Kootenai Church Morning Worship

I am old enough to remember the televangelist scandals of the late 1980s. I didn't know much about Christianity or the particular theological circles in which the scandals took place, but I did know that the headlines shook the cultural world at the time. In 1987, Jim Bakker was credibly accused with some sexual and financial scandals. Then in 1987, Oral Roberts was revealed that he had financial and fundraising issues. In 1987, it became known that Pat Robertson had lied about the date of his marriage to conceal a premarital conception. In 1988, Jimmy Swaggart, of course—sexual immorality. You remember those names? Well, if you were alive then, it was hard to avoid the news because back then we had two channels, three if you had a really fancy antenna, but you basically had two, and all you had to choose from was that news, and it was all over those two channels.
The rapid-fire implosion of those ministries shaped public opinion and attitude toward Christianity and Christians and particularly ministers and pastors in a profound way, and I think that that shaped perception has continued with us all the way through till today. You could add, of course, to that list of men and some women any number of recent high-profile scandals and revelations, for instance Ravi Zacharias, Tullian Tchividjian, Bill Gothard, Ted Haggard. Remember Ted Haggard? That was the early 2000s. He was the president of the National Association of Evangelicals.
Now there's really not a lot of overlap between those particularly unique theological circles and our theological circles. There's a little bit of overlap there, but they're not really in our theological camp, but yet the scandals were real and the profound impact of that was just as real. But it stings a little more when it comes from within our own theological circles, like Steve Lawson within the last couple of years or eighteen months and then Josh Buice with G3 Ministries. Josh's was not a sexual scandal, but it was still a moral stumble that was significant and costly to a number of people.
And the list of men and women who have stumbled in one way or another is long—high-profile, public, out in front, well-known personalities. In fact, I entered into a search engine “give me a list of high-profile evangelicals who have fallen sexually or financially in the last thirty years,” and the list was daunting. And I had forgotten 90 percent of the people on that list, but as I read through it I thought, “Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.” It can be so discouraging.
Now, I doubt that—in fact, I would be willing to bet that none of those people who entered into public ministry thought when they entered into the public ministry that they would eventually stumble. None of them are ordained and prayed over and go into public ministry thinking, “I can't wait. Someday if I work really hard at this, I'm going to have an opportunity to disgrace my wife, to discourage my family, to offend God's people, to create a stumbling block, to trash my reputation, to lose my ministry, and to make national headlines for stumbling in front of an entire nation.” None of those men and women planned to do that. Not a one of them. And yet it happened.
The high-profile stumbles do a lot of damage to the cause of Christ. But the low-profile stumbles are just as tragic. And the low-profile stumbles happen in every church across the country, in churches just like this, to people just like you and me. It doesn't make national news, it doesn't make national headlines, but the stumbles are just as tragic. It is a tale as old as time. James 1:14–15: “Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully matured, it brings forth death.” Lust, sin, death—that's the order. To start on the path of one and to not reign that in and to let it mature and grow is going to result in death. That's what Scripture says.
And the pitfalls that threaten us are many—pride, lust, greed, laziness, immorality, anger, selfishness, false doctrine, apathy, indifference, and the list goes on. That's why Peter says in 1 Peter 5:8: “Be of sober spirit, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:11: “We are not ignorant of his devices.” It's not like we don't have any examples of how people fell and what they fell doing. We have those examples. We have the examples even in Scripture of men like David and Solomon who fell and sinned in profound ways, and the effects of that fall were generations in the making and the working out. So we know what the devil's schemes are.
We know that it begins with us being lackadaisical, lazy, and indifferent. We take grace for granted. We stop taking sin seriously. We start making excuses. “Oh, it's just one sin. It's just a little compromise. Nobody will notice. I can get away with this.” We stop disciplining ourselves for the purpose of godliness.
And all the while—here's the insidious part of it. All the while we keep up public appearances because we think that no one is the wiser, because it's done in secret. We think that we can take fire into our laps and not be burned, that other men will fall but not me. I'm greater than other men. This is the lie that we tell ourselves. It may ruin other men's marriages, other men's families, other men's ministries, and other men's reputation, but I can play with this sin and get away with it because I'm not like other men. The hubris and the narcissism and the pride and the stupidity and folly of that kind of thinking destroys families. I can do this and get away with it. I can just play with sin for a season. I can turn it off anytime I want. I can stop anytime I want. I can control this. This won't dominate me.
