Good evening. I want to read
from Isaiah chapter 40 for our scripture reading tonight. A
very familiar passage, but oh, such a blessed one. Isaiah 40, beginning at verse
1, the Lord tells the prophet, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Speak to their hearts. Speak
the truth in love. And cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. I'm preparing a message on the
word accomplished. Perhaps maybe this Sunday or
in the next week or two. But what a blessed thought. that God has accomplished our
salvation. That her iniquity is pardoned,
for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her
sins. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight
in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted. In other words, the humble shall
be lifted up. And every mountain and hill shall
be made low, the proud shall be made humble, and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. The way of
Christ will be made clear to every child of God. And the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." God says it, that
settles it. Whether we believe it or not,
the Lord has spoken. And the voice said, Cry. And
the prophet said, What shall I cry? Lord, in other words,
where do I start? Tell them all flesh is grass,
and all the goodliness thereof is the flower of the field. And
the grass withereth, and the flower fadeth. You know, I've
often thought of that in terms of the brevity of life. You know, we're just here for
a little while, and then it fades away. But in fact, look at the
next phrase, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it.
It doesn't matter how old you are, if the Spirit of the Lord
blows upon your flesh, then your flower fades. You see the vanity of your flesh. This is not just an end of life.
This is our experience when the Spirit of God blows upon us.
He causes us to loathe ourselves. He causes us to be able to say,
from the heart, in me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. Why? Because the Spirit of the
Lord's blown upon it. And He's withered away. What did Daniel
say? He said, my comeliness, my beauty,
my strength has been turned into corruption. Though the Spirit
of the Lord blows upon the flesh, it becomes grass. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. O Zion that bringeth good tidings,
get thee up to the high mountain. O Jerusalem that bring good tidings,
lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not afraid. Say
unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. Look to Christ. These verses 3 through 8, you
know, is a reference to John's ministry, John the Baptist's
ministry. And what did he say? Behold your
God. Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sins of the world. Behold, the Lord God will come
with a strong hand and with His arm, and His arm shall rule for
Him. Behold, His reward is with Him,
and His work before Him. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. Oh, he's a tender shepherd, isn't
he? He knows how to care for and
provide for his sheep. Who hath measured the waters
in the hollow of his hand or meted out heavens with a span
and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure? and weighed
the mountains in scales, and the hills in the balance." Who's
done this? The Lord has. He has. Who hath directed the Spirit
of the Lord, or being His counselor, hath taught Him? Who's instructed
Him of anything? And with whom took He counsel?
And who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of judgment,
and taught Him knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding?
You see how rhetorical these questions are, don't you? Kind
of reminds us of the book of Job, doesn't it? Behold, the
nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small
dust of the balance Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very
little thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the
beast thereof sufficient for a burn offering. All nations
before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less
than nothing and vanity. To whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness will you compare unto him? Florence Recente is in the hospital. She went in Monday with dizziness
and high blood pressure. I saw her today, and she was
hoping to go home today or tomorrow. Also, Cyril is having surgery
this coming Friday after tomorrow, and I told him we would be sure
to remember to pray for him. They'll hopefully be here in
the next month or two. All right, let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we think on the things which we
just read, and we know, Lord, that coming before
you is only can be done in the name of your dear son. We ask
father that you would enable us now by your grace and by your
Holy Spirit to believe the precious promises that you've declared
to us in thy word. We know, Lord, that that you
are in the heavens and that we are upon the earth and that our
words ought to be few. But we pray, Father, that thy
words to us would be many and that you would speak effectually
to our hearts and convince us and convert us and comfort us
with the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing
that the accusations of the law have been silenced, that our
sin has been put away, that we have an advocate before thee.
and that we're to come before the throne of grace with boldness,
looking unto Jesus as the author and the finisher of our faith.
We ask, Lord, that you would bless this worship hour to your
glory. We pray for Florence, and we
ask, Lord, that you would strengthen her body and enable her to recover.
