You will turn back with me again
to my text in 1 Peter chapter 1. There are many ways to hear what's being said from
a pulpit. You can hear as a judge or critic
And you can take things apart or debate or whatever you wish
to do. Or you can hear at a distance. That is, not really pay attention. Find something else to occupy
your mind for a little while and then go home. Or you can
hear with hearing ears and hungry hearts. and a hungry mind. What a blessed privilege it is
to read the Holy Scriptures with good reason to believe that you're
reading your inheritance in God's book. What a difference. My soul. You wouldn't get tired
would you? If some billionaire that you
didn't know real well but knew you and put your name in his
will. And you were called and told
that you're an heir of this billionaire. Would you get tired of listening
to the will? I don't think so. There's a lot
of legal rhetoric, but you'd get through it, wouldn't you?
You'd get through it because you have an interest in it. That's
the difference. Believers have an interest in
what's being said. They have an interest in what
they're hearing read. There's no such thing as a universal
will, nor of a universal love, or a universal bride, or a universal
father, or brother. William, you don't have any universal
brothers. You just have brothers. And same
with me. I can't make them brothers. They're
either brothers or they're not. And all these relationships that
God has created, in His creation, and we've all grown up with,
all these relationships are given to picture our relationship to
Him. They're all going to be done
away with. They're not being and marrying and giving and marriage
and glory. They were just put here to help
us to that God could communicate to us these things that are so
far over our thinking that we can't even realize what He's
saying. There's never a universal term
used to describe the redeemed of God. Never. They're His sheep, His bride,
His people, His children, His heirs, His elect. That's how
He refers to them. Peter tells us in verse 2 that
they are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Chosen and blessed by their spiritual
Father according as He has chosen us in Him in Christ before the
foundation of the world. Peter tells us in verse 3 that
the blessings bestowed on His elect in Christ are according
to His abundant mercy, which He first made known unto
us as we were begotten unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. Now let me tell you something. The birth of God's children is
the birth of a man. That's what it is. It's the birth
of a man. He calls it the new man. That's how it describes it in
Scripture. The new man. Put off the old man, put on the
new man. And that new man is Christ. Something
foreign to the natural man. Something contrary to the natural
man. Something he's never perceived. Something he has no experience
in. In Colossians 1.18, he tells us
that Jesus Christ is the head of the body of the church, that
is, the federal head and representative of the church. And as Adam was
the first human being created and all others receiving their
nature from Him, their standing from Him, their place by Him,
so all those chosen by the Father are represented in His Son. Our
standing, our future, everything that concerns us is in His Son. You want to know your future
if you're a believer? Study Christ. That's your future. He's the head of the body of
the church. Now listen, who is the beginning? The first begotten from the dead. We were all raised from the dead
in Him. Want one? Isn't that what it
says? Quicken together with Christ. We have all received what God
has determined to give us in His Son, who is the beginning.
Your faith is not the beginning. Creation is not the beginning.
Jesus Christ is the beginning. Apart from Him, there is no creation. And no reason for it. Creation
is not an act of evolution. It didn't develop out of nothing.
God spoke this universe into creation. He had a purpose behind
it. And Christ is the beginning of
that purpose. God didn't create anything apart
from Christ. He was all created by Him. Everything God has for sinners
is in His Son, Jesus Christ, and everything God has purposed
in His Son is for His elect. And the doctrine of universal
love and universal atonement and universal grace is a satanic
lie. And it's an abomination to God.
I guess so. Romans 9, Paul talks about the
elect of God and he uses as an example the word of the Lord
speaking to a young lady named Rebecca before her twin boys
were born. Before either were born, the
Scripture said, before either had done any good or evil. He
said some things to her to establish the purpose of God in election. That's what these two boys' birth
was all about. God changed Jacob's name to Israel. What did He call His people?
