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First Peter, chapter one. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bathinia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Unto you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Which, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled. And the Tate is not a way reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, ye love.
In whom though now ye see him knock, yet believe.
Rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently. Who prophesied of the Greece that should come unto you, 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?
And the glory that should follow under whom it was revealed, that not under themselves, but unto us, they'd administer 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. Wherefore gird up the loins of your minds. 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 passing yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father, who without respect to persons, judges according to every man's work.
Past the time of your sojourning here in fear. For as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a line without blemish and without spot, Who barely was 14 before the foundation of the world.
But was manifest in these last times for you who by him to believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.
Seeing you have purified your souls, and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.
Being born again, not of corruptible seeds, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass Withers, and the flower there all falls away, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
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In Peter's epistle we are looked on as pilgrims and strangers, just as the children of Israel when they left the land of Egypt. They were pilgrims in the wilderness with that land of Canaan, that land flowing with milk and honey before them. And there were many testings and trials, and the government of God was manifested in their wilderness journey. And so here we find that instead of being called to an earthly inheritance.
We have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and the fate of not away reserved in heaven for us. And it's important for us to realize this, I believe, brethren, because there is always a tendency for us to settle down in this world, to try and find our rest here. But God allowed many things to make the children of Israel feel that there was no arrest for them there in that wilderness, but rather that they would always have.
Cain and in view.
But they were put to the test there, and the government of God came in upon them. And so I was thinking how it should be a lesson to each one of our hearts that in these days of materialistic.
Things that everyone going after, the things that are so material, it's very important for us, I believe, to have our eyes set upon heavenly things. And I believe God brings in trials into our lives with the purpose of detaching us from this present evil world.
And so that our hearts might be drawn out to Him. And so He also brings in His governmental ways if we go after them, stirring up the nest as it were. She wants us to be enjoying our portion in Christ, and as it says here, to have what it speaks of.
In the 8th For assume having not seen, we love, in whom though now you see him not yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
He wants us to be happy, not in the material things here, but in the enjoyment of our heavenly portion.
Not allowed.
Allowed these elect ones to be scattered in this way.
That they might trust in the Lord more and feel their strangership down here.
And as we feel our strangership here, we get to thinking, well, I don't really belong here. This is my home and I'm going somewhere else. And just like Abraham, he was a Pilgrim going to the promised land. But we're pilgrims going to our promised land.
In the glory, Israel's promised land, Canaan is simply a type of the heavenly land that belongs to us where the Lord has gone. And we need to remember that, that we don't belong here. We're strangers here. Our citizenship is in heaven. And the more we think about that, the more we think about the Lord up there and the love we have for Him. And as we think of his love for us, it grows.
And we want to be with him, and it should be that way no matter how long we're here or how old we get.
That thought should be before us, and I believe if we're before the Lord going on with Him, thinking about His love for us, it just stirs up love in our hearts. And how can we help but love Him? And how can we help but want to be with Him and be where He is?
Interesting to see. There is a contrast here. We're seen as strangers and pilgrims. For as in Ephesians, it says we're no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God. We've got to be strangers in one place or other. If we're not enjoying heavenly things, then we'll feel strange when we get there, because that has not been a habitual home of our hearts. But if we really have been in the enjoyment of it, then when we get there it'll immediately be our home. It will not be a strange place to us. There are no stranger. God shall meet thee.
And so we're strangers here because we'll not be strangers there, but brethren, if we lose the sense of our heavenly things, then we'll feel strange there, but we'll feel too much at home down here. So in this one, we're seeing as in this world, in the wilderness, and we're strangers and pilgrims here just like these scattered ones. In the opening part, they had been looking for the Messiah to set up the Kingdom. And when the Messiah does set up the Kingdom, why they'll feel at home in the millennial blessing of that day.
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But now they must realize that they have been called not to that blessing of Canaan, and not to the millennial blessing, but rather to a heavenly thing.
This version here is that.
In connection with what has happened to them as the earthly people of God.
That they were scattered abroad among the Gentiles, but it was the government of God upon them as an earthly people. But now that they had come to know the Lord Jesus, those who had been saved, they had become strangers who might stay in a new way, because even if they would be found.
In the land of Penang, somewhere still there, but they would not have any portion here anymore. So they were strangers in a new sense, because they had a portion that was outside of this world altogether. That was the portion that was reserved for them in heaven.
