2 Peter 1:3-11 | Called and Confirmed

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Go ahead and turn and then we're going to be in 2 Peter chapter 1.

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

2 Peter chapter 1 and verses 3 through 11 is where we're going to camp out this morning.

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

My name is Jeremy Gonzalez.

I am the student and family pastor here at Faith.

Most of you know that because I've been up here at some point and have informed you of that.

Or perhaps you've been here in the past when the leadership extended the invitation for me to come and serve as the pastor here, and I've just shown up and never gone away.

I have a name on a name plaque on my office in the fellowship hall.

I have my name in your bulletin.

I even have my name and picture on the website.

If you ever want to go look at my face on the website, you can.

Now I'm I'm the student and family pastor here, and that's a title I hold for this church, but that title does not make me a pastor at this church.

I could go down the road to another church and walk up on stage and tell them that I am their new student and family pastor, and all the people at that church would know that's that's not correct.

And I would be promptly escorted off the premises by law enforcement and possibly uh institutionalized too.

Um having the title of being a pastor here means I do something here at this church.

I I practice ministry here at this church.

I I lead our student and family ministries, and I lead the awesome team of volunteers that we have.

That's that's what makes me the student and family pastor here, not merely a title or a name on an office or a name on a website.

Um I'm also a husband, in case you were wondering.

I am a husband.

I have um a ring on my finger.

That's the traditional and cultural indicator that I am indeed married.

I have a a certificate of marriage, a marriage license from the People's Republic of Colorado, and um that indicates to them and their their government I am married.

I even share my life and home with a very kind woman who identifies me to other people as her husband, which is awesome.

I I even have my in-laws, they're here this morning.

They they say I am their son-in-law, and that's that is wonderful.

However, the ring on my finger does not make me a husband.

A marriage certificate does not make me a husband.

The kind woman I share my life and home with, telling everyone else I'm her husband, is not what makes me her husband.

What makes me her husband is the evidence of my commitment to our marriage vows.

My decision, my intentional action to honor her and love her for the rest of our lives.

I'm also a father.

I have four little tax write-offs living at home right now.

Consume all my food and live in my house that I'm paying for.

They're kind enough to call me dad.

Some of them still call me daddy.

But that's not what makes me a father to them.

I'm a biological guardian of theirs, I'm a caretaker of theirs, but being those things is not what makes me a father.

What makes me a father is what I do with them and for them.

Investing in their lives, spending time reading them books, pushing them on the swing, throwing the ball in the backyard, hugging them when they're having a hard day, correcting them when they've done wrong, coaching them so they do what's right.

Living and guiding and mentoring them through life is what makes me a father to them.

I am many things, and certainly you did not come to church this morning to learn all about me.

Uh, I'm I'm also a Sam's Club member, in case you're interested.

I I have a Sam's Club membership, and you wouldn't know that, but I have a card in my wallet that says I am indeed a Sam's Club member.

But if I if I never go to Sam's Club and shop there and buy their goods in bulk, I you would like it would be a meaningless thing to have, right?

It's going there and shopping there and exercising the fact that I am a Sam's Club member that makes me indeed a Sam's Club member.

The whole point that I'm getting at is this is we can hold many titles in our lives.

Those titles that we hold do not make it so.

It doesn't make it reality.

Uh we can have many signs and symbols in our lives of those things, such as a ring on our finger or a marriage certificate, or the little children calling you daddy.

You can have all these signs and symbols of the things and the many titles that you have, but it doesn't make you what you claim to be.

This is especially true for those who claim to be in Christ.

We can claim to be in Christ, but saying that you are a Christian is not what makes it a reality.

Showing up in church on Sunday and on Wednesdays is not what makes you a Christian.

Being in this building doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.

Being a Christian means that your life has been changed and transformed, and there is now external evidence in your life to demonstrate to the world that you are indeed who you say you are.

It is the evidence of having been transformed by the person and work in Jesus Christ.

And if you're here this morning and you you know very little about who Jesus is, the reason that we gather together in worship is not to practice religion, to attain something, that we're going to actually look at the promises of God.

