I announced Sunday morning that
I would be preaching to you tonight on Moses' endurance, faith, in
Hebrews 11, and I gave Shelby the notes to type up this morning,
and she got that done maybe next week. But I have had my mind
on the subject for this evening for several days. I'm scheduled
to preach Thursday night and Friday night from Ephesians 1
and 2 in Pottstown, Illinois. So perhaps that has something
to do with this. I have been asked several questions in recent
days concerning God's election and predestination. And I like
to preach glorious gospel doctrine in the plainest, simplest, most
practical way possible. So I want you to turn with me
to Ephesians, I'm sorry, to 1 Peter chapter 2. I'll get it right
in a minute. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 2.
1 Peter chapter 1 verse 2, and listen to these blessed words.
With these sweet, sweet words, the Holy Spirit inspired Peter
to describe every saved sinner. Now, what he says here of these
strangers and pilgrims scattered abroad in his day, is true of
all who are strangers and pilgrims, Jesus Christ's strangers and
pilgrims in this day. He says, 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. Imagine that. You who believe
are elect, chosen of God and precious. You who believe are
sanctified by God the Holy Spirit. You who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ are redeemed with his precious blood. You who believe
are given the promise of grace and peace constantly multiplied
while you live in this world. Now, whatever it is that may
crush your heart now, here is reason to rejoice and give thanks
to our God. With these words, Peter does,
as often is done in the New Testament, he gives us the work of the triune
God in the work of salvation in one brief statement. He tells
us that God the Father has chosen us, God the Spirit has sanctified
us, and God the Son has redeemed us. And he speaks of these things
as matters of certainty, speaks of them with absolute confidence
with regard to all who are born of God. These soul-comforting
truths of Holy Scripture are the characteristics of every
saved sinner. and they are the characteristics
of God's saving operations. Now, let's look at the verse
line by line, and I'll give it to you as plainly as I possibly
can. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father. Election. What a blessed, blessed
doctrine of Scripture. Now, election is not at all difficult
to understand. I know people These days have
the notion that somehow if men just understood the doctrine
a little better, then they would believe it and rejoice in it.
That's not the problem. Everybody I talk to understands
plainly what I'm talking about when I talk about election. I've
never talked to anybody who didn't understand what I was talking
about. You go out and make a choice. You go buy a house. You go talk
to the fellow down here at Century 21 or some other real estate
agency, and you go out various places, and he shows you a house,
and you make a choice. Now, if he said, yes, sir, I've
got just the house for you, it'll be so much money, I'll draw up
the deeds, and you come by and sign the papers, you'd say, wait
a minute, wait a minute, that choice is not yours. That choice
is mine to make. And you'd be perfectly right,
because that man is not God. That man has no authority over
you. That man owns nothing of you. But when we talk about God's
election, the problem is not that men and women do not understand
that we are telling them that God chooses whom he will save. The problem is we are all by
nature rebels against God, and it is not the doctrine of election
that men hate, but rather it is the God of election. Election
is as simple as A-B-C. You know what it is to make a
choice, and what the Scriptures declare is that the choice in
this matter of salvation, the choice in this matter of God's
grace, the choice is not yours, but God's. The Scriptures declare
plainly that salvation is the Lord's. It belongs to him. That means he gives it to whom
he will. The Scriptures declare plainly
that you are God's property. He's created you. He made you. He can do with you and with me,
with yours and with mine, exactly as he will, and there is no questioning
his right to do so. He has mercy on whom he will
have mercy. Now, this doctrine of election
is stated so many ways in such clarity in the Scriptures that
I can't begin to give them all to you. But our Lord says, Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest. and causes to approach unto thee. Those then who are chosen of
God are blessed. They are the people who are called
by his grace to come to him. The scriptures tell us that our
Lord Jesus told his disciples just before he left this world,
you have not chosen me. But Pritchard, don't we have
to choose Christ? Don't we have to come to Christ? Oh, yes. Not
only is it true that we have to, blessed be God, we get to. But we come to Him because He's
come to us. We seek Him because He sought
us. We choose Him because He chose
us, not the other way around. Our Lord said, You have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you and ordained you. In Acts 13, you'll
remember, When the apostles were preaching at Antioch, I believe
it was, the scripture says, as many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. I recall years ago, I listened
to a tape somewhere I left around, I don't know who it was, by Mr.
