Make Your Calling and Election Sure
II Peter 1:10,11 – Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: {11} For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
I. Verse 10.
A. Wherefore the rather, brethren.
1. Don't do like those people in verse 9, but rather like the people in verse 8.
2. He calls them brethren, for he does not doubt their salvation, and they continued efforts to serve God.
B. It is more important to know God has elected and called you than anything else in this world, or in the world to come.
1. You can’t go by feelings because feelings change often.
2. You can’t go by your works because sometimes we don’t do good works.
3. You can’t trust your memory because your memories often change to reflect to what we wish the past had been.
4. You must go by what the Word of God says – see I John to know if you are saved or not.
C. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure.
1. Diligence means to try to find out whether you are called and elected.
2. This is the personal, individual responsibility of every person who believes they are saved.
3. Calling and election are two different things that are irreversibly linked together.
a. Calling is to make sure the Holy Spirit has drawn us to God; that friends, family, Satan, or ourselves haven’t "drawn" us.
b. Eph. 1:4, Election is the choosing of God that He has made before the foundation of the world.
D. How can I know I am elected?
1. Is it possible to go back into eternity with God and be there when he elected me?
2. No. Remember what Nicodemus asked Jesus in John 3?
3. I Thessalonians 1:4 – How did Paul know these people were elected?
4. By the evidence of their lives: see verses 5-10.
E. For if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.
1. Col. 1:9,10 - When we are filled with the knowledge of God, we will walk worthy of His holy name, and be fruitful.
2. John 15:1-5 - When we abide with Christ like we ought to, we will bear much fruit to the glory of God.
3. This scripture is not talking about bearing these fruits so that we won't lose our salvation.
4. The word "fall" is referring to verse 9.
a. These people didn't lose their salvation.
b. They forgot the joy of being saved and serving God.
II. Verse 11.
A. The abundance entrance.
1. This is not an entrance into heaven.
2. If this were an entrance into heaven, it would mean salvation came because of our works.
B. Into the everlasting kingdom of Christ.
1. There is a sense of the kingdom of God that refers to the spiritual reign in our hearts, but this is not the sense of the kingdom Peter is referring to in this verse.
2. Peter is referring to the everlasting kingdom of Christ – that is – in eternity.
3. Satan has a kingdom on this earth.
a. Luke 4:5-8 - Satan promises Jesus all the kingdoms of this world if He will only fall down and worship him.
b. Rev. 16:10,11 - Satan's kingdom will be full of trouble.
c. Rev. 20:10 - Satan is finally cast into the Lake of Fire forever.
4. Christ also has a kingdom.
a. Psalms 72:8 - Christ shall reign from sea to sea. This shows Christ will reign on this present earth.
b. Rev. 21:1 - When there is no more sea, (in the eternal age) Christ will continue to reign in eternity.