We're in the book of 1 Peter.
1 Peter chapter 1. Peter has been
given the task of speaking comfort to the persecuted church. In
AD 64, in our history, we have an emperor in Rome called Nero. And he wanted to build a city
to commemorate his glory. He desired to be remembered.
He desired to be recognized. And you can see that's all through
history. Nebuchadnezzar had a 60-foot
statue of himself. And then the Pharaoh built the
pyramids and the sphinx, all the things that, that's what
men do, look at me and want to be remembered thereby. I can say with confidence I can
say with absolute certainty I have no interest in building a legacy
for myself. I'm here just to try to tell
you the good news. I'm a dead dog sinner that's
found a crumb from the master's table. I know where the table's
at, and this is the table. I pray the Lord would cause us
to be able to feed off that table tonight. This Nero, though, didn't
know who God was, and he decided he was going to make a city that
would be able to, he could be remembered by. And so he decides
to set fire to some of the buildings that were in the way, and did
so, and ended up burning the entire city down to the ground,
just left it in ashes. Well, you can imagine the people's
response as they were wanting to accuse someone. Somebody had
to be blamed, and it looked like all things pointed to the king,
and it certainly did. But because there was a group
of newer minded individuals called Christians, he blamed the Christians. He was against them anyways,
their ideals, the way that they would greet each other with a
heavenly kiss. It was odd that they were gathering
together in small groups and it made them a bit uneasy. And
the church started becoming persecuted at that time. And what I mean
by persecuted is literally put to death. They burnt some at
the stake. They made games in the gladiator
arena with wild animals coming up against a defenseless person
that professed Christ. That's how he handled it with
sport. He made it into a show. And this
is what Peter is tasked in doing, is writing a letter to those
who are being persecuted like this. I'm not talking about people
who are just the possibility of being in prison. I'm talking
about people that are being put to death. And he's writing to them
to give them encouragement. What a task that would be. What
would be the encouragement that I would write? Or what would
be the encouragement you would write? And we know it's the same
message right now regardless of what you're going through
or regardless what I'm going through, regardless of what all
they were going through, it's Christ Jesus. There's our hope.
It's not in the circumstance. And it's interesting that I think
it's been three Wednesdays in a row that we're literally talking
about fleshly circumstances and how the Lord uses those in order
to bring us unto him in order to cause us to have no confidence
in the flesh. These that were being persecuted,
they had no confidence in saving themselves. They couldn't have
raised up an army to fight against the Romans. They were being persecuted
and the Lord permitted that for his glory. And we know for their
good, even though it may not seem that way, that's how it
is because that's what the Lord says. So Peter writes them a
letter of comfort. He is tasked with the burden
of speaking comfort to the persecuted church. No matter the circumstances,
the message is the same it's Christ Jesus is the Lord and
Savior of his people's soul would the Lord say whenever he was
on the earth, he said fear not man that can just destroy the
body but fear God who can destroy both the body and soul inhale
what the Lord told us. Know that the Lord doeth all
things well. He does it for his people's good and for his glory. Now let's read our text again. I'm not going to read 12 verses
this time, just read nine, but we're going to end up going through
some other portions of this chapter. First Peter chapter one, verse
one says, 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. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance, incorruptible,
undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for
you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein you greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through
manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith being much
more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried
with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at
the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not see you love,
in whom, though now you see him not yet believing, you rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of
your faith, even the salvation of your soul. I've titled the
message Precious Trials. Precious Trials. He said the
trials of your faith being much more precious than gold that
perisheth. Titled it Precious Trials. Can you imagine the fear
that would have been in the hearts of the people that Peter was
writing to? And how often our lives, we have
distresses, we have doubts, we have worries. If you have children,
you know exactly what I'm talking about. And if you don't have
children, you know what I'm talking about. Most of our stress in my household
comes from worrying about our children, concern for their health
or their safety. Every time my phone rings, I'm
concerned that it may be one of my children needing me again.
