Good morning everyone, good to
see you. I add my welcome to the visitors, to Winston's welcome. Today I want to direct your attention
to the first two chapters of the book of Peter. The Apostle
Simon Peter, he wrote this epistle to a number of believers who
were dispersed in different places. And so what is said of them can
be said of all believers in every age. And I approach my study
of this passage as I often do, I was seeking to understand its
context, trying to get a grip on what the main message or theme
was that was being conveyed. And it became clear to me that
much of this epistle is written to exhort and to encourage believers
in the exercise of their faith, in the walk of faith, speaking
of their duties and their conduct that should be manifested of
believers as trophies of God's grace in Christ. And we find
also words of encouragement in this epistle, words encouraging
us to persevere in the faith, to bear well under the trials
and afflictions that had or inevitably would come upon these believers
as it does to all believers. And while that kind of summarizes
the tenor of the In my study, I was struck and impressed by
the great lengths which Peter, as inspired by God the Holy Spirit,
the lengths he went to to describe the believers to whom he was
writing these words of encouragement. Describing them in terms which
communicate the true doctrine of the glorious gospel of God
in Christ, the gospel of grace, which all true believers embrace
by God-given faith. So it's these distinguishing
descriptions in chapters one and two of 1 Peter that we're
going to consider this morning. As you can see by my title, I've
kind of stolen a page out of Brother Winston Pannell's playbook
in the use of alliteration, and titled today's message Beloved,
Balked, and Born Again. And if I'd had more room, it
would have actually been a little longer. It would have been a
few more B's, as in the Beloved, Blood-Balked, and born-again
believer. And as the title suggests, I
have a very simple objective this morning and I think that
would be the longer title actually would be appropriate because
I want to show from this passage and from other supporting scriptures
how these B-word descriptions are inseparably linked together
in this sense. One, in that each and all of
these descriptions describe everyone whom God saves. But secondly,
they uniquely only describe those who are saved. So that is, all
who are saved and only those that God saves are eternally
beloved of God, objects of His everlasting electing love, chosen
in Christ Jesus before the world even existed, All who are saved
and only those whom God saves are bought or purchased by the
precious redeeming blood of Christ which was shed at the cross of
Calvary for each and every one of them and only for them. All who are saved and only those
that God saves shall in time be born again, given spiritual
life in Christ. All who are saved, and only those
that God saves, shall without fail believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Christ in whom they were chosen, who bought their
entire salvation, including their new birth, and the subsequent
gift of faith whereby they believe. So let's look at these descriptions
in our text for today, beginning with the second verse of chapter
one. Here Peter is describing those to whom he's writing, and
he begins in this way, describing them as the elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father. That is, they were chosen
by God the Father unto salvation in God the Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ from all eternity. We have commentary on that from
other scriptures. Ephesians 1, verses 3 and 4 helps
us with this understanding as it reads, Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ," and look
at verse 4, "'according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world.'" So here we see in plain, unmistakable
God-inspired language that those who are eternally blessed in
Christ, the elect, were just that, chosen in Christ from eternity
past before the world ever came into existence. And as our text
in 1 Peter 1-2 puts it, this election then is according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father. Some interpret this as
the elect whom God foreloved, that is the objects of his everlasting
love. And the context is compatible
with that understanding as we're gonna see as we observe the various
other aspects and descriptions of the eternal blessings that
God bestows on these believers whom he foreknows. But at the
onset, Peter's addressing these believers as the elect who are
chosen in Christ in accordance with God's everlasting love of
them. They are beloved of God. Now that word foreknowledge,
it actually is a word that means foreordained. In fact, if you
look down at verse 20, as we will in a moment, you'll see
that same Greek word is translated that way there in verse 20. In other words, It's referring
to that which has been determined or ordered to take place beforehand
by God. The very God who describes himself
through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 46.10 as God who declares
the end from the beginning. Well, Peter continues his description
in verse 2 saying, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father through sanctification of the Spirit, unto the obedience
and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you
and peace be multiplied." You'll notice I added the definite article,
the, before the obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of
Christ. Actually, that article is in
the original. So what we see here is that believers are described
as those who are sanctified. That just simply means set apart
by the Holy Spirit unto the obedience of Christ. In other words, having
been chosen in Christ, made one with Christ, their obedience
then is that which meets God's demands of holy perfection. How can that be? See, they're
set apart to his obedience. It's his perfect obedience even
unto death. It's his righteousness, that
is, that which the merit of what he accomplished in his life and
death, that satisfaction to justice, that is their righteousness. So this isn't speaking of their
own works or efforts to obey here. and thereby, see, based
upon his imputed righteousness. That simply means the merits
of what he accomplished being reckoned to their accounts. Based
upon that imputed righteousness, they are accepted before a holy
God. And they're set apart, it says
here, by the Holy Spirit unto the sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. I'll explain that in a moment.
