I'm going to ask if you would
turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 1. You might want to
put a little marker or something in there. We'll break away from
1 Peter for a moment or two here in the message and then we'll
come back to it. Some time ago, a few years back when I was still
employed, with FedEx Freight driving trucks. One of our fellow employees,
his son works for us. I believe it was on the afternoon
shift or something like that. He was on his way to work on his motorcycle and the Lord
took him out of this world in an accident with another semi. I remember how broken-hearted I was looking at his dad and seeing
the pain of losing a loved one like that. One moment, everything was fine. He'd see his son come to work.
He was so proud of how hard he was trying. And the next year, he was just
gone. He was taken from this world. As far as I knew, his dad had no understanding of the truth
of who God is. I don't know much about what
his religion was. He may not have had any. We all have a religion of some
kind, don't we? We all know that death is coming for us. We all know,
we all knew, even before the Lord called us out of darkness,
what death was about. Men know that they have sinned
against God. I know there are some who say,
I don't believe in God. But those are few. Those are
so few. Think about how many religions
there are in the world. You know why there's so many
religions? Because everybody's trying to make appeasement with
God. Men know what we are before God. We know we're sinners. Well,
some of us don't think we're that bad and that we don't deserve
what the wrath of God is, but we know. We know. Somewhere right close to that
moment when, that time when that man's son was taken out of this
world, one of our sisters died. And it was, It was heartbreaking then too,
but I'm going to try to bring to you this morning the difference
between those who know the Lord, those who know the truth of who
God is, Creator of everything. Nothing can be overpowering He
who is God. power in heaven and earth belong
to him. And scriptures tell us that it
all belongs to his son, the Lord Jesus. Scriptures tell us that
if we are to worship God the Father, we must worship God the
Son. Scriptures tell us that he is
the one who's sitting on the throne, working all things out
according to the counsel of his goodwill. I want to talk to you this morning
about a hope that God's people have. That poor man had no hope for
his son. He knew his son was a sinner. We all know that we're sinners,
as I pointed out a moment ago. But yet, he had no hope of where
his son was now after the accident. Not only was he torn of the heart,
missing his son, knowing that his son would no longer be here
on this earth, he had no idea where his son was. You know,
the world loves to say, when people die, they love to say
things like this, oh, they're in such a better place. Are they? I asked this question at a funeral
once. I didn't think anybody there
cared about the truth of God. I knew the sister of the man
that we were there to have the services for, I knew that she
was a free will Christian, that she believed that her salvation
was accomplished when she made a decision to follow after Christ. And that's wrong. Our Lord says
it's not of him that willeth, It's not your free will or him
that run it. It's not your works, the good
things that you do in life, but of God that show us mercy. She
had no idea that. And as far as I knew, nobody
else did either. And I brought up in that message the hope that God's people have. And what is our hope is that
that person may be in Christ and in Christ alone. Their hope was that he was in
a better place just because he was a nice guy. And I told them
that. I said, that's where your hope
is. Am I wrong? I don't know of anybody nicer than Arlie Valdon,
who walks this earth. He was just one of the nicest
guys there could be. But that's not where my hope
was. My hope was in Christ. I knew
that Arlie had lived here for a short period of time before
he moved in to the house, or the residence down there. And
so I shared with him, I said, while he was living here, he
heard the word of God. You can't live in my house and
not hear about who God is. You cannot live in my house.
