It talks down there in verse
10 about the salvation, verse 9 about receiving the end of
your faith. And the end of faith is the salvation
of your soul. And this salvation, the prophets
have inquired and searched diligently. They searched the Old Testament,
searched the scriptures. And that's what I want to talk
about, inquiring into salvation. If you was to inquire into salvation
and what it is, if you was a prophet, if you said, I'm going to look
in the scriptures, I'm going to look right here at these verses
in front of us and inquire as to how God saves a sinner and
what salvation is. What would you find? What would
you find? You know, many people think if
they could just see the Lord Jesus, they would be saved, they
would believe. They think if they could touch
Him, or hear him speak that they would believe. But that's not
so. How many people heard him preach
in his lifetime and didn't believe? How many people touched him when
he moved through crowds and they didn't believe? How many people
heard him preach and they didn't believe? Multitudes heard him
when he sat in the ships and he sat on the mountains. multitudes
heard him and didn't believe him. And in fact, when he was
at the cross as they were singing, instead of crying in shame and
sadness for a man being treated the way he was, they laughed
at him and mocked him and scorned him and ridiculed him. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
is not known or received by the senses. You can't see Him with
this eye. You can't hear Him with these
ears. You can't taste Him with this mouth. You can't touch Him
with these hands. You can't feel Him. All of this
ain't what it says, receiving the end of your faith. Faith,
the salvation of your souls. And what makes us see Him? Faith
does. As seeing him who is invisible,
ain't that what it says? In verse 98 he said, whom having
not seen ye love. Never seen him, but ye love him.
And whom though ye see him not now, ye believe. And you rejoice
in what you see. You rejoice in the gospel that
God's taught you. You rejoice in this salvation
that's been accomplished by God. But the faith makes us see. Faith
enables us to touch Him. Faith enables us to taste His
goodness and His grace. Faith enables us to feel His
love. Faith enables us to have His
presence and to hear His voice. Faith does that. Now here, salvation
is put in the present tense, the salvation of your souls.
That's in the present tense. It's right now. And I'll tell
you, beloved, And it's something that we have now, and right now,
experienced. Right now. And let me tell you
something. There ain't but two religious
systems in this whole world. However you boil it down, there's
just two. There's lots of denominations. Lots of people profess. But there
ain't but two religious systems in this whole world. Salvation
is presented to men in two ways. And no matter how you dress it
up, there's just two ways. That's why our Lord, He says,
straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto
life. And the scripture says, and beware of false prophets.
And what did He say right after? He said, straight is the gate
that leads unto life. And where in the world do false
prophets hang out? They hang out right at the gate. Beware
of false prophets who are dressed in sheep's clothes. But now I
tell you, salvation is presented in two ways. It's either all
of God or all of man. You can't mix the two. It's either
all of grace or all of works. You can't mix them. It's either
supernatural act of God, salvation is absolutely supernatural, or
it's natural. There ain't no middle ground
in it. And a man either hopes in God, And all of his salvation
is in God, or salvation and hope is in himself. Salvation, his
hopes in the grace of God and brought to him by the grace of
God, or his hopes is in his works. And his salvation is either supernatural
work or it's his work. And there's no middle ground.
You cannot mix them up. And I'll give you an illustration
of that. This movie called Noah, I told you last week, people
are just in an uproar over it. They just can't believe that
God would treat people that way. And I heard a fellow ask him,
he said, explain to me what this Genesis story is about Noah.
And this fellow said, well, Noah was a good, good man, and had
raised a good family, and is a good family man. And so God
told him to do something that he couldn't do, and wasn't able
to do, and then God helped him to do it, and he built an ark,
and he obeyed God, and he was saved by that way. Exactly opposite of what the
Bible tells us. I wish somebody asked me that.
I wish they would put me on television, one of them Jake Claggs asked
me that. I would have no qualms saying God destroyed that world
because they were wicked. And he's going to scroll this
world because it's wicked. As it was in the days of Lot,
so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man. As it was in
the days of Noah, that's the way it'll be in the last days.
And that's where we're at. And so you see, that's what I'm
telling you. You cannot mix it up. You can say, well, I believe
in grace plus. There ain't no plus. Salvation's
all of grace. Salvation's a supernatural act
of God. If it's a new birth, then you
can't give yourself a new birth. Only God can give you a new birth.
