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There is a firm foundation that you have given us. I thank you for the empowerment of your spirit. May we grow through your grace and by your strength that we would be a solid and holy and righteous people that depend wholly on you. May we proclaim your goodness to the world. May your glory be proclaimed through your goodness in our lives.

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In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I'm going to go ahead and just read these two verses, and then we'll spend some time this morning unpacking them. Beginning in verse 10, Peter writes this:

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"Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. 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." This is the word of the Lord. One of the things that happened to us is that if we don't see the entire picture, we can be in some places maybe that aren't very good. And I remember there's a core memory for me. We had not been living in Vermont all of that long, but in the little town in which we lived, there's a little river, Otter Creek, that runs out to

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Lake Champlain. And in the town where we lived, there was a waterfall that kind of came down into that river along with like some hydroelectric generators. And during the Revolutionary War, it had been a shipbuilding yard for battle on Lake Champlain. And one of the things that I remember is it wasn't long after we moved there, one of my uncles came to visit, and I don't remember which one, but there was a little place down the river that would rent you like, you know, like one of those metal rowboats with a gas engine.

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And I remember being in the front of this boat. We're going to go, you know, just kind of go explore the river on this little boat up and down. And I remember saying, and I don't know if my dad remembers or even knew this was happening in my heart, but I asked him, "Where are we going?" He says, "We're going to the falls." Now, if you've ever seen the movie Rescuers Down Under, right, the bad guy meets his end in that by falling into a river, going over the falls into a bunch of alligators, right?

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And so here is young Brandon, not realizing there's no alligators in Vermont, but I hear we're going to the falls, and I immediately assume that we're going to the top of the falls. And all of a sudden, it's like, "Well, what if the boat doesn't work? What if we don't see it coming? What if the water is too short?" And I just remember how miserable that little short ride was, and I remember how dumb I felt as we came around that last corner and looked, and there we are in the big bottom of the falls.

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There's no alligators, and there's no risk to my life as well. And what happens, and what happened to me, and what happens to all of us, I think, if we don't have the whole picture, maybe we don't know, maybe we haven't asked, maybe we've assumed, like I did, right, we can end up in some places that either bring us to anxiety or lead us down the wrong road.

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to try to see them in the proper perspective. Because if these two verses are met without the proper perspective, we're either going to be filled up with fear and uncertainty as we read them, or we're going to be filled with pride.

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Right, and so if you read these words, "Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election without what comes before this."

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I mean, I'll go back to verse 1. If you read this all by itself, it can seem that our salvation and our hope is fully dependent upon ourselves, and it can seem that Peter here is telling us to make sure that you have been diligent enough, that you have worked hard enough, that you've made all the right decisions, and that can be incredibly overwhelming.

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Because we look at our life and we realize we haven't made all the right decisions, we haven't done enough, we haven't worked hard enough, and what ends up happening is if you read this as a verse that says, "Make sure you've got all your ducks in a row," and I'm not a duck expert, but we have hatched like three batches of baby ducks, right? They don't like to be in a row, right? And so if you're struggling to get your ducks in a row, Peter's not saying that.

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making sure that every part of your life is perfect, he's saying something more wonderful that we'll see in a second. So if you read this without everything that comes before, you can end up really discouraged. However, the other side of this, if you read verse 10, "For in this way there will be richly provided an entrance into the kingdom," without reading what comes before it,

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We can feel pretty proud of ourselves. Remember, it was fifth grade, and our teacher struggled with some of us in the class. I don't know why she did. As a good student, she finally resorted at one point in the school year in fifth grade to just simply bribing us. And she was like, "If you do good, here's how you can earn points. You can get good grades in this test. I don't have to yell at you."

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If we had accumulated enough points, we could watch a movie with the class. And then if you'd gotten enough extra points, she would go buy you your favorite candy. And if you'd accumulated even more points, she'd go buy you a soda as well.

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And so the goal was not just to get the movie, but you wanted the snacks and you wanted the soda. You wanted your entrance into the movie to be richly provided for by your goodness.

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And there are people who read this verse, and they will look at us and say, "Well, you really want to get to heaven? You want to get there and you only want to have the basic package?"

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Right? Look at your life. Seek to do better. Because what you want is not to get into heaven, but you want to get into heaven richly. You want to have this extra.

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That goes with us. The reason I'm talking about this is one of the things I do when I write a sermon. I like to read other sermons that are written about this.

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And so through the past couple weeks, I have read a lot of sermons that just lead to despair. Right? You, you're not doing it well. You're not trying hard enough.

