Second Peter in chapter number one. Second Peter in chapter one. We got started in this book last Sunday. And so we'll continue on. We finished our study in first Peter. Moving on now to the book of second Peter. And last week we looked at Peter's attitude. How Peter has an attitude change. He goes from saying in first Peter that he's Peter the apostle. And then when he starts second Peter out, he says, I'm Simon Peter, still recognizing he's got that old man. And instead of starting out with saying he's an apostle, he says he's just a servant and an apostle. So we see time makes an attitude change in the Christian, reminds them. Somebody said, how's that? They said that every dog has just enough fleas to remind him he's still a dog. And every Christian still got enough of that old man. I don't care how long you've lived for God or how close to the Lord you get. There'll always be enough of them little nagging fleas in your life. An old man hanging around to remind you, Lord, I need you. Lord, I still got this old man hanging around. Father, I need your help. And Lord, if you don't help me, my ship is sunk. And so we've seen his attitude. Then we find that after he speaks of his attitude, he speaks of his assistance. Verses 3 and 4, he talks about he has divine power and a divine nature. Every child of God that's born again has been given divine power. The Bible said, as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even them that believe on his name. And because you've been given divine power, you now have the divine nature living on the inside of you. And this divine nature is going to help you with what Peter's about to talk with next. And we're going to see Simon Peter's addition. Not just his attitude and his assistance, but from verse 5 down through verse 11, we're going to find what Peter says about addition, adding to your faith. Let's begin reading in verse, we'll start in verse number 4 and get to verse 5 here. He said, Verse 4, given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Now watch Peter's addition. And beside this, giving all diligence add. Every Christian has some things they can always stand to add to their faith. You never reach a plateau where you say, I've arrived. You never reach a spot in your Christian life where you say, I've learned everything I need to learn, I've accomplished everything I need to accomplish, I have attained, I've arrived, been living for God for 30 years, 40 years, whatever it is, but I have read enough, studied enough, trusted enough, I've got the full Christian life, absolutely not. The Apostle Peter is an old Christian at this point and he said we still need to add to our faith and the last verse of chapter 3 of 2 Peter said we still need to grow in grace. Paul is an old Christian and he says I've not attained, I've not apprehended. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus So if you sit here today you say well preacher, I've been saved a long time good You ought to know something about needing to add to your faith continually He said beside this giving all diligence add to your faith These are the things we're to add to our faith virtue and the virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity Now we're going to read a few verses here, but we're going to come back and make comments on all these. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if you do these things you shall never fall. So here in the text Simon's about to tell us about some things we all need to and must add to our faith. Now I know what you think. You think hold on a minute preacher. Last week you told us, over here in verse number 3, that God has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Ain't that what he says in verse 3? Look at verse 3. According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. So everything you need to live a godly life, the Bible said God's already given it to you. You say, so last week you told us God's already given us all things we need to live a godly life. Now you're telling me that I have to add some things to my faith. That's exactly right. It is the same principle as the children of Israel going into the promised land. How many of y'all read about the children of Israel going into the promised land? Every last one of you in here know what I'm talking about. They're going to Canaan, and on their way to Canaan, God says, I've give you everywhere that the sole of your feet tread on. Already give it to you. The land is yours. It's yours. The houses that are going to be there, you didn't build them, but I'm going to give them to you. The vineyards are going to be there. You didn't plant them, but I'm going to let you eat of them. It's all yours, caveat, but you got to go possess it. You can't just sit here and expect me to do everything for you. You're going to have to march against Jericho. Now, you can't knock the wall down, but it's your job to march around the wall and watch what I can do. It's your job to march into battle. And man, when you read the book of Joshua, it's fight after fight after fight after fight. But every one of them, they win. Why? Because God's already said you can have it. But you've got to put forth some effort to get it. The problem with a lot of Christians is they just want God