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Now, let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. God always makes the first move. He always makes the first choice. He always takes the initiative and we respond. 1 John chapter 4, what does it say?
We love him because he. First, Loved. Us. Ours is a response to his initiation.
Now, inevitably, somebody hears something like this, and somebody is going to say, well, that's not fair. And I will say, what do you mean that's not fair?
Well I'm not yet a believer. And maybe it's because God didn't pick me.
Well, why aren't you a believer? In fact, why don't you believe right now? Why don't you turn your life over to Christ right now? I'm not ready.
Okay. Then, how can you say it's not fair?
Well, maybe I'm not ready because he hasn't chosen me.
Well, I'll tell you what. Why don't you pray to receive Christ right now? And I will prove to you that you will discover that God has in advance chosen you.
Well, I don't know if I'm ready for that.
Okay, well then maybe God didn't pick you.
Well, it's not fair.
Well, receive Christ, and you'll discover that you made the choice, but He's already chosen you. I don't get that. Neither do I. I'm just declaring it. But what a comfort that would be to persecuted believers scattered throughout Asia Minor to hear this truth that would be the first bolt of underpinning that attaches them to the foundation, and that is, we have been chosen previously.
Here's the second truth. We are known completely. We are known completely. Look at the wording. Electric.
Love this. according to the four knowledge of God. You know the word foreknowledge in the Greek. It's prognosis. Prognosco, prognosis.
Doctor, what is the prognosis? That's the word he uses here: foreknowledge. God knows, God sees everything in advance. That's a lot of knowledge. The same word is used of the death of Christ.
Jesus' death wasn't some accident. It's like, well, he got himself in trouble, got himself arrested, they stuck him on a cross, he died. No, that was pre-planned. Same guy, Peter, in Acts chapter 2, will say, him, Jesus. Being delivered, listen.
By the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God. you have taken by your wicked hands, crucified, and put to death. God sent him. You in your choice. Crucified him.
Both. are true. God's knowledge, foreknowledge. Have you ever compared God's knowledge. With Our knowledge.
It's a fun little comparison. Man's knowledge is accumulated knowledge. It's the product of tedious learning. It's the result of long research. It's augmented by human experience, and it's subject to deterioration.
That's our knowledge. God's knowledge is immediate. comprehensive and without deterioration. In other words, God never needs to research anything. He never has to use Google or Wikipedia to find out facts.
His knowledge is immediate and comprehensive. God never has to string one logical premise and attach it to another to come up with a result. In critical thinking, he just knows. God never uses Words like Huh. Or wow.
Or, I didn't know that. His knowledge is all-encompassing. You can never tell him anything he doesn't already know. He never forgets. How much stuff have we forgotten?
Over the years. You really realize that when your third graders come home. And they ask you a third-grade level question that's on their assignment, and you're going. I have no clue. It's been so long.
Yeah, but that's third grade love hope. We've forgotten it all. David was amazed at God's Total knowledge, his omniscience. And he said, Oh Lord, you have searched me and... Known me.
You know when I sit down, you know when I rise up. And then he said this, you understand my thoughts. Afar off. Or literally, you know what I think. before I think it.
Before the chemical-electrical signal is sent at the synapse of the neuron. God knows that. Have you ever had a weird thought and you go? Where'd that thought come from? The other day, I was singing this weird song.
It came to my mind. Like It's from the 70s. I never even liked the song to begin with. And it starts coming out of me. I start singing it, and my wife goes, What are you doing singing that thing?
Where did that come from? I have no idea. It's been stuffed in there for a long time. And it came out. And God knows how it came out.
He knows my thought before I think it. Jesus displayed this kind of foreknowledge, did he not? Jesus knew in advance That when he sent two of his disciples into that little village opposite Bethany, that there would be a little donkey waiting for them to take and bring to Jesus, he told them that. Jesus knew in advance that when his disciples walked into the city of Jerusalem, they would see a man carrying a pitcher of water who would lead them to an upper room where they would make the Passover ready. He knew that, he told them that.
in advance. Jesus even knew what people were thinking. How many times does the New Testament say, and Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, What would it be like hanging out with somebody who knew everything? That'd be a little uncomfortable. Because you'd be talking, and then you'd just think something, and Jesus would give you that look.
Right. Yeah, dude, I know exactly what you're thinking. But Here's the comfort. If God knows everything. Then he knows the worst about you already.
He knows the worst about you, and he loves you anyway. In human relationships, when one person gets to know another person, there's typically a fear. The fear is if that person really knows everything about me, I will be rejected by that person. And that's why we learn to hide. In relationships.
That's why when we date, We put our best face on and our best foot forward and say the nicest of things because we're hiding under this illusion. This fear of if I am known for who I really am, I will not be loved. God already knows the worst about you and loves you anyway. How cool is that? The Bible says he knows our frame and he remembers that we are But dust.
