I knew when he comes, our glorious
King, then I knew this song will sing. I believe we'll sing it really
for the first time then. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. We'll really be able to praise
him as we ought. So, I want to read one verse
with you that serves as a text. I want you to read verse thirteen
with me. This jumped out at me. The Apostle
Peter says, Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober. and hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Gird up, be sober, and hope to
the end. Now this letter, Peter's letter,
is written to believers. And it should be a real source
of joy for believers, a real source of joy and encouragement. I hope you will be able to rejoice
and be encouraged by the message this morning. But I hope there
is something here for everyone this morning, something in this
message for everyone. All right, verse 13 is a concluding
remark. a concluding remark concerning
what he has written in the first twelve verses. He concludes by
saying, Wherefore, you see that? Verse thirteen. My pastor always
said, Whenever you see a wherefore, see why it's there. What is wherefore? Or therefore. If you see a therefore,
see why it's therefore. So he writes wherefore. Or that
is, he is saying, since then, all of these things, or because
of all of this that I have just told you, wherefore? Do you understand
why he says that? Wherefore, since all of this,
then gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the
end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation
of Jesus Christ. So in order to really understand
this, we have to go back to the start, don't we? Understand what,
or read what he was saying, what should make us gird up our minds
and be sober and hope to the end for this grace. And what
this grace is, it should be brought unto us. I hope the Lord will
give something to you, give something to me and you in turn. Or I turn
back to the, or go back to the very start of this epistle. Now,
the title says, A First Epistle General of Peter. When it says
general epistle, it means it wasn't written to a specific
church, such as the church at Philippi or the church at Ephesus
and so on. But it was a general epistle
to all believers everywhere. And he goes on to say in verse
1, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered
throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia and Rocky Mount.
It doesn't say that, but it does, too. That's the reason I've always
liked 1 Peter so much, because I'm a scattered stranger. He's
talking to Gentiles here. He's not talking to the Jews.
He's talking to Gentiles. All of these are Gentile places.
And he says, all of you strangers that are scattered all over,
all of you believers, this is to you. This is to you. So I've
always liked this particular epistle very much. And he says
in verse 2, Now he identifies these strangers
here as being elect. Now this is written to a people
that God elected or chose to save before the foundation of
the world. That's what election means. If
anybody says otherwise, if anybody tries to make anything other
than that out of it, they're wrong. They're wrong. unto salvation. God has elected and chosen a
people to be saved from before the foundation of the world.
That's when he made his choice, not when they believed. You see,
they believed because he made his choice. People believe and
come to Christ because God chose for them to do so. God doesn't
look down through time and see who would believe and then elects
them and gets the credit for their salvation, right? That would be God getting credit
for something he didn't do. If he looked to see what you
were going to do and then rewarded you for it, you get the credit,
don't you? You get the glory. But no, God
said, I'll not share my glory with another. And the scripture
says he elected or chosen, we are chosen in Christ before when? The foundation of the world.
So he identifies here who he's talking about and he calls them
elect. Elect. And the following verses, and
let me stop right there for a minute. You better! It's 1 Peter 1 too,
isn't it? You better believe that God has
an elect. All right, it's a good sign that you do. He goes on to say in the following
verses what things reveal God's elect. Those things that give
evidence that people are God's elect. Verse 2 says, Now elect
according to the foreknowledge of God. They are elect according
to the foreknowledge of God. Now what does that mean? That
God knew who would believe and then elected them. Is that all
that means? Foreknowledge? Knew beforehand? Well, let me
ask you this then. For something to be certainly
foreknown, How can you certainly know something is going to happen?
In other words, if I make a prediction, that's not foreknowledge, because
I don't know. I may guess, but I don't know. But to be certainly known beforehand, he must foreordain it. So that's
what this word means. According to his foreordination,
his forethought, is a good word, forethought, something he thought
up beforehand, his forethought, his foreordination. Love is a
good word there, forelove. You remember when Adam, the scripture
says, knew his wife Eve? You remember that? Reading that
in the scripture, that's what it said. When Adam joined with
his wife in that marital relationship, physical marital relationship,
it says Adam knew his wife Eve. What does that mean? That Adam
introduced himself. Hello Eve, how are you? I'm Adam.