Falwell. He was preaching from Acts 13,
48. I listened carefully. Every time he read the verse,
every time, no exceptions, he read it like this. as many as
believed were ordained to eternal life," deliberately perverting
and twisting the scripture. That's not what the book says.
It does not say, as many as believed were ordained, as though our
believing had something to do with our being ordained unto
eternal life. The book says, as many as were
ordained to eternal life believed, and as it was in that day, so
it is in this day. Who will believe the gospel?
We don't preach the gospel haphazardly, hoping maybe somehow, sometime,
somebody may decide to believe. Oh no, we preach the gospel wherever
God gives opportunity, by whatever means He gives us, knowing assuredly
that somebody shall believe because somebody has been ordained to
eternal life, and those who were ordained to eternal life will
believe. Look with me, if you will, to
2 Thessalonians 2. You're very, very familiar with Ephesians
1. I've quoted it to you so many
times, so let's look at 2 Thessalonians 2 for just a minute, and listen
to the way the Apostle Paul describes God's election. But we are bound to give thanks
all the way to God, verse 13, for you, brethren beloved of
the Lord. What a description, brethren.
Brethren, because Christ has united our hearts. Brethren,
because we are together beloved of the Lord. And this is the
cause for thanksgiving. Because God has from the beginning
chosen you through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. Chosen you to what? Chosen you
to salvation. Folks say, well, God did choose
folks to certain service, and that's election. That's not election
at all. God does choose whom he will
to preach. God does choose whom he will
to send to this place or that. But Paul says here, by inspiration,
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, to salvation
through the sanctifying work of God the Holy Spirit by which
we are brought to the belief of the truth. whereunto he called
you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ." But here in our text, Peter is inspired by the Holy
Spirit to describe election in a slightly different way than
that which is commonly given. In fact, he describes it in a
way by which many are confused. You see, God has wisely written
this book in such a way as to deliberately confuse unbelieving
men and women. I said that on purpose. This
book was wisely written by God in such a way as to deliberately
confuse unbelieving men and women. You will never make anyone believe
what's written in this book by logic, reason, science, history,
or religious tradition. The only way anyone understands
what's written in this book is by believing God. But he says
here, we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father. Now, the babbling free willers
jump all over that and they'll spit and snarl and say, there
you see, God chose us based on what he foresaw we would do. How many times you heard that?
He looked out through the wise telescope of omniscience, down
through the ages of time, and he saw that there would come
a time when you would choose him, so he chose you." Isn't
that sweet? That's blasphemy. That's blasphemy. For that makes God's grace to
be determined by you, not by him. That makes God's act to
be determined by your act, not by his sovereign will. And the
text does not say elect according to the foreseeing of God the
Father, but rather elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father. So he's telling us that God's
election is according to this which is his great, great act
of mercy, foreknowledge. Well, what is that? Well, foreknowledge,
anybody can understand, that's knowledge beforehand. Yeah, but
in the scriptures it's a whole lot more than that. Let me show
you. I've shown you this many, many times. I hope you have jotted
it down. If not, jot it down now. The
word foreknowledge in the scripture is never foreknowledge of things
or events. Never. Never. Not one time in
this book is the word foreknowledge used of things and events. It never says what he foreknew,
but rather whom he foreknew, Romans 8.29. God's foreknowledge
is not to be confused with his omniscience. As far as we know,
God knows all things. Foreknowledge is not omniscience.
