Navigating Assurance - [2 Peter 1:5-11]

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There was a Bible teacher named R .A. Torrey and he met a doctor and the doctor said, you know what,
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I read the Bible but I don't really get anything out of it. Could you help me? Torrey said, well, read it.
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The guy said, I do read it. Read it some more. How? Take a book of the
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Bible and read it 12 times a day for one month. Start with 2
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Peter. Later, Dr. Congan said, my wife and I read 2
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Peter three or four times in the morning, two or three times at noon, and two or three times at dinner.
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Soon, I was talking 2 Peter to everyone I met. It seemed as though the stars in the heavens were singing the story of 2
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Peter. I read 2 Peter on my knees, marking passages, teardrops mingled with the colored crayons, and I said to my wife, honey, see,
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I've ruined this part of my Bible. Yes, she said, but as the pages have been getting black, your life has been getting white.
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Turn your Bibles to 2 Peter, please. That's really the story of 2 Peter. It's a story about the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and living in light of who he is, you begin to live a holy life. And the false teachers were saying, listen, we want to live sinful lives, licentious lives, lives that are carnal and sensual and sexual.
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Therefore, we need to create a system where Jesus isn't going to come back. At least we'll try to create that in our mind, and we won't let other people believe that either.
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And so, 2 Peter is Peter's swan song. He's writing this book. It's the last book he'll write before he dies and he goes to heaven.
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The Lord Jesus had told him that very thing. I don't know if you remember what the word swan song comes from or the origination of swan song, but it's kind of like the final performance or the final act of a singer or a poet or a composer.
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And according to folklore, of course, swans, before they die, seem to sing most beautifully.
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And so, Peter, in a beautiful fashion, not using the word beautiful, but using his maybe favorite word, precious, begins to talk about who
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Jesus is and how to live in light of his soon return. The world is crazy.
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It's filled with all kinds of issues and false teachers and media and all these other things.
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How do I live in light of the truths of Scripture? Specifically, I ask every one of you today, do you know for sure when you die that you're going to go to heaven?
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Do you have Christian assurance? Everybody here will die unless the Lord comes back and you'll stand before God.
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Do you know for certain that you're going to go to heaven? Do you know that God will accept you into his holy heaven?
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The false teachers don't want you to have that assurance. But God wants you to have that assurance.
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As you know, last week, we looked at what we call the objective side of assurance. When you want to navigate assurance, am
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I assured of my salvation, there's the objective side, verses 1, 2, 3, and 4, and that's the work of God in Christ Jesus.
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Then you have today in verses 5 and following, the subjective side. And so we want to make sure today, as we will understand what the objective and subjective sides of assurance are, that everyone here is a
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Christian, that you can know you're a Christian, and if you're not a Christian this morning, that you would trust in the Lord Jesus.
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There's an objective side of assurance outside of us and subjective how we perceive our salvation.
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In review, let's look at verses 1, 2, 3, and 4. This is the objective side of assurance, the objective side of salvation.
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It's what God has done. It's objective because it's historical, it's true, it's outside of us.
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It's not based on our own whims or feelings or anything like that. The objective assurance of a Christian is the exact same with other
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Christians and every other Christian. You have Christ's righteousness if you're a Christian. You have
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Christ's forgiveness if you're a Christian. You've been regenerated if you're a Christian. You can't be more justified if you're a
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Christian. You can't be condemned if you're a Christian. We all have the same, it's objective assurance. And you can see how
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Peter gives them that at the very beginning of verses 1 through 4 as we looked at last week.
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Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours, not second -class faith, it's a faith of equal standing with the apostles, by the righteousness of God, our
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God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus lives the right life, the righteous life.
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We get credit for his righteousness, he gets credit for our sin. God treats him as if he were a sinner even though he was sinless.
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God treats us as if we perfectly obey even though we didn't. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our
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Lord. And again, it's all focused on who God is. This is the objective assurance and all assurance must start with the objective truths.
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His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Through the knowledge of him who has called us to his own glory, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
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This precious faith that we all have is the basis of our objective assurance because it's not faith in faith, it's not even our faith.
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The most important thing about faith is it's object. My faith and your faith didn't die in the cross, it wasn't raised from the dead, it's not coming back.
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But Jesus lived, died, was raised, and ascended, and we have our trust in him. It's outside of us, it's faith, and it's very precious.
