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Wednesday.
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Phone 107.
Verse 23.
They that go down to the sea, and ships that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. Free commandeth and raises the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven. They go down again to the depths. Their soul was melted because of trouble. They reeled to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and arrest their wit's end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet. So he bringeth them unto their desired haven. All that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men.
I suggest rather that we take up first Peter chapter one.
Three times in First Peter chapter one. It speaks of hope in three different ways.
First Peter chapter one. Well, the whole book, the children of God are seen as on a journey with the starting point and the destination and the difficulties of the way like we just sang about and those things that God provided for the journey and the encouragement of his provisions to take them safely to the end of it.
And I believe it would be profitable to look at it for the benefit of our souls.
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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. 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.
To 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.
Where any greatly rejoice, though now for a season if need be, you're in heaviness.
Through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold, it perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found under praise, and honor and glory, at the appearing 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.
Unto whom it was revealed that not unto 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 thing is the angels desire to look into? Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
As obedient children.
Not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust and your ignorance, but as he which has called you as holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.
Because it is written be holy, for I am holy.
And if ye call on the Father, who, without respect of persons, judges according to every man's work.
Pass 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 one thing, 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.
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We're all flesh is as grass, and the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass wither us, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
Peter Wrights.
That all started their lives with.
Certain hopes.
Certain expectations, He's writing to those who had been born Jews, and as Jewish people, they had a certain hope. They had a certain expectation, certain desires that were put before them.
And they lost them all, in that one sense.
They end their lives with a totally different destination before them, with a totally different hope during their course of their life. And in a general way, that's true of every one of us in this room. We naturally start life with certain expectations and certain ambitions, perhaps as we get old enough to form them. But there should be. Hopefully there has come a point in our life.
When we recognize that God has called us for a different destination, which puts us in a different path, a different journey through the rest of our lives. And as we journey, we have hope. I just encourage us as we go through this chapter three times in the chapter in verse 3A, living hope, verse 13, the hope of the revelation of Jesus Christ, and in verse 21.
Hope in God that we will find the encouragement for our souls of that which is put before us. But I would also say right at the beginning, you don't get the hope if you aren't fixed on the same journey. Sometimes somebody will say, let's go, go here, go there and someone else say no, I don't want to. I'm not really interested in that. Well then you can't share in the common experiences, the hope connected with that destination.
And so it is in the Word of God. There's an assumed, in fact, it's explicitly stated in this chapter what the destination of these people was who had to make this journey to get there and go through the trials and the joys and the conflict and the difficulties of that journey.
Might be helpful too in introducing the of hope to realize that in Scripture hope connected with Christ and the new man is in no way uncertainty. Hope connected with this life is always uncertainty at best. After this conference we may hope to return to our homes and we may hope to do many things, and we discuss one with another our plans and our hopes and our desires.
And we say, where are you going from here? And so on. But often our hopes in connection with this life and our destinations that we had planned, something enters in to frustrate it and it never comes to fruition. But hope and connect in the sense of which we're Speaking of it here is only hope in the sense that we're not in the full reality of it yet. And So what a man hath, why does he yet hope for it says in Romans.
If you have something in your hand, you don't hope for it, you have it. If you've been promised it and you don't have it yet, there's an anticipation and a hope that looks forward to the moment when you will have it. And so our hope is, it says in Hebrews is sure and steadfast. And it's the only hope that we can ever speak of in this life as being sure and steadfast. And that is the hope that we have in Christ. And so again I say it's in no thought. There's no thought of it being uncertainty.
It is only hope in the sense that it hasn't been fully. It's been revealed to us that we're not in the full good of it at the present time. It's something that is yet future, but it is something that is definitely secured.
Also, too, in connection with what Don said, it's interesting that in the first verse, as he begins this epistle to those who had lost everything materially and might have wondered what had happened, because they were.
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Steeped in the tradition and teaching, and rightly so, that if they were faithful to the Lord, they would be established in their land and material possessions and family and so on. But it's interesting, if you notice Mr. Darby's translation, he translates the word strangers as sojourners. And a sojourner is one who is not here for very long, one who's on a journey. Those of us who have come to this conference, we're sojourners here for the weekend in Saint Louis.
Some of us have airline tickets and other plans to leave here the first of the week after the conference is over. And so we say to one another, well, how long are you staying? And one is staying a certain length of time and somebody else another length of time. We're just sojourners here. And brother and I believe that we need to recognize that in each of our lives that we are only sojourners here in this world, that the life that we have here is only for a little time.
