It's good to see you all again.
I have my wife and daughter with me today, Michelle and Alyssa,
so be sure to say hi. Let's turn to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter
1. We'll be continuing our series
that we're looking at Peter. 1 Peter 1, verse 8. We'll pick
up in... Read verses 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." So we have here in this passage,
in view here, the object of our hope, the object of our faith,
the object of our love. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ
who works His power in us, fitting us with all things necessary
that we might know Him and rejoice in Him and be glad in Him and
stay upon Him. He fits us with all the riches
that we need according to His grace, that faith and that hope
and that love, and all these things are drawn from the believer,
that He's given to them, He draws them from the believer and they
return back to Him who gave them to just glorify His name so that
He receives all the glory and the praise and the honor for
doing this in His people. So that the salvation that we
have is all communicated to us by these gifts which He's given
to us by the Spirit of God and by that new man that the Lord
Himself has created in us and given us these things and brings
forth all these blessings that we have and rejoice and serve
Him with. My title this morning is, Him Whom We Love, and we'll
see this righteous fruit that the Lord Himself works in His
people, and especially that love which He gives in the heart of
His people for the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll have three divisions,
the fruits of the Spirit, love produced, and the end of faith. So, in this first chapter, up
to this point, we have in this section of scripture, we see
all this rich blessing that God has poured out upon His people
through the Lord Jesus Christ. So that we see that God doesn't
simply have and elect people. But this elect people, He has
separated them to Himself. He's called them to Himself,
and He sanctifies them by the Spirit of Christ, and He draws
us to the obedient work of Christ, that we behold and see what He's
done. Look there in 1 Peter 1.2, verse 2. We read, elect according to the
full knowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the
Spirit. So there's God separating to
himself and elect chosen people. And here's the gospel. Unto obedience. That's not our obedience, that's
the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's that work that
he did here in his flesh while on the earth. He served God his
father doing all things that were necessary to fulfill the
law. He did good everywhere he went,
healing people and bearing their burdens, bearing their iniquity,
bearing their sin and putting it away. So we're brought to
the obedience of Christ and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ
Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. And then we see also
in the same chapter, we see the power of God in that we understand
this gospel message. He doesn't leave us there, but
He raises us up from our dead nature, giving us eyes to behold
what Christ has done and is doing in His kingdom. In verse 3, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again." So that we see there,
He doesn't leave His people in darkness, He doesn't leave them
blind and not understanding what God has done and what God is
doing, but we are brought to see that Christ has saved His
people, that He shed His blood in putting away their sins, so
that we see that It's not by our works of righteousness which
we have done, but by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ that
we are cleansed and delivered of our sins. We now see that
kingdom of God. We see what Christ himself has
done. And then notice it goes on further.
He lifts us out He shows us what we were by nature and He lifts
us out of that despair, if you will, because we all must see
that we're sinners, that we've all offended a holy and a righteous
God. That's all part of seeing the
Kingdom of God, that God is holy and that there's nothing we can
do in our flesh to please God. We can't work works of righteousness. We can't do these things. We
need Him. But it says there at the end of verse 3, He's begotten
us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. So that hope that we have now,
it's a living hope, it's a lively hope. It's not looking to ourselves
anymore. When we are in our flesh, when
we're left in darkness, before when we're still in that dungeon,
like the hymn that we sung there, Anne Kennedy at second verse
there, that we're in that dungeon of darkness until the Lord comes
and shines light in our hearts. But while we're before then,
while we're still in darkness, we're looking to the things of
our own heart. We're looking to our own works, the things
that we've done, whether we've done enough, we're never sure.
We're just hoping, I'm hoping that I've done enough to please
God. I hope I've done enough to make Him satisfied and that
I've done enough to tip the scales of my favorite. I've done more
good works than I've done bad works. That's the carnal flesh. That's the works of the flesh.
That's not the Spirit of Christ teaching a man that. Christ would
never teach a man such a lie. But instead, that's when we're
dead. But when we have that living
hope, we stop looking to ourselves. We stop looking to the things
that we've done in hopes that it's enough, in hopes that, oh,
I hope the Lord has mercy on me when I stand before him. No.