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If you say to yourself, I'm sick, I have a disease, what would you give for a cure?
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If somebody would give you a cure, how would you receive that cure? And you would probably say, this is precious, this is valuable.
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I will give up everything for this. I don't care what it costs. I must have it. I need this treatment.
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I will sell my house. I will do everything I can to receive that. It's that valuable to me. And therefore,
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Peter, at the very beginning, knowing that the false teachers are chattering all the time about all these things, he tells him at the very beginning, you've got something precious, and it's the
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Lord Jesus Christ's righteousness, and God has even given you faith in him. Man isn't the subject here in the first four verses.
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It's all about who God is, the saving God. Peter knew what it was like to be a ruffian sinner and then get saved.
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Paul knew what it was like to, in Galatians 1, where he violently tried to destroy
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Judaism, and yet the next chapter, Paul said, I've been crucified with Christ.
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It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the
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Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. If I were to ask you the question, how do you know that you're a
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Christian? The default for all people, it seems to be, in evangelicalism, well, my life has changed.
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I have new appetites. I have new desires. I have new convictions. I'm just a different person.
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And by the way, when people give their testimony, that's what they tend to focus upon. There's nothing wrong with that as long as that is secondary and you focus on the primary thing first, just like what
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Peter did in the first four verses, objective salvation outside of us, the work of Christ, the love of God in Christ Jesus.
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You can think of Romans 8, who shall separate us from the love of Christ, this promise of God, his immutable promise, his gracious promise.
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He never will leave us nor forsake us. And that is the objective. And therefore, out of the objective comes a subjective.
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But if your default is like mine all too often is, I know I'm a Christian because I see the fruits of the
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Holy Spirit in my life. That is not primary and it should not be adequate. So therefore, we're going to look at not only the objective assurance that we saw last week, but the subjective assurance found in verses 5 through 11.
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If you're new to the church, we just start working through the book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, what does
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God have in store for us? And if you're like me, at the beginning of the week, you maybe look at the passage and you go, well,
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I know it's God's word and it's nice and it's cool and it's all these other things I might think in my mind. But as I begin to study it, it begins to grip me and to change me.
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And I think, you know what? I'm just thinking 2 Peter. This is fascinating. I cannot wait to get up and preach it.
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You know, it's the bane of every preacher where they think, you know what? I prepared all week for a sermon and then what if I die on Saturday and I can't get it out?
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I know one guy whose dad was a pastor, prepared a sermon. The man died before he preached a sermon and the son got up and preached a sermon because he knew his dad would be glad.
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Don't call Luke right yet. If we bypass 1 to 4 and just get into these subjective things, introspection isn't going to be helpful.
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Looking at ourselves and do we measure up and what's happening? If you're exclusively looking at your changed life, you have to go back to 1, 2, 3, and 4.
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It doesn't mean subjective assurance is not important, it's just not primary. Now, let's just think for a big picture.
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When I teach men to preach the Bible, I often have them study it and then just step back for a second and see how everything's put together.
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Here's what's happening. False teachers want to live ungodly lives. And by the way, they don't want you to have assurance.
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Why? What would be my advantage if you didn't have assurance?
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Answer, you give more. I told you you're assured by giving.
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You do more. So if I'm talking about how does a false teacher work through this, what do they think about assurance of salvation?
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They go together. Did you know the number one religion in New England teaches that assurance, knowing for certain that when you die, you're going to go to heaven, they call it a sin, and it's called the sin of presumption.
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The Catholic Encyclopedia defines it this way. Listen carefully. It may be defined as the condition of a soul that because of a badly regulated reliance on God's mercy, did you get that?
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Badly relegated, hopes for salvation without doing anything to deserve it, or for pardon of his sins without repenting of them.
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They call it a mortal sin. Gregory the Great, the 7th century pope, he said, it's not just impossible to have assurance, but it's dangerous.
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Quote, the greater our sins, the more we must do to make up for them. Whether we have done enough to atone for them, we cannot know until after death.
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The pope said, we can never be sure of success. Assurance of salvation and the feeling of safety engendered by it is dangerous for anybody and would not be desirable, even if possible.
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And then the Council of Trent said, if anyone says that he will for certain of an absolute and infallible certainty have the gift of perseverance unto the end, unless he's learned it by special revelation, let him be anathema.
