1 Peter 1, and we're going to
focus our attention on verses 7 and 8 today. I've entitled
this message, Faith Tried, Love True. Faith Tried and Love True. Let's ask the Lord to be with
us. Our gracious Father, we ask that you would, according to
your eternal love for your people, in the Lord Jesus Christ, give
us now a revelation of him from your word in our hearts. Bless
us by your spirit with his grace to see and know the love of Christ,
which passes knowledge and goes beyond all measure. And yet,
Lord, you have given it to us in your word, and we pray, Lord,
you bless it to us. for his sake, for his glory,
and for our salvation and for our edification in Jesus' name
we pray, amen. In 1 Peter chapter one, we saw
in the very beginning how that the apostle addresses the church
of God as those scattered strangers. Now, in the historical sense,
they were clearly those who had believed Christ and yet were
scattered by the persecution. But their physical condition,
their state in the world, represents the fact that all of God's people
are strangers in this world. We're strangers because we have
heard the joyful news of Christ and Him crucified. And this is
not joyful news to the unbeliever. But by God's grace, He gave us
this news, and with that news, He gave us grace to believe on
Christ. And so Christ is no longer strange
to us, but we are strange to this world. And so the first
verse opens that way. And what we saw here in the book
of 1 Peter, especially the first two chapters, is that it's a
description of God's work. And we looked at Numbers chapter
23 and verse 23. Behold, what has God wrought? What has God done? And so we
see that here. We are strangers and pilgrims
in this world, just as all who believe on Christ are strangers
and pilgrims. We feel it. There's nothing in
this world that's really stable. Nothing is true. Nothing is certain. Everything is uncertain and everything
is full of deceit. and it has an ulterior motive,
and that motive is to direct the attention of the unbeliever
to himself, and to put himself on the throne in the place of
Christ. But God's purpose has always
been to exalt his son, and to save his people by him, and to
glorify him in that salvation. And so, he begins in verse two
and he addresses us by this word, elect. God's people are chosen
by God the Father. If God didn't choose us, we would
be lost forever. And that choice of God was done
before time began. We didn't contribute to it. We
weren't there. There's nothing that God foresaw
in us. He looked to His Son for everything
He would find in us. And He loved us in Him. He chose
us in Him. And He adopted us. He predestinated
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. And
that was done in love. And so, He addresses the entire
church here. He says, elect according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father. According to the knowledge He
had of His people, known unto God. are all his works from the
foundation of the world. And the foundation of God standeth
sure. The Lord knows those that are
his. And this is true from eternity.
Foreknowledge means that God knew what he would do. His will
determines all that he would do. He doesn't look to see what
we'll do and decide what he will do. God acts, uninfluenced, by
all that is outside of him. And this is good news because
that's the only way we can be saved. If we were saved dependent
upon what God found in us, we would be utterly lost. Because
we're up and down and sideways, we change daily, moment by moment,
and we're full of sin. But God found another, and this
is the hope of every believer. Upon a life I did not live, upon
a death I did not die, another's life, another's death, I stake
my whole eternity. And then he goes on, through
sanctification of the spirit. This means that God chose us
and also chose the means of our salvation to set us apart by
the spirit of God. And what did he set us apart
to? Unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ was anointed by God and chosen by God to be the
Christ, the substitute, the surety of his people, the one in whom
God would not only make a covenant but would fulfill that covenant
for his people in them and bless them with all blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. And so we are set apart by the
Spirit of God to know that our salvation is in the obedience
and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the whole focus of
our faith. Christ and him crucified. Christ
in his crucifixion obeying and fulfilling the everlasting righteousness
of God for us. And clothing us in it and washing
us from our sins by his own blood. And to these he says, grace unto
you and peace be multiplied. What an abundance of blessing.
Grace to you and peace be multiplied. No consideration in any way of
what you are in yourself. Only the consideration God made
for you in Christ from eternity. Isn't that good news to a sinner?
And so this builds, he goes, blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. We're born as sons of God by
the act of God the Father, by his will and by his word, but
it's because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God fulfilled
his work, his righteousness was fulfilled in the work of Christ,
in his obedience by which he gave himself for our sins. He
fulfilled that righteousness because it was God's work for
him to do. The will of God given to him
and the resurrection of Christ is proof The justification of
all that he did was complete and final and perfect and finished
by him. And so because of that, God births
us, gives us life, creates us in Christ by his spirit. Now
we're getting further on in verse four. He says, to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved
in heaven for you. for you. God has put your name
on it. It says in Matthew 25, Jesus
says to those sheep on his right hand, he says, come, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the
world by my father. It was prepared for you. And
our name is on it because God knew his people. He chose them.