First, I want you to just see that by this language, we know
that their election, according to the foreknowledge of God,
through sanctification, this setting apart, has to be referring
to their election unto salvation from its very beginning to its
end, all that salvation includes. See, Peter is identifying these
believers as those beloved elect, chosen in Christ, so as to have
His finished work on the cross, that's His blood, sprinkled. Now that just simply means spiritually
applied to them in their respective lifetimes. The book of Hebrews
chapter 9 uses that language, speaking of the sprinkling of
His blood, as that which purges their consciences from dead works. So that causes them to repent
of their dead works. In other words, as spiritually
dead sinners, as we all enter into this world, these believers,
all believers, are brought to repent of those notions that
had us imagining that we were saved at least in part due to
something done by me or in me or through me, the sinner, to
make the real difference in my salvation. These believers, in
time, due to the sprinkling of His blood, they turn in faith
and repentance to base their hope instead solely on the obedience
of Christ for all of their salvation. Well, Peter continues in verse
3 of our text saying this, "'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 by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, that to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you, you believers
who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein ye, you believers,
do greatly rejoice. And as verse six continues, he
begins those encouragements that I mentioned earlier, encouragements
to withstand temptations and trials. But it's these descriptions
of those to whom he is writing that I wanted to draw your attention
to. And I hope even in these opening
verses, you can see how believers are described as the beloved
elect, as those born again. It says here, they're begotten
unto a lively hope, all of that by the satisfaction which Christ
rendered, see, when He bought them with His own blood. And
we'll see that more fully in a moment. Thereby, though, by
His work, God's justice being satisfied for them as He paid
their sin debt in full. And He endured the just wrath
of God that was due unto the demerit of their sins. And God
the Father gives us assurance that His law and His justice
was perfectly satisfied for all those for whom Christ lived and
died when He raised Christ from the dead. Just as the demerit
of the sins of God's elect being charged or imputed to Christ
demanded his death. That's why he died. The perfect
satisfaction to justice that he rendered by that obedience
even unto the death, his righteousness, it demanded that he come out
of the grave that he lives. And because he lives, they, all
whom he represented, all for whom he was substituting himself
for, they shall live. You see, it's They rose with
Him, okay, not personally. They weren't there. I wasn't
even born, but in the person of their substitute and representative. But what I want you to see here
is it's that same resurrecting power that ensures that spiritually
dead sinners for whom he died shall all without fail likewise
be risen in spiritual life and shall receive all the fruits
and effects that Christ purchased for them. And that includes their
God-given gift of faith unto salvation. They shall believe. And it is in this salvation that
is so fully and freely accomplished by their Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ, as their substitute that believers are said to greatly
rejoice. Well, if we go a little further
down in the chapter, Peter begins to distinguish these believers
again in verse 18, saying this, for as much as you know that
ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
But, he's saying, you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ,
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily
was foreordained, there's that word I mentioned earlier, before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you, you who by him Do believe in God. That is, by
believing in Christ, you do believe in God that raised Him up from
the dead and gave Him glory that your faith and hope might be
in God. Always remember that redemption,
by definition, speaks of a payment made in full. As you've heard
it said, it's not an attempt made. but a payment paid, and
that in full. These beloved sinners, you see,
were bought back out from under the just wrath of God against
their sins by the payment of a penalty commensurate with the
very holy justice of God. You see, they were redeemed with
the infinitely valuable, precious blood of Christ. Well, as we
go forward, as we get to verse 22, Peter's exhorting them again
to love one another, but he picks back up with his descriptions
again in verse 23, saying this of them, being born again, not
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. I want you to look at that verse
and think with me about what a privilege it is for us to sit
in a place where this message, this very specific word of God,
God's gospel, is so clearly preached. Now it's the gospel of the living
word, of Christ, and I believe there's a two-fold meaning here.
