Chosen By and According to the Will of Our Triune God - March 22nd, 2026

All right. Well, good morning, everybody. If you can stand back up onto your feet if you're able. I want to read for us 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 1 to 2. This is the reading of God's word. It reads, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as exiles, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit to the obedience of Jesus Christ and the sprinkling of his blood. May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we come gather together just to collectively offer up our hearts and our minds to you. And Lord, though we may be at different levels of struggle to engage you and to lift up worship appropriately and joyfully, I pray, God, that as your word goes forth, that you would cause our hearts to stir, and that the joy of the Lord may truly be our strength this morning.

I pray that as we learn, that it would not just be exciting things for our minds, but that our hearts would be not only softened, but zealous, Lord, to live out what we say we believe. So we pray that you would protect our time. Bless it, and may it be a blessing to others through just our offering of worship as we go forth Monday through Saturday. And so bless our time. And we offer up a heart of thanksgiving collectively to you, and we pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Go ahead and take your seats. We have an older dog at home named Bailey. She is, we think, a Beagle Terrier mix, and we've had her since April 2013. So 13 years now. And so currently she's about 14 to 15 years old.

And we got her when we were living in Korea. And she lived with us for about two years in Seoul. And then when Becky was in her third trimester of pregnancy, we flew Bailey with us to the States. So for most of her life, Bailey has been here. And we adopted Bailey through a pet adoption organization. A group of volunteers from that organization came every other week to the subway station near our apartment. And they typically brought with them about 15 to 20 dogs, rescue dogs, to try and get them adopted and find new homes. So once we made a decision to adopt a dog, we went to the subway station to choose. And we were prepared to come home with a dog. And we had interacted with those dogs before, and we had a few in mind to select from.

Now for the record, Bailey was not Becky's choice. Bailey or Becky had been turned off to Bailey in our previous visits because for some reason they had cut the hair on Bailey's tail to make it look like a lion's. So she judged it by its appearance. And Becky grew up with a cocker spaniel, so she took an immediate liking to a brown cocker spaniel, but the volunteers told us that she was prone to ear infections, so we opted not to get her. So Bailey was my choice.

I had always taken a liking to Bailey because she was mellow, she was calm. She quietly came up to us, sniffed our hands, and then just invited us to pet her. And Bailey was sweet, so Becky soon started taking a liking to her as well. Pretty soon after that, we made the decision to adopt Bailey. We took her to the local animal hospital with the volunteer, paid about 180 dollars for all the medical stuff, and then we took her home. So a selection was finalized, a payment was made, documents were signed, and then we took her home. And that was the adoption process for our dog. And she's been a wonderful dog. We've loved on her for the past 13 years. We've loved her and known her actually longer than we've known our kids.

And objectively, Bailey is a very blessed dog because she has joined our family. First, she's been on a plane at least twice. I think three times. And this is pretty amazing given the fact that the majority of all the people on the planet today have never been on a plane. Bailey has driven cross-country to Maryland. She's traveled through more of America than I have. I've never been to Maryland. She gets a home cooked meal of rice, chicken, and carrots twice a day. She's well loved on by our kids. She has lots of toys. And at Christmas, she has a stocking with little stocking stuffers for her. Last year, the twins bought with their with their own money, got her a little squeaky bone toy. And Bailey doesn't have a care in the world.

She sleeps on a nice, soft, doggy bed at home, and she also has a warm, snug bed to sleep in whenever she goes with us to visit the grandparents. And grandma, she's bad. She regularly sneaks her pieces of steak, brisket, and scraps of filet mignon. So she is a blessed dog. She's got a good life. How did she come to be so blessed? There are other dogs in parts of the world that are daily mistreated. Dogs that are pitted against other dogs for sport, and the majority of dogs in the world are super skinny, flea-ridden, and they just roam the streets looking for scraps of rotting food to eat. What did Bailey do to earn such a comfortable, luxurious life? Absolutely nothing. She earned and merited nothing.

