R. W. Schambach

Founder and pastor of Miracle Temple churches in several cities.

Evangelist, bringing the message of POWER to America and the world in our day, with signs following.

Missionary, preaching the gospel with demonstration of God's power in many parts of the world, and providing for the support of full time missionaries in Africa, Indonesia, New Guinea.

Writer of a number of faith inspiring books and articles. Radio and Television minister.

The message of this book is taken from a tape transcription of a powerful sermon by R. W. Schambach.

Contents

1    Eternally Secure

2    Add to Your Faith

3    Give Diligence

4    And to Virtue Knowledge

5    And to Knowledge Temperance

6    And to Temperance Patience

7    Add Godliness

8    ...To Godliness Kindness

9    And ... Charity

Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall

-2 Peter 1:10

1

Eternally Secure

I believe in the security of the believer.

I believe that I am eternally secure.

But there is more to it than that. There is the matter of obedience. I believe that my security is conditioned upon whether I do what God tells me to do.

Let me go back into the Old Testament for an illustration.

God sent the angel of death through the land of Egypt to take the life of the firstborn of every household. But God said, "I have a protection for all my children. Moses, tell all of my people to take a lamb, without a spot and without a blemish, slit its throat, and drain that blood into a basin. Then take some hyssop and sprinkle the blood on the doorposts and on the lintels of every house where my people are. And when the death angel comes, he will see the blood, and he will pass over that house, and death will not strike there."

That lamb was symbolic of the spotless Lamb of God, Jesus, crucified for our sins on Calvary. This is a type of that blood which still speaks today when it is applied to the lintels and doorposts of your heart. Death has no more dominion over you! The power of sin is broken! There is power in that blood! Death cannot touch you while you are under the protection of that blood!

Ah, but here is something that God told Moses which many of the theologians today overlook. They are saying, "Once you have been saved, you are eternally saved, no matter what you do."

I am going to knock that in the head.

I believe that I am eternally secure. Death, hell and the devil cannot reach through that blood sprinkled door to snatch me out and destroy me. Under that sacred blood, I am safe forever more!

But read on!

God told Moses, "You tell my people that once they have sprinkled that blood upon the lintels and upon the doorposts, they are to stay inside the house."

You have to stay inside the house if you want the protection that comes from the blood.

You are not a robot. God is not going to force you to stay under the shelter of the blood. You have free will. You have the power of freedom of choice. You have the privilege and the responsibility to make your own decisions.

Suppose the firstborn of the household decided he didn't want to stay in the house?

You young people know what I am talking about!

My mamma used to make us stay inside the house on Sunday. We would have liked to go outside and play with the other kids in the neighborhood, but at our house Sunday was a day to stay inside and do quiet things. You don't see that much anymore, but that was the way Mamma did it. Sometimes we would manufacture some reason to get out. Papa was working on the railroad, on shift work, and we were always hoping he would get the 7:00 to 3:00 o'clock trick, so we could pull a trick!

But here is my thought: suppose a child that was the firstborn really wanted to get outside. Mamma and Dad said, "Stay in the house now, Son! You are protected only as you stay inside, under the blood. If you go outside, the death angel is coming through the land!"

Now, what if one of those smart kids was looking for a way out, and found it, like I used to do when I was a boy? Suppose when I found that way to get out right at the time the death angel was coming through the land? The angel had instructions to pass over only the ones that were inside the house, under the blood, but I got tired of staying inside and decided to come out from under the protection and run around and mingle with the rest of the folks. When the death angel came, I would be a goner!

Isn't that clear enough!

Don't you see? As a child of God, you have a responsibility to stay under the blood!

Under that blood, there is protection, not only from sin, but from sickness and disease and infirmity. There is protection from death. Even the angel of death can't touch your life! There is no death to the child of God! We may fall asleep for a while, but one of these days the trumpet of God is going to sound. It is going to sound so loud that all the dead in Christ are going to rise. They are going to rise up first, and then all of us that love Him and are living when He comes are going to be caught up with them to meet Him in the clouds of the sky!