That the trials and the tests and the circumstances of life are only for a little time. I know it doesn't always seem like it seems like a long time sometimes when we're going through those circumstances. But what the Apostle Peter was encouraging the Saints here is that, yes, you have fiery trials, Yes, you've lost everything to in a temporal way. Yes, there are persecutions and so on. But just remember you're sojourners and your whole lies beyond that which is material.
Your hope lies beyond that which is of the horizons of this sad, sad world that is pleading at best. And if we can get a hold of that, brethren, in these meetings, then I believe there's profit for our souls. That's what's going to encourage us to go on. Peter wasn't trying to discourage the Saints by bringing before them the things that he brings before them in this epistle. Know what he was trying to do or seeking to do, was to encourage them that in spite of what they were experiencing now, they had a hope.
And they had something secure and an inheritance that was far, far greater than anything they that their forefathers or they could have ever enjoyed as far as an earthly inheritance.
They had something that couldn't be taken away. It was eternal, it was heavenly, but that they were on their way there and not to settle down with temporal things in this world.
Speak to some young people, all of which are under 20 years of age, and I frequently ask them this question.
20 years ago, you didn't exist.
Now you exist.
How long are you going to exist?
And occasionally one or more of them gets it.
But most generally the answer is I don't know.
Because man in his natural condition doesn't think beyond this life.
He doesn't recognize that he has any. Now that he does exist, he has an eternal dis existence.
And Peter, and it's taken for granted here, really, but the journey that these children of God were on was to a place beyond this life.
And we don't really live life the way God wants us to live it if we simply have the attitude. Well, yes, and I'm going to speak as a believer could. Well, yes, I'm someday going to heaven.
But then in practice, we make this life, our journey, like the world in which we live. That's the only journey it knows. Let us eat and drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. We have one journey through life. Let's get the most we can out of it. We know it's going to end someday, and that's going to be the end of the journey.
Not the journey that Peter describes to us here in this chapter at all. He says to us as to our hope, we have a living hope of a heavenly inheritance which takes us on into eternity on a journey of which our destiny is to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven. So as we go through the encouragements that are given to us and the discouragements or the conflict connected with it.
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We won't get the benefit out of it if our minds stop at the end of this life.
Whether it ends in death or whether it ends in the rapture, we still will not get the benefit that God wants us to get out of it unless we immediately begin with the end of the journey. Similar to the Children of Israel, of which this chapter has its parallels, specially written to Jews, the children of Israel started their journey from Egypt. They had to pass through the wilderness, and the destination for them was Canaan.
And this chapter is part of a book that starts, if you will, with a beginning in the world.
Takes us on a trip through a desert with the destination of heaven, our Canaan.
As a child, I took many trips with my mom and dad.
And for which I had nothing to do with the planning of the trip.
I was generally told what the destination was going to be.
But it was all my father or my mother or both. Decision and plan.
As to it.
And I participated in it quite often. It was it's time to get in the car and my father took care of the rest of it. It's good to see right in the beginning here in verse 2 where it says elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, that the journey that we take begins in the heart of God. The planning for it was originated by God.
We didn't think at all. We didn't say, oh, we're going to go to heaven after we get created. And all the rest of that made no sense, would have made no sense to us. But it's a good thing to recognize that the planner.
The one who carries it out as to the path of it.
The destiny of it, the provision to get us safely through it to the end, and those things that encourage us along the way all originate in the heart of God. When it says foreknowledge of God here, it goes beyond the idea of simply God knows everything ahead of time. The foreknowledge of God very often involves.
Not only that He knows ahead of time, but that He purposes ahead of time an end result and knows that it will be accomplished. And here I believe it has that character that God, before He ever created this world, had in His mind and in His knowledge that He was going to take us on a journey to His own dwelling place to be with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
For eternity. And he starts with it here because.
Hopefully, like little children, we anticipate the journey with joy. Oh, we might say to a father, mother, is that where we're going? That's wonderful.
And that sustains quite often. Sometimes when I was a child and my dad said we were going to a certain place after we've been on the road 5 or 10 or half an hour or something. Are we there yet? Are we about to get there? As children, we didn't always like the journey itself, but when we were reminded why are the end of it was going to be, that helped us to endure it until we got there.
It's nice to see too that.