And this is the great news of the gospel. God has a people
out of this world. Like the flood in Noah's day,
the entire world was full of sin. God looked upon the hearts
of man and he found nothing. He found only evil imagination,
and in their hearts this was continuous. And yet God had grace
on Noah and his family, and so it is today. God has grace on
his people in Christ, and it was so established by God before
the foundation of the world, and therefore we have a place
in heaven reserved for us in Christ. And so it's an inheritance
that's incorruptible and undefiled. It cannot fade. Inflation can't
touch it. Corruptions of this world, the
deceit of this world, the opposition of this world, nothing can influence
it. It's reserved in Christ for us in heaven by God the Father.
And then verse five, who are kept by the power of God. Nothing
short of the power of God is required to keep us, and nothing
less than the power of God is deployed to keep us. So we will
be kept through faith because faith ascribes all glory to God. Faith ascribes all credit to
God and God is glorified because His faith is what God has determined
to make our salvation entirely by grace. And so he says, we're
kept by the power of God unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. We were saved by Christ's work
on the cross. But the realization of that salvation,
the working out of it, and the experience of it, and the fulfillment
and consummation of it comes in time. And it will be fulfilled
in its consummation at the end of time. He says in verse six,
wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for season, if need
be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations. And here
we see the wisdom of God as our father. God is, towards his children,
has nothing but love and grace and peace. These things are multiplied. But though we greatly rejoice
now in this salvation, which is in Christ, this salvation,
to which we're kept by the power of God, he says here that there
is a needs be. God, in his wisdom, has determined,
pleases him to not only save us by Christ, but to save us
out of every trouble and every trial. So he says, we rejoice,
and at the same time, we are in heaviness through manifold
temptations. And this was the greatest comfort.
This is what Peter sent to this church, which in those days was
suffering the persecution of torture and death and opposition
and financial ruin and isolation from everybody else. Because
they were treated so because the world hates Christ and hates
his salvation. And so they were treated this
way. They themselves were sinners saved by grace and yet they were
hated. And so he says, not only do you rejoice, but at the same
time that rejoicing is mixed with heaviness because it seemed
good to God to bring us to himself and set forth his great power
and love in saving us in spite of not only our sins, but the
opposition of this world. Now we get to verse seven, where
I want to focus our attention for a moment. He says, the reason
for these manifold temptations, all of these trials, and they
can come from within, they can come from without. He says that
the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold
that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found
unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Now think about this. God has determined to save us
by his grace, and he did so. And yet he gives us this salvation
through faith. And faith is that gift of God
that sees nothing in ourselves. Like Abraham, he considered not
his own body, now dead. But he was fully persuaded that
God who promised was able to do what he promised. He was fully
persuaded that's faith. We are fully persuaded that what
God has said concerning us is true. Sinful and no strength
to contribute one thing in our salvation. And then he directs
us to the Lamb of God and tells us there is all your salvation.
And this grace of faith ascribes to Christ. not only all merit
and works in our salvation, but gives him credit for everything. All of our salvation is in him.
And it's not just in him, but it's in him in his fullness,
in his perfection. So that the Apostle Paul in Colossians
2, 9 and 10 says, you are complete in him, in whom the fullness
of the Godhead dwells bodily. So, the trial of our faith, God
is pleased as our Father to try this faith He's given to us.
