Spiritual growth is essential for believers to make their calling and election sure, as outlined in 2 Peter 1. By diligently adding virtues like knowledge, self-control, and love to one's faith, believers demonstrate their salvation and are safeguarded from falling. This diligent cultivation of Christian character leads not only to stability in this life but also to an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of God. The sermon emphasizes that while human effort is the path, God's grace ensures the ultimate reward and triumphant entry into His eternal reign.
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We're turning tonight to Second Peter, Chapter One. And let me just say a word. My soul leaps for joy tonight to see our dear brother David Lyons back with us. And David has been ministering in China this summer, teaching English at a hospital there. And what a thrill to have him back with us. Parents are assembly missionaries in Italy. And he has been at Bryan College. He's a graduate of Bryan. And I've asked him if he would.
I didn't ask him for this Sunday night because this is Labor Day weekend. And this is the time when a lot of people are away. But I asked him if he possibly could. The Sunday night after that. to give us a report on China. He has pictures and I'm interested in the church in China. And I know everyone else is. And I'm hoping that we're going to talk about it right after the meeting tonight. And so Sunday night a week will, I hope David will give us a Sunday evening meeting and warm our hearts with what has taken place in China at the present time.
Now, Second Peter, chapter one, we begin our reading at verse eight. Second Peter one, verse eight, where he says, For if these things be in you and abound, the things here in this verse have reference to the things that he told us to supply, to add to our faith inasmuch as we have been given the divine nature by regenerating grace according to verse four and then we're to add the various things excellent knowledge self-control endurance godliness brotherly affection and love we're to add these things and then he adds if these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ but He that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And may the Lord bless the reading of his word. The new birth is absolutely imperative. Our Lord said, you must be born again. And the new birth is of God. God is the author of the new birth.
But inasmuch as we've been regenerated by God, We are to add the things that are mentioned that we went over last week in verses five through seven. Now, if we do not, if we do not supply these things in our lives by diligent study of the Word of God, by effectual praying one with another, James tells us you have not because you ask not. You ask and receive not because you ask a myth that you may consume it upon your life.
And when you just take those words, you have not because you ask not. It gives us an incentive to pray. And our biggest need today is not physical. It is not financial. It is spiritual. The spiritual needs of the people of God. are many. That is our greatest need. We continuously take care of that which is going to give us convenience. But we avoid, it seems, that which is going to give us conviction. And we need conviction far more than we need convenience.
And a lot that we see today and a lot of the answers that we hear, the so-called problems that we face, or rather a running away from the problem rather than standing and facing the enemy. Diligence in adding to our faith is very important. So in verse eight you have the effect of abundant growth. If these qualities are yours and they are increasing, this depicts a mark of abundant growth. And then in verse nine, for we looked at verse eight last week, In verse nine, you have the blight that comes from failure to grow.
It says, But he that lacketh these things is blind. Now, blind describes metaphorically the person's moral and spiritual conditions. Often you and I must confess that there are people who profess to be saved. And a year or two, maybe six months or maybe even less than that, you find no change in the life. You find they have a stunted growth and you never see these things that are listed here added. There are some people that wouldn't, they might have a lot to say if you closed down a Sunday evening service.
They'd have a lot to say. Oh, look at that. No Sunday evening service there, but they never attended anyway. They never attended anyway. You see, and you look at these things. He that is lack of these things. These important ingredients that we add to faith. He that lack of these things is blind. In other words, Peter is saying that his spiritual condition leaves him unable to see the need for these spiritual realities. If a person doesn't see the need for these spiritual realities in the life, He'll be reluctant to cultivate them.
But if he sees the need, he will desire the cultivation of it. But then he adds something which is serious. It says, and he has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Forgetting what we really have been saved from. You see, this points to a previous inner enlightenment. And I like to think of this. And because I don't believe that a saved person can ever be lost. Our Lord said, Oh, but thou givest me, I have kept, and none of them is lost. Well, it is, I believe, impossible for a person who is genuinely saved to ever be lost.
