The Triumphant Church R1703

Though you could feel defeated today, God wants you to be triumphant, a part of the body of Christ, the triumphant Church. Let's study God's Word. Today's message is The Triumphant Church, here with Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author, evangelist, pastor, and speaker. And today, as we open God's Word to 1 Peter, Chapter 1, we're going to understand how we can have triumph in our lives, both individually and, more importantly, as a part of the body of Christ, the Church. The body is built for the community of one another.

The Lord wants us to live together in community, to pray together in community. And if you don't have a 2 a.m. friend, Dr. Don would remind you we would love to be one of yours. You can call us anytime, including 2 a.m. at 866-899-WORD, and let us pray for you. Jot the number down.

Store it in your cell. It's 866-899-9673. Now today's teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. The Encouraging Word. The Triumphant Church, 1 Peter, Chapter 1, I'll read just the first few verses. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are the elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ, because of the sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. May the name of Jesus be glorified and may God by his Spirit add his blessing and his understanding to the reading of his Word.

Let's unpack this a little bit. From whom, from whom did this letter come? Well, the first obvious one is it's from Peter. That's his name. In fact, Peter's name's the first name. They did everything backwards back in their time. They just weren't quite as educated as we were. We always put it at the end.

Love you, Mom, so much your son, Don. They put their name up front. We also know that Peter was most likely the acknowledged leader who had something very real to say based upon a real understanding of real life, but we do know that what he had to say was very spiritual. So from whom, through Peter, and secondly, by the Holy Spirit. You know, 2 Timothy chapter 3, probably one of the most powerful verses of scripture, and if you don't get this, understand this, own this, and obey this and follow, you need to as a believer. This is our church. This is the church. This is believers. 2 Timothy 3 verse 16. All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness so that the man or woman of God, watch this, may be complete and get this one, be fully equipped to handle life.

Did you get that? This is the word of God from whom, given through Peter, breathed by the Spirit of God. So the second issue that we need to look at is to whom. To whom is this addressed?

Who are the recipients? Well, if you haven't had a clue yet, I think you'll know now. He says something here to those who are the elect exiles.

Now let's just talk about this. This is a huge subject and I'm going to be very brief and I ask you to beg my pardon, but we're going to unpack this. To whom? There's something being said here and the word that is used here is the word exile. Now, if you go and study the word exile, an exile is somebody who lives somewhere that they don't actually belong.

Right? They're in exile. They're living somewhere that they don't actually, they're not from there. The word here really is a word stranger, is a good use of the word, but here's the best word that you get. You get it in the King James Version, but it's the root word and it's the word alien.

Isn't that horrible? Did you know that you're an alien? Did you know that Jesus calls every Christian an alien, an exile, a stranger?

I want you to just bear with me in this. Now wait a minute. I thought I'm an American citizen. In your case, not in my case, you're born and raised here, right?

You're not an alien. The day you gave your heart to Jesus, you became one because what God is about to show us that every believer does not actually belong to the norm of the world in which they live because the world hates Jesus. Jesus said that if you belong to Jesus, you don't actually belong to the world.

You cannot. You cannot serve God and man. It has to be one or the other.

You have to forsake one in order to accept and be part of the other. Jesus doesn't share his space. This is a powerful statement here in Peter because he's establishing something. He's about to tell us how we got there, how that happened.

So he says here, to whom? Well, we are living aliens. We're strangers and we're living in a world full of suffering where there's a meteoric clash between truth and error, opposition, aliens, scorn. I'm praying today for our students who love Jesus.

Yes, they're on that campus, but they're aliens on the campus. Folks, listen to God's word. Every student who loves Jesus is never going to be fully accepted. How can they be?

They're strangers. What the world says and what Jesus says are poles apart. Righteousness and unrighteousness have no fellowship. That's tough. That's a dilemma.

It's very hard. That's what Peter, he's laying, God's laying the foundation for us. So to whom is this written? A, to us, we're called living aliens who are scattered everywhere. Now, specific to this, he's talking about this region of Turkey, Asia Minor, Pontus and Galatia, Cappadocia, these places.

That's where the church was scattered during this very difficult time in which Peter and the New Testament was written. The living aliens, our designation identifies who God is talking to. He says, this is for you. He's looking at me and he's saying, well, pastor, you're born again of the Spirit of God.

He's going to clarify that. He says, you've been born unto a living hope. Yes, I have, Lord Jesus. I belong to you. Well, first thing I want you to know is you're an alien. You're a stranger. You're an exile. And the second thing that he says related to that is you're not only living aliens, but you are in the world. This is, this is where it gets very interesting, but it's so true. So he's addressing me as an alien, a stranger, an exile, living in exile as a stranger, as an alien in the world.

