bitterly. But that was one of
God's elect. That's one of His elect. But
our main concern ought to be To make our calling and election
sure. I know that men and women do
a lot of things to make sure that their later years are going
to be comfortable. That this is going to, you know,
we give a lot of attention to education or to different things
to try to make this life easier, and yet they neglect the eternal
destiny of their souls, the eternal welfare of the soul. Just neglect that. And that's
the one thing, that is the one thing that Peter says, give diligence. I looked that up in the dictionary
a while ago. It is to be tireless. I don't know if I can say this
word again. Indefatigable. Absolutely tireless. Persistent
in making your calling and election sure. Put that above everything
else. Everything else. Make your calling and election
sure. We cannot look into the Lamb's
Book of Life to see if our names are written there. And to tell you the truth, if that
book, think about this, if that book was laid here for you to
look in it, for me to look in it, I don't think I'd want to
look in it. I think I'd say, Lord, have mercy
on me. I don't know that I'd want to
look in it. I would rather just say, Lord, have mercy on me. You have mercy on me. And we
cannot look into that book and see if our names are written
there. But we do have a book. We have been given a book to
look into. And in this book, there are characters described.
Someone said you can't You can't claim the promise until you fit
the character described in the promise. Christ died for the
ungodly. Do you fit that? Christ died
for sinners. Do I fit that? And then he speaks
here, he said, make your calling. And this is the order. Make your
calling and the election is sure. You make your calling sure. There
are some things given in here about our calling. And if we
make that sure, if we see that, if we fit that, then we can be
sure God's chosen us. We can't bypass the calling.
You know, when I first heard the gospel, that thought went
across my mind many times. Am I His? Am I one that chose? Well, do you fit the character
described in these promises? Do you fit the character described
in the Word of God for whom Christ died, the ungodly? Yes, I do. Yes, I can stand here and honestly
say that this man standing here preaching the gospel Your pastor
fits that character by nature of an ungodly man. Now, we don't live that way.
We were saved from an ungodly life. He's given us a new nature. But by nature, by nature, I can
say, yes, I am ungodly. Yes, I am a sinful man. Peter
said, Lord, depart from me. I am a sinful man. I know what he's talking about,
and I think many of you know what he's talking about. I'm
a sinful man. Then how can we know this? Well,
first of all, by our calling, whom he predestinated. That's
a Bible word. Whom he predestinated. He called
by his grace, by his Spirit, He called, called them powerfully,
efficaciously. He called them, not just generally.
I mean, it's a powerful call. And I tell you what, if God sends
this call, if God Almighty calls, whomever He calls will answer
the call. Lazarus, this man stinketh by
now. This man's dead and he stinketh. But the Lord says, Lazarus, come
forth. And this man, wrapped in grave
clothes, came out of that grave. He didn't send anybody in the
grave to drag him out. He got up, full of life, best
he ever felt. Best he ever felt. Lord, he whom
thou lovest is sick. He's not now. He whom thou lovest
is now dead. He's not now. Not now. Whom he predestinated, he called.
And if we can find that we have been called by the Spirit of
God, then we might be able to determine that we are one of
God's elect. We determine it by our calling.
That's how we determine our election, is by our calling. Listen to
this. In 2 Corinthians 13, 5, Paul
says, examine yourselves. I'm not going around here examining
to see if you're one of the elect. I'm not going to line up and
say, now this one is, I don't know about this one, I know some
things. Or, no. Examine yourselves. Look into the mirror. Look at
that man in the mirror. Examine yourself. Whether you
be in the faith. Do you believe? You know whether
you believe or not. You know it. Prove your own selves. Know you're
not your own selves? The Lord said, Peter, do you
love me? Peter said, I love you. And he
asked him three times. And he said, Lord, you know. You know my heart. You know my
affections. You know I love you. You know that. Examine yourself.
Know you're not yourself. You know whether or not you love
Jesus Christ. You know that. You know, I know
whether or not I love my wife. I know that. And you and I know. We know who our first love is. We know if we love Christ or
if we love something else out here better. If our minds are
more taken up with that than Him, then you can be sure that
there's a problem. You can be sure there's a problem. Has He called me out of darkness
into His marvelous light? Has He done that? I was once
darkness. My understanding was darkness.
