Our Bibles please, and turn to
the book of 1 Peter chapter 1. Our title for this morning, based
on verses 8 through 11 in 1 Peter chapter 1, The Salvation of Your
Souls. Now before we begin to read,
let us beg the Lord to help us, to meet us in this scripture.
To speak it to our hearts, give us life from the dead. Thank you, Lord, for letting
us meet in this house. Thank you for the hymns of Zion. Especially that last one this
morning. May that be the thought of our
heart and our mind. But Lord, seeing that we're nothing
but dead dog sinners, we have nothing about ourselves
to recommend us to you. And yet deep down, knowing this
to be true, we act surprised when we find statements in our
Bibles that declare the same. Lord, we are nothing and nobodies. If our souls are to be saved, you alone can save them. the
triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And now this morning as we come
to this passage in your book, the Bible, enable us spiritually to prostrate ourselves before you, to confess that if left to ourselves
we must perish. But if you come in the power
of your grace, in the person of your blessed Son, and the
accompanying of work of God the Holy Spirit in the new birth,
oh, how this changes everything. Lord, come among us this morning,
if you please. We beg you to. We're not worthy of it. We don't
deserve it. We're not begging these things
on what we deserve, but on what our blessed Savior, the Lord
Jesus, deserves. Open our minds. and our hearts, our souls, to
be able to see with spiritual eyes, the eyes of the soul, the
glorious things that are spoken in this one chapter of Holy Scripture. Lord bless Your Word we pray,
for Christ's sake, in His dear name we pray, Amen. Now I shall read first of all
the chapter, at least I'm going to attempt to. If I flub it as much as I have
already this morning, I don't know if I will or not, but I'm
going to take a shot at it. I think it's important for us
to see where the statements that we are going to concentrate on
come from. And I'll call on your memory. A note or two written in my new
Bible, believe it or not. But in Acts chapter 8, after
the stoning of Stephen, what happened? The Jewish believers, because
of the persecution that culminated in Stephen's stoning, supervised
by Saul of Tarsus, all the Jews I doubt all without exception,
but that's all we know, is that they all fled to other towns
and cities and villages. Except, there's one group that
didn't leave. Except the apostles. Many of them lost their lives
in that very city. And the time difference between
Acts chapter 8 and 1 Peter chapter 1 is just about 4 years shy of
20 years taking place. I believe Acts 8 has in Usher's
chronology, which the particular Bible that I have that I don't
recommend anybody to have, but it's consistent with dating.
things, that this helps us to understand some things. So that
in Acts chapter 8, it was A.D. 34. Anno Domino, in the year
of our Lord, 84. And here, to begin this chapter
and this letter, it's A.D. 60. Only ten years left before
the Romans destroy the temple in Jerusalem forever. It's still
in that ruined state now. So Peter is writing to those
people called the people of the dispersion. They were the ones
forced to leave their home, their church, their friends, and the
apostles. Here's what he said. Peter, an
apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. To an inheritance, people who
are in Christ by the grace of God, the power of God, have an
inheritance. It cannot ever be lessened or
nullified. It says incorruptible, an inheritance
that cannot be corrupted. It's all that it ever was. It's
all that it was ever meant to be. Not only incorruptible. It doesn't get old. It doesn't
rot. But it's undefiled and that fades not away, reserved in heaven
for you. Who's you? It's the saints that
are scattered in the dispersion, and then it is to all saints
of all times and all places. These people are described now
in verse 5. I should ask myself the question,
is this me? who are kept by the power of
God. These people who have this inheritance
reserved in heaven are kept by the power of God. But don't leave
this little phrase out now. Through faith. There are certain religious persuasions
that say that people do not have to know in this life if they
have an interest in Christ. They can just wake up in glory
and be believers. Well, that ain't what this says.