to do everything for them. I'm just gonna sit down on my seat of do nothing and God you just do everything for me Well, you ain't never gonna grow as a Christian like that God's already said you can have all this stuff. He's talking about you can have virtue added to your faith knowledge added to your faith Temperance patience godliness brotherly kindness charity. You can have all these things added to your faith, but you've got to give some diligence yourself to add them to your faith Something you have to do God's just not gonna do it all for you this morning That'd be like me saying that'd be like me telling somebody in here brother Tyler now in this back room I've got all kind of things that'll be essential for you to live your life You know everything that you need for you to live your life brother Tyler. I got it all in this back room Well, that's a blessing me telling him it's in the back room But it don't do him no good unless he goes and gets it from the back room. I He can't just sit there and expect to get it. He's got to go to where I've previously commanded he's got to go to get it. And as a child of God, if you're not doing what God has commanded you to do to receive these things, you're going to miss out on some great blessings of living the Christian life. I've said it before and I'll say it again. My preacher always said, God's part you cannot do and your part he will not do. There is some addition that has to happen. Alright, watch verse number 5. He said beside this, verse 5, giving all diligence, effort, Diligence. Why is what he's about to tell us so important? Why does he say to give all diligence to this? Why are these things, he's going to terminate this several times, these things, these things. Why are these things so important that we add to our faith in verses 5, 6, and 7? Because when we get to verses 8 and 9, we'll find that these things are directly proportionate to how abundant you are in your Christian life, how much fruit you bear, and how much assurance you have as a Christian. We're going to get to this point in a little bit, but do you know why so many Christians have no assurance of salvation? They constantly, I don't know if I'm saved, I think I'm lost, I think I'm saved, I think I'm lost, and they in and out and wishy-washy up and down because they've never gotten stabilized enough and added anything to their faith. They had the first step of faith, and they thought that's where it ended. The first step of faith is when you by faith, for by grace are you saved through faith. That's the first step of faith. First step of faith for anybody's life is when they exercise faith and trust in the gospel. Christ died for our sins, he was buried, and he rose again. You put faith and trust that if you'll trust Jesus Christ, he'll save you for all eternity. That's the first step of faith. But y'all, faith don't end there. Faith begins there. And if in your Christian life you stopped at Calvary and never, as Paul said in the book of Hebrews, chapter 6, never went on unto perfection. The word perfection, Hebrews 6, he's not talking about you don't have any problems or any errors. It just means you become whole. You've never gone on to perfect your Christian life. You're gonna constantly be in a state of, one, never bearing fruit like you should, and two, am I saved, am I lost? Am I right? I'll tell you what, I found this out. If you're a Christian that's struggling with your salvation, you need to get that nailed down. Just find you a place, call on the Lord, nail it down. But beyond that, let me say this. If you'll start getting busy adding to your faith all the things in verses five, six, and seven, you'll be so busy doing something for God, you won't have time to doubt your salvation. You won't have time to worry about that. You'll be done moving way on beyond that. Because this stuff here is not just relationship this way, this helps with relationship this way. Y'all, I don't ever doubt that I'm married to Tristan Lee Zorn. Brother Joe, there's never been a day in 18 years that I got up and I said, I wonder, am I married to that woman? Am I? Brother Jack, am I? Did I say everything right at the marriage altar? Did I say I do just right? Did I really say till death do us part? Did I get all of it right? I got the video, but I don't remember whether I said it or not. I'm sure I did. But I got this much I know, Brother David. Every day of my life I get up, I have relationship with her. We talk, we fellowship, we hold hands, we tell each other we love you, we text each other. There has not been a day that I can remember in 18 years that me and that woman have not fellowshiped, talked. Now sometimes it might have been, you know, sharp fellowship. But every day, whether I'm around her or not, we're having some sort of communication. Now, you want to know why some Christians constantly doubt whether they're saved or not? And always, well, did I say the right thing when I trusted the Lord? Did I really say this? Did I really say that? You know why that happens a lot of times? Because they ain't got no relationship with him afterwards. If you're fellowshipping with him every day, and he's fellowshipping with you, after a while, you're just like, man, I'm my beloved, and my beloved is