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If you have assurance based on the objective work of Christ and a Holy Spirit's evidence and fruit in your life, and you know for certain you're gonna go to heaven, they teach that is damning.
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So today what we're gonna do is we're gonna look through verses 5 through 11, the subjective side of assurance.
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There is a response for the Christian because Jesus dies for us and now we're declared righteous, right?
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Because he's been raised from the dead. And so forgiveness of sins has been taken care of. But he also doesn't just leave us there.
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He gives us his spirit so we become more and more like Christ, so we walk in light of Christ. And so the first thing is to know who
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Jesus is, and then it's to become like him. We know who Jesus is based on scripture, and it's objective, it's outside of us.
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And we become more and more like him in ways that we call subjective. So today, if you take a look at verse 5 through 11, you'll see the connection.
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And do you notice in verse 5, for this very reason. Most everyone
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I know goes to assurance for verses 5, 6, and 7, and does not address the very first part of it.
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It's tied to the person and work of Jesus. Even when I say, you know what, I have fruit in my life that shows me
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I'm a Christian, I used to love things, now I hate them. I used to hate things, now I love them. Like the sun, rays that come down to me, those fruits,
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I still have to follow those rays all the way back to not the S -U -N, but the S -O -N for objective assurance.
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What do people do when it comes to their salvation? I mean, he paid it all.
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I can't be less justified. I can't be less forgiven. I can't be less redeemed. Shall I just sit back and do nothing?
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They have things, you know, in homes, and maybe you have one of these, and they're like a, almost like a sofa chair.
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You can kind of lean back if you want with the arms there, and out goes your feet, and they're really comfortable and cushy.
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What are they called? What kind of chair? That is so gender biased.
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Lazy boy. Huh? That's bad marketing.
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It's a lazy person. You can't even buy my pillow anymore.
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It's our pillow. We live in a socialist country, right? Jesus paid it all.
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I'm just going to coast. I'm just going to be lazy. I mean, I don't have to do anything because he's paid it all.
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It's his perfect work. It's his perfect life. God accepts me in the beloved. I look at verses one, two, three, and four.
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I receive faith. I receive righteousness of Jesus. I get grace. I get peace. I get his power.
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I get to be a partaker of the divine nature. I get his promises. Everything's set.
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Lay back and let God. No, but there's a response. Learn this and learn this well.
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The ground of your salvation is Jesus, perfect law keeper.
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That's what God demands. The evidences and fruit of your salvation are what we find here.
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Ground and evidence. Do not co -mingle. Do not bring together. Do not take gospel good news and blend it with law because then we don't have gospel and we don't have law.
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We have what we call glossable. We don't want that. Was Thomas Brooks correct when he said this?
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A lazy Christian shall always want four things, comfort, contentment, confidence, and assurance.
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The answer is true. The answer is true. That's correct. We know God, verses 1 to 4, and we become like God by the power of the
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Holy Spirit in verses 5 and following. And so for an outline this morning, let me give you seven subjective assurance boosters.
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And they're just right from the text. We try to make the sermon outline from the text. But let me read the whole section first, then we'll go back and look at those seven subjective assurance boosters.
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2 Peter 1, verses 5 to 11, for this very reason, verses 1 to 4, make every effort, be diligent to supplement your faith with virtue.
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By the way, you don't come up with your faith, right? That's the first of the list here, but it's not really in the same list because faith is a gift.
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Philippians 1 .29, Ephesians 2, Acts 18. But you supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self -control and self -control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love.
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Positively, for if these qualities are yours and increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Negatively, for whoever lacks these qualities, verse 9, is so nearsighted, he's blind.
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He's myopic, just sees what's in front of him, not eternal things. Having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
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Therefore, and now the second time he says be diligent, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling, not to make your calling, not to get your calling, but to confirm your calling and election.
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For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our
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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. People struggle with this a lot, and here's why they struggle.
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They say, since I'm saved by faith alone, what should I then do? Do I have to respond at all?
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Can't I just be an antinomian against law and just lay back and let God encoast? I mean, after all, my good works can't withstand the judgment of God.
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I have to trust in another, and Jesus' works are accepted by the Father, and therefore, they've been given to my account.