It says, who are kept by the power of God through faith. And there ain't but one object
for saving faith, and that's Christ. Ready to be revealed
at the last time. wherein you greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through
manifold or many temptations," and I like the word trials for
that, especially because of verse 7 that comes right back and says,
"...that the trial of your faith," faith is to be tried, How else
shall we know if it is genuine that the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than a gold that perishes, though
that gold be tried or purified with fire, might be found unto
praise and honor and glory when? At the appearing of our Lord
Jesus Christ. When Christ comes back, when
he returns. No, He ain't coming early to
get believers. He's coming when this world is
on fire. Ain't nothing left. And we'll
all stand before Him, the sheep and the goats. And if you want
to know what He does on that day, read Matthew 25, verse 31
through 46. Alright, verse 8. This is the
first part of our text. Speaking of Christ, whom having
not seen. Now this is important. Well,
how did these people see Christ if Christ is whom having not
seen? The not seen means not seen with
the natural eye. You can't see Christ with these
eyes. It has to be the eyes of the
soul. Here's how you can tell if religion is alive or dead. Do they have statues and symbols
like crosses and angels and all of this kind of stuff? You know
why? Christ ain't there. The reality
is gone, if ever He was there. I'm dead serious now. I'll stand
you down on that point. I know that to be the case. How on earth we got a steeple
without a cross, I do not know. But I'll guarantee you this,
if there had been one, it would not be there now. I would have
shot it off with a rifle. Honest to goodness, if I had
to go to jail, I would have done it. Whom having not seen. We don't need props for the natural
eye to believe God. To embrace His Son as our only
hope and our only Savior. Now look what happens in verse
8. This matter of not seeing is repeated twice in one single
statement. Whom having not seen, you love. Though now you see him not, yet believing. You rejoice with
joy unspeakable and full of glory. Now, people who say they've seen
Christ with the natural eye, well, they might be a little
fruitier, you know, but they might just be gone off in never-never
land. I don't know how to account for
it altogether, but plenty of people claim to have dreams and
visions and all this stuff. Somebody said, if you don't have
dreams, you're not sleeping properly. Well, I hardly ever have a dream. You rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith. What is that? Even the salvation
of your soul. Receiving the end of our faith
even the salvation of our souls. Verse 10, of which salvation
the prophets, the Old Testament prophets, have inquired and searched
diligently with great effort who prophesied of the grace that
should come unto you, referring to these people of the dispersion
and to all believers as each generation succeeds another. Did you know that the prophets
in the Old Testament inquired in this matter of who Christ
is and what he's coming to do and who he's going to do it for? Look at verse 11. It adds to
that statement. These prophets now were searching
what or what manner of time, that is, when the Spirit of Christ
which was in those Old Testament prophets, no wonder Isaiah could
pen that matchless chapter Isaiah 53. My soul, you would have thought
Like 750 years before Christ was actually crucified. You would
have thought that no man could have described those things had
he not seen them personally with the naked eye. But no, 750 years before. Searching
what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in
those prophets, did mean, King James signified, did mean when
it testified beforehand The sufferings of Christ and the glory that
should follow. Now, catch a hold of those two
things. They don't seem to fit the same person, but they do.
The sufferings of Christ and the glory of Christ that should
follow. Now, the problem with the Jews
receiving our Savior, He came, you know, to the Jews. He Himself
is a Jew. Why did they reject Him? And
if you can read the four Gospels without knowing that not even
every event that's recorded in those four Gospels, only very
few actually believed and received the Lord Jesus Christ. So what
was the problem with the Jewish nation? They had their temple. They had all their prophets in
the past and their leaders in the past from Moses right on
up. What's wrong? What about Abraham? What about Noah? The problem
is this. Oh, I can't find my word. Let me read it. Oh, no wonder
the wind has changed my page. Gosh, I thought I was losing
my mind. Verse 11, searching what or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ, I don't think this is
the Holy Spirit, I think it's talking about Christ's Spirit,
The Spirit of Christ which was in them did mean, when it testified
beforehand, the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should
follow. Now here was the sticking point
with the Jews, and it is still the sticking point with people
that don't have an ounce of Jewish blood in them. All of us are
subject to this very thing. If this is the Christ of God,
if this is the Son of God that was to come, why was He born
in a manger? Why was He born in Bethlehem?
Why wasn't it Jerusalem? Why didn't everybody know when
He was born? Just all kind of questions. Why
wasn't He educated? If you know everything, what
else can you learn? The Jews rejected Christ because
they had interpreted the Old Testament Scriptures to mean
that this coming Messiah was to come to deliver us from this
Roman oppression and set up His kingdom right here on this earth.
Now, they're all into that. And there's plenty of people
right now that are into that. If it's in the here and now,
if it's having to do with this body, why don't the church build
a gym? Why don't you do this, that,
or the other? Because that ain't Christianity. That's how come.
You can ride through the country. I mean, country churches that
have been backward all their lives, have got building after
building after building. It's just utterly stupid. Crazy. If he had not come in his sufferings,
oh, they would have been interested in him. They would have been interested in
his glory, but not his cross. Verse 12, unto whom it was revealed
that not unto themselves, Revealed to whom? The Old Testament prophets
and others. 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. Angels do not understand
salvation by grace. You know why? They have no Redeemer
and no Savior. The angels that did not fall
were simply confirmed in holiness and they cannot change, either
for the better or for the worse. 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. 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 conduct and conversation, because it is written, Be you
holy, for I am holy. Now, 99 out of 100 churches,
if they read that verse that I just read, be you holy because
God is holy, they would say, see there, you've got to make
yourself holy. That ain't what it's saying. This is a command. And at the mouth of our Lord
Jesus Christ, He speaks, and we are made holy in His sight.
You and I can't keep one rule, let alone ten or a hundred. It
just defies human... I don't know what human. Do you
remember in the Gospels when the Jews were hounding our Lord
because He performed miracles on the Sabbath day? He said,
well, you go get an ox out of the ditch on the Sabbath day
and you don't think anything about that. Now, if I heal a
man on the Sabbath day, what's wrong with that? Oh, they just
saw red. So he deliberately, and I think
many times in the Gospels, actually performed acts of healing on
the Sabbath day just to stick it to these uppity Jews that
thought they had everything, and they're blind as bats. So
here's this man in the synagogue, and our Lord is present. This
man has a withered hand. And if you've ever seen anybody
that's not had the use of an arm or a hand, it just starts
to dry up. And our Lord asked that man to
stand forth in the midst where everybody could see him, especially
these Pharisees and scribes that were gathered. He said, stretch
forth your arm. Now, that man couldn't stretch
forth his arm, but he did. He did. But it wasn't Him, it
was Christ. You see, when Christ gave Him
the command, the power to obey it was carried with it. And I'm
telling you, that's how this statement must be understood.
If you think we can make ourselves holy, you ain't heard nothing
I've said. So, that's just how it is. Alright, let me get back
to business. I'm not even going to get through reading if I don't
hush. I just can't read that and quit. I'm going to stop my reading. Read the
rest of the chapter today, will you? The salvation of our souls in verses 8 through 11. Here are four absolute certainties. Here's one in verse 10. Salvation
is altogether of grace. The prophets who prophesied of
the grace that should come unto you. Salvation is all of grace,
every aspect of it from beginning to end, from time into eternity. Our gospel is a gospel of grace. Grace, grace, grace. Our being
called is by the grace of God. Our salvation is certainly said
in this book in many places to be by grace. By grace are you
saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift
of God, lest any man should boast. Ephesians chapter 2. And growth, growing, is a growth
in grace. In grace. Second thing in verse
10, has to do with this mercy to sinners. The prophets have
inquired and searched diligently of the grace that should come
unto you. You people who don't deserve
it, who if left yourself won't seek it. It is grace that does
this. This grace comes from God in
His mercy for sinners. It is not a reward. Believers have only one reward,
if you want to talk about heaven now, and that reward is Christ. And if He ain't enough, I'm sorry
for you. Christ is all. He's all now and He's all then.
Everything in heaven is about Christ. If we do have a crown
on our heads, the first time we see Him, we'll throw them
at His feet. And that's an if, by the way. This grace by which God shows
mercy to sinners is not a plan. It is actually a proclamation. We proclaim. That's what I'm
trying to do right now, is proclaim the gospel. It is grace purposed
Grace executed, grace applied, grace sustains, and grace protects. What God gives us in Christ cannot
ever change. It can't disappear. It can't
become less valuable. It's incorruptible and undefiled.
Remember, we just read those words a little while earlier.
Thirdly, religion always gives People, something to do. To do. Now, some of you old heads,
like me, 60 and over, want to ask you a question. Were you ever in a meeting and
somebody says, well, if we don't give this person a job, he'll
quit coming? Huh? Oh, you two characters are
too young to even know what I'm talking about. I know good and
well many of you know that. Or we got to let this guy be
the superintendent of Sunday School, he'd get mad and quit.
Do you know when I came here you had so many committees, we
had a committee on committees? Honest! Honest to goodness! And it's only by the grace of
God that I kept my mouth shut and let the gospel take care
of things. And it certainly did. We lost
the WMU, we lost the committees, we lost the ball teams. We were just poor and dumb. We didn't know any better. God, instead of giving sinners
something to do, He gives us something already done. My soul, it was done in eternity.
And done again in time at Calvary. It's done. It's finished. Those
were our Lord's words from the cross. It is finished. And finished it is. That's a
glorious word. We ought to be so thankful for
that word being recorded in our Bibles. This salvation must be revealed by the Spirit
of God. Look at verse 11 if you're still
looking in the Bible with me. You don't need to turn if you're
not. Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ
which was in them did mean when it testified beforehand the sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow. Salvation is not
understood by man's wisdom and ability, it must be revealed
by God. Let me ask you this, referring
to Isaiah again, how did he come up with such a detailed description
of the suffering and death of Christ at Calvary? By divine
revelation. He didn't read it in a book.
God spoke it to him. And he penned those words. It's not how smart we are. I
want to show you how smart we are. I don't have time for you
to turn. I think I've got most of these
marked. If I tell you I'm going to tell
you where I was, I probably won't. But if you'll ask me afterwards,
I will. No man can come to me, these
are the words of Christ, except the Father which has sent me
draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day. That's John
6, verse 44. No man can come to me, the Lord
said, except the Father which has sent me draw him. And the next verse tells us about
that drawing. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Everyone therefore that
has heard and has learned of the Father, Christ said, they
come to me. They've come to me. Then there's
another verse I want to read to you, and I'm about to tell
you the Scripture again, but I've already got to it. Lost
my place though, but there it is. 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,
that love God's Son, the Lord Jesus. But God has revealed them
unto us by His Spirit, For the Spirit searches all things, yea,
the deep things of God." 1 Corinthians 2 verses 9 and 10. And then I have another for you.
It's not only not how smart we are, but it is how religious
we are. Oh my, you can get around some
people and it's like bad deodorant. You just can't help but know
it. My wife says she can smell a
preacher a hundred feet away. I don't know if she can smell
him or not, but you can see it if you use your eyes, if you
know what you're looking for. It's just obvious as it can be.
All right, here's another statement. It's not how religious we are.
Listen to Paul's words. Yea, doubtless. And I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dung that I may win Christ." Now here's one thing
that means that I do want to get across this morning. You've
got to kick your old religion out of the house before you can
have Christ. You've got to get rid of them.
They're not compatible, honest to goodness. I mean, if anybody
had religious baggage, it was Saul of Tarsus. My Lord, the
man had accomplished more than anybody else that they knew in
that day. There was nobody more zealous than he and covered more
territory than himself. But here he's flushing it all
down the toilet. Count it but done that I may
win Christ. Well, if he can count it done,
I've got news for him, he's already won Him. You can't do what he did unless
you already have Christ. Now, this might surprise you. This salvation? is not in how
moral we are. Now, that doesn't give us a license
for immorality. But in some places, being moral
comes before anything else. I told you about the time down
at the church we were born and raised in in Sampson County,
and this was in 2006, maybe June or July. They were having a big
250th anniversary homecoming, I wish that I'd never gone, but
I'd already bargained to go before I knew what was coming. Oh, goodness. That's the Sunday I
told you I got into the pulpit at fourteen minutes to twelve.
I didn't like that. And I let them know it. But the
first thing that took place at the beginning of worship, some
lady put a box on that rail there. And she's going to teach the
kids and anybody else that will listen a morality lesson. And
the lesson that Sunday was, it's not exaggeration, what was it? Anyway, she put a little tiny
baby shoe in the window on this side. Yeah, gossip. And when she took it out the
other side, it was about that big. And that's in a Baptist
church. They're trying to teach us to
be moral before we know Christ. You know what that makes? Pharisees. And we've got enough of them.
We don't need to reproduce. Goodness, I couldn't believe. I mean, I've been gone a long
time, but I didn't know it had got that bad. But it has. It
has. Well, let me try to make one
other point here before we go. This statement in verse, oh,
I'm in Philippians, that won't work. I've lost my place. Oh, there it is. In verse 11, searching what or what manner
of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in the Old Testament
prophets, did mean when it testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ and the glory that should follow the sufferings of our
blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Now that His suffering is past,
it is the glory that follows. Now listen, let me just try to
explain it this way. However many sinners Christ purchased
on the cross, The Bible tells us that we can't even conceive
or count the number, so I'm not even attempting to tell you if
it's one billion or a billion billions. That's not important
for us. The point is this. Everybody
for whom he died must be saved. This world can't end until that
takes place. And if there's any believers
in here, my Lord, just look how long it's been since the cross. And yet He's still calling and
saving sinners. Aren't you glad? If He were not,
if He had got that full number that He died for, then there'd
be no further use of preaching the gospel. You'd not need missionaries
or anything like that. I know one thing. His sufferings
are not in vain. And finally, going back to verse
9, I left this to last, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. What is the end of faith? What
is the goal of faith? The salvation of our souls. Just
like Romans 10, verse 4, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. Believers aren't trying to keep
the law. If you'll read Romans 7, you'll find out why. Paul
tells us in the second half of Romans 7. Let me just read you
the concluding verses of that chapter. I'll be ready before you get
there. Oh, Curtis, you're cheating. O wretched man that I am." This
is the Apostle Paul speaking. Why is he calling himself this?
He's talking about his Adamic nature, his old nature. The one
he was born with until he was born again, and now he's got
two. He's still got his old nature
and he's still got his new one now. But look at this. You've got to read one more verse.
The last verse. I thank God. Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? I thank God. Through Jesus Christ
our Lord, so then with the mind, with my new nature, I myself serve the law of God. But with the flesh, this old
man, with the flesh, I serve the law of sin and I add death. Sin and death. Well, that's enough.