I do believe it is possible for a believer to lose his assurance. That genuine assurance that we are truly the Lord, And I believe that this is what Peter is really pressing in this ninth verse. He is pressing the lack of assurance that those who do not add to their faith are bound to have. And beloved, I have dealt with a lot of people over the years who have lost assurance. and the reason they have lost assurance they have become negligent of the very things that Peter says were to supply in our faith.
Now there's another way of looking at this because the second chapter is going to be dealing with false teachers. And these false teachers, they are ones who had professed to receive new life and yet they continued to live in open sin. It could be that false teachers are on the mind of Peter as he writes, but verse nine is a verse that doesn't give us the privilege of just taking for granted this great salvation that is ours.
God expects us to grow. Now, when you come to verse ten, he says, Wherefore the rather brethren. Instead of dwelling on the things in verse nine, he says, The rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Here is an exhortation again to spiritual growth. In fact, the whole of second Peter deals with spiritual growth. When you come to the last verse in the epistle, he says, But grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And by the way, where he says in verse ten, wherefore the rather brethren give diligence. This is the only occurrence of the word brethren in this or in the both epistles of Peter.
You don't find it anywhere but here. In other words, this adds intimacy and it adds affection to the appeal. He says, brethren, just like Paul does in Romans twelve, I beseech you, therefore, rethren by the mercies of God. Now he appeals to them here. He says, give diligence to make your calling an election sure. He says, give all the more urgency to this. This carries with it a sense of urgency, beloved. Give diligence. Now this is a marked contrast to the careless verse or the careless life that is presented in verse nine.
In other words, he's saying, safeguard yourself against plight. Safeguard yourself against it. Peter is urging his readers to make certain about their calling and their election. Their calling and election have reference to the divine side of salvation. To make certain means by personal assurance. By personal assurance, having been called and chosen, this is the divine side of salvation. These two terms relate to the divine side. Chronologically, the election is first, the calling is second.
But he has the calling first here and the election second. Why? The calling of a believer is his call to salvation. And that day when you and I got saved, When we were saved from our sins, it was then that we realized that long before we ever heard the gospel, in eternity past, before the foundation of the world, God chose us in Christ. Now, I didn't know that great truth until after I was saved. It's something you learn after you're saved, not before you're saved. So, he says, give rather brethren diligence.
Make your calling an election sure. In other words, be sure that you've been called of God. Be sure that you just haven't been called by the preacher. There are a lot of people who think they're saved because they walked the aisle and shook the preacher's hand. Be sure that God has done a work in your life. And it's only as God has done a work in your life in regenerating grace that you can say, I'm one of God's elects. And just because there are people who don't like the term election or elect, it doesn't take it out of the Bible. It is there. And when I read this, give diligence, brethren, make your calling an election sure that's one thing I want to do.
I want to be sure of that more than I am of anything else. I want to be sure that I am the Lord. And beloved, Listen to this. Election is certain to those who have heard the divine call. And if you can say tonight, I am saved by God's grace, you should have no trouble with election because you're one of his. You're one of his elect. He chose you in Christ before the foundation of the world. The scripture says so. And I am simple enough to believe it.
Give diligence, brethren. Make your calling an election sure. Now why does he say this? Why does he say this? Why? Because there are definite results that are connected with spiritual growth. The end of verse ten, he says, For if you do these things, you shall never fall. What a passage. In other words, there's assured stability in this present life. Isn't that great? If you do these things, you will never fall. In other words, a flourishing spiritual life is a safeguard against failure. A flourishing spiritual life is a safeguard against failure.
Now you have a good illustration of this in Joseph. when Joseph was carried down by the Ishmaelites into Egypt. And he was sold as a prisoner. The young man had a stable spiritual life. How do I know? When he was seduced by Potiphar's wife, his answer was, how can I sin against Potiphar? No. How can I sin against the Lord to do such a thing? And when we see sin, beloved, as not against one another, but as against the Lord, we see then it is a mark which spirituality has safeguarded us in the day of evil.
And a flourishing spiritual life is a safeguard. Obedience is not optional. in any consideration of spiritual safety. If you want to be safe spiritually, obey God. The hymn writer put it, Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Who is it that loses assurance, disobedient, believably? That's who it is. If you do these things, he says, you will never stumble.