What's my point? Well, we don't understand what
it's like to be persecuted like these individuals here, but we
do know what fear is, don't we? Certainly. We do know what doubt
is, don't we? We do know what unbelief is,
and we do know that we're full of it. Everything that happens,
everything that's happened here and everything that's happening
in our life is ordained by purpose. And in that purpose, in that
design of grace, the Lord is driving us to Christ, making
him the one thing needful. The only way that we can rejoice
trial that we are facing, whatever it may be, He said, you rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. How? Because He uses
the word hope here multiple times. Multiple times He said, you have
hope in Christ because He was resurrected. You have hope in
Christ. All throughout the, His theme throughout this whole thing
is the salvation of the Lord's people. The hope that the Lord's
people have in the salvation, in the redemptive work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is where we can rest and nowhere else. The fear that these individuals
would have had, he calls in verse six, heaviness. Heaviness through
manifold temptations. That word heaviness, the word
heaviness means sorrowful. Sorrowful. What could I tell
you that would bring you peace in these circumstances if you
were in this? What could you tell me? What's the one thing
we want to hear that My 401k has, I don't even have a 401k,
so I'm not picking on anybody, but I'm just using this as an
example. My 401k doubled today because I hit the numbers hit
just right. Well, you understand what I'm
saying. Is that comforting to me? Not when it comes pertaining
to my soul. Not when it comes to death. Can't
take it with me. I heard a preacher say one time,
and this is a good analogy, you never see a hearse pulling a
U-Haul. It just doesn't exist, right? Can't take it with you,
can you? No. What's the comfort then? Well, maybe if I do a little
more, maybe if I work a little harder, maybe if I pray a little
more, where's the comfort in doing? There is none, there is
none. The comfort to the Lord's people
is these three words, it is finished. There's comfort, there's rest. You mean no matter what I'm facing,
it is finished? Yes. No matter what I'm going
through, it is finished, yes. No matter what I do or what I
don't do, it is finished, yes. It is finished. And the Lord
calls these trials that you're facing precious. Precious trial. Why? He's refining you. He's refining his people. And
it uses the example of gold. If the fire is never given to
the gold, the dross will never be pulled out. The only way for
the dross to be released from the gold is fire. Fire hurts,
don't it? But you can be well assured,
brethren, you can be assured of this, that if the Lord puts
you in the fire, he's gonna be right there with you. He promised,
I'll never leave you nor forsake you. He promised that. We know
that that's the example we heard even last Wednesday about the
three Hebrew men that were in the fiery furnace. The Lord was
there with them, wasn't he? He never left them to themselves.
The Lord was with them. Peter's telling them, that they're elect, that they're
sanctified by the blood. He's reminding them of the gospel.
There's our comfort. The Lord said, I'll never leave
you nor forsake you. Why? Because he became forsaken
for his people. Those who are elect before the
foundation of the world, he came, he shed his precious blood for
us. Peter's talking about here. You have in verse two, elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, under the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. That's the three, that's the gospel, isn't it?
The Father elected a people, the Son redeemed those people
by His own blood, honoring the Father and everything, and the
Spirit regenerates them. They're now considered sanctified
in the Lord's eyes, they're considered perfectly righteous, they're
justified. That means no matter what you face, No matter what
hurt you feel, no matter what doubts may come your way, rest. It is finished. It is finished. You and I have no part in contributing
to this salvation. There's rest in that. I can't
mess it up. I know I say that often, but
I love saying that. I can't mess it up. You know
what comfort that is? If you've ever seen yourself
as somebody that messes up a lot, I tell my children, if you're
going to mess up, you better be a good fixer. You better be a real good
fixer if you're going to mess up like that. I'm just telling
you. I went through my life just one mistake after another. And
I realized, hey, just me. Everybody else does the same
thing. Life's about learning. And we learn by one of two ways,
either by experiencing it or by taught. And most of us can
testify to say we went to the school of hard knocks. That's
just how it is. We learned by experience, didn't we? The Lord
brings us through those experience. What does the scripture says?
The trials of our faith work with patience and patience experience. And that experience gives us
hope, not in ourself. I have no hope in myself. I have no hope in my work. I
have no hope in what I do. Hope in Christ. And that hope
in Christ makes us not ashamed of the gospel. That hope in Christ
is all we have. And that's what Peter is telling
our dear brethren here. He's saying your trials are necessary
for refinement. You're not made fearful. We have
no need of a savior without the darkness coming, without us being
left in the darkness. And I've used this example before.
