Alright, 1 Peter chapter 1. This epistles of Peter's was
written around 65 A.D. when Nero was Caesar. He's persecuting the Christians
so harshly at that time. And Peter is writing to many
new believers. He is preparing them for the
hardships that are surely coming to them. The persecution of Nero
was just horrible the things that He did to the believers
at that time. And their hearts are going to
need to be comforted. And nothing will comfort the
heart of a believer like seeing Christ and being more firmly
established in the salvation that's in Him. And that's how
Peter writes to comfort the hearts of God's people. He comforts
them by showing us Christ. Nothing comforts the heart of
a believer like hearing that Christ the Savior has taken care
of every detail concerning the salvation of His people. And
no matter what it is that we're going through, He's going to
take care of all those details to bring His people safely home
to Him. And that's what Peter writes
to instruct us in so that our faith will be established in
Christ. And this great salvation that Peter and the rest of the
apostles and prophets, great salvation that they all write
about began with God's election of a people. In eternity past,
before anything was created, God chose a people. He elected
them unto salvation. Now what happens next? What happens
after that? There are some things that must
happen because God elected a people unto salvation. He chose to save
them. So there's some things that must
happen. And that's what I want us to look at this morning. The
title of the message is Election and Its Results. Now we've got
to begin with God's election of a people, because that's where
it all began. Verse 1 of 1 Peter chapter 1. Peter, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father. Now the salvation of
a sinner has to begin with God's election. The truth of election
is simply this. If we're saved, God did all the
saving. That's what election says. From
the beginning to end, God did all the work of salvation. It
had to be that way. God had to choose a people to
save because we could not choose God. We're dead in trespasses
and sin. We lack the ability to choose
God. So if we're saved, God had to choose us first. God had to
choose a people to save because we would not, we could not, and
we would not choose God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. We'll never choose Him. So salvation
had to begin with God's election of a people. And I don't care
where you find them. Every believer believes that.
Every one of them. You don't have to argue with
a believer about election. Every believer knows God's God.
Every believer knows that salvation from beginning to end is of the
Lord. And that's simply what election says. Here's another
reason. You don't have to argue with
the believer about election. Election is all tied to Christ. And every believer loves Christ.
Look at Isaiah chapter 42. This is the first time that the
word election is mentioned in the Bible. And it's mentioned
referring to the Lord Jesus Christ being God's first elect. Isaiah
42 verse 1. Behold my servant whom I uphold,
mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I put my spirit upon him. He
shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry
nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A
bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he
not quench. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall
not fail nor be discouraged, till he hath set judgment in
the earth and the isle shall wait for His law. Now, here's
why I love election. Because Christ, the Savior, is
God's first elect. The Father chose Christ. He elected
Christ to be the Savior of His people. He put all of His people
in Christ, our surety. And the Lord Jesus Christ, God's
first elect, our Savior, He shall save all the people that the
Father gave Him. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
in this matter of salvation. Salvation in Christ is sure,
and I love that. I love that salvation is sure
in Him. And then I love election, because
election is a loving, tender truth that reveals to us the
character of God. Isaiah says Christ is going to
bring salvation to the Gentiles. He's going to bring salvation
to the people who deserve it the least, heathen Gentiles. Christ our Savior will not break
even the weakest of sinners. He's not going to snuff out even
the least bit of faith in Him. Election never keeps anybody
from being saved. Never. Election guarantees the
salvation of the worst, the weakest, the most hopeless sinners. I love election. That's election. I look back in our text, the
cause of election. Peter says, is according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father. Now the cause of election is
not found in you and me. The cause of election is found
in the character of God. That means that there's no reason
found in us that would make God choose us. Everything in us would
make God damn us, wouldn't it? God chose a people because of
the character of God. God chose a sinful people to
save because of who He is, not because of who we are. It's according
to the foreknowledge of God. Now, that didn't mean that God
knew someday who would be good and he decided to choose them
because that would never happen. There's none good, no, not one.
