Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to the first four verses in 1 Peter chapter one. This evening we begin the series of the epistles of Peter. We'll work through them, sometimes several verses at a time, sometimes just one verse, but just expounding and drawing especially from these epistles the way that Peter strengthens the brethren and also feeds the brethren.

Now in these verses here, Peter seeks to strengthen the brethren through discerning the fruits of their election, life through Christ, and having an eternal home. Let us just read these four verses again.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father Through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that faded not away reserved in heaven for you.

The passage begins with the author, Peter, stating that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ. There are three qualifications that we can gather from when they had to replace Judas as an apostle, as recorded in Acts 1, that an apostle must have. The first was that they needed to be a disciple of Jesus during his earthly ministry. The second was that they should be an eyewitness of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the third was that they were called and commissioned directly by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now the Apostle Paul, we might say, did not fulfill all of those requirements, namely the first one, as being a disciple during his earthly ministry. However, he saw the resurrected Christ, heard him from heaven, and was commissioned by him, and the apostles, the other 12, acknowledged the Apostle Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles. But it is to be noted that there cannot be apostles of Jesus Christ today. We have in the inspired word of God that left to us through the apostles and Peter here, Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ. And we always remember this as we Look at these epistles, who is the author or the penman, and of course remember that this is the inspired, infallible Word of God. And that which is written then we may rely on, lean upon, be strengthened through, and faith joined to it to be of real benefit and blessing to our souls.

Peter then goes on to address this epistle to the strangers that are scattered. And he names these countries or areas that they are scattered into. What does he mean by strangers and scattered ones?

Well, there's several ways. One is that he did not know them. They were strangers to him. Another is that they were Jews that were scattered away from their homeland, away from Jerusalem, into these other lands, and they were in those lands as strangers. They weren't home-born there. They were feeling the strangers.

And I felt that looking at this, is not that a picture, really, of all God's children? We are told that we are strangers and pilgrims. We confess that we are such, that we are passing through this land. We are of those that the world does not know, does not acknowledge. The Lord says that they are not of the world even as I am not of the world.

So Peter's description of those scattered in this way Could be very representative, and certainly the word is to the Lord's people in every nation, kindred and tongue. But what a thought, what a thought of strengthening that the word is to those that were, that felt themselves to be strangers. The world knows us not, and yet God does. We're not strangers to him, or strangers to his work.

And God's people are a scattered people. We read in Psalm 107 that they are gathered. He gathers them from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Again, the picture is they are a scattered people right through the world, and they are being gathered and brought together.

So this was the introduction. And then we come to the main verses, which I want to look at under three heads, and each one of them based upon a verse, verse two, verse three, and verse four.

Firstly, election known by what is connected with it, in verse 2. And then secondly, life from the dead through Christ's resurrection, verse 3. And then thirdly, the end in view and incorruptible inheritance, verse 4.

But firstly, election. known by what is connected with it. What is election? The Bible is very clear, this text and others, especially me thinking of Ephesians, that speak about being elect and of being chosen in Christ Jesus before the world was. We think of the beautiful chain in Romans 8 and how we have the full knowledge of God, predestination, calling, justification and glorification. Election is set forth before us in the Word of God as a real reality and truth. When we read here, that it is according to the foreknowledge of God. It is not that God foresaw and looked into time and saw those who would of their own free will believe in him and follow him and therefore elected them on the basis of their good works and of their responses. Election is not that. Election is a choosing of a people, not for anything in them, but purely of His mercy, of His grace. We don't know why He chose some and why not others. There's nothing in them. It's only freely of God's choice, sovereign choice and mercy.

And so the Lord's full knowledge It applies to this, that when the Lord elected, He elected into Christ, chosen in Him, not separate from what would happen in time. God did not choose a people and then decide what to do with them. He chose them immediately as in Christ. that the Lord Jesus Christ would redeem them, would save them, and that the Holy Spirit would quicken them, and that they would be brought to glory. In fact, these verses here, they trace it. They trace from before the foundation of the world, election for knowledge, right through to the other end, to glorification. It is an overview, if you like, of the whole plan and order of salvation, and designed to be, right at the start, a real encouragement to the people of God. What a reminder that if we are elect, it is all of mercy, it is all of grace, it is nothing of our works at all. And it is God himself that has instigated salvation. He has put our names in the Lamb's book of life. He which hath begun, and he has begun from eternity.

So if we are to know our election, the one thing that we must notice here in this verse is that we have the Trinity elect according to the full knowledge of God the Father, there's the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, there's the Holy Spirit, and through obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, there is God's only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. All, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are interested in and involved with election. Our Lord says, the Father himself loveth you. But we never think that the Father is an angry God and the Son is to pacify him. God is love in Father, Son and Holy Ghost. God is angry with the wicked every day, but in his people chosen in Christ, there is only love towards them.

We love Him because He first loved us. So how do we know, how is it set forth here that election is to be known? Because we read, elect according to the full knowledge of God the Father through sanctification. There is the first The first way that election is known. Sanctification. Sanctification can be known in a couple of ways. One, it is setting apart. God's people have been set apart for a holy use from eternity. And so when they are then called here below, they are also then set apart.

Our Lord, when he speaks of his people, he speaks of them as a distinct people, as distinct and as separate as what the children of Israel were amongst the nations in their day. You only have I known of all nations of the earth. Paul says to the Corinthians, come ye out from among them and be ye separate. and touch not the unclean thing. We are set forth as a holy people or as a peculiar people, a people that are distinguished from the world. And the Lord says, I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them. So a vital evidence of election is a separation from the world that lieth in wickedness, and a separation unto the Lord.

The other aspect of sanctification is that it is separated for a holy use. When the Lord sanctifies, He washes, He cleanses, He works in the hearts and lives of His people so that they are changed, they are a different people, they are a people that is marked out by holiness. The new birth is a heavenly birth, a spiritual birth, it is that which is from above. And so it is through the work of the Holy Spirit, through sanctification of the Spirit, It is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh, prophet of nothing, and it is they shall all be taught of God. So this is a vital truth concerning election.

Election is known by calling, and calling here is set forth before us as being sanctified. It is God. that has made that difference and the change in the sinner. Now it's not just that but is added another aspect which is a very very separating aspect and that is unto obedience. There are many that would want to go to heaven, there are many that profess that they are believers But there are few that actually want to be obedient to the word of God in all things. And it is vital that the Lord himself works this in us so that we are as obedient children, not fashioning ourselves according to our former lusts in our ignorance, but as he which hath called us is holy, so be ye holy. in all manner of conversation.

The obedience is that we don't just call the Lord, Lord, but we do what he says. The Lord said when he was upon earth, he say, call me master and Lord and so I am, but you do not the things that I say. When there were those that believed on him, as recorded in John 8, then our Lord said to them, if you continue in my word, then you shall be my disciples indeed. You shall know the truth. The truth shall make you free. And we can only know how we are to walk, what we are to believe, how we are to act through the word of God. and being obedient to it. The Lord spoke the parable of the man that built his house upon the sand and the man that built his house upon a rock. And the difference was one that heard the word and did it and the other that did not do when he heard. And we are then to have this mark as the Lord made us to be obedient, to walk in his way, to follow his steps, to read his word, to pray, to be with the brethren, to gather together for worship where we are able to obey his commands in how we are to act one with another.

the sins, the evils that we are to avoid and the things that we are to do as righteous acts, we are to obey all of the Word. The Word is not written as separate from us, it is written for the people of God that they might know how they are to walk and how they are to speak, what they are to be. And so that again, as the Lord made us obedient or willing to be obedient.

Remember the Apostle Paul, when the Lord first met with him on the Damascus Road, his inquiry was, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Good question, isn't it? It evidenced a willingness to obey. willingness to do what the Lord would tell him.

But then we have the application of the blood of Jesus Christ and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Our election is inseparable from Christ's death and resurrection. His death was bearing our sins in His body on the tree. He had to be made man. He had to partake of our flesh. He had to be at the seat of Abraham, flesh and spirit, and to be made under the law to redeem those that were under the law. We have all sinned. We have broken God's law. We are under condemnation. The hymn writer says, he saw me lost and ruined in the fall, love me notwithstanding all. And the choosing in Christ was that Christ would take our punishment. He would die in our place. He would endure the wrath of God upon him instead of us. Those things were done at Calvary. Those things were done by the Lord Jesus Christ.

What is spoken of here is the application, the sprinkling of that blood upon us. When we think of the type of the Passover, when the children of Israel were in Egypt, and the Lord was to bring them out of Egypt, nine great signs were used, and Egypt was brought down to near ruin, and Pharaoh would not let the people go. And then the Lord instituted the Passover. He told the children of Israel that he would pass through Egypt that night, one particular night, and that he would destroy all of the firstborn. But those houses that were to take a lamb, slay that lamb and sprinkle the blood of that lamb on the doorposts and the lintels of the house, that those that were sheltering in that house, that the firstborn would not die. It was the blood of sprinkling.

but speaketh better things than that of Abel. Abel, Cain's brother, Cain slew him, his blood went to the ground. The blood of sprinkling, those that were in those houses, God said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And so they were houses of obedience, especially to the blood. They were trusting in the blood. They were trusting in what God had provided to save them from death and to make a difference between them and the Egyptians.

And so with a soul that is born again, their only hope is in Christ's precious blood. they acknowledge it, they testify to it, they realise and know that it is only through Christ's sufferings and the shedding of His blood that they are free, free from condemnation, freed from the pull of this world, freed from Satan, that it is only the blood. And where that is sprinkled in a spiritual sense upon the people of God, It is like our Lord said in John 6, except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you. And Paul, he says, they're determined to know nothing among you that is amongst the Corinthians, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. The whole being of the people of God is in trusting in Christ's blood. in trusting in what he has done and in feeding upon that.

This is what the Lord says, except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you. The Lord's death means a lot to God's people, everything. That is why the Lord instituted the Lord's Supper, this do in remembrance of me, as often as ye do. Eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show forth the Lord's death till he come. And it is to be a prominent thing with the people of God that their only plea is that Christ has died for me, he has paid my debt, and he has set me free.

Hymn writer says again, I'll point to thy redeeming blood and say, behold, the way to God. Every elect soul that is quickened, that is called, will have a high view of Christ and his sufferings, his death, his blood. That is his only hope. That is what they will want to hear preached. That is what they'll meditate upon. And also that is what will affect their lives. It will affect their lives. It won't make us to live careless, indifferent, realizing that all that we have, we have because we are redeemed.

This is why Paul says that we are to remember that we are redeemed. Glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are his. that ye are purchased with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price. Wherefore glorify God in your soul and in your spirit, which are his. And this is the effect of election. Sprinkling of the blood. of Jesus Christ. It will have the effect in the soul as well. It will bring justification or free from condemnation. We think again of Paul in Romans 8, there is therefore now no condemnation in Christ Jesus to them that are in Christ Jesus. It will bring peace also. It will bring that separation as to what happened at the Passover, these things that are all brought together.

And so this is the summary in verse two. And then he pronounces this blessing, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. What an encouragement if we have these things. If we are able to discern through these things our election, a beginning before time, a work of the Holy Trinity and the Lord's blessing, grace unto you and peace be multiplied.

May we notice in this verse God's choice of how he describes an elect soul. In verse one, we might say, well, we don't live in Pontus or Galatia. But in verse two, he describes spiritually those that he is writing to. He's writing to the elect. Now, if you don't discern that, turn this into a prayer. Do not use a fatalistic way and say, well, if I'm not elect, there's no hope for me. Remember, all of God's elect people, when they're born into this world, are born in sin, shapen in iniquity, and they do not have any of these marks. But in God's appointed time, they do. And he brings them to have it. Therefore, do not despair. Do not be discouraged if you do not have them, but ask, we think of our Lord saying, if ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Ask the Lord in prayer that he'd give you the clear marks of election, that you see them, You would value them, you want to be placed amongst the people of God, you want this blessing to be yours, and ask the Lord for it.

Our Lord said, while he was upon earth, he will not come unto me that ye might have life. And he says of those of his people that are elect, that no man can come unto me except the Father which sent me draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day.

If in reading this and hearing these things set forth you are drawn to desire and want these blessings, don't despise such a drawing and an attraction, but be encouraged by it and ask the Lord that he make it very clear to you whose you are and that you might seek then, seek to live a separated life sanctified life, seek to obey the Word of God, and seek to know the Lord Jesus Christ through the Word of God.

Don't, as it were, say, well, I'm going to continue on in my life. I'm not going to obey the Word of God. I'm not going to follow in the ways of the Lord until I know I'm elect, or until I see these evidences here.

Often the work of the Lord is a gradual work. There may be gradual work even begun tonight with the word that is opened up here in verse 2. To make us to be of those that hunger and thirst after righteousness. To have something set before us that we desire and want. and makes us to covet earnestly these best gifts, and no better thing can be that we are chosen of God and elect.

I want to look then, secondly, at life from the dead through Christ. In verse 3, We read, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope or a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Life from the dead through Christ's resurrection. In one verse, we have our Lord, as dead and risen again is what is set forth in baptism, isn't it? Buried with him by baptism into death and risen again in newness of life.

And when a soul is born again, when they are begotten by God, which is all of mercy and the blessing is to God for calling, there's the whole verse, it begins, it's putting the crown on the head, not of the one that is called, but upon God the Father. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy."

Yes, the calling of God is mercy. What a strengthening thing. When we must come, so often like the publican, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Think, the only way I was called or begun in the way was through mercy which can never ever be deserved.

And so begotten again, born again, a new birth, spoken of as begotten because it is not building upon the old at all. It is all from above. It is spiritual birth, a holy birth, and the hope that we have is the life that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord says, because I live, ye shall live also. The resurrection of Christ, which of course could not take place unless first he had truly died, the resurrection proves that the sacrifice was accepted, that the Lord Jesus was who he said he was because he said he was God and would rise from the dead the third day and he did, and that he was sinless because if he'd had any sin of his own he could not have risen, But the sins that he was bearing, those sins are borne away.

And we know that, especially when we think of Acts 17, where we read there that God had given assurance unto all men in that he had raised him from the dead. And it is because there is to be the judgment day. Because if Christ has completely put away and borne the punishment for his people, what about those that are not? A judgment needs to be held because of that. It needs to be judged that the people for whom Christ died, those that in this time state have been given grace and calling, they are free from guilt because Christ has put away their sin, but the rest None has taken away theirs, they must bear their own punishment.

And Paul uses the resurrection of Christ as a reason why we must all appear at the judgment seat of Christ. Because in one sense, part of the penalty is already being paid and settled. And that's a great assurance and great comfort to us that the Lord Jesus Christ has paid the debt, the receipt is there, the empty tomb, a risen saviour.

But not only is he risen, but he is in heaven. He lives to make intercession for his people and our life is bound up with his. When we think of the sanctification and the obedience, the fruitfulness, if you like, in verse two, Our Lord says in John 15 that He is likened there unto a vine, I am the vine, ye are the branches, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, neither can ye except ye abide in me.

Our fruitfulness comes from our union with Christ, our walking with Him, our knowledge of Him, our hearing from Him in prayer, hearing from Him through His Word and through the ministry of the Word, my sheep, they hear my voice and they follow me. And so in this second point, it is life from the dead through Christ's resurrection. It should be a great comfort to the people of God that their life is bound up with the Lord's, and as He is alive, and as He is with His people, lo, I'm with you always, so their life is sure.

It is a lively hope, a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We do not have to go back to the new birth, We do not have to go back before time to look at election, but for our hope is built on this, that the Lord lives in us, that we walk in him, and that day by day we continue. Yes, we feel our sins, we feel the evil of our hearts, but as set forth in Romans 8, It is that which changes our whole walk and life.

He says there in Romans 8, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemns sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And he sets forth in Romans 8 that great difference of one that is walking after the Spirit, that they that are after the Spirit, they mind the things of the Spirit, To be calmly minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

And we read the apostles saying, let the word of God dwell in you richly. It is to be richly in us, meditating upon the word of God, meditating upon Christ. The Lord says, the word that I speak unto you, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit. and they are life. When the Lord speaks to us through his word it gives life. I wonder how many of us can think of times under the ministry when the Lord has spoken to us through his word and he's picked us up, he's strengthened us, he's encouraged us, he's given us life. We may be dejected and low and without hope and far off and the Lord has dropped in one word spoken through the ministry and it has been life to our souls. What a difference it has made to us. And so this is to be a real encouragement to us, a strength to us, that our life from being dead in trespasses and sins, from being dead in the world and just like the world, Our life has been given us through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we depend upon that.

You know, sometimes maybe we've been in doubt. Is it just our own emotions, imaginations? Is it just us? Is it a natural religion? And so the Lord proves it to us that it's not. And he draws his spirit for a while. He takes away that life or the sense of it that we have, and we return to a state that we think, well, we're just like we were before we knew the Lord. We're hard, we're cold, we're dry, we're barren, we lack even the spirit of prayer, we lack desire for the Word of God, we lack desire for the ministry, we don't seem to profit from the ministry, and the Lord may leave us in that for a little while. And what he is doing is proving to us what we are of ourselves.

And then when he comes and visits us again, when he suddenly softens our hearts, draws us out after him, when he maybe bring us into affliction and meets us in it, or blesses us in some way that doesn't take much, sometimes just the remembrance of a form of mercy can melt and soften our hearts. And then he shows where our life really is.

Dear Peter had known this, you know. For a short period there, he'd known what it was to deny his Lord and Master that he never knew him. The Lord said that Satan desired to have him, to sift him as wheat. But I prayed for thee that thy faith fell not. In other words, that his life The faith that had been given that life was to remain. And so afterwards, Peter is brought through that trial, and he's brought again to testify of his love to the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are to discern, not just because the word says, without me you can do nothing. There's times that we learn it, we prove it, we feel it painfully. We feel our hardness and coldness and inability. And then we cry and we groan and we look to the Lord for life. And the Lord gives fresh life again to his people and to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And every time we're resurrected, as it were, raised up to another hope, same hope but renewed hope, These are more tokens that our Redeemer lives, our intercessor lives, our advocate lives in heaven, that we have one that cares for us.

We may mourn and we should mourn how changeable we are, how poor followers and poor obedience. But when the Lord works in us to will and to do his own good pleasure, and to discern those times. The Lord has done it. The Lord has revived us. A little reviving it may be in our bondage.

I want to look then thirdly at the end in view. an incorruptible inheritance, verse four, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that faded not away, reserved in heaven for you. There's five points here. Firstly, it is an inheritance. That is, it is not earned. One came to our Lord and said to him, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? In a way, it's a contradiction. If we're given an inheritance, it comes through another's death, and it is the will of that one to give it to us. It's not something that is earned. And we ought to remember that, that our hope in heaven It comes through one's death. I think sometimes this may be forgotten. Sometimes when people receive inheritances here below of earthly things, to remember that what they have been given in monetary terms, or perhaps goods, has come because one that they loved or knew had died. It's a constant reminder, we also shall die. If they've left us goods, don't make those our God. Don't set our hearts on them. Remember that person died that you've got this, and one day you'll have to die and leave it to someone else too. Really, every inheritance passed on is a real solemn reminder to those receiving it.

But for those receiving a eternal inheritance, that in heaven is a reminder of the Lord Jesus Christ who has died and risen again and bequeathed it as it were in his will to us to have that. And the tokens and evidences of it are in the verses that are prior.

You know, if someone was very wealthy and they died, We did not know them, and they did not know us. We'd have no warrant to think that we'd receive anything as an inheritance. But if they knew us, and they loved us, and we loved them, and we'd spend time with them, then we'd think that there would be that given by way of inheritance, especially if we related to them. And in this time state, God makes it very clear, his people are related, they are joined, they are adopted into his living family. And they do know the Lord and they do walk with him. And so that which is given to them is inheritance.

The second thing is that it is incorruptible, that is, it cannot be corrupted. Each of the descriptions here is a direct contrast to things here below. We might have something that is metal and it rusts. We might have something that is wood and it rots. All things here, they end up turning to corruption. And ourselves, we return to the dust, we return to corruption. But that inheritance, that which the Lord has given to us, is incorruptible, however many years.

You know, someone said while we were young, we've got a house for you and you can have this when you're 70 or 80 years of age. You think, well, I hope it doesn't fall down by the time I get to that age. I hope it doesn't just rot away, but with this is told it cannot possibly be corrupted and that it is now already undefiled. It is holy, it is pure. It is not like this world that is defiled by sin, defiled in every way. Heaven is so very, very different.

And it fadeth not away. The things of this world, it fades away. It grows less and less. We might have something we've set our hearts upon. We like it. We do it. But then it loses its shine. It's not as good as it once was. And we set our hearts on something different. But what a wonderful thing. And the Lord begins with the sinner, gives them a hope beyond the grave, and that doesn't fade away. They come down as a beautiful testimony to see a dear friends in Bethesda, the old people's homes, coming down to their journey's end, or even our own parents that we've seen on their deathbeds. And that inheritance, that which is set before them, it hasn't faded away. It's more and more precious. more and more to be desired, more and more real to them. It's one real mark of what the Lord gives to his people, that it's more and more precious as they go on.

And then the last thing that's mentioned here, that it is reserved in heaven for you. I think of those words of our Lord in John 14. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also." It's not just spoken of as heaven, but as a place where there are individual places, reserved places.

There's many times in our life, perhaps when we've gone to a school, a new school, And there is the roll called out, and our name is there, or a university, or we booked onto an aeroplane, or a ship, and we come to get boarding on it. And there is a seat for us, a numbered seat on that plane, just waiting for us. Someone else is not in it. It's empty because our name is on that ticket for that seat. And this is a picture. that we've got in heaven, reserved in heaven for you. Not for someone else to take that place. That is for us.

And this is to be a real encouragement. All through this first part, God knows his people. He knows them in eternity. He's elected them. He's foreknown them. And he knows them to already have a place reserved for them in heaven. What an encouraging four verses. These are how strengthening and in just a few verses going from before time to after time and spanning right through what Christ did, his death, his rising again and the calling of his people and the effect of the calling upon them that gives them a clear mark of election.

So may this be a strengthening encouraging word this evening. A people with a living hope. May we truly have that hope and bless the Lord if we have him. Amen.