If you will, turn your Bibles
again to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. For most of you, we've had a
long, blessed relationship in the fellowship of the Gospel.
Long distance, but long, too. And I thank God for you. Thank
God that He has established His witness in this place. And I
pray for you, so thankful that he sent you a faithful pastor.
Thank God for that man. And I pray for you. Thank God
for you. I ask you to remember us in prayer.
I'm sorry that I have to leave this afternoon, but my schedule's
such I just don't think it's prudent for me to stay over the
weekend. But we continue to pray for you,
ask you to pray for us, and I thank you for your hospitality. If
you can remember four words, You will have the title of my
message and my outline, just four words. Chosen, sanctified,
redeemed, and blessed. Chosen, sanctified, redeemed,
and blessed. God's commandment to the gospel
preacher, every time he stands before his people, to open his
word to minister to their souls is this. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. And I've got just the text to
fulfill that admonition. First Peter chapter one, verse
two. 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. To you who by God's grace have
been made strangers, scattered abroad as sheep, Among wolves
in this world, God gives this blessed description. He says,
this is true of all my people. With those sweet, sweet words,
the Holy Spirit inspires Peter to describe that which is true
of every saved sinner. These things ought to rejoice
our hearts. We are declared here to be all
who believe on the Son of God, elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. And then he gives
this blessed benediction, grace and peace be multiplied. In the one short statement Peter
gives here, writing by divine inspiration, he makes us to understand
that our salvation is the work of the triune God. We recognize
and rejoice in the wondrous mystery of the divine trinity. God is
one, one person and three distinct beings, one being and three distinct
persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. John declares there are
three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the
Holy Spirit, and these three are one. And all three persons
in the Godhead are always engaged in the saving of His people.
God the Father chose us, predestined us, and God the Father ordained
all things that come to pass in providence and has committed
that to the rule of His Son. the Lord Jesus Christ who redeemed
us and governs the universe for our benefit and our everlasting
happiness. And God the Holy Spirit sanctifies,
that is, he regenerates, he calls his elect, giving them the very
nature of the Son of God, making us new creatures in Christ Jesus
and preserves us unto everlasting life. We rejoice to declare that
salvation is the work of God alone. It is a gracious work,
a work of God's omnipotent sovereign mercy performed by the three
persons of the Godhead. It is a work that is absolute
and certain, free and unconditional. It's the work that God performs
without the least contribution on our part. These days, when
men talk about salvation, they talk like this. I made my decision
for Jesus. I gave my heart to the Lord.
I got saved. I decided to start serving the
Lord. I am now one of those who's committed
to Christ. Always the emphasis being on
I. When was the last time you heard
someone say, the Lord saved me? When was the last time you heard
someone say, God Almighty saved me by His grace. God's given
me faith in Jesus Christ. And yet that's the language of
Scripture. The emphasis is always on our
God. He is the one who saved us by
His grace. God, who is rich in mercy, for
his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. He's regenerated
us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. When Christ
was regenerated, we were regenerated in him, and now we live by that
gift of life of the resurrected Christ given us by God the Holy
Spirit. when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace, He revealed
His Son in me. That's the language of Scripture.
