Let's go back to 1 Peter. Peter
is the writer of this epistle. He is a true apostle of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's not the first pope. He's
not the vicar of Christ. But he is a true apostle, true
messenger, chosen by the Lord Jesus Christ to this office. And he's writing, it says there,
to strangers, but to the exiles, those who have been exiled. They
have been scattered abroad by afflictions over the gospel that
they've believed. He's writing to believers who've
had to leave their jobs, they've had to leave their homes, They
have had to leave their families because of the gospel that they
believe. And he's writing to encourage
them. He wants to encourage them. He knows what they're going through.
He's been through it. Going through it. He is living
in that time period. Going through it. And he's trying
and writing to encourage them and remind them of the great
blessings that they have in the Lord Jesus Christ. I reckon there's
nothing that's more encouraging when we go through trials and
heartaches than to remember what we have in Him, to remember the
blessings, and to remember who's sending the trials, who's at
the head, who's the first cause of all things, who's in control
of all things. Our Lord. Our Lord. And the first blessing that He
mentions to them, this is one of the foundation blessings that
He mentions to them, is their election. He calls them elect. Elect. Isn't that sweet? Oh, to me, that's a sweet doctrine.
That's a sweet doctrine. It's a precious truth. The older
I get, the more precious it is. Elect chosen of God. I didn't
put myself in that number. He did. He did. And if He put me in that number,
no one's going to take me out. I can't even take myself out
of it. That's a precious truth. If a
person is truly a Christian in the true sense of the word, That
person is elect, chosen of God. If election gives someone trouble,
I thought about this today in the study. If it gives someone
trouble, it's because they really have trouble with the God of
election. They have trouble with the God
of grace. They have trouble with the gospel
of grace. Salvation being all of grace,
all of Christ, that's what they really have trouble with. It's
the God of election they have trouble with. If a person is brought to know
in their hearts that salvation is all of grace, that's the only
way it can be, and you know it. You know that it's all of grace.
Then election will not give you a problem. It will not give you
a problem. When we find out who God is,
all these other things fall into place. If we have trouble with
what we call the doctrines of grace, it's really a doctrine
of grace, but if we have trouble with that, the trouble is really
not with the doctrines, it's with the God of them. It's with
God Almighty. But boy, when we find out who
He is, you know if He had chosen you,
you'd never have chosen Him. You know that. Now, the cause of our election,
Peter gives it this. He gives this. And this is so
good. According to his foreknowledge,
elect according to the foreordination of God. The cause of our election is
the foreknowledge of God. He knew us. That's what he's
saying. He knew us. Before the world
began, God knew us. And I'll tell you this, He knew
everything about us. I would not do anything, anything
that would surprise Him. Everything about me, every vile
thing about me, He knows. And yet He loved me and chose
me. We are elect according not to
what He foresaw in us. No, we are elect according to
His foreknowledge, His foreordination of us. The cause is found in
God Himself. Our Lord said this, Even so,
Father, it seemed good in thy sight. You hid this from the
wise and prudent, and you revealed it to babes. Why? Even so, Father,
it seemed good in thy sight. The cause is found in Him. And
that's enough. That's enough. And I thought about this. And
I ask this to anyone who has trouble with it. Do you know
anyone? Do you know anyone wiser? Do you know anyone wise enough
to make that kind of a choice? No. He's infinite wisdom. He's holy. He can do no wrong. And I'll
leave it there. I'll leave it there. And then
God is a God of means. He has ordained the means as
well as those whom He saves. He's ordained the means of their
salvation. He says here, elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit, that is, the sanctifying
work of the Holy Spirit of God, Now to obedience is sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. He is a God of means. Look over
here in 2 Thessalonians. Paul is writing to them in 2
Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 13. We've seen this many times. And I tell you this, it becomes
a greater blessing the more I do see it. And the more I read it,
it becomes a greater blessing. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren. Every time we think of it, every
time we remember you and remember God's election of you, we always
give thanks for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God has from the beginning, before creation, chosen you to salvation
through means. Here's the means. Sanctification
of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit coming Separating you and making
you holy. And belief of the truth. They
go together. They go together. The first means
is the work of the Holy Spirit. The second is using the Word
of God and creating faith in the heart. And then he says here,
unto obedience. Unto obedience. First of all,
unto His obedience. He has brought us under His obedience
to submit to His obedience which is submitting to His righteousness.
