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Make Your Calling And Election Sure (2 Peter 1:8-11)
Introduction
Our text for today's message is taken from 2 Peter 1:8-11. Allow me to read for you verse 8-11 of 2 Peter 1, "For if these things be in you and abound, they make sure that ye shall neither be barren, nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lackth these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and have forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, he shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ". The Lord blessed the reading of His holy and sacred Word.
As Christians, I believe there are moments in our lives whereby we are uncertain if we are truly safe or not. Sometimes a person may doubt whether if he dies he will be in Heaven or not. He may lack the confidence that God loves him. Or he may feel that his love for God is not enough to indicate true salvation. Or he may not have sufficient biblical knowledge. There are moments when doubts would enter into our minds. Sometimes they come and go, and other times they stay for a longer time and plunge us into despair. Doubts about salvation are common in the lives of many Christians in spite of what God has said in His Word. Dear friend, have you ever questioned, what is the goal of my life? If God gives me another 20 or 30 years to live on the face of this earth, what is the purpose of my life? Perhaps these are the two most frequently asked questions: how can I be assured of my salvation? And what is the goal of my life? This is precisely what we want to consider for today's message, and the title is Make Your Calling and Election Sure. There are two points in our message: the goal of our life and the assurance of our salvation.
I. The Goal Of Our Life
Let us begin with verse 8. For if these things be in you and abound, they make sure, or they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word barren can mean lazy, useless, or ineffective. The phrase, “For if these things be in you and abound,” is a reference to pursuing the spiritual qualities found in the preceding verse 3-5. For example, faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly love, and charity. Very similar to the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter 5. Take a moment and consider this. If you are a believer, God has elected you. He has called you and brought you into the knowledge of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. Since the time of your conversion—from the time Jesus Christ has saved you until the time you meet Him face to face—what is the goal and purpose of your life? What kind of life have you been living? Have you been effective for Christ, or have you been barren and unfruitful for Him? At the end of your life, when you draw your last breath, will your Saviour say to you, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Come, enter into the joy of the Lord.” If these spiritual qualities are found in your life and abounding, which means increasing, then you will not be barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. To put it in a positive sense, you will be effective and fruitful. If you notice, the apostle Peter assumed two things about the Christians.
Firstly, he knew that such a goal matters to the Christians. This letter was written to the Christians. And why do you think Peter would say to them, “This is the way not to be barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ,” but unless it is important to them, right? Can you imagine if you walk down the street and you meet an unbeliever and you say to him, “My friend, let me tell you the way to be effective for Jesus Christ”? He will probably say to you, “Are you crazy? Who cares about being effective for Jesus Christ?” But when the true believers hear of the way to be effective for Christ, they will be motivated to lay hold on this motivations and exhortations. You cannot motivate someone with something they do not want. So when Peter said this is the way to be effective, he was assuming the believers would desire to be spiritually godly. He would be assuming that the believers wanted to be effective, and it is certainly not a far-fetched assumption. In fact, it is a test whether or not you are truly a believer. Dear friend, do you care whether or not your life is effective or your life is barren and unfruitful for Christ? Do you want your life on this earth to matter for the kingdom of God? Do you want to grow in the Lord? Before you answer, you need to honestly search your hearts. If you say, “I want to grow. I want to be effective. I want to be fruitful,” then what you are saying is, “I am willing to do what Peter had set forth before me here, including all the other Holy Scriptures. I am willing to obey so that I may be able to achieve this goal.” There are many professing Christians who know the right answer to the question, but they are not aware of the fact that their answer is dishonest. When you ask them, do you want to grow spiritually, almost every one of them would say yes because they know that is the right answer. But there's a huge difference between what you are saying and what your life is saying. If you say you want to grow in Christ and increase in all these spiritual qualities, the fruit of the Spirit, but you do not read the Bible, you do not obey God's commandments, you do not pray, you do not live godly lives manifesting the spiritual qualities, then you do not really desire to grow. Isn't it true? We know what we really desire by what we do and by how we live.
