Thank you. I appreciate that. Blessing, hearing, seeing, read
the scripture, and pray for us. Let's go to the book of 1 Peter. Again, this evening, 1 Peter
chapter 1. love these old songs. Both of the congregational hymns
tonight mean so much to me. And that last one we sang, I
love to tell the story. That's a good old song we've
been singing for lots of years. And I was thinking of kind of
touched my heart, that verse that we sang. I love to tell
the story. It did so much for me. It did
so much for me, and I hope it does as much for you as it's
done for me. And I hope it will continue to
do so. I want to speak to you tonight. God the Spirit would enable me. Words to pilgrims. Words to pilgrims. 1 Peter chapter 1, the very first
word introduces us to the writer of this epistle. He is Peter. His name means rock or a stone. and indicates stability and steadfastness. This was a name given to him
by the Lord Jesus upon his conversion. And though he would often prove
to be anything but stable and steadfast, Yet, by the grace
of God, he became a very stable and steady and able minister
of the gospel. And though his awful sins against
the Lord Jesus are set forth in the scriptures, that they
still bring embarrassment to the name of Peter, yet all was
forgiven. The record against this man,
God's record, and that's the only record that counts, is a
record that bears no blemishes, no sinfulness, no transgressions. He has a record before God Almighty
that is absolutely spotless, without blemish and without blame. For the record of God about this
man is a record of only righteousness and faithfulness. For the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus has been given to this man. And in the record
books of God, he stands forever accepted in the beloved. And I'm so thankful that for
all of God's people, I can report to each of you, to you who believe
the Lord Jesus, That record that God Almighty keeps is for you
a record that has no sinfulness and no transgressions, only the
righteousness of your Savior freely imputed to you. And then this man is led to write
of his excellent qualification to write this epistle. He says, Peter, an apostle of
Jesus Christ. He's one of the 12. He saw the Savior in the flesh. He fellowshiped with the master.
He received his calling and his commission from the Lord Jesus. The Lord taught him the gospel.
The Lord gave him faith to believe this very gospel of redemption. This was a man who witnessed
the resurrected Redeemer. This was a man whom our Lord
Jesus commissioned to go out and preach the gospel with the
other apostles to all nations and gave him unusual gifts. Gifts that he would use not to
be a braggart or to show off. He didn't have healing services,
anything like that. He didn't burst out in some kind
of unknown gibberish that nobody could understand. No, he used
those gifts in order to set forth the gospel and the gift of healing
he used to open doors that he might tell men and women and
boys and girls of the great position of those who are spiritually
sick. He used those opportunities that God gave him to heal those
who were diseased in order that they would listen to him speak
to them about Christ Jesus and him crucified. You will notice
that, unlike his pretended successor, he does not refer to himself
as being the head of the church. Peter is not the head of the
church. No man on this earth is the head
of the church. Our Lord Jesus is the head of
the church. That's stated in Ephesians chapter
one. It's also stated in Ephesians
chapter five, and again in the book of Colossians chapter one
in verse 18. God's people, the church of the
Lord Jesus, all of the redeemed, all of those who've been regenerated
by the power of God, all of God's children of all ages have one
head, one king, one master, one sovereign, and that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. You will also notice that Peter
does not refer to himself as the vicar of Christ. What does vicar mean, preacher? It means representative. It means anyone who acts as an
agent for a superior. Simon Peter is not the vicar
of Christ. He's not the vicar of God, but
he is or was an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was simply
a servant of the Lord Jesus. He sent forth on a mission. He
went forth by the power of the Holy Spirit, preaching the gospel. And God the Spirit led him to
write these two epistles that bear his name, 1 Peter and 2
Peter. We have established, therefore,
who the writer is, and we have established his qualification
to write this epistle. Let me address this for just
a brief period. To whom does he write? Well, he identifies these to
whom he writes. He says, Peter, an apostle of
Jesus Christ, to the strangers, to the sojourners, that is to
the pilgrims who are scattered, and I've already told you that
throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, that's what's
now Turkey. He writes to the people of what's
generally referred to as the dispersion. Maybe if you read
commentaries, if you read Robert Hawker or John Gill and some
of you read folks like that, you'll read them. They'll say
something like, these are the saints of the dispersion. And
it's just a long word that means the saints of God who have been
dispersed, who have been scattered as a result of the persecution,
specifically that persecution that arose after the death of
Stephen. That's when Saul of Tarsus went,
as it were, on the war path. And he was going house to house
and hailing away from those houses anybody, man, woman, boy or girl,
who believed the gospel of God's grace. And he had authority from
the high priest to take these people and put them into prison.