And if you get to the point of thinking that, I promise you that you are already sin's slave. You're already in bondage. You're not addicted. You're not addicted, you're enslaved. Now that's good news because an addiction can't change, but you can be set free from your slavery. So if you get to the point of thinking, “I can peddle in this sin and I could traffic in this and I can control it without it controlling me,” you have already bought the lie. And if you continue down that path, you are the worst of fools because the fall happens very, very slowly and then all of a sudden, just like that. Very slowly and then all of a sudden. That's how everybody falls.
Our passage today addresses this danger of stumbling. It offers us a preventative for it. And the time to take action on that preventative is today, right now, today. Second Peter 1—we're looking at verses 10–11: “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and choosing sure; for in doing these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”
Now this is sort of Peter's conclusion, his concluding argument that really began back in verses 2–3 and is continuing until now. He's been developing this idea of nurturing and adding virtues to our faith, to our character, developing those, being disciplined in it. He says in verse 5 that we are to apply all diligence. In verse 10: “Be all the more diligent to make your calling and choosing [election] sure.” He is describing here the diligent application of the grace of God in pursuing the virtues that he lays out and lists in verses 5–7, adding to our faith moral excellence, and to our moral excellence, knowledge, and to our knowledge, self-control, to our self-control, perseverance, to our perseverance, godliness, to our godliness, brotherly kindness, and to our brotherly kindness, love. So, those are the eight virtues, and Peter says if you make yourself diligent to pursue those things and to add those things to your faith, here's the promise: you will never stumble. That is quite a magnificent promise.
And we have noticed in this passage that there are three blessings for those who will apply this spiritual diligence. The first is that we have, and it brings us, an assurance of our salvation. We took two weeks to unpack what the doctrine of assurance is. We looked at calling, we looked at election, and we looked at how we can make ourselves sure of our calling and our election. That's the first blessing of spiritual diligence, that it brings us an assurance of our salvation. The second and the third we are covering today; it's the rest of verse 10 and verse 11. In verse 10, spiritual diligence keeps us from stumbling, and then in verse 11, spiritual diligence grants us a triumphal entry into the eternal kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those are three rich blessings. You know that you're saved, you will not stumble, and you get a victor's welcome when you cross the threshold. Therefore, Peter says, you apply all diligence to make your calling and election sure.
So let's look at how this spiritual diligence keeps us from stumbling in verse 10. Read verse 10 again with me: “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and choosing sure; for in doing these things, you will never stumble.” The word that is translated “stumble” here is used figuratively for erring or for sinning. It's not a common New Testament word. In fact, it is only used five times in the New Testament. It's not the most notable word in the New Testament for sinning. It's used in James 3:2 to describe sinning with the tongue. James 3:2: “We all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the entire body as well.”
Now, what Peter is describing here when he talks about never stumbling—he's not describing final and full apostasy. He's not warning a believer that if you don't pursue these virtues, you might fall away and eventually perish. He's not describing the falling away of a believer into eternal perdition. A believer cannot lose their salvation. That's not what Peter's describing. He's already said that our faith is a gift and that you're chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. And he's told us that we have been called unto Christ by His glory and excellence. And therefore God has provided everything we need for life and for godliness. So our salvation is secure. But our sanctification is something that Peter wants us to pursue with all diligence. So it's not a full apostasy. It's not a believer losing their salvation but a believer falling or stumbling into error or sin.
Now what type of stumbling is Peter describing here? I think it is a moral stumbling, but I think it's more than just, oh, I sinned in a grievous way like a headline-making televangelist of the 1980s. That's not what Peter's describing. I think what Peter is warning us about is the danger of theological and moral shipwreck that is his subject for all of chapter 2 and all of chapter 3. And this is where, though we've been going slow, we have to back up a little bit and remind ourselves that this Epistle is about the danger of false teaching and false teachers. So Peter does not want us to stumble and fall into the lifestyle or to the example of a false teacher that he describes in chapters 2–3, and he doesn't want us to stumble and fall into the theological error of the false teachers that he describes in chapters 2–3.
So look at chapter 2, verse 1:
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies [this is the danger], even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned. (2 Pet. 2:1–2 LSB)
Peter's warning them. In his first statement regarding false teachers in the Epistle, he describes their destructive heresies. That's theological error. He describes their sensuality, and that's their moral error. Peter wants us to be preserved from falling into the example of the false teacher, following after them either in their morality or their theology, either one of those. You can stumble in either of those two ways.
