I want to exhort a little bit
tonight. I want to do more of what I've
been trying to do a lot of the last few years. I want to talk
to believers. I want to talk to you who know
Christ, who love Christ, and give to you that which our Lord
instructed me to give, comfort. I want to talk about believers
and their blessings. Believers and their blessings.
Now a lot of younger preachers get these tapes. Brother Ron
emails out tapes to a lot of places. I think he told me Friday
a week ago he mailed 600 tapes on that one day. And I would
say to these young men who are half my age. We don't need to
spend the precious time that God gives us together rebuking
false prophets and preaching to people who are not here. We don't need to spend our time,
our precious time, our limited time together each week lamenting
over and complaining about and condemning false prophets and
this work. Our Lord rebuked his disciples
for that. On one occasion he said to them
and to those standing about, he said, it's not what goes into the mouth
that defiles a man. It's that which comes out of
his mouth. For that which comes out of the mouth is from the
heart. And the disciples ran up to him and they said, Do you
not know that the Pharisees were offended by what you said? Do
you not know that the leaders of religion, the esteemed leaders
of religion were offended by what you said? What did the Lord
say? Leave them alone. Leave them alone. Let me say
it again. Leave them alone. They are not
your leaders. He said they are blind leaders
of the blind. These men have an audience. It's
the blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
they both fall into the ditch. What we have is good news for
guilty sinners. We've got good news. We don't
have bad news, we have good news. Brother Richardson said, I haven't
heard any bad news since I heard the good news. We have salvation
for sinners. We have bread for the hungry.
Let's put the bread on the table. We have water for the thirsty.
In fact, I'll give you four scriptures. Don't turn to them, I'll just
read them to you because I want to move along into this text. I have four scriptures which
encourage us to a faithful proclamation of the gospel of Christ at all
times. Preach Christ to His people. And these scriptures will deliver
us from Men from defensive preaching. And preaching to people who are
opposed to what we believe. John said this, in 1 John 4,
5, he said, talking about these false preachers, he said, they
are of the world. Therefore speak they of the world,
and the world hears them. We are God. He that knoweth God,
heareth us. And he that's not of God, he
won't hear us. So there's no need preaching
to someone who won't hear you. He that is of God, heareth us. And he that's not of God, he
won't hear us. Leave him alone. In John 10,
our Lord said this when the Pharisees said to Him, We know who He is. We know who He is. His mother
and father are with us. And they came up to Him and they
said, how long are you going to make us to doubt? If you be
the Christ, tell us. He said, I told you and you didn't
believe me. You didn't believe me because you are not of my
sheep. My sheep hear my voice. They hear it. Those who are not
His sheep will not hear it. I don't care how plain you make
it. How persuasive you are, they will not hear. Leave them alone. In John 8, verse 47, he said,
He that is of God, heareth God's word. Now here's what I want
you to turn to and follow as I read it. In John 18. I would
like you to look at this one. John 18, verse 37. John 18, verse
37. Pilate therefore said unto him,
Art thou a king then? John 18, 37. Art thou a king
then? Our Lord answered, Thou sayest
that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth, every one without exception, no excuses, everyone,
everyone, everyone that is of the truth, everyone that is a
sheep of Christ, everyone that loves the gospel, everyone that
is of the truth, hear my voice. The voice of regeneration when
he said live, they'll He said, The time is coming when
they that are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of
God, and they that hear shall live. That's spiritual resurrection.
They'll hear my voice and live. Everyone that is of the truth
will hear the voice of regeneration, will hear the voice of the gospel.
Paul said to the Thessalonians, I know you are born of God because
our gospel came to you in power. You heard it. You heard it. You heard the gospel and believed.
They'll hear the voice of His commands, this is my commandment,
that you love one another. They'll hear that and they'll
do it. And they'll hear the voice of His servants and they'll grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord. Well, who are these
believers? Well, let's turn to 1 Peter.
Who are these believers? Now, I want you to underscore,
I want you to mark your Bible. I was talking to one of the elders
before the service and I said, I enjoy looking at a person's
Bible and seeing what they mark. It's significant. It's very significant. Just see what has reached them,
what has appealed to them, what has blessed them, what they've
heard. Most people mark their Bible.
And they'll mark significant passages. Now I want you just
to mark some words. And let's see who these believers
are. In the first verse, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to
the strangers. Underscore that, strangers. That's
who they are. They're strangers. They're scattered
throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. They're strangers. Strangers? They're not strangers
to God. He said, I know them. Known unto
God are all his works from the beginning. I know my sheep and
have known of mine. They're not strangers to him.
