Good morning. Good morning, brethren. Let's
turn to 1 Peter 1. We're going to pick up in verse
8. We're going to resume our study
in 1 Peter. So 1 Peter 1, verse 8. We read, Whom having not seen,
ye love. in whom though now ye see him
not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation
of your souls. We view here in this passage
the object of our faith, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, who
works his power in us, fitting his children with the gifts necessary
for salvation, so that he's working all things together for our good,
He's fitting us and giving us love, faith, hope, and joy in
Him so that all these fruits are drawn from Him and they rebound
back to Him to His glory and His praise and His honor so that
He's working out all things for the salvation of our souls. And
that's important for us to understand that God is working all things
together for good for the salvation of His people. So if there is
anything necessary for our salvation, you can be sure of this, it comes
from God. God does the work. It's not man
and man's flesh. God ensures that we have and
do all things necessary that please Him. My title this morning
is Him Whom We Love, and we'll see here that righteous fruit
which the Spirit of God produces in the child of God, love for
His Savior, love for His God, trust and faith and hope in His
God. So that, brethren, we have only
God to thank. If we have anything that is good
and pleasing to God, if we do anything well, anything pleasing
for God, we have only God to thank for it. We can't look to
ourselves, we can't look to this flesh and boast in anything that
this flesh has done, because in the flesh no man can please
God. God must do the work. Alright, we'll have three divisions.
The fruits of the Spirit, love produced, and the end of faith. Now this passage here in 1 Peter,
we see throughout, we see these fruits that the Spirit of God
is working in the child of God. The Spirit of God is doing all
things necessary. Watch as we go through this section
of scripture here in 1 Peter 1 and see who's doing the work,
who's producing this righteous fruit. Is it man? Is it man's
flesh? Or is it God, the Spirit of God
doing all things necessary? If you look there in verse 2,
we see right away God separating a people unto himself. It says
in verse 2, elect. according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit." So God is separating
us, He's calling us out of the darkness of this world, out of
the deadness of this flesh, separating us unto Himself, and it says,
unto obedience, that is the obedience of Christ, not our obedience,
but the obedience of Christ, what He's done and accomplished
for us, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace
unto you and peace be multiplied. whereby this separating out of
God, separating us out to himself, we begin, as he teaches us and
instructs us, we begin to understand the gospel that, ah, it's not
the things that I'm doing, it's not the works that I'm doing
that God is pleased with. He's pleased with his son, Jesus
Christ, And he's working all these things out in me and for
me because everything, all my salvation is complete, it's been
done by Christ. And he's just bringing us into
a knowledge of it, to lay hold of it, to receive it, to believe
it, but it's all done and it's gonna happen. Anything necessary
for our salvation, it's all done in Christ. And then we see, if
you look in verse three, We understand by the same gospel that God has
raised us up from the deadness and the darkness that we are
in by nature. All right? Verse 3, blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy, not according to our works, but according to
his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again, so that by his power,
his work, we now can see the kingdom of God. We see and understand
and know, wow, God is doing all this work. Now understand that
it's not, again, it's not by my works, it's not by what sins
I don't do anymore, and what things I now do, my religious
things, it's not by these works. It's all been done in Him. And I see the Kingdom of God,
that I can't please God in this flesh. All I do is use the law
unlawfully, to whip and beat myself, or to whip and beat my
brethren with it. So that it's just an unlawful
thing. Now we're awakened out of the deadness and darkness
of nature to behold the things of God and to see that Christ
is our salvation. Alright? Then we see here that,
you know, when you first see that, you begin to think, what
am I going to do? I've offended a holy and a righteous
God. I've broken His law. And I see
that everything I try to do, everything I put my hand to do,
every right I try, every wrong I try to make right, I just make
it worse and worse. What am I going to do here? Now,
what am I, what do I do with this thing? And so man might
sink down into despair because he realizes I've offended a holy
and a righteous God. And now I know I can't do anything
to make myself right and holy with God. but he doesn't leave
us in despair. He lifts us out of that and brings
us to see our living hope. Verse three, unto a lively hope
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So that
he's teaching us and instructing us that just as he's raised Christ
from the dead, so we too shall be raised from the dead in Christ. And then it goes on in the same
section of scripture. Again, we're just seeing all
the work of the Holy Spirit and what he does. It says, we see
that our inheritance is found in the Lord Jesus Christ, so
that we stop looking to this world for all of our peace, all
of our joy, all of our satisfaction, all the things that we can get
in this world, and then we're losing things and all this stuff,