Now back here in our text, I Peter 1, verse 2. these soul-comforting truths
declared in the Word of God by God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit
declares things that are matters of divine certainty. All who
were chosen by God the Father in eternity were redeemed by
the blood of Christ Calvary and shall be called by God the Holy
Spirit in time. No exceptions. If you're God's,
God will get you. I promise you, if you're God's,
God will get you. There's no way to escape if God
from eternity hedged you about. You shall not escape the hand
of his grace. He will call you by his omnipotent
mercy according to his purpose of grace, and you shall be forever
blessed with all the multiplied blessings of grace and peace. Oh, may he be pleased now. to
call you who are yet without Christ, giving you life and faith
in his dear son. In this text, there's not an
if, or a but, or a qualification, or a condition of any kind to
pollute this fountain of God's free grace. We are elect. according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, and we are blessed
with grace and peace multiplied to us in Christ Jesus. All right,
let's look at the first thing. Chosen. Elect according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father. Every sinner who in time enjoys
the blessings of God's salvation is elect. Elect by God the Father. Now the scriptures speak of election
in numerous, numerous ways in the scriptures. Contrary to popular
opinion, election's not a cuss word, it's a good word. And it's
good to talk about it. I don't like election. If you
ever get in on it, you're gonna like it, I promise you. I promise
you, most people in the churches know nothing about it. This is
a true story. I have a friend who used to live
in Dallas, Texas, her son, and he's out working in his yard
one day, and some folks from one of the local whoopee churches
came by wanting to buttonhole him, get him to come to church,
and trying to persuade him he ought to come, and he was right
in the middle of working, and he wanted to get back to work and wasn't interested.
And he said to the fellow, he said, y'all don't want me down
there. Oh yeah, we'd love to have you come. And he went on
and on and finally he said, well what do the folks down there
believe about election? The fellow looked at him like, why would
you ask that? And he said, I'm not sure, but
I think almost everybody down there is Republican. And that's about what folks know
about election. That's about what I know. This
book teaches the doctrine literally on every page of the book. We
were chosen of God. Why would anybody object to that?
Our Heavenly Father chose us as his sons and daughters. Now,
this doctrine stated in the scripture is stated so many ways I can't
possibly give them all to you. Let me just remind you of a few.
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest. and calls us to approach
unto thee. All that the Father giveth me,
our Savior said, shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. He said to his disciples, you
haven't chosen me. You didn't, you wouldn't, you
couldn't. That's not a possibility. But
I've chosen you, and I've ordained you to go and bring forth much
fruit. As many as were ordained to eternal
life believe. That's how it always is. We preach
the gospel and you wonder who's going to believe. As many as
were ordained to eternal life. As many as were ordained to eternal
life this hour shall believe this hour. They, all of them,
and none but them, as many as were ordained to eternal life,
believe. Our Savior said, I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me out of the
world, for they, they whom thou hast given me are thine. Turn
to Ephesians chapter one. I can hardly ever preach without
quoting Ephesians one, second Corinthians five, 21. In Ephesians
1, look at this blessed statement of our God. Verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Christ. How did he do that? According
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him. He chose us
that we should be holy and without blame before Him. Now I know
most folks read that and they'll say that He chose us so that
we could live a holy life. That'd be good if you could do
it. He's not talking about holy and without blame before men.
He's talking about holy and without blame before God. He chose us
to make us perfectly holy and blameless in Jesus Christ. And God Almighty shall at last
present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding
joy. We shall be full of exceeding
joy in that day. That's not all. he shall be full
of exceeding joy, as he presents us holy, spotless, blameless,
without wrinkle, without fault, or any such thing. Read on. In
love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made
us accepted in the beloved. How is it that we enjoy God's
salvation? God hath not appointed us to
wrath. He has, some folks, before of
old ordained to this condemnation. God hath not appointed us to
wrath. but to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ our Lord. We're
bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved,
because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. But here Peter speaks of election
in a slightly different way than it's commonly spoken of. He speaks
of election according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. We were foreknown of God. elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father. Now, we're worshiping babbling
Arminians. We'll jump on that text and snarl
and spit and say, there, you see, God chose us because he
looked out in eternity and he saw that we would choose him,
so he decided to accept us and choose us. Not hardly, not hardly. That's totally contrary to everything
taught in the Word of God. That makes salvation, that makes
God's eternal purpose to hinge entirely upon man and what man
does in time. And that's utterly ludicrous.
God Almighty is totally independent of the creature. He is the Creator. He's totally independent of the
sinner, He says. He is the Savior. Well, what
does this mean? It let, according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father. Let me give it to you in plain
terms in the scriptures. Foreknowledge, as it's used in
the scriptures, means four things, basically. Don't ever confuse
divine foreknowledge with divine omniscience. Omniscience, for
you young people, that's a big, big word. It means all-knowing.
