Book of 1 Peter, Ch. 1 - 10/31/2021

Okay, I'm going to begin now. You probably noticed that we have no visual at this point.

That will probably pop on in about 10 or 15 minutes, but right now we're going to go audio only for a while, and you will miss being able to see my cheerful face for a few minutes.

We are in the first letter that Peter wrote, and I'm just going to read the first two verses, and we'll begin.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout

Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the

Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, and unto obedience, and the sprinkling of blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you, and peace be multiplied.

Well, you're going to get a treat in just a few minutes, because Brother David just walked in, and he's going to be working on the visual, and just in a moment, you're going to be able to see my cheerful face.

But we're going to take a moment to pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, and thank you for all of our many blessings.

Thank you for bringing us together that we may worship together face to face, and thank you for providing for us the technology to be able to reach out to people that are not on site.

We thank you, God, most of all, for your Son that you gave us to shed his blood for us, to glorify you, and to save us.

We thank you for your Holy Word that you gave us that we can use as part of our worship service to read, and study, and understand the message that you have for us.

Thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit to guide us in our understanding, and thank you just most of all,

Lord, for being who blesses and keep us.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So, we're going to begin.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Peter was one of a unique group of men.

They're called apostles who were personally called by Jesus.

If you would, please turn with me to Matthew chapter 10, verse 1, and we'll get a

Matthew's account of the calling of the disciples.

And when he had called unto him his 12 disciples, and I probably need to tell you at this point that by now, there are many more people following Jesus than 12, but these are his 12.

These are the 12 that he selected. These are the 12 that he's going to give power to, his 12 disciples.

He gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal our sickness and all manner of disease.

Now, the name of the 12 apostles are these. First, Simon, who is called

Peter, and Andrew, his brother, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother.

Also, Simon the Canaanite and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

Now, that is Matthew's account of the selecting disciples.

Okay, so I can continue again?

Okay, that was shocking. Yes. Okay, of the 12 disciples that we, the names we just read, 11 of them went on to become apostles.

Now, I don't know how you'd classify Judas Iscariot. Judas was selected, but he was selected for a different reason.

He was selected by God before time began.

He was selected to betray Jesus, and that he did.

Now, some time is going to pass after the betrayal, and Jesus is going to be tried with an unfair trial, illegal because it was at night, accused falsely, judged falsely, crucified, and He rose from the dead.

Now, this passage that we're now going to go to, just after the crucifixion, the death, and the resurrection, you'll find a passage in John 20, verse 11.

John 20, verse 11. But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping.

And as she wept, she stooped down and looked unto the sepulcher, and seeth two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

And they said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? And she saith unto them,

Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid it.

And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus, and knew not that it was

Jesus. Jesus said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?

Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, said unto him,

Sir, if I have borne, if thou hath borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.

And Jesus saith unto her, Mary. That's all it took. And she turned herself and said unto him,

Rabboni, which is to say, Master. And Jesus said unto her,

Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren.

Now who's she talking about him going to? To his brethren. Those are the eleven remaining disciples.

Remember, Judas has already committed suicide.

And saying to them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my

God, and to your God. And Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the

Lord. And that he had spoken these things unto her. So she goes back and does as the

Lord tells her to do. She reports to the eleven disciples that she has seen the

Lord and told them that he was going to ascend to heaven, to his

Father, and to your Father, and my God, and your God. That says a lot just by itself.

He's not just my Father, he's your Father. He's not just my Father, he's your Father. We'll get to that more later.

And so Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples, the eleven remaining ones, that she had seen the

Lord and that he had spoken these things unto her. Then, on the same day, at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the

Jews, they're still afraid, for fear of the

Jews, came Jesus and stood in their midst and said to them,

Peace be unto you. And when he had said so, he showed unto them his hands and his side.

Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. And Jesus said unto them,

Peace be unto you, as my Father hath sent me, even so send

I you. So the eleven disciples have their assignment. They're going to become messengers for God.