When we're given faith by the grace of God, through the power
of the Holy Spirit, to look to Christ only, that faith in itself
is not only God's gift and God's work in us, the operation of
His Spirit in us, but it's yet incomplete. It's not a faith... which in our subjective experience,
our subjective faith in Christ is not perfect. It has to increase,
it has to be refined, and it pleases God to do that through
trouble. So that all the trouble in our
life is meant to refine this faith and God then will be glorified,
Jesus Christ will be glorified in that he upheld that faith
in Christ, which in us, says what God has said, agrees with
God that Christ is all in our salvation. He's all in the esteem
of God and we worship him. He who emptied himself and made
himself of no reputation in our eyes is everything because he
is truly everything. He deserves all praise and honor
and worship. And that's what faith does. Faith
gives all glory to the Lord Jesus Christ and in so doing glorifies
God in him. And so he says here, 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. All of God's
people will appear before Christ saved to the uttermost. He is
able to save them to the uttermost who come to God by him. And that's
our hope. That's what faith says. That
Christ on the throne, having not only destroyed our enemies,
but removed our sins from us and washed us from them, sits
on the throne and intercedes for us in order to present us
to himself without blame, with great joy in the presence of
his glory. And that's what he's going to
do. And he will show that he did it through this grace of
faith, giving us faith in him. And what a precious treasure
this faith is, how important it is because it looks to Christ
in everything. And then he says this in verse
eight. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, 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. Here we see the wonder of God's
work in the heart of a believer. for doubting, no reason for lack
of assurance because God doesn't look to me, he looks to his Son
for everything. And so there's, as it says in
Hebrews chapter 10, we have the full assurance of faith because
it's all by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But here he
says that we have not seen him with physical eyes. And yet,
though we don't see him with physical eyes, God has given
us this grace of faith. Because whom having not seen
you love, in whom though now you see him not, yet believing,
you see, believing, that's the eyes that God has given to his
people. Can you see faith? You can see these eyes. I look
at you, I see you have physical eyes, but I can't see through
your eyes. I know you use them to see the
world and all the things around you. But to the believer, we
can't look upon one another and say, aha, there's faith. I see
the eyes of faith in that one. No, all we know is that in our
souls, in our spirit, God has given us this grace to look away
from ourselves and look to Christ, trusting that he will save us
to the uttermost, save us from our sins, save us from all of
our enemies. And so he says, we haven't seen
Christ, yet we love him. This is God's word. What God
has said here is the way things are. Everyone born of God has
not seen Christ with physical eyes, at least the ones he's
speaking to here and us now. We haven't seen Christ in his
body. We haven't seen him with physical
eyes in his glory, but we do see him by faith. And having
not seen him with physical eyes, yet seeing him by faith, we love
him. That's what God has said. We
doubt it, don't we? If you ask me, do you love Christ?
There's both an inclination to say yes and I doubt myself. Isn't that true? Do we ever have
a full confidence in our love for Christ? I don't. Do we ever
have a full confidence or any confidence in our own confidence
in Christ? No. Our confidence is not in
our confidence. Our confidence in our trust is
not in our love. It's in the love of God. It's
in the work of Christ. It's in the person of Christ,
in His glory. And that's why we can, with full
assurance and full body and soul and spirit, if we could be free
of our sinful, carnal nature, But if we could, we would fully
enter into the praise and thanksgiving and worship of Christ because
He deserves it all. And we're persuaded of that.
God has given that to us. But we love Him. We do love Him. And we see both things, don't
we? A mixture in everything. In faith, we find doubting. In
love, we find a lack of love. And yet God has said, you haven't
seen Him, but you love Him. This is God's Word. Now, I want
to spend a few minutes here on this. The love of the believer
for Christ. Where does it come from? How
does God give it to us? Notice here in verse 7, the trial
of your faith. This faith is increased and with
the increase of faith comes an increase and a purification of
our love for Christ. Look at a few verses of scripture
with me. Turn to Romans chapter 5. In
Romans chapter 5, we see these two things, faith and love, produced
by the Spirit of God in us. Romans chapter 5, he has just
the apostle Paul has just laid out the gospel of Christ justifying
blood and righteousness, and now he says in chapter 5, verse
1, therefore being justified by faith, not because of our
faith, But we see our justification by faith, you see. We don't make
God justify us by believing. God justifies us for what he
finds in Christ and gives us faith because he received from
Christ for us according to his eternal will. So it's not, there's
no quality in the act of believing. The quality is in the object
we believe. You see, so we naturally think
that way because the world changes the meaning of faith to mean
I accepted Christ and that acceptance of Christ made God do something
for me. It motivated, it influenced God.
We manipulated him somehow, not at all. We're dead in sins and
blind to the truth, and God has to raise us to life and give
us eyes to see. And that act of God does not
find merit in us, it brings all of the salvation to us. And so
he says, therefore being justified by faith, this work, this operation
of God in our souls to show us that Christ is all, he says,
we have peace with God. Now we see that our peace with
God has been made in the blood of his son. We have been reconciled
to God. through what God did. We were
the enemies of God in our mind and by our wicked works, and
He took the initiative. He saw our opposition to Him,
and He removed from us what offended Him. We did it. It was our sin
and our corrupt nature, and God the Father, of His own will and
out of His own grace and mercy, reconciled us to Himself by the
death of His Son. He removed what offended Him
in us by laying that burden on His Son. And so he says here,
therefore being justified by faith, we see this now, it's
been done in Christ, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. It's both objective and subjective. Verse two, by whom, by Christ,
also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand
and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We were saved by grace
and we stand. We have access by God, by the
blood of Christ into the holiest of all. And this is what he's
speaking of here. Access to God, standing in this
grace by the Lord Jesus Christ. God has given us this access
by this faith in Christ. Verse 3. And not only, but we
glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience. And patience means we stand under.
God has said it. We stand there. We stand upon
Christ. And we stand in every trial.
Worketh patience, patience experience. Experience means that we are
proving what God has said in the troubles of our life and
all the experience of our life. We continually are brought back
to see Christ is all, as we just sang a moment ago. And then patience
not only works this experience of proving what God has said
in our own experience and experience hope. And that hope is a confident
expectation that God will bring to consummation all that he has
said because Christ is the basis of it. Verse 5, and hope maketh
not ashamed. because the love of God is shed
abroad. We're not disappointed. We're
not disappointed in our expectation. Notice here, I want to focus
on these words in verse 5. Because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
All right, so the love of God is the subject. The Holy Spirit
is going to shed abroad in our hearts, what? The love of God. And how is that love made known
to us by the Spirit of God? We just think, well, I just know
God is loving. God is all love, so he can't
hate. And we have these fictitious
imagined views of what love is. We're influenced by what we feel
and what we are taught by the world. And it's all wrong. God's love is not like that.
Notice, he says, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost which is given to us for, and here's the exposition
of the love of God, for when we were yet without strength,
in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Now, where is our love
in that? It can't be there. You won't
find it in the ungodly, the love of the ungodly toward God. There's
no such thing. There's none that understand
it. There's none that seeketh after God. They're all gone side. They're haters of God. Chapter
one through three in Romans. But here he says, when we were
yet without strength, without strength to do one thing of all
that God required, without strength to do one thing to remove one
of our offenses against God. Notice, when we were yet without
strength, God's love is made known. In due time, Christ died
for the ungodly. There's no merit in us. God didn't
find anything to work with. He didn't start with something
and build on it. We were utterly devoid of all
value and virtue and merit. No potential. It's not even as
helpless as an infant. We look at an infant, they can't
care for themselves, they can't roll over, they can't lift their
head, they can't find the food. They can't bring food to their
mouth. They can't do anything. Their hands are scraping their
head. They're just out of control.
There's no potential in an infant to help himself. But we're worse
than that. We were without strength as ungodly. Our sin brought God's just condemnation
of wrath upon us. And that's when God sent forth
his son. That's when he, Christ, died
for us, when we were ungodly, so that we see that the love
of God starts Way before we were converted, way before, Christ
died for the ungodly, for scarcely, he goes on in verse seven, for
scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perventure
for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth,
he made known, he set forth, he manifested his love toward
us in this, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Now that's love. Think about
yourself. You're living with people, people
close to you, someone says something to you, you're immediately offended.
Why? Well, because I was upset because
they said something to me that stirred up my pride. And I deserve
better than that. Why? I was right in what I said,
and they attacked me. When I was right, I didn't do
anything wrong, and they attacked me. And therefore, I returned
to them what they gave to me. That's the way we operate, isn't
it? By nature. Is that the way God operated
towards his people? No. When we were offensive to
God, Love covered all sins. He took our offense against Him
and bore it in the person of His Son. And having taken that
from us, Christ died under the condemnation of the just wrath
that we deserve for our sins. And by doing so, God satisfied
His own justice, appeased His own wrath, and made peace with
us in the blood of His Son. That is the definition of love. That's how we see love. That's
how we know love. So, going on, he says, much more
than being now justified by his blood. See, it's all Christ.
We shall be saved from wrath through him, through Christ.
For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be
saved by his life. Okay, do we see this? This is
how the Spirit of God sheds abroad the love of God. He does it in
our hearts and he does it under the furnace of affliction. What
does affliction do to you in your experience? It strips you
of all self-confidence, doesn't it? Think about your body. As you grow older, your body
begins to fail. What happens to your confidence
in your body? I don't know if I can do it anymore. I can't
do the things. I can't remember the things.
I feel myself fading. And so we feel the weakness even
in our bodies. And so God has to strip us down,
not only in our bodies, but in our emotions, in our self-confidence,
in this idea that we can do something that God will acknowledge. In
our view of God, he has to strip away all of our false views of
God and of ourself, and this is through the furnace of affliction.
It brings us down. He knows how to humble the proud.
That's what we are, proud. And we have to be humbled. And
that work of God in humbling us through the furnace of affliction
is done in order to refine that gift He's given to us, which
is faith, and increase it too. Increase it. And that's the way
faith increases. So that we should welcome the
wisdom of our Heavenly Father under His tender care, that all
of these troubles are working together for our good, to conform
us to the image of His dear Son, according to His eternal, predetermined
will. This is what God is doing. And
we see that in Romans 8. Look over at Romans chapter 8.
