What is Salvation?

Well, good morning. So Jim didn't steal my thunder, as far as I know.

I've been listening carefully over the last several messages. I'm gonna teach on covenant and dispensational theology this morning.

No, what he did, though, was he did give me spring forward day. I don't know if you noticed that or not. All right, so that means you're tired, but you're not hungry, so that'll work out.

If people come in late, don't look at them or laugh at them. I need to pray, so let's pray.

Father, I come up here. I'm afraid and I'm confident.

I'm confident in your word. I know that I've done what I can do, but I have a real fear any time that I come and share your word.

And so I just share that with you, Lord, that you would make sure that nothing here, nothing that I say, or better, that nothing that is heard is wrong.

I don't want to blaspheme you in any way. I want to be as true to your word as I can be.

And so, Lord, I've had to draw conclusions, and I just pray that, I pray that they would be right.

I pray that today I can preach the truth, and I pray that the truth would ring in the ears of your people when they forget who spoke it.

I pray this in Jesus' name, Lord, amen. So turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter. We're on chapter one of 1

Peter. I was talking to Colby before the message that this is my 10th message in 1

Peter, and I'm only on verse nine. I don't even know how that's possible. I'd have to go back and look.

1 Peter chapter one, we'll read the first nine verses together. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout

Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the

Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood.

May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him now but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

It's that last verse that today is gonna be our puzzle and our prize, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

We wanna understand what it means. We wanna see how it fits into the context of the passage in the book of 1

Peter. We wanna make sure that our understanding of this term, obtaining as the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls, we wanna make sure that that's consistent with what the whole

Bible teaches about salvation. So as usual, I'm gonna try to spoil the ending at the beginning.

Mark Slippy is in here. We call this the Mark Slippy technique for specific reasons, Lisa knows.

Mark likes to give away the endings of movies. Don't talk to him about a movie. So that's what

I'm doing here. I'm gonna assert that Peter's point is that the Holy Spirit is doing an important work in us in this life.

The Spirit is using the tools of trials to form us into the image of God. We're being made into the imago dei, the image of God, and the

Spirit uses trials in this life to accomplish that. That is the goal of our faith that's mentioned here.

Okay, so we'll see that what we are in the process of obtaining as the outcome of our faith is that aspect of our salvation that we refer to as sanctification.

Peter's reminding us that this life has purpose and meaning in that the trials and the other events of this life have a sanctifying result that make us more like Christ.

All right, so that's the end at the beginning. Now, in the process of understanding this verse, we're gonna break apart this large term salvation into its component parts with an eye towards which of the parts of our salvation could we be said to be presently obtaining in the present tense, okay?

Which of those elements could be said to be the outcome of our faith through trials, could be referred to as the salvation of the soul.

That's what we're gonna try to figure out. So, verse nine, again, it's in the context of the larger passage.

It's in the larger context of the book of 1 Peter. The larger passage I think we have seen, you probably don't remember, but I do, from the other messages, it's a call to perspective.

It's a call to perspective in trials. Paul urges us to look up from our trials, to look up from the low and the secular and the temporal, to look to the high and the sacred and the eternal.

That's the point of this passage. We have to understand this life is not the end, and I'm using that end in both of its meanings, that word end, it's not the end in the sense it's not the ultimate purpose.

This life serves the ultimate purpose. Our sanctification, our being made more and more into the image of Christ that we might glorify

God. That is the sanctifying work of the spirit. And of course, this life is not the end in time either.

It's not the end in that sense. It's really just the beginning. We look forward to our inheritance, which is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away.

Reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

And today we reach the conclusion of the passage here in verse nine. Now it is a verse that it's a little bit difficult to interpret.

I think it's nowhere near the hardest verse in 1 Peter to interpret, but it has a little bit of a difficulty in the way that we think of the term salvation,

I think is the difficulty. When we see obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls, we think of salvation as that point in our lives when we turned from sin and turned to Christ in faith.

What we call conversion. We talk about when we were saved, past tense.

So that results in a bit of a conundrum here, or apparent contradiction. It comes from the word obtaining.

See that? Obtaining is in the present tense. We who are

Peter's readers, we're said to be presently in the process of obtaining the salvation of our souls. So if we think narrowly of salvation as our conversion, well you see there's a contradiction.

Conversion is past tense. This is some salvation that is present tense, something about salvation.

And you're not presently obtaining salvation in the sense of conversion. That's past tense.

