1st Peter chapter 1, 1st Peter
1, let's read verses 8 through 16. 1st Peter 1, 8 through 16, we
continue our study in 1st Peter. Whom have ye not seen? Christ.
Now he's speaking to believers, God's people. Whom have ye not
seen? Ye love. In whom? Though now
ye see him not, yet believe him. Ye rejoice. with joy unspeakable
and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation
of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and
searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come
to you, to us, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit
of Christ, which was in them, did signify, when it, the Spirit,
testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that
should follow. Unto whom, the prophets, 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 Ghost sent down from heaven,
which things the angels desire to look into. Wherefore, In light
of all this, speaking of how the prophets inquired and searched
and even the angels desired to look into these things of sufferings
and glory of Christ, the most wonderful and glorious thing
ever. Wherefore, gird up the loins
of your mind and be sober and hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought unto you at the revelation. the revealing,
the appearing of Jesus Christ as obedient children, not fashioning
yourselves according to the form of lust and your ignorance. But
as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner
of conversation, because it is written, be ye holy, for I am
holy. So it says, wherefore, in verse
13, in light of what our Lord has done for us and gone through
and suffered and the glory that shall be revealed that we're
about to experience, and it's soon. Now is our salvation nearer
than when we believed. Lift up your heads, your redemption
draweth nigh. As I like to say, it's all over
but the shouting. So gird up the loins of your
mind, be sober in hope. That's the title, as it were. Gird up, be sober in hope, in
light of these things. Gird up. Back then, everybody
wore loose clothing, you know, long, modest apparel, covered
everything. Even men wore robes, and when
they wanted to work, do things, they would take a girdle, a belt
or something, and wrap their robes up, and they'd make britches
out of pants, you know, so they could work. Nothing would be
a hindrance. But he said, gird up the loins of your mind. That is, rein in. So do your thoughts. We have
so many vain and worldly thoughts, don't we? We think so often of
earthly things. We said, get that into control,
under control. Gird up the loins of your mind.
Think on things above because it's about over. That's what
he said. The end is near. Think on things
above. Be sober. Be sober. That means serious, thoughtful.
in your right mind. You know, when you're intoxicated,
you're not in your right mind. You're not thinking clearly.
And many things intoxicate us, don't they? Not just talking
about alcohol here. He's talking about many things.
People, human beings are intoxicated with money, with possessions,
with things, with people, with this world. And does it make
us think clearly? Think straight. And so he tells
us Be serious, be sober, don't be inebriated or intoxicated
or overcome by anything in this world, because it's all going
to end. It's all going to end. Vanity of vanity, that's all
of Ecclesiastes tells us that. Look at Luke 21. We've been going
through Luke, and I keep referring to this, because Luke 21 is about
the end of the book, and our Lord is is going to the cross
right after he says this. And here's what he says to us
in Luke 21. He says in verse 26, men's hearts
will be failing for fear, looking after those things that are coming
on earth. But Peter said, seeing we look for such things, We're
not going to be full of fear. We're going to be full of joy,
unspeakable, and full of glory. But he says down in verse 33,
Heaven and earth shall pass away. My word shall not pass away.
Now take heed, Luke 21, 34. Take heed yourselves. Listen
to any time. Your hearts be overcharged with serpentine. That's the things
of this life being overcome pleasures and things, and drunkenness,
and cares of this life, so that that day come upon you unaware.
For the snare, as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell
on the face of the earth. So watch, therefore, and pray
always. You see, without Him we can do
nothing. We can't reign in our minds, can we? We can't gird
up the loins of our mind. We can't think right thoughts
unless He That teaches us, and the Spirit of God leads us. We
just can't. He says, "...and pray always
that ye may be counted worthy to escape all these things that
shall come to pass, and stand before the Son of Man." So, back
in 1 Peter. So it says, "...gird up the loins
of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end." Most people don't
want this world to end. Because for them it is the end. But it's not the end. Go back
to Hebrews 3 real quickly. It is not the end for God's people. It's just the beginning. It's going to be the end of suffering
and sorrow and sin and tears and sadness and wickedness and
all that. It's going to be the end of all
trouble. It's going to be the beginning
of joy unspeakable and full of love. And the reason we can't
rejoice more right now, because I hadn't seen, you hadn't heard,
it just hasn't really dawned on us yet what's awaiting us. Remember, Paul went to the
third heaven and came back and he said, I heard things. Not
saw, but heard things. He said, I can't put into words.
