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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/david-oliver/bible-reading-1peter-1/
And we'll read together the chapter, 1 Peter 1. I hope that we will do what we oftentimes say we're going to do and don't. I hope we will be able to spend fair time on the truths at the end of the passage as well as the entire chapter.
So, we will need the help of all who are here, and if there are times that it appears that we're moving along and not inviting you to participate, well, have pity on us or something because we do have to keep moving, but we will value the help of all that are able to contribute with profit to our reading.
Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 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 living, lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth 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 rejoiced, 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 gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love, and 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 or he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, unto whom it was revealed not unto themselves but unto us, they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, which things 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 revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.
And if ye call upon the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, 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, but 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 ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart, fervently. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, for all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.
The grass withereth, 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.". When you're reading Paul's epistles, Romans through Philemon, you are being reminded of the distinction between the blessings of this age and the unique position of the church in this age, the distinction between that and the blessings that belong to the Old Testament that belong to Israel.
When you come to these general epistles, as they're called from Hebrews through Jude, you are reminded that there is a consistency in God's dealings in the past with his ways in the present. So you have a contrast, primarily a contrast, between Israel and the church in Paul's epistles.
In these general epistles, you have a comparison between God's dealings, God's ways in the Old Testament, and God's ways in the New Testament as well. And if I can just suggest this briefly, when you're reading the epistle to the Hebrews, you're looking at the national promises given to Israel.
None of those have been lost. There's a consistency between what God is doing now and what he promised he would do in the future. When it comes to moral principles, James is very clear that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the Sermon on the Mount and the God of the book of Proverbs is still the same God today.
The moral requirements have not changed from the Old Testament to the New. If anything, elevated by the words of the Lord Jesus, as I have loved you. But you have personal presentation as far as John's epistles are concerned.
First, second, and third John. Let me just borrow from first John and I hope I don't need a whole lot of explanation to set before you what I see there. Basically, in first John, what I see is the very character of God as a standard of doctrine and as a standard for Christian behavior.
So it is that personal presentation of God that is consistent with the Old Testament, revealed in greater fullness in the New. But the consistency of the character of God regulates what is taught and what is practiced by believers at the present time.
In the epistle to Jude, maybe there's a parallel between the spiritual problems of the Old Testament. There was apostasy then and there is apostasy today. There is divergence from truth then and there is divergence from truth today.
But the faith once for all delivered to the church, delivered to the saints rather, that was a terrible slip of the lip for that point, but the truth or the faith once for all delivered to the saints is in keeping with all that God has revealed himself to be in the Old Testament as well.
Now coming back then to Peter, I'll just group first and second Peter together and suggest to you that the practical persecution that believers experience today is consistent with the rejection of God and of his people and of the worship of God in the Old Testament as well.
I'll come to that perhaps in a few minutes. But let me just then, having said something about the persecution and the suffering of the people of God, suggest to you that the point of this first epistle that Peter writes is the suffering of believers.
They're scattered abroad and so I take it it is a matter of suffering for the sake of Christ that has caused them to be where they are. And they are to recognize that they are there for a divine purpose.
But they suffer because they are linked with Christ as Christians. They suffer because of the animosity, the enmity of those around them to the Word of God and to the person of Christ. Jewish opposition and it will as well soon encompass the opposition that will be taken up by the Roman government and the whole empire against them.
So you're looking at the truth of sufferings and yet I think maybe the key point that we will look at today and the key point of the epistle is the sufferings of Christ and the glories after these. That we are linked with a suffering Christ and as he suffered and glory has resulted and will result so in our suffering the spirit of glory and of grace rests upon us.
There is that sense of glory that is yet to come. Some things about the particulars and I'm going to leave out one aspect of the particulars of this letter, this epistle, so that our good brothers here and wherever will all come to an agreement as to who the people are that are addressed as those that are scattered abroad and the elect of God.
But we'll just remind ourselves that Paul is writing from Babylon and I know there's difficulty about that but I'm just simple enough to say if it says Babylon then I think he really meant Babylon. And I want to also say that the time of the writing is somewhere obviously before the destruction of Jerusalem and it is a later epistle probably in the canon than many of the other New Testament letters.
Now we sang this morning about the blessed man of Calvary. What about the presentation of this letter? It is precious for us to notice in the letter how often Peter refers to Jesus Christ. Now you know that there has often been pointed out the difference between Paul and Peter.
Paul emphasizing Christ Jesus but Peter knows about Christ Jesus as well. And Paul does very often refer to Jesus Christ but there is a sense in which Jesus Christ highlights what Peter has before him.
And I don't have to tell anybody here but this is wholesome as a reminder to younger believers. Every reference to Christ by his names, by his titles is specifically chosen for a purpose by the Spirit of God.
There is nothing random so I'm guilty of this. And I listen to others and I hear them doing the same thing so I'm cautiously drawing your attention to it. But sometimes when we pray we fill in with the name of the Father or with the name of the Lord or with...I'm not going to say we all do it but it feels like we all do it.
And refer to the Lord Jesus and so often refer to him perhaps without taking note of the intelligence of which the Spirit of God speaks of him. Christ Jesus is the Messiah, the one who is destined for glory who possesses every office that God has intended for men to fill mediating between him and men.
And he is the exalted, the glorified Christ. Paul met him as the one who had the outshining of the very glory of God. That's Shekinah glory and he knows him as the Christ who was the Jesus rejected in this world.
Peter remembers him as the Jesus that he met who called him to become a fisher of men. A Jesus who was rejected by the people and Peter himself had difficulty with that rejection, denying it ever knew him.
Watching him as he went to Calvary with his own heart touched, broken to tears that he had rejected him and restored before all by the Lord Jesus himself, Jesus who is the exalted Christ. So Peter is in some sense in a most affectionate way because Peter's personality is not Paul's personality.
Paul's mission is not Peter's mission. And there is something of the dignity and elevated character of a man of tremendous learning who is expressing the truth concerning Christ Jesus, Paul. There is something warm and touching about a man who knew him personally, accompanied with him, Jesus who is the Christ.