They're going to become messengers for God in the same way that Jesus was the messenger for God while he was here.

So they're going to have a higher status than they used to have. Before, they were just following Jesus.

But now he has come to them and he has said, You are mine. I am going to send you, just like my

Father sent me. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and saith unto them,

Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted unto them.

And whosoever sins you retain, they are retained. Now, unfortunately, or fortunately one,

I'm not quite sure. I guess it's fortunate. Everything the Lord does is always fortunate. Peter was still a man, even though he's now filled with the

Holy Spirit. Now he has been empowered by God. Now he has the ability to cast out demons. Peter is still a man, as are the other eleven disciples.

So Peter has been studying Scripture. And he knows there's something wrong.

You know what it is? There are only eleven of them. Peter knows there's supposed to be twelve.

I'm not sure that Judas was ever one of the twelve. He was one of the twelve disciples, but he was not,

I don't believe, chosen to be one of the twelve apostles. So later,

Peter, acting in accordance with his nature, we all are, even when the treasure of salvation is put in us and put down, or we will not succeed in what we're doing.

So Peter, acting in accordance with his nature, in an attempt to find a replacement for Judas.

We find that in Acts after the meeting in the upper room.

And in those days, Peter stood in the midst of the disciples and said, now by the way, the disciples here are not the twelve, not the eleven.

There are about 120 of them that have followed Jesus around since the very beginning. Around 120 men.

It says that here. The number of names together were about 120. Men and brethren, this

Scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was

God to them that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us and had obtained part of this ministry.

Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all of his bowels gushed out.

And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem insomuch that the field is called in their proper tongue, eclatema, that is to say, the field of blood.

For this is written in the book of Psalms. I told you. Peter's been studying.

He's been studying the Scripture available to him. He's been reading in the book of Psalms. And he found in the book of Psalms this.

Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein, and his bishopric let another take.

So David is talking about a person that was counted with them, but was not really one of them.

Let his bishopric another take. Right away, Peter thought that God's plan for the twelfth disciple needed his help to be accomplished.

Now we all think that sometimes, and we do have a role to play. But God never needs our help.

We need to be able to help. And there's a world of difference. God doesn't need us.

We need Him. Okay, so he goes on and says,

Wherefore are these men which have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out amongst us?

So he's referring back to the 1120. There's 11 of us, and there's about 110 or so left.

Out of these, we're going to pick another one. Wherefore of these men which have accompanied with us all the time that the

Lord Jesus went in and out amongst us, beginning from the baptism of John until that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection?

So he's going to appoint somebody. Peter's taking charge like he always does. And they appointed two.

Joseph, called Barashah, who was surnamed

Justice, and Matthias. And they prayed and said,

Lord, thou Lord, which knoweth the hearts of all men, show whither of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship from which

Judas, by transgression, fail, that he may go unto his own place. So they're going to use the standard method of settling an issue.

They're going to cast lots, and they're going to assume that the lot will fall on the one that the

Lord has chosen. That will turn out to be a faulty assumption.

Nothing bad about Matthias. Nothing bad about Justice.

Just that neither of those were the one that the Lord wanted. And they gave forth their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias.

And he was numbered with the 11 apostles. So now we've got 12 apostles, so they think.

Now, it won't be too much longer before Judas will be replaced by a different man.

Anybody know who replaced Judas? Not Judas. We know that Matthias, for a time, replaced

Judas. Who replaced Matthias? Paul.

Paul was different than Matthias. In what way? In what way was

Paul different than Matthias? He was selected by God rather than by Peter.

And as a matter of fact, it's interesting that at the time that Peter made his selection, Paul was on the other side.

He was on the other side with great vigor. Peter could not possibly have thought of Paul.

And if he hadn't thought of Paul, he would have thought what a wicked man Paul was, not understanding that we all are wicked.

But Judas was eventually replaced by a different man, a man appointed by Jesus, not selected by the remaining 11.

Paul was not even a follower of Jesus at the time that Peter led the selection of Matthias.

