Dale Partridge - 1 Peter 1_1–2 - Hope for the Elect

00:00:00.000 What a blessing it is to be with you all again on the Lord's Day and to be able to preach the Word of God.

00:00:10.940 As Pastor Joseph said, I'll be preaching through the book of 1 Peter roughly about once a month.

00:00:19.620 And I think that this book will be vital for our church.

00:00:24.940 It's a vital book for us, especially in this season of life.

00:00:31.000 This is the question we have to ask at the start of a sermon series like this.

00:00:36.580 Why do you need this book?

00:00:39.700 What's in this book that's for you?

00:00:44.760 The answer is as urgent now as it was for Peter's first hearers when he wrote this book.

00:00:51.840 they lived in unsettled times where they were marginalized oppressed persecuted and despised

00:01:02.380 for the name of Jesus Christ and yet notice in this book where Peter begins

00:01:09.800 he doesn't open with despair he doesn't open with even acknowledging their suffering

00:01:19.040 Can you imagine talking to people who are under persecution, and the first thing you say to them is grace and peace to you?

00:01:29.540 According to God, knowing you, sanctifying you, sprinkling you with blood.

00:01:38.340 This is not how we greet people today.

00:01:42.600 But this is how Peter greeted his first audience.

00:01:49.040 He opens with hope.

00:01:53.520 That is the reason why we need 1 Peter.

00:01:57.880 We need hope.

00:02:01.100 He tells them, and us, that we are not defined by the hostility of our world,

00:02:08.780 but by the electing love of the Father,

00:02:12.240 the sanctification of the Spirit,

00:02:15.020 and the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ.

00:02:19.040 History gives us some sobering reminders of what happens when hope is lost.

00:02:26.000 At the Battle of Verdun, which was one of the most haunting battles of the First World War,

00:02:33.740 it stretched on for nearly a year.

00:02:37.900 Soldiers endured unimaginable hardships,

00:02:41.720 entrenched in mud and fire and endless death upon death.

00:02:46.380 As the months dragged on, despair grew, and not an inch was gained on either side.

00:02:58.120 Without hope, many found no reason to stand firm, no strength to press on.

00:03:07.320 When hope withered, courage, resolve, and even humanity crumbled.

00:03:16.380 And the result was devastating.

00:03:19.720 Neither side in this skirmish emerged with true victory.

00:03:25.260 They only had staggering loss.

00:03:29.600 Men stopped following orders.

00:03:32.920 Mutinies abound.

00:03:35.340 Morale collapsed as despair gave way in their minds. 1.00

00:03:41.540 The horror of that battle didn't end when the gunfire ceased.

00:03:48.100 It etched itself deep into the minds of its survivors.

00:03:53.340 They carried it with them on into their daily lives.

00:03:58.580 Verdun shows us exactly what happens when hope dies.

00:04:04.000 you may think it hyperbolic to use a battle as an analogy for why we need this sermon

00:04:13.120 but i think it's very befitting of our day pastor dale gave us a very good reminder

00:04:20.500 of why we as christians must have a battlefield mindset in our culture others do 0.86

00:04:29.760 The Muslims do. 1.00

00:04:34.800 Feminists do. 1.00

00:04:38.260 Homosexuals do. 1.00

00:04:41.960 The church doesn't. 0.73

00:04:48.740 We feel the weight of the battles of our time.

00:04:55.040 We must be called to action this morning.

00:04:59.760 without hope you will not fight the battles that are necessary in our time

00:05:06.380 without hope we will crumble as those in verdun

00:05:12.080 without hope we will have no strength to push back against the forces of evil that seek to

00:05:21.440 overcome christ's church in the world today hope is not optional for the christian

00:05:28.460 It's part of your spiritual tool belt

00:05:32.040 It's the foundation stone upon which you will fight

00:05:36.820 We need this word as urgently as Peter's first hearers did

00:05:43.240 Though we know that Christ's kingdom is advancing

00:05:47.600 We are a post-millennial church with a great hope

00:05:53.120 We know that history will bend itself towards the triumph of Jesus Christ

00:05:58.180 We know this, but that does not negate the fact that we have trials to bear in our age.

00:06:10.480 We need to learn from this epistle how to suffer well, how to live holy lives in a hostile world,

00:06:21.800 How to remember that our identity is not bound in shifting times, but it's secure in Christ forever.

00:06:34.400 So as we open this letter together this morning, understand this.

