Peace for the Persecuted, Part 2a

If you have your Bible, turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 1. As we continue our study, we want to review just a little bit about what we covered last time. I think it's important for us to understand exactly what Peter is saying and why he begins the way he does in order that we might come to grips with the fact that peace is offered to God's people. He offers it in all kinds of ways, but it comes specifically through him. And so therefore we need to understand what Peter means in 1 Peter chapter 1 when he says that we are chosen according to the four knowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood.

May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure. Peter wants his people to experience the peace of God to its fullest extent. And I'm sure that if it was up to you, you too would want to experience the peace of God in fullest measure. And so by looking at these two verses, hopefully we can come to understand exactly what that means and how that's going to happen in your life and in mine. And so if you have your outline, we want to begin where we left off last week, and that is talking about the people in 1 Peter.

And we began last time by looking, number one, at their condition. And we noted two things, one, their spiritual condition, and two, their physical condition. Their spiritual condition is that they are sojourners. Their physical condition is that they have been scattered abroad. That's what Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse number 1. And to come to the grips with peace to its fullest measure, you must understand that in spite of their condition physically, they were able to have peace because of their condition spiritually.

The Bible says that these people are sojourners, aliens, foreigners, pilgrims. That's who these people are. And what they needed to understand or be reminded of is that this world was not their home. You see, one of the reasons we have a hard time with peace is because we see the world as all there is. But you need to understand something. If we are to come to grips with our identity in Jesus Christ, that we are a part of another kingdom, we serve a different king, and we are not a part of this world, that is the beginning of understanding how we can obtain the peace of God because there is no peace on this earth.

And there will never be peace on this earth until the king of kings comes back again to rule and reign from the throne of David in the city of Jerusalem. But I want you to notice something.

Peter says that these people who are strangers, who are pilgrims, are not attached to this world. If you feel attached to this world, you'll have a hard time coming to grips with the peace of God. Now it's important to note that those who are unbelievers are attached to the world. Those who are believers are unattached to the world. That's why over and over again the Bible calls us pilgrims and aliens and strangers and sojourners. Talks about our citizenship being some other place other than here, it is in heaven.

And for me to explain that further to you, turn with me to the book of Revelation, the third chapter.

Revelation chapter 3, the Lord gives a promise to the church of Philadelphia. He tells them in verse number 10, because you have kept the word of my perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing. That hour which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell upon the earth. Now that phrase, dwell upon the earth, is really one word in the Greek text and it means earth dwellers. There's going to come an hour of testing that's going to encompass the entire world. And it comes to test earth dwellers.

That phrase is used ten times in the book of Revelation. And every time it's used, it is used to describe people not concerning their geographical location, it's used to describe their moral qualification. That is their moral condition. That is they are committed to this world and the world system. They're called the earth dwellers. They love the earth. They love what happens here. All that to say is that Peter is addressing people in 1st Peter chapter 1 who are not earth dwellers. They're pilgrims.

They're sojourners. They're aliens. And at the very outset of his epistle, he is helping us to understand that if you're going to have peace in its fullest measure, you can't be an earth dweller. You can't be a citizen of this world. You've got to be a citizen of God's kingdom. You've got to be a part of His domain because that's where peace resides. And then he says, not only are these people strangers, that's their spiritual condition. Now he says, let me talk about their physical condition.

They are the diaspora. They are the ones who are scattered about. And they are scattered because they were falsely accused for burning Rome. And they were scattered all over the place. Now this is significant because there are some of you who will be falsely accused, who will be persecuted for things you never did, and you will suffer great hardship because you did the right thing. And Peter's words to you are, you can experience peace to its fullest, no matter who accuses you, if you understand God's call upon your life.

So we move from their condition to number two, their calling. He says this. He says those people who are aliens, who have been scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen, who are elect, two words, kaleo, which means to call, and ek, out. They've been called out of. What have they been called out of? They have been called out of the world system to be a part of God's system. They've been called out of Satan's domain into God's domain. He says these people who have been scattered abroad, these aliens, have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.

Peter begins his epistle by diving into the most controversial theological subject known to man, and that is God's election upon certain people to be a part of His glorious kingdom. Now to show you something, go back to Genesis chapter six for a second.

Now you know the story. It says in verse number five of Genesis six, then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. And the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things, and to birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I have made them. God said, I am going to wipe out mankind.