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You're not working good enough. Like, you are just not getting it, and you need to work harder. And then on the other hand,

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there are people who sort of pat themselves on the back. And saying, "Look at the reward that we're going to get, and how great, and how well, not because of Jesus, but because I've done all of these good things."

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And what happens in human nature is that it's so easy for us to swing between this depth of discouragement that I am not sufficient, and the heights of pride saying, "Look at how good I am."

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I want us to see the bigger picture of this verse before we get into the wonder of what Peter is saying. And I want to do so by sort of asking ourselves three questions this morning to help us sort of snap these words into a bit of a clearer focus.

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And the first question is this, is who is Peter writing to? When he says these words in verses 10 and 11, who is he writing to? Listen to what he says.

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A servant and apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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So Peter, as he writes these words, is writing to Christians. And the subject of verse 10 is not people who are outside the kingdom of God, but people who are inside the kingdom of God.

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We see how it begins. He starts by saying, "Brothers." Right? These verses are written to God's people, for God's people.

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And Peter is writing to Christians who have been saved by Jesus.

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And so as we hear these words, and both Peter's encouragement and his correction and his invitation, we are reminded that he is writing, first of all, to God's people.

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The second thing that we're reminded of is how we are saved. Listen to what he says in the text that we looked at a couple weeks ago.

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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 called us to his own glory and excellence,

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by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may be partaker,

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you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desires."

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And just to summarize what Peter is saying is he says that we are called by Jesus, we're transformed by Jesus,

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given all things that pertain to life and godliness, we're equipped by Jesus, and we're encouraged by Jesus.

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And so Peter, as he writes these words, is writing to Christians.

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And he's writing to people who have been saved by Jesus, transformed by Jesus, equipped and encouraged by Jesus.

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And then we talk about how we grow in Christ.

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And he says this, and this section goes a little longer, we'll just read the first part.

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"For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge."

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What is the reason? That you have been called, you've been transformed, that you have been equipped and you have been encouraged.

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That God has granted you all things that pertain to life and godliness.

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And what we talked about briefly last week is that when this is a reality of what God has done for you, our pursuit of God becomes joyful.

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That this effort is a joyful, grace-fueled growth that encourages us to keep growing and keep building, fueled by the goodness and the greatness of God.

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And that the tree of righteousness in our lives is planted, nourished, but also sometimes pruned by Jesus.

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So this is what Peter has been leading us up to.

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That for those of us who are in Christ, we see the gift of God's grace.

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We see this gift. He starts by saying, "Here's the gift of grace.

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This grace brings us to growth."

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Where through grace-fueled growth, we become more and more like Jesus.

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And now, this grace-fueled growth is going to bring us to this reassurance or this assurance of our standing in Christ, which then will actually encourage more growth.

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And Peter's purpose in these words, as he writes, is assurance.

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Let's listen to them again and then unpack them for a moment.

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Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, 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 Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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Peter's purpose is not to make you ashamed of your weakness.

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It's not to make you proud of your accomplishments. It's to assure us that our hope is in Jesus.

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One of the ways we know that is we ask ourselves the question when Peter says, "Be more diligent to confirm your calling and election."

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Who is our call in Christ being confirmed to?

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What you find is Peter in 2 Peter 1:3 says, "His power, divine power, has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence."

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And what you find is that the Lord knows who are His. He knows His sheep by name.

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And so when Peter talks about confirming our calling and election, he's not saying, "Make sure all your documents are in an order and you can show up to God and show them that you've got three references from your grandma saying how good you are, a letter from your church, and a list of your accomplishments."

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That's not Peter's purpose in writing these words. And while our Christian life is a confirmation to those who are outside the church,

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about what God has done through us, if you remember what Jesus says, he says that, "Men may see your good works and what? Glorify your Father who is in heaven."

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I don't think Peter's simply thinking in terms of confirming our identity in Christ to those who are outside.

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I think what Peter is doing, he's called us to evaluate our growth. And in verses 8 and 9,

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the verses that come right before this, he says, "Go back to that knowledge if you're distracted, if you're unfruitful."

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What Peter is doing in these verses, he's saying, "I think both the fearful and the proud, look to what Christ has done for you.

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Go back to the call and the transformation. Go back to the growth that Christ has brought in your life. In the midst of

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maybe your unfruitfulness or in your distraction, bring your struggling heart back to Christ and be reminded of what he has done for you."

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The assurance here is not weak. It's not a struggle. It's not kind of that, "Well, I hope things will be all right," or, "I'm sure it's fine," or, "Everything's fine."

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This is an assurance that transforms our lives.