God didn't look down through the telescope of time and see,
oh, I foresee like a fortune teller, you know, who's going
to believe me and who won't. So I'll choose those who would eventually
believe on me. That'd be God taking credit for
what man would do anyway. That's not what foreknowledge
means. Foreknowledge means this. God chose a people because he
knew what he would do for those people before he ever created
the world. God's foreknowledge is God's
foreordained purpose, his purpose for his people that he knew he
would accomplish for them before he ever created the world. I'll
show you that in two scriptures. First, look at Romans chapter
eight. God's foreknowledge is his foreordained purpose for
his people. He's always known his purpose
for his people. Romans 8, verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. See, that's God's
foreknowledge, his eternal purpose to conform all of his people,
all those that he chose to the image of his son. That's God's
foreknowledge, his eternal purpose. Then look in Acts chapter two. God's foreknowledge is his eternal
purpose for his people. We see this here in Peter's sermon
here on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2 verse 22. Ye men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which
God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know.
Him being delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because
it was not possible that he should be holded of it. See, God's eternal
purpose, his foreknowledge, was to save his people through the
sacrifice of his Son. That was God's foreknowledge.
He always knew, purposed, that's how he's going to save his people
from their sin. And it was also God's eternal
purpose who Christ would save by his death on the cross. Christ
didn't die for everybody. He died for God's elect. That's
God's eternal purpose. His foreknowledge, who he would
save through the righteousness and through the sacrifice of
his son. Now that's what election teaches us. Election is God choosing
a people to save according to his eternal purpose. Now we get
to some of the results of God's election of a people. And these
things must happen because God chose a people to save. As Brother
Henry told us so often, election is not salvation. Election is
unto salvation. So all these things must happen
to everyone God chose to save. Number one is this. God's elect
must be born again. The cause of election is God's
foreknowledge, his eternal purpose for his people. And the means
that God uses to carry out his election is sanctification of
the spirit. Verse two. elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the spirit and the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. To be sanctified is to be made
holy. Now, how can a sinner be made
whole? How is that possible? By being
born again, by being given a new holy nature in the new birth.
That's what he says in verse three. Blessed be the God and
father of our Lord Jesus Christ. which according to his abundant
mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. A sinner, when they're born again,
that's the blood, the sprinkling of the blood being applied. When
the blood's applied, we're born again. Born again with a new
holy nature. In the new birth, there's a new
man born. And that man is born from a holy
seed, so he must be holy. Peter tells us that in verse
23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, not of Adam's
sinful seed, but of incorruptible, sinless seed by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever. In the new birth, there's a new
man born who's holy and he can never be unholy because he's
received the nature of his father. You know, these bodies are born
from the seed, the nature of our father. It's sinful seed.
And we can never be anything but sinful. That old man can
never be anything but sinful flesh. He can never be holy. But the new man is born from
holy seed and he can never be unholy. He's got the nature of
his heavenly father. Now, when a sinner is born again,
the flesh is unchanged. We're just as rotten and sinful
as ever, you fight and battle sin to our last breath. So when
a sinner is born again, in that one person, there's two men,
there's two natures, two distinct opposite natures. The first nature
is nothing but sin, and it never will be anything but sin. But
that other nature is perfectly holy and righteous and will never
be anything but righteous. In me, in you who believe, there
are two natures. So there's nothing good of me. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. Nothing good will ever come from
my flesh. There's nothing good of me, but there's something
good in me. It's the new man, God the Holy
Spirit calls to be born in me. That's how we're sanctified. And that has to happen for everybody
that God chose. The Savior said, you must be
born again. You must be born again. You must
receive a new holy nature if God will accept you. So God gives
his people, his elect, the nature that he requires by causing them
to be born again. Second, God's elect must receive
faith in Christ. Verse two, he says, elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. Now, this obedience that Peter
speaks of here, it's not our obedience to the law. We don't
have any obedience to the law, do we? It's the obedience of
Christ that's imputed to us, imputed to us who believe. And
we receive that obedience. We receive that righteousness
by faith, by faith in Christ. We're not righteous because we
kept the law. No, we're made righteous through the obedience
of Christ, through His obedience for us. Abraham was righteous,
wasn't he? We know that because Scripture
said it, but not because he did anything. Abraham believed God. Abraham had faith. And that faith,
what he laid hold on by faith, that was imputed to him for righteousness. He had that by faith. And the
only way any of us, any sinful men and women like you and me,
the only way we'll ever believe Christ, is if God gives us the
gift of faith. So God gives his people that
gift of faith. Every believer believes the same
thing. Every believer believes the only obedience I have is
the obedience of Christ my Savior. Every believer believes that.
