Good morning again. Hey, let's
take our Bibles and turn, please, to the letter of the Apostle
Peter, the first letter, 1 Peter 1. Our title this morning is The
Salvation of Your Souls, and it constitutes some verses in
this chapter. I'm intending to read the whole
chapter to you, but we're going to concentrate after our reading,
we'll come back and concentrate on verses 8 and 9 of 1 Peter
chapter 1. So in our reading, we'll begin
with verse 1, but before we come to the reading, let us beg for
our Lord's mercies to us that he would see fit to give us the ability to understand
what this book is about and about what this letter is about and
about what this chapter is about. It is virtually reprehensible for people to memorize passages
in the Bible without knowing anything about what it means. And I've done that, and if you
grew up in religion and you're of any age at the present, you
certainly were exposed to this, whether you actually did it or
not, I don't know. But I remember memorizing all
kinds of verses and didn't have one ounce of sense as to what
it meant. You see, the problem with the Bible and the generation
in which we live and the people on this earth in every country,
every continent, it is that we can read this understanding it in a carnal
sense, but not understanding the spiritual message of the
gospel. And this message is absolutely
essential to salvation. God saves sinners, but God does
not use untruth to save his people. He uses the truth. And who is
the truth? Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
truth. All right, let's come to this
chapter after we pray. Lord, we gather in this place
this morning, and if we could possibly do so, we would join
hearts and minds and approach your throne of grace. a throne
of grace because of your Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Lord, we're gathered now with
all kinds of different circumstances in our lives, concern for those
that are sick, concern for our families, our children, even
our friends. But Lord, we are incapable of
imparting divine, eternal, spiritual life. This is the work of God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Lord, we find ourselves this
morning in this first letter of the Apostle Peter. And oh,
he reminds us so much of ourselves. But by the time we have him penning
this letter, it is under divine inspiration and it is without
mistake. Oh, that you would help us this
day to own these words as being yours, given to us through the
Apostle that we might be encouraged if we are believers, and that
we might be discouraged if we are unbelievers. What an awful
state all of us are in by nature. We are born into this world spiritually
dead. And it is only the life of our
Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel that can raise us from this spiritual
death. We pray to this end, this day,
that in this place and wherever this message is broadcast, over
the internet or whatever, O Lord, when we finish, we've done all
we can do except pray. We beg you to save your people
from their sins. We thank you and bless you in
our Lord Jesus' precious name. Amen. 1 Peter 1, verse 1, Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, wait a minute, I've jumped
something here, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers
scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and
Bithynia. These people are forced to leave
Judea and Jerusalem and find other places to live simply because
people hate the truth of the gospel and these people went
in order to keep their lives. Acts, I forget, maybe chapter
8 or 9, I don't think it's 9, 7 or 8, tells us that the Jews
were scattered in what was called the dispersion. But the only
group mentioned that remained in Jerusalem was the apostles. So, a lot of people left this
city. And Peter is designated in our
New Testaments as being the one given the responsibility of preaching
the gospel to the Jews. And so he's corresponding with
these people. And let's see what he tells them.
Here's the first thing in verse 2. He says, elect according to
the foreknowledge of God. Now that election is a choosing
on the part of God. This election was made before
there was ever a human being. It was made in eternity past.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his
abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a living hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. To an inheritance
incorruptible, it cannot rot, it cannot decrease in value,
it cannot disappear. To an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled and that fades not away reserved in heaven for
you. These people who are reserved
in verse 5 are said who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time wherein you
greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are
in heaviness through manifold or many-sided temptations or
trials." I like the word trial because in the very next phrase
in verse 7, that's the trial of your faith. So Peter is talking
about trials of believers. And then he says in verse 7,
that the trial of your faith being much more precious than
a gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might
be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing, the
second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, an event which is still
future. It could be today, it could be
a thousand years from today, or a million for that matter,
whom having not seen you love, in whom though now you see him
not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation
of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and
searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come
unto you." Searching what, these Old Testament prophets, searching
what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit,
was in them, called here the Spirit of Christ, did signify
or mean when it testified beforehand. Now, what's beforehand? In the Old Testament, before
Christ ever came in the flesh. It testified beforehand the sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow. Now, if you will
remember, when our Lord first began his public life in ministry
at about the age of 30 or so, maybe less, maybe more, that
the biggest objection that the Jews had to what our Lord had
to say was that he spoke of himself in such lowly terms. And that
he spoke of the Messiah as coming to this earth to do what? To
suffer, to bleed, and to die for his people's sin. And these
Jews, they could not fathom this. because they did not want to
fathom this. They were in a predicament when
our Lord was born into this world in the land that was held by
the Jews, and that this idea that God could do something for
them and not set them free from the Romans, they despised something
like that. They set out almost from the
beginning to crucify the Lord Jesus. They could have started
a million years ago, but they wouldn't have gotten it done
any sooner than they did because they couldn't do it until God's
time had arrived, and God did it. They could not understand a Messiah. That wouldn't do something for
them nationally, but would do everything for them spiritually.