We speak of God, but if you notice in verse two, it's the whole Godhead.
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The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are all active and all of one mind concerning us.
Sometimes in our earthly relationships and family matters and so on. Sometimes there isn't oneness, there isn't unity, there's conflict as to where we're going or what we're going to do or how we're going to do it once we decide to do it, and so on. Things get very complicated among men, but here we have the foreknowledge of God the Father.
We have the Spirit doing the work of separating us, sanctifying us.
To this calling to this.
Destiny.
And we have the necessary and perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we would be allowed, so that we would be enabled to have such a destination put before us.
It would be nice if we could have a a word on the on the the work of the Spirit of God in sanctifying.
Sometimes in a situation you might have a collection of people.
Together as a group.
And there might be something that needs to be done.
Or some.
Purpose that needs to be fulfilled and someone has the responsibility within of choosing in that group.
Those who out of the group are going to be the ones to do that thing and set apart for it. Sanctification means to set apart. That's what the Word means. And so it's a work of the Spirit of God to set aside, separate, if you will.
For God's purposes.
Individuals to fulfill what that purpose is and in this case we see that there is a destiny of persons on earth to be with the Lord Jesus Christ in his position as a man in heaven in his glory over the come, his coming reign on this earth. And so it is the work of the Spirit of God to set apart.
For God and for God's purposes, those who are going to have that place and that role, and we also know in the Old Testament or we have in Second Timothy, for example, two, sometimes the setting apart is necessary that those set apart might be suited to that which they're going to be used for. And so in Second Timothy, the idea in chapter 2 is sometimes the setting apart or sanctifying a vessels.
So their claim and can be used for some purpose of God. And so we immediately have following the sanctification of the Spirit. In the verse it says unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Without that the separated vessels are separated, people would not be able to properly participate in the purpose of God.
No.
One will end up in the destination described in this chapter who has not been sprinkled with the blood of Christ.
And no one will properly go through the journey unless they're set apart to walk through that journey in obedience.
These believers who had been saved of the Jewish nation could understand this from their history in the Old Testament, because in the Old Testament God chose a particular nation, and he chose that nation and set them apart for a purpose. You see, it's a little different thought perhaps, but you see it on the banks of the Red Sea. They were redeemed by the blood of the Passover lamb.
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But they were set apart as a peculiar people when they crossed the Red Sea, and they looked back and they could rejoice that they were no longer part of Egypt, and they were no longer now under the authority of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, A picture of Egypt, a picture of the world, Pharaoh's a picture, and his hosts are a picture of Satan and his hosts. And they could rejoice because now they were set apart, sanctified people.
They had a journey before them, as we've been saying, and it was a long tedious journey and there were going to be many trials and difficulties and God was going to prove their heart over and over again, but they never got back on Egypt ground. Once they were set apart in their hearts, they returned unto Egypt, but they were set apart and they never got back there. And a Christian who knows the Lord Jesus has been sanctified positionally and will never be part of this world again.
Paul said God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I under the world. It is the cross of Christ that has separated us from this world.
And will never be part of this world and its system and the judgment that it's under again. But as you say, Dawn, we can in our hearts return. And that's why there has to be a practical sanctification and cleansing in our lives, perhaps even on a daily basis, because there are those things that come in of the world that tarnish and defi and defile. And so if a vessel was going to be useful and meet for the masters use in the House of God.
And the great house helps a profession, then there had to be a practical setting apart as well, and we need that. But that's not what he's talking about here. He's talking about a positional thing. And if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
You have been sanctified, You've been set apart from this world, set apart for a purpose, for His glory.
And as we get enrollments to be conformed to the image of his son, that's why he chose us where newest predestinated us, elected us to be conformed to the image of his son. And nothing can change that position that you have been brought into.
Is there a thought as to why it is Peter mentions sprinkling of blood instead of shedding?
A sprinkling of blood has to do with its application.
And the shedding of blood has to do with the work.
Itself.
And so it's on the basis of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that we have later on in this chapter that we are saved.
The blood is shed, and the value of the shed blood, it can be shed. In one John, one, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses from all sin. That's the character of the value of that blood. That said in that verse, without respect to whether anybody gets the benefit of it or not, but it's the value of the blood itself before the eye of God. It has the virtue that it cleanses and that it cleanses from all sin.
But in order for the blood to be of value in a specific case or with a specific individual, then it's necessary in the application of the Old Testament picture that it be applied. And so when the children of Israel offered sacrifices to God, sometimes they were sprinkled with that blood.
And that identified them with the sacrifice itself. And I believe in this chapter, it's that aspect of it that it's seen here as those who you might say are going already started out, but they in order to start out on this destiny and journey, it was necessary they be the blood be applied to them each individually.
The whole children of Israel.
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Left Egypt under the shelter of the blood of atonement on the Passover night. But later on it was found that some of them did not have personal faith and they didn't make it all the way. And so we can be in one sense, uh, take our position as being part of those who journey.
And we might profess the value of the blood, but if we're not real, if it hasn't really been sprinkled, then we will not reach the destination.
Well, there are two wonderful things too provided for the journey, and you find them in the end of verse 2, and that's grace and peace. Isn't that wonderful that we have those resources? The psalmist said, and I think it's the 84th Psalm, the Lord will give grace and glory. And Peter brings before us the glory in the end of the journey, but he also brings before us that there's grace as provision for the pathway. And so glory is what comes at the end.
But grace is what meets our need along the way. It met our need as far as salvation. We were saved by grace. But we need that preserving grace that enables us to walk through this wilderness world, this wilderness journey.
In spite of the difficulties and the circumstances, and it's interesting that there's these two things are to be multiplied. Do we need more grace? He giveth more grace of all we received of His fullness and grace upon grace. Whatever the circumstance or situation, there is an overabundance of grace to meet that situation. I can't fall in the wilderness. I can't get discouraged and say there wasn't grace to meet the situation.
That I had to face the, the, the problem is I don't always avail myself of the resource that is there. And so we have that grace for the journey. But there's something else. There's peace as well. You know, when when we go on here, we find that outwardly these brethren had experienced anything but peace. They'd been driven from their homes. They were being persecuted for their testimony. It wasn't outward peace that they were experiencing.
And it's not outward peace that Peter is promising them, but it is that inward peace for the journey.
It's the same piece, brethren, that the Lord Jesus walked through this world with.
It's the peace that He left with his disciples. When the Lord Jesus was about to leave the disciples, He didn't promise them that it was all going to be smooth sailing in good circumstances after He left them. In fact, just the opposite. He said in the world ye shall have tribulation. He said you're going to have problems and difficulties. But he said, My peace I leave with you not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
The world promises peace when everything goes well, and the man of the world can have a certain sense of peace, at least when he gets good grades and his job's going well and things are happy in the family circle and so on. But just introduce some adverse circumstance that peace depended on his circumstances. And as soon as it's adverse, that peace vanishes. But you and I have a peace or prom. Given a peace, there's a peace at our disposal that can take us through the circumstances of life.
With the same inward joy and confidence that the Lord Jesus had.
As a man, when he walked through this wilderness world, when the Lord Jesus met the enemy in the wilderness in the temptation.
He met that enemy in perfect confidence and peace. When he was persecuted, he had perfect confidence and peace. He went to the cross with perfect confidence and peace.
Not that he didn't feel those things as a man. He never became callous or indifferent to them. And we don't want to either.
But we have grace multiplied and peace multiplied.
No matter how bad the circumstances are multiplied, there's a multiplication that's greater than that, and that's grace and peace to meet the present circumstance.
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To be provided for us in the Christian pathway are based upon who and what God is and what his resources are. They don't have anything to do with, with, uh, what we might find within ourselves. But grace is something that is, is umm, a, a resource that comes based upon what God is.
What God has done and what he will do and it's it's a wonderful thing to know that when we in the when we reach the end of our hoarded resources.
Our Father's full giving has only begun, and that is the grace here that is is to be multiplied to us.
Peace is also based upon what God is, who God is, and what he has done.
Our peace is based upon the finished work of Christ, which has met God's demands to his satisfaction and brought us into a relationship with Him.
That is based upon something that's outside of ourselves.
Turn over how Peter starts his second epistle.
You'll see something added.
To what he says in the first epistle.
Inverse our epistles that we're taking up in the first letter Here he says grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Notice in the second epistle in verse 2, grace and peace be multiplied unto you. How?
Through the knowledge of God.
And of Jesus Christ our Lord.
A significant amount of energy of the Spirit of God.
In the journey that we take to our destiny.
Is taken up with the work of God to make himself practically.
Known to our souls we might we know him.
