NOTE: This is an unedited transcript and, therefore, contains imperfections and is not for publication or quotation in whole or in part by anyone without the express written consent of Pastor Conley. The audio tape of this message delivered in the evening service on February 8, 1998, is available and may be purchased from the Church.

Making Sure You're Secure

2 Peter 1:9-11

Dr. J. Drew Conley, Pastor

Tri-City Baptist Church, Columbia, South Carolina

Peter is writing believers that are facing troubles from those outside the Christian community, those that persecute them for their faith; but, even more seriously, the ones who are facing heresies from those within the church, those who are false teachers. Both the persecutions and the pressures from without, and the heresies from the false teachers within, produce uncertainty — tend to shake the foundations of what people believe as to whether or not God is who He says He is; and whether or not, if He is who He says He is, He really has laid hold of them.

How can a believer, how can a group of believers, keep the faith? We see so many examples of believers who do not. How can an individual Christian be solid in his doctrine and steadfast in adhering to the truths that are summed up as "the faith." Then, how can he be sure that he, himself, has received this faith and, in the words of the Apostle Peter, is "indeed a partaker of the divine nature"? Many folk wrestle with whether they really belong to God: assurance of salvation.

Sometimes you hear people say, "Well, you really cannot be sure; it is presumptuous, it is impossible to know. Who are we to know such things? Only God knows that." Perhaps they have seen those who have a sort of glib self-confidence, whose lives are really no different from the world around them, and yet these folk will claim to have no worries about whether their sins are forgiven and whether their eternal life is secure — their motto is "once saved, always saved." "I remember when I was a little kid I said a prayer and that settled it, and so it really doesn't matter how I live because I know I'm saved." Interesting how many worldlings see straight through the hypocrisy of that, and so they say, "It is really presumptuous to know." Others would say, "It's one thing for Paul or Peter, the apostles, the writers of the scriptures, to know — they were used in extraordinary ways; but we are ordinary people, and ordinary people have to deal with ordinary problems, and one of those problems is ‘you just don't know for sure.' We have worked no miracles, we have written no books of the Bible, so how can we know?"

Peter addresses this letter to ordinary people, ordinary Christians; he calls them in this passage "brothers" — a large number of them are slaves, many are uneducated — in fact, Peter himself is only a fisherman transformed by walking with the Lord. Paul, a persecutor, who considered himself "the chief of sinners," nonetheless says, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day" (1 Timothy 1:12b). Paul had confidence, and Peter makes clear in the passage we will look at today that we should have that confidence too, and that there is a way to be sure you are secure.

Before we look at the verses themselves, we might ask another question, "Why is it so important that I be sure that God has laid hold of me? Why is it so important that I be sure I am saved?" First, we are going to see in verse 10, the center point of our text: "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if you do these things, ye shall never fall." We might say, first of all, "God wants me to be sure." God wants me to be sure I am secure. God wants me to nail down whether I have really been called of God, whether I have really been chosen of God, whether I really belong to Him. For me to excuse myself from determining for sure whether I am saved, and to claim that it is done in all humility, is really to turn my nose up at all God offers to me. It is a false modesty: in the words of Martin Lloyd Jones, "a spurious form of humility." When God offers you something, take it.

Second, I need to be sure because assurance is really necessary to my rejoicing in my salvation. Salvation is a marvelous thing. It is so marvelous, it is almost unbelievable. It is incredible to think of the great cost that God has laid out to buy me back. It is amazing to think that God would take me (and I love the way Martin Lloyd Jones often refers to himself and to ourselves as "pygmies in time") and would plan out for me from before the foundations of the world all the way to the consummation of the age — that He would plan out a purpose for me. Why me? Think of all the people that are on the earth, think of all the people that you have never met and will never meet. You do not even know they exist, for that matter we can't really care because we do not really know them. Yet God knows me, God knows you, and He not only knows me and is acquainted with me, but He has a divine plan for me — that is a marvelous salvation. But if I am not sure that I have it, I can't really rejoice in it, I can't exult in what God has given to me.

That leads to the third reason we need to be sure: to make our witness effective. How can I share what I am not sure I have? If I am struggling with my assurance of salvation, I am hamstrung. I am hamstrung by doubts, fears and uncertainties; and, therefore, I have great difficulty in proclaiming (as a herald does) the gospel to others. It is difficult for me to be a witness if I don't even know if I have experienced anything. Part of what sets a Christian apart is his serene faith in the midst of trial, his joy in the midst of affliction. How can he be this way? How can a man be joyful when things are tough, when things are hard? How can a man say "I have joy in the midst of affliction," or that "I even find in affliction a reason for joy"? Is it because the closer you get to God the more masochistic you become; you like beating up on yourself? No, it is that there is a point at which we are absolutely sure that even the worst of our experiences are only part of God's perfect plan to bring us all the way to glory. If I am not certain about my calling and election, then I have no guarantee that any of the travail that I endure is to any such purpose.

"Making Sure You're Secure," starting with verse 9: "He that lackist 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 Saviour Jesus Christ." We are going to take these verses out of order to make them a little easier to deal with, I think. First, look at the command "to make...sure." "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure." What is the "calling and election"? That is God's work. The life-giving call of God awakens us from spiritual death. We become conscious of that call when we respond positively in faith to the preaching of the gospel. It is the first sign of life that we see. As the songwriter has said, "He called me long before I heard, before my sinful heart was stirred." There is a point at which God's call finally breaks in on my consciousness and I respond in faith. A dead person cannot make himself alive; a man cannot give birth to himself; and yet we are born again, we are made alive, we are quickened — that is not something we do for ourselves, that is the life-giving call of God. Just as Jesus stood before the tomb of Lazarus and said, "Lazarus, come forth," it was not because Lazarus did anything, it was that God enabled him to hear the call, the life-giving call of Jesus Christ.

Second, it says "make your...election sure." What does elect mean: it means "to choose." When we have an election, we choose; we cast a ballot. When God elects, He chooses — that is all the word means: we are "the chosen." We are told in Ephesians 1:4 "before the foundation of the world" God chose us "that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." Now, both words, "calling" and "election," underscore God's unilateral action in procuring for us our salvation: it was God's choice; it was God's call. When you talk of those two things, you are not talking of anything we have done. Salvation is of God and from God. The question is: If I'm chosen, if I'm called, why do I need to make sure of anything? By its very nature, if God has called me and if God has chosen me, isn't that a "slam-dunk" — if it's done, it's done? Well, it is not saying that we are going to cooperate with God in his saving of us. It is not saying that we can make our salvation more sure than God has made it. Rather, the words "to make sure" mean to certify or to confirm, to attest to the reality of. In other words, we are confirming, we are demonstrating, we are proving that God has saved us. It is not the means whereby God saves me — giving diligence to these things — but it is the proof that He has.

The very question then is not whether God is the one who alone does the saving, but whether I am among those that He has saved. How do I know for sure that I have been chosen and called by God? How do I, in Peter's words, "make sure of it"? What is the basis of this assurance? It is interesting to me what he does not say gives us this assurance: he does not say that at the point you attain sinlessness you are sure. He says, "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things (and we will see what that means), ye shall never fall," but he does not say, once you reach the point where you are never sinning — never a sinful thought, never a sinful attitude, never a sinful action — then you know that you have made sure: because nobody is going to attain that in this life. There will be progress toward that goal, but you will not attain it, because you still carry the flesh with you and in your flesh dwells no good thing (Romans 7:18).

Perhaps this is more along the line where we tend to find false confidence: neither does he say that as long as you remember the time you made a profession of faith in Jesus, you are secure. In other words, as long as you can flip open the Bible you were using at the time and look at the flyleaf and see a time and a date that you went forward, prayed a prayer, and made a decision, that that proves that you are saved. No, that doesn't prove it. "Now, wait a minute, Pastor, are you teaching that salvation is not by faith?" No, it is by faith — by grace through faith — but that is the condition of being saved, not the proof of it. The proof is a lot more substantial than that. If you have ministered (those of you that have preached or have witnessed), you have found there are lots of people who have made a profession, there are lots of people who have walked the aisle, there are lots of people who say they believe in Jesus, and you know that there are a lot fewer of them that are really saved. When you lead a person to Christ and they make a profession, you cannot tell which are which. I have seen some of the most wonderful conversion experiences (I thought they were conversion experiences) and they turned out to be nothing; and I have seen times when it was just the most ordinary, pedestrian of experiences and I said "That was a lot of wasted time," and the person turns out to have been born again. Why is that? It is the work of God.

What is the basis then for my assurance? The Pharisees thought they had eternal life — they deduced it from the scriptures — but they would not receive Jesus and they did not love God. They were like whitewashed tombs, Jesus Christ said, that contained rotting corpses — sparkling on the outside, but corrupt on the inside (Matthew 23:27). In the last day there will be preachers, exorcists and miracle workers that will stand before Christ and say, "We did many wonderful, miraculous works in your name," and Christ will say, "Depart from me ye that work iniquity, I never knew you" (Matthew 7:22,23). That means there are a lot of people who think they are saved who are not, and that have false reasons for believing they have been saved. In a group like ours, in any church where people are ostensibly religious and trying to please God and for all outward appearances are believers, this is a message for them — this is a message for you and for me — "make your calling and election sure," and there is a Biblical way to do it.

Notice, "for if ye do these things you shall never fall." What things? What does things refer to? It refers back to verse 8: "If these things be in you and abound." What things are they? You have to go back to verses 5 through 7: "And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith" and then it gives a list of character qualities — fruit of the Spirit, if you will — evidence that there is divine spiritual life that has taken hold of your life: "virtue," moral energy, moral courage; "knowledge," spiritual insight and understanding; "temperance," is self-control; "patience," active endurance; "godliness," God-centered reverence to your life; "brotherly kindness," a brotherly affection toward other believers; and "charity," sacrificial love toward people. "If these things be in you, and abound" and, "If you do these things, you shall never fall." Notice he then says, "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure." It is the same word he used in verse 5: in other words, "Make this a high priority and make it one of great intensity; get to it in haste, and then give it all the effort you can in making your calling and election sure."

His exhortation to us is not just to exert strenuous effort to cultivate these character qualities, just for their own sake. He is concerned that, in exercising such diligence, we will procure for ourselves an unshakable personal assurance that we really are the called and chosen of God: that we really are God's people. Nothing, really nothing, could be more important to an individual than that. You think of it! You think of all things on which you hang your hopes, of all the things that help you get up in the morning, of all the things that give you a spring in your step, of all the things that help you get through a day. What are you trying to achieve? If you pile all of them up, what are they next to knowing absolutely sure when you pass through the portals of death God will welcome you home and say, Well done, good and faithful servant — welcome home. I don't care how much money you have made, I don't care how much success you have known, how spiritual people thought you were, if you don't have that, you don't have anything. You have lost it all. In fact, all that you thought you had then becomes a mockery of what you lost. It is unspeakable tragedy to float along though life and think you are safe and secure and then be wrong. If I lose my soul, I lose everything, so I am very interested in making my calling and election sure. For if I do these things, I shall "never fall" — not "never sin", but as the tense of the verb here reveals, it is a one-time action. It refers to that final fall from which we cannot recover: that final condemnation, that being consigned to the eternal lake of fire; that being irretrievably lost. He says, "You shall never fall." In English it is bad grammar to use a double negative, but in Greek they love to do it. Here we have a double negative and we may translate it "You shall never in any wise fall." There is no way it will happen. It is a categoric, emphatic denial that such a thing shall ever happen if you will follow what this verse tells you to do. Isn't that an amazing thing! I can categorically, absolutely know that I am one of God's chosen ones, that I am one of God's called ones.

