Well, good morning everyone.
Today our text will be from 1 Peter verses 1-5. My original intent
was what we read as our morning scripture reading, verses 1-12.
But I realized we would all like to be home before dinner. So
my hope is to get through verse 5 this morning. As we look at
these 5 verses, my intent is to point out 13 different ways
that God has blessed believers through the focus on being on
what Peter says at the very end of verse two, grace and peace
be yours in abundance. By the time we get to the end
of the study, I hope we can all see that as a result of all we
will be looking at today, it will be plain that when God sees
us, the redeemed of the Lord, he sees no sin in us, he sees
no spot. That is the title of this morning's
study, No Spot in You. So let's start right off with
looking at what we are told in verse one. First, we are told
that the Apostle Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, he is identified
as the author. Being an apostle was a high honor
as it was the highest office in the church. As Paul puts it
in 1 Corinthians 12 and 28, and God has placed in the church,
first of all, apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then
miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, guidance, and of different
diverse kinds of tongues. To be an apostle gave a person
gravitas, a certain authority. If a letter came from an apostle,
it was important and should be heard. Peter was well known as
a pillar of the church and his authority was certainly recognized.
The second part of the verse goes on to tell us who the letters
were written to. The strangers scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. This was
a large piece of real estate and corresponds to what we know
as Turkey today. In other words, a territory about
the size of the state of Texas. Peter would have dictated this
letter, then it would have had to be hand delivered to all these
different regions because in those days, There was no mail
delivery service such as the United States Postal Service,
but yet somehow they got the letters to the right people in
each of the regions. And by God's divine purpose,
the letters were preserved and are now part of our Bible, the
word of God. And we use them for our edification
and for fellowship with God himself and each other. We have talked
about Peter, but who are these strangers scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Verse 2 gives
us a pretty clear indication, clearly identifying them as the
elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. And this is
where we are going to begin exploring the blessings from God through
His abundant grace and peace. The elect chosen by God and through
the foreknowledge of God the Father. So we are talking about
the same special kind of people as Paul would speak to in his
ministry to the Gentiles. Paul says in Ephesians 1 verses
1 through 6, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has pleased us in the heavenly realm with every
spiritual blessing in Christ, For He chose us in Him before
the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His
sight. In love He predestined us for
adoption to Sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His
pleasure and will, to the praise and glory of His grace, wherein
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Peter, we know, was
primarily an apostle to the Jews, where Paul was pretty much an
apostle to the Gentiles. But we can rest assured that
rather Jew or Gentile, this word from Peter, by God's divine purpose,
is intended for all the church. What does it matter to God? Let's
take a look at Galatians 3 starting with verse 26. For you are all
the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many
of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek.
There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ,
then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
As Paul says in other places, such as Romans 8, 29, for those
God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image
of his son. And as we go back to our text,
we will stop by chapter two of first Peter and verses nine through
11. But you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people that you should
show forth the praises of him who had called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people,
but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy,
but now have obtained mercy. Taking these three readings and
looking at them as a whole, we can see that all of God's people
have the same single thing that binds us together. We are all
being chosen in Christ. We are all sojourners, strangers,
and pilgrims in a place that is not our home. God's elect,
strangers in this world, Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male
or female, we all have had our time of being at enmity against
God, followers of the Prince of the Air, the Prince of Darkness,
as Paul speaks to in Ephesians 2. But when it pleased God to
reveal His Son in each of us, we were adopted into the kingdom
of light. We were all under the one glorious
God and Savior. We are all of that chosen generation,
that royal priesthood, holy nation, strangers in a foreign land.
We, the elect, are Abraham's seed, the true Jew, heirs of
the promise. What all that means is that just
because Peter was writing to a primarily Jewish audience doesn't
mean it doesn't apply to us any more than when Paul wrote to
primarily Gentiles, it didn't apply to the Jewish believers.