Her blessed life with us has been a hundred percent a gift of grace. She had no say in joining our family. She didn't choose us, we chose her. And she just happened to be a dog that somehow had been abandoned and then rescued and then brought to a random subway station to buy a group of people. And unlike the great majority of all dogs that have ever lived, Bailey was advocated for every other week by a group of volunteers. She did nothing, she earned none of this, and she has been cared for and well loved for the past 13 years, all by grace. Now, if I told you that our family took in and cared for a rat that we found digging in our trash, or that we rescued and adopted a family of helpless cockroaches, your reaction to this sermon introduction would be totally different.

You would have stopped in the beginning, right? You would have think you would think us very odd if we were raising maggots or if we were keeping a wild opossum as a pet. You would be disgusted by my family, or at the very least, greatly disturbed by our life choices. You would not look upon us with admiration, nor would you praise us for being benevolent toward living things. You would likely regard us as foolish parents. If we invited you over to our house for dinner, you would likely decline. You would never want to visit our home if we kept stray rats in cockroach families. And my guess is you would question whether or not you could even have me as your pastor. If that was real, right? Here's an important question.

What is the more disgusting act of kindness and grace? Our family adopting rats living inside of a trash can. Or holy, holy, holy God adopting a hostile sinner and making that sinner an heir of his kingdom. The unfortunate combination of our ignorance of the nature of God and our pride keeps us from objectively and accurately landing on the correct answer. Both creatures carry disease. But objectively, a rat is less disgusting than a human being. At least the dirty rat is just a mere unreasoning creature of instinct. Human beings are consciously destructive. Human beings plot for, take pleasure in wickedness. Human beings delight in perverse and evil things. Human beings consciously rebel and scheme for evil.

So before we jump into our first Peter passage, I want to take us, have a take a moment to ponder and think through a truth that we've heard so often that we unfortunately can easily take it for granted. And it's important to have these thoughts as the backdrop for our sermon. And so here's a summary of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Romans 5, 6 to 8. For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man, someone would dare to even die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Amen. You've heard that verse before.

So while we were yet sinners, we weren't just helpless, we were utterly vile. We were helpless and powerless in that we could absolutely do nothing to fix our vile conditions. You can give a cockroach a bath or even a pedicure. It still remains a cockroach, right? So here in Romans 5, the Apostle Paul says that believers once were helpless. And in Romans 3, the Apostle Paul had already established what man was helpless in. He had already described how vile mankind was and is.

God saved us from Himself. For Himself, we have been chosen. Hallelujah. And again, that is an infinitely greater absurdity than our family adopting a colony of maggots and tapeworms and raising them as our own beloved children. So it's an absurd and unfathomable thing, the gospel of Jesus Christ. So it's a profound and wonderful mystery, though, that I hope will cause us humbly to leave here in awe and in worship this morning. Amen. So Thrice holy God, the creator of the universe, chose not only to spare mankind, but to save and glorify man. Put crowns on our heads, 1 Peter 5.4.

And we have been elevated to the status of co-workers of the Godhead, and he calls us not only beloved friends, but brothers and sisters. So God's choice is dumbfounding as much as it is absurd. But what an amazing truth this is for us. So the gospel isn't just strange religious information, it's earth-shatteringly wonderful good news. Praise God that he is mighty to save and that he is mighty to choose. So first in 1 Peter chapter 1, we are introduced to God as a chooser. And we learned last week that we have been chosen by God from this feudal life. And we learned last week that he had chosen us for a great inheritance. And we also learned that he has chosen us and then designated us for the purpose of glorifying him by proclaiming the gospel to the world, even if, as often the case, that resulted in seasons of suffering.

And so today we're going to be looking at, continuing the introduction with this mysterious and incomprehensible God. So in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 2, we are introduced to a God infinitely different from us. He is triune. Right? And what does that mean? Our God is three and one. He is one God, but he is three persons. Each person is God, and God is one. And we have learned this concept as what is it? The Trinity. Now, we don't teach the Trinity because we can easily understand it and articulate it. We teach it because it's clearly what the Bible says about the nature of our God. So our God is triune. And we're going to see through this morning through 1 Peter 1 2 that all three persons of our one God are at work in the saving of his elect saints.

Because it's important to understand this before we praise him in chapter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has caused us to be born again. Before we get there, Peter writes, this is who God is. 1 Peter 1 1 2, and I'll read it for us again. Peter and Apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as exiles, scattered throughout Pontus Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bethenia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit to the obedience of Jesus Christ and the sprinkling of his blood. May grace and peace be multiplied to you. And so this morning we're going to be looking at how all three persons of our triune God are involved in bringing us out from darkness into his wonderful light.

And we're going to see how all three persons are one God, and how all three work together. That's the whole of the entire letter. Okay, so we're gonna there's gonna be a trinity mentioned often. So here's an outline for the rest of today's sermon. First, we'll be looking at how the choosing of the saints was according to the God the Father. Okay, it was according to his foreknowledge. So God the Father was our starting point. We did not choose him, he chose us. Second, we're gonna be looking at the role of the Holy Spirit in salvation. In our day, the Holy Spirit tends to be the neglected person of the Trinity, right? But the scriptures say that the Holy Spirit sanctifies a saint. The Holy Spirit transforms and saves the saint, the chosen of God.

And then third, the saints are the church given as an inheritance to the Son. Okay. The saints have been chosen to obedience and to the sprinkling of his blood. It doesn't say the saints were saved through the sprinkling of the blood of Christ. He says to, and that's gonna be very significant. So we're gonna be looking at these things this morning. God the Father, God the Spirit, God the Son, each one of the three persons of the Trinity choosing and saving the elect of God. We're not gonna fully understand how all of it works, because it is, again, a profound mystery into which even the far more intelligent and holy angels have long to look. So we're not gonna get it. So if you walk out of here, it's like Peter did a horrible job teaching about the Trinity.

I still don't understand it. I did a good job. That's why we don't understand it. Okay, but we're gonna be under, we're gonna walk out of here at least with the truths. And may the Lord inspire us through those truths into awe and worship. Amen. So the saints have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. And what is the foreknowledge of the Father? It does not mean that God predicted the saints' conversion. Okay, it is not a prediction. Okay. It's different from predestination, which the Bible also clearly teaches. In Jeremiah chapter 1, we see that Jeremiah was known and then set apart, basically destined beforehand, predestined to his life as a prophet. In Ephesians 1 4, the Apostle Paul praises God for the predestining of the adoption of the elect before the universe had even been founded.

And then in Romans 8, the Apostle Paul writes that God in his foreknowledge had predestined the saints, calling, justification, and conformity to the likeness of his son. So predestination is basically God foreordaining through his perfect will all that will happen. And predestination is different from foreknowledge. Okay? Predestination stems from God's foreknowledge. Now, you gotta pay close attention. A faulty understanding of foreknowledge is this.

That's not what foreknowledge means. It is not predictive. Is that does that make is that clear? The word foreknowledge, prognosis in the Greek, refers to God's eternal, predetermined, loving and saving intention. So the meaning is slightly different from what we know of the English counterpart. Okay. Foreknowledge is about God's intention more than it is about God's perception. It's more about his sovereign plan than his perceiving of information. The word for foreknowledge is used of Christ in 1 Peter 1 20. So Christ himself was foreknown by God the Father. You guys see that? 1 Peter 1 20, he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but appeared in these last times for the sake of you.

So this does not mean that God the Father looked into the future, saw the Son's willingness to sacrifice and shed his precious blood, and then determined to appoint the Son as the Savior of the world. That's not what it means. It means that God willed, ordained, and purposed Christ's death. So this is more an ediction than it is a prediction. Our God is in the heavens, he does whatever he pleases. Psalm 115, 3. Right? And even God the Son willingly submits. And so here's a passage that you're familiar with, and we're gonna uh likely be looking at this more in depth in the coming weeks for Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, but here it is. Isaiah 53 verses 4 to 5. Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried.

Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, but he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the chastening for our peace fell upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. This was God's foreknowledge. You know this verse. God the Father chose to redeem mankind through the piercing and crushing of his son. This was God the Father's plan from before all time. This was God the Father's will.

And pay attention here.

Isaiah 5 or 53, 10 to 11. Yahweh was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If you would place his soul as a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of Yahweh will secede in his hand. As a result of the anguish of the Messiah's soul, he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many, as he will bear all of their sins, their iniquities. So this is a mystery of mysteries. God the Father had willed this thing to be.

This had always been the plan of God. The plan of the foreknowledge of God had been revealed to the prophets long before the Son was sent into the world.

He had this in mind for his pleasure. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, made careful searches and inquiries, inquiring to know what time or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he was predicting the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you in these things which have now been declared to you through those who proclaim the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. So this is beyond us, because that like that makes God sound cruel, right? So the foreknowledge of God is a mysterious, profound and unfathomable thing.

And if you're having a hard time grasping fully the why in all of this, you're in good company. Because what does it say? Heaven's angels are dumbfounded and jealous for appearing into this salvation. God the Father would be pleased with the justification of the many. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us according to the foreknowledge and pleasure of God the Father.

Galatians 1 4. Amen. First, the saints have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, and now we're all like, huh. Second, the saints have been chosen by the sanctifying work of the Spirit. In other words, the saints have been chosen by the means of the Spirit's sanctification. The Holy Spirit is the one who transforms sinners into holy saints. It is not Jesus who does this. It is not God the Father who does this. The Holy Spirit changes the sinner into a saint. And that's a fascinating and interesting thought. The Holy Spirit didn't just show up on the scene at Pentecost after Jesus' ascension into heaven. The Holy Spirit is eternal and he's always been present as the means of sanctification.

He was always actively ministering and at work even before the foundation of the world.

And faith in the truth. It was for this, he, the Holy Spirit, called you through our gospel, that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is often treated as an afterthought or as the passive member of the Trinity. Right? I confess that I do that. But God the Spirit does not just play a role in the distribution of gifts to New Testament Christians. The Spirit is the person of the Godhead that brings the person out of darkness into light. The Spirit not only produces fruit in the Christian's life, he makes the Christian himself the fruit as an offering pleasing to God. Do you guys see this in the text? We are the fruit. Okay. What else then does a spirit do? If you carefully read through the scriptures, he does a lot.

This is not an exhaustive list, but here are some other things that the Holy Spirit does. First, it's the Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, Romans 8.11. It's the Holy Spirit that will raise us from the dead. He produces faith, Ephesians 2.8. He leads a person to repentance, Acts 11, 15 to 18. He regenerates Titus 3.5. He intercedes for the adopted saints, Romans 8, 16 to 17. The Holy Spirit conforms and transforms saints into the likeness of the Son. John 17, 17, Galatians 5, 22 to 23. Much of Paul's epistle to the Ephesian church is all about the Holy Spirit.

So in chapter 1, verses 13 to 14 of Ephesians, Paul describes the Spirit as both the seal and the pledge and the guarantor of our inheritance. Because the Holy Spirit is there, God cannot break a contract with you. It's a signature permanently. Okay. So the more I was digging through the scriptures for this sermon, the question that came to mind was, what doesn't the Holy Spirit do? It almost made it feel like God the Father doesn't do much. God the Son doesn't do much. The Holy Spirit does everything. If I'm looking through the actual pages of the scriptures, so the Holy Spirit, the second person of the Godhead, is the primary agent for our salvation. He is the means for our sanctification.

So we got to sit on that a little bit. And then the saints have been also chosen according to the Father by the Spirit. And thirdly, we have been chosen to a twofold purpose to the Son. The first one says, to the obedience of the Son, and then to the sprinkling of his blood. The word to is the operative word. It isn't by the Son, it isn't through the Son, or for the Son. You guys tracking? It is to the Son. And what does this mean? In a general and broad sense, we the saints, the church, the bride of Christ, we are an inheritance prepared for Christ the Son. We are a gift presented by the Father to the Son.

You guys tracking a little bit? Colossians 1.16 reads, for in Christ, all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through the Son and for the Son. So we are given to the Son. Okay? So hopefully you caught this. Everything exists as an inheritance for God the Son. So you and I have been created by Christ and for Christ to love, glorify, and to serve Christ. Christ does not exist to save us. We exist for him. Christ was slain for us, yes. But it was primarily so that we would become an inheritance and a gift for him.

So the elect saints, the chosen of God, have been prepared for the purpose of being gifted to the Son from the foundation of the world. You are a present. Amen. So here, listen to a portion of the prayer from God the Son to God the Father, John 17. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory which you have given me. For you loved me before the foundation of the world. So we are Christ's inheritance. So the church, his bride, the function of our present is to make ourselves ready to be a presentable gift to the bridegroom, Revelation 19, 7.

Amen. He is King of kings, Christ is Lord of Lords, He is the owner, He is the master, He is Lord. He owns everything. So we are to fully obey, and we are to obey fully. It is a theological impossibility for Christ to be primarily Savior and not be Lord. That's what we call Lordship salvation. Christ was never meant to be primarily Savior. He is Lord. In fact, pay attention here, it's a far greater priority to God that Christ be your Lord than Christ be your Savior. Because Christ is everyone's Lord. Christ is not going to be everyone's savior. So for Jesus Christ, his primary passion for you is you submit to his lordship far more than him saving you for your glory and for your joy.

Does this make sense? God the Father has placed all things under the feet of God the Son. Christ is the head over all things to the church, his bride and his inheritance, Ephesians 1, 18 to 22. So he is the bridegroom, he is the master of the house, he is a celebrated and exalted king, all in Matthew chapter 25. We are his workmanship, Ephesians 2.10, saved and prepared for good works to the glory of his name. Ephesians 2, 8 to 10 tells you not just how you were saved, but it tells you why you were saved. Okay? Verse 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast. Amen. We know this passage. Verse 10, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand in the foreknowledge of God, so that we would walk in them.

So we shouldn't only quote verse 8 to 9. Whenever we quote Ephesians 2:8, 9, we should always include verse 10, lest we forget the purpose for which we have been created and saved. So we have been chosen to first the obedience of Jesus Christ unto good works. We have been chosen to obey. Amen. And then two, the sprinkling of his blood. The apostle Peter brings in the Old Testament analogy that believers were sprinkled with Christ's blood. Now, you're gonna have to pay attention here. According to the Mosaic law, there are three reasons typically for the sprinkling of blood. First, sprinkling was done for cleansing. Blood was sprinkled on lepers, Leviticus 14, representing a cleansing.

Make sense. Second, blood sprinkled on the altar of God, Leviticus 17 11 represented the atonement of sins. And what that represented was a change in standing. You were guilty. Blood? Okay, now you're innocent. It's a change in standing. The blood sprinkled on the altar represented forgiveness and the verdict of innocent. Blood payment was required for this. And as it says in Hebrews 9 22, without the shedding of blood, there is no what? There's no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. So, second, the sprinkling of blood upon God's altar represented God's willingness and commitment to the forgiveness of the sins of his people. So first, what did the sprinkling happen for? Cleansing. Second, what did the sprinkling happen for?

