Are You Sure?

by Rev. Dr. Steve Voorwinde

Text: 2Peter 1:10, 11

Scripture readings: 1John 5:1-5, 13-21; 2Peter 1:1-11

 

Introduction:

When I was in the pastoral ministry I always considered it one of my greatest privileges to be able to visit people in their homes. One custom I particularly enjoyed in the churches I served was the regular home visit. After that mandatory first cup of tea or coffee you were expected to get down to business. The way was open to ask people some pretty personal questions about their spiritual lives.

At first the questions I asked were rather tame:

“Have you been growing in your Christian life?”

“Are you maturing in the faith?”

But as time went on I dared to become bolder and more direct:

“Are you sure you are a Christian?”

“Do you know you will go to heaven when you die?”

And to those questions I got a whole range of answers:

“I think so.”

“I hope so.”

“I don’t know. But can anybody really know? Doesn’t that go against our Christian modesty?”

“I’m not sure, but I don’t think you can be sure either!”

Although there were some who were absolutely sure of where they stood and where they were going, I found that among many Reformed people there were various levels of uncertainty. Often there was not the assurance that I had hoped to find.

And then when I came to Geelong I had an experience that made this question of assurance even more complex in my mind. Our family hadn’t been here long before we received a visit from the Mormons. They weren’t your regular, predictable kind of Mormons. They weren’t dressed in suits. They weren’t male. And they weren’t American. They were two young Australian women – disarming, amicable kind of people. Needless to say, we were soon discussing spiritual things. As I recall, it was a very open and honest discussion. At one point I mustered the courage to ask one of them a very personal question. I looked her right in the eye and said:

“If you were to die tonight, would God let you into His heaven?”

“Absolutely.”

“Why?”

“Purely by His grace.”

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. To my mind Mormons weren’t supposed to say that kind of thing! And then I thought back to those Reformed people who had heard the gospel for years and yet had never managed such a clear answer. For a while there it seemed that my theology had been put into a spin dryer. All kinds of thoughts and possibilities whirled about in my head.

And then I remembered something that I had read about Cardinal Newman who converted to Catholicism in later life. He is reputed to have said:

“Since becoming a Catholic I have never had a doubt!”

But that statement tells us more about Cardinal Newman than about Catholicism. In the same way the young woman’s answer to me in my living room probably said more about her than about Mormonism. You see, as people we’re all so different. Some of us are confident by nature; others are regularly plagued by self-doubt. As I read once on a bumper sticker, “I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.”

Some people are always self-assured about everything they do – about the careers they choose, about the cars they buy, about the brand of cereal they eat. Others of us need reassurance even when we’ve made good decisions and are doing the right thing. There are still others who present a very confident exterior, while on the inside they are riddled with insecurity.

But whatever our temperament, whatever our natural disposition, the Bible has a way of addressing us where we are. At the end of this second letter to the Corinthians Paul gives this general command to everybody. He is issuing a challenge to every Christian:

“Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith, examine yourselves.” (2 Corinthians 13:5)

And this is the test that I want to put to all of you here today:

• Are you in the faith?

• Are you a true believer in Jesus Christ?

• Do you know you’re going to heaven when you die?

How do you test yourself? How do you examine yourself to see if you are in the faith?

I. For an answer let’s begin with our text in II Peter 1:10,

“Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall…”

A. True enough, it is God who calls and it is God who chooses (or elects), but you have to be sure He has called and chosen you. “For,” says Peter, “if you do these things you will never fall…”

What things? He tells us earlier in this chapter exactly what he means beginning in vs. 5:

“…make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness knowledge; and to knowledge self-control; and to self-control perseverance; and to perseverance godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness love.”

Now if you practice these things, Peter says, you will never fall; you have every right to be sure and certain that God has called you chosen you. Yes, you can know!

B. Now let’s look at this carefully. If we understand this properly it can give us so much more confidence in the Christian life.

The first thing that is mentioned is faith. It’s a picture of faith and works. Faith is the root and works are the fruit. Or it’s like a pyramid. Faith is the foundation and love is the pinnacle.

These people already have faith. In vs. 1 he writes:

“To those who through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours.”

