Location and Designation of the Readers

The Divine Authority of Peter's Greeting

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, February 1st, 1998, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, over the course of many years, I have been privileged to write literally thousands of letters to hundreds of God's people in many parts of the world. There was a time when I was putting out some 30 to 35 letters a week, and I look back now and wonder what I was trying to do, but somehow at the time it seemed to be the right thing to do. And in almost every one of those thousands of letters, since most of them were written to fellow believers for various reasons, there would be a general greeting, either the opening sentence or the opening paragraph, in which I sought to express a disposition of goodwill toward that person to whom I was writing. However, not one of those thousands of greetings has ever been thought worthy of a meticulous consideration in which either the recipient of the letter or someone to whom it was passed on would think there was any merit in studying every word, looking up perhaps its etymology, carefully analyzing the grammar and the syntax. Those letters were received and those opening greetings as an expression of goodwill,

1:31 from a brother whose heart, at least in some measure, was influenced by the love of Christ and a desire to do good to the one to whom I was writing. But when we come to the opening paragraph, Peter's greetings, we are coming not merely, not merely to consider the words of a man who had a disposition of goodwill to fellow believers in that part of Asia Minor to whom he was writing, but as we've emphasized again and again in our introductory studies, we are coming to the very words of God given to us in the words of this man, Peter. And these words, because they are the words of God himself, the words indicted by the Holy Spirit, are unspeakably rich, unspeakably significant, not only to these first century believers to whom they originally came, but also to those who have come to the world of God. But to us, living as we are toward the end of this century. And as some of you who have been with us know, that having engaged in five studies of considering Peter the man, we began last Lord's Day to open up the actual text of 1 Peter.

2:51 And we noted that Peter uses the normal framework of any respectable first century letter writer. In his letter, he writes, In his opening words, there is an identification of the sender of the letter. And then there is an identification of the recipients of the letter. And then it concludes with an expression of goodwill and greeting, grace to you and peace be multiplied.

3:20 The last Lord's Day, we looked briefly at the identity of the sender of the letter. And he identifies himself very simply. And briefly, as Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ. But in so doing, these believers then and we now must recognize that this is the Peter of the gospel records, of the record in the book of the Acts, who was Christ's chosen apostle, given the unique authority of an apostle to bring the very word of Christ to the people of Christ, not only in the first century, but throughout the whole of the world.

3:59 And so, we must recognize that this is the Peter of the gospel records, but through all ages of the church of Christ, since scripture tells us that the church is built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself, the chief cornerstone. And then we began to open up what Peter does in identifying the recipients of the letter. And he identifies them as elect sojourners of the dispersion. He identifies them as God.

Essential Designations of the Readers: Elect Sojourners of the Dispersion

4:30 God's elect, God's chosen, God's picked out, God's selected ones. They are the objects of his free, sovereign, loving choice to be the recipients of his saving grace. And his first word in identifying those believers is a word that reflects Peter's wonder and amazement that he with them are constituted God's elect. But then he describes them as sojourners, resident aliens, those who dwell alongside a people who are not their people, those who in the language of Abraham are strangers and sojourners in the land in which they find themselves. And they are not only elect sojourners, but sojourners of the dispersion, a term that originally referred to the Jews that had been scattered among the nations, whether by the dispersion of God's judgment in the captivity or whether voluntarily for economic reasons. And Peter, like he does throughout this epistle, and we shall see with increasing frequency, takes this terminology rich in its Old Testament roots and applies the terminology to God's new covenant Israel,

5:55 the people of God under the new covenant. And so as he addresses them, he wants them to understand who they are. They are elect sojourners of the dispersion. And one has therefore called this epistle a traveler's guide for Christian pilgrims.

6:17 A traveler's guide for Christian pilgrims. Now having considered this first strand of Peter's identification of the recipients of the letter, he identifies them in terms of what we called last week their essential designations. They are elect sojourners of the dispersion. Now this morning we'll pick up the other two strands by which he identifies them, their present geographical location and their foundational spiritual privileges.

Present Geographical Location: Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia

6:53 As he identifies them, having given their fundamental designations, they are elect sojourners of the dispersion. He now moves to describe them in terms of their present geographical location. They are elect sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Now suppose I were to write one of the letters that I might dictate in this coming week to a friend in the country of Australia.

7:29 He's not here. He's never been to the States, let alone to this area. Knows very little about this area. And I were to say in my letter, as I'm conveying news of what we are doing as a church, that we are presently deeply exercised in seeing a church or churches planted in the New York area.

7:53 Now if he knows nothing about the geography of this area and how we use that term, he might take out his atlas and look up New York. And first of all, he discovers that New York is a term used for an entire state. And he would look at his atlas and see, my, that's a large state. That's a lot of area.

8:10 Where are they trying to plant churches? He may look down and say, wait, New York City. And he realizes that that's a particular place within New York State comprised of five boroughs. Or it might be that in reading some description of that area, he finds that New York is used for a general geographical location, area now he has the problem of figuring out what did Pastor Martin mean in his letter when he said we're attempting to plant churches in the New York area does he mean the state of New York the limitation of the five boroughs of the city of New York or the metropolitan area that is generally identified as the New York area well I'm alive and he can call me or write to me and I can sort it out but imagine trying to sort that out 2,000 years almost after the fact well that's the problem we face when we come to this passage in Peter's greeting Peter had a very distinct area in mind when he wrote to these elect sojourners of the dispersion who were of these various areas Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia and among those who are devout students of the Word of God there is an honest difference between the two and the two of them are the two of them are the two of them are the two of them are the two of them are the two of them are the difference and an ongoing discussion as to whether or not Peter was describing

9:33 distinct Roman provinces which had these names or was he describing in broad strokes general geographical areas and I have read literally dozens and dozens if not several hundreds of pages of that ongoing friendly family discussion among devout students of the Word of God some say it must mean this and here of the reasons. And another equally confident scholar comes along and says, no, it must mean this and for this reasons. And I'm not going to take the time to even give you the parameters of the discussion. It would not be unto edification. In my judgment, it would have no place in the preaching of the word here in this setting. I would certainly be glad to discuss it privately with any of you who have a peculiar interest in such things. But suffice it to say that most of the modern, believing, evangelical scholarship are relatively certain that Peter is here describing these provinces of the Roman Empire. Four provinces, even though there are five names, because one province had the two names together. Pontus and Bithynia were one province up on the

10:51 northern part of what is now Turkey on the edge of the Black Sea. And they conjecture that Peter splits them up because he most likely is naming these provinces in terms of the route that the deliverer of the letter would take when he delivered this letter to the people of God scattered abroad in those four Roman provinces. That deliverer was most likely the one identified in chapter 5 and verse 12 as Silvanus, known in other places as Silas, since Peter makes reference to him with these words, By Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I account him, I have written unto you briefly, exhorting and testifying, this is the true grace of God. And while we'll demonstrate that it's not absolutely certain that Peter is referring to Silvanus as the deliverer of the letter, that's the most satisfactory explanation of why he identifies him, calls him, the faithful brother as he accounts him. So we do not know for certain precisely where these elect sojourners of the dispersion were dwelling, but we know it was in that area most likely defined by

Thrilling Affirmation: Fulfillment of Acts 1:8

12:14 those four Roman provinces north of the Taurus Mountains in the country that we now identify as Turkey. So that's all we can say with any degree of confidence. about their present geographical location. But lest we pass over that as having no significance as we read it, let me highlight for you two very vital observations. The fact that Peter, most likely writing from Rome, can write to the people of God scattered abroad in these Roman provinces on what was then the very outer edges of the existing Roman Empire, it underscores two very vital things. number one, the presence of these words, elect sojourners on Pontus and Galassia and Cappadocia and Asia and Dothienia constitute a thrilling mascot of the fulfillment of our Lord's words as recorded in Acts 1 verse 8. Words from those living here, the word is hidden. Acts 1 expects an introduction of Christjon. The Word of Jesus aligns from Acts 1, verse 12, and coming from Isaiah and John.

13:24 the жив tendency same exact unknown the phrase the Lord has appointed in order topayer 645. of our Lord's words as recorded in acts 1 and verse 8 he as recorded in acts 1 and verse 8 he 3 weak whichont wirklich shown, Догthest from his own size and which are his begins boys or spirits. familiar to many of us. In Acts 1 and verse 8, one of the last things our Lord said to the apostles before he ascended back to the right hand of his Father, not a command, not a word of instruction, it is a promise and a prophecy. Acts 1 and verse 8, you shall receive power, literally the Holy Spirit coming upon you. There is the promise. You shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you. Now he doesn't say you ought to, you may, you shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you. He had promised that

14:14 the Spirit would be given not many days hence. Then the prophecy, and you shall receive power. You shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Now had you been there on that occasion, and had you been able to communicate in the language in which our Lord was communicating to his apostles and asked them, your Lord has just said to you that you're going to be witnesses unto him.

14:51 After the Spirit has come upon you, and that that witness will extend from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the uttermost part of the earth, what do you men understand in the words uttermost part of the earth? And you know what their answer would be? It would mean we will be witnesses to the truths concerning our Lord all the way to the ends of what we perceive to be the existing world. And if you were to look at a map, look at a map of the world, and if you look at the map of what you perceive to be the existing world, you'd be able to tell you what the truth about the world is telling what they conceived to be the existing world, the ends of the earth, north and a bit east of them would have been these very places, Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Thirty years after the Lord spoke them, with no computers, no printing presses, none of the modern means of communication and of travel, and there in the uttermost part of the earth are companies of believers scattered throughout those areas in churches that are sufficiently organized that by the time he comes to chapter 5, he assumes that these

16:07 believers are in assemblies of the people of God with properly constituted elders functioning as pastors and exemplars. So that the very presence of these four Roman provinces in Peter's greeting ought to be to us as I am confident they were to Peter when he wrote these words, thinking of the people of God there in what to him was the uttermost part of the earth as elect sojourners of the dispersion. So ought we to sense something of the wonder. Of our Lord Jesus receiving the fruit of his sufferings among the uttermost part of the earth. And this was not so because there was a climate in which there had been an extensive preparation of the soil with a lot of pre-evangelistic emphasis. When Peter describes the pre-conversion existence of many of these to whom he writes, look at the language he uses in chapter 4. Verse 3.

