The Unconverted “Believer” (17): Assurance of Salvation (2) 06/20/2021

First Baptist Church Leominster

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And the Apostle Paul, of course being tried Before several leaders

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And of course God in his providence had him arrested and will have him transported to Rome Where he will testify of the kingdom of the gospel of the kingdom of God even to those at Rome acts 23

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Acts 23 and And looking intently at the council Paul said

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Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day and The high priest

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Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth Then Paul said to him

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God is going to strike you you whitewashed wall Are you sitting to judge me according to the law and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?

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Those who stood by said would you revile God's high priest and Paul said

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I did not know brothers that he was a high priest for it is written You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people

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Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees he cried out in the council brothers

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I am a Pharisee a son of a Pharisee It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial

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And when he had said this a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the assembly was divided

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For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection nor angel nor spirit, but the

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Pharisees acknowledge them all Then a great clamor arose and some of the scribes of the

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Pharisees party stood up and content contended sharply We find nothing wrong with this man

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What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him and When the dissension became violent the

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Tribune afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them Commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring them into the barracks

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The following night the Lord stood by him and said take courage for as you testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem So you must testify also in Rome When it was day the

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Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed

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Paul There were more than 40 who made this conspiracy They went to the chief priests and elders and said we have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed

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Paul Now therefore you along with the council give notice to the

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Tribune To bring him down to you as though you were going to determine his case more exactly and We are ready to kill him before he comes near Now the son of Paul's sister heard of their ambush.

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So he went and entered the barracks and told Paul Paul called one of the centurions and said take this young man to the

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Tribune for he has something to tell him So he took him and brought him to the Tribune and said

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Paul The prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you as he has something to say to you

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The Tribune took him by hand and going aside asked him privately What is it that you have to tell me?

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And he said the Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow tomorrow as though they were going to Inquire somewhat more closely about him

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But do not be persuaded by them For more than 40 of their men are lying in ambush for him who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till They have killed him and now they are ready waiting for your consent

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So the Tribune dismissed the young man charging him tell no one that you have informed me of these things then he called two of the centurions and said get 200 soldiers with 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night

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Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor and he wrote a letter to this effect

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Claudius Lyceus to his excellency the governor Felix greetings this man was seized by the

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Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him having learned that he was a

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Roman citizen and Desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him.

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I brought him down to their council I found that he was being accused about questions of their law but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment and When it was disclosed to me that there would be a plot against the man

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I sent him to you at once ordering his accusers also to stay in state before you what they have against him

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So the soldiers according to their instructions took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatrus And on the next day, they returned to the barracks letting the horsemen go on with him when they had come to Caesarea and Delivered the letter to the governor they presented

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Paul before him on reading the letter He asked what province he was from and when he learned that he was from Cilicia He said

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I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive and he commanded him to be guarded in heritage

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Praetorium Let's pray Our Heavenly Father we thank you that you are our over all things

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We thank you that your hand of Providence guides us and leads us And we pray

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Lord that you would guide us and lead us now as we continue to worship through the preaching of the word Lord, we thank you for the the scriptures.

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We thank you for their sufficiency their infallibility We thank you for their authority and we pray

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Lord that we would line ourselves under the authority of the scriptures So guide us and help us

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Lord as we listen to the sermon that is to be proclaimed We pray Lord that we would line ourselves up under it to your glory and honor

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Thank you Lord in Jesus name. Amen Well, let's turn in our

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Bibles, please to 2nd Peter Chapter 1 and today we want to give attention to the first 11 verses

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I I Received two emails this morning one from pastor prim in southeast

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India and the other from pastor Andrew and western Kenya and Whereas, you know things are lightening up for us here in America with regard to the virus

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Things seem to be tightening down again in those places Well, it continues to be in southeast

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India They haven't met in months as a church and then pastor Andrew indicated that the churches in western

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Kenya are shut down for the next 30 days and so Let's continue to pray for you know, these men.

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I haven't heard from the Cabello's in in the

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South Pacific in some time, but Please remember to pray for these mission

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Missions and their work Well last Lord's Day, we began to address this matter of assurance of salvation

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If we were to reflect on the issues of greatest importance to each each of us grading them as from most important to least

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Important surely I would think the knowledge of the eternal state of our soul would top the list

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Can you think of a more important subject that could possibly arise?

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But being assured of the fact that you have eternal life with the Lord Jesus Christ In order to stress the importance of the soul salvation our

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Lord posed the question What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?

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clearly the salvation of the soul Jesus Was setting forth as the most important matter a person could possibly give his concern or attention to No more important matter could be before us and to secure

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Our personal knowledge that we are the objects of God's saving grace in salvation

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Now this morning. I want us to first read a passage of Scripture from 2nd

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Peter and In this passage we read of our responsibility to be diligent

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To know that we're assured of salvation And After we read this we'll address some relevant matters

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For some time and then we'll get back and try and delineate what this Passage says in some detail.

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And so here's 2nd Peter 1 verses 1 through 11 Simon Peter a bondservant an apostle of Jesus Christ To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of God and Savior Jesus Christ Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our

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Lord as his divine power has Given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness

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Through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these

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You may be partakers of the divine nature Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust

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But also for this very reason Giving all diligence

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Add to your faith virtue to virtue knowledge to knowledge self -control to self -control

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Perseverance to perseverance godliness to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness love

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For if these things are yours and abound you will neither be bare nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our

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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

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That's an allusion to the false teachers in 2nd Peter 2 who had cleaned up their lives initially

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Through knowledge of Jesus, but then returned to their sin Verse 10 therefore brethren be even more diligent to make your call an election.

