Now, this first epistle of Peter
is what we call a general epistle. It's not addressed to a particular
church or person, but he addresses it to believers scattered around
the world. And many people believe that
this is the oldest epistle, the first epistle that was written
by the apostles. And in the very first epistle,
Peter is telling the story of grace. The old story of God's
electing grace, His redeeming grace, His regenerating grace,
His keeping grace, His sanctifying grace. If you look over in chapter
5, verse 12, he says why he has
written this letter. He says, By Silvanus, a faithful
brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting
and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein you
stand. And we'll see as we go through
this in the next few weeks how Peter talks about this is the
grace wherein we stand and the grace wherein we walk to adorn
God's grace in our daily walk through this world. And Peter's
the writer of this epistle. He writes of grace and he's a
good person to do this. Peter had firsthand experience
with God's grace. There he was a fisherman and
the Lord came to Peter and called him. By grace, picked him out
of all those fishermen around. He picked Peter. Told him to
follow me. He changed Peter's occupation
from being a fisherman to an apostle, a preacher of God's
grace. He changed Peter's name. This
is what he does for all of his people. When he calls, he gives
you a new name. He changed his name from Simon to Peter, a rock. And over the years, Peter changed
a lot. The Lord changed him. And grace
has a way of doing that to people, doesn't it? Just let God's grace
work on you a while. It takes a while. But over the
years, after grace had worked on Peter a while, he changed
a lot. You know, we first met Peter in the Gospels. We read of that fella, and then
we read his epistles. Big change had taken place. A
lot of that impulsiveness and that fiery personality has been
replaced with a man who talks about patience. Talks about patience
in the Lord and God's grace and resting in those things, being
patient in those things. Peter changed a lot. And I was
putting some of my notes in binders yesterday, getting ready to teach
a new epistle. And Savannah mentioned, she said,
well, we'll have those notes when you die. And I thought,
well, Years from now, and she reads that, I hope she sees,
oh, daddy had a big growth in grace. He changed a lot over
the years. I hope so. I really do. Just like Peter. But let's look
here in chapter one, verse one. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia and Bithynia. Now, Peter, just like the other
apostles, and they write these epistles, He's not taking a fancy
title to his name. He doesn't take the titles to
himself that people give to him today. He doesn't say he's the
first pope or he's not the vicar of Christ or the chief apostle.
He just calls himself an apostle, a servant of Jesus Christ. And
at this time when Peter's writing, this is the time where Nero was
Caesar. He's persecuting and killing the Christians. This
is the time that the The first time the believers in Christ
were called Christians, and Nero is persecuting them and killing
them. Saul of Tarsus is persecuting them. And the believers have
been scattered around the world by this persecution. They've
been scattered out of Jerusalem and other areas to all four corners
of the world. And Peter calls them strangers.
That's who he's writing to, strangers. They're foreigners in the lands
that they're living in. It's not the land of their birth.
They're foreigners. This word stranger sometimes is translated
pilgrims. They're just there traveling.
It's not their home, not in their home country. They're traveling
there. They're strangers to the world
that they're living in. But look in verse 2, they're
not strangers to God. They're let, according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the
Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Now these strangers, Peter says,
they're elect. Now everyone who has faith in
Christ, who rests in the Lord Jesus Christ, they do that because
they've been elected. They're the elect, chosen of
God. They're chosen long before the
world was ever created. An election is a doctrine that
the natural man hates. But to the believer, this is
a blessing. This is a sweet attribute of
God to talk about His electing love. This is a blessing. You
think about the honor that is bestowed on a human being to
be called one of God's elect. What an undeserved blessing that
God would choose you. That's unspeakable. The human
mind just can't comprehend that. I thought as I studied this week
about us men, how thankful we are that our wife chose us. She
had lots of other options, but she chose us. Well, how much
more thankful are we that God chose us? I mean, He had plenty
of other options. I mean, He could have chose someone
better, I'm sure. But He, in a miracle of electing
love, chose His people, and He chose them out of this world. Look over in John 15. Chosen out of the world. There are strangers and foreigners
in it, but they've been chosen out of it. John 15 verse 19. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because you're not of the
world, But I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hates you." The Lord chose us out of this world. He chose us
out of that lump of sinful humanity. And we're all part, we were part
of the same lump. He didn't choose us because we're
any better than any of the rest of the sons of Adam. We're the
exact same. Fallen sons of Adam. Sinners. And that's who God chooses. Look
over in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. This is the people that God
chooses, sinners, not because we're any better than anybody
else, simply because it was good to Him. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 26, For you
see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world,
and the things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not, to bring to naught the things that are. And here
is why God chooses sinners, that no flesh should glory in his
presence. God chose a people simply because
it seemed good in his sight. Now Peter writes to these people,
he calls them elect. But how did he know that they
were God's elect? How did he know that? Is he at
random applying this title of God's elect to just anybody?