That is something to shout about! Hallelujah!

Every one of us that are under the blood, called and elected, are going to rise!

This is written to encourage every one of you that is a believer, saved, washed in the blood of the Lamb.

I know that you have had tests, and you have had trials.

Some of them have been fiery trials. Some of you have been through the flood.

Thank God we have somebody that goes with us every step of the way. He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. He knows how to succor every one of us and bring us through victorious. There is no defeat for the child of God; nothing but victory!

The Holy Ghost speaks to us from the Epistle written by Peter and tells us, "If ye do these things, ye shall never fall!"

This is coming from a man who knew what it was to fall—to backslide. This is the man who boasted, "Lord, I will never deny you!"

Jesus knew Peter better than he knew himself. He smiled and said, "Peter, before the cock crows you are going to deny me three times!"

The rest is history. You know the story. Before the crowing of the cock announced the coming of another day, Peter had denied Him!

But now, under the anointing of the Holy Ghost, this man who out of weakness had been made strong writes these words: "If you do these things, you shall never fall!"

Perhaps you are one of those whose life has been filled with many backslidings. Perhaps you are discouraged. Perhaps you have tried and failed so many times that no one has confidence in you any more. You don't even have confidence in yourself. You say, "I would like to serve God, but there is no use. If I try again, I will only fall again!"

Listen to me!

There is a place in God for you—for every one of us— where we can never fall, and this scripture bears it out.

"If you do these things..."

What things?

Let's go back together and read it.

I want you to read the entire first chapter of 2 Peter, alone in your daily devotions. But for now, we will look at verses 4 through 9:

"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

"And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

Then it is that we reach that secure place in Him, knowing that we shall never fall!

2

Add to Your Faith

I have been preaching faith into your heart day after day, year after year.

Many of you have listened to my broadcasts, and have written to say, "Brother Schambach, that teaching of faith is so beautiful! I have been healed, saved, delivered, as a result of those messages of faith!"

I want to tell you today that faith is not enough. If all I do is preach faith, I am not doing what God called me to do.

Faith is the basis, the foundation. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is absolutely essential. You need faith, and you need to learn how to release your faith and let it work in your life. This is the starting point.

You may have received faith, even to the extent of having experienced a miracle in your body or in your life and still you go stumbling along, faltering and falling, discouraged in your life as a Christian, ready to give up and quit. You don't want to be a hypocrite, but to call yourself a Christian and go on living the way you do can be called nothing else!

Like Peter on the day of Jesus' trial, you find it easier to swear, "I never knew Him!"

But you don't have to give up. There is a way for you to reach the place where you shall never fall!

You believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and you know that He shed His blood for your sins. You have faith!

Now Peter—the man who fell but learned the secret of a life above falling—gives you seven additives that will assure you of never falling again!

If all I do is teach you how to put your faith to work, then I will have failed miserably. If you are going to move forward into the realm in Jesus Christ where you will never fall, you are going to have to make certain additions.

Don't ask God to add them! He tells you to "Add to your faith..."

You say, "I've been praying that God would add these."

No!

He says, "I am telling you to do it!"

3

Give Diligence

And here it is. 2 Peter 1:10:

"Wherefore, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if ye do these things ye shall never fall."

This is a life and death matter.

I can't keep myself, but I have somebody that is keeping me. My responsibility is to let myself be kept.

We sing, "Put your hand in the hand of the Man that stilled the water."

It isn't that I am holding onto His hand. He is holding onto mine. If I slip, He is there to make sure that I don't fall.

But Peter says, "If you do these things, you shall never fall!"

I love those words. But you will notice that it is conditional. There is that word, "If." Such a small word, but it means so much! "If you do these things..." There is this wonderful old song that we sing: "Only believe! Only believe! All things are possible, only believe!"

And folks are going around saying, "all you've got to do is have faith!"

