A Daily Walk

Guest (Male): Pastor John Randall says there's a good reason to rejoice even in the midst of hardship.

John Randall: Harry Ironside, great commentator, great pastor. Here's what he said, I love what he said. This helped me a lot. He said, "When I get to heaven, I'll see a sign over the gates saying, 'Whosoever will, let him come.' And as I pass through those gates and I enter into glory, I will look back and see another sign saying, 'Chosen before the foundations of the world.'"

Here's how you can rejoice. You can rejoice today in any kind of suffering hardship because you know you're a sojourner, you're just passing through. This is temporary. But you also can rejoice; God chose you. He loves you. He loves you. He chose you before the foundation of the world. He knew you before you were ever knit in your mother's womb, and he loves you. I mean, this is the thing that can help me through any kind of difficulty.

Guest (Male): Typically, Christians either believe God elects some for salvation or that man is responsible and has the freedom to choose to be saved. But is it possible God's sovereignty and man's responsibility beautifully intersect somehow? While it may seem they're contradictory to one another, Pastor John Randall believes they are complementary to one another, and it's okay to admit we don't fully understand it all.

Today on A Daily Walk, we continue our study of 1 Peter. Again, we're in chapter one looking at the various reasons we can rejoice as Christians even in hard times.

John Randall: You can rejoice, you can have hope because you know that this is temporary. You are sojourning. And folks, it really is temporary. Life is a vapor. 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 years maybe, in comparison to eternity, it's like a drop in the bucket. It's like a drop in the ocean compared to what's coming, the glory of being with Jesus for eternity.

Eye hasn't seen, ear hasn't heard, it hasn't entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. What a glorious future. Therefore, because you're a sojourner, you can rejoice and be glad. But the second thing he points out and why we can have hope and rejoice in the midst of suffering is because of our salvation.

So you don't really have anything to praise God for today? Really? How about your salvation? How about you're saved? That's really good. You're not going to hell. Wow, that's amazing. My salvation. Salvation is something that sometimes we forget how priceless it is. The psalmist would say, "Restore unto me the joy of my salvation."

Knowing that I am saved, knowing that I am no longer in darkness, no longer dead, no longer lost, no longer blind, all of that should produce within my life a sense of gratitude because I am saved when before I was not saved. Now there are three aspects that Peter mentions concerning our salvation. Three things he points out.

First of all, he tells us we're chosen by God. In verse two, he writes and says, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." Now the word elect means chosen by God. God in His grace and His mercy chose us to be part of His family. We've been adopted into the family of God. The word literally means those who are the called-out ones, the chosen ones.

Now God's choosing was based, the Bible tells us, Peter mentions it here, God's foreknowledge. Paul mentions this also in Ephesians chapter one in verse four when he says, "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to the adoption of as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will."

What a wonderful thing this morning to realize that God chose us, even though He knows everything about us. He still chose us because He loves us. And again, this should spark within us gratitude and thankfulness as well that God actually wants us to be part of His family and to spend eternity with us.

Now when did God choose us? The Bible says before the foundations of the world, which is just mind-blowing. Before He said, "Let there be light" and it came into existence, before He ever placed the stars in space and put the Earth in, I mean all of it, before any of that happened, before that, He chose us to be part of His family. I love what D.L. Moody said. He said, "I am glad that God chose me before the foundation of the world because He surely wouldn't have chosen me now." And I am glad for that as well.

Briefly, let me say that some get hung up on the whole idea and the concept of God choosing people. For some, it presents tension, debate, points of reason. Much of the debate stems from finite men and women trying to comprehend the infinite God, which is impossible. But people try. There are things about God's character, about God's nature, about who He is, I don't fully understand. I don't fully understand it. In fact, the Bible tells me I'm not going to completely understand it in this life, that there are some of God's ways are past finding out.

We're going to find it out. Not here. No, we figured it out. Did you? We did. We have five things that we feel that this puts God into. I don't know, that's not going to do it. God's way beyond your five things. Like you're going to somehow in your finite mentality bring the infinite God, it's impossible. And one of those things has to do with God's perfect foreknowledge, God's predestining, God's choosing. I've come again to the conclusion that I cannot understand how this works completely.

I don't fully understand the sovereignty of God, His foreknowledge in choosing, and man's responsibility to choose. But the Bible teaches both. God knows all things. He knows who is going to be saved. He knows who is going to be lost. And there are those that say in their own estimation, well that must mean then that God chooses some people for heaven and He chooses and even creates some people for hell. Folks, that's not what the Bible teaches. That is false. I stand against that wholeheartedly based upon scripture.