As a result of that man's anger and wrath against Christ and
against his church, the saints of God were dispersed. They were scattered due to that
severe persecution. Now, before I go any further
in this message, let me say that whenever we read the epistles
or any other book of the Bible, as far as that is concerned,
no matter who the author might be, we must not think that these
books, and in this case, this epistle, we must not think that
this epistle was only a one-time communication to a specific group
of people and that therefore it has no further meaning or
message for anybody else. It would be wrong to draw that
conclusion. It's like the book of Philemon
or the book of Titus. the book of 1 Timothy or 2 Timothy,
these books that were written to various individuals, we must
not think, well, that book was only for them, and so really
there's nothing in that for me. You're absolutely wrong if you
draw that conclusion. Look with me in verses nine and
10. and I'll show you what I'm trying to say. Verse nine, in
Peter, he writes concerning this great subject of salvation. It's one of the key words in
this epistle, the deliverance of our souls. We want to be saved. We want to be saved from our
sins. And of course, Christ Jesus is
the Savior. That's the reason he came into
the world. His name is Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. And this is the salvation we're
interested in. We want a total deliverance from
our sinfulness. And therefore, we can say we
have been saved in the covenant of grace by the purpose of God. We have been saved by the bloody
death of the Lord Jesus Christ because he redeemed us and we're
justified by virtue of his substitutionary sacrifice. We are being saved
right now, and now is our salvation, as the Apostle Paul says in the
book of Romans, now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed.
And when we get to glory, then we will be fully saved. We could
put it that way. Or as he says here in verse nine,
receiving the end, the goal. of your faith, what is the goal
of your faith? Even the salvation, that final
full salvation, a total deliverance from every effect of sin, the
salvation of your souls. Now he continues, look at verse
10. Of which salvation? of which
salvation the prophets have inquired and searched, they have sought
out, they sought out, they searched diligently. They committed themselves
to this, to seek out and search diligently of this salvation. What is it that we study? We
study salvation by grace, don't we? That's what draws our interest. That's what Peter is writing
about, the salvation. This is what will fulfill our
faith. It will finally complete our
faith is the salvation of our souls. Well, this was a subject
even the prophets of God diligently pursued and looked into. They
wanted to know more about salvation. So do I. So do you. So do you. So do all of the people
of God. Now, indeed, we have more light
than the prophets had. but we're still diligently inquiring
and searching to have a greater grasp and understanding of this
salvation. They inquired and searched diligently. That's a word that tells us how
they inquired and searched. They were serious about it. And
wouldn't God, all of us were very serious about salvation. It wasn't a subject. It wasn't
a topic that they picked up every once in a while. And then they
laid it down and said, well, I'm done with that subject. I
don't need to deal with that anymore. No, they were continually
pursuing and inquiring and searching about salvation. I want to know
more. I want to know more of what it
means to be saved. I want to know more about the
Savior. I want to know more about what it took to save me. I want
a fuller understanding and grasp of this salvation. And then it
says, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you? Now,
let me ask several questions and see if I can answer them. What was a prophet? Simple question, what was a prophet?
And here's a very simple definition that I wrote down. Here's what
a prophet was, one who received a direct revelation from God,
a direct word of God in order to give forth that word of God
to others. That's who a prophet was, that's
what he did. That's what he did. In other words, to give you a,
not quite as long of a definition. Here's what a prophet was. He
was a mouthpiece for God. He was a mouthpiece for God.
So you Sun School teachers, when kids in your class say, what
was a prophet? Say he's a mouthpiece for God.
And I'll give you an illustration of that if you'll go back with
me to the book of Exodus. The book of Exodus. Here's what
a prophet was, a mouthpiece. somebody who spoke the word of
God to the people. He's received a communication,
a divine word, a message from God, and then he gave forth that
message just exactly like God gave to him. That's what a prophet
was. First of all, here's a couple
of references. Look at Exodus chapter four.
Exodus chapter four. This is when the Lord is speaking
to Moses and he's at the bush that burned but wasn't consumed,
Exodus chapter four. Look at verse 10. And of course, the Lord has told
him, I want you to go and you'll speak to Israel, tell them what
I'm gonna do for them, and then you'll go and talk to Pharaoh.
And Moses said unto the Lord, This is Exodus 4 verse 10. Oh
my Lord, I'm not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast
spoken unto thy servant, but I'm slow of speech and of a slow
tongue. And the Lord said unto him, who
hath made man's mouth, or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or
seeing, or the blind, have not I the Lord, now therefore go.
and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt
say. And he said, oh my Lord, oh my
Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.
