1 Peter chapter 1. I'll be honest with you on the
onset of this this morning. My mind has actually been a little
torn between exactly what to I started off in Jude, the first
couple of verses in Jude this morning, and after reading a
couple of verses there, it took me into Peter, and it took me
into Psalms, and then I moved around to John, and then back
to Peter here, and then as I was looking through Peter, all of
it kind of seemed to tie together, and so I prayed that the Spirit
might bring my mind to a place where I can put it out, mouth
speak, put it out in an intelligent way at least and not be scattered. But I'd like to look at a couple
of verses at least here and dwell on them maybe if the Lord is
pleased to let us do that. I'll go ahead and start reading
in verse 1 and I'm going to Read down to verse 13, and then we'll
kind of go from there. But let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, we do come to you this morning once again, needy people,
we need you this morning. We need the Spirit with us to
be our teacher, to be our enabler, to lift us up in the heart that
we might worship you. Spirit and in truth, Lord, that
you might be among us. to teach us, to give us understanding
of your word. And Father, we just pray today
that we might exalt the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We pray,
Lord, that as we open up these passages this morning, that you
might give us the sense and the meaning of them, that you might
encourage our heart, that you might grow us in the most holy
faith. And Father, that you might reveal
to us more of yourself as we go through it. May you help me
to deliver this. And may you help all those that
are here to hear it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
On Peter chapter 1, verse 1, it says, Peter, an apostle of
Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. So we see here that this letter
Peter's writing here is to the elect of God that's scattered
throughout the regions. I don't particularly think this
is speaking directly to the Jews only. I believe this is speaking
to the strangers everywhere. As a matter of fact, we see that
that word strangers, is often used to talk about the Gentiles
as well, you know, that you were estranged or that you were strangers
to the Commonwealth of Israel, but you have been brought nigh
by the blood of Jesus Christ. So I think that Peter is speaking
to all the elect, whether they be Jew or Gentile, whether they
be from the people of Israel or
from the nations of the world, We are all, as the true Israel
of God, the true elect of God, we are the strangers and pilgrims
in this world. We all are passing through here. This is just a, whether we are
living here in Missouri, or if I said Oklahoma, and I've been
out of Oklahoma for quite a while now, whether it's here in Missouri,
or whether it's in South America, and whether it's in Europe, wherever
we live, Wherever we go, we're always going to be strangers
in this world. But Peter here is addressing,
as verse 2 clearly says, the elect according to the foreknowledge
of God, the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you,
peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, and I want you to kind
of take note of that, unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. We have been begotten unto a
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for you. who are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed at the last
time wherein ye greatly rejoice though now for a season if need
be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations that the
trial of your faith being much more precious than gold that
perisheth though it be tried with fire, might be found unto
praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Christ Jesus,
whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him
not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation
of your souls. of which salvation the prophets
have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that
should come unto you. 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." Just a side note there. I'm not
going to dwell much on these two verses, but as we're passing
through it, I'd like to point out that those Old Testament
prophets and those Old Testament saints had the Spirit of Christ
in them, and they preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ, His death
and resurrection. They preached Christ, whether
it was in type or whether it was through God giving them understanding
of what Christ was coming to do in saving His people. But
it clearly here says that that salvation the salvation of our
souls, the prophets inquired and searched diligently of the
grace that should come, searching what or what manner of time the
Spirit of Christ that was in them did signify when it testified
beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should
follow. So they were preached the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. Now the key word there is signify,
so I do believe that the majority of the preaching on this was
through the types and the shadows that they were seeing. Now, even
though they had the types and shadows just like we do, we still
have the types and shadows, but we preach Christ through the
types and shadows. And I believe those prophets
were probably preaching Christ through the types and shadows,
not just the shadows, right? They weren't just preaching the
types, they were preaching how those types and shadows had a
tie with or had a fulfillment in the coming Messiah. But anyway,
to move on it says, verse 12, 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 that have preached the
gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven which
things the angels desire to look into. Wherefore, gird up the
loins of your mind, be sober, and here's this word again, it's
kind of that have been found a few times throughout our passages
here, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought
unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, as I was reading
here, I was particularly looking at verses 3, 4, and 5 that really
was standing out to me. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy,
So, first of all, blessing is being given to God for something
that God has done. We are blessing God for what
He has done. Not that we can pronounce or
we can bestow a blessing on God as He bestows blessing on us,
but that is basically meaning giving honor, giving glory, giving
praise unto God for the things that He has done. Blessed be
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to His
abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope."