And speaking of personality, you have Peter's personality coming through very quickly and clearly in his letter. I noted it down here using technology, sorry. It works better than my brain. But there are a number of points in the letter and you may come up with a dozen more.
But there are a number of points in which you're reminded of Peter's personal experience with the Lord Jesus. And one of them is, whom having not seen ye love. You didn't see him, but I have seen him.
Peter is speaking from experience as one who, in fact, he speaks of himself as a witness in chapter 5 of the sufferings of Christ. There is as well with Peter, there are references to the stone. He was with the Lord Jesus when the Lord spoke about building on the rock and the stone that was rejected and the stone that was the head of the corner.
You can't help but see Peter's experience coming through in that. He himself had met the Lord Jesus as a stone. And he recognized what it was to become a living stone. Thou art Cephas, a stone. Thou shalt become, or thou art Simon, hearing the word of God.
Rather than this one who is in this natural, I'll start again, rather than one who is the one listening and looking for something, he's the one that has reached stability and he has become a stone himself, a living stone.
Peter speaks as well of submission to Christ, a reminder of his own lack of submission to the Lord Jesus and to his word before the denial. He speaks of him as the shepherd and bishop of our souls and you would wonder if he's not thinking about the private meeting he had with the Lord Jesus after the crucifixion and resurrection and actually, that's in Luke chapter 24, but also actually what's in John chapter 21 where he is commissioned by the shepherd to shepherd his sheep.
You have the, as many other things, you have his references to the scene with the towel. I won't go over any more than that, but I think being clothed with humility immediately takes you to the upper room and to the words of Peter to the Lord Jesus.
Just some of those is far more than that, but I'll move on to other aspects of the epistle. I'm interested in just touching briefly again, something of the presentation of the epistle. There are tremendously profound truths that Peter just touches.
Now, if Paul touched them, he would probably give you a broader treatment of them, but Peter does touch them very clearly. We'll look at his touching the truths of the Godhead, the Father and the Spirit and the Son.
He deals with the Spirit's work, whether in inspiration or in other aspects of the Spirit's work in enabling believers in their sufferings and so on. He speaks of the fatherhood of God, wondrous truth that the Lord Jesus introduced.
He reminds us of eternal counsels of the Lamb, verily foreordained before the foundation of the world. He has much to say about the sufferings of Christ, the blood of Christ, his sufferings on the tree, suffered for sins.
He has much to say about the sufferings of Christ, and he deals with the exaltation of Christ. In fact, as it is with a number of things that Peter deals with, he gives us details of it that are not given anywhere else.
He speaks at the end of chapter 4 of that one who ascended up and sat down on the right hand of God and tells us what none of the other writers have told us, angels and principalities and powers being made subject to him.
A man who sits down in a tangible body in heaven, to whom for the first time angels lower in rank than men are made subject. The wondrous truth of the exaltation of the Lord Jesus. Touches from the Old Testament, not Abraham, but Sarah being brought in and Noah.
So there's, well, I'll maybe touch that later. The wondrous truth of the priesthood of all believers. If you were going to take up that subject, you'd start in 1 Peter chapter 2. Sorry, Gordon, but that's enough, is it?
The new birth is brought before us, and we'll discuss that further down at the end of this chapter. The truth of the church, that building made up of living stones. Something of God's dealings with the nations as the nation of Israel has stumbled in chapter 2.
The truth that we'll look at today of the inspiration of the Word of God. The subject of gifts is being brought in, marital relationships are dealt with, and the truth of baptism is brought in, and it was a unique touch that Peter alone gives us.
You cannot help but recognize in this letter the practicality of the epistle. Peter is a practical man, and he will bring before us the great truth of obedience. That is where we began, and that is to characterize us as children of obedience as well.
He speaks of living things, and a living hope, and living stones, and in so many ways, Peter speaks about suffering. Now, just a little word on the subject of suffering. Specifically, the suffering of the believers to whom Peter writes is suffering due to persecution.
So, is there nothing about suffering that is relevant to us who are not specifically the objects of physical persecution? I think there are principles about any type of suffering through which a believer passes and are brought before us in the epistle today.
So, while we will not be primarily looking at in our application of it, at sufferings due to persecution, although there are believers here and there are believers throughout the world, we were reminded last night in far greater measure throughout the world who are suffering persecution because of their faith, because of their allegiance to Christ.
But whatever the cause of suffering, the intent of what God allows of suffering among His people and the outcome is always intended to be the very same. So, just one other thing, and then I'll move to the chapter.
I alluded already to connections with the Old Testament, and I love to notice that in the epistle to 1 Peter, there is a very, to me, very clear and compelling parallel between the journey of the children of Israel from Egypt through the wilderness to the promised land when you're looking at 1 Peter.
Maybe the passage that clues me in on this primarily is in chapter 2, as strangers and pilgrims. And the truth now that Peter is looking at these who are strangers. They have been brought under obedience in the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
They are passing through a time of fiery trial. They are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. They are to bear the very character of God, be holy as I am holy. And as you look at these particular things, and even a building of God and the operation, the ordination of a priesthood, I see so much that links me with the truth that Israel was in a furnace of fire.
Abraham had been told that in Genesis chapter 15. And brought out from that furnace of fire. And brought out to be brought under to God. And by redemption they were delivered. By the redemption that was connected with the lamb in Exodus chapter 12.
A little furry, fuzzy lamb. But speaking to us of the lamb without blemish and without spot. And you have the ordination then of priesthood as God brought those people out and brought them under that they might know what it was to be subjected to God himself.
So that I see down through verse 10 of chapter 2, a reminder of why God had brought out his people from Egypt. They were to be a holy nation. They were to be a people that were a special treasure, a peculiar people to God.
Now those truths are being applied to us in this letter. So you have their coming out, their redemption out of Egypt. You have as well then their journeying through the wilderness as pilgrims and as strangers.
Their need to learn subjection to God in all their relationships to others. And I think you'll find something of that that we may touch on tomorrow in the Bible reading. No, I mean in another hour or two in the Bible reading.
And then the last section I would take it to be a section that reminds us of the glory that is coming. And all that to which the people of God are focused and directed in their journey. So there is to me this parallel that you have running right through the epistle.