So we have to ask ourself, what aspect of our salvation could we be said to be obtaining in the present tense?

What exactly is Peter referring to here? So we have to look at salvation as an entire complex of benefits.

We have to look at each of the benefits that's in our salvation. And breaking salvation into its component benefits, it leads to a list.

So we're gonna list out the elements of salvation. We wanna do that in some sort of order. Every systematic theology has to do that in some sort of order.

You have to think through what are the elements of your salvation and have them systematized. And everybody oughta have their theology systematized.

Every systematic theology, every textbook has this ordered list in it.

It's referred to as the Ordo Salutis. Those are Latin words. It just means the order of salvation.

People have put it in Latin. That makes you sound more intelligent. Unless you don't pronounce it correctly the first time you go to say it.

Ordo Salutis, the order of salvation. Sometimes referred to as the application of redemption.

How are the benefits of Christ's work applied to the believer? So we're gonna look at that.

What are the elements of the Ordo Salutis, or the order of salvation, and how are they logically related?

In Reformed theological circles, there really aren't any significant differences of opinion. If you look at the list, they'll be different.

Some will have eight elements, some will have 10. But really, it's just some theologians will see an element of our salvation as being part of another element and kinda group them together.

But there really aren't any important differences. The lists are similar.

I'm going to do eight. Eight elements of our salvation. And that's not just because it's

Spring Forward Day. Eight is what I think is the right way to do it. Okay, I'm gonna do it in logical or pedagogical order, meaning we're gonna look through the elements and see how they relate to one another.

It's not necessarily chronological order. You'll see a lot of these elements all happen simultaneously.

When we say we're saved, at that point that we refer to as conversion, there's a lot of things kinda happen all simultaneously.

So it's not really about the chronology, but it's how logically they fit together. There'd be a chronology that's suggested, and we are gonna wanna look at that because there's really two reasons to go through the

Ordo Salutis today. One is in and of itself. It's a God -glorifying thing to consider all the elements of our salvation.

But the main point is to be able to understand which of those we could said to be obtaining as the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls.

Which of those could be present tense? So we're gonna go through the Ordo Salutis, the order of salvation logically, and then we'll come back and see which of those fit the context of 1

Peter 1, 9. Okay, does that make sense? That's more of a Sunday school question,

I guess, isn't it? You can shake your head like, no, it doesn't make any.

Okay, so here we go, the Ordo Salutis. The first thing that God does, both logically and chronologically, as part of the plan of salvation is election, of course, right?

And you can think of election as including foreknowledge, which is God knowing in the sense of having electing love beforehand on whom he will save.

It includes predestination, God determining in eternity past the destiny of his elect, particular group of particular individuals.

Also as election proper. The word election means choosing. God choosing in eternity past who would be saved.

All right, we see it in 1 Peter 1, 1 and 2. In ESV, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the

Father. Chosen is that word for election, chosen. ESV is a little closer to the original language of the way it translates it.

It starts off with elect exiles of the dispersion. That word elect or chosen is the first word that Peter uses to refer to the readers of the book.

According to the foreknowledge of God the Father then appears down in verse two. So that's the first element.

Second is the effectual call of the gospel. The effectual call of the gospel. Now you probably, if you're like me, you probably heard the gospel ineffectually many times before you ever heard it effectually.

That is you heard it, different people told you the gospel and it didn't have any impact.

But then at one point, God gave you an effectual call. That is a call of the

Holy Spirit to your spirit. A literally irresistible gospel call. And you may have used previously ineffectual, your recollection of a previously ineffectual gospel call or calls.

You may have used the word of God itself. But at some point his spirit called to your spirit. Literally irresistibly.

Romans 8 .30, this is towards the end of what Jim read this morning. Romans 8, that passage in Romans 8 is a close parallel to this passage in that sense.

And the end of Romans 8, that passage, verses 29 and 30 give a mini ordo salutis.

It's not complete, but this is Romans 8 .30. And these whom he predestined, he also called.

So there we see election and the effectual calling. And these whom he called, he also justified.

And these whom he justified, he also glorified. So there's a preview of at least two more elements. Now incidentally, this effectual calling, this is an aspect of salvation in which we get to participate.

Now not in our own salvation. We have no part in our own effectual calling. But we get to have a part in someone else's effectual calling.

This is why we evangelize. Now most of the time when we share the gospel, it appears to be ineffectual calling, right?