But we we know, and when we're saved, we can immediately say ABBA Father, as it says in Romans 8. But he wants to develop in us a growth that we have a greater, more complete understanding of himself and of the Son and every one of us as we go day by day through the passage of life. It's the interest and work of God.
To bring us into an increased and multiplied knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just to bring the point a little farther home, go back to the first chapter of Deuteronomy.
And this first chapter of Deuteronomy is the last words of Moses. Moses is going over the history of the children of Israel for their last 40 years plus and, uh, having brought them out of Egypt and so on and taken them on this journey. And so he's going back over it for the generation that's going to enter the land of Canaan and, uh, notice.
Just a little bit here.
Uh, verse 21.
Behold, the Lord thy God has set the land before thee, go up and possess it, as the Lord thy God hath said unto thee, Fear not, neither be discouraged. That was the original purpose, that was the intent. That was 11 days journey after they left Egypt and God said to them, go up, possess it. Don't be afraid and don't be discouraged.
Did they do it?
Verse 22 Says, And they came near unto me, everyone of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they will search us out the land, and will bring us word again, by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come. And the saying, Please me well. And I took 12 men of you, one of a tribe, and they turned and went up into the mountain, and came into the valley of Eskel, and searched it out.
And they took the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land, which the Lord our God doth give us.
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Sounds good.
Sounds good.
But what's verse 26 says notwithstanding, you would not go up.
But rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God sanctified unto obedience.
The children of Israel spent 40 years learning obedience and learning the grace and faithfulness of God to them in spite of disobedience. And many times that's the Natural History of a believer through this world. God starts them out and presents the end of the road, the journey. He gives them a command go possess.
And unbelief in the human hearts as we better check it out.
We better see for ourselves, we better see what difficulties there might be and wholeheartedly going forward in this path that we're started out on. And when they saw the difficulty ahead of them and Peter in this first chapter and the chapters that follow bring a lot of difficulty before the Saints of God that or the children of God there that they're going to have to face. He sparks speaks more in this first epistle of suffering than any other book in the Bible.
And yet that was true. The children of Israel, they what does it say? You would not go up. They rebelled. That is, they were not they were not obedient to the command. And then the Lord says, OK, into the wilderness to learn that lesson. But the human heart is perverse. We won't take the time to read the verses which follow, but then they turn right around and say let's go up.
And they push right into the land and the Lord says you do it and I'm not going to be with you in it. And so again, they, they disobeyed the hand of the Lord in their lives and they lost lives. And then they turned back into the wilderness and they later get the law and a lot of other things that came along with the wilderness experience. But thankfully.
P Moses could say at the end, but God was with you and he faithfully took you to the end. And we see the provisions here in this chapter, the faithfulness of God that everyone of us who is truly sprinkled.
Will make it.
We will make it. There's not one of us that's going to not make it safely to our desired haven as we had in the song.
Before we go on, I'd like to go back to that question that Phil asked about the sanctification of the spirit. Umm back in John chapter 3 we have except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. Verse six I which is born of the Spirit is Spirit and so on. My question is.
Is the His new birth part of that sanctification of the Spirit?
The verses in John three are not.
How do I say it? That's not the intent of them.
That's not the purpose of the what's recorded there. What's recorded there is.
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus was to know that the natural man, the child of Adam, could not get into the Kingdom of God in truth.
The what was necessary to get into the Kingdom of God was not natural birth, but man had to be.
Born in a new way, and that new way was by the Spirit of God. And so the thought in it here isn't really sanctification, but it is rather qualification, if you will, that which would enable a person to enter into the Kingdom of God. New birth was essential, and new birth meant birth. Actually, some say the words have a sense of born from above.
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But it is borne by a new source, not by mother and father.
Which brought us into a natural place in the world, but a birth that takes place through the Word of God, by the Spirit of God taking that word. And when there's faith in us, then there is that birth. And so here in John three, the thought is so much sanctification. Usually sanctification has the sense of being set aside for a purpose.
Not just being set aside, but it has in the thought of it set aside for some purpose. It's not our chapter, but just to get another idea of sanctification in a different sense, but it's still sanctification. Go to Acts chapter 13.
Acts chapter 13, this is of not positional as Jim was differentiating, but it's practical. It's a practical aspect of sanctification in chapter 13, verse one. Now there were in the church that was in Antioch, certain prophets, teachers as Barnabas, Simeon, that was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, uh, Manaan, which had been brought up with Herod, the teacher arc and Saul.
And they ministered to the Lord.
Here's some vessels.