00:06:41.060 1 Peter is not a call to retreat.

00:06:46.160 It's not a call to back up.

00:06:48.360 to let the world go by the wayside.

00:06:53.180 That's how this book is often preached by dispensationalists.

00:06:58.700 That this world is not our home, that we're just a passing through.

00:07:05.460 That's not the point of this letter.

00:07:10.760 We are called to courage.

00:07:14.920 We are called to strength.

00:07:19.240 This book is written to weary saints to remind them that God's grace is sufficient even for the darkest of times.

00:07:28.260 That Christ's peace is abundant to them.

00:07:32.380 That the Spirit is sanctifying us for glory.

00:07:39.600 This is why we need this book.

00:07:41.480 Because in troubling times, God's people need an unshakable hope.

00:07:51.340 And Peter directs us to the living hope that's found in Christ alone.

00:08:01.000 If you're not already there, open your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 1.

00:08:06.760 I'll read the first section of verse 1.

00:08:15.340 It says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

00:08:22.000 If this letter is about hope, then it's no surprise that God chose Peter to write it.

00:08:30.800 Peter's entire life is a testimony that hope can rise out of despair.

00:08:36.760 Peter began as an ordinary fisherman on the Sea of Galilee.

00:08:42.980 He was strong with his hands and quick with his words,

00:08:47.300 often quicker than his faith would allow.

00:08:51.060 He was bold and brash, often first to speak and first to act.

00:08:57.500 He was the disciple who stepped out of the boat when no other disciples would.

00:09:03.280 Fixing his eyes on Jesus as he walked across the waves,

00:09:06.760 But the moment that his gaze shifted to the wind and to the water, he began to sink.

00:09:14.700 He was the one who declared with confidence,

00:09:17.920 You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

00:09:21.840 And yet on the night of Jesus' betrayal, Peter denied his Lord three times.

00:09:28.640 Denied even knowing him to a little girl.

00:09:34.300 Imagine the weight of that failure.

00:09:36.760 the sound of the rooster crowing the memory of Jesus's words the shame of turning away when it

00:09:45.840 mattered most if ever there was a disciple who should have been cast off by the Lord it was Peter

00:09:56.760 but that's not the end of peter's story

00:10:02.380 the risen christ met him on a shore around a charcoal fire the same exact setting where peter

00:10:14.380 denied him and jesus gave him a new beginning three times peter had denied him and three times

00:10:23.560 Jesus asked, Do you love me?

00:10:27.220 With every answer came, not condemnation, but commission.

00:10:33.920 Feed my sheep.

00:10:37.360 Peter was not only forgiven, he was restored in that moment.

00:10:42.680 The fisherman had become the shepherd.

00:10:46.320 The denier became an apostle.

00:10:49.040 The failure became the man of hope.

00:10:53.560 This is good news for us.

00:10:59.840 It's good news for us because if God can restore a wretch like Peter,

00:11:06.020 he can restore us too.

00:11:10.040 If grace was enough for the one who denied Christ,

00:11:14.020 grace is enough for you.

00:11:18.080 Our hope is not found in flawed performances,

00:11:21.260 but in Christ's mercy.

00:11:25.740 Not in our ability to stand strong

00:11:28.300 but in his willingness to lift us up

00:11:31.600 when we fall.

00:11:34.580 This is why Peter writes with such authority.

00:11:38.720 He's not a man that's speculating about hope.

00:11:43.660 He's a man that's lived

00:11:45.500 and seen it with his own two eyes.

00:11:48.860 When he speaks of God's electing love

00:11:53.560 Of the Spirit's sanctifying work

00:11:55.660 Of the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ

00:11:58.100 These are not distant doctrines for Peter

00:12:01.020 They're living and abiding truths

00:12:05.400 Truths that carried him from despair to courage

00:12:10.220 From denial to bold proclamation

00:12:13.080 Even to the point of being crucified upside down

00:12:16.420 Peter knows what it is to stumble

00:12:24.660 he knows what it is to despair

00:12:28.220 but he also knows the Savior that restores

00:12:32.820 those who are broken

00:12:34.140 and because of that 0.90

00:12:37.600 he can call us

00:12:40.120 even in our darkest moments

00:12:43.400 he can call us to fix our eyes on the living hope in jesus christ what authority 0.69

00:12:53.500 what gravity when you learn peter's story when he's the one who's calling these elect exiles

00:13:03.540 and by extension us to walk in hope

00:13:09.260 the man who has seen it who's walked in it and who died for it that's a powerful testimony indeed

00:13:21.300 peter begins this letter by addressing his audience with these words

00:13:29.220 to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in pontus galatia cappadocia asia

00:13:38.800 and Bithynia.