One, two, three sections of the epistle coming out of Egypt through the wilderness and looking forward to the promised land. Now let me just suggest to you an outline that we'll try to follow if there are comments of a general nature about Peter.
They'll be welcomed initially or where they fit in the chapter perchance. But I'd like to just divide the chapter into five parts that will help us in our discussion. I find that I think easier to analyze and divide Paul's letters than I do John's letters.
But in second choice in between the two of those Peter's not just exactly as logically structured as Paul is. But I think we can follow these carefully. Verses one and two will give us the introduction and we'll look at divine persons that are there.
We'll look at the subject of election. We'll look at the subject of their scattering, the people that are involved. And that will take us into the chapter of verses one and two. You have the inheritance, our riches in Christ given to us between verse three and verse eight.
That goes further but I think that will be the focus of those verses. So we have verses one and two as a block. Verses three through eight as a block. And then verses nine through 12 deal with the truth of inspiration.
I take that to be the case. Those Old Testament prophets, I don't know if anybody here thinks they're New Testament prophets, but we'll listen and not change our minds, but we'll listen. So you have the reliability of God relative to the salvation they have foreknown, foretold, and it leads to glory.
And the reliability of that message then is of great importance to these suffering believers. You have what I would call from verse 13 to 21, injunctions for the people of God and the great truth of redemption, redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
And finally, some implications for Christian living in verses 22 through 25, we're looking at relationships among believers and the lasting character of the word of God that has brought us into this new life.
Now, that's a rough division of the chapter, but that will help us. And even though there's no clock visible to me from here, we'll try to keep in mind that the Bible reading goes now approximately another hour and we have these five sections.
I think it would be helpful for us to work through, to touch as much as we can of the entire chapter. Appreciate the help of all and trust that God will bless his word to us. I'll appreciate any contributions on the general background of the letter or we'll begin at the beginning.
Good question. I'd be happy for help on that, from you or from some of the other brothers. I hadn't thought of it that way. I think the simple answer really is, he is writing to people living in these particular areas.
But the question Brother Jim is raising is why these areas and not some other area. And that's where I haven't processed that through my mind yet. Well, these are living, of course, in what we would call today, Turkey.
Various parts of that area and they were going through persecution. That would be the eastern area of Asia. Perhaps it's where Peter would have... Western, you mean. Western, of course. There's a difference between east and west.
I figured it out so carefully. All right, it's western. But it may very well be that Peter had focused his work there, having himself been removed from Jerusalem as of Acts chapter 11.
Any other thought on that in particular? We would know, wouldn't we, following through Peter's movement. As you say, he starts off in Jerusalem, he'll go to Samaria. But it's evident when we go into passages such as 1 Corinthians chapter 1, 1 Corinthians chapter 9, that Peter had moved up to that area.
So perhaps in keeping, Peter would know of many Jewish believers to the area, so he's writing to encourage them.
Paul speaks in Galatians of Peter as being the apostle to the circumcision and himself the apostle to the uncircumcision. Would it be true to say then that in Paul's writings, primarily he's writing to Gentile Christians, but there were Jews amongst them.
And Peter in writing his epistles is writing primarily to Jewish Christians, but there were Gentiles amongst them. Okay, we're all happy with that because that to me is the answer as to who these elect are.
There are writers that say he was writing to Gentiles because there are obvious references to Gentiles. But I think it's clear that Peter's primary focus is for people that are very much aware of the Old Testament and are Jews themselves.
And while it is true that they were scattered amongst these areas, it doesn't mean that they were isolated as individual Christians here and there. It would appear from chapter 5 that they were definitely meeting in assemblies and those assemblies would include Gentile believers.
We have to see the whole letter really does have to be seen in the context of an assembly. Fr. David, Peter introduces himself here as an apostle. I guess we could ask why? And secondly, are there apostles today?
And if it's yes, why? And if not, why? I think it's important, for example, John says in John chapter 1, we beheld his glory. And he goes back to that when he begins his epistle. These men, by personal experience and by commission from the Lord Jesus, have authority to uphold the teaching that the Lord Jesus gave.
So I think that while Peter is not somehow wanting to assume an office, but he is speaking from the standpoint of divinely given authority relative to the truths of the person of Christ and the teaching of Christ himself.
Added to that, Paul, in defending his apostleship, adds the words, have not I seen the Lord? So apostles were men who had seen the Lord. As far as the twelve were concerned, they had to have been with him during his earthly ministry.
But as far as Paul is concerned, Paul saw him in glory. Sorry, is that transmitting or not? It is not transmitting. Okay, you know there's another solution. Here we are. Say it again.
Say it again? Okay. The church was built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, so again, the apostles went into the foundation. And that is not particularly seen today.
The alternative to that, of course, is that the apostles and prophets laid the foundation. Having laid the foundation, you don't continue laying a foundation. You build a superstructure. And that was not the work of the apostles.
Just a further point. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul will make mention, the signs of an apostle were wrought among you. So the apostles, the prophets, the foundation, the sign gifts are all associated with the early days of the church and not the latter days of the church.
The word apostles is also used, speaking of 2 Corinthians, it's also used in a less specific technical way. There are those that were sent with a particular work by churches, by assemblies. And I take it were referred to as apostles relative to that.
But in terms of the apostles and prophets that we've mentioned, let the answer to your question be clear. They do not exist today. Their work has been accomplished. There is no gift of apostleship. There is the apostles' doctrine, which we go by, and that does not change nor does it need confirmation by an apostle today.
Revelation chapter 21 also makes reference to the apostles of the Lamb. I know sometimes the distinctions are made between the apostles of the Lamb, the apostles of the Christ, and the apostles of the church.
But the apostles of the Lamb in Revelation 21 very clearly speaks of the 12. And in addition to the 12, of course, we'll have the apostle Paul uniquely called as our brother David has just referred to.
So we're on good ground to say that there are no apostles in the primary sense of it today.
I think it might be worth adding to that that terms like apostle, pastor, and so on were never used as titles in the New Testament. For example, we speak about the apostle Paul. He never speaks about himself as the apostle Paul.
