The Trinity in Our Salvation

1 Peter chapter 1 verse 1, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are 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, and for 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 to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Amen.

Please be seated. And if you have your Bibles, turn to 1 Peter. This is a magnificent passage of Scripture that we're going to be thinking of the next week or two. And you think of Peter, this fisherman called by the Lord Jesus from the shores of Galilee, and now as an older man, he's writing this brilliant epistle. It is so well written that some of the skeptics have wondered whether an uneducated fisherman like Peter could write in such wonderful Greek and detail such wonderful theology.

He is of course writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but he's a man who's been living for Christ, a man who's been preaching the gospel. And now he's writing to people who are scattered, who are described in verse 1 as exiles. He describes them in chapter 2, verse 11, as sojourners and exiles. They have been scattered because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

They are in these five Roman provinces that we have in verse 1, in what today, in what we know today as Turkey. And Peter is going to remind them of their identity in Jesus Christ and their security in Jesus Christ. And he's going to tell them that that is in God's magnificent salvation. And this salvation is not something which was initiated by them.

It was not something that they deserved. It wasn't something that they accomplished, but rather, as we thought last week, they are elect exiles according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. And Peter is teaching these exiles, and so us, as how they are to relate to one another, and also how they are to live in a hostile society in the midst of their suffering and persecution.

They are not to backtrack as it were, but they're to stand firm and they are to relate to one another in a godly way and to love one another and be shining lights in the hostile pagan world that they're living in. Now every week I produce a little worship brochure for our third, fourth, and fifth graders, and they complete it. Thank you for doing that third, fourth, third, fourth, and fifth graders. And I look at them every Monday, and last week, one of them, this is a fifth grade girl, she wrote on her worship brochure.

Now many of you were here last week and wonder what you would, how you would summarize last week. You say, well I've totally forgotten. Well there you are. So, but here's this fifth grade girl. She writes this, Christians back then were exiles just like we are today. But we don't need to worry about being exiles because we know we will go to heaven and stay there forever. Very good theology from a fifth grader. We have some wonderful children. Thank you, mothers and fathers, for teaching them. Thank you Sunday School teachers and Awana for teaching our children. So that we understand that our salvation is not based on our achievements, as we're singing it's all about grace, but rather our salvation, this magnificent salvation is grounded in the work of the triune God. Did you know this verse two that we read? Peter says that you are elect exiles according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood.

Now last time we thought of what it means to be elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, today we're going to think of the sanctification of the Spirit and for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood. And I thought it might be helpful before we look at the particulars of this verse to reflect on a doctrine that we maybe take for granted, but perhaps we also tend to forget. And it is an essential doctrine, an essential doctrine of orthodox Christian, historic Christianity, and that is of course the doctrine of the Trinity. And in verse two, notice in your Bibles, we have God the Father, we have the Spirit, capital S, that is the Holy Spirit, and we have Jesus Christ. We have God the Father, God the Spirit, and God the Son. So we are, in our theology, as a foundational truth, we are Trinitarian. That is, we believe in the Trinity.

So let's think a little bit before we think of the particulars of verse two of the doctrine of the Trinity. First of all, we have to say that God is one. God is one.

I guess we don't have any PowerPoint today at all. Am I right up there? OK. God is one. There is only one true God.

That is absolutely basic. Some religions have many gods, orthodox Christianity, orthodox Judaism has only one God. In fact, the basic confession of faith of Judaism is found in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 3. It is what's called the great Shema. Shema is the Hebrew word for here, and it means listen up. The people are about to go into the land, the promised land, but it's a land of problems because there are tribes there who are all polytheists. They believe in many gods.

And what's Israel to do? Shema Yisrael Adonai Eliehenu Adonai Echad. The Lord, our God, is one. Here, O Israel, what is Israel to hear?

What are they to listen? The basic confession of faith of Judaism to this day is called the Shema, that God is one. First commandment, there's no other gods before me. God is one.

There's none like Him. Over and over and over again in the Old Testament we read that the Lord is one, particularly throughout the book of Isaiah. The Lord is one. Yes, the tribes have many gods. And as we saw during the series on Jeremiah, the people of God fall into idolatry.

They knew much better. But instead of worshiping and loving the one true God, they are attracted as we are to false gods, idols. But God is one. In the New Testament, the truth that God is one is said over and over again. So here is our Lord Jesus in prayer to His Father.

In John chapter 17, verse 3, He says, this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. There is then only one God, one true and living God. First of all then, God is one. But also, God is three. Now when we say that God is one and God is three, clearly we're not saying that God is one and God is three in a different sense. That would be illogical.

No. What we are saying, I want you to try and understand this, tri-unity, trinity. God is one in essence. God is one in substance. There is only one being who is God. But within the Godhead, there are three distinct persons. God the Father, God the Spirit as we have here in verse 2, and God the Son. The Athanasian Creed of A.D. 400 stated, and we do have this one, here it is, we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity.

Notice that, one God in trinity, 400 A.D., one of the church fathers Athanasian, it's called Athanasian Creed. We worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the essence. We don't divide the essence. The trinity is not that God is one, that the Father is a third and the Son is a third and the Spirit is a third, that we'd be dividing the essence.

No. But neither do we confound the persons. Three persons, three distinct persons in one Godhead. So in historic Christianity, the Father is a distinct person, the Son is a distinct person, God the Son. The Spirit is a distinct person, God the Holy Spirit. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are co-equal and co-eternal.

So we are, this is very, very important, we are Trinitarians. Many, many, in fact most, could I say all, of the false religions do not accept this. Muslims, Unitarians, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons and others deny that there are three distinct persons in the Godhead. They may believe that Jesus is a historical figure. They may concede that He's a religious figure. They may concede that He's a prophet. Remember speaking to a Muslim from Saudi Arabia at the JFK airport, we got in a conversation, and I told him, I was a follower of Jesus, and he told me, he said oh, he said, we Muslims, we also hold Jesus in high regard. We also, I said, well what do you think about Jesus? They say He is a great prophet.

Of course, Mohammed is going to come after Him as the, as the other prophet. And I said, well, yes He is a prophet, we believe He's a prophet, and He's a prophet sent from God, and prophets speak truth. And Jesus claimed to be God, the Son of God.

There He said we must disagree. Jesus is a prophet. Jesus is a religious teacher. Jesus is a good man. Jesus is a miracle worker.

That is not orthodox Christianity. Yes, Jesus is all of these things, but most importantly, as we'll see in a minute, He is God. Many believe in Jesus, but they believe that He is less than God. Mormons believe that Jesus was the spirit child of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother.

Lucifer is the spirit brother of Jesus. Mormons do not believe in the Trinity. They are heretical.

It is occult. It is sub-Christian. They reject the Trinity. Similar with their friends, the Jehovah's Witnesses who come to your home, and you've had them come to your door as I've had, and what's their main theme? Once they understand that you're a Bible-believing Christian, they're going to try and persuade you that Jesus is not God. They believe that first there is Jehovah, God, and that Jesus is the first and the greatest of all created beings.

So first there is Jehovah, God, and then Jehovah created Jesus, who is the oldest of Jehovah's created sons, as Jehovah's Witnesses. Do we believe that? No.

Of course not. That's heresy. If Jesus is created, He's not eternal, and if He's not eternal, He's not God.

So, here again is heresy. Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe in the Trinity. Notice in our Scripture, verse 2, that Peter, riding under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, puts the Father, the Spirit, and the Son on the same level. Of course, he was at the baptism of Jesus, a wonderful day, when our Lord was baptized, and the Father speaks from heaven, and the Spirit descends on our Savior. So Peter understood the Trinity, that there was the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And here he puts them on the same level. We have today just witnessed the baptism of the three people, and we do that in obedience to Scripture, what we call the Great Commission in Matthew chapter 28, where the Lord Jesus says, go and make disciples of all the nations, listen to this, baptizing them in, literally into, baptizing them in the name, singular, intriguing, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all united in one singular name. God is one within the Godhead.

There are three distinct persons. What's the gospel? That God the Father, in great love, sends His Son from heaven to earth.

He so loves the world. It's all about grace, isn't it? In spite of our sinfulness, He sends our Lord Jesus on a rescue plan. And the Trinity reminds us that when God's Son was here on earth as a perfect man, there was no reduction of His essential deity.

Many people will say that Jesus exists, historical figure, but they deny His deity. So to under line that, turn in your Bible to John chapter 1. John chapter 1, the fourth gospel, and the first chapter. We've seen that God is one, God is three, tri-unity, and I'm emphasizing that Jesus Christ, our Lord, is God. And if you want to read a book which establishes that Jesus is God, read and study John's gospel. How does it begin? Let me read the first five verses of John 1, the gospel according to John chapter 1, verse 1, in the beginning.

Does that sound familiar? Genesis 1, verse 1, isn't it? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning, before time, in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. How wonderful, what a majestic beginning to this gospel where He is establishing who Jesus is. Notice what He says, in the beginning was the Word, the Greek word logos, that Jesus is the Word of God. He is the revelation of God. He tells us what God is like, so that He says to one of His disciples in John 14, He who has seen Me has seen the Father. That He is the perfect image of the invisible God. To look at Jesus is to see God, because He is God. He fully reveals God. He is the Word of God. He makes known the Father, so that to see the Son is to see the Father. Notice what it says there, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

It shows you two distinct persons. There is the Word, the logos, Jesus Christ who comes to reveal the Father, and in the beginning He was with God. Now there are different Greek words translated with. We have the Greek word meta, from which we get metaphysics for example. Another Greek word for with is para, from which we get paralegal or parachurch.

A paralegal is someone who works alongside an attorney in a legal situation. There's another Greek word sin, S-Y-N. We have it in the word synagogue, a meeting together with people, or we have the English word synergy, where you work with someone. But it's interesting that John doesn't use any of these words when he says that the Word was with God. He uses a Greek word pros.

He's saying that the logos was pros ton theon. The Word was with God. This word with is an intimate, close relationship. It is a face-to-face relationship. I work alongside my fellow pastors.

I work with them, but I am not face-to-face with them, wonderful although they are. But I am in a face-to-face, intimate relationship with my wife. So this is what John is saying. In the beginning was the Word. And this Word that was in the beginning was with God, face-to-face with God.

Do you understand that Jesus didn't come into being at Bethlehem? He's the eternal God. By definition, He always existed. And from all of eternity, the Father and the Son are with each other in this face-to-face relationship. Now, says John, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, pros theon, He was with God, and the Word, here it is, was God.

Isn't that wonderful? This one who is in the beginning with God was God. John is emphasizing the eternal existence of God.

You still in doubt about that? Notice verse two, He was in the beginning with God. And then verse three, all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. He is the Creator. There is nothing in the whole universe that was not made through and by and for our Lord Jesus Christ. He is not the first created being. No, He is the Creator. John is saying this, there's nothing at all that exists apart from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Isn't that wonderful? So the Apostle John, notice what he's doing here very carefully. He's distinguishing God the Son from God the Father. And the Father and Son exist in this close personal relationship. And the Word, logos, Jesus Christ is God. He distinguishes them, yes, but they're of the same essence. What is the Trinity?

I understand it's difficult for us. It is one God, we must be clear on that, there's only one God. Three persons, all of the same essence, acting in perfect unity and harmony. And, as Peter is reminding us here, think how wonderful this is that for your salvation and mine, think of it, God the Father, God the Spirit, and God the Son were all involved in your, take this personally if you are an authentic follower of Jesus Christ, they were all involved in our salvation.

Isn't that incredible? Talk about grace, it's all of grace that our salvation is in the hands of the Father and of the Son and of the Spirit. What did the Father do? Peter has told us, you are elect, you're chosen by the Father, you're chosen by God according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. What does the Spirit do? What does the Son do? Let's look at verse 2.

Here it is. So we saw last week that a true believer in Jesus Christ has been chosen by God the Father. Secondly, we are sanctified by God the Holy Spirit. Verse 2 again, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit, the sanctification by God the Holy Spirit. That is those whom the Father knows, those whom He foreknows, God the Holy Spirit sanctifies. Sanctification. You say, well that's a deep theological word, I'm not sure what it means John. I'm going to tell you what it means.

It means, very simply, to be set apart. It's the same word from which we get our English word saint. What is a saint? Not somebody who's been canonized and gone to heaven, no. We are saints. Paul writes for example to the church at Corinth and he reminds them in verse 2 of chapter 1 that they have been sanctified, they've been set apart, called by God, and called to be saints.

Who is a saint? An individual who has been set apart by the Holy Spirit. Now the means by which we are saved, the means by which we are made holy, the means by which we are set apart is the supernatural work of God the Holy Spirit. Pastor Caswell, as he baptized these three people, emphasized that salvation isn't through baptism, not through our own efforts, it's not through our sincerity, it's not through our religion, but is the supernatural work of God the Holy Spirit.

Look at verse 23, for example, of 1 Peter 1. He says, since you've been born again. Oh, how are we born again? Something that we do?

No. Since you've been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding Word of God. He's going to talk, he's going to write about being born again in verse 3 that we'll think of next week, but what we can say at this point, this is the work of the Holy Spirit. Here is this individual, they're spiritually dead, they cannot save themselves, they are not seeking God, but God in His grace acts in the life of that individual. And they are foreknown by God the Father, and now there is a supernatural transaction going on in their heart. Jesus explains that to Nicodemus in John chapter 3.

Nicodemus struggled with it. He's got his learning. He knows the law. He's sincere. He's a teacher of the law. He's a rabbi. He knows these things. Abbot says, Jesus, you're forgetting this. It's like the wind.

The wind blows. You don't know where it comes from and where it's going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit, sanctified by the Spirit. See, we tend to think that this salvation maybe is something that we can do.

No, it's entirely of God the Holy Spirit. This salvation is made effective in our individual lives through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit as we hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. How does God bring His message to unbelievers? Through His Word.

Look at verse 12 of 1 Peter 1. He says, it was revealed to them, the Old Testament prophets, that they were serving not themselves but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. How does the gospel come to you? How is this good news of salvation comes to you? It comes through the Word that was preached to you. And so the Holy Spirit who is sent from heaven takes that Word, that living Word, that abiding Word and applies it to our hearts. This is the sanctification of the believer, of setting us apart. Have you ever been convicted of your sin?

I hope you have. That's the work of the Spirit. I remember even as a little boy of eight or nine before I was saved, as I heard the Word of God, whether it was from my parents or preachers, I felt conviction. I knew I was sinful. What was happening? The Holy Spirit was working in my heart, convicting me of my sins. And then there came the time when my eyes were opened, when I understood that I must personally place my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

What was happening? The Holy Spirit was convicting me. The Holy Spirit was, in a sense, wooing me, drawing me, getting me to understand the wonder of the work of Jesus Christ so that at the point of time, I then call on the name of the Lord and I'm saved. So Peter is saying, and this was so comforting to these scattered Christians, I want you to understand this.

I know you're living in a very difficult world, but think of your salvation. You were chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in sanctification of the Spirit. This is the initial definitive sanctification when we're saved. Paul describes it similar. Paul and Timothy, Paul and Peter have the same theology. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13, he says to the believers in Thessalonica, for we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. Peter is saying the same thing another way, and this sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit must make a difference in our life.

If you claim that you're a follower of Jesus Christ, and it doesn't make any difference in how you live, you need to question, do I really know Christ? We had quoted by Julio in the baptismal tank, 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation, the old is gone, and the new has come. We are now, Peter says, to live holy lives. You know what it is to be holy?

It is to be set apart. Set apart from evil, set apart to Christ. Verse 16 of 1 Peter 1, since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. We were singing of our God, holy, holy, holy. Now Peter is saying, now that you have been chosen by God the Father, now that you have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit, you are called to live a different life.

In fact, you're called to live a holy life, and the Holy Spirit sets us apart. Now I remembered way, way back in my memory, an illustration my dad called, and this is for the children. And I think, I hope I have, we have a picture of, there it is, a picture of a dove and a raven. Now there may be some expert ornithologists here, and if you disagree, please just keep it to yourself. Don't spoil my illustration. Right? I was told this as a little boy, this is for the children, not for you experts.

You can nod off at the moment instead of critiquing the illustration. But the story is, you see the white dove, and Farmer Jones produced corn. And his wife was a kind soul, and she threw some corn outside, and a couple of beautiful white doves came and took the corn.

They loved the corn. There was a raven flying overhead and thought, you know, this is so easy. Mrs. Jones just throws corn, and these doves don't have to work for their food like I do.

And so he swooped down and started eating Mrs. Jones' corn. Mrs. Jones didn't like the raven. She thought the raven was greedy, was eating too much, and she shooed away the raven. Every time the raven came, she shooed it away, and the raven couldn't eat the corn. But he was a smart raven, and you know, this is what I'll do. I'll make myself like a dove.

So he got some flour, rolled himself in the flour, and became white. Now this is just a story, please. He rolled himself, because I really thought, am I going to say this?

I'm into it. I can't get out of it now. And I know you're thinking it sounds sillier and sillier as he goes on, but there's a point.

Stay with me. And he swooped down. He's covered in flour. He's now white, and he starts eating the corn.

And it works the first day. Second day he comes, Mrs. Jones, Farmer Jones' wife, looks, and a dove and a raven walk differently. A dove goes like this, and you know how a raven walks? It hops. It hops, hops, hops. So Mrs. Jones looks at it and says, that's not a dove. It doesn't walk like a dove. And as she's thinking about this, another raven flies overhead and sends a message down to a hypocritical raven saying, saying, dead rabbit in Farmer Smith's field two fields over northeast. The raven hears this and thinks, you know, this corn is really lousy. Anyhow, I want to feed on the dead rabbit.

What's the illustration? My dad told. Some people try to say they're Christians. They put in a little bit of flour. They go to church.

They may be involved. But when you look at them, you realize that there's not the walk of the Christian. They're walking as they did before they professed Christ. And their desires is not really for the spiritual food.

They still have a desire for the things of the flesh. And so I ask you, you're sitting here, most of you would profess to be Christians, so I'd ask you, if you're truly sanctified by the Spirit, if there's this supernatural work in your heart, because you can't do this by yourself. You can pretend to be a Christian, but a Christian, a true Christian has been born again, a supernatural work. The raven could not turn itself into a dove.

It could look like a dove, but when it came to the point, it didn't walk like a dove. So I ask you, is your life like a Christian? If you're followed this week, if we listen to you, now what about your desires? This is the wonderful thing of the Spirit of God, change is our desires. We desire the Word of God. We desire to meet with the people of God. We desire to serve God.

There is a supernatural work in our hearts, and so I have to ask you brothers and sisters, is there any unholy desire, habit, or behavior you need to renounce? Because Christians, Peter is saying, are sanctified. They've been set apart from their sins to God. They are chosen by God the Father, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. What a tremendous security we have that when we are saved and when we're, and our baptism illustrates this, we are baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Not the Greek word in and it's the Greek word ice, into. We are baptized into the name of the Father. What's the point?

The point is there's a transfer of ownership. Now, I'm a follower of Christ. Now, the most important thing about John Monroe is that I'm a follower of Jesus Christ.

I have been chosen by God the Father. I have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and there has been a radical change, change of ownership from doing what John wants to do, now to do what Christ wants to do, the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. And in the life of the genuine Christian, there is this growth, isn't there, whereby we become more and more like Jesus. The final one, of course, Christians are not only chosen according to the foreknowledge of God or sanctified by the Spirit, we are cleansed by God the Son. Again, verse 2, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood. Notice the obedience to Jesus Christ. Christians obey Jesus Christ. Yes, we are chosen by God, but here is the human responsibility. We must obey the gospel. The obedience of faith is the human response to the divine initiative.

God's sovereign election does not negate human responsibility, does not negate human choice. There must be a willing, a deliberate acceptance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus calls us to repent and to obey the gospel. Have you obeyed the gospel?

You say, what do you mean? Have you called upon the name of the Lord and been saved? You're still trying to save yourself. You're still trying to have a little bit of Jesus and much of the world that won't work. You are to repent of your sin. You're to call upon the name of the Lord. There must be obedience to Jesus Christ.

Salvation is planned by God the Father. It's made effective to the individual by God the Holy Spirit. It is accomplished through the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is obedience to Jesus Christ for sprinkling with His blood. Again, I say the marvel of God's grace, that the triune God is involved in our salvation. A year ago when we went through the book of Ephesians on Sunday evenings, we saw that in chapter 1. Read the first 14 verses of Ephesians 1, and again you'll see the same theme.

God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, all involved in the salvation of one individual. We are sprinkled with His blood. We are cleansed with the blood of Jesus Christ.

When we read this expression, the sprinkling of His blood here in 1 Peter 1 verse 2, we think of the Old Testament imagery don't we? How was the Mosaic covenant instituted? It was instituted with blood. Listen to the writer of Hebrews, Hebrews 9 verse 18, therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. What's the first covenant?

The Mosaic covenant. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled, there's a word, both the book itself and all the people. So the book of the law is sprinkled with the blood. The people are sprinkled with the blood saying, this is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you. And in the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.

Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sins. How are my sins to be forgiven? My sins which are many are to be cleansed with the blood of Christ.

When we take communion, we remember the words of the Lord, this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many. When was the blood of Jesus shed on the cross? He was crucified.

He was put to death. We are saved through the blood of the cross, through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. How can we then, who are spiritually dirty, who have shame, who have guilt because of our past, how can we be totally cleansed, obeying Christ and being sprinkled with His blood? Are you looking to yourself for self-atonement?

Do you think by going to a therapist you can work through some of these problems? Your shame, your guilt, your failure? This is a supernatural work of the gospel that God in His grace calls us. The Spirit sets us apart. The whole, the God, the Son, through His death, burial and resurrection, Peter's going to refer to a lamb without blood and with a lamb without spot and without blemish, that that life is given so that we can be saved.

So what are you to do? You're to look to God the Father, God the Spirit, and God the Son. The triune God is intimately involved in every aspect of our salvation. No wonder Peter says in verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's all His work. Elect exiles chosen by God the Father, sanctified by God the Spirit, cleansed by God the Son. What a secure salvation. I keep trying to tell you that we as followers of Jesus Christ are to be the most secure people in all of the world. This God who saved you, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is well, well able to keep you from falling, is well able to bring you safely home, is well able to deal with your suffering and your problems. This is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it, Jerry Bridges in the Disciplines of Grace says, your worst days are never so bad that you're, that you are beyond the reach of God's grace.

And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace. As you stand firm in the salvation, you will experience an abundance of grace and peace. Now what he says at the end of verse 2, may grace and peace be multiplied to you. The two great greetings from the Greek world, grace from the Hebrew word, peace, shalom, that we would have grace, that we take all of our fears, all of our worries, all of our insecurities and we bring them to this God, this God of grace and we stand firm in our salvation knowing that our salvation is entirely of His grace and asking that in the midst of the storms and difficulties of life, we'll experience this peace, this peace which passes all understanding, a gift from God. May every aspect of your life, my brother, my sister, be filled with the grace of God and the peace of God. We bow in prayer.

We're going to take just a couple of minutes for us to make response in our hearts. Some of you have not yet been saved. You need to obey Christ.

You need to call upon His name. You need to look to Christ for salvation. Some of you may be hypocrites pretending to be a Christian, but you know your heart. You've never experienced this divine work of salvation.

You've never been born again. Call out to Christ to save you. Many of us here are followers of Christ. We stand in God's grace.

We ask for that peace. You're troubled. You're anxious. You're disappointed, perhaps disappointed with God.

Life is not going the way you want. We ask for a pouring of His peace. Will you do that? Dear God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that on each one here your grace and your peace will be multiplied, that you will pour it on us abundantly, that we'll understand more and more of what you do in our lives, understand more of your grace, and receive as a gift that peace which passes all understanding. And so, today we reaffirm our faith. This is what we believe.

This is what we are trusting. A God who calls us. A Spirit who sets us apart. A Son, our Lord Jesus, who died for our sins was buried and rose again. Help us, Father, to love and serve you in Christ's name. Amen.