Well, no. Look in 1 Thessalonians 2. They
gave evidence of their election. 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 2. We give thanks to God always
for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. Remembering
without ceasing your work of faith, your labor of love, and
patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of
God and our Father. Knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God. How do we know that? For our
gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and
in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as ye know what manner
of men we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers
of us and of the Lord. Having received the word of much
affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that you are examples
to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. They gave evidence
of their faith. The gospel came to them, not
just in word, but in power. They had faith to believe it.
And they became followers of the Lord. That's how they knew
they were God's elect. God's elect follow Him. They believe Him. And Peter says
here that the cause of God's election is according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father. Now, we're not simply talking
about the ability of God to know the future. God's not a fortune
teller. He knows the future because he
ordained the future. Every event of the future, God
ordained it. But this root word foreknowledge
comes from the word that's used to describe the way a man knows
his wife. A man and a wife know each other
in an intimate way. A special, intimate way. A loving,
close union. And God chose the people. He
chose them. He elected them out of Adam's
race to redeem because He loved them. It's His electing love.
He set His affection on them in a special way. Not because
of anything in us. but because of His foreknowledge
and His love. All the reason that's found for
God's election is found in Him, not in us. And the means that
God uses to carry out His purpose of election is through sanctification
of the Spirit. Now, sanctification is a whole
lot more than reforming our life, reforming our outward actions.
Sanctification is real. It's a real internal holiness. And it's real because God doesn't
deal in lookalikes. It's real. He makes it so. God
elected a people and He made them holy in His Son. And sanctification
of the Spirit is God the Holy Spirit giving life to a dead
sinner, putting life there that's never been there before. It's
a new man created in holiness. Now, the Lord didn't save someone
because they're holy. He didn't elect them because
they're holy. He made them holy as a result of his foreknowledge,
as the result of his election. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2, and
I'll show you that. It's a result of God's election.
2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. But we're bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved to the Lord. Because
the God from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
and belief of the truth. See, all those that God has chosen,
He sanctifies them, He gives them faith in Christ. They believe
Christ, the truth. They're not saved ignorantly.
They believe God. He gives them faith to believe.
And the result of election is unto, Peter says, obedience. and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. God's children are obedient. They're obedient children, obedient
to His command, obedient to His will, His way. They're obedient
to God's Word. They're obedient to God's Gospel.
That's what Paul said. They became followers of us and
of the Lord. They're obedient. The Lord gives
command to repent, believe, and be baptized, and they are in
obedience to His divine command. But we claim salvation not based
on our obedience, but on the obedience of our Redeemer, the
obedience of our Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. We claim
His obedience as our obedience imputed to us. We claim His blood
to wash away our sin. The blood of Christ is applied.
It's sprinkled. It's applied to the hearts of
God's people. That's what cleanses us from all sin and removes God's
wrath from us is the blood has been applied. And when the blood
is applied, grace and peace can be multiplied. That's Peter's
prayer. Grace and peace be multiplied. He wants us to have a more clear,
a better view of God's grace. And Peter, I just see him in
my mind's eyes, he's writing this epistle. He thinks about
God's electing love, his grace, his mercy, that he gives faith,
that he gives obedience, he sprinkled the blood of Christ on his elect.
and Peter breaks into thanksgiving. He says in verse 3, Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now Peter says,
Blessed be God. We don't bless God like we pray
that God would bless us. We bless Him by ascribing to
Him, giving Him all the glory, all the honor, giving Him all
the credit for everything He is and everything that He's done
for us. And Peter begins by blessing
God for His abundant mercy. Mercy is not getting what we
deserve. Well, what is it that every one
of us deserves? Scripture says the wages of sin
is death. So that must be what we deserve
is death, eternal death, eternal wrath and condemnation. And we
deserve a lot of it, an infinite amount. That's why I'm so glad
Peter talks about the abundant mercy of God. I never want to
hear about just a little teeny bit of mercy. I don't want to
hear about just barely enough mercy to get by because I'm a
sinner. I need abundant mercy. Abundant,
overflowing mercy. And I'm so thankful God's not
stingy with His mercy. He doesn't just give you this
little bit. Scripture says He's plenteous in mercy. He's rich
in mercy. He's great in mercy. He delights
to show mercy. He's abundant in mercy. And because
of God's abundant, overflowing mercy, Peter says God's elect
had been begotten again, born again, a new birth. Regeneration is the creation
of a new creature that never existed before. And that birth
is an act of God. It's an act of God's mercy. Our
first birth was a result of an action of our parents. Our second
birth is the result of an action of God the Father. We had nothing
to do with either birth. It's a result of our parents,
either our earthly parent or our heavenly parent. But it's
a result of our parents, not something we did. And this new
birth is the exact opposite of our first birth in every way.