He says Paul, an apostle. It was his work. It wasn't a title that he held. Very helpful. Can we move on to the subject of just the elect who are strangers who are scattered abroad? Thoughts about the scattering of these believers.
Okay, persecution no doubt is a factor and they're being scattered. But is there not a statement here of the divine intention that it was not a haphazard scattering, but that rather they were placed where they were in keeping with the will of God and for a work that God had in view for them?
I don't know, David, that I would say that their scattering was due to persecution. These were strangers of the diaspora. That is, they were Jewish Christians living in parts of the world other than in Palestine.
I would judge that amongst these people could be the ones that came up to Jerusalem that we read of in Acts chapter 2. But because they were living in Gentile communities outside of the nation of Israel, they were persecuted by two groups of people.
They were persecuted by the Gentiles because they were Jews. And they were persecuted by Jews because they were Christians. Fair enough. I wouldn't want to exclude from that those, however, who had been scattered from Jerusalem and would find as magnets where these other Jews were.
Sometimes Jews that were not saved would be a magnet to them, to reach them, and sometimes it would be Jews that were scattered and then saved. So there is a combination, I think, maybe, involved.
In that. Is the scattering here just a general sense? Is this the dispersion? There was no definite article before the diaspora in that word that's used. So I'm just wondering, is this just a general term that he's using, that these believers that are scattered abroad are in a region that really we wouldn't know a whole lot about, which kind of testifies to a lot of unrecorded missionary work when these believers moved out.
So in my mind, not seeing it as exclusively as Jewish believers who may have picked up a scattered Gentile here or there, but really a mixed multitude that would include both. What was that word you used?
The diaspora. I'm sorry, my accent will come across terribly.
From Spanish. Well, actually, I heard Spanish when you said that. I just wondered if it was a Spanish word or a Greek word. Fair enough. Sorry. I think the point is, yes, there was a diaspora. There was that event or those events that caused that for Jews.
But I wonder if the statement is not actually intended to be more embraceable from that specific case, but rather extended now to these believers. They are in various locations. I think it's probably true to say that in speaking about the diaspora, he's not speaking necessarily about a single event in history that caused their dispersion, but a variety of circumstances that resulted in them living in communities outside of Israel.
I was just going to mention, brother, in the overall flow of this chapter, perhaps just to quickly draw our attention to seven beautiful things. At the very beginning, Peter will take them back to the eternal purposes of God.
You know, elect and then the sovereign work of the Spirit. And he'll go right from there to this living hope, this inheritance, incorruptible, and so on. See what he's done? He's gone to the very past.
He's gone to the future. Then he'll bring them back to the present with their trial of their faith, the suffering that they're going to go through. And then he'll follow that by two lovely thoughts, at least lovely in my mind, that the salvation that they have is something that Old Testament prophets searched into diligently.
It's something that the angelic realm inquires into. You see what he's doing? They're in the midst of trouble and difficulty. But this was ordained of God. It leads to glory. It's something that Old Testament prophets just didn't understand.
It's something that angels want to know. He'll take them right back then to the next lovely thing. It's all based on a lamb foreordained before the foundation of the world. And as you mentioned, it's going to lead to glory.
And the present days, the grass fades, but the Christians got something that will never fade away.
So he actually takes them back and forward from the past, future, past, future.
Yes. And it lifts them from their present circumstances.
Now let's go to the past then and look at this elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. How do we understand this expression, according to the foreknowledge of God? Are we going to pass over the fact that they were the elect?
No, it's got to be involved in that. I think it's beautiful because if you looked at the Greek text, you would find that the word elect actually links with the fact of them being sojourners in verse one.
In the Greek text, the word elect is actually in verse one, not in verse two. So these are elect sojourners of the dispersion. They are rejected by men, hence the persecution they experienced, but they are chosen of God.
Far better to be chosen of God and rejected of men than to be chosen of men and rejected of God.
Our brother David is right in that it's an adjective that's used here, not a noun. But the other lovely thing, elect and chosen, of course, are synonyms in our Bible. The other lovely thing that's here is we've got the Trinity involved, haven't we?
You see the God, you see the work of the Spirit, and then, of course, the Lord Jesus is brought right into it. So it's just showing us the Trinity involved in this beautiful truth of what these believers have been brought into.
You gave us help on the Spirit, but I do want to come back to this elect according to the foreknowledge of God. I'm going to state clearly that I do not think that that means that God knew what I would do and therefore he elected me.
Amen. Okay. I think God's foreknowledge is foreknowledge of individuals, and he selects those individuals. So you say you're way over into Calvinism. Don't throw Calvinism in when you come to election.
If it's Bible-based, it's not Calvinism. It is the great truth of God's sovereignty. It is in keeping with his knowledge of men, and yet that does not change our responsibility to obedience. So the two of them are parallel in the Scripture, and the reason you can't figure them out is because you can't figure God out.
And don't try to, because when we have got God into the small box of our mind, we have our own God and not the God of the Bible. That's both sides existing side by side and not in conflict. I've divided verse 2 into three parts.
You've got God's purpose, then you have the process, and then you have the product. God's purpose is election. God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, and that not due to the fact, as you say, that he knew we would believe.
Then we have the process, and the process is through sanctification of the Spirit and to obedience. That's the process. Foreknowledge in the New Testament does not necessarily mean that just that God knew in advance.
The word actually means that. But we read about the Lord Jesus that he was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but manifest in these last times for you. That word foreordained is the same word as we have here, foreknown.
It's not just that God knew him in advance, but he was chosen by God in advance. That, I think, is the point. The means by which God has brought about his purpose is through sanctification of the Spirit, which I would judge is primary sanctification, which likely we'll get into.
That's the divine side. Then you have the human side, which is obedience and to obedience. That's the obedience of faith on the part of the one who is saved. The end result is the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Thank you. We will take up those two other truths just for the moment. Let me balance this again so no one takes a wrong impression away. On the one hand, God does not foreordain us because he knew we would trust Christ.
Neither does the foreordination of God make us trust Christ. So we're still going to insist on the independence of these two truths, and yet their interdependence, the responsibility of men and the sovereignty of God.