We pray for Cyril, ask that you'd give the physician skill to perform
their work well and that you would bring healing to him. We
ask it in Christ's name. Amen. What a wonderful hymn and so
appropriate for our message tonight on Hope for strangers. Hope for strangers. If you'll
turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 1, the two lines
in this hymn that stood out to me just now was, Jesus sought
me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God. There was
a time when we were strangers to His grace. And now Peter calls
us strangers in this world. And the next line is, prone to
wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. There is a part of every child
of God that feels so out of place in this world. We feel like we're
in a foreign country, we feel like we Around people, we don't
speak the same language, we don't have the same culture, we don't
have the same values, we don't believe the same thing, we don't
have the same God, we're just strangers. And at the same time,
there's a part of every believer that is attracted to this world
and finds comfort and safety in things of this world. That's
our two natures. That's where we're at. I'm so
thankful for the first. I'm so thankful that we're not
without hope. I'm so thankful that we're not
like most folks who have all their investments in the things
of this world and they live in quiet desperation of hopelessness. We are prone to wander. We are
prone to leave the God that we love. We are prone to be attracted
to the pleasures of this world. And at the same time, at the
same time, we can identify with what Peter's saying here. We're
pilgrims. We're strangers. We're sojourners. We're just passing through. This
place is not our home. You remember, week before last,
we looked at that account that Peter had with the Lord, when
the Lord told him, before the cock crows, you'll deny me three
times, but Peter, I've prayed for you that your faith fail
not, and when you are converted, when you are converted, teach
the brethren. Now in 1st Peter chapter 1 we
have the very first words of the Apostle Peter being written
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to fulfill what the
Lord had commanded him to do. Teach the brethren. Teach the
brethren. And I think it's so significant of what he says in
the opening of this letter. He says, actually we understand
the opening of it best I think if we go back to verse 9 of chapter
5. He speaks of that adversary The
devil, who as a roaring lion, in verse 8, walketh about seeking
whom he may devour. Peter knew what it meant to be
sifted by Satan. And you do too. You're a child
of God. You know what it is to be sifted
by Satan. And you know what a lion he is. And yet, look what he says in
verse 9, "...whom resist." How do you resist Him? Steadfast
in the faith. You flee to Christ. That's how
you resist Him. In the faith. That's the only
way you can resist Him. Looking to Christ. Trusting in
Christ. Relying upon Him. Crying out
for His mercy and for His strength. and to have his strength to be
made perfect in your weakness. That's how we resist the devil. Knowing that the same afflictions
are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Now, this pilgrimage that we are on
in this world as strangers. I want you to see how Peter begins
his letter if you'll turn back with me in verse 1 of the first chapter. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the strangers. Now this was the dispersion of
the Jews. Peter was the apostle to the
Jews as Paul was to the Gentiles. And many of the Jews were forced
to leave their homeland when they professed faith in Christ.
And they were scattered about. They had to travel to other countries
and find new lives among the Gentiles. And this was a new
experience for them. And Peter's writing to them and
saying, I know that you are strangers in that land and you've been
scattered because of the gospel. When the persecution came, it
was like trying to stamp out a fire and these sparks flew
and they went everywhere. And in God's providence, He scattered
his children about to every nation, every tongue, every people as
a witness for Christ. And so Peter's addressing them
and he says, you're scattered, you're strangers scattered throughout
Pontus and Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, Orlando, Apopka,
Sanford, right here in Central Florida. We're part of the dispersion,
aren't we? Part of the scattering of God's
people. And the words here are of great
comfort to us. Verse 2 of 1 Peter chapter 1
is the whole gospel in one verse. It's the whole gospel in one
verse. The gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in the accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ is declared here in this one
verse. It is the only gospel. I was listening to a sermon by
Henry Mahan today, one he preached back in 1990 or something. He was speaking of how important
it is to preserve the purity of the gospel and to not allow
any leaven to come in. A little bit of leaven leavens
the whole lung. and how often times we've seen
a gospel witness destroyed because of a little compromise that was
made here or there over doctrinal truths that cannot be compromised. This work of God the Father,
God the Spirit, and God the Son that's declared in verse 2 is
the one and only gospel. And we're not just declaring
a doctrinal distinctive that we have among brethren. I was talking to a brother recently
and he said, well, you know, I was trying to share the gospel
with so-and-so and they said to me, well, we'll just have
to agree to disagree. And he said, I'm sorry, I can't
go there. I can't do that. I can't agree to disagree. I
can't even agree on that. And that's the way we are, isn't
it? We can't agree to disagree. This is the gospel. This is our salvation. This is
our hope. We're strangers in this world.