His obedience for justification, His obedience for sanctification
and the sprinkling of His blood on our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
And then secondly, our obedience. There is an obedience on our
part. Our obedience. God saves rebels
from their rebellion. Be ye reconciled to God, Scripture
says. Lay down your shotgun and obey
Him. I saw a Scripture today I've
never seen before, never really seen it before until over in
Psalm 18. Psalm 18. Never really noticed this before.
Psalm 18, look here in verse 43 and 44. Thou hast delivered
me from the strivings of the people, and thou hast made me
the head of the heathen. A people whom I have not known
shall serve me. As soon as they hear of me, they
shall obey me. Isn't that beautiful? As soon
as they hear of me, when the Holy Spirit brings the gospel
to a sinner in power, when it comes to you in power, you'll
obey. You will obey. You'll go up to
the pastor and you'll say, I want to be baptized. You'll obey. You will obey his commandments.
Love one another. You'll love one another. You'll
do it. As soon as they hear or as soon
as they hear of me, Christ, the gospel, they shall obey me. The strangers shall submit themselves
unto me. Paul said over in Ephesians,
you were what? Strangers. You were strangers. And of course,
over here, Peter calls them strangers, but they're not strangers to
God. They're strangers to the world. They think you're peculiar
now. But you're not strangers to God.
But He says, as soon as they hear of Me, they'll obey Me. They'll keep My commandments. We obey His commands. We receive
His Word. We receive this Word right here
as the Word of God. We don't debate it. We do not
use it to argue with. We literally bow down before
it. This is the Word of God. And
we look into it to see what our Lord would have have us to do.
We look into it to see what He has to say to us. This is His
words, His commandments. And the end result is this. Grace. God has elected you. He has sent
the Spirit of God and sanctified you. You have obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you, Paul says,
in another place. And here's the end result. Grace
to you. He's not writing to rebels. Grace
to you. You've obeyed. Grace to you and
peace be multiplied. Peace be multiplied. If you fit
the description above. Grace and peace be multiplied
to you. If you fit it. It's not to rebels. It's to the elect. It's to the elect. Now I want
you to notice how these words I'm going to give you now that
we have in these next verses. Blessings. Words of blessing. He says in verse 3, begotten
us again. Blessed be the God and Father
by Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one to be blessed. He's
the one to receive all the honor which according to His abundant
mercy, much mercy, hath begotten us again. That has to do with
the new birth. A man will not obey God, he will
not obey the gospel until he's born again. He won't do it. That's why Peter
says here, He who has begotten us again. You see, the first
time we were born, flesh. And all flesh is, is flesh. Flesh
can produce nothing more than flesh. That's all flesh can produce,
is flesh. The second time we are born of
the Spirit and it is pure Spirit. There's no flesh mixed with it. It's all Spirit. And that's why
Peter's saying He's begotten us again. That is by His Spirit. It's a spiritual birth. It's
a new man. It's a new birth. And listen,
it is an experience. This new birth is a real experience.
Just like my first. This is a real experience. My
first birth, standing here in the flesh, this is a real experience.
So is my second birth from above. It's real. And it's of God. And
it's Spirit. Peter said, and He hath begotten
us. He hath begotten us again. Listen to a lively hope. A lively hope. You know, Job
said over there, they were confounded Because they had hoped. What he's saying here, what Job
is saying, they have died. They've gone before God. And
now they're confounded because he says, depart from me. I never
knew you. Did not the Lord say, many will
say, we've preached in your name. We've cast out devils in your
name. We've done many mighty works in your name. And he's
going to say to them, Depart from me, I never knew you." And
they are going to be absolutely confounded, confused, because
they had hoped. They had a false hope. They had
hoped in a profession. They had hoped in a church they
belonged to. They had hoped in many different
things. I mean, you can go on and on
and on with what they hoped in, but they did not hope in Christ.
Paul says, Christ our hope, when he wrote to Timothy. If Christ
is not my hope, if He's not the foundation of it, if He's not
the object of it, I don't have a hope. But Peter says here,
He's begotten us again into a lively hope, a living hope. It's real.
