All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn to the book of 1 Peter. I want to read the first three
verses. 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, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you,
and peace be multiplied. 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." Peter directs this general epistle. He didn't write this to one specific
church, but to churches scattered all over that whole area. And
he directs this general epistle to a people that he calls elect. Elect. Though I just don't see
how there can be any doubt as to who the elect are. He's not
talking here to Jews. He's talking here to a people
of mixed congregations. Every one of the epistles that
Paul wrote, as well as Peter, they direct their message not
to a single nation, but to both Jews and Gentiles. So I don't
see how there can be any doubt as to who the elect are. They
are those chosen. and blessed of God in Christ
to be heirs together with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ."
Now, if you need some further basis for that, you can look
at Ephesians chapter 1 and just read down through that first
chapter. It's a very clear statement of these things. This election
is called in the Scripture an election of grace. It's not in
any way considered of any individual. And what I mean by that is God
didn't look down through the telescope of time and see who
would and wouldn't choose Him and who would and wouldn't serve
Him and so on and so on. That would still be works. And
it's not of works, lest any man should boast. You can read about
that in Romans 9, verses 10 through 13, and again in Ephesians chapter
1 and in Romans chapter 11. This election is an election
of grace. This election, and here's what
I want you to see, is unto salvation. There's an end to this election. There wasn't just an election
and that was it. There's an end to this election. Election had a purpose. It's
unto salvation. and being unto salvation, all
things are ordained of God and all the means used to bring it
about. Those are all fixed in the eternal
counsel of God before the world began. You know, he tells us
over in II Thessalonians 2.13, God hath from the beginning chosen
you unto salvation. through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. This election sets apart those
for whom Christ came, for whom He lived, and for whom He died,
and for whom He rose from the dead, and for whom He now intercedes
in glory. If you go back to Romans chapter
8 and you read verse 28, we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. And then He goes down, He starts
at the beginning. 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. And moreover,
whom He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called,
He justified, and whom He justified, He glorified. Then He says, what
shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him
freely give us all that? Who is He that condemneth? It's
God that justifies. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's Christ that died. So we
know and see in the scriptures what this election is and what
it's unto. It's unto salvation. And being
unto salvation, all the means are ordained as well as the end. And this election sets those
apart for whom Christ came and did this work and accomplished
this redemption and now intercedes in glory. He says this. He's talking to Jews and Gentiles
over in the book of John, and he said, the good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. All through chapter 10, he keeps
talking about the sheep, talking about the sheep. Gives them a
parable of the sheep and the shepherd. And then he gets down
to the end and they say, we're not understanding what you're
saying. If you be the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told
you. Now listen to this. You go back and read it for yourself.
This is exactly what it says. You believe not because you are
not of My sheep. As I said unto you, My sheep
hear My voice. And I know them, and they follow
Me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they will never perish." Everything that follows the word
elect in 1 Peter chapter 1, Beginning with verse 2 is a description
of the people chosen of God in Christ before the world began. And this is what their case should
be throughout time and eternity. They are elect, it says. Now
listen to this. He's going to describe them through
sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. That's what I basically quoted
to you over in 2 Thessalonians 2.13. The Spirit of the living God
takes the gospel of Jesus Christ and He applies it to our hearts
and minds and shows us the full free justification of chosen
sinners in His Son. This is the experience of every
believer represented in God's election. Well, preacher, how
do you know who's elect and who's not? The elect are given ears
to hear and eyes to see, and they see what God has done in
Christ and what He is doing. And they embrace Him. That's
how you know your election. There's no other way to know
your election. Listen to this, 1 Peter 1, verse
3, we are begotten again unto a lively or living hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Is that not what
this day is set apart for? Is this not what everybody is
talking about this morning is the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Well, Paul said we have a lively hope by that resurrection. It's a living hope. That's what
that word lively means. It's living. We don't hope in
a concept. We hope in a person. And that
person is seated, alive. There's a man in glory this morning. Seated at the right hand of God,
there's a man in glory. I wish you all could have been
there and heard that message I heard years ago. A man in glory. What a message. We're begotten again unto a living
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The gospel
of Jesus Christ declares that God has made full provision for
the salvation of his elect in his son. Everything that's needed
to save their souls was accomplished by this man, Jesus Christ. He penned all our hopes. Everything he purposed to do
for fallen sinners to the God-man mediator. There's one mediator
between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. And all those who
obtain a part in this inheritance, this is Ephesians chapter 1 where
I told you to go look. Look for yourself. Don't take
my word for it. I want you to see it for yourself.
All those who obtain a part in this inheritance are predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. And he's not talking about a
general will here. He's talking about God's redemptive
will. All those who obtain this inheritance
are to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. Who trusted in Christ first?