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Sure. That's assurance For if you do these things you will never stumble

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For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ We expressed last week that contrary to the teaching of many evangelical churches and the assumption of many professing

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Christians Assurance of salvation is not always easy to acquire or to retain

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It's a fact that many if not most evangelicals those who claim to be

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Bible leavers The Bible believers are taught that assurance is simply a matter of faith

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And so they teach that if you simply accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior if you really believe in him then you have salvation

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Regardless of how you live thereafter You should not doubt your salvation for it's based upon Jesus Christ alone and not upon any work that you do

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You may be at peace that God has given you eternal life and you need not ever doubt that reality

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That's generally the message of assurance that's proclaimed among evangelicals

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But we expressed last week that contrary to the teaching of many evangelical

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Evangelical churches and the assumption of many professing Christians Assurance of salvation is not always easy to acquire or to retain in fact many

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Wrongly understand Assurance as a rather simple thing to acquire and a simple thing to retain

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The problem however with this position is that we've shown from the scriptures that there are those who have faith in who

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Jesus is and What he did for sinners who may even believe that they are beneficiaries of his saving work and yet They're still condemned in their sins.

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That's what nominal Christianity is Their faith is not saving faith as taught in the

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Word of God, even though they may understand and believe all the right things They have a false assurance of their salvation they have a form of godliness

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But deny the power thereof as Paul wrote they have faith, but that faith is unaccompanied by confirming works

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Peter writes about confirming works here and first in 2nd Peter chapter 1 and as James commanded the readers of his epistle be

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Doers of the word not hearers only deceiving yourselves people who only

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Claim to have faith, but their life doesn't Manifest that faith are deceiving themselves

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They think they have salvation. They have a false assurance and then later

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James wrote What does it profit my brethren? That's a rhetorical question implying it doesn't profit anything

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What does it profit my brethren if someone says he has faith, but does not have works

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Can faith in other words that kind of faith? It's not saving faith in that kind of faith save him again rhetorical question

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Implying no, it can't you believe that there's one God. That's good.

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You do well even demons However have that kind of faith and they tremble at least they tremble is what

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James is saying rather sarcastically but do you want to know Oh foolish man that faith without works is dead and So yes, we're justified through faith alone.

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We underscored that many times But our faith is never alone It's always shown forth in the way we live

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The way we live must confirm and affirm that our faith is genuine and so the

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Word of God tells us that saving faith is shown forth in the life of the true believer and That he no longer lives as he had lived before coming to faith

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Upon believing in Christ the Lord he begins to show forth new life in Jesus Christ If there is no new life in Christ, there is no saving faith in Christ And so although what you believe about Jesus Christ is certainly a critically important element in Obtaining a sound assurance of salvation.

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It is not not all that is necessary The life must bear witness with one's profession of faith in order for that profession to be regarded as legitimate saving faith

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And so one of the means of gaining assurance is how one lives How one lives out one's faith in Jesus Christ it matters how we live

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And so to know that you're a recipient of God's salvation to know that God is for you and not against you is of great importance

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It is the spring the matter of assurance it's the spring the fountain from which all peace and joy flow

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Find a person a Christian who lacks assurance and you'll find a troubled soul Assurance is also the source of legitimate motivation for living the

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Christian life Much of what we do and much of how we react to situations in the world are born

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Out of a true knowledge that we belong among the people of God and that his favor rests upon us in Christ The one who serves

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God without true assurance will often do so out of a sense of doubt and terror fear

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Out of a sense of reluctant servitude rather than joyful love Assurance is important But thankfully, of course

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Assurance in this life is not only greatly desirable biblically possible Contrary to what we showed last week

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You know the Roman Catholic Roman Catholicism the Greek Orthodox and many others that say that full assurance is not possible in this life and So you can be a true

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Christian and yet not have assurance. Thankfully, so It was

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Charles Spurgeon who wrote the greatest blessing is to have true assurance of salvation But then he added to that the second greatest blessing is to doubt your salvation

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For the second will lead to the first When a person is truly troubled about assurance, you know, they may struggle and they may doubt they may you know

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They may wander a bit, but they're gonna come back to where they know they're gonna find truth. And that's what

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Spurgeon was saying Although it's very troubling not to have assurance for a true

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Christian to lack assurance. I'm not really Worried about him that the

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Lord will bring that that man or that woman to a sound assurance We could add the greatest curse if the greatest blessing is true assurance

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So the second greatest blessing is doubting your assurance. We would add the greatest curse is to have false assurance of salvation

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People thinking they're okay, they're safe Jesus said to some who are righteous in their own eyes they had assurance

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He said to them you her well have no need of physician But those who are sick,

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I did not come to call the righteous in other words the self -righteous but sinners to repentance Many people falsely think they are well in their relationship with God and they're in churches every week

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But they're not they falsely think they are. Well, it's our responsibility to show them from the scriptures that they're not and We do so not out of cruelty or unkindness, but so that they might

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Seek out which is true and real and truly be sound and settled in a biblical assurance of salvation

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Now if we were to employ the matter of a personal sense of assurance of salvation as a basis of assessing people you could actually

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Categorize all people everywhere into one of five categories Think about it

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First there are those who have true assurance of salvation and they should have This is because they examine the biblical teaching respecting these things they pass the tests and next week

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We'll talk in more detail about the tests. They've passed the tests in their own conscience regarding their condition

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I kind of think that these people are fewer in number than most evangelicals think a

