Living Out Faith: Assurance Through Virtuous Living

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] And Lord, that you would bring your salvation, and we pray all of these things in the strong and great name of Jesus our Savior. Amen.
[00:00:09] Our text this morning is from 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 1 through 12.
[00:00:18] The title of this message is, Being Assured of Your Salvation.
[00:00:24] So, be assured of this. There's a lot here with this subject.
[00:00:29] We could preach probably two or three messages on this.
[00:00:34] But we are looking at kind of using 2 Peter as a springboard for what we're talking about this morning.
[00:00:45] But this is an area dealing with assurance that many Christians struggle with because it is an easy thing for us to ask and to wonder, like, how do we know that we are saved?
[00:00:58] How do we know that we are children of God?
[00:01:01] How do we know that we will spend eternity in heaven?
[00:01:06] And so these are things that we're going to look at this morning.
[00:01:09] And if you have questions afterwards and there's just a burning question you have based on what we're talking about this morning, you can come talk to me later.
[00:01:19] You can talk to Pastor Joseph or to Elder Allen next week as well.
[00:01:24] But in looking at 2 Peter chapter 1, be looking at the first 12 verses.
[00:01:32] Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.
[00:01:49] Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine nature hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue,
[00:02:15] whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust and beside this giving all diligence
[00:02:35] 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 or love.
[00:02:58] For if these things be in you and abound, they will make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:03:10] But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from old sins.
[00:03:23] Wherefore, the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.
[00:03:30] For if you do these things, you shall never fall.
[00:03:34] For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
[00:03:43] 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.
[00:03:57] So the main text here or main verse here for us in thinking about assurance of our salvation assurance of our faith is verse 10 wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure
[00:04:19] for if you do these things you shall never fall and so to make your calling and election sure that you might know that you are saved and so first you have to ask yourself well what is salvation?
[00:04:38] It is faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:04:47] Start with John 3.16 if you want.
[00:04:50] For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
[00:05:04] You can start with Romans 10.9.
[00:05:08] If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
[00:05:19] So here's the thing.
[00:05:22] Do you believe God's Word?
[00:05:26] Do you believe that God is speaking to you in His Word?
[00:05:31] Because I can give you all kind of verses, but the fact remains that we all have to ask ourselves and confirm that answer, do you believe what God says?
[00:05:49] Now, part of it that is this nagging thing that is within us of whether we're saved is because we continue to sin, right?
[00:05:59] All of us do. There is no one excluded.
[00:06:03] If you ever put me and Pastor Joseph up on a pedestal, you better stop that right away.
[00:06:08] because we are men and people just like you are.
[00:06:14] We deal with temptations, we deal with our sin, and we have to go to the Lord for forgiveness.
[00:06:22] And so it is a, not necessarily a confirmation, but just points to the fact that no one is ever going to be good enough to be saved.
[00:06:31] I mean, just get that out of your mind.
[00:06:35] So if anyone ever comes up to you and asks you the question, If you died today, and, you know, of course, with evangelism explosion, you're supposed to qualify that.
[00:06:45] It says, if you died today, and you stood before God, and He said, why should I let you into my heaven?
[00:06:50] Or no, no, that's actually the second one.
[00:06:52] The first one is, if you died today, and, you know, do you know that you would have eternal life?
[00:07:01] And most people would say, well, I hope so.
[00:07:05] I'm not sure.
[00:07:06] You know, yes, no, whatever.
[00:07:08] And the second one says, well, if God were to ask you, Why should I let you into my heaven?
[00:07:12] A lot of people will say, well, because I'm a good person.
[00:07:15] Because I try to be a good person.
[00:07:18] But let's just go ahead and call it what it is.
[00:07:21] We can never be good enough.
[00:07:24] I mean, how many sins did Adam and Eve sin to get kicked out of the garden and to put the world in a state of death and sin?
[00:07:35] Only one.
[00:07:35] And in James chapter 2, the Apostle James says it only takes one sin to condemn us to hell.
[00:07:44] So therefore, we can never be good enough.
[00:07:48] But it's like, you know, as a no-brainer, isn't that why Christ came?
[00:07:54] Isn't that why He came on the cross?
[00:07:56] Isn't that why He is God?
[00:07:59] Because only God can be perfect.
[00:08:02] Jesus is God the Son, became man for us.
[00:08:09] So He was fully God and fully man.
[00:08:13] There is no one like Christ.
[00:08:15] He is the God-man.
[00:08:18] And so because He was perfect, He was able to be a substitutionary atonement for us.
[00:08:25] He was able to take our sins upon Himself and pay the penalty for it.
[00:08:31] He bore the full wrath of God against sin and against death.