We gathered together, we worship Jesus Christ because though we were as vile as the thief who hung on the cross, Christ washed our sins away through what he did for us.

And we're changed, we're transformed by this truth.

This is the point where we're going to be today.

The Apostle Peter makes it abundantly clear that we are to, in his words, be diligent in confirming our calling and election.

That's in verse 7, if you'll look there.

I'm sorry, not verse 7.

I'm off.

Verse 10.

Verse 10.

It says, Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall.

And he goes so far as to say in verse 11, for in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

That's kind of a summary statement of where we're trying to get here this morning.

And before we do that, I need to define some terms that the Apostle Peter uses, and actually the Bible uses frequently.

Those two words are calling and election.

Calling and election.

The word calling in Scripture is used to describe the specific and intentional communication of God to people.

That is, God communicates first to people and people respond.

In Scripture, you see many people who will seek God and respond to God, but only after God has first initiated contact with them.

An illustration of this would be Abram, who was living his own life, minding his own business in the city of Ur.

He was a pagan who did not know God, did not worship God, and then out of nowhere, we don't know where he was or how it happened, but God showed up and said, Abram, come with me to the land that I'm going to show you, and I'm going to make you a father of a great nation.

And through you all the world will be blessed.

God initiated contact with Abram.

What was Abram's response?

Worship of God, seeking of God.

And that's the pattern all throughout Scripture.

God calls to people, and people respond to God, never the reverse.

God does the calling.

And in this sense, we're talking about the salvific call, the call of salvation, the call to trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and repent of your sins.

That's the first word calling.

The second word tends to garner a bad reputation.

And that's this word election.

We like this word election as it pertains to politics, but never as it pertains to spiritual things.

By definition, the word election means choosing.

And every time the Bible speaks of election, it is of God choosing to save people.

If you combine both calling and election, we synthesize an understanding of how salvation works.

God calls to salvation those whom He has chosen.

Salvation, therefore, is from beginning to end a work of God and not a work of human effort.

And it naturally creates some discomfort in our seats.

We start to get a little uncomfortable and squirm because of the implications of this.

The implications are if God chooses to save some, that means he also chooses not to save others.

Someone's missing out on this.

And if God is good, if God is just, if he is right, why doesn't he just save everybody?

Why does he choose some and not others?

That's the objection that we have to this truth that Scripture makes very clear.

Before answering the question of fairness, it seems a bit unfair that God would choose some and not others.

I want us to examine a contradiction that often comes up in our thinking.

You see, we like to elevate human choice as the supreme, the supreme freedom of the universe.

That I get the opportunity to choose God is like the supreme value in all of our hearts and minds.

But when we come to talking about God having the freedom to choose people, then we begin to object.

As if God is not worthy of having choice, but we are.

We elevate ourselves and become a judge of God rather than saying, you know what, God has a choice too.

Romans 9, if you got a moment to turn there, I'd encourage you to do so so you can follow along.

I'm gonna go through real quick.

Romans 9 is a go-to passage with this objection.

You see, the Apostle Paul spends a lot of the book of Romans, actually up to chapter 12, unpacking how God is working about salvation for all humanity.

And verses 6 through 13, he begins to point out that salvation is not a matter of human will or effort.

Salvation is not a matter of choice.

It's not a matter of being born into the right family.

It's not about being born in the right order or making the right choices.

And so in verse 14, he anticipates the objection.

He says, What shall we say then?

Is there injustice on God's part?

Is there injustice that he is the one who decides salvation in some and not in others?

By no means.

Verse 15, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on those whom I have compassion.

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

For the scripture says to Pharaoh, For this purpose I have raised you up that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

And you're looking at me and saying, Jeremy, that doesn't help me at all with the objection I feel in my heart.

Like that actually makes it feel worse that God chooses to have mercy on some and not on others.

He's not done yet.

He's not done yet.

Paul presents to us in verse 19.

A hypothetical.

Okay, he's not saying that this is a definitive, it's a it's a hypothetical.