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Second class of people are those who are true Christians who do not have assurance of salvation but they should have or they could have but they don't and This is very unfortunate, but I think this is not uncommon

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Especially those who are reformed in their convictions as we attempted to point out last week

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It is our desire, of course to lead them to true full assurance of their salvation as taught by the scriptures a

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Third class of people there are many in this world who have assurance of salvation, but they should not have

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They have no legitimate biblical grounds for assurance for God's Word says of them They are without hope and without God, but they don't know that They are need of the

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Lord to awaken them to their dreadful damn condition and again It's our desire and calling to shake them of their false confidence their false assurance

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So they might truly and fully turn to Christ for salvation And I think that's one of the primary

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Elements of doing biblical evangelism You gotta reveal to people who have assurance of salvation if it's false you got to reveal that to them so that they see

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Christ For there are those who are true Christians who have assurance but the basis of their assurance is faulty not biblical

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I'm thinking of many that the Lord may be saved through an evangelistic Crusade who walked the aisle pray to sinners prayer and maybe the

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Lord through the preaching of Christ truly converted them There are those But they're thinking that they're they have assurance because of that decision

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They made 25 years ago in a you know in the altar of a Billy Graham crusade

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That is not a sound basis of assurance of salvation They have assurance.

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However, they're true Christians, but their assurance is based on some decision. They made

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Some action they took something they did Rather than on Christ himself.

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Well when you start talking about biblical assurance that you can rattle their cage When you show that's not sufficient then all of a sudden they might really begin to doubt themselves and wonder and So they're true

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Christians they have assurance, but they haven't been taught biblically a biblical basis of sound assurance and We have to teach them and show them and that's what we're attempting to do.

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Of course And then fifth there are those who have assurance. They're true Christians. They have assurance, but it's of a weak nature

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Sometimes they feel assured at other times or they quite despaired their condition true

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Christians and this condition is stated quite clearly in our confession of faith one of the paragraphs of article 18 in our

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Baptist confession of faith of 1689 and notice this statement and this is the same as the

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Presbyterian Westminster Confession and the Savoy Declaration of the John Owen and Thomas Goodwin the congregational reformed guys

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Demartin Lloyd -johns Jonathan Edwards same statement and it talks about the difficulty to attain true assurance by true

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Christians true believers May have their assurance of their salvation divers or a different way shaken

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Diminished I don't feel as assured as I used to be or Intermittent. In other words, sometimes they feel assured other times.

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They don't at all as by and then they start talking about the causes of this why a person a true

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Christians assurance may be unsettled or shaken as by negligence in preserving of it

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By falling into some special sin, which wounds the conscience and grieves the spirit by some sudden or vehement temptation

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By God's withdrawing the light of his countenance or presence and suffering even Allowed even such as fear him to walk in darkness and to have no light and yet They are never destitute of the seed of God and life of faith.

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It's still there It might be weak, but it's still there that love of Christ and the brethren that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty out of which by the operation of the

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Spirit the Holy Spirit this assurance may in due time be revived and By the witch in the meantime in others by these things that evidence of true life there

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They may not see it, but it's there others might see it. They don't in the meantime. They are preserved from utter despair

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And so you have a Peter going out and weeping after he betrayed the Lord where you have

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Judas going out and hanging himself He had utter despair Peter Had that had that?

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Spiritual life abiding in him. He was distressed. He doubted himself But Jesus had told him already

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Satan is desired to sift you as wheat, but I prayed for you that your faith failed not And So this paragraph in our confession sets forth the reasons and ways that true

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Christians may struggle with their assurance of salvation So let's just quickly consider these reasons

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First we read that true believers may have the assurance of their salvation shaken diminished and intermitted by negligence in preserving of it

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In other words it through your neglect you can lose your assurance of salvation

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Our passage first Peter or second Peter chapter 1 1 through 11 states this very thing and we'll see that in a few minutes

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There are things that we are to do as Christians if we neglect or fail to do them

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We may lose our assurance of salvation. No, we will not lose our salvation for that's not possible

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The true Christian is pardoned righteous sealed preserved protected prayed for by Jesus Christ himself

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The true Christian cannot lose his salvation We know that Christ does not lose one whom the

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Father has given him. He he Declared this Jesus declared this this is the will of the

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Father who sent me that of all he's given me I should lose nothing but raise it up at the last day

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But though we cannot lose our salvation we can certainly lose our assurance

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That we are saved by our neglect negligence of preserving our assurance

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There's things we must do if you don't do it You will probably lose your assurance and we've always

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You know asserted just by illustration put your Bible on the shelf. Don't open it for three months

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Stop coming to church. Stop praying. Stop hanging around with Christian brothers and sisters and see how you feel in three months

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Do you're neglected the means of grace you'll see what happens Secondly true believers may have the assurance of their salvation shaken diminished and are

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Intermittent by falling into some special sin which wounds the conscience and grieves the spirit

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The Conscience is that faculty that every human being possesses that distinguishes between right and wrong resulting either in a sense of personal condemnation or exoneration

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The human conscience identifies what is right? What is wrong and as a result moves an individual either to feel guilty or not feel guilty about himself

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God gave everyone Christian and non -christian alike a conscience A Conscience and the unconverted person can become seared and hardened they can come to the point where they've so twisted it now

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That which is formerly thought to be right is wrong and that which was formerly thought was wrong is right

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You can twist and contort the conscience, but you can't get rid of it How does sin affect the conscience when the

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Christian sins? He has a guilty conscience if he does not address it biblically and and quickly it can result in damaging his conception

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How he thinks he relates to God He feels that God has withdrawn from him and he cannot get back to him

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God declared to his prophet your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden his face from you

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So that he will not hear And some Christians can put themselves in that position But sin also bars the heart from wanting to approach him

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One's guilty conscience prohibits him from feeling he can come into God's presence for to do so he fears that he would see himself as justly condemned by him and So some will avoid or resist coming before God lest they feel condemned by him.