They're not strangers to one another. They're not strangers to one
another. In fact, if you'll turn to the book of Mark, I want to
show you a couple of scriptures. Book of Mark, chapter 3. Mark, chapter 3. They're not
strangers to one another, they're family. They're family. Doesn't matter where they're
from or who they are or how old or young they are, when they
cross your path, they're family. In Mark chapter 3 verse 31, and then came, there came then
his brethren and his mother. This is Mary and her other sons
and daughters, Josie and Judy, and she had several sons. His half-brothers, And they were
standing without, and they sent unto him, calling him, and the
multitude sat about him. And they said unto him, Behold,
your mother and your brethren without are seeking for thee.
The Lord Jesus answered them and said, Who is my mother? Who are my brethren? Who is my
family? And he looked round about him
on them which sat about him, and said, Behold, my mother and
my brethren, whosoever shall do the will of God, the same
is my mother, my brother, my sister, my mother." These people
are not strangers to one another. Look at Mark 10. Listen to this. They're strangers, but not strangers
to God. They're not strangers to each
other. You know, He said, be not forgetful,
entertain strangers. That doesn't mean that they're
not known to God, they're not known to you. They come your
way and you entertain them. Some have entertained angels
on the way. God's people, that's who He's talking about, entertaining
God's people. In Mark 10 verse 29, Mark 10,
29. And Jesus answered and said,
Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house,
or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children,
or lands, for my sake and the gospel. But he shall receive
a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters,
and mothers, and children, and lands, oh, with persecution,
and in the world to come eternal life. These people, these believers
are strangers. Well, to whom are they strangers?
Well, they're strangers to this world. The world doesn't know
them. The world didn't know him. He said, let me just read you
this. I can turn to it quickly. He said in John 15, if the world
hate you, you know it hated me before it hated you. If you were
of the world, the world would love you. The world would love
his own. But because you're not of the
world, I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hates you. Despises you. And you're strangers. Strangers
to this world. Strangers. Alright, there's another
word here that describes these believers. Verse 2 says, elect. I love that word. God's elect. It's applied in the Old Testament
first to Christ, mine elect. Christ be my first elect, God
said. And then He chose us in our head.
God elected His people. He chose His people. Unto Him
they're chosen and precious. You know, as I get older, rather
than softening up on the doctrine of election and covenant mercies
and sovereign grace, I'm led of the Spirit of God to preach
it more strongly if possible. But God elected a people. "'Tis
not that I did choose thee, Lord, that could not be. This heart
of mine would refuse thee, but thou hast chosen me.'" We love
Him because He first loved us. We seek Him because He sought
us. We choose Him because He chose us. I didn't find Christ. He wasn't lost. He found me.
I was lost, and He found me on purpose. It says here, we elect,
look at verse 2, underscore elect. And what's the cause of our election? The foreknowledge of God. He
knew us. I like that, in that Ten Commandments,
the picture Ten Commandments, about the closest thing to the
Bible that Hollywood's ever put out. But there were some interesting
things in there. I believe Zipporah, is that Moses'
wife? Zipporah, Zipporah, Zipporah.
He met her and he was wandering out there in the desert, out
in the wilderness and tending sheep for all those years before
he went down into Egypt and led the people out. And he said to
her one day, they were looking at that smoking mountain, and
he said to her, I don't know your God, She said, but he knows you. I
like that. Maybe there's not a whole lot
of truth to that. But nevertheless, it's so. He knew you before you
knew him. You're elect according to the
foreknowledge of God. I know you. Foreordination of
God. And that's the cause. Here's
the means. Through sanctification of the
Spirit. If you take just a moment, turn to 2 Thessalonians. The
means God uses, they're twofold in bringing His elect. 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 13. We elect, the cause of it is
the foreknowledge, foreordination of God, and the means is the
Holy Spirit, the sanctification of the Spirit. He quickens us. He gives us life. He opens our
hearts. He gives us life. And He uses
the Word. the seed of the Word of God.
Now watch this. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, We are bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
these means, sanctification, setting apart of the spirit and
belief of the truth. If nobody saves you who doesn't
believe the gospel or believe the truth, no one saves whom
the Holy Spirit has not begotten and given life. But of his own
will begat he us with the word of truth. There's a seed. We're
born again of incorruptible seed, the word of God. And watch this,
now back to our text, 1 Peter 1, 2. Elect according to God's
ordination and knowledge through the means of sanctification of
the Spirit, and Paul said in 2 Timothy, belief of the truth. Unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood. Now I'm going to make two applications
here with this obedience. The chief obedience unto which
we are brought is His obedience, His righteousness. Unto righteousness,
obedience, and sprinkling of the blood. Sanctification and
justification. Christ obeyed the law for us
and died for us. And we're chosen in God through
the Spirit, the preaching of the Gospel, to come to His righteousness
and His justification, His blood. But it's also unto an obedience
on our part in receiving His Word. Isn't that right, Kim?