Now, we have 12 apostles again. These 12 apostles were commissioned by Jesus and ministered with Jesus, all except Paul, and for Him after the resurrection.

All 12 will minister for Him after His resurrection and ascension.

The first 11 ministered with Him while He was here and up until His ascension.

And that completes the 12. Now if you want to, if you want to count Judas and Matthias as apostles,

I guess you can, but that's it. That's all the apostles there are, and that's all they're going to be.

Oh, they're prophets, plenty of prophets, plenty of prophets even today.

They're preachers, they're teachers, they're elders, they're deacons, they're ministers of all sorts.

There's plenty of ways that men can serve God and serve the

Body of Christ. But there are no more apostles. Okay, back to Peter.

To the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect.

I ran over one verse. This would have been translated better because the elect refers to the strangers.

It would have better been translated if it had said this, elect strangers scattered throughout

Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Now the word elect,

I looked this up, appears 27 times in the

King James Version of the Bible. Most of the time it occurs in the

New Testament. A few times it occurs in the Old Testament. The first time the word occurred is in Isaiah 42, verse 1, where it refers to the

Messiah. I'm going to read that passage for a bit.

Isaiah 42, verse 1, Behold my servant whom

I polled, my elect. That's the first time the word elect appears in the

Bible. This elect is the Messiah. You'll gather that very shortly.

Behold my servant whom I polled, my elect, in whom my soul delighteth.

I have put my spirit upon him, and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.

A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench.

He shall bring forth judgment unto the truth. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged, till he hath set judgment in the earth and the isle.

So I should continue? Okay. Okay. We'll see what happens.

At His second coming, Christ is going to rule over a kingdom in which justice prevails throughout the world.

The Millennial Kingdom is not a kingdom for Israel alone, although the

Messiah will reign on the throne of David in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem will be the glorious people.

In fact, all the nations of the world will experience the righteousness and the justice of the

King, of the Messiah, going on with Isaiah.

Thus saith the Lord, He that created the heavens, and stretched them out,

He that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it, He that breaketh breath,

He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein,

I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and I will hold thine hand, and I will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the

Gentiles. So the kingdom that the

Lord is going to rule over will indeed contain Jews, but it will also have in it many

Gentiles. Simeon saw the beginning of this fulfillment at Christ's first coming.

If you wish, turn to Luke chapter 2 verse 25, and we'll get a little bit about Simeon.

And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. The same man was just and devout and waiting for the consolation of Israel.

Now the consolation of Israel was the Messiah, and the Holy Ghost was upon him.

He was indwelt by the Spirit, at least at this time, and it was revealed unto him by the

Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the

Lord's Christ. And he came by the

Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, then he took him up in his arms and blessed

God and said, Lord, now let us thy servant depart in peace according to thy word.

For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all the people, a delight to lighten the

Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. So kind of to sum it up, yes,

Jesus came as the Messiah of Israel, yet also as the

Savior of the world. And as the Savior of the world, He revealed

Himself to non -Jews. He revealed Himself to a non -Jewish immoral woman by the well in Samaria.

He commanded His followers to preach the gospel of salvation to everyone in the world.

Everybody knows this one, I think, Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20,

Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the

Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever

I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

That was Matthew 28, 19 and 20. Certainly, the church made up mostly of Gentiles grafted into the body, the trunk of the church, fulfills this promise.

We have in Romans 9, 24 an allusion to that. Even us whom he hath called, not of the

Jews only. This is Paul talking to a predominantly

Jewish audience, or writing to a predominantly non -Jewish audience.

Even to us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. As he also said in Hosea, I will call them my people which were not my people, and her beloved which were not beloved.

And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living

God. Isaiah also crieth concerning Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be a sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.

For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness, because a short work will the

Lord make upon the earth. And as Isaiah said before, except the Lord of the Sabbath had left us a seed, we would have been as Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.