He fits his children with a living hope that goes outside of themselves
and looks to that finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it says there in verse 4, we're looking unto an inheritance that
is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you. So that, if it was dependent
on our works, we wouldn't have any such hope or any such inheritance. But we look to Christ, we rest
right there in what He's accomplished for His people and secured for
them according to the riches of His grace. And then we see
that we're kept by the power of God. In verse 5 it says, "...who
are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time." And that's important for
us to hear when you consider our enemies. You have Satan and
the devils, the demons that he has that are always looking to
provoke the flesh and try to bring in division among the people
and always trying to get us to look to ourselves and to look
at our sin and being accused, because he's the accuser of the
brethren. And you have that enemy. You have the world, which is
always trying to look so shiny and bright and lovely and the
promise of all these things that you can have. where we get tripped
up and just looking at the carnal passing fancies and vanities
of this life so that we're deceived and just looking at this thinking
that somehow this is the end of things and that if we don't
get ours now that we're going to miss out somehow. until you
realize when the Lord shows you that these things really are
vanity. You know, it seems like such
a long time when you're young and you're looking out over these
things and you think, like, oh, this is what I gotta get. I gotta
get a good job so I can get a lot of good money and that I can
go and buy all these things. Until you realize that these
things break. They fall apart. They wear out.
Your body breaks. It wears out. You get old and
you get tired or you get sick. And things just don't go your
way and you realize that all your life you spent chasing after
these things and they've profited you nothing. And you've got nothing
to show for it. Or if you have a lot and you
realize I'm about to die and then who shall these things be
that I worked so hard? They're going to go to somebody
else who just doesn't even care and didn't work hard for these
things. We live 80 years and we find that it's all been for
nothing. It's all vanity. And you have
that enemy, and then if that's not enough, you have the enemy
of your own flesh that's always there with you, always just making
trouble for yourself and causing you to doubt and to think that
we need these other things, or doubt because of our sin, or
just doubt, and looking to our own works and trying to make
ourselves feel confident and better about the things that
we do and it's just it's just a lie so you have all these enemies
but the word here says in verse 5 that we are kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed and last
time And what's amazing is that the Lord is omnipotent. He's
all-powerful. He could do whatsoever He wants.
He could just come down and just BAM and just make it so and make
everything right and everything well again. But it says there
in that word that we're kept by God's power through faith.
And think about how flimsy our faith feels so often. I doubt
any of us even would say that our faith is the size of the
grain of a mustard seed that Christ spoke of. We look at our
faith and we think, it's so weak and so puny, and yet it's that
very gift of faith which God gives that he's sustaining his
people by. That's omnipotent power. Yes,
He could come in and just wipe things clean and just wipe things
out that are our enemies and whatnot, but He's doing this
all according to His glory and His power as it pleases Him.
And it's through faith that He's keeping us so that in spite of
the doubts that we have, in spite of the trials that we have, in
spite of the trouble that we have, Yet, He keeps us looking
to Him. That's power. That's the power
of the Lord that we, by nature, know nothing of. And in verse
7, we find that He tries that faith that He's given. He puts
that faith through trials and tribulations and afflictions,
so that we read there in verse 7, that the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, Though
it be tried with fire, it might be found unto praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." So that through
these trials, through the wisdom of our God, He uses these trials
to to bring us down to see that we really are so small and there's
nothing in us, there's nothing left in us that we can look to
and latch on and be confident of. He knows exactly what each
of us has need of so that There's not this trusting in ourselves. We cease looking to self for
confidence and for satisfaction and for this self-reliance and
this hope that we have. We don't even continue to trust
in our own feelings because we come to know how our feelings
have so often deceived us. Either you think that everything's
right, when everything isn't really right, or we think that
things are so terrible, but the reality is, even if they're terrible,
they're driving us to Christ. And that's a good place for everyone,
any one of God's children to be, is driven to the feet of
Christ. So that faith, being tried, looks
outside of itself, and looks to the Lord Jesus Christ, who
feeds and sustains His people, and is their righteousness. So that we're decreasing more
and more in ourselves as the Lord purposes and works His will
in us, we're decreasing in our own estimation, and the Lord
Jesus Christ is becoming all, more and more to us. As Paul
said to the Corinthians in his second letter in chapter 1, verse
9, he said, But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we
