Our scripture lesson this evening is from 2 Peter 1, verses 5 through 11. 2 Peter 1, verses 5 through 11. We'll be reading together after we read 2 Peter from the Canons of Dort, Head 1, Articles 12 and 13, which are found on page 899. If you could turn to those articles so we can read them together, 899, on the assurance of election and the fruit of this assurance of election. Let me just read verse 10 first, 2 Peter 1. Verse 10 says, therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. So he's speaking of the idea of diligence. toward the end of assurance of election. Now, in the verse that precede what I've just read, we see an itemization, you might say, of that diligence. But also for this reason, this very reason, giving all diligence Add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. More on that text, of course, in due time, but let's also read together Articles 12 and 13, found on page 899. I'll read the headings and we'll join our voices together with the paragraphs. So Article 12 on page 899, On the Assurance of Election. Assurance of this their eternal and unchangeable election to salvation is given to the chosen in due time, though by various stages and in differing measure. Such assurance comes not by inquisitive searching into the hidden and deep things of God, but by noticing within themselves with spiritual joy and holy delight the unmistakable fruits of election pointed out in God's Word, such as a true faith in Christ, a childlike fear of God, a godly sorrow for their sins, a hunger and thirst for righteousness, and so on. Article 13 on the fruit of this assurance? In their awareness and assurance of this election, God's children daily find greater cause to humble themselves before God, to adore the fathomless depth of His mercies, to cleanse themselves, and to give fervent love in return to Him who first so greatly loved them. This is far from saying that this teaching concerning election and reflection upon it make God's children lax in observing his commandments or carnally self-assured. By God's just judgment, this does usually happen to those who casually take for granted the grace of election. or engage in idle and brazen talk about it, but are unwilling to walk in the ways of the chosen. Amen. Can I know that I am elect? Can I be confident that from eternity past, I have been chosen in Christ to salvation. Critical questions. If assurance of election is impossible, then the doctrine cannot provide holy and godly souls with comfort, as the canons say it does. It's not comforting. if you can't know it. If election is unknowable, then confidence in God and joyful Christian living will always be elusive. Imagine, and I know some of us may not have to imagine, maybe we can remember, or maybe we can draw on our present experiences, Always hoping that you are trusting in Christ and striving to live a Christian life, but still suspecting you might end up in hell because you turned out to not be chosen by God. Well, that's the most miserable existence you could probably imagine on this side of eternity. In the words of the canons, this is a perversion of election, which is a stronghold of Satan, whereby he fatally pierces many Christians with the arrow of despair. And we might add at this point, those who teach that assurance of election is impossible then are hopefully without their knowledge, serving the ends of the evil one, to entrap people in despair. Election only consoles struggling Christians if it is known. And this is the view of scripture, as one author summarizes it. All true Christians may and should know that they are among those who've been predestinated to eternal life. And so that's our guiding principle this evening as we look at these articles and at the word of God that uphold them. Let's then, with God's help, believe practice and enjoy God's promise of assurance of election. Toward that end this evening, we want to first of all consider the reality of assurance of election, as we see it partly in Article 12. Really answering the question, where is this taught in scripture? Is it taught in scripture? If so, where? And again, we're going to be focusing on just a few samples. Many more texts could have been chosen. Let me also remind us here that a much larger section on assurance of salvation is found in Head 5 of the Canons of Dor. And so we're gonna be limiting our thought here in this sermon to assurance of election. which is the focus of the articles here. And we'll have much more to say about it, God willing, when we get to Head Five. But we're just gonna be looking at a few samples of texts that demonstrate the reality of assurance of election. And the first that we want to consider is the text that we read this evening, 2 Peter 1, and specifically verse 10. Listen again. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. Now obviously, not sure from God's perspective, we're not making something real that, you know, that God hadn't ordained. It's becoming sure experientially to the believer that the prophet, the apostle is urging here. Make your call and election sure in terms of assurance. Now Peter, as we know, takes for granted because of scripture, that those who will be saved have been chosen to salvation from eternity past. So Peter believes in election. He believes in predestination. He says in 1 Peter 1, verse one, believers are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. He says in that same letter, chapter two, verse nine, believers are a chosen generation. So Peter believes in election. But he also anticipates this question, how can I be sure? How can I be sure that I have been called and elected by God? And his answer is very, very simple. He says this, spiritual diligence demonstrates spiritual life, which is the certain result of eternal election. So it's very, very simple, he says. Exercise diligence so that you can perceive the work of God in you, which is a certain consequence of eternal election. That's how you make your calling and election sure, through spiritual diligence. We could think of Luke chapter 10, verse 20. Words of Jesus Christ here, where he tells the disciples, listen carefully, rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Now, what he's saying to his apostles is you can rejoice now. You don't have to spend your life wondering, hoping, dreaming, suspecting maybe that your name is written in heaven. He says, rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Those who do God's will should believe and not doubt that they are God's chosen ones. Now, Someone might say, well, okay, fine. Yeah, maybe for the disciples. After all, Jesus is talking to apostles, right? Those spiritual elite. Surely God can say of them, Jesus can say of them, your names are written in heaven. They're apostles after all. But listen, the very next verse. Luke 10.21, and we know the context is the same because the verse starts by saying, in that same hour in which Jesus said rejoice because your names are written in heaven, Jesus praised God for awakening babes and not the wise and the prudent. So when he says to the apostles, rejoice because your names are written in heaven, he's not addressing them because they're the wise ones, they're the prudent ones, they're the excellent ones, they're the spiritually elite, the theologically astute. He said, no, they're just babies. They're just babes like everybody else that my father calls to himself. And they, we, can rejoice now because our names are written in heaven. You can't, in other words, if we could make this very, very simple, you can't obey Jesus' command to rejoice in your election, and please note, it's a command here, rejoice, imperative, your names are written in heaven. You can't obey Jesus if election is unknowable. It'd be impossible. Jesus would be commanding something to believers that they could not possibly do. Now, even Paul is confident in several places in his writings about the election of others. In other words, please notice what we're doing here. We're seeing from Scripture that assurance of salvation of election is not mysterious. We don't arrive at assurance as the canons warn against by prying into the secret things of God. And shame on those who have made this a mysterious thing. Paul can speak confidently about the election of other people. Listen to just a few passages. First of all, Philippians chapter four, verse three. Philippians four, verse three, Paul writes this. I urge you also, true companion, Help these women who labored with me in the gospel. Reference here to those women who were Yodi and Syntyche, who were at odds with each other. So help these women who labored with me in the gospel. with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, that's pretty comprehensive, whose names are in the Book of Life. He's addressing the same group, his workers. those who are in the Book of Life. Now, you wonder, how can Paul be so sure? How can Paul speak about all these fellow workers of his, many of whom aren't named, the vast majority of which aren't named here in this passage? How can he be so sure? How can he speak of them so confidently that their names are written in the Book of Life? Was Paul peering here through a secret window into the unknowable will of God? No. He says this because his fellow workers loved the gospel. That's what he says about them. They love the gospel, they minister, they labored with me in the gospel. Their interest in God's kingdom is manifest to Paul, who's not omniscient, who can't judge, who can't see into the secret recesses of God, who doesn't have some unique election detector But he looks at them and he says, they love the gospel. Of course, their names are written in heaven, written in the book of life. And so again, we might wonder, is this only good news for Paul's friends? These fellow workers with Paul, that sounds like sort of an elite class. Maybe that's how Paul can speak so confidently of them. Is this actually good news for ordinary, struggling Christians? Well, remember, As verse two reminds us, in this context, Paul is rebuking these same people, two of these same people, for quarreling. And the issue is so serious that he issues a public rebuke, recorded in scripture for everybody in subsequent generations to read. I don't really sound like spiritual elite to me. And yet he says, their names are written in the book of life, that eternal, unchanging book of God's election. Or listen to Paul as he writes in 1 Thessalonians 1, verses 4 and 5. 