They knew one another. It means he joined to her. Right? He joined to her, and they became
one. In the very beginning, Christ
foreknew, foreloved, forechose, elected a people, and it says,
put them in Christ, foreloved them, set his affection upon
them, and preordained everything concerning them. Do you like
that? Be elect do. Be elect do. I do. I do. Very much so. Now, listen to this. Now, remember,
it says that God, from the beginning, before the foundation of the
world, thought upon, set his love upon, predetermined, or
foreknew a people. They're called his elect. Now,
God didn't have to save anybody. Right? God didn't have to save
anybody. But if God just saved, what if
God just saved one person? What would that be? What if God
just saved one? Nancy said it. That'd be mercy,
wouldn't it? Nobody's deserving of salvation,
but if God just saved one, that'd be mercy and all of the angels,
and that one person would have to sing a song through all eternity. And they would, boy, that one
person, don't you know? They'd be singing to the top
of their lungs. while the rest of humanity was
burning in hell? Wouldn't that be mercy? Would that person be singing
of God's mercy, Barbara? You better believe it. What if it
was you? What if it was you? But no, the Scripture says, God
has a people which no man can number. As the sands of the seashore,
as the stars of the sky. So why does anybody find fault
with God's election? I don't, for the life of me,
I don't understand that. It has something to do with wanting
the glory in their own salvation. That has something to do with
it. Not wanting to give God all the glory. But God does have
an elect. Thank God he does. And this is
accomplished, look at verse 2, through sanctification of the
Spirit, their salvation, is accomplished through sanctification of the
Spirit, or that is, through a setting apart. Sanctification means set
apart, to separate. All right? I've got two books
here. Two books. Very simple illustration. It'll serve. OK? I've got two
books here together. OK? They look like one book. I'm
going to sanctify this one. I'm setting it apart from that
one. Altogether, separate from that. I'm going to use this one.
I'm going to discard that one. I'm going to use this one. I
didn't have to use either one, but I chose to use this one.
I'm going to use it for my purposes and so forth. That's sanctification.
All of those people that God chose before the foundation of
the world, every one of them, in time, he sends his son down
to live for them. To live a perfect life for them,
to die for them, to be punished because of their sins, because
God's holy. He can't just let you go. He
will by no means clear the guilty, the scripture says. To punish
Christ for their sins. And then, Christ went back to
heaven and sat down, the scripture says, he is the surety of the
everlasting covenant. What does that mean? These are not just theological
terms. Your salvation depends upon it. Rebecca, your salvation
depends upon it. The term surety, we need to know
what it means, don't you? So you can praise your surety
in heaven. That means that Jesus Christ is sitting there making
sure that every one of those people God gave him, elected,
gave to him. That's what he prayed in John
17, wasn't it? I've given eternal life to as many as you have given
me. Not offer it, I've given it to
them. And they shall be saved." Or
the scripture says, though, but whosoever shall call. Doesn't
it? Doesn't it say, whosoever will? Doesn't it say, But him is a
thirst to come, whosoever will, and take the water of life freely."
Doesn't it say that? Whosoever, whosoever, whosoever.
Yes, but who are the whosoevers? Huh? That's the question. Who
are the whosoevers? Whoever wills to, whoever decides
to, whoever makes their decision for Jesus? No, the Scripture
says it is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth. It's
of God that showeth mercy, right? Scripture says, it is God that
worketh in us both to what? Will and do of his good pleasure.
What's God's good pleasure? That you believe Christ, that
you be saved. That's God's good pleasure. That's
God's will and pleasure that every one of these he elected
be saved. Or how does he do that? Christ
came down here and did that work. And then he went back and sat
on the throne and is making sure that every one of them come to
him. How do they come to him? The Holy Spirit comes. The Spirit
comes down here, capital S. The Holy Spirit comes down here.
And by the means of the gospel, what I'm doing this morning,
he blesses the lips, the tongue of a man to expound this gospel
that I am trying to expound. And God, by this gospel, separates
them, sanctifies You see, here's two people, say, I'm not picking
on you, but your two sisters here, Deborah and her sister,
they come in here, and I'm just using the example. They come
in here, they're born of the same family and so forth, live
in the same home, raised practically the same way, all right? They
look alike, they talk alike, they walk alike, there's everything
similar about them. They're virtually the same, right? Same people, virtually the same.
