Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. The people of God are a peculiar
lot who don't fit in very well with the inhabitants of this
world. And as lot in Sodom, they are vexed daily with the wickedness
which they see on every hand around them. They desire a deliverance
from this present evil world. They did not become strangers
in the land in which they presently dwelt because they chose to be
strangers in it, but rather because they were compelled to be. What
fellowship has light and darkness? The awakened sons of God are
what they are by the grace of God, and do not find the world
strange because they choose for it to be strange. The reality
is that in their flesh they have an odd secret affinity for it,
yet they cannot embrace it because the Spirit of God dwells in them
and works in them according to His good pleasure, causing them
to be like a fish out of water. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world
passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of
God abideth forever. Generally speaking, the sons
of God are a despised people in the earth. Even as Cain slew
Abel and Ishmael despised Isaac, so do the sons of the bondwoman
continue their persecution of those who are the sons of the
freeborn wife. This is primarily because they hate Christ. Even
those who pay lip service to being the followers of the Christian
religion will manifest their own disdain for the true gospel
when it is declared. As long as these religionists
are undisturbed in their worship of free will, they will own Christ
as their quasi-king. Yet when the sovereign electing
grace of a holy God is declared, they will often rise up and seek
to rim those who declare salvation to be by grace alone. All men,
without exception, will seek something to glory in. Those
who are delivered by the Holy Ghost can find no place to glory
except in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Most nominal believers
will acknowledge that the scripture does speak of an elect people,
yet they will derive many explanations of the use of the term in order
to avoid the clear and direct truth of the fact that God has
chosen and ordained some unto salvation while ordaining some
unto destruction. Most preachers spend more time
explaining why elect doesn't really mean unconditionally chosen
than they do in rejoicing in the fact that apart from this
election, none would be saved. The election of a people in Christ
is a glorious revelation of the mercy and grace of God, who resides
under no obligations to any, and the whole scheme of redemption
is a testament to his magnificent purpose to manifest his everlasting
love to those he has hid in Christ from before the foundation of
the world. Peter says that these strangers were elect according
to the foreknowledge of the Father. The explainers tell us that foreknowledge
means that God is like a celestial fortune teller and really left
the choice up to man and merely based his choice of them on their
choice of him. This is a grave error and overturns
the truth of election, making it subject to the free will of
man rather than the sovereignty of God. The foreknowledge of
the Father is not about knowing something beforehand, but rather
is a description of the fact that God chose his people because
he loved them with an everlasting love. As it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Peter goes on to say that their
election is made manifest as they are separated and set apart
from the citizenry of this world by the Spirit of God. It is this
sanctifying spirit that puts a difference between the precious
and the vile. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin,
but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Peter says
that the elect are sanctified unto the obedience and cleansing
of the blood of Jesus Christ. Those who are strangers in the
earth are chosen of God because of his great love for them and
set apart by the Spirit to be made righteous by the obedience
of Jesus Christ and cleansed by his blood. The obedience of
the children of God is the obedience of Jesus Christ. For he did undertake
to perform all righteousness in their behalf, and now they
are obedient sons because he has fulfilled all righteousness
for them. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might
live unto God. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which
I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the
grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. Are you a stranger in this world? If you would like a free transcript
of this broadcast, email us at forthepoor at windstream.net.