And if salvation's of God, He's got to get all the glory and
He ain't gonna share it with nobody. So let's look at this
salvation. Let's look at this salvation
of our souls and see how it's accomplished and how they were
and what they inquired into. And oh my, let's look at it here. Let's start back up in verse
1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers, scattered
through Pontia, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. He says,
Peter, that's the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. His name was
Simon. Our Lord says, from now on, you're going to be seepers.
You're going to be called a stone. And that's why he used his name
here, the name that Christ gave him. And he calls himself after
that name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here he does, he calls
himself an apostle. Now he's not a vicar nor a successor
of Christ or head of the church like the Catholics believe and
like the Anglicans believe and the Episcopalians believe. They
believe that Paul Peter was the first pope, the first vicar of
the Church of Christ. But no, no, he said he was just
an apostle. Just an apostle, that's all I
am. An apostle is one called of God, specially gifted of God. Sent as a messenger of God, the
highest office in the church. And then who's he talking to
here? He's talking to the strangers. Scattering. All over the known
world at that time. And that's what we are. We're
strangers. The scriptures call, we call ourselves strangers and
pilgrims in this world. This world is not our home. We're
strangers. David said, I'm a stranger with
thee, O Father. He says, God, you're a stranger
in your own world, and I'm a stranger with you, just like all my fathers
were. We're strangers in this world. This world is not our
home, and the longer we live, the more we understand that we're
really strangers in this world. The more we understand how us
and the world are not even close to being, that's just not together
at all. And also he starts telling us here, and there's the first
thing he says about this salvation in which these fellows inquired
in. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. That's the
first thing these prophets found out, that God elected a people.
When they went to inquire into salvation, they had to start
in Genesis. You don't think they started
in the middle of the Bible, do you? He says election. Election. Oh bless God for election. Thank God for election. You know
who God's first elect was? Isaiah 42.1 says Christ was God's,
my elect, my chosen. Christ was God's first elect,
God's chosen. And he wasn't persecuted. Why he was God's first elect?
Because all of us made him head of the church. Made him the head
of the body. Made him the savior of his people.
And he made him the mediator of his people. Every office. And God chose him to be in all
those offices. Didn't choose him to salvation.
Chose him to be our salvation. Chose Him to be our surety. Chose
Him to be our meter. Chose Him to be our redeemer.
Chose Him to be the head of our bodies. Chose Him to be our savior,
our substitute, our sacrifice. So He, beloved, and all of us
were chosen in Him. And that's what He said in Ephesians
1 verse 4. He said, According as He hath chosen us in Christ,
we are before the foundation of the world. And I tell you
what, God said this, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. John 15 says, you didn't choose
me, I chose you. He went up under a mountain,
when He was going to call His apostles, He went up under a
mountain and called unto Him, what does He say? Who He would. And I tell you, beloved, that's
what the Scriptures tell us. Paul told the Thessalonians,
beloved, knowing your election of God. And I tell you what,
all you got to do is go through the Bible and you can see the
election stands out just like a big light. First of all, the
first two brothers that's mentioned in the scriptures. God saved
one, cursed the other. Ain't that right? Cain and Abel. God chose Abel,
cursed Cain. Then the next person you read
in the scriptures was Enoch. The scripture says he walked
with God and he was not, but God took him. Next person you
find in the scriptures that God set apart was Noah. Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. God looked down and said, I'm
going to grace that man. I chose that man and I'm going
to use that man and I'm going to use his whole family to repopulate
the whole earth. That's mine elect right there,
and I'm going to give him the instruction to build an ark and
I'll save him, and that ark will speak of salvation in my blessed
son. And then after that, you find Abraham. And after Abraham,
he has two sons, Ike and Ishmael. Ishmael is cursed and sent out
into the wilderness, and Isaac was to whom the promise was made.