I am reminded of a common coaching advice, "the best defense is the best offense." A team about to lose is a soccer team that thinks because they have gotten one goal up that they will just hang back and defend. Some teams can pull it off, but it very rarely works. Usually it is the strong offense. It is the same with the Christian life, it is not a matter of receiving the Lord and saying, "Well, I am safe now and I'll just sit here on it; I'll fold it up in a napkin and bury it in the earth." No, do something with it — that's the way to make sure. What is the danger of not making sure? I would say that it is catastrophic. In verse 9: "He that lackist these things [these character qualities that have been mentioned earlier] is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." He is the person in whom these things (these character qualities) are not present. Verse 8 says these character qualities are not only supposed to be in us and be our possessions, they are supposed to be abounding; they are supposed to be overflowing; they are supposed to be like abundant flowers on the hillside beside the interstate. If you don't have these things present, then you are first of all, blind — you cannot see clearly. You have no eyes for other than earthbound things. A person who does not have these qualities doesn't seem to really understand the significance of possessing these spiritual characteristics.

There is a great deal of Christianity that is consumed with things that really are peripheral, that is missing the point of this developing of Godly characteristics, becoming like God — partakers of His divine nature. If I am a child of God, I should bear His characteristics. 1 Corinthians 2:14 tells us "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." — he is blind. 2 Corinthians 4:18 reads: "we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." A man who is saved has eyes for eternal things; he has eyes for spiritual qualities: those are more important to him than the things he can see. 1 Corinthians 2:9 says, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." This verse is in a whole passage dealing with the fact that even the wisest, the most powerful person in this world, never came up with what God is doing in His people — how God transforms a life, how God can take the gospel, the preaching of the gospel (a foolish thing to the Greeks, a scandal to the Jews), and take that gospel and transform a life. No man figured it out, no eye saw it (i.e. scientific inquiry will not produce this, it is something that comes by revelation and faith in that revelation). "Eye hath not seen"— blind.

In 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, Paul explains "if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: (you see, it is not only a natural blindness that is in their life, there is also a spiritual darkness that Satan shrouds a person's eyesight with.) In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." It is surprising who are the blind ones: the most religious people of Christ's day, the most scrupulous in their standards, Christ called "blind guides." When He addresses the seven churches in Revelation, the last church He addresses is the Church of Laodicea, a church very much like the American church—an affluent church, he says in Revelation 3:17: "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." He then gives them counsel on how to fix that. In other words, you could be part of a church, a church that Christ says is a church, and be blind. You can be a student of the scriptures; you can be well respected as a religious person, and be blind. You can be a guide — a spiritual guide — a pastor, a missionary, a Sunday School teacher, a deacon, and be blind. If you lack these Godly characteristics, if there is no evidence of the transforming work of God in your character, it doesn't matter whether you can *parse Greek and Hebrew, it doesn't matter if you are a great deliverer of fine messages that keep people awake, you have no assurance — you are blind. [*break a sentence down into its component parts of speech]

