Make Your Calling and Election Sure

I. Peter's Farewell Sermon 1:12-15

A. Remember, remember, remember
B. We need reminders, because we do so easily forget
C. We need reminders because sometimes we think we know something when really we don't

II. Peter's Emphatic Language 8-11

A. Barren nor unfruitful v. 8
B. Shortsighted even to blindness v. 9
C. Calling and election v. 10-11

1. How do you make your calling and election sure?
2. You will never stumble.
3. Peter gives emphasis by piling up words – v. 11

III. Assurance of Salvation

A. Assurance of salvation is not salvation itself.

A true Christian can lack assurance of salvation and still be a Christian.
A lost person might have total assurance of God's love and favor and still be on the road to Hell.

B. Some Hindrances to Assurance of Salvation

1. Some feel any kind of assurance is “presumption”.
2. Some lack assurance because they know they are not perfect.
3. God's unconditional love for us is hard to understand or accept because it transcends anything we have known in our human experience (see Romans 5:6-8; 8:39).

C. How Can I Obtain Assurance of Salvation?