Scott Moore: Welcome to the "Building Faith and Family" podcast with Steve Demme. I'm your host, Scott Moore. Thanks for joining us today. Good morning, Steve. How are you today?

Steve: I am well. It's a quiet, rainy day where I am right now. How about you? Scott: I'm good. It's raining on and off here, but somewhat sunny. That's life. Steve: The last time, we discussed this passage in 2 Peter 1:10‑11. "Therefore brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an inheritance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

Now that I have entered into His eternal kingdom, I want to confirm my calling and election. I want to make sure that I am rooted and grounded in God's love. That's from Ephesians 3.

Today, at God's direction, I felt like He said, "Well, what do you do to confirm your calling and election? How are you more diligent? What things are you doing?" I sensed He wanted me to expand on this thought. So let's pray.

"Father, thank You for our calling and our election. Now show us what it means to be the more diligent to confirm this calling and election because that wonderful passage says, 'If we practice these qualities, we will never fall.' So there's something to it, and I pray that You will help us to have our eyes opened and our ears attuned to what Your Spirit is saying to us this morning." In Jesus' name, Amen.

Scott: Amen.

Steve: A similar passage to 2 Peter 1 is in 2 Peter 3. A little bit longer, but I'm going to read it to get the context.

"The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar. The heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God?"

"Because of which, the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to His promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish and at peace."

The context is, we are approaching the day of the Lord. I don't think anybody would question that. He said, "But these things are coming about now. Be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish and at peace."

Even though God brings us to a new place in our relationship with Him, we still have this responsibility to be diligent, to confirm our calling and election, and to be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish and at peace.

The same word for "be diligent" in the Greek is found three times where Paul is talking to Timothy and Titus, and he said, "Make every effort to come to me." I think you'll recall those. He says this three different times, in three different places, "Make every effort." Same Greek word. Be diligent.

I wanted to just phase that in, you might say, to bring us a fuller understanding of what it means to be diligent. It means to make every effort.

There's another one in Ephesians 4. "I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called." See, this is what we've already been talking about, the calling.

“With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

2 Timothy 2:15. "Be diligent.” Another translation says, "Do your best to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth."

As we read through these passages, you can see it was a much fuller understanding of, instead of saying just be diligent, it's making every effort. It's eager to maintain. It's doing my best to make my calling and election sure.

Philippians 2:12‑13. It is a different Greek word. "Therefore, My beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in My presence, but much more in My absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."

I know there are people who get nervous when I say those words, but it's the Word of God. He says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Now that word "work out" is katergazomai, and it's two words put together, kata, which means exactly or according to, and ergazomai, which means to work. In other words, work right down to the endpoint.

Work right down to the end. Accomplish would probably be the best word to define that word. "Accomplish your own salvation. Work out to the very end with fear and trembling. For it is God, Who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

I always thought that was a fascinating joining of two concepts. We're supposed to work out our own salvation. We're supposed to give diligence to give our calling and election sure, while recognizing that ultimately it's God who's working in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

I think He wants us to cooperate. He wants us to work along with Him. This same word, katergazomai, is used in James where it says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet various trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces or accomplishes steadfastness."

I never liked that verse the first 50 times I read it. "Count it joy when you have trials." I don't know how to do that. "I'm supposed to give thanks in all things. OK. I'm trying." But it was hard for me to count trials as joy.

Apparently, this testing of our faith accomplishes, it brings right down to the endpoint, steadfastness. Let steadfastness have its full effect. He goes on to say that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. What a promise. It's similar to some of the promises we've read before. "If we will give the more diligence to confirm our calling and election, if we practice these qualities, we will never fall." This is what the Bible says. I'm not making this up.

Then, 2 Corinthians 4:16‑18 "We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is accomplishing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison." These light momentary afflictions, these trials of various kinds are producing, accomplishing, working in us things that are pleasing to God and that are going to last forever.

Ephesians 6 says, "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, stand firm."

There's a point where we have been working with God. We've done everything we know to be diligent. We have been giving diligence. People are working out their own salvation with fear and trembling. Then He says, "Now, having done everything, stand. Hold on to it."

The more I immersed myself in this topic, I realized that there's a lot that Paul is saying throughout his writings. James says it. Peter says it. They're saying, "Look. This takes some effort. It's not all on God. We don't just sit back and sing songs about amazing grace. We need to give the more diligence. We need to do something and work with Him to bring it to fruition."