mine. We've been walking and talking together. I know he's mine, and I'm his. So anyways, we're talking about addition here. Look at the things he says we need to add to our faith. Watch what he says here. Beside all this, beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith, here's the first thing. Virtue. The word virtue just simply means moral purity. Moral purity. What's one of the first things you ought to add to your Christian life? One of the first things that ought to happen when you get saved is you ought to start living a cleaner life than you did before you got saved. And that seems kind of basic, doesn't it? But so many Christians never get that step. They get saved and keep on wallowing around out in that world. No wonder they can't ever figure out if they're saved or lost. No wonder they're never bringing forth fruit. Add to your faith virtue. Make sure the inside's clean and the outside's clean. Look at 1 Peter chapter 4. He tells us about this in 1 Peter several, several times. He tells us about making sure that we're living the correct kind of life. First Peter chapter four and verse number two. First Peter four two. He said that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles. He said, man, back there before we got saved, the past life we had, that should have sufficed us enough to have walked in the way the Gentiles are walking. And he tells us what it was. When we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, abominable idolatries, wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riots speaking evil of you. Add to your faith virtue, some moral cleanness. Then he moves on. Here's our key word. Remember I told you there was a key word that pops up in every chapter of the book of 2 Peter. And we find it here again. It's the word knowledge. Peter wants us to know some things. He says, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue, knowledge. More knowledge about God's word, more knowledge about God's will, more knowledge about God's ways. The longer I live with Tristan's horn, the more I find out about her. It's amazing that after you've lived almost 20 years with somebody, you can still learn things you never knew about somebody. Y'all know what I'm talking about? Some of y'all been living with the same husband, same wife, 20 years, 30 years, maybe longer. Isn't it amazing that every once in a while they'll say something or do something and you'll be like, I didn't know that about you. I mean, it's farther and fewer in between than it was when you first started dating. When you first started dating, man, it was just like drinking water from a fire hydrant, just all this information's coming at you. You almost couldn't retain all of it, you know, all these things that she likes or don't like, all these things he likes or he don't like. But after a while, it's not so much, that much information. Now, it's just a little something here, a little something there, you find out, it's like, man, I didn't know that. You know, the longer you live with the Lord, When you first got saved, man, it was like information overload. You know, preacher would be preaching or you go to Sunday school and it's like, man, I'm never gonna get all this. All this stuff about this and that and where this all fits. But you keep reading and you keep living for God and 10, 15 years down the road, all of a sudden, okay, I understand that. And now what you start getting is just a little nugget in a message or a little nugget while you're reading your Bible. I never seen that. Hey, I didn't know that. Man, I do love the Lord. He does love me. Add knowledge. Continually be learning about the Lord. You say preacher I read my Bible and I just it just just goes right through me. I can't remember it I'll read it in the morning and by the time I come back to pick up where I put You know my bookmark at my tassel in my Bible. I pick up the next morning. I'll be honest I've almost forgotten if there's two chapters on the page I almost forgot which one I stopped at and where I was supposed to start at like I'm not retaining it preacher I Do you realize this? Do you realize you ladies that cook and some of you men cook too? You got that thing called a colander. It's a strainer. You know what I'm talking about? You put your vegetables in it or whatever and you wash them. You know that colander, it don't retain water. But when you go to wash it, you don't expect it to retain water. It's just running through it. But I'll tell you what it's doing while it's running through it. It's cleaning the colander. Your mind may be like a colander, but I can tell you this, every time you pour the water of the word over it, it's cleaning you up. It's doing good, whether you even think it's doing good or not. And I promise you this, it's doing more good than you think it's doing, because what happens is you'll read something and not even think you retained it or knew it. And all of a sudden, the preacher will be preaching, and you'll hear him say something. You say, oh, I read that, and I know what he's talking about. Or you'll be out talking to somebody about the Lord, and all of a sudden, the Lord will bring a scripture to your mind. that you read weeks ago and didn't even think you retained it, but all of a sudden