[00:08:38] So another verse in the Roman road, we've said Romans 10, 9.
[00:08:46] You've got Romans 6, 23.
[00:08:48] For the wages or the consequences of sin is what?
[00:08:53] Death.
[00:08:54] But the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
[00:08:58] And so here it is, brothers and sisters.
[00:09:00] Do you believe that?
[00:09:02] Because if you believe that and you grab on to that, we can know that we are saved.
[00:09:08] Does it mean that we're going to stop sinning when we come to Christ?
[00:09:12] Absolutely not.
[00:09:13] I mean, I wish I could.
[00:09:15] I think if you're honest with yourself, you wish that you could too.
[00:09:18] We're still going to sin.
[00:09:21] But it is in the sense of going to God, asking for forgiveness, and asking Him to change us.
[00:09:29] Because if we have received Him by faith, and put our faith only in Christ and not in ourselves at all, then the Holy Spirit comes into us and the Holy Spirit empowers us and quickens us
[00:09:49] like makes us alive actually according to what the Bible says in the Old Testament in Ezekiel this is how God gives you a new heart this is how you are born again when we proclaim Christ as our Savior
[00:10:07] when we ask Him to forgive us when we pledge ourselves to Him and to Him alone, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit as God, then we are truly saved.
[00:10:26] We can know that even when times are hard, even when we are discouraged, even when it seems like life is falling down and crumbling around you, you don't know what you're going to do, you don't know where you're going to turn,
[00:10:41] the Lord is with you.
[00:10:42] and he says, call to me, Jeremiah 33, great verse.
[00:10:47] He says, call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you do not know.
[00:10:55] You know, that's a great verse, but a lot of Christians are afraid to ask that.
[00:11:00] Because if you ask God to help, if you call to him, well, then you have to deal with the conviction of sin, right?
[00:11:06] It's like, well, I'm not walking, I'm not following God exactly how I need to be.
[00:11:11] Well, that's not necessarily a bad thing, is it?
[00:11:13] because the ultimate purpose of our salvation is not just for us to not go to hell.
[00:11:24] It is so that we can become more like Christ.
[00:11:30] In Romans 8.28, it says this, and Emilio, I know a lot of these verses I don't have on there.
[00:11:39] My apologies, brother.
[00:11:44] And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose.
[00:11:54] For whom He foreknew, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
[00:12:07] Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called.
[00:12:10] Whom He called, them He also justified.
[00:12:14] Whom He justified, them He also glorified.
[00:12:17] And what does glorification speak of?
[00:12:20] It speaks of when we go to heaven, that by our faith in Christ, by our trust in Him, by our depending on Him for everything in our lives, the hope that we have is that we will be glorified with Him in heaven.
[00:12:39] And so, even as hard as death is for us, whether it is our own mortality or people that that we love it is this is why faith in christ is so important people can pass away and die like that sometimes you you have a little bit of time
[00:13:05] sometimes you know but sometimes you don't and it can be in a blink of an eye and that is why that is why we preach the gospel that is why Jesus himself says that is why people need to repent
[00:13:20] because you never know what is going to happen in Hebrews 9 27 it says it is appointed for man to die once and then the judgment does it speak of purgatory there it's because there is none
[00:13:35] It is appointed for man to die once and then the judgment.
[00:13:43] Are you ready to stand before God?
[00:13:47] Are you ready to give an account for your sins?
[00:13:54] I mean, it is a scary and a daunting thing, is it not?
[00:14:00] But if we say that the Bible teaches that God is a merciful God and a God full of grace, how is He merciful and full of grace?
[00:14:12] Only through Christ.
[00:14:15] That Christ took our punishment on Himself and if we believe in Him, we will be washed as white as snow.
[00:14:23] But we have to come.
[00:14:26] We have to come.
[00:14:27] We have to confess His name.
[00:14:29] We have to confess our sins in His name and pledge ourselves to Him.
[00:14:36] So many Christians, including myself, can go throughout life and think, okay, I believe this.
[00:14:45] I'm pretty sure that I'm a Christian.
[00:14:47] I'm pretty sure that I'm right with God.
[00:14:50] And then live according to our own wisdom to what we think is right.
[00:14:56] And we just kind of do things, well, I think I should do this.
[00:15:01] Instead of asking God.
[00:15:04] Instead of depending on Him.
[00:15:07] Instead of as Jesus said to the Father when He was in the garden, the night before He was crucified.
[00:15:13] Not my will, but your will be done.
[00:15:16] I mean, if we are to be conformed into the image of Jesus, then we need to be going to Him, right?
[00:15:26] If we are sinful and almost like, you know, sometimes can't be trusted with our own selves to do what is right all of the time and go do the right thing in every single situation,
[00:15:42] or even to not, you know, If I were to tell you that you could never get down or discouraged from this point on, what would you say?