Is there a thought that first verse they're called strangers but in the second verse elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, and so we are strangers down here, but chosen of God?
Interesting thinking of the blessed Lord in resurrection. This word stranger in acts. I mean, in Luke 24, Cleophus says to him, art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem? Well, really he was he was the heavenly mind rejected, cast out a stranger in Jerusalem. And it's it's striking that they addressed him that way.
Well, that's that's the place the Lord even had in resurrection and certainly we, if we follow him, are going to feel something of that. There's also the word scattered here in this first verse, the stranger scattered, but we get that scattering in Acts chapter 8 that arose there in Jerusalem in the first verse, Acts 81, and so is consenting unto his death.
And at that time there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. In Acts 2 we read of somewhat of the same group that Peter writes to.
These words honest, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asian bathinia. At least three of those appear in Acts 2, where Jews had come from those places.
And heard the preaching of Peter and 3000 added to the church there now for their faithfulness to Christ. They are scattered and they are strangers on the earth, and their inheritance is in heaven. And that's a similar position that any Christian will find himself in if he walks with God for Christ in this world, he'll be forced to be a stranger.
Then you can look for that heavenly inheritance.
That word he left means chosen, but we have an Ephesians chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Who of us doesn't revel in the fact that we were chosen in Christ in eternity past, before the foundation of the world? Just think of it. God chose us.
Chose us, He wanted us.
God wants children, God wants a family, and He chose us to be his children.
And not only that, this is brought in in connection with the church, because we also find out that when we have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit and we're joined to that one body and we're members of the body of Christ this election or this choice that has been made.
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Totally on the part of the sovereign grace of God is the thing that we need to dwell on God's side of things. I have found that in Christendom there's a great dwelling on man's side of salvation and not much dwelling on God's side of it. But what really helps us and establishes us is dwelling on God's side of the salvation to see what He has done for us and what He wanted for out of us. He wanted us for Himself.
And that is simply by the sovereign grace of God. He has done this. God's side is what we need to think of Christ side of it all.
They have a lack according to the foreknowledge of God the Father we have for know in Romans 8 and 29 for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. I've enjoyed the thoughts that He knew all about me before He ever picked me up, and yet knowing that He still chosen us, that we would be conformed to the image of His Son.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
It's very hard to have a feeling of being rejected. None of us enjoy that feeling that we are rejected. Young people don't like that feeling at school. They don't like it at the job or whatever. And So what is it that God gives us to cheer our hearts and face of this? Here were these Jews cast out by the nation as it was read to us in Acts. They had accepted the Lord Jesus as Savior. They had been identified with Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
Who had seen Jesus at the right hand of God, and now the nation doesn't want them anymore. What is it will sustain our young people? What is it that will sustain any of us in a world like this? Oh, just to think that here we are, those whom God has chosen. Not because there was something in us to like, because there wasn't. It was sovereign grace. He chose us when there was nothing desirable. We were enemies, and we've been reconciled to God by the death of His Son. And so just as Israel were a chosen people.
For the blessing that God purposed for them on the earth, and that sustained Abraham when he was a Pilgrim and a stranger in that land, He wouldn't even let the king of Saddam make him rich, because he had been blessed by the possessor of heaven and earth. And so now these Christians, as I say, are scattered. And brethren, I think in applying it to ourselves, we need to have a sense of this in our souls. How nice to walk down the street and feel out of this whole world.
God should choose me and choose me to be part of the bride of Christ, to share that heavenly inheritance. What a thing too, for those who are young growing up and feeling the rejection. And I think it's stronger in this day because the world system is becoming much stronger and young people are drawn into it because the world wants you to become part of the system. But to know that we are part of something else.
The Bride of Christ, part of that heavenly company. The sense of this, the enjoyment of it in our souls, will sustain us in the path of faith.
It's interesting that I was just checking that out.
The 11Th verse we have two words used, dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. It's the second word translated pilgrims, which is here translated strangers.
And the new translation renders it Sojourners. I was thinking of the.
The words that they said to to Lot in Genesis 19, they said this one fellow came into sojourn and he will be a judge among us. So it's really the thought of sojourning, not settling down. It's not making this our home, but just passing through on the way to another home which is on high. Sojourners or pilgrims. That to be our character, isn't it?