All right, if I preach this gospel and say, Teresa believes and
Deborah doesn't, what's the difference? Teresa? Not Deborah? Huh? The Holy Spirit, he said. I can
preach the same message. They're listening to the same
man, reading the same verses of Scripture. Who maketh thee
to differ? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
says, sanctify. I'm going to sanctify. I'm going
to set apart. I'm going to call Teresa by my grace. Didn't have to. He doesn't have
to. What's he mean with her? Huh?
He doesn't have to. But in mercy and in grace, he
does. He does that to people. And he
said, I'm going to call you. Why should anybody get upset
that he doesn't call other people? Why should you get upset that
he We ought to be praising Him that He chose anybody. She ought
to be praising Him. Why should she get upset that
God doesn't choose her sister? Huh? She ought to want her sister
to be saved. But if He doesn't, that's His
prerogative, right? He's God. But she'll be praising
Him throughout eternity for electing her, you see. Huh? And this is the sanctification
of the Spirit, and it's said to be obedience. What is that
obedience? That then you become a fine Christian?
Well, yes, you do, but that doesn't have anything to do with it, because fine Christians sometimes
fall terribly. And then what is their salvation
dependent upon? David was a fine man, wasn't he? Wasn't King David
a fine man? One of the finest to ever live
on the planet. But he fell terribly, didn't he? What was David's salvation
then? Whether or not he stood or he
fell? No, it's who he stood on. It's
who was holding him up. Right? The Lord allowed him to
fall, for some reason, for a purpose. Maybe just so he'd write Psalm
51. For all those other fallen sinners. Well, it's through obedience
to what? to the faith. To the faith, right? Obedience to God's Word. Believe. You believe God's Word. Every
word of it. You believe God's Word. And that
does, that does manifest itself in obedience to everything God
says. Yes, I'm not saying you can go
out there and live like you want to. I'm telling you, God's people
endeavor to live like God says to. Right? Go tell everybody
that accuses us of being lawless. Tell them I said that. That all
of God's people are obedient to his word. God demands it.
God commands it. And if you're not, you're not
in obedience to God. And God is displeased. He can't
help but be displeased. Didn't you read there? He said,
I'm holy. You be holy. I'm not telling anybody you can
go out and live like you please. I'm telling you, you better go
out and live like God pleases. But that ain't where your salvation
rests, thank God. Don't trust it for a minute.
Because after you've done all that is commanded of you, what
does the Scripture say about it? We're unprofitable servants. We still haven't done it perfectly
and thought, word and deed. Do you understand me? It's obedience
to the faith, principally, and sprinkling of the blood of Christ.
In other words, everyone that God sprinkles with the blood
of Christ, and that's typical of the Holy Spirit. He doesn't
say, God doesn't sprinkle. He watches you. That's the reason
baptism is by immersion. That's what the word means. Immersion
doesn't mean sprinkle, right? It means to immerse, and God
doesn't sprinkle us with the blood of Christ. He washes us
in that fountain filled with blood. Right? But sprinkling
here is the type of the Old Testament high priest that sprinkled everybody
with blood. He could have enough blood to
go around to dip everybody in. All right? We've got enough water. Don't worry about that. Those
that want to confess Christ. All right? So Christ came, and
then the Holy Spirit came. Salvation is of the Lord, and
here's an easy way to remember it. God thought it. God thought it up, planned it,
purposed it. Christ bought it at a ransom
price. He paid the price. What are those
centers going to cost me? Christ said, What are they going
to cost? How am I going to have to redeem them? God said, It'll
take your blood. It'll take your life's blood. It will take you living thirty-three
and a third years perfectly as a man, and then you're going
to have to suffer the equivalency of eternal hell for every one
of those that I give to you. You're going to do it?" Christ
said, he sat down and counted the cost. He counted the cost. He had sufficient. And he said,
I'll do it. I'll pay it. For the joy that
was set before him, endured the cross, despised the shame, endured
the cross, paid the price. And John, he's going to get what's
coming to him. And he'll get all the glory and get all those
people that he paid for. He's got receipts to show for
it, buddy. That's what he's going to demand of the Father, demand
of the Spirit. He said, here's the receipts,
where are my people? The Father's going to demand
it of him. The Father's going to demand of the Son, did you
do everything required of you? The Son said, I did, look. I did. Look at my life, look
at my heart, look at my hands, look at my speech. Look at my
death. Look at my blood. Look at me. All right. And he sends the Holy
Spirit down there and says, get them all. Round them up. Sanctify
them. Round them up. Cut them out. Cut them out. And sometimes they're, oh, they're,
they're a scraggly bunch. Rings freckled and speckled.