You can't stay and spend any time with me and not hear something
about who God is. And I'm going to go out on a
long limb and say that's pretty much, probably pretty true of
all of you. Everyone around you knows that
you have a God who rules everything. Because if he does in your heart,
you're saying it quite often. And Elmira Lord's ruling over
that. I'm not going to worry about that stuff going on down
there in Texas. God's got a handle on that. People
hear us say that. They may not respond to us, but
they hear us. When we declare our God rules,
they may even get mad about it. What do you mean God's in control
of that? You mean to tell me that God brought those airplanes
against those buildings in 9-11? Yes, he did. And we don't hide that, do we? Where was my hope that day? My hope was that Christ had done
a work in that man's heart. Did he? I don't know. I can't tell your heart. But I know he heard. At least with the ears of the
flesh, whether God did anything with him to his heart, that's
between God and him. I know this. God can save a man or a woman
at the very last minute. That's what he did with the thief
on the cross. A lively hope, a good hope. What was the difference that
I witnessed most about these two events that happened in the
closing of time for those two people? In one, I saw the desperation
of a father who knew not where his son was, and in the other,
I saw the joy of a husband. Don't get me wrong, I saw him
cry. I saw his heart broken that his
wife of 65 years was gone. But I also heard him say, praise
the Lord, that's where she is now. with God. How did he know? Because she
had heard the truth. We were talking, we broke away
from Hebrews for just a moment in our Bible studies and I went
to Thessalonians. Paul was praising the Thessalonians
for their faith in God. He called them brethren. He called
them the elect of God. Because They declared the truths
of God. To the best of Paul's ability
as man in the flesh, he could see that they believed God. They weren't chasing after some
other doctrines. They were going after the God
of scriptures. They laid all their trust in what he had done
and had none in themselves. This man cried for his wife.
of marriage of 65 years, but he praised God for what God had
done in her heart. I praise my God for what he's
done in this woman's heart. I praise my Lord for what he's
done in your hearts. When I first started preaching, I couldn't understand why any
of you folks kept coming back. I still wonder at times, I still
wonder. Last Sunday I was very low and
desperate in spirit over being a preacher. And somehow God just spoke to
the hearts of his people here. And as you folks left, you let
me know that. There's a huge difference between
God's people and those who have no idea who he is. Those who
think they have a peace, but that peace depends upon them.
You see, our peace doesn't depend on anything we do. Our peace
is in him and him alone. It's in His precious blood that
was shed on that cross over 2,000 years ago, and that blood alone.
It's not mixed with anything we do. It's His blood and love
alone for us that gives us that hope, that hope that you, that
you, that you, that you, that you, that you, will be with our Father when
your time comes. 1 Thessalonians 4, 13, we read
these words, but I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others
which have no hope. The people of God have a hope
and a joy that our loved ones have gone on into the next life
and are with the creator. We know him as the creator, the
creator and sovereign ruler of all things. We have this hope
that our loved ones are this one that has professed God as
we have to be standing in the presence of God in eternal bliss
with no more pain and no more tears. basking in the beauty
of the sovereign ruler of all that is. What is this hope that some have
and others don't? We've got to begin with this
because this is where the beginning starts with all things. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Arlie was one of the nicest guys
I've ever known, but he too was a sinner as much as anybody else. My grandmother, I never knew
anything bad about her. I was never shared anything about
her life. You know, I was, I think it was
my daughter was talking on Facebook or something, I don't know, it
was pasted somewhere, where she had remembered what my mom had
told her about her teenage years. And it astounded my daughter
at what kind of person my mom was. I've never heard anything
about my grandma that way, so in my eyes, my grandmother is
perfect. And there's nothing wrong with
her at all. She's never done anything wrong. That's just in
my eyes. But in God's eyes, we're all
sinners. And that's where we have to start.
That's where we have to start. The difference between the hope
that we have and the hope that the world has is that we know
there's nothing in us of any worth to God. There's nothing
in this flesh that can bring any pleasure to God's eyes. I've sinned and come short of
the glory of God. We've all earned the wrath of
God. We all come into this world speaking lies. That's what scripture
tells us. Listen to 1 John 1 verse 18. For if we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. You say,
well, I've never said I don't have any sin. You know, folks
do say that. For 40 years, I said that. What? You were religious? No.
No, I couldn't wait to get out of going to church. But I didn't
think of myself as a sinner. Did you think of yourself as
a true sinner, a bona fide sinner, before God came to you and showed
you? Oh, we did a couple things wrong,
didn't we? We may have sowed a few wild oats, told a lie or
two here and there, but we didn't kill anybody, right? At least,
not that we're admitting to anybody. You have to know, you have to
know what you are before God before you can have a true hope
in the true and living God. If all have sinned and come against
the Creator, what is their just reward? It's death. It's our
death. That would be our just reward.