It's impossible to utter. And this is why Paul, the rest
of his days, was looking forward to it. He said, I have a desire
to part and be with the Lord, which is far better. He said,
I'm a straight between the two. For me, to live is Christ, and
for you, it's good. But to die is a game, he said.
He was looking forward. He went there. But we haven't. And it says here in Hebrews 3,
Christ as a son over his own half, verse 6, whose house are
we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope. Fire him unto thee. Do you hope
in Christ? Do you hope in God? Do you have
a hope of eternal life? That God, who cannot lie, promised
us eternal Christ? He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. I built my wife a pretty nice house, didn't I? Pretty
nice. Will you just wait? Our husband built us a house.
He said, I go to prepare a place for you. And I'm coming again
to get you. And you're not going to believe
it, for lack of a better way to put it. You're not going to
believe it. What a way it says. Joy unspeakable. To the end. It's about to end. That's what he hoped, to the
end. Don't give up. It's almost, you heard 60, 70,
80. It's almost over. What's over?
Sorrow is the end. This veil of tears is just about
over. So He says, set your affection,
your hope on things above, things above. Now look at our text. To be brought unto you at the
revelation, the revealing of Jesus Christ, when He is revealed,
and every eye shall behold Him. The world is going to weep and
wail. and nation of teeth looking on
him whom they have peers not us not those who know and look
for his appearing. We're not going to weep. We're
going to shout. We're not going to wail. We're
going to holler. Hallelujah. We're not going to
gnash our teeth. Our jaws are going to drop though.
He's here. Take a song. So, the revelation of Jesus Christ,
and Romans 8 talks about the manifestation of the sons of
God. The whole creation groaneth and
waits and travails until this revealing of the sons of God. These sons of God and these sons
of God, it's just going to be, well, I can't say much more about
it. All right, so he says, as obedient
children. Notice there's a semicolon there. At the end, wait, hope to the
end for the grace brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus
Christ, as obedient children. Now go back to Ephesians 2. We
all love Ephesians 1 and 2, don't we? Do you love all of it? Well,
sure you do. Because it's about what God has
done, chosen us, predestinated us, accepted in Christ and redeemed
us, and so on. And chapter 2 begins this way. And you hath thee quickened,
made alive from the dead. Verse 2, in time fast you walked
according to the course of this world, just like everybody in
this world. loving it, after it, according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience. That's what it said. Among whom
also we all had, mind you, our conversation, our life, and time
passed in the lust of our pleasure. That's all we cared about, wasn't
it? desires of the flesh, the mind, and were by nature children
of wrath, even as others, children of disobedience, children of
wrath, meaning hating God, hating authority. Talking to a man, a brother,
he's talking about one of his sons being hating authority.
It's just sad, isn't it? Hating authority. And he's He's destroying himself. That
was me. So the next two words are salvation. So he takes a child of wrath. He takes a child of disobedience.
I ain't going to do it. and makes them willing in the
day of His power, breaks their hearts over their own rebellion,
and makes them willing, makes them obedient. Yes, yes, I know,
everybody starting with me will hang their head and say, none
of God's people think they're obedient. Our sins plague us,
don't they? Our disobedience shames us, doesn't
it? But like, I love what John Newton
said, don't you? I'm not what I ought to be. I'm
not what I'm going to be. I'm not what I want to be. But
thank God, I'm not what I used to be. And it is God that worketh in
us both the will and do of His good pleasure. Every child of
God wants to do his will. He wants to be an obedient child.
He wants to do the things that our Lord tells him. And his commandments
are not grievous. His yoke is light. His burden
is easy. He has obedient children. Now look at verse 15 and 16.
It says, As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in
all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for
I am holy. Now, this is a paradigm. A child
of God, born of God, a new creature in Christ, is holy, sinless,
righteous. He's a new creature. He cannot
sin. That's what John talks about.
Because Christ sees that new child, new creature is in him
or her, and they are sinless. They are holy. Holy basically
means, more than anything, means totally consecrated to God. given
to God, given over to God, devoted to Him, His glory. Live for Him,
His glory, all right? There's a new creature inside
of us, a child inside of us, but there's also an old man.
And that's the one who's disobedient. That's the one who's still angry
at God. That's the one who doesn't like
authority. That's the one. And there's two
people living in the same person. And the only way you can understand
this is when you're born again. Because you did not have a conflict
before. But when there's a new man in
you, now there's a battle from that day to the day you die between
this new man and this old man. That's just so. And that new
man is obedient. He wants to do everything. that his father tells him to
do. Why? Not to gain heaven, but for God's
glory and for the good of others. And because it's good for me.
If you'd be willing and obedient, you'll eat the good of the land.
That doesn't mean you'll go to heaven. It means you won't hurt
yourself. You won't hurt others. But if
you don't, you're going to cause trouble for everybody else and
yourself. What's wrong with obedience?
I don't understand why people have a problem talking about
obedience. Man, I want to be obedient. Don't
you? Every child of God does. If they
don't, they're still a rebel. You know, not one child of God
thinks they are. But now here's what he says then.
He says, Be ye holy. Why does he tell us to be what
we are? Huh? What if I said to Michael,
be a human being? Well, he is one. Do you know? Okay. We're completing Christ. We got a new man that when he's
born, he's creating the image of Christ. Is he going to grow?
Yes, he is. He's going to mature, okay? Little
Josh back there is four, five years old, and four years old. When he was born, he got all
his toes, got his fingers, toes, two eyes, ears, good looking.
He's a little man, isn't he? He's a perfect little man. Is
he not a gorgeous little man? But he's not a man yet. But he's
going to grow into the measure, the stature, the fullness of
Stephen. And what his dad's going to tell
him, now he's a little man. And his dad, all his life, is
going to tell him, be a man. Son, act like a man. Act like Christ. Don't act like
this world. You're not of this world. Act
like Christ. Look at Titus, chapter 2, talking
about holiness. Godliness and Christ-likeness.
I love it. That's what I want to be. And
that's what salvation is all about. Make us like Christ. Barnard used to say, salvation
is God reproducing the character of Jesus Christ in a human being. Otherwise we're children of the
devil. Not fit to live. Look at Titus chapter 2 verse
1. Speak the things which become
sound doctrine, that the aged men be sober, brave, temperate,
sound in faith, in charity, and patient, that the aged women
likewise be in behavior as becometh holiness. Holy women. As becometh a daughter of Christ. That's all he's saying. Glorify
your father. You wear his name. So be a man. Quit yourself like me. Act like
Christ. That's what we wanted. Do you
need to hear that? Oh, my. All the time. I need to be reminded all the
time. Did your father ever tell you when you were leaving the
house or whatever? Now, remember who you are. Remember whose son you are. That's
what he's telling you. That's good. All right, go back
to our text. It says in verse 17, if you call
on the Father, who without respect to persons judgeth according
to every man's word, past the time of your sojourning here
in fear, if you call God your Father, if you call on God the
Father, then He's telling us to act like His Son. If we call
for mercy and grace, Let's do so in fear and tremor. Don't you love Psalm 130? It
says, If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquity, who shall stand? Right? But there is forgiveness
with thee, if any man sin. First John 2. My little children, I write unto
you that you sin not. Don't do it. But if any man sin,
we have an advocate with a problem. Forgiven. Forgiven. There is forgiveness with thee.
Forgiveness for everything. And no matter how often you sin.
And we will again. We will keep sinning. There is
forgiveness with thee. But you know what the rest of
that verse is? Any quote? That thou mayest be feared. There is forgiveness of that.
David, don't you think, after David did what he did and caused
so much trouble, so much reproach upon his God, and so much trouble
for everybody that knew him, Israel suffered because of him.
And he himself and his family and everybody, boy, the sword
did not depart. Don't you know it made him fearful? of doing that again. Oh, God, let me learn from my
faults and let me not fall again. Sadly, we will. He did. Here's a promise. Let me go back
to comfort. Oh, a righteous man falls seven
times, the Lord will raise him up. There's forgiveness for thee,
but don't do it again. That's just right in it. It's
just right. Our God is so good, so merciful,
so righteous. All right, he says, pass us the
time of your sojourn here in fear. You know, now look at this.