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What I want us to see is that, first of all, the power of assurance. First of all, it gives us a stability. Look at verse 10.

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"Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall."

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The growth that is brought through our salvation, beginning with faith, ending in love, those eight characteristics that God works in our hearts,

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and that through grace-fueled growth blossom into this tree of faithfulness.

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You see, Peter has had some experience with falling, hasn't he?

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He knows the hurt, and he knows the pain, and he knows the struggle.

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He's the guy who said, "Jesus, I'll never deny you."

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And then just a few hours later, I don't even know this man.

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Peter knows what it's like to fall.

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And he looks at this church, and he looks at us, and he says, "I want you to have this assurance that gives stability to your life.

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That when situations that surround you make you feel like you're overwhelmed and you can't do it,

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you are reminded that you are called by Jesus, transformed by Jesus, equipped by Jesus, encouraged by Jesus."

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Let me show you how assurance gives us stability. First of all, right, assurance shows us the path of righteousness.

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So it's been a little snowy and a little icy. And definitely not my kids, but some kids that I've had experience with.

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You're going out to the car, and the way our parking lot works with the shadows,

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some of it's always really clear, and there's also pieces of ice through it.

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So guess what path these particular kids I'm talking about, right, guess what path they try to take?

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Is it a nice, clean, non-slippery path, or is it, "Let's see if I can walk a tightrope on this pile of ice that isn't even flat."

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It's like, we have too many things to do. We don't have time to go to the emergency room to check and see if your arm is broken.

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Please walk where you're supposed to walk and stay off the ice.

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One of the things that happens when we walk in the assurance of our faith

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is that it very clearly shows us the safe place to walk.

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The picture here is that there are places where we can fall, either off the edge by going to the right or left,

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or stumble as we walk on this road in what Peter is saying.

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And what he's going to say next goes along with this.

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One of the things that happens is the assurance of who we are shows us where we are to walk,

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but secondly, it prevents us from the attacks of our enemies.

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The heart of 2 Peter is conflict.

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There's a way to walk in the grace and truth brought by Jesus,

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but there are some of the church who are not doing that.

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Let me show you.

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2 Peter 1:16.

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Peter writes, "For we did not follow cleverly devised myths

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when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,

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but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty."

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Do you know why he makes this clarification?

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That he did not follow cleverly devised myths, but they were eyewitnesses?

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Because there were people showing up in the church with cleverly devised myths.

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And one of the things the assurance of who we are in Christ does for us

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is it protects us from these kinds of lies.

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2 Peter 2:1.

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"But false prophets also arose among the people,

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just as there will be false teachers among you,

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who will secretly bring in destructive heresies,

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even denying the Master who brought them,

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bringing upon themselves swift destruction."

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Peter will go on and say there's two heresies.

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They're going to bring one's sex and the other's money.

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And what they are doing is preying on God's people,

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maybe for their own pleasure,

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maybe leading them into sin,

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chasing that pleasure.

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They're also preying on God's people in terms of greed,

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and taking and stealing from God's people.

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And it's not that they're going to seek to lead you away from Jesus,

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but they're going to exploit you and use you for their own desires.

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But if you have been assured of your hope,

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you can see clearly these lies for what they are.

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The next stumbling block these false teachers try to bring is in chapter 3 and verse 4.

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They will say, "Where is the promise of His coming?

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For ever since the fathers fell asleep,

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all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation."

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What they're doing is casting doubt on the return of Jesus.

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Now, Peter will continue on here by saying they're deliberately overlooking the facts.

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They are omitting some key texts and some key truths of the Gospel.

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But the assurance of seeing Him and the work of His promise in our lives,

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it protects us. It protects us not just from pride and despair,

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but it protects us by showing us the path,

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strengthening us to walk on it,

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and defending us from those who would attack us.

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And the truth of our assurance doesn't just come in terms of keeping us stability,

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but it leads us to hope and to joy.

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"For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ."

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Peter here is lifting our eyes to something more.

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If you look in the verses that come right before this,

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in verse 9 he will say,

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"Some of you are so short-sighted you are blind,

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that you can't see beyond the end of your nose,

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and you don't see the eternal perspective of what God is doing."

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And here what he's doing is he's saying,

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"Take a look at the eternal perspective.

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There is an eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,

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and you will be richly provided an entrance into this kingdom."

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So we are driving back.

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This was a bunch of years ago from Indianapolis.

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I had done a wedding for one of Rachel's cousins.

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And it started out as probably one of our better drives home.

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I did like some land nav to try to get back to the main road.

