I would like to take just a moment
to invite you to pick up a little
piece of literature that I've placed in the
back as you leave this morning.
It is some information concerning Northeastern Bible College.
I don't know how many of you have
ever even heard of our institution, but I
could spend the rest of this morning, my
session here, just telling you some remarkable things
that God did over the years as a
result of the establishment of this institution.
When I was pastor of a church in
northern New Jersey in Bloomfield, along about 1950,
I think it was, I had a little
vision at that time.
I wanted to gather together a group of
young men.
I had in mind just young men in
the beginning, and I thought that maybe the
thing that was needed at that time was
to teach young fellows not only the content
of the word of God, but how to
preach it.
I was deeply concerned about what I thought
was an anemia of the Christian pulpit, and
I thought perhaps we could instill in young
fellows a passion and a desire to preach.
In fact, I used to call them our
preaching fools.
I wanted kids who would rather preach than
eat, if that's possible.
But, at any rate, that was the concept,
and then we wanted to, I further had
a desire to teach them how to win
souls to Christ, how to become experts in
the matter of leading people to a saving
knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
And our third objective then was to give
them a world vision, realize that there was
a great vast number of people in our
world who've never had a chance to hear
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
to give them a world vision.
So, we started.
I used to say, and still do, at
that time we had no campus, no faculty,
no administration, no students, no money, and no
sense, or else we never would have started,
I suppose.
But, we did begin with only three students,
and I must cut this short because I
will wander all over the earth telling you
about the school, but eventually God gave us
a campus in a little exclusive kind of
community in northern New Jersey, just about 20
miles due west of Times Square, New York.
So, we're in the great metropolitan New York
area, and there in a 17-and-a
-half-acre campus we established Northeastern then Bible
School.
And over the years, as I served as
its president, the school grew far beyond any
expectations I ever had or dreamed, until in
1980, after 30 years of serving, I felt
it was time that they got some new
blood, new ideas, new vision.
I figured that I was kind of getting
over the hill.
You know, by the way, I saw a
dandy motto the other day in a hotel.
It said, it's better to be over the
hill than under it.
How do you like that?
I thought I should have bought a half
a dozen of those and see if I
can get rid of them.
Well, I got the notion that I was
over the hill a little bit, and they
ought to get some new leadership and get
this thing rolling.
At that time, the Lord had blessed us,
and we had grown to almost 500 students,
and our graduates have moved out across the
whole earth, and we now have about 1
,800 or more graduates, and they are serving
in all parts of the world on mission
fields, as well as here in the homeland
in various capacities.
Well, I had the notion I didn't want
people going around the corner whispering he's a
nice guy and all that, but he's a
doddery old fool, and you ought to realize
you ought to get out while the getting's
good.
So, I got out while the getting was
good, and yet, and I shall not bore
you with the interval, but we had a
couple of presidents in between.
Things didn't turn out so good, so about
a year ago, they asked if I'd come
back, not as president, but as chancellor, and
that I would kind of bridge the gap
between the old days and the new days
until they got a new president, and so
that's been my capacity.
Some people ask me, what are you doing,
and I have to tell them I don't
know what I'm doing.
I'm just doing what I see I must
do, but right now I'm doing my best
to represent Northeastern Bible College.
It's very difficult these days to keep a
school on an even keel theologically, financially, even
morally, ethically.
It takes a strong hand at the helm
to keep an institution going straight, and we've
discovered that.
So, anyway, my job is to move around
the country and around the world for that
matter, and we've gotten off to visit many
of our students all around the world in
their ministries, and so I'm talking about Northeastern
wherever I get a chance.
If you want to get some more information,
please pick up one of the blue folders
that you'll see out there.
There's a picture book that'll give you some
pictures of the campus and what's going on,
and above everything else, we solicit most earnestly
your prayers at this time that God will
give us his special guidance and direction in
everything.
If you have any questions afterward, I'd be
very happy to answer them.
You have some grandchildren who are considering training
for the Lord's service.
This might be the place for them to
come.
Now, this morning we have just a little
shorter time together, and so this will be
kind of an introductory study to what I'd
like to consider with you in these morning
sessions.
Some Bible scholars think that the Apostle Paul
was martyred about roughly the year A.D.
64, and that probably Peter was also martyred
around A.D. 67.
Now, if those dates are correct, there was
about a three-year interval between the deaths
of these two great men of God, and
already there was rising on the scene an
antipathy antagonism to the Christian faith.
It began to dawn on people in the
Roman Empire that this was not just a
Jewish cult, a little offshoot from Judaism, but
that it was actually a brand new and
different religion.