Israel. Israel. He wrote these things, he said,
that the purpose of God according to election might stand, and
to show us this election as it stands, and to prove that once
for all that salvation is not of our works, it's all of God. It was said unto her, the elder
is going to serve the younger. He may be stronger, He may be
richer. He may be more powerful. He may
be more influential. But that elder is going to serve
the younger. Why? As it is written, Jacob
have I loved. Why is this world so good? Boy, I think about what I am
in the light of the world. I ain't even a good peanut. Nothing. And yet the world belongs to
me. Isn't that what Paul said? The world's yours. You're arguing
over scraps. The world's yours. Huh? Oh, Jacob have I loved. He loves
his elect. He seals that love in the full
provision given to him in Christ. He chose us in Christ that we
should be holy without blame. always before Him being loved. That love is sealed, the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's why you can't
be separated from it. If it was all up to you and in
you, you'd be separated before you'd take another breath. But nothing's going to separate
you from that love because it's sealed in His Son. He chose us in Christ that we
should be holy and without blame before him in love. Romans 8,
38 and 39. That's where you'll find it. I've been pulled so many directions
by the hounds of religion it's hard for me to remember exactly
what I thought the new birth was. I was sitting in my study
trying to remember what I thought it was the first time I ever
heard it. But I do know this. It had something
to do with the total reformation of life. I do know that. Whatever it was they were preaching
had something to do with a total reformation of life. I was told
that my speech had to go. Can't talk like that anymore. My wardrobe, that was next on
the list. Can't wear that. You have to
wear this. You'll have to change your hairdo.
Back then, our little sign of rebellion, we had these little
bangs growing out and we'd take props out and make them blonde.
Stick out like a sore thumb. That's got to go. Watching TV was taboo and going
to the movies was an ungodly act. The new birth, as near as I can
remember, was never defined. I've never heard a preacher say
you have to be born again and leave it there. It was never
defined. It was never explained. And for
good reason, you can't tell what you don't know anymore and you
can come back from somewhere you haven't been. How are you
going to tell what you don't know? You can't preach the gospel
if you've never heard it. How are you going to do that? The new birth is a begatting
of a new man and a new hope in that man. There's hope in him. Isn't there? Uh-huh. All my hope's in him. This new
man, not that old man. The old man's where he found
me. The new man is something he begat
in me. And according to His abundant
mercy, our Father, He said, hath begotten us again unto a lively
hope. What is this begatting all about?
It's a begatting to a hope. Here's a new man. This old man's
ruined. He fell. He's cursed. You can't
find enough words to describe his predicament. There's no hope
in him. He's darkness. He's night. He's
a rebel. He hates God. Every part of him,
the mind is enmity against God. There's nothing in him to hope
in. You're not going to change him. He's not going to evolve
into a Christian. There's no hope in him. And then God reveals Christ to
you. Oh my, there's nothing but hope in him. We're begatten again
unto a lively hope. I'm not that new man. I'm in
that new man. That's where my hope is. I want
to be like him. And I'll be like him when I see
him as he is. And right now he's my hope. It's the begatting of a new man
according to his abundant mercy he hath begotten us. Our hope
is in this man Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, the Son of Man,
the Redeemer of Israel, the Head of the Body of the Church. And
be you ever so dedicated and ever so motivated and ever so
careful and obedient, you cannot by your works, intentions, professions,
or consecrations establish a good hope before God. It's all in
Christ. Huh? Everything else looks in
here. The only one look that looks
outside, and that's when you look to Him. Christ in you the
hope of glory. That's what it is. Every saint
saved is to the glory of the father who first trusted in Christ,
bested his whole counsel and will upon his son, made full
provision for all his beloved children in him. Reformation
of character and life is not how God saves sinners. It's the
evidence of it. It's the fruit of it. It's the
results of it. John said, now are we the sons
of God. How have we got it? Because we're
believers. We have this hope. We've been
begotten. This hope is in us. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Now are we the sons of God. Now watch this. And it doth not
yet appear what we shall be. I'm so tired of hearing people
How are they going to know about Christ unless they look at me?
They ain't going to find Christ looking at you. They're going
to find Christ looking at Christ. Is that right? That's exactly
right. Look unto me, all ye ends of
the earth, and be ye saved. It doesn't yet appear what I'm
going to be. I'm so far away from that perfection that nobody
can look at me and tell what I'm going to be. And if you could,
you couldn't stand the glory of it. You couldn't hold it,
not in these bodies. You couldn't hold it. All God
has to do is just give us a little insight and sometimes we're so
overwhelmed we can't talk. But John said, we know that when
he shall appear, we'll be like him, for we'll see him as he
is. Now watch this. And every man
that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Oh, he wants to be like Christ. He's not forced to be like Christ,
he wants to be. That's his hunger, that's his
desire. Paul wrote the church at Ephesus,
and he dealt with the way ungodly men and women walk in this world. He said they walk in the vanity
of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that's in them. And then down in verse 20 he
said, but you have not so learned Christ. If so be that you've heard Him
and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Him. In a person,
not in a plant, in a person. In the Son of God, not a church
catechism. In the Gospel of Christ, not
a confession. Verse 21, If so be you have heard
Him and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Him. What
is it that a man or a woman hears when they hear Him, see Him,
and are taught by Him? Verse 22, Ephesians chapter 4. That you put off concerning the
former conversation, the old man. Which is corrupt according to
his deceitful lust. Learning that the old man is
corrupt, fallen and depraved, born under condemnation. We put him off. Alright, here's
the next question. Half of you in here is asking
this question, you're just not speaking. But you're asking. What does he mean when he says,
put off the old man? Huh? The putting him off is not a
removing him from the believer. You can't get him out. He's there
till you die. Nor is it a destroying of Him
in them. Nor is it a reformation of Him
or the changing of Him and His nature. He's the same and He's
unaffected by anything you can do or say. So what does it mean
when He says put off the old man? He means to put him off
from his seat of authority. That's what he's talking about.
To show no regard for his rule and dominion. To make no provision
for his support or his assistance. Put him off. Cut him off. We're to put off concerning our
former way of life, the old man. Now listen, and be renewed in
the spirit of your mind. And that you put on the new man,
which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. We're every one born of our father
Adam, and being born of Adam we inherit his nature. And as
is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy. We're just
like him. Just like him. But as is the
heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. That first
Adam, he was just flesh. He's a living soul. That second
Adam, oh my soul, he's eternal. He come down from heaven. He wasn't born down here in all
this, I mean he was born here, but he come down from heaven. His father's not Adam, his father's
God. 1 Corinthians 15, 50, listen to
this. This I say, brethren, that flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither does
corruption inherit incorruption. We're begotten again, begotten
again under a lively hope to an inheritance. Now watch this.
Incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away. I'm born not
only in a hope, but I'm born with an inheritance. What a shock for a fallen sinner
to discover he's penniless, he's a pauper, he's a beggar. And
he comes to God and finds out he's an heir of God. What a shock. Boy, I'd change the way you look,
wouldn't I? I'd change your outlook altogether. Oh, would be gotten again unto
a lively hope, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that
fadeth not away. Now listen, reserved in heaven
for you. For whom? For whom was Christ
made provision for? For whom did He come down from
heaven to save? For whom did He live thirty-three
and a half years and then die on the cross? For whom was He
raised from the dead? carried up and seated at the
right hand of God. For whom does he now reign and
rule and exercise his authority? For whom does he send his ambassador? And for whom and in whom does
the Holy Ghost come in power? John chapter 6 gives you the
answer. All that the Father hath given
me might come to me. Uh-uh, I ain't
gonna say it. It said they shall come to me. Yeah, but what about, there ain't
no what abouts. They gonna come. I don't care the situation or
the circumstances. They coming. They coming. My people shall be with them
in the day of my power. They coming. He said, I come down from heaven,
not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which
He has given me, I should lose nothing. What did He lose? Nothing. The only thing our Lord lost
was our sins. And He buried them in a bottomless
sea. He put them behind His back,
wherever that is. Their sins and iniquities, he
said, I will remember no more. Oh, he said, I'm not going to
lose anything. Everything the Father gave me, I'm going to
raise it up to the last day. God's elect are all begotten
again to a living hope in Christ. James said, of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth. And he tells us that those gifts
that God's given, unchangeable. Unchangeable. They're never going
to change. What about if he does this? He ain't gonna do that
if he's chosen as God. Not just some. The hope of this inheritance
is for those kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. We're not of them that draw back
to perdition. We're of them that believe to
the saving of the soul. Why? Because God gave us power
to do it. ready to be revealed in the last
time. What does that mean? Two things. First of all, his saints are
preserved by the means of faith. And this faith is arranged and
purposed of God for the salvation of their souls. And so, he's
ready to be revealed in the last day. And he is. Reveals himself
to all his people. From the beginning, chosen to
salvation through sanctification of spirit and belief of the truth.
