How does God grow the Church? - message #5 - God changes lives

How does God grow the Church?

God changes lives

Message #5

1 Peter 1:1-2

[Intro:]

Here is a quick review of the 5 key statements that support the truth of God using gospel-preaching Christians to grow the Church:

#1 – God has made every true believer a new creation through Christ

#2 – God has reconciled every true believer to Himself through Christ

#3 – God has entrusted every true believer with the message of reconciliation

#4 – God appeals through every true believer with the lost to be reconciled to Him through Christ

#5 – God made Christ to be the sin-bearer, so that every true believer would receive Christ's righteousness

This week's message in our series How does God grow the Church? We will look at the biblical truth that God changes lives. There are a lot of books, videos, sermons, etc...that give us all kinds of ideas about how we can get our unsaved loved ones to believe (or get saved). Some of them include biblical truths and some include human know-how (a.k.a. Manipulation). So what we need to do to accurately understand what God says about this whole thing is to search His Word. God describes clearly for us how this whole process is worked out. Last week we learned that God uses Christians verbally sharing the gospel to appeal with the lost to be reconciled to Him through Christ. This week we are going to focus on what God does in the process.

[Message:]

Verse 1 –

Peter writes to these Gentile believers who are scattered throughout Asia. They are aliens because heaven is their home, not earth. They are believers because of how Peter describes them. He describes them as being chosen.

Verse 2 –

[a] They were chosen by the foreknowledge of God the Father.

This is something that we have studied before briefly in Romans 8:28-30. "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;" (Ro 8:29). This word foreknowledge comes from the Greek word πρόγνωσις or prognōsis. In the context it refers to God choosing to “know” an individual; that is, He consciously and intentionally entered into a relationship with an individual in eternity past, before mankind was created (Eph. 1:4). "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him." (Eph 1:4).

The word chosen is from the Greek word ἐκλεκτός or eklektos, which is from the root words ek + legw = to call out. This is the same Greek word that is elsewhere translated elect (Matt. 24:22, 24, 31; Rom. 8:33) and chosen (2 Tim.2:10; Tit. 1:1; 1 Pet. 1:1; Rev. 17:14). This is a difficult teaching to accept at times. As sinful human beings we would not choose on our own to repent and accept Christ as Savior, so God in His grace chose to save some. He did this before He created anything (Eph. 1:4). He did not make His choice based on what anyone would do in life or what they would choose (Rom. 9:14-16). His choice is according to “the kind intention of His will” (Eph. 1:5). There are many who would claim that this makes God unfair. Dr. Floyd Barackman, the former Theology Professor at Practical Bible College, responded to this claim of unfairness by saying, “Yes, you are correct the situation isn't fair. If it were fair all people would spend eternity in Hell, and no one would be saved. God is gracious enough to save some.” Here is the biblical response to the claim that God is unfair to save some but not all (Rom. 9:14-26). God chose some but not all “to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,” (Rom. 9:23-26). God chose to save some but not all "so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." (Eph 2:7). Wow, what a gracious and merciful God! So to summarize, God the Father chose some people to be saved (the elect) through His foreknowledge (His conscious and deliberate choice to enter into a relationship with certain individuals in eternity past).

[b] Next Peter says that these elect individuals were chosen by the sanctifying work of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the member of the God-head that sets apart individuals for salvation It is from the Greek word ἁγιασμός or hagiasmos, which means to set apart for special use. Since God the Father chose to enter into a relationship with certain individuals in eternity past, the Holy Spirit set apart (sanctified) these certain individuals in Christ (2 Thess. 2:13). "But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth." (2 Th 2:13). The Holy Spirit unites the elect individual with Christ (baptizes him into Christ) (Rom. 6:1-7; 1 Cor. 12:13).

The Holy Spirit is the member of the God-head that works out the process of drawing the elect individuals to Christ and then causes the individual to be born again (experience the new birth). At the moment one of these elect individuals puts his faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins the Holy Spirit begins to indwell him. "In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory." (Eph 1:13-14). Only the elect (true born again Christians) possess the indwelling Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9-11). "However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." (Ro 8:9-11). True believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

[c] They were chosen to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood. The very first part of this statement is very interesting. God speaking through Peter first describes the purpose for which God has chosen individuals. He has chosen them to obey Jesus Christ. This does not refer to believing the gospel. This refers to living in obedience to the law of Christ (1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2). Christians are under the authority of the New Testament teaching (this is the law of Christ). "To those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law." (1 Co 9:21). "Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ." (Ga 6:2). God saved individuals so that they would obey Him and bring Him glory (Tit. 2:11-14; 3:3-8, 14; 2 Cor. 5:14-15). God saved us to glorify Him through our lives. We were saved to do works that bring God praise and testify of His greatness to the lost (1 Pet. 2:11-17). In fact, Scripture teaches us that God is the one who is at work in the elect giving them the desire and the ability to do His will (Eph. 2:10; Phil. 2:12-16). God saved us to submit to Christ as Lord and to submit to the authority of the Word of God.

The second half of the statement, and to be sprinkled with His blood. This hearkens back to the Old Testament initiation of the Mosaic covenant (Ex. 24:1-8). God had Moses gather all of the people. After some animals had been sacrificed, Moses took half of the blood and sprinkled it on the altar, and the other half he sprinkled on the people. This was the blood that established the Mosaic covenant, between God and the nation of Israel. Peter uses this same imagery to describe the elect Christian. The person who has accepted Christ as his Savior has been sprinkled with His blood. The blood of Christ establishes a new covenant between God and the elect Christians (Matt. 26:28; 1 Cor. 11:25). "In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”" (1 Co 11:25). Jesus is described as the guarantee of a better covenant (Heb. 7:22). The blood of Christ establishes a covenant ( which includes a relationship) between believers and God. Here is a description given by the author of the book of Hebrews: "But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance." (Heb 9:11-15). So all who have placed their faith in Christ's payment for sin have been sprinkled by His blood.

Here is another description of the awesome results of salvation (being sprinkled by His blood; being made a part of a new covenant) through Christ, "Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And on their mind I will write them,” He then says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin." (Heb 10:11-18).

[Conclusion:]

We read in this in passage what God has done for true believers (the chosen/elect). True believers have been:

[a] chosen by the foreknowledge of God the Father – God the Father consciously and intentionally entered into a relationship with an individual in eternity past, before mankind was created (Eph. 1:4).

[b] chosen by the sanctifying work of the Spirit - The Holy Spirit is the member of the God-head that works out the process of drawing the elect individuals to Christ and then causes the individual to be born again (experience the new birth). At the moment one of these elect individuals puts his faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins the Holy Spirit begins to indwell him.

[c] chosen to obey Christ and be sprinkled by His blood - God saved us to submit to Christ as Lord and to submit to the authority of the Word of God. The person who has accepted Christ as his Savior has been sprinkled with His blood. The blood of Christ establishes a new covenant between God and the elect Christians (Matt. 26:28; 1 Cor. 11:25).

Now, what does this have to do with how God grows the Church? It has a lot to do with how God grows the Church. God is the one who saves people's souls. He is the one who changes people's lives. We are just the mirror and the mouthpiece. We are the representatives and the messengers. God alone saves souls and changes lives. This should give us, not a personal confidence, but a God-centered confidence. As we reflect Christ and share the gospel, God will accomplish what He desires. Trust in His Word and His power. God will change lives. God will build His Church.