And then they had two sons, Isaac did, he had Jacob and Esau. Jacob
hath a love, Esau hath a hating. And then God chose Joseph above
all of his brethren. And Joseph, perfect type of Christ
in more ways than anybody in the Bible, was raised up to be
prime minister over all of Egypt. And if you got any bread to eat,
if you got anything from Down in the world, you know where
you got amnesia? If you got it from Joseph, and we're in this
world, and if we get anything from God, we're going to get
it from Christ on His throne. And you go through the scriptures,
I'll go all the way through the Bible. Why did Christ say it
must needs go through Samaria? Because there was a woman. And
He said on the way up, waiting for that woman to come, so He
could tell her, I'm the water of life. There's that impotent
man sitting at the pool. Everybody around that pool was
impotent. Everybody around that pool was
waiting for somebody to put them in it. Our Lord Jesus went only
to one out of all that group around there. What about Bartimaeus? Beggars all over Israel at that
time. But God stopped and listened
to Bartimaeus and gave him his sight. Zacchaeus. How many little old short fellows
was all over Israel at that time. God stopped and stood, called
over and looked up and called him by his name. And Zacchaeus
come down out of that tree. How many Pharisees were in Israel
at the time of Paul when God took him on the Damascus road
when he hated Christ and said, smote him down on the Damascus
road and said, blinded him and said, I've chosen you. And Paul
said, please God, you separated me from my mother's womb and
call me by His grace. Oh listen, our Lord Jesus Christ,
when he prayed in John 17, he said, I pray not for the world, Gary told me this morning he's
seen a sign on a church that says, I made you fishers of me
and you catch them and I'll clean them. Hell ain't half full. A man that
say something like that wouldn't know God from that wall right
there. And it upsets me. It upsets me. And then the thing about it is
that somebody believes that. Believes Him. Believes Him. And I, oh listen. I, Lord said,
I pray not for the world. In fact, I chose you out of the
world. You know who I'm praying for? He said, I'm praying for
them, Father, that you gave me. What does that mean? He said,
I'm even going to pray for them that's going to believe on me
through their word. Christ was praying for us before when Paul
and them were preaching the gospel. He said, I'm going to pray for
them who will believe through their word. If I could just get an angel
to pray for me, if I could just get a saint to pray for me, it
won't do you any good. The only person that can pray
for you and do you any good is the Lord Jesus Christ. Ain't
that right? And God won't hear you pray until
you come to God in Jesus Christ. Now look what else he says about
this election. We're going through a search.
Let's look at this. Inquire into this salvation.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God. What do you reckon that means?
That means God looked down through time. He's looking down through
this telescope. He said, oh, wait a minute. I see that fella
right there is going to believe and that guy right there is going
to repent. So I believe what I'll do. I said, I'll just believe
I'll choose him. Oh my. No, no, no. Who we foreknew,
who we had an intimate acquaintance with, an intimate knowledge of.
You know, he told Jeremiah, he said, Jeremiah, before you was
formed in your mother's belly, I knew you. Not only did I know
you, I ordained you to be a prophet before his mother ever conceived
him. Paul says, when it pleased God,
now he hated Christ, despised Christ, and put lots of men and
women in jail and had some of them slain. And then when God
saved him by His grace and taught him the gospel, he said this,
when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace, He was always God's elect and all of
that, the rebellion that he had, and then God manifested his election
and his knowledge of him and his foreknowledge of him when
you put him down on the Damascus road. Oh listen, Him, Christ being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Look in Romans 8 with me, keep 1 Peter, look in Romans
8. We've been through this, I couldn't tell you how many times. But it's worth looking at again.
You know, I tell you, listen. Look what it says in verse 29,
Romans 8, 29. For whom he did foreknow. That
means foreknew them. It's the same word like in the
Old Testament when they say he knew his wife. That's the same
word. And when it said Joseph knew
not his wife, men was minded to put her away privately because
she had that child of the Holy Ghost. And the scripture said
he knew not his wife. That means he didn't have that
intimate relationship. He didn't have that, and that's
what this said is God knew us, loved us, intimately acquainted
with us. from all, before the world ever
began. You reckon when you, God, listen, that's what our Lord
Jesus Christ says, depart from me you workers of iniquity, I
never knew you. Now why would he tell a person to depart from
him that he never knew him, when he says depart from me because
you workers of iniquity. He knows everything everybody
does. But when he says I never knew you, he said I didn't love
you. I didn't have an acquaintance
with you. My heart is not for you. My love
is not for you. You'd rather have sin as have
me. You'd rather have rebellion as
have me. You'd rather be high-minded as have me. You'd rather have
your independence as have me. You'd rather have your free will
as to have me. You'd rather have your works
as to have me. You'd rather have your false
religion as to have me. You'd rather have your pride
and self-righteousness as to have me. And that's what our
Lord is talking about. When you never knew, I never
knew you. And oh beloved, look what he goes on to say here now.