If the Lord of... that was the Lord of hosts is what that means. It doesn't mean the Lord of Sabbath. It means the

Lord of hosts. As the Lord of the hosts had not left us a seed, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah, totally destroyed, and only those that he took out would be saved.

So he's saying to the Jews, there will be a remnant of you saved.

So we won't be like Sodom and Gomorrah, the ones that left, the ones that were called out are the only ones saved.

There'll be a remnant of the Jews. Now not only will the

Gentiles receive this blessing, but when he does, the future kingdom on the earth, he will use

Israel to shine and enlighten all the nations of the world.

So the remnant seed of Israel will be used to enlighten the entire world.

When is this? In the millennial kingdom. And he said, it is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserve of Israel.

I will also give thee a light unto the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation until the end of the birth.

Who are we talking about? The elect. We began talking about apostles. And now we're talking about the elect.

And who are the elect? The elect are those chosen by God to be

His people. Now the first elect chosen one was the

Messiah. The second group of chosen ones were Israel, but because of their failure to fulfill their mission to be a light to the world,

He partially cut them off. And because they rejected Him, they were partially cut off, but not totally.

A remnant remained. And as we go forward, it fell to the church. He is electing the church to be the light and salt to the world.

And as we go forward through time, there comes a time when the church will be taken out and the

Messiah will return. And when He returns, we'll go into the Millennial Kingdom, and in this

Millennial Kingdom, we will have a new representative as light and salt, because the time will come when people can no longer proclaim the gospel unless they're divinely protected by the

Lord. That's where the 144 ,000 witnesses come into play in the

Millennial Kingdom. Now we're going to go back a little bit, back to Peter.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Now he had just said,

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout, and he listed a number of places.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the

Father. That same word, foreknowledge, that's here in 1

Peter 1 verse 2, also appears in 1 Peter 1 verse 20, but it's translated differently.

Here it's translated foreknowledge, and in 1

Peter 1 verse 20, it's translated foreordained. It says, same word, 1

Peter 1 verse 20, Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last days to you.

Now, when was this foreknowledge or foreordination settled upon?

When did it happen? When was it in the plans? It was in the plans before the foundation of the world.

In both verses, the word does not refer to an awareness of what's going on, or what's going to happen.

But it clearly means that the relationship was predetermined.

It was determined by the knowledge of God.

God brought the salvation relationship into existence by decreeing it into existence beforehand.

Christians are foreknown for salvation in the same way. Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world to be a sacrifice for their sins.

It means God planned it before. Not that He observed it before, He planned it before.

Thus God pre -thought and predetermined, or predestinated, each

Christian's salvation. And then we get to a new word, sanctification.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God, the Father, through the sanctification of the

Spirit. Sanctification means to be set apart. Sanctification means now you are elect, now you are chosen, now you become set apart.

Now the objective of election is salvation, which comes to the elect through the sanctifying work of the

Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit thus makes God's chosen holy people, makes

God's chosen holy by saving them, that is setting them apart from sin and unbelief, and setting them into faith and righteousness.

Sanctification begins with the justification, the declaring of the sinner to be just before God, and by graciously imputing

Christ's righteousness to Him. So that part, the justification part of your salvation, you have nothing to do with.

We've read this hundreds of times, Philippians 3, 9. And be found in Him not having mine own righteousness, which of the law, that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

And it goes on to continue a process of purification that goes on until glorification when

God, when the Christian sees Jesus face to face again, if they haven't seen

Him before. Now, so we have two things. We have the justification, the declaring of being just.

We have the sanctification process that exists throughout our lifetime where we're being brought into obedience, and we've got a role to play in that.

We have to be obedient, but we can't be obedient without the Holy Spirit's guidance.

So we can only be obedient when we've got our eyes on Christ. And we go through life, part of the time with our eyes on the world failing, and part of the time with our eyes on Christ succeeding.

And this process goes on and on and on. We're getting closer and closer to being like the

Lord until either our death or our being pulled out of here at the rapture.

