Confirming Our Faith: The Journey to Abundant Salvation

"so what he is saying then is that god has called us he has saved us but what is now required is that we need to ratify the call of god upon our lives we need to confirm the salvation that he has given to us and how do we do that adding to our faith virtue until we get to the point of love in the previous past by being diligent so so that is the part that we play so god does his part he he he pays the price for our redemption he enters into a covenant with us he does everything for us but until we accept the covenant until we say yes lord we believe there is no covenant and we are still in our sins" [00:12:00]

"yes we are saved by faith but faith you should know what i'm going to say now without works is dead so how do i prove my faith or how do i show my i show it by works and that's exactly what peter is talking about here now some theologians will say well peter is contradicting paul no he's not contradicting paul at all paul says exactly the same thing james says exactly the same thing so faith needs to result in my salvation is confirmed by my actions not my actions do not save me let's go let's be absolutely clear about that by i can work my my uh you know until the lord comes and and and i can add to my uh faith virtue and goodness and all of these things but unless i'm saved unless the these things are no good" [00:13:05]

"and we are confirming ratifying salvation then we will never fall the the some translations use that word for we will never not make it but we will make it into into heaven so you can see that this is a very very serious warning now i know that there are many many people who believe that uh that that you cannot lose your salvation well you have to explain the scripture you have to deal with the scripture and there are many many others uh but this is just one of the many that we we have to explain away and that's why you get into all sorts of problems when you try and and and and uh explain the ways plain uh scriptures like this one" [00:17:19]

"and so we make our election tight tied it tied ourselves to our salvation by adding our by being diligent let me just use that word and and uh cut it short and so if you do these things all the things that you have spoken about that we've been speaking about the last three weeks you will not come short simple as that we know that there are many who do come short because they just on the screws to heaven and say well you know jesus has paid it all and all i need to do is i just need to get on the on on the train and um you know and i'm i'm on my way to heaven no abide me jesus said abide in me we need to remain in him" [00:19:21]

"and um it was a very first time i'd heard it but it was a really good one what he said is that many times we see our salvation as a ticket to heaven so we we got our ticket we just get on the train and then we're off and we're going to heaven but in fact it's not that way jesus is our ticket and he is not standing at the door and saying well where's your ticket okay you got a ticket so you can get on the train you're on your way no he he tickets um it's it's the same way as as when you're flying with children you don't give them the tickets and say well you know there's the tickets now we're going to go and visit grandma or whatever uh you you hold on to the tickets because they may lose the tickets and so you hold on to the tickets and they'll be with you and then they can get on the plane and that's exactly the same thing with our salvation jesus has the tickets but we have to be with him we have to be in him and when we're with him he holds the tickets and we're and we're good" [00:19:48]

"so let me deal with the end of the verse like i sometimes do and then we'll go back to the beginning so i've already given you the key this is simply speaking about heaven the everlasting kingdom of our lord and savior jesus christ the scripture speaks about the kingdom of god or the kingdom of heaven here it's speaking about the kingdom of our lord and savior jesus christ it's it's all the same thing and in this sense the kingdom represents eternal uh bliss uh heaven this is not the millennial kingdom so much that he is speaking about he's talking about our ultimate entry into the new jerusalem but now i want for you to see that he says that if we are diligent in these things in other words if we apply everything that we've been speaking about in the last three four weeks a abundant entrance will be supplied to us an abundant entrance remember that word abundant appears a few verses before as well he has abundantly supplied everything that we that we need so just think about that if there is an abundant entrance is there then a entrance that is not abundant remember the word abundant means over the top more than enough superfluous if there's an abundant entrance is it possible then to have a not abundant entrance well i believe so because otherwise why does he speak about an abundant interest why doesn't he just say then for so an entrance will be supplied in the everlasting kingdom but he's saying there's an abundant entrance" [00:21:05]

"paul speaks about the the judgment of believers and he says that our works will be tested you remember that and some of our works will be burnt like wood hay and stubble and others works will endure the the judgment will endure the stand the test because they were the right kind of works and i i don't want to get too sidetracked on these but remember that wood hay and stubble really is work that is done for the wrong motor for the wrong reason um the wrong works being in disobedience so even if we're doing good things but we're not doing it in the will of god because we're just following our own minds that count uh work that we've done to get um the applause of men uh giving our our gifts to the poor and blowing a trumpet so everybody can see us giving he says you have your reward it doesn't count they are what we call dead works" [00:23:03]

"and so some will have nothing and they'll stand before him empty-handed but they're saved now i i i know there are some christians who say well you know that's all that matters i just want to be saved remember that we've spoken about this recently when we played that hymn that i love so much that when we see him we'll wish that we'd given him more more so much more you see one day when we understand the price he paid for us and we see and know everything even as we are known it says and we look back and we look at how slothful we've been and we look at the price that he paid for us we'll wish that we'd given him something and so i don't want to make it into heaven by the skin of my teeth i want an abundant entrance" [00:26:21]

"i want to be able to come to into his presence with something to lay at his feet and say lord you are worthy because you've loved me and you've bought me with a terrible price i don't want to get into heaven by the skin of my teeth and and i know that uh that this is really exaggerating it in a sense but but you know sort of feeling guilty that i don't really belong here you know no we're we're going to be saved by the blood of christ but there are some that are going to have an abundant entrance the martyrs will have an abundant entrance into though into the joy of thy lord good and faithful servant remember the scriptures that speak about the fact that he will acknowledge us before the father and before the angels so that there will be those that he will deny before the father and the angels" [00:28:21]

"i don't care so much about what you think about me or my preaching or my ministry but there's one thing that drives me and that is that i am pleasing to my father and that i stand before him on that day and it's not about billions of people saved it's not about building big churches it's not about any of those things it's about faithfulness and all i want to hear is well done good and faithful servant this week i you know and i attended a virtual awards thing for our granddaughter in south africa and she made third place but i i know the disappointment i didn't make first place i didn't win the prize folk that's nothing that's temporary i want to win that prize and it's not a matter that i'm going to win a bigger prize than you or that we're going to be first second and third we're not going to be measured by one another we're going to be measured by our own potential by what god has placed within our hearts the calling and the gift that he's given to each one of us and asking us and if we have fulfilled our obligations if we've reached our potential and i use that word very carefully but but but there's no better word for this if we've reached the fullness of what god has deposited in us we will be pleasing we will get surprise and if we have not reached the potential of what god has placed within us we will not have an abundant entrance" [00:31:28]

"the first is are you going to make it on that day are you going to make it on that day and folk i i am i am deeply concerned that there are folk in this congregation and there are those who are watching on the on online who might not make it on that day as we said before there are empty seats some some folk are on vacation others are sick there are others that are not here for good reasons but there are empty seats here tonight of those who've back to the world they're not gonna make it there's nothing we can do but pray for them and we do pray for them our hearts go out and we know their names but the question tonight is not about them the question is about you and me are we going to make it on that day and secondly having made it will we enter with an abundant entrance with an abundant entrance please brother don't just say i just want to make it into heaven no we want to please him who called us we want to enter with an abundant entrance how do i do that well simple go back over these last four weeks go back over these first eight verses or eight verses before this the this tense verse therefore brethren we be even more diligent to make your call and election sure add to your face let me just go over those that you remind us add to your faith virtue to virtue knowledge to knowledge self-control to self-control perseverance to perseverance godliness to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness love therefore be more diligent to make your call and election sure" [00:33:23]