This is not just doctrine. This is for us to understand
what Christ did to put away our sins and how that ought to make
us act. This is not just saying, well,
you're not saved by your work. Brother, that's not the emphasis
here. The emphasis is what it took to redeem us, the precious
blood of Christ. Look at it. You know you're not
redeemed with, oh, that's plain. We're not directly redeemed with
corruptible things, silver and gold. You know, there's people
in here that were in Catholicism. And they make no bones about
it. If you pay so much money and
get your loved ones out of purgatory, and if you've got to pay your
tithe and go do the mass, it's just a works religion. And it's
just works, works, works, works, works. Say your Hail Mary and
your rosaries and all that. You just do all these works.
Vain tradition received by these so-called elders, huh? We know
that. That's so obvious. How were we redeemed? What did
it take to put away our sin? What did God require? What is
salvation all about? It's the precious blood of Christ. A land without spot and blemish. You know, Adam and Eve did not
realize what they'd done when they first done it. And Wilfley
did it. Adam Wilfley did it. The woman
was deceived, but she was still a sinner. Ignorant, but she still
sinned. She listened to him and rejected
what God said. Yes, she did. Adam Wilfley did it. They did
not realize what they had done. And God said, the day you eat,
you'll surely die. They didn't know what death was. They're about to find out. All
right? And Eve, you know, they had a
rapport with all the animals, didn't they? And they all came
to Adam for him to name them. They passed by, and they're all
without spot, without blemish. All the animals, perfect, happy,
harmless, dwelling together in unity. And Adam and Eve just
enjoy them. And Eve might have had a pet
lamb that she loved, like you love your dogs. Now, I'm serious. You love your dog? You love Jake. What if I took him in front of
your eyes and said, this is the only way I can pay for what you've
done, and slit his throat? Slit his throat, skinned him,
and wrapped it around you. But he wasn't a dog. He's God's
Son. That's how serious it is. And
this is how blasphemous it is for men and women to think there's
anything that can redeem us or pay for what we've done that
we've done. It took the blood of Christ. It took the Holy Son
of God coming down to this cesspool to die for wiggling maggots. Ah, it's not me. Then he didn't
die for you. The just for the unjust. The
holy for the sinful. The obedient son of God. I'd
delight to do thy will, O God. For who? Those that don't love
God. Leave, they said. Kill him. I'm not making this up. But God. It's on the way. You wouldn't
die for a so-called righteous man. You wouldn't even die for
a good man. But God committed His love toward us. And while
we were yet sinners, Christ died. Why would He do that? I've told
you before, I have one daughter, now two granddaughters. I would
not sacrifice my daughter for any of you. I'm sorry. I would
not do it. I'm being honest. I wouldn't
do it for me. I wouldn't sacrifice her for
me. I'm not worthy of that. Oh, how about the Holy Son of
God? That's what it did. Precious
blood of the Lamb. Verse 20, He was ordained before
the foundation of the world. Oh, before there was a sinner,
there was a Savior. And the purpose of God? Oh, God knew. It was all in His purpose. He
had them to fall, and everything just transpired. But Christ was
the Lamb slain before all this began. Isn't that amazing? He
manifests, though. He's revealed in His last time.
Last time. For you who by Him do believe
in God. I believe in God, don't you?
I really do. I really do. I mean the living
and the true God. Everybody says they believe in
God. God's people believe in God. He is God that made us,
in whose hands our breath is, in whom we live and move and
have our... Don't you, John? You believe in Him that raised
Jesus Christ up from the dead. Jesus Christ came. I believe
it. Most people do. He died on a Roman cross. Most
people believe that. They buried him. Most people
believe that. No. Three days later, he walked
out of his own power, of his own will. He walked out. And he walked right on into glory
and sat down. That's where he sits right now,
reigning over this whole ball of dirt and over everything Barnard
says it writhes or wriggles. How many people believe that?
I do. Why? Because he gave me that
precious thing. A face called precious, just
like the blood of Christ. You wouldn't believe any of that.
You wouldn't need any of this. You wouldn't be here this morning.
You would not be here this morning. But God. I believe. And as I said the
other day, I really do believe stronger now than I ever believed
before. I believe I'm worse than I've ever been, but I believe
Christ more than I've ever been. I really do. I think that's why
I believe him. Realizing what I am and what
I have not done and how disobedient I am. Realizing that. And I know
he has to be merciful. Look at me. I'm still here. How about you? God gave him glory that your
faith and hope might be in God. My hope is your hope in anything
in this world, anybody or anything. You have any hopes here? You
hold out any hope for anything? It's a hopeless place. Oh, we
hope in God. We hope in His mercy. Look at these last verses. This
is just wonderful. They deserve a message by themselves
and maybe ought to. But now let's go on. It's all
together. See, and you have purified your
souls and obey the truth through the Spirit. By the Spirit, obey
the truth. Purified your soul. What's in
that? It means if you believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, God says you're righteous. You're holy, unblameable,
unapprovable in God's sight. Righteous. It's counted under
you. Righteous. But just believe. Yeah. But, but, but, but what? But
God. Who shall lay anything to charge
of God's elect is God that justifies. God said, when I see the blood,
justify. Righteous, holy. Just as if you
had never seen. Is that right? Just for believing? Yes. Isn't that wonderful? Well, if you're a sinner, it
is. Purifying your souls and obeying the truth through the
Spirit. See, O God, from the beginning chose a people through
sanctification of spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto
he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
Christ. And that's what he's saying here. Look at it. He said,
through the spirit you love the brethren? You do, don't you?
Don't you love being here? Is there any place you'd rather
be? No? Really? And there was a time,
you know, when I was a rebel, a child of disobedience, even
as others, and I was forced to come here and I couldn't wait
for the day that I'm out of here. I can't preach, brother, without
saying, but God. Ephesians 2, 1, and you, this
is you and you, you, you, you, you, this is you, but God. Bound to give thanks to God for
your brethren, beloved Lord. Because God chose you, you didn't
choose Him. You wouldn't be here if God hadn't said, be here.
You wouldn't believe if God didn't say, believe! He wouldn't do it. Love the brethren. It ain't fake, it's true. It's
pure heart, fervently. He tells us, see that you do
this. Love one another. Because, brethren, this is our
family. Our earthly families shall soon
depart. If they don't know the Lord,
they are not going to be our family anymore. Okay? As much as we love them now,
they won't be there then. This is our family. Being born
again. And that's a supernatural love,
isn't it? That's the love of God put in
the heart of God's people, that they love their brethren more
than they love their blood relations. With man, that's impossible,
but not with God. More and again, not of corruptible
seed, flesh, but of incorruptible. What's that? Born of what? The
Word of God. What I'm doing right now, what
you're looking at, what you're reading, What I'm doing, declaring,
preaching the Word of God, amazingly, marvelously, mysteriously, miraculously,
God the Holy Spirit is present. You take this and take a dead
sinner like I was, a rat child of rats sitting there. I'm getting
out of here. I'm getting out of here. Era. He's talking to me. And that's what we hope for in
it, in our lost children, in our lost spouses, in our lost
parents. That's what we hope for. Lord God, take the sword
of your spirit, take your word, take the arrows of the king,
sharpen the hearts of his men. Lord, shield them! If he's pleased. That's why it's
the greatest to be born again. It's better than being born the
first time. And buddy, if the Lord does that
for your spouse or your child or whatever, you'll be shouting
more than for yourself. By the Word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. It's not just a sermon. This
is God's Word. It's not just a Bible, a book. It's God's Word. It's God's voice.
He said, My sheep are going to hear my voice. And all flesh,
here it is, is grass. Glory of man, flower of grass. I love grass, don't you? Love
grass. I love grass. God made grass. It's beautiful.
I told you what it took, how much money it took to get our
front yard to get grass. We spent a lot of money to get
green grass, and it's beautiful. The other day I found one weed
in it, one. I plucked it. It's so pretty. But you know what? It's grass
for crying out loud. It's just grass. And pretty soon it's going to
brown, it's going to die, and you'll never give it a thought. Right? And that's all flesh. The grass withers, the flower,
the most beautiful flower in all its glory, Fade away, but
the Word of the Lord, the promises of our God, endureth forever. And this is the Word. This is
the Word. This is what we preach, or rather
who. Christ's name is the Word. This is the Word which by the
Gospel is preached unto you. This is how we're all born again,
by the Gospel, the power of God, which is Christ. Bless his holy
name. Okay.