God's word was intended for all his chosen, Jew or Greek, bond
or free, male or female. We are all one chosen in Christ
by the foreknowledge of God. And then blessing number two,
verse two goes on to say, through the sanctifying work of the spirit
to be obedient to Jesus and sprinkled with his blood. But through the
sanctifying work of the spirit will be the first one we look
at. Among the many things that the spirit does is he is the
one that carries out the call. He is the one that dwells in
us. He sets us apart. He quickens
us. He makes us alive. If we don't
have that spirit of life in us, we are dead in this world, spiritually
dead. Paul makes this clear to us in
Romans 8, 9 through 11. You, however, are not in the
flesh but in the spirit, if in fact the spirit of God dwells
in you. Anyone who does not have the
spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because
of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised
Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus
from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through
his spirit who dwells in you. So how clear can it be how great
of a gift the work of the Spirit is, the Spirit of Christ sanctifying
us. He dwells in us, guarding us,
opening our minds to the truth of God's Word and all His blessings,
giving us that life, removing that enmity against God. He is
that peace that Peter refers to right at the end of verse
2 when he speaks of God's multiplying grace. Verse 2 then goes on to
speak of our obedience to Christ. This is their blessing number
3, which is part of what we just spoke about as the sanctifying
work of the Spirit. Our obedience comes strictly
from Christ and Him alone. Our good works, our efforts are
all of God in Christ. As Paul tells us in Ephesians
2, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And this
is not your own doing, it is the gift of God. not a result
of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand,
that we should walk in them. There is no room left for boasting,
which is good, because God loves the humble. The Spirit who dwells
in us will guide us in the good works God has prepared in advance
for us to do. Isn't it great to serve a God
of order? All things planned in advance
and in the proper time and order brings peace in abundance. And
then blessing number four, verse two finishes by saying, and sprinkling
by his blood. The sprinkling of the blood,
an essential part of our salvation in the Old Testament times, there
was a lot of sprinkling of blood. There were a lot of bulls and
goats and lambs whose blood was used for sacrifices by the priests
for the people of Israel. And they had to perform these
sacrifices over and over again, and it was done by many different
priests. But in Isaiah 1 verses 11 through
14, God says this about those sacrifices. of rams and the fat of fattened
animals. I have no pleasure in the blood
of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before
me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?
Stop bringing meaningless offerings. Your incense is detestable to
me. New moons, Sabbaths, and convocations. I cannot bear your worthless
assemblies. Your new moon feasts and your
appointed festivals, I hate with all my being. They have become
a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. From the beginning, God has always
been very clear, why are you burdening me so? Sacrifices and
offerings brought by the hands of men have never been acceptable.
The story of Cain and Abel gives us testament to that. And he
certainly did not care for Adam and Eve's attempt at making a
covering for themselves to cover their nakedness. The sacrifices
of old were detestable to him as he plainly states, meaningless
and a burden to a righteous God. He is, as much as saying, get
away from me with those worthless offerings. But here we are, in
verse 2 of 1 Peter, again speaking of a sprinkling of blood. But
what makes this blood to differ? This blood is effectual and acceptable
to God. This blood is His Son's blood,
our Savior's blood, that He shed for us at Calvary. And it became
acceptable in God's eye because of the Son's perfect obedience
to God the Father. Obedience even unto the cross. He is our example, the obedient
Son, the source of our true obedience. Our High Priest, unlike all the
others, only had to sacrifice not yearly, but once for all
His elect. And after that sacrifice, no
more sacrifice was needed. The author of Hebrews tells us
this. You have come to thousands upon
thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the
firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God,
the judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled
blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. You have
come to the more perfect sacrifice, the more perfect covenant, the
more perfect mediator, Jesus Christ himself, the sprinkled
blood that was better than that of Abel's and all that came after. And then note the line, whose
names are written in heaven. It's a point that will be brought
out several times as we go through this study. Just one more verse
dealing with this blessing. Revelations 5 verses 8 through
10. Now when he had taken the scroll,
the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down
before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full
of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang
a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open
its seals, for you were slain. and have redeemed us to God by
your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign
on the earth. Worthy is the Lamb. He was slain,
and by his blood he redeemed us. He reconciled us to God. He has done it all, and all glory
and praise is due him. We see all of what we've been
speaking of so far. We have redemption by his blood,
that precious sprinkle blood, and he has applied it to every
nation, tribe, and tongue, and he has made us kings in that
royal priesthood, that holy nation that Peter spoke of back in 1
Peter 2. As we read the last sentence
in verse 2 of our text in chapter 1, we are looking at what the
next 10 verses are going to tell us about God's abundant grace
and peace multiplied and the blessings that come forth. I
think we have already seen enough this morning to know that both
of these, abundant grace and peace multiplied, are true. The
abundant peace that comes from just knowing that we have been
sanctified by the Spirit, set aside in a holy nation, covered
by the blood of Christ, made alive in Him, redeemed in Him,
This talk of abundant grace and peace multiplied is what sparked
my desire to bring this study today. Paul, who describes himself
as the chief of sinners, says this in Philippians chapter 4,
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard
your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. And then in Colossians
3 verse 15, Paul says this, Let the peace of Christ rule in your
hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. We will keep all this in mind
as we go on to the next three verses. In these next three verses,
we're going to see a whole host of blessings given us in Christ
through his abundant grace. There is no end to the spiritual
blessings we have in him. In verse three, the first few
words give us a couple things to dwell on. The first thing
we see is our blessing number five, that we have a father in
heaven. A Father who is abundant in grace
and peace. A Father who has provided us
everything we could ever need and blesses us every morning
with new mercies and grace. And that leads us to the second
thing we see. God gave us the most perfect
gift He could have ever given us. He gave us His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the greatest gift ever given to mankind, and especially
revered by those upon whom his favor rests. Those whose names
are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. For God so loved the
world, he gave his only begotten Son. Oh, what grace so abundant. And then talk about blessings
that just keep on giving. Here's blessing number six. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to His abundant mercy. We have a God who is also abundant
in mercy. We have spoken of grace and peace.
Now we will bring in His abundant mercy. It's in full display in
each of our lives. But how do we see it? Is it like
Paul sees it? Let's look at 1 Timothy 1, verses
13 through 14. Even though I was once a blasphemer
and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because
I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured
out on me abundantly along with the faith and love that are in
Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying
that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. But for that very reason
I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ
Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those
who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Now to
the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor
and glory forever and ever. Amen. So Paul recognizes here
that he received not what he was due, But instead, he received
abundant mercy from God. In verse 14, he shares a testimony,
which is the testimony of all God's redeemed, or should be.
We recognize the abundant grace and mercy of God and how it doesn't
stop there, but comes with the faith and love that is in Christ
Jesus. I've used this expression before
and it's appropriate here too. It's a saying that I got from
a sermon from Pastor Tom Horne out of Georgia, who's become
a friend of mine, but he said one time in a sermon, there is
no way we can ever understand how good the good news is until
we know how bad the bad news is. Paul completely understands
both the good news and the bad news. Paul recognizes God's grace
and abundant mercy, but also sees himself as the chief, the
worst of sinners, a persecutor of Christians, a blasphemer,
and a violent man. Now, if we don't see ourselves
in that same way, what do we really know about the bad news? Paul knows. That's how he can
conclude his testimony here with this prayer. Now to the King
Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only God be honor and glory
forever and ever. Amen. It all belongs to God. Those that God the Father has
chosen to include in his son have all received that same abundant
mercy. We all will become conscious
of the difference between the good news and the bad news. We
rejoice at the good news and we try hard to forget the bad
news. We know we have received what we do not deserve, but we
also have received the abundant mercy of God. But that is the
true meaning of abundant mercy and abundant grace. One without
the other leaves something lacking. So now returning to our text,
blessings that is given us by our merciful, gracious God. Number
seven, we have by his mercy and grace been born again, been given
a new life. So many things to say. So many
verses of scripture we could go to, but I really am trying
to keep it down. But when talking about this new
life, it's pretty hard to do that. I would like to quote Paul
here in 2 Corinthians, verse 5, where he says, Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has
