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166.
4.
9.
Difference to my heart.
But I need to change my whole life.
Oh my God, Oh my God, I'm saying.
This is 31 in the appendix.
#31 in the appendix, the first and last verse.
00:05:52
We have been reminded in these meetings.
It's already that, well, we're on our way home to glory. We're still here in this world, often referred to it as a wilderness world. It's a spiritual wilderness. We have experiences, we have lessons to learn, the Lord's dealings with us. And I've had a burden for some time. And in regard to that and some of the hymns we've sung, as well as what was before us in the last meeting, like to suggest that perhaps we could take up the 1St chapter of First Peter.
First Peter chapter one.
So 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. Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Which, according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, through an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled. And that fate is not away 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 under praise and honor and glory at the experience of Jesus Christ.
Whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye 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 grace 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 unto themselves, but unto us, they'd administer the things which are now reported under you by them.
That have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. Which thing is the angels desire to look into?
Wherefore grew up the loins of your mind, Be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust and your ignorance, but as he which has called you is holy.
So be ye holy in all manner of conversation.
00:10:01
Because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons, judges according to every man's work past the time of your soul journey 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 Lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world. What was manifest in these last times for you?
Who by him do 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 a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.
We're all flesh is that grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falls away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever.
And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.
It's helpful when we take up any portion of the Word of God to not only see the context, but to see who the Spirit of God used to record the words. And so we find here that it's the apostle Peter that is used to pen by divine inspiration this first and 2nd epistle and when we go back to the life of Peter in connection with his sojourning with the Lord Jesus on earth.
And his public and oral ministry. In the book of the Acts we see Peter was a man of real experience.
And he was a man of zeal, sometimes his zeal. He had more zeal than wisdom in the things he said and did. But he was a man of real zeal. And he was a man who went through real experiences with and for the Lord.
But I was thinking in connection with some of the hymns and scriptures that were read earlier, Peter at the end of the Lord's pathway, his heart is really brought out in connection with his public restoration.
In John's Gospel chapter 21, and Peter, the one who was impulsive, the one who often spoke up when perhaps he should have held still and listened to what the Lord was doing and observed, are saying and observe what the Lord was doing. He's the one that the Lord really brings out Peter's heart. And there's no doubt as the life of the Lord Jesus is about to end here on earth and he's about to go back to heaven.
And he has those final words with Peter. There's no doubt that Peter really does love the Lord.
He had come to know and experienced the grace of the Lord with him, his patience with him.
And he has to say, Lord, you know my heart. He's no longer self confident. He's not the one who sang, though I'll deny thee, yet will not I deny thee. And even when the Lord says, do you love me, Peter says, Lord, you know, you know what's in my heart and you know that I truly love you. And it's that very instrument then that had learned to appreciate the grace and the love of the Lord Jesus as he walked with him in his pathway here. It is that very instrument then that the Lord raises up the Spirit of God uses here to pen really experience in the path of faith and service.
Peter's ministry is very different than the ministry really of all the other New Testament writers.
Paul puts us right in heaven. We're seated in heavenly places in Christ. Paul brings before us particularly the heavenly blessings.
And of course, conduct connected with that walking worthy of our vocation and so on. But Peter brings us right down to Christian experience. It's sometimes been referred to as wilderness ministry. Some of us here will remember our brother Bob Brimlow, and he used to say this is where the rubber meets the road. And brethren, we're going through experiences today. Many of us are going through real trials and difficulties.
00:15:22
Circumstances that we've never been perhaps called on individually as families or even collectively to pass through. We're right at the end of our history here, but I believe Peter really brings before us that which would encourage us even in the midst of real trials and difficulties which these ones he was writing to were going through. He encourages us as to what we have in the Lord. He puts the end before us because in Peter it's we're still here in the past, but the end is in view.
But we're right here in the experiences, and Peter gives us the encouragement to go on in the resources that we have with the end in view, in spite of how difficult the trials and the difficulties may be. And brethren, I feel more and more in my soul that we need that. We need to be encouraged. We don't want to be indifferent to what the Lord is passing us through. We don't steal ourselves to it and become callous. No, we feel it.