He did predestinate. Oh my, what a wonderful word. Every one of us was predestinated
this morning. When we left the house, every
one of you had a predestination in your mind. You said you got
up and you got ready this morning. And you got in your car and you
said, I'm going to go to church. And if nothing stops you between
here and there, you're just going to say, well, I got up this morning,
I'm going to church. Now that was a predestination
in your purpose. Now, if you can predestinate
and say, I'm going to get up this morning, I'm going to get
ready and I'm going to get in my car and I'm going to go and
hear the gospel today. And I'm going to go and be with
the Lord's people. You got up with this morning with that intention.
That's predestination. Right? If you and I can make
it to church, you reckon God who created this world and everything
is in it, could not predestinate us? Why do you predestinate us
too? Listen to this. To be conformed
to the image of His Son. You reckon that's going to happen?
Going to be made just so, we're going to wake up in just like
our Lord Jesus Christ. That means without sin, without
fault, without blemish, without spot. No more sin. That he might be first born among
many brethren. Listen to this now. Moreover
whom he did predestinate. What did he do to them? He called
them, Zacchaeus, get out of that tree. Lazarus, come out of that
grave. Barnabas, get over here. And now I tell you why, that's
what He said to you one day. He called you. And whom He called
Him, He also justified. Whom He justified, He also glorified. That's all, all beloved, as if
it's already been done. Then Paul asks this question.
What then shall we say to these things, if God be for us? Who can be against us? Huh? Oh my. That's what He tells us. You say, well, he's not just.
People go on and on about it. It's not just for him to save
some and pass by others. That makes him cruel. That makes
him mean. That's just not right for him
to do that. He's not just to save some and
pass by others. Why would he create man knowing
that that man would not believe? Well, I'm going to tell you what
he said. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion upon whom
I will have compassion. And he says this, Who art thou,
O man, that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why did you make me like this? You know,
here's the situation. Man is so desperately lost, if
God don't save him, he'll stay lost. Ain't that right? That's why I saw
foreknowledge. You know, if God's not unjust,
there's no way God can be unjust. And let me tell you something.
You don't want God to be just with you, except in Christ. And I'll tell you what, and He
did give us justice in Christ. Just like you sung this morning.
But if you find fault with the justice of God, well, He's not
right for Him to do. I don't think He's fair to do
that. I don't think it's... You know, what you're doing is
you're setting a judgment on God Himself. And saying, if I
was you, this is what I'd have done. And listen, salvation was
left up to you. And you had the power to say
to somebody, who would you say first? Who would you save first? Every one of you first thing
you'd do is you'd save your first child. If you had a second, you'd
save your second child. And if you had a daddy right
on the verge of going into eternity, you'd save him. But what about
your neighbor's daddy right on the edge of eternity? Would you
run over and save him? So you see, God in His infinite
wisdom, He saves. He will. And I'm not going to
argue with Him. Let the possess of the earth
strive with the possess. I'm not going to argue with Him.
You know why I ain't going to argue with Him? Because He's
God. And He's the judge of all the
earth. And He must do right. Must do right. And then look
what it says here again. Look back over here in our text. He said, elect to the court for
knowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit.
Now here's the means. God chose us. He foreknew us. Now watch this. Through sanctification
of the Spirit. Now this means that God uses
means. God just don't grab a man by
the hair of the head and jerk him up. Though I wished He would. That's what I want sometimes.
I want to get somebody just to say, why, why, why, why don't
you believe? Why don't you believe? Of all
you've heard, and as many times as you've heard the gospel, why
don't you believe? Just get them and shake them.
Why don't you believe? If there was something you could
pour in somebody's brain, I'd pour it in it, but I can't. But
sanctification, this is the means that God uses. All that the Father giveth me,
what did our Lord say? They shall come to me. How in
the world do you come to them? You keep this and look over in
2 Thessalonians. Just go back to your left until
you come to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. You know, the scriptures tell
us how could two walk together except they be agreed? And you
know what God does? He brings us in agreement with
himself through the gospel. Through sanctification of the
Spirit. And what the sanctification of the Spirit means is that God
takes the Spirit of God and sets us apart through the gospel. Sets us apart with the Word of
God. Now look what he said here in
2 Thessalonians 2.13. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you brethren. Now listen to this, you're beloved
of the Lord because God has chosen you, that's that election again,
has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. And what did
he do to manifest your salvation and your election and your love
that he had for you through sanctification of the Spirit and believing the
truth. Now back over here in our text
and I'll show you another one right here. He said, Father, sanctify them
through thy word. Thy word is truth. Look what
he says down here in verse 22 of 1 Peter chapter 1. He says, seeing you have purified
your souls in obeying the truth. How did you obey the truth? First
of all, you got to hear it. Secondly, through you obey the
truth through the Spirit, by the Spirit of God. The Spirit
of God brings you to obedience. The Spirit of God works in you
to believe. The Spirit of God works in you to obey. And then
He brings you to where you actually love the brethren. You fall in
love with the brethren. And you love one another with
a pure heart fervently. Now here's the reason why. Because
you're born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. That's what
sets you apart. That's what calls you. God takes
that incorruptible seed, the Word of God, not the corruptible
seed of man, not the corruptible seed of falsehood. He puts that
seed in a man's heart, and that seed germinates, and listen,
And he says, For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of
man is the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and fire falls
off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is
the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. You see,
the Spirit sets us apart. And I'll tell you what our Lord
Jesus told His disciples. He said, The Spirit will guide
you into all truth. All truth. Now, who did he talk
to about that? The first thing he told was the
apostles. He says, when I'm gone, I'm going
to lead you to the Spirit. And the Spirit, when He comes,
He'll guide you into all truth. He'll take you through the Old
Testament. He'll take you through the Scriptures. And He'll guide
you into all the truth concerning myself. And you'll see me. And
you'll learn of me. And you'll go and preach me.
He said, but it'll guide you into the truth. And that's why
we trust the Scriptures. That's why we believe the Bible.
The Spirit guides us into truth through the Scriptures. And then
look what else is said here, through sanctification of the
Spirit. Now, sanctification of the Spirit don't mean that you're
going to live a, you know, as people say, you know, you've
got to get sanctified and, you know, live a holy, sanctified
life. This sanctification here, all it means to be is set aside,
set apart. The sanctified in other places
means saint. To the sanctified in Christ,
to the saints that are in Christ. And oh my! Saint! Everybody in here is a believer
is a saint. You can put saint in front of every one of your
names. Saint James? Saint Rick? Saint Hermes? I don't know what that sounds
like, does it? Oh boy, but that's the truth.
That's the way it is. Oh Saint Brucie. Oh my. But that's what the scriptures
teaches us. Saints. Saints. And then look what he
says. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God unto obedience. Unto obedience. Whose obedience?
Unto the obedience of the gospel. Unto the obedience of Christ.
And we'll see that here in a minute. Oh my! You see, that's what he
says, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of the soul. And when he says unto obedience,
it's unto the obedience of the gospel. Unto the obedience of
the scriptures. Unto the obedience of Christ. Our Lord says, my sheep hear
my voice. And so it's unto the obedience
of Christ. Unto the obedience of the gospel.
It's not you saved by your obedience. The Spirit brings you to the
obedience. Obedience to what? Now watch
this. Under the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Sprinkling
of the blood. Oh my. And that's talking about
the sufferings of Christ. They're down in verse 11. That's
what they said. He says, These prophets, they
searched the Scriptures. They knew that the Messiah was
going to come, that he was going to suffer, and that he would
have glory afterwards. And so they searched by the Spirit
of Christ was in them. Talking about the sufferings
of Christ. And so we're talking about that we come to what they
testified of sufferings of Christ. And that's what we're doing.
And there's several places in the Old Testament. The first
place you hear of the sprinkling of blood, you know where it was? The Passover. First place you
hear about the sprinkling of blood. God said, He said, you
take you a bowl, you catch the blood of that lamb, and you take
that and get you some hyssop, and you go and you sprinkle it
on the doorpost, sprinkle it on this doorpost, and sprinkle
it over that. And He says, you do that on every one of your
houses. And He says, when I pass through, Despite the firstborn,
he says, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. They sprinkled
the blood. You know when the next time you've
seen the blood sprinkled? In Exodus 24a, when Moses stood
and he took that blood and he went among all the people and
sprinkled blood on every person in that place. Every child of
Israel. He went around, they come through
there, and he took that blood and he sprinkled blood on all
of them. And the next time you hear about the blood being sprinkled,
this is when they went to Mercy Seat. When they took that blood
and they sprinkled it seven times before the Mercy Seat. And then
they sprinkled it on the Mercy Seat. And so there's a, when
he says under the being of the sprinkling of blood of Christ.