In fact, Peter describes the moral corruption of false teachers and false teaching. Look down at verse 10. He says they “go after the flesh in its corrupt lust and despise authority.”
Look at verse 13: they “revel in the daytime.” These are people who are constantly indulging the desires of their flesh in a wanton way.
Look at verse 14: they have “eyes full of adultery and unceasing sin, enticing unstable souls.”
Verse 19: “They themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.”
So notice how Peter describes the false teachers: enticing unstable souls. How do you make people stable in their soul? Add to your faith moral excellence and knowledge and self-control. These virtues make you solid in your walk. These virtues make you solid in your inner man, in your mind, in your heart, both theologically and morally. So Peter's concern is that we would not become theological or moral shipwrecks like the false teachers. How do you do that? You cultivate these virtues. “In doing these things, you will never stumble” (2 Pet. 1:10). Peter says that we are to be diligent to add these things to our faith, and thus we make our calling and election sure.
In the cultivation of these virtues, that is your preservation from sin. Hear that again. In the cultivation of these virtues is your preservation from sin and stumbling. Show me someone who does not cultivate his moral excellence, does not pursue knowledge of the truth, does not persevere in those things, does not exercise self-control, does not practice godliness and pursue that—show me somebody who fits that description and I will show you a theological and moral train wreck in the making. I will show you tomorrow's scandalous headline. In the doing of these things is our preservation from sin. Do you want to be kept from theological and moral ruin? This is the path that Peter is laying out. “In doing these things, you will never stumble” (2 Pet. 1:10).
Now the men and women who have fallen into error and sin and make headlines are men and women whose outward appearance had a thin veneer of these things. No false teacher ever stands up in front of a crowd and shows the crowd the porn on his phone. Nobody ever does that. They have a thin veneer of godliness, a thin veneer of moral excellence. That's how they keep the gig going. That's how they keep the people deceived. But for everybody who has fallen, their very soul and character was not indelibly marked by these things. At some point they left off their pursuit of these virtues and started to make all of the excuses and many more that I gave you at the very beginning.
The cultivation of these qualities is your preservation from sin. You won't stumble. Remember verse 9? Look up at verse 9 in chapter 1: “For in whom these things are not present, that one is blind, being nearsighted, having forgotten the purification from his former sins.” You know what blind and nearsighted people do? They stumble. They fall. So Peter has already said if you don't have these virtues, you're blind, being nearsighted. And guess what blind and nearsighted people do. They stumble. If you have these virtues, you're neither blind nor nearsighted. You will be fruitful. You will be useful. That's verse 8. And you will be kept from stumbling.
Peter closes this Epistle with the same concern. I want you to look over at chapter 3, verses 17–18. Look at chapter 3, verse 17:
17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest you, having been carried away by the error of unprincipled men, fall from your own steadfastness,
18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Pet. 3:17–18 LSB)
That's how Peter closes the Epistle. He begins it by saying, “Be diligent. Apply all diligence to make your calling and election sure, for in doing this, you will never stumble.” Then in chapter 2 he's going to lay out all the errors and the sensuality of the false teachers. Then in chapter 3 he'll give us more of the false teaching and what it looks like and what they sound like and some examples of it. And then he gets to the end of the book and he's going to remind us of what he told us at the very beginning: “be on your guard lest you, having been carried away by the error of unprincipled men, fall from your own steadfastness” (2 Pet. 3:17). You have to be diligent (chapter 1) and be on guard (chapter 3). You will not stumble (chapter 1); you will not fall from your steadfastness (chapter 3). You see how he brackets this entire section on false teachers with that encouragement? Do these things and you will be protected.
You want to be a moral and theological shipwreck? Then ignore everything that we've been saying for the last several weeks. Continue on in your sin and you will be tomorrow's headline, you will be tomorrow's church discipline issue, you will be tomorrow's shamed person. That's how it works. Pursue these virtues. Be diligent in them lest you be carried away by the sensuality of unprincipled men.