Secondly, this goal can be pursued and realised by genuine Christians. God does not set goals that are impossible for us to achieve. Sometimes children will go to their parents and ask if they can go to the playground. The parents do not want to bring them there. But instead of simply telling them that they do not want to bring them there, they come up with some impossible promises. “If you can mow the lawn completely in five minutes, then I will bring you to the playground.” God does not motivate us with such empty promises. You and I can be effective and fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ because of God's amazing provisions. According to verses 3 and 4, He has given to us everything we need in life and for godliness' sake. And He has blessed us with exceeding great and precious promises. The word precious in itself is already wonderful enough. It means valuable. But to add the word exceeding great makes the description even more amazing. Charles Spurgeon explains it very well when he said, “There are some great things in this world that are not very precious, like a huge rock, a mega rock, a large rock, but it has no real value.” And there are some precious things in this world that are very small, like a diamond, like a jewel, like the precious faith inside each and every one of us. Because of our precious faith, God has done for us and placed us in such a position and blessed us with exceeding great and precious promises. Therefore, you and I ought to give all diligence in verse five. To give diligence is to make haste, to be eager, to put in all our efforts. If God were to say, “Give diligence,” it will be enough to convict our hearts to do the very thing He has commanded. But instead He commanded giving all diligence, which means it is not just merely trying to do some of these things. It is to do everything we can. It is to put in all our efforts and strength to be godly and spiritual. Are we really making an effort to grow spiritually? When we consider our walk with God, does the word diligence ever come into our minds? Do we really make an effort to be effective for our Saviour? Think about those things that you can honestly say, I have put in all my efforts. I have given all diligence. Perhaps it could be your relationship with your spouse. You have done all that you could to make your relationship possible. Or it could be for the well-being of your children. You have invested all your money and time to make sure that your children are well educated. Or you could have sacrificed even family time for the advancement of your careers. Now ask yourself, can you say the same thing about your spiritual life? Does your effort in your spiritual life measure up to all these endeavours? How many of us can say we have given all diligence to grow spiritually? We have done all that we possibly could to pursue these spiritual qualities. How many of us can say that? May the Lord forgive us if we have not set our priorities right. If we diligently pursue all these spiritual qualities, we have the wonderful promise from God found in verse 8: for 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. But how do we pursue these spiritual qualities with all diligence? How can we increase in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus? Did God say in His Word, you must attend the worship services and prayer meetings? You must participate in the Bible study classes and fellowship groups meetings? You must have personal regular quiet time, prayer time, and Bible reading time? When you do all these things, you will have these spiritual qualities. Did God say that? Of course not. But we know that any activity that will help us to grow spiritually, that is the very thing we will pursue with all diligence. On the other hand, if you are someone who professes faith in Christ and you fail to give all diligence to pursue these spiritual qualities, verse 9 says, “But he that lackth these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” He is blind and unable to discern through his true spiritual condition. He has forgotten how he was saved, cleansed, and delivered from his former life. He was blind, but he was made to see. And then he experienced a kind of spiritual blindness again. It does not mean that he has lost his salvation. If he's a true believer, he will not lose his salvation, but he may lose the assurance of his salvation.
II. The Assurance Of Our Salvation
With this, it brings us to our second point: the assurance of our salvation. Look at verse 10. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if you do these things ye shall never fall. This is an even greater priority. It is something we have to make sure to be certain, and that is regarding the doctrine of election. The most important question we need to ask in our lifetime is this: am I numbered amongst the elect? What does Peter mean when he said we are to make our calling and election sure? Does he mean that although God has elected certain people to be saved, their election is not certain until they respond to the call of God? And unless or until they respond, their election remains uncertain? Most certainly not. We can do nothing to make God's eternal decree certain and sure. When God chooses someone to be saved, his or her election is absolutely certain. God does not choose people to be saved and then let them decide. If that is the case, then there will be no election. People will be electing themselves, with God standing as a spectator. If God chooses to elect someone, that election must come to pass. Nothing in Heaven and on earth can frustrate the sovereign will of God. Obviously, making our calling and election sure is not making what God has decreed to be a sure thing. It is a sure thing already. Our diligence can never change what God has decreed. Here Peter was not talking about the security of salvation but the assurance of salvation. You see, security is the fact that all who are saved will not lose their salvation. However, you can have the security and yet not have the assurance. In other words, your salvation is secured. You are saved, but you cannot enjoy it because you are living in doubt of your salvation or in the fear of losing your salvation, like our Armenian friends. And the irony is that there are others who do not have the security of salvation. They are not saved. They do not truly believe in God. Yet they have the assurance, and that is a false assurance. Basically, there are four types of people with respect to the assurance of salvation. There are unsaved people who know they are not saved. There are unsaved people who think they are saved. There are saved people who are unsure if they are saved. And there are saved people who are sure they are safe. And we want to be this fourth category of people. We want to be sure we are saved. Some unsaved people think they are saved because of some intellectual knowledge. Knowledge of the truth is necessary for salvation. But it does not equal