And they sprinkled blood on the altar. You know why? Because
that's the only thing that could satisfy God. And the sprinkling
of the blood on the people speaks to this. When they sprinkle blood
on the people, redemption. That means the blood's put on
you. That means that you're bought
and you're paid for through the sacrifice of another. And the
Lord Jesus, when He came in contact with him, the life is in the
blood. And secondly, the sprinkle of
the blood talked about the value of that sacrifice is imputed
to them. It shows that there was a life
laid down and that life that was laid down, beloved, that
blood shows that you got life through that blood. Satisfied
through that blood. Saved by that blood. And I'll
tell you when they've sprinkled that blood on the people, the
value of the person, the value of his death, the value of his
obedience. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He
entered once into the holy place with His own blood and He returned
eternal redemption for us and that blood sprinkled on us tells
us that He redeemed us with the precious blood of Christ. And
secondly, it tells us the value of that blessed sacrifice that
He made, because His blood and His life, when it's sprinkled
on us, gives life to us. And thirdly, that His blessed
person gives you the value of His person, the value of His
death, because God was completely and perfectly satisfied with
Him. And then second thing, another thing, they sprinkled blood on
the book. That means that every page of this book tells us about
the Lord Jesus Christ. and about redemption in Him,
about salvation in Him, about the sacrifice of Christ, the
satisfaction of Christ, the blood of Christ. It's the blood of
Christ that cleanses us from all sin. It's the blood, God
said, that I said I'll pass over you. It's through the blood of
Christ that we come into the presence of God. And then the
blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat. And the blood was sprinkled
upon every vessel of the sanctuary. And you know what we are? We're
the vessels now. We're the vessels of the sanctuary.
We're the vessels now. And the only way them vessels
can be used is through the blood being sprinkled. And that blood
sanctified. And that's why Paul says we've
come now to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. and the
blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. We've come to speak in blood.
You know, when you talk about blood being sprinkled, first
of all it has to be sprinkled because of sin. There wouldn't
be no need of blood if it wasn't for sin, would they? There wouldn't be no need of
a sacrifice if it wasn't for sin. And if there's sin, that
means we need no bloodshed if we haven't had a substitute.
A substitute had to be put in our place to bear our sins in
his own body. And there when he suffered, he
suffered under death and he suffered with blood. There would be no
salvation without the blood being shed. without Him shedding that
blood and taking that blood into the very presence of God. There
would be no satisfaction to God, no satisfaction to His owners,
no satisfaction to His justice without the sprinkling of blood.
And there certainly, certainly wouldn't be any security for
us without the blood. Without the blood. That's just
it, Lord, the blood. And then let me hurry up here
and tell you this. I see you getting tired. Grace unto the sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. This is a prayer he prayed for
these strangers, for these elect, for these sanctified, for these
God-fornewed. This is the blessings he prayed
for. Grace. Grace. God give you grace. Give you grace for the grace
He's already given. Give you grace because He chose
you. Give you grace because you've
been sprinkled. Give you grace because you...
You give you grace. Give you the free favor of God
and all that comes with grace. You know what comes with grace?
Everything that God has comes with grace. Christ was given
to us by the grace of God. Salvation is given to us by the
grace of God. Grace is given to us. Grace upon
grace. You need forgiveness? Grace brings
forgiveness. You need to be kept? Grace is
what He sends by the power of God to keep you. You need strength
when you're weak? Grace is to keep you strong. He's made perfect in our weakness.
That's what He meant. Grace for grace. Then He says,
I want God to give you love supply. Just give you more and more and
more of it until you just think you just got all kinds of it. Until your cup runs over. And
then look what He said. Then peace. Oh my, I told you this. This is one of my This is one
of the things that I desire. Oh, I desire peace. I love peace. Peace with God? Wouldn't you
love to have peace with God? Peace with God. God to not be
against you. God to not be angry with you.
God not to bring you into judgment and condemnation. But God would
make that there be peace between you and God. Oh, peace from God. God will
give you peace. Send it into your heart. Peace
in your home. Peace with our fellow man. Oh, the kingdom of God's in righteousness,
joy in the Holy Ghost, and there's peace in believing. Peace, peace,
peace. Wonderful peace. He's the God
of peace, and we preach the gospel of peace. Peace. When you lay down at night, have
you got peace? When you get bad news, do you have peace? When you're troubles on every
hand, do you still have peace? That's what Paul means when he
says, the peace that passes understanding. It's just the world can't understand. You get bad news, you have peace. You get sick, have peace. Somebody
you love dies, you have peace. I don't care what happens, nothing
can take that. That's why Paul said, it passes understanding.