I want you to know that is contrary to the Word of God.

Faith is not all you need. It is a good starting point. It may be the foundation. But there is more. The next step is: "Add to your faith virtue."

We are living in an age when you can't find much virtue. Virtue isn't very popular today. But God's Word hasn't changed. If you are going live so that you will never fall, you are going to have to start by adding to your faith virtue.

That doesn't mean patterning your life after the spirit of the age. It seems like we are living in an age when the church has grown so worldly and the world has grown so churchy that sometimes it is hard to tell which is which! Everybody is getting religion, but you can't tell that anything has changed after they do.

You can't pattern your life after your next door neighbor.

I'm going to go a step further and say, you can't pattern your life after the people in the church. I don't care if it is the church mother, or the deacon, or even the pastor, you can't use them for a pattern. There is only one pattern, and that is the Word of God.

A virtuous life is not achieved by following the rules of the church. Thank God for every bit of virtue that has been brought into the church, but the rules and regulations of the church cannot be used as the infallible rule for your life.

A virtuous life is a holy life, set apart for God.

Our young people in school today constantly hear this expression: "Come on, man! Everyone is doing this! If you don't do it, you are not one of us!"

When they say that, it is time to say, "Thank you! I am not one of you! I belong to Jesus' band! I am glad that you can see the difference!"

The gangs in the city—I know how they operate. I have talked to gang members. I have seen them saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. They tell me that if you are going to

be a member of a gang, you have to do what they do.

Now, if the gangs have this kind of loyalty, how much more should the Jesus Gang have some loyalty? Jesus is the leader of this gang!

I am not talking about that church down on the corner. I am talking about the whole body of people that Jesus has called out of sin, and called out of the world—called to follow Him.

That is what "church" really means. The Greek word for "church"—ecclesia—means called out ones. When we come into this body, we are no longer a part of the world. We are different.

Some so-called churches seem to have lowered the standards. They say, "We are living in modern times, and things have changed. We've got to get along with the times!"

We may be living in modern times, but I've got an old-fashioned Bible that still says,

"Come ye out from among them, and touch not the unclean thing, and then I will receive you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people!"

Add to your faith virtue!

You add it!

Live right! Show the people that God has got somebody that is living it!

I know that the world doesn't like it. Even some of the people in the church don't like it. When you live holy, it shows them up!

When you dedicate yourself to God, a living sacrifice, you are not doing it to please man. You are doing it for God. That is what He wants—a living sacrifice!

He doesn't want a dead sacrifice. He wants you to live for Him, every day!

Somebody says, "If I'm going to have to live like that, I will have to get away from all this temptation. I'll have to move out to the mountains somewhere, and be a hermit!"

Oh, no you don't!

God doesn't get any glory out of that. God gets glory out of putting you right in the middle of all this mess. He has put you where you are for a purpose. He has put you there as a light in the darkness, and has put strength within you so that you can walk holy and let the world know that Jesus is not dead, but that He is alive, walking and talking in you!

Maybe you have been having a struggle. When you see somebody really living holy, it is like heaping coals of fire on your head. You go to church, and you sing and shout and dance, but your life isn't right. When you see somebody living holy, you try to bring them down to your level. You try to get them to do what you are doing, so it won't make you feel so bad! You say, "Come on! Nobody is all that holy!" But right down in your heart you know that Jesus wants to walk and talk in you.

Come on out of that mess, and let Jesus live in you.

You have faith. Now add virtue!

You have got to add it yourself. You have got to let your life be governed by the principals of God's eternal Word. Then you will begin to move into that place where you will never fall!

4

And to Virtue Knowledge

Add to your faith virtue.

But don't stop there.

"And to virtue knowledge."

I am talking about knowing something.

There are some people who don't know anything for themselves. All they know is what their preacher told them.

Are you one of them?

The only time you read your Bible is to follow your preacher on Sunday morning. Some of you don't even do that. Some of you don't even take your Bible to church with you. You just believe whatever the preacher tells you.