17:17 The time past may suffice to have wrought the desire of the Gentiles, and to have walked in lasciviousness, lusts, wine-bibbings, revelings, carousings, and abominable idolatries. And what happened when these people were extricated from that kind of a lifestyle wherein they think it strange that you do not run with them into the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you? Do you want to get a bad reputation in those areas? Leave that crassly abandoned lifestyle and become a Christian, and you will be spoken evil of.

17:54 This was a context of moral and ethical and religious condition, much like our own. And yet the gospel in thirty years had gone under the blessing of God unto the uttermost part of the earth. And so these words of the Lord Jesus Christ are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so these words of the Lord Jesus Christ are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.

18:15 And so these words in the greeting should constitute to us this affirmation of the fulfillment of our Lord's words as recorded in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. These people who love the Bible and wrestle with the question, how did the churches get planted? There is nothing definitive to answer that question in Scripture. There is no reliable, extra-scriptural, historical source to answer the question.

18:45 We know, according to Acts 2.9, that at least three of these provinces were represented on the day of Pentecost. There were some present in Jerusalem from at least three of these provinces. We know that after the persecution that arose on the martyrdom of Stephen, that believers were scattered and went everywhere preaching the word.

19:08 Were some of these driven back into that area? We don't know. Did Paul penetrate some of the southern parts of this area? We don't know for sure.

19:20 After Peter drops out of the picture in Acts 12, and we only see him one other time in Acts 15, what was he doing during all of that period? Did he go and evangelize this area? We don't know. But what we do know from the text of 1 Peter is that the presence of elect sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Galatia, is the presence of elect sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Galatia.

19:42 What we know from the text of 1 Peter is that the presence of elect sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Galatia, and Galatia, was the result of the proclamation of the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 12 of chapter 1. To whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto you did they minister these things, which have now been announced unto you through them that preached the gospel unto you by the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven. These companies of believers scattered throughout this part of what is now the land of Turkey were the products of gospel preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit. Not just gospel preaching. Peter says the gospel was preached with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. Not the Spirit apart from the Word.

20:39 Not the Word apart from the Word. Not the Word apart from the Word. Not the Word apart from the Spirit. And he underscores that again at the end of the chapter, verse 23.

20:47 Having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides. And how did that Word come to them? Verse 25. This is the Word of good tidings which was preached unto you.

21:06 So the presence of those believers is a thrilling affirmation. That as the apostles were witnesses to the things they had seen and heard, either some of them in person or others who had embraced the apostolic testimony, proclaimed it in the power of the Spirit. And the presence of elect sojourners of the dispersion is a monument of God's commitment to own His own institution of preaching the apostolic message in the power of the Holy Spirit. But these words not only constitute a thrilling affirmation of the Lord's words in Acts 1-8.

Sobering Affirmation: Fulfillment of Revelation 2-3 and Paul's Warnings

21:48 They constitute a sobering affirmation of the fulfillment of our Lord's words in Revelation 2 and 3. They constitute a sobering affirmation of the fulfillment of our Lord's words in Revelation 2 and 3. The churches addressed in Revelation 2 and 3 were all in that place. They were all in that province that is described as Asia.

22:15 They were in the westernmost part of that whole area described in these four provinces. Asia was the westernmost part. And those seven churches addressed in the seven letters, among them Ephesus, and in that general area, though not addressed in the seven letters, Colossae, those are the areas where the gospel flourished. The gospel flourished with great power in the first century.

22:45 Those were the areas in which the gospel went forth by the power of the Spirit of God and the Lord Jesus, as it were, riding upon a gospel charger, conquering those who stood in His way and bringing them captive to Himself and His grace. The gospel was so blessed in that area subsequent to the days of the apostles. You've heard, some of you, of the Nicene Council and the Council of Chalcedon. Nicaea and Chalcedon, up in the upper northwest edges of that part of the world to which Peter sends his letter.

23:24 These great ecumenical councils in which leading theologians came together to grapple with the biblical doctrine of the person of Christ, the two natures in the one person. This was an area that veritably dripped with gospel influence thirty years after Pentecost. And by the time John writes, toward the end of the first century, there are seven well-known churches still there in existence with tremendous problems, five of them, but nonetheless there. It was a sobering thing for me to take down my atlas and to try to look up the present names of these places.

24:09 And then do some reading in John Stone's Operation World and know that the land of Turkey, the land of these four provinces, is called today the most unevangelized country of any size in the world, where believers are identified not by the thousands or tens of thousands, but by the hundreds. What in the world? I'll tell you what happened. Remember what Paul said to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20?

24:53 That was one of the churches in this province of Asia. He said, Take heed to the flock of God, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the flock of God which is among you. I know that after my departure grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock. And from your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

25:25 Wherefore, be watchful! And then Paul gives himself in his example of watchfulness as I warned you day and night and admonished you with tears. Then he writes to his son Timothy sometime later and says, O Timothy, preach the word. Be urgent.

25:47 Instant. In season. Out of season. Reprove.

25:51 Rebuke. Exhort with all longsuffering in teaching. For Timothy. Timothy's working in Ephesus.

25:57 For Timothy, the time will come when men will not endure the healthy doctrine, but will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and turn away their ears from the truth and turn unto fables. Somebody didn't watch! Can you imagine? If you were to have been the bearer of this letter, and you could have been a prophet and said as you bore that letter, within a few short centuries, gospel light in this place where it blazes will be almost obliterated.

26:39 Believers would have looked at you and said, you are one cynical, negative bird. The Apostle Paul saw it. He warned the Ephesian elders. He takes his spiritual son Timothy and said, I've left you in Ephesus.

26:58 I am concerned that these issues be kept before the minds of the people of God. It's been sobering for me to root around in all the discussion. Are these broad geographical areas? Are they a distinct designation of four Roman provinces?

27:20 How did the gospel get there? Who were the instruments? It's all been very interesting, but at the end of the day, it matters little. All we know is where there was once blazing light, there is the darkness of hell itself.

27:35 And it didn't happen overnight. At what point did the people begin to be rested and say, listen, Timothy, we're tired of this incessant preaching, reproving, rebuking, exhorting. Just comfort us. We come out of a rough world.

27:58 I mean, our former friends are on our case because we won't go out and chase around and party with them. We come together, we just want to be comforted. And Timothy would say, I have a mandate in the light of the coming of the day of God. The Apostle, who is my mentor and who speaks the words of God, has told me to reprove, to rebuke, to exhort, and to do it with all my heart.

28:28 And to do it with all long-suffering and with substantial instruction, with teaching, in the knowledge that the time will come when men will have no stomach for this. But he said, Timothy, that shouldn't alter what you do. It's sobering, dear people, to pick up your Bible and read Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, and know that he can, however he got the information, whether he had been there, seen the fledgling churches, whether he had in his mind specific individuals, we don't know. But how his heart must have throbbed with joy that his Savior was having the reward of his sufferings.

29:11 And way off there in the outer parts of that section of the Roman Empire are these scattered groups of elect sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. A thrilling manifestation of Christ's Word. They are being fulfilled. A sobering warning to everyone who ever picks up this letter, that if the light that is in you become darkness, how great is the darkness.

29:49 And I pray, God, that some of you young men and women of the rising generation will plead with God to so lay hold of you that your disposition will be, if there is ever to be an erosion of vigorous biblical preaching in the power of the Spirit of God, and a tenacious determination to walk in the light of Scripture in this place, that you will say, over my dead body. Because I want my children and my grandchildren not to know the darkness of modern Turkey, but the light and the saving influence. Of the gospel of the grace of God that constituted elect sojourners of the dispersion in these Roman provinces. But now, having identified his readers in terms of what I call their essential designation, elect sojourners of the dispersion, their geographical location, these four Roman provinces, now notice what he underlines of their foundational spiritual mission.

Foundational Spiritual Privileges: The Trinitarian Work in Salvation

31:06 He writes to these elect sojourners in these Roman provinces, and this is what he perceives are their foundational spiritual privileges. Three prepositional phrases. Look at them. According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and service to the Father.

31:36 According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, in obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. And there he completes his description, his identification of the recipients of the letter. Then comes the third part of the greeting, or the third part of the introduction. His general greeting, grace to you and peace be multiplied.

31:56 Now what are their foundational spiritual privileges? Peter describes them in these three prepositional phrases as having to do with the foreknowledge of God the Father, sanctification of the Spirit, and obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. And as he chooses these things to highlight their foundational spiritual privileges, Peter has no intention of beginning a treatise in systematic theology. His passionate pastoral concern, rooted in his commission from the Lord Jesus, is to strengthen his brethren.

32:38 When you are turned again, Peter, strengthen your brethren. He knows that they are suffering opposition. He knows they are facing pressure, that they are going to face even greater pressure. And he wants to write to strengthen their faith.

32:52 But you see, the only way faith is strengthened according to the Scriptures is as faith is instructed. And so, in strengthening their faith, Peter plunges right into some of the riches of the doctrinal concepts that are found in the Word of God in the midst of a greeting. Foreknowledge of God the Father, sanctification of the Spirit, obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. He gives us one of the first explicit, we could call it, statements of the emerging doctrine of the Trinity, which is birthed in the New Covenant community.

33:34 Almost imperceptibly, it's foreknowledge of God the Father, sanctification by God the Spirit, obedience and sprinkling of the blood of God the Son. And all of that in a greeting. All of that in a greeting. Why?