the Holy Ghost brings it to your remembrance and you pull it up and use it to be a blessing to someone. That book is doing more good on you than you think it's doing. Keep adding to your knowledge. Adding to your knowledge. All right, keep moving. He says not only add to your faith virtue, moral cleanliness, virtue knowledge. We know where knowledge comes from. It comes from the book. And to knowledge, temperance. The word temperance simply means self-control. Telling your flesh no. When's the last time you ever told your flesh no? Like I mean that it wanted something. And you just said, nope, can't have it. That's fasting. I don't know if you ever fast every once in a while, just because, you know one of the best things about fasting, it ain't even necessarily that you're trying to get a big prayer answered or nothing like that, even though normally when I fast, I do it with a certain need on my mind, something specific that I'm praying about. But I'll tell you one of the biggest things that fasting does for me, it just helps me prove to this old filthy flesh that I can tell it no. When that stomach grumbles, I can say, nope, you're not getting it. Oh, but there's the McDonald's. And you could stop, and for like six bucks, seven bucks, you could get you a combo and some fries and a Diet Coke. Yep, shut up, you ain't getting it. No! We live in a society that never tells their flesh no. We live in an indulgent society that if you want it, get it. And it doesn't matter what it is, right or wrong. If you want it, have at it. And if you really want to add to your faith every once in a while, it's just good just to tell it, no, you're not getting that. You can't have that. And you better learn to do that, especially when it comes to things that are wrong. Not just talking about food, which is not necessarily wrong, but things that are sinful. You better learn how to tell your flesh, temper it, keep it down, put it under subjection like Paul says. No, you can't look at that. No, you can't listen to that. No, you can't go there. No, you can't taste that. No, you can't touch that. No, no, no. That's negative, isn't it? You know. We got to be positive, have this positive outlook. Don't feed negativism, don't feed negativism. I don't know, probably a good healthy dose of feeding some negativism might have helped mankind out back in Genesis when the Lord said, thou shalt not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. No, you can't have that. Maybe a good healthy dose of more negativism than positivity might have helped Adam and Eve out. Anyways, I think we're so inundated with so much positivity, a little bit of negativity about how to actually help us in our Christian life. Really, I'm serious, I'm serious. Sometimes it's just all, you're good and you're wonderful and you're great and you know, listen, too much Joel Osteen smiling at you and telling you what a wonderful individual you are, you will forget what a rotten sorry wretch you are. And how everyone's like, no flesh, no, no. Anyways, these are things to add. Virtue, knowledge, temperance. Temperance simply means self-control, bringing your body into check. And to temperance, verse six, patience. The word patience in the Bible doesn't necessarily mean like, patience in the Bible ain't necessarily like, you know, well I'm just standing here waiting. I'm not mad about it, I'm just waiting. That ain't necessarily patience in the Bible. The word patience in the Bible means steadfastness, constancy, or endurance. Now this is the definition. Listen, I've got this right out of the definition book on this. It says this, in the New Testament, Patience is the characteristic of a man or a woman who is not swerved from their deliberate purpose and loyalty to faith, even by the greatest trials and sufferings. Patience, basically what this fellow is saying, it is someone who is not moved from what they're doing, even when the greatest of sufferings and trials comes on. You just patiently take it and patiently keep living for God. People say, you know, we're to ask the Lord for patience. Well, I ain't saying don't. The Bible said you have need of patience, but when you ask him for it, don't think he will. The only way to get patience according to this then is to have great trials and sufferings where then you can prove. that you're staying in there. So just there's that caveat on that when you start praying for that. He said to temperance, patience. We're running through these things here. These are things to add to your faith. Let us add these things. And to patience, godliness. Godliness, that's simply becoming more like God. Acting more like him. Liking what he likes. Abhorring what he abhors. Loving what he loves. Hating what he hates. Do you have that mindset like the Lord? I'll be honest with you. A lot of times I look at my mindset and then I start reading about the Lord's mindset and I find out my mind ain't at all like his mind. The more I watch Cody Zorn, the more indeed I find Cody Zorn is indeed very ungodly instead of being as godly as he should be. His mind, a lot of times, don't match up with the Lord's mind. His wants don't match up with the Lord's wants. But that's the purpose of what we're talking about. I'm trying to add that stuff. Constant