Turn together to the book of
1st Peter. 1st Peter chapter 1. Brother Lindsey called last
night and said that his voice was gone. I don't know if he
lost it screaming at the grandchildren or laughing at them, but his
voice is gone and asked me if I would take the class this morning.
1st Peter chapter 1. The Apostle Peter never got over
the wonders of God's grace to him and the redemption that Christ
Jesus accomplished for him at Calvary. This short epistle speaks
of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ from the beginning
to the end. The sufferings of Christ are
mentioned by Peter in every chapter of this epistle. But this morning
I want us to look just at the first chapter And I want to show
you here 12 facts about God's people. Here are 12 things that
Peter speaks of with relation to all who are born of God. And they are true of you and
me if indeed we are born of God. We'll start in chapter 1 and
verse 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the strangers. That's the first thing he mentioned
about God's people. Strangers. Strangers in this
world. They always have been and always
are. Abel was a stranger to his brother
Cain. Cain could not understand what
motivated Abel. He could not understand Abel's
devotion to the Lord and Abel's insistence on the way of worshiping
the Lord God. And for that reason, he killed
him. The enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of
the woman continually is manifest because in the eyes of this world,
we are strangers. The world did not know our Savior.
He says, therefore, the world will not know you. We are a people
the world cannot understand. And that which folks don't understand
is fearful to them. strangers scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Now look
at the next word used to describe God's people. Elect. Elect. What a blessed, blessed
term. It's not used much in religious
circles in our day, is it? But in the New Testament, God's
people were referred to all the time as elect. The word is used
some, either elect or chosen, used some 60 times to refer to
God's people in this world. Those who are born of God are
the elect. And when we speak about the elect,
we're talking about that which appears obvious. They are a people
special to God. They are a people who are highly
honored of God. A people distinctly favored of
God. Elect people of God. People God
chose. Now when the scripture speaks
about election, understand what the scripture speaks of. We who
believe now, believe because God chose us to salvation. We who now believe, believe as
the result of God having chosen us. We who choose Him, choose
Him because He first chose us. We who love Him, love Him because
He first loved us. And this election of our souls
is an election unto salvation. It is an election that took place
before the world began. It is an election in Christ which
guarantees the salvation of the chosen. Here Peter speaks of
God's people as being elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father. Look down in verse 20 of this
same chapter and see what Peter says here about our Lord Jesus,
who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world.
The word translated foreordained in verse 20 and the word translated
foreknowledge in verse 2 are exactly the same word. God's
foreknowledge is not merely His omniscience. It is not His prescience
or prescience. It is not Him merely knowing
beforehand. Omniscience is an attribute of
God. Foreknowledge is an act of God. We are elect because God foreordained
us to salvation. We are elect according to God's
sovereign purpose. This word foreknowledge, however,
means far more than merely to know or to ordain beforehand. It means to approve of, to accept,
to love. Elect according to the eternal
love of God, the approval of God, the acceptance of God in
Christ Jesus. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit. Elect through
the regenerating, separating, distinct work of God the Holy
Spirit. That work by which God's people
are fitted for heaven. Unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. We were chosen in God's eternal
purpose of grace chosen to be called out, separated, regenerated,
sanctified by God the Holy Spirit, and called unto the obedience
of faith, the faith of Jesus Christ, which comes by the sprinkling
of the blood of Christ to the redeemed sinner. That is, by
the application of Christ's finished work of atonement to those who
are chosen and redeemed by Him. Verse 3, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant
mercy hath begotten us. There's a third word, begotten. All who are gods in this world
are begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. We've been regenerated, born
again, begotten again to a living hope A hope that lives within
us. Christ in you, the hope of glory. And we have been begotten to
this hope by the resurrection of Christ himself. What does
that mean? We were raised together with
him, yes. But we weren't regenerated or
begotten again to this lively hope living in us when Christ
was raised from the dead. He's talking about our experience
of grace. We were born again. by the resurrection of Christ
from the dead, that is, by virtue of our Lord's resurrection from
the dead, and we have now been raised with Him in the newness
of life. Verse 4, to an inheritance incorruptible,
undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. God's people are a people who
have an inheritance reserved in heaven. We are heirs of God
and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Paul says, I have not seen nor
ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things
which God has prepared for them that love him. We think about
the glory that awaits us. We think about the inheritance
that is ours with Christ, and our minds are lost in wonder,
and the more we meditate on it, the more we know of it, the more
we understand of the teaching of Scripture regarding it, the
more we recognize that it is absolutely unimaginable. It's revealed to us by His Spirit,
revealed to us in His Word, but I hasn't seen it. ear hasn't
heard it, it's never entered into the heart of man, but God's
prepared for them that love Him. Whatever is the inheritance of
Jesus Christ our Mediator, whatever is the inheritance that He possesses
as the result of His obedience unto death, whatever it is that
the Father gave to the Son because of the Son's accomplishments
on our behalf, That's the inheritance that awaits us in glory. An inheritance
of pure, free grace. Read on. Here's the fifth thing
about all God's people who are kept. Kept. What a great word. Hedged about, guarded, preserved,
sealed, kept. Kept. from eternity, kept through
Adam's fall, and now kept in God's grace, kept by the power
of God. How secure is the security of
the believing center? As secure as omnipotence. Kept by the power of God through
faith, that faith that God gives, that faith that God preserves,
that faith that God keeps alive, that faith that God continually
operates in us unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. Verse 6, wherein ye greatly rejoice. God's people are a people who
rejoice, but they are a people of heaviness, wherein ye greatly
rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness
through manifold temptations. Oh, the heaviness some of God's
people experience in this world. But whatever that heaviness is,
Whatever the trial is that presses on your heart, understand and
remember there is a needs be for the heaviness. There is a
needs be for the trial. Or Peter tells us here in verse
seven that the trial of your faith being much more precious
than of gold that perisheth. though it be tried with fire,
the trial itself more precious than gold, though your faith
is tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and
glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. The children of God will find
in heaven's glory that heaven is made more splendorous, made
more glorious, made more delightful, made more wonderful by reason
of the trials and the tribulations through which we enter into the
kingdom of God than it otherwise could be. The trial of your faith
will be found to praise and honor and glory when the Savior comes. whom having not seen ye love. There's the seventh thing, true
of every child of God. Peter, lovest thou me? Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Our love for Christ is such that We dare not speak much about
it. But is it real? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. We love Him because
He first loved us. All who are born of God love
the Savior. We love Him because of His love
for us. And we love Him because He loved
us before we ever loved him but love him we do if any man loved
not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be damned let him be anathema
maranatha the Lord is coming not only is it true that we love
him we believe him and it is I believing him that it causes
us to love him he says whom having not seen ye love in whom though
now ye see him not yet believing believing ye rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory the believer then is one who
believes and one who rejoices we believe him and believing
him we rejoice in faith joy is that which comes because of our
knowledge of the Redeemer and our experience of His grace.
When the scripture speaks of joy and God commands us to rejoice,
He's not talking about giddy, silly, laughter, acting silly
all the time, not at all. He's talking about that confident
peace that rules the heart and causes the believing soul to
walk before God with contentment and satisfaction. There is no
joy like the joy of satisfaction. No joy like the joy of peace. No joy like the joy of faith,
that which God alone gives in Christ Jesus the Lord. The joy
of sins forgiven, of righteousness bestowed, of salvation sure. Read on. Receiving the end of your faith,
even the salvation of your souls. That's the tenth thing he tells
us about God's people. They are a people who are continually
receiving salvation. This is the end of our faith.
We are continually receiving God's grace upon us, continually
receiving God's bounty and God's mercy, continually receiving
this great salvation the Lord has wrought for us and bestowed
upon us. Now look at what Peter tells
us about this salvation. He said, of which salvation the
prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of
the grace that should come unto us. The prophets knew about this
salvation. It was revealed in the days of
the prophets, but not as it's now revealed. And so they continually
inquired and searched as to what this salvation is and what it
would be. This salvation that would come
to us. Searching what? Of what manner
of time? The Spirit of Christ which was
in them. Sometimes folks say, well, the
Holy Spirit wasn't in the Old Testament Saints. Peter says
otherwise. The Spirit was in those prophets. The Spirit in
them did signify, when it testified beforehand, the sufferings of
Christ and the glory that should follow. Throughout the Old Testament
Scriptures, the Holy Spirit, by all the prophets, spoke of
the sufferings of our Lord Jesus. His sufferings as our substitute.