But we also realize we have like these ones Peter was writing to a tremendous resource. And even when there's failure and difficulties come in, we can always turn to the one who's leading us as our shepherd, safe home to the glory.
So as we know from the opening of this epistle, Peter is writing to those who had been born Jews and had been saved by the grace of God, and those particularly now who had suffered persecution and been dispersed really throughout the known earth, particularly after the stoning of Steven. So at the stoning of Steven, the Jewish leaders.
They really sent a messenger after him saying we will not have this man to reign over us. They rejected the Lord Jesus at his trial and had him crucified. They rejected the witness of the Holy Spirit in the preaching of Stephen. Really the culmination of that nationally, it was the sin against the Holy Ghost for Israel. The leaders rejected the preaching of Stephen, a man full of the Holy Ghost. They stoned him and as a result there was a great persecution broke out.
Against the Jewish believers, those of whom Peter had said on the day of Pentecost.
Repent and be baptized and save yourselves from this untoward generation. They stepped outside now the nation of Israel that had rejected the Lord Jesus. They were saved by the grace of God.
They were saved for heaven, They had a heavenly portion, and now they come under this tremendous persecution. And so Peter now writes to them to encourage them as to what their heavenly portion is and the resource that they have in the meantime, in the midst of what he later refers to as fiery trials.
Fossil to the circumcision, wasn't he? And that's why he addresses those that have been scattered, like you mentioned, Jim. And, uh, but it's interesting. This was addressed after the church was formed. And so the truth that applied to these Jewish believers is the same truth that belies to us as well. Although it's good to keep it in that context that he was addressing them and encouraging them.
They had lost everything, but now they find out there is an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fades not away. So it must have been a real encouragement to those Jewish believers to have this letter addressed to them.
00:20:06
I'm as strangers.
This world anymore, isn't it?
Israel. Israel had a earthly inheritance that was what was given to them in the Old Testament. But through unfaithfulness they lost it all and now here they had been scattered. And so it's characteristic of our being here in this world. A word in the Spanish is foreigners, strangers or foreigners. We are foreigners in this world because our home is in heaven. Notice in verse chapter 2 and verse 11.
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims. Strangers because we're foreigners, because our home is, our citizenship is elsewhere, and pilgrims because we're on the way home.
That's helpful. And it's interesting Mr. Darby's translation in our English, in our first verse of our chapter, it's sojourners. And again, a sojourner is one who's only here for a little time. And so he's encouraging them that this isn't the end of the story. As you say, Brother Bob, they might have wondered what's happened. We've tried to be faithful to the Lord and remember these are those that had been brought up under the teaching that was proper in its in the Jewish order of things.
That if you were faithful to the Lord, you'd be established in temporal things. That promise was given to Abraham. And we see it with the patriarchs and the Old Testament Saints. When they were faithful, they were established. Even their enemies were at peace with them. They, they had cattle and lands and large families and temporal blessings. And these brethren might have wondered, well, what's happened? We've turned to the Lord Jesus. We've received him as our Savior, and now we've lost everything.
They'd been driven from their homes. They'd lost everything in a temporal way. And Peter is really writing to them to encourage them. It's not here. It's all on the other side of this. This life and your blessings and your inheritance are not temporal anymore. It's not that which can be seen. And you're a sojourner. You're passing through. And I would like to make this comment in connection with the expression that Bob read to us in the second chapter.
Because you have this expression twice in the New Testament. You have it in chapter 2 where Bob read Strangers and Pilgrims, and you have it also in connection with the patriarchs in Hebrews 11, where it says they confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Now notice the expression. The order in which it's given is very important. God never lists things in a haphazard order, so to speak.
Sometimes when we quote this expression, we quote it pilgrims and strangers. That is not what it says. It's always on the two occasions, strangers first and then pilgrims. I'm gonna repeat a little illustration that has helped me to understand the order here and why it listed in this way. When I step up to an immigration booth to come into the United States, I put my Canadian passport on the counter and the first question they asked me is what's your citizenship?
And I tell them I'm a Canadian, and the very next question they usually ask is how long are you going to be in the United States or whatever country I'm entering? Because as soon as I announce I'm a stranger or a foreigner, they recognize that I'm only in their country for a little time. And brethren, if we don't realize that we are strangers, we are foreigners. We're heavenly citizens with the Saints and of the household of God.
As we have in Ephesians 2, if we lose sight of that, then we lose sight of the fact that we're sojourners, that we're pilgrims. A Pilgrim, as Bob said, is one who is just passing through. But as soon as I settle down in this world.
And become worldly minded. I'm not passing through. So let me continue with the illustration. Let's suppose I decide in the course of time to take out American citizenship. Now I step up to an immigration booth coming into the state and they asked me my citizenship. I say I'm an American. They don't ask me how long I'm staying because I belong here. And so maybe that helps us to understand. And Peter, the Spirit of God through Peter wanted these brethren to understand.
00:25:02
Said, well, they had lost everything. In an earthly sense, they had lost nothing, or in fact, they had gained much as long as they realized or that he wanted them to realize that this was not their goal, their aspiration. This was not where things were that we're going to abide, but that they were just passing through and that they were on their way to something far better.
And brother, we're on our way to something far better. Why are we clinging to temporal things here?
Not that we despise those mercies, we use them for the the benefit of our families and for the benefit of God's people and the furtherance of the truth. But let's adjust our perspective as we go down these verses, as I believe these brethren did when they read this epistle. It adjusted their perspective that everything here is temporal and transient. We can lose it in a moment like that, but we have something that is eternal that we will never lose and enjoy forever.
I think in his first verse, it's a word for stranger here or Sergeant is different than what it is in later in this chapter, in the 17th and in the next chapter. They really were strangers of the dispersion. They really that's what they were. They were foreigners scattered from their their home country. I'm in a sense in a similar position. I live in this country, but it's not the country of my citizenship.
That's what they were as people, but nevertheless, it didn't matter anymore, did it? To these Jews. They were no longer looking for a home, a nation down here on earth. There was something beyond that. And so that's what they were nationally. But it no longer mattered because spiritually we all are strangers in pilgrims in this in this world in which we live in first has already been said for Jew suffering persecution after they had been saved was a very difficult thing for them to understand. So multiple.
Portions of the New Testament addressed this. The book of Hebrews takes it up in particular. They they didn't understand it. Here we are, we we're, we're saved. We received Jesus as the Messiah. We recognize our part in place in what we did to him. Why then are we suffering persecution? But it was so indelibly etched into their psyche, if I can put it that way, that salvation meant salvation from circumstances that they needed to see beyond that. So you notice how it says rather.
Interestingly, in the ninth verse, receive the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, because up until this point in their history they always look for salvation not of their souls, but of their circumstance. So it is rather interesting expression in Nehemiah. You don't have to turn to it, I just use this as an example of this. But in the 9th chapter of Nehemiah there's a recounting of Israel's history and in the 27th verse it says thou gavest them saviors who saved them.
Out of the hand of their enemies.
That's the way a Jew looked for salvation. But now they had something that was far beyond that. They no longer look for a promised land, a Kingdom here on this earth. There was something beyond that. And the suffering they went through was is characteristic for us of this present day and age, which we love.
Abraham, which is uh, that uh, verse you mentioned in Hebrews 11 is in reference to Abraham.
He, uh, looked for a city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God. I've often wondered where he found out about that city. It does say in Acts Chapter 7 that the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, Maybe something of that appearance. But anyhow, he looked for a city and.
Even though he was a fairly wealthy man, he had 318 servants. I don't think anybody here has a company with 318 employees. But he was a wealthy man. But he never lived in anything more than a tent. And why was that? Is there some prohibition? I don't think so. It was simply that he had his eyes, his heart set on heaven, that heavenly city had seen somewhere.
That's what he was waiting for.
00:30:00
So, brethren, it's the nation that we have our sights set on heaven. And you know, we look at earth and there's a lot of interesting things in this sphere called earth, but if we get a glimpse of heaven, earth fades into the background pretty fast. Far, greatly, far beyond our comprehension is what is in that heavenly scene waiting for us. And so if we would see it.
It would make us simple in our living habits. If we're not, if we're occupied with accumulating things down here, it's because we haven't gotten a vision of that heavenly city.
Brethren, we're going through is really what is normal Christianity, isn't it? And I want to say this ever so carefully. Brethren, I'm thankful for the mercy we enjoy here in North America. I'm thankful that we have lived in a land where we enjoy the freedom to meet like this. We are have No Fear of the authorities busting down the doors today and coming in and arresting us or shooting us for having a Bible meeting.
We can freely propagate the gospel, we enjoy many temporal mercies, We're not afraid of people coming and burning down our homes because we're believers and so on. But that is not normal Christianity, what we experience in North America. And again, we don't want to despise it. We're thank God for it. And we are to pray that we live peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty and that the authorities will continue to allow us to live and meet in this way. But brethren, when you read the book of the Acts.
And when you read of what these brethren were going through, that is normal Christianity. And it's interesting too, in the New Testament that there's no such thing as a Christian nation. Is that interesting? Now, again, I understand what the expression that we have used when we talk about a Christian country. And so I understand that. But again, let's be careful. God never speaks in the New Testament of a Christian nation. In the Old Testament there was a nation that was peculiar to Jehovah.
And that was Israel, of course. They were a peculiar nation, chosen Abraham because he responded by faith and obedience to God's call. God said he would build of him a great nation. And God will yet in a future day bless that very nation in the in the Millennium. And Jerusalem and Israel are gonna be the center of the world. And the other nations will recognize them as such. And if they don't, they will be brought under famine and pestilence and so on. But in Christianity.
It's out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. And again, I believe this is one of the lessons or one of the truths that these Jewish believers, those who had been converted from Judaism, it's one of the things they had to learn that now it was not God blessing a nation, but it was God blessing individuals. And I believe, brethren, that is why in the second verse he immediately speaks of election.
Because in the New Testament, in Christianity, election is never national or collective. We we need to get that firmly implanted in our souls, brethren. And I say that because there is a doctrine afoot in many Christian circles today to teach otherwise. But let me repeat myself. In Christianity, election is never national and it's never collective. It's never in connection with a nation.
Or is the church collectively elect? It is always individual and when you and I don't suggest you do this, but if you listen to those who seek to propagate that the church is is elect as a body, it leads to all kinds of ramifications and false teaching and assumption that is not according to the word of God and it puts responsibility and onus on man that God does not put on man in the New Testament.
And it negates to a great degree the the the sovereignty of God. So I just say that we want to be very careful. But I do believe that's why he goes immediately we indeed, in addressing these Jewish believers, he immediately speaks of election. It's not national. Now he's saying to them, it's not collective. You've been elect individually from that nation, yes, but now you've been delivered from it and brought into something brand new.
00:35:10
Is that right, Steve?
It's, uh. It also connects the thought of stranger.
That it is really the sovereignty of God.
And his choice and his call that has made us strangers.
That's what made Abraham a stranger. You know, when it says in Hebrews they confess they were strangers and pilgrims. You, you find that and he and Genesis, when it comes to bearing Sarah, he says I am a stranger and a sojourner among you. You know, it was really the death of that which was dearest to him.
That brought home to his soul the fact that he was indeed a stranger and the soldier in this scene. And so we can get things that tie us pretty down tight, pretty tight to the scene and the Lord may have to bring in the situation that.
Cuts those things off to make us feel our our place of strangers and sojourners. So their brother Nick brought out.
Advanced failure was why they were scattered, and man's persecution that's why they were scattered. But it was the call of God that made them strangers. And so he brings in the truth of election here.
It's what relates to, uh, election, what we have in Ephesians chapter one and verse four, he says, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, choosing is election. You have elections. You choose a certain person for a certain position. So he chose us.
Before the foundation of the world. So here's how Peter puts it. He says elect according to the four knowledge of God the Father. He knows everything beforehand because God's characteristic is that he inhabits eternity. He is not limited by time and so he knows everything. There is no such thing for God as past, present and future. When creation came in, then there was time.
And then we were born, and the purposes of God were made, uh, known to us. But I say he had these purposes in that past eternity. Only God and his eternal purposes there. And they involved us. Amazing, wonderful truth.
Election, certainly that's a sign, the thought of salvation by works or by performance, how we've had elections in this country and the elections took place.
And all of these different candidates, they were evaluated.