Every believer believes the only hope I have that my sin is forgiven
is the blood of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
all of our hope. That's the faith that God gives. See, God imputes
the righteousness of Christ to us and makes us not guilty through
faith in Christ. And God imparts the righteousness
of Christ. He puts it in us, makes us holding
without blame in the new birth, causing a new holy man to be
born. So you see in these opening verses, you know what that shows
us? It takes the entire Godhead to save a sinner. The whole Trinity
is involved in saving God's elect. The Father elected him. He chose
him. The Son became a man. He established righteousness
for them through his obedience to the law. And in the sacrifice
of himself, he put their sin away through his blood, atoned
for their sin with his blood. And the Holy Spirit comes and
gives life. He applies that blood and gives life in the new birth.
That must happen to everyone if God's elect. Thirdly, God's
elect are going to become strangers in this world. Peter says he
writes to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia. When a believer is born again,
you know what we find out? I'm not from this place. I'm
not from this world anymore. We're just strangers and pilgrims
in it. And you know what? That's okay. That's okay. I don't want to
stay here anyway, do you? We're just pilgrims passing through
on our way to a better country. So we'll be strangers to this
world. But we won't be strangers to God. He chose us. He's going
to reveal Himself. We won't be strangers to God.
We'll be strangers to this world. But we won't be strangers to
each other. No, we'll help one another. each other along the
way, the difficult way that we all tread. You know, I've been
blessed to be able to travel around a little bit and go to
places and preach in other places and meet with God's people in
other places. And I've always found this to
be true. You're just there no time at
all. And you realize, oh, I'm like
these people. This is our family. We're not
strangers to one another. We went, I've used this illustration
before. The first time we went to Dingus,
West Virginia, the girls were little. Savannah was just an
infant in arms. And Brother Gary called. He said,
we're all down here at the restaurant. Why don't you come down and get
something to eat? And the whole congregation was there. We came
in, and I knew Gary and Roland. That was about it, you know.
And we weren't there three minutes, and it was just like one great
big happy family. Just, oh, we love that evening. We're not strangers to one another.
Fourth, God's elect all receive grace. Peter says grace unto
you. God's grace for his people began
in eternity past. And that grace continues all
our life long. There's electing grace. That's
where it all began. What? Electing grace. There's
pervenient grace. Grace that goes before. We don't
even know how God's grace is directing our paths to where
someday we'll hear the gospel. We don't even know how God's
protecting us and leading us all in the time of our rebellion
and unbelief. There's pervenient grace. Then
there's calling grace. Grace that calls us to the Savior.
There's regenerating, life-giving grace. There's saving grace.
There's keeping grace. Salvation is all of God's grace. It's not by our merit, not by
something we've earned. It's all by grace. Salvation
is by grace. Grace is God giving us what we
do not deserve. God gives us what we cannot and
what we have not ever earned. Salvation is by grace, the free
gift of God's grace. That's why every believer loves
to sing Amazing Grace. Oh, how sweet to sing. That saved
a wretch like me. Every believer experiences God's
grace. Fifth, all of God's elect receive
abundant mercy. I like what Here in the middle
of verse three, Peter says, which according to his abundant mercy
have begotten us again. God's mercy is just like God's
grace. Mercy began in eternity and it
continues all our life long. That's why David said, surely
goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. God's
mercy continues all our life long. And I love how Peter describes
God's mercy here. He describes it as abundant mercy. That word abundant means the
largest possible number. Just as big a number as you can
think. God's mercy cannot be measured. That's the kind of mercy I need.
A sinner with infinite sin needs infinite mercy. Abundant mercy. Salvation's got to be given to
sinners abundantly, in abundant mercy. Mercy is God not giving
us what we do deserve. What is it we deserve? By our
sin, by our rebellion. Now, what is it we deserve? We
deserve God's eternal wrath, don't we? Why doesn't God pour
out his eternal wrath on his people? because He already poured
out His wrath for the sin of His elect upon His Son. He poured
it all out. He said, there's no fury left
in me. It's all been poured out on our
substitute. That's mercy. That's the kind of mercy I need.
And I tell you, mercy is always tied to the blood of Christ.
The mercy seat in the tabernacle, you know what it was covered
with? That mercy seat was covered with the blood of the sacrifice.