It's cheap. Like Jacob got a hold of. Rings
freckled. What, what is that? Henry, would
you tell, look that up for me? Read them straight, that's it,
straight and speckled. That's what they look like, they're
a motley crew that God chooses, aren't they? He'd set up, separate
them, set them apart, now bring them in here, going to brand
them for the sea. Brand them, that's what he did,
that's the call of the gospel of Christ, the call. God purposed
it, Christ purchased it, and the Holy Spirit applies it, applies
it, the blood. God thought it, the Son bought
The Holy Spirit brought it. The Holy Spirit brings it. Brings it to you. All right? All right, you ask this. Well,
how do I know he did that for me? He says, elect there. How do
I know I'm one of the elect? You asking that? Anybody asking
that? How do I know he did that for me? Did he do that for me?
Am I one of the elect? Well, let me say this to you
right now. Did you hear everything I just
said? I just spent too much time, really. I'm going to have a hard time
getting to my text. But I spent a lot of time there
telling you what God did, what Christ did, what the Holy Spirit
did. Did you hear that? Did you hear it? Did you hear what he
said? Did you hear it with your heart? Well, do you believe it? Huh? Do you believe it? I know you
believe the fact of it. But here's what I mean, do you
believe it? Do you love it? That's the truth. I told you
the truth. Joe, I told you the plain truth, the whole truth,
not much truth, so help me God. Do you believe it? Do you love
it? Relax. I see it right there on
your head, E. Yeah, I do. He takes the form of a smile. Love it! Not a frown. Love it! And he means excellent, exceedingly
excellent. The excellency of the knowledge
of Christ, my Lord. Well, let me say this. Stop trying to look into the
Lamb's Book of Life. Ain't nobody seen it but Christ. Stop trying to look into the
Lamb's book of life, and start looking into the book in your
lap. That make sense? Stop trying
to look into something God doesn't show anybody, and look into the
blessed promises that God has given. Huh? Wide open. This book is not sealed. It's
wide open. It says, This is a faithful saying
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came in to save
sinners. The only qualification you need is to be a sinner. Well, then, I Timothy 1.15, I
is elect. I is an elect. Yeah, he is. He is you. Well, then Peter says
this. Peter says this, he says at the
end of that verse, Grace unto you. Oh, what grace. That's all grace. I was just
talking about all of God's grace. It's grace, what he's done. And
peace. Peace. Peace be multiplied, he
said, multiply it to a multitude of hell-deserving sinners. God
has peace on them. To a multitude of rebellious children of wrath,
saying, he said, that we were even as others. Children of wrath. That crew that sat around that
table last night, that crew of men that sat around that table
fifteen years ago, you wouldn't have given a plug nickel for
any of them. You'd have said, that sure is a low life. Look at them now. My, my. That bunch of rebels,
bunch of God-hating children of wrath, even as other God extended
peace to them." Extended peace, declares peace. How does he do
that? When they make their decision
for Jesus? When they get on their deathbed after living a life
of hell, and they get on their deathbed and all of a sudden
they realize they're going to meet God, so they get real sorry real fast?
Is that it? Then they make their peace with
God? Oh, God's a lot more angry than that. Sin's a lot more serious
than that. Sin takes blood. Sin takes blood. Somebody said concerning sin,
my pastor said this. He said, people make all too
light of sin. He said, you know what the cost
was to put away sin? See, there's got to be something
more than drinking, smoking, cussing, and chewing, and playing
cards, and going to the movies, and stealing watermelons. There's
got to be something more than that. Why? God killed His Son
because of it. You mean God's going to kill
His Son because you stole a watermelon? Because you smoked a cigarette?