Okay, verse 19, he says, You will say to me then, why does he still find fault?

For who can resist his will?

Why does God still find fault with people if he's the one who's making the determination on who has mercy and who doesn't?

Why does he still find fault and punish those who are ultimately going to go to hell?

Verse 20, but who are you, O man, to answer back to God?

Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this?

Has the potter no right over the clay?

Has the creator no right over the creation?

Has he no right over the clay to make out of the same lump of one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

What if, and now here's the hypothetical, what if God, what if God desiring to show his wrath and to make his power, make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.

The hypothetical points us to this reality that God is God and you are not.

I am not.

I don't know why God chooses the way he chooses.

But I know it's true.

And what this does, what this ought to do, is if you are a Christian, it ought to create in you a level of humility.

You see, if it's not based on human will or exertion, then there is nothing inside you that God would have seen in order to have mercy on you.

He didn't look at you or some future version of you and say, wow, they'd be really awesome to be a Christian.

I think I shall save him or her.

God looked at you and in his infinite wisdom decided, I am going to save you not at your wor or at your best, but at your worst chewing on this over the past couple days, I have been broken and humbled by this truth.

There's nothing inside me that God saw that would motivate him towards mercy aside from the fact he just chose.

I have nothing to offer, everything to gain.

And actually elsewhere, uh, Paul talks about the universal call of salvation.

In verse 13 of chapter 10, he says, For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

And so we have we have these two things working together at the same time, but at the end of the day, we know that salvation is of God.

Salvation is of the Lord.

And that is what the Apostle Peter tells us, back to 2 Peter chapter 1, tells us that we are to confirm, be diligent in confirming in our lives the calling and election of God.

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

If it is, in fact, a reality for us.

Election ought to generate diligence.

Because we've been chosen and called by God, it should generate what Peter calls diligence.

Um, or rather, it's like an intense eagerness to confirm that God has chosen and called us.

Now, parents, pop quiz.

Can you command eagerness in your children?

No, you can't, right?

When you tell your kids, hey, we gotta go grocery shopping today, it's that time we gotta go.

And you hear the grumbling and the groaning and the moaning about how boring it's going to be, how long it's going to take, and oh, what do we need to get, right?

And they just kind of drag, they hold on to a shopping cart being dragged down each aisle.

You can't look at them and tell them, be eager to not complain, because you will have food.

You can't command that in them.

It doesn't change their heart.

But I bet if your kids were hungry and there wasn't anything in the refrigerator or pantry, I bet they'd be eager to get to the grocery store without complaining.

I bet they'd they'd have a little more pep in their step.

And there's a motivation to their eagerness now that is not completely divorced from a command, but it's enlivened by the promise of what they'll possess.

The same is true for you and I.

Sure, there are commands for us to do things, but the motivation is not in the command.

The command does not bring it to life for us.

What brings it to life here in 2 Peter is God's promises.

Look with me in verse 3.

Verses 3 through 4.

We see the Apostle Peter saying it's his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

We see here in these first few verses the glory of God's promises.

The first point in the motivation for us to confirm our calling and election is the glory of God's promises.

And look with me at verse 3.

We see the source of the promise.

The source of the promise begins with God.

And in fact, it ends with God.

It is by God's power that we have everything that Peter says that we have.

This is massive because of the implications it carries.

Think of this with me.

Think of it very slowly with me, okay?

Because I go really fast.

I'm like a golden retriever.

I just, you know, I my mind goes a million miles an hour, okay?

Think of it with me very slowly.

God's power has granted to you all things that pertain to life and godliness.

Everything you need for the life after death and for the life here and now has been given to you.

Not by your power, not by human will or exertion, but by his divine power.

A sigh of relief.

All the expectations we heap upon our own shoulders to pursue godliness and righteousness, to do the right thing, to discern to discern God's will, to know the right thing to do at the right time.

You don't carry that burden.

God does.

And his power has given you all things pertaining to life and godliness.

And not only that, he's granted to us his precious and very great promises.

The promises that God has made for those whom he loves has been given to you.

The promise of salvation from sin, the promise of forgiveness, the promise of mercy.