If what's declared in verse 2 is not true, then I'm standing on
shaky ground. If God the Father, God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit haven't done everything necessary for
my salvation, I don't have any hope. No place in the Bible do we find
the word Trinity. And yet, the glorious mystery
of our God, who is one Lord, according to His Word, is also
three distinct individual persons. Can we understand that? Can we
comprehend that? No more than we can comprehend
the things we just read in Isaiah chapter 40 about Him. These things
are too wonderful for us. But the Scriptures are clear,
are they not? that God the Father spoke audibly from heaven when
God the Son was professing His hope in the Father through baptism,
and while God the Holy Spirit was ministering grace to the
Son in the form of a dove, we see the triune God in so many
places, but there we see Him all at one time, don't we? And
if God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are one. What great encouragement the
believer has in knowing that when they all determined to accomplish
our salvation, what great hope do we have? It would be enough
if God the Father just elected a people according to His foreknowledge
before the foundation of the world. It would be enough if
the Lord Jesus Christ, through His obedience and through the
sprinkling of His blood, satisfied the demands of the law and put
away our sin once and for all. That would be enough. It would
be enough if God the Holy Spirit would just regenerate us in sanctification
and make us new. But when all three, are working together in our salvation. What great hope! What great encouragement
we have in knowing that our God can't fail. He can't fail. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father. Now I'm going to give you a little
Greek this evening. It's not a word you don't know,
but it is the word translated right there in your text for
knowledge. It's the word prognosis. It's
the same exact word in English as it is in the Greek. Prognosis. To know before what is going
to be. And that's the declaration that
God is making here. I have foreknown. I have predetermined. I have set in motion my purpose
and my omniscience has made it be. And there's your hope. that you are going to be elected
according to the foreknowledge of God. The other thing we see
about this word to know, the knowledge, is that it always
is used in reference to intimacy. Adam knew his wife and she conceived. When the Lord says to the goats
on his left side, depart from me you workers of iniquity for
I never knew you. He's not saying that he wasn't
cognizant of their existence. Certainly he knew that they were
there. But he didn't know them savingly. He did not know them
intimately. He did not love them. He didn't
love them. So the election of grace according
to the purpose of God is by His foreknowledge. God the Father
has chosen a people. Here's our hope that if He didn't
choose me, what hope would I have of ever choosing Him? Elect,
chosen of God. according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father. God the Father established a
covenant of grace and chose a people in Christ Jesus the Lord before
the foundations of the world. He did it according to His omniscience
and He did it according to His love. I've loved you with an
everlasting love. When the scriptures speak of
everlasting life, it's not speaking of a life that had a beginning
and lasts forever. It's speaking of a life that
has always been. Always been. And we can't, we
can't understand that. But God's always been. He's never
been counseled. We just read that in Isaiah chapter
40. No one's ever instructed Him
on anything. Why? Because He has always possessed
the full knowledge of everything. Here's our hope. That God has
elected a people according to His full knowledge. according
to the love that he set on his people in Christ before time
ever began, he determined and purposed their salvation. Chosen
in Christ Jesus. In Acts chapter 2 the same word,
prognosis, is used when Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost
and he says, Him, speaking of Christ, being delivered by the
determined for knowledge of God. that the Lord Jesus Christ was
delivered by the determinate counsel and for knowledge of
God you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
So God predetermined and purposed according to his love and according
to his omniscience. that the Lord Jesus Christ would
be crucified on that cross at that time for the sins of his
people. Can there be any doubt that it
was purposed by God? Romans chapter 8 verse 29, for
whom He did foreknow, He did also predestinate to be conformed
unto the image of His very Son. God determined it. He predetermined
it. He purposed it. Here's what Peter's
saying. When Peter is fulfilling that
command that the Lord gave him to teach the brethren, he begins
with the gospel. He begins with these that are
scattered about, who are in so many ways being pursued by that
roaring lion, and he's reminding us of the sovereign grace of God
in salvation. Right here in verse 2, when he
says that we are elect, God has chosen us in Christ. Oh, this word, elect. when the
Lord was hanging on the cross, they said, if then you be the
Christ, the elect of God, come down. And Isaiah, when he was
speaking of Christ in Isaiah chapter 42, said, behold, my
servant, the one whom I uphold, mine elect, one in whom my soul is well pleased. It's Christ, the elect of God. And all those that God placed
according to His foreknowledge in Christ have never been viewed
outside of Christ. God's elect have always been
in Christ. Turn back with me to 1 Timothy
chapter 5. when Lucifer and a third of the
angels in heaven rebelled against God and were cast into this world
and a place of hell was preserved for them, why didn't all the
angels fall? Why didn't they all rebel? You
have your Bibles open to 1 Timothy chapter 5, Look at verse 21. I charge thee before God and
the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that thou observe
these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing
by partiality. The only reason that two thirds
of the angels didn't follow the other third is because they were
elect. God chose them. God chose them. And the only reason that you
and I don't succumb to the roaring lion is because of our
election. That's our only hope. I love
it when Peter, when Paul speaks to the church and he says that
their knowledge of the Lord was was declared throughout all the
world and he says, or rather that He knows you. Now that's
the more important part of our salvation, isn't it? That the
Lord would foreknow us according to His electing grace, according
to His sovereign purpose. Turn with me to Romans chapter
8. After the glorious golden chain
of salvation is declared there, predestination and calling and
justification and glorification, what shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? That's what we say.