You don't expect a lot out of dust. Also, if God knows Everything. He knows the best about us, not just the worst, the best. He knows your heart. He knows your motives.
If you had good and pure intentions, He knows that.
Sometimes we do our best and we fail. And when we fail, others see our failure only, but not the motivation behind our try, and we get judged by them. They're critical of us. But God knows the whole scoop. The Bible says, even if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows all things.
So this would be another Point of comfort. to these estranged scattered believers. You've been chosen previously. You are known completely. Number three.
We are growing constantly. Verse 2. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Here it is. in sanctification of the spirit For obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Boy, that's a mouthful. Let me unravel that. Let me kind of string it all together in the simplest form. The one who chose you previously and knows you completely will help you grow constantly. Look at that word sanctification.
If ever there was Churchy sounding word. This is it, right? I mean, you didn't probably Stand in line at the grocery market this week and say, Have you been sanctified? It's just not a typical word, but it's a good word, and it's a word you ought to know. It simply means to be marked as different, to be set apart, or to be made holy.
God's in the process. of making you a holy person. Let me tell you what holiness does not mean. It does not mean that you'll ever become a perfect person. Yeah.
Some of you are still living under the illusion that I'm going to try, I'm going to attain perfection. You'll just drive everybody nuts around you. It doesn't mean you'll ever be perfect, but it does mean. It does mean that you are being transformed, you are being changed, you're becoming an increasingly obedient person. That's what it means.
So he says in sanctification, in that process of being changed. Sanctification of the Spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ.
Okay, stop there. Peter's using a metaphor That if you were a Jewish reader, you would understand. It's a metaphor out of Exodus chapter 24, when Moses brings the law to the people of Israel. He sprinkles them with blood. He came down from Mount Sinai, had the law of God.
Brought it before the people, and the people said, Whatever the Lord says to you, we will do it.
So oxen were killed, a basin of blood was brought, Moses dipped something in it, and he started sprinkling the people with blood. And as he sprinkled them, he said, This blood. Is the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words? The sprinkled blood was the tangible demonstration that two parties, God and the people, were entering into a binding agreement. You're listening to Connect with Skip-Heitzig Weekend Edition.
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Now let's get back to today's teaching.
So what does Peter mean? Simply this. You've been saved by the blood of Christ. Or his words, the sprinkling of the blood of Christ. You entered a covenant with God by putting your trust.
In the God who called you, sending His Son Jesus Christ, you've been saved by Christ. You get sanctified. By the Holy Spirit. Just as you cooperated with the Holy Spirit once. When you got saved, you should be cooperating with the Holy Spirit again and again and again.
Do you remember the time when Jesus was leaving? And he said to the disciples, I'm going away, but I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. Yeah.
And he said to them, When the Holy Spirit comes, he's going to convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment, of sin, because they believe not on me. A better translation would be: He's going to convince the world of sin. He's going to convince unbelievers that they're sinners. Why do they need to be convinced of that? Because unless you are convinced that you're a sinner, you'll never look for a Savior.
If you never look for a Savior, you'll never get saved.
So, only people who know I'm sick look for a doctor. Only people who know I'm a sinner look for a savior. The Holy Spirit is in the business of convincing people, you need help. You need to get saved. And so, just as you cooperated with the Holy Spirit who led you to Christ, that's the sprinkling of blood.
You are, and I am, to be cooperating with the Holy Spirit in this day-by-day, ongoing process of being changed called sanctification.
So let me sum it all up. He picks you. He knows you. He grows you. That's basically what it said so far.
He picks you, he knows you. He grows you. Something else, did you notice the reference to the Trinity in this verse? All three are mentioned. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, that's one.
In the sanctification of the Spirit, that's two. For obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, that's three. In other words, the father Four nose. and chooses The sun Cleanses. The spirit cleans or sanctifies you.
Remember when Jesus said to his disciples, I'm going to make you fishers of men? It's a great concept. Think of it this way. The father sent his son fishing. He caught you.
He gives you over to the Holy Spirit to clean you up. Jesus always cleans the fishes that he catches. And he uses the Holy Spirit to do it. Leighton Ford was an associate evangelist with Dr. Billy Graham, and he loved to say, God loves you the way you are.
But he loves you too much to leave you that way. You come just as you are. All the baggage, all the thinking that you have, and then he takes you. And he's in the process of changing you. And cleaning you.
And I gotta tell you this. This is not A part of the Christian life that is an elective. It's not like, well, you know, I'm a Christian, there's this holiness thing, I'm not really into that. You know, I accepted Jesus and I prayed the prayer, and I, you know, the holy thing, and I don't want to get overboard in it. Listen, listen.
Listen. This is not an elective. You're a major in this. You're to major in this. Want to know how important it is?