should not trust in ourselves, but in God, which raiseth the
dead. And that's why trials come, that
we should not have confidence in ourselves, not look to our
own wisdom, not look to our own strength, not look to the things
that we can do here. He does it purposefully so that
we stop trusting in ourselves and that we look to the Lord
because that's right where each and every one of us needs to
be. Now, we find here then in this passage in 1 Peter 1, we
come to verse 8, and we see how the Lord, through these things,
He convinces the heart what our need is. It's the Lord Jesus
Christ, and He forms in our heart love for our Savior. Love for
Christ, who is the successful Savior. He didn't fail. He knows
exactly what He's doing, and He's bringing us right to His
kingdom to be with Him. He's our gracious King and our
beloved Bridegroom. 1 Peter 1.8 says, 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 you see there, the Lord's
working fruit in us. He's producing that righteous
fruit in us that loves Him and looks for Him, and waits upon
Him, and trusts Him, in spite of all the things that this natural
flesh sees, we are always looking to Him, so that rather than producing
from us unfruitful works of unrighteousness, which we're to have no fellowship
with, He produces in us that work, that fruit of righteousness,
which only His Spirit can produce in us, as Paul told the Philippians,
being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by
Jesus Christ, not by the flesh, but by Jesus Christ, unto the
glory and praise of God. So that all these things, these
fruits, what He's working, these gifts which He fits His people
with, anchor us in the Lord Jesus Christ. So that we're not just
tossed to and fro and going about, but rather we're anchored right
in Christ. And we grow in this grace, we
grow in this knowledge of Him, more and more being fixed in
Him, so that we're not moved by this world, we're not moved
by the works that Satan does, and we're not moved away by our
own flesh and our own doubting. Turn to Ephesians 4. I want you
to see this. Ephesians 4. Because we're talking
about the gifts. if you will, like faith, hope,
and love. And we need to understand that
these aren't things that our flesh produces. Our flesh doesn't
produce those fruits. Only Christ can produce them
in us. And He's the one who secured
these things for us. Ephesians 4, verse 1. So we read, I therefore, the
prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness,
with all suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Look down
at verse 7. We'll see here this unity and
this bond of peace. But unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore,
he said, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive
and gave gifts unto men. Now, if you drop to verse 11,
we see that He's going to teach us. He's going to bring us to
a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to fix us
and anchor us right there in Christ, hearing that Gospel.
Verse 11, And He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Verse 15. But speaking the truth in love
may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ,
from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted
by that which every joint supply, according to the effectual working
and the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto
the edifying of itself in love. So that brethren The Lord, He
did this work. He secured for us the gifts,
and He fits the new man with faith and love and hope, and
He equips the church with different other gifts. You have pastors
and teachers, but each one of us, the Lord gathers His people
together. There's no accident for you that
are here that love the Lord. It's not by accident that you're
here. The Lord has purposefully picked each and every one of
you and fitted you each with various gifts that you might
serve one another and serve your Lord in love and in joy and in
peace. And that's a blessing. Thank
God for that. Just thank God for your brethren
and what he's doing so that you can see various things. You have
Brother Craig up here leading the singing. And you have Johnny
getting ready with the tape ministry and Rebecca bringing that and
pushing this out to the internet. And you have Doug calling different
men to bring men in here to preach. And you just see how the Lord
is using each and every one of you. to love one another and
to serve Him. And that's the Lord. He does
that. It seems like a little thing in your own eye. Whatever
it is that you're doing, it seems small and insignificant. And
yet the Lord's using that to bless His people, to feed His
people, to comfort His people, to anchor them right there in
the Lord. And to keep you all being gathered
together at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see it right
through a glass dimly, like an old, cankered mirror, like those
old-timey mirrors, you know, that look all dim and gray. To
us, you know, looking at ourselves, it's all dim and dark, but to
the Lord, it's beautiful, because it's His work. And it's working
that which He's purposed for it to do. None of us have been
equipped as a one-man army. None of us have all gifts so
that we're able to stand on our own. He's purposely allowed us
to have weaknesses and faults and trouble and trials all so
that we wouldn't be confident trusting ourselves but rather
that we come together to hear the word together as a body in
Him. He's done it perfectly and there's
nothing wrong with it. He knows what He's doing. Alright,
our second point, love produced. He says there in Peter, right
at the beginning of verse 8, whom having not seen ye love. When you consider the power of
our God that after two thousand years Now I've no doubt that
there's some that hear this and think, ah, this can't be true.