00:13:42.880 Joseph is right about how much is in this

00:13:46.460 couple of verses. You could spend

00:13:51.020 forever just talking about each section and not get to the end of it.

00:13:57.020 At first glance, this may seem

00:13:58.940 like a simple greeting. A hello to the people

00:14:03.020 in these places.

00:14:04.020 but every word here is full of meaning and every phrase is meant to strengthen the church with hope

00:14:12.540 he calls them elect exiles of the dispersion now that phrase carries both pain and comfort

00:14:25.240 these christians were scattered because of persecution

00:14:28.220 driven from their homes and communities, much like what we read in Acts 8, verse 1.

00:14:36.220 When the church in Jerusalem was scattered after Stephen's death,

00:14:41.780 they were strangers in the world, living as outcasts in foreign lands.

00:14:48.560 Yet Peter reminds them that their truest identity is not bound to the soil that's beneath their feet.

00:14:54.660 he says in the next couple of verses

00:14:58.600 after this section of scripture

00:15:00.300 blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

00:15:04.860 who according to his abundant mercy

00:15:07.960 has begotten us again to a living hope

00:15:10.980 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

00:15:14.160 to an inheritance incorruptible

00:15:17.220 and undefiled

00:15:18.860 and that does not fade away

00:15:21.020 here's the important part

00:15:24.000 reserved in heaven for you. 0.63

00:15:32.140 They were exiles here, yes.

00:15:35.680 But they were citizens of heaven.

00:15:40.040 Their home was with Christ,

00:15:42.140 and their lives were anchored in a kingdom that cannot be broken.

00:15:46.960 And here's the balance.

00:15:50.020 Fixing our eyes on the kingdom to come

00:15:52.920 does not mean that you despair of your current earthly home.

00:15:58.680 It's not an either-or situation.

00:16:02.420 The church loves to preach it as an either-or.

00:16:07.540 It's actually the opposite.

00:16:10.560 Because we belong to this unshakable kingdom,

00:16:14.520 because our hope is set on the glory that is to come in heaven,

00:16:19.640 We labor and pray to see our own homes, our own towns, even our own nation,

00:16:26.960 reflect the kingdom that we are going to.

00:16:30.680 Do we understand that?

00:16:34.340 We long for the day when Christ returns in glory.

00:16:38.380 But we also hope for the day when our households, our churches, and our communities

00:16:44.320 are filled with his glory and his light.

00:16:48.640 This is not an either-or situation.

00:16:53.520 For believers in America, this is not false hope.

00:16:59.520 It's not wishful thinking.

00:17:03.460 It's the very calling of elect exiles to live as citizens of heaven 0.98

00:17:09.180 in such a way that the kingdoms of this world slowly, steadily, 0.99

00:17:14.360 unmistakably, though, bend towards the will of Jesus Christ.

00:17:22.760 So as Christians, we don't get to grow cynical or despairing of our nation.

00:17:32.920 We are called to fix our hope firmly on the eternal kingdom of Christ

00:17:38.120 And let that hope stir you unto holiness, righteousness, good works, in our time, in our nation, in our place.

00:17:56.020 That's why Peter makes the point so clear.

00:17:59.620 Notice what he says next.

00:18:01.620 He says, they're not just exiles, they are elect exiles.

00:18:08.120 That word elect changes everything.

00:18:12.800 They may have been rejected by the world, but they have been chosen by God.

00:18:20.960 Election is not an impersonal doctrine.

00:18:25.480 It is the personal love of God set upon the people of God.

00:18:34.860 As Paul reminds us in Ephesians 1, 4-6,

00:18:38.120 Before the foundation of the world, God chose us in Christ that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.

00:18:49.940 In love.

00:18:53.720 This is not cold theology.

00:18:59.100 It's not distant doctrines.

00:19:02.000 It's the warmth of the Father's heart towards his beloved children.

00:19:11.800 Some may wonder, how can Peter speak this way?

00:19:18.420 How can he know who is elect and who is not?

00:19:22.580 After all, election is part of God's secret counsel, hidden in the foundations of the world.