Jesus wants us to know that we're not walking around with a blindfold on. We actually are living in this world. We actually are on that campus. We actually do have an office. We do have work to do. We do face sin. We do deal with hardship. We do struggle with our health. We do, we, we're living in this sinful world.

We do have governments that do everything they can to remove everything about God from everything that we have. That, this is real. You are aliens because you belong to me.

And yet at the same time, you're not living in a cave. All right? From whom? Peter. From whom?

Through the Holy Spirit. To whom? Me and you, living aliens, living in our world. By whom? So who did this come from?

Woo! Now we go, now we folks are here. Now we folks, have you ever heard the word theology? It means that which is about God. In these opening verses, God lets us know, and I'm going to put it in two frameworks for you to understand today. So by whom? According to whose authority are these things being said?

According to whose authority? Let me just read you one verse, chapter two and verse nine. Chapter two and verse nine.

We'll get there. You are a chosen race. By the way, you, aliens look at me. Strangers, fellow Christians, listen to the word. You are a chosen race.

A royal priesthood, a holy nation, get this, a people for his own possession, in order that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into marvelous light. We'll get to that in the next 25 weeks, I'm sure. All right, watch this. We're trying to, we're going to scratch the surface here.

Okay. Let's have fun doing this, folks. Come on, let's have joy.

I don't mean ha ha fun. Let's really have joy over these weeks, joy over these weeks, because this is triumphant living. This is the game changer. This is who we are. This is why our future is so incredible. Forgive the interruption, but it's true indeed as Dr. Don says, often the best is yet to be.

Don't go away. Dr. Don's completing his message in just a few moments, but he wants me to remind you we're here for you connecting both on our phone line at 866-899-WORD, ready to pray anytime or connect with resources. That's 866-899-9673, but also on our website at TEWONLINE.ORG. You can hear or watch today's broadcast from Dr. Wilton. You can also sign up for the daily encouraging word email.

It's easy to do online at TEWONLINE.ORG, where you'll discover great resources like this. There are crossroads in life. For some of us, those crossroads come very early.

Some of us, those crossroads come later on in life. But the greatest crossroad that we encounter in life is to choose between God and man. Being a Christian and spreading the gospel comes with a price.

Are you willing to pay that price when you come to your crossroad? This month, with your gift of support to the encouraging word, you will receive Dr. Wilton's powerful message, The Ultimate Sacrifice, and the bonus gift book, Fox's Book of Martyrs. You will be greatly blessed and challenged in your faith. The encouraging word is a viewer and listener supported ministry. Thank you for listening today. Again, that's just one of many great resources on our website, TEWONLINE.ORG.

Again, that's TEWONLINE.ORG. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. The triumphant church, by whom? Number one, the divine full knowledge of God.

Who's the authority? Where did it come from? It came from the divine full knowledge of God.

What does that mean in a simple term? It means all credit goes to God the Father, period. Somebody say, Amen. Everything goes to God. You and I can spend all day trying to explain. It begins with God, it ends with God.

Any further questions? In the beginning, God. Genesis 1 verse 1 is one of the most powerful statements that you and I can ever imagine. In the beginning, and I've said a million times, when was the beginning?

It was in the beginning. You will find yourself growing dizzy trying to figure out the deep, profound mystery of an eternal, holy, and righteous God. Faith is the demand of God, our heavenly Father, through the Holy Spirit to accept the fact that God is God and to give it all to him and to obey him completely. That's what faith is. We are a people of faith. We trust God. In God, we trust the divine full knowledge of God. It's the starting point that pervades everything about redemptive history. It is the only beginning of our very salvation.

You and I will never be able to come to grips that we were chosen by God the Father from before the foundation of the world if we don't understand that it's all God. By whom? The divine full knowledge of God. All my, all knowing, all wise, all gracious, all loving.

Oh God, why would you have loved us like this? By whom? The divine full knowledge of God. And secondly, through the divine sanctification of the Spirit. That's what he's talking about here, in the sanctification of the Spirit.

If I might just say to you, this is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. God the Spirit comes to me and convicts me of my sin in the presence when I see myself through the work of the Spirit. I see my sin in the light of God's redeeming love because of his holiness and righteousness. And I become compelled to repent of that sin before him and to confess my sin and to trust him. And instantly I receive the Spirit of the living God because God cannot be separated.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And the instantaneous moment I'm born again of the Spirit of the living God, the sanctifying power and work of the Holy Spirit begins his work in me so that I begin the journey of growing in the grace, knowledge, and admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. What are we going to discover? What is the sanctifying work of the Spirit referred to?