But we don't know when and how God might use those efforts in an effectual call.

When he might call one of his elect to himself because of your sharing the gospel with him.

That's why we evangelize. And that's not intended to be a plug for the adventure club or anything like that.

So that's the second element. A third element, in our natural or spiritually dead state, we can't respond to the gospel.

So as we hear the effectual call, we are regenerated. That's the third element. We're made alive spiritually, able to respond to the call of the gospel.

Ephesians 2, 4, and 5, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loves us even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved. He made us alive. I've talked enough about regeneration as we've gone through 1

Peter. Again, if you don't remember all of them, unfortunately for you, I do.

And so I can't go through all again. They're online. Yeah, they are.

So I'm just gonna remind you of 1 Peter 1 .3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

He has caused us to be born again. Regenerated, made alive spiritually. Conversion is the fourth.

Conversion, when a person turns from their sin and puts their faith in Christ. That's the fourth element. In Acts 20, 21,

Paul characterizes his entire ministry this way. Solemnly testifying to both

Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith.

Those are two sides of the conversion coin. Those are two elements of conversion.

A person who turns to Christ must turn from sin. Repentance and faith are gifts of God.

Initial faith and repentance, they occur at the time of initial conversion. Now it's true that the

Christian life is one of constant repenting, constantly growing in faith in Christ, but in the sense of the ordo salutis, conversion is that one -time act of initial faith and repentance.

Now most of the time when we speak of our salvation, this is what we're thinking of, our conversion. So repentance and faith are part of that conversion.

So if we talk about repentance and faith, that's just conversions, it's the same. Repentance and faith, you could argue about which of these occur first.

That's kind of an interesting argument. I'm not gonna do that. You can think about that.

But they happen, logically, they happen simultaneously. They are one in the same thing, just different ways of looking at it.

To turn from is to turn to, okay? To turn from your sin is to turn to Christ.

To turn to Christ is to turn from sin. Try to say that. We'll have to edit that part.

But you, okay, Peter's thumbs up. You understand what I'm saying. Logically, it's the same thing.

In authentic biblical conversion, you can't turn from sin and not turn to Christ, and you can't turn to Christ and not turn from sin.

It's not possible, okay? So that's conversion. Now justification, that is fifth logically, and we're gonna spend a little more time on justification as part of this.

Justification, it is simultaneous to regeneration and conversion chronologically. This is the most,

I guess I would say this is the element of the Ordo Salutis that most clearly defines what it means to be saved.

Justification, to be made right with God. Okay, a justification is a forensic or legal declaration.

Forensic just means legal. It's a declaration made by God. A right standing with him.

It's based on the imputation of the perfect life of Christ and the atoning work of Christ.

Those things are what cause us to be justified or to be declared right by God. Okay? It's a declaration that a man or a woman is right before God, and it's based on grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

It's not based on any merit on the recipient, just the work of Christ alone. The sole instrument is repentant faith that God gives to his elect.

Romans 3, 21 through 24. I think this is very clear, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

The righteousness of God. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.

So we are made right as a gift by his grace. No merit on our part at all.

It's a declaration by God on the basis of faith in Christ. Okay, and we'll come back to that here in a minute.

Sixth in the order of salvation is adoption. Adoption.

Adoption. God places those who are justified into his family. He relates to them as a father.

It's an amazing blessing. It's one we don't consider often enough. Galatians 4, 4 and 5 puts it this way.

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law so that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Sons and daughters. J .R. Packer said this sums up the whole of New Testament teaching, adoption.

He calls it the highest privilege that the gospel offers, adoption. It really is. And this is a theme of all of history, all of history, from creation to the end.

God's setting apart for himself a family made in the image of God, saved by the work of Christ, justified by Christ, sanctified by the spirit, ultimately glorified, perfect fellowship and a perfect family forever.

It's a great blessing. It's one we don't think about enough and one we're not gonna think about enough today. It is in a good way superfluous to our justification.

It is something God does over and above. He could have left us as happy subjects in his kingdom forever.

Would have been fine. Would have been fine. It would have been amazing. So much more than we deserve, but he chose to relate to us as a father.

He put us in his family. First John 3 .1, see how great a love the father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God and such we are.

That's six. Seventh is sanctification. God causes us through the work of the spirit and especially through trials to be made more and more in the image of Christ.