Second, "you cannot see afar off." The word used here is the word for "myopia." [It's the problem I have, it is why I have to wear contacts, or glasses. I cannot see afar off.] Now, that is one thing that can be corrected physically, but spiritually it is catastrophic. In other words, not only is this person's vision earth-bound, but it is time-bound. He is living for this present passing age with no view to the outcome of what we do now — no view toward eternity. A true believer is on a journey; he's on the narrow road that leads to eternal life; he has his eyes on the final goal; he seeks those things that are above; he is honed in to that eventual experiencing of God's glory — being made like Christ. He looks toward the prize of the high calling of God, and all the glitter and glamor of the world may dazzle him from time to time, but it cannot distract him from his chief goal; he is a stranger in this world and a pilgrim traveling on to the next. A man who does not have these character qualities is not such a pilgrim; he is a man with his eyes looking down to the muck and mire of this world instead of to the heavenly gates. Hebrews 11:1 tells us, "Now faith is the substance (the foundation) of things hoped for (things that haven't yet happened, things that are in the future, as well as), the evidence (or proof) of things not seen." John tells us in his first epistle (1 John 3:3) "every man that hath this hope (the hope of Christ's coming) in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." It is in the light of the blessed hope of Christ's return that we deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world (Titus 2:12,13). If my life is not being transformed, if I am not evidencing more and more godliness and holiness, I evidence that I am not living for the next age, I am living for this one — "I cannot see afar off."

There is a third description of his visual impairment: "He hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." He can't see ahead of him, and he can't see behind him either. If you have been saved by Jesus, you need to remember that He is so named because He came "to save His people from (it doesn't say ‘hell', although it is included) their sins" (Matthew 1:21). And if that is what Jesus does when He saves, then holy living rather than sinful living is the necessary outcome of being saved by Jesus Christ. The character of my life must change, or else how can I say I am saved? If I am enslaved to sinning, I can hardly say that Jesus has freed me from it — such a claim is an absurdity, it is a mockery of the cross. What was the point of all the agony and blood? What was the point of His giving Himself for us? In Titus 2:14, it says "that He might redeem us (might buy us back) from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people {a people of His own possession), zealous of good works." That is why He died; that is why He saved you. If you say you are saved, and there is no evidence of this "freeing from sin," then you have deceived yourself because that is what Jesus saves from. Is His shed blood and broken body of no avail? Does His death have no cleansing power? Is the power of His resurrection unable to give me spiritual life? The man who has forgotten that he has been purged from his old sins has forgotten the whole purpose of the incarnation, of Christ's humiliation, of His redemption, of His resurrection.

The most fabulous, wonderful things of the Christian faith become dust and ashes if I am not seeing a freedom, a freeing up from my sin. It is the pure in heart, according to Christ's sermon on the mount, who shall see God (Matthew 5:8). The writer of Hebrews says in chapter 12, verse 14b, without holiness no man shall see the Lord. The New Testament's teaching of holiness is not about mere adherence to the Law. It is not about trying to get greater conformity; it is not about conforming; it is about being transformed. Look at the emphasis of this passage: it is not about doing more things. What we do has to have a productive source in what we are. Peter does not exhort us to get busy doing more things, attending more conferences, multiplying more schools and movements — he exhorts us to strive to become more like Christ, to furnish ourselves lavishly in the spiritual development of Godly character. He tells us to see our hearts changed and our identity transformed. If I am always focusing just on doing and not on being in order to do, I end up with a shallow view of sin and a corresponding shallow view of holiness.

The New Testament teaches that these Godly characteristics must be growing in a true believer's life because it is the only reasonable, the only possible outcome of being born again by God's Spirit. If you are really a partaker, or sharer, of the divine nature, unless the divine nature has changed, then Godly character will more and more characterize who you are. The legalist is happy so long as you conform certain activities to the Law of God—an outward adherence to standards. Rarely do standards include (have you ever noticed this?) honesty, kindness, humility, gentleness, joy, peace, longsuffering. Well did Jesus say of these in Matthew 23:24, you "strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel," and in Matthew 23:23, you scrupulously tithe your spices, but you neglect justice, mercy and faith. The legalistic approach is not what we are talking about. We are talking about changing yourself right down to the roots of what you are. You say, "That's too hard." That's right!— it's impossible unless God is empowering it; that is why it is the proof that God has laid hold of you; and that is why just the outward conformity is not sufficient.