Every year that priest went in there sprinkling blood on that
mercy seat. The mercy seat was covered with
blood. We read this in the lesson earlier.
When that publican prayed, God be merciful to me a sinner. What
he was saying is God be propitious to me the sinner. God have mercy
on me. God cover me with your mercy.
Don't give me what my sin deserves. but cover me in the blood of
Christ. Cover me in the blood of your
son. Salvation in that kind of mercy.
Salvation that's been purchased by the blood of God's own son
is sure and it's certain. It'll never fail. It can never
be lost. Every one of God's elect are
objects of God's abundant mercy. Sixth, God's elect all receive
peace in the heart. Peter says, grace unto you and
peace be multiplied. Every believer receives peace
with God. And boy, don't we need that.
Oh, don't we need peace in the heart. We live in troubled times. And
I bet you if you could go back and somehow listen to preachers
preaching for thousands of years, they'd all say that. We live
in troubled times. Oh, we need peace. We're in this flesh. So we need peace. We need peace
for the trials and heartaches that are coming to us as surely
as it was coming to these that Peter is writing to here. And
the only way a believer, the only way a sinner can have peace
in the heart is if we have peace with God. Peace with God means
I'm not worried about meeting God in judgment. Not worried
at all. because Christ, my substitute,
was already judged for me. The only way we can have peace
with God is if our sin's been taken away through the sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when sin is removed, there's
peace. Peace that passes all understanding. Passes all human understanding.
It's peace that doesn't, the new man understands it, but it's
peace that passes all human understanding. When there's peace in the heart,
even in difficult, difficult times, there's peace in the heart. Now you can't explain that, it's
just so. I don't think Burdell would mind me telling you this.
He told me before he had his surgery, such great pain. He
thought it was going to kill him. I mean, he just thought,
I can't take this. He told the doctor, I'm going to die before
you can do this surgery. The pain is so great. And there's
poor Jackie standing next to him. Can you imagine that? If
you've ever seen your spouse in pain, just how that just rips
your heart out. Now, that pain was real. That
worry was real. But you know, they told me there's
such peace. It's all right. That's peace
that passes human understanding. This is so. And if you haven't
experienced it yet, you child of God, you will. You can have unspeakable sorrow. Pain that you just cannot put
into words. And at the same time, unspeakable
peace in the heart. Both at the same time. That's
the peace that God's people, he gives it to them all. Seventh,
God's elect have a living hope. He says at the end of verse three
here, according to his abundant mercy have begotten us again
into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
That word lively is living. Believers have a living hope
because our Savior lives. We have a living hope because
our Savior is life. Now Peter calls our hope, it's
a living hope. Because it's not based on us
at all. It's not based upon our dead
works whatsoever. Our hope is all based on the
living Christ. And that's a good thing, because
our works, what can they produce? The only thing our works can
produce is death. The wages of sin is death. Our
works produce a dead hope. But Christ is life. If Christ
is your righteousness, if Christ is your life, you can never be
put to death. because he's perfect. He lives
eternally. If Christ is our hope, we have
a good, a living hope, a hope that can never be lost. We have
a living hope in Christ. Eighth, God's elect are all given
an inheritance. They're all made heirs of God.
Verse four, he says to an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled,
and it fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Now, what's
an inheritance? Well, an inheritance is not something
that we can earn, is it? An inheritance is something somebody
else earned, and they give to us as a free gift. That's what
salvation is. It's an inheritance. It's something
that Christ earned for his people, and he gives it to them as a
free gift of his grace. And you get an inheritance. Do
you know how you receive an inheritance? Because you've got a relationship
with the deceased. Usually it means being a child.
And that's what every believer is. We're born again. We've been
born into the family of God. So we're children of God. Sons
and daughters of the king. You've been adopted into God's
family by his grace. You're a child. If you're a child,
you're an heir. What are you an heir of? Absolutely
everything. Everything. Because we're children,
we're heirs. And God's children have an inheritance
they can never lose. Time won't rot it away because
it's not touched by sin. It can't be decayed. Circumstances
won't change and it'd be taken away from you because it's promised
by the immutable, unchanging God. You'll never lose your inheritance. And that's good news to strangers
in this earth. Remember the people that Peter's
writing to here, They'd already lost everything they had in this
world. They had to escape from their home. They just escaped
with the clothes on their back. And you know what Peter's telling
them? Brethren, you really haven't lost a thing. Not really. You
haven't lost anything real or anything lasting. You haven't
lost anything that you wouldn't have lost in the end anyway.
