Turn with us again to 1 Peter 1. I want to dedicate what time
I have to these first five verses here in 1 Peter 1. As I read
in my study, what these various men had to say about these passages. I found this comment by Charles
Spurgeon. He called these verses, verses
2 through 5, a string of golden pearls. And so I chose that as
the title for this message this morning. And then many of the
other writers, they referred to these verses as a New Testament
song. the song of the believer. This
is what he sings. This is what his heart cries
out to God. But what I see in these verses
is a river of grace that begins and flows out from under the
throne of God. And as it goes out, it begins
to widen. And it begins to encompass all
things. And finally, it reaches to the
uttermost parts of the earth. That's what I see, a river of
grace flowing out from the throne of God. He spoke to his prophet
Isaiah, and he said, I give waters in the wilderness and rivers
in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen. This people
have I formed for myself, and they shall show forth my praise. Rivers of grace. And here in
just a few verses is the whole story of redemption. You know,
I wrestle with this all the time. Where do you start? I don't know
who's going to be here. I don't know who's coming until
I walk in the door and they walk in the door. I don't know who's
coming. I was expecting, you know, 8 or 10 or 12 on a Tuesday
evening. Sometimes there's 5 and sometimes
there's 25. I never know who's coming through
that door. I never know what visitors, I never know somebody's
sister, somebody's mother, somebody's uncle coming. I don't know who's
coming. And so where do you begin? Where do you begin? I must assume,
I told somebody the other day, I must assume that everybody
I preach to is totally ignorant of God. No matter how well I
know Him. I must assume, because even if
you know God, It's the same words that's going to feed you that's
going to regenerate the man who don't know God. It's the same
message. I don't have two or three messages.
I just have one. You know, they told a story about
one of the old greats there in Nashville, Tennessee, one of
the old music stars. I don't remember exactly which
one it was, but his car ran out of gas. He wandered down those
mountains of Tennessee, and finally he came on this little old log,
just a one-room log cabin. He seen the light inside. Went
up, knocked on the door, and this man let him in, and he recognized
him, you know. Back in the day, they recognized
these men, and they were very famous. And he invited him in.
He said, I've got a guitar. He said, I play the guitar. He
said, do you? He said, oh yeah. Yeah, he said, I play the guitar.
And he went and got it, and he sat down, and he just began to
hit this one string. He didn't change his fingers.
He didn't do anything. He just sat there and hit that
one string. And after a while, the old country music star said,
he said, son, you know, see these little bars that go across the
neck there? He said, if you move your fingers up and down, he
said, the sound of the music. Well, he said that's for folks
who are still looking. He said, I found what I'm looking
for. And I found what I'm looking for. And I just plucked that
same string. You come in here next week, you're
going to hear that same note. I'm going to preach that same
song. I found what I'm looking for. And this is all I intend
to play. But in these verses, It takes
in the whole story of redemption. I don't have to worry about where
to start because it starts where we are. And that's where we start
when we preach the gospel. We start where men are. It says
here in verse 1, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers
scattered throughout. That's where they're at. They're
strangers. They don't know God. Most of them are religious. Most
of them are like that woman at the well. Our Lord met her there.
And she came out, and we all know the story of that woman
at the well, but she didn't know God. She was religious. She was
religious. She talked religion with him
for 15 or 20 minutes. Talking about Abraham and those
wells and Isaac and all these men. She was religious, but she
didn't know God. She was a stranger to God. Strangers. Paul said there in Ephesians
chapter 2, he said, You were strangers. Remember that. Don't forget that. You were strangers. Strangers without God in this
world. But in this story here, it begins
with the strangers scattered throughout the world. And then
in verse 2, it talks about eternal election. God making covenant
preparations to save a people for the glory of his name. And
then in verse 3, God the Father. through the redemption accomplished
in his Son, bringing peace and reconciliation to dead sinners
by the Spirit of God in the preaching of the gospel, begatting his
chosen unto a lively hope, a living hope. Verse 4, to an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for you. You know, old Ralph Barnard,
He had a dream one time. He said he dreamed he went to
heaven. Knowing Roth like I do, I think Roth made it up. But
nevertheless, he said he had this dream. And he said, I woke
up. He said, I don't know how I got
there. He said, I've got no memory of anything before that except
when I went to sleep. And he said, when I woke up,
I was in heaven. And he said, the most beautiful
music an ear could hear was coming from this multitude of men and
women singing before the throne. All of them seated in their chairs
and as far as you could see around this big semi-circle that just
went up forever, it seemed like, into the air. And all of them
singing in perfect harmony. And all of them singing the sweetest
music you've ever heard. He said, it stirred your soul. He said, I just wanted to sing.