Privilege 1: According to the Foreknowledge of God the Father

33:55 Because he wants these people to lay hold of their foundational spiritual privileges. That's the path to spiritual stability. That's the path of being able to stand in the midst of the floods of opposition. And each of these prepositional phrases, in its structure, in its relationship in the original, does not refer to their being elect.

34:21 You may have a translation that uses the word elect, brings it all the way down, drops over eight or nine words, doesn't even translate it in front of sojourners, and just says, Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ. To sojourners of the dispersion, elect according to. Now, for any of you academy students who question the position I'm taking on this, I commend to you Lenski, Hebert, and Wayne Grudem. And if those three don't convince you, along with the actual structure in the original, then I say the Lord bless you in taking a contrary position.

34:58 But I could not in responsible exposition of the word. What we have here are these three. Here are these three descriptive terms which point not to just their being elect, but their whole identity as elect sojourners of the dispersion. Let me put it this way.

35:15 It's as though someone might anticipate and say, Peter, you've described us in our essential designation as elect sojourners of the dispersion. God's chosen ones who are now resident aliens in this present world. This is not our resting place. We are of God's dispersion.

35:36 Our homeland is heaven. And wherever we are, here in this world, we're of God's dispersion, waiting our gathering to the Jerusalem that is above. Peter, how in the world did we get into this position? Did we have something in us that predisposed us to become elect sojourners of the dispersion?

35:58 Was there something in our temperament or bloodlines? What has constituted us elect sojourners of the dispersion? And Peter answers in these foundational spiritual privileges by saying, first of all, that they are what they are according to the sovereign loving choice and purpose of God the Father. Look at the text.

36:24 According to. You are what you are in accordance with. By the standard or norm of. The preposition in the original and in the form in which it is found and connection with the word for knowledge means according to the standard of.

36:46 Shaped in the contours of. You are what you are, first of all, Peter says, because of the sovereign loving choice and purpose of God the Father. You say, I don't see the word sovereign loving choice of God the Father. I just see the word for knowledge.

37:07 That's right. You see the word for knowledge. But now the question is, what did Peter mean when he wrote for knowledge? Well, the word can mean and it does mean in classical Greek to know beforehand.

37:19 And there are two uses of the verb in the New Testament where that's all it means. In second Peter 317, Peter uses it that way. He says, knowing these things beforehand. The verbal form of for knowledge.

37:32 This is what you to do. It's used that way in Acts chapter 26. But in its other. Verbal forms and in its noun forms, it never means simply to know ahead of time.

37:45 Right here in his own letter. Look at how Peter uses it in verse 20. The verbal form. Speaking of Christ is the lamb without blemish and without spot.

37:55 Even the blood of Christ. Who was. For. Known.

38:00 Indeed. Before the foundation of the world. Does that mean that God just saw that Christ would become this or that God in pursuit of his loving purposes of grace to a people marked out his son who willingly gave himself to accomplish our redemption. Christ was for known.

38:23 Not merely that God had some previous knowledge of what Christ would do. God was involved in the commitment of Christ to his work. The only other time Peter use or this word is found in the New Testament. In its.

38:39 Noun form. It's found in Acts 2 in verse 23 when Peter himself is preaching and he says to the Jews. Concerning Christ. He was delivered up.

38:48 By the determinate counsel and for knowledge of God. Were for knowledge is found as a. found as a companion of determinate counsel, the settled, sovereign purpose of God. This is the word in its verbal form that Paul uses twice in Romans.

39:10 We know that all things work together for good to them who love God, to those who are called according to purpose, for whom He foreknew. Now notice it doesn't say what He foreknew. It doesn't say that He foresaw that this one and that one would believe and therefore He chose. No, He doesn't foresee something people do.

39:29 He foresees people whom He foreknew. People are the object of His foreknowledge. Not things, people. And then in Romans chapter 11, has God cast off His people whom He foreknew?

39:45 Speaking of the Jews. Did God fold His arms and say, now who among all the nations would like to be My covenant nation? Now whichever one chooses, I'll foresee it, and then I'll...

39:56 No, no. He knew them with a distinguishing love and purpose. He foreknew them, as He says through the prophet Amos, you only have I known of all the nations of the earth. Does that mean God was ignorant of the other nations?

40:11 No. Only Israel was marked out with free, sovereign love and gracious purposes.

40:21 So when we come to the word here, we don't fasten on it what we think it might mean or what we think it might mean. Or what we might like it to mean. But what Peter understood the word to mean. Again, remember, he's writing as a Jew.

40:35 Steeped in mind and heart with Israel's identity as foreknown by God. Freely, sovereignly loved and chosen by God. And now he sees in God's new Israel as he describes them in chapter 2 in verse 10 using all the terms that were distinctive of old Israel. Old national Israel and says, you people now, you're God's elect people.

41:03 You're His holy nation. You're His royal priesthood. And when we come to it, we'll see every one of those terms is lifted right out of the Old Testament designations of Israel. And now Peter, with his mind steeped in the concept of divine foreknowledge, being nothing less than God's sovereign, loving choice and purpose, he says, if you elect so, then you'll be the God of the world.