Omniscience is an attribute of God. Because he is God, he knows
all things. Foreknowledge is an act of God. Foreknowledge is something God
does. Omniscience is something God is. They're two different
things. Foreknowledge is never spoken of or used like this,
what he foreknew. Never. It's always whom he did
foreknow. Foreknowledge has to do with
God knowing someone, knowing them. The word first means foreordained
or foreordination or predestinate. Now you don't have to guess about
that. Look right down in verse 20 in this passage Brother Art
read to us. The very word that is here in verse 2 translated
foreknowledge is translated foreordained here in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse
20. The apostle tells us that Jesus Christ verily was foreordained
before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these
last times to you. So foreknowledge first carries
the idea of purpose, predestination, foreordination. God foreordained
us unto eternal life in Jesus Christ. This word also has the
idea of love. Adam knew his wife Eve. In the Septuagint version of
the Old Testament, the very word that's used here. Knew his wife. Knew his wife. He knew about
her? No. He knew her. That is, he gave himself to her
in a manifest display of love. That's God's full knowledge.
Love, I remember Paul when you and Mindy got married, you gave
yourself to that woman. That's what love is. It is the
devotion of myself to the object of my love. The utter devotion
of a man to a woman. The utter devotion of a woman
to a man. The commitment of the totality
of my life to that dear lady who takes me as her husband.
Oh, you mean, pastor, that God Almighty committed his entire
being to us in election? That's what he did. He says,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. Listen to this. Our Lord Jesus
is praying in John 17. I in them and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that
thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. God loves us as he loves his
darling son. He loves us as his son, the mediator. Our Savior, you remember, said,
therefore, doth my father love me, because I lay down my life
for the sheep. You mean the father didn't love
the son before? Of course he did. But the Savior
merited the father's love by his obedience unto death as our
substitute. He says, therefore, for this
reason, doth my father love me, because I lay down my life for
the sheep. He loved the son as our mediator, as the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world from eternity. So he loved us. He loved the son because of his
son's perfect righteousness. So he loves us. He loved the
son because of the son's perfect obedience. So he loves us. He
loves the son because his son is totally worthy of his love. And so he loves us. For in his
son, we who are unworthy of spirit are worthy of God's love in his
son. I've loved thee with an everlasting
love, he declares. Turn to Psalm 1. Psalm 1. Four
in a nation has the idea of, four knowledge has the idea of
four in a nation. It has the idea of everlasting love. It
also carries with it the idea of divine approval. Psalm 1,
verse 6. The Lord knoweth the way of the
righteous. Well, God knows all things. Of
course he knows how I'm going home today. God knows all things. Of course he knows which road
you take to get to this place or that. That's not what it's
talking about. That's not what it's talking about. The Lord
approves of the way of the righteous. He approves of us trusting His
Son. He approves of the way of the
righteous. Well, how do you know that's
what it means? But the way of the ungodly shall perish. He
knows which way they're going to hell too, but He doesn't approve
of them. And He doesn't approve of their way. But the Lord God
Almighty approves of every sinner chosen in everlasting love, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
the object of His covenant mercy, for He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. He approves of us. Brother Clay,
He approves of us all the time. What happens when the believer
sins? Oh, a lot here. And I hate to even use the word
when, because sin's what we are. And our sins grieve us. And the things that we do displease
the Lord. But God's people are always approved
of by Him, accepted by Him. There is no possibility of change
in our standing and our acceptance. I don't even like the word standing.
It implies somehow we're disconnected from us. In our acceptance in
Jesus Christ the Lord, we're one with Him. This is my beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased. And if I'm in Christ, the Father's
well pleased with me all the time. when I feel it, and when
I don't. When things are going wonderfully,
and my soul is empty, and dark, and lifeless, and as hard as
steel, and as cold as ice, still we're accepted of God. If any
man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. If that won't sail your boat,
I don't know what will. We haven't lost anything, nothing. I said this many years ago and
I've said it many times since. My relationship with the Eternal
God does in great measure determine what I do. But what I do, be
it good or evil, has nothing to do with my relationship with
the Eternal God. We are approved of by God, accepted
of him from everlasting. And fourth, this word foreknowledge
carries with it the idea of infallible safety and security. Nevertheless,
Paul says, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this
seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. Everything's all right, because
my father knows. Not just that he knows all I
need, and knows all I've got to face, and knows all I've got
to do, and knows all I've got to go through, and knows all
the ups and downs, and the in and outs, and the good days and
the bad days, not that. I'm always safe and secure in
my Redeemer, because God knows me. God foreordained me, God
loved me, God accepted me immutably in his dear Son from eternity. Tis not that I did choose thee,
for Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, hast thou not chosen me. My heart owns none before thee,
for thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing, if I love thee,
thou must have loved me first. Now, election's blessed. It's
blessed. But that's not the first thing
experienced by the believer. And that's not the first thing
known by the believer. Election and redemption cannot
be known until sanctification is experienced. You can never
experience election and you can never experience redemption until
you are sanctified by God the Holy Spirit. So Peter tells us
in the second place that we are elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit. Now sanctification
is commonly thought to be something that a believer does for himself. At least he makes a big contribution. It's something he does with the
help, of course, of God's Holy Spirit. We would never say a
man sanctifies himself, but with the help of the Spirit, he's
able to live a sanctified, godly, holy life. And God, the Holy
Spirit, comes and gives him a new nature, and then by a lot of
diligent exercise, reading his Bible and praying and not eating
this and not drinking that, not wearing that, not going there,
and by talking a certain way and acting a certain way, and
by getting so religious that he's mean to everybody else,
then he's really holy. Then he's really holy. No, sanctification
in this book is never spoken of as something that's progressive. Not one time. It is never spoken
of as something you do, not one time. It is never attributed
to you, not a single time. Where'd men get that doctrine?
From hell, that's where they got it. It's not something you
do. Sanctification is God's work.
I'll give you a test, test for it. Is it necessary to be holy
to get to glory? Is it? I believe it is. I believe it is. That means you
didn't have anything to do with it. That means it doesn't depend
on you. Well, what does sanctification
mean? Basically, it means to set apart for God and for holy
use. Sanctification in the Old Testament
was spoken of certainly in a ceremonial way where men were commanded
to sanctify themselves. But they were also commanded
to make atonement for themselves in the Old Testament. And you
know nobody makes atonement for himself. The ceremony simply
pointed to us being sanctified and being redeemed in Jesus Christ
our Redeemer. Sanctification is to be set apart
like the vessels of the tabernacle were set apart for God. Just
ordinary dishes. Now granted they were gold, but
they were just ordinary gold dishes. They were set apart,
however, not for you to serve a steak until you find his company.
