passage in 1 Peter chapter 1
and actually I want to end up somewhere else. My goal is to
get to Isaiah chapter 53 on the unbelieved report But I'm going
to start right here in 1 Peter, and if I make you no promises,
I tell you no lies. I hope to get to Isaiah chapter
53, but this morning, looking at this passage in 1 Peter, which
was really just going to be the stepping stone to Isaiah 53,
I saw a few other things, and maybe the Spirit of God will
bring them to my mind. If He does, I'll tell them to
you, and if He doesn't, then they'll just stay hidden in my
mind somewhere. But anyway, I want to talk to
you about the unbelieved report. And I, as our brother was reading
there in verse 8, 1 Peter 1, whom having not seen, ye loved. Several years ago in Michigan,
I was preaching from this passage, and I got to preaching against
pictures of Jesus. Whenever I see this long-haired,
hippie-looking fellow that the world addresses as Jesus, I generally
call him Wild Bill Hickok. We know those are unscriptural,
don't we? And we don't cherish those things. We don't condone that sort of
thing. And I was dealing with that. And later that week, my secretary
brought me a picture. Well, a picture framed, very
nicely framed. And it had no face. And then
at the bottom it said, whom, having not seen, we love. I like that. Don't you like that? I recommend you hang that on
your wall. You could hang that on your wall.
Because we see him. I know that back in the Gospel
of John, chapter 12, when the Greeks came and They said to
one of the Lord's disciples, sir, we would see Jesus. They
did see him physically. Our Lord Jesus is not on this
earth anymore. He was here. Bless his name,
he was here. He did visit with us for a while,
2,000 years ago, because he had work to do. a work that the Father
assigned Him in the covenant of grace. And that work was to
save us from our sins. God gave to Him a people out
of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. And God the Father
trusted these people to His Son. You know that passage in Ephesians
1, who first trusted in God? Do you know who first trusted
in Christ? Do you know who first trusted
in Christ? God did. And He trusted Him to do the
work of redemption. And the Savior came into the
world to do that work and to finish that work. And He did
that work to the Father's full satisfaction. We know that from
the fact that He arose from the grave. and He went back to glory. Now those men said, sirs, we
would see Jesus, they wanted to see Him physically, they wanted
to hear Him with these ears. Our Lord's not here anymore.
He was here. He was here. But having accomplished
the work that He came to do, He's gone back to glory. He sent
His Spirit And His Spirit takes the things of Christ Jesus and
shows them to us, but our Savior in His body, and He still has
His body, doesn't He? He still has His body. He's always
the God-man. He'll never cease to be the God-man. He's the God-man when He's on
this earth. He's the God-man when He hung
on the cross. He is the God-man when He arose.
He is the God-man when He ascended. He is the God-man when the Father
said, sit right here at my right hand till I make all of the enemies
your footstool. He is the God-man who is our
intercessor. So we can't see Him physically. We are not looking for visions
of Him or anything like that. Somebody told me not too long
ago, I had a dream last night, I think the Lord sent me a vision.
I said, I think you had too much red sauce on that spaghetti,
is my opinion. Because God has revealed Himself
through His Son, by His Son, and that revelation is in His
Word. Christ is in glory. But we still see Him. You say, well, now you're contradicting
yourself. No. We see Him by faith. By faith. We see Him in the Word
of God. We see Him in the Old Testament.
We talked about Abel's lamb this morning. Abel took the firstling
of his flock. In that firstling of the flock,
I see Christ Jesus, don't you? I see the innocent dying for
the guilty, that the guilty might go free. I see Christ in the
Old Testament. I see Him in the rock. Lead me
to the rock that's higher than I. That rock was smitten. God
told Moses, when the Israelites were thirsty, God said, take
the rod, smite the rock. Water will come out, the water
of life. and it flowed and followed them throughout their wilderness
journeys. Christ is the rock who was smitten by the hand of
God's justice. I know men did it, but God used
men to accomplish His will. Somebody said, I hope that God
will use me. You can bet the bank on that.
He is going to use you. He will use you to fulfill His
will. He used Pharaoh to fulfill His
will and God hated that man. But He raised him up and He used
him to accomplish His will. And our Lord Jesus died. under the wrath of God. He's
the rock that was smitten with the rod of God's justice and
water came out. I see Christ there in that rock
smitten, don't you? I see Christ smitten there. I
see Christ wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.
I see that the water of life flows freely. And if you're thirsty,
come and drink. Who will drink of the water of
life? You know who'll drink? Thirsty
people. So I'm not going to drink. Well,
that's because you're not thirsty. God's going to have to give you
a thirst. David said, My soul thirsteth
for God. As the deer thirst for the water
brook, so my soul thirsts for thee, O God. We thirst for Him. I see him in that water of life,
and I drink. Don't you drink? Haven't you
drunk the water of life? And we're still drinking, aren't
we? That's not a one-time drink. I take this glass up and I drink
from it. But I'll drink again and again,
and tonight, the Lord willing, hopefully it'll be fresh water
in there. but it would be the same glass probably, and I'll
drink again. And this gospel of grace, this
gospel of redemption, this gospel of reconciliation, we drink and
we drink and we drink and we drink again, don't we? Aren't
you drinking this morning from the well that never runs dry? It never runs dry. I see Him. I see Him in the Old Testament.
I see Him in all the pictures. So do you. I see Him in the Gospel
narratives. I see Him come down here. I see
Him walking on this earth. I see Him living perfectly before
the law of God and before the eyes of men. And I see Him dying. I see Him as my substitute. I
see Him as the Savior I need. I see Him as God's sacrifice
for sin. I see Him as that one who enabled
God to be a just God and a holy God and a righteous God and yet
show mercy and grace, salvation to a wretch like me. I see Him. I see that blood flowing. And
I look to that blood for all of my righteousness before God. I see Him. Do you see Him? Do you see Him? I see Him as all I need. I see
Him as the Sovereign. I see Him as the Sacrifice. I
see Him as the Substitute. I see Him as the Sin Offering.
I see Him as my All. He's all I need. He's all God
the Father will accept, and everything God the Father demanded, Christ
has satisfied and finished. He's all. I have no other hope. I have no other plea. But that
Christ died, and he died for me. What about your works, preacher? They're all contaminated by sin. Yeah, but what about all your
prayers and all the sermons you've preached through all those years
that you've been preaching? Pitiful, pitiful. I've tried
to brag on Christ Jesus, and yet everything I do is so filled
with sin. Don't you find that to be true
in you? The finest, finest prayer you've ever prayed, if you think
it was fine, you're really in bad shape. Because we all know
it, everything's polluted by sin. It goes to God through Christ
Jesus. And He takes our prayers, and
He takes our gifts, and He takes our Bible readings, and He takes
our testimonies, He takes our witness, He takes our sermons,
and He bathes them in His blood, and He puts the fragrance of
His righteousness upon them and says, Hear, Father! And the Father
says, It's good. It's good. The Father accepts
us and accepts our thanksgiving. What sacrifice do we offer to
God today? We don't offer Him a blood sacrifice. Christ offered that. We offer
Him the lips of our praise. We offer Him a thankful heart.
We offer Him worship. Christ Jesus makes it presentable
to the Father, and the Father accepts us and accepts our worship
through His Son. We see him yonder in glory as
our intercessor, as our mediator. Not that he's begging the Father
to show us mercy. No, no, no, no, no, no. He bears those wounds that he
received on Calvary. They ever plead for us. Our intercessor. Quite often people say to me,
Pastor, will you pray for me? Will you pray for me? Yes, I
will. I got an email this morning about
a man who had died in Virginia. And my sister wrote me, and she
said, would you pray for the family? I will. I will. We've already had prayer offered
to God this morning. I prayed. Bill's prayed. I want
you to pray for me. And I assure you I'm praying
for you. But there's somebody else I'm
sure enough won't pray for me. The Father always hears him. Everything he prays is in full
agreement with the eternal purpose and counsel of God. He only prays
that which is honoring to the Father, glorifying to the Father. And listen to this, He only prays
for those things that are good for the people of His choice,
the people that He redeemed with His blood. Isn't that wonderful? That's our intercessor. That's
our mediator. But I've never seen Him. Never
seen Him with His eyes. Oh, but I've seen Him from my
heart. I've seen Him from my heart. I've looked to Him. I have looked. I am looking. I shall look by
His grace. Faith is not an isolated act. It's a persuasion of the heart. Persuasion of the heart. And
we see Him. And if we don't see Him, I know
who gave us eyes to see, don't you? The seeing eye and the hearing
ear. Yea, the Lord hath given them
both. Do you hear the words of His mouth? Never a man spake
like this man. Do you hear the words of His
mouth? I do. They come to me in power and
effectual grace. Do you see Him as the Lord over
all? Glorious forever, the only Savior
you need? The only one who can help you,
you're the helpless one, aren't you? Do you see Him as the rescuer
of poor sinners who need everything and who can contribute nothing?
Say, oh yeah, I see Him that way. Oh, that's a look that God
the Spirit gave you. And if you can't see Him, oh
God, touch the eyes of the blind that they may see. Get sight. Because if God gives
you sight, you'll see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Oh, my soul. And that's a sight
you'll never get over. I think about Peter, James, and
John on the Mount of Transfiguration. Simon Peter, he's still talking
about it when he wrote 2 Peter. Because he got a sight of the
glorious Christ who, as it were, pulled back the curtain and said,
men, look at me for who I am. See me as God. And the Father
spoke, this is my beloved son, this one, not Elijah, not Moses
that you've taken up with. Peter on that day said, boy,
it sure is good to be up here. Moses and Elijah talking with
the Lord Jesus about the redemption that He would accomplish in Jerusalem. And those three disciples listening,
Peter said, good to be here. I sure am glad we hiked up this
mountain today. Let's just build three tabernacles. One for you and one for Moses
and one for Elijah. The three of us, Peter, myself
and James and John, we'll watch and listen to y'all talk." And suddenly, God the Father
spoke. This is my beloved son. And Moses and Elijah, they were
sons of God by election. Adopted by God's predestinating
grace into the family of God. But there's only one who has
the title, this is my beloved son. The only begotten son. That's the Son of God. The Son
of God. Hear ye Him. Hear ye Him. I've seen His glory. Would you
sing last week? I've been to Calvary. I can say
I've seen the Lord. That's what you sang, wasn't
it? I can say I've seen. Have you seen Him? Touch my eyes that I may see
Him. Whom having not seen, we love
Him. We love Him. Oh God, I don't love Him like
I ought to. My love is pitiful indeed. And what little bit of love I
do have, I know it's because He first loved me. But I'll tell you this, if any
man loved not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. I'm setting before you the Son
of God, the Sovereign of the Ages this morning. Christ Jesus
the Lord. God over all, glorious forever. The eternal God who humbled Himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross to
save His people from their sins. And He's gone back to glory. if you don't love Him as He's
revealed in the book now. I'm not talking about loving
little Jesus, the little Jesus boy that's in the cradle in the
manger that people are going to be worshipping December the
25th. I'm not talking about that Jesus. I'm not talking about the Jesus
who's knocking on hearts door, waiting and wanting an entrance.
I'm talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not waiting on you to make
Him Lord either. He's already the Lord. God beats
you to that. He's Lord over the dead and the
living by virtue of His successful, successful redemptive work. Do you love Him? Do you love
His sovereignty? I love the fact that He's Lord,
don't you? I remember when Nancy and I was
in Bible college, and the Lord was beginning to teach us some
doctrine, learn about sovereign grace. Somebody put a copy of
Arthur Pink's book, The Sovereignty of God, in my hand. I read it
in one night. I just couldn't put it down to
even go to bed. I sat up all night long reading that book.
I thought, where have I been? I've been in religion. Of course,
I wasn't an old fellow then. I was only 18 years old, but
I'd been in religion since I was about six years old, and I never
had heard that. I found out God's sovereign.
God wasn't who I thought he was. God did his will among the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none could
stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? I found out
He's the Lord. I found out He's the Sovereign.
And you know what I came to understand and believe? That He's the Lord
over everything, the big things and the little things, and I
came to love His sovereignty. I love the fact that He's Sovereign.
Don't you? I love the fact that He does
what He wants to do. Well, this guy came over to visit
us. And he said, now, I understand
you're kind of tinkering with these doctrines. I said, well,
it's more than that. These doctrines, you know, people
say, do you hold to the doctrines of grace? They hold me. Isn't that the way it is? They
hold us. The fingers of God's grace get the hold of your heart
and grabs you. And it isn't, well, I can take
it or leave it. No. He took me. This is an effectual
call of grace. He taught me. He saved sinners. Salvations of the Lord. And he
said something about the fact that, well, if God is sovereign
over all things, well, that's like we're a bunch of puppets
down here. And Nancy said, isn't that wonderful? Somebody's pulling the strings. Is that right? Somebody's pulling
the strings. And I know who he is. And I love
the fact that he does too. I love the fact that in sickness
or in health, he's pulling the strings. In the big things and
the little things, he's pulling the strings. Preacher, can you make good on
the fact that God's in control of all things, He rules over
all things? Take a look at the death of His
Son. That's the worst event that's happened in human history. That
pure, innocent, spotless One who went about doing good, He
raised the dead, He gave sight to the blind, Hearing
to the death, poor old leprous came to him, eat up with leprosy
and their skin became like the flesh of a newborn. Nothing's impossible with him.
He does as he pleases, when he pleases, where he pleases. He pulls the strings. I love
that. No accidents. When you get sick, when the doctor,
you get some tests, you have some kind of ache or pain and
you have to go in the hospital, or they send you down to get
an MRI or a CAT scan or something, brain scan. Then you go back
to the doctor's office and the doctor sets down He said, well, I got some bad
news for you. You know what you can say to
the doctor? Listen, doc, I've not heard any bad news ever since
I heard the good news. The good news of redeeming grace.
The good news that my sins are forgiven under the blood. I'm accepted in the beloved.
So what do you got to say, doctor? I remember when Nancy was diagnosed
with this lung disease that she's got. And the doctor came in,
and we asked, first of all, is it cancer? And he said, it's
not cancer. He told her she had a genetic disease, and how much
lung capacity she'd lost, and so forth and so on. When we left,
of course, I mean, it shocked you. unfeeling, you know? I know God
rules over all things, but these things still, it's a right hook
that comes out of nowhere and you think, whoa! But then you
get to come and you sense, you know what? It's the Lord. Let
Him do what seemeth Him good in His sight. I love the fact
that He's sovereign. I love the fact that He's sovereign
in provenance. and that he's sovereign in salvation.
That doesn't offend me. I love it. I love the doctrine
of election, electing grace. The apostle Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2 about those who wouldn't believe the truth and God was
going to send them a lie and damn them. But, Not everybody's going to be damned.
Not everybody's going to perish. But we're bound to give thanks
unto God always for you. We're not going to thank you.
We'll thank God for you. That God hath from the beginning
chosen you unto salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. I love the fact that he's sovereign.
We love Him as He's revealed in His Word. We hadn't seen Him
with these eyes, but we see Him with the eyes of faith, and we
love Him. We love Him, just as He's revealed
in the Bible. And I do have a bit of a hard
time singing, oh, how I love Jesus, because my love is not
worth singing about, but I do love Him. Don't you? You love him, I love
him as he's revealed in the word of God. He's just the one I need. In whom though now you see him
not, yet believe him. Yet believe him. Ye rejoice with
joy unspeakable and full of glory. We're people who rejoice. We
rejoice in the Lord. Isn't that what Paul said? He
wrote this letter to the book of Philippians and he wrote it
from a dungeon. He was confined for the gospel's
sake. He said rejoice in the Lord always
and again I say rejoice. But brother Paul, you don't know
what circumstances I'm in. You don't know what trials I'm
having to go through within life, brother Paul. He says, well,
now wait just a minute. I'm writing this from a dungeon. I've been arrested for no other
reason than this. I preach the gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace to sinners through Jesus Christ the Lord.
That's why I'm in jail. That's why I'm in prison. And
I'm telling you to rejoice in the Lord. He's not saying rejoice
that this trial came your way. Rejoice in a specific trial,
although we should do that. But we rejoice in the Lord who
brings the trial. and who makes all things to work
together for our good. I know to us things seem like
they're happening at random. That there's no rhyme or reason
to anything. But there is rhyme and reason,
isn't there? Because each of us has a path
that God has marked out before the world began. And we're on
that path. I've said this, I've said this
in Michigan, I've said this to my family, I keep on saying this
to myself, I'll say it to you. If there was a better path for
us to be on, God would have us on it. That's the truth. Now listen,
if he's sovereign over all things, he's sovereign over the way he
leads us. And he's sovereign in the way
he leads us. Now I know I'm in water way over
my head. And you get over your head real
quick in the scriptures. When you talk about the ways
of God that are past finding out. But not only the good acts
of men, what we would call the good things that men do, but
even the wicked acts of men, they all fulfill God's eternal
purpose. And I love that. That's why we shouldn't murmur.
That's why we shouldn't worry. Lay awake at night, worrying
over things you can't even change. Things that I can't change. I'm
not just preaching to you, I'm preaching to me too. Our God sovereignly rules over
all things. Let's rejoice. Rejoice in the
Lord. With joy unspeakable. Look at
verse 9. Receiving the end of your faith. The goal of your
faith. That final salvation. That's what we want. The culmination
of our faith. See, the only thing that really
matters in this world, you know, people talk about how much they've
got, and every once in a while folks begin to brag on their
possessions. The only thing that matters in
this world is to know the true God, because this is eternal
life, to know God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. And the
end, the goal of our faith, is the salvation of our souls. The salvation of our souls. What's
your goal? You know, you go for a job interview.
What goals have you set for yourself? What goal do you have in life? Boy, wouldn't it shock some employer
if you said, the salvation of my soul. But that's our goal. I don't
want to perish. I don't want to go to hell. I
want to know Him whose life. I want to have Him whose life.
I want that life of God. I want Him. I'm not looking for
heaven per se. I'm not looking to kick up my
heels on the streets of gold. I'm looking for Him who is heaven.
Because wherever He is, that is heaven. He makes it to be
heaven by virtue of His presence. I want to see Him. And you know,
I don't see Him now face to face. I see Him with the eyes of faith,
but one of these days I will see Him. That's what Job said, I know
that my Redeemer liveth, and though worms destroy this
body, Yet in my flesh I shall see God. I'm going to see Him
just like I see you. Just like I see you. Just like
I see you. I'm going to see Him face to
face and I'm going to say like Thomas did finally there in the
Gospel of John. My Lord and my God. And He's going to say, welcome
home. Welcome home. I'll get to Isaiah 53 maybe tonight. These are the things I had on
my mind this morning, and I've done given you the things that's
on my mind, so I'll just quit. All right? Okay. All right. Come lead us in a song.