Omniscience is an attribute of God. Foreknowledge is an act
of grace. It's a big difference. Omniscience
is that which is essential to God being God. Foreknowledge
is an act of God as God. Now, as it's spoken of in the
Scriptures, it implies these four things, and I'll show it
to you in the book. Number one, foreordination. We're not left
to guess about this. Look down at verse 20. 1 Peter 1.20, who verily
was foreordained before the foundation of the world. Now if you'll get
your concordance and look it up, you'll see the word for knowledge
in verse 2 and the word for ordained in verse 20 are exactly the same
word. So don't ever apologize about
God's election. We were chosen unto salvation
according to God's sovereign act of predestination for ordaining
us unto eternal life in Jesus Christ. Were it not for election,
no one would ever be saved. Election doesn't close the doors
of heaven. Election throws the door wide
open. Election doesn't shut someone out. We were shut out by Adam's
fall. We are shut out by our sins,
by our transgressions. Election opens the doors so that
sinners may come in and guarantees that some shall come in. So foreknowledge
first means foreordination. But second, the word foreknowledge. implies love, everlasting love. God's foreknowledge of his elect
is first, his foreordaining us unto eternal life, and it is
secondly, his loving us in Christ before the world began. You don't
need to turn there and look at it, but in Genesis chapter 4,
remember where the scripture says Adam knew his wife Eve? Interesting word, isn't it? It
doesn't mean David, he knew her name. He gave her her name. It
doesn't mean he knew who she was. He knew very well who she
was. It doesn't mean he knew all about
her. He's the one out of whom she
was made. He knew all about her. What does
it mean he knew his wife? He loved her. He loved her. He showed his love to her. Our Lord says in Matthew 7, depart
from me you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. That doesn't
mean he doesn't know who they are. He's judging them based
on who they are. Well, what's it mean, I never
knew you? I never loved you. Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. The word for knowledge here,
then, speaks of God loving us beforehand, God loving us from
eternity, in love having predestinated us under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
Listen to this. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore with lovingkindness have I gone thee. Say something
else, selection. Our full knowledge is, it is
divine approval. The Lord knows his people. He knows. I never knew you, he
says to these on his left hand. To these on his right, he says,
come you blessed are my father. Blessed because I know you. I
know you. I have known them and they have
known me, our Lord said in John 17. Turn to Psalm 1, the first
Psalm. Let me show you how this word
is used. Verse 6. The Lord knoweth the way of the
righteous. Oh, what's so special about that? If he don't, but the way of the
ungodly shall perish. He knows both. you want to use
that kind of language. He knows both, historically,
if you want to use that kind of language. He knows what the
righteous do and what the wicked do, but that's not what this
text is talking about. The text says the Lord knows
the way of the righteous, and the declaration is the Lord God
Almighty approves of the way of the righteous. The way of
the wicked shall perish. That's the difference. Now, when
the scripture speaks of God's own It's declaring, number one,
God chose us because he foreordained us, he predestined us unto eternal
life. Number two, he chose us because
he loved us from eternity. And number three, he chose us
because he approved of us from eternity. He smiled on us before ever we
sinned in our father Adam. He smiled on us before ever we
transgressed in the garden. He smiled on us before ever we
came forth from the womb, speaking lies. The Lord knows the way
of the righteous. Listen to this. To the praise
of the glory of his grace, wherein, that is in his grace, in his
electing, adopting, predestinating grace in Christ, he hath made
us accepted into beloved. Paul was telling us in that passage
in Ephesians that God Almighty, according to the rich, rich grace
that's given us in Christ, because he put us in Christ, because
he chose us in Christ, because he loved us in Christ, because
he ordained us in Christ, because he approved of us in Christ,
he has made us accepted in Christ the Lord. Blessed be his name. And there's no possibility of
variance. Now listen to me, listen to me.