God's going to send His Son down here to suffer hell because you
took a drink of beer? He said, that's about like you're
going to the courthouse with a speeding ticket and the judge
saying you're sentenced to the electric chair. What? Huh? Isn't that what they're
saying today? Sin is a lot more than they're
saying it is today. Sin is in the heart. Sin is a
hatred for God. And you can prove it. You say,
I don't hate God. Why aren't there more people
in here this morning hearing this message? They don't like what we're saying. What are we saying? We're just
saying what Peter said. We're saying what God already
said. I'm saying elect, elect, elect, elect, elect. That's what
I'm saying. Twenty-seven times. I'm just
saying what God's saying. Why don't people like it? They
hate God. They don't want God to be God.
They want to be God. That's why Adam fell. Right? That's why Adam fell. Satan put
in his mind, God doesn't have a right to be God. You know what
he said to Adam? God doesn't have a right to be
God. You're a little God. You have your free will. Exercise
it. I don't think I'll do that. What did his free will get him?
Down in hell on earth. It plunged this whole race into
sin. Right? If he'd have just submitted
to God as God, everything would have been just smooth and fine.
Salvation! He'd have had salvation. Eternal
life. And that's all that God demands
of people. Just submit to God as God. Just bow down to God as God.
Don't rebel, don't kick at the pricks. Bow. Submit. Believe. And he says, if you
do, I'll show you I'll show you great grace, if you do believe
it's because he did show you great grace. Because everybody
doesn't believe it. It could be somebody in here
this morning right now who's very angry at what I said thus
far. I don't, I'm not, I don't like
it that people don't like this message. I, I feel sorry for
them. But I'm not going to parry the
truth, you know that God's people love the truth. They want to
hear it. They must hear it. All right? They must hear it. All right,
he said, Peace be multiplied to you. So we don't make peace
by just saying, Hey, God, I decided to let you save me. I decided
to let you save me. Christ had to come down here
and pour out his life's blood, pour out his soul, the Scripture
says, unto death. to establish peace. God's angry
with the wicked every day. Huh? God hateth all workers of
nature. The wrath of God abideth on them.
What? The beer drinkers? I'm not saying going out and
getting drunk and smoking and all that's okay. I'm not saying
that. You know I'm not saying that. Young people, don't do
it. Don't do it. Avoid it. It is a hell hole you'll get
into. It really is. Don't do it! It may kill you. But don't think it will damn
your soul. It goes deeper than that. It goes deeper than that.
That's just a manifestation of what's on the inside. What's
on the inside. So God made war on his Son so
that he might have peace on us. See, it's a lot more serious
than that. than what we make it out. God made war on his Son,
butchered his Son to a bloody pulp as an object of his wrath,
his anger, his hatred against sin, that he might have peace on me,
that he might accept me and have me. What does Peter say in light
of all this, verse 3, blessed peacock. You see that? Verse 3, blessed be the God and
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, blessed be he who hath
begotten a Son and only Son to come down here, which according
to his abundant mercy. How merciful has the Lord been
to you? Now, let me tell you about me. I don't know about
you. Well, I do, but He keeps showing it, too. His mercy endures forever. Abundant
mercy. And he hath begotten us again,
that means born again, regenerated us unto a lively hope, a living
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a living hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now, get a hold
of this, people. If I can get a hold of it, get a hold of this. Let's put this in a form of an
illustration that you can understand. God Almighty came down to this
earth as a man. God came down to this mass of
corruption, this mass of corrupt humanity. It looked like, like
I said last week, like what it would look like to us to open
a garbage can and look down into it, where there's nothing but
maggots. That's what the word worm means.
Fear not thy worm, Jacob," it means maggots, something that
feeds off of dead things. And isn't that what humanity
feeds off of, dead and dying things, decaying things? Well, when God looks down and
sees this mass of sin and corruption, they look just like ants and
maggots crawling all over one another, just a filthy lot. Why
would he need any of those? And he came down, though. He
did. He said, I am come. God became
a worm. You know what he said in Psalm
22? What verse is it? Somebody. Eight or ten. He said,
I'm a worm. And no, man, a worm. God became a worm. He said, I'm
come down that they might have life and not perish. Like I said, the scriptures call
us worms, it calls us grasshoppers. And what it says in Isaiah, inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as what? Grasshoppers. Like ants in our
yard. OK? A pile of ants in your yard. A pile of ants in your yard. And it would be like you becoming
an ant. It would be like you condescending
from being a human being to become an ant, and doing everything
for them necessary for them to become a human being. See? Going down there and telling
them who you are, what you're doing, and then doing it, and
come back and all of them become human beings. And it's like this.