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And the more we're identified with the Lord Jesus, the more we will have that.
Stranger character here because the world will not recognize us or want us as their own because, he said.
If they hate you, they hated me before.
The servant isn't greater than the Lord, but we shouldn't expect anything from down here. But the more we go on with him and live in the truth of the fact that we have a whole, this isn't it.
This was our home in that sense. We should have a tent and have that character of Abraham. He had a tent and that's what identified him. He wasn't he didn't belong here. He was on his way. And how wonderful it is that chain and that we expect to be and will soon be perhaps today. Good, good words to commence the day. And it sets your heartstrings right for that walk as a stranger in Pilgrim down here. But a stranger is one that's going through the land that doesn't belong.
He doesn't belong. And if you notice in Numbers the verse 20, I sort of like this particular verse because you can apply it to us chapter 20 and verse 17 of Numbers chapter 20 and verse 17.
And this is what they said as they wanted to go through an enemies land. Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country. We will not pass through the fields or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the well. We will go by the King's highway. We will not turn to the right hand nor to the left until we pass thy borders. That's a good attitude to have as we're going through this world, because we need nothing from this world to sustain us as believers.
We get everything from above, everything from Christ and the Word of God.
And so the fields would speak of what you need for sustenance. And brethren, we get it all from there. We feed on Christ. That's enough. And of course, the vineyards speak of joy, the source of joy. And we shouldn't find any of our happiness in this world as we're going through it. We have all of our happiness and joy in Christ. I would that my joy be in you, and your joy be full. That's His desire. And we have an inner joy that the world cannot know.
Anything about its obedience. That's in this fortune in first Peter, obedience. And there's a joy the Lord had of simply doing the Father's will so we could read who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. That's obedience. There's something there that the world can't know about, but we don't need. Any of the joy that this world can give is false and empty, and it'll lead you on into its ways. And then, of course, the water, the whales are a source of refreshment.
And we don't need any of that in this world either. It shouldn't be a place of refreshment for us. It's a growing creation, brethren, because of sin. And we should feel it. All our refreshment should come from the Lord. And then it says we are going on the King's highway and that lovely thought, there's a path. There is a path for the strangers and pilgrims in this world who belong to Christ and.
The vultures, I can't see it. And the lion, the lions, wealth cannot find it. It's safe. And only the Redeem walked thereon. Isn't it lovely? Well, brethren, is the King's highway. And you know, it gives us the thought and the attitude that though we're nothing, let's never forget that. Nothing. It's all grace. The Father is the King. Our Father is the King and we're going home. And so it puts dignity in a walk of a believer if he's on that path.
Without pride. And now that's really what marks all the stranger in Pilgrim, if he belongs to Christ. It's lovely, isn't it? And then we don't turn to the right or the left. We don't need anything here, brethren. We have with this poor world needs. And that's the ministry of reconciliation. We have what they need. They can't give us anything.
I think sometimes we miss some of our duties.
Of the thoughts of the mind and policy.
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Concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was mentioned a while ago.
Goes in him from the Lord, the foundation of the world.
If you will turn to Psalm 139.
I think you will see one of the most precious.
Portions of the mind.
Of the Lord in eternity.
Expressing.
The thought of God.
As the godheads together and speaking.
With the end of person of the Son himself.
Psalm 2 tells us some art thou comedian, then it says.
This day survived the golden teeth.
Another word tells us.
I have drawn you with the cards of a man.
When the band of love.
Now we're going to see one who was spoken to.
And Isaiah 6 I heard the voice of one saying.
Who shall I send?
And who will go for us?
Ben said I here am I.
Send me.
And he said, go now this is the mind of God in the person.
Of the Son become a man being sent into this world. Now let us see his thoughts in Psalm 139.
Gives us a half been the first few verses of who the person is spoken of.
Rest is here in one portion, the sixth verse says.
Such knowledge is to wonderful me. For me it is high. I cannot attain until.
Speaking in the mind of the Spirit, the Psalmist.
Tell us something in the thoughts.
Of the Lord Jesus is becoming a man.
31St.
Thou hast possessed my grace.
Thou hast covered me.
In my mother's womb.
I will praise these.
For I am fearfully.
And wonderfully made.