God Almighty accepts all his own for the same reason all the
time in exactly the same way, perfectly, fully, immutably. But didn't the Lord become angry
with us when we fell? Oh no, no, no, no, no. But didn't
the Lord draw out his sword against us when we fell? Oh no, no, no,
no, no. That's what we experience in
our minds as children of wrath who have come to life in faith
in Christ. But God's justice was satisfied in his son, slain
from the foundation of the world. And we were accepted in him,
declared just and righteous before God indeed, declared glorified. Read Romans chapter 8. Divine
foreknowledge means this, too. It means absolute, infallible
security. The foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. But what's the purpose of that
statement? Second Timothy chapter two is talking about trying times,
difficult times, turbulent times things that seem to be falling
apart everywhere. Everything seems to be coming
apart at the seams. But no need for God's people
to fear. No need for God's people to stand
and tremble. The Lord knows them that are
His. That means everything's alright. Everything is alright. He knows
you. He knows you. I don't know of
a better way to illustrate it. Then a father speaking to his
child. The child has some difficulty, some trouble. We just had one, but when Faith
was a little girl, she came to me with some trouble. I'm talking
about trouble. Something weighed heavy on her
heart. Something caused her to be afraid.
I snuggled her up close to my chest, and I put my arms around
her just to swallow her And I said, that's all right, honey, I know.
I know. And she understood. When I said,
I know, everything's all right. Daddy will take care of it. Daddy will take care of it. Everything's
all right. Too big for me, but not for him. It's too difficult
for me, but not for him. It's too heavy for me, but not
for him. He knows. Now listen to me, my brothers
and sisters. The Lord God knows. He knows you. He knew you from
everlasting. And because he knew you from
everlasting, he kept you in his omnipotent, almighty arm, in
the hand of his grace, even when you didn't know him. Even when
you ran headlong toward hell, he held you because he foreknew
you. I don't often say much about
it, don't need me to talk much about what I've been, what I've
done. But I spent my life with my coattails on fire with hell,
flirting with death, flirting with death. Did everything I
possibly could except take my own life, put myself in hell's
way all the time. And God kept me. How come? Because he knew me. And you think anything's going
to change that now? Oh, no. Foreordination, foreknowledge
is absolute security. It is infallible, immutable approval. It is everlasting, immutable
love. It is everlasting, sovereign
foreordination. But election's not the first
thing we learn. difficult to get this through
our heads. But nobody will ever know anything about election
until he's experienced sanctification. Nobody. You're not going to understand
it, you're not going to get it, you're not going to get in on
it, you're not going to enjoy the blessedness of it until you
experience sanctification. So the apostle here tells us,
elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit. Now, sanctification is commonly
thought to be something that the believer does for himself
with the gracious assistance of the Holy Spirit, by which
he gradually progresses in a state of holiness. until he becomes
so holy that he's just finally right for heaven, and the Lord
takes him home. Nothing could be further from
the truth, has it been your experience, or mine, or any other honest
person. We don't get more holy. That's
just not so. Our holiness is Christ. We are
accepted in the beloved. Our only righteousness is Christ. Our old nature never improves. We do not grow more and more
holy. Yes, we grow in grace. You read
it a little bit ago. We grow in love for Christ. Yes,
sir, every believer does. We grow in this state of holiness,
but we don't get more progressively holy by our varying degrees of
obedience. But what on earth is the sanctification
of the Spirit? Sanctification essentially, I'm
not going to get into the doctrine of sanctification a great deal,
but sanctification essentially is this. It is setting apart. That's what it
means. You have seen these westerns,
I presume you have. Back in earlier days, when ranchers
allowed their cattle to roam the ranges freely, when we lived
in West Virginia, they still had range laws, and if a fellow
wanted to, he could just let his cattle run all the time out
in the woods, out in the mountains, out in the fields, just openly. But when the time came for him
to get his cattle in, take them to market or butcher them, he'd
go out and find cattle, and he'd cut his out. He'd cut them out. That's what sanctification is.
It is God cutting out his own. He did so in eternal election
before the world began. He set us apart for himself.
