It's good to see you this morning, good to be with you, fellowshipping with you around the throne, enjoying the word of God as he would speak to us. We want to listen to his words to us this morning as they come to us from the book of Peter, 1 Peter. Peter is writing to strangers scattered throughout the ancient world in verse one. In verse two, he identifies them with another term and we have the word elect. And then he gives to us three very important phrases to help us understand election properly. We are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Our election is through sanctification of the spirit and we are elect unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Peter begins his letter by describing God's children who live on the earth and his descriptions of us are always true, they never change. No matter when his children have lived on the earth and no matter where his children have lived on the earth, his descriptions are always true. The moment we are converted to be a follower of Christ, we are placed on the narrow path. We are now numbered among the few and we are going against the strong current of the world we live in. In Peter's words, we are strangers, sojourners, pilgrims, other descriptive phrases that are similar to this one in verse one. All of these mean primarily the world is not our true home. We don't fit into the world system. We think differently than the world. We long for and desire different things that are spiritual things. Peter believes that our ability to live effectively in this world requires us to embrace who we are. We are God's children living in the world and we are strangers. Knowing and understanding who we are is critical to our ability to suffer and to profit from trials and sufferings. Suffering is normal for all humans. Christians like the rest of the world, we too are subject and subjected to suffering. We are subjected to all kinds of ailments, diseases, disappointments, tragedies, and ultimately death. Humans are mortal beings. We will all die. This is the normal human experience whether you're a Christian or not. But our, I'm speaking of now of those who are God's children, our experience, it comes with promises that God will work in mysterious ways so that all things in our life will actually work together for our good including all of our trials and every painful experience. He has promised they will be for our benefit. All things, all things will help us to become what God has already predestined us to be. All things that happen in our life will be used to shape us into the image of God's son. That's what we're predestined to be like, God's own son. So we live life with the knowledge and understanding as Paul said that all of our afflictions, our oppressions, our trials, our distresses, they're actually light in comparison to the good that will be produced in our character from trials and sufferings. He went on to say that these afflictions work for our advantage. They work for us. That is they help to produce in us spiritual qualities that cause us to look more like his son which is what God in the end will reward us for possessing Christ's likeness. So we can understand why James said in chapter one, count it all joy when you fall into diverse trials because you know that God is at work in these things for your good to develop and cultivate graces in your life. Because we are all strangers and we will be under constant oppression and vicious attacks from our enemy who is allowed by God to turn or cause the world to even hate us. The devil orchestrates the evil in the world to resist us and to oppose us and even kill us. But sometimes our worst enemy is ourself. We live with tendencies even as believers that can be very debilitating and destructive to our Christian life. God's got to root that out. God's got to change that. He invites you into a program of learning and listening and changing those things but if you're not attentive, guess what? He's going to root it out anyway. And he's going to use afflictions and trials and whatever he must. But he will not allow you just to sit and not do anything. Praise God, that's something to praise God for. We have that kind of father who doesn't weary with our tendencies. Peter expands his description of God's children here in verse number two when he states that we are elect. And this is an adjective, it describes who we are. We are elect. Just like strangers is an adjective of God's children on the earth, we are strangers in the world but we're also the elect. We must also know and understand this word, this concept, this doctrine. This is not some highly theoretical topic that's to be avoided. Deep, complicated, so let's skim over it. You know, that's not how we are to handle God's word. We are God's elect, that's who we are. You're the elect if you are a believer this morning. The better you understand your election, let me tell you how it manifests itself. Humility, not pride. Inspired to worship better, not less. Because you see who God is and what he has done for you. And you will take away great comfort for your life in the doctrine of election. Both Peter and Paul spend time on the doctrine of divine election and both speak about the foreknowledge of God as we find it here in verse two. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Where we were last Sunday, the foreknowledge of God in its relationship to election. Both place election downstream from foreknowledge. And last Sunday we looked at how this Greek word is used throughout the New Testament and it means more than a passive knowledge of things. When you think of the foreknowledge of God, it's not just, oh, God's omniscient, God knows everything. That's a passive understanding of the foreknowledge of God. It's much bigger than that. The word foreknowledge includes all that God plans to do, especially as it relates to his elect and their salvation. His plan was designed and completed before it was ever put into motion with election. Peter and Paul agree. God knew us before he chose us and placed us in Christ. We were foreknown of God. God has complete foreknowledge of us. Peter's goal is to establish the fact that all of God's children are at the same time uniquely strangers and elect. But it appears that Peter here, as well as in the second letter he will write as a followup, that he's very determined that election is properly understood. And so not only are we elect according to the foreknowledge of God and our election being chosen by God as a sovereign act of God, it's God who makes the decision here. He's not responding to my decisions that removes the election out of God's hands and puts it into mine. What Peter wants us to know and understand is that election will distinguish itself in time. If you are an elect child of God, it's going to become evident. It's just not something you declare. I'm the elect of God. It's going to manifest itself. It's going to show itself. And this is what Peter is concerned about because it shows up throughout this letter as well as his second letter. Election, let me state this up front. This is what Peter obviously believed. Election doesn't make lazy Christians. Election doesn't make carnal Christians. But the opposite, if it's understood biblically. And so he goes on to say here, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, elect through sanctification of the spirit. Unto obedience. He works that in there. There's steps here, right? Foreknowledge, election, sanctification, obedience. So when you talk about the elect of God on the earth, they're going to manifest themselves by their compliance, their obedience to Christ. That's how you'll recognize that. That's how you recognize that you are truly an elect child of God. You're interested in obedience. Sanctification. The Greek word for sanctify means to set apart. And here in our text, it means to be set apart. The elect are being set apart to obedience, to be obedient children. Sanctification, sanctify means to set apart. Sanctification refers to the process of being set apart. So there is a process here that Peter is emphasizing. It's an Old Testament word. When the Hebrew is translated into the Greek language, this word shows up a lot in the Old Testament, particularly in the book of Leviticus. It was used to describe the ceremony of consecration when priests were being set apart for holy services. All of that information needs to be evaluated as we come to where Peter is making this statement now. That we as the elect of God are sanctified, set apart. And we are constantly being sanctified, set apart to obey. Why is God making us more holy? And so this is the background that we find when we think of the word sanctification. Sanctification is used in scripture frequently and can refer to two things. It can refer to the initial act of our salvation when we were originally when God saved you and set you apart to himself. There is that initial act of God that is referred to in the scriptures as sanctification. We are from that moment. We have been set apart in time when that event happened in our life. We were set apart when we were regenerated and made spiritually alive. We were permanently, fully set apart for God's use. Just a couple, we don't have time to explore this, but look at a couple of references just to kind of get it in your head here, this initial sanctification. Hebrews chapter 10, verse number 10. Again, we won't take the time to unfold some of the folds within these verses, but I think you'll see what is being said by the writer here. In the removal of the old covenant and the establish of the new, verse 10, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once, there's a one-time act of us being sanctified when Jesus took our life with him from the cradle to the grave. Look at verse 14. For by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Those that have been set apart. One other reference, quickly out of the church at Corinth, we find this in chapter six of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter number six. He is reminding the Corinthian believers that they are no longer in the kingdom of this world, but they're in the kingdom of God's dear son. They need to live like those who are in that spiritual kingdom, not like the kingdom of darkness they once lived in, which he describes for them in verse nine and verse number 10. And then in verse 11, he goes on to say, and such were some of you. You were these thieves and covetous drunkards, revilers, extortionists. You were once these kinds of people before grace entered in, but you are washed, but ye are sanctified, been set apart now to God. This is a one-time thing that has occurred in their life that has made them positionally before God, righteous completely because of Christ. So sanctification, when we think of it, has that idea in mind that we were at one moment in time, we experienced our regeneration, our salvation. At that moment, we were permanently and forever set apart, belonging to God. Glorious thing, because it had nothing to do with me. It had everything to do with God and his provision in Christ. It's complete. Nothing is lacking. However, if that is true, then there's going to be evidence of that being true in your daily life. You are going to be interested in the pursuit of being sanctified more and more and more in your life. That's what Peter's referring to here, the progressive sanctification of those who are the elect of God. A couple of references on this. Peter, we'll get into this a little bit more in detail as we get deeper into his letter, but go ahead to chapter one, beginning in verse 13. Follow as I read a few verses here, because he's going to develop this whole idea of progressive sanctification unto obedience. If we are progressively being set apart, what does that look like? We are obeying. That's what it looks like. Notice what he says here in verse 13. Knowing that the Lord will return, he says, wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind and be sober-minded about these serious matters and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ when he returns. Think of the grace that will be brought to you as obedient children. This is how we are to live in the world, as obedient children, not fashioning, conforming ourselves according to the former lust that we once had when we were ignorant of the truth. But as he who has called you is holy, so be ye holy. And here's that same idea of sanctification. Holy, saint, sanctification basically are derived from the common Greek word. So be ye holy in all manner of your behavior, your complete life. Holiness ought to be gaining ground in every area of your life. Pick an area. Hopefully, we're better at it today, more holy in our growth and development than we were a year or two ago. Because, verse 16, it is written, and he quotes right out of the Old Testament, be ye holy. For what reason? Because I am holy. I am your God. I have chosen you. I have set you apart unto myself. I've designated, I've dedicated, I've consecrated you to holy services. Be holy for the work that I've called you to do. Be a holy people. Look at 1 John chapter two. One other passage needs to be looked at on this progressive holiness, progressive sanctification, progressive righteousness, because we have already been made righteous, made holy, and perfected. If you are an elect child of God, you have already been made right with God through Christ. The evidence, however, needs to be there that it is so. And this is what Peter is concerned about. Just like James was in his epistle at that time of the Christian experience. There was a decline already happening. They were professing their faith. They were declaring who they were, but the evidence wasn't there. 1 John chapter two. Again, look right at the end of this statement that opens up the rest of parts of chapter three, chapter two, verse 29. Much is said leading up to this, but we'll begin right here. If you know that he, the everlasting God is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness has been born by him. You see the connection there. It's one thing to say and be confident that I am right with God through Christ. You can cry that out every day in the morning, but what you do with the rest of the day matters. That's the proof that you are the righteous children. Of God. He goes on and says, listen, he develops this even more in chapter three. Behold, all right, stop. You need to ponder this. Behold, what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us. Do you recognize the nature of the love that God has displayed toward you? That we should be called the sons of God, his children. You understand? Peter's talking about that. What do the children of God in the world look like? He describes them. John is doing a similar thing here in the contemplation of the fact that we are called the sons of God. What kind of love is this? Therefore, the world knoweth us not because it knew him not. It's hard for the world to recognize our passions, our desires. They cannot connect with it. The world cannot connect with your passion. To love God, to serve God, to seek his interest in all things. They cannot identify with that. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. And it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself. You see the energy that is going into this life. Do you have that hope? Every man that has his hope is engaged in the purification, sanctification of his life. Purifieth himself even as he is pure. Already declared before God that you are pure. You are holy. What does that do? It inspires, it causes us to want to follow the love of our father that has been displayed to us by obeying him. And he goes on. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law for sin is the transgression of the law. Joe was into that this morning in Sunday school. And we know that he, Christ, was manifested. Why did he come? It was to take away our sins. And now in him is no sin. It has totally been eradicated through the person and work of Christ's sacrifice for us. Verse six, whosoever abideth in him does not continue in sin. Pretty plain. Whosoever continues in sin hath not seen him nor does he know him. If you can live continuing in sin, something is really off in your thinking about God. You may not really know him. Little children, let no man deceive you. Okay, he's gonna bottom line it for us. He that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous. Righteousness is the evidence that we have been declared and made righteous before God. He that committed sin is of the devil for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For the purpose of the son of God was brought into the world. It was manifested for what reason? To destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God does not continue in sin. There is power in the new life. We cannot be a people who ignore that power because if it's in us, we can't ignore it. So we are the elect children of God who are devoted and consecrated to him once and continually through the sanctification of the spirit of God. Who did this? It is the spirit who took the work of God through Christ and applies it to our life, sanctifying us initially and sanctifying us progressively so that we would be children who