Alright, go with me to 2 Peter
1. As much as I would love to deal
with every verse and every line, we're not going to tonight. There's a message in every phrase
of every line, every verse. But one verse, this first verse
came to mind. Simon Peter, a servant, and an
apostle of Jesus Christ to them, he's writing to them that have
obtained like precious faith with us, Peter said, with us
through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Like precious faith. That is
what struck I hope we will all see not only what faith is, but
how precious it is, and how blessed we are if we have it. Precious faith. The word precious
means valuable. It means something that is rare
and unique, not common, that is, in the sense of just ordinary, but very rare,
very unique, and precious is something that is dear to you,
something you treasure. Now, the Lord says of several
things in the Scripture, He calls several things precious. In the
Old Testament, He talks about gold and silver and precious
stone, and He talks about a chief cornerstone who is precious. He talks about wisdom in Proverbs. It is more precious than rubies. He talks about precious seed
that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seed. He talks about,
and here in 2 Peter, precious promises, precious blood, many
things precious. And many of you know that the
death of His saints is precious to Him. But the things I've just
mentioned to you all speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. The precious
stone is Christ. The precious wisdom, valuable,
unique, rare, is Christ Himself. Precious seed, Christ is that
seed. All the promises of God, precious
promises, where are they? in Him, their yea and amen, precious
blood. Go back to 1 Peter 2. There is
one verse here that sums all of this up. In 1 Peter 2, verse
7, it says, unto you therefore which believe, He is Alright, so he's writing unto
them that have obtained this light, precious faith. This faith is belief. Faith is
trust. Faith is confidence in something
or someone. People have faith in things.
Faith in people. But we're talking about saving
faith. True saving faith. And this faith is in a person. It's not in things. Faith is
not even in doctrine. This faith is in a person. Jeanette played a moment ago
that scriptural hymn, I know whom I have believed. Paul knew
what he believed, but that's not what he said. He said, I
know whom I have believed. See, faith is not in doctrine,
although The doctrine of scripture, the confessions of faith, what
they speak of and declare who God is, who Christ is. So faith
is not in doctrine, but faith is in a person. Your doctrine
is decided by who you believe. Your doctrine is decided by who
you believe. What you believe is determined
by who you believe. You hear people all the time
talk about someone, their faith, and that's what they're talking
about. Their faith, that is. They are strong in the faith,
giving them credit for it, giving them glory for it, if you will. They say about someone who went
through something who's a person of faith, they say their faith
got them through it. With no mention of God, no mention
of Christ, just their faith. They're strong in the faith.
That's not the faith. That's not true faith. That's
not saving faith. They should save. Here's what
is said of those who come through true trials. Here's what is said
of them. Their Lord brought them through
it. Their God got them through it. You see, glory goes to whom it
belongs. All right, a few questions. What
is faith? He talks about like precious
faith. What is faith? Where does it come from? Where
does it come from? Is there only one? What's it worth? And how do you
know you have it? Okay? How do you know you have
it? Do I have it? Do you have it?
All right, what is faith? Now, when I say it, what I really
mean is Him. belief in him, trust in him.
What is faith? Saving faith is belief and trust
and confidence in a person. It's to believe in God. Now, everyone says they do. But
what they say about him reveals that they don't believe in the
God of the Bible. In Psalm 115 and other places,
David sums it up. He said, when they asked him,
where is your God? He said, our God, the true God,
the God of the Bible, the only God who is God, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God who said, I am
that I am, the only God, the true God. He said, our God is
in the heavens and he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Now there's God who is God. He
does as He pleases, with whom He pleases, because He pleases,
and is not subject to anybody or anything. Our God. That's the God of the
scripture. And David described the God that most people have
as an idol, and he said their God has no hands. You know, you've
read this in Psalm 150. That their God has feet, but
He can't walk. He has hands, but He can't do
anything. He has a mouth, but He can't speak. And those who
believe this God are just like Him, dead. Now, He is not a God
at all if you must let Him be God. And you hear people say
this all the time, and they reveal that they don't know the true
God. They do not have this saving
faith. It's first believe in God. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is what? God. Creator. Now, if you create something,
you own it. And you can do with it what you will. And that's
the doubt of the battle. If you create something, you
are the judge of it. And nobody, that's the thing.
Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why have
you made me the? You can't do this. He sure can. And that's what he does. Go to the potter's house, he
said, and you'll learn something of who God is. He says, I'm the
potter, you're the clay. Now, He is not God if you must
let Him be God. He is not a God, He is not true
God if He wants to be God and can't be God unless men let Him
be God, unless men vote on Him. God is not running for election
to be God. He does the electing. If anything or anyone can change
God, He is not God. He said, I am the Lord. I change
not. Malachi 3.6. I change not. Now, this faith, true faith,
is belief in God. True faith is to believe God.
To believe God. There's a difference. David said, I believe all thy precepts concerning
all things to be right. Paul said it, let God be true.
Now, he's not saying that we must let it be true. What he's
saying, let it be known that God is true. Let God be true
and every man a liar. His Word is the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth. So help me, God. Believe God. Believe God, His Word. Believe
all He says about Himself. God has described Himself. God
has revealed Himself in the Scripture. but only to His people. This is eternal life, to know
Him. He must reveal Himself to you through the Scripture. His
Word tells us about Himself. It's to believe all that He says
about Himself. It's to believe all that He says
about man. And it's nothing good. There's
nothing good that He says about that natural man. It's to believe
all that He says about salvation. And what does it say about salvation
in a word? Anybody say one word that tells what salvation is? That's what this Bible's all
about? Go ahead. Christ. In Him dwelleth all the
fullness, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all salvation.
He's all. It's all in Him. Not in you.
It's in Him. Not even in your faith. It's
in Him. Certainly not in your worth.
It's in His worth. I'm getting way ahead of myself.
But this faith is to believe God's Son. Paul said, we preach
constantly repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ. Faith is in God's Son, true faith,
that He is God, that He is Lord, that He is Prophet. We don't
need prophets anymore. There are people that claim to
be these days. There's a sign down here on one
of these places, Apostolic Corner. There are no more apostles. There
are no more prophets. We don't need them. Like the
woman at the well says, when the Christ has come, he'll tell
us all things. He did, and he did. We don't need any more prophets. Christ, the testimony of Christ,
is the spirit of all prophets. He is that prophet. Moses said,
God will raise up a prophet like unto me with a capital P. He
is a priest. We don't need a priest. There
are millions of people all over the world that go and pray to
a priest. We don't need a man-priest. We
have a high priest seated at the right hand of God who we
confess our sins to and who alone can forgive us. He is our priest. He is our king.
People say we have no king but Caesar. Well, we have no king
but Christ, prophet, priest, and king. We look to him, we
believe God's Son, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher
of our faith, the object. He is our mediator, our righteousness,
our sanctification, our redemption, our salvation. Faith is to believe
God's Son. Do you have that? Not to believe
in yourself, but to believe in Christ. Faith is to believe and
trust Him. Where does this faith come from? Where do you get it? Look at
our text again in verse 1. It says, to them that have obtained
like precious faith with us. Obtained. It does not say attain. It says obtain. Obtain. Not attain. Not something you work for. Not
something you earn. It's something you receive. You
receive. Faith is not of yourselves, Ephesians
2 says, verse 8, it is the what? the gift of God. Ephesians 1.19,
you who believe according to the working of His mighty power. You believe because God gave
you this faith, because God worked in you to believe. It's not of
Him that willeth or runneth, but of God that showeth mercy,
and it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of
His good pleasure. Faith is a gift of God. It's
a gift bestowed It's not a gift that's offered. Faith is not
offered. You don't offer life to dead people. You give it. You don't offer life to an unborn
child. And our Lord said that to Nicodemus,
who was a teacher, who was a Bible teacher and teaching everyone
he didn't understand. But that which is flesh is flesh,
and that which is spirit is spirit, and you must be born of God. And you didn't have anything
to do with your first birth, flesh. Your mother and your father
did that. And you don't have anything to
do with the spiritual birth. It's of the Lord. And he said, Are you a master
in Israel, Nicodemus? You don't know these things?
There are lots of so-called masters of divinity that don't know that.
Our little children know that, at least in their heads. Obtained,
like precious faith, obtained. You don't come to the faith,
faith comes to you. Like grace, you don't come to
a knowledge of the doctrines of grace. The grace of God comes
to you and gives you a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace
comes to you. Grace is a person. I've given
to them, Christ said, eternally. give them the keys of knowledge
that they might come to an understanding of. No, I give. Like when Christ
came to Lazarus' tomb and said, Lazarus, come forth. He said
that to a particular man. If he hadn't called his name,
everybody in the tomb would have come out. And Christ comes to
his particular people, his elect, through the Holy Spirit, through
the preacher of the gospel, but it's the voice of Christ nonetheless,
and says, come forth. Believe. He gives us life. He gives us faith. Alright, Peter said this. He
said, you have obtained those who have obtained like precious
faith with us. Here's an illustration. Peter
and Andrew, James and John, they're out fishing. Alright, they're
out fishing. Fishing is their life. They're
just old, rough, longshoremen. They don't have any thoughts
toward God. They're not seeking the Lord. They're out fishing.
They don't care anything about this Judaism. They don't care
anything about this young rabbi they've heard about from Nazareth. They don't care anything about
him. They're out fishing. Fishing is their life. It's what
they live for. That's what they're going to
die doing. But one day, somebody came walking and stopped
at their boat. There must have been a hundred
boats out in that cove fishing. And Christ came to them and said,
follow me. And they dropped everything. They dropped everything to follow
him. They didn't decide for Jesus. He decided for them. This is not a point of doctrine
here. This is what salvation is. Christ came to them. Christ chose them. Christ called
them. Christ gave them life. You don't accept life, you receive
it. He gave them faith in himself. Alright? Is there just one faith? Is there just one? Look at it
again. In verse 1. To them that have obtained like
precious faith. That is, the same faith. Like. Faith alike. You know, Jude 3
says this, the faith which was once delivered to the saints. Delivered to the saints. Like
faith. Religion says this, there are
many faiths, don't they? They say that. People of different
faiths. Yeah, there are lots of faiths,
but there's only one true faith. Scripture. What does the Scripture
say? Ephesians 4 says this, there's one body, that is one church,
Church didn't used to be denominated by Baptist, by Methodist, by
Presbyterian, all of that. This started, I don't know when
it started, several hundred years ago, but the church didn't have
denominations like that, that divided them up. It was simply
called the church at Ephesus. The church at Thessalonica. The
church at Philippi, right? It's still the church. It's still
the church. One body. One spirit. who leads and guides all his
people into the truth. That's what the Holy Spirit does.
He doesn't make you talk like a bloomin' idiot, like a babbling
fool. He makes you talk of Jesus Christ. One spirit, one hope of your
calling. All of God's people know who
called who. And they know why they called
him. If they called on him, they all know it's because he called
them or they wouldn't have called on him. They all know that. One
hope of their calling. One Lord. And they all know they
didn't make him Lord. God did. Psalm 2. One Lord. One faith. One faith. One way. One truth. One life, what is that? Somebody tell me. In one word,
tell me. That's right. That's the answer to every question
concerning the truth. One faith, one God, one Father
of them all. And our Lord said this in John
6, 45, they shall all be taught of God and everyone that hath
heard and learned of the Father does what? cometh unto thee,
Christ said. Comes to him. He's their father. There's salvation. So they all
know, they all believe the same God because they have the same...
He's their father. They are born of God. There were
four of us in my family. Many of you had siblings, several
of them. There were four of us. We had
one father. We all knew him. as the same father. We didn't
have different conceptions of the same father. And if someone would go and describe
my father to me and would start saying something like, well,
I know your father. Yeah, he's my father. Oh, he
is, is he? Well, describe him. And they
would say, well, he's 6'3 and has red hair. That's not my father. That's not your father. Maybe
your father. That's not my father. We all
know the same father, the same what? And so it is with God's
people. There's one father, one faith,
one Lord, one faith. And it's called the common faith,
not because it's ordinary, It's common among all God's people.
They all believe the same thing. It's the faith delivered to the
saints. It's the faith of the saints.
The faith of God's elect. That's what scripture is called.
The faith of God's elect. Some people say, well, no, it's
your interpretation. That's your interpretation. That's
your interpretation. No, just as no scripture is of any private
interpretation, neither is the faith, because the faith comes
from the scripture, so it's not interpretation. It's revelation,
it's not interpretation. That's just it. Well, there's not more than one,
there's only one. Like. Alright, what's it worth? Alright, look at this very closely.
It's called precious faith. To you who believe He is precious. Precious faith. To you who believe
He is precious. This will reveal whether or not
you have this faith or not. If it's precious to you. If He's
precious to you. Alright, listen carefully. When
something or someone is precious to you, That means they're dear
to you, that they're loved by you. There's faith now, by the
faith, hope, our hope is in Christ, and love. All God's people receive
a love for the truth, and it's not just a doctrine, it's a person.