These are huge subjects. It refers to separation between my version and who God is. It refers to consecration. But most of all, it refers to the matter of holiness. The clarion demand, not the suggestion, not the inclination, not even the invitation.

Why don't you consider? It is the demand of the finished work of the Spirit of the living God that I through the Spirit am being called to a life of holiness. Be ye holy, because God is holy. Somebody say, amen.

That's what he's talking about. Oh, what does the Spirit of God produce? What is the product of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit? Faith, repentance, regeneration. Say, what's regeneration?

It's the formation of that which is new. How about adoption? That's the sanctifying work of the Spirit that you and I are adopted to become sons and daughters of God.

How does that happen? What about obedience? Obedience, he's going to talk about that in the very next word for obedience to Jesus Christ. Obedience to what God says is not an option.

It is the demand of the sanctifying work of the Spirit to follow him and to obey him. Church, we don't consider God. We do God.

We do God. From whom, Peter, through the Holy Spirit, to whom aliens living in this world, by whom the divine foreknowledge of God and the divine sanctification of the Spirit, for whom, who are the recipients of this? Well, verse, last part of verse two tells us who are the recipients? The receivers of grace first and the receivers of peace. That's you and me.

I mean, right up front, you don't even have to read to the end of the book. You don't have to wait for the big surprise. He tells us what we get. We're the recipients, grace and peace.

Wow. Grace, abundant mercy, nothing deserved. Peace, everybody in this world wants peace, this spiritual peace. So what does this guarantee us? Guarantees us three things, my beloved congregation. First, it guarantees us that we will really know who we are.

We're living in a world today where there are many who look at many and don't even know that they're Christians. But it begins with us. There may be someone here today. You're a precious person, but you don't really know who you are. How do you know that you know that you know that you belong to him? That's what Peter is going to tell us.

You'll know. Number two, we will really know what to do. He told us we're going to be complete and we're going to be equipped to do what we need to do to please God. Let me tell you, can I tell you what's going to happen when we study this together in the spirit of God? It's going to ramp up our faith and our trust. And number three, we will really know where to go with it.

Every answer. You may be today wondering this family situation, this work situation, this church situation, this national situation. This is what God does. I promise you folks, this is what he, that's what he promises.

Doesn't, the promise doesn't come from me, comes from him. I listened to or read, I think I read an article from Insight for Living. Love Chuck Swindoll, if you've ever listened to him. Love listening to him.

And I listened to a lot of people like that. And I want to put this on you. This quote came from him. This is what he said, Insight for Living.

You ready? So press on. It is in darkness and difficult times that our collective light shines brighter.

So press on. It's in darkness and difficult times, Christians, aliens, that our collective light shines brighter. Let your light so shine that others may see the completeness of your fully equipped good works in order that this dark world may glorify our Father, which is in heaven. There's somebody sitting here today and you wondering where it begins. And maybe for you, it begins with your own salvation. You struggled. I want to invite you today to give your life to Christ. I really do. Please give your heart to Jesus today.

Would you do that? What a powerful question on the heels of a powerful time of studying God's encouraging Word together with Dr. Don Wilton. It's our prayer that you've heard, not just his wonderful South African brogue, but you've heard the voice of God using this broadcast to let you know that God has a plan for your life.

He loves you so very much, and He's ready to receive you into His family. You've been listening to Dr. Don as a teacher and preacher, and you've been on as a teacher and preacher. And now as he steps into the studio, open your heart to what he wants to share next.

Well, hello again, my friends. Are you ready to give your life to Christ? You know, you've been listening like this and God has been speaking like this, hasn't He?

And He's speaking to your heart. I'd love to help you give your life to Christ right now. Why don't you pray this prayer? Make this your prayer because you know that God not only hears our prayer, but He answers our prayer too. Pray this prayer with me. Dear God, I know that You love me very much.

I believe Jesus came and died on a cross just for me and that He gave His life for me. Right now, I confess my sin to You and by faith, I receive You into my heart and into my life. In Jesus' name, I pray. Well, if you've prayed that prayer right now, in just a moment, we're going to send you some information.

I want you to listen real carefully because you can take note of that. We've got the means by which we can connect together and I want to connect with you because you're part of my family. You're part of the family of God. You are my brother, my sister in Christ. God bless you today. Indeed, I am back with this wonderful information. It's a point of connection, not just during the broadcast, but 24 hours a day. Our phone number, 866-899-WORD.

It's easy to remember, easy to store on your phone as well. We'd love to be a contact. And in particular, if you just were praying along with Dr. Wilton moments ago to give your life to Christ or rededicate your life to Jesus, Dr. Don wants to pray for you and wants us to send you some free resources right away if you'll call us and let us know about your decision. The number again is 866-899-9673, or meet us online as well at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org.