The Bible teaches that God has perfect foreknowledge. He is sovereign, and yet He gives man a choice. How does that work? I don't know. It just teaches both, and so when I come to it, I teach what it says and I accept it. The fact that God foreknows those who are not going to be saved and chooses them doesn't stop any person from coming to God. In fact, God desires, did you know this? The Bible says God desires all people to be saved. Will all people be saved? No. But that's God's desire. That's why Jesus came. Whosoever will, the Bible says, let him come. The Lord never turned any person away who came to Him.

Again, quoting D.L. Moody, he said, "The whosoever-wills are the elect and the whosoever-won'ts are the non-elect." Some say, well that isn't fair that God chooses. What if He didn't choose me? My question would be, how do you know that He didn't choose you? Because I'm not a Christian. Well why aren't you a Christian? I don't want to be. Well then maybe you're not chosen. But you can find out whether or not you're chosen by responding to His love and the message of the gospel. You can answer that question this morning by responding and repenting of your sin, and guess what you're going to realize? You're chosen.

As you read through the Bible, you realize God has chosen knowing the choices we would make and yet gives us a choice to respond. How do you reconcile those two logically? This is your mind, it just doesn't, it short circuits. You can't, it doesn't work. But here's what works. The Bible teaches both, and so the sovereignty of God and the free will of man go like two poles into the sky, high up into the sky side by side parallel, and somewhere they cross, they intersect.

Harry Ironside, great commentator, great pastor. Here's what he said, I love what he said. This helped me a lot. He said, "When I get to heaven, I'll see a sign over the gates saying, 'Whosoever will, let him come.' And as I pass through those gates and I enter into glory, I will look back and see another sign saying, 'Chosen before the foundations of the world.'" Folks, here's how you can rejoice. You can rejoice today in any kind of suffering hardship because you know you're a sojourner, you're just passing through. This is temporary.

But you also can rejoice; God chose you. He loves you. He loves you. He chose you before the foundation of the world. He knew you before you were ever knit in your mother's womb, and He loves you. I mean, this is the thing that can help me through any kind of difficulty. But another aspect concerning our salvation and I would say concerning a reason to rejoice in suffering is that you are set apart, sanctified. He says here in verse two, "Sanctification of the Spirit."

The word means to be set apart. It means to be consecrated. To sanctify something or someone is to set that person aside or apart for the use intended by its designer. In a positional sense, when a person receives Christ, like the men yesterday that came forward and prayed to receive Christ, when they received the Lord Jesus as their savior, when they were converted, when they put their trust in Christ, they were set apart by the Holy Spirit positionally, set apart by God for His purpose in their life.

But not only does sanctification speak of our position, that is being set apart for God's purposes, but it also speaks of a process. And by that, day by day becoming more like Jesus. That is a process. Sanctification is a process where the Spirit of God is working in the life of the believer, making us more like the Lord Jesus, to be conformed into His image. That is a work of the Spirit. It is the work of the Holy Spirit bringing the whole nature of a person under the influence of gracious principles implanted in the soul at regeneration.

Someone said it this way, that salvation is the miracle of a moment. It happens like that. But sanctification is this process of a lifetime until we come into the presence of the Lord and enter into glorification. But until that time, we are being set apart and transformed through the work of the Spirit of God, through the Word of God in our lives. And in that sense, I can rejoice today. Lord, you set me apart for your purpose. Lord, there is a plan in all of this. Lord, you're working in my life. I'm a sojourner, I'm passing through. Lord, you have saved me, you have sanctified me, and in that, I praise God.

He says in sanctification of the Spirit for obedience, for obedience. So He saved us, He sanctified us, and He calls us to walk in obedience. Obedience to God's will and God's word, again, a byproduct of the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. The word obedience literally means to be hearing under. It is listening from a subordinate, submissive position to God's word and complying with it.

God doesn't call us to obedience to keep something good from us. God calls us to obedience in order to bless us. There is blessing in walking in obedience to the word and the will of God. If you've ever lived apart from the Lord, if you've ever lived outside a relationship with the Lord or walked disobediently, you know, you remember the sting of that, where that leads and the pain that it causes. But walking in obedience to God's word and God's will, there's blessing in that, even when it's difficult.

Better to be obedient to the Lord. To obey, the Bible says, is better than sacrifice. To be obedient. And God doesn't do this to be restrictive but only to protect and to bless. And it's when a person disobeys the Word of God that trouble and heartache follow. If you know what God's Word says and you are living contrary to it, you are not in a good place today. The Bible would say you're in a backslidden place today, and you need to repent and get realigned with the path of the Lord that is narrow.

Saving faith always produces obedience to the Word of God. I mean if somebody is truly saved, it doesn't say you're perfect, but you want to walk in obedience to God's Word. A person who claims faith in Jesus Christ but whose pattern of life is utter and complete disobedience to the Word of God, you'd question whether or not they really knew the Lord. Because to know the Lord is to walk with the Lord, and to walk with the Lord is to walk in obedience to the Lord.

