SPEAKER_00: You're listening to a message preached at Front Range Baptist Church by Pastor Dean Miller.
SPEAKER_00: It is our prayer that this message will be a help and an encouragement to you in your spiritual walk.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's Pastor Miller.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, guys.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we thank the Lord for uh the the Bartlett and the Matthews families.
SPEAKER_01: It's good to have Brandon home and Justin's back from college, and so good to see them.
SPEAKER_01: I thought I saw Omar back there today.
SPEAKER_01: Congratulations to Omar Plasio, who just finished boot camp with the Marine Corps and uh with us today.
SPEAKER_01: And man, uh don't mess with that guy.
SPEAKER_01: But uh good to see him and uh then good to see Tyler back here.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Tyler is uh already simplify Marine, uh, the few, the brave, and so it's uh good to see these guys home today.
SPEAKER_01: Uh 1 Peter chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: It's good to have our family in.
SPEAKER_01: We have a wedding this Tuesday, so pray for us as we're getting everything ready uh for Tuesday.
SPEAKER_01: My my daughter Juliana, this will be her last day here as a um as a miller and so I told her, I said, you can get married, why don't Clay just live up in dinosaur?
SPEAKER_01: You live here, and uh you can just kind of drive back and forth.
SPEAKER_01: She didn't like that idea, so but uh we're looking forward to that wedding on uh Tuesday, so pray about that.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Peter chapter 2, and I'm gonna tell you right now, we're gonna have some, we're gonna have a discussion today through this passage as I preach, and you're probably gonna have a lot of questions as I go through it, but I want the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to answer those questions because we're gonna deal with uh some deep theological truths.
SPEAKER_01: Peter wasted no time with these people.
SPEAKER_01: He introduces himself as Peter, he introduces his audience, the people who were scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.
SPEAKER_01: That's modern-day Turkey.
SPEAKER_01: Peter wastes no time.
SPEAKER_01: He just jumps right into it.
SPEAKER_01: And uh this is who I am, this is who I'm writing to, and then in verse 2, we were in verse 1 last week, we're in verse 2 this week.
SPEAKER_01: We won't just go one verse a week, but uh we'll pick up some steam.
SPEAKER_01: But he goes right into this because he's giving these people who are scattered, and these people who are under heavy persecution, Peter is giving them some deep theological security.
SPEAKER_01: He's giving them some truth.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I want you to see it.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse number 2 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.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what Peter was doing here was he was he was tying these believers who were scattered and suffering great persecution.
SPEAKER_01: He was tying them to some eternal, deep understanding of God and God's salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Um this is an amazing, amazing passage of scripture.
SPEAKER_01: You see, all of us are building lives on one foundation, and that foundation, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 11, is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, there's no other foundation laid that you can build on than the foundation of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, you cannot build your life on yourself, you cannot build your life on religion, you cannot build your life on church, you cannot build your life on good works.
SPEAKER_01: If you're going to be saved, you have to build your life on the foundation that is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He is the solid rock.
SPEAKER_01: And so if I want a rock solid faith, it has to be anchored to the solid rock.
SPEAKER_01: So uh Peter's gonna give us some anchors here.
SPEAKER_01: Now, my wife and I moved to Florida.
SPEAKER_01: She's a Floridian, I'm a Colorado, and we moved to Florida uh a few years after we were married.
SPEAKER_01: We moved down there in 2004.
SPEAKER_01: And uh we were there, uh we moved down there in 2000, and we were there until 2005.
SPEAKER_01: But in 2004, uh there was a hurricane that came through, starting in the Gulf of Mexico, and came across from the southwest uh and moved across the state.
SPEAKER_01: We were right in the path of us.
SPEAKER_01: Hurricane Charlie.
SPEAKER_01: At the time, uh it was the strongest hurricane to make landfall since uh um uh hurricane um uh uh started with an A down there in Miami.
SPEAKER_01: But uh that was it was a ferocious 150 mile an hour winds.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen, I'm a I'm a Colorado boy.