You're an heir of God. You can never lose your inheritance. Salvation in Christ can never
be lost because he purchased it with his own blood on Calvary's
tree, and then he arose to ensure his people have the inheritance
he purchased for them. Oh, what an inheritance. Heirs
of God. Ninth, God's elect will all be
kept and they'll persevere to the end. Verse five, who are
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. ready to
be revealed in the last time. I touched on this in the lesson
this morning. Every believer fears that I'll fall away from
God. And I know why we fear that.
Because we know if God take his hand off of us, we'd fall in
a second. Just instantly, wouldn't we?
We're too weak to keep ourselves. We're too sinful to keep ourselves.
So isn't it comforting to hear? God's elect are going to persevere
to the end. because God's gonna keep us by His power. Not by
our power, by His power. Not by our goodness, by His goodness. When we hear that, doesn't that
bring comfort to your heart? We're gonna be kept by God's
power. That just lets us rest in Christ,
doesn't it? Free from all worry. He's gonna
keep His elect by His immutable power. Tenth, God's elect will
all rejoice. He's going to give his people
a reason to rejoice. He says in verse six, wherein
you greatly rejoice, greatly rejoice. Don't you rejoice in God's election? As we looked at those those points
about God's election, did that cause your heart to rejoice?
Oh, he chose a people. We rejoice in God's electing
love. We rejoice in the new birth.
God's given us life. We rejoice in the blood of Christ.
How thankful I am for the blood of Christ. Nothing else could
take away our sin. So thankful for His blood. We
rejoice in Christ our righteousness. We couldn't be made righteous
any other way but in Him. How we rejoice in His righteousness.
How we rejoice in the free forgiveness of sin. How we rejoice in the
resurrection of Christ. He rose again for our justification,
showing us irrefutable evidence His death put the sin of His
people away, justified them, made them without sin. How do
you know? He rose from the grave because sin's gone. We rejoice
in our inheritance of grace, the inheritance of salvation
that can never be lost. God's people rejoice in the gospel. Are you rejoicing as you hear
the gospel this morning? Is your heart thrilled hearing of salvation
in Christ? God's elect all rejoice in the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Did we rejoice to get to hear
of him one more time? Eleven. Something this point
is very applicable to our congregation at this time. God's elect will
be a tried people. They're all going to receive
trials. He says in verse six, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though
now for a season, if need be, you're in heaviness, through
manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much
more precious than a gold that perisheth, though it be tried
with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at
the appearing of Jesus Christ. Now trials are necessary. Even though we don't want them,
trials are necessary. The best illustration I can think
of that is a child getting disciplined. I wish I could tell you how many
times I got spanked as a child. You know how many of them I liked?
Not one. Not one. But every one of them
was good for me. I didn't like it at the time,
but every one of them was good for me. Trials for God's children
are the exact same way. If God sends trials to his children,
they must be necessary. Peter says they're only for a
season, just for a short time, and if need be. Well, if we experience
trials, they must be necessary. They must need be or God wouldn't
send them. The trials are necessary to strengthen our faith. Our faith. Peter says these are
trials of your faith. God doesn't send trials to punish
his children. He sends trials to strengthen
the faith of His elect. Trials strengthen faith. They
make faith more valuable. It's just like putting gold in
the refiner's fire. That makes the gold more valuable
because it burns off the dross and just leaves what's precious. That's the way the trials of
our faith are. Trials make faith more valuable
because you know what trials teach us? Trials teach us when
When God just sends a trial that cuts out all the underpinnings,
we're taught what we are, how frail we are, and we're taught
to depend not on ourselves, but we're taught to depend more completely
on the Lord Jesus Christ. God teaches us to depend more
fully on Christ. Now that's valuable. Nothing
is more valuable than learning how frail and weak, just what
a speck of dust I am, so that I learn to trust more fully in
Christ. And I weep. I weep with those
who right now are going through such awful pain, sorrow, and
sickness. And we wonder, you know, we're
in this flesh, we just can't help but wonder, how can this
pain be good for me? How can pain that just incapacitates
me, how can that be good for me? I've got no idea. I don't know. But He does. And only our God can make that
work for good. He's the only one. Trials teach
us to wait on the Lord. We wait on Him. And eventually,
He keeps His promise so that we learn. God will indeed. and do what He promised He'd
do. That's valuable. That's a valuable thing for us.