As I thought about that, I remembered way back in 2012 when God was showing me new things. He was unpacking the Bible. I got to see His love in a new way. I got to see what it meant to be forgiven in a new way. I got to understand grace in a new way. All these different things, but they were new to me. I mean, I knew them, but I didn't know them really well.

Without thinking about these passages, I gave diligence because I knew that my mind needed to be transformed. That's where the change happens. The renewing of the mind, the transforming power of the gospel.

I did lots of studies on God's love, His grace, and God's character. When I was praying for God to help me to love Him and in response, God began by His Spirit to show me how much He loved me. The verse that broke it for me was John 15:9, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love."

That verse is now on a painting in my room. It was transformational because I knew that the Father loved His Son. And He says, "Just the same way that My Dad loves Me, that's how much I love you." He says, "Abide in My love." This was new to me, that God really not only loved me, but He liked me. I just couldn't get my mind around it, so I started doing studies.

I wondered, "How did the Father love the Son?" As soon as I verbalized that, the Spirit took me to His baptism when Jesus came out of the water and the Father said to Him, "This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased."

I believe there are three things in there. The first one, "This is My Son. This is My beloved Son, and He is well‑pleasing." I thought, "Well, if that's the way the Father loves the Son, then that's the way that I'm loved." But I had to work at this. Now one thing I had to add to my study was even though God said three things to His Son, His Son was perfect. His Son had never sinned. So the first thing I had to work out, and I've got these all as be's, B‑E, I had to work on what it means to be forgiven. I'm going to read a bunch of scriptures. You can lean back unless you're driving. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I am forgiven.” (1 John 1:9)

Psalm 103. "He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him. As far as the East is from the West, so far does He remove our transgressions from us." I just picked two. I have pages of scriptures on forgiveness.

I am forgiven because of what Jesus has done for me on the cross. “He Who knew no sin became sin for us.” ( 2 Corinthians 5)

I've also been adopted. "All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. You did not receive the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, 'Abba, Father.'"

Galatians 4. "He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ." Ephesians 1:5, 1 John 3. "See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God."

My mind was being transformed. "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." I was being transformed that I really was adopted. I belonged. This is something we all want to be. We want to be forgiven. We want to belong. We want to be loved.

"Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8. I condensed verses 38-39. "God is love." 1 John 4:16. "God does not change." Malachi 3:6, "I, the Lord, do not change." Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."

God is love. God doesn't change, and nothing can separate us from His love. These are in my arsenal. These are passages that I have at my fingertips whenever I am tempted to think that God doesn't love me, that God hasn't forgiven me, that I don't belong. Lastly, that I am pleasing.

2 Corinthians 5:21. "For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." We are clothed in Christ. Isaiah 61:10. "I will greatly rejoice in Jehovah. My soul will exalt in my God, for He has clothed me with garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, that I might become the righteousness of God in Christ." I'm pleasing, I'm loved, I belong, and I'm forgiven.

I also have another B. I have baggage. Baggage is going to be different for everybody, but for me, I articulated four things.

The first one was, I remember saying to God one day, "But if You really knew me," I had no trouble believing God loves Scott. I had no trouble believing God loved Chris and Natalie and all these other people. I just thought if He really knew me like I knew me, I wouldn't be loved.

As soon as I said that, the Spirit basically said, "You need to go read Psalm 139." So I did. First verse, "You have searched me and known me." 13th verse, "You formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb."

Verses 17 and 18, "How precious to me are Your thoughts of God. How vast is the sum of them. If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with You. Nobody knows us better than God Himself." As the Gaithers sang, "The One who knows me best loves me most."

I also discovered through therapy that I had an issue with abandonment. I know where it came from historically in my family. I've figured that out now. God's helped me to work through this, but I still had to combat it with truth. "I am with you always to the end of the age." Matthew 28:20. "He has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you." Hebrews 13:5. His name is Immanuel, which means God with us.

I had to work through being known, being abandoned. I also had a huge issue with feeling like I could never measure up or living in a state of what I call semi‑condemnation. I knew I was OK. I knew I was loved, but I didn't really feel like I was fully set free from being condemned.

The first part of that was Revelation 12, shows me where condemnation and accusations come from. It comes from the pit. "I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, 'The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come for the accuser of our brothers.' The accuser of the brethren has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before God."