In that first birth, we were born flesh. That's what we were
made, flesh. In the second birth, we're born
from above. In our first birth, we are conceived
in sin and shaped in iniquity. In our second birth, we're made
holy. In our first birth, we are born
from corruptible seed. That's why we came forth corruptible. Our second birth is from incorruptible
seed, the word of God. That's why you're made holy,
because you're born of incorruptible seed. In our first birth, we
are born of sinful parents, and we have the nature of our sinful
father. And we were born just like our
parents. Our parents are flesh, and we came out of them flesh.
And we'll never be anything but flesh, because that's what we
were born. Flesh. That flesh will never improve,
because that which is born of the flesh is flesh. It'll never
be anything different than flesh. It'll never be spiritual. It'll
never have spiritual life in it. It's flesh. But our second
birth. We were born from our Father,
which is in heaven, and we're born with His nature. In that
first birth, we were born flesh. In the second birth, we're born
spirit, with spiritual life. We're given a new nature that
cannot sin. That first nature we were born
with can do nothing but sin. The second nature can never sin
because it's the nature of God. And that nature will never be
flesh. The two will never meet. Look
at John chapter 3. Flesh will never be spirit, and
spirit will never be flesh. John 3, verse 3, when our Lord
here is talking to Nicodemus about the new birth. In verse
3, the Lord answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. The new birth is a necessity,
isn't it? Because without it, you can't see the kingdom of
God. What Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when
he's old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? See, he's thinking flesh. That's what the flesh, that's
all the flesh can see. That's all the flesh can understand
is flesh. But our Lord answered him in verse 5. He says, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. It's not ever going to be flesh,
it's spirit. And just these first couple of
verses, the opening statement of Peter's epistle, he shows
the work of salvation is the work of the Trinity. God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Father elected
a people according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, the Son came
as a man and shed his blood to put away the sins of his people
as a sacrifice for our sins, and that blood must be applied. The blood that's shed will be
applied. And the Spirit applies it when He gives life in the
new birth. And all three are equally necessary. They're all three gods. You can't
put one above the other. All three are necessary to salvation. And when we're born, born again,
Peter says we're born to a lively hope, a living hope. This hope
is not based on the dead works of man's religion. It's based
on the works of a living Redeemer. We have a living hope because
we have a living Savior. It's not based on the acts of
a dead sinner. It's based on the blood and the
righteousness, the death and the resurrection of Christ. A
living Savior is based on the One who is life itself. That's
why it's a living hope. And we have this living hope
because Christ, our Redeemer, was raised from the dead. He was resurrected. We know that
Christ died according to the Scriptures. He died for our sins
imputed to Him. The sins of all those that the
Father elected were charged to the Lord Jesus Christ and He
became guilty. And he suffered the full penalty
of God's wrath for those sins. And he died. That lifeless body
was laid in a tomb. But then he was raised again.
He was raised again for our justification. That's why the Lord says, because
I live, you should live also. We have a lively, living hope
because he lives. And the resurrection of Christ
is a picture of regeneration. The elect are given eternal life
by the same power of God that raised our Savior from the grave.
And one day, these bodies are going to be raised from the grave.
You're going to put this body one day in the ground, but one
day it's going to be raised. It's going to be raised by the
exact same power of God that raised the body of our Lord Jesus
from the tomb. And we'll be raised in a body
just like Him. The same power. So we're begotten
again into a lively hope. And verse 4, we're begotten to
an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not
away reserved in heaven for you. Because of God's abundant mercy,
we've been begotten again. We've been born children of God. We've been born into God's family
and children have an inheritance from their parents. Of some sort,
they have some inheritance. Maybe it's possessions and a
little bit of money, or maybe it's debt. But one way or another,
you're going to inherit something from your parents. God's children
have an inheritance. And it's a great inheritance.