Now let me shift gears for just a second. You might be thinking to yourself, “Jim, it sounds as if what you're saying is that all of this sanctification and me being kept from sin in my faith is my work and my labor because you've hardly said anything about God keeping us and preserving us. All you've told me is I have to be diligent, I have to be steadfast, I have to be vigilant, I have to be on guard. It sounds as if it is all my work, it's all human effort, and that God is not involved in this at all.” Well, there are two sides to this sanctification coin. There are two elements to this. In Jude 24, Jude writes, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.” To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling. It's the same word, a form of the same word. God is able to keep you from stumbling. God is the one who ultimately keeps you. And Peter says in chapter 1, verse 5, of his first Epistle that we “are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
So is it me who through my diligence and my effort and my striving and my self-discipline and adding these virtues to my faith—is it me who keeps myself in the faith and from stumbling? Yes. Is it also God who is able to keep us from stumbling and to present us faultless before His throne with exceeding joy and who keeps us by His power to the very end because the Shepherd has promised never to lose any whom He has saved? Yes. You provide the effort, God provides the effect. These two things go together. You are kept by the power of God for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. He is able to keep you from stumbling.
And listen, because He is able to keep you from stumbling, apply all diligence to make sure that you add these virtues to your faith so that you will never stumble. If it were all up to me to apply this diligence so that I would never stumble, I would despair of that. I don't have that in my heart and my soul. I don't have that within me. I don't have that capability. But because I have a God who has promised to keep me to the very end, I, by His grace, can apply all diligence to make sure that I do not stumble. These two things go together. We can never stop working and stop putting out effort and say, “All right, God, You sanctify me. You keep me. I'm going to plug in to my sin here and You just make sure that I make it past the gate at the end of time.” That is not how it works at all. Believers do not think like that. You provide the effort, God provides the effect.
This is why Paul can say, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20). Paul says, “I'm dead. I'm not dead. I'm still alive. I don't really live this life, but I do live this life. Christ is living it through me, but I'm living it.” See, those two things go together. Paul says to the Philippians, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to desire and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12–13). You work because God has ordained to work through you.
So our work is this: We pursue holiness. We put to death the members of our earthly body. We put off the old man and put on the new man created in Christ Jesus. We walk in the Spirit. We work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We long for the pure milk of the Word. We yield our members to righteousness and stop yielding our members as instruments of sin. We set our minds on heavenly things. We lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. We run our race. We labor and strive. We discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness. We flee youthful lust and pursue righteousness. We cling to Christ. We give heed to God's warnings. We endure, we persevere, and we continue in the faith. All of those commands and so many more like them are addressed to us. And they describe the work, the effort, the diligence, the vigilance, the being on guard, the steadfastness that is required of the Christian. There's a reason why we're called soldiers—because it's a battle. There's a reason why we're likened to farmers—because it's effort. There's a reason why we are called slaves. It's because we have to work at it.
But here's the blessed and glorious good news. God by His grace has ordained that through our efforts and the power of the Spirit, in the purity of His Word, we can make progress in this. And if we can make progress in this, then God has ordained that we apply all diligence toward that end, and He will bless it. We put forward the effort, praying and trusting as if none of it depends upon our effort but as if all of it depends upon His grace, and we work as if it all depends upon our effort and none of it depends upon His grace. I trust Him as if it's all His work, and I work like it's all my work, and those two things work together. “In doing these things, you will never stumble” (2 Pet. 1:10). That's the promise. Leave off these virtues, start to neglect them, lay them by the wayside, become slothful, and it's game over for you. You’re tomorrow's headline.
This is the second blessing of spiritual diligence. First, we are assured of our salvation; second, we are kept or preserved from stumbling; and third, it will bring us a triumphal entrance into the kingdom. Look at verse 11: “For in this way [that is, by applying all diligence, making our calling and election sure, adding these things to our faith, in the application of this diligence that he's been talking about since verse 5] the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly [or richly] supplied to you.” Those who, through the diligent application of God's grace, labor and strive toward these qualities are promised something remarkable. Not just that you will pass through the veil, sort of come in and skirt the border, as it were, and just sort of land in Heaven unnoticed, but that your entrance to the eternal kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ will be lavishly provided, abundantly supplied.
Think of the difference between a person who has trusted Christ in the final hours or days of their life and has had no opportunity to obey the Lord and do much of anything in terms of long-term service, but they trust Christ, and a couple days later they have perished—think of the difference between that person's entrance into Heaven and then most recently John MacArthur. There will be a difference in that. The one who throughout their life has diligently applied effort to progress in sanctification and to grow in holiness, your entrance into the eternal kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ will be lavishly supplied, abundantly so.