He's not going to punish you in hell, he's going to bring you to life everlasting.

The promise of his grace, giving you things you don't deserve, the promise of adoption as sons, the promise of the spirit inside of you, the very presence of God living inside you to change you, the promise to be with you everywhere you go.

We have so many promises in Scripture, and you've been given access to them all.

Not by your power, but by his.

God's power.

His divine power has granted to us all things pertaining to life and godliness.

And that brings us to my next point.

We have the source of the promise is God's power.

The extent of the promise is again in verse 3.

Look at look at it with me.

His divine power is granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

If you're one of those who likes to write in your Bible, go ahead and underline that word all.

Because if you do a Greek Greek study of that word, it literally means all.

Okay?

Everything without exception.

Everything you need has been given to you for this life and the next, as I said.

And not only that, we have in verse 4 that God has also granted to us his precious and very great.

Promises which have already gone through.

That's the extent of the promise, and it's massive.

God hasn't left anything out for you and I.

Everything He could possibly give us, He's done.

That's the extent of it.

And that's incredibly encouraging for those times and places in life where you just don't know where else to go or where to turn to.

Because even in those confusing moments, the moments where you're just at a loss, those hard moments, the sorrowful moments, the times where you're just utterly confused.

God has given you everything you need.

If you're not sure of yourself and your profession, God's given you everything you need.

If you're not sure of yourself as a spouse, God's given you everything you need.

Singleness?

If you're single in this room, God's given you everything you need.

Husbands, wives, parents.

I can keep going on.

Wherever you're at in life, everything needed has been given to you.

And that extent is too big to measure.

We have the power of the promise.

We have the extent of the promise.

We have the substance of the promise.

Look again with me.

Verse 3.

His power granting to us all things pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.

You see, the substance of really the purpose of the promise, what gives the promise material substance is the glory of God and not the glory of man.

You see, God does everything, not for who you are, but for his own glory and excellence.

If God is all that is good, if God is all that is excellent, then everything he does that is for that purpose is good and excellent for us.

In fact, look at what it does for us in verse four.

Through the promises he gives us, because of his excellence and glory, we now become partakers of the divine nature.

We get to have a part in growing in God likeness, which helps us to escape the corruption of this world because of our sinful desires.

It's ultimately for God's glory, yes, but it's also for our good.

The promises are for his glory, our good.

And then lastly, I want to emphasize this point: access to the promise.

Picture with me, if you will.

We have God giving us all things pertaining to life and godliness.

We have access to these precious and great promises for his glory, for our good.

The door is opened.

Okay?

The vault has been opened and is right there on the other side.

How do you get through?

We can sit here on this side and stare at them and say, wow, that looks pretty nice, but what gets us to the other side?

What gets us in through the door?

Again, you didn't earn anything, you didn't do anything to get the vault open.

God's power has opened the vault.

Now, what is going to give your legs strength to get through to the promises?

Look with me at verse 3.

All things pertaining to life and godliness?

Through how?

Through what?

The knowledge of him who called to us.

Through the knowledge of God.

It is knowing God that gives our legs strength to walk into the vault and have access to everything he's given us.

In fact, Peter cares a lot about what we know.

It's incredibly important.

And God cares a lot about what we know and how we think.

If you look at verse 2 in his opening to this let of this letter, he's just greeting the church that he's writing to, but he says, May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God.

Grace and peace being multiplied by knowing God.

If you look at chapter 3, verse 1, the Apostle Peter gives us a purpose statement for why he's writing this second letter.

Peter's trying to combat a lot of false teaching, a lot of error that's going on in this church.

And he says in verse 1, this is the second letter I am writing to you, beloved, and both of them I am stirring up.

He's shaking the pot.

I'm stirring up your sincere mind.

Why?

Because Peter cares a lot about how we think and what you know.

And so he wants to stir up their mind by way of reminder.

And he goes on to talk about the predictions of the prophets and the commandment of the Lord.

And goes on to repeat things that they ought to know, but he says it so that they would remember, so that they would know.

Knowing God is incredibly important in Scripture.

I have three Trinitarian type points here about knowing God.

Knowing God is impossible apart from the Spirit of God because our minds are darkened.

Romans chapter 1, verse 21 through 23 says, although they know God, that's us, we do not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but we become futile in our thinking, in what we know, in how our brains function, and our foolish hearts are darkened.

Romans 1:21–23

And claiming to be wise, we become fools and exchange the glory of God for images resembling mortal men and birds and animals and creeping things.

Because our minds are darkened in our natural sinful state.

We take the glory of God and ascribe it to things that He's created.

So our minds are darkened, but the Spirit brings light.

Look at Romans 12.2.

Romans 12.2 says this do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Why?

Because God cares about how you think and what you know.

That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

This is the only other part in Scripture that that word renewal in the Greek is actually used.

In Titus 3.5, uh we see it also used when Paul writes to Titus, one of his young proteges, and he says that he, that is God, saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

You see, it is the Spirit of God that renews our minds.

It is the Spirit of God that transforms our thinking.

It is the Spirit of God that opens it up so that we might know God more.

And so if God is at work doing that, if the Spirit of God opens up our minds so that we may know God, then what's the second point?

Knowing God also requires the word of God.

It requires the word of God.

In 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 16, Peter writes about how we know what we know.

2 Peter 1:16

He says we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He's saying we didn't get the boys together and come up with this stuff.

We didn't come up with the story and get everybody on the same page, and now somehow it's just a worldwide phenomenon.

That's not how this all happened.

In fact, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

That's at the Mount of Transfiguration.

God says to Peter, John, and James that this is my beloved son, Jesus Christ is his beloved son with whom he is well pleased.

Peter was an eyewitness to that.

And more than just telling us that he was an eyewitness to that, he tells us in verse 19, we have this prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing that this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Spirit.

How do we know God?

It's the Spirit of God renewing our minds by opening up the word and revealing to us who God is.

Lastly, knowing God requires the Son of God.

John 14, 6 through 7, in the upper room discourse, Jesus talking to his disciples before he goes to the cross.

He tells them this when he's talking to them about going to prepare a place for them.

I'm going to go prepare a place for you guys.

And that sounds great.

But Thomas, man, poor Thomas, he's got a bad rap, doesn't he?

Thomas is always asking the dumb questions or saying the dumb things, and now it's recorded for all of history.

I feel for Thomas.

Thomas tells him, Lord, we we don't know where you go you're going.

Verse 6, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

Followed up with verse 7.

If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.

From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

Knowing God requires knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

The Spirit of God at work in our minds.

Opening up the Word of God to reveal the Son of God.

Through that knowledge, our legs gain strength to walk into the vault of all of God's good and great promises.

Everything needed for life and godliness.

For those who are like, I don't know much of my Bible, that's okay.

That's okay.

Because it's not a point that you ultimately get to.

We are growing more and more and more, and we're actually going to see this in other things that Peter says.

We're growing more in our knowledge of who God is.

And in doing so, we are seeing the treasure of everything He's given us for this life.

We have the glory of God's promises.

Second, the evidence of God's promises, verse 5 through 7.

And this is huge.

This is the transformative part that I was talking about earlier.

You claim to be a Christian, you claim to be in Christ, you claim to have hold of these promises.

That's good and great.

We gain access to those promises through knowing God.

But what does it do for you?

What is the evidence of it?

Look at verse 5 through 7.

For this very reason, the reason being, knowing God gets you access to the promises of God.

Verse 5.

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement, or rather, add to your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

The evidence of God's promises is demonstrated through qualities endowed to those who are genuinely in Christ.

Peter tells us that we are to supplement each quality with another quality in a chain, a progression, if you will.

The word here, as I said, supplement, means literally to add to.

And he begins with the foundational quality that every Christian ought to possess, and that is faith.

We are to supplement our faith.

That's the foundation of it all.

Faith is the root from which all the other qualities will arise.

You can have virtue, which is moral excellence, you can have knowledge, you can have self-control, and on and on.