I lived in darkness. And I love darkness. See, I know
that. And you know that. This is His
calling. He's called us out of darkness
into His marvelous light. He's called us from self-righteousness
to His righteousness. It does not offend me to be called
a dog now. Our Lord called that woman, a
dog, she said, truth, Lord, I agree. I agree. How many of you ladies
would agree with that? I know you. You know, men kind
of have a good idea they're dogs from the beginning. I'm serious. We pretty much have a good idea.
But you ladies. He called a woman, a woman a
dog, and it didn't offend her. Truth, Lord, truth. Have I been called from self-righteousness
to His righteousness? Have I been called away from
the love of the things of the world to love of Him and His
people? I know this, and you know this.
You know if my love to you and your love to me is genuine or
not. You know whether you love the
brethren. You know you have passed from
death unto life because you love the brethren. You love them. Have I been called? See? It starts
with calling. Don't jump to election. It starts with calling. Calling
establishes our election. Paul said this in 2 Corinthians
4, 6, For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I can see, and
you can see, the glory of God in the redemptive work of the
man Christ Jesus. I can see God's glory in that.
But there was a time I could not see anything in Jesus Christ.
There was a time Jesus Christ was nothing more to me than a
historical figure. And that's so. But not now. Not now. Now He's my life! Just a few days ago, someone
was telling me how they gave their life to Christ. And they
went on and on about how they gave their life to Christ. I
don't have a life to give Him. Paul said, He is my life. He is my life. He is my all in
all. He is my Lord and my Savior in
that order. Listen to this, 1 Corinthians
1.30. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Is He that to
you? Is He that to me? See, that's
our calling. You've been called to this. You've
been called by the grace of God. You've been called to righteousness.
You've been called to Him. You've been called. Paul said
this, I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I
have committed unto Him against that day. Are you persuaded to
that? Am I persuaded of that? That
He's able to keep me for time and eternity, now and against
the day of judgment. I'm persuaded He's able to keep
me. Brother, that comes in that calling. That's what happens when God
calls a man by His Spirit, by His grace, creates faith in the
heart. This is what it produces. This is how you know your election. And you also know it by this,
by the presence of faith. If you notice, last week we looked
at this. Back in a few verses here, Peter
said this. He said in verse 4, 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 unto your faith. You've been given
faith and virtue and knowledge. And then he said, add to this
temperance and patience and godliness and brotherly kindness. Is this
in you? Now, I know everyone that believes
the gospel feels like they've failed in every one of these.
I know you do. I know that everyone who's been
born of God, who's experienced The new birth? They know what
they are by nature and they feel that they have failed in every
one of these. But I tell you what, it's there.
It's there. Faith is there. Virtue and knowledge
and temperance and godliness. If these are not there, you can
suspect your election. You can be suspicious about it
if these things are not there. If the fruit of the Spirit is
not there, You can be suspicious about it because it comes with
a calling. We're called to these things.
And then what is my chief concern? What is my chief concern right
now? Is it the kingdom of God? Our
Lord says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Is that my chief concern? Paul said to the Corinthians,
and this is what Peter said, examine yourselves. What is my
chief concern? Is it the kingdom of God? Is
it to know Christ? Paul said, or that I might know
Christ and be found in Him. This is the man who went to the
third heaven. This is the man who spent three
years on the backside of a desert with the Lord personally receiving
the gospel. This is the man who says, or
that I might know Him. I might know Him more and more
intimately. I may know more of Him. who is
God, that I might know more of His person and His deity and
in His humanity, that I might know more of Him. Is that in me? Is that in me? You know, what's a sermon worth
if it's not applicable? If we don't apply it? You know,
if I don't apply what I'm reading and what I bring here, what I
stand here and I preach, I ask myself these questions. You know,
this is just not a 30, 40 minute sermon. This is applicable. Do I find these things in me?
