II Peter 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.
10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
12 Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
13 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
14 Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.
15 Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
There is a danger in lacking the spiritual attributes mentioned above. God is warning that those who want to be carnal, like the saints in Corinth were for a time, are blind. That person is not yielded to the will of God as a child of God. Due to that he cannot see afar off. He cannot see the blessings that are there for the true child of God. He also has forgotten that he was “purged” from his old sins.
God is reminding the reader that salvation makes a massive change in the recipient’s life. The saved person does not add Jesus to a pile of other things. That is Hinduism. The saved person turns to God as a wretched lost sinner and he trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ to cleanse him of his sin through His shed blood. From the moment of salvation the saved person is a new creature.
II Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
The whole philosophy of New Evangelicalism is that salvation does not necessarily change things. That is how ‘Christian Rock’ came about. There is no such thing as ‘christian rock’, but the secular religious crowd believes there is. Then from that came the CCM music which is of the same source as the christian rock. That source is not God. New Evangelicalism feeds the flesh, but not the spirit. It corrupts the spirit. People are told it is feeding their soul, but that is not true. It might produce a type of euphoria but that is not of God.
In verse 10 we see that those who are saved, the brethren, need to give diligence to make your calling and election sure. True saints do not sit around with their hands folded and just think spiritual growth will fall into their lap. The New Testament has much to say about putting off the old man and putting on the new man.
God told Peter that we, those who are saved, need to “add to faith” etc. Salvation is a work of God. He gives us all that Peter wrote about in this epistle. We need to avail ourselves of what God is providing.
In verse 10 we also have the promise that if we are growing in the Lord, we will never fall. That tells us something important. When a true child of God commits sin, it is because he has become distracted with the world, and taken his eyes off the prize. The solution is not to find a religious group that will cater to that carnality. The solution is to get back where God designed you to be.
In verse 11 we see that we gain spiritually when we submit to God’s design for Christianity. This is not talking of earning salvation. It is similar to what Paul was directed to write in II Timothy 4. Timothy needed to:
II Timothy 4:5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
Timothy was already saved. He was not in a spiritual slump; however, he needed to be reminded of the need to guard against getting into a slump. No true child of God can ever come to the place where they can just coast. There is a constant need to be in the Word and to be living according to what the Word of God says. The New Evangelical crowd cannot help with that at all. They just scratch the itching ears. They do not help the person to know the holiness of God and the true blessings of salvation.
You notice in verse 11 that the saints are a part of the “everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”. At salvation, ownership is transferred from self, to Christ. Maybe you were not taught that, but that is faulty teaching. Due to the fact that the One Saviour and Lord owns all saints, there will not be the multifaceted doctrines that are being pushed in New Evangelical churches. There will be a coming together in spiritual oneness in Christ. This is not the ecumenical endeavours of the lost, but the unity found when:
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
In verse 12 we see that it is important for the true servant of the Lord to always put fellow believers in remembrance of the things we have looked at. It was not that the saints did not know them. However, they needed to be established in the present truth. God’s truth is ever present. It is not evolving. Again, we see and need to acknowledge that the modern church movement is not of God. It is something new and strange. It is what Joshua noted as “noise” when he and Moses came down the mount and discovered that the people had turned to idolatry. That is a very good picture of what has happened in most religious groups today. In the example just given, Aaron was supposed to be in charge. He was supposed to be the spiritual leader of the people. However, he allowed the people to tell him what to do. He was weak and did not want to stand for truth, and he demonstrated what a spiritual ‘wet noodle’ looks like. Moses needed to fix the outward things there, but the heart issue was something that could only be fixed if the people would repent toward God.
In verse 13 Peter was directed to remind the readers, that even though he was an apostle and a servant of Jesus Christ, he was only here for a short time. His duty was to stir them up by putting them in remembrance. That is what true spiritual leaders do. They are convinced of the absolute truthfulness of God’s preserved and inspired Word. They do not try to adjust it for the times. They continue to hold to the truth, as Jude stated:
Jude 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
The Bible points out that true saints have short memories. That is why we need weekly church services and weekly Bible Studies, and daily Bible reading.
In verse 14 Peter was continuing to remind them of the brevity of this life. Soon his physical life would be over. Peter remembered what Jesus had told him in John 21. Paul was directed to put it this way:
Ephesians 5:15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
In verse 15 we read that Peter wanted to do all he could to make sure that the teachings he gave would last long after he was gone. We can be assured of that because God has preserved His Word from this generation and for ever. Not only that, but God has made sure that in every generation there are godly men who can be evangelists, pastors and teachers to do the work that God has called them to do. True servants of God are not numbers oriented. They are motivated by the love of God and they need to remain faithful to Him.
Pastor Bartel