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Why should I do anything good? Heidelberg Catechism, question 64. But does not this doctrine make men careless and profane?
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Can't I just live it up? By the way, that's what the false teachers want you to do. Answer, by no means.
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It is impossible that those who are implanted into Christ by a true faith should not bring forth fruits of thankfulness.
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So true. So we're going to look at these seven assurance builders stemming from verses 1 through 4.
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And again, I've said it before, but just to remind you, these subjective assurance builders are connected to the objective work of Jesus and His righteousness now for this very reason.
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I want you to work hard. There are different Greek words that are kind of interesting to me that I like, and here's the
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Greek word for work hard and to be diligent. I'm trying to see if I have any young kids here. There's a couple of young kids right here.
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Here's the word, spoudazo. Kind of sounds funny, doesn't it?
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I don't know if I think of some kind of ice cream or I think of potatoes.
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I'm not sure. But it means to work. It doesn't mean lazy girl Christianity.
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Jesus paid for my sins. I'm going to go to heaven. I'm not really moved that much.
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I don't really care. I'm going to be nonchalant. It's not that big of a deal. Remember what
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Paul said after explaining what Jesus has done? He then said in Romans 12, I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
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I'm going to try hard, all diligence. Do you see what he says here also in verse 5? It's kind of interesting.
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To supplement your faith. Be diligent to supplement your faith. That word supplement is where we get the word chorus or choreography.
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And so the leader of the choreography, the leader of the chorus back in those days would give that chorus group everything they needed from travel to food to everything else.
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And so here, I'm going to provide everything you need. It's almost like, I guess, this way I've described to my kids if they were little.
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I'd say, God bought you a house. That's your salvation. And now he's given you money to say, decorate it and make it a home.
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Fill it out, flesh it out. The analogy may break down, but God has done all the work. He's provided the Holy Spirit.
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And now live a life commensurate with your calling. Is there a responsibility for Christians out of gratitude and for the glory of God to live holy lives?
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The false teachers would say no, but we say yes. So this is the first assurance builder is found in verse 5, virtue.
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Now, before I even explain what virtue is, here's what I want you to think about. Every one of these should remind you of who
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Jesus is. If Jesus died for you and you have his pardon, and now he gives you the spirit for power to live like Christ, Christian's little
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Christ as it were, to live like him. When I read through all these, I could almost just say, be
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Christ -like. I could additionally say, this is exactly opposite of the false teachers. This whole list of seven would be what we call the fruit of the spirit in our life as he works out our sanctification in us.
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But it also reminds me of Jesus and it reminds me to be exactly opposite of the false teachers. Virtue, the first one is virtue.
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It means something like power or energy, moral power. It's energetic. It means to put some moral courage into something, be up and about.
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That's what the Puritans always said. If you've got a problem, be up and about. Thomas Brooks said, if you would recover assurance, then sit not down discouraged, be up and doing.
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Get going. If I ever need to counsel myself or counsel somebody else and they say, well,
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I'm depressed, what do I do? Well, what do I tell them? Well, we go through and rehearse who Jesus is and the gospel.
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And then I tell them, why don't you make yourself a list? And I want you to just start checking off things on the list that you do them and you'll have the sense of accomplishment.
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And by the way, if you're weird like I am, then sometimes I'll do something that's not on my list. I'll go back and write it down on the list and just check it off just to make myself feel good.
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You know where I'm coming from? You guys have a psych profile just like me. Of course, this isn't just moralism and doing and everything else.
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This is, God has saved me, he's given everything I need, his divine promises, his divine power, a divine nature, all these things, spirit of God dwelling in me, and I want to live a life commensurate with my calling.
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That's all this is. False teachers, they're slothful, they're lazy, they just sit around and try to get money from you.
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My father would always say, after he'd tell me, son, I want you to clean your room, and then
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I wouldn't clean it, and he'd come down, 6 '4", 240, I was afraid of my dad, and he'd say, son, this room is not going to be cleaned by osmosis.
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He could now say, it's not going to be cleaned by the iRobot. It's not going to be cleaned by osmosis, just something happening.
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No, not to be saved, not to stay saved, but because we are saved, there's this energy.
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And you think about Jesus, do you think Jesus had this moral energy, this vitality, this courage?
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Of course, he was busy. He's so busy, he has to sleep in a boat. He's so busy that he's always, as we would say in Nebraska, up and at them.