It's also obey the Gospel to those who obey the Gospel, those
who believe the Gospel. God doesn't have any sons who
are rebels. You know, Brother Barnard years
ago came to us back in the 1950. And he said, every preacher I
know has a sermon on revival. A revival. Here's how to have
a revival. And they'll go back and quote
a verse in the Old Testament which says, if my people, which
are called by my name, one, shall humble themselves and pray and
seek my face and turn from their wicked ways I'll hear from heaven
and heal their land." And they said, that's the way to have
revival. Barnard said, I take issue with that. That scripture
was not written to believers. It was written to a bunch of
backslidden rebels called Israel, national Israel, who always erred
in their hearts and never believed God to start with. For he said,
number one, If my people which are called by my name shall humble
themselves. God doesn't have any proud people.
They've already been humbled. And seek my face. God's people
aren't seeking the Lord. They found Him. They found Him. They look upon His face. They
love His face. And pray. Has God got some people
that are not praying? That's not real. And turn from
their wicked ways. God's people aren't walking in
wickedness, they're walking in obedience. I tell you, preaching
the Word requires a whole lot more than a loud voice. A whole
lot more. And an inability to breathe between
sentences. All right. And watch this now. The cause of our election is
His foreknowledge. The means of our election is
His Spirit and His Word. The end of our election is righteousness
and justification, our obedience also. And the result is grace
be unto you and peace. Be multiplied. Oh my, who are
these people? Number three, verse three, underscore
three words, four words. Now this is, I'll give them to
you in a moment. Let's read this. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy,
here they are, hath begotten us again. Begotten is to be born. A son that is begotten of a father
is a son to whom that father by seed is given life. No life
in the womb till the seed is planted and the son is born.
That's a begotten. That's a born. Well, the first
time we were born, we were born of flesh and blood. Born of the
flesh. And here we are. Human beings with flesh. But He hath born
us again. We're begotten again. Again.
You must be born again. Again. And let me tell you something.
This new birth is not a profession. It's not something I do at all.
It's not something I contribute to at all. Like my first birth,
my second birth is performed by somebody else. I don't have
any part in it. I'm not born again because I
believe. I believe because I'm born again. I'm not born again
because I love Christ. I love Christ because I'm born
again. It says here plainly, blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His mercy hath begotten
us, hath given us life. He did it on purpose, according
to His will. Everybody doesn't receive spiritual
life. Somebody. Moses says, show me
your glory. He said, here's my glory. I'll
be merciful to whom I will. I'll be gracious to whom I will.
And people who are born again are the people to whom He has
been merciful. You, and gracious. You have been born. According
to His mercy, we are born again. Listen, hath begotten us again.
Turn to John 1 verse 12. John 1 verse 12. Look at this
a moment. The new birth is not a profession,
it is an experience. An experience. You are not looking
for it? You're not expecting it. And
really, you're shocked when it happens. That's right. God gives you... You know, a
preacher said one time, the first step a man takes toward heaven
is not when he believes on Christ. It's when he sees his need of
Christ. When he's awakened. When he's awakened and discovers
who God is, who I am. It's like a baby born into the
world and discovers this big place. He cries for something
to eat. He knows he suddenly, his stomach's
empty. He didn't even have a stomach
before, but now it's empty. And he wants to eat. He wants
to breast. He wants to milk. He wants to be dry. He wants
some comfort. He wants some awe. He's needy. And that's when a man's got life,
when he's needy. When he's hungry, when he can't
help but go to the school, hear somebody preach. He's got to
hear something. He's got to be dried. He's got
to be nurtured. He's got to be tended to. He's
got life. That's right. John 1 verse 12 says, "...as
many as received Him, to them gave He the right privilege to
become sons of God, even to them that believe on His name, which
are born out of blood, Not of natural generation, or not of the will of the flesh,
nor the will of man, any other man, but born of God. To a living hope. Go back to
my text. Verse 3, We are begotten again
unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
God gave me life. God gave me life. Now, underscore
this, inheritance. Verse 4, to an inheritance. These
people are wealthy. God's people are wealthy. God's
people are joint heirs with Jesus Christ. That's the inheritance
he's talking about here. They're wealthy. They're joint
heirs with Christ. God has given the Son all things,
and we're married to the Son. We're joint heirs with Christ.