41:30 And the other thing that Peter says in this passage is that we're not just the people of Israel, but we're the people of Israel. We are the people of Israel. They're the people of Israel who are the sojourners of the dispersion in those four Roman colonies ask, how in the world did we become this? How is it that we are no longer citizens of the Babylon of this world with our affections and standards embedded in this world?

41:55 How is it that we are now resident aliens? The angels beckon me from heaven's golden shore, and I can't be at home in this world anymore. How in the world did that happen to you? Peter says, in all accords, it is by the norm and the standard of the foreknowledge of God the Father.

42:17 You see, he introduces this marvelous truth, not to start an argument,

42:23 but to buttress quailing, quaking, fearful Christians with the awareness that though my fellow companions in sin may be irritated that I no longer run with them to the same excessive riot, and though there is that slave who is abused by his master that he addresses in chapter 2, and though there's a wife that has to live with a churlish, unconverted husband that he addresses in chapter 3, and though there are relationships within society that are irritating and he's calling upon, he's calling upon citizens to relate in an honorable way to the given authorities in all of that. No matter how men regard them, they are to know who they are and why they are what they are. And as they think in terms of Peter's letter, they say, who am I? I'm an elect sojourner of God's dispersion, and I am such because of the foreknowledge of God the Father. By his sovereign, loving choice and purpose, I am who I am.

Privilege 2: In Sanctification of the Spirit

43:32 But then notice the second part of their foundational spiritual privilege,

43:37 in sanctification of the Spirit. And here we learn that they are what they are as elect sojourners of the dispersion because not only the free, sovereign, loving choice and purpose of God the Father, but because of the mighty, sanctifying operation of God the Holy Spirit. He says, you are what you are in the realm of. The use of that preposition means in the realm of, in the sphere of the sanctification of the Spirit.

44:16 Now, as you've been told many times from this pulpit, and even in recent weeks in working through John 17, the basic idea of sanctification in its various usages is that of being set apart, of being set apart, unto God. But in the realm of salvation, not talking now of rituals, ceremonies in the old covenant, but in the realm of salvation, it's not merely set apart unto God, it's set apart from that which defiles and is sinful and offensive unto God. And so it is being set apart unto God, out of and from and away from that which defiles. And there's an exact parallel in the language of this phrase, in sanctification, sanctification of the spirit in second Thessalonians chapter two and verse 13. And it could well be that Peter, who reflects an acquaintance with Paul's epistles, mentions it in his second letter. Perhaps he had read and pondered Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians. Perhaps it had circulated to the point where Peter had a copy.

45:25 And maybe the very words that he had had him pinging upon his mind through the pen of Paul, were owned of the spirit of God. We don't know, but it's an exact linguistic parallel. We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren. Notice, beloved of the Lord, there's the overtones of God's foreknowledge, his free sovereign loving choice for that God chose you from the beginning unto salvation.

45:51 Now here's the exact parallel in sanctification of the spirit in sanctification of the spirit. So what is Peter saying? Peter is saying to these elect sojourners, when you ask the question, how did you become such a one? Peter says, I'll answer behind it all is the free sovereign loving choice and purpose of God the Father.

46:18 But you'd never be an elect sojourner of the dispersion if there had not been a mighty intrusion of God, the Holy Spirit into your life. Changing you from a Babylon dweller who gladly carried his Babylonian passport, who had no desire to be identified as a resident alien, no desire to be considered one of the dispersion. This world was your delight and your home and the place in which you reveled. But God, the Holy Spirit has done a mighty work taking you out of, of, that context in which you were willfully and deliberately and joyfully identified and further doing something in you that has cut that thing out of your heart as the governing principle of your life. So that when he begins in chapter one in verse 13 to start calling them to a life of holiness, of sobriety, of heavenly mindedness, as children, of obedience, calling them to be holy as the Father is holy. How does he have any confidence that they'll take that seriously? Because he knows they've come under the mighty transforming influence of God,

47:45 the Holy Spirit. It wasn't a bunch of people in these four provinces who had been conned into raising a hand and praying a prayer and walking an aisle. It wasn't a bunch of people who've been given a slick presentation of the gospel that did not set forth. The reality of sin and the wrath of God and the need of repentance and the new birth.

48:09 It was the full blown vigorous apostolic gospel that called men to lay hold of the Jesus who does not save people in their sins, but saves them a poll away from their sins. And so he can write with confidence to the weakest of the believers, to the most faltering of the saints, to the Mr. Ready to halts and the Mr. Feeble minds and the Mr.

48:37 Fearings. He can say you are what you are, not only according to in line with the standard of God's free, loving, sovereign choice of you, but according to this mighty sanctifying operation of God, the Holy Spirit. Very interesting. Our spiritual Layton, who's written the classic commentary, 19th century writer, no 18th century writer.

49:11 He wrote commenting on this very passage. They that think they are bound for heaven in the ways of sin have either found a new way on trodden by all who have gone to heaven or will find themselves deceived in the end. You say you're going to heaven. Are you going there in the way that has no other explanation?