None of it will make a lick of difference unless you have a personal trust in who Jesus Christ is.

If you have a faith in God.

And so faith ought to be supplemented or added to with virtue.

And virtue here is defined as moral excellence.

It's having integrity and demonstrating a goodness that extends beyond what others can see and into those areas that no one else knows about.

When virtue is added to our faith, we demonstrate our faith by how we act.

Not just in public, but also in private.

That's faith being supplemented with virtue.

Our virtue or moral excellence is to be supplemented with knowledge.

As we've said earlier, God cares a lot about what you and I know.

He cares a lot about how our minds think.

And he wants us to supplement virtue with knowledge.

When virtue is supplemented with knowledge, moral excellence is now guided by what you know of God rather than any type of arbitrary rules and regulations and expectations you might come up with other people.

Your moral excellence is guided by the eternal objective standard of God's word when you are supplementing your virtue with knowledge.

Knowledge is to be supplemented with self-control.

Self-control is literally having control of oneself.

It is exercising restraint and having the ability to establish and maintain discipline.

Knowledge of God is supplemented with self-control when we know more about Him.

We feel our sin being more and more restrained in our hearts.

We establish disciplines like prayer and reading scripture and coming to church and learning in community.

The more we know of him, we are supplementing our faith with our knowledge with self-control.

Self-control is to be supplemented with steadfastness or rather endurance.

Many have learned discipline and self-control, but they've not been successful in maintaining such qualities.

An illustration of that is I was in the Marine Corps for four years.

And Marines are oftentimes looked to as some of the most disciplined military men and women on the planet.

And there are men that I served with who were some of the most disciplined individuals I had ever known.

But then when I contacted them, after having getting out of the Marine Corps, their lives completely fell apart.

They had absolutely no discipline in their life, they had no discipline in their marriage, they had no discipline in their work.

It faded, it disappeared.

Self-controls to be supplemented with steadfastness because the goal is not merely to hurry up and obtain these things, but rather to have the long game in view.

So that we can have self-control, not just for the here and now, but for all of life.

For self-control for the long haul.

Steadfastness, endurance is to be supplemented with godliness.

As we noted in verse 3, God has already given us everything we needed for life and godliness.

So it's been given to us.

But now he says it's something to be pursued.

Why?

Because godliness is godlikeness.

And if we are to reflect who God is in our lives, then it is imperative that we seek endurance in Christ's likeness.

Peter wants us to grow more and more like Christ as we endure for him in this life.

Godliness is to be supplemented with brotherly affection.

This word for brotherly affection is from the familiar word Philadelphia, right?

The city of brotherly love, which is anything but from what I've heard.

Philadelphia, meaning brotherly love.

Our godliness is added to when we express love for other brothers and sisters in Christ.

Our Christ-likeness is increased when we love Christ's people.

If we are the body of Christ, loving each other grows us in our love for Christ.

And so our Christ-likeness is to be supplemented with love for one another.

And then lastly, brotherly affection, brotherly love is to be supplemented with love.

And that's the supreme quality of a Christian is love.

It's love that's not merely limited to those in the church.

We are called to love those in the church.

It's the kind of love that Christ had for others.

That while you and I were still yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.

It's the kind of love that we see reflected in Christ as he hung there on a cross, bearing the wrath of God, bearing the guilt of man.

Everything you've done in rebellion towards him placed upon his shoulders.

To die naked and alone on a cross.

And as he hung there, he looks down towards those scoffers and mockers and the ones who beat him and mocked him, and he says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

That's the kind of love that the preacher's talking about.

Not merely love for your own, but love for all.

It's the supreme quality of a Christian.

It is the love of Christ for others.

Certainly those who possess love will have these other qualities evidenced in their lives.

Now the nature of these qualities.

We'll get to lunch in time.

The nature of these qualities is not to give us a standard to attain or a measure or something to measure ourselves to, but rather to give us a means of examining ourselves for the assurance of God's promises.

You see, it's this is the external evidence.

It's not what you do to earn the promise, it's the evidence of the promise inside you, working its way out.