Marvelous hard eye works.
And that my soul knoweth right well.
Now the fortune that speaks of the thoughts of the mind of Christ in eternity.
As to the future.
My substance was not his from thee.
There was love if we saw it from the mind of God.
We're speaking to his own people in their language.
Best word here is my bones.
We're not hidden from thee. All that love here are parts of a bond.
When I was made in sacred.
I curiously rocked in the lower parts of the earth.
Beloved, He came from glorious heights and came down not only to earth, but he went into the lowest parts of the earth in death.
For you and I.
To have us all this is sweet.
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A little further.
Thy eyes did see my substance.
Our brother Brother Darby speaks of an unformed substance.
Well, true it is. It was an unformed substance in that mother's room, but at first it is just a mass of cells. Beautiful.
Because if we went.
To their language given to them through put down by the Spirit of God, this word.
My substance is here, my embryo. We can understand that language. He's speaking to us in words that humans can understand.
It had only been transmitted to us that way.
It would be perfect because.
He goes on to say being yet unperfect, it was not fully formed.
Lovely.
Well, we go off.
And in thy book.
All.
Which in continuance.
We are fashioned now, as in they are all my members. It is implied in the discussion of bones and embryos.
But it continues, which were in continuance fashion, whereas yet there were none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts, And to me, oh God, how great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in numbers than the sand. When I am awake I am wispy. Could there be a more beautiful description?
Of the whole redeemed company.
Of believers joined to the head. Who's speaking?
In anticipation.
Of this coming to this scene, truly a stranger Hastings despised.
Laid on a cross.
Going into the lower parts of Earth.
And rising from among the dead, and then by the Spirit of God first on earth.
The parts of his body, all of which everyone.
I find a favorite, a tool, a foot clutter, all joined together in one mile and this.
Given to us properly hidden in the precious Word of God to tell Jesus.
Cause concerning his body to be formed for all eternity to God's honor of praise and glory.
Would you say, then, that this portion you have read brings to us the nearest of finding the church in the Old Testament?
We do not find the church in the Old Testament, but this is so close that you can't.
Failed amiss something there that indicates like that.
This exactly was poor man, so he understand the wonders of what he was doing in terms the four weak humans like we could understand. It is it is most sweet, most precious to think of the blessed Lord and the Spirit of Christ coming out in the Psalm so fully and his feelings in the sufferings.
To gain a people to have with him there in glory.
Now coming back to our.
Chapter about the strangers and what was remarked about the pilgrims. For the sake of younger ones, I'd like to tell what chapter Brown told us.
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It has a warning about strangers and pilgrims.
Saying that we ought never to be spiritual tramps. None, he told a story about.
Going along a highway and seeing a trap and stopping to pick him up and give him a lift. And the man had his pole and his little sack tied on the pole. Just tramping along the road and.
He asked if he'd like a ride. He looked surprised, said no, I don't suppose I would. I'm just as happy right here as any place else. Well, you see, he was a tramp. He didn't know where he's going.
A stranger is away from home, and a Pilgrim is killing home. Now we get these thoughts in our chapters here. We are strangers in this earth because the Lord is a stranger. He's put out of it. And we are Pilgrim because we know where we're going. We're going toward Him. And that's where the Kings Highway ends, into the glory where he has gone. And then the love of God to bring children in there. And the Jewish remnant may come out in the Psalms too.
But here was a Jewish remnant who were brought into the church, and that's the way they get into that blessing. And that's that's where we fit too.
In the New Testament, it tells us that ever remember is a necessary part of that body.
That I cannot say I have no use of the ears, The foot can say I have no use of the nose, nor any other, and every part is necessary.
Inside a lovely collection of words that speaks of this very song we've read.
In this verse, here too we have the C3 persons on the Godhead brought before us the Father and the Spirit and the Lord Jesus. And I think this is very precious because in the Old Testament God was revealed in one God in distinction from all the idols around. But now God has come out and made Himself fully known. What a wonderful thing for an Israelite save now to know God as His Father.
And to know the work of the Spirit of God. They were separated from the nations around them by ordinances. That was the middle wall of partition between them and the Gentiles. But now it's sanctification or set apart by the Spirit of God. So the Spirit of God sets us apart from this world He has wrought in us. He has given us a new life. That new life is heavenly and its character. And so it tells us the world knoweth us not because it knew Him not. The world can't understand the motives and desires.