Here's what John said, and I think he said it so profoundly in 1 John chapter one verse six. He said, "If we say," we say it, "if we say we have fellowship with Him and at the same time we walk in darkness, what does it say? We lie. We lie and we do not practice the truth." To lie is to be deceived. It's to think because I've said it but I don't live it, I'm good. Actually, those two need to line up. To just say it and then live in darkness like I never... like today for example, if you got plans to sin after church, I mean it's ready, you scheduled it, it's good, you got it set up, you're just waiting, when is this over because I got plans to sin.

You lie. You're lying to yourself. You're being deceived. The devil's lying to you. You're trying to lie to God, but God sees it all. Don't live in darkness. In 2 Timothy chapter two, Paul writes to Timothy and here's what he said in chapter two verse 19. He said, "Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands having this seal: The Lord knows those who are His and let everyone who names the name of Christ, what does it say? Depart from iniquity." Let me put it another way: Run from sin, not run after it, not make plans to engage in it. "I can't wait till church is over." What? No. No.

Folks, we have been graciously selected by God, set apart in sanctification by God, now walking in obedience to God. And then Peter says, oh, cleansed by God. Again, notice what he says, "sprinkling by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Peter, in writing to Jewish believers, takes an Old Testament concept, an Old Testament picture of the sprinkling of blood. And if you've read, or maybe you haven't or maybe you skipped over it, there's a lot of blood in the Old Testament. You ever notice that? Leviticus, people just leap right through it, let's move on. And there's so much blood.

They say, why is there so much blood? Why so much sacrifice? Because it's all pointing to one sacrifice that is to come, that is Jesus. But there are occasions when the priests would take blood and they would sprinkle it on things, on people. It's kind of, I don't know if you've ever really read through that and thought about that. Now you ever seen blood? And of course you have, but I mean that's supposed to be in your body but it's outside of your body. Some people just, they faint. They see blood, they're like... other people they cry. I mean it's frightening, it's supposed to be in your body.

So imagine when you see blood, there were times when priests, for example, when a leper would be cleansed. You know one of the parts of the cleansing of the leper was to take blood and hit him with it, like sprinkle it on him. It's just all over you. If a priest was to go and minister, I mean for the leper it signified his cleansing. For the priest, this was part of their process of going into service. After they were washed in water, anointed with oil, they were hit with blood and it would just sprinkle all over the garments, all over them.

You can imagine just the dots everywhere of the blood of a lamb, reminding them that what you're about to enter into and your life of service is only because something was put to death so that you could serve. You talk about cleansing so that you'll be reminded that leprosy that you had that is no longer part of you, that was killing you. There is a very graphic picture in your mind and on your body that you have been cleansed by the blood and now you are free.

Moses took blood and he sealed the covenant made by the people and God. Relationship, the blood was sprinkled so that the people would know in order for them to have relationship with God, something had to die. Something had to, blood had to be shed for service, for cleansing, for relationship. All of that pointed to the person of Christ. For us to be cleansed, we needed the blood of Jesus. For us to enter into service, it's only by the blood. For us to have relationship with God, it was through the blood of the lamb that was shed on our behalf. We're sprinkled by it, we are washed by it, guys. Do you understand that this morning, the blood of Jesus? Somebody grateful for the blood of Christ today?

And there's a passage of scripture that the Lord is reminding me of even as we are going through this. John is there in heaven and he's in the midst of the throne room and he's seeing all of these things unfold, and he's reminded of the one who had washed him in His blood. And the New Testament here, Peter applies it to the work of Christ upon the cross and the efficiency, the cleansing that He has provided. Oh isn't it marvelous to think? Like if you want reason to rejoice even in the midst of hardship, here you go: your sins, my sin, our sins are forgiven.

You can praise God for that. You can thank Him for that. There's reason to rejoice in the fact that our sins are forgiven. Amen. I don't know what kind of a sinner you were. Some of us were professional, I mean it was our business, but we've been forgiven. We've been washed, we've been cleansed, we've been made new. Here's what John said, 1 John chapter one verse seven. Here's what he said: "If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son continually cleanses us from all sin."

The blood of Jesus just, it is efficient, it produced what only it could provide in atonement, in salvation. Once for all the blood has been shed. And so no matter what suffering, no matter what hardship, here's what I know: I am a sojourner, I am passing through. And in that I am on my way to heaven. I am set apart for the purposes of God, selected by God. I don't know why He would do that other than He is gracious, and He has forgiven me and cleansed me from all of my sin. And therefore I have reason to praise Him and to glorify Him because of what He has provided.

You know, there was a song that, a hymn that I remember that we used to sing, and the lyrics were as follows. It says, "There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath..."