A love for Him. The love of God shed abroad in
the heart is not principally love for, not first love for
others, but love for Him. The love of God is for whom? Who does God love supremely?
Who is God's first love? Before there was anybody or anything,
who did God love? His Son. He said, this is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this love of God
shed abroad in the heart. The first thing God gives you
is a love for His Son. The truth as it is in His Son. And He becomes precious to you.
He becomes precious to you. This thing, a thing that is precious
to you, loved by you and treasured by you, like a gift. If somebody
gives you a gift, and it's very precious to you, it's a treasure
to you, and you won't give it up for anything or anyone. Something
that belongs to you. And when the Lord comes to His
people, He said, I am thy God, and you're my people. Christ
said, I am thy righteous. I am your Savior. I am your life. I am that I am. I am. You say, I am the Lord's and
He is mine. Something given to you. Back
there in 1 Thessalonians. Go back there. We read chapter
3. 1 Thessalonians 3. Something
that belongs to you. Something precious to you. Something
or someone that you don't want to lose and do without. That
you wouldn't take anything or anyone for. Some of you, most of you, have
children and grandchildren, and they're very precious to you.
Your husband or wife, whoever, is precious to you. You don't
really want to live without them. They're dear to you. Can you
imagine life without those little ones? Can you imagine? I have
two grandchildren now, and they're very precious to me. I have their
pictures everywhere. have their picture on my computer,
and sometimes I have to take it off, because I hate looking
at it. A picture doesn't do me... I
get to missing them so bad, and I want to just... Precious! Can you imagine life
without them? For you who believe, He is precious. You wouldn't have life without
it. And this love for Christ, a need
for Christ, I'm not talking about the doctor, I'm not talking about
the church. I'm talking about Him, His gospel concerning Him,
His hope of life. It's something that God gives,
puts in you, this love for His Son to make Him precious to you
and not want to do without. First Thessalonians 3, did you
notice how many times he talked about your faith? I tried to
emphasize that. In verse 2, we came in the last
line to establish, comfort you concerning your faith. Verse
5, I can no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith. Verse 6,
Timothy gave us good tidings of your faith and love. Don't be moved that you might
be comforted over your affliction and distress. We are comforted
by your faith. Verse 10, we want to perfect
that which is lacking in your faith. And we sang those songs,
My Faith. You see, God gives each of His
people this saving faith, this knowledge of and this love for
His Son. And it's yours, like a gift that
he gives to you. Everybody doesn't have it. Everybody
doesn't receive the love of the truth. But God gives his people a love
for the truth. Most people turn away their ears
from the truth unto fable, but God's people turn away their
ears from fable to the truth. Most people want to hear about
other things, and I'm getting ahead of myself again here. Your faith. Listen to Colossians
1, he said this, he said, thank God, let me read it, don't try
to quote it. It says in Colossians 1, we give
thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You
see who he's thanking? Always for you. Religion, a man,
a false prophet will stand up and thank people for coming to
worship God. Now that man is a false prophet. We don't thank sinners for doing
something for God. We're here to thank God for doing
something for sinners. We don't thank people for coming
to do what they ought to do. We thank God for bringing them.
You see who's getting the glory? That's what it's all about. You
want to examine every doctrine, every truth by this question.
Who's getting the glory? See through it all that way.
We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ
Jesus. Because he said in 2 Thessalonians
2, we're bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God had from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of spirit. Two people come in. They hear the same gospel. They
hear the same truth. All right? One believes, one
doesn't. Why does this one believe and
this one doesn't? This one's smarter? Huh? This one more tender? No, they're both dead. But God,
the Holy Spirit says, believe, and He passes this one by. Sanctification
of spirit separated by the truth. To believe, not to believe. He
doesn't have to do anything to this person to get them to not
believe. They already don't believe. But he has to do something to
this one person to make them believe. Sanctification of spirit set
apart like a roper, like a cutting horse man, you know, going after
one calf that's got a brand on it. What's it got on it? Blood. And he goes after it. Why are
you hollering, preacher? I don't know, I just am. Isaiah
did. He said, lift up your voice. Spurgeon used to say, and they
argued with Spurgeon one time, you believe only the elect will
be saved, don't you? He said, yes, that's what Scripture
says. Not what I believe, what Scripture says. Well, they said,
then why don't you just preach to the elect? He said, I would
if I had an ear on them. I would. I wouldn't bother preaching
to anybody else. But we preach to everybody, knowing that the
elect will come. Christ said, My sheep will hear
My voice. They do have an eon. We can't
see it. God does. The foundation of the
Lord stands as sure. He knoweth them that are His.