SPEAKER_01: We uh 100 mile an hour a day in wind is like a Tuesday, so I've seen some wind.
SPEAKER_01: But what we don't have here that they do have there is a high water table and a lot of pine trees.
SPEAKER_01: And so I thought, well, how bad could this be?
SPEAKER_01: Well, when I started hearing those trees thumping in my backyard, I decided I'm never riding one of these things out again.
SPEAKER_01: However, we were without power for a few weeks, but then here came Hurricane Francis and then Ivan and then Jeans.
SPEAKER_01: Four hurricanes crossed Florida in the same year.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I remember when Hurricane Charlie came in and it was ripping.
SPEAKER_01: And we we were without power.
SPEAKER_01: We loaded up my kids in the in the minivan, and I threw a whole bunch of stuff in the other car, and we were gonna go to my wife's folks who lived about 10 minutes away, and we were gonna get, they had power, we didn't.
SPEAKER_01: So dead of night, we load everybody up, we jump in the car, and we head out, and um I started seeing things flying through the air that should not be flying through the air.
SPEAKER_01: And I had never seen wind.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was just moving that car.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm stopped at the stop sign and I turned on the weather radio, and uh the weather radio said, There is a tornado on the ground uh at Hibernia and Fleming Grove Road.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I was at the stop sign at Hibernia and Fleming Grove Road, and so I whipped a UI and just went straight back to the house, and Michelle followed.
SPEAKER_01: She said, What are we doing?
SPEAKER_01: I said, We're not going out in that.
SPEAKER_01: We are we're bugging batting down the hatches and staying here.
SPEAKER_01: And we did.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want to tell you, we got up and it took us days to cut out of those of that neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: But our house was totally secure, things were scattered everywhere, but our house was secure.
SPEAKER_01: In 1958, the U.S.
SPEAKER_01: Florida Building Code required that buildings be anchored and bolted to the foundation.
SPEAKER_01: And uh thankfully, we had a builder who built according to the code.
SPEAKER_01: They said, if you build according to the code, your house will withstand a hurricane, and our house did.
SPEAKER_01: There were neighborhoods that were taken out to the slab foundation.
SPEAKER_01: And uh their builders did not anchor the house to the foundation.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't build according to the code, and I will tell you, the storm revealed that.
SPEAKER_01: Now I will tell you, the storm's gonna reveal a lot of things in your life, and if you're not anchored to the foundation of God's truth and salvation, you're going to be blown away when trouble comes and trials come.
SPEAKER_01: A.W.
SPEAKER_01: Tozer said this.
SPEAKER_01: He said, what a person thinks about God is the most important thing about that person.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I would go on to say this: that your Christianity will never rise higher than your belief in God.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a low estimation of God, you'll live a low Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a high estimation of God, you'll live a higher life as a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: And it comes down to your view of God.
SPEAKER_01: Satan wants you to think little of God.
SPEAKER_01: In modern-day Christianity, we've made Jesus our buddy instead of our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you that this is what Peter's doing right away.
SPEAKER_01: He's taking these scattered, suffering saints, and he's anchoring them to an eternal foundation so that when these winds blow, their houses stand sure.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you these anchors.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is deep, so I want you to follow with me today.
SPEAKER_01: The anchor number one is, and this is all about our salvation.
SPEAKER_01: He wants these people to know that you are on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: You are on the solid rock, and therefore you can have a faith that is rock solid and unshakable.
SPEAKER_01: So the first thing I want you to see, anchor number one that bolts us to the foundation of our salvation, is that God the Father chose us.
SPEAKER_01: God the Father chose us.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse number two.
SPEAKER_01: Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Peter is making it very clear that salvation begins with God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, don't get out ahead of me for just a moment, but salvation begins with God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, listen, this whole idea about being chosen and elect was a big deal to Peter.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, look over at chapter 2 for just a moment, look at verse number 9.
SPEAKER_01: He says, But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.