They were set apart to hold the showbread on the table of showbread
in the holy place. That was their only use. The
priests of Israel were just ordinary men, but they were sanctified. Even Aaron's sons, who offered
strange fire and were reprobate men, were sanctified as priests. That's the reason they were slain
when they offered strange fire in the holy place. They were
sanctified, set apart for no purpose but the service of God
in the holy things. Our Lord Jesus himself said,
I sanctified myself. What's that mean? I set myself
apart for nothing but the will of God. Sanctification then is
being set apart for our God. Turn to Jude, the first verse. Jude 1. God's elect were sanctified
by God the Father in covenant grace before the world began,
set apart from all other men to be his peculiar people. Jude
the servant of Jesus Christ and brother James to them that are
sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ
and called. Well, Jude must have got that
wrong. He really meant to say we were called and preserved
and sanctified. I think Jude got it right. We
were sanctified and preserved and called. set apart by God
from eternity, and preserved from that time before time was,
before the foundation of the world, unto the day when God
appointed to be for us the time of love, when he called us by
his grace, and then in the time of love, being preserved even
through Adam's fall, even through all the stages of our rebellion,
at last called by God's almighty grace. In exactly the same way,
we were sanctified, set apart from the world to be God's peculiar
holy people in the cenotonic death of his dear son. The book
says we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ one time. Sanctified. The Lord Jesus redeemed
us to himself a peculiar people. Now that doesn't mean people
who talk funny and act funny and dress funny. That doesn't
mean down where I live, matter of fact, y'all got them all around
here too, I think. We have lots of, they call themselves the
simple people, Amish folks. If you look close, they're just
dirty, but simple people, they dress funny. The women all look
like mud fences on a rainy day. They're just, that's, We don't
want to be like the world. We're sanctified. No, no. We're set apart as God's peculiar
people. His specially, distinctly, sovereignly
protected and cared for people. Now that's peculiar. We are distinctly
God's by blood atonement. And in the same way, God the
Holy Spirit comes in sovereign mercy and grace and by his regenerating
power sets us apart under God so that we now belong to God. We are his distinctly, his peculiar
people by the new birth. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature, a new creature. He has a new nature. The old
nature hasn't changed in him. Is there any child of God sitting
in this room this morning who will lift his hand right now
and tell me that somehow your old nature's gotten better? Well, Paul, it just gets worse. We're just more aware of it.
No, rotten just gets more rotten all the time. The passions are
more evil all the time. I just met Brother Bill, isn't
it? Just met him last night, first
time. A little older than I am, so I'll ask you. Has it gotten
any better? No, no. Corruption's there. But bless God, he gives us a
new nature. That which is born of God and
cannot sin. It's called Christ in you, the
hope of glory. It is the righteousness of God
imparted to you, put in you by the power of God's Holy Spirit
and regeneration. Now, what does that mean? That
means you're sanctified. You're not your old. You're bought
with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. But why does Peter
here put sanctification before redemption? Why does Peter speak
of us being elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Christ? Is he confused? Did he get the order wrong? No.
Peter is telling us not the order in which things are performed,
but the order in which things are experienced. And what we
know, we only know by experience. I recall years ago, long, long
time ago, first time I heard Brother Mahan quote something
Rolf Barner said. Somebody asked him, said, Brother
Rolf, do you believe everything in the Bible? He said, I don't
know, I haven't experienced it all yet. Let it sink in, you'll
get it. Took me a while. You don't know
anything except what you experience. It's all just theory till you
experience it. I know by experience what it
is to be chosen of God. I know what it is by experience
to be forgiven of all sin through the blood of Christ because I've
been sanctified by God the Holy Spirit. We learn of our election
and learn of our redemption when God the Holy Spirit gives us
faith in Jesus Christ, God's dear son. All right, here's the
third thing, redeemed. We are chosen, foreordained,
foreknown by God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit
unto the obedience and sprinkling of blood of Jesus Christ our
Lord. What's that talking about? In
preaching the gospel, we don't declare to sinners the possibility
of redemption. You can be redeemed. Not according
to this book. We declare redemption accomplished. We declare to sinners that Christ
has put away sin. Christ has brought in everlasting
righteousness. He did it for his people. Who
are his people? All who believe on the Son, they
are his people. And believing him, you discover
in the experience of grace that God chose you and redeemed you
by his grace. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. That is, speak to the heart of
my people. Cry, speak unto them, and cry
unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. Your warfare is over. Your iniquity's pardoned. God's
not only forgiven you, but makes you righteous too in his Son. Who's that addressed to? Every
sinner in the world who believes on the Son of God. Do you believe
God's Son? Right now, I ask you, believe
on the Son of God. And as God gives you faith in
Christ, I tell you, your iniquity's part, your warfare's over. God's
forgiven you all your sin, and God Almighty has made you the
righteousness of God in His Son. The obedience spoken of here
in 1 Peter 1 is twofold. It speaks of redemption accomplished
and redemption applied. It speaks both of the obedience
of Christ as our substitute unto death and of that sprinkling
of blood in our hearts by God the Holy Spirit. The sprinkling
of blood clearly in the context refers to Christ Jesus our Paschal
Lamb who has been sacrificed for us, the blood that was sprinkled
on the mercy seat. God said, there will I meet you.