Now, the error is tense is used here in the Greek, and it points to a stumbling that is final, from which there is no arising. It is used also in Romans, verse eleven, where it speaks of Israel. And to really get the thrust of that, look over at Romans eleven. It's speaking of Israel as a nation. And there are those who say, Israel will never come back. He says in verse eleven, I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Fall that they'll never rise again. No, he says, God forbid. Rather, to their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles.
In other words, Israel in Romans chapter eleven is a great illustration of what disobedience can lead to. And it's only God in sovereign grace that will ever bring Israel back. That's the only thing that will do it. When God awakens their heart and draws them back to genuine repentance and faith in him. Now when it says, if you do these things, you shall never fall. This text is not teaching sinless perfection. It doesn't mean that we'll never sin. but that we are kept from an irretrievable fall.
Every believer that I've ever known has fallen at one time or another after they're saved. They have sinned, and it doesn't matter if it's a little sin or if it's a big sin. They have fallen at one time or another. But they have not fallen irretrievably. God has made a provision for the child of God to come back. Thank God for First John one, nine. if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so in connection with the ending of verse ten you have verse eleven they go together now watch it it says for if you do these things you shall never fall for and that's a conjunction for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So that brings us to the triumphant entrance into the eternal kingdom. You see, verse eleven is parallel verse to the ending of chapter ten. As long as you have practiced these things, you will never fall. In other words, in this life, you won't fall and be lost. And in the life to come, it's going to give you an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior. Now, I want to state something. Human activity does not earn this abundant entrance.
It's not earned that way. But human activity is simply the way that leads to that abundant eternal entrance. On the way here below, as we look forward to the coming of the Lord, as it is written of Abraham, he looked for a city that has foundations whose builder and maker is God. Abraham's life didn't earn a part in that city that was given by divine grace, but his life exemplified the fact that he was on the road to the eternal city. And when these characteristics that Peter writes about in verses five and six and seven that we examined last week, and these characteristics are present in the life, they manifest the fact that we are on the road to that eternal city that has foundations whose builder and maker is God.
Now, he adds, we'll be abundantly supplied. And I'm reading another verse. In other words, in the King James has said, it will be ministered unto you abundantly. And in that word will be abundantly supplied. It picks up the verb that is used in verse five, supply. He says, supply to your faith, or as the King James puts it, add. In other words, God will reciprocate to their activity. of diligently supplying the necessary development of Christian character.
You develop your Christian character in this life, God will add something in the life to come. An abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know if that thrilled you or not, but I'm only going to live down here a few years. In fact, my life is Two-thirds over if I live a normal life, maybe more. It might be nine-tenths over for all I know. And I tell you, I thought when I was a young fellow, I'd never get to be twenty-one.
It seemed like such a long way ago since I've hit twenty-one. Time has flown. And all of you can say the same thing. Our life is short. It's very short. And we sing occasionally. Life at best is very brief. Like the falling of a leaf. Like the binding of a sheaf. Be in time. Be in time. God's word is always today. Never tomorrow. And you see, that which is done in this life as a child of God.
By giving diligence to supply in our faith virtue, etc., etc. What does God do? He supplies that necessary development, and He reciprocates. Now, in that abundant entrance, God does the adding. In this life, I do the adding. In that one, at the entrance, He's going to do the adding. I remember listening to R.G. LaTerno one time, that dear brother who gave most of his money to the Lord, and God gave him a lot to give away.
And he says, God keeps shoveling in as I keep shoveling out, as he gave to the Lord. And he said, the thing about it, God has a bigger shovel than I do. I tell you, what a man. What a man he was. But you see, when God says he's going to give us an abundant entrance, I don't know how to answer that, but it's going to be glorious. What is this a picture of? It is a picture of a son returning home in triumph. That's the picture here. And it's the picture of the ending of the twenty-fourth Psalm.
Lift up your heads, O ye gate. And be lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in. And who is the king of glory? The Lord of hosts. These sons returning home with a victor. The Lord of hosts. He is the king of glory. Now, the eternal kingdom here in Peter, it names the goal of our pilgrimage. The goal of our pilgrimage is the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus. This kingdom has a quality of being eternal. Anything on this earth is temporal. For the earth, the world passes away, and the lusts thereof.
