If you will now, turn back with
me to 1 Peter chapter 3. We want to focus on verse 15. We're talking about the obedience
of faith. We're talking about the fruit
of faith. Talking about our walk in this
present world, which comes from that faith. And then he tells us in verse
15, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. And be ready
always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason
of the hope that's in you with meekness and fear. And when Peter exhorts us to
sanctify the Lord God in our hearts, he's talking about the
Lord Christ. The Lord Christ. Jesus Christ
is God our Savior. We know nothing about God whatsoever
except as we know Him in Christ. It would be an impossibility
to sanctify the God in your heart apart from Christ, because through
Christ comes the knowledge whereby we sanctify Him in our hearts. He is God our Savior. As Mary
talked with Elizabeth, she said, my soul doth magnify the Lord,
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Paul said he was
an apostle by the commandment of God our Savior. And believers
set apart in their hearts a divine knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. In 1 John 5, verse 20, the apostle
John said, and we know. Now, he just said prior to this,
he said, and we know that we are of God. and the whole world
lieth in wickedness." How did he know that? What a statement for a man to
say. Can you imagine what kind of reaction you'd get down at
the Presbyterian Church or down at the First Baptist Church in
Shreveport with thousands of people out there in the audience
if you said that? We know, I know that I'm of God
and the whole world lieth in wickedness. That's quite a statement,
isn't it? And then he goes on to tell them
why. In 1 John 5.20 he said, And we know that the Son of God
is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know
him that's true. The Son of God did that. He gave
me a knowledge of the living God, and I know I know in my
heart the true and living God. I know what He will and will
not accept. I know how He is. I know something
about who He is. I know something about His divine
character. I know something about His tolerances. I know the Son of God has come
and He's given us an understanding that we may know Him that's true
and that we're in Him that's true. Even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Salvation comes to chosen sinners
by way of gospel truth, which is revealed in them by the Spirit
of God. My friends, you better listen
to what I'm about to say this morning, especially you young
children and young adults. This world, this world in which
we live, where we go to school, where we go to buy groceries.
This world, this present world, is under the curse of God. It's
cursed of God. Don't go out there into this
world thinking you're going out there among brethren. I know
people, I meet them in a store all the time. Never seen them
before in my life. Well, how you doing, brother?
Well, I don't know if we're brothers or not. We're brothers in Adam. This world and everyone in it
is under the curse of God. Is there anybody here today who
feels as though they've kept the law of God in every precept,
continually in motive, thought, and deed, and did it for the
love of God? Anybody here? Listen to this, Galatians 3.10.
For as many as are of the works of the law, there's some men
who think they have. And as many as are of the works
of the law, they're under the curse. They're under the curse,
for it's written, cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things
written in the book of the law to do the best you can. That
ain't what it says. that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them." Mankind as a whole is under the
curse of God. Romans 3.23, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. So we can quit talking about
our good works bringing us to God. We can quit talking about
our free wills bringing us to God. All have sinned. and come
short of what God demands. We've come short of the glory
of God. And this world and everybody
in it are under the curse of God because they're sinners by
birth, they're sinners by choice, and they're sinners by practice.
Secondly, this world and everyone in it have been judged of God. I keep hearing people talking
about, well, You're going to go out and face judgment according
to your beliefs, and I'm going to go out and face judgment.
Let me tell you something. You're already judged. That judgment
then is going to be a justification of that judgment back there.
And that judgment then is going to be a justification of those
he saved in time. Nothing new is going to happen
in that judgment. That judgment is a justification of all that
God has already done. He that believeth not is condemned,
that is, judged and sentenced already, because he hath not
believed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This world and
everybody in it have been judged of God and found guilty. By the
offense of one judgment came upon all men. to condemnation. He that believeth not Christ,
the wrath of God abideth on him. Because Adam, the first man and
father of our race, fell in the garden, sin entered by him and
was passed upon all his offspring. You can read about it over in
Romans 5 verse 12. Man's not awaiting a trial to determine
if he's guilty. He's already been judged. He
is guilty. He that believeth not is condemned
already. The Pharisees were not just a
few men off on a religious tangent. They were the best this world
had to offer. If you want to talk about works
religion, works religion today would be put to shame by the
way these Pharisees walked. This was the best man could produce. They were the best of the best
of this world. Every man was represented at
that trial of Christ. Are you listening to me? Every
one of them. They were the best of the best.