Can you see Peter here trying to encourage these believers? You think of the broad context of what these believers had gone through and what they were about to go through with the Moronian persecution.
They had a lot of things coming for them. Peter is almost warding off some of that. He's going to encourage them. They're going to lose everything. A lot of them have already lost much, if not everything.
He's going to move into that when he gets to the inheritance that can't be lost. But you see them too. They've been scattered abroad. We've already heard from Brother Richards here that the string of words go together.
These elect sojourners that have been dispersed. He says, really, you've been scattered abroad. You've been sown throughout this world, but together, elect, you are a people. At the risk of getting tackled, I won't get into another perspective on that election piece, but they're a group, and he says, you are somebody.
He's going to come back to what they are later in the epistle, and he's going to reinforce the benefits and the blessings they have together and to what they've been called and where they're going. In the midst of it right now, they may feel very alone.
They've lost everything, and they're going to lose more. Some of them are going to lose their lives. But he says, you've got something you're never going to lose. So I think he's writing to encourage them and to sustain their faith, not just to give them new doctrine, per se.
An election has a view to what God has in mind. Not so much election so that I wouldn't be in hell, but here it is elected as to their journey. To where they're headed.
Yes. It's fusing the earth word and the heaven word together. Sojourners and yet elect. Pilgrims here, but they're going heavenward.
I'm just going to put a little qualifying word. Maybe we'll have to discuss this afterward, Duncan. But I would be very careful in Romans 9 to see that it's not persons, but it's groups of people. It is nations in terms of God's election.
Not of Egypt, not of Esau, but of Jacob. If that's not commonly held, I'll argue with you in private. The problem arises when we think that we have to be able to reconcile divine sovereignty with human responsibility.
We have the idea that it must be rational as far as human beings are concerned, but it doesn't have to be. It's not that it's irrational. It's above reason. You and I as humans are not capable of reconciling divine sovereignty and human responsibility, but the two are placed side by side in many places in the scripture.
Here, for example, sanctification of the spirit and to obedience. There's the two sides. You've got Luke chapter 15 in the story of the sheep that was lost. What did the sheep do to find itself? Nothing.
It was all the work of the shepherd. In the story of the coin that was lost, what did the coin do to find itself? Nothing. It was all the work of the woman. But in the story of the prodigal son, what did the father do to find the son?
Nothing. He just waited for him to come home. The son made his own choice. I will arise, and I will go to my father, and I will say unto him, and so on. So we have divine sovereignty in the first two parts of the parable, and human responsibility in the third.
I wonder could I add a comment in relation to human responsibility for you, brother. You've got 30 minutes left, and the sisters are going to have lunch waiting for us.
Wait a minute. Let me see if I can think this one through. I've calculated you need 12 more hours, David. 12 hours at the rate we're going. Two verses for a half hour. Good idea. All right. So I think they're telling me to move on here.
But I think our brethren have hinted at this. If not hinted, they have stated it. The sanctification of the spirit here I take to be pre-conversion. And that is the Spirit of God has set individuals apart to deal with them.
Question. Is there any individual in the world that has not known, in responsible years, has not known the dealing to the Spirit of God? Creation itself, I take it, conveys by the power of the Spirit of God a message to every individual, at the very least, a message to every individual.
So on the one hand, we cannot say that God did not deal with that person, and therefore they were not saved. But what we have here is the recognition of the other side of that truth, that every one of us owes even our concern to be saved.
It didn't come from our hearts, but it comes from the dealing to the Spirit of God. Obviously, the shedding of the blood is what took place in the death of the Lord Jesus. The sprinkling of the blood is now the application of that.
Personally, I take this, and I don't know whether you're going to want to go to the Passover here, because it looks like the most normal thing to go to. I take it to be the blood of the covenant that was sprinkled on the people.
So we're looking at obedience to what God has stated. And we are under obligation because of the blood of Christ. We are under obligation to obedience to what God has stated.
So you'll take the obedience to be the believer's obedience to the truth?
Well, I think it starts at conversion. We're children of obedience. And Romans 6 speaks about obeying from the heart, the mold into which we were poured. So we started out with obedience, and Romans 6 is telling us as servants we must continue with obedience as well.
Just quickly, again in relation to verse 2, can we just see here, again, we say the Trinity is here. We've got the eternal purposes of God, God's plans before ever there's a creation. And then we have the sanctification, the setting apart.
That's what sanctification means in our Bible. We find that there's sanctification here by the Spirit. Hebrews 13 will make a mention of sanctification by His blood. John 17, you've got sanctification by the Word.
But in a variety of ways, God sets us apart. But in the great plan of salvation, God's purpose, and now the Spirit of God begins to work with an individual, brings the truth of the gospel to them. The gospel, of course, presents the wonderful truth of Calvary and Christ.
Obedience to the gospel, they become the people of God. In other words, the people marked as the blood-bought people entering into the new covenant. That's why I would go to Exodus 24.
Okay, and I think David mentioned primary sanctification here. So you have positional sanctification at the moment of salvation. We are counted to be saints, to be holy. There's practical sanctification that we are responsible to effect in our lives.
There's perfected sanctification. Is that your next P for what you have when the Lord comes and we will be sanctified holy, body, soul, and spirit? Any more than that you wanted to go to?
That's perpetual, isn't it? Let's move on.
Good, thank you. All right, we'll look at verses three to eight. Try to do this somewhat in a block. But interesting to me, Paul begins with the blessings that belong to the believers in the church, in Christ Jesus.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter starts the same way. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The humanity of Christ, he is the God of Christ. The deity of Christ, he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our blessings all go to the one who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is because of him that we are brought into these blessings. For him, because of him, we are brought into blessings.
Fr. David, when Paul writes the Ephesians, it's blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Here the blessing is the living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Is there some particular point why the resurrection is brought in?
I thought that it's linked with the one who, by resurrection, is acclaimed to be the Christ and the glories that are his are all a result of resurrection. Romans chapter 15, if he's been raised from the dead, he's the first fruit.
Then there is a necessary result of that in his reign, in his eternal kingdom and all the results that are involved.