They have a faith that has been given by God. They have a faith that is based on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. They believe that Jesus Christ is God. They believe that he died on the cross for the sins of His people. They believe that He rose again.

But how can they know that theirs is a genuine faith? How can they know that what Jesus did He did for them personally? How do I know that Jesus did it for me? How can I take a verse like John 3:16 and make it my own? I not only say “For God so loved the world that He have His only begotten Son…” but “God so loved me that He gave His only begotten Son that I might not perish but have everlasting life.”

C. I can say that when I see the fruits of faith in my own life. That’s why Peter says: “Make every effort to add to your faith goodness etc.” If faith is alone it is dead. It is a sterile barren orthodoxy, like the faith of the Pharisees and even of the demons. They believe all the right things, they are dead right, but there’s no fruit. Again, we need holiness of life.

So let’s look at these beautiful fruits that grow up from the root of faith:

1/. Goodness: In the original this is a very special word. It doesn’t mean that you’re meant to be a “good bloke” or a “nice girl” in the opinion of other people. It’s the kind of goodness that answers the question: “What is this good for?” For example, a knife is good for cutting; a horse is good for running. That’s their purpose. For example when we say, “This knife is no good,” we mean that it’s blunt; it doesn’t cut. But now what about man, what’s his purpose and what’s he good for? The Westminster Shorter Catechism gives a very simple and concise answer:

“The purpose of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

Are you enjoying God? Is that what your life is all about? And do you enjoy God – just being with Him, listening to Him, talking to Him? As a human being that’s what you’re good for, that’s your goodness, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

2/. Knowledge: Is this personal knowledge or doctrinal knowledge? Is it practical or theoretical? Well, it’s really both. We are told to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can’t do that without studying the Scriptures, and we can’t do that without obeying what we study. How do you grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ? It’s by studying the Bible AND putting it into practice. You can’t have the one without the other.3/. Self-control: That’s a hard one because the Bible applies it to three very red-hot areas of our personal lives – temper, tongue and sex.

What’s your temper like in a situation where you don’t have to impress anybody? At home of an evening when you’re tired and have had a hard day? That may be the time to exercise some Christian self-control.

And what about your tongue? Those irresistible, delicious bits of gossip? That smattering of bad language that gives so much extra punch and spice to what you’re saying?

And then there’s self-control in the area of sex. And that doesn’t apply only to young people out on a date but what about lustful thoughts, immoral fantasies that are allowed to get out of control and run wild in your head?

Self-control – the Bible applies it to temper, tongue and sex. Where do you apply it?

4/. Perseverance: How steady are you as a Christian? Do you have the ability to stick with it? Or is it all a matter of stops and starts? Does your Christianity come in “spurts”? Does your faith depend on how you feel, or who you’re with or what mood you’re in? Or is it durable enough to stand a few knocks and disappointments?

Sometimes I feel there are Christians who live from one “high” to another, from conference to conference, from meeting to meeting, from experience to experience. They always need some boost of inspiration to keep them going. But the Bible most often describes the Christian faith as a “walk”. You just keep on keeping on, day after day, whether it’s dull or exciting, you just keep steadily walking with God. That’s perseverance.

5/. Godliness: We live in an age that seems to have no respect for the sacred, whether it’s a war memorial or a cathedral, it can be desecrated. In the midst of such an environment we are to be godly people – to respect and revere God. You know, nowadays if we want to say something good about a fellow believer we say he’s a keen Christian, or an alive Christian or a committed Christian. But it wasn’t always this way. Such a person used to be referred as simply as a “God-fearing man” or a “God-fearing woman”. Are you a God-fearing person?

6/. Someone like that will also show brotherly love. A godly person will not snob or ignore or downgrade somebody else because he has a different social background or different interests or even different ways of expressing his faith.

J.C. Ryle has said it well:

“A born again person has a special love for all true disciples of Christ. Like his father in heaven, he loves all men with a great general love, but he has a special love for those who are of one mind with himself … He and they may be very different in many ways – in rank, in station, in wealth. What matter? They are Jesus Christ’s people. They are His Father’s sons and daughters. Then he cannot help loving them.”

