Making your Calling and Election Sure

Introduction

Review what we looked at last week and again walk through the virtues

One thing that I will point out about these virtues is that we see these things perfected in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Christ Jesus is the excellent One

The One who knows the Father and makes the Father known

Full of self control

Steadfastness or endurance

godliness

brotherly affection

love, the kind of love that He laid down His life for sinners

I. Existing and Increasing

As we continue to walk through this passage we come to v.8

The interesting thing to me is that in v.5 we are told that in light of the grace of God given to us that we see earlier we are to make every effort to strive for these virtues.

Then we come to v.8 and again we have the explanatory gar, in other words Peter continues to build on the previous argument.

We saw in v.3 that when we come to know Jesus Christ as he calls us to His own glory and goodness His divine power is given to us so that we have everything we need to live a faithful and godly life.

Now we come to v.8 and he explains, if these qualities exist and are increasing then your knowledge of Jesus Christ is effective and fruitful.

Let’s camp out here and think through all that is being said here.

First,

For if these things, clearly a reference back to the qualities listed

If these things are existing and increasing

I think that is pretty clear, these things have to be in your life and you should be increasing. These godly qualities should both exist and overflow in the lives of believers.

If this is true then the next statement follows

They cause you to be neither useless/worthless/ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ

Peter makes the point negatively but it could be restated positively

If these things exist and are increasing in your life then you will be useful, effective and fruitful in the knowledge....

This word ineffective is used of idle workers who are wasting their day in the marketplace instead of working

Matthew 20:3 ESV

And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace,

This word is translated idle, lazy, useless

This word is also used in

James 2:20 ESV

Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

It seems that Peter is saying that if your knowledge of Jesus Christ does not change the way that you live then your knowledge of Jesus Christ is useless.

It is like the claim of faith apart from works, it is dead.

This is getting at the idea that there are different types of knowledge of Christ

There is the notion or the idea that one can have of Christ and the gospel

That notion or knowledge has to lead to an assent, you have to agree to the claims, you have to agree to the reality of them

(discuss that this is where many people are)

But then that knowledge ultimately has to lead to a trusting or a giving oneself to it

This word unfruitful is the same word used by Jesus

Matthew 13:18–23 ESV

“Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

Matthew 13.18-23

This word was also used by Paul as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit

Ephesians 5:11 ESV

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

The works of darkness are described as being unfruitful.

The point is simple, if your knowledge of Jesus Christ does not make you fruitful, if it does not change you, if it does not make you walk different than those who are still walking in darkness then something is wrong.

Perhaps Peter has in his sights, the false teachers that were threatening the church. Their libertine lifestyle made it clear that all of their so called knowledge was worthless, these so called teachers of yours are giving no evidence of genuine conversion.

II. V.9

v.9 elaborates

You see the word “for” again, often this is the greek word gar and it is used to explain or to elaborate on something.

He says that those who lack such qualities are blind.

Actually Peter says that they are so nearsighted that he is blind.

The word for nearsighted seems to be clarifying in what sense the people have become blind.

They are blind in that they only see the here and now, they only see what is right in front of them.

They are blind in that they are limited in what they can see, they are limited in their understanding so that the most important things, the things that matter most are things that they can’t even see, things that they don’t understand, things that they have forgotten.

What have they forgotten?

That he was formerly cleansed of his sins

This seems to be referring to baptism and the symbolism of baptism in that one has been washed of their sins.

Baptism does not cleanse us of our sins but it is a public declaration that we have been cleansed of our sins in Christ,

when one remembers their baptism it should remind them of the gracious work of God in Christ Jesus to cleanse them.

Peter is saying that those who are not practicing these virtues have forgotten what their declaration of faith in Christ was all about, that they declared that they had been cleansed of their sin.

Peter’s point is that they are not living like forgiven sinners, they are not living like those who rejoice in the grace of God in Christ Jesus to forgive us of our sin.

Their lifestyle does not make much of Christ and the grace of God instead it seems to be making much of sin.

When people who claim to be Christians are living immoral lives they are bearing witness that forgiveness of sins means little to them.

Those who treasure being forgiven live in a way that pleases God, those who treasure being forgiven make every effort to live worthy of the grace of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Those who are living ungodly lives show no evidence that they truly belong to God, that they have genuinely received forgiveness.

III. Therefore (v.10)

In v.5 Peter uses the word spoudan which is the word for effort

Here he uses the verb for that root, spoudadzo

The word means to be zealous, to be eager, to make every effort.

And he uses an adverb meaning even more, so we could say that even more than ever we are to be zealous....

Brothers and sisters we are reminded that God’s grace is not an excuse for relaxation and laziness but it is a call to action, to intense effort.

More than ever we are to make every effort, to be diligent, to strive to do what

To make sure of your calling and election, that is to confirm it.

Calling and election, that is God’s grace in your life.

That God has called you out of darkness into the kingdom of His Son.

That God has chosen you for life

When God calls, when God elects; what does He call us to?

Ephesians 1:3–5 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

When God calls us to Christ, when He chooses us out of this world then He does so to call us to holiness, to godliness, to purity, not to ungodliness, not to worldliness.

I think what we have pictured here is that when we grow in Christlike virtues like the ones we see in v.5-7 then we will have increasing confidence that God really did call us to salvation, that we do belong to God, that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

In this way our salvation becomes sure, it is a sure foundation and we are not tossed here and there.

He goes on to say that those who practice such qualities will never fall, that is they will not fall from the faith, that they will not fall into false teaching, that they will not walk away from Christ.

Part of what this teaches us is that those who do fall to false teachers reveal that the problem is a moral one. If they were pursuing Christ likeness then they would never fall.

They have forsaken goodness and this has allowed their wills to be captivated by evil and now they are easy prey for the false teachers.

Good works give evidence of salvation, they give assurance of salvation though they are not the grounds of our salvation.

The clear implication here is also that those who do fall away were not called, were not elect and that those who are truly called, those were chosen in Christ Jesus will practice such qualities and will not fall away, so Peter is not teaching that one could have been called, could have been chosen in Christ and then fall away

If you practice these qualities giving genuine evidence of your calling and election and you will never fall away.

IV. v.11

For in this way, in what way? By diligence, by pursing godliness, by practicing these qualities.

By doing these things.

there will be richly provided for you an entrance...

Those who do these things will be richly provided with the reward of eternal life.

Some have suggested that Peter is saying, those who do these things will have something greater, something more in the eternal kingdom

That just having faith will get you into the kingdom

But if you have faith and works then you will have more rewards

That is not what Peter is talking about

He is not talking about rewards, he is talking about entering into the Kingdom notice v.11, an entrance into the ....

This is the point,

Peter is insisting that people cannot enter into the Kingdom without living in a godly way

But let me be clear, this is not salvation by works but salvation with works.

Ephesians 2:8–10 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Peter is saying the same thing.

Oh brothers and sisters what a time we live in. Grievous times, we live in a time of cheap grace.

So many think that just because they prayed a prayer or joined a church or was baptized that they can live however they want and that they will be granted an entrance into heaven when they die.

That is not what Peter says here,

Peter says that those who will be granted an entrance into the eternal Kingdom are those who no only claim to know Jesus Christ, but those who live like they know Jesus Christ, those who live fruitful lives.

There is no doubt in my mind that Peter has in mind Jesus’ parable that we referred to earlier.

and following

Do you remember the quote from Sunday’s worship guide?

"Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Cheap grace leads to ungodly living within the church and it leads to heresy being accepted, embraced, and taught by the church.

Cheap grace is not the gospel that builds the church, it is a poison that kills the church of Jesus Christ.

May we be ware of it