I'm just thinking as well, he's going to touch on the sufferings of Christ and the glory to follow. He's going to talk about the trial of their faith. How many of them are facing death, but he brings in the resurrection of Christ.
I think, too, he emphasizes the resurrection of Christ because what he has to say in verse 3 is that he has begotten us again unto a living hope. Hope has to do with the future and the future is dependent upon the resurrection of Christ.
So, again, even if they were brought into death, the glory that they are living for is absolutely assured, not only for their souls, but for their bodies. Meaning, not Lazarus' resurrection or the maids being raised, but it is the Lord Jesus at this moment is the only one who has been out-resurrected, but we're waiting for the time when ours will be.
We will be linked with that, and as the first fruit, we'll follow as a harvest, those that have died in Christ. I think we're looking onward here, and when Peter speaks about it at this point, we're looking onward to what we will have with Christ in heaven.
The answer to your question being yes. David, don't you think it's true to say, though, that Peter never makes reference to the rapture? Peter's prospect is always the coming kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Yes, I don't know that Peter was so much intentionally pointing to it, but I think we will come into it at that point. Yeah, I don't think there's a single reference in Peter's epistles to the rapture.
I'm with you. The same in James' epistles, etc. Primarily Hebrews, this section of the epistles is relative primarily to the return of the Lord in glory. I think what we have to bear in mind is that the rapture is not the main event.
It's the preliminary event. The rapture is necessary for believers of the church age in order that we might come out from heaven with Christ. That's partly true, but it depends on which side of the coin you're looking at.
In terms of eternal purpose, the church is before Israel. In terms of the accomplishment of that, Israel comes in at a redemption, and then the church comes in at a redemption. I'm thinking Matthew 13.
So from the standpoint of the kingdom, yes. From the standpoint of the heavenly bride, whom thou hast given me before thou lovest me before the foundation of the world, verse 25 of John 17, the rapture is primary in that sense.
Our brethren are saying that Paul writes much of the rapture and Peter not, but let's keep in mind, Peter's the man that's not looking ahead to the rapture. John 21, Peter's facing death. He's writing to believers that are facing death because of their trials, but what he's putting before them is the wonderful truth of resurrection, a living hope by a living Savior written to living stones, and an inheritance that never will be defiled nor pass away.
He's putting before them the blessings that are on the other side of death, suffering and then glory.
And the inheritance, you've got to draw a parallel, sorry, sufferings of Christ and the glories after these. The inheritance you can also see is a parallel but a contrast with the Old Testament. As the Old Testament people of God were brought out, the inheritance they had and were promised was an earthly inheritance.
But what we're looking at here, and you can't get past church truth now involved in this, what we are now linked with is a heavenly inheritance. Was there not the great danger, David, that they were going to lose all of their earthly inheritance?
And so this is indestructible. It's incorruptible. So he's putting them beyond. Yeah, no one can somehow or other destroy it and it will never cease to exist, never fade away. That's good, yeah. Well, William MacDonald has that in his commentary and that's, at least he.
Shh, don't say anything.
I first heard it from old Theodore and he wasn't exclusive, but anyway.
That's all right. The great thing is, wherever the statement came from, the great thing is it's true. Time will not change it and sin will not change it and men cannot change it. Was that the first one?
Men cannot change it? Death. Yeah. It's not that we again have a hope, this same hope, but it is being born again and that hope is now linked with the new birth. Is there a link here with Exodus 12? I think so.
This month shall be unto you the beginning of months. Their calendar was changed. Now, we'll have to change the clock if we're not going to keep going here. I said, what verse are you on? Who knows? No, we have now passed by verse three.
Okay, we're into not now just the inheritance, but those that have been themselves kept for that inheritance. That's a wonderful truth, a divine power that has not only secured the inheritance for us, but is preserving us to that.
Tell us quickly, brother, verse five, salvation ready to be revealed in the last time and I am moving you ahead now. Verse nine says, having received, or that's the sense of it, the salvation of your souls.
So we now have the salvation of our souls, but that salvation will be completed in the future. So unto salvation I take to be the future aspect of our salvation. Which, just to be controversial, we will enter into when the Lord returns to the earth.
I thought maybe we would enter into it when we entered heaven. Well, we'll certainly possess it in heaven.
So now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed? There are different aspects of salvationism. Having received the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls, believers are saved now. They're saved when they trust the Lord Jesus.
No question about it. The Lord will come and then there's a salvation out of this world. You know the old thing about the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and the presence of sin. The three-fold aspect.
Go ahead.
No, that's fine. If you don't mind, I'm going to have to start rushing here, which I didn't want to have to do, but we do. So there is joy that Paul is speaking of, and there are a number of thou, those in here, t-h-o-u-g-h.
Some of them supply, but there is a contrast running down. They rejoice, but they suffer. Manifold temptations. They have a trial, but it's different from gold itself in its trying. Though it be tried with fire, there's something different for the believer.
And then, though now, verse 8, though now you see him not, ye believe, ye rejoice, ye love. Though not by having seen him.
The trial of testing that proves the genuineness of their faith, that's really what he's saying is so precious to God. It's not the trial itself, but it's the thing which is tested in the trial. And the genuineness of that faith that will be produced must have been to them some sort of an encouragement to know that this was bringing pleasure and delight even to the heart of God.
The genuineness of their faith that would hold up underneath such trial and persecution.
Brother David, you don't have time to go back, I know, but again, just that comment that Peter, John 21, must face death. These believers must face this. You write about the suffering, you write about the glory, but this is the man, if we were to go to Matthew 16, when the cross is mentioned, be it far from thee, O Lord.
So Peter in Matthew 16, I'm simply saying, couldn't see the suffering of Christ. Now he knows of the suffering of Christ. Now he knows of his own impending death. Now he understands what these believers are going through, but he sees beyond it, which of course is what he wants us to do.
So, Abraham was tested as to his faith. Not that somehow or other God didn't know whether he'd fail or not. God had prepared him. And now God tests him. And his faith in that fire of difficulty as he takes his son to the altar, his faith proves the genuineness.
If God knew that he would pass the test, what was the purpose of the test? I think God himself received pleasure in what Abraham was willing to do. On a practical level too, though, doesn't it increase his faith?