salvation. You can know much about God. You can know much about Jesus Christ, who He is. That He came into this world and died on the cross, shedding His precious blood, that He rose again from the dead on the third day, and He is coming back again. You can know all these details about Jesus and yet reject Him in your heart. Some unsaved people think they are saved because I simply think and feel that I am a Christian. I just know in my heart that I am saved. But no sooner have they said those words, they walk out of the church and never attended worship services anymore. The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9. Our hearts go beyond knowledge and our emotions in his wickedness. If to think that you are a Christian makes you a Christian, then nobody in this world will be deceived. That is the whole point of Satan's deception: to make people think they are Christians, but in reality they are not. Some unsaved people think they are safe because I remember I signed the card during the gospel rally. And I prayed a prayer, and I went forward during the church service. But again there are people who have prayed and gone forward during the church services and signed the cards and even baptise and join churches but never had saving faith. Some unsaved people think they are saved because the preacher told me I was saved. And since when did man have such authority? But there are people who are truly saved and yet they are unsure if they are saved. They are living in constant fear of losing their salvation. And they will say, “I believe that God has forgiven the sins that I've committed before my salvation, but will He forgive the sins that I've committed after my salvation? If I am truly saved, why am I still troubled by these sinful thoughts? Why am I giving in to temptations? If I'm truly saved, why am I going through this terrible struggle in life? Perhaps God has forsaken me. I have just stole a lie. And if I were to die at this very moment, I would be lost for all eternity because I have not confessed that sin.” People can live in constant fear and doubt their salvation. Yet they are truly born-again Christians. The saddest thing is that they cannot enjoy the assurance of their salvation because of their lack of understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ. Dear friend, we can have this confidence of the security of our salvation when we truly understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we understand that God knew we were sinners and He sent Jesus Christ into the world to completely and totally pay the penalty of our sins—past, present, and future. Isaiah 53:5 said, “He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Jesus Christ bore our sins on the cross and shed His precious blood for the remission of our sins. And the psalmist said, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:12. And Isaiah 61:10 said, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.” The moment a sinner puts his faith in Jesus Christ, he is washed by the Saviour's precious blood. He is clothed with the Saviour's righteousness. Our security from divine judgment and condemnation depends not on our perfect life, but on the blessed fact that we are washed by the blood of Christ. That is about the security of our salvation. And if God has given to us a salvation that is secured, we should certainly enjoy that assurance too. But where does that assurance come from? Well, He has given us the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:9 said, “Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” As believers, you and I are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. And through the empowerment and ministry of the Holy Spirit, we endeavour to live an effective, productive, and godly life, manifesting those spiritual qualities mentioned in this passage as well as the fruit of the Spirit. Peter said in verse 10, “You can make your calling and election sure, as long as you do these things ye shall never fall,” which means you shall never stumble. The spiritual qualities that you manifest in your life are the evidence that God has called you and elected you even before the foundation of the world. Therefore, you will not live in doubt, despair, and fear, but you can confidently enjoy an abundant and fruitful life. You will have the blessed assurance of entering into God's everlasting kingdom. As verse 11 said, “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Conclusion
Dear friend, essentially the title — Make Your Calling and Election Sure — is about the assurance of our salvation, which is a most blessed thing. God does not want us to live in the fear and doubt of our salvation but to have the fullness, the assurance that we are saved. But the way to have the assurance of salvation is through the manifestation of these spiritual qualities: faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity. And when we see the fruit of the Spirit increasing in our lives, we know, we are sure that we are truly saved. We are truly the elect of God. One day, when we lie on our death beds with our children and grandchildren around us, with familiar faces and familiar environment, we know that soon we will be separated from them all. But we also know that our farewell will not be permanent. How can we be sure? Not just through the profession of our faith, but through the spiritual qualities we see in the lives of our children and grandchildren. And through the spiritual qualities they see in our lives, we know that we are all the elect of God. And if we are truly the elect of God, and we know that our calling and election is certain, then in the sweet by and by we will meet again on that beautiful shore of Heaven. I pray that all of us will endeavour to make our calling and election sure, to give all diligence, put in all our efforts to grow spiritually, manifesting all these spiritual qualities.
Closing Prayer
Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, Thou has reminded us once again of how important it is to have this assurance of our salvation and to know the goal of our lives. Thou has saved us for a purpose. And no matter how many years we have remaining in our lives, we want to be effective and fruitful for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the One who came, died, and shed His precious blood to save us. We want to grow spiritually, manifesting all these spiritual qualities, including the other fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Thy precious Word. And through the empowerment and ministry of the Holy Spirit working in us, helping us to develop all these spiritual qualities, we can be sure of our calling. We can be sure of our election. We are not to live in the fear and doubt of our salvation, but in the fullness, being assured in our hearts that we are truly the elect of God. And we pray that we'll be mindful to live such a life, to be productive, effective, and fruitful for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.