gone, the new is here. All this is from God who reconciled
us to himself through Christ. If we are truly in Christ, bought
and paid for by the blood of our Savior, reconciled to God
by Christ, we have become a new creation. The old is gone, and
the new has come. Christ explained this to Nicodemus
when he said that unless a man be born again, that he cannot
enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus, of course, missed
the point, thinking Jesus meant a second physical birth. But
of course, Jesus meant the spiritual birth. The old dead man has gone,
and now we have a new life in Christ. When it comes to our
first life, we messed that up really good, and we can't lay
it all on Adam. We did plenty of the damage ourselves. It's beyond repair. Just like
a car I wrecked one time, it was totaled, determined unrepairable,
so the insurance company got to buy me a nice replacement
car. Well, that body in Adam, It needed
to go. It was totaled beyond repair,
so a new body was purchased in Christ. Given enough time, I
was quite capable of wrecking that replacement car I got, but
this new body in Christ is forever. It is indestructible, free from
sin, free from the consequences of death. It is not going to
be corrupted a second time. Now we can go back and finish
that verse in John 3.16 that we started just a short while
back. You know the one about God giving his only begotten
son? Then we pick up with that whosoever
believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. We
have that new life now. We're free from sin. We believe
in him and we have that eternal life. That doesn't mean we don't
sin anymore. That sure is not me. but it means
in our new life in Christ, when God looks at us, we are spotless. We have nothing on our record
that would disqualify us from being in his presence, nothing
that would disqualify us from being able, in Christ, to approach
the throne of grace with boldness. We are all poor sinners and nothing
at all, but we have our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is our all
in all. In the Song of Solomons, it says,
as Christ looks down upon his bride, you are all beautiful,
my love. There is no spot in you. Only by the abundant grace of
God can that be true. Now on to blessing number eight. He has freely given us a new
birth, number eight, into a living hope. And this hope does not
mean what it usually means to us in our day-to-day conversations.
This is not the kind of hope we have when we hope something
good will happen today or maybe hope that something bad doesn't
happen today. This hope is a surety. Something we know is happening
and we are anticipating yearning for it to come. Maybe patiently,
maybe a little impatiently. But our hope is in Christ and
we know that he has promised that someday No matter the state
we are in on that day, we will be with him. Whether we live
out our predetermined life here on earth and then absent from
the body is present with the Lord. Or if it's when he returns,
we will raise up into the clouds and meet him in the air. We know
by our hope in Christ, it will happen. And that brings us to
the next blessing, given by his abundance grace, number nine,
He has given us new birth into a living hope, and then number
nine, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
We serve a risen Savior, a living Lord. Our Savior was crucified,
buried in a tomb, but on the third day, he rose again to life. To get the whole story, let's
turn to 1 Corinthians 15, 12 through 19. But if it is preached that Christ
has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that
there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection
of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ
has not been raised, our preaching is useless, and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found
to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God
that He raised Christ from the dead. he did not raise him, if
in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised,
then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not
been raised, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. Then
those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for
this life we have hope in Christ, We are of all people most to
be pitied. So this, this is a pretty sad
hypothetical story. Fortunately for all of God's
elect, it's not real. It's false gospel. A false gospel
that was being preached and according to the text, believed by many
at the time. Peter even refers to it in 2
Peter 3. If Christ had not come out of
that grave, then he would not be alive. And we would not have
that promised Savior. We would all be lost. We would
all still be hopelessly mired in our sin. Our living hope would
be a dead hope and futile, just as our faith would be, as was
declared by Paul. We would not have that hope for
resurrection that has been promised to us. But, verse 20 goes on
to tell us the rest of the story, the real story, that we do have
a living, risen Savior, and our living hope, which is in that
risen Savior, is alive and well. First Corinthians 15, verses
20 through 23 say, but Christ has indeed been raised from the
dead, the first fruit of those who have fallen asleep. For since
death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes
also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in
Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn, Christ the
first fruit, and then when he comes, those who belong to him. So the good news of the gospel
is declared here. Christ died and was crucified,