But we are privileged to sit in a place where it's preached,
and just as Peter is doing here when he's giving his encouragements
to believers as how they should live and so forth, He takes the
time to distinguish those believers. And that's what we do when we
properly preach the gospel. We distinguish it from the false
gospel that the scripture repeatedly over and over again warns us
about. We know here that this Word of God which he actually
uses, according to this verse, as a word of regeneration by
which men and women are miraculously given spiritual life. They're
born again. It is none other than the gospel
itself and we know that connotation is there. If we just look down,
skip down to the last verse there at the end of the chapter, verse
25 that ends, and this is the word which by the gospel, the
gospel of Christ, is preached unto you. Romans 1 16 and 17 teaches. The gospel, that specific word
about how God saves sinners, it is the power of God unto salvation
for or because therein is the righteousness of God revealed. It's this specific word of the
gospel, see, that sets forth Christ and his obedience unto
death. It sets forth that. His righteousness
and that imputed to the sinner as the only basis and the sole
ground of a sinner's salvation. And that gospel, when applied
to a sinner's heart by God the Holy Spirit, it is powerful to
the salvation of the soul. Men and women are born again. by this Word of God, this regenerating
Word, which sets forth how all of salvation's requirements were
fully met by the doing and the dying of the living Word of God,
the Lord Jesus Christ. So I think it's beyond argument
that Peter is writing here to beloved, blood-bought, born-again
believers. Lastly, I want you to look over
into chapter 2 with me. where he picks up his descriptions
again in verse 9. He describes true believers there
this way, saying, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people. Again, we
start out seeing what? That ye are a chosen generation,
chosen in Christ, the beloved objects of His everlasting They're
said to be a royal priesthood. You know, under the Old Covenant
and in the Old Testament, there were the offices of priests,
as ordained by God, and then there were kings, both typifying
Christ, you see, because those two offices met in Him, the believer's
high priest and the king of kings, who reigns over all. And being
chosen in Christ, being made one with Christ, believers are
kings and priests. You see, for they too reign over
sin and Satan in a reign of grace. As Romans 5.21 puts it, grace
which reigns through righteousness, Christ's righteousness. And you
know, as in the old covenant economy, only the priests could
enter into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies in the
tabernacle. And those made one in Christ,
our mediator, they have access in Hebrews, it tells us, to boldly
enter into His presence because they have the very merits of
His righteousness put to their accounts. You know, that's our
royal apparel, as you may have heard it said. It's called in
the scripture a robe of righteousness. And so we believers are said
here to be a holy nation in Him. Now we're talking about sinners.
Believers, saved sinners, but nonetheless sinners in ourselves. And they're said in the scripture
to be a holy nation. Elsewhere it says they're unblameable,
unreprovable, holy and acceptable before God? How can that be? It's because they, these beloved
sinners, are accepted as a book of Ephesians tells us, in the
Beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are holy in Him. But I want
you to take particular notice of that last description where
it says they're called a peculiar people. You know, if we speak
of someone and we say, that fellow, he's right peculiar, isn't he?
We are usually suggesting he might be kind of odd or she might
be or that, and we may mean it in a derogatory fashion. Well,
that's not at all the sense of this word that's translated peculiar
here. That Greek word that's translated
peculiar is a word which means purchased. Believers here are
being described as the purchased possession of God." Again, a
blood-bought people. In Acts 20-28, God's Word refers
to believers collectively as the Church of God which He hath
purchased with His own blood, God's blood, the God-Man, the
incarnate Son of God. Now, can God possibly have even
one of His precious, beloved, purchased possessions somehow
taken away from Him? No. All who come to Him by Christ,
you see, have been purchased with His own blood. And as Christ
said in John 6.39, He said, and I will lose none of them. Well,
back in 1 Peter 2.9, he continues describing these believers, this
peculiar or purchased people, saying that they should show
forth the praises of him who hath called you, you believers,
out of darkness into his marvelous light. All believers in their
respective lifetimes are called out of darkness into his marvelous
light. They're given spiritual life,
and with that comes the faculties of life. You know, a dead man
can't see, can't hear, can't understand anything. Well, likewise,
a spiritually dead man can't spiritually hear, spiritually
see, and spiritually understand with the heart. But believers
are brought to spiritually hear, spiritually see, spiritually
understand with the heart, something they did not understand before. You see, they're born in darkness.
So these beloved, blood-bought folks are also without fail birthed. They're spiritually born again.
And by the God-given gift of faith that accompanies that,
they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He further describes
them there as those which in time past were not a people.
Now they were a people chosen in God, but they hadn't come
together to be of one mind and of a kindred mind and spirit.