1 Thessalonians 1, 4 and 5, he says, Speaking rather broadly, he says, we give thanks to God always for you all. Now, of course, he qualifies that, those who are following Jesus, trusting in the Lord. Knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. Knowing your election by God. Now, how did Paul know their election? Well, because they lived according to the gospel, as verse five makes very plain. The Bible teaches that simple gospel living is obvious. It's obvious. Believers, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3.3, are epistles of Christ, clearly known and read by others. If other people can clearly read believers as epistles of Christ, then those very epistles ought to have confidence that they are epistles of Christ. The only way that other people could clearly know and read believers as epistles of Christ is if they were elect in Christ. And so the Bible sets before us a clear reality of assurance of election. This isn't a Calvinistic doctrine. This isn't a reform doctrine. This is a biblical, clear truth. Now, let's consider secondly, building upon what we've read and thinking about these same scriptural constructs, the rationale for assurance of election. The rationale, or how does assurance of election work? On what basis can believers say, I'm chosen by God? And know that not to be an audacious statement that's rooted in pride and arrogance, but just simply a recognition of what God says. What is the rationale? Listen to how Reformed theologian Francis Turretin summarizes this teaching here in terms of the rationale. Listen carefully, very important statement. By the practice of good works and the desire of sanctification, The truth of election becomes more and more known to us and is confirmed in our hearts. How does that happen? By the practice of good works and the desire of sanctification. Now, I want to follow that up by saying very clearly what that does not mean. Don't want to be misunderstood here. This could be and has been twisted, this teaching. And so there are at least three things that this doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that the marks of election, the traits, the evidence, the fruit of election, are the causes of salvation. We look within ourselves not to see reasons why God should have elected us, but for evidence that could only exist because of election. So it's very, very important that we understand that we're not looking within us to find causes for election. You know, because I've lived such and such a way, clearly God must love me and must have chosen me from all eternity because I'm so satisfying to God. Second, it doesn't mean that believers should judge the quality of their works. So please hear this. The question we are not to ask is, how good are my works? Do you understand that that question results in an eternal, endless, deadly, inward-looking treadmill? How good are my works? Are my works good enough? You know, have I lived up to God's standards sufficiently so that I can say I'm a child of God, I'm elect, I've been chosen by God before all eternity? The question is not how good are my works, the question we should ask is, am I doing works that God prepared beforehand only for his elect? That's what Paul says in Ephesians 1, right? God has prepared beforehand works that we should walk in. Those are chosen by God. So the question is, am I doing works that God has prepared beforehand for those to walk in? It's not how good am I working, but am I doing the works that are only for the elect? And third, this doesn't mean that the process of assurance of salvation is identical for every believer. Article 12 tactfully puts it this way. Assurance is given to the chosen in due time though by various stages and in differing measure. So there is variety in terms of how the Lord works here. But the simple point is that assurance of election is not for a special group of God's people. It shouldn't be like, this is gonna be the group of the assured, this is the group of the unassured, and it's always gonna be this way. The expectation in Scripture and in the Reformed confessions is that believers experience salvation of election. Now what does this mean? So our confidence is not in our works. Our confidence is in the infallible effect of divine grace. In other words, there's a connection between grace and election. And so what we're observing is the practice, the power of grace, of sovereign grace in our lives. I want to read very slowly and clearly another quotation from Francis Turretin, which I just found so helpful. He said that our confidence is in the infallible effect of divine grace. Listen carefully. He says, from the knowledge of his present state, the believer can easily gather both the past and the future. Grace is the connecting link. Grace is the connecting link between election in the past and glorification in the future. Grace is the necessary fruit of election and the infallible means to glorification. So you hear what he's saying, this very, very good pastoral counsel, he's saying we're not searching out election as Christians, we're simply observing present grace. And if God is working grace in us presently, there's a certain link to election in eternity past. And there's a certain link to glorification in God's future, in our future, by God's grace. And then he puts it this way. He says, everyone who repents and believes, now those are not mysterious traits, are they? Repenting is very clear. Hating sin, turning from it. Believing in Christ, very concrete. Everyone who repents and believes has been activated by grace and is elected by God and will infallibly at the last days be glorified by Him. That is a beautiful truth. That's the Bible truth. You don't repent and believe. unless you're activated by grace. If you're activated by grace, then you got that link to election and to glorification. So what are then the evidences of election? And I'm