In other words, here's what Moses is saying, please send somebody
else. That's just in everyday language,
that's what Moses is saying. I can't talk, please send somebody
else. And verse 14, the anger of the
Lord was kindled against Moses. And he said, is not Aaron the
Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well.
And also behold, he cometh forth to meet thee. And when he seeth
thee, he will be glad in his heart. Thou shalt speak unto
him and put words in his mouth. And I will be with thy mouth. and with his mouth, and will
teach you what you shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman
unto the people. And he shall be, even he shall
be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shall be to him instead
of God." In other words, I'm going to give my message to you,
and then you give the message that I give you to Aaron. Now, go over now to chapter 7,
and we know that without getting into much detail here, when we
get to chapter 7, actually, Moses, it's almost like he becomes kind
of a different fellow. There's no more hesitation, there's
no more, he's not timid anymore, he's not shy, he's not discouraged
anymore. He was right at the end of chapter
6, because if you look at the end of chapter 6, the Lord said,
in chapter six, verse 29, that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
I am the Lord, I'm Jehovah who saves. Speak thou unto Pharaoh,
king of Egypt, all that I say unto thee. And Moses said before
the Lord, behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken
unto me? But as we get deeper into the
book of Exodus, which obviously we don't have time to do tonight,
he becomes more courageous. But here's where I want to go. Chapter seven, verse one. And
the Lord said unto Moses, see, I have made thee a God to Pharaoh. I've clothed you with power and
with authority and with might. And Pharaoh will, you will be
to Pharaoh as a God. And Aaron thy brother, shall
be thy prophet. He will speak for you. He will be your spokesman. Let me give you a New Testament
example of this. Go to the book of Luke chapter
one. Luke chapter one. You get toward the end of chapter
one of Luke and you have the father of John the Baptist who
is Zacharias. Luke chapter one. The Lord has shut his mouth for
a period during the pregnancy of Elizabeth because he doubted
the promise of God that he would have a son. And now God loosens
his lips and his tongue, and he once again begins to speak,
and he prophesies. Luke chapter one, verse 67. And his father Zacharias was
filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied, saying, blessed be
the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and hath redeemed
his people. and hath raised up in horn of
salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spake,
who spake? As the Lord God of Israel spake
by the mouth of his holy prophets. That's as good a definition as
you're ever gonna read in the word of God right there. God spake by the mouth of his
holy prophets which have been since the world began. And so as you go back over here
to 1 Peter, Peter is talking about these prophets. who spoke the mind and the will
and the word of God as God gave them utterance, as God gave them
the ability, and as God gave them the message. Now, let me
kind of throw this in there also. When we think of these first
recipients of the letter of 1 Peter, I don't want you to think, well,
these are bunch of theologians. These are a bunch of like Bible
college students and they're way more knowledgeable than we
are. They're extraordinary believers. No, no, no. They're just common
people. They're just ordinary people.
He said, these are not guys, the letter is not written to
people who are in some kind of spiritual religious think tank
or something like that. These are just ordinary folks. Remember, not many mighty are
called, not many noble are called. The word of God is not written
to theologians or to people who think they're theologians. I
really don't think anybody is a theologian. I don't think anybody's
mastered the doctrine of God. Nobody knows the fullness and
the greatness and the majesty of the Lord. We're all still
learners. So as you read what Peter has
to say, he's just writing ordinary folks. That's what we are, right? We're just ordinary folks. So
we know what a prophet is. Now, which of the prophets does
Peter refer to? Notice again, of which salvation
the prophets have inquired and searched diligently. And if you
read this in the original, there is no the before prophets. So it just reads, of which salvation
prophets have inquired and searched. In other words, there's no specific
prophet. He's talking about all of them.
He's talking about all the prophets, all of the prophets of God. Well,
by what power or influence did they write? Here's the third
question. Well, verse 11, searching, searching what? Or what manner
of time? The spirit of Christ. which was in them did signify
when the Spirit of Christ testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ and the glory that should follow. It's the Spirit of Christ
Jesus that moved them what to write. The Spirit that was in
them. They didn't pick and choose what
they should write. Peter didn't just pull out an
ink pen one day and said, well, What should I write to them today
about? No, it wasn't like that at all.
It's the Spirit of Christ Jesus who moved him and who moved the
prophets. Because in the context, that's
what he's talking about. The Spirit of Christ. You say,
but Jim, Christ wasn't given yet when the prophets wrote.
Listen, the Lord Jesus Christ is forever. He's without beginning
and without end. All of those Old Testament prophets,
they wrote by the enlightenment and the guidance, they received
their communication from the Spirit of Christ Jesus, that
is, from the Son of God himself. Well, what was their ultimate
subject? Watching. Look again there at
verse 11, searching what? And he's already told us that
they searched diligently. Searching what, or what manner
of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. What was the message? The Spirit
of Christ Jesus, he led them to write. He led all the prophets
to write. What was their subject? What
was that which they put with quill upon parchment? They wrote
of the sufferings and the glory of Christ Jesus. That's what
the prophets wrote of. And we read Peter's message there
to Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. To him give all the prophets
witness. That's what it says. To him give
all the prophets witness. Go over to Acts chapter three.
Peter says the same thing over here. Look at Acts chapter three. Peter is preaching. He says here
in Acts chapter three, look at verse 13, He says, the God of
Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath
glorified his son Jesus, whom he delivered up and denied him
in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him
to go. But you denied the Holy One and
the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you. You killed
the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof
we are witnesses, and his name through faith in his name hath
made this man strong, whom ye see and know. Yea, the faith
which is by him." Who gives faith? Christ does. If you believe Christ,
it's because Christ has given you faith. Yea, the faith which
is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence
of you all. And now, brethren, I want that
through ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers. But
those things which God before had showed by the mouth of watching
all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he
hath so fulfilled. What did all the prophets write
about? They wrote about the sufferings
of Christ Jesus and the glory that should follow. James read
to us Psalm 22. David was led by the spirit of
Christ Jesus to write that. And they're the words of our
savior as put on paper by David. You know what he wrote up? The
suffering of Christ and the glory that should follow. It talked
about him down toward the end of Psalm 22. It talks about him
being the governor and he's over all the nations. That's the glory
of it. that he shall call a seed, and
they shall know that he hath done this, or literally, that
it is finished, that the Lord Jesus did the work of redemption,
all of the prophets. There's a blessed consistency
to this, and there's a glorious wholeness to all of the prophets
of God. They all have the same message. They all preach the sufferings
of Christ Jesus and the glories that should follow, Isaiah 53. the sufferings of Christ Jesus,
Isaiah 54 and 55, the glory that should follow. And you can go
all the way through the writings of the Old Testament prophets
of God. That was their message. That
was their subject. Now watch this, and here's what
I wanna get to. Here's the fifth question. If
you've been staying with me, what was a prophet? Spokesman
for God. Which of the prophets does Peter
refer to? All of them. By what power, by
what authority, by what influence did they write? By the Spirit
of Christ Jesus. What was their subject? The sufferings
and the glory of Christ. Now here's the next question.
For whose benefit did the prophets write? Did they write only for
the benefit of the people to whom they ministered in their
day? Now certainly those were the
first recipients of the writing of the prophets. But the ministry
of the prophets had a much wider audience. It was intended for
a much broader, broader group of people. How broad, all the
people of God of all of the ages. Notice what Peter says, go back
to our text in 1 Peter 1. And notice what he says in verse
11 or in verse number 10. And if you're not careful, you'll
slide right over this. He's talking about this great
salvation. He says, of which salvation the
prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of
the grace that should come unto you. Peter now takes all of the writings
of all of the Old Testament prophets and he writes to these pilgrims. And he says, listen, all that
they wrote was about the grace of God that would come to you
people. Listen, these prophets wrote
centuries before these saints of God ever lived. Because Peter's
writing to first century believers. But wait, he's writing to us. The things that he has to say
is for us tonight. And so we're talking about thousands
of years now. But the message of Samuel, the
message of Moses, David, just go right down the line, go through
all the writing prophets. It wasn't just for people of
that day. It's for these who were the saints
of God, for the dispersed ones. But broader than that, it's for
us this evening. Continue reading. Look here in
verse 11 again. Searching what or what manner
of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow unto whom it was revealed that
not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things
which are now reported unto you by them who have preached the
gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
And here's what Peter is saying. Listen, the things that these
men wrote that are now reported to you, preached to you, because
now he has mentioned the Old Testament prophets, but now he's
talking about the preachers of his time, himself, the apostle
Paul, the other preachers of the gospel. He now says that,
unto us, they did minister these things. They were written for us. How
many times have you heard somebody say, I just, I don't need to
read the Old Testament. That's not for us. Wait a minute. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Because if you understand the
message of the Old Testament, it is the same message of the
New Testament, the grace of God and the sufferings and the glory
of Christ Jesus. You see, the subject through
the ages has not changed. And the recipients of the Word
of God are all of God's people, all
the way down through the ages. You see, our Lord has taken great
care that the things that Samuel wrote, the writings of Moses, the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Job, David, all the rest of the
writing prophets of the Old Testament, these These words that they wrote,
they wrote by the commandment of God. They were just God's
spokesmen. That's all they did. They just
relayed the message. God said this, and they gave
forth the message. You'll read so often in the Word
of God, the burden of the Lord was upon them. The Word of the
Lord came to so-and-so. The Word of the Lord came to
so-and-so. But it wasn't just for that generation. It wasn't
just for that day. Just like Peter's words here,
words to pilgrims? To encourage them? You see, the
saints of God in the first century, They were having difficult times.