This is our progressive growth in holiness and righteousness. This is the sanctifying work of the spirit. Second Corinthians 3 .18,

and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

For this comes from the Lord who is the spirit. We saw this in 1 Peter 1 .2, by the sanctifying work of the spirit to obey

Jesus Christ to be sprinkled with his blood. The theme of 1 Peter really is sanctification.

He argues that this life is sanctifying. It is in fact the sanctifying work of the spirit. That's why we're here.

Why didn't he just immediately translate us into heaven? This is a sanctifying work.

What's happening here to us, all the things that we deal with are sanctifying. And that's the purpose of this life.

I think that's the argument of 1 Peter. The last element, I think that's eighth, is glorification.

Glorifications. You've heard of that. It's when the saved person has made an entire person again at the resurrection, body and soul at that point.

Resurrected, glorified bodies, fit for the new earth. 1 Corinthians 15, of course, talking about resurrection.

So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body. It is raised an imperishable body.

It's sown in dishonor. It's raised in glory. It's sown in weakness. It's raised in power. It's sown a natural body.

It's raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Resurrection of the body, a glorified spiritual body.

That's the end stage of the process of our salvation. It's the last of the elements of the

Ordo Salutis, logically and chronologically as well. Okay, so back to our verse for a second. 1

Peter 1 .9, the outcome of our faith is said to be the salvation of our souls. Salvation of our souls.

And salvation could refer to any or all of those components of the Ordo Salutis. But we know that it doesn't refer to all of them because they're not all present tense.

We couldn't be said to be obtaining some of those elements. Some are already obtained.

Some are yet to be obtained. So we have to kind of think about which of these could we be said to be obtaining in this present life.

Okay, so before we answer that question, we have to think of what it is that Peter's readers are doing that leads to their obtaining as the outcome of their faith, the salvation of their souls.

What are they doing? Well, they're rejoicing. They're rejoicing in trials.

They're demonstrating a great faith, a remarkable faith, a faith in Christ and a love for Christ through trials.

We saw that in the context of the first nine verses. They have a settled, joyful peace through trials.

So we have to remember, it's this kind of demonstration of faith through trial that results in obtaining whatever elements of salvation

Peter has in mind. It has to fit that context. So then we have to ask ourselves, what elements then of salvation?

What of the ordo salutis could Peter's readers be said to be presently obtaining because of joyful persistence through their trials?

Let's go through them. Could it be election? No, no. We can't say we're presently obtaining election.

And you're thinking about that. Is there any sense in which we could be said to be presently obtaining election? Well, you could say we're presently demonstrating the fact of our election.

We're learning about that. Something like that. But that's not election per se.

Election happened, I was gonna say election happened chronologically before time began, which that doesn't make sense.

So election happened. It's past tense, but it's not, it's outside of the boundaries of time.

But it cannot be said to be happening now. So that's not it. That can't be what

Peter means. How about, could we be said to be presently obtaining an effectual calling?

Effectual calling of the Holy Spirit. Could we be said to be presently obtaining an effectual calling of the

Holy Spirit? No, not in the sense of the ordo salutis. That is a past tense event for the

Christian. Now, if you are here today, and you're becoming saved today, then

I guess you could be said to be presently obtaining an effectual calling. That would be great. But for those of you who are believers, and the people that Peter wrote to, it would have been a past tense event.

Okay, how about regeneration? Could we be said to be presently obtaining regeneration? No, no, a believer is regenerated.

Past tense, he has caused us to be born again. That's past tense. So that happened that we might hear the gospel, we might be able to respond to spiritual things.

And so we are regenerated. We're not being regenerated. Past tense.

How about conversion? Can we said to be presently obtaining conversion? Well, what if I put it a little differently?

Because remember, conversion consists of repentance and faith. Could we be said to be presently repenting from sin, and presently growing in faith in Christ?

Yes, okay? But in the sense of the ordo salutis, conversion is that past tense event, when we first turn from sin and turn to faith in Christ.

Continuing to repent, and continuing to turn in faith to Christ, that has another name in the ordo salutis.

Sanctification. That progressive growth is sanctification. Okay, so it's not, if you think of it as becoming more and more converted, in other words, that is sanctification.

That's not conversion. Okay, now here's the one we're gonna spend a little bit of time on. I got lots of time, you guys won't be hungry for like an hour and a half.

What about justification? Are we presently obtaining justification?

You ought to rise up on that one. Absolutely not, all right?