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I said, "Don't look at the map. Don't look at the GPS."

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I can find my way back, thankfully.

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Rachel did have her GPS over there.

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I was like, "Get to the wrong turn."

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You know, this way.

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So I still got to feel good about myself. I didn't use a map.

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But then we stopped, and we met up with Rachel's aunt and uncle who were also driving back in this direction.

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We stopped at the Amish cheese store.

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We stopped at this massive candle warehouse, which Evelyn and I were not super excited about.

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Then we stopped at Steak and Shake and got some milkshakes.

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We're just going from one fun stop to the other with Rachel's aunt and uncle.

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But then you get to Ohio, and you got to make it all the way across to Ohio.

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And you don't always realize how big Ohio is until you have to drive across it.

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And at that point, right, we could have kept stopping, but there was something that was bigger, right?

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It's getting home to our own house, getting out of the car, being able to sleep in our own bed, seeing our own dog, eating our own kitchen, right?

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And so for that joy that was before us, right, we journeyed through Ohio, right, looking at the bigger picture.

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And what Peter is doing is saying to the church, and to us as Christians, is there is something that is bigger,

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that you're going to have to journey, and to do so by standing in the assurance of what God has done, seeking to grow by His grace,

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reminding yourself of His salvation, giving you that stability, right, you lift our eyes to what's ahead of us.

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And Peter's giving us a glimpse of this inheritance. So there was a key, as kids, there was a song we used to sing.

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My dad and mom will remember it. I don't know if you've sung it, but when we were in Sunday school,

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one of the songs we sang, it said something along the lines, "All right, I'm going to sing, sing, sing.

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I'm going to shout, shout, shout. I'm going to sing. I'm going to shout, praise the Lord."

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And the chorus went like this, "When those gates are open wide, I'm going to sit by Jesus' side.

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I'm going to sing. I'm going to shout, praise the Lord."

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Now, as a very good church kid, I changed the lyrics to that to say, "When those gates are open wide, I'm going to try to sneak inside.

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I'm going to sing." I thought I was really clever, right, as like a ten-year-old in church singing this, teaching my friends to sing this as well.

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Peter's point is that's not the direction in life of a Christian, right?

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You don't show up and hope that there's a table for you. You don't show up and try to sort of slide in with the crowd.

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If you are a Christian, you've been transformed by Jesus. If you have been encouraged and strengthened and growing,

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all of these things that God's grace richly does, right, you don't show up.

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They go, "Yeah, you just go in when there's an opening, but there is an entrance that is richly provided for you."

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In fact, let me show you how this practically plays out in life.

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Hebrews chapter 11. It's called the faith chapter because it just lists people who faithfully followed God.

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Listen to what it says about Abraham. By faith, he went to live in the land of promise.

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As in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac, and Jacob heirs with him of the same promise.

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So he's wandering around in tents. Why? Because he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

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Let's go a little further.

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As it is, they desired a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God,

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for he has prepared for them a city. Now take a look at Moses.

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By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

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He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking forward to the reward.

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The author of Hebrews keeps going. The point of this chapter in Hebrews, and the point that Peter is making, is that in the assurance of salvation by God, through faith, there is a hope and a joy.

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And even when the road that's in front of you is filled with difficulty and opposition, like Moses, like Abraham, like all of the people of God, there is something more wonderful

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that lies ahead of us. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, to see what God has done in you and through you and for you.

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And 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 Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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In these verses, there is assurance for the doubtful. That Jesus has done it. And instead of this short-sighted look at either our own desires or our own brokenness, we lift our eyes to the goodness of God.

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There is encouragement here for the faithful. That this road that walks you through the wilderness, this road that is sometimes filled with struggles and roadblocks and obstacles and opposition, has an ending that is more wonderful than you can ever imagine.

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And there is invitation for the outsider, or the one who maybe never has known Jesus, or the one who's simply kind of going along near Jesus.

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Not hostile, but also not quite a follower. Right? There is a call here, a call to see the goodness of Jesus, to know Him, to be transformed by Him, to be equipped by Him, encouraged by Him, to grow in Him.

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That as we walk this road in the assurance of what He has done for us, we will be both stable and hopeful and joyful. Let's pray.

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Father in Heaven, help us. Help us as we walk a road that oftentimes we can't see where it's going. Lift our eyes to You. May we have an eternal perspective.

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May, if our doubtful, struggling, hurting hearts this morning, may You reassure them with Your goodness and grace.

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You would help us to preach the Gospel to ourselves. You would help us to see what You've done in our life and be encouraged by it. That You would lay before us this hope.