And then secondly, after imparting this hope by faith, he keeps
us unto the ultimate perfection which he's promised in Christ. And in that day, he's going to
come and he's going to call all his saints out of the tomb that
are still walking around, wherever he's going to call them, they're
going to meet him in the air. Oh, what a hope we have in Christ.
It's a hope founded in the Word of God, a hope consistent with
the character of God. God cannot and will not save
anyone in any way that's not consistent with His own character.
You hear somebody talking about that, you know it's a lie. He
don't know what he's talking about. We're justified, Romans
3, 24, freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ
Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation. What's that mean? That means
he satisfied God. What's that mean? What do you
mean by that? He satisfied his righteousness,
satisfied his justice, satisfied his love, satisfied his mercy.
He satisfied God. He's the propitiation. He's why
God can show mercy to guilty sinners. And when you hear that
gospel, you understand that God is both just and justifier of
all them that believe. He declares his righteousness
in the remission of our sins. God saves sinners by virtue of
their union with Christ and by virtue of his meritorious sacrifice. He said it there in Romans 3,
I think 25 or 26, along in there somewhere. He says it's through
faith in His blood. His blood was sufficient wasn't
it? What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Peter said, for as much as you
know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, verse
18, like silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, verse 20, who
barely was foreordained before the foundation of the world manifest
in these last times for you, now watch this, who by Him do
believe in God. We be not born of fornication,
we have one Father, even God. What'd the Lord tell him? If
God was your Father, you'd love me. Huh? You can't know God apart from
Christ. He's the manifestation of God. God was manifest in the
flesh. That's what it says. Who by Him do believe in God
that raised Him from the dead. Who raised Him from the dead?
He had power to take His life up, but He didn't exercise it.
God raised Him from the dead. And gave Him glory. And He did
all this that your faith and hope might be in God. No faith in God apart from the
personal work of Christ. In John 14, 6, Jesus said to
Thomas, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. No coming in faith, no coming
in prayer, no coming or approaching, not at all apart from Christ. He was manifest in these last
times for you who by Him do believe in God that raised Him from the
dead. And this He did that our faith and hope might be in God. He died to redeem His people,
reconcile them to God, and reconcile God to them. And we no longer
look at His death as a universal attempt to save as many as He
can, but as a victorious death saving all that He came to die
for. He didn't do the best he could
and leave the rest up to men and women to finish. He accomplished
the redemptive will of God, put away their sins, and covered
them with his righteousness. As our great high priest, it
says, he continues forever, therefore has an unchangeable priesthood.
Wherefore, based on that, based on that, he's able also to save
them to the uttermost. I'll get you tired of hearing
this partial salvation talk to you. He's saved and then he's
lost and then back to lead and then he got saved again. Huh?
That's not what the Bible said. The Bible said he has a high
priest who continueth forever. And this priest is seated at
the right hand of God making intercession for him and God
hears what he asks for. He make an intercession for you,
not with words, With this person, there's a man seated at the right
hand of God with nail holes in his hands and feet and a hole
in his side. He's their substitute and he
sits there before God and he ever liveth to make intercession
for them. And he continues forever. He
ain't going to quit. We're always talking about man
quitting. That wouldn't surprise me. I quit every day. Listen
to me. He don't quit. He never gonna
quit. He's a high priest forever. Wherefore, he's able to save
them to the uttermost who come unto God by him. By him we believe in God that
raised him from the dead and gave him glory, that our faith
and hope might be in God. Oh, may the Spirit of Christ
who set him forth in the testimony of God work in us to see him
as he is and seeing him as he is to put all our trust.