Some of you know your TV Guide better than you do your Bible.

Recently, I told the folks in one meeting—a large audience, and everybody had their Bibles; they looked so godly—and I said, "Everybody turn in your Bible to Nicodemus, chapter five."

You should have seen them! Everybody was rifling through their Bibles, trying to find Nicodemus! There isn't any such book!

People don't know the things of God today, because they don't know the Book.

Your education consists of what your preacher told you. It is based upon the teachings of Man.

I love the words of Paul:

"I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day!"

Notice that personal pronoun!

"I know!"

Not, "My preacher knows."

How do you know that you are saved? What would you answer to that?

I tried that question on one of my churches. I gave each person a piece of paper, and I said, "Don't put your name on it! I don't want to know who said what. But write on that piece of paper the reason why you know that you are a child of God!"

You should have read those answers!

Some of them said, "I know I am saved because I don't smoke."

I know a lot of folks who don't smoke and still are not saved! That cow out in the field doesn't smoke, but she isn't saved!

Somebody wrote, "I don't drink, so I know I am saved."

Almost every one of those people wrote that there was something they didn't do. They seemed to think that Christianity is "don'ts." They think they are saved because of what they don't do.

Christianity is not negative. It is positive.

I know that I am a child of God because He says so in His Word!

I have learned to take God at His Word.

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."

Romans 8:14

Are you led by the Spirit of God? Or are you led by the church? You can't do anything unless you get permission from the pastor. You can't even go out to an old-fashioned tent revival meeting, because your pastor says, "If there was anything to it, it would be happening here!"

You say, "Oh, Brother Schambach! You must have been sitting in my church!"

No. But I know what some of them teach.

Your life is governed by the bishop—by the pastor. There are men in the church that take authority over your religious life.

I want you to know that Jesus is the Bishop of my soul. My overseer is the Holy Ghost. When He tells me to move, I move! When He tells me to step out, I am going to step out.

I am led of the Spirit of God, and I know that I am His child! Knowledge!

Lord, we need a revival of knowledge!

Knowledge based on the bedrock of God's Word!

When Jesus met the devil out there in the wilderness, after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, Satan said, "If you be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread." Jesus had been fasting, and He was hungry. You know how tempting it is when you want food! Jesus was being tempted. But He wasn't buying it!

Jesus said, "Satan, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

Oh, what a statement!

Some of you know a few verses of Scripture. Sometimes, before you sit down to eat, you have a form. You all have to say a Scripture verse. You search around and find that shortest one: "Jesus wept." Two little words!

It's enough to make Him weep, that people who call themselves Christians care so little for His Word!

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word— Every word!

We need to hide God's Word in our hearts.

This is the kind of education I want. Lord, I want to know your Word!

If I ask you, "How many of you know the President?" Hands will go up all over the house. But you don't really know him. You have seen him on TV, and heard his voice on radio. You've seen his picture in the papers, and read news releases about him. But you don't really know him. You have never sat down with him and shared a meal, and talked about the everyday things that make up a life from morning to night, and from day to day.

You say, "He's my president!"

But you don't really know him!

How about it? Do you know Jesus? You may claim Him as your Christ, but do you sit down with Him in your own home, and talk with Him? Do you know His voice?

Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice, and a stranger's voice will they not follow!"

Do you truly know Him whom to know is life eternal?

Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge!

How do you know that you are healed? Because you feel better? No! Feelings come and go.

I know that I am healed, because God said,

"He was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquities. And by his stripes,

I am healed!"

I believe the Book! He says,

"I will take sickness away from the midst of thee."

If you want to be healed, then know the Book. Know what God says about sickness. He carried those sicknesses for you, two thousand years ago. You can walk out from under the burden of it, free from disease, sickness, and infirmity!

" . . . For if you do these things you shall never fall!"

I am not looking for you to backslide. I am looking for you to stay true till Jesus comes.