00:19:28.040 No man can pry into those foundations.

00:19:32.000 John Calvin gives us good help here.

00:19:37.320 In his commentary, he says that we are to assume

00:19:43.400 that all who belong to the church are among the elect,

00:19:49.300 unless they prove otherwise.

00:19:56.600 To assume election is far better than to live in constant fear

00:20:00.160 that you're not elect at all.

00:20:04.520 History gives us examples of what this sorrow looks like.

00:20:09.420 John Knox's mother-in-law, a godly woman,

00:20:13.720 serving the Lord in fear and reverence, 0.94

00:20:16.080 fretted her whole life,

00:20:18.500 not knowing whether she was elect or saved

00:20:22.440 or truly belonged to the Lord.

00:20:26.580 She was filled with anxiety.

00:20:30.160 Over her salvation.

00:20:33.300 Her experience is not unique in the church.

00:20:38.420 In fact, one of the most common Arminian objections to Calvinism.

00:20:43.420 Is that if salvation depends upon election.

00:20:46.780 Then no one can ever have assurance of salvation.

00:20:51.040 Because how could we ever know if we're truly elect?

00:20:56.360 And yet the exact opposite is true.

00:21:00.160 constantly questioning our status before god leads only to despair

00:21:05.960 but assuming election as calvin commends us to leads to assurance

00:21:13.200 this assumption is not vague or baseless hope

00:21:18.640 it's not wishful thinking that you are the elect

00:21:23.880 it's rooted in this scripture according to the foreknowledge of god

00:21:29.980 the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, by the

00:21:33.840 sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. 0.53

00:21:40.120 We look not to God's

00:21:41.760 hidden decree, but to His revealed grace.

00:21:47.980 Where you see faith in Christ,

00:21:50.060 however weak, where you see repentance, however slow,

00:21:54.380 where you see the fruit of holiness, however small,

00:21:57.420 there you see the Spirit's witness that Christ's saving blood has been applied.

00:22:04.360 It's the faith of the mustard seed.

00:22:11.300 The Spirit sanctifies nobody except the elect.

00:22:17.200 And to assume election is not presumption, it's faith.

00:22:23.460 It's the faith that we're called to believe.

00:22:27.420 It's to trust that Christ keeps those whom he chooses.

00:22:35.760 It's the faith that trusts that the blood truly cleanses us.

00:22:39.220 It's the faith that the Spirit truly sanctifies us.

00:22:44.140 It's faith in God, not in you. 0.79

00:22:53.120 And so Peter calls them elect exiles.

00:22:57.420 They may be scattered, but they are not abandoned.

00:23:04.280 They may be outcasts in the world's eyes, but they are precious in God's eyes.

00:23:13.580 They may feel displaced, insignificant, or even forgotten.

00:23:20.440 But God calls them his own.

00:23:24.620 Elect.

00:23:27.420 This is why Peter begins here, with identity.

00:23:34.140 Before he tells these believers how to live, he reminds them who they are.

00:23:41.280 They are chosen by God, according to his foreknowledge,

00:23:46.800 in the sanctification of the Spirit and by the sprinkling of his blood.

00:23:51.400 That is who they are, and that is who you are.

00:23:57.420 Verse 2.

00:24:04.740 It says,

00:24:05.700 According to the foreknowledge of God the Father,

00:24:08.700 in the sanctification of the Spirit,

00:24:11.600 for obedience to Jesus Christ,

00:24:14.440 and for sprinkling with his blood,

00:24:17.360 may grace and peace be multiplied to you.

00:24:20.860 Peter continues his greeting in verse 2

00:24:28.380 By greeting them with one of the most glorious truths in all of Scripture

00:24:32.320 That the Trinity is at work to save you

00:24:37.640 We often only talk about the work of Christ

00:24:42.820 But what 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 are pointing to

00:24:48.060 is that it is the Trinity that is at work in saving you.

00:24:58.440 This is one of the deepest foundations for hope.

00:25:03.560 Our election, our salvation, is not uncertain.

00:25:08.000 It's not fragile. It's not hanging by a thread.

00:25:11.120 It is secure by the eternal love of the Father.

00:25:15.300 He begins by talking about this choosing by the Father.

00:25:23.160 We have to understand this scripture rightly.

00:25:27.520 In scripture, that word foreknowledge is not cold calculation.