[00:15:49] You're crazy.
[00:15:51] Because we know we're going to.
[00:15:53] Well, because of that, it's like that's why we have to go to God.
[00:15:58] That's why we can't trust even in ourselves or in our own wisdom.
[00:16:03] And you know what?
[00:16:04] Jesus wants you to come to Him.
[00:16:07] He does.
[00:16:08] He wants you to throw it all on Him.
[00:16:10] he says in Matthew 11 28 he says come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find
[00:16:36] rest for your souls when Jesus says there when he says I will give you rest when he says I will give you peace. The big question again is, do you believe that? Do you need the peace of Christ
[00:16:56] right now? Because only he can give it. There was a young man who was in the youth group when I was at my first church. I was the youth pastor there in Hendersonville. And this was the Hispanic
[00:17:15] pastor's sons we had a hispanic mission and so um you would think hey if anybody's heard the gospel it's this kid he's a pastor's son he had heard the gospel countless times and yet and and you
[00:17:31] would have thought that he would have received it he would have believed and be counted a believer but he wasn't and so you know in the as as with how retreats can be in the wee hours of the morning
[00:17:47] you know, around like 11, 12, after midnight is when you have some serious conversations.
[00:17:53] And we're talking and he was like, how can I know that I'm really a Christian?
[00:17:59] How can I know that God really loves me?
[00:18:02] So we go through and we explain it and he kind of understands.
[00:18:07] But here's the thing, he had to go to Jesus himself.
[00:18:12] He had to ask Jesus to forgive him.
[00:18:15] He had to say, Lord, I believe in you as my Lord and Savior.
[00:18:19] And so I asked him, I said, do you want to right now?
[00:18:23] And he was like, yes.
[00:18:26] But if I had thought this is a pastor's kid, he understands what I'm saying and just left it there, he might not be a believer now.
[00:18:35] He might not have assurance, but he also might not, when that time comes for him to stand before the Lord, he would not be ready.
[00:18:46] And so not only if we're talking to somebody, Do we have to ask, hey, do you know the Lord?
[00:18:51] Do you want to believe in Him?
[00:18:53] We have to answer that question ourselves and to say, have we put our faith in Christ and in Him alone?
[00:19:05] And so these are things that Peter is talking about when he says, give diligence or like, you know, give zeal.
[00:19:12] And let's see, where is it?
[00:19:14] I have it in what that word in the Greek means, a couple of pages in here.
[00:19:18] He says, with earnestness, with zeal, with effort, with diligence, make your calling and election sure.
[00:19:32] Know that you are saved.
[00:19:36] Here's an interesting verse to think about.
[00:19:39] 1 Timothy 4.16.
[00:19:47] This is Paul talking to Timothy.
[00:19:50] Timothy is a young pastor.
[00:19:54] And so Paul is writing to him to help him in this process and to encourage him and to help him in pastoring people and leading them to Christ.
[00:20:04] And he says in 1 Timothy 4.16, he says, Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine, or like the teaching of the word of God.
[00:20:17] Continue in them, for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.
[00:20:26] Now, it's not that Timothy wasn't saved, but salvation is much more than just say, okay, I believe in Jesus, therefore I have a past.
[00:20:36] Now I can get to heaven.
[00:20:38] Jesus says in John 14, 15, he says, if you love me, keep my commandments.
[00:20:49] Did Jesus come to die for our sins?
[00:20:53] And to be the Lord of our lives for us just to say, okay, Jesus, you're just fire insurance, but I'm still going to do things my way.
[00:21:02] No.
[00:21:05] He says, come and follow me.
[00:21:07] Commit yourself to me.
[00:21:09] Obey me.
[00:21:13] Now, when we mess up, he forgives us.
[00:21:15] And his Holy Spirit even helps us in becoming more like him and following him.
[00:21:21] I mean, the Christian life is like, you know, three steps forward and one step back or whatever combination you want to put it's this constant process of you make a little progress and you go back and dealing with sin and temptation and our
[00:21:36] own weaknesses and the holy spirit helps us with that but we have to call out to him it's why as the lord says through the apostle paul in dealing with temptation that no temptation has ever come
[00:21:54] over us so that we've had to deal with except what is common to man. But God is faithful. If we call out to him, he will strengthen us and help us through that temptation and even forgive us when
[00:22:07] we fall short. And so this is what Peter is referring to in making your calling and election sure. That not only are we to believe, but we are to follow in that, in obeying God,
[00:22:26] in striving to be faithful to Him.
[00:22:34] Another verse to think of in talking about salvation is Ephesians 2, 8 through 10.