God did. He trusted in Christ before he
ever made a man. Did you know that? He trusted these things into
the hands of his son before man ever set foot on this earth. And then he says these people
who have obtained a part of this inheritance. They trust after
they hear the word of truth, the gospel of their salvation,
and they're sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. That is, this
promised salvation in Christ is sealed in their hearts, and
they're sealed with it. Somebody comes up to you and
says, what's your hope? It shouldn't take you five seconds. Christ is my hope. Is that not what God has sealed
in the heart of every believer? Christ is his hope. Now if you
want me to, I'll go into detail and I'll tell you all about it.
But I'm telling you this, this is what the Holy Spirit seals
in the heart. Christ is my hope. He goes on in Ephesians 1.14
to tell us that this promised redemption in Christ, which the
Holy Ghost has opened in our hearts and minds, is the earnest
of our salvation. People are always looking for
signs and evidences. Here's the earnest. You know,
you make a big contract, you buy a house, you do this, you
do that. You make some kind of a very serious agreement with
somebody. You always have to put money
down. I remember a fellow gave me a piece of property one time,
and I had to put a dollar down to seal the deal. To make it legal, I had to put
a dollar down. You had to show some kind of
capital in the transaction. Well, here's the earnest. Christ
in you. Christ in you. I don't know if
you can understand what I'm saying, but what I'm telling you is this.
We take the witness of God, the record of God, we take the Word
of God, and we look in there and we see who His Son is. This is God who came down as
a man, was born of a woman, made of a woman, lived under the law. This is the God-Man. We know
who He is. We know why He came. He's the
Good Shepherd. He came to give His life for
the sheep. He came to provide us with a righteousness because
we're unable to provide one for ourselves. He came and accomplished
these things. We read that in the Word of God.
We know that by the Word of God. And we see him seated in glory
by the Word of God. Whoever liveth to make intercession
for us. This is the earnest of our inheritance.
Do you look for some evidence of salvation, some evidence of
your election, some evidence of true saving faith? The earnest
of our inheritance is the person and work of Christ revealed to
us in the gospel. That's it. That's it. It's a living hope because it's
in a living person. One who become a man and lived
and died for those given to him. by the Father. He lived under
the law to fulfill all its righteous demands. He died as our substitute,
bearing our sins and His own body on the tree. He was delivered,
Paul said, for our offenses and raised again for our justification. Put to death without compassion. You ever think about that? Nobody
had compassion on Jesus nailed to the cross, not even God. He died without compassion. And he suffered the full wrath
of God in our room instead. He was delivered and raised for
our justification. And our hope is alive and seated
at the right hand of God. Our hope actually has already
passed through the judgment. You ever think about that? If
my hope's in him, if this is my deliverer, this is my savior,
this is the object of my faith, this is my salvation, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. If I vested all in him and I
look to him, he's already passed through the judgment. He's already been judged, and
as He was judged, I was judged in Him. All God's elect were
judged in Him. That's why He was put to death. Our hope has already passed through
the judgment. Our hope has already been approved. Boy, I hope God approves of me.
He already has, if I'm in Christ. He already has. Doesn't the Scripture
say there in Ephesians chapter 1, and I encourage you one more
time, read Ephesians chapter 1. Memorize it if you can. It's
the foundation of all that we believe. But doesn't He say there
that in Him we have redemption, that we're accepted in the blood? He's already approved, Russell.
Already approved. Our hope's already been approved,
already raised from the dead. Boy, I hope God raised me from
the dead. He already has. Isn't that what
Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2? Raised us up together, made
us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Salvation
is not dependent on the strength and purity of our faith. but
on the strength and purity of Christ who's the object of our
faith. This is where the strength of
faith comes in. Our hope is already undergone
the scrutiny of God and not one blemish, not one flaw could be
found. He as the God-man, he never changes. He never changes. We do something
wrong and we just know we've lost all communion with the Savior.
We just know we've lost all contact with him. He never changes. Never changes. Every sin, I want
you to think about this this morning. What I'm trying to do
is instill some kind of value in you this morning about what
this resurrection is all about. What this is all about, there's
thousands out here celebrating Easter this morning that don't
have a clue what that resurrection is about. I want to know Him. I want to be a part of His resurrection. He never changes. Every sin for
which you would have been charged in the judgment, every sin, was
charged to Christ and paid in full. I ain't talking
about your past sins now, I'm talking about all, all your sins
from the day you were born to the day you die. Paul said, all things are of
God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. Which is, he said, too wit, too
wit, that God was in Christ Reconciling the world unto Himself. Now listen
to this. Not imputing their trespasses
unto them. Not charging. That's what that
word impute means. Not charging their trespasses
to them. Our hope is a living hope. This one to whom God penned all
of our hopes is alive, justified, raised, and accepted of God. In fact, It says he's seated
at the right hand of God, expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. There's not a doubt, not one
doubt left, that all his redeemed are going to be saved. Every
last one of them. All for whom he died. You might find this a play on
words. I hope you don't. I hope you
learn the difference. But we don't hope in salvation.