fight. Godliness, all right? And to godliness, brotherly kindness. That's our word for Philadelphia. The Philadelphian church, it means city of brotherly love, city of Philadelphia, brotherly love, the church of Philadelphia. That's where we get our thought or word for brotherly kindness for. A genuine love for the brethren. That's the church. Meeting when the church meets. praying for the church, loving God's people, brotherly kindness, caring about each other. You better learn to care about each other because this world ain't going to care about you. You better learn to love each other. This church is all you're going to have. And I'm not just talking about Bible missionary, I mean the church, God's people born again, saved by the grace of God. Brotherly kindness be you kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Brotherly kindness and then he says one that kind of goes along with this brotherly kindness idea. That's charity. I like the word charity I've told you before charity doesn't need to be updated to love if God meant love he said love but he said charity and I've told you the differences between love and charity and why it's essential to keep it as charity and not as love and Because in your Bible, I'll just say it again for those of you that may not have been in here. In your Bible, love can be perverted. I can prove it to you. First Kings 11 one. Solomon loved many strange women. That's a warped love. God told him not to love them and he loved them anyways. John chapter three said men loved darkness rather than light for their deeds were evil. You can have a warped love. But you'll never find one instance in your Bible where charity is warped. Charity can't be warped. It can't be. Turn to 1 Corinthians 13, that's the charity chapter. You can't warp charity because charity at its very essence is not something that can be perverted. Watch what charity is at its very essence. You'll never find an instance in your Bible where charity is something wrong, filthy or dirty, warped or ungodly. 1 Corinthians 13, and verse number 4, 1 Corinthians 13, 4. And can I pause right here and say this real quick? We kind of covered this probably two or three years ago when we dealt with 1 Corinthians, so it's worth maybe just backing up and hitting this. When we say charity, the first thing everybody thinks about is a handout. But do you realize you can give to charitable donations without having charity? He says it right here in verse 3. We'll just start in verse 2. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. Watch verse 3. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, so it is indeed possible to give everything you got to feed the poor and it not be real charity. Why? Because it's not so much about what you're doing as what the attitude of the heart behind it is. Verse 4, watch what charity is. Charity suffereth long, and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, charity never faileth. You cannot substitute the word love there because there are times in the Bible where certain love did behave itself unseemly. Matter of fact, you ever read about Amnon, David's son? The Bible said that he fell sick for his own half-sister and he raped her and it said about it that he loved her. But that ain't a real love. That ain't a real love. That's behaving itself unseemly. That's thinking evil. It said charity doesn't think evil. That's thinking evil. So anyways, charity. I always like to, my definition of charity personally is charity is love with its boots on. It's an action word. And it's done in the correct way. Alright, so these are all things we need to add to our faith. Why? Why does Peter make such a big deal about giving all diligence, add all these things to our faith? Verse 8. Keep reading. Here we go. This is why it's so important. For if these things Now he's going to use that phrase, these things, about four times. He uses that phrase, these things, speaking of what we just talked about, in verses 8, 9, 10, 12, and 15. And they're all, every time he says these things in those verses, he's talking about the things I just spoke to you about, adding to your faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience. Now watch why this is important. If these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in, there's our word again, it's the theme of the book, in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's about four things that if these things are in you, they'll help you with. And I'm gonna show them to you as we run to the end of our Sunday school lesson. There's about four things, if these things are in you, everything I just got done talking about, that it'll help you with in your Christian life. The first thing he said in verse eight, that if these things are in you, they help you to abound. Be fruitful. That's what he just said in verse eight. If these things be in you and abound, They make you, you should neither be barren nor unfruitful. That's our job as a Christian. I won't take you there, we're running out of time. But John chapter 15, Jesus is talking over there. And John 15, Jesus said His will for every Christian is that you would bring forth much fruit. Are you bringing forth any fruit in your Christian life? Say, preacher, how can I know if I'm bringing forth fruit in my Christian life? We have often always attributed in the Christian life, and especially in independent Baptist, people have often and always attributed fruit to souls. You know, he that winneth souls is wise. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. And so, you know, we always attributed fruit means how many people did you win to the Lord? But I don't necessarily subscribe to that, because one, that ain't what Solomon's talking about. Solomon wasn't going door to door, knocking on anybody's door, telling them about Jesus. He didn't know who Jesus was, and he wasn't knocking on doors. Anyways, that blows some people's theology, won't it? The Bible says about fruit is this, the book of Galatians chapter 5 says, the fruit of the Spirit is. You want to know if the Holy Ghost is at work in your life? Do you have his fruits in your life? The fruit of the Spirit are these nine things, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Matter of fact, most of those nine things you can find in these things that we just dealt with in 2 Peter 1, verses 5-7. If the Holy Ghost is living in you, you will see signs in your life. Look, look y'all if the only sign that I can tell of whether I'm being fruitful for the Lord is when somebody walks an aisle and gets saved or whether somebody Asked the Lord. I'm all for that. I believe in trying to get people to Jesus. We have tracks We believe in being evangelistic. We believe in going into all the world preaching the gospel to every creature I believe you're a witness on your job and witness at your home and witness wherever you go. I believe all that I But can I say God has not called me to be successful. He's called me to be faithful. And if I'll be faithful in these things, God will add fruit to my life. The characteristics of God will spring up in my life, making me neither barren nor unfruitful, but I'll be abounding in Him. So the first thing we find these things do, I mean it's easy to read past verses 5, 6, and 7 where it said, give all diligence, add to your faith. And it's easy to read past those things and just like, okay, yeah. But look how important these things are. Look what all is tied to these things after this. The first thing that's tied to it is being abundant, abounding. Look at the next thing that's tied to it. Acuity is tied to it. Acuity, being able to see correctly, having visual acuity. Verse 9, but he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off. A man who is saved but he's not adding to his faith is not necessarily, you know immediately the first thing we all like to think as a good independent Baptist is, well if a man don't have all this in his life he's just lost. Well that's not necessarily so. It's not necessarily so. But a man that's not adding to his faith, this is what he's like. He's like a man who's blind and he can't see afar off. Now, according to that, he's not totally blind. He just can't see way out there. He's nearsighted. A Christian who is not actively adding these things to their faith, they don't got the long game in sight. They're not living for heaven. They're not living for eternity. They can't see afar off. They're living for the right here and the right now. They don't have any desire for heaven. They don't have any desire for, you know, crowns and rewards. They don't have any desire to do something here that they can give to Jesus there. They're so nearsighted, all they see is right here and right now. And they can't see nothing of what's really coming way out there. Living a right here, right now lifestyle. Y'all, don't ever get caught up as a Christian in living the right here, right now lifestyle. Y'all, if you're saved, you're going to live a whole lot longer in that economy than you are in this economy. Jesus was adamant about saying, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Don't get so nearsighted where it's all about this. Remember I preached there about living above the sun here a little while back and about Solomon. He got consumed with what's under the sun. Under the sun. What was he? He was like this man. He did not continually add to his faith. He got back slid and he couldn't see afar off. He was nearsighted instead of thinking about what's coming on the other side. That's Paul. Paul's not a nearsighted guy. Paul's a guy that's adding to his faith and he's looking way out yonder. Paul's the guy that's saying, you know, our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, we look for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Paul said, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. He says he's blind. He can't see afar off. You know, a fellow who's nearsighted like that? They take his license away. He can't drive. They call that legally blind. He might be able to read something with a magnifying glass and get it up close, but if you become legally blind, you're a danger to people. You're not just going to hurt you, you're hurting people around you. Christian, if you're living your life in that nearsighted spot where you're not adding to your faith, you're not just liable to hurt you, you're liable to hurt your family, church family. You're liable to lead somebody else astray and get their life all wrecked and messed up too. Be