There's some vessels and they're ministering to the Lord, they're together and and where we find next it says and fasted and the Holy Ghost said this is sanctification. Separate me, Barnabas and Saul for the work were unto I have called them.
They were separated. There were a number there, but the Spirit of God, according to the purpose of God to do the work, separated two of them.
To a specific work that he called them to do, and they do that work. The others recognize it, lay their hands on them as an expression of fellowship and recognition that they had been called by God by the Spirit to do this work, and they do it.
Again, it just illustrates the setting apart and the thought here of setting apart for a specific purpose. And I believe in our chapter, the setting apart for us or for those were part of those set apart in this way is for the destiny of heaven with the Lord Jesus and our association with Him there. And consequently we're encouraged in verse 4.
As part of it to us have been driven great and exceeding promises.
Sanctified by the blood of Christ. We get that in Hebrews chapter 13.
Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
That's positionally we're sanctified practically we're sanctified by the washing of water by the word. That's what cleanses us and keeps us clean as fit vessels sanctified and meet for the masters use as you say, with in connection with new birth. They're being born again. Peter actually sums it up later in this chapter where it says being born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the word of God that liveth and abideth forever. And so as you say, it's the word of God applied in the power of the spirit that God uses.
To impart divine life to us. Every person in this room who is saved or has divine life.
It's the results of having read or heard in some way some portion of the word of God. And that word applied in the power of the Spirit is what used to impart divine life. But the basis of everything we never want to forget is the blood of Christ. It's the work of of Calvary. We're sanctified by by his his blood.
That's that's also.
A beautiful picture and the Old Testament how how God goes about doing this.
Sanctification of being set aside.
00:55:03
Retake the picture of how God goes about.
To get Rebecca.
And how he is doing it.
We we have here the Holy Spirit that got a picture.
Of of the father.
He sent out.
His trusted servant, a picture of the Holy Spirit.
And all he is told to do that he is going to get a wife for his son. It has to be from his kindred.
And then he sent him out.
He gets the provisions, he gets all the camels, he gets the servant, he gets a server and the gold.
And he goes on his journey. He knows where to go.
The general direction.
That is where Abraham's kindred lived, and he goes there.
And there he, there he might, he he has some doubts. Now. What if that woman is not going to go with me?
And he gets the answer. If she's not going to go with me, then you are void of your.
Order that you have, but God already knows that she is going to go with Him, and that's where the obedience come in.
Here they're serving a picture of the Holy Spirit in obedience. He goes there.
And then he watches what's going, what is going on?
And he does, according.
As she sings, present themselves to him.
And then all he has to do then ask that girl, are you going to go?
And she says, yes, I will go. So we have here no conflict in this picture. God is doing it all. Only the obedience is necessary. And then the sprinkling of the blood, of course it has to be of the kindred of Abraham, which is.
It eventually going all the way through the sprinkling of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So we have that beautiful picture here without a conflict.
And we know that it all came to pass. He brought the Rebecca back, He loved her, and he went into the tent with her and loved her. And then the story goes on.
The people of Israel are going to be set up then.
It it all goes according to God's use. Work with the Holy Spirit.
And if it's carried out properly, it's without conflict.
Fit into the chapter and we see in verse three Peter hasn't gotten very far but he's his own spirit.
Says blessed be God.
It would cheer the heart of God. If that's the response of each one of our hearts this afternoon, we haven't read very far.
We heard a lot more at other times and so on, but the intent, really.
That Peter would desire, I think, in each one of us and God would find joy in as well as if we just recognized so far where God's taking us and what he's done and His purpose is for us, setting us apart for himself, that we would say, blessed be God.
Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here, it's connected with Mercy.
It's an abundant mercy.
01:00:00
These were Jews, he says, as begotten us again to a lively really the better is living hope.
Why was it a living hope?
Peter and others had seen their hope die.
They had watched at the cross.
And seeing the two on the way to Emmaus, their hope was dead.
We had trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.
All is lost in that man. He's dead.
But the whole foundation, if you will, of the joy and anticipation of the certainty of our hope is because it's a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We're told in Ephesians the same power that raised him from the dead is the power that works to accomplish our raising.
From the dead if need be, or to the glory, and changing us to take us there at the rapture. And so he says.
He didn't give up on us, He showed abundant mercy to us and we have now a living hope.
Why are we confident? Why are we sure that the whole of our Christian faith is worth it?
Because God is confirmed in our hearts the truth of the resurrection.
Why do we go into a Funeral Home? Someone commented. Christians going into a Funeral Home can not only feel the sorrow of it, but sing.
Because of the reality of the hope.
Based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Like to say a few words about this expression of living hope.
Says we are, he has begotten us again unto a living hope. That means that we are begotten for a certain purpose, not just a distinct purpose, but a a purpose that is certain to be fulfilled. Uh, I think in contrast, think of Alexander the Great. He hoped.
To conquer the world. As a young man, he achieved that hope.
And he died a disappointed man because there was nothing more for him and every hope in this world.
Every hope linked with this world is a dead hope.
We have as believers. We have a living hope.
And then we need to say why am I here?
People often ask that question. People who?
Sense a lack of hope, they say. Why am I here?
Well, we know. As believers, we know why we're here. We're here destined for a living hope, one that will not disappoint.
But one which will continue to unfold for eternity.
In Christ, who was raised a Jew, a Jew by birth was saved by the grace of God. And I asked him one time after I knew he had attended a family funeral, I said, Howard, what hope is there at a Jewish funeral? He looked at me and he said, Jim, it is despair at a Jewish funeral, He said, because there is no hope for a Jew beyond this life. And he said if you were to go to a Jewish funeral, it's one of the saddest experiences that you will ever have.
But here we find those of the Jewish nation who had been saved by the grace of God, and they were given not just a hope, but a living hope. And really this is what sets Christianity apart from all the other, if I can put it this way, so-called great religions of the world. There are many today who have hope, but it's hope in a dead person. Mohammed is in the grave. Buddha, Buddha is dead. The other religious leaders that have risen and fallen in this world.
There in the tomb and millions will make pilgrimages to these tombs and so on.
But it's a very, very sad thing to be amongst those and some of us have had opportunity to be in some of these countries where you're amongst those who have, are praying and worshipping and following someone that is in the tomb. There's no joy, there's no peace. It is simply a very sad and desperate situation. But we have a living hope. We have a tomb in Christianity, but over that tomb are the words He is not here, He is risen.
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Come see the place where the Lord lay. I'd like to just take a minute and go back to Hebrews where he talks a little further about this hope.
Henry first in Hebrews chapter 6, because as we alluded to a little earlier in the reading meeting, he speaks of this hope, this living hope based on the resurrection of Christ in a way that you can speak of no other hope connected with this world. Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 18.
That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie.
We might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.
Whether the forerunner is for us entered. Even Jesus made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Well, here as we have read, he speaks of our hope, not simply as a living hope like Peter.
But it's a sure and steadfast hope, and actually, I believe what we have here in the end of Hebrews 6 takes us even a step further than what Peter says.
Peter says that we have a living hope based on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The writer here says we have a sure and steadfast hope, not just based on resurrection, but ascension as well. Because what we find here in Hebrews is where the Lord Jesus is now. He's been received back by God the Father to God's right hand. And so he says your hope is sure and steadfast because the forerunner has already entered the heaven. He's already gone within the veil. He's there.
In the presence of the Father, I'm going to use a little illustration that I know has often been used, but I believe that this portion here.
With the Forerunner, it has to do with what was prevalent in connection with sailing in the days when this was written. Because history tells us that the Greek harbors back in Bible times were all many of them were only accessible at high tide. And when ships desired to enter those harbors back in Bible times, they had what they called a Forerunner and it was a little boat attached to the ship.
And so if a ship approached the harbor at low tide and they couldn't enter at the time, they would send somebody in the Forerunner with the anchor in the with the anchor securely attached to the ship. And that little boat would go across the Shoal or the rocks at the mouth of the harbor and drop the anchor safe inside the harbor. And that anchor dropped inside the harbor was the assurance to those on board the ship.
That when the right moment came, they were going to make the harbor. So if you had stepped up on the deck of one of those ships during low tide and said to the captain or one of the crew, now Are you sure you're going to make the harbor that you hope to make at high when the tide gets higher? They would have pointed to a rope attached to the ship. And they would have said on the other end of the rope is the anchor dropped by the forerunner who's already entered the harbor, safe inside the harbor and that.
Forerunner, having dropped the anchor, is our assurance that when the right moment comes, we're going to make it to. And what is the assurance of our hope, brethren? Why can we say it's a sure and steadfast hope? Because our forerunner, the Lord Jesus Christ as a man, having accomplished the work of atonement, has already entered there. And if you ever have questions as to your hope and the assurance in your soul that you're going to get to heaven.