We hope in Christ who has accomplished our salvation. We don't hope
in faith. You know what people think faith
is? I hope, I hope, I hope. I hope it don't rain tomorrow.
I got no basis for it, but I sure hope it don't. It's going to
ruin everything, you know. I hope, I hope, I hope. That's
not faith. Faith in a person. And we don't hope in faith, we
hope in Christ by faith. By faith. By grace, or you say,
through faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. Faith is the gift of God. Faith
that obeys, trusts, embraces the Lord Jesus Christ. And our
inheritance, he tells us in verse 4 of 1 Peter chapter 1, is incorruptible. Listen to this. Undefiled. And fadeth not away because it's
reserved in the person of the victorious Christ for you who
by Him do believe. Does that make sense? Now, I'm telling you, everything
else is a whitewash. Everything else is a soap bubble.
Salvation is in Christ. Faith is in Christ. Our hope
is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It says in verse 5 that this
living hope is unto them who are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed at the last
time. God's elect are brought to faith
in Christ and being established in faith, begotten to faith,
they're also kept in this faith all the days of their life. My
hope is the same now as it was when God saved me in Christ.
Somebody asked Brother Mahan, he'd been on the road a long
time, 50 some years. And a friend of his that he went
to seminary with stopped him walking down the road and said,
Brother Mahan, are you still saved? And he said, well, I don't
know. He said, is God still on the
throne? Christ still sitting at the right
hand of God? Then I'm still saved. God's elect are brought to faith
in Christ and being established in faith, begotten to faith.
They're kept in this faith all the days of their life. Well,
what does that mean? How is a believer kept by faith? How is the power of God involved
in his preservation in faith? How does that work? Turn with
me to Romans chapter 1. What is this power of God that
manifests itself in the faith of God's elect? Romans chapter 1, verse 16. Paul's about to go into one of
the most immoral places on the face of the earth, going to Rome. He's going to preach to them
who are at Rome. Brothels on every corner. This
place was upside down. Now listen to what he says, verse
16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. Have you got your place there?
For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. Now listen, from faith to faith,
as it is written, the just shall live by faith. The power of God
unto salvation, which power is given to all that believe, is
manifested in the righteousness of God as it's revealed in the
life and death of Jesus Christ. That's how it's manifested. Both
the righteous obedience demanded of the law and the righteous
judgment of God to the full satisfaction of His justice. Romans 3, verse
24, being justified, it says, freely by His grace, through
the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare
His righteousness in the remission of sins that are past. They're
talking about Old Testament saints. He set this thing forth in the
tabernacle. He set it forth in the sacrifices.
He set all these things forth that men might see these things
and look to Christ and know why Christ is coming and what Christ
would accomplish. And in seeing those things through
faith in His blood, find propitiation with God. for sins that are past,
at this time," he said, not just at that time, but now at this
time, the same thing, that he might be just in his justification
of all that believe. Believers who have received the
gift of faith, the revelation of Christ, the understanding
of His person and work, who see the glory of God manifested in
him, God's perfect justice manifested on that cross, God's perfect
mercy manifested in the person of Jesus Christ. He sees the
glory of God in his person and work. He sees that glory manifested
in him. These men who are convinced of
his love and power to save, who have committed to him, and are
committed to Him, those who have received the gift of faith and
established in the faith, enter in to His rest." Enter into His
rest. Now, we're talking about the
power of God that keeps you through faith. Through faith. What does
it mean to enter in to His rest? Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
4. Hebrews chapter 4. There are three prominent places
in the Scripture where this word rest appears. Now, it appears
often all the way through the Scriptures, but there's three
prominent places where it appears. And Paul gives all three. That
is, he refers to all three here in this book of Hebrews. Now, first of all, let this be
established. Look here in Hebrews chapter
4, verse 3. I'm not going to read the whole verse. I'm going
to pull something right out of the middle of it. Now watch this.