Based on what their abilities or their performance has been and they were elected.
On that basis, but when it comes to the election that we're speaking about here, we find that we are elected or chosen before we even came into existence, so how could we possibly?
Think that based on our performance we're going to obtain some kind of position or favor before God. So I think it's a wonderful subject. You know, this thought of election that we are chosen and we might well question, well, why me Lord?
And my only answer is that this is pure sovereign grace. We have nothing to do with it, but we are elected or chosen.
Before time in the past.
And so I think it's a beautiful verse, and it also brings before us the Trinity because we have here.
Elected by the Father, but sanctified by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. So we have every person of the Godhead involved in our blessing now, even though salvation is not by works. Notice what it says here.
00:40:09
We are sanctified unto obedience.
That involves works.
And we find out that we were chosen in Christ and that we're saved by grace without works. But the fact is, we are created in Christ Jesus under good works. And so as we contemplate the goodness of God, his sovereign grace, it has an effect on our performance and our behavior. And our desire would be to live to the glory of God.
The one who has shown us such favor, we who deserve nothing but hell and judgment, brought into this wonderful relationship.
To find out that we are holy and without blame before God involved.
54 know about us before knew that we would be centers, and that we would be at enmity with him.
And that's what he knew about us, and that magnifies his grace because it gives him all the credit.
Nothing to boast in. You won't be able to look at me and say, well, I deserve to be there more than you than you do, Brother Jim. Or I won't be able to look at somebody else and measure. Because we're all going to realize in perhaps a way that we've never realized before, that it was all the grace of God. And we won't turn to it. But it is interesting when you read in Luke 14. And Luke always brings before us man's responsibility.
But when you read that parable there of the man who made a great supper, the first two that were invited made excuse, but the third one, who'd married a wife, he made an interesting comment. He said I cannot come. And that's our true condition as sinners.
We couldn't come rather than there was nothing in us that would respond. We were dead in trespasses and sin. We couldn't come except for a work brought in by God of sovereign grace and we'll get to that later on in the in this chapter. He brings that out and so we just want to mention it in passing, but we could not come. But I would like to say this about election before we pass on and just give a a simple illustration.
That at least helped me to understand what election really is as far as it being individual and not collective. So as Brother Wally said, we have elections, We've had them in Canada, you've had them here, and every person that makes up either the House of Parliament in Canada or Congress here, or whatever other house you have here, the Senate or whatever, every one of them were elected as individuals.
In their own writing, they were not. Congress or the House of Parliament is not elected as a body. They're elected as individuals. Now, collectively, when they get to Ottawa or Washington, they become a collective body. And so it's true. Collectively we are the Church of God. We're the bride of Christ, we're the body of Christ. Whatever expression there's different expressions are used to bring before us different aspects of what we are collectively, but collectively we are the Church of God.
But we weren't elected collectively. We were elected individually. We're elected as individuals. God foreknow us. And back in that past eternity before the foundation of the world, and we were elected as individuals. And because of the work that has brought us into blessing, now collectively we are the Church of God. So perhaps that helps us to understand the difference between election and what we are collectively as the church.
I'm just going to say that.
What we have, uh, what we have commented on is, uh, precious truth that, umm, the Lord knew all about us before we even came into this world. But I think we need to keep things in balance, brethren. I, I, I think that all would agree that is a responsible preacher. He's responsible for his actions, as Doctor Wilson puts it. And I, I couldn't improve upon it.
You S you come to the door, It says whosoever will may come. We don't know anything about the decrease of God. We don't know, uh, the councils of God in a past eternity. We know that man is a responsible creature. Whosoever will may come and take of the water of life greeting, come in the door. Then we learn the secret of the family that we are elected according to the foreknowledge of God and so on a precious truth. But I just mentioned that, brethren, that we keep things in balance. There is the sovereign.
00:45:35
The sovereign, the sovereignty of God, without doubt.
But man is a responsible creature, and that's the way we present the gospel, is it not?
Sovereignty isn't it electing, choosing us before the foundation of the world?
It's interesting this part through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. It's interesting if you go back to Exodus 24, you'll find what relates to this reference in the giving of the law. In Exodus 24 and verse eight it says and Moses took the blood.
And sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which.
The Lord has made with you concerning. I should have read verse seven. I'm sorry. And he 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.
And 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. But it was a covenant that depended on their obedience.
And since it did, they failed in it. But here now we are brought into Christian ground, and it's unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Not only the sprinkling.
But the obedience and so ere sanctified unto the obedience of Jesus Christ.
His obedience was different than the obedience under the law. He says, Thy law is within my heart. I come to do thy will, O God, from the heart. He wanted to. In the Old Testament, the heart of man was not wanting to do the will of God. And so that sprinkled blood brought condemnation in the Old Testament. But here it's the obedience of Jesus Christ, the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Were brought into a blessing, but with a nature. Now, because we are born again, we have a nature that loves to do the will of God. That's the obedience of Jesus Christ.
Sanctified were set apart, and this is not practical sanctification here. This is what another has referred to as absolute sanctification. So when Israel was redeemed, they were set apart. They went through the Red Sea and they sang the song of redemption, but they were no longer under the authority of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. They were no longer on Egyptian ground. They were set apart. They were sanctified.
Moses was the one they were baptized unto Moses. Why? A picture of Christ. He was the one that was going to lead them. Now they were under his authority. And so they never got back into Egypt. Now in their hearts, Steven said, they returned into Egypt, but positionally they never got back there. And brethren, we have been sanctified. We have been set apart, not for this world anymore, but as a heavenly people. And so these Jewish believers, whose hopes.
And goals and aspirations before Christianity were centered in this world. They now were set apart as a heavenly people and then, as Bob has said, sanctification of the Spirit under obedience.
So when Saul of Tarsus was converted on the Damascus Rd. what did he immediately say?
Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? There was immediate desire now, because there was a life imparted now, the very life of Christ, a life that delights to do to, and can do nothing but obey. Obey, as you say, the heart is involved. But the Lord Jesus, when He was here, He said, I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him, Him that sent me. I do always those things that please the Father. My Father worketh hitherto, and I work also.
00:50:15
As Baba said, Thy law is within my heart and and so on.
And so now we are brought into this same position we have, we see the obedience of Christ is the perfect example. And now we have that very life we've been set apart with that very life that delights to walk in obedience to to God and in in practical separation. We're gonna get that later on in the in the chapter, but this is absolute separation, sanctification. The obedience is before the blood.
Why? Again, if I'd been writing this, I probably would have reversed it. But when Saul of Tarsus said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? He really didn't understand the efficacy of the blood. He came to understand and appreciate that later on. And so a person, when they're when God imparts divine life to a person, they get that nature, but they don't perhaps understand right away that I rarely, if ever would they understand right away.
The the value of the blood, the efficacy of the blood that comes later. So you get the order here we're sanctified, we're set apart. There's the O, there's obedience, and then there's the appreciation and the realization of the blood of Christ.
Yes.
This characteristic of faith isn't it speaks in the book of Romans of the obedience of faith. If you do not obey what Scripture plainly says, you're basically are saying, I think I know better than God.
But if you really trust God, you will obey. And so it's interesting in this very chapter, if you go down to verse 14, it says as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former less than your ignorance. Again in verse 22, seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth. It's what's characteristic of the Christian faith is.
Obedience.
Where the subject is new life and there's, there's the, uh, expression obedient of obedience and the keeping of the commandments. And so that's, it's very, uh, the to go along, umm, very well with what we have received as believers, a new life and faith and those things give way to obedience.
Aren't we? And that faith manifests itself by obedience.
Like John or uh.
Like umm, you were saying rather that.
Paul said immediately, Lord, what will thou have me to do? He doesn't even know who is talking. Who art thou, Lord? Is what he said first, And then he said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? But he didn't even know who it was. But he didn't know he was Lord.
And it might seem a contradiction to what we're speaking about that we are saved by grace through faith and that of works. But I think what James is saying is that.
Its face that truly saves.
It doesn't depend on you or me, but we are saved to live for the glory of God in this world. Otherwise we could be taken home as soon as we're staying. But we're here for a purpose, and I believe it's to shine for the Lord Jesus and each of us have that privilege.
Like the little song says, you know, like little candles.
Burning in the night.
And so.