00:25:35.860 It's not God peeking through the corridors of time to see what decision you might make. 0.93

00:25:42.380 that's Molinism and that's heresy 0.62

00:25:46.240 you would have a learning God if God

00:25:50.040 had to look through the corridors of time to foreknow you so that he might

00:25:54.220 decide what to do with you

00:25:56.040 that's not the God of the Bible

00:25:59.400 no biblical foreknowledge is much

00:26:04.100 richer than that

00:26:05.840 to foreknow means to forelove

00:26:11.620 know is the same word that adam was told to do with his wife to know her it's an intimate

00:26:22.720 type of knowing it's not a distant knowing it's not a friendship type of knowing it's not i met

00:26:31.720 you in the supermarket and shook your hand type of knowing it's a deep and abiding knowing

00:26:37.780 It's the type of knowing that the scriptures say that God wove you together in your mother's womb.

00:26:50.840 To be foreknown by the Father is to be foreloved by the Father.

00:26:59.900 That means that our hope is not rooted in our ability to hold on to God.

00:27:07.780 it's rooted in the eternal love of the maker of heaven and earth.

00:27:17.780 This is exactly what Paul picks up on in Romans chapter 8.

00:27:21.900 When he says,

00:27:23.240 For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined.

00:27:28.060 And those whom he predestined, he also called.

00:27:30.580 And those whom he called, he also justified.

00:27:33.280 And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

00:27:38.520 Paul piles up these verbs to show a chain that can't be broken.

00:27:47.620 And then he asks, if God is for us, who can be against us?

00:27:53.240 He concludes, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

00:28:03.960 Why?

00:28:04.680 Why? Because our hope is anchored in this love.

00:28:14.780 If you are in Christ, you are not an accident.

00:28:18.500 You are not forgotten.

00:28:21.460 You are foreloved.

00:28:26.160 This is why you can have hope.

00:28:30.320 God does not miss seeing you.

00:28:33.980 He has seen you always and will see you always.

00:28:40.240 You are for loved.

00:28:48.520 Peter then says that we are chosen in the sanctification of the Spirit.

00:28:56.300 The Spirit is the one who takes what the Father has planned

00:28:59.660 and what the Son has accomplished and applies it to the Christian's account. 0.99

00:29:08.120 He sets us apart.

00:29:10.420 He marks us as God's own and then strengthens us to walk in obedience.

00:29:17.740 Sanctification, then, is not optional for the Christian.

00:29:22.320 It's not suggestive.

00:29:24.220 It is the natural outworking of your justification and of your election.

00:29:32.900 If you're not being sanctified, there's a problem in your Christian life.

00:29:41.660 This is where we don't always do well with giving thanks to God.

00:29:47.620 In our sanctification.

00:29:49.840 Because it's hard.

00:29:54.220 God could have left us in our sins.

00:29:58.760 He could have pardoned us, but not changed us.

00:30:04.360 He could have justified you without taking you through this process of making you more like Jesus Christ.

00:30:11.000 He could have done that.

00:30:13.200 He didn't.

00:30:17.840 Thank God he didn't.

00:30:21.020 He loves us too much for this.

00:30:25.100 It's the privilege of children to walk under their father's care.

00:30:30.520 A child may stumble, resist, or even disobey.

00:30:36.340 But if that child belongs to a loving father, he is not cast off.

00:30:42.500 How weird would that be?

00:30:45.100 My children have disobeyed me plenty of times.

00:30:48.280 But never once have I thought I should kick him out on the street.

00:30:54.220 They're not obeying me, so I'm done with you.

00:30:59.720 I'm not a better father than the Father in heaven.

00:31:03.740 And that's never crossed my mind.

00:31:08.840 We are not slaves crushed under the law.

00:31:11.920 We are children that are growing up under grace.

00:31:17.320 We're learning obedience step by step.

00:31:22.260 It's a beautiful thing.

00:31:24.220 Lewis Burkhoff captures this beautifully.

00:31:31.000 He says, quote,

00:31:32.500 Sanctification is a work of the triune God,

00:31:36.040 but is ascribed more particularly to the Holy Spirit in Scripture.

00:31:41.140 Though man is privileged to cooperate with the Spirit of God,

00:31:44.340 he could do this only in virtue of the strength which the Spirit imparts to him from day to day.

00:31:51.200 The spiritual development of man is not a human achievement, but a work of divine grace.

00:31:59.060 Man deserves no credit whatsoever for that which he contributes to it only instrumentally.