We have been born again, and part of the reason of being born
again that we find here is that we might be begotten unto a lively
hope, not a dead hope. Not a hope that is found in things
that are seen and that are tangible, but a true hope that hopes in
that which is not seen. That's why we see down in verse
8 if you look down there again. Whom having not seen ye love,
and whom though now ye see him not yet believing, ye rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. So we see here this
hope is something that is given to
the child of grace and that is given to them in earnest or in hope of something that is
going to be returned to them or given to them at the end. This hope is something that is
instilled within the child of grace. I believe it is In Hebrews, if
I'm not mistaken, is it Hebrews 11, we're told, Hebrews 11.1,
now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence
of things not seen. If hope is something that is
tangible, if faith is something that is built upon something
that is tangible, then it really isn't hope, it isn't really faith,
It is us seeing and experiencing and knowing and having something
that is actually tangible. But hope and faith is something
that is not seen and it is in something that is not seen. It
is in something that is yet to happen. It is yet to take place.
And so God has instilled in us a hope. If we are a child of
grace, we have been instilled with a hope. He says here, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy have begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now there's a couple of things
that I think I see in here, and I hope that this is what this
has meant in here. And again, if you have a better
understanding of it, brother, you can help me with that. But
there's a couple of things here. Not only are we begotten, and
given a hope in us that actually resonates. Whenever I say hope,
I use that interchangeably with belief and with faith. I believe
the Bible is clear in several passages of scripture that correlates
those three words and uses those together. Hope and faith and
belief are all interchangeable in the Word of God. We have an
assurance of faith. We have an assurance of hope.
We have these things that is given to us as the children of
grace. But that hope has for itself
an object. That faith has itself for an
object. That belief has for itself an
object that is unseen. We have something that's not
yet that we are hoping to be ours. whenever Christ comes again. And so I think this lively hope
is a true, genuine hope that is given to us that continues. It's a lively hope. It never
dies. It continues on and on. And the child of grace, from
the time that we have been quickened of God until the time that we
die and go to be with the Lord or until the time that he returns
and this corruption puts on incorruptible, I think that that hope will continue
on because it is a lively hope. It's a hope that will be kept
alive and I think our passage here will prove that to be true
as we get there. But I also think this lively
hope has begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. We also see that Christ himself
is that hope. Christ is our hope. We are hoping
to be with Him. We are hoping to be found in
Him. We are hoping to be found like
Him. The Bible has taught us over
and over again that whenever we see Christ, we shall be made
like Him. We shall put off this body of
death and we should put on a body that Christ has prepared for
us and that body will be a body that likened to His glorified
body, likened to His resurrected body. And it says it right here,
a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So whenever
we look at the resurrection of Jesus Christ and we see that
resurrected body that Christ received and that He went back
to be with the Father and to have the glory that was before. Matter of fact, turn with me
if you would, real quick. Keep your hand there on Peter.
But I don't want to misquote it here. In John, the Gospel
of John, John 1, verse 14. It said, And the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory
as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bear witness of him and
Christ saying, this is he of whom I speak, he that cometh
after me is performed before me for he was before me. And
of his fullness have all we received for grace. So we see here that John says
that Christ in his flesh, we beheld his glory. And I believe
that glory that he is talking about here is the glory as the
only begotten of the Father. That which was begotten. Well,
what is the begotten part of Christ? It's His manhood, right? He's begotten in His manhood.