When He comes, I want to be on fire for Him, don't you? I intend to be saved, and with a double portion of it. I am going to make my calling and election sure!

God never intended for this thing to last just a few months.

Some of you people get saved every Sunday. Every time there is an altar call, you run in and say, "Oh, Lord! Pick me up and try me one more time!" That has been your theme song.

Now, we all know what it is to fall. When babies are learning to walk, they fall. But you are no longer a babe. There are a lot of retarded Christians. They have been "in the way" for twenty years, and haven't grown a bit! Of course, there will always be babies in the church, and when they fall, we should pick them up and dust them off, and say, "Try it again!" In some churches, when you make a mistake, they kick you out. That's no way to treat babies. But don't think you can stay a baby all your life.

God wants you to mature. He wants you to grow up in the Spirit. He wants you to learn as you go along. After you have got faith, He wants you to begin to add to that faith.

Add virtue. Then add to your virtue knowledge. And keep on adding.

5

And to Knowledge Temperance

Add to your knowledge temperance.

Of course, when we think of the word temperance, our first thought is moderation. That is temperance. Avoiding excesses.

But I am going to take a little different approach to the word. I am going to approach the word through its root.

When I was a young man, I worked in a machine shop. We worked on steel, on a lathe, and a grinder. We shaped the object that we wanted to make, and then we would throw it into a red-hot fire, and temper the steel, to harden it. Then, after it was hardened, we would polish it, and put it into the hands of the skiller, and it became a tool.

God is getting ready to use you. You wonder why He hasn't used you all these years? It is because you haven't been ready to be used. You had to begin to live right. You had to know something. All you knew was what the preacher told you. You need to spend time in the Word of God. You have to know for yourself!

Then after you have added knowledge, you are going to be tempered in the fire, hardened, shaped, polished. Then you are ready to be placed in the Master's hand, a tool fit for His use.

Some of you, all you are good for is shouting. Put you in the furnace, like Shadrach, Mesheck, and Abednego, and you would go up in flames! But you can be tempered, and you can stand the fire, because the Fourth Man is on the inside. When you go through the fire, He will go with you all the way. When you pass through the flood, it shall not overflow!

Some of you can't even stand a little name calling. You whine, "I just can't stand it any longer! Pray for me! They are calling me names!"

Sissie! If you can't stand a little name calling, you will never make it. They called Jesus names. They called Him glutton and winebiber, and prince of devils. They spat upon Him. They scorned Him. They nailed Him to a cross. We haven't suffered anything yet!

6

And to Temperance Patience

The reason I chose this expression for temperance is that this leads right into the next additive. Add to your temperance patience.

The Bible says, "Tribulation worketh patience."

When you go through the fire, you learn how to be patient.

The Bible says, "Tribulation worketh patience."

When you go through the fire, you learn how to be patient.

Too many of God's people today don't know how to wait. It is when we wait upon the Lord that we renew our strength.

Daniel fasted and prayed for twenty one days, and the answer hadn't come. But God had heard his prayer. On the twenty first day, an angel came and said, "Daniel, twenty one days ago, the Lord heard your prayer and sent me with the answer. On my way to bring you the answer, some demon spirits attacked me. I was in combat with them, and they wouldn't let me through. The Lord saw that I was struggling with those demons, and sent Gabriel down to give me a hand."

I want you to know that God always hears and answers your prayers. But we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against wicked spirits in high places. You've got to learn how to have patience. You've got to learn to hang in there, and wait on God until the answer comes.

When you ask, you are going to receive. When you seek, you shall find. And when you knock, it shall be opened unto you!

7

Add Godliness

"... And to patience godliness."

How can I add godliness?

Look back into the chapter just a little farther. (Verse 4.) By His exceeding great and precious promises, we become partakers of His divine nature. That is godliness— the very nature of God in us!

Having escaped the corruption that is in the world, and then adding, and adding, and adding. I am sure that you have the idea. Keep on adding. Add love (charity).

"For if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.”