obey. Why does the spirit do what he's done? Why did Christ come? Why was he manifested? To make us holy, not to leave us continue in our sins. And so the elect reveals their election as obedient children who serve. And Peter will tell us this in chapter two. We now serve in the services of God as royal priests. We have been consecrated as royal priests unto God. And so the Holy Spirit is at work in the elect to conform us to that image that we were predestined to be like, God's son. The spirit is at work through God's word to sanctify us. You heard that stated this morning. And knowing that is real, read out of the gospel of John, Jesus' own words, let us therefore be attentive to his word because you cannot progress in sanctification if you have a dullness of hearing. And you must believe his word. By faith, you believe the things you're hearing and you must submit to his word. You place yourself under its authority and you go from this place resolved to obey the things you've heard. That's the process of the sanctification of the spirit progressively working in our life through the word. Jesus in John 17, in his prayer to his father, what did he say? Sanctify them through thy word. Set them apart through the word of God. He will also use your circumstances of your life and my life to help us learn and apply the truth we're receiving. And he will use trials and suffering to melt us down so we can be reshaped and refined for greater usefulness as servants of God. When God our father corrects or when God our father chastens or when God our father scourges his children, it's for the purpose of causing us to confess and repent because in our life, we grieve the spirit of God all too easily. And if we are not quick about confessing and repenting, we will lose the benefits of his influence and persuasion over our life. What happens then when he is griefed? What happens when he is quenched? Does he skip over the hurdle of all that's cluttered between him and us that we've ignored that he has said to us? No, the father intervenes, brings about the correction, even the scourgings if necessary to bring us to repentance again. And there once again, we are attentive to the voice of the spirit through the word. Election is not kept secret by God. The elect are visibly manifested to the world. And the benefits are obvious. Don't have time to read all of these. I'll give a reference or two, but three main benefits of why the elect must be manifested. It must be manifested to us personally. Peter will work this out in his second letter, chapter one. Do you want assurance of salvation? Do you want assurance of your election? Do you want assurance that you are the called? Then he says, let these fruits be in you and abound so that you will have the assurance that you are the elect children of God. You can't sit on it, just claim it. It must be manifested for your own benefit and confidence of your salvation. It's also beneficial to the church. How are we going to know who to baptize? How are we going to know who to bring in membership? If we're not seeing manifested in a person's life, the grace of God that has wrought a transformation, how are we going to know them? It is beneficial for the church. Paul works this out in 1 Thessalonians 1, three through five. And thirdly, it is beneficial to the world. In John chapter 16, we are told that I'm going to send the spirit. And when he has come, things are going to happen. Listen, just you need to hear it as it's stated by Christ himself in John chapter 16. Just look at it before we close. Verse seven, Jesus speaking says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin. He will reprove the world of righteousness. And he will reprove the world of judgment. How is he going to do that? It will be through his own elect as they live out their life in this world, as they collect themselves together and form those bodies within those communities. This is how the world is brought face to face with sin, righteousness, and judgment. If we are not living, manifesting our election through the sanctification progressively in our life, the people in our neighborhood at work, our family members, our friends, how are they going to know? How are they going to be confronted? And so when Peter gives us this statement, he calls us elect. He takes us all the way back into the foreknowledge of God. And downstream from that, there was the election of God's people who were then placed in Christ and preserved safely in the ark of his keeping until they reach the shores of eternity future. But in this life, the elect themselves, we just don't skip over time. We enter into it. The elect of God find salvation in time and then become sanctified day by day, progressively by the spirit of God, bringing us more and more into conformity to the will of our father. As obedient children, Peter will say. This is what our salvation intends to achieve. So when you rejoice to be known as the elect of God, amen. What a precious thing to contemplate. But remember, the elect are to be manifested, to be visibly seen in the world as righteous people, growing more and more in their righteousness. May that inspire us because of our knowledge of God's love for us and all that he has done through Christ for us. May we be humbled by this and inspired by it as well, find comfort in it to be known as the elect. What a precious title. Father, we thank you for what you have taught us through thy word and we pray that your people would have clear minds, you would grant them understanding, and then it would work out into the skill of living, wisdom, day by day. Watch over us as we go about this day that we would be mindful of these things and all that we do and say, I pray in Christ's name and for your glory, amen.