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We believe in faith alone, justification category, but sanctification category, that faith is never going to be alone.
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You want to tell me what a false teacher is like, and I'll tell you, they had no virtue. You want to tell me what Jesus is like? Virtue incarnate.
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How are we to live? Virtuously. Secondly, with knowledge. Not just virtue, but with knowledge, and virtue with knowledge.
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It's not running around doing things, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, running around. We have a reason to be busy.
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In other words, what we know about who Jesus is and what he expects governs what
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I do. It directs what I do. I'd like to grow in Christ -likeness, then
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I'm going to study the Bible, I'm going to understand who Jesus is, and that affection for Jesus as the object of my faith will inform my doing and my moral virtue.
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False teachers, they thought they knew it all. They didn't need more knowledge. They were given fake knowledge.
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Jesus, you say, well, how did Jesus grow in knowledge? You remember Luke 2, and the child
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Jesus grew and became strong, filled with all wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. And Jesus increased in wisdom, and in stature, and in favor with God and man.
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Jesus studied the Bible. Jesus memorized the Bible. Jesus had not only virtue, but knowledge.
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Thirdly, self -control. You see it in verse 6, and I regularly say when
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I'm preaching, do you see it? Because I want you to see it for yourself. And with knowledge, self -control, or a knowledge with self -control.
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The false teachers, no self -control. Jesus, do you think
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Jesus lived a life of self -control? Do you think when Jesus was on the cross, he could have just obliterated everyone, but didn't, because he was being obedient to the
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Father's will? Do you think Jesus, when he was in the garden of Gethsemane praying, not my will, but your will be done, do you think there was the evidence of self -control?
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Did he master his own self? The answer is yes. This word means to hold oneself in.
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People in the world, well, I just say what's on my mind. That's not a good thing. This means, one man translated, to take a grip of yourself.
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The fruit of the Holy Spirit, or the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5 .22. Yes, there's love.
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Yes, there's joy. Yes, there's peace. But is there self -control? What's the answer? Yes.
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Judas, no self -control. False teachers, no self -control. Dear friends, as you're going through this list, how do
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I know I'm a Christian? Well, I'm not perfect in these things, but I'd like to do these things.
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I'm sad that I don't. I'm convicted I'm not more self -controlled. I'm convicted I don't study the
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Bible enough. I'm convicted I don't have this moral energy and virtue. I'd like to do that, but I don't do it.
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That's a sign that you're a Christian, by the way. Because who gave you that desire? Satan?
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CNN? Can I say CNN now? And I've heard one of you say, is not
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Satan CNN? No, the desire, even though it's small, even though we're not perfect in it, it's still a direction.
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I can still tell, you know what, I have, I'm different by the grace of God. I'm a new creature in Christ Jesus.
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And by the way, when you look at yourself and you go, do I have enough self -control? And I did this and I did that. And we struggle as Christians.
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I don't see much growth in my life as self -control and everything else. Sometimes it's hard to see our own growth.
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And that's true even physically. You have children and they're 10 years old and they're like, am I growing? I always prayed that I'd be six foot four, so I could be a point guard and just dunk on you.
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That's what I wanted to do. I could barely dunk, but I was not no six foot four guard.
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I'm praying, praying, praying, grow, am I going to grow? My dad's six foot four, my mom's five foot 10. By the way,
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I'm shrinking now, so I'm probably six foot. Used to be six foot two. What does that have to do with anything?
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I don't know. It looks like we just need a break for a second. By the way, that's the horror of preaching only to a camera, by the way, and not preaching to people.
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You just don't know. I can see, oh, I'm paying attention, I'm following, I'm tracking. If you say to yourself, the way
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I know I'm a Christian or what I need to do for holy living is, you know what? I just need to get slain in the spirit.
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That will help, because I'd have some experience, you know, that I actually, somebody touched my forehead and down on the floor
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I went, like some kind of dead fly dance or something, down where I went. Or you know what? Maybe I can speak with gibberish.
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I know the Bible says it's a language, but I'll just say some bunch of gibberish stuff and God will give me this gift and that will make me know
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I'm a Christian. I just need to be zapped, I need to be slain, I need to be who knows what.
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But that's not what he's talking about here. The character of the false teachers, they were immoral, they were ungodly.