They all have blood on it. How did God know who to save
in Egypt? They were a bunch of houses.
They all looked alike. How did He know who to save? They had blood on their door.
Did they put it there? No. The elders did it. The little children
couldn't put blood on it. The old women and men couldn't
put blood on it. Who gets the glory? Who is salvation
from? The Lord belongs to him. It's
his to give to whom he will, and that's what he does. To the
praise of the glory of his grace. We're bound through sanctification
of spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our
gospel. That's the rest of it. So we
thank God. Any other gospel, anything less
than what I've been preaching, anything more is not the gospel. Now, that's what Paul said, if
any man preach any other gospel, Galatians 1, let him go to hell.
Is that too narrow? Who said narrow? John Calvin
didn't say it. Jesus Christ did. Straight is
the gate and narrow is the way. Few there be that find it. Many
are called, but few are what? Chosen. To God be the glory. If we're in that way, he put
us in. If we know the way, he showed it to us. If we believe
the truth, he showed it to us. If we love the truth, he gave
it to us. To God be the glory. Now, it's my faith, not because
it originated with me, not because it came from me, but because
He gave it to me. It's my faith, and you can't
have it. You need your own. We're all going to die if we
have it, die in the faith. It's your faith. You've got to
believe. I can't believe for you. You've got to believe. It's
my faith, and it's a gift to me, and it's precious. He's present. You can't have it. I may not
have much faith, but I believe I have this faith. And you can have all the religion
in the world. You can have all the Gospels
in the world. You can have all the Messiahs
in the world. You can have all the Bibles,
so-called, the Bhagavad Gita, the Koran, all of these. You can have them all. You can't
have this one. This was mine. How about you?
Is that what you say? It's my fate. My fate, he looks
up, my fate has found a resting place. Not in device or creed. I trust the ever living one. I trust the person. His wounds
for me to plead. He's my righteousness. I don't
have any. Mine's filthy rags. He is my
hope of heaven. Not what I do, what He did. Not
my faith either. My faith is not my hope of heaven.
It's His faith. It's His faith. Is that your
faith? Is that your faith? That's the only faith there is.
My faith. You can't have it. How do you
know? How do you know you have it?
Well, in 1 Peter, very quickly, 1 Peter 1, First Peter 1, verses 6 and 7
talk about the trial of your faith. The trial of your faith. If you
have this saving faith, that's what he said to the Thessalonians.
See, it's not only given unto you to believe, but to suffer.
And the trial of your faith, which is, verse 7, more precious
than of gold. See that? More valuable. Because
you cannot purchase your redemption by corruptible things such as
silver and gold, but you're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ,
the Lamb. This trial of your faith, though,
that's very precious, It's tried with fire. Fiery trials. Painful trials. Why? Faith must be tried. Why? Number one, to prove Him to you. To prove Him to you. When through
fiery trials, He said, I'll be with you. The flame shall not
hurt thee. Did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
have this faith? Alright, they threw them in that
fiery furnace. How did they make it by their
faith? Hold on now. Hold on now. Why did they make
it in that fiery furnace? Well, if you'll look in that
fiery furnace, you'll see a fourth person. That's how. How'd they make it?
I bet you he covered them. And you and I, if you have this
faith, you're covered by him. Fiery trial. Prove him. Prove
his promises. He's true. Trust me, he says. And you go through these trials,
fiery trials. Painful trials, heaviness through
manifold temptations and trials. And the Lord says, trust Me,
I'm bringing you through this for a purpose. Trust Me. And
He brings you through it. He doesn't overcome you. And
you say, He's true, isn't He? He's right, isn't He? He's faithful,
isn't He? Let's prove Him. And the greatest promise, people,
that He gives us is that you trust Me and you will be saved. You are saved. You trust Me.