Of the one who is walking here as a true child of God, as a heavenly person. And so it tells us here.
Knowing God is Father, set apart by the Spirit and then called unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. I think it's important to see this about obedience too, because obedience is the characteristic of the new life that God has given to us. Even the obeying of the gospel it says.
In Romans they have not all obeyed the gospel, or even in our chapter it says here in the 22nd verse, seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit. The character of the natural man is lawlessness, just doing his own will, doing as he likes. But when we were brought to know the Lord, why the first thing was obedience. God had a claim over us.
And we're called to obedience. The perfect example of it was the Lord Jesus himself who walked in this world in perfect obedience to His Father. And brethren, they sought to characterize us. And we have been, as it says unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ were not part of this world that's under judgment at all. We've been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. We walked through it in that way. The Lord Jesus was the one.
Who walked in perfect obedience to the Father's will. And now because we have been redeemed by his precious blood, we have been brought into a position that we too are walk, are to walk in obedience here in this world. We're called to that. Well, I, I was just thinking how precious it is that now in Christianity God is fully made known. We know God is our Father. We have received a new life by the Spirit.
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We have a new pathway through this world and we can rejoice in the fact that we have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. In connection with that, we might read a couple of verses in Galatians chapter one. It's very nice. You've been Speaking of God as our Father and his doing the will of the Father.
And I noticed that we have Galatia mentioned here in our first verse of Peter. And here's an epistle to the Galatians and in the.
Third verse. Grace be to you, and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. Now you might say that a Jew in the Old Testament time could have told you what the will of God was. That was the law.
And what is revealed there but now in the New Testament, it's it's the will of God. And our Father brings us into that wonderful relationship. A father to know the will of our Father for us to deliver us from this present evil world and here to purify.
By the Spirit, through obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, this work of God to bring us to Himself.
And according to his will.
And it says through the sanctification of the Spirit, that's a wonderful thought, that it really means we've been set apart from this world, but we've been set apart for himself. Sanctification carries both meanings. And the children of Israel when they were brought out, said I have brought you out, that I may bring you in. It's a lovely thought, but there's there's.
Eternal sanctification, if I might use the term, is what we're Speaking of here.
And when God, who has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, sets us apart, it's by the work of the Spirit of God. Once we receive Christ, we're washed by the precious blood of Jesus, we're clean, and we're indwelt by the Spirit of God, and we're set apart. That's all sanctification means. We're set apart once by God Himself.
For his son. What a wonderful thought this is. Now there's practical Swank sanctification, which in the second chapter Peter gets into and on through this precious Thistle. But I would just like to say we were mentioning the three things, and in First Corinthians 6IN verse 11, we have the same three parts of the Godhead.
And such were some of you. Well, you could go back on the list.
And you can see a Sinner lost, you can see a Sinner described, and such were some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God, washed by the precious blood of Jesus that brings his work in the sun, and sanctified by the Spirit and justified by God the Father. It's lovely to see that.
There's the work that all of us are in by grace, and so we are no longer a part of what we once were, sinners of this world. Earth dwellers were set apart, brethren, by the work of the Spirit. And it's a wonderful thing. And as our brother was bringing out, once we're set apart, we're automatically a member in this body, automatically a member in the body of Christ and part of the family of God here.
Well, you know, in First Corinthians 12, describing the body, it says in every member is a member in the body in particular. We're not just a group thrown together in particular, each one of us and every member has been set in the body as it pleased him. Oh, that makes a wonderful, wonderful picture. We have, as our brother was describing, hidden in the Old Testament but now revealed in the new.
That we are all there according as it pleased God in the body and we're there as members in particular. Well, what a beautiful picture it is. And if you realize you're in that family, the heavenly family of God, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ soon to be united to head in glory, that begins to affect your walked out down here. That's really what Peter has in mind for those scattered.
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Jews here.
Who are now Christians, not part of the body.
2nd Corinthians.
Hand and verse five we have the thought of obedience again.
Casting down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
To bring every thought to obey as Christ obeys.
How far short one comes of sex offender?
That's a that's a very important comment that brother just made to obey is Christ obeyed. I think in order to really get the sense of what he's talking about in verse two, he often.
Uses expressions that are drawn from the Old Testament and if we turn back to Exodus 24.
I think we'll get the.
Force of this sanctification by the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. In Exodus 24 verse seven, it says Moses took the book of the covenant and read in the audience of the people, and they said, all that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient. There you have a different kind of obedience. It's the obedience which the children of Israel pledged themselves to.
When they heard the law read to them all that the Lord has said, will we do and be obedient? That's a legal obedience.
And then Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words. So here you have the same thing, that that Peter speaks of the same two things, obedience and the sprinkling of the blood.
But in Exodus 24, the thought is entirely different. It's legal obedience, which they promise to give, to render when they heard the law, and not realizing the sinfulness of their own hearts and their total inability to keep the law, they say they keep it. And then Moses sprinkles the blood. What's the significance of that? The thought of blood is death. If they disobeyed, the punishment of death would come upon them.
So you have the two thoughts in Exodus 24, when the law was given, they commit themselves to obey that law. And then he sprinkles the blood that's significant of death and judgment that would come upon them when they disobeyed. But what are we sanctified to? We're sanctified to obey, yes, but as Christ obeyed and altogether different kind of obedience. It's not the obedience of compulsion. It's not obeying a command that my nature does not want to obey. That's legal obedience.
And it's not the punishment of death upon disobedience, but we're sanctified to the sprinkling.
Of the blood of Jesus Christ. So we have these two things, and that's really the answer in Christianity to the old order of things. The obedience that they promised to render and failed to render only brought death and judgment upon them. We're sanctified, given a new life, sanctified by the Spirit, born again, receive a life that delights to do the will of God, to obey as Christ obeyed, to walk down here, delighting in the will of God.
And were sanctified also to the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, a place of safety and security which never changes whether we obey or not. It's the place of blessing that the blood of Christ has brought us into. So you have in Christianity you have obedience and blessing, and Judaism disobedience and death and judgment. How beautiful to see the answer in grace that we have in Christ now to what they undertook by their own strength to accomplish in so miserably fail to render.
I believe that's the truth that's set before us in Titus 3, isn't it? Titus chapter 3.
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Verse 4.
Or after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy. He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shared on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. That being justified by His grace, we should be made errors according to the hope of eternal life.
This is a faithful saying, and these things I will thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable on demand. Their brother's been bringing before us. We have been sprinkled by the blood. The whole question of sin and guilt has been settled before God once for all. But when we stand before Him in a new life, a life that cannot sin.
And this is the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, because now we have that new life and we have a new power. And this is what Paul is exhorting there in Titus to bring before these believers that God wasn't requiring something from them that they didn't have a life to produce. He had shed upon them and abundantly that new life, and they possessed the Holy Spirit of God and reminded of this.
As though God were saying to us, you have a life that delights in obedience. You have a life that wants to please me. You've been redeemed with the blood of Christ at a great cost, but you've also received this new life now displayed in a practical way in life, that new life that I have given to you. And I believe this is very important because one is often commented, God will never ask us as Christians to do anything that the new life doesn't find delight in doing.
It's not, as you were saying, the legal obedience of the law, but it's the very thing that was seen in the life of the Lord Jesus. The good pleasure of His Father's will was always His delight. And rather than we possess His life, we have been set apart at great cost. We've been redeemed by His blood. We have been washed and made new creatures in Christ Jesus. And now let's display that new life that He has given to us.
And this really, I believe, is what he's bringing before them here in Peter's epistle.
That now they had been brought not into the position that they were once brought as under the law, but into this wonderful new position as Christians with a heavenly inheritance ahead of them.
Could I just add to that the what's been so precious to my soul? The Father was so glorified by the pathway and the light of the Lord Jesus that He has now been pleased to communicate to us, those who are the trophies of His grace, that same life and nature. He's given us the same Holy Spirit. He's given us an object outside of ourselves, Christ in glory.
To draw us after Him and to empower us and a strength and power within us.
And His precious word. And what is Christianity? It's the extension in you and me, in US who believe of the very life of Christ lived in all its blessed perfection. So imperfect in US, true, but it's the same life, it's the same spirit, It's the same principle of obedience. That is to animate us, that animated that blessed One when He was here below. And I love to think of us as just being an extension.