[00:22:44] It says, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
[00:22:51] It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
[00:22:57] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
[00:23:10] Those are some of the most packed three verses in all of the Bible.
[00:23:16] Because it shows that we are saved by grace through faith.
[00:23:21] And it says, I mean, just word for word there, this is not of yourselves.
[00:23:28] You cannot save yourself.
[00:23:29] You cannot be good enough, says it is the gift of God.
[00:23:37] It is that new heart.
[00:23:39] It is what it means to be born again, to be changed.
[00:23:44] That only comes from God and his mercy upon us.
[00:23:49] In verse 9, not of works, lest any man should boast.
[00:23:54] In the, when I first learned youth evangelism explosion, they had an interesting twist on there.
[00:23:59] where it's instead of saying, so that no man can boast, it's so that you can't brag about it.
[00:24:05] You can't say, look at me, look how good I am.
[00:24:08] Or even where we play the game, it's like, well, I might not be perfect, but I'm a whole lot better than that person over there.
[00:24:14] I wasn't pointing at Steve or either of the Steves.
[00:24:22] It is so that it is all of God.
[00:24:28] Verse 10 is very telling.
[00:24:30] It says, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.
[00:24:37] So it has good works there.
[00:24:39] We're not saved by our good works, right?
[00:24:41] We are saved by grace through faith.
[00:24:44] But we were created for good works, and it is a proof of our salvation.
[00:24:52] It is a God call, more than just a proof, it's that God calls us to be obedient to Him.
[00:25:02] And so it says, which God hath ordained that we should walk in them.
[00:25:07] So you see this here.
[00:25:09] Salvation is by grace through faith, and yet when we are saved, showing, giving this assurance that we're saved is us obeying Him.
[00:25:21] And you know what?
[00:25:23] We had mentioned earlier that one of the reasons that Christians doubt is because we continue to sin, but it is also because people because people that might call themselves Christians are struggling to obey him.
[00:25:38] And there's this compromise between what they want and what God wants or between following God and the world and giving in to our selfish desires in what we want to do.
[00:25:59] Looking at a few verses about that in, let's see here, 1 John 2, 15 to 16.
[00:26:11] I wish that I could memorize the whole book of 1 John.
[00:26:19] It has, I mean, every verse is just packed in there.
[00:26:24] And as I was reading this, like, this is perfect.
[00:26:26] Maybe the Holy Spirit led me to this verse, or these verses.
[00:26:30] It says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
[00:26:37] If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
[00:26:43] For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but of the world.
[00:26:52] If you have heard some of Pastor Joseph's other sermons, he especially brings out very clearly for verse 16, that when it says all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
[00:27:09] those are the three things, three categories that Satan put to Eve on how she could be like God instead of listening to God and doing what she wanted to do and being her own authority.
[00:27:26] But that verse 15, that is huge.
[00:27:30] Love not the world.
[00:27:33] When Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments, do you see how those are antithetical to each other?
[00:27:39] You can't love the world and love Jesus at the same time.
[00:27:44] He says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
[00:27:47] If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
[00:27:52] Ah, now we're getting deep there.
[00:27:59] Because while no one can tell, when no one can say for certain whether, you know, because we can't see people's hearts, only God can.
[00:28:10] And we can't say for certain whether someone is saved or not.
[00:28:14] just picture it like this if someone calls themselves a Christian but their life looks just like people that are not Christians your first inclination would be to say they are a Christian or they're not
[00:28:37] that they wouldn't be is the sense of your first inclination because they look just like the world if we say that we are Christians we should look like Christ right he says if you love me then obey my commandments and he says in verse 15 in first john 2 15 the
[00:29:05] apostle john says if any man loved the world the love of the father is not in them and brothers and sisters this is this is the holy spirit telling us right now stop flirting with the world
[00:29:19] put your eyes on me follow me there is blessing in it the apostle James really spells this out in the sense of how Satan will use sin to be appealing to us but it leads to death
[00:29:42] this is in James chapter 1 verse 14 it says but every man is tempted or woman when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.
[00:30:01] Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.
[00:30:11] Then he says in verse 16, Do not err, my beloved brethren, do not sin.
[00:30:17] Stay away from it, because Satan is fooling you and leading you away so he can lead you to death.
[00:30:23] and Jesus says, if you love me, then obey my commandments.
[00:30:31] And he also says in John 10, passage on the good shepherd, John 10 verses 10 and 11, he says, the thief cometh not but to steal and to kill and to destroy.
[00:30:46] I have come that they may have life and they might have it more abundantly.