And yet, 2,000 years since our Lord walked here on the earth
and put away our sin and died there on the cross, was buried,
and now has risen again. 2,000 years. We've never seen
Him, and yet we love Him. By the Spirit of God, we love
our Savior. Our Lord said to Thomas, Because
thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that
have not seen, and yet have believed. That's a blessing. If you believe
the Lord Jesus Christ, it's because His Spirit has worked that in
you. And if you love Him, it's because He first loved us. We
love Him because He first loved us. So what does that mean? Well,
you know the verse. Just think about it. I mean,
it's a common verse, and we probably don't think about it much because
of how it's been abused and misused, but in John 3.16, where we read,
"...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." That's love. That God the Father would
send His Son from the throne of glory, where He had all riches
and all power and all glory. He didn't need us. But for the
love that He had for us from before the foundation of the
world, that He should send His Son in the likeness of our weak,
sinful flesh. And there He should bear the
sin of His people, putting it away on the cross before the
holy eye of God. Think about that. Had no sin
who never committed any any sin and never did anything wrong
Was perfect in all his ways now was there before his God his
father bear Bearing all the sin of his people and the shame that
goes with that and just the indignation of it. It's just you know, to
think of what Christ has done for his people. And so, we see
how God loved us first. We didn't love him, but he loved
us. And, you know, I understand, you know, we're Gentiles, we're
not Jews, you know, so that word, the reason why it's worded in
such a way is because he's talking to Nicodemus, and he's saying,
Nicodemus, it's not just for the Jews, but God has a people
out, spread throughout the world, that that gospel's gonna go forth,
and they're going to hear it and I'm going to bring them into
my kingdom. As it says in Ephesians 1.4,
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 He has a people that He loves,
and that He sacrificed His only begotten Son for that people.
Alright? And what does it mean to be saved?
I remember when I didn't know the truth, I was under a false
gospel, I couldn't even tell you what it meant to be saved.
And so that someone asked me, what does it mean to be saved?
I didn't even know what to answer them. But we now know under the
gospel that we're sinners. We're corrupt. We have no hope
of standing before God. If you're going to try and stand
before God in your own works, and you're keeping of the law,
but let's say you say, I know it's not the law, but whatever
law you have in your own heart that you think makes you right
to stand before God, that if there's a God in that final day
and you're gonna stand before him, somehow it's all gonna fall
out and work out right for you. But that's trusting in your own
works, that's trusting in your own flesh, and the Lord's gonna
break that up. If you're his, he's gotta bust
that up that you don't think. that you can stand before Him
in such folly and such nonsense because we can and the Lord is
not going to leave His people there. They're going to see and
know what sinners they are. Whatever it is, whatever it is
that you're trusting in, He's going to destroy that and bring
it to nothing so that we are saved out of that and we're saved
from the wrath of God because God has promised that He's going
to return again and when He returns again the second time, He's going
to judge the world in righteousness. We think, well, it's been 2,000
years, and we begin to mock and think, God's not coming again.
That's all nonsense. There's no God. Those who talk
like that and think like that, they're being willfully ignorant.
Because God has once destroyed the world in the flood, and he's
promised again to destroy it again in fire. And he's going
to bring it to nothing. There's going to come a day when
the Lord returns, and all those who think, well, I'll believe
him when I see him, it'll be too late. Because then you'll
be crying out for the rocks to fall upon you, and you won't
want to see him in that day. So, there's coming a wrath. There's
coming a day of judgment. whether you see him when he returns
or you die and you stand before him in judgment in that way,
you're going to bear the wrath of God. So the Lord Jesus Christ,
he bore the wrath for his people and put away that just wrath
so that they are saved from that wrath and they're saved from
the love that they have for their sin and they're saved from the
bondage of their sin so that now they are free to love the
Lord and the Lord blesses them and fills them with the fruits
of His Spirit so that they have a desire to seek Him. These things
don't make us righteous. They don't make us any more righteous
or holy what He's done in us. We are as holy and as righteous
and as sanctified and as complete as we're ever going to be in
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing we add to it.
But His people, He's going to save them, He's going to give
them a heart, so that they do rejoice in Him, that they love
Him, and they love His people, and they want to serve Him, and
they want to serve His people. Listen to this, in Revelation
1.5 it says, Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and
the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of
the earth, unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins
in His own blood." So that we understand and know that this
didn't come just by God winking His eye and saying, alright,
I'll forget about your sin, I won't look at it, but rather it came
through the shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and
putting away our sins. And because He has done this,
There in Revelation 1.6 it says, "...and he hath made us kings
and priests unto God and His Father. To Him be glory and dominion
for ever and ever. Amen." So that we understand
Christ, who has put away the sin of His people, Christ who
has obeyed His Father perfectly, doing all things. Now God has
raised Him from the dead and exalted Him to the right hand
of the throne of God. If you're there on Ephesians
still, look in chapter 1, verse 20, and we'll see this dominion of
our Savior both in all things in the universe, controlling
all things, as well as in our own hearts. Ephesians 1, second
half of verse 20, "...and set him at his own right hand in
the heavenly places," this is after he's raised from the dead,
"...far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion,
and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also
in that which is to come." and hath put all things under his
feet, and gave him to be the head over all things of the church,
which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all."
So that he's not only God, sitting on the throne of God, ruling
and reigning over all things that are occurring here in the
universe and in this world and everything, but He's ruling and
reigning, think of it, God humbling Himself, ruling and reigning
in our hearts, working out His will in our hearts. It's just
a sweet thing and He draws us With love and kindness and mercy
to us, he said in Hosea, 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. I never, I didn't
grow up on a farm, I never had horses or oxen or anything like
that, but I do remember seeing horses and I would imagine when
that bit in varietal cane was taken off of their head, that
is used to pull and steer them with that bar there in their
jaw and it hurts and that's why they listen to you and do what
you say. The Lord says He's as that one who takes off that bit
and that bridle off your head and frees you of that. We all
by nature are under law and under sin and under condemnation. And
we were driven by these things and driven by a fear of God and
driven by trying to work out this righteousness. And the Lord
says, look unto me. Come unto Me, and be ye saved.
And He's kind, and He's merciful, and He frees us of that binding,
and that law, and delivers His people of that, in mercy and
in kindness. He doesn't whip us with the law.
He doesn't beat us to beat Him to Himself. He delivers us from
that. He's gracious. As He says in
Matthew 11.28, 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
unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, my burden
is light so our Lord he does that he he's he's merciful if
you're struggling with your sin if you're looking to your flesh
and you're you're you're sinking under the burden of your sin
and Under your unrighteousness look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He calls his people to look to him to come to him so that The
greater sinner you are, the more you know yourself to be, the
more He draws that love out of your heart. As we grow and see
what vile, wretched sinners we are, He draws that love out of
our heart more and more to Him. And we can see that illustrated
in the parable if you turn to Luke 7. Luke 7. Verse 36. You know, how does the Lord work
love in his heart for his people? Well, he shows us. And in verse 36 we see there's
a Pharisee, and he desired that Jesus would come and eat with
him at his house. So Jesus goes to the house of
the Pharisee, and he sits down to meet, and in verse 37 it says,
And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she
knew that Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisee's house, 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, he would have known who and what manner of
woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner. This man
didn't even say this out loud, he just thought it in his heart.
And our Lord answers the thought that is in his heart. And it's
good for us, for us when we get that self-righteous, pharisaical
spirit in us and we start looking at others and judging them and
saying, I don't know why they did that, or I would never do
anything like that. Well, we need to hear this too. We need
to be reminded of this. Verse 40. And Jesus answering
said unto him, Simon, I have some what to say unto thee, and
he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors, one owed five hundred pence, and the other
fifty. And when they had nothing to
pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which
of them will love him most?" Simon answered and said, 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. But to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins
are forgiven. Now take note, brethren, it's
not because she loved much that her sins were forgiven, but he's
saying, you can see how great a sinner she is by how much love
she is showing to me. But you, Simon, You don't think
you've done much. You don't think you have much
to be forgiven of. You love me little. It's clearly
that this is what you think because you don't love the Lord. You
haven't served the Lord, not in the way this woman served
the Lord and ministered to Him. She clearly was moved because
she knew that Christ had forgiven her for her sins and what a great
sinner she is. What do you think of Christ?