somebody that's got the long vision that you can lead people in the right direction. So it's not only these things help you to abound. These things give you acuity. Watch this. These things give you assurance. Keep reading verse 9. He that liketh these things is blind, cannot see afar off. Watch the last part. And if you like these things, and hath forgotten. Oh my goodness, this is a terrible shape for a Christian to wind up in. Hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. The psalmist said this about God's people in Psalm 78. The psalmist said this, I'll read it to you. He said in Psalm 78 and verse number 42, talking about God's people as it relates to God, it said, they remembered not his hand nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. They had forgot the day when God set them free and how, what a messed up shape they's in before God got them out. You realize if you're not adding continually to your I don't even know if I'm saved. I cannot tell you how many people I have personally dealt with at altars and in my office and struggle with that thing about salvation and I'm telling you What it really boils down to at the very end, for the most part, I'm not saying this is always, but I'd tell you about 90% or more of the time, the reason why Christians doubt their salvation is because they are not adding to their faith. Not saying always, but I guarantee it's a good 90% of the time, it is because a Christian is not continually adding to his faith something. And you get to the place where you can forget you was even saved. For God, he's purged from his old sins. Now keep reading verse number 10, this is probably where we'll have to stop at. Wherefore, the rather brethren, give diligence. Now he told us back in verse 5 to give all diligence to these things. He's telling us again, put some diligence to this. Wherefore, the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and your election sure. If you don't know you're saved, make sure you're saved this morning. I like that verse, that's an interesting verse right there. If you're a Calvinist, this verse doesn't really mean much to you because you can't make your calling and election sure if you're a Calvinist, it's God that elects. And so because either God elected me or God didn't elect me, so I have nothing to do with it. But that ain't true. If you're lost this morning, can I give you some good news? You have been selected for election. Yeah, if you're a lost person on your way to hell, you have already been previously selected for election. Yeah. How do I get elected? Come to Christ. You can make your calling and your election sure. How do I know I'm saved? Do what he said. Call on the name of the Lord. Trust him by faith. If you're just sitting around, you know, this goofy stuff, Calvinism will end up, if you go way off the rails on it, Calvinism will make you get to the place where you're just like, well, I'm just sitting around, and if God wants to save me, he will. God wants to save you! What you waiting on? Come to him, right now! Now's the accepted time, now's the day of salvation. Well, if I'm the elect, I'm the elect, and if God wants me saved, no, no, no, God will just let you go to hell if you want to go to hell. God will let you go to hell being selected to be an elected individual if you want to. But if you want to get saved, come to him right now. Make your calling and election sure. I'll be honest with you. Let me give you a flip side kind of on this thing. I know a lot of independent fundamental premillennial, you know, gun barrel hardcore lying straight guys that for years, the way they preached, they didn't help people get assurance of salvation. They made people doubt their salvation. Y'all know what I'm talking about? Y'all ever heard preaching like that? I mean, it was the kind of preaching that basically, if you do or have done any sin that the preacher hasn't done, then you're probably lost and you need to come get saved. I mean, just start throwing all kind of doubt on people. I ain't in that kind of business. I ain't in that kind of business. You know, look here, brother, I know just what to do to get some professions. I do. Brother, I could have a half a dozen or more. I'm just telling you. I ain't trying to be boastful prideful. I'm telling you the God's honest truth. If I wanted about a half a dozen or more professions this morning, I could have them just like that. You know how I could get them? I'd just turn over and start preaching on Judas and start making all the church people doubt that they was really saved because they're probably a Judas. And son, I'd just make them church people doubt and doubt and make them think they really didn't have something, make them doubt, and then just push them hard as I could to raise their hand, repeat after me. Then if you prayed that prayer, raise your hand. Then post on Facebook, we had six saved this morning. No you didn't, no you didn't. No you didn't, them people probably already saved, you talked them out of something they had just so you could make yourself feel better because you met a quota. I ain't into meeting no quotas this morning or having no retreads. I'm into preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and telling people about Jesus, and