[00:30:51] If we're floundering at all in our lives, if things just don't seem like they're coming together it might be that we are that we are flirting with the things of the world that we are trying to satisfy ourselves instead of going
[00:31:12] to the good shepherd because jesus says he says i have come that they may have life and they may have it more abundantly he wants to bless us he wants to save us he wants to change us to make us
[00:31:27] more like him. And he says in verse 11 of John 10, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. So if Christ gave his life for us, he wants us to live for him and not to have
[00:31:45] this back and forth thing. There are a lot of other passages I could use to explain this, but I I think that I have made the point.
[00:31:56] I'll just say one more in talking about this back and forth with sin.
[00:32:04] We see in Romans 6 verses 6 through 7 said, Knowing this, that our old man, that our sinful selves is crucified with Christ.
[00:32:14] If we have believed and trusted in Christ and received him as our Savior, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed and that henceforth we should not serve sin
[00:32:30] because if we serve sin, then sin is our master.
[00:32:37] The devil uses sin to lead us to death.
[00:32:41] The Lord wants to take us another way in following him and he will give us blessing.
[00:32:46] He will give us forgiveness.
[00:32:48] He has a purpose for our lives that is greater than anything that we can imagine.
[00:32:54] But we have to rest in him and we have to trust in Him.
[00:32:57] Verse 7 of Romans 6, For he that is dead is freed from sin in the sense of dying to our sins in Christ.
[00:33:07] What did Jesus say?
[00:33:09] If a man comes after me, let him pick up his cross and follow me.
[00:33:15] He says, he who seeks to gain the world will lose it, will lose their life in the sense of lose their soul.
[00:33:23] But he who loses his life for my sake, who says, I'm not going to go the way of the world, I'm going to go the way of Christ, will find it.
[00:33:32] All right.
[00:33:35] I bet you're wondering what happened to 2 Peter 1, right?
[00:33:41] All right.
[00:33:42] It's still there.
[00:33:43] We're going there.
[00:33:46] All right.
[00:33:49] So as Peter is writing to the Gentile churches, It's kind of the church as a whole and all these different believers scattered throughout the world.
[00:34:03] In verse 1 of 2 Peter 1, it says, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
[00:34:18] Now that is right there that is only talking about Jesus.
[00:34:21] It is saying Jesus is God and He is our Savior.
[00:34:26] In the next verse, it's talking about the Father and the Son.
[00:34:29] But here in verse 1, it is only talking about Jesus.
[00:34:32] And it is saying that our faith is based on the righteousness of Christ.
[00:34:41] And again, that goes back to the fact that we can never be good enough.
[00:34:47] You know, I don't want to harp on that.
[00:34:49] I don't want you to think I'm harping on that.
[00:34:51] but I want you to know how strong that is.
[00:34:54] In Isaiah 64, it says that our righteousness, our goodness, is as filthy rags before God.
[00:35:03] Do you know what that word, filthy rags, is in reference to?
[00:35:09] It's in reference to a menstrual pad.
[00:35:13] Not to go too far into it, but that is how much God despises our righteousness on our own because it can never be good enough.
[00:35:21] It is only the righteousness of Christ.
[00:35:24] by us grabbing onto him that can save us, that can deliver us.
[00:35:28] That's why we have to follow him in obedience.
[00:35:35] All right.
[00:35:38] To them that have obtained like 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.
[00:35:49] That's talking about the Father and of Jesus our Lord.
[00:35:55] Verse 3, according to his divine power.
[00:35:57] That's talking about the Holy Spirit.
[00:36:00] If we have received Christ as God, the Holy Spirit is within us, has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue.
[00:36:15] Through the knowledge of Him, we saw that in verse 2, that's talking about the Father.
[00:36:20] God the Father has called us to glory and virtue, virtue in morality, in following Him, in glory, in seeing His glory, which the Lord says, I believe it is in Habakkuk chapter 1, that His eyes are too pure to look on sin.
[00:36:40] That is why Christ had to go to the cross, God in the flesh.
[00:36:47] But according to His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue.
[00:36:58] So He has given us all things that pertain to life and to godliness.
[00:37:06] This is one of the promises of God.
[00:37:08] This is how He is making us like Christ.
[00:37:11] So everything we talked about before we came to 2 Peter, do you see how all the pieces are coming together?
[00:37:20] Verse 4, whereby are given unto us great or exceeding great and precious promises.
[00:37:29] So God has given promises to you.
[00:37:32] Is He going to give promises to you?
[00:37:34] if you are doing what satisfies you and is against his word?
[00:37:39] No, it is by following him and it is by going to him for forgiveness.
[00:37:45] He will heal us and restore us and will make us right.
[00:37:50] But in these precious promises, there are four promises in the book of 1 Peter.
[00:37:57] We've already dealt with three.