Christ came down, he lived the life as a worm, but acceptable
to God. He said, I came to live. I've
come that they might have life. I came to live a life acceptable
by God. I came to die. I came to suffer
their punishment. And a bunch of worms watched
this. This is not without recorded history. A bunch of worms watched
this. They watched him come. They watched him live. They watched
him die. And then he arose from the dead, from the grave. He
arose from the grave, and after he arose in a more glorified
body, he went back to those worms and said, See, I'm not a worm. See, God came down and became
a worm and lived among them, and they all thought he was just
a worm. And then he lived, and then he died, and they thought,
well, all the worms killed him. They all piled up and killed
him. And then he went in the grave for three days, and he
came out glorified. He said, See, I'm not a worm. I'm God. You can't kill God. You can kill that worm's body,
but you can't kill God. And then he said, Now I'm going
back to where I came from. I'm going back to where I came
from to prepare a place for you, to certain ones, that where I
am you may be also, to behold my glory. You can't look on me
right now and live as I am, but I'm going back. Someday you'll
see me. And this is what God is going to have to do to us.
And this is what I said in the beginning. The reason we can't
get a hold of this, the reason we're sitting here so dull right
now, is because of this flesh. But God says, I'm going to have
to change you in order for you to be with me, to understand
me. I'm going to have to make you
worms into butterflies. You know what the word transform
means? It means metamorphosis. Have
you heard the term in science class back in school? Metamorphosis? Where does that come from? You
children. Metamorphosis. Luke? What does that mean? Remember when a worm, a caterpillar,
entered a cocoon? Wrapped up in a cocoon. For all
practical purposes, it looked dead. Was it dead? What happened
to it? Eventually it came out of a cocoon,
didn't it? What was it later? A butterfly. It was no longer
a worm. A butterfly. And the Lord says,
I'm going to have to regenerate you. I'm going to have to change
you so you can fly off into the sun. You can fly off into the
S.O.N. and be with me. You have to be born spiritually.
And this is a gradual change, though, and it's the reason we
have problems with it. This is a gradual change. You
see, we couldn't live with worms if we were butterflies, huh?
Could you? If you were a glorious butterfly,
you wouldn't want to hang around with worms, huh? He wouldn't
want to. You complete metamorphosis won't
take place until Christ says, until I come back to get you.
And all the time, he's preparing you. He's really putting you
to, killing you. And he says, I'll come back to
get you, either in the end, when he comes back, or he'll come
back to get you after he puts you in your coffin. Kibbles your body. And he says,
but in the meantime, he said, now this is a gradual thing.
In the meantime, don't worry. I'm going back to prepare a place
for you. And I'm not going anywhere, and your place is not going anywhere.
I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, you may be also.
And he said in verse 5, you're kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation. You're being kept, ready to be
revealed. I sure don't feel like a son
of God. No, and he don't look a whole
lot like one. I hadn't seen, nor ear heard,
Henry. Oh, my. Ready to be revealed
at any time now, at any time. He said at a time when you think
not, at any time the trumpet could sound. He said at a moment,
a twinkling of an eye. How long does it take you to
blink your eye? You've already done it about twenty times since
I started saying that. He said, we'll be changed. And he says, we're ready to be
revealed. We're waiting in the wings. God's people are waiting
in the wings. Play on words there. Under the
wings, like little baby chicks under the wings of our mother
eagle in the nest. Little flock. Come here, little
flock. They're scared. You look over the nest, and there's
a crew all around out there. He said, I'm preparing you to
fly! Well, until then, you're staying in the nest. I got you! And every now and then they think,
I think I got it, I think I can fly. No, you're not ready yet.