Atonement for sins. Those are not the only things that Apostle Peter is referring to here. Actually, I don't think he's referring to those two things here. Pay attention. He writes that the saints have been chosen to the sprinkling of blood. And here's a third reason. I'm going to read for you, Exodus 29, 21. Then you shall take some of that blood that is on the altar, and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and on his garments, and on his sons and on his sons' garments with him. So he and his garments are set apart as holy, as well as his sons and his sons' garments with him. So the sprinkling of blood, the third reason, also happened at the anointing of priests after their or at their ordination.

You guys following? The sprinkle blood from the altar was to be taken and then flung onto and sprinkled on the priests. And that sprinkle blood set apart not only the priest's garments, but also the priest's very being. So the setting apart, the sanctifying was not only external, it was for the internal. So, what did the priests functionally do for their ministry and service to God? Think about this. What do priests do?

Priests sprinkled blood for cleansing and for forgiveness of sins. First two reasons, right? Blood was sprinkled on the priests in order for them to sprinkle blood on others who needed cleansing and atonement. Blood was sprinkled on the priests so that they could sprinkle blood on others. The word to is not a grammatical error here. It's deliberate and it's operative. Christ's blood, yes, was shed for our cleansing. Amen. Christ's blood was on the altar, yes, for our change of standing, for our atonement. But Christ's blood was shed so that we have been chosen to a priestly function in and for this world. Now, if you're thinking, you're kind of stretching it, you're making it up. Because that's not the natural reading when you read this, right?

Oh, and the sprinkling of his blood. Did you guys pause there? You didn't. You're like, okay, he covered me with his blood. 1 Peter 1, 2 to 9, or 2, 9 to 10, what does it read? You are a chosen family of what? Huh? You are a priest. You were saved by the priest to be a priest and to be a collective of priests. A people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Come to the table. Come, all you who are weary and heavy laden, come. He will give you joy. Come for cleansing, come for forgiveness. Come. And as members of a royal priesthood, a holy and obedient priesthood, you and I have been set apart for the making of spiritual sacrifices to the pleasure of God.

For the what? Why have you been saved? To make spiritual sacrifices for the pleasure of God. I'm gonna go back a couple verses. I I forgot to highlight it. I saw it after I sent it in. You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for what? A holy priesthood. You offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. You were not just say sprinkled for cleansing, you were not just sprinkled on for a change of standing, you were sprinkled on to sprinkle. Are you guys following this? So here's a very, very, very important question. Are you being obedient to your calling as a priest?

I thought that was just Pastor Peter's job. No. Are you being obedient? Because remember, he cares more about your obedience and about your salvation, right? Are you being obedient to your calling as a priest? Are we collectively being obedient to our calling as priests? Are we equipping ourselves deliberately for the task? Are we cleansing ourselves like the priests would in order to cleanse? Did you even know about this calling? No? Well, now you do. Ha ha. God bless you. All right. Now you're responsible. I didn't know that that was my job. Yeah. Because Christ called you to this. Not just as his inheritance, but as his co-worker. The themes of obedience and priestly ministry run through the entire letter.

If you read 1 Peter, you're noticeable that believers are to obey and then to serve as humble priests to hostile authorities, harsh masters, unbelieving spouses, to mockers, to scoffers, to all persecutors, because who is the great high priest that did the same to everybody? Our Lord, who set himself as an example for you to follow, 1 Peter 4 1. God's chosen priests are to intercede on behalf of sinful man the holy God. To give ready a defense. So sanctify your hearts. Christ, so sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, 1 Peter 3:15. And always be ready to give a defense for him who called you out of darkness into his light, right? And you know what the priests were especially supposed to do?

They were supposed to be very priestly to one another. Believers were to forgive and cover over a multitude of other priests' sins. 1 Peter 4:8. You know, 4, 7, and 8. You know what it says? Above all, love one another fervently, for love covers over what? A multitude of sins. Cover over multitude of sins. So we have been saved to obedience and to the sprinkling of blood of Christ, as both his servants and as his representative priests. Amen. So we have been chosen according to God the Father by God the Spirit to God the Son. And we serve a wonderful triune God who is far different from us. His ways are not our ways, nor are our thoughts like his thoughts. God is completely other. And it is no wonder why we can't wrap our minds around a God who is three persons and one God.

Praise be to God for his choosing of us. Amen. And we don't need to understand it for us to believe it. We have adopted Bailey into our family. We love her. We chose her. We've sustained her. We've cared for her these past 13 years. One of us has even shed tears for her. And it's not me. And you know what Bailey doesn't do? She does not grieve the fact that we didn't choose all the other dogs that were there with her every other week at the subway station. How come, if you guys are such benevolent owners, you left all of them behind. She doesn't hide behind that as an excuse. Bailey simply enjoys all that we provide for her. She's actually pretty dumb. Okay? Becky thinks she's really smart.

I find her to be kind of dense. All right. First, she doesn't really understand what we're talking about as a family. She just comes up. When someone, people are coming over to our house and someone's crying in front of us and they're getting counseling, she doesn't realize the importance of the moment, and she comes up to us and kicks us to say, take me out to pee. She has no idea where we all go when we leave the house. She doesn't understand what the twins and I are doing when we're playing a board game. Bailey doesn't know that I'm a pastor. Bailey has no idea Becky works for a school. She has no idea even what a school is. She doesn't know how our finances work that puts food in her bowl.

And you know what's most insulting of all? She doesn't know how blessed she is to be part of our family. She doesn't know how good she has it. Even if we try to articulate all of this to her, even if we said it in English, Korean, and Chinese every day, she wouldn't know. If we showed her a movie of how good we are, who we were before, how we've come to love her, she wouldn't understand. Even if we wrote it down in a book, she wouldn't understand. The limitations of our dog's understanding do not stem from the validity of the truth or the fact of these things. The limitations stem from her inability to fully understand. Because our ways are not her ways. Our thoughts are not her thoughts. We are completely different, completely other from Bailey.

And from even the smartest dogs on the planet. But do you know what she does understand? She understands that we care for her. She understands that she could trust us. She understands that we are safe. So she could sleep and snore away in her comfortable beds, plural, and then she's fine. All Bailey has to do is to trust us, and she does.

That's all she has to do to be happy. Trust and obey, for there's no other way for her to be happy in the Chang family than to trust and obey.

It is for our joy that we chose her. We don't exist for her. She exists for us, and what a blessed existence it is because she is in our family. What is the greater distance? The distance between you and any chosen pet, or the distance between you and holy, holy, holy God who has adopted you eternally through and for himself.

As we grow in knowledge of Him, however limited it may remain, may we grow in trust and obedience. Amen. Even if we don't understand. May we grow in the knowledge of our Savior and our Lord. But here's a fascinating thing. Here's the most profound of all things. Unlike dogs or all other unreasoning creatures, your knowledge one day will not be limited. It will be perfect. You will speak to this God face to face, mouth to mouth, as it says literally in the Hebrew, as a friend. Does that make sense? We're not going to stay in our current situation like a dog who has no soul. We will be changed in an instant, in a heartbeat, 1 John 3. And we will see him as he is.

And you cannot understand it fully. But what you do understand, oh, we gotta do our best to listen. Let's let's quickly try to apply what we do know. It's an amazing gift, this gift of salvation. I'm going to close with a reading of our text, and I pray that it evokes awe and delight in your soul now that we've kind of gone through it deeply. 1 Peter 1, 1 to 2, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as exiles, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bethynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to the obedience of Jesus Christ, and to the sprinkling of his blood. May grace and peace abound in you, be multiplied to you.

Let's pray together. Father, help us to apply these wonderful things that we don't fully understand. Help us to articulate these wonderful truths that we don't fully understand. And though we can't always articulate or explain why we trust you or why we love you and why we sacrifice for you.

Help us to fulfill our responsibility as a royal priesthood faithfully for your glory and for our joy. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.