Our destruction. God must put away sin. He must
put it away out of his sight. He cannot be in his presence.
Separation from God is our just reward. The God of all creation
is holy. He cannot even look upon sin.
When Adam fell in sin, he was cast out of the garden. That
is what has happened to you and I. We've been cast out of that
garden. We came into this world in the
wilderness of death, in the valley of the shadow of death. Yet there in that terrible event,
when Adam sinned against God, God provided a way to reconcile
men. Here's the hope. Here's the difference. Here's the hope that we have.
God provided a way to reconcile you and I to Him. He didn't take any chances. There's
no such thing as chance with God. He didn't put it out there
as a maybe. There's no such thing as maybe
with God. Everything of God is yea and
amen, true. That way of reconciliation is
through his son, the Lord Jesus. It's through the lamb slain.
covering the sinful flesh of man. It's a picture. The picture
is of a sacrifice, of blood that was shed, of substitution, of
redemption. Scripture tells us there is no
remission of sin without blood, without the shedding of blood.
So our substitute is one who has the power and the authority
to reconcile his people unto himself. He knew no sin. and was made to be sin, was made
to be our sin, that some, that us, would be made the righteousness
of God in him. That's our hope. That's our good
hope. That's our lively hope. We call
him Jesus, for he shall save his people. Isn't that what the
scripture tells us? This is the difference between
The people of God and the rest of the world, our hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus Christ and His righteousness. We have
no confidence in this flesh. Are you with me in 1 Peter? Look
here at verse one with me if you would. Peter, an apostle
of Jesus Christ to the strangers, that's God's people. That could
be translated to God's people, those who are strangers to the
world. scattered throughout Pontius,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Notice he addresses them as strangers. We're strangers in this world.
This world is not our home. Scriptures talk about the God's
people as being sojourners. That's what Abraham was. He had
no home. He was a sojourner through the
wilderness. The Lord said, leave your home
behind. Leave the world of Canaan, the world of idol worshipers.
Leave that behind and go where I will tell you. Well, where
is that, Lord? I'll tell you when it's time. And he said,
OK. And he went. He was a sojourner living in
tent. Our roots, folks, are in heaven.
Our names were written in the Lamb's book of life before the
world began. Our place is in heaven, and it's
been made for us. Our names are inscribed in the
palms of our Savior. And then Peter goes on to clarify
this in verse two. Look at verse two with me. He
says, elect, elect. I want to take you to a couple
of places. Have you marked 1 Peter? We'll come back to it in just
a second here. Turn over to, let's go over to Isaiah 45 first. For Jacob, my servant's sake,
and Israel, mine, what does that say? Elect. The world hates election. They hate to hear that God chose
who he was going to save. They would rather have, well
that's not fair. It's only fair if you let me choose. It's only
fair if you let me decide that you're going to save me. It's
only fair if you've done the works and I get to add some of
mine to it. It's only fair if you allow me
to have power over what you've done. For Jacob, my servant's sake,
and Israel, mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name. I have surnamed thee thou, though
thou hast not known me. Look at another one, if you would,
over in Isaiah. Isaiah 65, verse nine. And I
will bring forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Judah, an inheritor
of my mountains. And mine elect shall inherit
it. and my servants shall dwell there. Peter is clarifying that back
in our text, that God has chosen a people. He says elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification,
that means through setting apart, that means through making holy
of the Spirit. See who did the work there? We
were elect, we were chosen of God, called of God by the foreknowledge
of God the Father through the setting apart, through the making
holy of the Spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling. Now look
at, who's all the work here? Do you see this in the scripture
here? This is where our hope is, folks.