SPEAKER_01: Peter had a deep understanding, and I think he had this idea of being chosen by God had impacted Peter in a very profound way.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe where it happened for him was in John chapter 15.
SPEAKER_01: In John chapter 15, Jesus is on his way out of the upper room and on his way to Gethsemane, and he's teaching his disciples in this discourse.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, I'm the vine, you're the branches.
SPEAKER_01: If you abide in me and I in you, you'll bring forth much fruit.
SPEAKER_01: And he's going through, Jesus is talking about the vine and so forth.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus makes this statement.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, You have not chosen me.
SPEAKER_01: I have chosen you.
SPEAKER_01: Now you know Peter was always talking.
SPEAKER_01: But he doesn't talk there.
SPEAKER_01: It's not recorded for us in John's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: But I think Peter probably at least thought it, if he didn't say it.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I didn't choose you and you chose me.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean that you chose me and I didn't choose you?
SPEAKER_01: I remember the day at the Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_01: I was out there mending my nets.
SPEAKER_01: I was casting, I was uh cleaning my nets.
SPEAKER_01: I remember that.
SPEAKER_01: Um I was out there with my brother Andrew.
SPEAKER_01: We were out with our nets, and you came by and said, Simon, follow me.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember making a conscious decision to forsake my nets and to leave my boat and to leave my livelihood and to follow after you.
SPEAKER_01: I remember that.
SPEAKER_01: I remember having to tell my wife that I'm gonna be following this rabbi, uh, that I'm gonna go with Jesus of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna follow him.
SPEAKER_01: I remember choosing you.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I didn't choose you, you chose me.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me ask you a question: did Jesus choose Peter or did Peter choose Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the answer, of course, is yes.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as soon as we start talking about election, it makes people nervous.
SPEAKER_01: And everybody wants to get out pins and they want to give everybody hello, my name is Calvinist, or my name is Arminian, and we want to label everybody, put them into groups so we can kind of understand who all stands where.
SPEAKER_01: Does God select people, pre-select people for heaven, and pre-select people for hell?
SPEAKER_01: Does God choose who will go to heaven and choose who will go to hell?
SPEAKER_01: Or does man have any free will and agency in that matter?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, what is it?
SPEAKER_01: So uh this is a this is a matter of doctrine that everybody starts uh getting nervous when we start talking about election.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to just say today, we shouldn't be nervous about it at all because the Bible makes no bones about it.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible never, the Bible never uh gets in a tizzy over God's sovereignty and man's free agency.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, um, Israel was called God's chosen people or the elect dozens of times in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: In the New Testament, Christians are called the elect throughout the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians chapter 3 and verse number 12.
SPEAKER_01: He says, um, and as the elect of God, put on bows of mercy and holiness, and that he calls us the elect of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we come to the New Testament, we see that God elects.
SPEAKER_01: When we go to the Old Testament, we see that God chooses and elects.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh, God always lists in his word that his salvation plan is rooted in his eternal purposes.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is important.
SPEAKER_01: If Peter is gonna tie these people to something that has spiritual steel and concrete to it, then he is going to tie them back to their salvation in the eternal purposes of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I hope you're listening today.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody listening today?
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to listen real careful as we go through this because I think it's extremely important to understand that whenever this topic comes up about election and free will, I mean, it just causes people to debate.
SPEAKER_01: There's been a debate for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years going on in the church of is salvation a free act of the will, or is salvation a predetermined thing by God?
SPEAKER_01: And uh the answer is yes.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians chapter 1 and verse number 4, the Bible says that God hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: That God chose us in him.
SPEAKER_01: We all love to quote Romans 8.28.
SPEAKER_01: The Romans 8.28 says, uh, for we know all things work together for good to them who love God, who are the called according to his purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, we love to quote that.
SPEAKER_01: All things work together for good, but keep reading.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 29 is where it gets good.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, the Bible says in verse number 29, for whom he did foreknow.
SPEAKER_01: Then he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son.
SPEAKER_01: And whom he did predestinate, them he also called.
SPEAKER_01: And those he called, them he also glorified.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's a wonderful thing because my salvation is tied directly back to the eternal purposes of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, some people ask then, well, then why do we give an altar call at church?
SPEAKER_01: I gave an altar call in our 9.30 service, and we had a couple people who trusted Christ this morning.
SPEAKER_01: We had a dear ladies sitting right back here, and a young man sitting right over here, and uh they responded to the invitation to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why would I give an invitation if uh if only God selects who will be saved and who won't be saved?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible also says, whosoever will may come.
SPEAKER_01: You see, when I give an invitation for people to be saved, and people respond in faith, listen to me, it is your faith that is cooperating with his election.
SPEAKER_01: Some people have said, Well, it's not fair.
SPEAKER_01: I met a I met a lady a few months ago in my office here, and she said, you know, it's not fair that God predetermines who will be saved and who won't be saved.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, What do you what do you mean then it's not fair?
SPEAKER_01: She said, Well, I'm not saved.
SPEAKER_01: And God didn't choose me.
SPEAKER_01: I said, How do you know?
SPEAKER_01: She said, Well, I'm not saved.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Have you ever come before him with confession of your sin, of repentance, and faith, and believed in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and received him as your Lord and Savior?
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever done that?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Well, then how do you know you're not chosen?
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you come to Jesus Christ right now and receive him as your Lord and Savior?
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna find out you were chosen in him.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the problem is, is there are some who want to put all the onus on God, that God does the selecting and we have no responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: Or some put everything in man's responsibility, and then they get they get a little catty wampus and say, Well, then if you don't fulfill your responsibility, you can lose your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: My salvation is by faith in the finished work of God that was foreordained and predestined before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I got saved, I was not, I am not saved today simply by my profession, I am saved by his possession.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Peter wanted these believers to know who were suffering, is that you are kept by the power of God through faith.
SPEAKER_01: That when life is going to shake you, it cannot shake you down to your foundation if you're founded on the eternal purposes of God.
SPEAKER_01: Does everybody understand that?
SPEAKER_01: I had a man when I first became pastor here, he he left.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, uh he came and met with me, and I was thankful that he met with me, and he said, I want you to know I'm gonna be leaving the church.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, why is that?
SPEAKER_01: He said, You make too much of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And uh he said, You give a public invitation to every service.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, I don't know that you understand the gospel if you think I can make too much of it.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the gospel, we can't make enough of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: It's the good news.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh, we need to tell, we need to make more of it.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, uh, he said, but don't you understand that the Bible talks way more about God's election than it does God's love?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, So, whatever dawn on you that God's election is founded on God's love?
SPEAKER_01: It was God who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
SPEAKER_01: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_01: The first part of John 3.16 is God loving the world and giving them a savior and men able to respond to that and to unite with God in an eternal purpose and work of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Now, he says that all of this is elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see that there?
SPEAKER_01: Look at that word foreknowledge.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody, look at that word foreknowledge.
SPEAKER_01: That your election was based on the foreknowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Well, certainly it means that God knows before what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: God's knowledge is not like your and I knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: Our knowledge is limited.
SPEAKER_01: Our knowledge has to be scratched out from resources and research and experience.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to go through life and we've got to learn things.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, but yet we only know what we learn and what we experience, and so our our knowledge is very limited.
SPEAKER_01: And not only that, our knowledge has a flaw.
SPEAKER_01: We're prone to forget it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, see, God's knowledge is not like that.
SPEAKER_01: God knows things from eternity.
SPEAKER_01: God already knows it, God has always known it, God will always know it, and God will never forget it.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you with me so far?
SPEAKER_01: God knows it.
SPEAKER_01: He's always known it, he never learned it.
SPEAKER_01: You ever notice?
SPEAKER_01: Did it ever dawn on you that nothing ever dawns on God?
SPEAKER_01: And one thing that you'll never hear in heaven is God saying, hmm, how'd that happen?
SPEAKER_01: Or I didn't know that was going on.
SPEAKER_01: God's never been surprised.
SPEAKER_01: God's never been informed of anything.
SPEAKER_01: God already knows.
SPEAKER_01: You're familiar with the Greek word foreknowledge.
SPEAKER_01: The Greek word for foreknowledge is the word prognosis.
SPEAKER_01: When you go to the doctor, you, the doctor will give you a prognosis of how he believes this is going to go.
SPEAKER_01: Uh you have this disease, and this is the prognosis of that.
SPEAKER_01: He's telling you a forehand of what is going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: And um and so that's the word foreknowledge, prognosis.
SPEAKER_01: However, there's another there's another part of prognosis in the Greek that I think is very important.
SPEAKER_01: The word foreknowledge means this: it means to set your love on beforehand.
SPEAKER_01: It's to set your love on beforehand.
SPEAKER_01: God's knowledge is God knowing you, God knew you, and he loved you anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I got a quote up here.
SPEAKER_01: Charles Haddon Spurgeon said this.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's worth reading.
SPEAKER_01: He said, It's a good thing God picked me before I was born.
SPEAKER_01: He never would have picked me afterwards.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you say amen to that?
SPEAKER_01: And what was he saying here?
SPEAKER_01: He was simply saying this: that God foreknew me, which means that God knows before, but God also set his love on you beforehand.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the word knowledge in the Bible is to know, is to have intimacy, it is to love.
SPEAKER_01: Adam knew Eve his wife.
SPEAKER_01: Adam set his love on her.
SPEAKER_01: You can read about that in many places in the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: You can use that same phrase where he set his love on them.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, in the book of 1 Peter in chapter 3, he's gonna say about marriage.
SPEAKER_01: Husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: Set your love on them.
SPEAKER_01: Choose to love them regardless of what else happens.
SPEAKER_01: You see, love is not an emotional response, love is a choice.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, before he ever became a creator, God in eternity designed a plan to save those that he would create.
SPEAKER_01: God already knew that when he became a creator, he would have to be a redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the Bible says in Acts chapter 2 and verse 23, uh, when Peter was telling those Jewish people at Pentecost that you by wicked hands have taken the Son of God and you've crucified him.
SPEAKER_01: He was telling them of what they did, that by their volition and their will, they chose to crucify the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Then he says this, whom he set forth uh in his preterminate counsel.
SPEAKER_01: That God had already, God had already designed the plan of salvation for Jesus to be crucified.
SPEAKER_01: Look, look, in fact, look at verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: You're in 1 Peter 1, look at verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of Jesus here, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest or made known or revealed in these last times for you.
SPEAKER_01: Now watch this.
SPEAKER_01: Who by him do believe in God.
SPEAKER_01: You see, here is God's predestined plan of giving us Jesus as our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: He was crucified before the world was ever created.
SPEAKER_01: He was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: He was already God's choice and God's elect as the Savior.
SPEAKER_01: But how did you come to know him when you believed on him?
SPEAKER_01: This is a wonderful truth, and I hope that you understand it.
SPEAKER_01: God foreknew that you would need to be saved, and so God predestined a plan of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, that's why when you're reading the verses about predestination, always look for those prepositions and clauses.
SPEAKER_01: For instance, I quoted a moment ago, Romans chapter 8, verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: For whom he did foreknow, set his love on, know beforehand that he would need to redeem them.
SPEAKER_01: God set his love on them.
SPEAKER_01: Whom God did foreknow, them he also did predestinate.
SPEAKER_01: Now watch this.
SPEAKER_01: Predestinate what?
SPEAKER_01: To be conformed to the image of his son.
SPEAKER_01: In Ephesians 1 and verse 4, the Bible says that he has chosen us in him.
SPEAKER_01: See that prepositional phrase?
SPEAKER_01: In him.
SPEAKER_01: So who is the elect?