He says in verse 28, we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are, notice, the
called according to His purpose. We didn't enlist in this of our
own volition. God called us. It was an irresistible
call. It was an effectual call. It
accomplished what God determined to get done. And what was that?
For whom He did foreknow. See, it starts with Him, not
us. He knew us. We didn't know Him. He knew us
in love. God's knowledge of his people
doesn't increase. Let's see, I know that person
there, and I think his name is Bill or George or Henry, and
I see that he's a whatever, he's the city council member or something. No, God doesn't think sequentially
like that. God knows all of his works from
the foundation of the world. He never learns something. Everything's
open and naked under the eyes of him. All of his will is known
by him beforehand. So if he loves a person at the
end of time, it was because he loved them before time. God doesn't
change in these things. For whom He did foreknow, for
love, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son. That's the reason we're saved.
Because God determined it. And God put it in course by His
predestinating will that He, Christ, might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. And whom he called, them he also
justified. Whom he justified, them he also
glorified." All past tense. In the will and purpose of God,
and even in our own experience, it's all done by God from eternity. Past tense. You see what God
has done here? What has God done? If God did
this, then He gets all the glory. If God did this, then it was
a holy work. If God did this, then it sprang
from His heart and not ours. If God did this, then nothing
in this can fail. This is a chain that has links
made by God, none of which can break. Nothing will fail of all
God determined to do. If it could fail, then what would
that say about the power of God? That he wasn't able to accomplish
his will. That somehow what he found in
the creature was too big for him to overcome. But this is
the whole point of salvation. He shall save his people from
their sins. What a glorious gospel this is. So then he goes on, verse 31,
what shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who
can be against us? Where did it start? With God. Where does it end? To his glory. How did he accomplish it? By his work, by his word, by
his son. Notice verse 32, he that spared
not his own son. That's the ultimate. There's
nothing that can compare to that. God the Father did not spare
His Son. He didn't hold back anything
and He didn't hold back anything in His gift to His people and
He did not withhold anything in bringing it upon His Son to
save them from their sins when He poured out His justice upon
His Son. He didn't hold anything back.
He did not spare Him. But He delivered Him up for us
all. Us, those who are the called
according to his purpose, those predestinated, those he foreknew.
For us all, how shall he not with him? If God has given his
son, if he didn't spare him, then he will not fail, but give
all things that he gives his son to those for whom he gave
his son. This is certain. God says it
right here. Therefore the love of God, the
will of God, the purpose of God, the work of Christ, the work
of the Spirit of God, and our faith all are consistent within
the Godhead, within the will and the work of God. There's
no discontinuity. There's not going to be someone
out here who wanted to be saved but couldn't be saved because
God didn't do something for him. There's no one who was partially
saved. They're all going to be saved
to the uttermost because it's all God's work, you see. And
God's love is consistent. It's a holy and just love, a
righteous love. A love from eternity to eternity
that never changes, never is taken back. It fulfills all of
God's will. It saves all that God loved in
Christ. This is the way God's love is.
It's consistent and it's certain. It's as sure as God. And so he
says in verse 33, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect? As long as they have been God's
elect, no one could lay anything to their charge because he saw
them and chose them in Christ. It is God that justifieth. It's
God that justified. The supreme judge of the supreme
court of heaven has passed his decision, his judgment upon his
people. Justified. That's what he said.
But how could he do that? Take it up with God. He tells
us in Christ. He justified us by his blood.
Verse 34. And who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died. You see, if it's Christ that
died, then all for whom he died must and shall be saved. Yea,
rather, he's risen again, and he's even at the right hand of
God, who also makes intercession for us. Who, notice, who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Those God foreknew. Those God predestinated to be
conformed to the image of his Son. Those for whom he works
all things together for their good and his glory. Those who
are the called whom he justified and glorified by Christ. Who
shall separate them from the love of Christ? Nothing and no
one. This is God's challenge. The
gauntlet has been thrown down. Who is he that condemneth? God
sits on the throne of glory and he sends forth the challenge
to the onlooking universe. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. and no one can say anything.
The devil is silenced. And all the opposition of the
world against God's redeemed people is silenced because God
has worked. He has reconciled them to himself
in the death of his son. And if the offense was against
God and God removed it to the satisfaction of his justice and
honored his law by doing so, then who can lay anything to
their charge and who can separate them from his love? Do you see?
God's love is eternal, God's love is unchanging, God's love
is saving, and it is particular just as his saving work is. Now,
back in 1 Peter, he says, whom having not seen, you love. You
see, we love him, why? Because he first loved us. And
how is the love of God shown to us? When we were yet without
strength, Christ died for us. When we were the enemies of God,
God reconciled us to himself in the death of his son. And
this is what we learn here when we read this, that faith looks
to Christ. God tries our faith in trouble,
and that faith being tried is refined so that we see Christ
more clearly, we trust him more dearly, and we love him. We love
him. and that love for him grows in
proportion to that faith. Now I want you to look at a few
verses with me in the book of John, the gospel of John, to
see this, because it says, whom having not seen you love. We're going to begin with John
chapter 20. Remember Thomas? Thomas had said when Jesus was
about to go in chapter 11 to raise Lazarus from the dead,
and the disciples all said, we better not go down there because
if we go there, the Jews were trying to kill you of late. And
Thomas said, let's go. Let's die with him. And this
is the same Thomas. Thomas in chapter 20, John chapter
20 verse 24, Thomas one of the 12 called Didymus, John 20 verse
24, was not with them when Jesus came, this was after his resurrection.
The other disciples therefore said to Thomas, we've seen the
Lord. But he said, except I see in
his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print
of the nails and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. This is the same Thomas that
said, let's go die with him. No, I am not going to believe
unless I see his hands and the scars where the nail was in his
hand and put my finger there and take my hand and thrust it
into the side of Christ where the spear pierced him even to
his heart. I won't believe. And then after
three days again, his disciples were within and Thomas with them.
Then Jesus, then came Jesus, the doors being shut and stood
in the midst and said, peace be to you. And he said to Thomas, reach
hither your finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy
hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered, and here's the
confession of faith, such a powerful thing, my Lord and my God, Lord,
the Lord of me, God, the God of me. Jesus said in verse 29,
Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed, blessed
are they that have not seen and yet believe. Now that's what
1 Peter 1, verse 7 is talking about. In whom having not seen,
you love. God, by his grace, the Lord Jesus
Christ has given us this gift of faith that we believe without
physically seeing Christ. Look at John 9. I want to walk
you through some things here in the book of John. In John
9, verse 35. The blind man who had been blind
from birth, Jesus came to him and opened his eyes. He spit on the ground, he put
clay, he mixed the clay in his spittle and he made this, the
dirt in the spittle, he made clay and he put it on his eyes.
He said, go wash in the pool of Siloam. He went, he washed,
he came, seen. And there's this big, interaction
between him and the Pharisees. The Pharisees couldn't believe.
Who are you? We don't believe you were born
blind. Yeah, I was. Let's go ask his parents. Was
he? Well, I don't know. He's old enough. Go ask him.
So all this went on. And then at the end of this,
notice in verse 35, John 9, 35, Jesus heard that they had cast
him out. And when he found him, he said to him, to the blind
man, The one Jesus had healed from his blindness. Notice his
question. Do you believe on the Son of God? What a question. Jesus asked this man, do you
believe on the Son of God? Notice the honesty of this man.
He answered, said, Lord, who is he, Lord, that I might believe
on him? Whenever the Gospel, whenever
the Bible, whenever you hear the question posed to you, do
you believe Him? Do you love Him? What should
our response be? The truth. Just say the truth. Lord, who is He? You have to
make Him known to me. I can't see Him and know Him
unless you reveal Him. Lord, he says, who is he that
I might believe on him? Verse 37, Jesus said to him,
thou hast both seen him and it is he that talketh with thee.
Now he's obviously saying it's me. And remember, you see now because
I opened your eyes. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. Wow, that's
amazing, isn't it? He didn't see until Christ opened
his eyes. He couldn't know or believe the
Son of God unless he made himself known that he had an honest answer. And Jesus said, for judgment,
I'm coming to this world that they which see not might see,
and that they which see might be made blind. Now there is a
world of truth in that verse, isn't it? Naturally, we think
we see, and we're so arrogant and proud and ignorant in our
arrogance. And we can't be honest enough
to say, I don't see. In our heart, we ought to go
to Christ as the blind man and say, Lord, who is he? Open my
eyes that I might see. And so Jesus said, if you're
blind, Then I came to open your eyes, but if you see, I came
to make you blind. In verse 40, some of the Pharisees
which were there, which were with him, heard these words,
said, are we blind also? Jesus said, if you were blind,
you should have no sin. But now you say, we see, therefore
your sin remains. You see what arrogance and pride
does? our natural selves, we can't see. Now, I want to go
through just a couple of places here in the remaining chapters
of the book of John and show you the love of Christ towards
his people. We haven't seen him. Like Thomas,
who demanded to see the print of the nails in his hand and
the place in his side where the spear was. And yet Christ said,
blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. I want
to see him now by faith from his word. Notice, turn to John
chapter 11. The story of Lazarus, Martha,
and Mary. Lazarus had died. He was sick. They sent word to Jesus. In verse
one, now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus of Bethany, the
town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary which anointed
the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose
brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent to
him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. We should never let these words
go by quickly. When you read that, do you ever
think, oh, I want to be loved by Christ? Do you? Jesus heard that. He said, this
sickness is not unto death, but his sickness, the trial of your
faith, insert that there, is for the glory of God. All the
trouble of your life that refined your faith, that trouble that
God opened in your heart to drive you to Christ is for the glory
of God. That the Son of God might be
glorified thereby. Verse 5. Now Jesus loved Martha
and her sister and Lazarus. What a word. Jesus loved Jesus
loved Martha, Mary, and their brother, Lazarus. Amazing, isn't
that? Jesus actually, it says here
that he loved them. As God, he loved them with an
eternal love, with a saving love, with a holy love, with a love
that actually accomplished their salvation. But as man, he loved
them as a man never loved. on this world, a man who loved
purely, a man who loved so that he would lay his life down for
them. He loved them. Now why would God say that he
loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus if he loved everybody the same?