This is, I think, an eschatological kingdom. It is a future reality, which is why Peter says it will be provided, not that it was provided, has been provided, or you're already in it but that there is something future that you have to look forward to—a kingdom and an entrance into it. It's not a current possession. He's not talking about the current reign of Christ or your current position in this kingdom but the entrance into some state that is in the future that God is going to ordain with a lavish supply to celebrate your arrival.
This is a future expression of the kingdom of Christ that Peter is describing here. Christ currently sits on His Father's throne. He currently rules the nations. He is currently head of the church. He is sovereign over all. All of that is true. We don't deny any of that. There's not an atom or a molecule of this universe that is rogue and disobeys His every command. He “upholds all things by the word of His power,” Hebrews 1:3 says. So though He sits and He reigns, what we are seeing today is not the sum total and the final form of that reign. As premillennialists, we don't think that the reign of Christ or the kingdom of Christ is going to begin at some point in the future. It exists now. We just say that this is not the full and final state of that reign.
There will be yet future manifestations of this kingdom of Christ. There will be a physical kingdom where He will rule the nations from David's throne just as Israel was promised, and you and I will enter into that kingdom. And that eternal kingdom that begins with the rule of Christ on this earth and continues into the new heavens and New Earth—there will be yet another form of His rule and His sovereignty in the new creation that is to come. There are manifestations of His dominion that have yet to be seen and experienced by us.
So this kingdom that we are in—it is true currently we are in His kingdom, but we have not fully received all the fullness of that kingdom yet. It is ours, but we don't yet possess it. This is part of the “we have it but not yet.” It's a “now but not yet” dynamic of the Christian life. We have been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His Son. That is true, but there is also a kingdom that is to come. Peter says in this way your entrance into that kingdom will be abundantly supplied. There is a future manifestation and a future reality of that. The kingdom of Christ is both our current possession and our future reward. We possess it, it is ours, but we do not yet possess it in the fullness of it. There is a kingdom that is to come and we will enter into that lavishly.
I want you to notice here that the very language of this verse shows that in the kingdom and into the entrance of the kingdom, there will be degrees of blessedness. Those who apply all diligence receive an abundant entrance. Those who do not apply all diligence do not receive the abundant entrance. You receive an entrance—this is not salvation by works, this is rewards according to our works. But there will be degrees of blessedness.
Michael Green in his commentary on this passage says this:
This passage agrees with several in the Gospels and Epistles in suggesting that while Heaven is entirely a gift of grace, it admits of degrees of felicity [that is, blessedness] and that these degrees are dependent upon how faithfully we have built a structure of character and service upon the foundation of Christ.
This is what Paul was describing in 1 Corinthians 3 when he says,
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.
11 For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
13 each man's work will become evident, for the day will indicate it because it is revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.
14 If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.
15 If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. (1 Cor. 3:10–15 LSB)
What is Paul saying? There's one foundation. We all build upon the same foundation. If you build upon that foundation with wood, stubble, hay, and consumable materials, then on that final day when it is all tested by fire, you're going to have nothing left but a pile of ash and you're going to smell like smoke. Do you get into Heaven? Yes, you do, but you're going to smell like smoke, saved so as by fire, barely coming through. But if you take that foundation and you build upon it things that are precious and true and pure, gold and silver and precious stones, that continues into the life that is to come where you will be rewarded with that. Heaven and its reward—we don't all get the exact same reward. We all get the same Heaven. We all get the same Christ. We all have the same forgiveness of sins, the same perfect righteousness, but we don't all get the same rewards. God is not a socialist now, and He won't be one anytime in the future. Heaven admits to degrees of felicity and blessedness.
I fully expect—and I'm fine with this—I fully expect that in the coming kingdom men like Spurgeon and Paul and Peter and MacArthur and Sproul and others like them who have served faithfully, ended their race well, ran it to the end, and finished their course will hear “well done, good and faithful servant,” and they will outshine the rest of us that are here and me. I'm fine with that. They will get the reward. Because they're like the servant that Simon mentioned in Sunday school class today. They were given X amount, and they took that, and they used it for the Lord. See, one guy's given one talent, one guy's given five talents, one guy's given ten talents. Right, and the issue is, do you take what the Lord has given to you and do you apply all diligence to use it for His sake?
To some of us, God has given very little. To others of us, God has given great things. Squander the great things, your accountability is more. Do well with the little things that the Lord has entrusted to you, and your reward is great. What a gracious God that He would set it up that way. He doesn't make us all MacArthurs and Sprouls. Those are unique men. These are unique gifts to the church. So we're not all like that.