It's genuine. It's not made up of soap bubbles.
It's a real, real genuine hope. It's a living hope. If Christ
is my hope, then I have a living, a lively, Oh, I tell you, that hope that
we have is lively. It's active in you. It's active in you. It's lively.
It's a living hope. My hope is alive and well. I
tell you this, my hope is alive and well seated at God's right
hand. That's my hope. As I said, He's the foundation
of our hope also by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Right there
is the foundation of it. He's not dead. And if God raised
Him from the dead and He ascended on high seated at God's right
hand, He is accepted. And what He did for all His elect,
Peter calls them the elect, they are accepted in Him. I'm already
accepted. I'm not trying to be accepted.
I'm not trying to find favor with God. In Christ, we are accepted. In the Beloved, He made us accepted.
He did it all. All to Him I owe. by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. Our hope is a living person named
Jesus Christ. That's our hope. And through him, Peter says,
through him. See, he's encouraging these exiles.
I mean, you just imagine what these people are going through.
They've left home, family, and jobs. They've left a retirement. They've left it all. They are
exiled. They're strangers. They're scattered.
And He is writing to them about these blessings to encourage
them. And you have an inheritance. You say, I've lost everything.
I have nothing to leave to my children now. I've lost my home,
lost my job, lost everything. I don't have an inheritance.
I don't have an inheritance to leave. Well, yes, you do have
an inheritance. Yes, you do. We have a rich, rich inheritance. We are the wealthiest people
on earth. You're looking at one of the wealthiest men on the
top side of this earth. And I'm looking at some of the
wealthiest people on the top side of this earth. And I'm talking
about real wealth. I'm talking about true riches
that's not going to fade away. We have a rich, rich inheritance
in the Lord Jesus Christ. All that is His is ours. And
listen, it's incorruptible. It is incorruptible. It's not
made up of sinful material. It's not made up of silver and
gold. It's not made up of those things. And it fades not away. Fades
not away. The economy cannot affect it.
My sin, I had to write this when I was sitting up here. It just
dawned on me as we were singing and I was looking at this. My
sin cannot affect it. If I live to be a hundred, it
will not fade or diminish one iota. Not one. It fadeth not away. We have an inheritance. It is
incorruptible. If it's of God, it's incorruptible.
If it's of God, it's incorruptible. It fades not away. And it is
reserved right now in heaven for you. Right now, it's reserved.
It has your name on it. It has your name on it. And no one can take it. No crooked lawyer can come in
and mess with your inheritance. It's in heaven. Safest place
it can be. It's in heaven. Where thieves
cannot break in and steal it. Where they cannot rush. It cannot
decay. It cannot diminish. Isn't that
something encouraging? That's encouraging. Peter's got
this on his mind, and he's writing to these exiles, and they're
under a lot of stress and trials and heartaches. And he's saying,
you have an inheritance. You haven't lost anything, really. If you lose these earthly things,
you haven't lost anything. Really. You haven't lost anything.
You've lost your life. But to lose these earthly things
is not, no, I cannot lose this inheritance. This is the inheritance,
this is the only inheritance that counts. And you know what? None of the
children will argue over it. None of them will fuss and fight
and argue over it. We won't fall out over it because
somebody got more than I got. No, it all gets the same, Him.
And in Him we have it all. We have it all. Listen, let me go back and find
my place here. To an inheritance, incorruptible,
undefiled, phased not away, reserved in heaven for you. In verse five,
who are kept by the power of God through faith. You're kept
for it. It's kept for you and you're
kept for it. We need to be kept, don't we?
We need to be kept. Well, you are. You are kept for
it. who are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation. We are kept by God's power. And one of the ways we are kept
is mentioned right here. Through believing. Kept by faith. He keeps us believing. He keeps
us believing. What keeps you coming? What really,
to the believer, what keeps you coming here? Faith. You believe God. You're obedient. Forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together. You take that seriously. You take that
seriously. Faith keeps you coming. You come
here to hear of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what keeps you
coming. In believing, you keep believing.
In believing, you keep believing. God is the one who keeps us Faith
is the means that He uses to keep us until He brings us home. And Peter says, and in this we
greatly rejoice. We greatly rejoice in these blessings.
We greatly rejoice in the fact that God keeps us. He keeps us
believing, even though we may be going through some heavy trials,
heartaches, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season,
if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold many trials,
many temptations. He says there, for a season. One thing about a season. A season
has its time. A season has its purpose. And
a season has its end. Trials have their time. They
are appointed. Trials have their purpose. And
he tells us this here in just a minute. They have their purpose. And they have an end. I mean,
I may have to die, but it'll end. Die and go on to be with
the Lord, but it'll end. But trials, these trials that
God sends, though, have their time, their season, their purpose,
and their end. Whatever I'm going through in
a little while, it'll end. And another one will come. And it'll
end, too. Because He said what? Manifold.
Many different trials come our way. And listen, if need be, we are
only given what we need. We are not tried above measure,
even though it may feel like it at times. We are only given what we need.
I may not understand what's going on. But evidently, I need it. I wouldn't be going through it if need be. And trials are not something
that we pray for. We pray for grace to go through them. We
pray that they'll have their perfect work, but I don't need
to ask the Lord to send me a trial. No, he said, Manifold, they're
in line. They are in line, one after another. He's appointed all our afflictions.
They are on their way. And we deal with them as they
come. They have their work. They have their purpose, their
time, and their season. And then they go on. And then in God's
time, another one comes. And if need be. If need be. That's when it'll come, if need
be. And the reason for the trial in verse 7, that's the trial
of your faith, will prove it to be genuine. Real. It'll be genuine and real when
the Lord appears. You won't be shamed. You won't
be confounded. That's what he's saying. These
trials prove the genuineness of your faith that when the Lord
appears, you won't be confounded. No, you'll rejoice. Our trials are working for us
a far, far greater glory than we can imagine, than what we
can imagine. One of the things it does here,
it proves our faith and it proves our love to Christ. It also proves
our love to the Lord Jesus Christ, whom having not seen You love. See, Peter, an apostle, saw the
Lord. But he's writing to some people
that have never seen the Lord with these physical eyes. And
he says, Whom have you not seen? You love. Your love is evident. Your love
is evident. These trials have driven you
to him. You left your home. You didn't leave him. You left
your job, you didn't leave Him. You left your family, but you
didn't leave Him. There have been others, and you've seen
it, who have left the gospel for a better job. Their families. Whom having not seen, you love. This is good evidence of true
faith when it produces love to Christ whom you have not seen. You and I love someone whom we
have not seen. We can only attribute that to
God. We can only attribute that to the work of God the Holy Spirit
in us. And it not only produces love,
it produces joy. Joy unspeakable and full of glory. Truly happy in Christ. Truly happy. In trials, that
doesn't mean we're laughing while it's hurting. It doesn't mean
that. That's not what it means. But
it means that you truly have a real joy that even the trials
can't diminish or break or destroy. That you really have a true joy
in the Lord even though you're going through these hardships. Truly happy in Christ, even in
these trials. with a joy that you cannot express
in words. Can't do it. And the end result
is this. In verse 9, receiving the end
of your faith. Here's the end result of faith.
This is the purpose of it. Even the salvation of your souls. We have been saved. We are being
saved. And we shall be saved. He said
here, receiving the end of your faith, even now, even now you
are being saved. Even now. And you shall be saved. The end
of faith someday will give way to sight. And we will stand accepted
in the beloved. We will stand accepted in the
Beloved. We have been greatly, oh, he
says, you strangers, you exiles, you that are hurting, we have
been greatly blessed, blessed in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
have much to give thanks for. We have much to give or to be
joyful over. You ever read in someone's diary?
I was saying this to Vicki the other night. You ever read in
someone's diary? You're not supposed to, but I'm
sure you have. I guarantee you have. Maybe not all of you, but most
of the time, most of the time around, when you're reading someone's
diary, it reads like, woe is me. Nobody recognized me and
blah, blah, blah. That's about the way it goes.
Our diaries ought to read. The Lord blessed me today. I've
been so blessed. Fell off a cliff, broke my leg,
but boy, I've been blessed. I'm not in hell. I understand the gospel. That's
the way our diaries are. That's the way we ought to read.
Blessed. Thank the Lord. He's been so
good to me today. He's been so good.