In Leviticus chapter 11, God said, You must be holy. Because I am holy. You say, well, that's Old Testament.
Okay, here's one from the New Testament. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 23. Pursue holiness. without which no one can see the Lord. And just to make it very clear in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 3.
Paul says, this is the will of God, even your sanctification. There's very few scriptures that actually tell you what the will of God is. Here's one: This is what God wants. He wants you to be holy. He wants you to be holy.
How do you know if you're holy? Do you walk a different way? Do you talk a different way? Do you kind of walk like this? And say Oh God.
No, that's just being weird. It's not being holy. There's a simpler way to know if you're holy. You hate what God hates, you love what God loves. Be holy because I'm holy.
You want to be like God? You hate what God hates, you love what God loves. What does God hate?
Well, he hates sin, so you will hate sin. And you will love righteousness. It doesn't mean you will never sin. It doesn't mean you won't fall into sin. You'll always struggle with that.
But when you do, your reaction will be like a Psalm 51 reaction. of remorse. And a desire to change. You will hate sin, you will love righteousness.
So, faith is the root of holiness. Obedience is the fruit. of holiness. These are the underpinnings we've been chosen previously. We are known completely.
We are growing constantly. Here's the fourth and final bolt into the foundation. We are blessed. increasingly. The end of verse 2.
Grace to you. And peace. Be multiplied. I know that just sounds like the introduction to any letter, right? You could look at thousands of fragments of papyri from the ancient world, and you would see similar.
Salutations in ancient letters, where the name of the author was given at the beginning, in this case Peter, and then some well-wishing, some, you know, I hope you're doing well, and something like that. That's how you and I are tempted to read this. Grace and peace be multiplied to you. But there's something more significant, and it really expresses an experience that he believes his recipients will have. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you.
What Peter does, and Paul does it too, is he takes two. Greetings from the ancient world and combines them. The typical Greek or Western greeting 2,000 years ago. Was the word Kyre in Greek? It meant rejoice.
So you'd see somebody, you go. Rejoice. Kyrie. If you were Jewish, And you saw someone, you'd say, peace, shalom. Hello, goodbye.
How you doing? Shalom. He takes these two things, Khirai and Peace, shalom, translated here differently in the Greek language, and combines them. But he tweaks it a little bit. Instead of the typical word, Kairei, which means rejoice, he uses the word karis, which means grace.
So it's grace. And peace. Why? Because they're more significant. Then just rejoice, grace and peace.
And by the way, They're never ever reversed. In any of the letters of Peter or Paul, it's always grace and peace, grace and peace, grace and peace. Never reversed. You know why? Because you can never experience the peace of God.
Until you experience the grace of God. It's grace, God's undeserved, unmerited favor toward us. that causes us to have peace. Grace is the well. That flows into the river of peace that comes into our lives.
God peace? Do you have peace? Because if you don't have peace in your life, Could it be? that you've never experienced God's grace. Caesar Augustus, the Emperor of Rome.
Didn't sleep very well. He heard about a man in Rome. Who, though he was steeped in debt, he owed so much money, he slept like a baby every night. And Caesar Augustus demanded that they find who this man was and get his bed and bring it to him. He was convinced it's a sleep number thing.
or some tempurpedic thing going on. I need a good night's sleep. Find that man's bed, not really realizing that your ability to sleep has everything to do with a clear conscience before God. Romans chapter 5, verse 1. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace.
with God. through our Lord Jesus Christ. A hurricane.
Some years ago. that went through Florida. left communities devastated. A reporter was going through this one devastated area and found a man. whose house was still standing, cleaning up his yard after the aftermath of the hurricane.
And the reporter said, Sir, simple question. Your house is standing, the others are wiped out. Why do you? Figure that is. And so, well, I don't know about the other homes, but I can tell you about this one I built it myself.
And I built it. According to the strict Florida building code. When it told me to use this kind of trust, that's what I used. And I was told. That if I were to build a home according to the Florida building code, it could withstand a hurricane.
And so I did. And it did. God has given you a building code. Are you building your life according to these truths? Are you letting certain of these truths be the underpinnings that Bolt your life onto the foundation of Christ.
Yeah, you got a great foundation, but if you're not bolted in with certain fixed truths, a storm can come and shift that house in a lot of different directions. And so these are the underpinnings that build and make a rock solid. light Uh Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before you go, don't miss your opportunity to request the Daily God Journal, along with the companion digital devotional, the Daily God Book. These resources are our thanks for your generous year-end gift of $50 or more to help Connect with Skip-Heitzig finish 2025 strong and reach more people with the truth of God's Word in the year ahead.
Call 800-922-1888 or go to connectwithskip.com slash offer. We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect the Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. Make a connection! Make a connection now. Of the crisis.
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