if they're lost, the Holy Ghost will reveal to them they're lost without God. Then invite them to come to Christ. Anyways, I get so sick about the brand of evangelism we see today. Sick. Jack leg on the internet. I'm trying to put this as kindly as I can, I'm measuring my words here. Dude just got saved in 2017 and just started his ministry. He's got a salvation counter on his website. Would anybody like to just throw a number out and take a stab at how many, I'm talking about he preaches in the southeast, I ain't talking about like he's worldwide. I'm talking about mostly in the southeast, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia. And he's got a salvation counter. And I don't know what it's up to now. A month or so ago, I know what it was up to. Anybody want to take a wild guess? In four years of him doing ministry, how many people he claims he's had saved? Thank you for that number. Somebody else want to throw one out? Over 115,000 confessions of faith. I know the places he's been ministering at. And after he's gone, nobody's added to the church. The churches are the same size as they was before he came. Time out. Somebody getting saved and they're not joining the church. You getting 85 to 150 people saved in a meeting and not nobody joins the church? Something's wrong with your brand of evangelism. I'll tell you what that is. I was grabbing the tree and shaking it just so you can get some numbers so you get this and this. Ain't into that never have been and I'm not gonna be If that's the kind of thing you're looking for this will not be the church for you I'm gonna preach the Bible and I'm gonna let God do a work But I refuse to try and talk people out of something they got or talk them into something ain't got Anyways Make you call it an election, sure. Now watch it. Here's the last thing. So we've seen what happens when you get these things. You get abounding, abundance, fruitfulness. You get acuity. You can see afar off. You get assurance. You know that you're saved. And then you get anchored. Watch the last part. For if you do these things, ye shall never fall. And let me pause here and just help you real quick, because you're going to have some charismatic come up and try and tell you, see there, you can fall out of Jesus, you can get lost, you're saved, now you're lost. Take them to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse number 12, and it's the same thing he's talking about there as talking about here. He's not talking about falling out of the Lord and getting lost again. 1 Corinthians 10, 12 says, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. He ain't talking about falling and getting lost. He's talking about simply what the Bible said in Proverbs 24, 17. A just man falleth seven times, but he riseth again. If that's talking about getting lost every time, I guess every time that just man fell, he had to get reborn again. Let me give you this little nugget and I'm done. Let me give you this and I'll be through. A man that's on a 747 flying across the ocean Europe if he's walking inside that airplane and he trips stumbles and falls Where does he fall? In the plane He doesn't fall out of the plane He falls in the plane Y'all I am in Christ. I Ephesians chapter 1 the theme of Ephesians 1 is in Christ in Christ in Christ in Christ in Christ in I'm in Christ I didn't put myself there. He put me there when I trusted him. He sealed me to the day of redemption I'm in him when I fall. I don't fall outside of Christ. I fall in Christ and He's keeping me unto the day of redemption And there's other verses that'll back this up that I could deal with, Galatians 5 and such as that, but we ain't got time this morning, we got to go. So there's four things that if these things are in you, they help you with. One, these things, virtue, temperance, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, they help you abound, they give you acuity, they give you assurance, and they help you stay anchored, where you're not constantly walking through life falling. Every wind of doctrine comes along and it just blows you down. Blows you this way. Every little problem comes along, you just fall out of church and you're just falling and stuff. No, no, no. You let these things happen, it'll give you some stability in your life. Anchor you down. where you can walk with God. All right, Lord, we thank you for your word. It helps us. It really is a blessing to us. We love it, and we love the author of it. This morning, we thank you for the scripture. We pray that it would abound in us, help us to grab ahold of these things. Lord, I want these things in my life. The truth is, when I'm teaching these people about these things, Lord, I'm looking at my own life, and I see I fall so woefully short so many times about these things, but Lord, I am trying my best to add these things to my faith I want the profiting of it to appear to all, like you told to Timothy over there. God, I pray now for the 11 o'clock hour, if there be some sinner in here lost without Christ, you'd save them. If there be some Christian that just needs some encouragement, I pray that you'd give it to them. God, let us leave different than we came this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, you're dismissed.