SPEAKER_01: Christ is the elect.
SPEAKER_01: That's why, see, God designed the plan of salvation and ordained the man of salvation, and his name is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So God predetermined that if he was going to save you, he was going to have to conform you to the image of his son.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot be saved by your own goodness.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot be saved by your own works.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot be saved by religion and going to church.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot be saved by any other means.
SPEAKER_01: If you try to get saved by any other means, you're a thief and a robber.
SPEAKER_01: You're climbing over the wall into the sheepfold.
SPEAKER_01: If you're going to be a sheep, you have to come through the door.
SPEAKER_01: And Christ is the door.
SPEAKER_01: That's why, and God predetermined that.
SPEAKER_01: That's why?
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus could say with authority, I am the way, the truth, the life.
SPEAKER_01: No man comes to the Father but by me.
SPEAKER_01: But then he could turn right around and say, Now whosoever will may come.
SPEAKER_01: He was the predetermined elect.
SPEAKER_01: God chose us in him, God foreordained him, and then he was revealed in these last times, and we know it when we believed in him.
SPEAKER_01: This is why, this is why Paul was writing on the sovereignty of God in Romans chapter 11 and had to put his pen down and say, Who can know the mind of the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Listen, God already knew that you, he, the Bible says in Psalm 103, 14 that he knows your frame.
SPEAKER_01: He remembers that we are but dust.
SPEAKER_01: There is nothing about us that is desirable.
SPEAKER_01: We are dust.
SPEAKER_01: But God has set his love on us before he made us and already had predetermined the plan of salvation to redeem us.
SPEAKER_01: God had, in other words, let me say it this way: God had one son, and he loved him so very much that he wanted a whole lot more just like him.
SPEAKER_01: And so God predetermined the plan to conform you to the image of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So, what was Peter doing?
SPEAKER_01: Peter was saying to these people, hey, how are we saved?
SPEAKER_01: We're saved by the predeterminate counsel of God.
SPEAKER_01: We're elect according to his foreknowledge.
SPEAKER_01: That our salvation is rooted in the eternal mind of God.
SPEAKER_01: That'll give you assurance that God is the one that designed this great plan of salvation, and you and I get it.
SPEAKER_01: And how do we get it?
SPEAKER_01: Whosoever will may come and uh drink of this water freely.
SPEAKER_01: Spurgeon said it this way.
SPEAKER_01: Charles Hatton Spurgeon said, Imagine a great broad road leading to destruction, packed shoulder to shoulder with people on their way to perdition and to hell.
SPEAKER_01: And as they're traveling on this road, there's a lone voice on the side of the road saying, Whosoever will may come, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, A weary traveler with a great burden of sin, heading down the road of perdition, on his way to eternity, without God.
SPEAKER_01: That man hears the invitation, come unto me.
SPEAKER_01: And he looks, and there's a lone voice standing alone on the side of the road, at a straight gate and a narrow way, and over the gate it says, Whosoever will may come.
SPEAKER_01: And this man turns aside from the broad road of destruction and enters in at the whosoever will gate.
SPEAKER_01: And Spurgeon says, when he enters that gate, he loses that burden of sin.
SPEAKER_01: And he looks back, and on the other side of the gate, it says, To whom he also did predestinate.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen, this is the joy.
SPEAKER_01: You and I, our will, gets to act in cooperation with God's sovereign plan.
SPEAKER_01: That's an amazing truth, and I hope that you understand that because Peter was anchoring these people to a foundation that the storms could not blow.
SPEAKER_01: You are not saved because you made a profession.
SPEAKER_01: You are saved because you are God's possession.
SPEAKER_01: Your profession can shake.
SPEAKER_01: Peter had his profession shake.
SPEAKER_01: He one day said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
SPEAKER_01: And then he was asked by a little maiden at the fire, hey, aren't you one of his?
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know that blankety blank, blankety blank.
SPEAKER_01: But let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: Peter wasn't saved by his profession.