You're not ready yet. In verse 6, he says, and where
are you in this thoughts of this glorious salvation and the things
to come, you greatly rejoice. You rejoice in the thought of
those things? You rejoice in the Lord and so
great a salvation and hope of future glory, do you? You rejoice? He said, but now, first season,
you're in manifold temptations. You're in heaviness. Now, first
season, you're in heaviness. You don't have any wings. You
follow my illustration? You don't have any wings. Somebody
said, it's hard to mount up on wings of eagles when you dwell
with a bunch of turkeys. Right? When you are a turkey
yourself, it's hard to fly. A turkey can't fly very far,
can they, Rick? I think they can. They don't fly like eagles.
They don't soar with the eagles. They fly with turkeys. They get
shot at. They go through trials. Verse
7. The trial of your faith, though,
is precious. Why is it precious? Why is it
precious? Because God's weaning us. He's
weaning us. It's a weaning process. The mother
hen is weaning her chicks. It's part of the metamorphosis,
part of the new birth, part of the birth process. The birth
process is painful. It's traumatic for the child
as well as the mother, right? It's painful. It's painful. He's got to bring us out of darkness
into his marvelous light. He said it's precious, and it
weans us from the world, it changes our desires, it takes away the
dross. You see, in order to be with
God, we've got to enjoy God. In order to be with God, we've
got to enjoy God. And we can't enjoy reason. It's
taken every bit of our power to sit here this morning and
listen to me preach. It's because we, by nature, don't
enjoy these things! Right? We'd rather be out indulging
the flesh! And so God says, I'm preparing
you. I'm going to get you to the point where this is the only
thing you really do enjoy. And then when that time comes,
you're going to fall into God, and then you're going to enjoy
yourself for eternity. It's a process. It's willingness. It's willing everything don't
look like Christ. Like that old whittler, you know,
whittling those I told you this many times, and I'll tell it
again. An old whittler whittling a hound dog. A man came up and
said, How do you do that? Take a big block of wood there
and whittle it into a hound dog. The old man said, Well, I just
whittles everything off that don't look like no hound dog.
That's how. It's easy. And that's what God
is doing to his people. Whittling them. Whittling everything
off that doesn't look like Christ. Whittling all the baggage. Whittling
all the world. with all the love and desire
for this and that and the other, and setting their thoughts, their
affections, their minds, their very being on Christ and Christ
alone. And when that comes, when he's
done with us, he's going to take us on. And then we're going to
change. You see, you don't start loving
things in heaven if you don't start loving now. The Scripture says, as a man
dies like he lives. You know what it says? He says,
He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. He that is righteous,
boy, he's going to be righteous on these days. He that loves
Christ now, boy, he's going to love Him throughout eternity.
He that can sing praises now, boy, he's going to sing throughout
eternity. He that loves to hear the gospel
now, he's going to hear Jesus Christ preach the gospel. You think about that, and you're
talking about your heart burning. If you don't love them now, forget
it, then you won't want to be there then. You see, that's what
this is all about. Anybody that doesn't love it
now ain't going to be there then. Now, I know the flesh fights
us. It wars against the Spirit. Paul
said, I see another law in my memory, warring against the law
of my mind. He said, with the flesh I serve
a law of sin, but with my mind I serve the law of God, didn't
he? That's the reason he says, mortify
the member. That's the reason when certain suggestions come
to your mind, don't go worship God, there's better things to
do. Say, no there's not! There's not anything better on
the face of this earth. He said that you might be found
unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Now jump down to verse 13. Now, wherefore? In light of all of this, what
God has done, what we've got to look forward to. You see, while we can't enter
into these things, we're bound, we're a bunch of
turkeys. We're bound, we're heaviness, we ain't got wings. Oh, that I might mount up on
the wings of eagles, fly off into the sun. Verse 13 says,
Well, gird up the loins of your mind. This is the reason I tell
you, I'm not just bringing you a sermon. Granted, the time comes and I
say, you've got to get a message for Sunday. And I said, I'd rather
be doing another thing. I've got to get a message. Yeah,
but this is not just a sermon I'm preaching this morning. These
are the words of life. And I'm telling you, get a hold
of yourself. That's what it means to gird
up a load. You know what, though? I used to wear robes back in the olden
days. Robes. All men wore robes just like
the women did. Robes back in the olden days. And whenever they wanted to do
some work out in the garden, well, you can't work in a dress.
You can't work. Go put your house robe on sometime.
Go out and try to pull a corn. Huh? Is that the way you dressed,
Henry? No. But if that's what you wore
all the time, you'd have to gird up. You have to pull up your
skirts. I've seen women in the old days
do that. Pull up their skirts and tie it around their loins,
you see, where it wouldn't be encumbered to, where they could
get in and work. And if necessary, run. The enemies
can't run, or whatever. And he says, you've got a mine
there. Gun it up. Get a hold of it. Get a hold
of yourself. Life's being preached this morning. So why do you yell and scream
and cry and this and that? This is serious, that's why. If I'm not serious about it,
I'm telling you, go somewhere else. Find you a preacher that's
serious about it. If you're not serious about it,
you better get serious about it. God's serious about it. We'll find out how serious this
thing was some day. I want to find out now. He says, "...gird up the loins
of your mind." Gird them up now. Use your head. Think on these
things. Think! They say we don't use a portion
of our brain. That's very obvious about most
of us, that we don't use a fraction of our brains. What about the
Spirit? What about this creature God
created within us? Spirit and life and faith. We don't exercise hardly any
of it, do we? And that's what he's saying here.
Goat it up! Think on these things! Set your mind on it! Set your
affection on it! Get a hold of yourself! I'm not
being mad, I'm being forceful here, trying to be. And then
he says in verse 13, Be sober. That doesn't mean quit your drinking,
although you could It does. It doesn't mean quit your drinking.
Although, you know, I said a lot about drinking this morning,
haven't I? I hope people don't grab this and run with it. But
what that means is, get serious. He's saying here, get serious.
He's saying, get in this thing. He's saying, either get in it
or get out of it. Be committed or don't. It's be
like a ship crossing, a boat crossing the river or whatever.
Here's a boat, here's a bunch of people getting in a boat,
all right? And they're going to cross the river and some old
fellow comes down to the shore and he says, where y'all going?
We're going to the other side. He said, hey, I'd like to go,
it looks pretty good. I think I'd like to go. Well,
they said, well, come on, join us, go down with us, we'll do
thee good. And he says, all right, he gets to the one way. No way. I kind of like it over here.
Yeah, I think I'll stay. All right, we're leaving. No,
wait a minute. I think I will." And he puts
one leg in the boat. No, I think I'll stay. And that's
like, get in or get out! And that's exactly what God's
saying here. Get serious! God's amendment. Christ's recess. Your old buddies or your new
family. Life or death! Follow Christ or follow the Word.
Christ said you can't do both. Get serious about this thing.
And he says, and hope. Folks, I've got a hope. My hope is built on nothing less
in God's Son's blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame. I'm not going to trust this message. I'm going to go
down to my study after I preach this and beg God to forgive me
for preaching it. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, hope to the end. What end? To the grace that's
to be brought to us. And I just, I can't. At the revelation
of Jesus Christ, the grace that's to be brought to us when we see,
when we behold myriads and multitudes of people perishing, and we're
safe, and we're standing with that heavenly throne dressed
in white robes, infinitely happy, glorious, butterflies. Grace is being brought to us
at final resting place. No more tears, no more sorrow. One eternal grin on your face. Ah, hope to that end. Look to
that end. OK? Look to that end. Don't look
to this. Look to Christ. Look to that
end. Look where he is. Set your affection on things
above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. and let the
worms wiggle as they may. Dear Lord, by your mercy and
your grace, by your sovereign power, your Holy work this work in us. If you've
begun this work, we're confident that you'll finish it. That's
what you promised. You promised that in your letter
to the Philippians, and we're confident of it. We're absolutely
confident. You can't lie. But if you've
begun this good work in us, you'll finish it. And though we feel
like worms, we are worms, and someday we'll be just like the
Son of God himself. But, Lord, if you haven't begun
this work in us, and some in here, And I know you haven't.
It's obvious some people, our young people, some of them, even
others, have not begun this work. Let it begin this very morning.
Don't leave them alone, Lord. Don't let them be at peace. Upset them. Disturb them. Disturb
their rest. Disturb their playhouse. And
get them serious. Gird up their minds to think
on things above. enable them to be serious about
this, to seriously seek and ask and knock and look and follow
Christ, and then give them that blessed hope of eternal life
that comes in knowing, loving, following Christ. In His blessed
name we have met together. Amen. You're dismissed.