There's no question about that. And there's no question that it's a blessing to others eventually who will know about it. Genesis 22 starts, after these things, the Lord did tempt Abraham. It was after his faith had been tested under various circumstances, and his faith was strengthened, that he had this final test.
So you have here, I think there is a sense in which there is progression here. Same thing, because though it's tried with the fire presently, there will be a result in the future. And not only that they will be with the Lord Jesus and share with that one who himself will receive praise and honor and glory, I take it this has to do with their own receiving as a result of the trial.
So, my beloved brother, I know sometimes when you're in the middle of a circumstance, the tendency is not to look very far ahead. But the word of God directs us to this. A proper response to this, consistency under trial, a trust in God under trial, a willingness to glorify God under trial, has eternal consequences.
Might be found unto praise and glory and honor. In the day when the Lord Jesus returns and the results of our faith in private may be here, will be displayed publicly for the glory of the Lord Jesus in that day.
I have taken it that the very presence of faith is the reminder that God himself will keep us to the end. So, I thought that what we're looking at here, yes I have responsibility in this, but ultimately God will keep all those who are of faith.
Fair enough, is that what you had in mind or further? I was thinking of salvation in the broad sense of the word. Present salvation? Practical as well as ultimately.
Then Peter, I'm moving to verse 8 and I'm getting kind of lonely. I just would be happy for contributions as we move. He's speaking to people who have never seen the Lord Jesus. Maybe hidden under that is the great truth that we shall see him for we shall be like him.
But Peter's not bringing that in specifically. They have not seen him and yet their hearts are devoted to him. There definitely is a future for them. I don't know. I'm not sure, Bruce. Sorry, I'm being hard to get along with here.
I'm not positive that any true believer recanted his faith. I'm not positive. We don't have a record of that. I think the intent of your statement is any believers down through history would be liable to failure.
That's true. Peter himself is the illustration. I think he writes not so much envisioning the failure of the believers but infusing them with the strength that he needed and failed to access when he faced the words of a little maid.
I think, too, in relation to Peter denying the Lord three times, that was not a recantation of his faith. He denied his association with Christ. He certainly never denied Christ, never denied who he was.
The Lord's statement that thy faith fail not was not a prayer that was not answered. Right. The prayer was answered. Besides which, of course, in criticizing Peter, we have to be careful that Peter was living at that time in days prior to the descent of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling of the Spirit.
Amen. It's the devil's expedient to take a believer who is down and tell him there's no way up. I think maybe what Bruce is after, what you've picked up, is to infuse into believers here today that have failed, and that's all of us in greater or less degree, to infuse into every one of us that our God is a God of restoration.
We'll get to that, I think, the return then again to the shepherd and bishop of your souls. Peter is a primary example of a man who could be mightily used, although he failed sadly in denying the Lord.
So I think that we can take the point from that, and actually from this passage, yet believing he rejoiced so that their joy in the midst of their trial is by their faith that fastens on to the living Christ.
Listen, we have, these believers had, and we have, more than Peter had when he denied the Lord. I don't mean we don't have the same liability, but he did not have the indwelling of the Spirit of God. He did not have the resurrection past.
Yes, it had all been foretold, but now it's all been confirmed historically. We have far more than Peter had at that point, so we're not being too hard on him. The result then should be this joy. I'm just going to finish up at verse 8.
If there's comments, then we're moving on. But this joy, faith will produce this joy. Faith in Christ will produce this joy, which cannot be expressed. It's not a natural joy. It's something that is divine, and it has with it a portent of the glory that's coming.
Wonderful to live here with the foretaste of what will be ours eternally. Okay, verses 10 through 13, 9 through 12 anyway. The prophets looking into this. Are we all okay that this is Old Testament prophets?
Yes. Very good. And they would love to have known more about what they wrote than they did know. So what they wrote was not the fruit of their own knowledge. Their experience comes through in it, but it is divinely superintended to transcend what they themselves knew.
Did I make that more complex? Inspiration involves using the personality of men to go to record what is beyond their own experience or their own ability to foretell.
It is just another way, again, is showing us that New Testament believers, subsequent to the cross, we have come into something that is so far greater than the Old Testament once could have. It's a big contrast between the church today and the Israel then, and many others are going to come up as we go through this letter.
So while he's contrasting between the Old Testament and what we have now, he's also linking the consistency because it's what those prophets revealed that we are enjoying. They actually, by God's superintendence, had in view what is ours now.
But in the contrast I mentioned earlier, there's not only that of the Old Testament prophets versus what we have today, but this is so great that angels look into it.
Just to add a little comment to that, I would hope for younger men that are here and for all of us, I hope that a Bible reading like this does not leave us confused and wondering. I hope it stirs within every one of us a longing to know the word of God more, to know Christ more through his word.
What we're looking at here then, verse 10, the prophets have prophesied of the grace. I think that Peter uses the word grace in various ways, and here I think he's dealing with all that is ours at the present time.
I think later on in the chapter, he will deal with the grace as to verse 13, to the end, for the grace that is to be brought to you. He's looking at grace in all its fullness of provision in the future.
Brother David, just a quick comment. Verse 11, when we read of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, quite evidently then the Old Testament will contain, as Luke 24 shows us, remember where Moses and all the prophets, the Lord Jesus went through, the Old Testament will contain in these two aspects of the coming Messiah, that first he would come to suffer, that's Calvary, second he will come again in glory.
And that's what Peter's speaking of, isn't it?
Not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory. And that is accomplished by the inspiration of Scripture through the prophets by the Spirit of Christ. That is the Spirit that is revealing the Christ that is to come.
So, another of the titles of the Spirit of God, used elsewhere in the New Testament as well. It's interesting too that here is yet another indication of what we might call the gap. In Old Testament prophecy, there are prophecies relative to the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, but the events in between are left out.
The whole church age is left out. For example, unto us a child is born, that's Bethlehem. Unto us a son is given, that's the cross. And the government shall be upon his shoulder, that's the future kingdom.
Events in between are left out, the whole church age is missing. And yet in verse 12, not a conflict, David, but in verse 12, they knew that there was something in between. But they didn't know what. Yeah.