7/. And finally we come to the seventh fruit of faith which is love. This is the greatest of them all. Here you not only love your fellow-Christian, but also your neighbour whoever he may be, and even your enemy. This is the pinnacle of the pyramid; this is the choicest fruit of faith. It is when he loves even the unlovely that the Christian best reflects the self-sacrificing love of Jesus Christ.

D. So how did you go? Do you pass the test? What fruits of faith are there in your life? How do you know a pear tree? By its pears. How do you know an apple tree? By its apples. How do you know a Christian? By his fruits. Let’s do a quick review. In your life:

Is there goodness?

Is there knowledge?

Self-control?

Perseverance?

Godliness?

Brotherly kindness?

Love?

You may say, “That sounds a lot like the fruits of the Spirit.” And that’s exactly right. These fruits are the signs of the Holy Spirit working in your life. And therefore it’s the Holy Spirit who ultimately gives us the assurance of our faith.

As Paul says:

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God.” (Rom 8:16)

Lord’s Day 32 says: “We do good so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits.”

That’s why it’s so important to keep a check on how we’re doing. There has to be fruit, there has to be evidence that the Holy Spirit is working in our lives. The old Puritans used to have “holiness charts”, where that they would tick off the various items to show how they were doing. Well maybe that’s going a bit far, but the Bible does have several lists of fruits and virtues (e.g. Col 3, Rom 12, Gal 5) and we should know whether or not these things are expressed in our daily lives and how we are coming across to other people.

So let me suggest some homework for you. Sit down with your wife or your husband, or brother or sister, and tell that person how you think you’re doing on those fruits that Peter mentions. And then let the other person tell you how they think you’re doing. Now, with each item you can only put a tick if both of you agree that you have it. And then see how you do.

Now this is only a suggestion and it goes beyond self-examination. But let me impress it upon you that the Bible urges us from time to time to have a good hard look at ourselves to see how we’re doing. Only then can we be truly confident of our faith.

E. But someone may say, “But do you have to have full marks, do you have to score 100% on this list of Peter’s before you can be sure? If so, then I’m a hopeless case.”

No, no. The Bible is very realistic, because in the next verse after this list Peter has this to say:

“For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 8).

In other words: Is the fruit growing in your life? Is it getting bigger, riper? In your self-examination this time did you get a better mark than last time? God expects improvement.

F. If you pass this test, if the fruits are there and are growing, then no matter how insecure you are by nature, no matter how much you may struggle with self-doubt, you can claim the generous promise of v. 11: “… you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”.

If, on the other hand, you do not pass the test, if there is no growth in goodness, knowledge, self-control and perseverance, or if there is a clear lack of godliness, brotherly kindness and love, then Peter also has a word for you. But it’s not the promise of v. 11, but the rebuke of v. 9. You are “nearsighted and blind and have forgotten that you have been cleansed from your past sins”.

No matter how confident you may be by nature, no matter how self-assured you may come across, you have no right to be certain about your standing with God and you’re being presumptuous about your eternal destiny. As the Westminster Confession of Faith reminds us, there are “hypocrites and other unregenerate men who vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favour of God” (18:1)

It is dangerously possible for people to fool themselves. You can kid yourself that you are a Christian and on the way to heaven when in reality the opposite is true. Peter wrote the way he did to expose that kind of deception. In his day, too, there were people who claimed to belong to Christ and yet their lives were immoral and unholy.

Conclusion:

Again, brothers and sisters, the key to assurance of faith is holiness of life. The Puritans saw this assurance as one of the greatest blessings in the world. They called it “heaven on earth” and “the pearl of great price.” It’s a precious gem indeed and yet it is available to every Christian who strives to live a holy life. No matter how tainted your past or how tender your conscience, no matter whether by nature you are a confident person or an insecure person, you can be sure and you can know. How? By observing the fruit of the Spirit growing in your life. Where there’s growth, there’s life. Where there’s spiritual growth, there’s spiritual life.

The hymn writer and converted slave-trader, John Newton, put it so well.

“I am not what I ought to be,

I am not what I want to be,

I am not what I hope to be,

But still I am not what I used to be.

And by the grace of God I am what I am.”

Amen