For we which have believed do enter in to rest. All who believe enter in to this
rest. This rest in Christ. Now listen
as he reasons with us about this rest. Hebrews 4 verse 4. For he spake in a certain place
of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh
day from all his works." That's Genesis chapter 2. You go back
there and it tells you that God rested from all his works on
the seventh day. Well, how could God rest from
his works knowing that shortly Satan would come and tempt the
woman, and having tempted the woman, would cause the man then
to purposely take that fruit and eat it and through him cause
the fall of all mankind. How could God rest? How could
He rest? Because He rested His creation
and its final end in the hands of the sovereign mediator, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself both created the world and became
its rest. Over and over and over, we're
told in the Scripture, by Him were all things created,
and nothing was made that was made without Him, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Redeemed sinners are to the praise
of His glory, it says in Ephesians 1.12, who first trusted in Christ. Now let's look at the second
prominent place where this rest is mentioned. Hebrews 4, verse
5, And in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest. Now what's this all about? Well,
he's talking about those Israelites that he delivered out of Egypt
and preserved out in that wilderness and brought them right up to
the edge of the promised inheritance. Brought them right up to the
edge of Canaan. And they sent out spies to go
over and look at the land. They were going to go over and
look at it and come back and give their report about what
they saw. And they went over there and
there were giants in the land. Men unlike anything they'd ever
seen. Giants. Some of the old historians,
I don't know how they would know this unless by bones or some
way, but they project that some of these men were almost 10 feet
tall. There were giants in the land. They went a little further into
the land and they said there's walled cities in there. They're
fortified. They're dug in. There's walled cities over there.
There's armies over there. They are already prepared for
invaders. And we ain't going. We ain't
going. And God said, this is 10 times
since I brought you out of Egypt that you've tempted me. And he
said, I swear by myself that you're not going to enter in.
You're not coming into this land of rest. And he took them back
out in the wilderness until all their carcasses, is how the scripture
words it, fell in the wilderness. And then all those, when they
were numbered, who were 20 years old or under, went in there. The only ones outside of that
that went in was Joshua and Caleb. That's it. All the rest of those
old timers died in the wilderness. They wouldn't go in because they
looked at it and they saw the utter impossibility of occupying
the land because of the strength and the fortification and the
sheer numbers of their enemies. And they turned back and wouldn't
even attempt to enter in. He tells us back in Hebrews chapter
3, if you still have your place there, in verse 16, for some,
when they had heard, did provoke. Howbeit, not all that came out
of Egypt by Moses, but with whom was he grieved forty years? Was
it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they
should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Hebrews 4, verse 1. Let us therefore
fear, lest a promise being left to us of entering into his rest,
any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was
the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached
did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that
heard it." Here's the second prominent place of rest. Talking
about that entering into that inheritance. God had already demonstrated
to that people His saving power and His ability to preserve them
and feed them in the wilderness and to crush their enemies. But
when they saw themselves, when they saw this place firsthand
for themselves, they threw their hands up and said, we can't do
it. We can't do it. The gospel brings all these things
into the ears of fallen sinners along with the glorious person
and work of Christ. And we either enter into that
rest, or we turn back and say, it's impossible. We ain't going
to do it. We ain't going to do it. Paul tells us in Hebrews chapter
4, verse 8, if Joshua says Jesus there in the New Testament, that
word is the New Testament word for Joshua. For if Joshua had
given them rest, then would he not afterwards have spoken of
another day. So here's the conclusion. There
remaineth therefore rest to the people of God. For he that is
entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works,
as God did from his." And then what's he talking about there
when he said they ceased from the works? Does that mean they
just quit living a moral life? Does that mean they quit attending
church? Does that mean they quit worshiping God? What's he talking
about? They ceased from their work. The same way God did. They rested all things in Christ's
hands. And I tell you, if you ever come
to that point where you can see him and trust him as God did,
you won't cease from good works. You won't. It'll inspire you
to do good works. But you'll quit trying to work
your way into glory. and you'll rest at in his hands.
You'll cease from that kind of work. I won't say this and then I'm
going to quit. I'm past my time. You cannot in truth doubt your
salvation when you see your salvation in Christ because there's nothing
in Christ to doubt. When do we doubt? when we start
looking at ourselves. Isn't that right? Oh, my faith
just ain't much. No, it never was. But the object
of that faith is everything. Does that make sense? Now, you might stand gazing out
at the Red Sea and doubt your deliverance. You look out there
at that sea. Oh, couldn't see across it. Big
old waves, mountains on either side. Here comes Pharaoh and
all his army storming up behind you at full gallop. You might
doubt your salvation, but standing on the other side, having walked
through on dry ground with the water raised up and looking back
and seeing the sea close in on your enemies, you can't doubt
on that side. They had nothing left to doubt
in. It was already accomplished. It was already over. And brethren,
that's the point of assurance with this thing of the resurrection
of Christ. It's already accomplished. It's
already done. That's why we have hope and assurance
in Christ. It's already accomplished. They
had nothing left to do except for worship God and praise Him. and try to tell others what he
did.