Do I find them in me? Have you seen my beloved? Did you just see her heart beating
for her beloved? Oh, have you seen him? Then she
describes Him. And boy, she just describes a
beautiful person. Have you seen Him? Get diligent to this. If to grow in grace and knowledge
of Him is a great desire of mine, if it's a real desire of mine,
then you can be pretty sure that you're one of the elect. You
can be pretty sure because that's not natural. That's not natural
to the natural man. Christ said that we love darkness
rather than light by nature. And if you do these things, just
as Peter said, you add to faith virtue and knowledge. If you
do these things, he says here, you shall never fail. It doesn't
mean you should never sin or fall into sin. It doesn't mean
that. It means you shall never fall away into apostasy. You'll
never fall away into final apostasy. You'll never fall totally away
from grace. And these who give attention
to these things in the Lord Jesus Christ, He says, here shall have
an abundant, here in verse 11, they shall have an abundant supply
of grace to help in time of need. For so an entrance shall be ministered
unto you abundantly." You'll have an abundant supply of grace
to help you in trials as you go through this life. And then
when life is over, you will have a triumphant, glorious entrance
into the kingdom of heaven. It says this in Jude, now unto
him, that is able to keep you from falling, falling away. falling into apostasy, and to
present you faultless before the presence of His glory with
exceeding joy. If we truly spend our time seeking
to know Him and to grow in grace and in knowledge of Him, He said,
an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the
everlasting kingdom of our Lord. Then he says here in verses 12
and 13, Wherefore, I will not be negligent. Negligent, I'm
sure, is the opposite of diligent. It's total lack of interest,
idleness. I will not be negligent to put
you always in remembrance of these things, to constantly preach
the gospel to you. Paul said, for me to preach the
gospel to you, to preach the same things to you over and over
again to the Philippians he was writing. It's not tiresome. It's not a burden. And for you,
it's safe. The safest things that I can
do is to stand here week after week and preach the same things. And I tell you, if the Lord's
in, you'll get something out of it every time. You'll get something out of it
every time. He said, though you know them,
Peter said, I'm not writing anything new. I'm not telling you anything
new that I have not already talked to you about, wrote to you about.
Nothing's new. He said, but I'm not going to
be negligent to put you in remembrance of it because I know how forgetful
we are. This do in what? Remembrance
of me. Because we are so forgetful.
Every now and then we've got to stop and do something in remembrance
of Him because of our forgetfulness. And that's why Peter says here,
he said, I know you know these things, but I'm not going to
be negligent to exhort and rebuke and encourage you in these things.
I'm not going to be negligent about it. And he's really, this
is a responsibility of those who stand in the pulpit. He's
talking to people like me. People like Franklin, he stands
there and teaches a Bible class. We go out in other places to
preach. You know, this is our responsibility, to stand here
in the pulpit every week and feed the church with knowledge.
Knowledge of God, knowledge of Christ, knowledge of the Scriptures. That you might grow in grace
and in knowledge of Him. You grow. And he says here in verse 13,
Yea, I think it fits as long as I'm in this tabernacle, as
long as I'm alive, as long as I'm in this body, as long as
the Lord leaves me here, I'm going to stir you up. I know you know them, but I'm
going to stir you up. Vicki was cooking a pot of soup
the other day for Christmas. The family was coming over. She
said, Go in there and stir that pot of soup. He said, make sure
you get to the bottom of it. And this is what he's doing.
He's getting to the bottom of it every time. I'm going to stir
you up. I'm not going to just let you simmer. I'm going to
stir you up by way of remembrance of these things. These things
that concern the Lord Jesus Christ. These things that concern God
and His glory. These things that concern redemption.
I'm going to stir you. I'm going to stir them up. Stir
them up every week, every Sunday, every Wednesday. Every time I
preach, stir them up. Stir them up. Don't presume.
The worst thing we can do is presume. And I think the worst
thing a pastor can do is presume that everybody knows what he's
talking about and that everybody's saved. That's the worst you can do is
presume that. But he said, I'm going to stir
you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly, shortly
I must put off my tabernacle. He felt the urgency of it. Peter
knew. He knew that shortly he was going
to die. The Lord revealed to him that
he was going to die. He was going to put off his tabernacle.
His tent, that's all it is. This body right here is nothing
but a tent that I dwell in. And Peter says, I'm going to
put it off even as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me. The nearness
of His death made it so urgent for him to stir them up, stir
them up. Moreover, I will endeavor that
you may be able after my decease to have these things always in
remembrance. I hope, I hope someday when I
die, That the message here will never
be forgotten. That the gospel will be here, be preached here
as Frank prayed to our children. You know, the one thing that
I want to leave my own children and the children here is the
gospel. You leave money, they're going to spend it. I mean, it's
alright to leave money. I wouldn't care if mom and dad
left me a few dollars, but I'll spend it. I'll spend it, I guarantee
it. One way or the other, I'll get
rid of it. Some might get it. But the greatest thing we could
leave the next generation is the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's what he's saying here.