Look at this inheritance. It's incorruptible. Neither moth
nor rust nor decay nor years affects it. It's undefiled. It's pure. It's holy. It's untouched
by sin. It fadeth not away as things
of this earth fade away, how temporary they are. Everything
we've got decay, even our bodies. And it's reserved. It's got your
name on it in heaven for you. Your name in His name. I've told this before but I'll
tell it again because I love it. It illustrates what I'm talking
about. Roland Hill dreamed that he died and went to heaven. Roland
Hill was a preacher in England many years ago. And he said he dreamed he died
and went to heaven. And he was walking down those
wonderful streets of glory. He heard singing, the most wonderful
singing he'd ever heard in his life. Beautiful. Praising God. And he said, I kept walking and
I saw this choir. Oh, a huge number of people singing
praises to God. He thought, I'd love to sing
with them. Oh, I'd love to be part of that choir singing the
praise of God. And he said, way up high, he
said, I saw an empty seat. And he said, I made my way up
these stairs. This was a dream. Made my way
up these stairs and saw that seat. I kept going through by
the people, you know. And finally, I came to the seat,
and my name was on it, reserved for Roland Hill. And he said,
I sat down, and I picked right up where they were singing. Because
I knew all the words to that song. It was unto the Lamb who
loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. Rich! Faded not away, reserved in heaven
for you. For you. Your name is at a table
up there. Did you ever make a reservation
at a restaurant? You go in, you feel pretty important,
there's your name up there on the table. That's me. Y'all come on, this is reserved
for me. That's my name. Boy, I'm telling you, there's
going to be a feast. Marriage of the Lamb. And believe
it or not, every one of you, your name's already on the table.
Been there a long time, waiting on you. Reserved for you. Here's the next word, kept. Verse
5, you who are kept, let's quit talking about Once saved, always
saved. Just erase that from your vocabulary. Don't talk about it anymore.
Once in grace, always in grace. Don't let anybody sucker you
into any kind of discussion like that. Forget it. If you're elect,
if you're born again, if you're an heir of God, you're kept. Not by your goodness, not by
your profession, kept by the power of God. Look, there's no
period at the end of verse 4. That inheritance is reserved
for you, comma, for whom is it reserved? Those who are kept
by the power of God. That's how we're kept. Here's
the believer's assurance. Here's the believer's security.
Here's the believer's sealing. We're kept by the power of God.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has assumed full responsibility of every
one of His people. to bring them to glory, to present
them before the throne of God with exceeding joy, kept by the
power of God. Oh my. He said in Jeremiah 32,
they'll never leave me and I'll never leave them. That's an impossibility. I said this in a message recently
and I say it again because I think it's forceful and it's true. I just as soon expect the son
to be divided from the father as one of his children to be
divided from him. I in them and thou in me. And
he said they're in my hands and in my father's hand and no man
can pluck them out of my father's. That's right. I just as soon expect the son
and the father to be divided. as one of God's elect to be divided
from Christ. But verse 6 says this, I want
you to underscore another word. Verse 6 says, Wherein you greatly
rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you're in heaviness,
heaviness, through manifold trials. Let the trial, underscore the
word, trial. God's people are not only strangers
in this world, the elect of God, born again, heirs of God, kept
by the power of God, but they're tried people. And this seems
to be a point. Every time I watch these fellows
on television, it seems to be a point that the religious world
can't accept. It just can't accept it. We can. We know it's true. The religious world cannot accept
the fact that the Lord Himself is the first cause of everything
that happens in our lives. That's so. He's the first call. That's right. That's right. All of our troubles and our trials
and our pains and our sorrows and our disappointments are either,
He either directly sends them or permits them. That's so. Now you, you take His word for
that. Whom the Lord loveth, He chastens.
And if you be without chastisement, you're not sons. That's true. He disciplines and chastises
every child whom He loves. And these trials, He says over
in 1 Peter 4, listen to this, 1 Peter 4, verse 12, Beloved,
think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try
you, as though some strange thing happened to you. It's not strange. It's common. Common faith, common
salvation, common trials. God's people always tried. And
somebody gave this one time, there are four or five reasons
for trial one. And James says, trial is to reveal
the genuineness of faith. You never know a boat's going
to float until you put it in water. You don't know whether it will
withstand the heavy seas until it's been through the storm.