SPEAKER_01: He was saved by Christ's possession.
SPEAKER_01: He was kept by the power of God through faith.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody with me on that?
SPEAKER_01: Now that's the long one.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you the two short ones.
SPEAKER_01: The first anchor to the foundation is that the Father chose us.
SPEAKER_01: Anchor number two is the Spirit changed us.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what it says.
SPEAKER_01: Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, that's God choosing us, through sanctification of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Holy Spirit changing us.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: Sanctification means to be set apart.
SPEAKER_01: It means to have a mark.
SPEAKER_01: It means to be marked as different.
SPEAKER_01: It means to be set apart as holy.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: When you came into the temple in the Old Testament, there were vessels that had been sanctified, set apart.
SPEAKER_01: Look, there had been furniture in there, set apart.
SPEAKER_01: This was a holy table.
SPEAKER_01: This was a holy vessel.
SPEAKER_01: This was a holy item in the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_01: Now that didn't mean that those things in and of themselves were made out of holy wood or some kind of uh glorious uh perfect thing.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: They were they were just they were tables made out of shitom wood, they were tables that were made out of uh out of the wood like any other piece of furniture.
SPEAKER_01: What made it holy and sanctified is it was set apart.
SPEAKER_01: That table of showbread had one purpose.
SPEAKER_01: It held the showbread, and the priest came and they partook of that showbread in their ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Look, you didn't take the table of showbread and play playing cards on it.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't move it out in the middle of the of the courtyard and uh and everybody gathered around for game night.
SPEAKER_01: That table had one purpose, and that purpose was set apart for the ministry of God.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what sanctification is.
SPEAKER_01: Sanctification is when God saved you, the Holy Spirit sanctified you.
SPEAKER_01: He changed you and set you apart.
SPEAKER_01: You are now a peculiar people.
SPEAKER_01: You are not perfect, you're holy.
SPEAKER_01: You belong to Him.
SPEAKER_01: God has set you apart.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody with me so far on that?
SPEAKER_01: God has changed you.
SPEAKER_01: And then let me say, lastly, number three, the third anchor is this the Son cleanses me.
SPEAKER_01: The Father chooses me, the Spirit changes me, but the Son cleanses me.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want to tell you this.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ came as a man, and he only did the works of him that sent him.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came and everything he did was to please the Father.
SPEAKER_01: He's the only one that God could say, This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, I didn't come to do my own works, I came to do the works of him that sent me.
SPEAKER_01: I have come and I have finished his work.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was the pure, spotless man.
SPEAKER_01: He came to do the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: He was obedient.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that he humbled himself and became obedient even unto death, even the death of the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus became obedient to his father.
SPEAKER_01: And then the Bible says, through that obedience, he sprinkled his blood.
SPEAKER_01: Now, every Jewish reader, when he read that, their mind would have immediately jumped to Exodus chapter 24.
SPEAKER_01: When God had his people at Mount Sinai, and at Mount Sinai, God sets in order his law.
SPEAKER_01: He gives to Moses the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_01: He gives to him his law.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, if you do this, you'll live.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't, you'll die.
SPEAKER_01: People said, We'll do it.
SPEAKER_01: And they covenant with God.
SPEAKER_01: And in that covenant, there was a lamb that was slain.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says that the priest sprinkled the blood upon the people to seal them into this covenant.
SPEAKER_01: That they were sealed through the substitutionary death of another.
SPEAKER_01: This goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned.
SPEAKER_01: And God came in the Garden of Eden, and there Adam was in his fig leaves, and God stripped away the works of his own hands.
SPEAKER_01: And Adam confessed that he had sinned.
SPEAKER_01: And what did God do?
SPEAKER_01: God slew an animal and clothed him in the skins of the animal.
SPEAKER_01: Through the sh the shed blood and sacrifice of that animal, he was cleansed.
SPEAKER_01: He was made in such a way that he could be forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: This is Isaac and Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: All through the Bible, the Bible talks about the substitutionary death.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham and Isaac walk up the mountain.