He said, I just wanted to get in the midst somewhere find me
a seat and sit down and sing from my heart like they were
singing." He said, it just moved the soul to hear them. And he
said, I began to ascend up the rows and look, and he said, finally
way up to the top, he said, I looked over there and he said, I spotted
an empty chair. And he said, away I went, climbing
up that side and then going across. And he said, when I got there,
he said, I stopped and looked, and on the back of the chair,
engraved in precious jewels, he said, was the name Rothbard. That's what he's talking about.
Reserved, reserved in heaven for you. That's what election's
all about. Reserved in heaven for you who
are kept by the power of God, kept by the power of God unto
salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. I've got an
inkling of what salvation is, but in that day you're going
to know. You're going to know. There's so much sin in everything
I do and everything I say and everything I touch. There's so
much sin in it, it's hard to get a clear view of what salvation
and its perfection is going to be. But I know where to look. I look to Christ. That's where
it's at. That's where it's demonstrated. That's where it's at. And that's
where it's reserved in heaven for you. Oh, what a comfort unto
him who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless
before the presence of his glory. Now, let's look at this string
of pearls here this morning and see if we can't find something
here that calls us and lifts up our hearts to worship God.
I find a particular beauty in this. I looked at this for the
longest time down here in verse 1. that he should move to inspire
his apostle. Now you think about it, there
was only twelve of them, twelve apostles. Not all of them wrote. But he moved his apostle, this
great apostle, this Apostle Peter, he moved him to write kind of
a general epistle, kind of a general letter, Now, he's going to talk
about particular reduction, and he's going to talk about sovereign
election, and he's going to talk about things particular to the
children of God. He's going to talk about the
sons of God receiving an inheritance. But in his letter, he begins
in a general way talking to strangers. Strangers. Because that's where
God's elect are found. They're strangers. They're scattered
throughout all the world. I don't know where they are.
I don't know where they are. You know, and somehow modern
day religion has got our minds geared to think that everybody's
elect. Everybody's elect. And so when
God raises up a church somewhere, which they don't even bother
for God to raise one up, they just build one of their own.
But when a church is there, it's just for the community. Somebody
told me here the other day down at Spring Hill, the furniture
store where I was at, Oh, I know where you're pastoring. That's
a community church. No, no, it's not. This church
is here looking for God's elect. Where are they? Somebody said,
if I was you, I'd just preach to God's elect. If somebody put
a mark on their forehead, that's the only people I'd talk to.
Because that's the only people that's going to hear. That's the only people that's
going to hear. Strangers scattered across. Across all these places. You
know, I looked at these places. They cover a pretty good area
if you look at the map in the back of your Bible. Probably
everything Peter called the known world was right here in these
cities. There wasn't any big transportation.
There wasn't no jet planes or buses or anything to carry them
around. They had to walk everywhere they went so they didn't go too
far or got on a ship and went. That was a great journey to get
on a ship and go somewhere. But I want you to think about
this for a minute, how often God mentioned the stranger in
His laws to Israel. He said, when you glean your
field, you come to that corner, and whatever they used to harvest
their crops, He said, don't go into the corner. Don't go into
the sharp part of the corner and get what little bits in there.
He said, just leave it there for the stranger. And when you
get down, don't send a big company of men back there to pick up
them ears of corn that you left. Just leave them there for the
stranger. Huh? I think about old Ruth out in
that field. And he watched her. Here's this
stranger out in the field, gleaning and picking up ears. And he looked
at his men and he said, drop some handfuls of purpose. God
made provision for the stranger, John, because that's who he intended
to That's who intended to save these strangers scattered abroad.
The biggest surprise to the nation of Israel is that God, in His
redemptive purpose, had chosen to redeem a people out of every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue under heaven. It wasn't just
for Jews, but it was for God so loved the world, as we said,
didn't He? Huh? We know He's not talking
about every individual, man, woman, and child, when he uses
that word world. But he is talking about scattered
out in the world, among the world, among all nations. And he was
talking to the old Nicodemus, that self-righteous Pharisee.