we stop looking to that and placing our hope and our joy and our
happiness in the things of this world, and all of that is fixed
in Christ. We trust Him and look to Him
and believe Him. So that it says in verse 4, to
an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth
not away, reserved in heaven for you." So that brethren, the
hope that we have, as the Lord's teaching us, the hope that we
have, it stops being fixed in our feelings, it ceases to be
fixed in the things that we've done or don't do, and our hope
is fixed in Christ himself. That's where our hope is. That's
where the hope of the believer is fixed in Christ. The way of
the coronal religious professors of our day, they don't believe
that. They're always looking to how
they're feeling that day, what good work they've done. Did they
do enough volunteering work at the church or did they read their
Bible enough or did they pray enough that week? That's what
they're looking towards to see if they have any hope or confidence
with God. And if they didn't do enough
in their mind, then they are nervous and they're scared and
they have fear. If they think they've done enough in their
mind, then they're just deceived because none of us by flesh,
by our works, can do enough to please and satisfy God who is
holy and righteous. All right? Verse 5, let's go
on. We see here that our keeping is not, again, it's not of the
works we've done. Our keeping is of the Lord. He's
the one who keeps us. Verse 5 says, who are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. And this keeping of our God is
very important for us considering all our enemies. Sin, death,
Satan, these things are our enemies and we can't defeat them. We
can't overcome them. But we see here in this verse
how that it's God who's keeping us, and he's keeping us by the
faith which he's given to us. And I think I mentioned something
about this last time I was here, but it just impresses me so much
that, you know, we have enemies. We go through various trials
and afflictions, and we're hurt and we're pained in these things.
And, you know, we struggle and we think, well, why doesn't God
just come down, just part the skies, and just destroy my enemies
before my eyes. I believe Him. He's God. He can
do all things. Why doesn't He do this? And yet,
if we saw that, then it wouldn't be faith anymore. It would be
sight. We'd be seeing these things just being destroyed right before
our eyes. And in one sense, they are. The Lord overcomes those
things, but it's through faith that He's working in us, just
patiently waiting upon Him. And that's why the Scriptures
speak about Herein is the patience of the saints that all these
things aren't just happening in an instant, but the Lord is
working out all these things. And we see over and over through
this gospel that he uses those afflictions to strip us of our
pride and our confidence in the flesh so that it withers away. And what's left is the work of
what Christ has done in us so that he gives us faith to lay
hold of him and to believe him and to trust him and to continue
in him more and more. Let's hear how Paul words it
in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 14 through 18. He says it this way,
knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise
up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you. For all
things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might through
the thanksgiving of many redound or contribute to or rebound back
to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not,
but though our outward man perish, Yet the inward man, that which
is created of Christ, is renewed day by day for our light affliction. You know, the afflictions we
go through when we're in the flesh, and all we're thinking about
is the flesh, they don't seem like light afflictions. But when
you're in the Spirit, trusting that the Lord's working all things
together for your good, then you begin to see, you know, these
things aren't as terrible as I'd like to think that they are,
and as I complain and cry about and moan about. But these things
are truly light afflictions, which are but for a moment, worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while
we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which
are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things
which are not seen are eternal. So that, brethren, the afflictions
that we go through, it's good that God doesn't deliver us right
out of them in an instant. therefore are good. They strip
us of our pride, they strip us of our self-confidences, they
show us that we're nothing in our flesh, the flesh is withering
under those trials and afflictions, and all the while the new man
that Christ has created is getting stronger and stronger, looking
to Christ, trusting Christ, resting in Christ more and more as we
grow in the grace and knowledge of Him. So that this faith as
it's exercised in tribe and it's put through the fiery trial And
Peter tells us back in our text, 1 Peter 1, 7, that the trial
of your faith, being much more precious than a gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and
honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Right? So that
we rest in Christ, seeing that He's providing all things, He's
sustaining us, He's doing everything necessary for our salvation.
Now, in any of those passages, in any of those verses, did you
hear something that the flesh does, that man does? No, it was
all the work of the Spirit of God. It's everything that Christ
has done. He's wrought this salvation for
us, brethren, so that there's nothing left for us to do. And he works then this heart,
this His power working in us, showing us that, so that we really
do lay hold of these things and rejoice in what Christ has done.