Faith and works really I think go together and I noticed there's a Greek word, I think the word is piso. And if you look it up you'll find out that it means both believe and also obey the same word. I believe it's peace. So I think works is very closely connected to faith.
00:55:17
But it's truly by grace we are saved through faith.
But we manifest that faith by what we do.
On the statement that was made, we were saved by faith without works, but the SA faith that saves is a faith that works.
Ministry were justified before God and there it's not by works, but in James were justified before men. And so show me your faith, show me your works and I'll believe your faith is basically what James is saying. You tell me you have faith, but it doesn't manifest itself in your life. So I think it's helpful to see that to be justified before God, it's simply by faith. It's on the basis of the blood of Christ. It's the grace of God.
But if we're going to be justified before the world, we must show our works. And so Abraham was one who not only had faith and was justified before God, but he had faith in what he did, and he was justified before the world. But another characteristic of Christianity is what we have in the end of verse 2, grace and peace be multiplied. You know, this must have been a great comfort to these brethren as well, because as we've been saying.
Outwardly there was number peace things were things were in turmoil. They were as I say they were suffering things that I think perhaps none of us in this room have ever been called on to suffer in our testimony for the for the Lord driven from their homes lost everything in a material way, physical persecution and and reproach. But he said says great grace unto you. And so grace is what characterizes Christianity. It's what gives us.
The ability to live from day-to-day, no matter what the circumstances are. He give us more grace. Do we need more grace? He give us more grace. Is it all we need? My grace is sufficient for thee. Do we need more? Do we need more grace? He give us more grace. And so on. And then peace. Now, this is not an outward peace, brethren. And brethren, if we're looking for peace in this world, outwardly, we're mistake. We're gonna be. We're gonna be. We're disillusioned. We're sadly mistaken.
But with the with grace to enable us to go through the circumstances of life and that inward peace that he has given us. Not just peace with God, that's what we received when we got saved, but the peace of God in our circumstances. As there is that obedience and faith exhibited in a practical way, the peace of God that passes all understanding what resources we have. Brethren, there's no excuse if I give up, if I say it's not worth it.
If I get discouraged and cast down, I really have no excuse. And when I stand before the Lord Jesus at the judgment seat of Christ, I won't have any excuse to give for any failure or discouragement or giving up in my life.
He's going to say, as it were, I gave you all the resources you need. You were elect, you were chosen, but not only were you elect and chosen, but I gave you my grace for the pathway. I gave you that inward peace that comes from from a path of obedience. All the resources, and there's many of them we could enumerate, but brethren, we have everything like these early Christians. We have everything we need then to go on, no matter how difficult the circumstance.
Perhaps just one more thought question with regard to obedience as a person in the blood. Uh, first John chapter 5, it came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood. So it's a thought there. Uh, the moral cleansing, of course, it comes by, uh, new birth, but judicial cleansing, of course, even though the order is, uh.
Say reverse perhaps from the way we would put it, but by water and blood the Lord Jesus came.
01:00:06
Yeah, stand up so I can.
Heard better when it's a bit of water. Does it not refer to, uh, the new position that we have been brought into at new birth?
Uh, a cleansing, a moral cleansing, uh, in a new position before God. And then the blood speaks of expiation or the putting away of our guilt before a holy God. But, uh, there's a difference there. Umm.
The water is, uh, new birth and bringing us into a, uh, a new position before call that we didn't have before. Maybe someone can, uh, elaborate. Yeah, water always brings us into a new position. So again, when they cross the Red Sea, a figure of baptism, baptism brings us from 1 ground into another when we as as John said, new birth brings us from one position into another. And so when the.
Soldier with a spear pierced his side forthwith came throughout blood and water. And I appreciated the simplicity. In which chapter Macintosh commented on that incident. He said blood cleanses my sin, water cleanses the Sinner. It brings me into a new position. So when the priest was consecrated on the day of his consecration, there were two things. There was the blood and the water. The water didn't make the man a priest.
What made the man a priest was he was born into Aaron's family, but it brought him into a position where he could serve as a priest. So I believe has been said that it it brings us into that new position and it has. It's a moral.
It has a moral effect.
In Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 22, you have those two things mentioned. Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. That's the sprinkling of the blood and our bodies washed with your water. That's being, that's the washing of regeneration being brought into a new position, like you say, Brother John.
The the practical, umm, manifestation of.
In the in The Walking ways of the believers and not.
Sequence. It's already been spoken about, but it's grace and then peace.
And we find it here in Peter's official Paul's epistle. His epistles Grace and peace always in that sequence.
And it's because.
Grace makes everything of Christ and nothing of self, and if I don't appreciate and understand what grace is, then I'm going to be thinking about myself and what God is looking for from me in order to enjoy His favor and His salvation. And I certainly will not have peace.
But if I realize that.
Grace is God's riches at Christ's expense makes everything of the person in work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then I have peace because I rest on his finished work.
So it's quite simple. Peace follows grace.
Just another little thought and that connection. It's interesting that back when these epistles were written, grace was the Gentile salutation and peace or Shalom was the Jewish. And it's very interesting, isn't it, that in the epistles the two are connected? Because I believe it brings before us that now in Christianity there's neither Jew nor Gentile, and the Christianity, the Church of God now is made-up of those who are saved.
From a Jewish background and from a Gentile background. So I know our brother Bill is here today. He's been saved from a Jewish background.
Most of us are saved from a Gentile background but were brought into a new entity. Now, if I can put it that way, the Church of God, the body of Christ.
01:05:00
And so we often find that the apostles, when they write, they connect these two expressions, that which was, I say, the, the Jewish, the Gentile salutation and the Jewish salutation, bringing them into focus now that in Christianity there's neither Jew nor Gentile, but having been saved from those backgrounds, were brought in as the, as the Church of God.
I could just share a little thought regarding grace and truth. Grace is based on who God is and peace is based on what God has done. It's just something that's going to help to me.
He multiplied. Interesting, isn't it? You know, we need to grow in this brother. We need to appreciate it more and more. Do we have some little appreciation of grace? Do we enjoy the peace of God in our soul?
Peter wanted to to be multiplied. He wants it to be increased in our in our souls and rather than as we go on with the Lord and as we enjoy what we have as to what he has provided for us in as to the heavenly inheritance, the heavenly blessings, the inheritance that is ours, all we have in him, the provisions for the pathway, then grace and peace will be multiplied. And at the end of his epistles he says growing grace and the knowledge.
And so we never can say we've arrived. He wants it to. He wants us to grow in the appreciation of these things, and He wants it not just to be added. To add is one thing, but to multiply is something even far greater, isn't it? And if we leave, if the Lord leaves us here and we leave this room on Lord's Day evening, and grace and peace have been multiplied, our appreciation of grace and peace have been multiplied in our souls, then it's been well worth our time to be here.
He uses that same expression in verse 2. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. So it's what he does for us. But when it comes a little later in that chapter to exhorting us, it's in verse five it says add. So we add, he multiplies.
Grace and peace.
You know, I think it's an Old Testament scripture live. It's found in Job a quaint now thyself with him and be at peace, and thereby good shall come unto thee. So Peter speaks about growing in grace and in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. But that's not a new thought because in the Old Testament.
The exhortation is.
Acquaint now thyself with you.
And how wonderful that we can get to know God.
And know him better day by day, month by month, year by year. And I think that's really what Abraham found to be so satisfying because, you know, he says a lot. You just choose what you like and life chooses the well watered planes.
Of Sodom. The ends up in the gate of Sodom.
And I don't believe he had a happy life because it tells us he vexed his righteous soul with the filthy conversation of the wicked. He didn't have to be there, but that's what he chose.
On the contrary, where is Abraham? He's dwelling in the plains of Mammoth, like the wide open spaces where Hebron is.
And am I right in thinking that Hebron means communion? Is that the meaning? Well, here's Abraham enjoying communion with God.
And it was so satisfying, I'm sure. And I believe we're gonna find it to be the same. So let us continue to get acquainted with our wonderful God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
01:10:15
212 The 1St.
7 verses #212 Verses 1-6 and seven.
Cold from above.
And beginning of all your life, forever and ever again. That's a chance of all together.
Here.
We've seen all that. I'm looking at you all.
Umm.
Yeah, down to #265 to go along with that. Him 265. Just a second.