They had no knowledge of this. Now these people were religious
to the hilt. They were Pharisees and Sadducees
and no telling what other kind of seeds. But they were in this
thing seriously. Been at it a long time. Had a
long heritage before they were born. But I'm going to hope to
come back to this in just a little bit, but I'll never finish this
reading if I don't get back on it. Verse 12, unto whom it was revealed
that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the
things which are now reported unto you, by them that have preached
the gospel unto you with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven,
which things the angels desire to look into. 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, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according
to the former lust in your ignorance. But as He which has called you
is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversation." And
I would add to that word conversation, conduct. Because it is written,
Be you holy, for I am holy. God tells you to do what you
cannot do, and that is to make ourselves holy. We can do a good job of making
ourselves unholy, because we sure have proved that. But look
what it says now. What verse was that, please?
Is that 16? Yeah. Because it is written,
Be ye holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father,
who without respect of persons judges according to every man's
work past the time of your sojourning here in fear, for as much as
you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vein, conversation and conduct received by tradition
from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of
a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily, truly, amen,
was foreordained before the foundation of the world and was manifest
in these last times for you, who by him That is, by Christ
do believe in God that raised Christ up from the dead and gave
him glory that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing
you purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit
unto unpretended or unfeigned love of the brethren, see that
you love one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again
This is the new birth. It is regeneration. Being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. What seed
is that? By the word of God, which lives
and abides forever. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withers,
and the flower thereof falls away. But the word of the Lord
endures forever. And this is the word, listen
carefully, this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto
you. Going back to verse 16 just momentarily. Because it is written, Be ye
holy, for I am holy. When God uses such language,
and he does in many places in our Bibles, to tell us to be
something that anybody with a lick of gospel sense knows we can't
make ourselves that. Everything a sinner touches is
contaminated with his sin. And we're all sinners. We're
born sinners. But this glorious language of
the Bible that tells us To be perfect because God is perfect. What does it mean? It means that
God commands you to be what He demands of you and He makes you
that. It's not because He commands
us and then we set ourselves to make ourselves holy. That
just ain't happening. It's never been that way since
Adam fell in the garden. Alright, I can't dwell on that
any longer. We go back to the 8th and the 9th verse in our
chapter. There are four verses, two of which are verse 8 and
9. The other two are verses 5 and 6. Here we have a description
of faith in its actings. Faith acts. It is called in verse
5, through faith unto salvation. That is the acting of faith. Secondly, the testing of faith,
and that's in verse 7. that the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though
it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Verse 8, we come
now to the exalting of the believer in faith in verse 8. Yet believing, This is middle
way of the verse. You receive with joy unspeakable
and full of glory. That's grace exalting itself
in the poor sinner. And then in verse 9, we have
the consummation of faith. Receiving the end, not the beginning,
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. My, what a consummation that
is indeed. All right, now let's see if we
can get down to business on the salvation of your souls. It hasn't been, well, it's been
a good many, but I used to frequent an eating joint up here on Highway
210 when my wife was working at school. I'd go up there for breakfast
a lot. And over the years, those biscuits really put it on. Thankfully,
I've lost a good bit of that. But I wouldn't give you the man's
name anyway, but right now it escapes me. But on a Monday morning,
he'd come in and knowing that I was a preacher, he's got to
say something, you know. And so one Monday morning he
said, Well, how many souls did you save yesterday? I said, I didn't save any. And if I thought I could, I would
be lying. God, the triune God, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit alone can save. He saves us without our
help, without our permission. Without any works of ours, whatever
works he requires of us after we're converted, he gives those
to us. Ephesians 2, verse 10. So here are some scriptures that
I have once more, my lovely wife has prepared for me so you don't
have to turn to every one of them. So you hang on to 1 Peter
and I think we might look at a couple more places. But here's
what's said in regard to this in 1 Peter. I'm sorry, this comes
from Romans 1.16. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Then in
Hebrews 7.25 it says, Wherefore, he is able to save to the uttermost
Them that come unto God by Him. Somebody has said, you can also
say, He's come to save them. Well, that won't work. I was
going to say, from the gutter, you know, to being in His sight,
righteous and holy in Christ. Our Bible teaches us in 1 Timothy
2.5 that there's only one mediator between God and men, and that
is the man, Christ Jesus. The God-man, Christ Jesus. You remember I've told you this
a thousand times, and you've told it back to me probably more
than that. But the Lord is as much God as if He were not a
man, and He's as much a man as if He were not God. Yet these
two natures, a divine nature and a perfect sinless human nature,
abides in one person. That's the person of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth. There are two things emphasized
wherever the gospel is preached. One of them is the truth of the
gospel and the other is the worth of the gospel. The truth of the
gospel is what gives the sinner a sense of forgiveness, peace
of mind. But the worth of the gospel is
what gives us a sense of satisfaction and peace in our hearts. It is
peace of heart. The gospel of Christ in regard
to prophets and angels. May I read you some scriptures
to that end. Let's see. I've lost my place here. In Acts 10.43, speaking of the
Lord Jesus, to him, give all the prophets witness. that through
his name, whosoever believes in him shall receive remission
of sins." Now in the chapter in which we were engaged, we
could look at two verses that have to do with this aspect of
the truth. The first one has to do with
the prophets. These are Old Testament prophets.
But they were prophets to whom God revealed His Son. Though you could not say that
they were completely saved, such as a person is after Calvary,
but that these persons to whom the Lord Jesus is made known
by the prophets, nothing could keep them from eternal glory,
because they belong to Christ. And when it came time for him
to go to the cross, he paid for their sins as much so as anyone
else's. And then in the second place,
in verse 12, we come to angels. The last part of the verse I'm going to start middle way.
"...by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the
Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire
to look into. But when it comes to the gospel,
they cannot fathom its meaning." You know why? They have never
been a sinner. The angels that sin, immediately
fell from glory into hell itself. But those who remained loyal
to the triune God were confirmed in holiness and could never lose
it. Therefore, they too are interested
in understanding what this gospel is and what it's about. Now the same thing is true with
today's generation. If you're not a sinner, you don't
need God and you don't need Christ, you don't need grace. Surely, you look in the mirror every
once in a while maybe, at least once a week and brush your hair,
and you don't see a sinner. Every believer surely knows what
a sinner is. And they know because we are
one. We are one. We need this Redeemer. We need this redemption. We need
this salvation. And it's only given to sinners. I know you've heard this too
many times, but I've got to say it one more time. For whom did
Christ die? He died for the ungodly. I remember in this very auditorium
many, many years ago now, a fellow used to sit right over there
in front of Curtis and behind Tommy. If you didn't catch him awfully
quick after you stood up to preach, he was already out. He was taking
his Sunday morning nap. And I vowed that morning I was
going to beat him to the punch. And I asked that question, for
whom did Christ die? And I probably put a little volume
to make him hear it a little bit better. And I said, Christ did not die
for good people. Primarily because there ain't
no such critter. He died for the ungodly. Another statement in Scripture
says he died for sinners. Well, that old boy didn't go
back to sleep that morning. But I'm telling you, when he
went out through the foyer, he wasn't even going to shake hands
with me. He was mad as a sitting hen. You know why? He didn't think himself to be
a sinner. I know this is elementary, but
you've got to be reminded of this. And so have I. Here's the very first thing out
of verse 10 in our chapter. Salvation is altogether a grace. It is called the gospel of the
grace of God. There is the call of grace and
there is in the scripture such a thing as growing in grace. Grace from God in mercy to man
in misery. It is not as a reward. Salvation is not something God
gives you because you've been better than other people. Oh,
no. That defeats everything we've
said to this point. It is not as a reward. It is
absolutely a gift. It's called free grace. It's not as a plan. You hear
preachers talking about God's plan of salvation. Grace is a proclamation. And if I could
borrow the expression, it is an emancipation proclamation.
It proclaims the guilty to be free. Be free. Grace planned this salvation
before there was ever a creation. Grace executed this salvation
before you and I were ever heard of over 2,000 years ago. Grace applies this salvation
to individual sinners, one at a time. There's no such thing
as God saving people in a group. It just does not happen. It's
one by one by one. This grace is what sustains us
and it perfects us before God as being holy and righteous in
Christ. Christ's obedience for some 33
years in this world, earned for him what he did not need, which
was a perfect righteousness. Our Lord could never be more
righteous than He was in eternity, than He was during the Old Testament,
than He was during the time of the four Gospels in our Bibles.
He can't change what he is. God can't quit being God, and
Jesus Christ is God. Today's religion gives a man
something to do. God in grace gives helpless sinners
salvation already finished. Finished. Finished. Did you know that our Lord used
that term in our Bibles two times? One in John 17 and the other
in John 19. In John 17, he's praying that
high priestly prayer, and he calls himself by this wonderful
expression. It is finished. I have finished
the work, he said. You gave me to do. Then in John 19, I think it's
next to the last statement that fell from his lips while he's
hanging on the cross. He said in a loud voice, it is
finished. And he bowed his head. and gave
up the ghost. And for us to come along and
say, well, he didn't really mean finished. That ain't our problem. Our problem
is we think we're something. And we can do things for God
on our own without his help or anything. It is indeed already
finished, already. Here is the second thing. In verse 11 of our chapter, 1
Peter 1, in verse 11, searching for what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify, or mean, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ and the glory that should follow." Now, we spent a lot
of time on that, testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that would follow. I don't have time to go back
to that subject. We'll have to do it another time. So this means this revealing
of this precious gospel to us in regard to the Holy Spirit
of God who makes known these things to us. It has nothing
to do with how smart we are. Our IQ does not factor in at
all. And here is a statement that
will prove that. Reading from 1 Corinthians 9,
But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither
has it entered into the heart of man the things which God has
prepared for them that love him. And you can't love him without
being born again. Verse 10, But God has revealed
them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things,
yea, the deep things of God. But the natural man, man by nature,
receives not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned, spiritually understood. If we are spiritually dead sinners,
we have no faculty to understand spiritual things. and can only
do so as a result of the new birth of being born again. And it's not how religious we
are. I'll tell you, Saul of Tarsus was about as religious as a man
could ever be. And Christ met him on the road
to Damascus and unhorsed him, put him in the dust, and he became
a beggar. And our Lord gave him instructions
and he followed them. And Saul of Tarsus soon was to
be known as Paul the Apostle. My, what a glorious change! What a change! The Holy Spirit, through the
Word of God, convicts of sin. You can find these words in John
16, 8 through 11, I believe it is. The Holy Spirit, through the
Word, convicts of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. And he is the
main revealer of the gospel. He guides people into truth. And he always glorifies the Lord
Jesus Christ. Still in verse 11, we have salvation
accomplished by Christ. When it testified beforehand,
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. I wish we had time to do this,
so I'm just going to give you an assignment. between our Lord Jesus and sinners. This tension about Himself suffering
and bleeding and dying. And the Jews are just aghast
at that. They cannot tolerate that. Their
Messiah would not be served in such a way as this,
this man has to be false. Well, you'd just rather throw
the Bible away if that's what you think. You don't need it. It's not done you any good yet,
and it's doubtful it will. If our Lord had given just one
indication that he would deliver these people from their Roman
bondage. Hey, welcome, come into my heart. But he didn't. And they didn't. Instead of loving him, they hated
him. And we all start out in that
same boat with them. Now, these people knew the Old
Testament up one side and down the other. When our Lord asked that scribe,
when he said, What must he do to inherit eternal life? Our
Lord said, You know the law. The guy said, Well, I keep the
Ten Commandments. But he didn't. The guy was false
to himself. And our Lord knew it. And so
right after he finished talking to this character, he gives us
the parable of the Good Samaritan. And there ain't but one of those,
and his name is Jesus Christ the Righteous. You would think that people who
knew the Old Testament so thoroughly, at least Curtis on the surface,
That they would not just wholesale reject him. But they did. They most certainly did. Let
me give you a passage. If you've got time today, if
you don't take time. Everybody knows Isaiah 53. If
you don't know about Isaiah 53, you're missing everything. If that's not suffering and enduring pain and agony on
someone else's behalf by the Lord Jesus Christ, what do words
mean? It everywhere speaks of him in
this language. He's a lamb before his shearers
is done, so he opened not his mouth. And on and on and on he
could go. Only twelve verses in that chapter.
But I'm telling you, it describes a suffering, bleeding, dying
Lord Jesus Christ as well as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He's both in just one person,
in one person. Salvation comes to us by faith. It's not received by penance
or pain or personal promises. It's not received by works, deeds,
or obedience to the law. It's not by baptism. It's not
by church membership. It's not by communion. None of
these things has anything to do with giving life to dead sinners.
It's not by blood, nor is it by the family tree. Genealogy
does not enter into the picture. It's not your will. It's God's
will. It's not by merit. We cannot
deserve it. It is by mercy. And it's not
your goodness or my goodness, but it is God's grace. One more scripture. I've got
it right here in front of me. John 1.13, Which were born, not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God." Amen. Bishop Rogers, you took my voice away, boy,
when you made me lead on in song.