And then, when they began to examine the
special tenets, the special characteristics, of this new
faith centered in this Galilean name, Jesus Christ,
then there arose opposition, and rumors, and all
the rest of it.
And so, persecution began to fall upon the
heads of Christian believers.
They soon discovered that it was costing them
something to become, or to be, a follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they needed
consolation, they needed comfort, they needed some kind
of teaching, admonition that would keep them loyal
and true in spite of this persecution and
opposition.
And among the letters written in the New
Testament to encourage the saints are the two
epistles of Peter, and particularly the first epistle.
It is written to comfort, to admonish, and
to encourage the saints of God in the
face of encroaching and already occurring opposition and
persecution.
Now, friends, you know, when we talk about
persecution here in this God-blessed land of
ours, it's just a word for the most
part.
You know how to spell it, but very
few of us have ever tasted honest, real
persecution for Jesus Christ's sake.
We get a little opposition now and again.
Maybe we do a little visitation in our
neighborhood and have a door slammed in our
faces, or we seek to give out some
gospel tracts and have some wise, smart remark
as people resist it, and we have a
tendency to say that's opposition and that's persecution,
but we know almost nothing about persecution.
I read an astonishing fact not long ago—I
can hardly believe it—where a report is out
that more than 30,000 Christians die every
year around the world for their faith in
Jesus Christ.
Thirty thousand a year are put to death
by one manner of means or another.
There are lands, there are places on this
globe right this very moment when the epistle
of Peter and those passages in the New
Testament that console the Christian and promise victory
in the face of fierce, satanic opposition are
most meaningful, maybe much more so than to
us.
But who of us can predict what we
shall yet face, even in our land, by
way of opposition and persecution, so that these
passages may indeed become far more meaningful in
days to come?
Now, all I wish to do this morning
is to establish the people to whom Peter
wrote.
It's most interesting what he has to say
concerning them.
Maybe just a word about Peter.
We all know so much about the Apostle
Peter, but his confrontation with the Lord Jesus
is recorded for us in the Gospel of
John, and it's most interesting to notice what
the Lord Jesus said when he first saw
Simon Peter.
And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou
art Simon the son of Jonah, thou shalt
be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a
stone.
The Lord Jesus knows who we are, but
he also knows what he can do with
us, what he can make out of us.
We may come to him with all of
our weaknesses and flaws, but by his sovereign
grace he can turn us into something that
becomes an instrument that brings glory to his
name.
And that was true of Peter.
He was classified, I suppose, among those ignorant
and unlearned men who had taken knowledge of
Jesus and learned of him.
That's how they were accused by their opponents
in the early church days.
But, you know, it's a remarkable thing to
notice Peter's insight into spiritual truth and even
great theological themes.
For instance, there is no writer of the
New Testament epistles who has greater insight and
clearer description of the work of the divine
Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, than does
Peter.
We'll see that in a little while.
He has remarkable insight on the Trinity.
I think that Peter was a dispensationalist, too.
I don't make any apologies for being a
dispensationalist, and I don't think Peter did either,
because he made it very clear that he
distinguished between the sufferings of Christ and the
glory that should follow.
He knew that there was some dispensational distinction.
He's crystal clear in his explanation of the
new birth.
If you are mystified, and we often are,
even by the words of our Savior to
Nicodemus, and we have to dig a little
deeper to get at the meaning of what
it means to be born again, Peter clarifies
it beautifully in this first epistle in his
explanation of what happens, and how the new
birth comes about.
He has wonderful insight into Calvary truth.
He had, in this epistle, he reveals to
us some of the Lord's activities between his
death on the cross and his resurrection from
the dead.
He has the most comforting message on the
meaning of Christian suffering.
In his second letter, he gives us a
wonderful insight on inspiration of the Scriptures when
he says that holy men of God spake
as they were driven along, moved by the
Holy Spirit of God when they spoke God's
words.
He gives clarion warnings on the dangers of
false prophets, and he has a very clear
understanding of second coming truth.
Where did this man learn all of this?
He didn't go to seminary.
He wasn't a learned man.
Well, he must have been a man spirit
-taught, and out of the depth of that
experience, he writes this letter to these people.
Now, let me read how he begins.
Sometimes we're inclined to hurry up and get
past the salutation of a letter, but you
better not do that with this epistle of
Peter, because you will miss a great deal.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the
strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and
Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God
the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto
obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus
Christ.
Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied.
That's really only part of his salutation, but
it's a very important part.
I have a friend who spent some years
on the mission field, and whenever I get
a letter from him, if it's a two
-page letter, I can count on the first
page being salutation.
It's like a New Testament epistle.
He'll begin, Dearly beloved in Christ, chosen in
the Lord Jesus, one who loves the Lord,
redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and destined to be like Him
when we shall see Him face to face.
Now, it does not appear what we shall
be, but we know that when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him, for we
shall see Him as He is, and therefore
we rejoice.
He goes on like that for a whole
page.
Then I turn it over, and he says,
I'm feeling pretty good.
How are you?
Gets down to the practical business, but you
can always count on his approach in the
most spiritual way.
It seems to me that he's getting you
set mentally and in your heart for some
of the practical things.
Sometimes they're not such good news.
Sometimes the letter will bring with it some
bad news, but it's all right with him.
Begins in victory, winds up in victory.
Well, even before Peter starts talking to these
readers of his about their forthcoming experiences of
persecution and suffering, he likes to get them
set by, first of all, pointing out to
them that where they are and where they've
been placed in the providence of God is
exactly where God wants them to be.
Notice, for instance, he addresses this letter to
strangers scattered.
Now, that word strangers is a most interesting
word in the Greek language.
I don't profess to be great scholar of
Greek, but I'm a great lover of Greek,
and I enjoy working with Greek words.
They're almost mathematically set up, you know.
You can have fun dividing Greek words.
They're parts that they're pasted together, or you
can separate them.
Now, this is a very interesting word.
It's a little difficult to pronounce, but it's
paredidimos, and it's made up of three separate
Greek words.
Para, which means down from and alongside of.
It's the preposition you find in the word
paraclete, the word that's applied to the Holy
Spirit.
He's the one who comes down from above
alongside of us to comfort and strengthen and
help us, and then there's another little preposition
added, epi, which means upon, and the last,
the main root of this word is the
word demos, from which we get the word
democracy.
It means the people, a people, but in
this particular case this Greek word means a
people of a heathen city, and so the
word, when it's put together, it means this.
It is used of believers who have settled
down alongside people of a heathen city.
In other words, you're located where the unconverted
heathen are.
That's where God has put you.
Now, with all due respect to this lovely
Christian community, you know there's some disadvantages in
living in a total Christian community, don't you?
You don't have any unsaved neighbors, so they
don't bother you much, but when you try
to reach out to reach the unsaved, where
do you have to reach?
Outside of your own community and find them
out here somewhere.
So, if maybe, if God has put you
in a place where you're surrounded by unconverted
people, don't wriggle, don't complain, don't try to
get out of it.
You may be like these recipients of this
letter.
You are strangers, the people, believers who have
settled down alongside the unsaved, and why have
we been placed there?
Oh, he goes on to use another term
here, to strangers scattered.
Now, that's a very interesting word.
Once again, we look to the Greek for
its meaning.
It is the word diasporas, and it's made
up of two Greek words in this case.
Dia, which means fruit, and spiro, which means
a seed from which we get our word
sperm.
Spiro, a seed, sperma, and so the application
here is people who are who are placed
by God providentially among the unsaved in order
that they might spread the seed of the
word of God, spread the seed, plant the
seed.
Isn't that remarkable?
That's what we are, too, and that's where
how God has providentially guided us in our
lives.
We are placed providentially among the unconverted in
order that we might spread among them the
powerful, almighty seed of the word of God.
Now, it might easily have been that some
of these Christians already tasting the fires of
persecution, for later on in the epistle this
becomes fairly apparent.
They may have been praying, Lord, change my
circumstances.
Isn't that the way we pray most of
the time?
I've got an obnoxious neighbor, please remove him.
Maybe God wants him there, because you and
I may need to develop some patience, or
some love, or some concern that we don't
now possess.
Change the circumstances.
No, God says we are providentially placed where
he has put us in order that through
us we become the instrument for the spreading
of the seed of the word of God.
Don't pray now to be changed in your
circumstances.
Be content where he's put you.
Paul said, I have learned in whatsoever state
I am therewith to be content.
Mrs. Anderson always used to translate that verse
by saying, I have learned in whatsoever state
I am except the state of New Jersey
to be content where I am.
She thought that was maybe the nearest thing
to the most unhappy location on earth, the
state of New Jersey.
Now, having said a word to them that
consoled them a little bit about their circumstances
surrounding them, so that there might now be
in their minds a little more contentment.
If God has placed me where I am,
and he's put me there deliberately among unconverted
people in order that he might use my
life to spread the seed of the word,
who am I to complain?
I shall not.
Now he has a word to say about
who they are.
He says, you are the elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father.
You have been elect by God the Father
through the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
You are the objects of the entire divine
trinity in your redemption.
You are God's elect.
Now, I don't profess to understand all the
vagaries of the doctrine of election.