[00:37:58] Faith, faith in Christ alone, that he is our savior, that he died for us, that He rose from the dead, life, eternal life that is in Christ alone, and godliness in changing us so that we are not servants of sin
[00:38:17] or servants of the devil, so we don't look like the world.
[00:38:22] And in 2 Peter 3, 4, it talks about the promise of Christ's coming, that Jesus will return, and that one day, each of us will have to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:38:35] Are you ready?
[00:38:40] And kind of like the answer should be no.
[00:38:44] Because we should be filled with fear and trembling and standing before God Himself.
[00:38:50] And if it were not for Christ, we would have no hope.
[00:38:55] We would have no salvation.
[00:38:57] It is because of His righteousness and not our own.
[00:39:02] All right.
[00:39:04] Verse 4.
[00:39:05] That by these ye may be partakers of the divine nature.
[00:39:09] You see that?
[00:39:10] Become more like Christ.
[00:39:13] Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
[00:39:18] And that word lust is defined as selfish love.
[00:39:23] Doing what we want to do.
[00:39:28] That's exactly what the devil told Eve.
[00:39:32] You can do what you want to do and it'll be okay.
[00:39:36] He didn't know that he was, or he did know.
[00:39:41] She didn't know.
[00:39:42] that he was condemning her to hell based on that and that that would bring sin and death into the world that had not been there before that.
[00:39:55] Verse 5, And beside this, giving all diligence or earnestness, zeal and effort, add to your faith virtue in the sense of moral excellence.
[00:40:07] And as we said, faith is in Christ alone for his salvation.
[00:40:11] we are to add virtue and to virtue knowledge knowledge is not just any knowledge it is knowledge in God it is knowledge in the word knowledge of who he is this is why we are to study the scriptures
[00:40:29] this is why we are to come to church we are to come to Bible study we are to study the word on our own I'm not saying you got to sit around and study the Bible all the time
[00:40:39] but if we do everything else and then we say, you know, one day I'm going to read my Bible.
[00:40:46] One day I'm going to come to a Bible study at church.
[00:40:51] We're putting all those other things before the knowledge of God, before knowing the very one who saved us.
[00:41:02] And to knowledge we are to add temperance, which is self-control.
[00:41:09] That's a really big thing there.
[00:41:12] You know, I'll just give an example here.
[00:41:15] This is a very simple example.
[00:41:16] Because there's a lot of worse things that could be done.
[00:41:23] I'm lactose intolerant.
[00:41:25] Does that mean that I don't ever eat things that have dairy?
[00:41:29] I sure wish it did.
[00:41:31] Because there are times when I'll do it and I'm going to suffer.
[00:41:34] I'm going to have a penalty for that.
[00:41:36] And I'm like, man, I can't even say no to this.
[00:41:39] Like, how am I going to be able to say no to things that are worse?
[00:41:42] I can't say no to dairy.
[00:41:44] And it's like that constant struggle.
[00:41:46] But that's how it is with every single sin.
[00:41:48] are we going to give in?
[00:41:51] We have to have temperance and self-control.
[00:41:54] We are to add to temperance patience, which is endurance and long-suffering, being able to trust and to rest in Christ.
[00:42:06] I mean, do you know how hard it is to rest in Christ?
[00:42:11] You know, there are some times I wish I had a shirt that said, do it now, you know?
[00:42:18] Speaking of being impatient, It's like, not only do I want to do it now, I want you to do it now.
[00:42:24] It's like, I'm just not telling you that.
[00:42:26] That is my sinful self talking, right?
[00:42:30] All right, we're to have patience.
[00:42:33] To our patience, we're to add patience.
[00:42:35] Godliness, which is love toward God, which is reverence to Him, seeking Him with all of our heart.
[00:42:45] To godliness, we're to add brotherly kindness, affection within the family of God.
[00:42:49] I mean, if you think sometimes it's hard to love somebody in your immediate and extended family, try having to love everybody that is in the church and not just me.
[00:43:00] I'm talking about all of us.
[00:43:01] You know, we're people.
[00:43:04] We have different personalities.
[00:43:06] And yet God commands us to love each other.
[00:43:10] A lot of that is in 1 John.
[00:43:15] And it is because of the unity of the Holy Spirit and the love of God toward us when we don't deserve it.
[00:43:20] And to brotherly kindness, we are to add charity.
[00:43:24] We are to add love, the love of God that is greater than anything.
[00:43:31] And the only way we get a glimpse of that is that we realize that God loves us when we are unlovable, because our righteousness is as filthy rags before him.
[00:43:46] All right, so go on to verse 8, 2 Peter 1.
[00:43:50] For if you do, or if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:44:05] It means you will bear fruit in your lives.
[00:44:09] That's really interesting.
[00:44:11] Because Jesus says that is a mark of who is a believer and who is not, is that they bear fruit.