just gonna use the traits given in Article 12. Now you read, that these traits, these fruits, they say, such as, and then give several, and say, and so on. There's certainly more traits. There's so many fruits that the Lord works in His chosen ones. I just want to reflect on these few. Number one, we have true faith in Christ. True faith in Christ. Why is that an evidence of election? Well, faith is a gift of God, right? Ephesians 2.8. It's given to those who've been born of God, regenerated by God, John 1, 12, and 13. Those who believe in Christ have been appointed to eternal life. We heard last time from Acts 13, verse 48. And so B.B. Warfield, Reformed theologian, can say this. If we believe in Christ and obey him, we are his elect children. No mystery, no navel-gazing, no, you know, lifelong quest. If you repent of your sins and trust in Christ, you are His elect child. True faith in Christ, number one. Number two, a childlike fear of God. Now, please keep those two words together, childlike fear of God. Holy reverence, not a terror, not a panicky relationship. And one of the places we see this in scripture is Acts 9, verse 31, which speaks of the relationship in believers of both the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. God's spirit of adoption. works in God's elect a reverent, hopeful fear of God. And so a person can reason this way. I fear God. I have a holy reverence for God. The devil didn't teach me that. That isn't natural to fallen people. Must be a fruit of the spirit of comfort. God's holy comforter. Childlike fear of God, sure evidence of election. Number three, a godly sorrow for sin. Now most people, unless they're a psychopath, most people feel embarrassed when they get caught doing something wrong. But believers are not just embarrassed, they sorrow, they grieve over sin, it offends God. The sorrow of believers, Paul says, leads to repentance, a turning from sin, 2 Corinthians 7.10. So no one grieves over and turns from sin unless the grace of election is at work within them. Right? That's what Paul says in this passage in 2 Corinthians 7. He says there is a sort of repentance, a sort of sorrow, rather, I should say, a sort of sorrow over sin that doesn't lead to repentance. Just sort of an embarrassment, sort of, oh, I wish I hadn't gotten caught. It's awkward to be found in the wrong place. I feel bad about it. But if there's a sorrow that leads to repentance, a grieving over and a turning from, well, that's the work of God. And if God is at work, You can be sure he's at work in his elect children. And then fourth, and I'm so thankful that the canons mentioned this last trait, fourth evidence of election, a hunger and thirst for righteousness. Now would you say hungering and thirsting are marks of spiritually elite people? You know, hungering and thirsting are obvious traits of deprivation, of not possessing, of not being full, of lacking food and water. A hungering and thirsting for righteousness then is a keen awareness of incomplete personal righteousness. And so, the mere yearning for righteousness And the use of the means of grace is evidence of the outworking of divine election. Jesus puts it very confidently, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Must be elect children. So this is the The rationale of assurance of election, this is the thought process of Scripture and of the canons here. If God's grace is at work, if we witness not sort of this exceptional level of our own performance, but the presence, the mere presence of the works that God created from beforehand for his children to walk in, we can reasonably conclude that we are children of God. Thirdly, we want to consider the results of assurance of election. And you can tell that the canons are addressing a common accusation that if you are assured of your election, if you can say with confidence, I'm an elect child of God, then surely you will live an ungodly life. I know it sounds crazy, but that's the logic of the opponents of election. There is, of course, a possibility of a sort of carnal self-confidence. The canons acknowledge that. It's not hard to imagine those who are carnally self-assured, but the canons are helpful in saying this, that those who are carnally self-assured, have sort of this arrogant, baseless claim on election. They are lax in observing God's commands or carnally self-assured because they misunderstand Scripture's teaching on election. It says they talk about the grace of election but are unwilling to walk in the ways of the chosen. So what the Canons are saying here, yeah, sure, there are going to be hypocrites. There are those who are going to sort of vainly, boldly talk about being God's elect, but one look at them and you say, well, that's ridiculous. You don't have the same basic sense that Paul had looking at his brothers and sisters, you know, elect children of God, no. Maybe I could illustrate this by comparing what is claimed here with what we have sometimes witnessed with tenured professors. A college professor, or as I experienced even in high school, a high school teacher who's been granted tenure, which is the sort of legal assurance that you cannot be fired, you can't lose your credentials, can't lose your ability, your right to teach, Of course such a person could become arrogant, could become lazy, could become incorrigible. I had a teacher who was tenured, stopped teaching almost completely because he knew he couldn't be fired. And someone would