49:38 But that you've been introduced to the realm of the sanctifying influence of God, the Holy Spirit, your relationship to sin in thought, in motive, in word, in deed defies any explanation, but that almighty God, who by his spirit brooded over the unformed mass in Genesis has brooded over the mess and the massive sin. That was, you have your heart and life and out of that chaos, he's brought the order of a commitment to a godly life. Peter can write confident that that's true of all of these elect sojourners of the dispersion. He's not exhorting, he's describing their foundational spiritual experience, and then thirdly, and very quickly, they are what they are as elect sojourners of the dispersion, not only because of the. Because of the free, loving, sovereign choice of God the Father, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, not only because of the mighty, sanctifying operation of the Spirit, but they are what they are as elect sojourners because of the subduing and cleansing ministry of God the Son. Look at the text.

Privilege 3: Unto Obedience and Sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ

51:01 The preposition here used again in its particular construction points to intention and result for or leading to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Kata en ais, according to, in the realm of, unto.

51:24 And when you've poured over it for hours, nothing says it like those three Greek prepositions. It may sound like I'm speaking in tongues, but some of you have a little feel for it. I hope you feel the pressure of that. It is according to, in the realm of, and unto.

51:38 And what is it unto? How did you people become what you are? Well, we became what we were because of the free, sovereign, loving choice of God the Father. We are foreknown.

51:49 And we've become what we are because of the almighty, sanctifying influence of the Spirit. Well, what is it that makes up your disposition and perspective? Well, we are what we are because all of this was unto. Obedience and sprinkling of the blood, of Jesus Christ.

52:08 Now, what did he mean, unto obedience? Well, the word itself means to listen and to submit to what is heard, etymologically and in its general usage. That's what it means. So, these elect sojourners are what they are because God, in His grace, has brought them to the obedience of faith.

52:30 Some would say that the unto obedience here is the initial obedience of a believing response to the gospel, but, the limited is not demanded linguistically nor in the analogy of Scripture. These are nouns, not verbs with any tense. He's saying that this is that unto which all of this leads, obedience. He uses it as a generic term.

52:54 Therefore, when he addresses them, later on, look at verse 14, he can describe them as children of obedience. Obedience is so much now a part and parcel of the texture of your whole soul, just as the sons of darkness are called the children of darkness, and the sons of light, the children of light. To be a Christian is to be a child of obedience. You've been given an ear that hears the great Shepherd's voice, and you begin feet that run in the way of His commandments.

53:28 For He said, My sheep are hearing My voice, and they are following Me, and I give to them eternal life. He's made them. He's made them children of obedience. Obedience is not a dirty word that somehow clouds the freeness and the glory of grace.

53:47 Peter can move from the free, loving, sovereign choice of the Father to the gracious, almighty work of the Spirit, right to obedience, and not cast one shadow over the grace of God in Christ. If you've got a view of grace that's uneasy in the word of obedience, you've turned the grace of God into lasciviousness in some degree. In your own heart, Peter had no embarrassment whatsoever. Ah, but you see, it's not just unto obedience, but obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

54:22 For no sooner does one have a heart subdued by grace and cry out with Paul, Lord, what will You have me to do? But that with eyes now open to know the extent of sin, we know that our best obedience is stained by sin. We know that all of our disobedience is in themselves isolated before a holy God and His law are wrath worthy. What consolation can we have?

54:50 None experience these realities that lead unto obedience, but that it is an obedience found in conjunction with the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. It is obedience and sprinkling of His blood. But you say, Pastor Martin, sprinkling of blood, what does that mean? I'll remember now.

55:12 Here's a man steeped in his Jewish rituals. Sprinkling of blood that immediately takes us back to all of the Old Testament rituals. As the writer to Hebrews says, almost everything is cleansed by blood. And without the shedding of blood is no remission.

55:31 What's the whole significance? The life of an innocent victim was violently taken from it. That which is the essence of that life, the life of the flesh is in the blood. That blood would for the most part be sprinkled upon the altar and upon the mercy seat to show that covenant communion with God was only secured in terms of the death, the violent death of an innocent sacrifice.

55:57 But there were three instances in which the blood would actually be sprinkled upon someone in the Levitical ritual. We don't have time to go into the details, but those of you who want to do so, you can look up the passages. It would be sprinkled upon the priests in preparation for their service. You read of this in Exodus 29, 21.

56:17 The blood would actually be sprinkled upon the priest to qualify him as he comes under the cleansing from guilt and defilement that he possesses, that he might minister in the presence of a holy God. Christ needed no such sprinkling upon him. And the writer to Hebrews shows the contrast. The priest would have the blood sprinkled upon them in ritual cleansing of lepers.

56:44 The blood would actually be sprinkled upon the leper, Leviticus 14, 6 and 7. And with leprosy, you see, you would not be excommunicated, but you could not enter into covenant ritual and covenant worship. You had to remain outside the camp and cry unclean, unclean. And so sprinkling was the indication that your defilement had been cleansed and you were now fit again for covenant communion with God and His people.

