I want to bring the message this
morning out of 1 Peter chapter 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus
Christ, he was called of God to be an apostle. What he writes
is from the Lord. It's under the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit. He writes this epistle to strangers scattered
abroad. They were scattered abroad by
afflictions over the gospel. You cannot believe the gospel,
not the gospel, and not have some afflictions over it. sooner
or later they will come. Our Lord suffered because of
it, and so shall his servants, his disciples. He calls those
scattered abroad elect. We don't know where or who the
children of God are, but He does, for He chose them in Christ before
the world was. Therefore, we preach the gospel.
Wherever He opens the door and He calls His sheep out by the
gospel, Scripture says, He knoweth them that are His. Now our election
is according to God's foreknowledge. The reason for our election is
only found in Him. As our Lord said, even so, Father,
it seemed good in thy sight. He foreknew us, those whom He
foreknew, those whom He calls, those whom He saves. He foreknew
us because He foreordained us. He also foreordained the means.
God uses means, and here he says, through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. The Holy Spirit convinces of
sin. He reveals Christ in you, and
by his work in you, he creates faith and repentance in the heart.
And the result of that, you believe the gospel. Without His sanctifying
work in the inner man, no one would be saved because it is
not in us naturally to come to Christ. Christ said, you will
not come to me that you might have life. He said, you love
darkness rather than light, and Christ is light. And then He
sprinkles the heart and the conscience with the blood of Christ. That's
what gives you a clear conscience, is the blood of Christ. This
is what gives us real peace, His blood. the sprinkling of
His blood on the heart and on the conscience. And it's because
of His blood and righteousness that the grace of God can come
upon us. And we can enjoy peace with God.
Peter gives the honor and praise where it is due. He said, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of
His abundant mercy, He has begotten us again unto a lively hope. We were dead in trespasses and
sins. Every man comes into this world,
every woman comes into this world dead in trespasses and sins. Even every believer before God
saves him is dead in trespasses and sins. We were like sheep
gone astray. But the Father of Christ did
something for us. He chose us in His Son. His Son
redeemed us from the curse of the law. He died for us and rose
again for our justification. And now we have a lively hope,
a living hope in Jesus Christ. It's real. This is not a fairy
tale. It is real. A real hope to everlasting
life. To an inheritance incorruptible,
undefiled. Whatever we inherit here is corruptible
and will fade away. But our inheritance that we have
in Christ is incorruptible and undefiled. There's no sin in
it. Therefore it fades not away. And it is right now reserved
in heaven for you, for those who believe God, for his children.
It is being kept for you. You cannot lose it, and no one
can take it from you. For it is in heaven where moth
and rust cannot corrupt, and where thieves cannot break through
and steal. And you, my friend, are kept
for it. He says in verse 5, who are kept
by the power of God through faith, unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. He will not let us go. He will
keep us believing until faith gives way to sight. He has the
power to keep us. And in this we rejoice even though
we have our seasons of trials and heaviness and heartaches.
Sixteen times Peter mentions sufferings. Trials are going
to come to every believer. as he said, if need be. And although
it may not seem like it, they are for our good. They wean us
from this world and make us depend on Him as we should. They teach
us how frail we are. They make us run to Him for refuge.
They make us grow up. And the end result is this, it
might be found unto praise, that is it, that is faith, Faith might
be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ. It may be found to be genuine.
I want to know that I have faith now, not when life's over. And
although we haven't seen Him, yet we love Him. And the reason
is because He first loved us. And even though we still don't
see Him, yet we believe Him. We walk by faith, not by sight.
And we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And the very
thing we wait for by faith we shall have, and that is the salvation
of our souls. We shall have it in Christ. And
it is the same salvation that the prophets had an interest
in and preached about. Their message and our message
is concerning the same person, the Lord Jesus Christ. They spent
their time searching the scriptures to see what time these things
would take place concerning Christ's sufferings and the glory that
should follow. Anybody who has been given an
interest in Christ desires to know more about Christ. He is
our life. He is our all in all. He's our
lesson and He's our teacher. He's everything to the believer.
Now he says in verse 13, Wherefore, seeing that we have been so highly
favored of God, and have so great a cloud of witnesses, we ought
to be sober minded. We ought to give our hearts and
our minds to these things diligently. As Peter said in one place, Make
your calling and election sure. To live as obedient children,
children who have been taught of God. As he said, Be ye holy,
for I am holy. Live as one who has been redeemed
from the curse. Because the one in whom we believe
and serve is holy. He takes no pleasure in sin,
but delights in righteousness, even so ought his children. And
if you call God your Father, the one who has no respect of
persons, The one who judges righteously to pass the time of your life
here on this earth in reverent respect and fear of God. Not
a slavish fear of punishment, but a fear of awe and respect
of Him. Let's not be foolish in our conduct
and attitude is what He's saying. Let's adorn that gospel by which
we are saved with a gracious spirit and attitude. Any other
spirit is not of God. And Paul gives an even stronger
proof for living godly and walking godly in this present evil world.
You know that you were not redeemed with money, silver and gold from
your empty, your vain way of life which you received from
your fathers. How important it is to us who have children to
see to it that what we say about God, about Christ and about men
is right. And who we let them listen to
is telling them the truth. Our children have received our
sinful nature, but they don't have to receive sinful teaching.
We need to guard against that. But Peter says, You were redeemed
with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. Money could not purchase us.
It could not satisfy justice nor honor God's law. That would
have been a bribe. But His blood can, and it has. His blood is precious because
it's the blood of God. It's pure blood. He knew no sin. That can only be said of Jesus
Christ. He redeemed us from the curse of the law, the torments
of hell, by His precious blood. My friend, redemption is not
something that our Lord attempted. It's something He accomplished.
Now, He accomplished the redemption of a multitude of sinners and
everyone that was going to be saved. And this was not some
last minute decision or rescue attempt on God's part. He was
foreordained before the foundation of the world. God the Father
had already devised the way of our salvation before He created
the world. But it wasn't until these last
days that He's been plainly revealed to us. We know who the Redeemer
is now, Jesus Christ. We don't have to search diligently
like the prophets did to find out who it is. We know, for His
Word tells us it is His Son, Jesus Christ, and we are to believe
Him. And it's by Him that we can even
do Do that. Who by Him, it says, do believe
in God. Faith is a gift of God, and it's
in God. A man really does not believe
in God until he believes and knows the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now seeing that your souls have been purified through the truth,
being evident by your obedience, see that you truly love each
other sincerely. demonstrating that new birth
which is also by Him, and by His Word which is the incorruptible
seed, the Word of God, which is different from that corruptible
seed that was in your first birth. For nothing good could come out
of that corruptible seed, that first birth. For all flesh is
as a grass, and all glory of man as the flower of grass. The
flower blooms, but it withers, and it falls away. But God's
Word which is preached to you through the gospel is forever
and ever. My friends, we are redeemed.
Those who are redeemed, those who are saved, are redeemed by
the precious blood of the Lamb. Jesus Christ did not attempt
to redeem, He redeemed. And He redeemed everyone the
Father gave Him. May God bless His Word. Until
next time.