The antinomian, the one who is against the law (perhaps we should call him the licentious one, because he wants a license to do whatever he wants to do) says it doesn't matter what you do on the outside so long as you're okay on the inside — that is a lot of double-speak; it is just as fraudulent as the first position. "Out of the heart are the issues of life." I have deceived myself if I think I have given my heart to God while my life is in honor of the devil—he corrects both legalism and licentiousness. The Bible says to do right you have to be right; and if you are right on the inside, you'll do right on the outside; and that is something only God can do. A man who refuses to see Godliness and holiness as the natural and necessary outcome of belonging to Jesus is thinking just like the unsaved world. It is the lost sinner who views holy living as boring and burdensome. He hates its restraint on his passion and lusts. Something inside him rises up in antagonism whenever somebody preaches on his need to turn from sin to holiness. As Luther told his friend Malancthon "to always preach in such a way that if the people listening to you do not come to hate their sin, they will instead hate you." That is exactly how the unsaved man feels towards God, but the regenerate man, the born-again man, the man who is a partaker of God's divine nature, doesn't think that way. Holiness is a beautiful thing; it is something that he desires and that he becomes.

Thirdly, look at the outcome of having made sure. Verse 11, "For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Notice the words "shall be ministered unto you." These words are the same words translated as "add" in verse 5. You may recall this word was a very colorful word: it has the idea of bringing in every effort, as one who outfits the grand course of a play, or one who thoroughly equips an army — it speaks of lavishly supplying. We might translate this: "for so an entrance shall be lavishly supplied unto you;" and then God tacks on, piles on, "abundantly." Not only lavishly supplied, but richly, lavishly supplied. Just as a loving father warmly welcomes his prodigal son, or as a victor in the Olympic games would be welcomed and honored upon return to his home town, what a beautiful picture it is of how God welcomes us to our true home. Death is not drifting out to an unknown sea; it is entering the harbor, the haven of rest, to be greeted at shore by God.

Ultimately, the way we face growing old and dying tests the reality of our faith. It is then that the activities for which most people live become impossible to keep up with. A Christian may find his identity and joy in his younger years in these activities — a preacher may live his life for preaching, but what happens when he can no longer preach? That is what I like about verse 11: this entrance is ministered unto us — passive voice; we don't supply it, God does. It is something God does for us; and it is a good thing, because the nearer we approach death, the less we are able to do anything for ourselves. Our energies and abilities wane. We do not have it in us to hang onto anything, not even to life itself (it slips through our fingers like water).

"Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints" (Psalm 116:16) — not just precious are His saints, but precious is their death. Just as Christ stood to receive Stephen, the first martyr, into heaven, so God receives us — lavishly supplies our entrance into His heavenly kingdom. We are precious because we are treasured possessions of His; we belong to Him — that's why we are called "saints" or "holy ones," set apart to Him. He redeemed us with the precious blood of Christ. We bear His character. We received His pardon. We are partakers of His love. We are inheritors of His love. We are His workmanship in Christ Jesus, and He doesn't save us to throw us away. His love never lets go, and our death is precious in His sight — for that is the day we finally see Him face to face. "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness," the psalmist says in Psalm 17:15 But notice what it says here: it is an entrance into "the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." In other words, it is not just the entrance into heaven at death — it is more than that; it is the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. You say, "Wait a minute, we are part of His kingdom now." Yes, but there is a future consummation full of reward and rejoicing; there is day when the battles are done and the victory is won; there is a day when He shall have put all the enemies under His feet, when that last enemy called "death" is vanquished, when sin will be gone — all its curse and all its pain. Satan will have been consigned forever to the lake of fire along with his demons and all those who have not been translated into the kingdom of Christ through faith in the Saviour and His work.

This entrance into the everlasting kingdom is a marvelous thing, and it is our guarantee if we have made our calling and election sure. "Just think of stepping on shore and finding it heaven, of taking a hand and finding it God's, of breathing new air and finding it celestial, of waking up in glory and finding it home." Finally home, because God has brought me there. Make your calling and election sure.

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