I am going to destroy everybody. Because in man is one thing and one thing only, evil thoughts. It's evil continually. That doesn't mean there are some things that man does do that's not good, that's good. There are some things he does that are good. But according to God's standard, they're not good. But notice what it says.

It says this in verse number eight, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Now just a curious reading of that would make you think, well, Noah, he was different. His thoughts weren't evil. He did something to find favor in the eyes of God. Answer to that is no, that's not the case. Because Noah was just like everybody else on the world. His thoughts were evil continually. He was an evil man. He was an unrighteous man. But God graced him. It's the first time grace is mentioned in the Bible.

Noah found the grace of God. God decided to grace Noah. He decided to grace no one else but Noah. If he didn't grace Noah, guess what? You wouldn't be here today. You wouldn't be here today. Because through Noah came, there were three sons, and from those three sons come everybody in the world. And the bottom line is the fact that what God did was grace a man. He chose a man. Chose Noah. And then it says in Genesis chapter 6, these are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man.

Well, see, he was righteous. Well, he was only righteous because God made him righteous. He didn't do enough things to make himself right before God. He didn't earn his salvation. He didn't earn his standing before God. God didn't have another method of salvation in the Old Testament and then change it in the New Testament. Salvation has always been by grace through faith in God himself. That's the way it's always been. And Noah found the grace of God. And because he was forgiven, he would now become a faithful man.

And because he was forgiven, and because he was faithful, he would become a fruitful man. But it's all based on God and God alone. I say that to you because it's very easy for us to come back and say, you know, that's just not right. That's just not right for God to choose somebody and wipe everybody else away. Let me tell you something.

God is holy and God is just and in him is no sin whatsoever. So whatever God does is absolutely pure and true and right. It's not sinful. It's not wrong. Everybody who sinned deserved to die. Why? God said to Adam and Eve, the day you eat, you will die. The day they ate, did they die? Absolutely. They were separated from their God. They died that day. They died spiritually. And because of that, they would ultimately now die physically. Adam was created an immortal being. He was to live forever and never die in perfect communion with God.

But because he disobeyed God, because he sinned against God, death was brought into the world. And now Romans 5 tells us, death now has been passed on to every man. Man now is born with that sin nature. Man now is born, as the Bible says in Ephesians 2, dead in trespasses and sin.

Man is born separated from God because man is born spiritually dead. Now, a man is born. When babies are born, they're alive. You can see them. You can hold them. They can cry. They can spit up and they can mess their diapers. They're alive creatures, but they're dead spiritually until or unless they're born again. And God said, if you sin, you will die. It's only by the grace of God that man can ever live forever with Him. It's only by His mercy and His goodness. And these people were chosen by the plan of the Father, and this was going to be the basis of their peace.

And I'm going to explain this to you in a moment, but what I do want to do is go back and answer a question that I brought up last time and that was asked of me by several of you after the service and our last time together. And that is the natural conclusion, which is erroneous, but we come to it, that is if God elected these people to heaven, He must have elected these people to hell. But that is not true because the Bible never says that. You might come to that conclusion, but the Bible never says that.

So therefore, if the Bible doesn't say it, it's not true because what the Bible says is true. And the Bible never uses the word chosen, predestined, or elected to death. You're only predestined and chosen and elected to life. Those words are never used of the unbeliever. They are used only of the believer in the Bible. And last time we looked at Romans chapter 9 because people go to Romans 9 and say, well, these people were prepared by God to be vessels of wrath and others were prepared by God to be vessels of His mercy.

And people come back and say, see, God prepared certain ones to die and to experience hell and He prepared other ones to have mercy and experience life. No, that's not what the Bible says and we looked at Romans 9.

In fact, I better review that for you because some of you are looking at me like, we did talk about that? Yeah, Romans 9 verse number 22. What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath, prepared for destruction? Maybe your verse says or your Bible says predetermined to destruction. Problem is, it's not the word predetermined. It's the word kartartizo. And that word is in the passive voice, meaning that God was not involved in the preparation of these people.

They involved themselves or they prepared themselves to be vessels of wrath. On the contrary, it says down in verse number 23, and He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared in the active voice, proi et toimadzo, which means that God was actively involved in preparing these people to be recipients of His mercy. Because you see, if He didn't prepare them, they would not have it. God had to do that. That's important for you to understand.