Of the life of Christ lived out down here when He was here. He did say it. He abideth in him ought Himself also so to walk even as He walked. And Peter himself tells us in this very epistle that we should follow in His steps. How is that possible? Well, we as our brother was just unfolding to us, because we have his life and his Spirit and all that we need to walk just as He walked.
There's the thought of fighting. 12 And the Lord was here. It was said of him that he was the light of the world. He said I am the light of the world. Now he's gone to glory. He's not here. But we're told ye are the light of the world. Is that a different light? No, it's that same light with which the Lord Jesus Christ shone out here in this world. We are children of light, and we can shine here with that same light.
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That is in the Lord Jesus Christ and.
It's really marvelous. Just think of this, that we have the same life in US, and we're sanctified to that same obedience of that life that was in Him. We know that it was perfect in Him. It's hindered much in US, and we're sanctified to that sprinkling of blood too. We're set in God's sight, cleanse from all of our sins.
Our sin is all gone. God has forgiven us all because we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us and his blood was shed. We're set apart to all of this and we should be the happiest people here that were, and we should really be showing it too because God has done so much for us. And that word for knowledge, it's really a deep word and I'm afraid we don't understand it fully.
Sometimes for those who think that it applies to.
God knew that I would believe in Him, and so I'm saved. But that isn't what the point is there. God whom our person, He knew us. There were some of whom the Lord spoke. I never knew you, I never knew you. But here He has known us. God has known us from all eternity on the basis of that.
He accuses us and he does all of this other part. We were in the thoughts of God.
All eternity He knew us, our person. Not of anything that we would do or not do, no, but our person He knew and He chose us. And it was all because of what was in himself.
It was not because there was anything in US. He didn't love us because there was anything lovely in US. He didn't choose us because there was anything good in US. Nor He just chose us on the basis of what he is himself and knowing us, he chose us.
And you see, you get into a line of things here that you just get overwhelmed and you can't really express it fully because this is God's side of it.
What you allow that the foreknowledge could be beautifully expressed in that he set his affection upon us.
And then he elected us according to this, not because of anything in US, but he said his affections upon us. It's all greedy, yes, right.
After bringing out all these precious truths, Peter said grace unto you and peace be multiplied. You know, as you mentioned, it's all sovereign grace. Everything in our salvation, everything in our new life is grace, sovereign grace. But Peter brings in that expression multiplied, and it's lovely. He brings both grace and peace together here. Now everyone that is saved has the peace with God because being justified by faith, we have peace with God. That's about the sin question. It's a beautiful thing.
And it's by grace that were brought into it. But now grace goes on and peace gets deeper and more precious. And so we can end up with the peace that passes all understanding if we walk with the Lord in this scene dependently upon him as lovely, isn't it? So Peter's bringing that out. And I was thinking as the grace in Ephesians, I believe it's in Ephesians chapter four, we have a nice thought about the grace, the ongoing grace.
That we can have and enjoy verse 7, but unto everyone of us is given grace. It's a grave. It's a gift according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Isn't that a wonderful thought? You cannot really get into that fully. But it means that whatever the circumstance of your life, whatever the trial is Peter Warrens are going through, you can have the grace to go through it.
And the Lord with it is according to the gift of Christ. And it's a wonderful thing to be able to go through these trials. As Peter said, there's a need to be, there's a purpose in it. It lets you know more of what Christ means and is to you, and it strengthens your faith in Him. That's what's wonderful. Well, that's grace, but peace. In John 1427, the Lord says peace. I leave with you. It's my peace.
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I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. It's a peace that can let your heart be free of trouble and concern. It's a peace that that is inner peace to all believers. Well, Peter brings it right out now. Grace and peace be multiplied, and then he starts into the blessings. The blessings.
100 nations or also here's another precious thought in you mentioned brother.
He said and he ascended up on pond. He then kept 30 and gave gifts on the man. Now that he ascended, what is it?
That also descended first, enter the lower part of the earth. There is not expression and time as oppression never descended into the lower parts of the earth. We'd all been lost in half.
He that descended isn't set also that ascendant far above all heavens, that he might feel all faithful.
And he gave some of us.
Come from.
Some advanced, some.
Speech for the perfect of the Saints, for the work of the ministry was identifying of the body of Christ. That's the fairly soul of all that was given that.
Somebody.
There we sing 197.