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Make Your Calling And Election Sure – Part 1

by Mike Vinson

2Pe 1:1  Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
2Pe 1:2  Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, 
2Pe 1:3  According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
2Pe 1:4  Whereby are 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.
2Pe 1:5  And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
2Pe 1:6  And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
2Pe 1:7  And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
2Pe 1:8  For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Pe 1:9  But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
2Pe 1:10  Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence [G4704, spoudazo] to make your calling and election sure:for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

Introduction

God has created an adversary to oppose Himself and to oppose His elect. God is good at what He does, so His adversary is the very best adversary that can be imagined. This is what we are told about the adversary with whom we are dealing:

Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Rev 12:10  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

The accuser of our brothers accuses them before our God day and night. So our adversary perseveres and is persistent in doing his job. He will not miss an opportunity “day and night” to find any fault in anything we do, and he will convince us to believe his accusations against us before we even hear the matter. He will have us to ignore every admonition we are given to ‘seek a multitude of counselors… go to him, between you and him alone… search out the matter diligently and do not make any conclusions until you have done so’.

Pro 11:14  Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

Pro 15:22  Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.

Pro 24:6  For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.

All of these admonitions go out the door when we are given over to the mind of the adversary. Our “multitude of counselors” are suddenly transformed into a multitude of deceivers because we have been given over to a lying spirit, which convinces us that people we have known and trusted and who have given us wise admonitions and wise counsel are all being led astray by an evil spirit, and we say “God has appointed me to show all of my counselors their grievous sins, before I have even gone to them to hear why they are acting and teaching as they do”. When this spirit of the adversary has be given dominion over us, that is when we begin to despise these words of our Lord:

Mat 18:15  Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
Mat 18:16  But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Mat 18:17  And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
Mat 18:18  Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be [Greek, ‘shall have been’] bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Mat 18:19  Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 18:20  For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

All of this is out the door when our adversary is given to blind us from the protection against his devices which obedience to these words will give us. In the place of that safety we become accusers of our brothers as instruments in the hand of our father the devil, and this is what we do:

Isa 29:21  That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.

‘No good deed goes unpunished’ by our adversary. If we “reprove in the gate” those who need reproof, then the adversary makes certain that our own sinful past will be used to nullify our good reproof in our own gate, and within our own body. That is his job, and he perseveres and persists in doing it.

On the other hand, we are given instructions concerning how we must overcome every effort of the adversary to take us away from the body of Christ and to convince us that we will be of greater service to God if we go out from among those who we ourselves have proven to be the body of Christ:

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
1Jn 2:18  Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
1Jn 2:19  They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
1Jn 2:20  But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
1Jn 2:21  I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

“They went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us”, tells us that these are those who refuse to ‘go to their brother, and if that brother does not hear them then they are instructed to take with them another brother or two, and if he refuses to hear them, then tell it to the church’. These are those who will not then “tell it to the church”, and they will not hear the church and will not even contemplate treating a heretic as a heathen man and a publican. They will gladly do just that to those who do seek a multitude of counselors and who obey Matthew 18:15-21, but they will not stand up to those who call Christ “Lord, Lord”, but will not do the things He says to do. “The pride of life”, the inability to confess that pride and destroy it from within, causes them to continue on in their “pride of life”.

“You know all things” means that we are granted to do the things Christ tells us to do. It means that we know that we must never, ever ‘lean to our own understanding’, and we must never ever place ourselves above the body of Christ and our multitude of counselors. I have posed the question on many occasions, “Why do we mention that we are never to lean to our own understanding, and we are to always depend upon our “multitude of counselors” if we are going to give in to a lying spirit which is telling us that the body of Christ, is not worthy of being our multitude of counselors? If the whole body of Christ is saying something we do not believe, is it not possibly time to “make search and ask diligently” concerning the matter that is within our own gates in accord with our Lord’s instructions in Mat 18?”

Deu 13:12  If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,
Deu 13:13  Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known;
Deu 13:14  Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you;
Deu 13:15  Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.

This is what we must do to “win [our] brother”. Anything short of our Lord’s words amounts to a false doctrine which must be denied by the body of Christ. The body of Christ is “Jesus of Nazareth”, and with “that which every joint supplies” that body is edified and is built up in obedience to what He says:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. [obedience, 1Jo 5:2-3].

When a spirit comes to us and tells us that everyone to whom we have deferred as our leaders, and who have proven themselves to be incorruptible in dealing with the doctrine of Christ, has overnight become a liar and a false prophet, then we need to “enquire, and make search” of those we suspect, by “go[ing] to him, between you and him alone”, before drawing any conclusions. We know what the adversary wants to do, and what he really wants is to sow discord among those in the body of Christ, and to accuse our brothers of failing to do what Christ has told us to do. When we fail to do what our Lord has told us to do, we are taken and snared by the devices of the adversary, which we are to be aware of at all times.

2Co 2:11  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

Satan is a worthy adversary, but you and I can make our calling and election sure by never failing to inquire, making search, and by always finding out the facts before we “go to [our] brother, between [us] and him alone” before we “tell it to the church”.

This is why we are to do so:

Pro 18:13  He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.

First going to a brother or a sister personally and privately deals with the devices of the adversary and helps us to make our calling and election sure. It is not easy to do that, but it is a ‘pill’ which will immunize us from the discord which the adversary so desires to sow among us:

Pro 6:16  These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
Pro 6:17  A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
Pro 6:18  An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
Pro 6:19  A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

“A proud look, a lying tongue, [and] a false witness” are all part of being a lying or simply a deceived instrument of the adversary, who accuses our brothers day and night before our God, and he does that through those who fail to apply our Lord’s words, which keep us from being infected with the diseases of Egypt, which are nothing less than the diseases of Babylon.

Exo 15:26  And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

We will conclude our study today with a familiar verse of scripture, which, if we give heed to its admonitions, we will go a long way toward “mak[ing our] calling and elections sure”.

Here is what we are plainly advised will help us to “receive a full reward”

2Jn 1:8  Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. [“Make (our) calling and election sure”]
2Jn 1:9  Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
2Jn 1:10  If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
2Jn 1:11  For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

The way we are called to walk is a narrow way which this world cannot receive and will not obey. Those who will not “go to [their] brother between him and [them] alone” before they take with them one or two others, and before telling it to the church, are not bring obedient to Christ, and will not be rewarded with the peace of mind that comes with an obedient spirit. But those who “do the things [Christ] tells us to do” will reap the peaceable fruit of righteousness, and will be given “a full reward”.

Tomorrow we will go step by step into everything which Peter tells us will secure our calling and our election, and, Lord willing, we will be see our Lord just a little bit more clearly and will be transformed into that same image from glory to glory:

2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit [these very words] of the Lord.

2Pe 1:1  Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
2Pe 1:2  Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
2Pe 1:3  According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
2Pe 1:4  Whereby are 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.
2Pe 1:5  And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
2Pe 1:6  And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
2Pe 1:7  And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
2Pe 1:8  For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Pe 1:9  But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his       old sins.
2Pe 1:10  Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence [G4704, spoudazo] to make your calling and election sure:for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: