Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 36 from your hardback hymnal, number
36. Let's all stand together. A mighty fortress is our God.
? A mighty fortress is our God
? ? A bulwark never failing ? ? Our helper He amid the flood ? ?
Of mortal ills prevailing ? ? For still our ancient foe ? Doth
seek to work us woe. His craft and power are great. And armed with cruel hate, on
earth is not his equal. Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing? We're not the right man on our
side, the man of God's own choosing. Just ask who that may be. Christ Jesus it is he, Lord set
out his name, from age to age the same, and he must win the
battle. And though this world with devils
filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God
hath will. His truth to triumph through
us. The prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, For lo,
His doom is sure, One little word shall fell Him. That word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them abideth. The spirit and the gifts are
ours through him who with us sideth. Let goods and kindred go, this
mortal life also. The body they may kill, God's
truth abided still. His kingdom is forever. Please be seated. I like that hymn. The words of that hymn are just
as true tonight as they were when Martin Luther wrote them
500 years ago. Nothing's changed. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 144. Psalm 144. Begin reading in verse one. Blessed
be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war and
my fingers to fight. My goodness and my fortress,
my high tower and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I trust. who subdueth my people under
me. We know who's speaking here. Lord, what is man that thou takest
knowledge of him? Or the son of man that thou makest
account of him? Man is like divinity. His days
are as a shadow that passeth away. Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and
come down. Touch the mountains, and they
shall smoke. Cast forth lightning and scatter
them. Shoot out thine arrows and destroy
them. Send thy hand from above. Rid
me and deliver me out of great waters from the hand of strange
children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand
is a right hand of falsehood. I will sing a new song unto thee,
O God. Upon psaltery and an instrument
of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee. It is he, it is he
that giveth salvation unto kings, who delivereth David his servant
from the hurtful sort. So I'm going to stop there. Mitch and Carla were going to
be here with us a little longer and Mitch's mother is she ninety
eight nine ninety ninety six fell last night and broke her
hip and she had to have They've called hospice in for
deep parks. News and Sandy's son, Christine
husband. Let's let's pray together. Our heavenly father. We have great hope in knowing that you are true
and faithful, that all that you've said or all that you've revealed about
yourself and all that you've accomplished in our salvation is true. Lord, we take hope in
knowing that those whom you have taught the truth are free. For you said, Lord, if you know
the truth, the truth will set you free. We know that that truth
first and foremost is thy dear son, who is the way, the truth,
and the life. Lord, we pray that you would
bless your word, that you would open the eyes of our understanding,
that you would cause us tonight to look to and rest in and love
and believe on the truth, the Lord Jesus, our life, and our
savior. Father, we pray for For Dee and
for his family, I ask, Lord, that you would continue to comfort
them and give them hope and grace and mercy. Lord, how beautiful
it is when you attend the afflictions that you send with sufficient
grace to sustain us in our time of need. Lord, we thank you for
for the testimony that they've expressed to that end and ask,
Lord, that you would continue to meet them and cause us, Lord,
in this time to understand our own need and to rely upon you,
as we just sang, for our strength. Or give Mitch and Carla traveling
mercies and place your hand of healing upon Mitch's mom. We
ask it in Christ's name, amen. Number 44 in your spiral handbook,
number 44, let's all stand together again. ? Precious Savior, friend of sinners
? ? We as such to Thee draw near ? ? Let Thy spirit dwell within
us ? ? With that love that casts out fear ? ? Matchless Savior,
let us know Thee ? ? As the Lord, our righteousness ? ? Cause our
hearts to cleave unto thee ? ? Come and with thy presence bless ?
? Open now thy precious treasure ? ? Let thy word here freely
flow ? ? Give to us a gracious measure ? ? Tis thyself we long
to know ? Come and claim us as thy portion. Let us all find
rest in thee. Leave us not to empty notions. We would find our hope in thee. Please be seated. We would find. our hope in thee. I want to talk about hope tonight. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. I've titled this message, At
the Revelation of Jesus Christ. And it's right from our text
here in verse 13. Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind,
be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought
unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. We know that regeneration is
not progressive. Regeneration takes place in a
moment of time. God the Holy Spirit opens the
eyes of our understanding, gives us faith, takes us from darkness
to light, reveals Christ to us, and enables us to rest our hope
in Him. It's a moment in time, although
most believers, I have found, cannot identify that moment. And I think there's a good reason
for that. The Lord will not allow us to hang the hopes of our souls
on an experience. Having Christ is a now moment,
right now. So whenever that may have taken
place in times past, the important thing is that we trust him now. We know that for believers, they
can look back on their lives before the time of their regeneration
and see the hand of God at work in their lives, bringing them
to that place to where they're able to hear the gospel. We call
that prevenient grace or grace before grace. Truth is that the
people of God, the children of God, the elect of God, have always
had their names written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And so,
they've belonged to the Lord from the very beginning. And
God's people can see his hand at work in bringing them to that
time when Paul spoke of, when he said, when it pleased God. when it pleased God, who himself
separated me from my mother's womb. God's been with me from
the very moment of my birth. But when it pleased him, he revealed
Christ in me, called me by his grace. Regeneration is not progressive. Sanctification is not progressive
in the sense that we're not becoming less sinful and more holy. As
we grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ we see
more and more of our sin and more and more of our need for
Christ. And so this notion that we just
sang about, leave us not to empty notions, this notion that men
have that they are becoming less sinful and more holy is just
simply not true. Sanctification in that regard
is not progressive. We are set apart in Christ, sanctified,
made holy in him. As we grow in grace and the knowledge
of Christ, we hope that we'll become more humble, more kind,
more quiet, that we become less deceived by the things of this
world, but in no way does that growth in grace translate into
progressive sanctification as the religious world would have
us to believe. Those things are not progressive,
they're absolutes. Revelation on the other hand,
revelation is progressive. I just quoted that passage from
Peter where he said we grow in grace and in the knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ. So this word that we have in
our text, the revelation of Jesus Christ, it's the It's the revealing,
that's where we get the word reveal from, the uncovering,
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is his revelation and
that revelation is progressive. Hopefully we know him better
now than we did at the beginning. We are more sure of the gospel
and who we believe now than we were at the beginning. The Lord
has confirmed and revealed more and more. We have found, by God's
grace, as we walk in the light that he gives us, he reveals
more light. And that's how revelation works.
The Lord gives more revelation of himself. I was thinking today
about that blind man that the Lord gave sight to. And when
he first opened his eyes, he saw men walking as trees. And
one of the points to that is he had too high of an estimation
of man, big as a tree. But, you know, the other thing
is that his sight as a picture of his, the revelation of God
came progressively, didn't it? And that's the way it is for
us. Let's turn in our Bibles to 1
Corinthians chapter 13, a very familiar passage that we often
quote, but I want us to read it together tonight. 1 Corinthians
chapter 13, and this supports the very point that I'm trying
to make. Revelation is progressive. First Corinthians chapter 13
and we'll begin reading in verse 9. For we know in part and we
prophesy in part but when that which is perfect is come then
that which is in part shall be done away. Now what he's talking
about is at the revelation of Jesus Christ, talking about the
second coming of Christ. And he goes on to say in the
next verse, when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood
as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put
away childless things. Now he's talking about his life
now. He said, I'm like a child now. And that's the way the Lord
describes us. Suffer the little children to
come unto me, for such is the kingdom of heaven, such the kingdom
of God. And unless you become as a little
child, you shall not enter the kingdom of God. So we're like
children now, learning. Our children are like little
sponges, aren't they? And as they grow, they learn
more and more. That's what Paul's saying. He
said, I'm a child now, but one day I'm going to become an adult.
And when that happens, I'm going to put away childish things.
All these things that one day I'm going to see him in the fullness
of his glory at the time of the revelation of Jesus Christ. Look
at the next verse. For now we see through a glass
darkly. And that word darkly is the word
riddle. It's a mystery. This word glass
is the word mirror, what we would call a mirror, which would have
been made out of brass. He had to keep it polished very
consistently in order for the reflection to be good. And if he gave it any time at
all, it would begin to blur. And so that's what he's likening
this to. We look into a mirror and there's
a blurred vision. It's a riddle now. But then. Then, face to face,
now I know in part, but then shall I know even also as I am
known. This is progressive revelation.
This is what Peter's talking about. We've tasted of the heavenly
gift. We've seen glimpses of his glory. And it's made us hungry to become
as a babe desiring the sincere milk of the word that we might
know him better. In verse 13 he concludes this by
saying, and now in our current state of looking through this
glass darkly and having the revelation of Jesus Christ made only in
part being a child trying to figure these things out now abided faith, God's given
us faith and faith is just believing what God says but we don't understand
it and the truth is that we don't comprehend or understand anything
that we believe Well, but God's given us faith to believe what
he says. Now abideth faith and hope. And a hope that is seen, Paul
tells us in the book of Romans, is not hope. In order for it
to be hope, it has to be unseen. It has to be something that we're trusting in that hasn't yet been
revealed. So this is what we have now in
this life. We have faith and we have hope
and we have charity, love. We love the revelation that God
has given us of himself. The things that he's revealed
to us about Christ. And we love it so much that we
want more of him. And we watch and we wait for
that day when we'll see him in the fullness of his glory. But of these three, but of these
three, the greatest is charity. There's gonna come a day when
we won't need faith. There's no faith in heaven, no
need for it. Faith is our sight. We're going
to be looking right at it. We don't need to have faith in
something. We're going to know it and the
hope is going to be our experience. We will no longer be longing
and hoping for something. It'll actually be there. What
is it that we hope for? The full revelation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So that's what what our text is, what the Lord's
telling us in this verse 13 of first Peter chapter one. Let's
go back to our text. Wherefore, gird up the loins
of your mind and be sober and hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought unto you at the full revelation of Jesus
Christ. We know in part now, we see glimpses
of him now. but then we'll see him in the
fullness of his glory. The walk of faith that we have
now is a walk of seeking to know him
better. If we know him and we've tasted
him, we want more of him. That's what Paul said in Philippians
chapter 3, another very familiar passage, but I'd like for you
to turn to it with me so we can read it together. Philippians
chapter 3. Look at verse 10. Paul said, oh, that I might know
him. And here's the apostle Paul.
He's been to heaven. He's been to heaven. He's seen
things that are unspeakable. He's been given revelations and
visions beyond measure. And yet he said, oh, that I might
know him. I only know in part now. And
the power of his resurrection I want to know better and I want
to understand more fully what actually was accomplished in
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That his resurrection
is the hope that I have of being raised from the dead. He wasn't
talking about living some Pentecostal resurrected life of, you know,
ecstasy in this life, he's talking about understanding the resurrection
and knowing what Christ did and what God is teaching us in the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That the Lord was offered
up for our offenses and raised again because of our justification,
that the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the positive
proof that faith needs to believe that what Christ did is sufficient,
that he actually accomplished the salvation of his people.
I want to know that better. I want to believe that so thoroughly
that I can't be tempted to look anywhere else. So that's what
he's saying. This is every believer's experience.
We know in part, we want to know him better. We want to know the
power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering.
You see, the next thing he says, he's not saying I want more persecution. Paul's life had been brought
to the end of the thread on several occasions, shipwrecked and beaten
and left for dead. And he's not looking for that
any more than you and I would be looking for it. He's talking
about what Christ went through on Calvary's cross. And I want
to be more thoroughly convinced and more thoroughly believing
and more thoroughly understanding of what it meant that God poured
out the full fury of his wrath on his son. and that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins and he put away
our sins once and for all and there's no more wrath and there's
no more fire and there's no more judgment and there's no more
anger on God's part. It's all appeased, it's all put
away. I want to be able to look in
faith to what Christ did and know him and the fellowship the
fellowship that I had in Him when He suffered on Calvary's
cross. My union with Christ is the hope
of my salvation. Being made conformable unto His
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. You see, so this This longing
to know Christ better is the means, that's what he's saying,
if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead,
that this would be my attainment, that I would be raised from the
dead and my pursuit is for him between now and then. Not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect. Now I want you to notice the
word perfect in verse 12. Paul said, I haven't attained
the full knowledge of Christ, and
I haven't obtained perfection, but I follow after. if that I may apprehend that
for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. The Lord's got
a hold of me and he's holding me and I'm trusting him for that,
but I want to get a hold of him. I want to be able to understand
him better and love him more and be more like him. I'm not
yet apprehended, I've not yet attained that state of perfection,
but I have the hope of knowing that because he suffered and
he raised from the dead, one day I will be. One day I'll see
him in the fullness of his glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Brethren, I count myself not
to have apprehended, verse 13, but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those
things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And I wanted you
to take notice of the word perfect in verse 12 because now look
at what the Lord says to us. Let us therefore as many as be
perfect be thus minded." You see, Paul is saying my longing
is to achieve perfection in Christ and the truth is that I am perfect
in Christ. My position is that I'm perfect
in Him. Let as many of us as be perfect,
as we are perfect, By virtue of our union with Christ, we
stand before God perfect. That's what Paul was talking
about in Romans chapter 6 when he said, Reckon yourselves to
be dead indeed unto sin. Reckon it to be so because it
is so. Reckon yourselves to be in union
with Christ so that as He is, so are we right now in this world. The perfect union and perfect
state of holiness before God that we have in Christ, being
found in Him, is the thing that will move our hearts to want
to know Him better, to pursue Him until one day the full revelation
of His glory will be made. If there's one verse of scripture
that gives us great hope of knowing that that day shall be, and there
are many, there are many, many, many, but if there's one that
is so simple and so clear, it could be found in John chapter
17, verse 24. John chapter 17, verse 24, we know that it's impossible for the Lord Jesus Christ to
make a request of his father in prayer and for that not to
be answered. That's not possible. You and
I pray often amiss that we might consume it upon our own lusts.
Some of our prayers, the Lord has to say, no child, this is
not right for you now. But that was never the case with
the Lord. And look at what the Lord says in John chapter 17
verse 24. Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold
my glory. Is there any way that those whom
the Father gave to the Son redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ, justified
by Him, proven by His resurrection, would not be with Him in glory,
and behold, the fullness of His glory? It's not possible, is
it? It's not possible. David said in Psalm 17 verse
14, as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness,
and I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness." Now
that's what Peter's talking about, at the revelation of Jesus Christ. At the revelation of Jesus Christ
is when we see him in the fullness of his glory. And we're like
David, we're not satisfied with what we have of him. We're satisfied
of who we are in him, we're satisfied with what he's accomplished,
but we're never satisfied with what we know of him, the revelation
of him. We want to know more. And this
is the believer's lifelong pursuit and the end goal is that we will
awake in his likeness and then we'll be satisfied. You're not
satisfied with yourself right now, are you? The philosophy of the world,
the philosophy of the world is it's the journey, not the destination. How foolish is that? Just see a man in hell saying, well, it
was the journey, not the destination. No, it's the destination. It's
the destination, isn't it? Can only imagine what this religious
organization down the street preaches by the name of journey. We ought not to be surprised. A man will pursue that which
his nature desires. And if a person only has one
nature, then that one nature is the old man, it's the flesh.
And they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. You see, we have to have a new
nature for this, for this desire to be in our hearts, for our
longing to be, to know him and to be made like him. We have
to have a new nature. We have to have a spiritual nature.
They that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit.
I was thinking about this in relationship to modern day religion
and I just made a quick Google on my phone and said, what are
the most popular Christian books right now? And here's some of
the names of the books, the titles of the books, Fighting Anxiety
with the Word of God. The inspiring faith of men and
women who changed the world. Near death experiences. The Jesus
revolution. Those are the titles of Christian
books that are being published and read today. So then I thought,
well, let me just Google the churches in Apopka, Florida.
So I said churches in Apopka, Florida. Discovery, Victory,
Journey, Thrive Church, Renewal Church, and Wildfire Church. Now we can only imagine what
goes on there. You see, what do all these things
do? They are completely focused on using God and using the Bible
and using the religion to help them have a better life in this
world. Why? Because they're minding
the things of the flesh because they're after the flesh. They
have no interest in the things of God. They have no desire in
seeing the glory of Christ. It takes a new nature to have
that. Let's go back to our text. Verse 13 begins with wherefore. Now whenever you see wherefore
it's obviously a connecting word that is going to make application
of the previous verses to current reality. So, what are
the previous verses saying? Well, look at verse 11, the suffering,
the end of verse 11, the sufferings of Christ and the glory that
shall follow. We're in 1 Peter chapter 1. Verse 13 is looking back to verses
11 and 12. Look at down halfway through
verse 12, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached
the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven
which things the angels desire to look into. Because we have
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that shall follow.
What is the glory that shall follow the Lord Jesus Christ?
Well, it begins with his resurrection, his ascension, his eternal glory
as the one who reigns over the kingdom of God. The glory that
we shall see when we are brought into his presence. Wherefore,
wherefore, in light of that, gird up the loins of your mind. Now the picture here is of a Middle Eastern man who is wearing
a robe but he's going to go to work in the field and they would
have a belt that they would roll the robe up and tie that robe
around their thighs and hips so that it wouldn't be in the
way. And that analogy is used in Ephesians chapter 6 with the belt of truth and stand having
your loins gird about with truth. So the Lord's using this very
common practice to say to us, gird up the loins of your mind."
How do we do that? Well, Isaiah chapter 11 says,
"...and righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, righteousness
shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of
his reins." So, When the Lord tells us to gird up the loins
of our minds, he's telling us to set our affections on things
above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And
look to the Lord Jesus Christ for all of your righteousness
before God. Don't trust anything that you've
done for your acceptance before God. And his faithfulness is
the girdle of truth that we wear. The Lord's telling us to look
to Christ. That's how we're so easily distracted
from him and caught up in the things of this world. And the
Lord's telling us, look to Christ. That's what it is to gird up
the loins of your mind. Our minds are so weak and so
easily carried off into all sorts of things. And so Lord's telling
us to, that's why we're here right now. That's what we're
doing. We're girding up the loins of our mind and setting our thoughts
and our hearts. On Christ is our righteousness
and on Christ is our faithfulness. The loin in the scriptures is
the hips and the thighs which is the central strength of a
man. And so when we see the Lord Jesus
returning in the book of Revelation when at The time of the revelation
of Jesus Christ is made full. When the trump of God shall sound
and the dead in Christ shall be raised and the eastern sky
splits and the Lord Jesus returns, he's going to come with what? Written upon his thigh, his loins,
Lord of Lords and King of Kings. And he's going to have his sword
strapped to his side, to the side of his hips. That's the
girding up. In other words, to gird up the
loin of your mind is to look to Christ for your strength.
And to look to his word, which is the sword of the spirit, which
is the word of God. For the truth of who he is and
what he's done to accomplish our salvation. And don't you
love it when Jacob wrestled with the Lord that night, all night
long. And what happened in the morning? The Lord touched the hollow of
his hip and he had a limp the rest of his life, exposing his
weakness. So to gird up the loin of her
mind is to agree with God, Lord, I'm weak. I don't have the strength
in my hips and thighs. I need to have Christ as my strength. When Eleazar was sent by Abraham
to get a wife for Isaac, Eleazar was instructed and this same
thing happened in the latter part of Genesis when when Jacob
was about to die and he made Joseph promise to not leave his
body in Egypt but to take his bones back and bury them at Machpelah
where the rest of the fathers were buried. And
the same thing happened. Eleazar and Joseph put their
hand under the thigh What was Eleazar saying? He was
making a promise to Abraham to go fetch a wife for Isaac, but
he was expressing his dependence on the strength of Abraham to
bring about that. It's a picture of the Holy Spirit
going after the bride of Christ. and bringing them, but it's the
strength of what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished that gives
us hope. You remember in the book of Judges
when Samson's wife was taken by the Philistines and she was
killed? The scripture says she was burned and Samson was so
enraged that he went down into that Philistine city and the
scripture says that he slew them, every one of them, hip and thigh. Hip and thigh. Now we know that Samson's a picture
of Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ slew
the devil hip and thigh He took away his strength. And he slays
us hip and thigh. When we're girding up the loins
of our mind, we're not making a determination
to be strong and to be, you know, capable. We're expressing our
dependence upon the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ to defeat
the enemy for us and to bring out the sword that's strapped
to his thigh. So that's what it is to gird
up the loins of your mind. It's not, you know, I'm just
gonna, I'm gonna get control of my mind and I'm gonna think
good things and I'm going to do better and no, it's to look
to Christ for your strength. We go before God in the faithfulness
and the righteousness and the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ. David said in Psalm 45, gird
up thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty. So he's calling
upon the Lord, Lord, make your word alive and effectual in my
heart. Lord, reveal to me more of Christ. And as he does, we're always
gonna see more and more of our need for him. Children, our children, are said
to come from the loins of man. What is that a picture of? Their
strength is just as weak as yours. Your hip and thighs have no power. They have no strength with God.
And we bring our children into this world in the same sinful
nature that we came into the world. So girding up the loins
of your mind. Is looking to Christ. Trusting
him. To help you. To deliver you to
save you. When the children of Israel were
instructed to eat the Passover. The Lord told them he said. have your loins girded, shoes on your feet, staff in
your hand, and eat it in haste. Why? Why? Because the death angel's
coming that night, and they're going to be leaving Egypt first
thing in the morning. That's the believer's life. Our loins girded, sword drawn,
Looking to the word of God. Looking to Christ, trusting Christ,
believing on Christ. Having our shoes, the preparation
of the gospel on our feet, our shoes, our feet shod with the
preparation of the gospel. And eating it in haste, ready
to leave, ready to leave. All right. So that's what, you're back with
me to 1 Peter chapter 13. Wherefore, in light of who Christ
is and what he's done, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober,
be sober. You are children of light, you're
not children of the dark. Therefore, let us not sleep as
others, but let us watch and be sober, be sober. This word sober means to be,
it means to be calm, it means to be temperate, it means to
be circumspect, it means to be thinking, now certainly there's
a time for everything, there's a time for levity. We're not,
God's not telling us to walk around, you know, approach everything
in this world with severe sobriety. You know, we love a good joke
and good comedy and you know, there's times for that. But when
it comes to the issues of the soul, when it comes to the things
of God, we don't take those things lightly. We don't do like men
do in religion and use a turn of phrase in order
to make light of something that's spiritual. We're to be sober
minded when it comes to those things. The scripture tells us
on many occasions the importance of sobriety when it comes to
spiritual things. And believers are that way. You know, you can put two drunks
together that are acting foolishly and they don't see anything wrong
with what they're doing. But as a sober man observing
that behavior, you see the foolishness of it. And so it is for the child
of God. We're sober-minded. We're serious
about the things of God. And we look at the foolishness
that the intoxicated men of religion are engaged in and we think,
How foolish. Lord, help me be sober about
these things. This is my soul we're talking
about. This is the glory of God. This is seeing him in the fullness
of his glory. The end of all things is at hand.
Be ye therefore sober and watch in prayer. And then Peter says,
be sober, be vigilant. Why? Because the devil, as a
roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he
may devour. This thing of demonic influences
in our lives and the things that would detract us away from Christ They're real. We fight against
principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high
places. These things are real. So the
Lord's telling us in light of who you are and what Christ has
done, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober. Be sober and
have hope. Have hope to the end. at the
revelation, the full revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, in closing,
I want you to turn with me to 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. Verse 1, behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God Therefore, the world knoweth us not, because
it knew him not. Beloved, now we are the sons
of God, and it doth not yet 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 every man that hath this
hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure, girds up
the loins of his mind, and is sober in the things of God. This is our hope. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste. What a
foretaste God has given us now of glory divine, heir of salvation,
purchased of God, born of his spirit, and washed in his blood. This is my story. This is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story.
This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. waiting, watching for that glorious
day when the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Number 255,
Tom's gonna come lead us in that hymn, number 255, let's stand
together. you. ? Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine
? ? Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine ? ? Heir of salvation,
purchase of God ? ? Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood ?
This is my story, this is my song, praising the Savior all
the day long. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission,
perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst
on my sight. Angels descending bring from
above ? Echoes of mercy, whispers of love ? This is my story, this
is my song ? Praising my Savior all the day long ? This is my
story, this is my song ? Praising my Savior all the day long Perfect
submission, all is at rest. I in my Savior am happy and blessed. Watching and waiting, looking
above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love. This is my
story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long. you