In spite of your sin. the chief of senate. All your
trust on him is laid, you'll not be cast out. That's the greatest promise of
God. To prove his word to us, it's to drive us to him. These
trials drive us to him. If we didn't have any, we wouldn't
even think about it. Psalm 106, 107. You wouldn't even think about
God, would we, if we had these Didn't have these trials that
drive us to Him. They wean us from everything
else that we think is precious. Everything and everyone. Our
children were taken from us. That wasn't my will. I didn't
want that to happen. You can ask me anything but that
right now, but God did it. His grace is sufficient. Didn't
take them far. It's not all of us are going
to lose all that we have. What does that do? It drives
us to Him. To wean us from everything and everyone we think we have
to have. I can't live without this, or
this person, or whatever. Yes, you can. But you can't live
without Christ. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son hath not life. Because whatever you
lose is not living, is it? Whatever dies is not your life. Wean us from these things to
see that he is precious. So trials, and look at what it
says there, that these trials will appear unto praise, honor,
and glory. See that? 1 Peter 7 found these
trials will drive us to Christ and look to him, believe him,
trust him. and be found after it's over
unto praise, honor, and glory." Whose? God's. His praise. Not the believer. No, no, no. God's praise. All right, I close
with it. How do you know you have this
preciousness like the faith of the saints, this precious faith? Well, is He precious to you?
Is this gospel precious to you? Let me ask you a few questions,
then I'll quit. Do you love to hear of Christ? Do you love to
hear him preach? God does. I listened to a message
by Brother Donnie Bell today, and it's on how the angels love
to hear a sinner preaching Christ. Oh, boy. That's what it says,
that even the angels learn through the church. They're not sinners. Do you love to hear of Him? Do
you love to hear Him preach? Do you love to read about Him?
Would you rather hear somebody else? Would you rather come in
here and let's talk about something else? Play games? And I believe you might have
this precious faith. Do you love to hear Him glorified
and honored? Can I preach God too sovereign?
Can a man preach God too high, too sovereign for you? A man
too low? Preach salvation too much in God's hand for you. If
you're a helpless, hopeless sinner, weak, poor and needy, that's
where you want salvation. It's totally in His hand, don't
you? Does it offend you to be called nothing in order for Him to be everything?
Does it offend you to renounce everything you've ever done For a man to stand up and say
everything you've ever done accounts for nothing. Doesn't merit you
one bit of God's faith. Nothing. Does that offend you? But only what Jesus Christ has
done for you. What do you think about that? All of God's elect love that.
Doesn't offend them. Doesn't offend them at all. Listen
to this. The Lord and Brother John Chapman
preached on this. The Lord told Peter, He said,
You're going to deny me. You're going to deny me. You're
going to be a coward. You're going to be a coward.
You're going to fail. You're going to revert right
back to that old cussing longshoreman that you used to be. He said,
I'm going to take my hand off you. Before the cock crows three
times, you're going to deny me Christ. Before the cock crows
once, you're going to deny me Christ. Ah, Peter said, not me.
Yes, you will do. Why? You're going to have to
be brought down. You're going to have to be converted.
Alright? But the Lord said this. He said,
Peter, you're going to fail miserably. Because you're a failure. Everything
about you is a failure. But I pray to you that your faith
fail not. Did it? Did his faith fail? What is his faith? He denied
the Lord. He denied that he even knew Him.
But the Lord couldn't deny him. His faith was in not his faith,
but his faithfulness. The Lord could deny him. And
when the Lord told these disciples, through the angel, go tell my
disciples and Simon Peter. And he came back and he was crawling
back, ashamed, less than the least, not fit to be called a
disciple, an apostle, crawling back. And the first thing the
Lord said was, do you love me? What did he say? Yes, yes. Why? Because God gave him that love.
Christ gave him that love. The Lord is not going to let
him go away because the Lord is faithful. Peter's hope was
in Christ. He's got a good hope because
Christ cannot fail. Teresa, he shall not fail. He came to save His people, and
that's exactly what He did and will do. And if your faith is
in Him, He gave it to you, and you've got this light, precious
faith. Okay. Stand with me. Our Lord, forgive this bumbling. stammering-tongued man, sinful
creature. Overlook, overrule the flesh
and take your word and use it. And it wears your power. We have
this blessed treasure of the gospel in earthen vessels, but
the excellency of the power is of thee. The gospel is indeed
the power of God. Christ is the wisdom of God and
the power of God. Lord, take it. We'll operate
powerfully. come to us like the Thessalonians,
not in word only, but in power and the Holy Ghost and much assurance. Receive the word of affliction
and become followers and the word is spread abroad. Lord,
thank You for this precious faith. Thank You for Your precious Son.
Make Him precious to someone else, we pray, for Your glory
and honor. In Christ's name, amen.