And then we will see God or Jesus face to face,

I should say. We always, when we see God, when we see God, we're always seeing

Jesus. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the

Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience. Believers are set apart from sin, set apart from sin, set apart to God in order that they may obey

Jesus Christ. True salvation produces obedience.

This is the part of the Ephesians quote that we've done so many times. Ephesians 2 .8,

For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourself it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

And a lot of people stop that quote there, but they shouldn't. They should read one more verse at least.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which

God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Now what does that tell you?

That tells you that you were selected before time began, that you were set apart before time began, you were obedient, and that was ordained that you be obedient as well.

All before time began. And we're about to finish up.

Elect according to the full knowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the

Spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Now the new covenant in the New Testament under the new law faith in this shedding of Christ's blood on the cross not only activates

God's promise to give the believer a perfect atonement for sin, but also brings the believer into the covenant by one's promise of obedience to the

Lord and His Word. So part of the covenant is faith in the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ, which activates

God's promise. Without Jesus Christ having shed

His blood, none of us could be saved. And now

I'm going to read the entire passage of the entire two verses together, and we're going to focus on just two words, grace and peace.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the stranger scattered throughout

Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the full knowledge 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. There's another man that uses grace and peace in most of his letters, and that is

Paul. And like Paul, grace always comes in the letter before peace.

You can't have peace if you don't have grace. If you have grace, you can't have peace, but only if you're obedient.

If you're not obedient, you can't have peace then either, because the

Lord will discipline you to make you obedient. It is always grace first and then peace.

It's God's grace, not ours. We don't have any grace to give, but it is grace that we can ask for.

But it is grace that we can ask for, but we will not ask for unless it has already been given to us.

It is really strange. We can ask for it. We've already got it.

We can't get more of it, but we can understand better that we've got it. And then

I wanted to kind of wind this up with what has become my favorite passage, my favorite scripture at the present time in the entire

Bible, and that's Philippians. And I'm going to begin at verse 4. This, Brother Golden said, was the most redundant sentence in the

Bible. Rejoice in the

Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known to all men.

The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be known unto

God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the

God of peace shall be with you. That's something particularly important for us at the present time when we have so much bad news.

Every day I turn on the television or listen to the radio, and I hear bad news.

Bad news seems like nothing but bad news, and it gets worse all the time. And if I would allow myself to do that, if I would allow to myself to focus on the bad things,

I could never have peace. But the Lord said, don't focus on the bad things.

Focus on the good things. Focus on the things that are true. It's true that our economy is in shambles, but it's also true that there's

God in heaven, and He'll take care of us. It's true that there's plagues in the world.

It's also true that there's a God in heaven, and He'll take care of us. It's true that sometimes we're hungry, but it's also true that there's a

God in heaven, and He'll take care of us. No matter what your issue is, no matter what your issue is, it may seem on its surface to be bad, but it's on you for a reason.

Paul says, rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. When? Always.

And again, rejoice. Now the word rejoice means to joy again. And if you read it that way, you can see what

Brother Myron was talking about when he said, it's very redundant. Joy and rejoy in the

Lord, always. And again, I say, joy and rejoy. Let your moderation be known to all men.

That's your meekness. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing. Don't worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your request known to God.

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and your minds through Jesus Christ.

So it really doesn't matter if you rejoice, you pray, you ask, the

God of peace will give you peace, and He'll give you peace through Christ Jesus.

Any comments or questions? That about does me in. To me, the most important thing that we can keep in mind in today's world, as hectic as it is, is that there is a

God in heaven, and He sent His Son down to bring us back up, to protect us, and to give us peace.

Without Christ, there is no peace. But with Christ, if you keep your eye on Christ, you will always have peace, no matter the circumstances.

Let us pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, and thank you for all of our many blessings.

Protect us and keep us. Go through the other services today. Bring us closer to you.

Allow us to understand that there is a God in heaven, and He has

His eyes on us, and He loves us so much that He came down to the earth and made

Himself like us, made Himself one of us, so that He could bear our burdens and replace our burdens with peace.