It's not in something you and I have done, but it's in this
very thing here, the great trinity, God the Father, God the Spirit,
and here we see God the Son, and the sprinkling unto obedience,
and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Then he says,
grace unto you. Those of you who have been called
of God, through the foreknowledge of God and sanctified of the
Spirit under the obedience of the sprinkling of God. Grace,
and he says this is the order, the order's perfect, grace unto
you and peace be multiplied. Folks, you're not gonna have
any peace in this world unless God is gracious to you. And he's
only gracious to his elect. You say, well now wait a minute,
John, you can't say that. Look at the, look at the, He
blessed look how he blessed Ishmael Did you know he blessed Ishmael?
You know Ishmael's mom came and and cried unto the Lord. They're
gonna hate my son They're gonna they're gonna treat him badly
and the Lord said no I I'll bless him, go on out into the world.
And he did, as far as this world is concerned. I've had this conversation
once before. Is it a blessing to have mountains
named after you, to have a whole nation raised up under your name,
and to have it all destroyed and spend eternity in hell? Is
that a blessing? I don't think so. Blessings. Heavenly blessings
come to God's people through his son, the Lord Jesus, and
through him alone. Look at that in Ephesians chapter
one, verse three. Chosen. I want to look at a couple
of places where it talks about the chosen. Turn over to Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy, back in the Old Testament. I purposely went back
there and looked these up in the Old Testament because I want
you to see that even the Old Testament talks about these things
of election and chosen. In Deuteronomy chapter 7, we
read in verse 6, Deuteronomy 7 verse 6, for thou art an holy
people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God has chosen thee
to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon
the face of the earth. Another one if you want to. Let's
turn over to Psalms 89. Psalms 89. Look at verse 3. I have made a covenant with my
chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant. You know what the word predestined
means? Predetermined. It means chosen. Predetermined. I'll skip that for a moment.
Let's just go right to where he says my people. He makes a
distinction between those of the world and his people over
in 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter
6. And in verse 16, we read these
words, and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?
For ye are the temple of the living God, and God hath said,
I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their
God, and they shall be my people. Back in our text. Elect. Chosen of God. elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Blessed,
verse three, 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. How? How do we have, how have
we been begotten unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead? Paul was absolutely right. When
he said, I wish you know nothing of you save Christ in him crucified,
it was so, it was because that's where the gospel is. That's where
the saving gospel is. It's in the crucifixion of the
Lord Jesus Christ in him alone. That's what death's telling us
right there. We were begotten unto a lively hope by the resurrection. You see, death could not hold
the Lord Jesus. He's the Lord of all things.
He's the Lord of life. He's the Lord of death. He's
the Lord of the world. He's Lord of Satan. He's Lord
of all things. And God the Father chose us in
his Son. God the Spirit sanctified us
in his Son, and God the Son justified us when he obeyed the Father's
will, even to the sprinkling of his blood, even unto the death
of the cross. Our hope is not in something
made with the hands of men or by the will of man. We have no
confidence in this flesh. Our Lord says in Romans 9, 16,
which I've already quoted once, but I'll read it again. So then
it is not of him that willeth. It's not your free will. Nor
is it of him that runneth. It's not the works that you do,
but of God that showeth mercy. He says in Romans 9, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. And the world hates that. And
you and I hated it at one time. But now that's where our hope
is. Our hope is not in something we've done. When you talk to
people who have come out of a different religion, Steve Doyle came out
of Catholicism. Lamar and Carol came out of Mormonism. Mike and Shirley came out of
Seventh-day Adventists. Those of us who didn't come out
of any of those other religions We never really believed we were
doing anything wrong. We never believed we deserved
the wrath of God. But we didn't have that luxury
or that, I don't know if that, that's probably the wrong word
for me to use. We didn't have that knowledge of coming out
of something. And they'll tell you, they'll
tell you, I had hope in what I was doing. Mike had hope in
the fact that he was going door to door, knocking on doors, making
disciples. That man over in the Philippines
that I spoke to you about last week, I got another letter from
him. It was all about making disciples. It had nothing to
do with what the Lord has done for him. That's where their hope is. When
somebody says to you, I just, I, you know, I just, I had been,
Through this, I've done this, and you know, the day came, I
just, I got up, I decided I gotta change my life. I'm gonna go
to church, and I'm gonna follow God. I made a decision to get
saved. That's where their hope is. People
put hope in getting into a pool of water and somebody dunking
them. My sister puts hope that her
children, her homosexual children, are saved because they got baptized. And you and I would be putting
our hope in the same kind of baloney as that if it wasn't
for the grace of God. You see, folks, it always comes
down to that. It always comes down to that. We're saved by grace. And because of that, we've been
given a lively hope. hope in the one who is living,
sitting on his throne right now, making intercession for us. When
I get up and a thought or an action comes out of this fool
that's standing before you, it don't take long for me to open
my mouth and say something wrong. But when I do, my Lord's already got it worked
out. He says, I've paid the price already for John. My blood has
been shed for John, and now that I have put away all his sin.