00:32:10.180 Every act of obedience, every victory over sin, every moment of faithfulness

00:32:17.800 is not a proof of your own devotion and strength.

00:32:24.600 It's a proof of God's mercy to you.

00:32:31.540 We walk forward, not as slaves afraid of failure,

00:32:37.440 but as children assured of their father's love.

00:32:42.840 The Spirit himself is the seal in the down payment of our inheritance.

00:32:47.800 reminding us that we already belong to this kingdom that cannot be shaken.

00:32:56.560 This matters, because if the Spirit sanctifies us by conforming us to Christ,

00:33:05.180 and Christ has given us a pattern of holy life,

00:33:09.400 then we ought to walk in the example that Christ gave to us.

00:33:13.100 If we love the Father, if we love the Son, if we love the Spirit,

00:33:20.960 if we have been saved by grace,

00:33:24.660 then we ought to walk in obedience.

00:33:29.260 Jesus says, if you love me, you will obey my commandments.

00:33:35.320 We look at the life of Christ to learn how we ought to live.

00:33:41.000 We look to his prayer life.

00:33:43.100 To his self-sacrifice.

00:33:45.840 To his zeal for holiness.

00:33:48.840 To his love for his friends and bearing with their weaknesses.

00:33:56.420 If the Spirit is at work in us, then these patterns will become more realized in the life of the Christian.

00:34:03.580 They will.

00:34:04.060 If you are truly elect and foreknown by the Father,

00:34:10.280 then the Spirit's sanctifying work will make you look like Christ over time.

00:34:15.600 Not perfectly. Not immediately.

00:34:19.360 Not even by your life's end will you look perfectly like Jesus Christ.

00:34:29.800 The Spirit will not leave us alone.

00:34:31.940 and thank God for that.

00:34:35.300 He will not leave us alone

00:34:36.840 until we look like the sun.

00:34:41.960 Praise God.

00:34:45.400 Finally,

00:34:47.860 Peter says that we are elect

00:34:49.900 for obedience to Jesus Christ

00:34:52.420 and for sprinkling with his blood.

00:34:56.620 Here, Peter is reaching back

00:34:59.280 into the Old Testament.

00:35:00.440 When the covenant at Sinai was established, Moses sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on the people, marking them as belonging to the Lord.

00:35:12.380 The blood that was shed on the altar was not enough unless it was applied.

00:35:18.560 It had to be applied to the believer.

00:35:21.620 in the same way christ's blood was shed once for all on the cross but it must be applied by the

00:35:32.260 spirit as calvin puts it quote as formerly under the law the sprinkling of the blood was made by

00:35:40.120 the hand of the priest so now the holy spirit sprinkles our souls with the blood of christ

00:35:47.580 for the expiation of our sins.

00:35:51.380 End quote.

00:35:52.360 I love that word.

00:35:53.440 Expiation.

00:35:55.580 Calvin using big words.

00:35:59.480 Notice the difference. 0.67

00:36:02.580 Israel was sprinkled with the blood of bulls and goats. 0.89

00:36:06.660 Shadows of the true sacrifice.

00:36:10.240 But we are sprinkled with the blood of the living God himself.

00:36:14.600 the Lord of glory

00:36:17.820 who rules all things

00:36:19.740 the blood that secures our cleansing

00:36:24.020 is not the blood of animals

00:36:26.080 that has to be reapplied

00:36:28.320 our cleansing is bought

00:36:33.400 with the imperishable blood of Jesus Christ

00:36:37.060 and when that blood is applied to us

00:36:41.300 it does more than mark us as belonging to God

00:36:44.500 it binds us to him in this covenantal bond that cannot be broken.

00:36:51.820 Under the old covenant, the blood of bulls and goats could never truly cleanse a person.

00:36:59.420 It was temporary, ceremonial, and repeated endlessly.

00:37:06.760 A person became unclean by touching a corpse, by disease, by childbirth,

00:37:12.900 by eating the wrong foods.

00:37:16.920 Daily life was carried with this constant reminder

00:37:20.300 that you might get defiled today.

00:37:24.740 And every time, a sacrifice was needed

00:37:27.720 to restore fellowship with God and with His people.

00:37:31.860 Every single time.

00:37:37.740 This message was clear.