The politicians were represented there, Herod and Pilate. Religion
was represented there. The high priest and his court,
the Pharisees, scribes and Sadducees. The world was represented there
by the Gentiles. And they all, with one assent,
turned their back on Jesus Christ and cried for Him to be put on
that cross and put to death. Why just don't believe man's
condemned of God? Here's the condemnation, Christ
said. Light came into the world, and
men loved darkness rather than light. Judgment is not way out there
in the future. Judgment took place in the garden.
And if all men are not sinners, then why was every man required
to bring a sacrifice if he came to worship God? Everybody from
Adam all the way until Christ died was required to bring a
sacrifice. Was he not? Every one of them.
Adam and Eve. brought a sacrifice. Cain and
Abel brought a sacrifice. Noah brought a sacrifice. I don't
care who you were. I don't care what age you lived
in. You didn't approach God. You didn't worship God. You didn't
even think about communion with God apart from a sacrifice. Even
Abraham's son, Isaac, he was 15 years old. He didn't know
a lot. We got some 15-year-olds in here. I was 15. You don't know a lot at 15. You
just think you know a lot. But that boy was going up on
that mountain with his daddy and he looked over there and
he said, I see the fire and I see the wood. Where's the sacrifice? He knew. Man's right now under the curse
of God and he's under the condemnation of God and he's left in his nature
of sin to be influenced by and led by and tempted by and deceived
by the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now worketh
in the children of disobedience. And mankind, for the most part,
are deceived into believing some kind of a God, some kind of a
hereafter, and some kind of a religion that makes it possible for them
to go there. I don't care who you talk to,
somebody got hope, don't they? They vary in their concept of
God, but none know the true and living God. They vary in their
religious forms and practices, but they all practice works religion. I don't care what the name is
on the door, they practice works religion. They vary in their
ideas of salvation, but they all assume they need saving. My friend, man is by nature a
child of wrath. He lives in darkness. He sleeps
in darkness. He knows only darkness. He is
surrounded by darkness. Our Lord said, if the light,
that is, what you really know about God, if the light that
be in you be darkness, how great is that darkness? It swallows men up. Men are swallowed
up in darkness. Our Lord said that very thing. And it's darkness that leaves
men hoping in their good intentions. It's darkness that leaves men
hoping in the best they can do. It's darkness that leaves men
believing they can merit the favor of God. It's darkness that
leaves men believing that self-sacrifice can satisfy the justice of a
holy God. It is a darkness that leaves
men believing that they can alter the will of God by their own
wills. That's darkness. And man's running
headlong down the Broadway, and he has a multitude with him,
and he feels safe because of the overwhelming amount of people
that believes like he does, thinks like he does, and goes the direction
he goes. But truth saving faith. believes contrary to the multitude. They always have. Always have. The thief was the only one who
knew who that was dying between them. Wasn't he? Everybody, all
the soldiers down there, all these people down there, all
these scribes and Pharisees, all these religious people, the
high priest, whoever else was gathered, ain't none of them
knew who he was. But that thief did. And he believed contrary
to the whole outfit. Peter was the only one that day.
The Lord said, whom do men say that I am? Well, some say you're
this and some say you're that. He said, whom do you say that
I am? Nobody had anything to say but Peter. Peter said, thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And our Lord said,
blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
that to you. Salvation is a revelation of
God in Christ. It's the calling of God that
brings a man out of darkness into the marvelous light of Christ.
He's given eyes to see what's been hidden from ages and generations. He sees what even the princes
of this world have never seen. He sees the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. And in that instance, he becomes
a new creature in Christ, a new creation. What does it mean to
sanctify the Lord God in your heart? Only a believer can do
that. What does it mean to sanctify
when Peter said, but sanctify? The Lord God in your heart. The
Lord Christ. Well, let me give you two things.
First of all, it means to have a clear understanding of how
a holy and just God can save sinners like you and like me. A clear understanding. You can't
tell somebody how God saves sinners until God saves you. When God
saves you, you've got something to say. When God sanctifies you,
you sanctify Him. It means to have a clear understanding
of how a holy and just God, the true and living God, can save
sinners like you and still be God. A sinner is one. What is a sinner? Paul said at
one time, he told those Gentiles, here's where you were. A sinner
is one without Christ. He said you were without Christ.
You didn't have the promise of Christ. You didn't know who Christ
was. Oh, you heard them talk about
Christ on Christmas and Easter and that. You went by the church
down there and saw the manger sing and the little baby laying
there and the halos up above Mary and Joseph and the shepherds
were all around there. You didn't know anything at all
about the living God. You didn't know who Christ was.
I went to church all my life and never knew that Christ was
given his appointments before the dawn of creation in eternity
past. I didn't know that. I didn't
know anything. I didn't know that the Christ
was promised all the way through the Old Testament. I didn't know
that. Nobody told me that. Nobody told me that that tabernacle
back yonder in the wilderness was a picture of the person and
work of Christ. Nobody told me that. I was without
Christ. That's what Paul is telling these
Gentiles. You remember where you were when God saved you.