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I Hate to always you know be recounting it But I've been in the ministry 47 years and I've seen about everything come down the pike and I can remember a friend of mine church member

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Pastor I haven't been coming to church. The reason is I am so sinful I I think

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God will curse the church if I come among the people of God Sin also may grieve the

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Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit keeps our conscience clean and clear and When we resist the

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Holy Spirit or refuse to yield to his leading us according to the Word of God We may grieve him and therefore the the benefits and the work of the

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Holy Spirit diminishes in our lives He may cease to bring us a sense of conviction of our sin

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We become accustomed to it we don't feel as bad about it as we once had perhaps We're no longer sensitive and desirous of holy thinking and holy living as we were formerly

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We're no longer alarmed over our degraded spiritual focus or sensitivity The grace that the

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Holy Spirit imparts to his people is weakened Which includes comfort of the soul for salvation that the

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Holy Spirit gives to his people he is the other comforter Jesus Christ is our first comforter

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Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit is our is another comforter and Then thirdly true believers may have the assurance of their salvation shaken diminished intermitted by some sudden or vehement

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Temptation they don't sin. They're just tempted to sin There may be an occasion when the world the devil or our own sinful flesh will pose a great temptation to us to indulge in in a terrible grievous sin

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And you're thinking to yourself. Where did that come from? How can

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I be converted and be tempted to do that Perhaps it's a temptation to commit a sin of which you've never experienced a problem with in the past But it comes upon you strongly and that you're drawn to that sin and this troubles your conscience

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The Christian might lose his assurance of salvation and it's to a significant degree Especially if that temptation is long in duration and recurs

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Frequently and true Christians can experience that In fact, I would say it probably is a common experience for Christians from you know at different times in their life

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And Then fourthly the confession states biblically Quoting almost directly from Isaiah true believers may have the assurance of their salvation shaken diminished intermitted by God himself withdrawing the light of his presence his countenance and Suffering or allowing even such as fear him to walk in darkness and have no light.

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I Over the years commonly quoted JC Philpott who is a He tended to be a hyper

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Calvinist, but he was a Church of England guy a Minister of the Church of England and he gets converted

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He became a Reformed Baptist in the 19th century and he wrote some very good what was called expiry experimental sermons or preaching he was very

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Applicable in dealing with the emotions and the feelings of people and He wrote a sermon that ended up to be a tract

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It's about 50 pages 60 pages long and it's taken from from this passage of Isaiah 50 verse 9 and 10

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I didn't include verse 10 here but he entitled the the sermon an air of heaven walking in darkness and an air of hell walking in light and We normally think the opposite what child of God walks in the light a child of dark, you know

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The devil walks in darkness, but here and I say it talks about someone who knows the

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Lord obeys the servant of the Lord That's a prophetic of Jesus Christ. And yet he's walking in darkness.

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He has no light. What is he to do? What is the Christian to do when he doesn't she doesn't have assurance of salvation you hang on to the

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Lord You trust in the name of the Lord rely upon your God, even though you don't see any evidence whatsoever

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We're like the disciples at the end of John 6 to work to whom are we gonna go?

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You only have the words of eternal life, you know, we're not going anywhere We might be confused

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Troubled by what you're teaching us, but you know, you're the only one We're not going anywhere and that's what you may do

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That's what you need to do in your periods of difficulty and doubt and they may be extended periods of time in a

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Christian life Why does God himself do this to his people? It seems to be cruel

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Well, it's so that we will follow him more closely after we get through it I've told you this illustration years ago

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So something forgive me for those of you have heard it This was cruel on my part

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But our oldest daughter Amy when she was a toddler She just she was talking if she talked to strangers and she just wander away, you know in the store and whatnot

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And it really bothered me and because you know, and so she did that once in the store

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Walked away from me. She was halfway down the aisle. And so I backed off and hid behind the corner And all of a sudden she started looking around no dad and she panicked

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Well, I let her stew in it for about 15 or 20 seconds, you know, it cured her of wondering

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Well, the Lord does that sometimes he withdraws himself from us and to the point where we become alarmed and concerned

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And and some of the most godly Holy Christians I've known or ones that wandered away

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Backslid and then the Lord graciously brought them back man. How careful they are

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Thereafter they know how easy it was God bless Bob Wilson. He's with the Lord now, but how easy it was

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One Sunday morning pastor. I got up and I thought I'm not gonna go to church today and Four weeks later.

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He was committing adultery That went on for three four years and then the Lord brought him back

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The most godly humble tender -hearted Christian I've ever known since then Because he saw how easy and how quick he could fall

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Well, sometimes the Lord withdraws his countenance his presence from us to teach us these lessons

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We need him and we don't dare stray from his side And so through these times we learn many spiritual lessons we grow deeper in our desire

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We learn what David had learned is expressed in Psalm 23. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

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I'll fear no evil why for you are with me You rod and your staff they comfort me and so the result of our experience of that time of loneliness and Barrenness makes us stronger and better equipped to face and endure greater trials that may yet be before us

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It'll certainly also better equip you in fruitful service and helping others when they go through it.