They knew it was for us who were in that valley of prophecy.
But they didn't know who the yes were. Nor would they know anything of the time element. No.
That's interesting. It is an age that is characterized by grace. I suppose you can go that far. Yeah, no, this is the present. They prophesied of the present relative to what we would have and enjoy. And then the consistency now, Peter is speaking about the consistency between what was revealed to those prophets and what was now preached to you in the gospel.
The same Spirit of Christ is the Holy Spirit who has brought that message through messengers to you. Oh, my. And we're on verse 13, which isn't even... Yes, it's halfway through the chapter and it's quitting time almost.
All right, we have the children of Israel. Can I just put it this way? You have the parallel here between the children of Israel in the wilderness and ourselves in the present circumstances. Brought out that we might display the very character of God.
Be ye holy, for I am holy. Do not take as our standard of behavior how the world looks and how the world acts. We're just up at a notch by going to meetings on Sundays. The character of God is the unchanging standard for his people in the Old Testament and for his people in the New Testament as well, you and me.
Don't you think, David, verse 13, we're still in the house in Exodus chapter 12? Then they were to gird up their loins ready to leave. Right. That's good. Thank you. Let this be the characteristic of the believer.
As far as this world, he's ready to go. Sober, looking forward to what is going to take place. It's interesting. Sorry, go on, Joe. Take a number here. Number one, number two, number three. Where's number one there?
I thought maybe this is more present. God's present dealing with us, aware of our acts and dealing with us in keeping with that. And maybe I could bring in Hebrews chapter 12 with God's knowing where we are and dealing with us relative to that.
Or even perhaps, Brother James, to take it on to Revelation chapter 20, the great white throne, where you have the books, of course, with the works involved there. And the ultimate judgment, right? That's after the kingdom and God is all in all.
Okay. Thank you. Dave, you're number two. No, it's fine. And you're number three. Acts 17, the Apostle Paul mentions, you know, that God at the point of the day in which he would judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.
That's the Lord Jesus, wherever he is. Give him assurance, raise him from the dead. So as far as the current world is concerned, all judgment is committed to the Lord Jesus. But there is an ultimate day coming when the works of every unsaved person will come into question.
That was my point there.
The outcome of all of that is that there should be this reverence for God that will characterize us in our journey. I think, again, that the children of Israel, God intended to set the standard in Egypt for what they would carry out right through the wilderness.
Brother David, just on that point again, gird up your loins of your mind and so on. So we're in the house on Exodus chapter 12. In the house of Exodus chapter 12, remember, it's a night of death for the world, for the land of Egypt.
But it's the point of moving out of the people. Now, again, these people are facing death. But they're to move out into something far greater, and that's the truth they're being presented to.
Dan, did you? I was just going to say that I think one of the greatest trials that these believers are facing, and the same thing that we witnessed today, is the battle that's going to be in the mind.
Just thinking of what Peter says in verse 13, girding up the loins of the mind, the thought processes, the steady state of being sober, evaluating things correctly in their thinking. And if you link that with just a quick jump back to verse 6, the word heaviness is really the grief.
The suffering wasn't just a physical suffering. It was the grief, the anguish of mind that was connected to what these believers were going through. And the battles they were facing quite frequently were not just a physical opposition, but it was the grief associated with what they were passing through.
So you look at where we look at believers today, and sometimes it's not so much the physical opposition, but the great persecution of the trial, what they face, is quite indeed something in their thinking, in their mind.
And that is where a lot of the battle takes place. And that's what Peter is emphasizing here. This is where they were going to have to really be careful with their thinking, with their mind, with their thought processes.
So actually, if we start out in the house, God is preparing these people for their journey. And I think that's really what Peter is emphasizing here. Get it firmly in our minds that there's glory at the end.
Get it firmly in our mind that there's a standard of behavior. Get it firmly in our mind that there is a God, a Father, who judges and therefore is to be reverenced. And now that's all a result of what God has accomplished for us, would accomplish for them, and that is the redemption through the blood of the Lamb.
Now, there were three things they had to do in the house. They had to have their loins girded, their shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hand. The parallel to that in verse 13, with your loins girded, you've got to gird up the loins of your mind.
Your shoes on your feet, be sober. Your staff in your hand, hope to the end. The staff in the hand, you're ready to move. You're just waiting for the call. This silver, sorry, I moved to verse 18. What did you have, Gordon?
I was just going to say, if you've got Exodus in verse 13, you've got Leviticus in verse 16, but you don't have time, so go ahead with 18. And we're back in Exodus.
And I take it that the vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers is a reference to the Jewish background. Yes. So silver and gold and a redemption money coming out of Egypt, that was exacted in Leviticus, and the vain manner of life that produced nothing eternal, all that came from your fathers.
So I take it that that's very clearly an allusion to his Jewish readers. But there is this redemption, not with the blood of a lamb, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that redemption lamb to which that redemption lamb pointed, but that redemption lamb could never measure to the value of Christ himself without blemish and without spot.
They were to see that the lamb was without blemish, but they could not see its internal perfection.
There are three times in our New Testament when we'll read the phrase, before the foundation of the world. Here's one of them, the lamb foreordained. And of course, John 17 has been referred to, thou lovest me before the foundation of the world, the love of the Father for the Son.
Ephesians 1, of course, chosen in him before the foundation of the world. So we're back to the great eternal purposes of God.
Okay, the better thing to do, discretion is the better part of valor, is to admit defeat. But there's tremendous truth for us to appreciate here in redemption. And what God had in view in our redemption, we do believe in God through Christ, enjoying resurrection.
The one who received glory is the one in whom we now hope, so that we have perfect confidence as to the future and confidence in God in the present time. You read the entire epistle to Peter and you obey its truth.
Or to be actually more precise, sorry, I was kind of kidding with him, but it is a life in which we come to know God and allow the Spirit of God to reproduce who God is in our hearts and lives. It is not my effort to reproduce Christ that will reproduce Christ.
It is my yielding to the Spirit of God through the Word of God that will produce Christ. But at the same time, the yielding is active, not passive.