But this is eternal. Now, as partakers of the divine nature, going back to verse four, Peter's readers had already entered into the kingdom of God of which our Lord spoke to Nicodemus. He said to Nicodemus, except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And because they had the divine nature, they were already in that kingdom. And friend, if you're saved tonight, and by the grace of God, you are in that kingdom now. You're in it. You're part of it. the new birth has secured it for you. And this present kingdom of God that we're in is involved in suffering.
We don't think of that, do we? And I'd like you to turn to two passages of Scripture. I want you to turn to first or second Thessalonians chapter two. Second Thessalonians two. It might be first Thessalonians. It is first Thessalonians chapter two. Verses three through five. Where Paul says, for our exhortation was not of deceit.
nor of uncleanness, nor in guile. But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God which tryeth our hearts. For neither at any time use me flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness, for God is witness. Turn over to the book of Acts, chapter fourteen. Acts fourteen and verse twenty two where we read Paul and Barnabas as they returned from the churches of Galatia that they had established on their first missionary journey it says they confirmed the souls of the disciples and exhorted them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
Now we don't like that idea in the church today. The church today is a church of convenience. But Paul reminded his converts that it is through much tribulation that we enter the kingdom of God. He's speaking of that coming kingdom into which we enter when we pass off this earthly scene. For believers, the future aspect of this kingdom is associated with reward. Right now, the present, it's suffering. In the future, it is reward.
Romans eight, verse eighteen. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. The present time is suffering. The future is glory. Paul, when he wrote to the Corinthians, Second Corinthians four, about verse eleven, he said, Our light of affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is associated with reward. In Matthew twenty-five, as our Lord there with the judgment of the sheep and the goats, He says, He'll say to the sheep in that day, Come, ye blessed of my Father.
Enter the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Enter the kingdom. It's an eternal kingdom. It is an everlasting kingdom. Now, Peter views the kingdom under messianic terms. The messianic terms of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the king. For we read in Luke one and thirty before his birth to Mary, the angel Gabriel said, He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. Now when we look at our risen Christ, He is enthroned in glory at the Father's right hand.
Hebrews one three, Hebrews eight verse one, Hebrews ten verse twelve, Hebrews chapter twelve verse two, He's at the Father's right hand. But when our Lord Jesus returns to earth, his kingdom is going to be manifested visibly. You have in Revelation one, he, every eye shall see him. He's returning in power and great glory. Now, when our Lord returns, he's going to institute and inaugurate That messianic form of the kingdom that's presented in Revelation chapter twenty in verses one through six.
Where we read and they lived, speaking of those who were partakers of the first resurrection, they lived according to verse six and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the kingdom reigned. There's something beautiful about the millennium. There's something beautiful about the kingdom of God right now. You have the now and the not yet. And in the millennium you're going to have the now and the not yet. And I've challenged some prophetic students on this. And I'll tell you something. You have it through scripture.
The now, that which is present now. Right now we're in the kingdom of God. We've been born into the family of God. We're partakers of the divine nature. But we have the not yet. There's a glorious kingdom reign that we await. And when the millennial kingdom comes, you're going to have the now and the not yet. Because that millennial kingdom is going to move right into the eternal kingdom. That you have in Revelation chapters twenty one and twenty two. I tell you, he says here, an abundant entrance will be given unto us into the eternal or everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And believers now claim Jesus Christ as their sovereign Lord and Savior. This is a great passage. This is a passage that should give impetus to every child of God to walk in obedience and in fellowship with Jesus Christ. Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. So the happiness is not only the now. If you do these things, you shall never fall. It also has to do with the not yet.
for an abundant entrance is waiting into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So let's pray together. Our Father, our hearts are thrilled when we consider what thou hast provided for your people. And we pray that each of us here tonight will determine in our souls, ah, this is for me. I want to add to my faith virtue and to virtue experience and experience all these other things in order that thy name will be glorified and that Christ Jesus the Lord will be exalted in our lives for Jesus' sake.