And I tell you, beware of this. I touched on this in the lesson
this morning too. Trials usually are painful. Almost always trials are painful.
But not always. Not 100% of the time. God may
permit a person to prosper. Just to prosper wildly in this
world. And that might be the most difficult
trial of all, because it's so deceiving. I was a young man. Holly was
a baby. And the company I worked for
went out of business. And they had a consulting firm
come in to close the business down. And 25 years ago, they
offered me a job, making six figures. I'd have to be gone
six, seven weeks at a time, not even home on the weekends. And
I thought, boy, you know, that kind of money sounds kind of
tempting, you know. I mean, we had nothing. I didn't
know where our next meal was coming from. But I just thought,
I don't think that's a good idea. And I talked to Brother Henry
about it. And you know what he told me?
They don't got nothing you want. That's pretty good advice. Just
beware of that trial, that when God allows you to prosper, because
are you going to trust Him now as much as you trusted Him when
you didn't have nothing? You know, when we don't know
where our next meal is coming from, you've got nowhere to look
but Him, do you? But boy, if He sends you some
prosperity, you think you can look to your bank accounts, you
think you can look to your holdings, are you going to look to Him
then? That's why I say that's a deceiving trial. But those things are necessary.
They're necessary to reveal faith. Whether it's true faith or genuine
faith. And that's valuable. When we
see our faith in Christ really is genuine. And then trials are
necessary. They're valuable. Because they
make us more valuable to each other. Trials will soften our
hearts, won't they? and trials will enable us to
comfort others when they're in a time of trial and suffering.
That's what Paul told us in 2 Corinthians 1 verse 4. These things are necessary
and they're valuable. Well, God's elect all receive
a heart that loves Christ. He says, Peter says here in verse
8, whom having not seen, you love. In whom though now you
seem not, yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory. True faith is not just believing
some facts on paper, some doctrinal facts, you know. True faith is
being in love with a person. True faith is believing and loving
a person who cannot lie. True faith is loving a person
who cannot fail and putting all your trust in him. Not trying
to help him out. Putting all your trust in him
because you love him. You trust him. And God gives
all of his elect a heart. that loves Christ that way. It ought to make it easy for
us to get along, shouldn't it? Because we're all in love with
the same person. Every believer is given a heart that loves Christ.
And then last, God's elect will all receive the perfection of
salvation that God purposed for his elect in eternity. Verse
nine, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of
your souls. The end of God's election is
the final, complete salvation of his people, when they're saved,
both body and soul. The ultimate goal of election
is to make a people just like God's Son, and heaven's going
to be populated with them. Every child of God will have
the perfection of that salvation, have it for eternity. So it really
doesn't matter the twist and the turns and the ups and downs
and the disappointments and the happiness of this life, does
it? Whatever it is we may or may not have in this world, the
end of every believer, no matter what's happened to us in this
flesh, the end of every believer is to be made just like Christ. Worship Him forever, face to
face. That's the final end of God's
election. Thank God for election. Aren't
you thankful for God's election? I am. I hope God will make us
thankful for that. All right, let's bow in prayer. Father, how we thank you for
your electing love. Only you could love sinners like
we are. Send your son to die, to suffer
and die for the sin of his people. Father, we're thankful. Only you and your goodness and
your wisdom and the power of your providence could ordain
all of our steps to be brought to the place where we'd hear
the gospel, where you'd give faith and life, that you'd grant
repentance and cause us to look to Christ. Father, how we thank
you. And how we pray for the faith
to persevere to the end. Pray that in the difficulties
and the trials and the sorrows and the prosperity of this life
that you keep us always looking only to our Lord Jesus Christ.
That we would rely only upon Him. Deliver us from ever relying
upon an arm of this flesh. That we might rely completely
on our Lord Jesus Christ. Until that day when you call
us home to worship Him face to face. Father, we thank you. Bless us, we pray. Bless your
word, to your glory, to the hearts of your people, we pray. It's
in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ we ask these blessings
and we give thanks.