But he says, but they are now the people of God, which hath
not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. You see, until
you can identify with that, you have no warrant to consider yourselves
among those chosen in Christ. blood-bought by Christ, but there's
the evidence. They come to believe him as born-again
children of God. You know, we often acquaint this
word, obtaining, something. Often, anyway, we think of it
as acquiring something that we have to put forth an effort to
get. We talk about obtaining it. At
least that's how we often use it in our day. The original word
would probably be better translated in our language today as receiving,
that which we receive rather than obtain. But we know that
it can't have the connotation of referring to something that
we acquire by a result of our effort because of what is being
acquired. It's mercy. You see, if the obtaining
of mercy came as a result of something you did, it wouldn't
be mercy. You wouldn't need mercy. You just need to strike your
end of the deal. That would be something, see,
that you then deserved or earned or merited because you did something
to get it. Well, that's certainly not mercy,
you see, because mercy, like grace, has to do with being shown
favor based upon no merit found whatsoever in the recipient of
that mercy or grace. Well, as I said at the onset,
my objective here was to show you how these three or four B
words are inseparably linked to one another. in that they
are all descriptions of each and every one that God saves
and they are descriptive only of those who God saves. Now as
to that first premise, from our text today I don't think anyone
can reasonably argue or disagree that these descriptions truly
are to be applied to all who are saved. If you do not believe
that all who are saved are the beloved objects of God's electing
that Christ died for them, that they must be born again, and
that they shall believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in belief of
God's gospel, then you simply do not believe the clear word
of God as we've had read to us this morning. It would require
a twisting sea of these passages beyond all reason to conclude
anything to the contrary. So many will agree with that.
So while many, some certainly, will concede that those descriptions
are certainly true of all believers, many will reason that these passages
are not to be interpreted so as to conclude that these descriptions
are only or that they are exclusively true of believers. Most notably,
Many would argue that Christ died for all, meaning both those
who are saved as well as those who shall perish in hell. Likewise,
some choose to believe that God's love is universal to all. God
loves everyone. That in spite of clear passages
to the contrary, such as Romans 9, where God says, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. Others will choose to interpret
the phrase in today's text, where it referred to the elect according
to the foreknowledge of God, as a reference to God having
observed them by looking down through that proverbial telescope
of time, and thereby God, who knows all, foresaw or foreknew
that they would do their part. In other words, that they would
believe, that they would accept something, receive Christ, get
baptized, accept Jesus, something that they would do. And then
they imagine that God reacts to that discovery by electing
them. And of course, that's contrary
to Ephesians 1.5, which declares that he elected them, he chose
them according to the pleasure of his will. but rather they
will suggest that he elected them on the basis of foreknowing
how they would later respond to their version of the gospel.
Now, no mere mortal man, certainly not this one, nor any of you
can reveal to a sinner's heart the validity of what I'm talking
about this morning, which some of you have been so blessed to
have revealed to you. But God can. And so, I want to
close this morning by asking everyone to just consider the
implications of your own gospel doctrine. In other words, how
you think God saves sinners. And I want to suggest to you
that the validity of that doctrine can be tested by simply applying
a standard that really most who call themselves Christians already
agree with. God tells us in Ephesians 2,
verses 8 and 9, that salvation is by grace, not by works. It reads specifically for, by
grace are ye saved. Through faith and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast. Now, as I mentioned earlier today,
like mercy, grace by definition has to do with receiving the
blessings or favor of God in salvation without you having
done anything to earn, merit, or deserve that favor. And all
of religion, there's many, many different denominations There's
a smorgasbord of concepts and ideas out there, but all of them
really fall very simply into one of those two categories,
grace or works. And those two things are mutually
exclusive. They do not coexist. Salvation
by works, by definition, leaves us imagining that at least something
done by or in or through us as the center, at least in some
small degree, contributes as a determining factor to our being
saved. And in Romans 11, I hope you'll
study that some on your own, it refers to the election of
grace. Now, if it's an election of grace,
that refutes the earlier argument in itself that God looked down
through time and chose them based on how they'd respond, that would
be an election of their work, something they would do, not
an election of grace. But in discussing that election
of grace, God, through the Apostle Paul there, he declares this