[00:44:18] And so as we said earlier, if your life looks like the world's and doesn't look like you belong to Christ and you are obeying and striving to walk with Him, then you are not bearing fruit.
[00:44:37] And God calls us to bear fruit.
[00:44:39] That is just one of those warnings that God gives us to draw us to Him, to say, He says, I want something better for you.
[00:44:48] I want you to be blessed.
[00:44:49] I don't want you to be led into sin and then led into death and to be corrupted by lust or our selfish desires.
[00:45:03] In verse 9, before I kind of read about bearing fruit, verse 9 says, But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
[00:45:20] This is the one verse in the Bible that gives any kind of hint to saying that someone can struggle so much with sin that they have professed faith in Christ and they are still a believer.
[00:45:38] But here's the thing, the warning Peter is given is you're on a slippery slope.
[00:45:42] Like, you know, you're not going up, you're not at the top, you're kind of on that edge and you're right about to slide down because of this idea of bearing fruit, of being fruitful and not being barren.
[00:45:59] In Matthew 7, verses 15 to 23, this is the Lord Jesus talking.
[00:46:06] John the Baptist says a similar thing in Matthew 3, but Jesus says here in Matthew 7, 15, He says, Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
[00:46:18] Now, he's talking about false teachers, but this also applies to all of us in bearing fruit.
[00:46:25] Verse 16, Ye shall know them by their fruits.
[00:46:30] Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?
[00:46:37] Do you get figs from a thistle tree?
[00:46:39] Do you get grapes from a thorn bush?
[00:46:43] Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
[00:46:51] A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
[00:46:58] You see that?
[00:46:59] Does that make sense?
[00:47:00] I mean, that is logical as logical gets.
[00:47:04] Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, is cut down, and cast into the fire.
[00:47:13] Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them.
[00:47:17] So if a person is not bearing fruit, they are cut down and thrown into the fire.
[00:47:22] Again, this is a warning so that people will repent and come to Christ and seek the change of God that we all need instead of trusting in ourselves and trying to deliver ourselves, trying to bring our own selves hope and salvation because we can't.
[00:47:41] But going on here in verse 21, this is kind of the clincher for that.
[00:47:48] Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father in heaven.
[00:47:57] Doesn't mean those who do what they want to do.
[00:48:00] Those who do the will of my Father which is in heaven.
[00:48:04] Verse 22, many will say to me in that day, lord lord have we not prophesied in that thy name and in thy name cast out devils and in thy name done wonderful works people will say hey i've lived for you i've come to church i've tried to
[00:48:19] do i've tried to do all these things i've tried to live as a christian but they never really surrendered to christ and their lives are not bearing fruit in verse 23 the lord says he says
[00:48:36] then I will profess unto them, I never knew you.
[00:48:40] Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
[00:48:46] That's the last thing that any of us want to hear when we stand before Jesus, is depart from me, I don't know you.
[00:48:52] And it only comes, the only way we don't hear that is that we live in a constant state of repentance and in striving to follow the Lord with all of our hearts.
[00:49:05] All right.
[00:49:09] So then in 2 Peter 1.10, it says, Wherefore, the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.
[00:49:22] For if ye do these things, you shall never fail.
[00:49:25] What things is he talking about?
[00:49:27] That whole list of the seven qualities that we looked at.
[00:49:33] where it says for faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity or love.
[00:49:47] That's actually eight, but it's adding to our faith, those seven things.
[00:49:51] These are things that we are to develop in our hearts in striving to follow God and to be faithful to Him.
[00:50:04] And so as Peter says, if you do these things, if you strive after these things, if you strive to live as a Christian, it will help to make your calling and your election sure.
[00:50:21] Now, we're running a little short on time, so I don't have time to get much into election, but there's that word election.
[00:50:29] And some people will be like, oh, I don't know about election.
[00:50:32] And they start getting kind of squirmy.
[00:50:36] Well, you know, it says in Ephesians 1.4 that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
[00:50:49] So if you are a true believer, if God has really saved you, then he has chosen you since before the foundation of the world.
[00:50:58] And you have to ask yourself, do you believe the Bible or not?
[00:51:04] Because if we believe the Bible, then we were chosen in Christ.
[00:51:07] we were elected to be in Him since before the foundation of the world that is another sermon so I'm not going into that totally but just to give you an idea when it says in Ephesians 2
[00:51:22] when it says that we have to be made that Christ makes us alive so we're born again when you were born did you have any say in it?
[00:51:34] did you control the outcome at all?
[00:51:37] No, you are passive in it.
[00:51:40] The same way in being born again.
[00:51:43] When God saves us, He draws us to Himself.
[00:51:47] He is the one who saves us, not us.