Just look up by faith and see where the Lord Jesus is now. And I want to say this ever so carefully.
And reverently, but if God were to refuse me entrance into heaven now.
Having by His grace availed myself of the finished work of Calvary.
He would have to send out his own dear Son, and that is impossible. The my assurance, the basis of my hope, is the fact that God has raised him from the dead and seated him at his own right hand. It's God's Amen to the work of Calvary, and it is the assurance that we are going to make it when the right moment comes.
01:10:22
But just read it. It's familiar scripture to us, but it's just reinforces what's just been said. Go to Ephesians chapter one, where Paul and his first of his two prayers in Ephesians takes up this very point.
Ephesians, chapter one.
And verse 17, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
That's part of what Peter wanted for the Saints, so that in the second epistle they might multiply by the knowledge of God. So he prays for them. He says in verse 18 that the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling. We've been talking about being called, called to take this journey and so on. And so that's that we might know what it's for. What's the hope of it?
Why we called what are we called to and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance and the Saints were gonna have in the next verse the inheritance and what is the and here's the point here. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe.
Is He strong enough to make it all happen? Is He strong enough? Does He have the power to fulfill His plans and His purposes with respect to us? Well, Paul prayed that the Ephesians would believe and understand that the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His mighty power. How did he demonstrate the power which he wrought in Christ when He raised him from the dead?
That's his resurrection and, as Jim just spoke, his ascension.
And set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might and dominion.
But all things in the next verse under his feet and so on. And then in chapter 2, we have our being raised from the dead, the condition in which we're seeing in this book, and that's our destiny. And again here it's just another example of the power of God.
Demonstrated in resurrection, that gives certainty to our souls of that which God has promised to us, our inheritance which has given us our hope.
That's why when we present the gospel, whether it's in a setting like we're going to have this evening where there will be a brother stand up and proclaim the good news, or as any of us have opportunity to present the gospel to others, we want to always stress the resurrection. It is a vital part of Christianity. And as we said, it's what sets Christianity aside from all the other religions of the world. Because if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain and ye are still in your sins.
And when Paul preached the gospel, he preached Christ crucified, but he also said that the gospel was that he died.
He was buried and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And I just want to encourage the young brothers here. If you have opportunity to give a gospel message, maybe in your home assembly, you're asked on the Lord's evening to give a little word in the gospel. Maybe you go down in this little gospel work in your community. Maybe it's at some a nursing home or some other facility. Always stress, yes, it's, it's the death of Christ. We want to stress the blood of Christ.
But we must stress the resurrection. Without the resurrection we have no hope. And that's why those that Don mentioned when the Lord was crucified, that's why they were almost despaired because they really never entered in initially to the fact that the Lord had told them he was going to rise from the dead. But what was it that gave peace to the disciples after the Lord rose from the dead?
They heard about His resurrection from Mary Magdalene. They saw the empty tomb, but it wasn't until they saw the Lord Jesus in resurrection in their midst, with the marks of atonement on His body.
Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord, when they got a hold of the fact that the Lord Jesus had indeed bodily risen from the dead.
01:15:03
Then it gave them peace and joy. And perhaps in that connection we could just say, too, it is important to tenaciously hold on to the truth of the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus. There has been a system down through the ages that has propagated error that the Lord Jesus only rose in spirit. That is blasphemy. It is false teaching. We have no hope if we if that is true.
But again, that's why the Lord Jesus remained on earth long enough before his ascension to give ample and complete testimony to his own that he had not just risen in spirit, but that He had bodily risen from the dead.
So he ate in front of them. He said, Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bone.
As you see me have, he wanted them to get a hold of the truth that he had bodily risen from the dead.
And then bodily he has ascended back to the right hand of God, and in ascension he has remained a man, a glorified man, it's true. But he has remained a man and he will remain a man for all eternity. And when we get a hold of the this truth in our souls, then we say, OK, I understand why our hope is sure and steadfast. I can enter into a living hope. And that is what gives us confidence as to the future.
#185.
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Of God.
No, no, no, no, no 30 Climbing to work.
Uh uh, last Friday.
And I will have one day.
Where all the glory is my life.
And our happier all the way to the Earth's. Strangely, we're a little Gray and Gray, uh, Gray and Gray. And they're a nice day. A lot of time.