If God's chosen us in Christ before the world began, what
can change that? What can possibly change that?
He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,
how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? You see, the accusations of the
law have been silenced by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody can charge us. The only
way for you and I to have a clear conscience before God is to not
have anything that can be charged against us. It's to be innocent. And in Christ, that's exactly
what we are. Elected and placed in Christ. It is God that justifieth. Who is He that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again and is even
at the right hand of God. Go back with me to our text.
What great hope we have. Peter says, strangers, I know
you're struggling in this world. I know you have your affections
divided. They are set on things above
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God and at the
same time they are attracted to the things of this world. Peter knew exactly that, didn't
he? He knew that very well. And I know it, and you know it,
because that's our experience. The encouragement is that if
God's elected us, nothing can change that. Who can separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus? Who can take us out of
His hand? What God has purposed in eternity
must stand. that grace, according to election,
might stand. It is said, the older shall serve
the younger. I've purposed it. I've elected
it. It will stand. It can't be changed. If that's all we had, that'd
be enough. But we've got more. We've got
more. Look at the rest of this verse
in 1 Peter 1, verse 2. Through sanctification of the Spirit. Here's the work of the Holy Spirit
that regenerates us irresistibly, calls us by the gospel of His
grace and delivers us into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the one who comes and fetches us and makes us willing in the
day of His power, causes us to believe. You say, well, how do
I know if I've been elected? Do you believe the gospel? Do
you believe God? Do you believe Christ? The world
doesn't. The world we live in has no interest
in what we're talking about right now. There, I heard someone say today,
hoping against hope. Well, that's the world. Just
hoping against hope. No, we have a hope that doesn't
disappoint. They're just hoping against hope.
They're just grabbing for straws and hoping that somehow it's
all going to work out in the end. They don't believe that
they were dead in their trespasses and sins and only by the irresistible
grace of God were they pulled out of the tomb like Lazarus
and made to be made alive? They don't know that. They thought
that, well, I accepted Jesus, I did this, I did that, I came,
you know, I got... No. The sanctification is by
the Spirit of God. This word to be sanctified means
it's the same word from which we get our word saint. It's the
same word from which we get our word holy. It means to be set
apart. And so what God the Holy Spirit
does now is He takes those whom the Father elected in grace before
time according to His purpose and for knowledge and He brings
them the message of the Gospel and causes them to believe the
effectual calling. What a glorious hope! Lord, I
wouldn't have come. I was like my Phibosheth. I was
hiding out in Lodabar, in a land where there was no bread. And
you sent your servant to come fetch me. I'm like Rebekah. Abraham sent his servant to go
fetch his son a wife. Bring her back. What if she's
not willing? She'll be willing. And she was, wasn't she? Oh, the fetching grace of the
Spirit of God. It's irresistible. Here Peter
is saying, the Lord told me to comfort the brethren. Here's
my comfort. My comfort to you is God the Father. according to
his foreknowledge, in grace, elected a people before the world
began. God the Holy Spirit took the
message of the gospel and brought it to the hearts of God's people. The natural man cannot receive
the things of the Spirit. They are foolishness to him.
He won't come because he doesn't want to come. He's got no interest
in the gospel. Why do I have an interest in
the Gospel? Why can't I not come to the Gospel? Why do I keep
coming back to Christ? Because of the sanctifying grace
of the Holy Spirit. That's the only reason. That's
the only reason. The setting apart of the Holy
Spirit. And once He gives us eyes to
see and hearts to believe, He doesn't leave us, does He? He
perseveres. The preservation of the saints
is the perseverance of the Spirit of God. And He keeps us coming. He keeps sanctifying us. Peter
says, through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. Now, I gave you a Greek word. Do you remember what it was on
foreknowledge? prognosis. The next phrase in our text, the little preposition unto. Unto. It's used, oh I think,
1700 times or something like that in the scriptures, in the
New Testament. This little preposition in the
original language. and it's translated into our
English language unto, into, to, toward, by, and for. The
best translation in this passage would be the word for, for. And it's for in the sense that
if I was to say, Jesse James is wanted for robbery. Now there's two ways you can
understand that. We're looking for Jesse James to conduct a
robbery. Or we're looking for Jesse James for a robbery that
he performed. and it's clear that the latter
would be the interpretation. So I want to make this clear
because it's not unto your obedience, it is for the obedience of the
Lord Jesus Christ, an act that He's already performed. That's
why I said the whole gospel is in this verse. The electing grace
of God the Father, the sanctifying grace of God the Son, and the
redeeming grace of God the Spirit, and the redeeming grace of God
the Son is right here in this one verse. Four, the obedience. The obedience of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now we seek to obey the Lord,
but we obey Him in faith. we obey him looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ for our perfect obedience knowing that we've
never been able to satisfy the law but that he did he was under
the under the full brightness of the law and it could find
no accusation against him and that's why we read in Isaiah
chapter 40 his works go before him They recommend him to God. Why? Because he perfectly obeyed
the Father. Behold, mine elect, whom I uphold,
in whom I am well pleased. The Lord Jesus Christ's obedience
is the hope of our salvation. His obedience is our righteousness
for the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have no righteousness
apart from His obedience. We have the Spirit of God in
measure. He has the oil of gladness above
His fellows. He has the fullness of the Spirit
of God, the Spirit of grace without measure. Satisfying the full
scrutiny of the law, He accomplished our obedience for us. Now here's the gospel, brethren.
Elect according. You a stranger in this world?
Is Satan on your heels? You find yourself with this roaring
lion taking pieces of flesh out of
you? Here's your hope. God Almighty
has elected a people. according to his own foreknowledge
God the Holy Spirit through his sanctifying grace has called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light and God the Son
for his obedience and his righteousness and the sprinkling of blood Turn
with me to Exodus 24. Exodus chapter 24. Verse 3, And Moses came and told
the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments.
And all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the
words which the Lord hath said we will do. Moses wrote all the words of
the Lord and rose up early in the morning and builded an altar. Moses knew they weren't going
to do it. The only hope they had is that a sacrifice will
be made on an altar and 12 pillars according to the
12 tribes of Israel. Oh, I'm thankful that the elect
of God, all 144,000 of them, And that's not a literal number,
that's figurative. Every member of every tribe is
going to be there in glory. The twelve gates, all of one
pearl, the twelve foundations, the twelve apostles. Here's the
church. Not one will be lost. Why? Because
God's elected them. He chose them. And he sent young
men of the children of Israel which offered burnt offerings
and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord. Oh, this
is the only way they are going to obey? If a sacrifice is made
for them. God requires a blood sacrifice. He required one in the garden. Abel's sacrifice spoke and testified
of this grace and all throughout the lamb that was slain now.
at the Passover and Moses now is continuing that. And Moses
took half of the blood and put it in a basin and half of the
blood he sprinkled on the altar and he took the book of the covenant
and read it in the audience of the people and they said all
that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient and Moses
took the blood and sprinkled it on them. You liars! The only hope you have of being
innocent before God is to have the sprinkling of the blood put
upon you. What is our hope in salvation? God without any consult with
you or me before the world was ever made. for new, unelected
people according to His own purpose and grace. That's my hope. God the Holy Spirit, when He's
pleased in His time, blows effectually and breathes life into our dead
souls, sanctifying us irresistibly. He doesn't ask us for our permission.
He doesn't wait for us to do our part. He doesn't say, well,
you take the first step and I'll do the rest. He just arrests
us and stops us in our tracks, knocks us off our high horse,
shines a light from glory and speaks to our hearts and brings
us to the one, the only one who obeyed God perfectly. and who sprinkled his blood,
not for his sins, but for the sins of his people. And so, for the obedience and the sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. Hebrews, back just a couple pages,
Hebrews chapter 10, verse 21, and having a high priest
over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in
full assurance of faith and having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience. Lord, we'll do it. Everything
you've commanded." And then our conscience convicts
us. We haven't done anything. And the sprinkling of the blood
makes us clean. No condemnation. No accusation. All's been satisfied. Justice
has been satisfied by the obedience and the sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ. Grace, grace and peace be unto
you. The peace that we feel, the peace of God that keeps our
hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus is the result of having
peace with God. Don't look for the peace of God.
Don't look for the peace of God. The peace of God comes naturally
and consequently from having peace with God. If you look to the dove of peace, You'll fly out of your heart.
If you look to Christ, the dove of peace will fly into your heart. Don't look for the peace of God.
Look for peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ and the
peace of God will be the experience that you'll have as a result
of having peace with God. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father
we thank you for your sovereign grace and mercy and salvation.
We thank you that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
have confirmed in each of their works the success and accomplishment
of the salvation of your people. We pray that you would enable
us now to rely upon you for that. We ask it in Christ's name, Amen. Oh,