The word actually means a large estate or a rich possession. And that's our inheritance. A
rich possession. It's a large estate. It's everything
that God has. Now, our inheritance doesn't
consist of things, you know, mansions in the sky and streets
of gold and a life of ease. That's not our inheritance. The
believers inheritance is a person. It's a person. It's to be with
Christ, to be made like Christ. Who cares what the dwelling place? I don't know what the dwelling
place will look like, but who cares? If you have Christ, if
you're with him, I very seriously doubt you're going to notice
what the house looks like. Do you? Who cares if the streets
are made of gold or if they're made of asphalt, if you are made
like Christ? Who cares? The inheritance is
a person. And our inheritance comes to
us the same way the inheritance comes to every child. It's through
the death of the testator. Look at Hebrews chapter 9. He died that we might have this
inheritance. Our parents are going to die
because old age takes them. Or something else, whatever it
will be. Our Lord died willingly. He gave up his life that we would
have this inheritance. Hebrews 9 verse 15. And for this
cause he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means
of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were
under the First Testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there
must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a
testament is a force after men are dead. Otherwise it is of
no strength at all while the testator liveth. Our Lord died. to put away the sins of His people
so that we might be given this eternal inheritance. And our
Savior lives to be the executor of His will. There's not a question,
there's never a doubt that His will will be accomplished. He
lives to enforce it. And I thought this week an inheritance
is a good way to describe everything that a believer receives by grace. An inheritance is not something
you can earn, is it? It's something you're given upon
the death of a testator. Somebody else earned it. And
they gave it to you freely upon their death. And that is exactly
what God's given us by His grace. He's given us everything that
God is. Righteousness, sanctification, wisdom, everything. He earned
it. Christ earned it all. And He
gives it to His people freely upon His death. It's an inheritance.
And our inheritance is incorruptible. It's not going to rust. It's
not going to rot. It's not going to break. It's
undefiled. It's holy. It's free from sin. And it fadeth not away. It's
never going to go out of style. It's not going to lose its value.
It's not going to get lost. It's eternal in the heavens.
You know, a person can lose their inheritance. You could be in
the will. You could be getting ready to get everything. But
you could be disinherited. Somebody could change that will
if they wanted to. A twisted attorney can make it
where you can't inherit it if they want to. You can lose your
earthly inheritance. Maybe somebody will spend it
before you get it. Maybe somebody will steal it. Maybe it will
all burn up in a fire. You know, we read about frequently
an old rich man Marrying a young woman. You know, he's 85 and
in poor health and he marries a 22-year-old knockout blonde
and changes his will and gives her everything. And the kids
get nothing. Our Heavenly Father wouldn't
do something so foolish or so wicked. He's going to keep that
for you. And you could lose your inheritance
after you get it. The prodigal son did, didn't
he? He asked for his inheritance early, and he wasted it and is
gone. He had nothing. He's living with
the pigs. But the believer, the child of God, there's still a
lot of foolishness left in us, isn't there? But we're not going
to lose this inheritance because we're not the ones keeping it.
Our Savior's keeping it. It's reserved in heaven for you,
kept safe, waiting for you to arrive. And it's reserved in
heaven for you. Well, who is this you that Peter's
talking about? What's the people he's described
that he's writing to? Strangers in this world. They're
left. They've been sanctified by the
Spirit. They're obedient. They have the
blood of Christ sprinkled to them. They've been born again
to a living hope. And he says in verse five, here's
who you are. Those who are kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. He's elect, redeemed, called, born again. They're kept. Kept by God. They're kept in
the path of righteousness. They're kept from falling away.
They're kept in the midst of the storms of life. It's a stormy
life, but you're kept. You're kept safe in the hand
of God. Where no man can pluck them out.
Where rust can't come in. Moth can't come in and eat it.
A man thief can't come through and steal it. We're kept safe
because He's a wall of fire about us. Kept. And we're kept through
faith. We're not kept against our will.
God has no unwilling sons. We're kept through faith. God's keeping His sheep. Now,
we're kept by His power. He's the Good Shepherd of the
sheep. He'll not lose one of them. We're kept because He's
the Shepherd. But the sheep are following. Now, I'm not kept
because I'm following. I'm kept by His power, but I'm
still following. We're kept safe in His hand because
of His power, because of His grip. But I'm telling you the
truth. I'm hanging on for dear life. Now, I'm not kept because
I'm hanging on. I'm kept because of His power,
but I'm still not letting go. I will not do it. And here's
the end of election. Salvation. Now election, I've
heard this all my life. And for years and years and years
as a kid, I didn't know what Brother Henry was talking about
when he said this, but it's true. I understand it now. Election
is not salvation. It's unto salvation. The elect,
they'll be called. They're justified, they're sanctified,
and they will be called. The blood will be applied and
they will be given faith to believe. And it won't be a one-time act.
They'll continue believing. They'll continue following Him
until one day they're ultimately glorified. Then the salvation
will be complete. Then God's purpose of election
will be complete when all the children are brought home, made
just like Christ. And it's ready to be revealed
in the last time. I haven't seen it all yet. I've
read some about it. I understand a little bit about
it. But I'm going to see it soon.
Right soon, I'm going to see it. Because it's ready to be
revealed. In God's time and His purpose
at the right time, it will be fully revealed. Until then, we'll
know in part. We'll preach and study in part.
And maybe we'll be like Peter. And we'll grow a little bit.
We'll mature a little bit. And we'll understand a little
bit more about it, won't we?