You can be eternally secure. There is a way. God sets it out plainly in His Word.

You don't have to backslide. You don't have to live a defeated life.

"Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure."

8

...To Godliness Kindness

Now you're getting close!

You've heard some dear "saint of God" shouting and talking in tongues in the meeting, and then seen her go out the church door scolding and nagging at her husband and children.

You've heard them sing like angels, "Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love," and then go home and gossip about all the faults of everybody in the church. They have roast preacher for Sunday dinner, with hash-browned deacon on the side, and finish it all off with crushed church members for dessert.

You've seen them shake hands and call everybody Brother So-and-so, and Sister This-and-that, and then go out on Monday with the motto, "Business is business," interpreting the golden rule to mean, "Do everybody before he does you."

Brother, Sister, if you are one of those, you've still got something to add!

It may not seem half so exciting and glamorous as prophesying, or talking in tongues, or giving an interpretation, "Thus saith the Lord...." But even after you've added godliness, you've still got to add brotherly kindness.

What do you do when you see a brother or sister in need?

Do you dig down and share what God has given you?

Or do you say, "Depart in peace; be ye warmed and fed?"

What do you do when you find someone who has fallen by the way? Do you pick him (or her) up and help them back on their feet? Or do you pass by on the other side—or even kick them when they are down? Do you go to God alone in prayer for the fallen brother or sister? Or do you call your neighbor and say, "Do you know what I found out about So-and-so? Isn't it a shame, the way she's fallen away? Of course, I'm just telling this to you in confidence. I really shouldn't be telling it, but it's for her own good, so you'll know how to pray!"

How long has it been since you've shown brotherly kindness to anyone?

Add brotherly kindness, and it leads directly to the next step.

9

And ... Charity

"And to brotherly kindness, charity."

Now, I'm sure you know that in the Bible, the word charity could have been interpreted as love. The word has been corrupted. Today, we think of charity as a handout to the poor, something we don't want any more—or at best, something we can spare without any pain—given at arms length and without giving anything of ourselves.

A poet once said, very truly, "The gift without the giver is dead."

Now, this is step number seven.

Seven steps to eternal security!

That's right! They are all needed.

A very immature, unstable young Christian once asked a grey-haired veteran, "Do you believe in eternal security?"

The old man replied, "For me, yes. But not necessarily for you."

"How can you say that?" the boy asked in amazement. "I've heard you say that God is no respecter of persons!"

The old man replied, "I say it because I know my experience with God. I don't know yours."

That grey-haired veteran had started on the foundation of faith (which is really a matter of believing that God means what He says, and is the one thing without which it is impossible to please God) and had spent many years giving diligence to making his calling and election sure. He was confident and unshakable, eternally secure. He had taken the seven steps outlined in the first chapter of 2 Peter:

Step number one: Add to your faith virtue.

Step number two: And to virtue knowledge.

Step number three: And to knowledge temperance.

Step number four: And to temperance patience.

Step number five: And to patience godliness.

Step number six: And to godliness brotherly kindness.

Step number seven: And to brotherly kindness—now hear this—charity (love).

"Now abideth, faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity"

I Cor. 13:13

Some people think that they are eternally secure—that because they answered an altar call once upon a time, and were baptized, and took part in the activities of their church, they are sure of heaven no matter what they do. They've never even been saved; and now they think they are secure!

We've just been through 2 Peter 1:5 through 7.

Now get a good look at verses 8 and 9:

"For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins."

How can you be assured that you are secure when you have forgotten that you have ever been purged from your sins?

Yes, I believe in eternal security for the obedient believer. I am just as secure as any believer needs to be. "No man can pluck me out of His hand!"

I am secure because every day I give diligence, as Peter advised (see verse 10), to make my calling and election sure!

Table of Contents

Eternally Secure

Add to Your Faith

Give Diligence

And to Virtue Knowledge

And to Knowledge Temperance

And to Temperance Patience

Add Godliness

...To Godliness Kindness

And ... Charity