You were without Christ. You were without a knowledge
of how He came to be without a knowledge of who He is, without
a knowledge of why He came or for whom He came, without a knowledge
of what He did when He was in this world. You ask the average
Christian today what Christ did when He was in this world, you're
not going to get an answer. Without a knowledge of where
He is now and why He's there and what He's doing. All men
and women have accepted Jesus as their personal Savior. They
have given their assent to His Lordship. They use His name,
Christ, in their profession saying they are followers of Christ,
but they don't know Him. They don't know Him. And then
when somebody tells them who He is, boy, the charade is over
then. The charade is over. They become
angry. become mad and rebellious. Let
me tell you something you may not know. Jesus Christ is your
Lord. Well, I don't believe in God.
He's still your Lord. That doesn't make one iota of
difference. Jesus Christ is your Lord whether you accept Him or
whether you don't. He's Lord of heaven and earth.
He's Lord of saints and devils. Satan said, I'm not going to
I'm not going to bow to Him. Oh, yeah, you will. He's still
Lord. He's Lord over that bunch of
rebels. He's Lord over that bunch of spirits. He's Lord over that
rulers of the darkness. He's Lord. God made Him Lord. He's Lord. He sits upon the sovereign
throne of dominion and rules over creation. Rules over providence. Rules over salvation. He'll have
mercy on whom he will have mercy. And whom he will, he'll harden. Mercy and grace is his prerogative. He's the potter. We're the clay. So then, it's not of him that
willeth. And it's not of him that runneth.
But it's of God that showeth mercy. He's the potter, we're
the clay, and He has the right to make of the same lump one
vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. Jesus Christ is
Lord of the dead and the living. Those who don't know Him, those
who are worshiping totem poles, He's their Lord. He's their Lord. Paul said, whether we live, we
live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord.
Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. We're
down here debating back and forth over what we're going to let
Him do. We're down here debating back and forth and communicating
back and forth and arguing over human rights. My soul, He sits on the throne
of glory, and He's Lord. Will you like it or you don't?
Will you bow to it? You're going to bow to it. You'll
bow to it. He quickens that mass of dust
out of that grave and brings you up before His face in judgment.
You'll bow to Him then. All that time, Paul said you
were without Christ because you were aliens. from the commonwealth
of Israel. The Christ was promised to Israel.
Gentiles didn't have any promise to the Christ. To Israel was
promised the coming Redeemer. To Israel, God gave His affection. To Israel, God manifested His
presence, protected, provided, and preserved them. This world
can't find anything to connect them to the Christ of God except
their own decision. And so they preach decisionism.
Strangers from the covenants of promise, he said. That's a
sinner. Ask the average churchgoer something
about a covenant. Tell me something about that
everlasting covenant. What? I don't know what you're
talking about. I know you don't. Because you're
strangers. You're strangers from the covenants
of promise. David's last words were that
God had made with him an everlasting covenant ordered in all things
and sure. He said, this is all my desire,
all my salvation, whether he ever makes it to grow or not. Sinners are strangers to the
covenants of promise and therefore have no hope and are without
God in the world. How can such a one as this be
saved by a holy God? He can be saved because God's
Israel were not chosen in time according to their works, but
chosen before time began. They were chosen out of every
nation, kindred, people, and tongue under heaven. They were
chosen in Christ, blessed in Christ, represented in Christ,
put in Him by an eternal covenant union. How do we get in Christ? We were put there by God before
the world began. By an eternal covenant union. That's the only reason you're
not doomed right now today. The only reason. If you have
any hope at all in you that God's not going to send you to hell,
that hope begins back yonder in that eternal covenant union
when God chose you in Christ and put you in Him. You become
one with Him. And then you were brought to
saving faith in Him and kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last day. All those He
put in Christ back there, He brings to a knowledge of that
union. There's a people chosen of God
in Christ, and for His elect He was made flesh. kept the law,
satisfied God's perfect justice by His death on the cross. We
lived in Him. And we died with Him. And we
were raised together with Him and made to sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. That's my hope. By way of the person and work
of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, God can justify guilty sinners
and be righteous in His justification. To sanctify the Lord God, the
Lord Christ in your heart, is to clearly understand how God
saves sinners in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then secondly,
it means to have an experiential knowledge of this salvation. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you. A believer is
a man, woman, boy or girl who has experienced God's effectual
calling. Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1 says,
Wherefore, holy brethren, now listen, partakers of the heavenly
calling. Isn't that what that says? Not objects, partakers. Partakers. Oh, my soul, there's
a big difference between objects and partakers. When God calls His elect, it
is a divine call. As Lazarus was called to come
out of that tomb, he couldn't come out of the tomb. He was
dead. His body had already began to corrupt. He was lying in that
thing past any hope. There wasn't anybody there, not
even those who loved him like no other. had any hope that that
man could ever live. He was past all hope. And our
Lord called that man from the tomb, and he came out of that
tomb and responded to that call. And even so, dead sinners are
called out of darkness and death into His marvelous life and life. An effectual call. God calls
His people. What is this effectual call?
Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. In chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians,
Paul spoke of it. He said, I know your election
of God because my gospel came not unto you in word only, but
it came in power and it came in the Holy Ghost. And then over
here in chapter 2, listen to what he says over here
in verse 12. He said that you would walk worthy
of God who called you, called you unto His kingdom, called
you to this glory. For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing, because when you receive the Word of
God which you heard of us, you receive it not as the Word of
men, but as it is in truth the Word of God, are you listening,
which effectually worketh. also in you that believe." I
tell you, I know the difference. Do you? I know the difference
in head knowledge and heart knowledge. I had the knowledge of the gospel
in my head for a long time, but it didn't have it in my heart.
I didn't know what it was to be called. I'd heard some things,
but I didn't hear them. I knew some things, but I didn't
know them. And one day, God called me in power. And when He did,
I understood the difference. You know what the difference
is? When He calls, you come. That's the difference. You don't
just sit there like a bump on the log. When He called Lazarus,
he'd come out of the tomb. He didn't lay there for a while
and think it over. He'd come out. I never heard
such a, well, I'm going to think it all over. You won't when He
calls. You already thought about everything
you need to think about when He calls. It effectually worketh also in
you that believe. When believers hear the testimony
of God concerning their sin, they believe what they hear,
they acknowledge what they hear, and they mourn over their condition. I remember when Kathy was diagnosed
with her cancer. That doctor came in. They don't
pull much punches. That doctor came in and he said,
you have cancer. You have brain cancer. And he said, I run a necessary
test, consulted with the specialist. You have brain cancer. We didn't
just receive his word and give mental assent to it. We reacted
to it. We reacted to it. We reacted
to it as though we knew it was so without a doubt. When believers
are convinced of sin by the Holy Ghost, they can almost feel that
sinful cancer in them. That's the difference. They mourn
over it as though it were on the outside. They mourn over
it as though you could see their rotten flesh. They know what
they are. They don't talk about what the Bible says they are.
They know what they are. That's the difference between
believing and just having some knowledge in your head. They turn from what they are
to Him. That's that effect you'll call,
it turns. It doesn't run around saying,
I ought to turn. It turns. When He turns you,
you'll turn. That's how Paul said he knew
their election. You turn to God from your idol. They find a real hope in him,
a real rest in him, a real assurance in him. And they don't walk down
an aisle or try to bargain with God. They embrace the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's their only hope. There's
nothing out there. There's nothing left but darkness.
And they see Him like the sun rising from a dark night. They see Him, and they embrace
Him, and they love Him, and they rest in Him, and they rejoice
in Him. They hear of his accomplishments.
They hear of his victory over sin, hell and the grave. They
hear of his divine intercession and of his present reign and
glory, and they rest their souls upon him. Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of my sufferings, and I'm not ashamed of the gospel
I preach, for I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded that
he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. The effectual calling of God
is a calling exposed, experienced within. Experienced within. I'll tell
you when you learn to be merciful, when God shows you mercy, oh,
you'll know what mercy is. You'll know what mercy is. And
you might, in the heat of the moment, say something, but I
tell you, you'll be right back over there begging Him for forgiveness. You're going to be merciful.
Merciful, long-suffering. You're going to be long-suffering
when you see how long-suffering He was to you. What all He put
up with out of you. It's a calling experience within. We're made meat to be partakers
of the inheritance of enlightened saints. And this is what Peter
is talking about here. He said, sanctify the Lord God
in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asks you a reason of the hope that's in you, and do it
with meekness and fear. And you will. You will. When he enables you to sanctify
him in your heart. A man who understands grace,
who's experienced the sovereign grace of God in his soul, he
can give you a reason for the hope that's in him. It may not
be like that of a commentator, but he can give you a reason,
one that you can understand, because he understands it. He's
experienced. And he'll always give it with
meekness and fear. And can it be, isn't that what
that songwriter said, that I should find an interest in the Savior's
blood? Oh, my soul. sanctify the Lord
God.