Not that the flesh is fed and the flesh goes out and does what
it wants now because Christ has done all the work, but rather
we're brought to see, wow, Lord, you've done this for me, a vile,
wretched sinner. Paul said it another way in 2
Corinthians 1-9, but we had the sentence of death within ourselves. God allowed this. We had the
sentence of death within ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves
but in God which raised up the dead who delivered us from so
great a death and doth deliver and whom we trust that he will
yet deliver us. And Paul is saying that it's
so great a death that God delivered us from this because they're
out there preaching the gospel, doing good works. People are
being healed sometimes. People are hearing the truth
of the gospel. And yet they're hating it. They're
refusing to believe that God does all the work of salvation.
So they're rising up against Paul. They're stoning him. They're
beating him when they can. They're driving him out of their
city. They're trying to make things very difficult for him
so that they had the sentence of death in themselves. They
were just dead men walking as far as the flesh was concerned.
And yet they saw the power of God. And through that, Paul was
recognizing, that's me by nature. I was in the deadness of that
nature. I hated the truth and I hated God too. And yet God
delivered me from so great a death as to bring me out of that. And
so he saw that and he believed. Therefore, if God brought me
out of that to lay hold of the things that I have laid hold
of now, then I trust that he's going to continue to deliver
me and that he shall deliver me in that great and final day
when we stand before him in judgment. Alright, so moving on, the Spirit
convinces us of these things in our heart and He produces
love in our heart for what Christ has done for us. 1 Peter 1.8,
Whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him
not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory. So that We see, brethren, that
this is the work of God doing this in us. It's not being produced
by what we do. It's not through the vain carnal
religion that is so prevalent and popular today where they
have to guilt men into doing things and, you know, connive
them and force them into different programs to be participating
and volunteering and doing things. Or it's like a big motivational
conference where they go there and some guy just whips up the
flesh in a frenzy and gets them all psyched up so that they go
out and do a few good works for a while and then it just fades
and dies and they go back to whatever it is that they were
doing before. Those are just unfruitful works of darkness
for which we're to have no fellowship with. But the Lord, the Spirit
of God, produces the fruitful works of righteousness in a believer. And that's what Paul said to
the Philippians in Philippians 1.11, being filled with the fruits
of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and
praise of God. So that God's doing, He's done
all the work. and then he anchors us in Christ,
he puts us in Christ, he brings us to a knowledge of Christ,
he gives us the faith to lay hold of Christ, and all the while
it's really Christ laying hold of us, and it's Christ having
done all the work for us, but he joins us to Christ and we
see that all the blessings that I have with God isn't because
of what I'm doing or not doing today, all the blessings I have
in God are in Christ, and there's nothing that God blesses me with
that's outside of Christ. It's all in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, Now we see through
a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part,
that then shall I know, even as also I am known. And now abideth
faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is
charity, or love. And the reason why love is the
greatest, because in that day when you're in your eternal inheritance
with Christ, are you going to need faith? No, you'll see Him
face to face. You won't need to believe Him,
you'll see Him. Are you going to have hope? No, because why
do you hope for that which you already have? But love, that
never goes away. Loving the brethren and loving
our Lord God. So that's why love continues on and on to eternity.
Alright, our next point, love produced. Verse 8, Whom having
not seen, ye loved. Consider the power of our God
to affect this love for Christ in us. When you know your own
heart, and you see the coldness of your heart, the deadness of
your own heart to the things of God, you know, we, so often
we come here wanting to hear the gospel, wanting to rejoice
in what Christ has done, and then we get here and we're like,
ugh. And you just sort of, you know, you're just dead and lethargic
and you're just cold and You know, you go home, you're driving
home from work one day and you think, ah, I'm going to go home
and read my Bible and get in the Word and pray a while. And
then you get home and, ah, I kind of want to watch this TV program
right now, you know. And you just get sucked off into
anything. The flesh will do anything but sit down and just read the
Word of God and just rejoice in what He's done. Anything.
I know it's true. I mean, I'm just speaking from
my own experience. I know it's true. Even so, the
Lord produces a love in us and when we get cold and in that
darkness and in that haze of just the flesh, the Lord knows
how to break our hearts and how to bring us back to him and restore
us in Christ ever so gently, ever so wonderfully and perfectly
so that we see, thank you Lord, you've done all this work for
me because I certainly wasn't doing anything. I was cold and
dead and you did all this work. Brethren, I mean, it's just amazing
that we love him, that we believe him, have never even seen him.
Our Lord said to Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast
believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed
so that brethren as you read we love him because he first
loved us he's done all the work to come and reach out to us and
do that work and deliver us take us right out i remember talking
to some men in a factory when i worked in a factory many years
ago he said god's a gentleman he'll never he'll never offend
your conscience thank god he he did offend my conscience he
came right in there and he did all the work and delivered me
out of darkness because i know By nature, I would never have
chosen God. I would never have chosen, not
the true and living God, maybe a God of my own imagination,
a false God, sure, but not the true and living God. So, He's
the God of mercy, and He sent His Son, Christ, to do all the
work in putting away the sin of His people, so that now the
forgiveness we have with God, the peace we have with God, it's
all in the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn over to Luke chapter 7.
Luke chapter 7 and verse 36. We'll see here how Christ illustrates
the love that the Spirit of God produces in the child who knows
and is taught that they are a sinner and that God alone forgives them
in Christ. Luke 7, 36. And one of the Pharisees
desired Jesus that he would eat with him. And he went into the
Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. And behold, a woman
in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat
at meet in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster box
of ointment and stood at his feet behind him, weeping, and
began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs
of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within
himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have
known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him,
for she is a sinner. And brethren, how often have
we been just like that Pharisee, too? We think, you know, you
come in a situation, you see somebody or, you know, wearing
something or in a certain situation, you think, oh, there's a vile
sinner. We're all guilty of the same
thing. We're all judgers and we think that we're better than
other people. But Jesus answering him said
unto him, Simon, I have some what to say unto thee. And he
saith, Master, say on. Now here's the parable. There
was a certain creditor which had two debtors. The one owed
500 pence and the other 50. And when they had nothing to
pay, he frankly forgave them both. And here's the lesson.
Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon
answered and said, oh, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most.
And Jesus said unto him, thou hast rightly judged. And he turned
to the woman and said unto Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered
into thine house. Thou gavest me no water for my
feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them
with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss, but this
woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not
anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore
I say unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven, for she
loved much. Or, look how much she loves me. Not because she loves me did
I forgive her. That would be against what he
just said. but look at how much she loves
me. She has been forgiven much. And that's why he says, and he
said unto her, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth
little. And he said unto her, to the woman, thy sins are forgiven. And brethren, I can talk and
talk and talk all day about how we ought to love Christ and how
we ought to be thankful for what Christ has done. But when He
shows you in your heart what a sinner you are, that there's
nothing you can do in your flesh to please Him, and you see just
how great a darkness He saved you from, and that as religious
as you were, hating God, just wanted to do your own religion,
just get away from me God so I can just go on doing my own
religious things, you know, you're offending me, and when He saves
us out of that, and you see what a vile, wretched sinner you are
by nature, and shown it, you know, what I am by nature. Only
then do you see, when you see and lay hold that Christ really
has put away my sin, then there's nothing more to really drill
into. You know what it is to love Christ.
That's why we don't have to constrain you with the law and put a yoke
on you and tell you, now don't be doing this now, don't be doing
that. But we just preach the gospel, trusting that God will
instruct you and lead you and use you as he sees fit, because
he's brought all these good works in us. He's brought all this
fruit that we have today. He's brought that in us. We didn't
work that up of our own flesh. So we can talk about it all,
but you'll know in your heart when the Lord has done this work
for you in the heart. John 3, 16 and 17, for God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For
God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but
that the world through him might be saved." All of us here are
Gentiles and not Jews, like Christ was speaking to a Jew here, so
that's why he's speaking of the world in this way, that God as
a people from every tongue, tribe, and nation whom he loves, and
would save and call them out according, as Ephesians 1, 4
says, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. So that there's a people whom
the Lord God loves. There's a people that the Lord
God loves. And because he's a just God,
God wouldn't just forgive us of our sins. You know, people
like you read, God is love, and God is love. And God is a holy
God and he's just. And so he doesn't just have somebody
says, you know what? I'm just going to pardon your
sin. I'm going to pretend like you
didn't do that sin, but you who did the exact same sin, I'm going
to hold you accountable. That's what the Muslim says.
I spoke to a Muslim one time and I said, you know, well, you
know, what, how does God save you as it works? Oh no, it's,
it's grace. Okay. But how is God gracious to one
man and not gracious to another? How can God be gracious? He's
a just God. That means if you sin, you must pay for your sin. There's no ifs, ands, or buts
about it. And because we're flesh, we can't keep the law. We can't
put away our sin. We can't satisfy the justice
of God. So how is it that a just God
can be merciful? He's merciful because Christ
Jesus paid the sin debt of his people. Christ put away the sin
for certain people whom he loved that are precious to him. He
did all that work so that now God can be just because that
sin was punished and paid for. And he can be the justifier.
He can have mercy on sinners who are in Christ. That's how
God is just and the justifier. of all them who believe on him,
of all them that come to him by Christ. Otherwise, if God
was just being merciful to some people, then he's not being just.
Because they have to pay for their sins. Someone's got to
pay for that sin. So it's either you're going to pay for your
sin with your own blood in eternity in hell, or it's in Christ. Because
Christ put away the sin of his people. And that's how God is
just and the justifier of them which believeth on him. Revelation
says, One five unto him that loved us and washed us from our
sins in his own blood. He shed his blood for sinners.
He shed his blood for the sins of his people so that they would
not have to pay that just price that they owe to God because
they're sinners and lawbreakers. And because he's done this, he's
made us kings and priests unto God and his father. To him be
glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. So that now He rules
in our hearts, he reigns in our hearts, and he draws us with
cords of love. As Hosea 11, verse 4 said, I
drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love, and I was
to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I
laid meat unto them. When I was thinking about that,
I was thinking, you know how like on a cold day when you come in from shoveling
snow, not with a snow blower, but when you're actually shoveling
the snow, you know, you got your hat, and you take that hat off,
and then you kind of like rub, how good it feels, and then you
sit down for a nice hot cup of cocoa or something like that.
That's what it's like. The Lord says, cease from your
labors. There's nothing more for you
to do. Come in. I've done all, all the work.
And we see it, and He gives it, fills our hearts with love, and
He draws us just to feast upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We eat
His flesh, and we drink His blood, resting in the work that He's
done for us. So Christ is a gracious Savior.
And we know this, we know this because you who are saved, He's
released you of your burden. It's not now you working and
laboring and striving so that you can hopefully make God notice
you and be pleased with your works finally. When Christ says,
cease from your labors, it's not a lie. It's not a bogus thing
like when you go to many churches and they get you in there with
the sheep food And as soon as you come in, they give you the
goat food, and they put a yoke on you and say, well now, you
gotta start doing it this way, you gotta stop doing that and
do this thing this way, so that everything gets turned around
on you. And Christ said, you know, come to me and I'll give
you rest. He meant it. He really meant
it, so that there's not a bunch of dos and don'ts for us to do.
Christ said, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest
for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Christ bore the burden of the law and of sin and the justice
of God. He did all that work so that
there's now nothing remaining for the sinner to do. The sinner
is brought by the power of God through faith to believe on Christ
and to rest in Him. And God will work out all the
works, all the good works will follow, but it's His power working
them out in us, doing for us what we cannot do in this flesh. All right? Now let's look at
this last final point. 1 Peter 1, 8 and 9. Whom having
not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing,
ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Receiving
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Brethren, the end of our faith
is the salvation of our souls. Christ compared our life to being
more precious than the entire world. It says, what shall it
profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his
own soul? So that brethren, in that day,
when Christ calls us home, we'll know that we have chosen the
better part of eternity, that we now have and eternity to enjoy
the inheritance that we have in Christ as opposed to those
in this world who hate Christ, who hate the truth of the gospel,
want to work out their own salvation, want to do their own thing and
worship God the way they want to worship. They have their inheritance
here in this life, but in that day they will not have it with
Christ. This redemption of our souls
was paid with a great price, the shed blood of the Son of
God. He says in Ephesians 1, 7, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace, which he said shed in great suffering under the
wrath of God. Hebrews 13, 12, whereby Jesus
also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered
without the gate. And because we're now sanctified
by the blood of Christ he says in Hebrews 2 11 both he that
sanctified and they were sanctified are all of one for which cause
he is not ashamed to call them brethren so that we're now accepted
in the beloved because of what Christ has done Not our works. No one here that trusts Christ
and believes on Christ is sitting here satisfied in their works. We're satisfied in the work that
Christ has done because he's made peace with the sinner and
holy God so that now we rest in Christ. We trust Christ. 1
John 5, 13. We'll close with this. These
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the
Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life and
that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. Amen. Let's
pray. Our gracious Lord, Father, we
thank you for the salvation that you have provided in your son,
Jesus Christ. Lord, help us to see that Christ
is sufficient, that you're pleased with the Lord Jesus Christ, the
sacrifice that he made, the work that he did, that that's where
you're satisfied. And Lord, that you would turn
our hearts to look to Christ and to flee to him for salvation
and to rest in him. We pray this in Jesus' name,
our Lord and Savior. Amen.