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The character of Christians, it can be minute, it can be in seed form, it can be a struggle, it's not going to be perfect, but there's a change in our life because there's a change in our position.
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This is language, self -control of runners. Remember Paul in 1 Corinthians 9? Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?
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Run in such a way that you may win, and everyone who competes in the games exercises self -control in all things.
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People are weightlifters, people are runners, people are bicyclers, and they say, you know what,
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I have to stop eating this food, I have to stop drinking this alcohol, I have to do this, I have to do that. I need some self -control because I have to cut the fat,
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I have to cut the weight, I have to build myself up. It's the same thing spiritually. Fourthly, steadfastness.
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Now if I didn't tell you about objective assurance and I just told you, you know what, you're not a Christian unless you are virtuous, full of knowledge, self -control, and steadfastness.
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That's the wrong way to preach this. But in light of who we are, this is what we want to strive to do as the
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Spirit of God does these in our life. That's the right way to preach it. And with self -control, steadfastness.
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This means to stay under. This means staying power. This means, you know what,
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I can remain under trials. The false teachers are all around, and they're saying, you know, Jesus isn't gonna come back.
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It's the end of the world, and I can withstand this. Think about it, why? If you step back again, you go, okay, what's going on here?
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False teachers, they lie. Jesus isn't coming back. Jesus is gonna come back, and that means
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I don't have to remain and stay under and put up with and persevere and be steadfast forever.
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I only have to do it until the Lord comes back. Therefore, with a man named
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Yersinus, he said, we can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well. And for the future, we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father.
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Hard times, we persevere. It's like Adoniram Judson, the missionary in Burma. No converts after 20 years, and he said, permit us to labor on in obscurity, and in 20 years, you may hear from us again.
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Better times coming, the Lord's coming back, I can put up with it. I can persevere.
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I don't have to default to hedonism and Club Med living. I can say, you know what? I wanna be godly.
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The false teachers didn't do this, but Jesus did it. He sets his face to Jerusalem.
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Number five, godliness. I said there was gonna be seven. This is number five, godliness. And with steadfastness, at the end of verse six, godliness.
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If I were to teach young people, I would say, what's the opposite of godliness? Well, godliness is acting like God does as much as we're able to.
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And ungodly is the opposite. Agodly, if you wanna put an alpha privative in front of it. Here's how
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God acts. Here's how pagans act. The false teachers were acting ungodly, and we're to live godly.
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This is, you've heard the word pious, pious living. I'm gonna live my life in such a way that I think, what would
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God like in this situation? How would this please God? Like with Psalm 16, I've set the Lord continually before me, and I'm gonna live in the face of God, like God's right here.
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And I'd like to live a life commensurate with who God is and live a godly life.
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I wanna do things for his sake. I wanna do things for his glory. That's what
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Jesus did. God incarnate was godly, obviously. Whatever he did was godly.
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False teachers, they were exact opposite. And now we come to the last two, two different words for love.
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Verse seven, with brotherly affection, that's Philadelphia. And with love, end of verse seven, that's agape.
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So let's do the brotherly affection one first. Say, well, God has saved me, and I have his righteousness.
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And now in light of that, I'm supposed to have a brotherly affection. If you study the word brother in Greek, you're gonna really like it.
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It means to be in the same womb as someone. So I was in my mother's womb, and nine years later, my brother was in my mother's womb.
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And we have shared, in a sense, not as twins, but we have shared the womb. That's what the word brother is.
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And of course, you think of the Lord Jesus. He's our captain, yes. He's the author of our salvation, the finisher of our salvation.
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He's a prophet. He speaks the word. He's a priest. He makes sacrifice, and he is the sacrifice.
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He's the king. He reigns. But he's also called a brother. He's our brother. That's fascinating.
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So here it says, with brotherly affection. This is serving other Christians. This is exactly what
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Jesus did. And I know what you're saying because I say it. If Jesus walked in this room, theoretically speaking, because he's in heaven, and he's not going to walk in a room.
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He's going to descend from heaven with a shout. If you walked in this room, what would you do? Would you say, where's your mask?
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If you're an unbeliever, I think you'd run. If you're a believer, I think there should be like a line.
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How can we serve you? Right. The disciples got that. Hey, we want to wash your feet. What can we do? I was supposed to go to hell.
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I was trying to go to hell. I would go to hell. Except I don't like that song.
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Anyway, in that songbook, I've never done that in my life. Or just sat back here and talked a little bit.
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You've saved me from my sins. I get to go to heaven. I'll serve you.
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I'm so thankful you would go do that very thing. So would
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I. But Jesus isn't here. So we're to serve other Christians.
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But they're not so fun to serve, are they? Kind of. You know what?
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I don't quote Gandhi much. But Gandhi said, you know, I have no problem with Jesus. It's his followers that I have problems with.
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We all have problems. We all have issues. And you mean to tell me I have to serve other people? I don't even like them half the time.
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But since Jesus isn't here, he said, I want you to serve my people. I want you to serve my bride.
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If you'd like to serve me, serve Kim. If I go out of town and you come and plow my driveway and take care of it by serving
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Kim, you'll be serving me. It's the same kind of thing. A .T. Pearson said, whatever is done for God without respect of its comparative character as related to other acts is service.
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Service, comprehensively speaking, is doing the will of God. He's the object, all for him, for his sake, not on demand.
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Jesus said, for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat and I was thirsty. You gave me drink and I was a stranger and you invited me in naked and you clothed me.
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I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. The righteous will answer him, saying,
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Lord, when do we see you hungry, feed you thirsty, give you drink when we see you a stranger, invite you in our naked and clothed you.
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When do we see you sick or in prison or come to you? Matthew 25, 40. And the king will answer and say to them, truly,
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I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me.
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And then lastly, number seven, a seventh assurance booster that is subjective assurance that follows objective assurance forever and always is love.
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Not just Philadelphia love, but agape love. Agape love basically says,
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I want what's best for you and I'll do it at my own expense. This will cost me, but I'm going to do it for you.
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You don't deserve it. You didn't earn it, but I'm going to do it for you. By this, we know what love is. First John 3, 16.
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He laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. And of course, if you are a
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Christian and you never serve other Christians, no wonder your assurance is down. The way to fix that is look to the
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Lord Jesus, watch him as the servant. He didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.
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And in light of that, you serve other Christians. Your assurance will go up. Verse eight, and we need to wrap this up here.
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Verse eight. If these qualities that we just talked about are yours and increasing, you'll never lose your salvation.
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Is that what it says? If these are yours and increasing, you get to go to heaven based on those works.
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Of course not. It says, if they're yours and increasing, they keep you from being what? Ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. The ground of our salvation is the work of God. There are fruits and evidences, and we don't want to mix those up.
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The good news is Jesus saves, and in light of his salvation, we want to work. We want to serve.
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All out of gratitude, all out of a desire to glorify God. Friends, this is as simple as understanding the difference between law and gospel.
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People say, well, you're always talking about law and gospel. Luther said, if you know the difference, you should be called after the church service.
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If I shake your hand or give you a whatever COVID elbow, I'm going to say to you, hi, doctor.
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And you look at me and say, hi, doctor, law and gospel. My friend, who's a friend of my son, he teaches a youth group in Chicago, and every time he says the word law, all the junior high kids yell out, do.
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And every time he talks about Jesus and the gospel, they all shout out, done. It's been done, objective assurance, gospel.
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And because of that, it gives me a motivation to then do something. There's nothing wrong with holy living.
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There's nothing wrong with trying to obey the Lord. Unless you're saying, I'm going to earn my salvation or keep it.
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Verse nine, if you lack these qualities, you need to look up. You need to look back to the first four verses.
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You're nearsighted, myopic. You can only see what's in front of you. You can't even see the last verses, let alone eternal things.
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You're blind. And by the way, what's happened? You've forgotten that you're cleansed from your former sins.
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You forgot what Jesus did. And when you were unrighteous, he gave you his righteousness. When you were unrighteous, he paid for that unrighteousness.
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You've forgotten because if you remember that, you're going to serve. Let go and let
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God. I don't think so. Ferguson, after he writes Sinclair Ferguson about the objective assurance, he then says, high degrees of true assurance cannot be enjoyed by those who persist in low levels of obedience.
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No wonder if somebody says to me, I'm looking at pornography, I have no assurance. Well, no wonder.
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It doesn't mean there can't be repentance and restoration, but no wonder. Verse 10, therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent.