I don't understand how they stay so calm. I don't understand that
peace that they have. I don't understand that calmness
they have. Well, God gives it to you, you'll understand it.
Ain't that right? That's why they say, this is
all the same. But people say all the time,
somebody'll die that ain't never heard the gospel. Never had anything
to do with God, anything to do with Christ. And they may have
died drunk, they may have died overdosed on drugs, and they'll
say, boy, he's at peace now. No, they're not at peace. They're
not at peace. The only place you can have peace
is God to give you peace. Paul said, Christ is our peace. A young man got killed this week.
A young man got killed. Somebody told me, he said, you
know, God just had a better plan for his life. Now whether he
knew Christ or not, I have no idea. I'm not saying that. But
if God has something for you, He gives it to you in Christ
and He gives it to you here. It's not a plan later. It's right
now. That's not God has a wonderful
plan for your life. The only thing God has for you
is Christ. The only thing God has for you
is salvation in Christ. And the only way you're going
to get that is for God to give it to you and it will be by grace. And then he says, let this be
multiplied unto you. He says, you've already got these
blessings. You've already got grace. You've already got peace.
But he says, God just give you three times three, twelve times
twelve. Eight times eight, just keep
multiplying it. Oh, let's give it two times three. Let's give it three times nine. Just multiply it until you just
absolutely, it's manifest that the grace of God and the peace
of God's in you. That's what he said. And I know
this, those who have experienced and enjoyed the grace of God
and the peace of God, they want other people To enjoy grace and
peace. There's not a soul that I preach
to, not a soul that I know, that I wouldn't want them to know
the grace of God and the peace of God. Oh, if you knew the grace
of God. Ain't that what our Lord said?
If you knew the gift of God. He said, you know what? You'd
have asked Him. If you knew, you'd have asked
Him. That's what He told that woman at the well. You see, the
grace of God is so generous, so full, so forgiving, so powerful. And we can't ask for a better
blessing than this for ourselves. Grace and peace be multiplied
over anybody else. Grace for you. Peace for you. Oh, God, give them grace. Give
them peace. And multiply it. Multiply it. And I tell you what, there's
no solid peace where there's no grace. First you get grace. God gives you grace. And grace
brings peace with it. Where God gives grace, I tell
you this, He'll always give more grace. Always give more grace. And let me just make a few comments
right here, right quick. He goes on to say, Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His
abundant mercy. This is what we receive in our
salvation. He gives us an abundant mercy and gives us life. He's
begotten us again. And He gives us a living hope.
And He did it by the resurrection of Christ. Then He gives us inheritance. Incorruptible. There are some people, if you
left any money to them, it would be the destruction of them. If
you left some inheritance. But God gives us an inheritance
and nobody can ruin. We can't even ruin it. An inheritance
incorruptible. And it's undefiled. No hands
ever touched it and messed it up. And it don't never fade away. It won't do like money. It just
fade away and drift away. And it's reserved. They had a banquet yesterday,
some kind of a dinner yesterday at the D.A.R. And they have reserved
tables. Mary had a table there, it says
Mary Bell's table. And her people that got tickets
from her, they could sit there. She wasn't there, but they could
sit at that table. And God's got a table set for us, reserved
for us. And guess who's going to serve
us when we get there, when He reserves a seat? Christ is going
to gird Himself and feed us. Huh? And this, look what it says,
and you know who this is for? Those who are kept by the power
of God. That's just some of the fruits
and blessings of our salvation. Now we inquired into it and we
seen what it was. Not complicated, is it? Not complicated,
not complicated. Our gracious, gracious Father,
in the blessed, holy, glorious, gracious name of Christ our Lord, I thank you for the truth. Oh,
I thank you for the gospel. I thank you for election. I thank
you that you knew us. Thank you that you loved us.
Lord, if you hadn't have chosen us, we'd have never chosen you.
If you hadn't have loved us, we'd have never loved you. If
you hadn't have called us, we'd have never called on you. The
Lord, since you brought us to yourself, you keep us by your
power, and we thank you for that. God, please, for Christ's sake,
oh, blessed Savior, save your people in this place. Open hearts
in this place. Let your sheep hear your voice
in this place. I know it's through belief of
the truth set apart by the Spirit. So Lord, bring them to believe
the truth. Believe the truth. We ask you
in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. He's the Savior of
my soul. Jesus, my Jesus He's the Savior
of my soul He's the Savior of my soul Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus He's
the Savior of my soul He is the Savior of my soul.