You’ve probably seen cartoons of Peter at a booth in front of a gate, regulating people’s entrance into heaven. Of course, it is totally unscriptural, and, I hope, it is just for fun. But let’s run with that ridiculous and unbiblical idea this evening. Let’s pretend it is accurate. Peter checks everyone’s identification before permitting people into heaven.
Hasn’t proper identification taken on new meaning in the last few months and years? These are the days of “enhanced identification,” REAL id’s and stars on our driver’s licenses. It is difficult to get onto airplanes and into some buildings without them. It can be done, but it is difficult.
Let’s say that Joe Blow has died and is now standing before Peter at the toll booth of the pearly gates. He has lost his Idaho Star Card, and he’s trying to give the gate-keeper information to help prove his identity. He says that he was baptized. He was a member of a Baptist church; they should have records of his tithing. He tells Peter that he loves Christ, he believes in Jesus’ deity, death, burial and resurrection. He might even say that he believes in God’s sovereign grace and thinks he’s been elected by the Lord. Peter keeps searching his divine computer, but these marks of identification don’t come up. He finally turns to the man and says, “Haven’t you read my Second Epistle? I outlined in chapter 1 some things which testify of your election. Why didn’t you do those things which should have made your calling and election sure? Why didn’t you ENHANCE your IDENTIFICATION?”
Without going into great detail this evening, let’s consider five pairs of ideas in II Peter 1:8-11. Peter says certain things need to be “in” and “abound” in us. Without them they make us “barren” and “unfruitful.” They prove us to be “blind” and “forgetful.” We need to be “diligent” about them if we hope not to “fall.” We need proper identification if are thinking of “entering” into – “abundantly entering” into – the everlasting kingdom of Christ.
We will start with “in” and “abound.”
Verse 8 – “If these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall nether be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Remember that Peter has just described seven attributes of God which are to be found in His children. Building on the foundation of faith, we need to add virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity. Again – these things are about praise-worthy activities and a growing knowledge of spiritual things – the Bible. Christians have bred into them self-control and patience, but they both need a great deal of culturing. Just because the race horse comes from good parents, it still needs to be well-trained. Godliness comes from applying all the things that we can from the very nature of God. And then there is a growing love for our neighbors and our brethren, developing into a fuller love for Lord.
These things are gifts of God’s grace, and they flow out of the new life we have in Christ. But they not only need to be IN us, they need to ABOUND IN us. Most Christians think of them as secondary aspects of the Christian life, but they are extremely important. These things should not only fill us to the BRIM, they need to so abound in us that they SPILL OUT. And this “abounding,” although still coming from the Lord, is something over which we have some control. WE – need to make sure that they abound in us. If they don’t, there is no one to blame but ourselves. Their deficiency in us is is certainly not due to any deficiency in the Lord.
Then we come to “barren” and “unfruitful.”
“If these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall nether be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Again – remember the words of the Lord Jesus as recorded in John 15 – “I am the vine, ye are the branches, He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit …” “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away. “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit…”
So Joe Blow walks up to the pearly gates and expects admission based on his self-proclaimed citizenship. Peter asks him: “What proof is there of your heavenly citizenship? Have you faithfully paid your Heavenly taxes, or are you one of those who have cheated on them – just as you did with the IRS?” “Did you care enough about your citizenship to vote when you could?” “Did you encourage any non-citizens to take those steps necessary for citizenship?” “Did you support those things citizens should have supported, and did you oppose those things which are contrary to the principles of Heaven? Has there any FRUIT of your heavenly citizenship?”
Christ saved us with the purpose of producing fruit. “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.” And the fruit of salvation by grace includes “virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity.” “If these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall nether be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” And they are a part of proving our calling and election.
Another pair of words are “blind” and “forgetful.”
Verse 9 – “But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” When the Federal Government finally decided to implement and demand the enforcement of their “2005 REAL Identification Act,” we were warned that it was coming. It was on the TV news for months. There were signs and notices in the DMV offices and airports. Questions, explanations and warnings were on the internet. The news about the enforcement of the regulations was hard to miss or ignore. But when the deadline arrived, people still went to the airport to catch their flight and some of them missed the boat because they were forced to identify themselves in more difficult ways. You could say that even if they weren’t entirely blind, they were surely near-sighted about the problem. I can imagine that there were many broken-hearted people who missed their planes, because they weren’t properly identifiable in the eyes of the government.