See, there's some people who shy off from
that doctrine.
I used to think that words like election,
and predestination, and foreknowledge, and foreordination, and all
of those words, I used to think they
were Presbyterian words.
You'd have to be a Presbyterian to understand
them.
Well, they're not Presbyterian words, and they're not
Baptist words, and they're not Brethren words.
They're biblical words.
They are biblical truths, and while we may
have some difficulty in both understanding them and
explaining them even to others, they are in
the Scriptures not for our confusion, but for
our comfort.
You know, it's a remarkable, wonderful thing to
know that you're one of God's elect.
Do you know that this morning?
Because if you have any doubts about that,
get it settled, friend, before this day is
out.
You can make your election and calling sure.
There are some folks here who were in
our church up there in Bloomfield, but I
always think of an incident.
We have near the Brookdale Baptist Church a
little park, a nice little park.
A lot of people go out there, the
mothers that take their kids out, and so
on, and one summer, the hippies discovered that
park.
I don't know where they came from.
They must have come out from under the
rocks, but the motorcycle crowd and the black
jacketed crowd took over.
There were some couple of thousand of them
that came and camped there.
They drove the police insane by racing all
around the park with their motorcycles, and so
on, and it got to be a neighborhood
nuisance, and I said to our church officers,
I said, you know, we're sending missionaries all
over the world.
Why, God has brought a missionary opportunity right
at our doorstep, so let's see what we
can do to impact these young people.
So, I got them to hire about 11
kids from our Bible college, girls, fellas, Hispanics,
couple of blacks, and so on, and we
hired them.
We paid them a good salary all summer
so they wouldn't suffer when they went back
to school, and I said to them, now,
I want you to get out there, and
you've got to give us 40 hours a
week work.
Get among those kids and witness to them.
Whatever you do, don't wear a necktie.
Go barefooted if you can, and some of
you guys that have got beards, don't trim
them.
Keep them.
That'll give some entree to these kids.
Well, for 11 weeks, those kids went and
mixed with all these wild hippies, and all
the while, we had a fellow with a
movie camera who was taking pictures, and he
kept saying to them, at the end of
the summer, we're going to have a movie.
We're going to be in the movies, and
we're going to show it in a building
around the corner.
Never said church.
They would never come, I suppose.
A building around the corner.
Well, the summer came to an end, and
these kids were looking forward to coming to
see themselves in the movies.
Well, you know, I had to warn our
people on Sunday morning what was going to
happen.
I said, we're going to be invaded by
the Martians tonight, so whatever you do, come
prepared.
Don't be shocked by anything.
It was pretty tough for some of our
deacons.
You know, some of these kids came, and
they thought the backs of Jews were where
you put your feet.
They had never been in church, some of
them, in their whole lifetime, and it's pretty
tough for a deacon to remain spiritual when
he looks over here, and here's a guy's
barefoot who's been walking barefooted all summer and
chewing gum and spit, and over here, this
one, and he's wiggling his toes like this
by your ears.
It's pretty tough to remain spiritual, you know
what I mean?
Well, anyhow, they came 1,200 strong that
night.
Boy, the place was packed.
Now, they couldn't get used to our singing.
We sang hymns.
They wanted to jazz it up, you know.
They wanted to get it up.
Come on, let's get this stuff going.
But somewhere en route, I gave a little
gospel message, and I said this.
I said, you know, I want you to
know that I know that I'm going to
heaven when I die.
Not only do I know it, I know
I know it, and furthermore, I know that
I know I know I'm going, and in
case you didn't hear me right, I know
that I know I know I know that
I'm going to heaven.
Wait a minute.
One more time, I want to tell you
that I know that I know I know,
and I know I know I know that
I'm going to heaven when I die.
About that time, they began to say, he
knows, he knows, he knows, he knows, he
knows, he knows.
Well, friend, the only thing I wanted to
get across to them, and we get across
to ourselves, is that when you know that
you're one of God's own elect, that gives
a whole new dimension to life, doesn't it?
A totally new dimension to life, and Peter
is saying, no matter how tough it gets
on the outside, and persecution will come, and
suffering is as inevitable in your Christian life
as breathing, don't you ever forget you're God's
elect.
God has put his seal of approval upon
you, and chosen you to be his.
This must have been a great deal of
comfort to them.
We'll pick up at this point next time.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven, how we thank thee for
the sovereign grace of God that sought us
out when we did not seek thee, that
found us even when we were rebels, rebelling
against thy word, thy truth, and thy love,
and we thank thee for the electing grace
of God.
We can't understand it ever, but we rejoice
in it as a great fact.
Accept of our thanks this morning, in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.