then buried and rose again on the third day. If he arose, then
shall we. We rose figuratively with Him,
assuring our eternal security in Christ is fully realized,
our place in paradise with Him secured. Look again what it says
in verse 23. But each in turn, Christ's the
firstfruits, then when He comes, those who belong to Him. Christ
the firstfruits, which happened some 2,200 plus years ago, and
then those who belong to Him. will be at the set we will be
at that second resurrection we are of the those who belong to
him and then on to blessing number 10 we have an inheritance so
we are not only born again into that living hope but that rebirth
also promises us an inheritance blessing number 10 and to an
inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. As strangers
dispersed throughout the world, chosen to God, we have an inheritance,
an inheritance that can never perish. It can't be taken away
from us. We can't ruin it. That's really
important, because if we could, we would. But we cannot spoil
it, and it will never fade away. When we speak of peace multiplied,
Is there anything that can bring you more peace than knowing you
have an inheritance in and with our Lord and Savior? It's what
that living hope in Christ, we just spoke of, speaks to. We
have been resurrected in Christ, made new, and as a result, we
have this inheritance. And this inheritance is in heaven
and in Christ himself. The prophet Jeremiah says, the
Lord is my portion. says my soul, therefore I will
hope in him. David said in Psalm 16, verse
5, Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup. You make my lot secure. And isn't that what our hope
is? To be secure in the Lord, clear
into eternity? For the Lord to be our portion,
it means that he is our lot, our inheritance. He is that which
we have been allotted. We have been given Him by the
Father. We have been betrothed to Him,
given in marriage. We are His bride. We have been
joined to Him. He is our inheritance, and all
that He has is ours. We are God's children and joint
heirs with Christ. Paul tells us in Romans 8, 14
through 17, for those who are led by the Spirit of God are
the children of God. The spirit you received does
not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again. Rather,
the spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship,
and by him we cry, Abba Father. The spirit himself testifies
with our spirit that we are God's children. Now, if we are children,
then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. If
indeed we share in his sufferings and order, that we may also share
in his glory. If any of you have experienced
adoption, you understand that those children that you adopted
are now every bit your child as much as any child by natural
means. We all now share the good and
the bad as one family. So what is Paul telling us? Paul
says that we have received the spirit of adoption and that we
cry, Abba, Father. Abba is a term of endearment,
much like calling someone dad. It speaks to our relationship
with God the Father, the warmth and closeness we have with him.
He is our dad, so to speak, and it's this spirit that makes us
heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ himself. How can I be
so confident in declaring this? Well, our next blessing gives
us the answer. Blessing number 11, this inheritance
is kept in heaven for you. That's where my confidence comes
from. This declares our inheritance cannot be given to anyone else.
It cannot be sold. It can't be stolen. We have all
heard about the book of life written from the foundation of
the world. Revelation has something like seven references to the
book of life. But it's nice to know that the
book is kept in heaven. Your names are written down in
the book of life that is kept in heaven. In the book of Luke,
Jesus says, do not rejoice that the Spirit submit to you, but
rejoice that your names are written down in heaven. In a Bible lesson
I brought many, many, many birthdays past, let's just say, I made
the statement that there will be no empty chairs in heaven. Well, at the time I thought that
was an original statement, but since then I've heard it from
many others. But I would still like to expand on that and say
there will be no one marked absent when the names in the book, kept
in heaven, are read. When the roll is called up yonder,
every name will be marked present. No one will even be marked tardy.
God is so much in control that everything has been predetermined
to happen when it is to happen. God has promised it. Jesus has
said, I will not lose not even one of all my father has given
to me, but raise them up at the last day. We will all be there
marked present and on time. Our inheritance of heaven is
secure in heaven. Now, as we go on to verse five,
we see one more example of God's abundant grace. First Peter,
1 verse 5 says, This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who
through faith are shielded by God's power. We are kept by the
power of God, which for us means we have complete, absolute security. Security we do not deserve by
our merit, but we have a merciful God. Because of Him, this mercy
is not in doubt. Our sanctification by the Spirit
is not in doubt. Our new birth is not in doubt. Our resurrection is not in doubt. Our inheritance is not in doubt. We are God's children, and He
has the will, the purpose, and the power to make sure nothing
ever changes that. We call that the perseverance
of the saints, but it's not by our efforts, but by God through
His Son in whom all God's power resides. He causes us to persevere. It's by His obedience we are