He did so in divine redemption when Christ died for us at Calvary
and put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself. He set
us apart as his own. And he does so in free, sovereign
grace when he calls sinners from death to life. He calls them
the name of his church is sought out, because he has sought them
out and separated us to himself. We were chosen by God, were chosen
by God to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit. Now this is what
that means. If you're one of these chosen
ones, the time will come when God the Holy Spirit will come
to you an omnipotent power in irresistible grace to sanctify
you, to set you apart from the world, to set you apart for Christ,
to set you apart for God. It also means this. If you're
a child of God, if I'm a child of God, if we are believers,
if we are men and women who've experienced this blessed operation
of grace called the new birth, then we have been set apart from
the world by the grace and power of God the Holy Spirit for God
alone. We're His. We're His. I don't know how many times I've
quoted this passage in the last several weeks, but not enough. We're not our own. Bob Ponce
said we've been bought, locked, stock and barrel with the precious
blood of Christ. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and in your spirits, which are God's. But why does Peter
put sanctification before redemption? Why does he do that? Was he confused? Did he get this thing out of
joint? Somehow he was mistaken, when all through the scriptures
sanctification is clearly declared to be something that takes place
after redemption. No, Peter wasn't confused, he was inspired. And
it gives the order here not in the order in which things are
accomplished, but rather in the order in which they're experienced.
We first are sanctified by God the Holy Spirit before we know
anything at all about the redeeming work of Christ. Someone says
in order for a man to be saved, he's got to know that Christ
died for him. But you'll never know that till
God saves you. You're just not going to know that. You know
Christ died for sinners, but you're not going to know he died
for you till God the Holy Spirit comes in saving grace and speaks
peace to your heart, sprinkling your heart with the blood of
his Son. All right, now look at this. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience,
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Here, Peter shows us that the
object of God the Father in election, and the object of God the Holy
Spirit in regeneration and sanctification, is that the chosen sinner may
be brought to the experimental enjoyment of the fact that he'd
been redeemed. most blessed thing I've ever
learned in my life is I'm redeemed. I've been bought. Redeemed. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. Being made a curse for us, for
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. Redeemed
by his blood. I like the story that's told
concerning A.J. Gordon. I presume it's so. He
was preaching in Chicago. He pastored the church there
in Chicago for years. One winter day, he was walking
down the streets and he heard some rumpus down the alleyway,
and he looked down there and saw some boys playing in the
alley. And then he knew them, and he
walked over to them. He said, boys, what you got there?
Oh, we got some blackbirds, preacher. Caught these old snowbirds. Had
them in a cage they'd made. He said, what are you going to
do with them? Well, you can play with them a while and kill them,
I reckon. Just blackbirds. He said, I'll tell you what I'll
do. I'll buy them from you. What do you want with these two blackbirds?
Oh, I'll give you $2 for them, cage and all. That's a deal. He gave them their $2, and they
ran around the street just kind of laughing. They'd make themselves
a good bit of money in those days. When the boys got out of
sight, he picked up the cage. He said to the blackbird, he
said, I bought you, and you're mine. And he opened the door
and he said, now I'm going to set you free. And he shoot him
out. And he said, as the bird went flying through the air,
I could almost hear him sing, redeemed, how I love to proclaim
it, redeemed by the blood of the lamb, redeemed through his
infinite mercy, his child and forever I am. That's what God
the Holy Spirit does. in regenerating grace. He comes
and calls his sinners to have the blood of Christ effectively
applied to their hearts so that as we look to him, he speaks
peace to our hearts and declares us forgiven, accepted, justified,
sanctified, righteous before God, men and women whose consciences
no longer have anything to dread before God, forgiven of sin,
and guilt is gone, so that we've come now to the obedience of
faith by the power of his grace. And then a text reads like this. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of the and belief of the truth. Paul said that in 2 Thessalonians,
you'll recall. Undue obedience, that's the belief
of the truth he's talking about. And sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. Now look at this. Grace to you,
and peace be multiplied. And Lindsay, that's not a wish.