And that is why the Holy Spirit used that word world. He didn't
come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through Him might be saved. Don't you know that was like
fingernails on a chalkboard to that old Pharisee. He didn't
want to hear that. He didn't want to hear that. But that salvation. God has a people. God has an
Israel. All that are Israel are not Israel.
The children of the promise are counted for the seed. All these
sons, these natural-born sons of Abraham, they're not children.
These are not the children of God. The children of the promise
are counting for the seed. Over and over and over he tells
us that God has an Israel, and they're scattered throughout.
It's a spiritual Israel. Circumcision is not of the flesh.
Not of the letter, but of the heart. Of the heart. So these strangers, I look at
these strangers and think about them. That's where God found
me, a stranger. I didn't know which end was up.
I didn't know anything. Thought I did. Been in church
all my life. Didn't know nothing. Didn't know
nothing. And then here's the second thing.
He said, elect according to the full knowledge of God. I had
a fellow tell me one time, he said, now, you know, we didn't
know anything, and there wasn't any preachers anywhere around.
We began to see a few things. Oh, they were there, but we hadn't
heard them yet. And we were looking through the
Bible, and I had this old This big old coffee table Bible belonged
to my grandparents. It was called A Good Leader. And I didn't even know anything
about reading the Bible. I didn't know a Bible had a concordance
in the back. And I looked back there and there
was Scripture. So I went down to the things that was giving
me problems. The sovereignty of God and election and predestination
and those things. And I found Scripture references
to it. And so I'd go down there and I'd look up these things.
I looked up these things, and I looked up that word election. Oh, my. I began to look at some
of those scriptures and began to realize that God had a people. This wasn't a universal thing. This was a particular thing.
Christ didn't die for the world. He didn't die to make salvation
possible. He died to make it a certainty.
God had sons. He had children. He had an eternal
purpose. Well, I've been taught all my
life that these things came about out of desperation. God feeling
sorry for the people. I come to know something about
election, eternal election. And this fellow told me, I went
down and was asking him some questions, and he looked at me
and he said, now, he said, elections like this. He said, God looked
down through the telescope of time. And he saw who would and
who wouldn't choose him. He said, that's election. Well,
that still works, ain't it? Huh? That's just future works. That just works. Let me tell
you what God foresees. God foresees what God foreordains. That's what God foresees. And
who's going to stay His hand? If He says they're going to believe,
they're going to believe. It's not just going to be a possibility.
It's not just going to be an option. It's not just going to
be an opportunity. There's going to be. Paul said, I thank God for you,
brethren, that the apostasy of the last days even is not going
to drag you down, because God has from the beginning chosen
you unto salvation. Ain't that what he said? Not
to the possibility of it. Not to the likelihood of it. Not that there just might be
a pretty good hope about it. God has, from the beginning,
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth. You're going to believe. And
he said that's why you believe. Whereunto he called you by our
gospel. Election and these things is
unto salvation. It's not salvation. And I told
them this morning in the Sunday school class, I believed in election. I hung to election. I advised
you over election. Until God killed me. When He
killed me by His Spirit, election disappeared. It disappeared. The only thing I could look to
is Him on the cross. And when you look, you know what?
You know what Paul said to him in that first letter to Thessalonians?
You can look over there in chapter 1 and see what he said. When
he started talking about that election, he said, I know your
election of God. How on earth could any man know
somebody else's election of God? Because when the gospel came
to you, it came not in word only. That's how he knew it. Huh? Because
God sent it in power. And God regenerated. And God
pressed home. that man's sins, and God pressed
home the righteousness of Christ and the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Christ. He pressed home these issues,
and they become issues. Listen to this. God singled out,
over in Romans chapter 9, He singled out two men. Now, the
apostles don't talk about election. And He singles out two men. And
he's talking about this spiritual Israel. You go back and see if
I ain't telling you the truth there. His prayer to God for
Israel was that they might be saved there in Romans 9. He knew
they were lost. He knew they didn't know God.