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There it is again. Same thing that he said early on in verse five. Make every effort. Same Greek word. Be more diligent to elect yourself and call yourself.
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No, to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. God's choice of you, dear
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Christian, in eternity past is irrevocable. It's fixed. It's unconditional. He chose you.
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But how can I confirm that? How do I know that for certain? Because I, as an elect person, do what elect people do.
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Not perfectly, but I have a desire to do it. Second Timothy one, he saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ before ages began.
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So in ages before Genesis one, one, he chooses. And now how do I know
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I'm one of his? Objectively, I trust in the work of Christ. And subjectively, I see a difference in my life.
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I used to hate preaching. I love preaching. I used to hate to read the Bible. I actually enjoy it now.
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I used to want to have people serve me. And now I think, you know what? I ought to be serving them. And then finally, verse 11.
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And this is a really great language. This is the language of some Olympic athlete coming into town and getting keys to the town.
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That's the language here. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance, not to a town, not into Rome, into the eternal kingdom of our
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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He just piles up the Greek words. This is kind of a pile on.
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What do we call it here? I grew up saying dog pile. You say what here? We say what? Okay.
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I do say carriages now too, not shopping carts. So I am one of you. It's taken 24 years.
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Somebody said to me, why are you always busting on the chops of New England people? You know, you're just this California guy. Do, done.
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I said, I've been here starting in April. It have been 24 years. I'm here to serve you.
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I'm here to hopefully die here. And, uh, therefore I'm going to give you a hard time because if you, if you didn't recoil when
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I said things about the Celtics, I wouldn't keep saying them. Remember what
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Jesus said? Given it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, pour into your lap.
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That's how God gives. When I was a kid, I'd get some frosted flakes and I'd open it up a brand new box.
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It was like half full. How does that work? Contents may settle. And that's not how
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God gives. What does he do? It's all based on what he's done. Not only objectively, but subjectively.
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The only reason we do it anyway is by the power of the Holy Spirit. And when that happens and you say, you know what?
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I can tell I have a new status because I have a new desire. Then it's richly entering the kingdom.
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That's amazing. Victorious winner. Objectively, I ask you the question.
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Are you trusting in Jesus alone for your salvation? Subjectively, I could use the syllogism that the
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Westminster divines use. Major premise, true believers demonstrate the fruit of the spirit.
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Minor premise, the fruit of the spirit is present in me. Conclusion, I am a true believer.
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Grounded on the objective promises and love of God in Christ Jesus. And then we subjectively discover those things as the power of the
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Holy Spirit works in our lives. But do not, dear Christian, only go to verse five without remembering those verses for this very reason.
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One writer said, just like the rays of the sun, which always lead us back to their source. So good works are intended to take us back to their source, namely
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Christ and all his benefits. That's why the reformers would say no assurance outside of faith.
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Because faith looks to the Lord Jesus and not our own works. Inconsistent lives result in assurance struggles.
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That is true. But what we must never do is confuse the ground of faith.
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Let's call that root. And then the evidence of faith, let's call that fruit.
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Because they're different and you need both for assurance. And you need one primarily over the other subjective one.
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Do I have assurance? Well, one of my favorite writers was named John Owen and he struggled when he was younger with assurance.
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And so he was told to read Psalm 130. And he said, I was graciously relieved from my assurance by this powerful
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Psalm. Spurgeon calls this Psalm, Psalm 130, the depths of anguish to the heights of assurance.
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Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas.
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If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you, there is forgiveness that you may be feared.
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I wait for the Lord. My soul waits. And in his word, I hope. My soul waits for the
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Lord more than the watchman for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord. For with the Lord, there is steadfast love.
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And with him, there is plentiful redemption. He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
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How do you know you're a Christian? The subjective work of Christ, the root. The subjective work of Christ, the root.
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The subjective work of Christ. The evidence is in my life. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for this truth.
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If there is someone here with a fake faith, I pray that you would arrest them and wake them up to their peril and grant them new life.
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I pray for those who are Christians who struggle with their assurance. Would you help them not to look at their own lives only, but to keep their focus on a friend of sinners named
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Jesus? Who justifies ungodly people? And then I also pray for those that have a strong assurance.
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Would you help them do things that we learned about today in verses 5, 6, and 7 so that they may keep it?