We know He's not begotten in His divinity. There is no such
thing as a begotten God. Christ cannot be begotten in
His deity. But in His manhood, He was begotten
or brought forth. The Scriptures say that before
the mountains were laid, or before anything that was made, He had
brought me forth. I was brought forth from of old,
before the mountains were laid. Christ was brought forth in this
manhood. And I believe, and I know many
might not hold to this, but I believe that Christ had manhood before
He was born of Mary. And that manhood that He had,
where He was with God and was God, came from Mary, that that
manhood was a glorious body that He had, not likened unto the
body that He took on that was flesh and blood while He was
here. Whenever He came as flesh and blood, He took on the likeness
of us. But whenever He resurrected and
ascended back to the Father, He assumed back the glory that
He had with the Father before the world began. And I believe
that that's talking about That pre-incarnate body, that pre-incarnate
manhood that Christ had throughout all of time, throughout all of
the Old Testament, ever since the foundation of the world,
that Christ has had, that manhood that He had before, He assumed
that body. And I believe that body is the
body that we will be like whenever we resurrect. We will have a
body like that kind of body, a resurrected body. a body that
has no corruption, a body that does not die, a body that is
not plagued with sin or affected by sin. Look on down as we look
at this. It says, to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for
you. So we see that there is something
in heaven already reserved for us. We are going to be the recipients
of that. It's called an inheritance, right? We have an inheritance waiting
for us. Now, I think primarily that inheritance
is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is our inheritance. Really
something funny, this is why I say I got taken in several
different places this morning as I was looking at this. What
amazing pictures that we see of the union between Christ and
His people. So close and so much so that
what we see talked about about Christ is also talked about us
in some areas. Christ who is our righteousness,
we are said to also be the righteousness of God in Christ. We are the
righteousness of God. He calls us righteous. But yet
our righteousness is Christ. Yet Christ has us as His righteousness. To me, that boggles my mind.
But yet we see how we are intertwined in the union with Christ Jesus. But look with me, if you would,
at Psalms 16 and what Jesus says about Himself and His people. Psalms 16. And look with me, if you would,
at verse 5. Now, I believe that this is the
Lord Jesus that is speaking here. He says, The Lord is the portion
of mine inheritance, and of my cup thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me
in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage. Now the Bible also says that
we are the Lord's heritage. Remember in the New Testament,
I can't remember offhand the passage that it is, but in the
New Testament the Bible speaks of pastors and how the pastors
are not to lord it over the Lord's heritage. That means the Lord's
people. So we're considered the Lord's
heritage. But it says here, the Lord is
my portion of my inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest
or Thou holdest strong or Thou keepest my lot." That word lot
there refers back to destiny. It refers back to what God has
predestined or what God has determined. Whenever you cast for lots, you're
casting upon what's the outcome going to be, what's destiny hold
for me, right? That's why the pagans would cast
lots figure out what they were going to do. Now, casting lots
could also be voting. Whenever we vote upon something
to determine somebody, we will cast our lot. It's like whenever
people go to vote at the voting booth, they cast their lot or
their choice for whoever they desire to be whatever they're
voting for, right? And so we see that this word
lot here, though, in the context here is talking about what his
lot is. We also say, you know, whatever
my lot may be, Well, that's whatever my destiny may be, whatever my
course might be that's set out for me. Whatever God has determined
for me, and this is what Christ is saying, the Lord is the portion
of my inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest my law. The lines are falling. So my
inheritance is drawn out. The word lines there, it refers
back to earlier in the Old Testament where all the land of inheritance
was given to the children of Israel. and they drew them out
by lines where everybody was at. So there was a determined
portion that each tribe was to get in their inheritance, right?
When they got the land. So they would draw out a particular
thing. So Christ is saying here that
God has determined his inheritance and that inheritance has been
drawn out distinctly. It has been brought out and it
is his lot. It is his fulfillment and destiny
this inheritance be given to him and he will receive it. And he says, yea, I have a goodly
inheritance or heritage. So he's referring to us as his
inheritance. He's referring to us as his portion. And so we see Back in our Scriptures
here, we are considered His inheritance, yet whenever we look at Christ,
we consider Him our heritage. And how there's that intertwining
again in the union of Christ Jesus. But it says here that
we have been begotten again unto a lively hope to an inheritance. Now, again, I think this inheritance
is is referring to what is to be seen at the end, to be what
is had at the end. But I believe that it corresponds
with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because it is by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ that we are given hope, but it
is also Jesus Christ Himself and what was seen in the resurrection
of Christ, or what was accomplished in the resurrection of Christ,
that is our hope. We are hoping to have what Jesus
had in the resurrection. What happened in the resurrection?
He was resurrected to new life. He was resurrected and brought
back forth from the dead, and in that resurrection we see what? Power over sin and death. power
over hell, power over everything. Christ has given power and there
is no longer sin that defiles. There is now no longer death
that holds us. It keeps us in a place of condemnation. Death
has a hold on us because we have eternal life and we shall not
die. So in the resurrection of Jesus
Christ, we see because He lives, we shall Because He rose from
the dead, we shall also rise from the dead. Because God has
brought Him forth and glorified Him and brought Him to a place
of glory once again with the glory that He had before the
foundation of the world with God, that we too will be raised
in likeness whenever He comes. And that likeness will be likened
to His glory, likened to His body, likened to His manhood. And we shall then, our souls,
our spirit, which God has given us, which was born from above,
which is incorruptible, which cannot sin, that inward man that
cannot sin, that is undefiled, what's the word there? incorruptible,
undefiled, fadeth not away. That spirit life that is born
from above, that was hid in Christ, in God, before the foundation
of the world, that we were given, that eternal life that has come
into us, it's undefiled. It cannot be corrupted. It cannot
fade away. But yet, this flesh can. But
one of these days, the glory that Christ had with the Father
that did not fade away. Now His body on this earth did
fade away, right? It did die. It did die and it
did fade away. But God, by the power of His
divine nature, resurrected that body, then glorified Him back
with the glory that He had before, that He had with the Father before.
And in that glory, we also have hope that we too will be like
Him. Now, it says here that this inheritance that we
see, our evidence by the resurrection, is our inheritance. That we have
been begotten again unto a lively hope to an inheritance. We have been begotten unto a
hope of this inheritance. So we are hoping in this. Don't
we sing a lot of songs and haven't we talked a lot about I can't
wait to put off this old body. Didn't Paul say, I look forward
to the time that I put off this tent? I would love to put off
this tent, brethren, and go and be with the Lord and to put on
that whenever this corruption puts on incorruption. I look
forward to that day. Well, Paul's heart was that heart
because he had been given a lively hope. Our heart is that heart
because we have been given a lively hope. And what are we looking
for? We are looking for that day that faith will end in sight
and that we, what we have been hoping for, what we have been
believing upon, what we have been trusting towards, will come
true. The promise that sin, death,
corruption, All that is within this Adamic man will be put off,
and we shall be like him." Now I think it's really funny that
the first sin that ever came, came because Adam wanted to be
like God. That Satan tempted Adam and Eve
to be as God. But yet, in the spiritual matter
of all things, when it's all said and done, the Bible says
that we shall be like Him. Now we're not going to be divine.
We're definitely not going to be divine, brethren. We will
not be God. But brethren, we will be without
sin. We will be undefiled. And so what we see in here is
this outward man being brought together and joined with that
inward man. Where now our outward man and
our inward man are all of one. Just as Christ prayed in John
chapter 17, Father, I in you and you in me, that I may be
in them and they in me. That we may be one as you are
one. That there may be a glory. See, if you remember, Christ
was the image of the invisible God. He is the one who had declared
God. If you've seen me, you have seen
the Father. Jesus was the physical manifestation
of who God is. Jesus was the one who declared
the invisible God by His outward appearance. Jesus is the one
who was the face of the living God. And Christ has brought us,
not in this Adamic body, to be the visage of the invisible God,
but one day we will put on that body that He has prepared for
us, and that body that He has prepared for us with the Spirit
of God in us with no sin defilement on the outskirts of it, on the
outside of it, will be the visage of the living God. I am them
and they are me. They shall be one as we are one. We shall be one together. That
way all things will be brought back to God. That way all things
will be to Him and be glory to Him. How are we going to be glory
to Him? Well, there will be no more sin. corruption. There will be no
more fading away. All those things will be done away, and we will
be glorified. How do we share in the glory
of Christ? That's how we share in the glory
of Christ. We aren't the glory of Christ. We are not Him, but
yet we share in the glory by being no more full of corruption.
Now, it says here, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." Didn't Jesus
say that I go away, and if I go away, I shall come again to you?
