You may have noticed in the bulletin
the scheduled topics and texts for this morning, but I've reversed
them. This morning's message will be
tonight. Tonight's message will be this morning. As I said, don't
believe everything you read except God's Word. Don't believe everything
you read by a man. which you can believe God's Word.
1 Peter, chapter 1. 1 Peter is, most believe, the
oldest of all the epistles, the oldest epistle. It was written
by a man whom all believers can relate to, the apostle Peter. If there's any man in Scripture,
any believer, that I can relate to would be the Apostle Peter.
And many of you probably feel the same way. Oh, impulsive,
impetuous, impatient Peter. Sinful, cowardly, ready to quit
Peter. And he writes inspired by God,
inspired by the Holy Spirit. He writes this epistle, and it's
written by experience, too. You think about it as you read
this, and if you want some good reading, personal reading, you
read through Peter's epistle on your own. But you think of
how, as you read it, you think of how Peter could testify of
the very things he writes of. The grace of God and the longsuffering
of God and so forth. Peter can relate. to God's infinite
mercy, abundant mercy. He could relate to that, couldn't
he? The Lord showed mercy to him countless times while he
was with him. This is one of my favorites.
I always enjoy reading this and looking at it. It says general.
The first epistle general of Peter. That means it's not addressed
to any particular church, like the church at Philippi or Galatia
or so forth. But this is an epistle general,
or that is, to all believers. All right, let's begin reading.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, and he addresses this epistle
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia. Now, he's not talking about strangers
to God or strangers to the covenant of promise. Strangers to the
Word of God, those who don't know anything about God, or those
who don't know God, or those who don't know anything about
the gospel, no. Which were some of you. But he's talking to strangers
that he didn't know, people he didn't know. So that's me. That's you. Peter didn't know
me. This was written to me. Strangers. Scattered. Scattered
stranger. We're one of those scattered
strangers. Elect, he says, verse 2. Elect. According to the foreknowledge
of God, elect. Peter is writing to a perfect
stranger. And the first thing he writes about is election. Now, the world would say, that's
not how you begin preaching. Don't go up to a total stranger
and start talking about election. Yes, you do. Because that's where
everything starts, you say. That's where God started here
in this epistle, isn't it? The oldest recorded epistle.
And it's where everything starts. It's where salvation starts,
doesn't it? It's where everything starts.
Creation started within the beginning. God created. Salvation starts
in the beginning. God chose a people. God elected a people. That's
where everything starts. That's where preaching must start,
with God and with his purpose. and his electing purpose. In the beginning, God chose or
elected a people. And Peter is writing to them.
He says, You are elect according to the four. And here in verse
2, verse 2 is as clear a description of salvation in all of the Bible.
You'll find a clear description or definition of salvation in
verse 2. of 1 Peter 1, as you'll find
anywhere in all Scripture. Let's read it together. Elect
according to the foreknowledge of God, or chosen according to
the forelove, or God foreknowing, setting his affection, his love
upon a people. God the Father, loved before
him and chose through. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God. You know your election because
of the sanctification of the Spirit. For that is the setting
apart of the Holy Spirit unto this election, this sanctification
is unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,
he says, grace unto you and peace be multiplied because of all
this. Because of God's election, because
of the sanctifying of the Holy Spirit, because of this obedience
and sprinkling, grace and peace are unto you, strangers. That's
salvation, chosen by God, elected by God, foreloved by God, forechosen,
foreordained of God, sanctified in time, set apart by the Holy
Spirit, or that is, set apart, taken out from among the mass
of people, culled out of the herd, sheep from among goats,
wheat from tares, separated for the holy use of God Almighty,
sanctified by God, the Holy Spirit, by the gospel, unto obedience,
or that is, belief of the truth. That's what he said there in
verse 22. He says, you have purified your
souls in obeying the truth. That's what disobedience is.
Unto obeying the truth. Everybody doesn't love the truth.
Everyone doesn't receive the gospel. Everyone doesn't believe
it or receive it, but God, by his grace through the Holy Spirit,
points to his elect in time and says, there's one of my sheep.
Go call him by this gospel. He's going to hear my voice.
He's going to believe it. He's going to obey the truth.