00:37:39.420 sin separates holiness is costly and without blood there is no drawing near

00:37:48.020 but christ's blood is not like this his sacrifice is once for all indelible eternal

00:38:00.160 by his blood we're not merely cleansed outwardly for a time

00:38:07.100 We're made holy inwardly forever.

00:38:12.900 The defilements of daily life no longer cast us out of God's presence.

00:38:18.740 We do not move in and out of fellowship with him depending on our ritual purity.

00:38:26.440 Christ's blood has brought us near once for all.

00:38:31.800 And nothing can make us unclean again.

00:38:36.300 if under the old covenant, people longed to be cleansed

00:38:43.720 so that they could enter into the assembly

00:38:45.800 and draw near to God's presence for a moment,

00:38:49.900 how much more should we, who live in his presence continually,

00:38:55.260 give ourselves to him in holiness?

00:39:00.420 Our covenant is so much greater.

00:39:06.300 The blood of Christ does not only cleanse us from guilt,

00:39:11.100 it consecrates us to live as priests before God,

00:39:15.280 always in his presence, always access to his throne,

00:39:19.540 always carrying his name into the world.

00:39:24.640 Think of what this means.

00:39:27.400 If you're always clean in Christ,

00:39:30.180 then you're always free to worship him,

00:39:32.980 to intercede, to serve, and to witness as cleansed people.

00:39:42.980 Every task, every conversation, every moment of our life

00:39:49.520 is to be lived quorum Deo, before the face of God.

00:39:55.080 you no longer live as one trying to avoid uncleanness

00:40:03.260 but as one already cleansed and sent out with a holy calling 0.63

00:40:08.500 the blood of bulls and goats

00:40:11.640 let you enter God's presence for a moment

00:40:14.380 but the blood of Christ keeps you there forever

00:40:18.520 so live as one

00:40:22.120 who lives in his presence

00:40:24.720 Lastly, Peter closes his greeting with this blessing.

00:40:35.400 May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

00:40:41.600 Grace, because we're in constant need of it.

00:40:45.880 I need grace every day of my life.

00:40:50.500 Peace, because our hearts are so easily unsettled.

00:40:54.720 and multiplied,

00:40:58.200 because God never gives his children a trickle of blessing.

00:41:03.880 He pours it out to them in abundance.

00:41:10.580 He multiplies grace.

00:41:12.780 He multiplies peace.

00:41:14.620 He multiplies hope.

00:41:18.960 Christian, this is what we must cling to.

00:41:22.200 The world's battles will rage.

00:41:25.540 Our trials may feel like Verdun at times.

00:41:29.900 Long, unrelenting, and impossible to win in our own strength.

00:41:36.340 Verdun ended in mutiny and despair, because hope was gone.

00:41:42.740 But for the Christian, because of Christ's victory, no battle ends in defeat.

00:41:48.840 Not one.

00:41:49.500 So, even when we stumble, hope carries us through to glory.

00:41:58.560 We are loved eternally by the Father.

00:42:01.340 We are empowered daily by the Spirit.

00:42:03.740 We are cleansed and secured forever by the blood of Jesus Christ.

00:42:07.940 That is why we can endure.

00:42:10.580 That is why we can stand.

00:42:12.620 That is why we have hope.

00:42:14.140 So, church, I greet you in this series on 1 Peter.

00:42:24.600 May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

00:42:31.500 Amen.

00:42:32.900 Let's pray.

00:42:34.060 Father in heaven

00:42:38.960 Lord we thank you

00:42:42.880 this morning

00:42:44.080 for this wonderful book of 1 Peter

00:42:47.040 this great gift that we have

00:42:50.960 in understanding

00:42:52.920 our identity and our hope

00:42:54.540 and resting secured

00:42:58.360 in the knowledge that you have done

00:43:00.860 the work on our behalf

00:43:02.060 that you've foreknown us,

00:43:06.280 that you've sanctified us,

00:43:08.280 that you've cleansed us,

00:43:10.140 that you keep us until the end.

00:43:14.520 Thank you for giving us not a false hope,

00:43:18.140 a hope that doesn't rest in our performance,

00:43:23.580 but a hope that rests in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

00:43:28.900 God, make your chosen people joyful.

00:43:32.820 Make them hopeful.

00:43:36.360 Equip them to be useful to fight the battles of our day

00:43:41.540 in the knowledge of this hope.

00:43:45.320 In Jesus' name, amen.

Dale Partridge - October 08, 2025

1 Peter 1_1–2 - Hope for the Elect

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