We need the light. That's why we cry out for the
lights when we're in darkness. I've used the example of a child
that's, some of you had children, even grandchildren, that you
tuckle them in at nighttime. They like a nightlight. You turn
the light off. Maybe you forget to turn the nightlight on. They'll
cry out. They're in the dark. And they only want to see one
person. They want to see mommy or they want to see daddy. That's
it. Nobody else will do. And that's exactly what the Lord
does is sometimes he turns the light off just for a brief moment
and causes us to cry out to him. Aren't you glad when the son
of righteousness arises once more in our lives and shows,
he reveals his face and shows us it as well. It is all, it's,
it is finished. It's been finished the entire
time. And then we just full circle back to that over again, don't
we, with the next trial. And it seems like we're so easily
just drawn away from looking to him. Example I had was like
a mirage if you think about it. We see him so very well at one
point in time during, you know what I'm speaking of, you can
see his face, you can rest, you have peace when the gospel's
being declared, yet we go out and now we're in a trial again.
And all of a sudden, it's like we see him as a mirage. Like,
is he real? Is he not real? I don't know
whether to believe or not believe. You know what I'm talking about?
That's the flesh, isn't it? The flesh is seeing the circumstances,
the flesh is doubting and yet that man of faith is looking
to Christ. Looking to Christ is his righteousness the entire
time. The reason he appears as a mirage, I was talking to Steve
about this yesterday a little bit. The older I get, the more
dehydrated. When I get dehydrated, my vision
becomes blurry. Anybody else can testify to that? Whenever you get dehydrated,
your vision becomes more and more blurry. I asked the doctor
about it, and they said, well, it's just because you're getting older.
And I'm like, I'm not even that old yet. Am I going to be blind by the time
I'm 60? Anyways, it's just part of age, they said. You have to
drink plenty of water. You have to stay hydrated. This
wasn't an issue before. Well, that's the truth as a believer's
life. The older you get as a believer, The more dehydrated you come,
the less gospel you hear, the less you're able to assemble
yourself. Your vision gets more and more blurry, doesn't it?
No, we need a drink of living water, Lord. If I'm gonna see
your face, you're appearing like a mirage. I need to see you.
I'm in darkness again. My vision's getting blurry. And
that's why we come, isn't it? For another drink of that living
water that our vision would be cleared up. He has to do it.
He has to do it. And he does. He does, he says,
ask and you shall receive. Boy, I love his promises, don't
you? He said, ask and you shall receive. God said to his children,
ask me, ask me and you'll receive. Ask for Christ and you'll get
him every time. You beg him for Christ, you'll have him. That's
the promise, what a precious promise that is. Lord, I see
myself, my vision's getting blurry, I feel like I'm blind again.
Lord, give me Christ, give me a drink. Give me that manna. I need sustenance. We need sustenance
in the flesh. Spiritual men need sustenance,
don't they? That's what Peter's trying to tell them here. You
have hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. You have water. You have bread
in Christ. You have life. You have life. He said you've been ordained
to an inheritance. And I love that he uses the word
incorruptible, undefiled, and it never fades away. Even though
you can't see it, even though your vision may become blurry,
that inheritance never fades. It's the righteousness of Christ.
It's always there. That's your inheritance. That's
your inheritance if you're in the Lord Jesus Christ. Without this darkness, we would
have no need to cry out for the light. We know that the Lord
is the light that we cry out for. Job, I might've mentioned this
recently as well, but Job lost everything he had in one day.
Job had it pretty bad by man's standards, but he was exactly
where God wanted him to be or he wouldn't have been there.
It's hard for our flesh to see that. Our flesh always kicks
against that. Paul made this statement. He
said, I die daily. What do you think that meant?
Paul didn't literally die a physical death daily, did he? No, every
time Paul would look at himself, the Lord would reveal that he
has no confidence in the flesh. Paul has no confidence. You have
left him to himself. Lord, let this trial pass from
me. Let this thorn pass from me. Lord says, no, my grace is sufficient
for you. Paul couldn't have any confidence
in the flesh. If we ever get confidence in
the flesh, the Lord, he's going to call us, cause us to die again.
Isn't that what we do when we see the Lord, when he calls us,
when he saves us, we literally die to self, die to flesh. We say, no, Lord, I'm siding
with you against myself. Oh, wretched man that I am. I'm
the sinner. That's what Paul's talking about
there. He died to himself daily unto Christ. Lord, I need you.
I need you that I may have life. I can't do anything good. I can't
do I can't work any righteousness. You're going to have to do it. Well. Job lost everything he
had and no doubt felt like he was dying. And he's just like
us, he murmured. Words of the Lord, he complained,
he kind of justified himself and said, when the three, when
his so-called friends came and was accusing him, boy, you must
have done something really bad, Job. He said, well, tell me what
I've done if I've done it, if I've done something wrong. He
never did see himself as the chief sinner at that time. So the gospel
came, Elihu, the youngest one, preached the gospel to him. And
as soon as Elihu got done, Job didn't get to respond, God spoke.
And that's a picture of the Lord using his gospel in order to
teach his people, to teach his people. And you know what the
Lord said, where were you when I laid the foundation of the
world? And Job got to talk about two chapters after that. And
Job said, I'm going to put my hands over my mouth. Behold,
I'm vile. I'm not going to speak anymore.
I've got nothing to say anymore. I'm dying to myself. That's what Job was saying. Same
as Paul. I've got one hope. I've got to be found in Christ.
That's what the whole picture of, that's what Peter's saying. That's what Paul was saying.
That's what Job was saying. I can't do anything or say anything
that's right. Lord, I need a substitute. Peter
said, you've got hope. Why? The Lord elected a people,
the Son redeemed those people, and the Spirit regenerates those
people, and you're not kept by your power, you're kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation. That's what he says
here in this chapter, isn't it? I'm thankful the Lord delights
in mercy. He loves his people. He gives grace to his people.
He knows the exact amount of trial and the exact amount of
grace. He does it perfectly, because
he's God. He does it perfectly. Somebody say, well, I'm having
a really hard time. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. You might sound,
I know that's not easy to do. I'm not pretending like it is,
but that's the encouragement to the people of the Lord, isn't
it? Look to him alone. Don't look to the storm like
Peter. That's when we sink. Remember his promises. He delights
in showing mercy. He delights in, he loves his
children. Think about that. God loves his
children. You being evil know how to give
good gifts unto your children. How much more shall your heavenly
father give unto them that ask him? Ask and you shall receive. Our heavenly father loves, he
loves his people, he loves his children. Ask and you shall receive. Ask yourself this, what's more
amazing, our constant unbelief or his unchangeable grace? Our
constant unbelieving is kind of amazing that we are so full
of unbelief, isn't it? But what's more amazing, your
unbelief or His amazing grace? His amazing grace, isn't it?
Where sin doth abound, grace did much more abound. See, this
is the sin that's being talked about there. It's in here. All
the sin that's from the top of our head to the bottom of our
feet, the leper that we are. But he said, where that sin abounds,
what about in the world? The sin that's in the world,
grace does much more abound. What about all the things I'm
going through? Where sin doth abound, grace did much more abound.
Did you know that's why we have hurt, pain, sorrow is because
of sin. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and
Eve didn't have any pain. They didn't have any hurt. There
was no death. Sin entered and death by sin.
Thank God by the obedience of one, many were made righteous.
There's our hope. There's our hope. Not in the first man, Adam,
but in the second man, Adam, we have hope. The Lord's grace
is far more amazing than our unbelief being bad.
His goodness, it completely surpasses our bad. His righteousness completely
surpasses our sin. And we can rest in that. What's more comforting than knowing
God by saving faith? As Peter's dealing with these
trials, he's bringing comfort to them. You can remember times
in your life, no doubt as I can, of the trials that you have faced
and seeing the Lord bringing you through those trials. So
often we don't look back and really thank the Lord as we ought
for the things that he's truly brought us through and the grace
for yesterday. We're constantly crying out for grace right now,
rather than thinking him for grace of yesterday. And that's
just how he's designed it. He, can you imagine a child that
just comes to you needy all the time and never really shows any
kind of appreciation? Well, that's us, isn't it? That's
us. How can you thank God for everything
that he's given you? We don't even, the half's not
been told to us. And yet he still says, come unto
me. He still says, ask. You've not
exhausted the storehouse of grace. Matter of fact, you haven't even
put a dent in it. I love that. It's exceeding abundantly
above everything that you're ever gonna ask or need. He says,
come unto me, come unto me. His arms are always open to his
children. His ears are always open to their cry. We hear words
like the Lord hears us when we pray, and we become so numb would
be a good word in thinking of it. I mean, the Lord hears us
when we pray. Can we enter into that for a
brief moment? Really let that soak in, sink
in? The God of this universe hears my words when I pray unto
him. because Christ Jesus takes them
and washes them in the blood and presents them as righteous
before his father. Isn't that amazing? He listens
to his children when they pray. He listens. His ears are open
unto your cry. God hears us when we pray. The storehouse is not running
low, it's overflowing for his people and will never expire,
never be exhausted, never even be partially used. No, it's abundant, it's everlasting,
isn't it? Our Lord brings us through these
trials to cause us to remember. David strengthened himself one
time in the Lord, didn't he? You remember he had came back from warring.
He wasn't permitted to go with the Philistines. And he came
back and they found the city burnt. They found the women and
children taken and everything spoiled. And the men said, kill
him, stone him. David had nobody on his side.
He had no helper. And what did he do? He strengthened
himself in the Lord. What does that mean? Well, you
and I sometimes, If God be merciful to us, we can strengthen ourself
in the Lord as well. How do we do that? Remember his
promises. He can't lie. Remember his promises. If he said it, it's done. It's
finished. Remember his promises. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. Fear not, Jacob. I've redeemed you. I've bought
you with a price. My own blood has paid your ransom. I love you. I love you. You're
mine. I've bought you. And I'll never
leave you nor forsake you. There's hope in that, isn't there?
There's not hope in anything else. Not when I look at myself
or I look at my surroundings or the world, there's no hope.
But hearing it is finished. There's hope in that. How do we face these trials that
we may have? Well, David, by the way, David
recovered everything by the Lord's hand, didn't he? In that story
I was just given. record everything. He restored
everything back to the way it was. That's what our Lord and
Savior did for His people. There's another account of David
that's useful for an analogy with what I'm speaking of on
trials is he went up against Goliath, but What gave him the
confidence to face Goliath? He had faced a bear and a lion
prior. Now we know that's a picture
of the law and the picture of Satan and the picture of our
flesh that the Lord Jesus Christ conquered on Calvary's cross
for his people. We know that we could have not conquered any,
but our King David, the Lord Jesus Christ did it for us. He
chopped the head off the flesh, didn't he? And he killed, he
tamed the lion and he, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
sake. Everything required, Christ Jesus fulfilled for his people.
But David physically fought a bear. And David physically fought a
lion. And David physically went up
against a man that's nine foot tall, being about 14 to 16 years
old, is how old David would have been. What's the point? Well,
the point is, is David knew the Lord was with him because the
Lord had brought him and delivered the bear into his hands and delivered
the lion. And a matter of fact, David says that. He says, the
Lord delivered the bear and the Lord delivered the lion. The
Lord will deliver this uncircumcised Philistine. I believe God. That's
what David said. That's how we face today, not
looking back necessarily and living in the past, certainly
not. But we can see goodness and mercy will follow us all
the days of our life. When it comes time to face the
giant, do it the same way David did with the five smooth stones.
That's grace. That's grace is what that's a
picture of. And the Lord is our rock. Look to Christ. That's how we face it. Look to
Christ, no matter what it is. The Lord makes his people really
have just one hope. At the end of David's life, what
did he say? Although it be not so with my house, yet the Lord
hath made with me an everlasting covenant. That's all my hope.
That's all my hope, all my salvation, that the Lord hath made with
me an everlasting covenant. The Lord did that. There's hope
in that, isn't there? Because it's the God that cannot
lie. If he made a covenant, he's going to keep it. He's going
to keep it. David couldn't look around to
his family. His family had all forsaken him.
His son tried to overthrow the kingdom. All the wickedness that
came out during that time. David couldn't look for hope
in his family. David couldn't look for hope in anywhere else
but one place. The Lord hath made with me an
everlasting covenant. This is all my hope. That's what
he's gonna teach you and that's what he's gonna teach me if we're
his. That everlasting covenant is all our hope. We can't hope
in anything else. We have no hope in the flesh.
Paul said, O wretched man that I am, not that I was. He said,
I have no confidence in the flesh. Peter, if anybody think about
Peter, he denied the Lord. He denied affiliation with him,
didn't he? And yet the Lord had mercy and he preached on the
day of Pentecost and 5,000 souls were saved that day. And then
yet a few, we'll call it moments, could have been years, but in
Galatians, he got caught up with works and grace again with Barnabas,
didn't he? They were isolating themselves
from the Gentiles, not doing, it was the taste, not touch,
not handle, not, what's the point? We're not kept by what we do,
it's all by grace and mercy. It's all by grace and mercy.
We can't look at ourself and our surroundings like David couldn't.
Peter couldn't look at himself and say, I finally got it figured
out. No. The very moment we do that,
that's when we fall on our face. Lord, I'm in darkness again.
Oh, no. Lord, turn the light back on. I need Christ. We can't look to ourself. Thanks
be to God. He has begotten us. He has begotten us, not the other
way around. He begotten us to a lively hope,
a real hope in Christ. We don't have to wonder what
life is all about. We know what life's all about.
Everything and all of history is his story. Everything is all
about him. It's his hymnal, if you will. It's all about him and everything.
Everything is written for him. The cross is the crooks of the
matter. It's the central focal point
where the Lord did business with God and redeemed his people from
the grasp of Satan and the grasp of sin and the demands of the
law, satisfying justice once and for all. Rest. Rest. It's all about Him. We
have hope in Him. Paul said, if we had hope in
this world only, we'd be of all men most miserable. We're not
of all men most miserable. Do you know that? We have hope
in Christ. Somebody say, well, I feel pretty miserable sometimes.
Well, I do too when I look to myself and I look to my circumstances.
But why don't when I'm looking to Christ? No, there's rest there,
isn't there? That's not miserable. That's
not a miserable state. Happy is the man who hath the Lord
as his portion. Happy is that man. Happy is that
woman, because there's rest in him. Let's look at this hope that
Peter's talking about, verse 18. Here's our hope for as much
as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things
as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by
tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily
was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God
that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your
faith and hope might be in God. Not in you, not in what you do,
not in what you don't do, not in what we see, not in where
we go or where we don't go, but that our hope might be in God. God's people were redeemed by
his precious blood. He did this so that our hope
would not be in man, but it would only be found in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is hope. He is hope. There's a lot of
people in this world that are looking for hope, hope in things,
hope in times, hope in trials. There is no hope outside of Christ. Everything else is temporary.
He's eternal. He's incorruptible. He's undefiled. He's separate from sinners. He
is hope to his people. He's the one that said, fear
thou not for I am with thee. Well, if you heard God say that,
what would you be afraid of? Well, he's saying it. He's saying
it. That's what happens when the
gospel goes forth. Fear thou not for I am with thee. He's
saying it. Be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen
thee. Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I
will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. That's Christ. I'm upholding
you with Christ. That's what he's saying. Everything
required I've provided in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rest. Rest. What comfort? What hope? He promised and he cannot lie.
He swore it and it cannot be undone. He swore it. It can't
be undone. It's finished. What's finished?
Sanctification of his people? Justification of his people?
The redemptive work on Calvary's cross? It's finished. It's finished. Even glorification's all done.
The Lord did it all. This is what Peter is saying.