kept. By the faith that Christ has
been gifted to us, we can say, as Paul says in the second letter
to Timothy, for which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless,
I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded
that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him
against that day. You know, some scholars say that
the verses from 1 Peter 1 verses 3 through 5 sound as if they
could be in the book of the Psalms, that they sound as a psalm all
unto their own. Maybe we'll have to put together
Psalm 151 and end it with all praise and honor to the Lord
God our Savior. But can we add this verse of
1 Timothy 1.12 also? It is such a praiseworthy verse.
Another great verse that fits the context here would also include,
we would also include and Psalm 151 is found in Jude. Sorry,
Mike, I'm not trying to horn in on your study, but I'm sure
that by the time you get to the end of June, this will be forgotten.
Jude 24 and 25 say, to him who is able to keep you from stumbling
and to present you before his glorious presence with outfall
and with great joy, To the only God, our Savior, be glory, majesty,
power, and authority, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, before
all ages, now and forevermore. Amen. Words that are in complete
harmony with Paul's statement to Timothy. Paul and Jude demonstrate
they know who did the work. It was Christ Jesus. He did it
all. Even our perseverance is in Him. Why would we ever let ourselves
fear? He is able to keep you unto that
day. In Philippians, Paul says, being
confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will
carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. The
day of Christ Jesus, that is the day that we are speaking
about. And then, of course, we can't leave this without looking
at Romans 8, verses 35 through 37. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall trouble, or hardship, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is
written, for your sake we face death all day long. We are considered
as sheep to be slaughtered. Know in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced
that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, Neither
the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate
us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We have all the security we could ever ask for. We are God's elect,
His children. We have His abundant grace and
mercy. We have Christ's death and resurrection. We have Christ the intercessor
acting as our advocate. God is our protector. One thing
this tells me though is that no believer should have any reason
to not be fully persuaded and confident that God's power will
shield them or you until completion until that day. Jesus assures
us of that when he says in John chapter 10, my sheep hear my
voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give unto them
eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them to
me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out
of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." Now
there is one thing that really stands out to me in those few
verses, something that should give you the utmost of confidence. He says that he has all the sheep,
all the elect that the Father has given him, They are all in
his hand and no man can pluck them out. Then he goes on to
say that his father, who is greater than all, has them in his hand
and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. Me and
my father are one. They both have all of us, the
whole entirety of the true church in their hands. Two hands as
one, possessing all the power in the world, protecting the
whole church. So I ask, are you persuaded? You certainly should be. It's
all a promise from God himself. Well, as I look at the clock,
I see time has ran out, so I'm not going to be able to get to
the final blessing that I wanted to get to today, but we'll pick
it up next week, hopefully. But I do want to go over and
Just give my conclusion to today's study, because I think it still
is what lays out for us the trueness of God and what he means to us.
So the conclusion that I would like to say is I would just like
to encourage you all to rest in the work God has done on our
behalf. Encourage each other with the
good news of the gospel. That's why we are encouraged
to not abandon the gathering together as believers. It's important
for each of our edification. When Peter wrote this letter
to the Jewish elect, they were suffering a lot of persecution,
but yet they were encouraged to praise God together for His
abundant grace, mercies, and His multiplying peace. So in
the down days that we all suffer at times, those days full of
doubt, wondering, can it really be that God loves me? Just remember,
yes, God loves His children, and Christ died for our sins. shed His blood for our sins,
and rose again, leaving them all behind. And we are told they
have been buried in the deepest of the seas, never to be remembered
no more. These are past, present, and
future sins, all of them. When God sees us now, and really
in all of time, we are faultless, no sin to be found, covered in
Christ's robe of righteousness, These are all a result of his
abundant grace and peace that surpasses all understanding. And I always think of Paul's
plea. Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this
body of death? And what's his answer? Thanks
be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And how does our Lord
see us? And with this, I will close.
Christ speaking of his bride you are all beautiful my love
there is no spot in you amen brother mike