That's not even a prayer. That's an inspired benediction. This is what God the Holy Spirit
promises to every believing sinner. Are you one who believes on the
Son of God? A preacher, I didn't ask you
what you feel. A preacher, I didn't ask you what you know. I said,
do you believe on the Son of God? Do you trust Christ? Do you look to Christ alone for
acceptance with God? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Oh yes, I do, I do. Then grace
shall be given to you and multiplied to you as you need it, as long
as you live in this body of flesh. pardon and grace. Will God forgive me for what
I did today? For what I thought today? Not only He will, He has. He
has forgiven. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord will not impute sin. Oh, that's a blessing. That's
a blessing. Wonder if he'll keep me. Benji
and I were chatting a little bit before services. Sadly, too likely. Too likely. So many, so many
seem to be so strong, so steadfast. Now they're gone. Will He keep me? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Yes, sir. I know He will because He chose
me. He called me. He redeemed me. I know He will because He approves
of me. He loves me. He knows me. He's ordained me. unto everlasting
life. And then there's that thing of
what the old writers used to call prevenient grace. I never cease to be amazed at
how God graciously, most of the time secretly, steps in our way
to keep us from doing the things we would by which we would ruin
ourselves. You remember when David got so
mad at Nabal, he said to his young men, he said, get your
sword on, we're going to go down there and kill everybody in his
house. There's not going to be even a male baby left in his
house. And word got out, David's coming.
And Abigail, Nabal's wife, she quickly had her servants to saddle
their ashes and load the things down with the goods, and she
met David in the way, and she said, David, she said, don't
do this thing. You've got no mind. I'm married
to a fool, but you're not one. You serve God Almighty. Don't
do this thing. And David said, oh, I've never
seen a woman like this. When that old buzzard dies, I'm
going to marry her, and he did. Prevenient grace. Prevenient
grace. Thank God. He will not leave
us to ourselves. Not for a moment. He said to
the apostle, my grace is sufficient for you. But what about this messenger's
safety? Live with it. And my brother, my sister, whatever
in God's good providence, Is that constant messenger of Satan
by which you were buffeted and beat down? Whatever that is in
God's good providence by which you're constantly trying. Your Heavenly Father has sent
it. He's arranged it. He'll give
you grace to live with. My grace is sufficient for you.
And peace. Peace shall be given to you and
multiplied to you, because God your Father chose you, God the
Spirit sanctified you, and God the Son redeemed you. The peace of his pardon and grace,
the peace of his good providence, the peace of his presence. I'll give you peace in life.
And I'll give you peace in trouble. And I'll give you peace in the
storm. And I'll give you peace in time. I'll give you peace forever.
My peace I give unto you. Be sure you get this carried
home. Grace and peace once given shall only multiply. They'll never divide. They'll
never diminish. They'll never end. Grace and
peace be multiplied. Oh, good child. Can't tell you what I'd give
to have that. Would you really? Would you? Would you walk out of here having
confidence in your soul? Not a confidence a man gives
you. Confidence that God Almighty gives you, that God Almighty,
before the world was, loved you, approved of you, predestined
you to everlasting life, put you in His omnipotent hand,
and said, I'm going to bring you to glory. Would you walk
out of here confident That God the Holy Spirit has called you,
sanctified you by his grace, separated you from everybody
else in the world, brought you into his kingdom. Would you walk
out of here singing redeemed, redeemed, redeemed? Would you walk out of here knowing
that goodness and mercy are nipping at your heels all the days of
your life? Knowing that grace and peace
is yours forever. Believe on the Son of God. And I'm telling you, you're elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. You've been sanctified by God
the Holy Spirit. You've been redeemed. By the
blood of God's darling son, you're blessed. Blessed of God forever. Amen.