They were Israelites all right. They had the promises and the
covenants and all those things, but they didn't know God. They
didn't know God. And he moves on to talk about
this thing of sovereign election. And he said there was two people
here, Jacob and Esau. And before they were born, before
they were born, before they had ever done any good or evil, that
the purpose of God according to election might stand. Ain't
that what he said? It was said under her, the elder
is going to serve the younger. Why on earth would you do that?
Because Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. Take it up with God if you have
an argument with it. That's elections. Elections of
the sovereign will of God. And it's of the sovereign love
of God. It says over in Ephesians chapter
2 that God blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ according as He has chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. in love, having predestinated
us. Election is of the sovereignty
of God, as the sovereign God elects, but it's out of the love
of God. It's the love of God. He's chosen us unto salvation. He tells them that the gospel
came unto you, not in word only, but in power and in the Holy
Ghost and in much assurance, and you become followers of us
and the Lord. That's silly, ain't it, to follow
a man? You will if God calls you. You can't find me an example
anywhere in the Scripture that God did anything for anybody
apart from a man. He always sent His man. One man
out in the wilderness riding in a chariot. Made up his mind
he was going to hear from God. Went down to Jerusalem. Went
through all those feast days, all those weeks. Watched every
ceremony. Watched everything they did.
Coming back, didn't know any more than he did when he went
down. Until God sent a man out there to preach to him. And Philip
ran along beside the chariot. And the man was standing up there
reading Isaiah 53. He was standing up there reading
it. And Philip said, Do you understand
what you are reading? He said, how can I understand
it? Huh? Well, I don't need a preacher.
Boy, I'd like to have a nickel for every time I heard that.
I've got a Bible. You won't understand it. Take
it home and read it. You won't understand it. Pharisees
didn't understand it, and they studied it from the time they
were little. They had that Bible for 6,000 years studying it and
studying it and studying it. He said, you search the Scripture,
because in them you think you have eternal life, and they are
they which testify of me, and you will not come unto me that
you might have life. Think that's what it says? You
won't understand it. Take it home and read it. Take it home
and open it up. Flood your heart with all the
information. You won't get nothing out of
it until God sends you a preacher. That's how you're going to learn
His Word, and you're going to become followers of Him and the
Lord. Write it down. That's God's way. That's His way. This is His Word,
not mine. This is His witness, not mine.
He said, you become followers of us and of the Lord, and you
become examples to all whom that believe. And you sounded out
the Word of the Lord. You told others. You turn to
God from your idols. You turn your back on your religion. You turn your back on your heritage.
And all these things have been stamped and stamped and stamped
into your head from the time you was a kid. You turn from
it to God. Why? Why? Because He chose you
unto salvation. That's why. And He sent His sovereign
Spirit down. And He moved on the face of the
deep. That's what it takes. I can't
do it. God the Father blessed us with
all spiritual blessings according as he has chosen us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. It is in Christ. You see, life is in Christ. Election
is in Christ. To have hope of these things,
you must have Christ. Sometimes it may appear like
I am trying to play down the doctrines. I am not trying to
play down the doctrines. I believe in those doctrines.
But by experience, I understand there's no life in the doctrine.
The life is in Christ. The doctrine just tells you how
it's in Christ. That's what the doctrine does.
You go to Christ and embrace Christ, and the doctrines will
just fall into place. They'll just fall into place.
It's all together in Christ. And I'm telling you, the gospel
is not an invitation. It's not an offer. It's not an
opportunity. The gospel is a calling. He said,
whereunto he called you by our gospel. That's what it is, it
calls. John's old Pharisees, they told
Christ, they said, if I be the Christ, tell us plainly. Just
tell us. Say, I'm the Christ. He said,
I told you. I told you. John the Baptist told you. Behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. My Father
told you, out of heaven, this is my beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased. He said, I told you, I told you,
I'm the bread that came down from heaven. Except you eat of
my flesh and drink of my blood, you have no life in you. I told
you. I told you. Huh? He said, I told you, I'm the
great shepherd of the sheep. And he said, when I come to the
porter, the porter knows who I am and lets me have the sheep.