He's going to believe Christ and trust Christ. And the sprinkling
of the blood of Christ, that's the application of the blood
of Christ upon the heart and the mind. Faith is believing the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, His obedience, His righteous
life, His bloodshed. Now, there's a description of
true faith. Sanctification of the Spirit,
He calls us by the gospel to believe Christ, His person, His
work, His obedience, and His blood applied to you. apply it to you. Sprinkling,
that speaks of many things, doesn't it? I think about Hebrews 9,
where it says that Moses sprinkled all things with the blood. Almost
all things are purged by the blood. It says the book was purged,
that's the law, the broken law was covered under the blood,
and the people were sprinkled by the blood, under the blood.
That's the blood of Christ, isn't it? The blood of Christ. Unto obedience, that is faith
in Christ, and the application of that blood to a person's heart
and mind and life. 2 Thessalonians. Turn over there
real quickly. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 is
a very similar verse of Scripture. 2 Thessalonians 2. Look at verse
13. Very similar verse. Paul is the
writer, and he says something very similar. Why? Because it's
the same Lord—one Lord, one faith, one gospel, one hope of your
calling. One way a man is saved through
one Lord, one faith, one way a man believes, one hope of your
calling—sacrificing the Spirit through belief of the truth.
One hope. One way a man is saved—hearing the gospel. You must hear the
gospel. Paul says this in 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 13, We're bound to give thanks always to God for you,
brethren, not to you, brethren, for God. We're not thanking you
for accepting God or letting Jesus into your life. No. Thanking
God for you, for God accepting you in the beloved, making you
the beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you. He didn't choose him, he chose
you to salvation through this work of the Spirit. Sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto, that is the
truth, he called you by our gospel. You see that? Turn back to 1
Peter. You'll find down there in the
last three verses, he said, we're born again by this seed, this
incorruptible seed, which is the Word of God. Verse 25 said,
This is the Word. It's the Gospels preached unto
you. And it's what the Holy Spirit uses to call out His sheep. That's
how He sanctifies. That's how He sets apart His
sheep from the goat. Sheep hear and believe and obey
the truth and believe Christ. Nothing but Christ. And they
come to Christ and they're saved. Goats don't. Goats but. Goats
but. Sheep don't. So, this epistle
is written, 1 Peter, go back to there, 1 Peter chapter 1 is
written to the elect, God's four loved, four chosen people, sanctified
by the Spirit, that is, called by the gospel to believe the
gospel, to believe Christ, what he's done, who he is, where he
is now, what he's done. And he says, because of the grace
of God, because of the work of God Almighty and the work of
Christ, grace unto you. Grace is unto you. God's unspeakable
grace unto you. Constant grace. Eternal grace. Sovereign grace. Grace. Grace. He give us more grace. Grace
unto you. Peace with God. We have peace
with God. It's multiplied. And these things
are multiplied. And so much so that a man came. I hadn't seen no ear heard. have
entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared
for them that love him because of this way. Great. He says,
you're strangers. You're a stranger. Stranger,
a pilgrim in the world. That's what a seeker after God
is commonly called in the Scripture, a pilgrim, a sojourner, elect
of God, chosen by God, separated by the Spirit of God. Verse 3,
blessed be God for doing all this. Bless God and the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy."
Why did God do all this? Why did God choose? Why did God
for love? Why did God sanctify? Why did
God do all this? Mercy. Owing all to His mercy. Sovereign
mercy. There's only one reason why you
could give for God doing all this. Because it pleased Him. Nobody deserving of all this
that he did for us, but it says, mercy. But according to his abundant,
much mercy. It says, much mercy. That'd be
a good sermon title, wouldn't it? It's all according to much
mercy. How much? Much. Much. How big? Oh, the height. How far will it reach? Oh, the
depth. How long will it last? Oh, the length. Well, how wide
is it? Oh, the breadth. of the mercy
and the love and the grace of God to His people. Oh, His mercy
endures forever, forever. Mercy, abundant mercy, and it
says that we are begotten—read on, verse 3—according to the
abundant mercy, or the vast ocean of God's mercy hath begotten
us. Born again, John said in John
1, he said, not of the will of man or the will of the flesh,
not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will
of man, but born of God, begotten of God. God Almighty gives birth
to a people, abundant mercy, begotten or born again unto a
living hope. No longer dead in trespasses
and sin, but living, regenerated people of God, children of the
Most High God. Behold, sons of God. Now are we the sons of God. It
does not yet appear what we shall be, but now we are the sons of
God. By the resurrection, by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, our great high priest rose from
the grave. and ascended to the right hand
of the majesty on high where he ever lives to make intercession
for his people. And it says, because he said,
I live, you shall live also. A living hope. What is our hope?
It's not in doctrine. It's in a person. A living person. Christ is our hope. This is that
living hope. It's Christ at the right hand
of God. Not a doctrine, but a person
about whom the doctrine Verse 4 says, we are begotten again
to an inheritance, or that is, we have been given an inheritance, an inheritance, and we look for
it, incorruptible, incorruptible. That old couch that grandmother's
going to give you, it's going to break a spring. that old car or whatever you
might inherit or whatever you might inherit. When I married,
when I started dating my wife, her daddy owned a golf course,
which at the time was one of the things I dearly loved to
do, play golf. And he owned a Jaguar XKE convertible. And boy, I liked sports cars.
And I married his daughter. And you know, it wasn't two months
after we got married, he sold all those things. And you know
what he told me I was going to get? He had, the thing he had
left that was all over was an old white English bulldog. He
said, that's your inheritance. That's the dowry. Well, don't
want that. Don't need that. My inheritance
didn't go far. The things I was looking for.
But this inheritance, he said, is incorruptible, unspeakable,
unspeakable, incorruptible, undefiled, undefiled. You know, Peter talked
about the flesh as grass and the glory of man as a flower
of grass and all these things wither and falleth away, but
not the rose of Sharon. That's flower. And he is our
inheritance. He is our portion. Not him, and
not Christ, who is the lily of the valley. He doesn't fade away. He is reserved. He is our portion
in heaven, our inheritance. We get him. He gets us. Who got
the better end of the deal? That's what Psalm 2 says, that
God gave him the heathen for his inheritance, his portion. We get him. We get him. He is
our inheritance, and he is in heaven waiting for us. Verse five, it says that we are
kept by God. These elect of God, these who
are sanctified by the Spirit or who hear the gospel and believe
and obey Christ, and baptized in his name, and the grace of
God is upon them, the peace of God, and the blessings of God,
and his inheritance that's waiting upon them, and incorruptible,
undefiled, and we are kept by the power of God. And I like
that. I'm not keeping myself. I'm not
keeping myself. by works of morality or by my
strong faith, but Christ himself is keeping me." Who is the power
of God? Huh? What is the power of God? Who
is the power of God? That's what Romans 1 says. Christ
is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1 says that. Under you which believe, Christ
is the wisdom of God and the power of God. and we're kept
by Christ himself. We don't keep ourselves. That's
good news to me. That's good news to me. I can't
keep myself. We're kept by this power of God,
and it also says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believes. The gospel is what keeps us.
The gospel is what comforts us. The gospel is what keeps us from
quitting, from leaving. The gospel Through faith unto
salvation. Look at that. Through faith.
We're kept by the power of God through faith, and that's not
of yourselves, that's the gift of God. Look down at verse 21. It says that, "...who by him
do believe in God." See that? Why do you believe, John Davis?
Why? Why do you continue to believe? Some people quit, don't they? Some people say they believe
and they quit later on. Why are you still here? You're kept by
Him. You're kept believing by Him,
who by Him do believe in God. If you continue, if you remain
faithful in just a few things, it's God that gives you that
faith, that faithfulness, His faithfulness. You're kept by
Him, His faithfulness, not your own. Kept by His faithfulness
through faith, and that's not of yourself, it's a gift of God,
unto salvation. You're going to experience the
end of your faith someday. Faith's going to give way to
sight. We walk now by faith, but someday we're not going to
walk by faith. We're going to see Him. Right now we walk by
faith in the unseen one. Someday we're going to walk with
Him, going to see Him as He is. And we're going to rub our eyes
and say, this is too good to be true. But it is. ready to
be revealed in the last. It's ready. He's ready. Behold, all things are ready.