But missing a flight from Spokane to Denver is not nearly as disastrous as not catching the Ark to Heaven. The person who says, “I was christened, when I was a baby,” has had more than one kind of lye thrown into his eyes. He has been blinded to the truth of the gospel. The person who believes, “Since I was a member of a Baptist church from the time I was six-years-old, I must also be a citizen of heaven” – that poor soul is seriously myopic – near-sighted.
And then on the other hand, there is that teenager who truly and sincerely trusted Christ, repenting of his sin. But then when he left his Christian home, he went down into Egypt, throwing his flesh into the furnace of the world, following the devil’s crowd – “Forgetting that he was purged from his old sins.” Forgetting that he was a citizen of the heavenly kingdom, he failed to add these virtues to his saving faith. And there he stands, physically dead, at the entrance to the everlasting kingdom, expecting admission. Outwardly, it is going to require some research to prove this man’s citizenship. It is not obvious.
If the Lord has purged us from the sins of our youth or the sins of our earlier lives, how can we expect our Saviour to be pleased with us when we return to wallow in them like a pig in her filth? There are people who say, “All dogs go to Heaven,” but I am of the opinion that none of them do. And Solomon said, “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” In the language of the Bible, fools are not people of God; fools are not Christians. Dogs and fools may return to their sinful vomit, but people born into the family of God should not.
Peter mentions “diligence” and “stability.”
“Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.” We can say dogmatically that when it comes to the calling and election of God, the Lord shall never fail. Those whom He has chosen and loved from eternity past, will certainly enter the everlasting kingdom. But – despite the reality of eternal salvation, how many Christians wonder and worry about their spiritual outcome? How many professing believers stumble at the promise of the God – the God who cannot lie? How many Christians begin to question their salvation when again, they have fallen into their old sin? The problem is not with the Lord, the problem is with themselves. We cannot make the actual calling and election of God any more sure than God has made it. However, we can bring ourselves to the point of questioning that calling. And our lives can force others to doubt our election to salvation. Christians often stumble and even fall, when they in blindness permit themselves to be barren and unfruitful.
We need to “make our calling and election sure?” But how? For the answer, don’t look for something beyond the context of Peter’s words. He has given us the exhortation; we need to turn to him for the explanation. So don’t look for theological exactness to make your calling sure. Don’t foolishly seek for the second blessing of the Holy Spirit. Don’t add more aggressive evangelistic efforts on your part. Don’t double your tithing. Don’t listen to those false prophets who use guilt to try forcing you into other things. Maybe you should incorporate some of these things into you life. But they are not the way to “make our calling and election sure.”
What is it that PETER says we should do to “make our calling and election sure?” “And beside this, giving all DILIGENCE” – there is that same word – “add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brother kindness charity.”
Remember, this isn’t about convincing God about our election. This is about giving ourselves proper assurance and perhaps giving evidence to our Christian neighbors. How are you going to convince Peter to open the pearly gate for you? Stumbling and falling, tottering around like a drunken sailor isn’t going to encourage old Peter. But we can reduce our stumbling and falling by deliberately and diligently working on the characteristics which should be found in the child of God.
And that brings us to our “entrance” and “abundant entrance.”
“For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Here again is Mr. Joe Blow standing before Peter at the gateway into heaven, asking for admission. If he has been regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit through the will of the sovereign God, there is no doubt but that he will be admitted – he has an “entrance.” But he doesn’t have his Star ID, and in our unbiblical illustration, his entrance isn’t “abundant.” It isn’t joyful; it isn’t stress free. He worries that perhaps he won’t be admitted. This professing Christian isn’t exactly sure that Peter isn’t going to slam and lock the gate against him.
The Apostle Paul, in I Corinthians 3, gives us the same sort of instruction as Peter. “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Salvation is firmly secure in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the Cross. And those whom the Lord saves, are saved unconditionally. “Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Notice the building is made on the foundation. We are talking about building on the saving faith which has been given to us. “Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” What is it that we are building on the foundation which the Lord has laid? Are they things that God has ordained through His word, or they simply our ideas. Are they good building materials, or are we using cardboard, paper-mache and cheap plastic?
None of us should want to slide into Heaven by the skin of our teeth – making it by a whisker – barely squeezing through the eye of the needle. We should not only want to have proof of our citizenship, but we should be diligent in making sure of it. After twenty years of earthly Christian life, there should be boxes full of non-combustible proof of our identification. Not only is it good for that future glorious day, but that Star ID is handy to have today as well. We shouldn’t have to point to our patience or godliness, forcing others recognize them. They should be as obvious as the nose on our face. These seven things should be such a part of us that our Christian brethren will be quick to see them.
And when it comes to that day when leave this world, it should be obvious to Peter and everyone else that we are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, because we bear the characteristics of our Heavenly father.