And I take them out and put them out in front of me. Huh? I told you. I told you. But he said, you hear not because
you're not my sheep. Huh? That's right. You don't hear because you're
not my sheep. It's a calling. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. Now, look back here at the text
in 1 Peter. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God, through, not apart from it. not some other way, through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. Election, eternal, sovereign, everlasting,
immutable, unchangeable election is not contingent on something
we do. It's of God. It's of God. and sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth, all of the elect of God will be called
by the Spirit of God through the gospel. Don't ever try to
separate the new birth from the preaching of the gospel. That
fatalism is what that is. I used to have an old fellow
in the church down in Louisiana, and he told me one time, he said,
Preacher, I just believe whatever will be, will be, whether it
ever happens or not. That's fatalism. That's what
that is. So I don't believe you're ever going to hear. How shall you hear? This is God
that asked this question. Not me. This is God. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are you going to call
on Him in whom you have not believed? And how are you going to believe
in Him of whom you have not heard? And how are you going to hear
without a preacher? Now, if religion is what you've got, all you want,
join up. There's nothing to it. Just join
up. Just pick you one that suits you and join up. Stick your hand
out, shake the hand, walk the aisle, sit in the seat, do whatever
you've got to do. Join up. But the only way you can get
in Christ is for God to put you in Christ. And when He puts you
in Christ, He'll send His Spirit to call you. And when He calls
you, bless God, you'll come. You don't come because you've
never been called. You've got to be called. God has to do the calling. I
can't call. God does the calling. How does
He do it? Through a preacher. Huh? But He's just a man. That's exactly right. And what
I say will go out and fall to the ground except His Spirit
carry it. And brother, if His Spirit carries
it, when that man sticks a rod out to seal part, When that man
puts his foot out, the river will run backwards. Now, I'm
telling you the truth. The Holy Spirit of God accompanies
the gospel. Paul got so bold that he told
those people, he said, I have begotten you through the gospel. Ain't that what he said? He's
just a man. That's exactly right. A man chosen
of God. Chosen of God. Don't ever separate
the gospel from the new birth. It's fatalism. And I'm telling
you, we better get a hold of this. What the sovereign God
determines to be done is going to be done. It's going to be
done. That's why I preach. Oh, they've heard it and heard
it and heard it. I don't care how many times they've
heard it. If they ever hear Him speak, they'll move. I wonder
how many of them cried outside Lazarus' tomb. I wonder how many
tears were shed. His sister laid out there and
sobbed. And the relatives and the friends
and the neighbors all gathered around and sobbed and cried and
did all these things. And that stone stayed right where
they put it. And them bones just went right on corrupting in the
grave, didn't they? Until the Lord of Glory came up. And He
said, Lazarus, come out of there. And bless God, He came out, didn't
He? Isn't that so? Come unto me, he said, all you
that are weary and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. When you
hear that, you'll come. You'll come. And I know this, it's unto obedience. Ain't that what he said? There's
going to be a calling, and there's going to be a hearing, and bless
your heart, there's going to be an obeying. I'll give you
two cents for somebody who says, I heard, who don't obey. That's
what the book of James is all about. The book of James defines
this faith. It tells you what kind of faith.
It justifies what kind of faith this is. He's not talking in
James about justifying faith before God. He's talking about
what kind of faith you have. And he justifies that faith by
its works. By its works. It's effectual.
That's what James is talking about. An official faith. A faith
that moves. A faith that obeys. It obeys. Listen to this over in Romans
chapter 6. Romans chapter 6 and verse 17.
He said, But God be thanked that you were the servants of sin.
That's what you were. Serving sin. That's what we did.
We all walked according to the course of this world, according
to the The prince of the power of the air, the spirit of disobedience. We all walked that way. That's
where he found us. We're by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. God do think that you were the servants of sin, but
you have obeyed from the heart. See that? That's where God does
business, in the heart. You have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered you. No you not, back
up there in verse 16, no you not, that to whom you yield yourselves
servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey, whether
of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness. Believers
obey God. You can teach a believer. The
Lord of Glory didn't even try to teach Nicodemus. He just stopped
him in his tracks. If we know that our teacher comes
from God, He says, stop right there. You've got to be born
again. No point in going any farther.
No need in giving you any more illustrations and ideas. Just
stop right there. You've got to be born again.
You must be born again. And then look at this down here
in 1 Peter 1 verse 3. This obedience has to do with
the sprinkling of the blood of Christ on that polluted conscience,
on that guilty conscience. And brother, you can't do that.