truth, that there's no mixing of the two. It teaches if there's
any element of works involved, it's no longer grace, and vice
versa. So salvation by grace means that
all, all that is necessary for a sinner's salvation has been
completely fulfilled and accomplished by another, not by the recipient
of God's mercy and grace, and that other, that's none other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. And if salvation is conditioned
in any way, to any degree, at any stage on you, the sinner,
Even if it's just doing your small part, as some often describe
it. If you'll just let God into your
heart, allow God to save you. Know this, that is to be trusting
in salvation by works. and therefore it is a false refuge. And it's not God's way of salvation
by grace no matter how insistent folks like me used to be in insisting
that it was, that we called it grace. So judging by that simple
standard, is it grace or is it works? I want us to examine again
a few of these descriptions to determine in your own minds Whether
you can see how it is rightly said that these descriptions
belong exclusively or only to those whom God saves. And while
we're reasoning, we reason with the scriptures. So I want to
share a few more of God's words on that subject. You see, for
ultimately it's His word, it's the standard of truth is all
that really matters. Well, first are only the beloved,
the elect, saved. many, most, will say, I don't
believe that God would choose some and not others. That seems
unfair to me, and so I don't believe that God chose those
whom he would save while just leaving the rest to perish in
hell. Now we've seen scripture to the
contrary, but men and women remain insistent on that view. Well,
I ask you, what's the alternative? Let's just suppose that view
were correct for a moment. If salvation, you say, isn't
totally due unto God's sovereign purpose and will, then ultimately,
by default, You have to be trusting in something done in or by you
or through you, the sinner, to make the difference. If it's
not all according to his will, it's got to be then according
to your free will. It's God who's saving a people. And listen. If it's by your free
will, that is exactly opposite of what God declares in Romans
9 when he says this, he said, it is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. You see, to imagine that the
real determining factor is my free will decision is salvation
by works. Even though I, like most, thought
it was grace, I called it grace. But I hope you can see by the
process of elimination here that salvation by grace necessitates
the truth of election. You cannot describe, you cannot
refute or refuse to believe that God chose a people according
to his own purpose and will. If you don't believe that, you
cannot build a case at all for maintaining, without a contradiction,
that you think salvation's by grace. But again, enough of my
reasoning. What does God's Word say about
election? I can't read anything much clearer
than what I read in Ephesians 1-4 that said God chose those
whom he saves in Christ from before the foundation of the
world. So I'm not going there again, but instead I want to
direct your attention to the Gospel of John. In John, God's
elect are called His sheep. And I want you to look at Christ's
words as recorded in John beginning in verse 25. Jesus was answering
the Jews' question here as to whether or not He was the Christ
by saying this, I told you and you believe me and you believe
not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me, but look at this, but ye believe
not, because ye are not of my sheep. As I said unto you, 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, look
at this, which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man
is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." Clearly, from
this passage, not everyone is a sheep. You can't mistake the
fact that Christ told them that they believe not because they
were not His sheep. And listen, don't get it backwards.
It does not say they were not his sheep because they believe
not, because they refuse to believe. Hear God's word here. Notice
Christ said that his Father gave him the sheep, speaking again
of his God, the Father's choosing of them unto salvation in Christ. We had gone back a little earlier
in the book of John to chapter 6. Beginning in verse 36, Christ
said this. He said, but I said unto you
that ye also have seen me, and believe not. But look at verse
37. But all that the Father giveth
me shall. They shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Clearly, some
believe not. Yet all that are given to Christ
by God the Father shall come to Christ. They all shall believe."
These are not my words. This is the word of God and specifically
here's the word of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. So there
can be no doubt if you believe God's word, they and only they,
the The beloved objects of God's everlasting electing love are
the blood-bought and born-again, so as to come to Christ believing
on Him." Well, secondly, are only believers blood-bought? That is, did Christ die only
for those He saves? Most of modern-day so-called
Christianity believes that Christ died for all, including those
who perish in hell. Some will argue that the price
of his precious blood actually was indeed, it was shed and it
actually paid for the sins of everyone, but that it is not
effectual to anyone unless and until they accept it as their
own. They imagine, see that it must
be accepted by the sinner for it to take its effect in heaven.