Here's your comfort. No matter what you're facing, somebody
may have been on the chopping block the next day, and he says,
here's your comfort. This is the only comfort you're
gonna find. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. How can we rest
at all times? In uncertain times, how can we
have peace? Looking unto Jesus, the author the author and finisher
of faith. That's the only way. He's the
only comfort to his people. I want to show you something comforting
and closing. Turn with me. Hold your place here. We'll turn
back. But turn with me to Isaiah 49. Isaiah 49. Look at verse
13. Listen to the promises of our of what the Lord says here. Isaiah 49, 13. Sing, O heavens, and be joyful,
O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains, for the
Lord hath comforted his people and will have mercy upon his
afflicted. Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken
me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. You ever felt that way before?
You ever felt the Lord forsaken me or the Lord's forgotten me?
David did. Many of the men in scripture felt that way, but
listen to this. Can a woman forget her suckling child? That she
should have not compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they
may forget, yet I will not. Yet will I not forget thee, and
here's why. Behold, I have graven thee on
the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually before
me. I have graven thee. I wanna park a camper on that
for a while. I just wanna stay there. I've graven thee on my
hands. He didn't say, he says, I've
graven thee, your sin, your person, your desires, you. I've graven you. How can the
Lord forget his people if he has a memorial in his flesh all
the time? This is the God that can't forget,
but yet he says, I've graven you on my hands. Your distresses, your afflictions,
your weakness, your wants and needs. He owned our unbelief.
He's graven us on his hands. He says, I'll never leave thee
nor forsake thee. Zion thought. Zion thought the Lord had forsaken. We have thought that haven't
we? We have. Can a woman forget her suckling
child? Well, it's possible. He says that. He says she might,
but I won't forget you. Why? Because I've graven you
on my hands. You've been bought with the price.
You've been bought with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have loved you, he says, with an everlasting, unchangeable
love. Nothing, nothing shall separate us from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus. Go back to first Peter with me.
And I'll tell you why nothing shall separate us. Verse five tells us why. Because
you're kept by the power of God through faith. unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. You're not kept by yourself.
It's not your power. It's not my power. Nothing can
separate you from God because he's the keeper of you. He's
the keeper of his people. Psalm 34, 19 says, many are the
afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out
of them all. out of them all. The Lord brings
his people. David said, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil. And he tells
us how that's possible because thou art with me. Thy rod and
thy staff, they comfort me. He starts out by saying, the
Lord's my shepherd, I shall not want. I'll be want of nothing.
Why? Because the Lord's my shepherd. The Lord tends to his sheep.
The Lord gives the necessary sustenance for his people, leads
us in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake, makes us
lay down in green pastures, leads us beside the still waters. When
perils and fears, when perils, when perils and fear cause my
distress, our only hope is his righteousness. When peril and
fears cause you distress, remember that we have hope in his righteousness.
We're gonna sing this song in a minute, but it says, when darkness
veils his lovely face, I rest in his unchanging grace. He said,
I, I've graven thee in the palm of my hands. I've graven thee
in the palm of my hands. How can he forget his people?
He can't. He can't. He won't leave us to
ourself. He promised he wouldn't. He promised he wouldn't leave
us to ourself. You cannot lie. The Lord said
in Matthew, are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? Are not
two sparrows sold for a farthing? And not one of them shall fall
to the ground without your father. The Lord notices the sparrows. Then he says, the very hairs
of your head are numbered. He didn't say he counted them.
No, he made them the exact number. He knows the number. And every
time we lose one, and I'm losing mine pretty quick, but every
time I do, it's by his purpose. And it's the exact number that
it's supposed to be because he's God. He knows his people. He's graven them in his hands. Tells us that the steps of the
righteous are ordered by the Lord. In everything. In everything that we do. In every second that ticks by
on the clock, it's ordered by the Lord. The Lord sends precious
trials. causes us to get dehydrated a
little bit. Our vision starts going blurry
so that we'll cry out for another drink of the fountain of living
water. Remember, brethren, it's finished. It's finished. God still reigns on the throne.
God still reigns on the throne. He doeth all things well. Look
to Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you
that you are seated and it is finished. Cause us to rest. In
Christ's name, amen. Let's sing that song, it's number
272, The Solid Rock, and let's stand together.