He's ambitious. He wants the people to whom he
preaches to continue in the doctrine of Christ after he's taken away. Henry wrote this in his commentary.
Yeah, this is good. We cannot guarantee the steadfastness
of any assembly after the present leaders die. We can't guarantee
it. But we can be faithful in laying
a good foundation, building their own gold, silver, precious stones,
and praying that God will keep Christ ever before our children. And that's what Peter's saying.
He said, oh, after I leave, I want you to remember the Gospel that
I preached to you. For we have not followed cunningly
devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
For He received from God the Father honor and glory when there
came such a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is
my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which
came from heaven, we heard. We were there. We were witnesses
to it. Would you like to have been a witness to that? When we were with Him in the
Holy Mount? They witnessed. They witnessed
incarnate deity. John says, our hands have handled
of the Word of Life. They witnessed Him. They saw
Him. They looked upon Him. Peter, James, and John went up
on the Mount of Transfiguration. And there they were eyewitnesses,
He said, of His majesty. I was there! I was there on that
Mount when the Father said, This is My beloved Son. When God spoke
from Heaven, He said, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased. Hear ye Him! I was there! I was there when Moses appeared.
I was there when Elijah appeared. I was there. I saw this. Would
you have liked to have witnessed that? We have an eyewitness. But you know what Peter says?
But there's a better witness than this. This book. This book, he says,
is a better witness than me. And I was there and I saw it.
He said, I'm an eyewitness, but there's a better witness than
an eyewitness. And that's the Word of God. The Old Testament
and the revelation that the Holy Spirit gave in the New Testament.
We have a better witness than an eyewitness. Oh, that would have been something
to see. But now listen, you and I have something better. And
that's what Peter's saying here. That's why he's writing to the
church. You know, that would have been something. I saw it.
I beheld His majesty, His glory. I heard the voice. But you have
something better. You have His Word. You have His Word. The Word of God is the final
test of every claim and every doctrine. Listen to this Scripture.
1 Corinthians 15 1-4 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you
the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received,
and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep
in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed
in vain. 5 For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which
also I received, how that Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures. And if he had said how that Christ
died for our sins, period. You know, we might have reason
to doubt. But when he says, according to the Scriptures, go check it
out. That's what he's saying. Go check it out. According to
the Scriptures. And that he was buried and that
he rose again the third day. According to the Scriptures. We do well to take heed to the
Scriptures and weigh every man's word accordingly. Acts 17, 11. These were more noble than those
of Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness
of mind and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were
so. And then he says here in verse
20, Well, let me go back to verse 19. We have also a more sure
word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as
unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn
and the day star arise in your hearts, knowing this first, that
no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. Speaking here of the Old and
New Testaments, All Scripture came into being by the will of
God. This is the Word of God. There
is no error in this book. This is God's Word. Men of God wrote as they were
inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this book. And you know it has to be of
God because you've got 66 books You've got several men that lived
in different ages, and there's only one theme to the whole book.
And that's the theme of redemption by Christ. Men that never saw each other,
didn't meet each other, did not go to the same school, they were
just one over here and one over there. And then when this whole
thing was assembled, when this whole book was put together,
there's one thing. That is redemption by the Lord
Jesus Christ, His blood, His righteousness, His person. It
all speaks of Him. Every one of the writers speak
of Him. Now that's of God. That's of
God. That's what he's saying here.
Men of God wrote as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The Bible is verbally inspired. It is God breathed. This book is God breathed, as
Paul wrote to Timothy. All scripture, and I'll close
with this, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
throughly furnished unto all good works. Make your calling and election sure. If you make
your calling sure, your election will be sure. Give attention. Give attention. As Peter said to faith and add
virtue and temperance, if you do these things, if you do these
things, you'll have the grace to meet every trial and an entrance,
a glorious entrance will be ministered unto you. into the everlasting
kingdom of God and make much of the scriptures because they
are God's word.