Because if a man goes to hell, he doesn't go to hell because God chose him to or God prepared him for hell. Hell, as we said last time, was prepared for who? The devil and his angels. That's it. The Bible is very clear on that. The hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. It was not prepared for man. But man goes to hell. Why? Because he chooses not to believe in God. That's what the Bible says.

Can't say, well, God chose him to go to heaven. God must have chosen them to go to hell. No. That is wrong because the Bible doesn't say that. You say, well, what about Jude, verse number four? What about Jude four? Turn back there with me if you would. Jude four. People like to use this verse to prove that God ordains man to go to hell. Verse three. Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints.

For certain persons have crept in unnoticed. Those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. And people say, see, right there. It says that there were people long before that were marked out to be condemned by God. And they are the apostates. And Jude is about apostasy. And people use this verse to prove that apostates were people who long ago were ordained by God or marked out by God to be condemned.

Is that what the text says? Answer, no. No. This word, you can translate it ordained if you want to, is used four other times in the Bible. And the only place it's translated ordained is Jude chapter four. It really means not ordained, but if you have a new American standard, the OIV, the only inspired version. It says in verse number four, written about. And you must understand that what was written about. What was written a long time ago was the condemnation of anybody who disobeyed God and apostatized the truth, the faith.

What was written long ago was the penalty for those who would choose to disobey the truth. Let me give you an example.

Back in Isaiah, oh shoot, right here, Jude 14, what's it say? It says this, and about these also Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied saying, behold, the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds, which they have done in an ungodly way and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Enoch, way back in the book of Genesis, prophesied the coming of the Messiah and what he would do when he came.

He would judge all the ungodly, all those who went against the truth of God. Go back with me if you would to Isaiah chapter eight and listen to what it says. In verse number 19, God says, and when they say to you, consult the mediums and the spiritist to whisper and mutter, should not a people consult their God?

Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? That talks about all those people who go to those seances, you know, and they want to get in contact with the dead and talk to them about their condition and about their future. It says this, to the law and to the testimony, verse number 20, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn or they have no light. And they will pass through the land, hard pressed and famished, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will be enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward, that they will look to the earth and behold distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and they will be driven away into darkness.

People who, who disregard the word of God and look toward other means to find out some kind of guidance for their life and go the way of Satan, those people will be judged and they will be judged severely. What was written long ago, the condemnation of those who turn their back against God, that's what was written. It wasn't the fact that there is a called a, a book of death. Show me in the Bible, a book of death. There's not one. There's only the book of life, the book of life. There's no book of death because God does not ordain people to hell.

Man chooses hell. Let me show you another verse, which falls on the heel of this. Back to first Peter chapter two, it says this verse four and coming to him as to a living stone rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God.

You also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ for this is contained in scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion, a choice stone, a precious corner stone, and he who believes in him shall not be disappointed. This precious value then is for you who believe, but for those who disbelieve the stone, which the builders rejected, this became the very cornerstone and the stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

For they stumble because they are disobedient to the word and to this doom they were also appointed. People come back and say, see, these people were appointed to doom. They couldn't help but stumble over the chief cornerstone because they were appointed to doom. Luke 20 verse number 18 says it this way. Everyone who falls on that stone, the cornerstone, Christ himself will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust or ground him to powder. Peter tells us that men and women are going to stumble over Christ because they are disobedient to the word that is the gospel.

Unbelief and disbelief are terms that are closely associated with those who are non-Christians, the unsaved, just as the word belief and obedience are words that are associated with the Christian. In every individual, Christ is either going to be the cornerstone or he's going to be the rock of offense. And Peter concludes, to this doom they were also appointed. That is, the unbeliever gets exactly what his choice demands. And that choice, if it's against God, demands judgment. It is not the unbeliever's disobedience.

It is not the unbeliever's unbelief. That is appointed. The penalty for unbelief is what Peter is saying is appointed. That make sense? It's the penalty which is appointed. If you sin, you will die. That is the judgment. That is the penalty. The wages of sin is death. And if you die in your sins, you will go into a Christless eternity. But if you accept the one who died for your sins in your place as your substitute at Calvary, then you will live forever with Jesus Christ our Lord. All that to say is that a man goes to heaven because of the mercy of God, because he was prepared by God to be a vessel of mercy.

A man goes to hell because he refuses to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord.