Chapter 1: What is the most important question regarding salvation?
Now, if an apostle walked in here this evening and we had a chance to have him come up and lead a question and answer, and we would say to the apostle, tell us what our priorities should be. What would you say if that apostle said to you the most important question you could ever get answered in this lifetime is the question, am I numbered among the elect?
That is the most important question, not just for Christians, but for everyone. Am I numbered among the elect? Am I saved? Welcome to the Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and today we're continuing our series in 2 Peter. Perhaps you have struggled with assurance, or maybe you're not sure what it means to be truly saved.
If that's you, then I'm glad you're joining us today, because R.C. Sproul will help us understand not only how we're saved, but also how we can have assurance of that salvation. Well, here's Dr. Sproul in 2 Peter chapter 1.
We're going to continue our study of the second epistle of Saint Peter. I will be reading from chapter 1, beginning at verse 5, and reading through verse 11. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue.
to virtue, knowledge, to knowledge, self-control, to self-control, perseverance, to perseverance, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For he who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Peter has already spoken about the glorious majesty of the God who has called us by glory and by virtue and who has given us exceedingly great and precious promises. And then he goes on to say, for this very reason, because of what God has done for us, We ought to be giving all diligence.
That is that our approach to learning of God is not to be done in a frivolous, a capricious, or a cavalier manner. It is to be done with earnest application. with careful study and inquiry, by applying ourselves diligently to every word that has proceeded forth from His mouth.
And to expand on this diligence to which he is called, Peter then gives us a long list of things about which we are to seek diligently. And as you heard that list being read moments ago, you couldn't help but notice how similar that list is from lists that the apostle Paul will often set forth, most notably in that list that he gives that we call the fruit of the Spirit.
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Chapter 2: How can we be diligent in making our calling and election sure?
Be even more diligent. Now, do you see what he's just said? He said, I want you to be diligent, industrious, careful, to apply yourselves, to add to your faith, virtue and perseverance and loving kindness, brotherly love, all these things so that you won't be barren, so that you won't be fruitless. But there's something about which I want you to be even more diligent.
Now, if an apostle walked in here this evening and we had a chance to have him come up and lead a question and answer, and we would say to the apostle, be it Paul or Peter or John or whoever, we said to them, tell us what our priorities should be. What kinds of things should we be most diligent to learn?
Would we not be a little bit surprised if the answer said, you need to learn about the doctrine of election? But the doctrine of election or of predestination, not in the abstract, but with respect to your own person. What would you say if that apostle said to you, the most important question you could ever get answered in this lifetime is the question, am I numbered among the elect?
Now, I realize that there are multitudes of professing Christians out there that don't even worry about such questions because they don't believe in election in the first place.
In fact, if there's one verse that people appeal to in all of sacred Scripture to try to deny the doctrine of election, it is a verse that we will examine later on in this same epistle, that verse that says, God is not willing that any should perish. And if it's true that God is not willing that anybody should perish, then manifestly who needs to worry about election?
You do, because Peter is saying you need to be all the more diligent to make your calling and your election sure." Do you remember to whom the first epistle of Peter was addressed? To the elect. The doctrine of election permeates the epistles of Saint Peter. So we can't dismiss the doctrine of election simply to the machinations of the mind of the Apostle Paul. or even to Jesus himself.
It's everywhere on virtually every page. Now, I want to ask two questions. What does Peter mean by making your calling and election sure? And what reason does he give for being especially diligent to do that? Well, let's start with the first one. What does he mean when he says to be all the more diligent to make your calling and your election sure?
I had a person ask me that once and said to me, how can I know if I'm a Christian? I said, well, let me ask you a couple of questions. Do you love Jesus perfectly? He said, no. do you love Jesus as much as you ought to love Him? Of course, that's just the same question repeated, isn't it? And he said, no.
And now whatever assurance he had when he asked the question is starting to slip out of his fingers, and I finally asked him the third question, do you love Jesus at all? But I said, be careful. I'm not asking you if you love the Jesus that was portrayed to you at a youth camp.
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