His sufferings as our penal sacrifice. His sufferings as the Lamb of
God. His sufferings represented in all the various acts of violence
by which sacrifices in the Old Testament were continually offered
to God. Those prophets who wrote of those
things understood these things speak of Him who is to come as
our Redeemer and Savior. And those sufferings of Christ
were the foreshadowing of the glory that would surely follow.
the glory that Christ would have as the result of his sufferings
and the glory that we would possess as the result of those sufferings.
Verse 12, unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but
unto us they did minister the things which are now reported
unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven Which things the angels desire
to look into? Paul speaks of the angels of
God meeting with us as we meet together in this place, prying
into the wonders of redemption. Peter speaks of the angels of
God here desiring to look into these things which are the everyday
continual experience of every child of God. If the angels are astonished
at God's overflowing, unceasing grace to you and me, how much
more ought we to be? If the angels desire to learn
about that which they can never experience, how much more we
ought to desire to learn about that which we continually experience? If the angels give praise to
our God and Savior for that which He has done for us, Bless my soul that I give so
little praise to Him for that which He's doing for me. Wherefore, verse 13, gird up
the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not fashioning
yourselves according to the former lust in your ignorance but as
he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of
conversation in all the ways of your life as God Almighty
himself is sanctified holy so be you sanctified holy in every
detail of your lives because it is written be ye holy for
I am holy. What on earth is he telling us?
Walk before God and make yourselves holy before him? No. No. He commands that we be holy and
we're to walk before men as those who are holy because God has
made us holy. We are to walk before men, not
to show men. Now we need to get over this.
We talk like this all the time, but we want folks to see, see
what kind of believers we are. We want folks to see our Christianity. We want folks to see our devotion.
No, if there's anything our Lord was specific about, He told us
in Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7, don't show your religion to
anybody. Don't even try. Don't even try. I want folks to see that I'm
devoted to Jesus. I know you want folks to think
highly of you. I do too. I want folks to see that I'm
a real Christian. I know we want folks to think we're something
else. That is never the admonition of scripture. Walk before men
in all holy conversation in godliness because that's right. Because
that's just right. It's just right to be honest.
It's just right to be upright. It's just right to do right.
It's right to be generous and gracious and merciful and kind
and forgiving. It's just right not to be seen
of men, but rather because God has made you holy. Be ye holy,
for I am holy. Verse 17, And if ye call on the
Father, who without respect to persons judgeth according to
every man's work, past the time of your sojourning here in fear."
Oh, God make me to understand that my time here is but a sojourn
through a land that is a place in which I am a stranger. Verse
18, here's a Eleventh thing, fact
of all, all true believers, for as much as ye know. God's people are a people who
have been and are continually taught of God. And those who
are taught of God get the lessons. Those who are taught of God know
things. We know that which God reveals
in His Word. We have the mind of Christ. We
are not judged or discerned by anyone, but those who have the
mind of Christ judge or discern all things. We know how God saves
sinners. We know that God has saved us
by His grace. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. And we know this, we're redeemed. That's the last thing. God's
people are a people redeemed, not with corruptible things as
silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition
from your fathers, redeemed. bought out of, bought back again,
bought with the precious blood of Christ out of nothing. Where were you when the Lord
found you by His grace? Nowhere. What were you? Nothing. What were you doing? Nothing. Your vain conversation. What would your life amount to
without Him? Nothing. Nothing. Many folks
talk about what they gave up for God. What they gave up to
serve Jesus. Tell you what I gave up, vanity
and nothing. And you too. We were redeemed
from a meaningless existence ungodliness a meaningless existence
in time and to eternity a meaningless existence in this world and a
meaningless existence in the world to come from our vain manner
of life redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus Christ as a lamb
without spot without blemish who verily was foreordained for
you. That's Peter's description of
God's people. That's what God's people are
in this world. Amen.