And this is what he's saying about each and every one of his
people. If you belong to him, this is where your hope is at.
It's in him. It's in him and him alone. Salvation is of the
Lord. That's what Jonah had to learn.
He had to die. He had to be swallowed up by
the big fish, and then he had to be delivered out onto the
dry land to know that salvation is of
the Lord. What a wonderful thing for us
to do. When he says, take my yoke upon you, you folks who
are heavy laden and working so hard, take my yoke, as my yoke
is easy. Can it not get any easier than
that? Trusting in him? Having a hope
in Him? You know what hope is, right? It's something you can't see.
But we believe, don't we? We can't see it yet. We can see
through a glass darkly that picture that God has given us through
the preaching of His Word. We can see through a glass darkly
the streets of gold on the other side of the Jordan. and the peace that God gives
his people, knowing that he has put all our sin away, that we
might be with him there forever. Folks, our Savior lives. Look at verse three again with
me. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to his abundant mercy have begotten us again into a
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
to an inheritance. incorruptible and undefiled that
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. Our Christ arose from the grave. Death could not hold him. He
holds the keys to death and hell, and he arose a victor over death. Our Savior lives. He's the Son
of the living God. We have a lively hope. A hope
in him because he arose from the dead and he sits on his throne
right now ruling over everything. That's our hope. That's the difference
between the people of God and the world that is left to its
own imagination. Our God rules. He rules all things,
including my will. Everything about me. When he
says to John, when he speaks to John and he says, go, I'm
going to go. He's sovereign in every detail, even the details that regard
the sons of Esau. Did you know that? There's two
types of people. There's sons and daughters of
Esau, and there's sons and daughters of Jacob. Jacob have I loved,
that's the sons and daughters of Jacob. And the sons and daughters
of Esau are the ones that he's hated. Look at verse four. to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled, and that fate is not a way reserved in heaven
for you. And then verse five, who are
kept by the power of God through faith under salvation, ready
to be revealed in the last time. A lively hope. Our hope is in
the one who sits on his throne right now, who keeps us. Does He keep us by what we do? Are we kept by showing up in
church on Sunday mornings? Are we kept by feeding the coffer
and keeping the lights turned on? Are we kept by feeding the
poor? Are we kept by witnessing? No. What's it say there? Look at
that again. Who are kept by the power of God. Through what? Through faith. unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. Folks, faith isn't going
to save you. Grace saved you. God's grace. Many, many go to church every
Sunday, do all the things I listed a moment ago, and say, see how
faithful I am? I know I'm saved for how faithful
I am. God's people say, I want to be
faithful, I want to be more. Because what I am right now is
not enough. Thank God we're saved by grace, not by faith. You're not going to be saved
without faith. You have to believe. But you have to believe in Him
and what He's done. That's our hope, Him and what
He's done. Amen. If your faith, if your
hope has been put in Him by the Lord Jesus, if He has given you
faith, the gift of faith, and given you a lively hope in Him,
you can sing this psalm from the heart. It is well with my
soul.