[00:51:51] We are responding in faith when He gives us a new heart.
[00:51:54] So in us getting that new heart, like it says in Ezekiel, He is the one that does it.
[00:52:02] Now, people will ask, well, how do I know then that I've been saved?
[00:52:08] How do I know that I am of the elect?
[00:52:12] This is why we preach the gospel.
[00:52:14] So that when we tell, when we explain what salvation is and that God wants you to come to him, that he wants to save you, that he wants to forgive you, and if you come to him, he will.
[00:52:26] If you sit there and say, well, maybe later, but not now.
[00:52:32] Or, you know, I don't know that I'm ready.
[00:52:35] Or that you made the choice to not come, to not change your life.
[00:52:39] to not, in a sense, submit to God and try to follow Him and receive Christ as Lord and Savior.
[00:52:47] Now, I don't want to blur good works and faith in Christ alone in the sense of if we are not trusting in Him alone and thereby we are not wanting to follow and to obey Him,
[00:53:02] then we are making the choice to not believe in Him.
[00:53:08] Does that make sense?
[00:53:09] thereby you are showing that you are at least at this point that you are not of the elect but it's why we preach the gospel because when the gospel is preached the Holy Spirit goes out
[00:53:24] and if it is stirring in your heart and it is saying hey I can't do it on my own I need to come to God I need Him to do it then the Holy Spirit is talking to you
[00:53:35] and He wants you to come to Him and to confess your sins and your faith in the Lord Jesus and be saved.
[00:53:45] Alright, so we are trusting in Christ.
[00:53:50] We can know that we are saved and if we are striving to obey Him, it is how we make our calling and election sure.
[00:54:01] Alright, so 1 Peter 11 and 12.
[00:54:03] We are almost done.
[00:54:06] Verse 11, For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly in the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
[00:54:15] Do you hear that?
[00:54:16] That is that assurance that you will be with God in heaven if you are truly believing Him and you are truly striving to follow Him with all of your heart.
[00:54:29] And then in verse 12, Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them and be established in the present truth.
[00:54:48] Do you want to know why Pastor Joseph and I are constantly saying that we need to believe and trust in Christ?
[00:54:55] and that we need to obey him and follow him is because that's what Peter is saying.
[00:55:02] He is saying that he will always put in remembrance to the people so that they will know God and be assured of their salvation so that they will have peace, so that they will have the rest that only God can give.
[00:55:19] so a passage to end with to bring all of this together in 1 John 5 verses 10 to 13 the apostle John says he that believeth on the son of God hath the witness in himself
[00:55:42] he that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his son now that should be mind blowing there It means that if you don't believe that God sent His Son to be your Savior
[00:56:03] and so that you can confess your sins to Him and commit yourself to Him, then you are calling God a liar.
[00:56:12] So it's saying God is true.
[00:56:16] And this is a decision and a confession that we all have to make in our lives.
[00:56:22] And he says, and this is the record that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son.
[00:56:32] He that hath the Son hath life.
[00:56:35] He that hath not the Son hath not life.
[00:56:41] These things I have written unto you that you may believe on the name of the Son of God and that ye might know that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
[00:56:55] He who has the Son has life.
[00:56:57] He who does not have the Son does not have life.
[00:57:04] This is the gospel call.
[00:57:07] And God has said that we are to put our full and complete trust in Christ alone.
[00:57:13] So if you have not done that today, you can come up here at the last hymn after the service is over.
[00:57:20] You can talk to me at any time about coming to Christ and being sure of your salvation.
[00:57:28] because Jesus has said, John 6, 37, Jesus says, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast away.
[00:58:01] I mean, praise God.
[00:58:05] Praise Jesus.
[00:58:06] He says, If you come to me in faith, I will not reject you.
[00:58:09] I will not push you away.
[00:58:11] I will forgive you.
[00:58:12] And so God is saying that we can have assurance of our salvation.
[00:58:16] We can be filled with His peace and with His hope for life, but we have to depend on Him and not ourselves.
[00:58:25] So if you have not done that, or even if you want to recommit yourself to the Lord, I know I'm sounding very Baptist right now, but the same principles apply.
[00:58:36] It is in giving our heart and our life to God and serving Him and doing it His way instead of ours, and God wants us to come to Him.
[00:58:46] So I'm not pressuring.
[00:58:48] But if there's anyone who wants to do that, to have that assurance, know that this is why I'm a pastor, to help people come to God for their lives to be changed.
[00:59:02] Let's look to the Lord in prayer.
[00:59:08] Oh, Lord God, Lord, you tell us by your word that there's really only one conclusion for our lives, is that we are to come to you.
[00:59:20] We are to devote our whole lives to you.
[00:59:26] And Lord, we thank you that you came.