And when we get to Heaven, it is all by grace, but there are also implications in Heaven for how we discipline ourselves here. This is what Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:7–8 when he says, “On the other hand, train yourself for the purpose of godliness, for bodily training is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things [listen to this last phrase] since it [that is, godliness] holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” Your discipline for the purpose of godliness holds a promise for the present life. There's fruit for that. There's benefit and blessing to that. But also for the life to come.
What we do here matters there. It has implications for the life to come. And what we don't do here also matters and has implications for the life that is to come in a negative way. So while we all receive eternal life, there will be varying degrees of reward, varying rewards, different states of blessedness, different capacities and capabilities for glory and joy, but all of these things are connected to our lives here. What we do here matters.
You say, “Jim, why should I apply all diligence? Why should I say no to sin and temptation? Why should I care about that? I'm going to Heaven.” Because what you do here matters for eternity, and once you enter into eternity, there's no changing what you did here. Now you may say, “Jim, I got saved late in life. I mean, the sun hasn't set, but I can see it in the clouds. We're getting close. I'm reaching toward the end of my life. I know that my days are numbered. I'm probably—if not in the last lap, I'm close to it. I just got saved recently. What hope is there for me?”
There's tremendous hope. God by His providence has saved you when He saved you and how He saved you. He called you to Himself at that time. So what He has given to you, whether it is a day or a month or a year or ten years, whatever it is that He has entrusted to you, apply all diligence. Be diligent to make your calling and election sure. Add these things to your faith. Serve Him well. Run your race well. Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Strive and labor in these things. And God is not going to hold you accountable for what you wasted for forty or fifty years before you got saved. That is atoned for. That is forgiven. That is out of the way. God will hold you accountable for the time and the talents and what He has given to you for what remains. Use it well with all diligence.
That is Peter's point. Supply to your faith those things. The word supply is the same word used up in verse 5. The word supply that's used here for God supplying us an abundant entrance to Heaven in our reward, that's the same word that's used for supply in verse 5 where Peter says that we are to supply to our faith these things. You may remember back then—you won't if you weren't here, obviously—but that word comes from a noun choregos, which means the leader of a chorus. It was a vivid metaphor drawn from the Athenian drama festivals in which an individual called a choregos joined with a poet and the civic authorities, the state, in putting on the plays, the outside plays that they would do. And the choregos's responsibility was to fund the whole thing. So it was a private enterprise. He would step up, he would pay for the actors, he would pay for the setting, he would rent the venue, he would do all of that to put on these public performances and plays as sort of his gift to the community. So it was a generous community-minded citizen with great means who could do this. That was the choregos.
You say, “How many people would compete to give their money to do that?” There were actually competitions between choregoi (that's the plural form) to do this, to be the guy that got to do this, because there was great notoriety that came with it. So the verb, that word, describes somebody who has the means and is willing to eagerly and lavishly provide it and lay it out. Not a stingy, miserly person who just puts forth a little effort when it is convenient, but somebody who just lavishly pours out everything that is needed for this thing. So Peter says in verse 5 to lavishly supply these things to your faith. Go over and above with all of those virtues.
And here's the reward. You supply those things to your faith, you do this with diligence, and here's what comes at the end. God Himself will lavishly put on your entrance into the kingdom of Heaven. I can only imagine what it is like for somebody like John MacArthur or Charles Spurgeon, these great men who have finished well—I can only imagine what it is like for them to step into glory in that moment. What type of lavish entry do they receive? And in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, in His millennial reign, what type of lavish entry will they receive when they return with Him? And when we step on to the new heavens and the New Earth, what type of lavish entrance does the Lord have planned for those who are faithful to apply all diligence to add these things to your faith?
All of this comes to us by God's grace. Our God who chose us before the foundation of the world sent His Son to die in our place to redeem guilty sinners like you and me, to pay the price for our sin that our sins warranted. And then by His Spirit He calls us in time to Himself. Having provided everything that we need for life and for godliness, He now will keep us all the way to the end, giving us the grace that we need to apply all diligence and to obey Him fully. Romans 8 says that God “did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” He has granted us everything we need to live a godly, holy life in this world, and He calls us to apply all diligence to use what He has provided to pursue those virtues so that in the end He will lavishly give us the kingdom. All of that grace was purchased for us through the death of Christ.