And God showed his glory in the holy of holies on the mercy seat
as the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat. Redemption accomplished
in the ceremonial picture of the law. So it is that Christ
with his own blood entered in once into the holy place having
obtained eternal redemption for us. And then he comes to every
redeemed sinner by the power of his spirit and sprinkles the
conscience. as you believe on the side. Sprinkles
your conscience, purges your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God. What's that talking about? When
a sinner believes, looking to Christ crucified, your screaming conscience has
been crying guilty, guilty, guilty. You start to reform your life
and it's not enough and your conscience screams guilty, guilty. You start to go to church and
it's not enough and your conscience screams guilty, guilty. You try
to read your Bible and pray and your conscience says, not enough,
guilty, guilty. And you can't rest until at last
God causes you to see his sword. And your conscience says enough.
Enough. That's all God requires. picture
of John Bunyan gives in Pilgrim's Progress, when Pilgrim went to
Mount Calvary. He'd been everywhere looking to get rid of the burden
on his back that was crushing his soul down to hell. And he
said, I looked up and saw one hanging on the tree and the burden
fell off my back. So it is with faith in Christ. God-given faith is the Holy Spirit
sprinkling the conscience from dead work so that now I stand
before God not guilty, not guilty. I take the fact of the judgment
seat, the great white throne judgment seriously, very seriously. But I'm going to give you a challenge.
I'm going to give you a challenge. Find me a place in this book.
anywhere in this book, from beginning to end, where any believing sinner
ever feared meeting God in judgment. You find it, Fulman. It's just
not there. Preachers use it like a scare
tactic to try to get folks whipped in line and stay in line and
tithe and give and attend church and read their Bibles and pray.
It's not there. God's people are not mercenaries.
We don't serve God because we're afraid of what we won't get or
because we hope to get something from him. We serve him because
he's created love in our hearts for him freely and willingly.
You mean, Brother Don, you're not afraid to stand before God?
I can say to you honestly, no. I have been a couple of times
in my life at the point where I was convinced I would die rather
soon. And I have no fear of meeting
God. How come? Because Christ is enough. But God demands righteousness.
Christ is enough. But God demands holiness. Christ
is enough. Without holiness, no man shall
see the Lord. That's Christ in you, not something
you do for you. But a man must pay for his sins. Christ is enough. Is that right? And therefore, we live in peace. One more thing. I'll wrap it
up. It let, 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. For every chosen, redeemed, sanctified
soul. For every believing sinner, this
is an absolute promise of grace given by inspiration of God the
Holy Spirit. It's not what Peter is wishing
for us. It's not what he is praying that we might have. It is a matter
of absolute certainty. You who believe, to you God promises
grace and peace. All the blessings of grace. pardoning
grace, providential grace, prevenient grace, preserving grace, sufficient
grace. Whatever grace you need is yours
for as long as you need it, that is, as long as you live in this
body of flesh. And peace, the peace of conscience
accepted with God. Oh, I can't tell you what peace
that is. You must experience it to know
it. Peace that passes understanding. Peace of faith resting in God's
will, God's purpose, and God's providence. The peace of heart
that only God can give. And these blessings of grace
are given to you multiplied. Only multiply. Never diminish,
Joe. Never divide it. Just multiply
it. Every day I wake up, I try to
think in my soul, this day my father is multiplying to me grace
and peace in Jesus Christ the Lord. Let us walk in that blessed
confidence of faith that only such grace and peace can give
for the glory of God. Amen.