We have seen this in the Bible. We have seen this in the book of Job, that lousy serpent, the devil, is somehow at the throne, and he's bringing issues about Job. This is what he does. He's the accuser of the brothers, but he has been thrown down. Now, it says in Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

I have to read you another one because this was revealed to me in a fresh way. I mean, who hasn't known John 3:16? "God so loved the world, He gave His only Son. Whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

Look at the next verse. "God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned." There it is. Boy, there's more gospel in John 3 than I thought. Condemnation comes from the pit, but in Christ, we are set free from condemnation.

My last one that I battled with for decades, I thought that somehow if I did more stuff, God would love me more, and that simply works. That's simply justified by my actions as opposed to justified by faith in Jesus.

There are so many passages on this. I chose two. Romans 5:8. "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." He died for us when we were a mess, not because of anything we'd done.

In Ephesians 2, "By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

I hope that it's coming across anyway that when I read that verse, "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure." When I see these words, "work out your own salvation," I had to figure these things out. I had to figure out my baggage. I had to figure out the different components of the gospel that I didn't fully comprehend. It was a wonderful exercise of faith, but it was simply searching the scriptures and mixing them with faith, believing in them. I think that's how I came out of the wilderness, and I went into the Promised Land. But this is how I'm staying in the Promised Land by putting the effort in.

OK. I didn't even give you a chance to breathe, Scott. So go ahead. What do you think? Scott: Well, correct me if I'm wrong on this, but it sounds like the working out of our salvation, if you couple that with the idea of we struggle not against flesh and blood,

but against the spiritual forces of evil, it sounds like most of the working out of our salvation is involved in just accepting the truth and resting in it and defeating the arguments of the evil one with the truth of God's Word.

Steve: Amen.

Scott: I think we get hung up on these verses about working out salvation and good works that we were created to do and start to...It's really easy to get into that old mindset of, "We've got to do more. We've got to be more. If we're not, I don't know, doing enough mission trips or whatever, we're not good enough. Or if we sin once or twice or a thousand times, we're somehow not good enough."

All that's been done. It's just a matter of resting in the truth of that. That God has taken care of it all and where it's like we're spiritually in a new Garden of Eden. I heard somebody once talking about Adam and Eve being in the garden before the fall. Yeah, the job was to take care of the garden, but it's a garden without weeds. Like, there was nothing that they had to do really to make it perfect. Just rest and enjoy the presence of God.

Steve: Yes. Ann no. As soon as you said your first sentence, all I could think of was Jesus in the wilderness quoting Scripture at the devil.

Scott: Yeah.

Steve: But you have to know the Scripture. That's the other side of it. Jesus knew the Scriptures. I'm finding that the more I'm transformed, the more my mind is renewed,

then the more I can rest. Absolutely. There must be a fancy word like juxtaposition or something like that for "work out your own salvation for it is God who works in you." Scott: Right.

Steve: I don't think we're ever going to fully comprehend what we're talking about, but it's true.

Scott: We sound really smart talking about it, though.

Steve: Well, I didn't realize how many times Paul, Peter, and James talked about this whole idea of giving more diligence. You and I know, I'd just be happy if people read their Bible every day. To me, that would be a step up of what the current state of the

Christian world. But I think there's a point where we have to be diligent. We have to be disciplined.

That's what a disciple is. A disciple is someone that is disciplined, who gives more diligence.

Scott: The end of that part in 2 Peter 3, Peter goes on and says, he talks about Paul writing the same way in all his letters, speaking of these things. Some of these things are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort as they do their other Scriptures to their own destruction.

"Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." That's right there is what you're saying. Like, just grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior.

Steve: Yep.

Scott: Amen.

Steve: To those that are listening, who are being diligent, take a deep breath. You're on the right track. Don't beat yourself up, thing that you have to do more. But to those who are scrolling through your phone, instead of reading God's Word, maybe give a little bit more diligence. How's that?

Scott: Sounds good to me.

Steve: Let's pray. "Father, thank You that we are loved as a gift. Thank You that we're loved just as much as the Son is loved. Thank You, Spirit of God, that you can make us know this love."

"I pray that as we bask and bathe and are saturated in these truths, You'll also teach us how to mix them with faith, teach us how to be diligent, teach us how to work out our own salvation, teach us how to work with You in a way that is not condemnatory and is not a burden, but it's a joy." In Jesus' name, Amen.

Scott: Amen. That's our show for this week, folks. Thanks for joining us for the Building Faith and Family podcast with Steve Demme. If you have a question for the show, email Steve at spdemme@Gmail.com. Thanks for joining us. Have a great week.