There was quite a lot of persecution. Many trials. Several of the saints of God
were slaves. And Peter writes, and we don't
have the time to go into it tonight, but he says, honor your masters. Some of the women were married
to unbelieving husbands. He tells wives to be subject
to their husbands. They were living under the authority
of a vile government that hated God and hated the gospel. He
says, obey them. Honor the kings, what he said.
Honor the king? How can I honor the king? He kills believers. He has children
of God put to death. Ah, but the office that he holds
is by the providence of God. So honor him. That's what he
tells these people. He gives these words to pilgrims. And they're as true for you and
me tonight as they were for these pilgrims back so many years ago. Peter wrote concerning the subject
of salvation. And I'll give you these four
things and then I'll go no further. I jotted them down. Four things
about the doctrine of salvation. Number one, whatever we believe
about salvation, There may be, I don't think there's anybody
here like this, but there may be someone watching by way of
the internet or somebody into whose hands this message will
come by way of a CD or a DVD later on. I'll say this, whatever
you believe about salvation, it must be according to the word
of God. That's just, That's fundamental. Whatever you believe about salvation
has got to be according to the Word of God. Toss out the catechisms
of the churches and what the denomination believes. Cast them
aside. All that matters is the Word
of God because we've already established this. These prophets
of God diligently pursued, they had such an interest in salvation,
and God communicated to them His saving will, the way He redeemed
sinners. He gave to them His very Word. He tells us in the Scriptures
of salvation, all of grace, all in Christ Jesus, received by
faith, which is a God-given gift. Whatever you believe about salvation,
you better be able to get it from the Word of God, taking
it in its context. Secondly, whatever you believe
about salvation, it better magnify God. Every facet of it must magnify
God. And if any of it gives any honor,
any glory to the human, to the man, to the woman, to the young
person, it's wrong. Because in salvation, God gets
all the glory. Number three, it should be, concerning
this salvation, it should be very comforting to the people
of God. Therefore, it should quiet all
anxieties of the soul. and bring us to rest in Christ
Jesus and his work of redemption alone. It's a soothing message. It's a comforting message. And fourthly, this salvation that you say you
have and I say I have, it should lead us to honor God in our hearts
and in our lives. The Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5, the love of Christ constrains us. If your idea of salvation is,
okay, I believe on Jesus, I, as the world says, I get saved,
then I go on about my business. I live my life according to my
own dictates, according to my own will. You don't know anything
about God's salvation. He's the Lord. We believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Lord. We bow to him. We honor him. We obey him. We're diligent to walk in his
example. In fact, here in 1 Peter, he
says in the second chapter, about the people of God who were being
mistreated in their lives? He says, listen, follow the example
of Christ Jesus. When he was reviled, he didn't
revile back. When somebody said something
bad to him, he didn't say something bad back to them, no. He took it. God helped us to follow the example
of Christ Jesus in our daily lives, simply because we want
to honor God. That's what we want to do. It's
what every, all of you who are the children of God, I know deep
down in your heart, that's what you want. That's what you want
in your heart, and that's what you want in your life. I want
Christ Jesus to be magnified. I want him to be glorified. In
my life, in my speech, in my attitude, in my conduct. That's why the Apostle Paul says
in the book of Ephesians, he says, forgive as you've been
forgiven. God hath for Christ's sake forgiven
you, so you forgive. Well, I'm not going, I'll never
forgive so and so. Oh, I hate to hear that. I surely
hate to hear that because if you really mean that, that's
evidence you've never been forgiven. I tell you, this salvation, it
just takes us over totally. That's what it does. And you
know, just like the prophets, we still inquire and and search
diligently about this salvation. And we've been under the sound
of the gospel for years and years. You're a charter member. Who
else is a charter member here? Anybody else a charter member
here? Oh yeah, over here, we got two charter members over
here. It's the same gospel. We grow in knowledge of salvation. We grow in our grasp of what
it took to save us. and we grow in the grace and
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're just pilgrims. Traveling to the homeland. But I'll tell you the spirit
of Christ Jesus is with us and he's given us his word. All of
it. All of it. For our instruction
and for our good. Well, let's sing the closing
song, shall we? I love this song. 63, take the
name of Jesus with you. I started singing this, oh my
goodness, when I was probably five years old.