Now, you can make pledges and you can make decisions. I don't
deny that. And I'll tell you this, when
God calls you, you're going to make a decision. Sure you are. Sure you are. What about the will? You're going
to engage the will. You're going to be willing. My
people shall be willing in the day of my power. They're going
to be willing. You can't come until you're willing. But you've
got to be made willing. You're not born willing. You're
born hating God. You see what I'm saying? There's
got to be a change. That guilty conscience has to
be sprinkled. It's unclean. That old leper,
he came up there before the priest. And they took the ashes of that
old red heifer and they mixed them in with the blood and they
poured it on him. They sprinkled it on him. And
then the priest looked at him according to the commandment
of God and said, You're clean. You're clean. Well, we know who
our priest is. And I'm telling you this, you
don't have access to that blood. Only he can take that blood,
that blood of Christ that comes to you through the gospel. and
by the power of his eternal Spirit, and sprinkle it on your conscience.
And when he does, he purges that dead conscience from its dead
works to serve the living God. He becomes obedient. Obedient. And then look at this here in
1 Peter 1 through 8. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. which according to his abundant
mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively, a living hope,
both in me and in my Saviour, alive, alive, by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. To be born again is to have within
you established a hope, and that hope in Christ alone." Now, that's
the new birth. That's the new birth. You can
say, I've been born again, when Christ alone becomes all your
hope. Nothing else. Nothing else. Nothing
else. Oh, I've got to keep Sabbath
day. No. No. Paul said to the Galatian
church, he said, if you so much as be circumcised, Christ will
profit you nothing. You can't add anything to it.
You can't take anything away from it. It's Christ in you,
that hope of Christ in you. That's the hope of glory. We've begotten unto a living
hope. I had this hope because I see
myself in union with him before the world was, dying under the
wrath of God, buried in the earth, raised from the dead, and received
into glory. That's a living hope. I don't have to wonder if God's
going to accept that sacrifice. He already accepted it. I don't
have to worry about if God's going to approve of his righteousness.
He's already approved of it. It's a living hope seated at
the right hand of God. And then watch this. This is
the last thing. He said, To an inheritance incorruptible,
and undefiled, that fate is not a way reserved in heaven for
you. Those who are the elect strangers
have been chosen of God to be sons." Sons. There's no way in the world we
can get a hold of that, is there? My son can call me on the telephone,
and it excites my heart just to hear his voice on the telephone. And the daughters are included
in that. My daughters can call, and I get excited, you know.
Well, that's just hard to conceive,
isn't it? That prodigal son coming back
and all of his wickedness, He squandered away his inheritance,
and he threw everything away. He treated it as nothing. He
was just codding underfoot, the Son of God. He was gone. He was
gone. He was out there with the hogs,
down in the pen, eating with the hogs. And he came back home,
and in his own heart and mind, he just thought, Boy, if he would
just let me have a place out there with the servants. The
servants live better than what I'm living down here. What shocked
the son was to see the father bolt from the house. And run
down the road, John. You can't picture in your head
God the Father running down the road. He rolled his arms around that boy
and smothered him with kisses. That's what it means to be a
son. A son. Oh my, think about it. Sons of God. If you're a son,
you're an heir. If you're an heir, the only way
you can be a son is in Christ, so you're joint heir with Jesus
Christ. Wow! Huh? An heir. An heir of righteousness. An
heir of eternal life. You're an heir. You're a son.
And because, he said, you are sons, because you are sons, God
has sent forth His Spirit into your heart and causes you to
cry what? Abba Father. That's what Peter's
talking about in here. That's exactly what he's talking
about. And I tell you, for whom God sent His only begotten Son
to die, for whom God has designed and purposed this redemption
to show the glory of His name, for that people, you think He's
just going to send them out there and turn His back on them? No.
He's going to keep them. That's what He's going to do.
unto him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present
you faultless." Faultless. Listen to this. Old Jude writes,
"...to those who are sanctified by God the Father, preserved
in Christ Jesus." You know what that word means? That means when Sue takes them
old scuffing arms and makes that jelly and seals it and puts a
lid on it, they're preserved. Put them on the shelf. They're
preserved. And when you get ready to eat some, you can take it
down and pop the lid. Just as good as it was the day
they put it in there. Preserved in Christ Jesus and
called.