That is a, there is a very grave danger in misunderstanding justification. If you think of justification as a progressive act of God, as being made right with God, as a progressive act of God, or as a transformative work of the

Spirit that makes us better, that makes us more right with God, as if we're in the process of being made more and more right with God, very dangerous.

Justification, again, it is the act of God in declaring a person to be right with him, to be just and right or righteous in his sight.

Once he has done that, you can never be made more righteous or less in the sight of God, okay?

It includes, remember, the atoning work of Christ to accomplish the forgiveness of our sins. Our sins are imputed to him and dealt with on the cross.

And it also includes the perfect righteousness of Christ, his perfect righteousness, his perfect life imputed to us as if we lived a perfect life.

That's justification. So the whole Roman Catholic system that the Reformation came out of,

I think you can understand it as blurring the distinction between the declarative act of God that a person is made right with God on the basis of grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, blurring that with the progressive act of God in sanctification.

If you begin to think of your transformative journey of sanctification as if it has something to do with your being made right with God, you're in heresy, it's grave danger, okay?

You don't wanna confuse those two things. Sanctification is a result of our justification. We make war with sin and we bear fruit for Christ because we are justified, but it's a result, okay?

We don't save ourselves through being sanctified. We're not made more or more right with God.

That's essentially the point the Reformers made in sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus, soli

Deo gloria, okay? So justification, it's a one -sided declaration by God.

It's through, by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone. And for the Christian, it happened in the past.

You are, if you are a believer in Christ, you are justified. It's past tense, so that cannot be what

Peter's referring to here, it's important. How about adoption? Are we presently obtaining adoption or abdoption?

You can say it that way too, I guess it's okay. I think I've said it that way four times so far. Are we presently obtaining adoption?

No, no, adoption has more in common with justification.

It is a declaration by God of the justified sinner being joined to the family of God.

We're his children because he's declared it so, right? Through the work of Christ because we're justified sinners.

It's past tense. Okay, so if it's not election or calling or regeneration or conversion or justification or adoption, what could it be?

What's he talking about? There's only two elements left, and if you've been listening, you know that I'm gonna assert that he's talking about sanctification.

But let's look at the other possibility, glorification. Could we be said to be presently obtaining glorification? No, no, not in the sense of the order of salutis.

You could say that we're, no, you don't, no, it's just no. No. All right, it refers to a future event.

We are not in any way presently obtaining glorification. That's a future event.

And note also, Peter emphasized salvation of the soul. You see that? Obtaining is the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls.

Exclusive of the body. I think that also argues against the idea that this could possibly refer to glorification.

So I think we conclude this isn't glorification that Peter's referring to. It's future and physical. It's not present tense and spiritual.

Okay, so I hope it's clear. I think it's clear. It is clear, it must be clear, that after all this discussion, the only real possibility is

Peter's referring to sanctification here when he says the salvation of our souls. So let's see how it fits.

Were Peter's readers presently obtaining sanctification, and are we presently obtaining sanctification? We are in the process of obtaining progressively this aspect of the order, so this we call sanctification.

That is true. We are becoming more and more like Christ. That is the process of sanctification. There is an initial sanctification, which we really call regeneration.

At our regeneration, we are made practically better in some ways, but then there is a progressive work through this life of sanctification.

So that fits. And trials are sanctifying, so that fits, right?

Sanctification is a part of our salvation, is one of the steps in the series of benefits that we call salvation.

It's the only step that's present tense that happens in this sanctifying earthly life.

So it fits with the context. These people were joyfully and faithfully enduring trials. They're demonstrating a remarkable faith.

Remember, Peter remarked on their faith last time. I'm sure you remember that. In verse eight, he remarked on their faith in and love for Christ, even though they hadn't seen him.

And in so doing, they are being sanctified. They're growing more and more in the image of the object of their faith, our

Lord Jesus Christ. So one other thing we have to consider. Why is it, this was a little bit of a puzzle to me.

Why is it salvation of the soul? Why not the body? Like, what about the body?

So I'm a dichotomist. It's okay if you're not, if you're a trichotomist. It's wrong, but it's okay.

Sorry. I have a friend who's a trichotomist that I'm talking to.

Dichotomist meaning, I believe there are two parts to a human being. There's the material part, the body, and the immaterial part that is referred to in scripture interchangeably, as far as I can tell.

It's referred to as soul or spirit, but it refers to the immaterial part. There are trichotomists who believe that soul and spirit are distinct things.