And if it goes through the storm and withstands the heavy seas,
proves it was seaworthy. And our faith has tried to prove
the genuineness of it, to reveal. Secondly, faith has tried to
strengthen it, to strengthen it. Our faith is stronger when
it's been brought through some deep experience. It's always
stronger, more confident. And then thirdly, faith is tried
to reveal the value of it. There's nothing in the world
that's better for us than to be taught how fragile we are
and how we're dependent on Him. That's the best lesson that we
could ever... That's what David said, it's good for me that I've
been afflicted, that I might learn to trust the Lord. Fourthly, faith is tried to grant
us patience. And man, I need that, don't you?
I need. I need patience. I need tranquility
and peace. I need to rest. And fifthly, faith has tried
to help us help others. I've read this to you, but I'm
going to read it to you again. In 2 Corinthians 1. This is such a, this ought to
be underscored in your Bible. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3. Blessed be God. The Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort.
Now watch this. He's the God of all comfort.
He's the Father of all mercies. He comforts us, verse 4, in all
our trials that we may be able to comfort them which are in
any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of
God. So trials, if we're tried people,
we're going to be tried. We're going to be tried. And
then the next point I want to give you about these people,
you know, underscore, is verse 8. Three things, three words
here in verse 8. First of all, they love Christ.
Underscore the word love. Whom having not seen, you love. Second word, in whom though you
see him not now, now you see him not yet, you believe. And the third word is rejoice.
You rejoice. We love Him. We love Him. I don't love Him like I ought
to, but I do love Him. He knows it. I believe. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou
hast the words of eternal life. We believe and assure that thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And we rejoice that
your joy may be full. Now then, let me show you something
here in these next verses quickly. The believer and his blessings.
And verse 9 says, and through all of this, here's what we receive,
the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls. It's all wrapped
up in that, the salvation of our souls. Somebody I read recently
said this, when God created me and Adam, I became a living soul. A living soul. God breathed into
Adam the breath of life. He became a living soul. I became
a living soul. With Adam's sin, I became a condemned
soul. Your sin separated you from your
God, and the soul that's in it shall surely die. I'm a living
soul. I'm a condemned soul. And my
soul's a valuable soul. My Lord said, this is serious
because what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world
and lose his soul? By His grace, this Christ, I've
received the salvation of my soul. I'm a saved soul. I'm a
saved soul. That's good news. That's great,
wonderful news. I'm a saved soul. And verse 10
says, And this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched
diligently into. Can you imagine Moses looking
at the Passover lamb trying to figure it all out? I know he
knew something, but he didn't know what I know. Moses looking at the brazen serpent,
and he knew it had some reference to the Messiah, but he didn't
know what I know. Moses. Looking at the smitten
rock, smote it, water came out. God said, I'll stand on that
rock. There's something here. Oh, He searched diligently into,
listen, inquired. He inquired and searched diligently,
who prophesied of the grace that should come to you. You admit? There's no new gospel. There's
no new gospel. Verse 11, what was he searching? He was searching what, or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ. That's
where all of this, not the sufferings of the martyrs, not their sufferings,
our suffering, the sufferings of Christ. Sufferings of Christ. And a salvation unto glory that
should follow. 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."
This is the gospel to you, to you. "...which things even the angels
desired looking to." Boy, I tell you how blessed we
are. Believers and their blessings. Do you know how blessed we are? Elect. Elect born again. Kept. Tried. Have this gospel of His grace
revealed. Moses searching into these things. The angels desiring to look into
them. And you and I. poor sons of Adam
have a full revelation of His mercy. Angels desire to look
into it. Let me read you something Philip
Doddridge wrote, 1755, 240 years ago, about these angels desiring
to look into these things which we take for granted? Surely not.
Surely not. Angels saw the heaven-born child
in human flesh arrayed, benevolent and mild, while in the manger
he laid. And praise to God and peace on
earth they proclaimed aloud for such a birth. Angels in the wilderness
Beheld the tempter, Satan, spoiled, well known in every dress, but
in every combat, foiled. The Savior's head they joyed
to crown, while they watched Satan flee before his frown."
They saw that. The angels ministered to him.
But then, around the bloody tree, angels pressed with strong desire
that amazing sight to see the Lord of Life expire? And could their eyes have known
a tear in sad surprise that had dropped it there? And then around
His sacred tomb a loving watch for three days they kept, till
that blessed moment came to awaken him who slept. They rolled the
stone, and all adored with joy unknown their risen Lord. And then, when all arrayed in
light, the victorious conqueror rode, angels hailed his glorious
flight up to the throne of God. Oh, that my heart, O thou my heart, with equal flame,
perform your part, and praise his name. He's given you a knowledge
of who he is, and what he did, and why he did it, and where
he is now. Angels desire to look into it. We know. We know. Because he's one with
us.