It can't control itself.

It has to come out.

And so we have here the assurance of God's promise, and that's verses 8 through 10.

First, Peter says, if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The first thing he says to have assurance of God's promises is that we possess them.

He says, if they are yours, it doesn't matter what measure they are or how much of it you have, but if it belongs to you.

I saw a wonderful illustration this morning in Sunday school.

And it was with regards to sin.

But Shandy put up on the board a bar graph with all these different bars at different levels.

And she said, you know, if you look from the top down on this bar graph, you see, all you see are boxes.

You don't see the levels that they're at, you just see the boxes.

Look, there's not a quantitative measurement here.

Peter just says, if it's yours.

Now, if you possess these things and you don't grow, then there's a problem.

Because the natural state of a person is that we grow, right?

You are much different now than you were five years ago, amen?

If you can't say amen, say ouch.

We change, our physical bodies change.

I can grow a beard now, which is cool because I live in North Dakota and I need a face coat.

Winter's coming, and so I'm motivated.

We change, our bodies change, our minds change.

We change because we go through life.

We just naturally change.

We don't have to work hard at change, we just do it.

And this is true of those who possess these qualities.

If we possess these, we are increasing in them, which is why he says, if you possess them and increase, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There again is that word knowledge.

It makes you an effective Christian.

An ineffective Christian are those who might possess some of these qualities, but they're not growing in them.

And that's why Peter says.

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election.

The reality that God has called you.

He has chosen you.

He has saved you.

Not by anything you've done, but simply because of his infinite grace and mercy.

Confirm this reality in your life.

Be diligent, eager to confirm it.

For if you practice these qualities, if they're in your life and you're practicing them and you're growing in them, you will never fall.

You will never ever have to face down the question, at least for any prolonged amount of time, of whether or not it's a reality in your life.

Because you'll be able to examine your life and look at all the external evidence.

You're not perfect and no one ever asks you to be, but you certainly have godliness and knowledge and affection and love.

And you're different than you were five years ago.

You're different than when you were first saved.

The more you taste of the sweet spiritual honey of God's word, you are transformed more and more.

The more you gather with other Christians, you are changed more and more.

The more you know God, you're just changed more and more.

And you can point to the fact that you know.

You know these promises are at work in your life.

Be diligent in confirming your calling and election.

If you practice these qualities, you will never fall.

And finally, verse 11.

The reward of God's promises.

For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Bringing it back up to verse 3, I want you to look at the fact.

Since we're getting there and he's talking about practicing things and making sure that we're doing these things, and in this way, there's going to be richly provided.

I want to remind you in verse 3 that this is not by your own power.

This is the power of God at work in your life.

And over the course of your life you see this growth in you.

That you are changing more and more until the day the Lord calls you home.

This is how godliness works.

This is how the Christian life works.

It's not a one and done, it's not a silver bullet.

It's a gradual growth over a lifetime of living and knowing Christ.

And it's in that way that this path to the reward of eternal life is given to us.

The path to the entrance of God's kingdom is not earning God's promises, it's proving God's promises in your life.

If you're here this morning and you think that these promises don't apply to you, I want to object to your objection.

Because they absolutely do.

You see, all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved.

And that is a promise for you here this morning, friend.

If you are far from God at this moment, there is a promise in God by his power for you.

That if you confess your sins to God, if you repent of your sins to God, if you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you will be saved.

And everything we just talked about, the vault is open to you.

Not for anything that you did.

Everything he's doing for you.

Encourage you, both Christian and non-Christian, this morning, respond by humbling ourselves before God, trusting in his promises and looking to him as the author and perfecter of our faith.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you so much for this morning and for what you have shown us in Scripture.

That in knowing you we have access to these great, precious promises that we could never even imagine.

We could never measure.

Everything we need for life and godliness is granted to us.

We are changed by your power.

They affect us in a real and lasting way.

And it's in this way that there is provided for us a rich reward.

And I pray that all of us here this morning would trust in your power to make those promises a reality in our life.

We pray this in Christ's name.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.