Are you ready? I'm ready. It's ready to be revealed,
soon to be revealed in the last time. The bride awaiting the
call. Behold, the bridegroom coming. The wedding time. You know how
anxiously a bride awaits her wedding? And I think grooms do,
I think. At any rate, that's the big day
that they're waiting upon, isn't it? The big day, that bride,
that's all she can talk about. People get sick of hearing it.
No, they get sick of hearing her talk about it and making
all those plans for the wedding. Well, behold, this day is coming,
that great wedding or marriage supper of the Lamb, and all His
bride is waiting. That's a picture of the believer. He's waiting. to hear that call. Trump shall say, here he comes,
here he comes. Not, here comes the bride. We
got that ceremony all backwards, don't we? That's the picture
of man's salvation, all right? That's how man preaches. He's
got all the glory, giving all the glory to the bride, come
waltzing down the middle. That's not God's salvation. All
the glory goes to the groom. And the sounds, when the trumpet's
going to sound, behold, the bridegroom cometh. And all the glory and adoration
will be unto the groom, unto him that loved us and watched
us. And the bride will be waiting. Brides will understand him waiting. She's not keeping the groom waiting.
The groom's keeping her waiting. Right? Isn't that a picture of
preaching today? A man's definition. Soon to be
revealed, though, it's all soon to be revealed. We're soon to
be revealed. He's soon to be revealed from heaven, from heaven. Well, verse 6 says, and this
is proof of it all, people, right here. This is proof of all this
being in you. There are all these things in
you that you rejoice in. Look at it, verse 6. You great
wearian and all these things that I've been speaking, you
greatly rejoice. As I was saying some of those
things, and not preaching it with the liberty I'd like to,
not preaching it with the enthusiasm I'd like to, not giving the right
emphasis on the things, not saying it, the house has never been
told, and I'm not going to be the first to tell it. But I'm
trying. But there were some of you. smiling
upon hearing about God's sovereign mercy, and grace, and love, and
for the nation, and election, and predestined purpose, and
calling of His gospel, and so on, and the blessings of God,
and abundant mercy, and grace, and peace, and His inheritance
at way, and kept by His power and all that, ready to be revealed,
the coming of Christ, ready to be revealed in the moment, in
the twinkling of an eye. Some of you are smiling big time. So you rejoice, don't you? Verse
6, wherein in all these things you greatly rejoice. What is
your rejoicing? What is the cause of all your
rejoicing? What are you rejoicing? What are we rejoicing? What do
God's people rejoice in? Him. The people of this world
rejoice in so many things, and that I'm The Scripture says that
there's no true cause for rejoicing in any of these things because
the flower fadeth and the grass withereth. And all those things
we try to rejoice in, we soon quickly find that there's not
much joy to be had in them. Right? Those little children
that we joy and rejoice in so much, they grow up to become
who knows what. Rebel against us, break our hearts,
unless God saves them, then we rejoice in that, don't we? In
that. And these things that we labor
so hard to accumulate, homes and all that, they end up being
a burden to us. And all these things that we
used to rejoice in, we don't find much cause for rejoicing
in, the older you get anyway. But I tell you, you find more
cause for rejoicing in Christ the older you get. He becomes
more precious to you, more of your cause for rejoicing. Wherein? In where? In Him you would greatly
rejoice. You rejoice in Him, who He is,
what He's done, where He is now, and the thoughts that you're
going to be with Him someday. Comfort. That's what Paul said to the
Bethlehem. Comfort ye one another with these
words. Comfort yourselves with these
words, one another with these words. Christ is at the door. ready to be revealed. This is
the last time. Christ is at the door. He's either
going to come bodily, actually, someday, soon, or you're going
to go to meet Him. Rejoice. Finally, my brother,
rejoice in the Lord. Again, I say, rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. Go now,
look at verse six. Go now. Right now, a season. There's a season, if need be,
according to God's will and purpose and wisdom, if need be, according
to how he sees the need to be. You are in heaviness, though,
through many temptations. That word is trial. Trial. Many trials, heavy trials. A trial
is not really a trial until it's a real heavy trial. It's a burden,
a burden, a burden, pain and sorrow and persecution, affliction
that weigh heavily on the heart and the mind and the soul, exceeding,
exceeding weight. Well, it says, though, these
things shall work a far more exceeding weight of eternal glory.
If we could see that, the trials wouldn't be quite so heavy. If
we could see the end, if we could see the end, the means wouldn't
be threaded over quite so much, right? If we could see the end,
we can, and we do. Christ is the end. Talking about
a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Oh, my. But now, he said, we
like to dwell on that, don't we? People like to dwell on The
trial is more than verse 6 of 1 Peter and 7, more than they
do the first five verses of 1 Peter. What should we dwell on? Huh? Oh, dwell on the promises. Dwell
on the promises. This too shall pass. This too
shall pass. Whatever trial comes, it comes
in the life of a believer to pass. to pass, and this too shall
work unto your salvation and your glory." Trials from God
strengthen us, build us, mold us, prune us, shape us, wean
us, and they come from God Almighty who cannot fail, who's too wise
to do wrong, who's too good to do evil. All things work together
for good. All things—R-A-L-L—all things. When do you need that verse of
Scripture? When things are going to toughest. All things. Rest on that promise of God who
gave it. Verse 7, And this thing is that
the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold,
it perisheth, though it be tried with fire. might be found under
praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Now, the trial is not the precious thing that he's talking about,
but faith is the precious thing. It's a precious thing. It's a
rare thing. It's a gift of God. Faith is. Faith is a trial of
your faith. A trial of your faith. You know,
trials are sent by God. to reveal faith, to reveal Himself. And that's all faith is. Faith is depending upon looking
to a person, looking to Him for help, looking to Him for strength.
And a child is sent to make Him a parable of God. Not you. Not you. Him. Faith in Him is
meant to build up faith in Him. When I'm weak, when I'm my weakest,
that's when He appears to be at His strongest, you see, at
His strongest. Trials are sent to increase our
faith in Him, to increase our dependence upon Him. It's like a boat. A boat may
look good, It may look good, it may sound
good, it may ring true, but the only way you're going to find
out is to put it in water, deep water. Right? And those that
go down in ships, the Psalms say it. Scripture says we enter
in—Philippians says we enter into the fellowship of his sufferings. And those that go down in the
ships, Christ says, or the psalm says, do business in what? Anybody quote Tristan? Deep waters. Deep waters. Want to really find
out if a boat will float? Don't put it in a big river. Put it in the ocean. Put it in
the ocean. You'll find out when the storms
come. Then you'll find out. That's
what trials are meant to do, see if the boat floats. See if
the boats float. Well, it's precious. Faith is
a precious thing. It says it is tried by fire. Gold, much more precious than
gold. It perishes, though it be tried with fire. Gold is tried
by fire or in a furnace in order to take away the dross. Take away the dross. We call ourselves disciples of
Christ. Do we have any dross? Do we have any grave clothes
we're carrying, like Lazarus? Our Lord said, take away the
covering, the grave clothes, and so forth. We have some grave
clothes. You see, we're once dead in transgressions
and sin and description, and we go through this life, and
there's still some grave clothes on. They've taken off, don't
they? Removal in a fiery furnace is what removes that dross. Like the old illustration of
whittling a hound dog. Somebody asked that old whittler,
he said, how do you... What's that? How much do I resemble the Lord
Jesus Christ? How much do you? And that tells
me I've got a lot of whittling to do. God has a lot of whittling
to do, right? And that's how he does it, through
trials and so forth. And trials are many and differ
and vary and as varying as there are people. What may be a trial
to you may not be a trial to you. and vice versa, right? So, and God sends accordingly. He knows our frame, and He deals
with us as children. You deal with each of your children
according to the wisdom given you, and so does God, and sends
the particular and perfect trial for us. That's His goodness. That's really His goodness, isn't
it? Precious. Chapter 2, verse 4 says, He is
precious. Verse 7, He is precious. Unto
you therefore which believe, He is precious. Anybody gone
through a difficult trial and Christ appeared to you to be
very close and very dear at that time? More precious than anything
else? More endearing than anything
and anyone else? Even your husband or your wife
could not console you at that time? Who could? Who did? What
did? Christ's Word. God's Word. One
and the same. The Word. Christ. One and the
same. One and the same. It says in
verse 7, "...the trial of your faith, though tried with fire
and though heavy, it's going to be found." You know what's
going to be found in the end? Praise and honor and glory at
the appearing of Jesus Christ. Right now, tears and suffering
and sorrow and sadness and depression. Someday. Who's that? You know what they're going to
say? Who's that singing so loud? Who is thou? I hear a woman back
in the back singing loud. I hear a voice above everybody
else. To whom much is forgiven, she
loveth much. To whom, whoever goes through
the most and comes through it, loveth much. That woman, oh,
that's the woman who was tried in the hottest part of the fire.