But what did He say He was going to do if He goes away? He's going
to send comfort. That's the hope that He's given
us. He's sending us comfort, a hope. This is not the end of
it. Keep pressing on. Now, we're going to learn how
we keep pressing on Him in just a minute, Keep pressing on because there's
something that's laid up in store for you at the end. But there's
another thing Jesus said about him going away. He said, I go
away to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may
be also. Matter of fact, Jesus said that
in my father's house are many mansions. If you look at that
word mansions there, you'll see that a lot of times it has reference
to this building, but it has reference to the body. Now, I'm
of the particular mindset, and again, I could be wrong about
this, I'm not dogmatic about it, and surely wouldn't disfellowship
anybody over that disagrees with me on it, but I believe whenever
he said, I go to prepare a place for you, that in my father's
house there's many mansions, that he's talking about the bodies
that he would, I don't think he's talking about physical houses
that we're going to occupy some mansion, you know, like we see
out in Beverly Hills or whatever, you know, surely it'd be great
with that if there is mansions, but I don't believe it's actual
physical houses necessarily that he's talking about, it's these.
If you want to say physical houses, it'd be a body, that glorified
body that we might dwell within that glorified body likened to
Christ. body, the body that he had before
he came. But he says, reserved in heaven
for you. Brethren, if it's reserved in
heaven for you, for you, if it's reserved in heaven for you, that
means that's pretty particular, right? There is an inheritance
for you reserved in heaven. Now, how sure is that? Well,
if God said it, it's a promise. And that promise is sure. It
ain't going to change. So that tells me, just like back
in Psalms, where Jesus said that His inheritance, His portion
that is the Lord's, that is given to Him by the Lord, is lines
that are drawn out. There is a specified, His lot
was set. Isaiah 53. Remember, He said
that He had a people that He would die for and He would justify
the many. He would seed the travail of
His soul and be satisfied and by His righteous servant, many
will be justified. But who is He talking about?
He's talking about the seed. He shall seed the travail of
His soul. For whom? The seed. His people. The lines
are marked out. It's exact. Every one of those
tribes had an exact inheritance for that exact tribe. And it
was marked out, determined ahead of time, the exact amount. The
boundary was set. No more, no less. And here again,
we see now in us, our inheritance is set by God. Its boundary is
fixed. Its amount is set. It's as sure
as anything. It will be given to us. Just
like that promise was made sure to Israel. I know a lot of people
disagree with this, but Israel received the promise that was
given to them. They received that inheritance
of land. They came into the land. They took the land. They possessed
the land. everything that the lord had
promised joshua says everything that the lord had promised came
to pass not one thing did not come to pass that was not promised
everything that was promised to them was given to them they
possessed it just as the lord had promised it just as the lord
said would happen and it happened they also lost that land just
as the lord had promised would happen that if they go away and
they quit serving him and went serving other idols and everything,
that he would take away the land that he had given to them, and
that he did. He took that land away. Well,
brethren, listen. That's the difference between
an old covenant and a new covenant. The new covenant, it isn't taken
away. The new covenant, it is forever. Why? Because it is undefiled
and incorruptible. We can't corrupt this inheritance.
We can't tarnish it. And it will not fade away and
it will not be taken away. Now, how is this hope for this
inheritance kept? Look at verse 5. It says, Who
are kept... Now, who are we talking about?
Those who have been begotten unto a lively hope again. Verse
3. Those who have been begotten us again unto a lively hope,
who are kept... who are kept. This hope is kept
and the people that have this hope are kept in this hope until that inheritance is given. Now, but look how it's kept.
It's kept by the power of God. It's not kept by your law-keeping.
The inheritance isn't kept by your worrying It isn't kept by
your activity, your religious works. It isn't kept by your
prayers. It isn't kept by your studying. It isn't kept by your coming
to church. It isn't kept by anything that you do. It's kept by the
power of God. That hope is kept in His people. The Bible says that the Spirit
bears witness with our spirit that we are His. I can't make
the Spirit bear that witness to me. Nothing outwardly that
I do bears witness that I am His. What is the thing that bears
witness that I am His? It's only the hope that's been
given to me in Christ Jesus. And it is by His power that that
hope not only is placed in me, but that hope has activity within
me. that hope is activated or kept
alive or is worked out in me by the power of God. And how
does he do that? Well, if the hope is by the power
of God, that would be the direct cause or the effectual cause,
the efficient cause, right? But look what it says, through
faith. How does God keep us by His power? Through faith. Now, again, this
is not faith that you conjure up on your own. This is not faith
that you build up by means. This isn't how your faith is
being kept. Your faith is not kept alive
by your enabling. It's kept by the power of God
through faith. continue in hope by the power
of God, and He works that in us through faith, by giving us
faith to continue to believe on something outside of us. Remember,
faith is what? The evidence of things unseen.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith is the substance
of things hoped for. What does faith hope upon? The
substance of things that's not seen. That which has not yet
happened. Things that are still out there
that we don't know, don't see, don't comprehend, haven't experienced
yet. That's what faith is looking
to. Faith has hope in that which is unseen. Whom have ye not seen
ye love? We don't know Christ. We haven't
seen Christ. We've never experienced Christ
in the flesh. But guess what? We know Him.