SPEAKER_01: And Abraham believes he's going to have to kill his own son.
SPEAKER_01: And when he gets to the top of the mountain, he puts him on the altar, and God stays his hand, and there is the bleeding of the sheep.
SPEAKER_01: And what is it?
SPEAKER_01: It's a ram caught by his horns in a thicket.
SPEAKER_01: And Abraham goes over there and cuts that ram out.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: It was a ram crowned with thorns that became the substitute for Isaac.
SPEAKER_01: And Isaac came off that mountain alive with his dad through the substitutionary death of another.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was the one who perfectly obeyed the Father and then sprinkled his blood to secure the covenant that we are cleansed in him.
SPEAKER_01: This is why 1 John 1 7 says, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
SPEAKER_01: We are cleansed and made able to come into the very presence of God through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody with me so far?
SPEAKER_01: Now we're done.
SPEAKER_01: Let me finish it with this.
SPEAKER_01: We are saved through the eternal purposes of God.
SPEAKER_01: He chose us.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit changed us, and the Son cleanses us.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't this amazing?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the whole Trinity.
SPEAKER_01: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit working together as one to bring salvation into your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what somebody one time so wisely said.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody one time wisely said, when I got saved in the mind of God, it was somewhere in eternity past.
SPEAKER_01: I was saved in the mind of God, somewhere in the annals of eternity.
SPEAKER_01: As far as Jesus the Son is concerned, I was saved 2,000 years ago at Mount Calvary.
SPEAKER_01: But as far as the Holy Spirit's concerned, I was saved on an August night in 1978.
SPEAKER_01: As a little boy, when I bowed my heart to Jesus Christ, I was saved right there.
SPEAKER_01: Now when did I get saved?
SPEAKER_01: Well, as far as the Father was concerned, I was saved in eternity past.
SPEAKER_01: As far as the Son was concerned, I was saved at Mount Calvary.
SPEAKER_01: And as far as the Holy Spirit was saved, I was saved, as far as he's concerned, I was saved on a hot August night in 1978 when I bowed my heart to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The moment that I surrendered my will to him, I entered into the eternal purposes of God, and I'm saved and secured.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me tell you what that does.
SPEAKER_01: That gives security.
SPEAKER_01: That is an anchor to a foundation that cannot be shaken.
SPEAKER_01: This is why Peter closes the verse with these two words Grace be multiplied and peace be multiplied.
SPEAKER_01: Grace unto you and peace be multiplied.
SPEAKER_01: Now, a normal Roman greeting would have been a word they would have said caris, caris, and what is that?
SPEAKER_01: It was rejoice, rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: But Peter says, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna say grace, and then we're gonna say shalom, peace.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna see this.
SPEAKER_01: When you enter into the grace of God, then you experience the peace of God.
SPEAKER_01: You'll never see the order of grace and peace reversed in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Never.
SPEAKER_01: You'll never see peace before grace, because you cannot have peace until you've experienced the grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: And they came into the grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: What does the Bible say?
SPEAKER_01: For by grace are we saved.
SPEAKER_01: Through what?
SPEAKER_01: Through faith.
SPEAKER_01: Here's grace, all of God.
SPEAKER_01: Here's faith.
SPEAKER_01: My response to that.
SPEAKER_01: And uh and when my response to his grace, the peace of God.
SPEAKER_01: So I will say it this way.
SPEAKER_01: When it comes to salvation, God thought it.
SPEAKER_01: The Son bought it.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit wrought it, and I got it.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've ever been saved, that's the way it worked for you, too.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not saved today, you can be saved today.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, how do you know?
SPEAKER_01: How do you know I'm chosen?
SPEAKER_01: Because you've heard the word of God clearly, and the Bible says the Holy Spirit draws, and you can be saved today, and you can agree with the eternal purposes of God, and you can be saved.
SPEAKER_01: Our heads about, our eyes are closed.