So when asked, how can Jesus die for someone, pay their sin
debt, and that someone not be saved, the usual answers, the
same one I would have given in years past, would say, oh, oh,
because they did not believe, because they did not accept it. But I want you to think about
that mindset. Forget for a moment that we used
to call that grace, salvation by grace, and instead let's just
peel the layers back a little bit and see where the real hope
must lie. What makes the real difference
in your salvation? Listen, if Christ did no more
for those who go to hell than he did for those who go to heaven,
then he's not the Savior because the Savior is whatever saves
you. It is whether you recognize it
or not. We call him our Savior, Christ our Savior, but the real
Savior is whatever makes that difference. And in the hindsight
of God-given faith, I look back with amazement on the depth of
my and your collective former spiritual blindness. It was dark. I intellectually see understood
this concept of grace. Ephesians 2.8.9 actually was
one of my favorite memorized passages. So I understood grace
to be referring to God's blessing. I did up here anyway. And favor
to me based upon nothing I did to merit it or anything that
was produced by anyone upon whom that grace was bestowed. And
yet, in my spiritual blindness, I failed to see what is now so
obvious, that my real hope of being saved, you see, was wrapped
up not in Christ and His shed blood, but ultimately it was
my act of faith. It was my believing. It was my
receiving. It was my accepting Jesus. It was my willingness to be saved.
It was my, my, my. To presume that my free will
choice made the real difference is to believe in salvation by
works no matter what I called it. Remember Romans 11 again
teaches us that if there's any element of works, it's no longer
grace. So think of the sinful pride
of having, by my former way of thinking, relegated the sacrificial
bloody death of Christ, the God-man, to a lesser and inferior, a subordinate
role to that which I presume to be the real difference maker,
my decision for Jesus. That's pride. And we have to
be delivered from that. I imagine Christ simply made
it possible for me to make the real difference. No. Grace necessitates particular
redemption. It makes it absolutely necessary. Christ died for a particular
people, his sheep. But again, enough of my reasoning.
Let's see what God's Word has to say on the subject. In Matthew
26, Jesus informed his disciples at the Last Supper that the wine
there was symbolic of his shed blood. And of that, in verse
28, he said this, For this is my blood of the New Testament,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins." Now for whom
was his blood shed? For all? No. Many. And what was
it shed for? To make salvation possible? No. It's for the remission of sins. You see, as with redemption,
remitting, that means paying, it speaks of a payment in full
of the penalty. due unto God's holy justice for
the guilt or demerit of all the sins of all for whom that payment
was made. If we go back to chapter 10 of
John's gospel again, we see Christ's own clear words there. First
in verse 11, he said of himself, I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." Now remember we've
already looked here in John 10 where he said, you believe not
because you're not my sheep. Not everyone's his sheep. At
the end of verse 15 he says, I lay down my life for the sheep. So there can be no doubt, not
only all who are saved, but only those who are saved are among
the blood-bought sinners for whom Christ died. Well, I could
go on, but I hope you see that both all who are saved and only
those who are saved are distinguished in the Scriptures as the beloved
elect of God chosen in Christ, bought by the precious blood
of Christ, and born again that they might in the day of God's
power by this word of regeneration come to truly believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. As we've seen, God says clearly,
salvation is not by works, and yet that notion that it is, that
salvation is conditioned at least to some way, to some degree on
something done by, in or through me, the sinner, that's just the
natural religion of all of us initially. The scripture makes
it clear that even those whom God gives spiritual life to,
they were in times past spiritually dead in their trespasses and
sins. They've got to be delivered from
darkness to his marvelous light. That's why the new birth is absolutely
necessary and it's impossible. It's a contradiction to cling
to that notion of salvation by works and at the same time truly
be believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, to believe on
Him is to look to His doing and His dying alone for all of our
salvation. God will not share His glory.
Let me leave you with this thought. You know, the natural reaction
to these things that I suspect all of us had at once, at some
time, is, well, if what you say is true, why'd I do anything?
God either chose me or he didn't. Well, you know, we accept pretty
readily, don't we, that we have nothing to do, we had nothing
to say about, or had no part in the decision on whether we
would be physically born into this world and when we would
be physically born into this world. And we don't have anything
to say about when or if we'll be spiritually born. But you
know what? God is a God of means. And all
the means that God uses, the very power of God unto salvation,
has been brought your way today in the preaching of the gospel
of God's grace. So what can you do? Just take
God at His word. As Christ said, all that come
to me I will in no wise cast out. as it's recorded in Acts
1631, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And all who are truly saved,
who are truly granted this blood-bought gift of faith, they can thereby
know in hindsight that they too are the beloved elect of God,
chosen from all eternity unto salvation in and by Christ on
whom they've now believed. that they are bought by the precious
blood of Christ on whom they've now believed, that they are born
again as a fruit and effect of what Christ purchased for them,
the Christ on whom they've now believed. What a blessing to
be a beloved, blood-bought, born-again believer.