Does the Lord move you to serve Him? Do you see how the Lord's
brought together His people and how He's ministered, how He uses
His people to serve one another and to serve Him? You'll know
by the love, you'll know how great a sinner you think you
are by how the Lord is moving you and moving in your heart
to serve Him, to come out, to be with His people. to rejoice
in the Lord and to rejoice in what God has done. And you see
this just by, you know what He's done for you. And you'll know
by the way that you speak of Him. When you're speaking to
others, you'll know how much the Lord is forgiving you because
it'll be there in your heart. The Lord moves in your heart
and You love Him. You can tell how much you love
the Lord by how much you're just happy to do for Him. Not because
you have to. Not because you have to, but
because the Lord just moves you to be kind to one another, to
be gracious to one another, and to forgive one another, and to
think of one another, and to pray for one another. And it's
the Lord. He does these things. He brings
us out of His people, and we gladly do it because we know
what great sinners we are, and how He's so merciful to us. All right, our third and final
point, the end of faith. Back in our text of 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. So the end of
our faith is the salvation of our souls. And our Lord valued
your soul to be of greater worth than an entire world. Even this
world, with all its fancy things, the Lord said that what shall
it profit a man if he gain the whole world and yet lose his
soul? That means your soul is worth
more than an entire world. And so, even our Lord, though,
paid a great, great price to ransom and to redeem and to save
the souls of His people. He paid it by shedding His own
blood, as is said in Ephesians 1-7, in whom we have redemption,
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace." And the scriptures teach that he didn't just shed
his blood, but he suffered under the wrath of God when it says,
wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with
his own blood, suffered without the gate. And because we are
now sanctified by Christ, he says in Hebrews 2.11, both he
that sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause he is not ashamed
to call them brethren. So think about it. What Christ
has done for you, that though you were sinners, though you
were enemies of God in your own heart, and in your own mind,
and you were hateful and hating one another, think of what the
Lord did for us, His people. Think of how He's delivered you
out of the sin, out of the condemnation, out of the judgment that was
to come upon each of us when He returns, or when we stand
before Him. And yet, He did what we couldn't
do for ourselves and in shedding his blood and washes us in his
blood Makes us clean and righteous before God so that when God looks
upon us He doesn't see our sin. He doesn't look on us and says,
you know, they really need to be doing more He looks on Christ
And says, wow, this is my good and faithful servant. Well done. They've done all things I've
ever asked of them to do. And it's all because the Lord
Jesus Christ did it. And we stand in Him. That's why we're received into
the Beloved. Now we're in the family of God.
Adopted, it says. We're in the very family of God.
And we shall receive all the inheritance that God has for
His family. And it's all because of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So, I don't say these things
that you should feel this burden or this sense of, oh, I better
be doing more for the Lord. But rather look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Rejoice in what He's done. Thank
Him. Thank Him every day. Thank Him
all throughout the day. And see how the Lord won't richly
bless you and give you a heart to want to serve Him and to serve
one another. He'll bring it out. I'm not saying
go and motivate yourself and try to get yourself to do more
for Him. But rather, just look at Him and behold how sweet and
glorious and kind and merciful a Savior we serve. How kind He
is to us. He's not burdening you and asking
you to do more for Him. He's filling you with His Spirit
and just look to Him, just trust Him and see if He doesn't bring
out these things. John says, I'll say this in closing,
These things I have written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God, that ye may know that He hath eternal life,
and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. Rejoice
in Christ. He's such a merciful and kind
Savior, and that's why we love Him. Even though we haven't seen
Him, we love Him for what He's done for us. Let's thank the
Lord. Our gracious Lord, Father, we
thank You for what You have done for us through Christ, Your Son,
our Savior, our blessed, successful Savior. Lord, we thank You for
His blood, that He paid the price for our sin and delivers us out
of darkness and out of condemnation and out from that judgment which
is coming upon the world. Lord, help us to see Jesus and
to love Him more to see how great His salvation is, and that we
would have hearts that do truly love Him and love one another,
and that Your will be done. Forgive us of our sin, Lord.
We pray in Jesus' name, our Lord and Savior. Amen.