It's okay to believe that. But why not the body?

That's the question. Why not the body? So what is the soul? The soul is, it's a very common word.

It's sometimes used to point out a difference between body and soul, like Matthew 10, 28.

Do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul. It's making a distinction between those two parts.

Sometimes it's shorthand just for life, for physical life, a breath, as in the breath of life.

Sometimes it just means a person, like a whole person. Like we say there's about, usually there's about 200 people.

Word I think got out today that I was maybe gonna be here, so there's like maybe 150 souls, but we would say 150 souls referring to the whole person.

It's used that way too. But it always includes at least the true identity of a person, that which makes the person who they are, okay, that internal person, the inner person.

So why is Peter referring here to the salvation of the inner part of the person only? Because there are parts of salvation that benefit the body, glorification, right?

That's all about the body. So why? Well, if we understand that he's referring to sanctification, then now it's clear, right?

There's nothing about sanctification that has anything to do really with the body. There may be some benefits to the body, but really sanctification happens here on this earth as the body is in the process of dying.

Sanctification, this life has benefits, sanctifying benefits for the soul only, not really for the body at all.

I can't think of any meaningful or predictable way that sanctification, that the body is sanctified in this life, it's sanctified at glorification, but not in this life.

In fact, if you think about it, sometimes sanctification of that inner person occurs because of problems with the body, because of the decline in the body.

God can use illness, sickness, the whole sin curse on the body and the rest of the physical universe, he can use that to sanctify the soul, okay?

Now he will finish the work, he will sanctify the entire human being, but the glorification part happens later on.

Okay, so that's the point, we are obtaining as the outcome of our faith the salvation of our souls.

This life, this life's important, it's important, it's a sanctifying work of the

Holy Spirit. We can fall into the other ditch of saying this life doesn't matter at all because it's not eternal life, that's not true at all, this life does matter because it is the sanctifying work of the

Spirit that prepares us for our eternal life. This is rehearsal, this is practice, all right?

And we need to make use of it, but it's the sanctifying work of the Spirit. So what's the application?

What's the application? There's a clear general application, look down to verse 13 in 1

Peter 1. Peter says, therefore prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

That's the point. If you understand that this is a sanctifying life, that the things that happen here happen for a purpose and that purpose is eternal, then prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Fix your hope on Christ. Colossians 3, one and two, therefore if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. Contemplate your salvation.

Remember the person and the work of the Spirit. Hebrews 12, two and three. I'm gonna try to steal

Jim's thunder a little bit, but by the time he gets there, this will long be forgotten. Hebrews 12, two and three. Fixing your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Right, that's the application. A heavenly perspective, biblical understanding of the purpose of trials. Understand what

God's plan is for you while on this earth, that there is a plan, it's a sanctifying plan.

That will keep you from despair, it'll keep you from failure. It can keep you from sin.

It can result in joy and peace, productivity, fruit, fearlessness.

You know, we're seeing this coronavirus thing, and I'm not an epidemiologist, I don't know how serious it is, so don't take any of this for anything, do whatever you're gonna do.

But I've been through too many of them. You know, I just can't get apoplectic about everything that comes down the pike.

Because look, what's the worst that can happen? I die. And that's not really the worst that can happen, but you know, other people could die.

And that's, guess what? You're all gonna die, right?

This perspective on what this life is all about, it gives you a fearlessness in the face of death.

Right, this is what the martyrs had, and what we can have if we keep the right perspective. Okay?

We can obtain as the outcome of our faith the salvation of our souls. All right, let's pray together.

Father, we stand for your sovereignty. We believe that you are in charge of everything, you're in control of everything, you are the first cause of everything.

You're the master of the universe, you control every single element of everything that happens, including those things that happen to us that we have to persevere through, and that we can learn to go through.

And so I pray, Lord, that as we go through this week, and we see the challenges and fears and failures of the week, that we remember that this is all good, this is all works together for good for those who are called according to your purpose.

That purpose is that we may ultimately glorify you, and that's our desire, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Please stand.

♪ God's wondrous grace to me he hath made known ♪ ♪

Christ and love redeemed before his own ♪ ♪

But I know whom I have believed and hath persuaded ♪ ♪

And he is able to keep the virtue committed ♪ ♪

His saving faith to me he did ensure ♪ ♪

And he is able to keep the virtue committed ♪ ♪