say, well, yeah, see, that could happen, right? You gain this assurance that you can't lose what you got and you become a big jerk. Well, that is the absolute worst analogy for what Scripture's teaching here. Maybe a better analogy would be a marriage. And I think everyone would agree that the best marriage is not one in which either partner remains ever anxious over whether the other person will leave them. And so they're sort of forced to go through this feigned commitment and faithfulness because they're concerned that if they don't do that, the other person is going to leave them. The best marriage is one in which both partners are assured of the other's genuine love. Why would you build a future in a marriage if you felt like the whole thing rested on pins and needles? No, you build a future when you have confidence that there is a future. And that's what God's election does for us. It gives us confidence that we have a future with God. And a person who knows they have a future with God would never become lazy and arrogant and incorrigible. The assurance of election, then, promotes genuine godliness. And there are five fruits that the canons mention here, and again, I'm just going to focus on those, many more, but five fruits that result from assurance of election. Number one, assurance of election humbles believers. Believers who gain assurance of their election realize that people are like clay, and God is the potter, as Paul writes in Romans 9 from Isaiah 64. And believers realize that if they are clay, if all people are clay, and God is the potter, then God could have made them a vessel for dishonor. God could have made them a vessel of wrath prepared for destruction, Romans 9.22. But they've come to realize, as verse 23 says, that instead God made them a vessel of mercy. That doesn't make you arrogant, it makes you humble. Assurance of election humbles believers. Number two, assurance of election promotes love for God. Remember, election, as we heard last time, is evidence of God's unprovoked love. Assurance of election convinces believers of God's eternal love for them. A child of God can say, God has always loved me. He didn't start loving me when I started being obedient and receptive to his will. He's always loved me, even when I was his enemy. And that, of course, prompts believers, as the canons say, to give fervent love in return to him who first so greatly loved them. And then third, assurance of election produces spiritual joy and holy delight. Fear and doubt are the enemies of joy. Assurance of election, by contrast, says you have nothing to fear from God. You have no reason to doubt God. And so, as we read in Matthew 5.12 from Jesus, you can rejoice. You can be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. How can you rejoice and be exceedingly glad if you don't know if that's the case? But if you know it, then you rejoice, you're glad. You're cheerful, you're thankful for what God has done. Spiritual joy and holy delight. Fourth, assurance of election prompts growth in holiness. Assured believers, as the canons put it, cleanse themselves, are active in their sanctification. And here's how that works. If we could sort of bring it back maybe to that marriage analogy. Maybe change it to a parent-child relationship. When a child of God comes to know that God is for him and will never turn against him, in fact, can never turn against him, he stops panicking and starts working on growing in his relationship with God. You can't do that, really. when you're panicking about whether God is for me or against me. And then last, assurance of election leads to heartfelt worship. Article 13 says that assured believers adore the fathomless depth of his mercy. Well, you know where the canons draw this language from, right? How does Paul conclude his extended treatment of election spanning from Romans 9 to Romans 11? Well, with that very language. Oh, the depth of the riches. both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments. You see, this is all worship. This is the language of worship. Paul is worshiping God by extolling his unbelievable wisdom in election. How unsearchable are his judgments, his ways past finding out, for of him and through him and to him are all things. to whom be glory forever. Amen. Praise God. Worship God. Serve God. Love God. Be humbled before God. Because we can know that we eternally belong to him. Father, we thank you so much for your eternal electing love. Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for coming in time to assure us of the Father's love, of the Trinity's love for us, forgiving yourself for rebels and criminals against the will of God. And thank you, Holy Spirit, for working in us this assurance of election. We pray, Lord, for those who have struggled, perhaps due to a variety of causes. over their election. And we pray that you would minister to them, even through this word. We pray that all of your children would come to know you as their electing Savior. And we pray that as we come to know that we are children of God, that we would live in a way that is commensurate with that knowledge. We pray that you would keep us from carnal self-assurance, keep us from laziness, and God forbid that we would sin more because of some supposed confidence of election. So we thank you for this teaching and we pray that you would use it to glorify yourself and to comfort your people, to give us joy and hope. In Christ's name we pray, amen.