57:12 But then, and most likely, Peter has this in mind predominantly. In Exodus 24, 5 to 8. Turn there very quickly as we draw this to a close. Exodus chapter 24, 5 to 8.

57:27 When they are ratifying the old covenant, we read in Exodus 24 in verse 5, and he sent young men of the children of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in the basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the blood of the covenant and read in the audience of all the people. And they said, All that Jehovah has spoken will we do and be obedient.

58:01 They entered into a covenant of obedience to Jehovah. Verse 8. And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you concerning all these words. When they entered into covenant relationship with Jehovah, it was in the context of a commitment to obedience and an appropriation of the expiatory sacrifices.

58:30 They were brought unto Jehovah. How? Unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood. Well, is Peter referring to that?

58:42 Or is he thinking of these Gentiles who were like lepers and had no part in God's covenant community now cleansed? Or is he thinking in terms of what he says in chapter 2 and verse 10? To be constituted part of God's royal priesthood they had to be sprinkled. Maybe he had all three.

58:58 I don't know. But one thing is true. No elect sojourner of the dispersion was to think of himself in any other setting than as one freely loved in the foreknowledge of God under the gracious, powerful ministry of the Spirit unto obedience, principled, extensive, universal obedience. But the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, the application of the virtue of the death of Jesus initially in coming into that covenant relationship and continually the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son goes on cleansing us from all sin. Now, dear people, that in brief is an attempt to open up their foundational spiritual privileges. What do we say in the light of this? Well, one thing is clear.

The Whole Trinity Saves One Sinner

59:54 Peter believed the whole triune Godhead was involved in their salvation. I shall never forget the day 25 years ago when Pastor Blaise in the old cracker box got wound up to the point where he was levitating. Some of you have seen him levitate when he gets preaching. And I'll never forget him saying it takes the whole Trinity to save one sinner.

60:19 Where did he get that notion? Right out of this passage. My friend, you think salvation is a little thing. No, it isn't.

60:27 Foreknowledge of God the Father, sanctification of the Spirit, obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. It takes the whole Trinity to extricate a sinner who is bound to this world and is slated for the destruction of this world. But blessed be God, the whole Trinity is committed to the salvation of sinners. And you have no proof He's not committed to you.

60:53 In fact, you've got a lot of evidence in the word and promise of the Gospel. He is committed to you. Peter understands that it takes the whole Trinity to save one sinner. Furthermore, he knows something about the condition and the various classes of people there to whom he's writing.

61:14 He addresses wives with unconverted husbands, slaves with rotten masters, citizens chafing against some of the pressures that they feel. He writes to elders and to the flock, to young men, to older men, a whole gamut of things. And there are all kinds of differences that he recognizes, but he recognizes no first, second, third class citizens among the elect sojourners of the dispersion. He says they are all foreknown, they are all sanctified, and they've all been sanctified and foreknown unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood.

61:46 Not obedience without sprinkling! Not sprinkling without obedience. It's the whole package or nothing. God doesn't parcel out the parts of His salvation you think you'd like.

62:02 You have it all in Christ or nothing at all. But blessed be God, it's all in Him. You don't need to understand all this and say, I can hardly sort it all. You go to Christ and you'll have it all and you've got a lifetime to begin to understand it and an eternity to fully understand it.

Call to Join and Feed on Biblical Realities

62:17 As much as finite minds will be able to understand it. Oh, dear people, if you're not a sojourner, in the language of one of the hymns, come join this happy band and on to glory go. You pity us, young people? You don't have no fun.

62:37 I live like my parents' life would be one big bore. You don't have a clue. You try to suck a little sweetness, out of the foul, sour, rancid, polluted streams of this world. Oh, my dear friend, go to Christ.

63:00 Find in Him what we have known by His grace. And dear people of God, don't settle for anything less than these vigorous, biblical realities being the stuff and substance upon which you feed. As together, we recognize in this wonderful letter, God's given a robe for pilgrims making their way through this world to a better place. Know who you are.

63:27 You're an elect sojourner of the dispersion. And know why you are what you are. Because of the foreknowledge of God the Father, the sanctifying work of the Spirit, and the blessed work of God the Son, bringing us into subjection to Himself, willingly and joyfully, and bringing us under the canopy of the sprinkling of His own precious blood, that we may walk as pilgrims without oppressive, unresolved guilt and the crippling effect of unresolved pollution. The fountain is open for sin and uncleanness.

Prayer

64:03 May we go even this morning. Let's pray. Oh, Father, we marvel at the magnitude and the wonder of Your gracious design for hell-deserving sinners. Oh, take the things we've considered this morning and make them, we pray, to be meat and drink to the souls of Your people, and make them to be in the blessing of the Holy Spirit the means of calling some into the fellowship of these elect sojourners of the dispersion.

64:41 Gracious God, bless Your Word to accomplish Your own sovereign purposes. Dismiss us with Your blessing upon us, for Jesus' sake. Amen.