And her, you'll find her now praising God more than anybody
else. praise unto His praise, not our
praise. This is not going to be found
under our praise. Huh? Not our praise or our honor
or our glory. No, not unto us, not unto us,
unto Him be all praise and honor and glory. And this will all
be at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. The appearing of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, He's coming. He is coming. He said, Behold, I come quickly.
And the church says, Even so, come, Lord Jesus. He's coming. He said, Behold, I'm at the door.
I come, even at the door. I come quickly. I hear it said,
it says it all through the scriptures. Wait, wait on the Lord. Wait, I say, on the Lord. He's
coming. It talks about the appearing
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And for some reason, we've been
taking up with it the last few years. We've been talking about
it a great deal. I believe, based on the scriptures,
we have every reason to believe that He's soon to come. feelings does that give rise
to in you? Paul talked about some people
who love his appearing, who love his appearing. And I've used
this illustration before. Henry went off to, where were
you, Korea? He went off to, how long were
you gone? 13 months. And Roberta never saw
you for 13 months? Roberta, were you, did you miss
him? Roberta? Yes, you missed him. Were you
waiting on him? Why? You love him, didn't you? Waiting on him? He writes you
some letters. What about the last one that said, Burke, or
Punkin, or whatever he calls you. Sugar Lump, whatever his
little pet name was. Honey Pie. I'll be home, September
whatever. You probably know the day. Probably
remember the day. What were you feeling, Zimmerberg?
I'll be on the noon train in Roanoke on September. What were
you feeling then? Were you late for the train? Christ says, I'm coming to get
you, and it's soon. Who? Jesus Christ. Who's that? That's my husband,
the beloved. Look at verse 8. Have you ever
seen him? No. Whom have you not seen? Have you ever seen him? No. But I love him. How could you
love him? He's written me a letter. I've
heard his voice. In a sense, I've seen him. Haven't
you? I haven't seen him with these
eyes. The fellow that wrote this did.
The fellow that wrote this did. John, who wrote an epistle, said,
we did. We touched him. We handled him.
Oh. He said, we were on the mountain
one day, and he transfigured. He said, oh, let me tell you
about it. I can't. So we touched him, and Christ
said in John 20, He said, Thomas, because you see me and feel these
scars and all that, you believe, He said, blessed are those who
have not seen, yet believe. See? Have you seen? Some people,
through this same gospel we're talking about, through this same
Word I'm declaring right this morning, have seen His glory,
just as really you believe in His person, the reality of His
person and His Word, just as really as you believe in that
man or woman sitting beside you—more so. You've seen His glory. He's appeared unto you in that
way, and you've heard His voice. He said, My sheep hear My voice. It didn't stop after he arose
from the grave and went back to heaven. His voice, oh, he
keeps talking. He hath in these last days spoken
unto us. How? Peter said, we saw something,
we heard something. You've got a more sure word.
He speaks to his people. How? Through the word. Has he
ever spoken to you? Oh, really? Well, I'm speaking
to you now. Whom have you not seen? You love. You love the unseen Christ. What if, what if, let me just, what if you fell in love with
somebody you've never seen? I told you about that story,
didn't I? That man, that woman who fell in love through correspondence,
through writing letters back and forth to one another, and
they never did see one another. I never did. What if you, what
if that happened to you? You fell in love with somebody
that you never, what about the day you finally did see him?
Wouldn't that make all those, wouldn't that make him that much
more glorious or her or her or him? We've never truly seen Christ. We've seen glimpses, you know,
we've seen little shadows, little things, you know, that make Him
appear beautiful to us, little types and pictures just, you
know, that dazzle the eye, little diamonds, little gold nuggets
here and there. Huh? We've waded ankle-deep, and the
water's cool and refreshing to the feet. Take a little sip of
the water of Christ. These little sips, just taking
little sips here and there, and He's appeared to be so gracious.
What's it going to be like when we see Him? I mean, we've seen
Him. Sherry, we've seen a little bit
of Him. What's it going to be like when
you see Him as He is? I've tried to tell you as He
is. Other men, you've tried to see it, but you can't see it,
can you? I have not seen. I is going to
see. I is going to see. Like Job said, Behold I, I know
my Redeemer living, and I shall see Him. Not another, these eyes
are going to see Him. Has He? What's that going to
make Him like to you? You've heard Him, haven't you?
You've heard His voice by means of, you know, you hear people's
voice through a telephone or you hear beautiful music on a
tape. It doesn't do it justice. a recording through a device,
through an instrument, doesn't do it. All but to hear the music
live. We've heard Christ's voice through
various means and instruments. At one of these days, He's going
to speak to you. I mean Him whom they said died
and never heard a man speak like this. I mean him whom the Scripture
says his voice is the sound of many waters. You like the sound
of the ocean crashing against the shore, huh? You like that?
You like the sound of many waters rustling over the brook, huh?
Is there anything more soothing than water running over rocks? Someone said if there weren't
rocks in a creek, you'd hear no sound of it. They said trials
are like rocks in a creek. But that water rippling over,
isn't that a peaceful sound? Wait till you hear it. His fault. You heard any good preaching? Now, half has never been told.
Never been told. He's going to stand up and preach.
He's going to say, open your Bibles to Genesis 29. Let me tell you about the whale.
Let me tell you about old Jacob. Let me tell you about the water.
These three are one. Jacob, the water, and the whale. They are one in many. They all
bear witness to me. Listen to him preach. Someday
I'm going to hear him preach. All preachers are going to throw
away their clerical colors. They're going to cast that little
crown at his feet. They're going to say, "'Ain't
nobody done no preaching up to this point.'" I've heard him. What do we have any more to do
with idols? We've heard him. Whom, having
not seen, you love. Whom, having not heard, you are
going to hear. You love. In whom, though now
you see him not, yet believe him. You rejoice with joy unspeakable,
full of glory, receiving the end of your faith." What is the
end of our faith? It's the Holy Spirit, the comfort
of the Holy Spirit. He said, in all them that believe,
he said, I send a comforter. Who will bear witness with your
spirit? The end of your salvation, and that's the end of your faith,
the salvation of your soul, and we experience that. We experience
that now. Behold, now are we the sons of
God. Verse 10, of which salvation the prophets inquired. They didn't
write to see. Verse 11, they searched and dug
and so forth when they told about Christ, but verse 12 says, unto
whom it was revealed that it wasn't going to be revealed to
them. Isaiah was writing Isaiah 53, and he was like that eunuch,
he wasn't certain of who he was talking about. He said, I know
this is glorious, I know this speaks of the Christ somehow,
but I just don't know, I don't see the whole picture. Well, the eunuch did, didn't
he? The eunuch did. Isaiah wrote that and it was
revealed unto him that he wasn't going to see it, but your eyes
have seen it. Your eyes have seen it. Him.
Him. And it says, verse 12, even the
last line of verse 12, even the angels desire to look into it. Even the angels desire to look
into it. And we could go on and on and
on and on. He says in verse 13, gear it up. Gear it up. My dad used to say, now straighten
up, son. Just straighten up. That's what
God means. Straighten up. Stand up. Don't be all bowed down so much
all the time. Why art thou downcast within me, O my soul? Hope thou
in God, who hath begotten us unto a lively, lively hope, a
living hope, an inheritance reserved. Smile at somebody. God loves
you. and sanctified by the Spirit,
called by His gospel, obeyed the gospel, believed Him. Oh,
grace and peace unto you. We're just waiting, waiting for
what? The consummation of body and
spirit, and we're not going to remember any of these things. These troubles and trials will
seem like light afflictions, light afflictions. Rejoice, I
say. Rejoice, I say, in the Lord Jesus Christ." That's what Peter
said. That's good advice. Brother Joe,
do you have anything picked up? Two hundred and five. Two hundred and five. That's
a good one. Let's stand as we sing.