Would that make any sense? Why point out the distinguishing
love of Christ for Mary and Martha and Lazarus if he loved all the
people in the room or all the people in that region or the
world? Isn't his love saving and particular? And look over at the same chapter,
John 11. It says here in John 11 in verse
33, when Jesus therefore saw her weeping, Mary weeping, and
the Jews also weeping, which came with her, he groaned in
his spirit and was troubled. And he said, where have you laid
him? Talking about Lazarus. They said to him, Lord, come
and see. Jesus wept. And the Jews said this, Behold
how he loved him. Notice the love of Christ. He
loved Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, and the Jews observed him, and
they said this, by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, behold
how he loved him. The Lord said later in John 17
that the world may know that you have loved them even as you've
loved me. All of the universe will look
when God reveals his sons and he'll say, these are those loved
of God from before the foundation of the world, made sons by the
blood of his son. Behold how he loved him. Now look at verse chapter 13. chapter 13. In chapter 12, I'm
not going to spend time there, but it goes many things about
the love of Christ. Look at chapter 13, verse 1. Now before the feast of the Passover,
when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart
out of this world to the Father, having loved his own which were
in the world, he loved them to the end. Notice how the continuity
of the love of Christ. He loved them in the beginning.
He loved them at the end. Who did he love at the beginning?
All he loved at the end. There was never a discontinuity
in his love. Never changed. He loved them. Now, notice verse 10. Actually,
look at... What's happening here, let's
go ahead and read through it. He says, and supper being ended,
verse two, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot
Simon's son to betray him, Jesus knowing that the father had given
all things to his hand, that he was come from God and went
to God, he riseth from supper and laid aside his garments and
took a towel and girded himself. After that, he poured water into
a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them
with a towel wherewith he was girded. He was dressed in a cloth,
a towel, and he took the towel off and dried their feet as he
washed their feet as a servant, the lowest form of a servant.
He took off their sandals and he washed the crud from their
feet with his own hands and he dried them with that towel. And so he comes to Simon, verse
6, Peter said, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Really? Jesus said, What I do now, what
I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter
said to him, thou shalt never wash my feet. And Jesus said,
notice, if I wash thee not, thou hast no, you have no part with
me. What is Peter? He loved his Lord
and his master. And the thought of not having
a part with Christ drove him to lay aside all of his pride,
and he said, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my
head. And Jesus said to him, he that
is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean everywit,
and you are clean, looking around at his disciples. But not all. Which one wasn't clean? The one
Jesus didn't wash. Who was that? Judas. For he knew who should betray
him. Therefore he said, you're not all clean. So after he had
washed their feet and had taken his garments and was set down,
he said to them, do you know what I've done to you? You call
me master and Lord, and you say, well, for I am. If I then, and I skipped the
word so there on purpose, because it's in italics, he is the I
am. Verse 14, if I then your Lord
and master have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's
feet. For I have given you an example
that you should do as I have done to you. Now that word as
is prominent throughout this chapter and the rest of John.
Do this as I have done to you. Love one another as I have loved
you, whom having not seen, you love. You see, put it all together. Under the trial of affliction,
God refines our faith to see Christ more and more as everything
in our salvation, and that produces in us a love for him, and that
love for him is expressed in this. What you've seen me do,
you do to one another. And what was he doing here? Washing
their feet. I know some places, some churches
have over in history, have taken up the practice of washing one
another's feet. That's not the meaning of this.
Not a physical washing of the feet. It's no doubt the disciples'
physical feet were dirty. But whenever Jesus did something
like this, it had a spiritual meaning to it. And we see that
at the end of this. And we're going to get to that.
But notice he says, verse 15, for I have given you an example
that you should do as I've done to you. Verily, verily, I say
to you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that
is sent greater than he that sent him. If you know these things,
happy are ye if you do them. I speak not of you all. I know
whom I have chosen. So we see, I hear again, not
only was Judas not chosen and not clean, he was not loved by
Christ in this way. So he goes on. He says in verse
20, Verily, verily, he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me,
and he that receiveth not, him that receiveth me receiveth him
that sent me. All right, Christ is gonna send
his apostles. That's the ones we hear. We don't
hear Christ directly, do we? But we do have the epistles written
by Peter, Paul, and so on, Jude, James. And Christ sent them. Do we receive their word? Do
we receive the gospel that he sent by those? Then we receive
Christ. And if we receive Christ, we
receive the Father. Now, look over at verse 31 of
the same chapter, chapter 13 of John. Therefore, when he was
gone out, Jesus said, now is the Son of Man glorified, and
God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God
shall also glorify him and himself and shall straightway glorify
him. God is glorified in his Son. And God is glorified, and
the Son is glorified in the work of the atonement. That's what
he's referring to here. Little children. Yet a little
while I am with you. You shall seek me. And as I said
to the Jews, whither I go, you cannot come. So now I say to
you, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another
as I have loved you, that you also love one another. He doubles
it, doesn't he? Love one another as I have loved
you, that you also love one another. Nothing, Denise will tell you
this, nothing would inflame me more as a father than when my
children were bitter towards one another or cruel towards
one another. And somehow it just, it immediately
raised my temperature. And that's not good. It's better
to be temperate and deal with it. But I just, I would spin
out of control almost when my kids were cruel to one another.
The Lord Jesus Christ is laying down his life. He stoops to the
place of the lowest servant. And he serves his people, knowing
what they were about to do. And what was that? The disciples
to a man, all would soon forsake him. And Peter would deny him. And what did he do in advance
to show them his love to them? He washed their feet. And the
corresponding truth here is that when you see your brother overtaken
by a fault, that you bear one another's burdens and so fulfill
the law of Christ. as I have loved you, so you love
one another. Whom you have not seen under
the trial of affliction, you still love him because he gave
himself for you. And this is the ministry of the
Holy Spirit to teach this to us in our heart in the crucible
of affliction, that God's love is eternal. It will accomplish
his will. He will save us to the uttermost
by the death of his son now. Jesus says, as I have loved you,
so you love one another. And this is what faith does by
the Spirit of God in the heart of the believer. It makes us
in the same family. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit
of God with bitterness and strife and envy, but esteem the other
better than yourself and stoop to lift them up. He says in Ephesians
chapter 4 that the body of Christ is to minister to one another
and to provide for one another that which every joint supplieth. This is the work of the Christ,
by His Spirit in our heart, in our company, in our congregation
together, to serve one another for Christ's sake. With Him in
view, with God's love to us, having given His Son to reconcile
us and remove our offenses, and to work all things for our good
to conform us to the image of his son. Now, as God has loved
us, as he has received us for Christ's sake, as he has covered
our sins for his sake, so cover the sins of your brother. Take
the fence against yourself and hide it. Don't try to make it
an equality. Well, you did this to me and
now I gotta return the same to you. Not in our relations in
any way. Not at home, not here. And Jesus said in John chapter
13, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples by
the love you have towards one another. Let's pray. Father,
thank you for your great love to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us never depart from him,
Lord. Uphold this faith through every trial. Don't let us fall
by our sin. Don't let us fall by our unbelief,
but increase our faith and refine it too. and deliver us from all
the corruptions of our mind and body. And help us, Lord, to look
to Christ for all things at all times. And bring us to Yourself
and reveal the salvation You determined to give to us in Christ
from before the foundation of the world that He worked out
and that You will reveal in the last time. We pray that You would
uphold this hope by the power of Your Spirit through faith
in Christ. we would receive the expectation you've put in our
hearts. We would see Him, and seeing Him, we would be made
like Him, and realize all of your eternal purpose, that all
of us would be gathered together before the throne of Christ,
and we would be so happy, so happy, because you are happy,
because you have this exceeding great joy in your own work, and
your son of your people, giving us this grace, which he earned
for us, and you gave to us freely. Thank you for this so great salvation. And we pray, Lord, you'd bless
us now for Christ's sake. Amen.