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Oh, I've been there And you're able to sympathize empathize and give some counsel perhaps

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And so to obtain sound and certain assurance of our salvation requires serious and sincere self -examination of ourselves

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The scriptures tell us that no one is exempt. I'm not you're not Something I tell people is that Nothing I believe or understand or proclaim from this pulpit.

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Do I look at any way as a basis my assurance of salvation Because I know the

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Lord might be helping me to work through these to the word and present it before you because he loves you

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I'm concerned about how I live and how I think and how I feel apart from what

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I teach and do Don't don't look at that and so we are to examine ourselves every one of us

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Paul Exhorted that Christians at Corinth. He doubted them Church Accord that's filled with all kinds of problems.

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And finally he Concluded examine yourselves as to whether or not you're in the faith

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Test yourself proof yourself. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you're disqualified or unless indeed you fail the test and So our confession of faith again, which is not inspired of God, but it is

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Biblical we would argue in many ways our confession of faith states the importance of giving great attention to this matter

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It states it is the duty of everyone to give all diligence to make his calling election

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Sure to those words have familiar there from 2nd Peter 1 through 11

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That thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy and the Holy Spirit That's assurance in love and thankfulness to God and strength and cheerfulness and duties of obedience

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The proper fruits of this assurance so far is it from inclining men to looseness?

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That's a slap on Roman Catholicism that said no if people have assurance of salvation, they're going to fall into sin

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They're not going to be concerned about living holy lives and the confession rightly said no

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No, a sound assurance will cause people to become more holy not less holy and they're right in that Well now let's go back if we can

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It's only quarter to 12. We got a little bit of time and let's consider this passage 2nd

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Peter 1 1 through 11 First, of course, we have the epistles greeting

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Simon Peter a bondservant of an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who obtained like Precious faith with us by the righteousness of our

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God and Savior Jesus Christ It's interesting that Peter identifies himself with the addition of Simon.

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That's his Jewish name Rather than his commonly known apostolic name

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Peter. He's Simon Peter The Lord gave him that name Peter is one of the

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Apostles In which he was established as one of the judges or leaders over the twelve tribes of Israel Peter referred to himself

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However is Simon Peter suggesting that he before his readers is placing his Jewish Identity and heritage before them and we would say that there's a reason for this

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But then he also identified himself as a bondservant or slave as well as an apostle of Jesus Christ He was asserting his authority as an apostle but was doing in a very humble manner

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Acknowledging he was but a slave a committed servant of Jesus Christ And so in this description he was on the one hand putting forward

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The superior nature and person of Jesus Christ showing himself that he's but a slave to Jesus Christ But on the other hand, he's asserting that he is an apostle

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Having spiritual authority conferred upon him by the Lord as a slave

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Peter used his authority While under complete submission to Jesus Christ his master, but really in it to his readers

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He was putting himself on their level in a sense I'm like you but I am an apostle too and Then after Peter identified himself

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He identified the recipients of his epistle to those who have obtained like precious faith

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With us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ It may be that Peter was writing to Gentile Christians, I kind of think so If so his identification as an apostle who was

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Jewish was affirming his Gentile readers that they had joined with him and having obtained like precious faith with us

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In other words Gentiles have the same kind of faith that Jewish believers this was the understanding of Richard Lenski and He was a really good at Greek and I enjoy his commentaries

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He gets into a level of detail that others don't seem to do so and he wrote these words and I won't talk about the grammatical

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Terms with this data if that's the noun He describes them as people who have obtained faith that is just as valuable and precious as that Which we that is the

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Jewish believers every day obtained Peter wants his readers to regard themselves and their precious faith

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We thus conclude that Peter refers to himself and to all his Jewish Christians with there's the

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Greek word He mean in other words with us that he is writing to certain Gentile Christians to whom also

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Paul has written a letter to which he refers in chapter 3 Peter says that their faith

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Gentile faith is just as valuable and precious as our faith In other words that of any and all

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Jewish believers and that of course applies to all Gentile Christians everywhere This is what

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Peter Intends your faith in Christ is as valuable as was

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Peter's faith in Christ Precious faith Notice Peter wrote of the recipients of his letter as having obtained or received

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Like precious faith Peter presents faith as having been received as a gift from God by the grace of God Here He may not be referring to our subjective faith

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That we trust in Jesus, but rather to the common Christian faith that we all obtain and receive the body of Christian teaching

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This would be in parallel with Jude verse 3 the faith once for all delivered to the

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Saints This precious faith is described as having been by the righteousness of God and Savior Jesus Christ Two main main points may be made with regard to this expression first This is one of the clearest declarations of the deity of Jesus Christ in all of Scripture The Greek makes this clear

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Both the words God and Savior are applied to Jesus Christ Because in Greek it has the word the definite article the in Greek One definite article before both nouns that means both nouns apply to Jesus Christ He is

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God and he is Savior The second point of emphasis are the words by the righteousness of God and Savior Jesus Christ Here Peter was probably not referred to the gift of righteousness.

