INTRODUCTION:

1. Tonight we will begin a series in the first epistle of Peter.
2. There are many practical advantages to studying this epistle.
3. Peter was a fisherman who became a “fisher of men.”  We are meeting in an old fish market, now being used for the preaching of the Gospel.
4. My message tonight is entitled, “Biblical Salvation.”  The word “salvation” is found three times here in I Peter 1 – vss. 5, 9, 10.
5. Peter identifies himself as “an apostle of Jesus Christ” (1:1).  Later on, in I Peter 5:1, he calls himself “an elder” (bishop or pastor).
6. Nowhere is Peter ever referred to as a priest or a pope.  In fact, in I Peter 2:5 and 9, Peter teaches that all Christians are priests before God.   This doctrine is called “the priesthood of the believer.”
7. Furthermore, we know Peter was married because Matthew 8:14 says, “And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.”
8. Mark and Luke also refer to this healing of Peter’s mother-in-law.
9. The epistle of I Peter was probably written about AD 60.
10. Peter wrote his letter “to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1:1). These were Jewish believers scattered throughout the Roman Empire (cf. James 1:1; John 7:35).
11. Peter addresses Gentile believers also (cf. 2:10).
12. The Scofield Study Bible says I Peter “presents all the foundational truths of the Christian faith, with special emphasis on the atonement. The distinctive note of First Peter is preparation for victory over suffering. The last-name word occurs about fifteen times, and is the key-word to the Epistle.”
13. Tonight we will look at the first few verses.  My outline:

I.      ELECT ACCORDING TO THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD (1:2).

II.   SANCTIFIED THROUGH THE SPIRIT OF GOD (1:2).

III.KEPT BY THE POWER OF GOD (1:5).

 

I. ELECT ACCORDING TO THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD (1:2).

1. Our salvation was wrought by God.  All three members of the Godhead take part in the salvation of a lost sinner (1:2).

   ·        Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father

   ·        Through sanctification of the Spirit

   ·        Unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ

2. We are “elect (chosen) according to the foreknowledge of God” (1:2).  A similar statement is made in Romans 8:29, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
3. God is omniscient and knows everything.  Our salvation is based upon His foreknowledge.  In Acts 2:23, Peter said to the Jews, “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.”
4. Christ was “delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.”
5. That is why He is referred to in Revelation 13:8 as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (cf. I Peter 1:20).
6. The word “elect” (or “chosen”) is used different ways in Scripture.
7. In this context, it means, “chosen to salvation.”  When we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are born again by the Spirit of God (cf. I Peter 1:23).
8. Peter refers to this in verse 3 – “which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again.”
9. Strong’s Concordance says the word translated “begotten” here means, “to thoroughly change the mind of one, so that he lives a new life, and one conformed to the will of God.”
10. The apostle Paul refers to this in II Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
11. We are regenerated by the Spirit of God, and…

 

II. WE ARE SANCTIFIED THROUGH THE SPIRIT OF GOD (1:2).

1. D. Edmond Hiebert says, “The word (sanctification) refers to the Spirit’s work of setting Christian’s apart from the world as God’s chosen people by keeping them conscious of their distinctiveness and so making them more and more inwardly holy” (I Peter).
2. That is why obedient (note “obedience” – I Peter 1:2) Christians do not need to be browbeaten about Christian standards of conduct.  The indwelling Holy Spirit is working in us, and setting us apart from things that are unclean and unholy.
3. I am not saying we preachers should not preach hard against sin.  I am saying that the Holy Spirit is our best teacher.  Jesus said, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).
4. The Holy Spirit convicts of indecency, immodesty, immorality, self-will, pride, rebelliousness, and all the wicked sins of the flesh.
5. Recently there was a big fuss in the newspapers about this Mexican female television reporter who received a lot of attention at the NY Jets’ football practice.
6. She was dressed very immodestly, and even unsaved, worldly people acknowledged it.  How come women who attend good fundamental churches do not dress like that?
7. Because they have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit (I Peter 1:2).
8. Second Thessalonians 2:13 says, “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”
9. Here we see the divine side and the human side.

   ·        “God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit” (II Thess. 2:13).

   ·        “and belief of the truth” (II Thess. 2:13b).

10. We see this in I Peter 1:5 – “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation…”
11. This brings me to my third point…

 

III. WE ARE KEPT BY THE POWER OF GOD (1:5).

1. This is taught all throughout the Bible.  Isaiah 41:10 says, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”
2. Jude 24 says, “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.”
3. Our Lord said in John 10:27-29, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”
4. We are kept by the power of God.  As I have said – there is a divine side – “kept by the power of God” (I Peter 1:5; Jude 24), and a human side.
5. Jude 21 says, “Keep yourselves in the love of God.”
6. The present verb tense indicates that this keeping (“guarded” – margin) is a continual process.  God’s keeping power is always with us.

 

CONCLUSION:

1. The expression “ready to be revealed in the last time” (1:5) points us to the second coming of Christ.
2. The Lord Jesus Christ will be revealed in all His glory.
3. “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen” (Rev. 1:7).
4. This world is getting darker, and more wicked day by day.  But look up – the Lord is coming soon.