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That's credited to believers through faith alone Rather Peter is declaring that Jesus Christ himself is righteous in bestowing saving faith on all types of people both

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Jews and Gentiles He's righteous in doing so He's just and the justifier of the ungodly

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And then we come to verses 2 through 5 where Peter pronounces and promises blessing upon his readers

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They're Christians grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our

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Lord as his divine power has given us all Things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue

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By which have been given us that is the knowledge by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious

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Promises that through these these promises you may be partakers of the divine nature

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Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through loss Peter desired the grace and peace of God be multiplied to them

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You see they already were at peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ And certainly they'd been converted from their sin through grace of God But the initial grace and peace they had received were in need of increase even multiply may

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God multiply your grace and peace and They could experience these blessings of God that was assured to them how in the knowledge of Jesus a knowledge of God and Jesus our

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Lord The word knowledge and the Greek word is epic and no say oh, this is how you pronounce that The gnosis really is the

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Greek word for knowledge the epi is a preposition It's a it's a it is a heightened

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Knowledge a superior great knowledge epic gnosis, and this is an important word

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In this epistle in fact, it's used or a form of it's used 11 times in 2nd

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Peter the word knowledge Now whereas in 1st Peter the

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Apostle was writing to new Christians in order to better Prepare them and equip them for increasing persecution due to their faith pastor.

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Jason has been mentioning that emphasizing that However Peter in this second epistle was equipping these

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Christians in order to be capable of recognizing and withstanding false teachers

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That would be found in the churches He goes in detail in the second chapter

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There were false prophets in the Old Testament. They're going to be false teachers among you They would seek to corrupt the faith and life of the people of God and these false teachers that Peter addressed directly in chapter 2

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Were probably ones who emphasize what is sometimes called? esoteric knowledge spiritual knowledge

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That is kind of you know fuzzy out there that if you get a hold of then you can get a key to the way you live

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But the knowledge they taught somehow allowed them to permit sexual immorality among the professing people of God and We might just say they said what really counts is your spirit because that's good and holy

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What you do with your body then doesn't matter because it's fallen its flesh and So the false teachers of 2nd

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Peter 2 are immoral and they promote immorality in the churches By their false knowledge and Here in 2nd

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Peter 1 Peter is emphasizing by the true knowledge of Jesus Christ You're going to be able to protect yourself and recognize this false knowledge that these false teachers

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Are bringing among you Now the error of those false teachers would later develop into full -fledged heresy and Christendom in the second century

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Which came to be known as Gnosticism and there were that word Gnosticism if you look well, maybe you don't recognize it

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But that's the Greek the English transliteration of the Greek word for knowledge Gnosticism Gnosis Knowledge and it became a great threat to Christendom in the second century and many of the early church fathers wrote against the error of Gnosticism like Irenaeus for example against heresies

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But it had its beginning form here in the first century Peter sought to prepare these

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Christians against the false or corrupt knowledge of these false teachers by Reinforcing before them the true knowledge of God in Jesus Christ Notice again

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Peter says the grace and peace of God may be multiplied to them through the knowledge of God. That's the key the true knowledge of God and the faith of Christ had brought them to salvation and It would be through this knowledge of God through Christ that this same knowledge would cause them to grow and be better equipped to Recognize and withstand the threat they would face from these false teachers and then again to quote

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Richard Linsky about this about the word knowledge Epigonosis, this is one of the key words of this letter to which

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Adgnosis occurring in other words this more simple word for knowledge occurring The aim of this letter is to increase the knowledge in the hearts of the readers so that when grace and peace are multiplied

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They may abound in all godliness and be fully fortified against the libertinists

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I've never read that word before Linsky and all libertinism in other words licensed to sin

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When this sort of thing harassed them We have stated why we regard the genitive as a genitive of source

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In other words the knowledge is the source of these blessings This true full knowledge comes to readers from our

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God and Lord Jesus And so in verse 3 all that pertains to life and godliness has been granted to us by means of this

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Epigenesis and that's in other words knowledge of God in Jesus Christ Knowledge is the key

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Knowledge of God in Christ is the source of all the blessings of grace in the

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Christian life You were converted by that knowledge and you grow in that knowledge and later on he talks about how you grow in your assurance to acquiring this knowledge and Verse 4 he wrote of this knowledge by which you've been given has been given to us exceeding great and precious promises

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Knowledge William Gurnall who wrote the Christian in complete armor

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Charles Spurgeon said it was the best thought breeder in all this library Don't get the edited version get the full -blown version the

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Christian in complete armor he wrote ignorance above other sins and slaves a soul to Satan ignorance and Then he says a knowing man may be his slave may be

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Satan's slave, but an ignorant one can be no other Knowledge does not make the heart good, but it is impossible that without knowledge.

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It should be good There are some sins which an ignorant person cannot commit.

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There are more which he cannot but commit Knowledge is the key Christ is the door

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Christ opens heaven knowledge opens Christ you got to know who he is what he's like what he says and So Peter is saying that all of the promises of God are both assured to us and are acquired by us through the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ And that's why you know in all of our classes and preaching, you know

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We try and give you something substantive We're not just trying to stir your emotions and get you excited about things

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We want to be informed about these men matter now we want our hearts to be stirred by these certainly our affections need to be addressed and Influenced but it must be through truth

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That this is accomplished and this is our desire and our prayer Well Peter then wrote of those prominent these promises of God that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature

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Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust Much confusion over the centuries over this over these words

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The Greek or Eastern Orthodox Church long ago went off into error and their interpretation of Christians having become partakers of the divine

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Nature, this is one of the reasons why the Eastern Orthodox broke from Roman Catholicism The East holds to the doctrine of theosis that's or theosis that's their that's the name of their doctrine

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They human beings come to have real union with God and become so like God that Christians actually participate or share in the divine nature

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It's almost like a divinity divination divinization of a person you become godlike

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Not just becoming holy in character like God, but you yourself

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Are becoming godlike in essence And that should cause us to shudder

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In short they teach that Christians will be deified in some measure now They fall short they come short of that, but they sure approach that But that's not what

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Peter was declaring he was saying that Christians become like God and holy character We are being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ the

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Son of God becoming like him and holiness not in essence There's a creator a creature distinction and there's no blending of those two

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But through growing in grace, we become more like Christ Christ like When we were converted we had become recipients or partakers of great gifts of grace whereby we become like Jesus Christ in holy character

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We were made new creatures in Christ. We were born again by the Spirit We died and our lives are hidden with Christ in God When we were converted our old man, that is our old life

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Came to an end and we became new living creatures in Christ after conversion

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And now we live new lives in Christ. We're given holy aspirations holy delights holy dislikes, too

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We are set free from having been slaves to sin and Satan for now. We're willing bond slaves of Jesus Christ We want to serve him not sin

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We've been adopted as the children of a God with all the wonderful privileges and promises of being in the family of God We've got a promised inheritance

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Glorious eternity before us. We're promised power from God through the Holy Spirit. All these blessings are

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Seen as having come to us and enhanced to us through the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ In Christ alone is their life

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But then after he assured his readers of the gifts and promises that were theirs He promised he pressed upon his readers to grow in their

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Christian life He said before his readers the important task to grow in grace and knowledge

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By becoming more consecrated unto God experiencing greater degrees of God's life -changing and life -empowering grace

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And so verses 3 through 6 But also for this very reason since you've been blessed with all these promises and because you have access to these and the knowledge of Christ and the

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Means is before you to attain these things for this very reason give all diligence

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Let's just ask ourselves ask yourself have I been giving all diligence to these matters

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Have I really been given much effort or attention even to these things Add to your faith virtue to virtue knowledge to knowledge self -control to self -control perseverance to perseverance godliness to godliness brotherly

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Kindness and brotherly kindness love for if these things are yours and abound

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You will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge. There's that word again knowledge of our

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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

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And again, that's a slap on the false teachers of 2nd Peter chapter 2 Peter lists seven

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Of what may be called Christian virtues to which the Christian is to give all diligence to acquire and build up in this life

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Faith is not included in these because everybody begins with faith. Everybody has faith But this faith is to be augmented added to with these

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Christian virtues Now, please understand this is not a chronological order of list

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This is not a program for a discipleship program first We're going to add this and after we get that done, we're going to add this it's not to be understood.

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It's a rhetorical figure You work on all of these things but the way it's sent forth is to give emphasis to it to a climax

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But the beginning and the ending are significant and there are different virtue lists found in the

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Testament Now if we had time we would deal with each one of these we don't have time, but we do want to say this that the list of these seven virtues

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Are actually can be shown to be parallel with seven Disvirtues if I can invent an

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English word of the false teachers in 2nd Peter 2 This is fascinating He basically says if you add your faith these things you're gonna recognize those false teachers who do the opposite of these things

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There's a parallel between them. And so Again, it was Richard Lenski who wrote the list of seven is arranged with reference to the pseudo prophets

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False teachers and to the way in which they live according to their pretended faith for praise

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They supply disgrace for knowledge blindness for self -control libertinistic license for perseverance and good perseverance and evil for godliness ungodliness for fraternal friendliness dislike of God's children for genuine love its terrible absence

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And so Peter's preparing these Christian people to be able to recognize and repudiate the false teaching there was going to be in the churches and then lastly

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We come to the main point that we want to emphasize today Peter urged his readers to give all diligence to make their call of God and election certain

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In other words give all a diligence to make your assurance Vivid and real to your experience

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There's things that you should do and must do if you're to have a sound and full assurance of your salvation

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Therefore brethren be even more diligent give diligence to add to these things, but even be more diligent

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He says to make your call and election sure Now you cannot make yourself to be one of the election elect or you cannot

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You know make yourself to be called of God He's saying make sure that you have been called of God make sure that you are one of the elect

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For if you do these things what think the things he mentioned in the previous verses if you do these things

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You will never stumble So An entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You can be assured And so if you consider the words of verse 10 carefully it conforms to what we've been saying regarding the acquiring of sure and sound assurance of salvation therefore brethren be even more diligent to make your call and election sure and This is the verse from which the drafters of our confession made the statement

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It is the duty of every one to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure

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That thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the

01:01:11

Holy Spirit in Love and thankfulness to God and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience

01:01:18

That's assurance of salvation the proper fruits of this assurance so far Is it from inclining men to looseness?

01:01:25

And so here it's confirmed for us that our assurance of salvation may be attained retained and enhanced through our own diligence and That's the point that distinguishes us as Reformed from most everybody else in Bible believing churches

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They said no. No your assurance isn't based on anything you do It's on what Jesus did it doesn't matter what you do

01:01:49

As long as you believe the right things you can have assurance. The Bible doesn't say that And so assurance of our salvation is not only or merely based or acquired on what you believe but how you live according to what you believe and This is why assurance of salvation can sometimes be rather difficult to acquire and often difficult to maintain

01:02:12

When we neglect or fail to be more diligent regarding these matters It should be no surprise when we begin to have doubts and struggles regarding our assurance of salvation

01:02:22

It's not doubting Jesus Christ. We don't do that. It's doubting whether or not we have an interest in Jesus Christ That's the problem and So it is the more you grow in Christian knowledge

01:02:36

Growing in the grace that comes through that knowledge your sense of assurance will become more clear and stronger in certain day

01:02:45

Now again the question we might ask of ourselves Have you been even more diligent to make your call and election sure?

01:02:56

How do we do this What about the call it's not talking about the general call of salvation and the calling of God is in two

01:03:06

Categories we're gonna have to just skim this we don't have time to address it But when we talk about the calling of God There's a general call of the gospel that goes out to every person in the entire world

01:03:15

We go to any center anywhere and say if you repent of sin and believe on Jesus you can have salvation

01:03:20

That's a general call of God to everybody and anybody through the gospel That general call doesn't save anybody

01:03:30

It Takes an inward call of the Holy Spirit the effectual call of God To make that general call real and vivid to the soul it takes the effectual call of God to make a

01:03:43

Christian and So when Peter says make your calling certain is talking about this effectual call

01:03:51

Well, how do we know when we've experienced this effectual call Well, the

01:03:57

Bible describes this calling when God calls you to salvation He calls you out of great and gross darkness into marvelous and surprising light

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Did God do that for you when you came to salvation Second when

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God called you he called you out of bondage to sin into Liberty No, not sinless profession, but Liberty in the sense.

01:04:19

You're no longer living for sin. You're living for Christ You're plagued by sin troubled by sin, but you're not living for it

01:04:26

You're living for Christ when you're thinking rightly acting rightly third when

01:04:31

God calls you effectually He calls you from fellowship with men and women of the world to fellowship with Christ and with Christ's people

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We love God's people Because they're God's not because they have the same interest we do political persuasion

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The same kind of you know American background that we have no we love

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Christians No matter where they are from no matter who they are throughout the world because they have the same

01:05:01

Savior We have same Lord. We have we love them and they love us there's an affinity they're brothers and sisters in Christ and Then fourthly

01:05:11

God effectually call sinners to peace. God has called us to peace There is of course a state of peace

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Everyone who believes on Christ is at peace with God. You might not think so, but that doesn't change things

01:05:26

Everyone who has believed on Christ truly believed on Christ with saving faith is at peace with God and God Thankfully is at peace with him

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But there's also subjective peace God has called us to enjoy and experience this peace an internal peace a peace of mind and conscience

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People of the world are strangers to this The peace that God gives can withstand and endure no matter what happens in the world about him

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There's a peace that passes all understanding. In other words, it doesn't make sense Why if I was you and living what you're experiencing?

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There's no way I could have peace the peace you seem to have passes understanding. It is illogical

01:06:10

It doesn't make sense because it's a peace that God grants to the soul Not because of what we're what's happening about us but because of what he's done for us and in us and Then God affection calls sinners out of a state of unholiness and through Sinfulness into a state of holiness and righteousness

01:06:30

God has not called us to uncleanness but on to holiness and so He calls us

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Lastly on to the grace of Christ an inward call of God to receive all the promises and benefits of Christ for sinners and So have you have you heard that call?

01:06:50

Do you hear his voice my sheep hear my voice? I know them they followed me is what Jesus declared and We're called into the fellowship of his son and with his people and And then after we make our calling election sure or a calling sure then

01:07:09

Making our election sure is no problem because everyone who's called of God effectually is elective

01:07:15

God and So, you know everyone who's predestinated God calls according to Romans 8

01:07:22

So if you can if you can say yeah, God has called me in these ways It's been evident in my life.

01:07:29

You can be assured. You're one of God's elect that he set you apart from eternity past and he purposed to save you in history and He came to you in his grace and saved you in spite of you not because of anything you did but because he purposed to Love you as he loved his own son

01:07:50

Jesus Christ because he saw you in union with himself And he purposed to save you and so as you do these things

01:08:00

It is one of the ways of gaining and improving the assurance of our salvation

01:08:08

And so in conclusion the promise of God that accompanies these responsibilities is a glorious one the promise of God The Word of God declares for if you do these things

01:08:17

You'll never stumble for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly in the everlasting kingdom of our

01:08:23

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Judgment day would have no terror for you

01:08:29

If you do these things you may be assured of your participation the glorious entrance into our

01:08:35

Lord's eternal kingdom When the Lord Jesus returns and so let us be busy to add to our faith in the manner that our

01:08:42

Lord has set before us Let us increase our knowledge of God and Jesus Christ for it through this means that all the gifts of grace are given to us

01:08:52

You might respond but pastor I have difficulty understanding the scriptures We can help you with this problem.

01:08:59

That's our responsibility as elders and as brothers and sisters in Christ within the body, of course through the

01:09:06

Bible studies and Communication we have with one another However, you might say to me but pastor.

01:09:12

I just don't have the desire or the motivation to be in God's Word and work through these matters Well, then indeed you've got a problem and I can't help you with that You need to deal with that you need to get on your knees and repent before God and Ask him to give you a renew within you that love and desire for his

01:09:31

Word Because it's through the knowledge of Christ and his Word that all these blessings of God come to you

01:09:39

Let not the Word of God gather dust on your shelf to sit idle unused unread unstudied study to show yourself approved unto

01:09:46

God a workman that need not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth and may the

01:09:52

Lord bless our efforts and our desires Amen Next week.

01:09:59

We'll talk about the three tests By which we can determine that we have the basis of sound assurance of salvation and they're all found in first John Let's pray thank you our

01:10:11

Father for your word and Lord even for passages that are quite difficult in some details

01:10:17

We thank you that you have included these words for us and the glorious promises that are found for us and available to us through our

01:10:27

Accumulating and acquiring a fuller full more full of knowledge of Jesus Christ help us to do so our

01:10:33

God Inspire us encourage us comfort us our God as we look to Jesus Christ alone as our