We feel His love within us. We experience the love of God
through us. And brethren, we have been given
the faith of God to be able to trust in something that we've
never encountered or never had a participation in physical form
with. Whom have ye not seen ye love,
in whom though now ye see him not yet believing, Ye rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory." How is it that we
are so full of joy, as it says here, unspeakable, full of glory,
we meet every week together, every time we open up this book
and read of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ to His people,
every time we speak together one to another, or as the Scriptures
say, how we speak often one to another, When we do that, how
is it that we are so full of joy for something that we have
never even seen or have yet to experience in its fullness? Belief,
faith, trust, hope, all that is given. But it says here, so
if the efficient cause is the power of God and the actual working of that is through faith,
then we see what is the end result of that unto salvation, ready
to be revealed at the latter time. And you say, well, wait
a minute, Preacher, I thought you already have said, and you
make it clear all the time, and even chide others whenever they
say Jesus saves, as if he's still doing something. Didn't he already
save? Absolutely, he already did save. And as I also have mentioned
that the word save in the Bible is used in different connotations.
There is an eternal salvation that has to do with the legal
aspects of everything that needed to be done for a Savior to be
just before God. There is a saving in the fact
that God has called us from out among the world, that we are
saved from wrath. There is also a saving that is
a temporal thing that God does to us that keeps us from various
things in our life that God keeps us from experiencing. There is
a saving from wrong knowledge, from false Gospels. God has saved
us by the Word of God, has saved us from wrong knowledge. How does He do that? By granting
us repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. He has saved us
from false doctrine by the Word of God. He has saved us from
sin and death, the dominion of sin and death, And one of these
days, He's going to save us from the actual presence of sin and
death. So there is a salvation that
is in connotation of many different things. And here we're talking
about the salvation that is yet to be revealed at the last time. What is that? Well, that's the
salvation of the whole man. That's what I was talking about.
This body will put off corruption and put on incorruption. I will be saved from this body
of sin. Look with me if you would at
Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7 verse 18, Paul
here in this great chapter speaking of the of the Christian struggle
or the Christian's warfare, the spiritual warfare. This right
here, brother, what we're about to read, this is spiritual warfare,
not that junk that you hear from the Charismatic Pentecostal Word
of Faith people out there, that we're in some spiritual battle
against the forces of evil, that it's us against Satan and we're
God's, I may never march in the infantry, you know. We're in
the Lord's army, we're preparing for a battle. Listen, there is
nowhere in Scripture that tells us that we are about to battle
Satan and his demons. As a matter of fact, the Bible
tells us that Satan is much more than we could ever conquer, that
even the archangel Michael didn't even bring anything against Satan
himself. Right? So you think you're going
to go out and battle Satan? I don't think so. Well, we're
going to battle him with the armor of the Lord. Brethren,
the armor of the Lord is just a signification of everything
that Christ has done for his people. Every piece of the armor
in the armor of the Lord is Jesus, is a picture of Jesus and what
Jesus has done for His people. It's not something that we put
on as a physical thing or even as a spiritual thing that we
put on so that we might go wage war against Him. No, it's something
that He has put on us to protect us and He's protecting us because
He is every piece of that armor. Now, there is no battle. The
spiritual warfare that we encounter is the spiritual warfare with
ourselves, with our own nature. with who we are. Look what it
says here. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. For the will is present with
me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good
that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that
I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do
it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find in a law that whenever
I do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law
of God after the inward man." There it is, that inward man
that is undefiled and uncorrupted, that fadeth not away. That inward
man loves the law of God, keeps the law of God in perfect, true,
and holy righteousness. But he says, I see another law
in my members. That's this outward man. Warring
against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity. There's
the law. There's the war. spiritual battle
right there, the warfare is right there. The warfare between my
outer man, the flesh, and the inner man, the spirit. The old
man and the new man continue to do battle one to the other.
The old man wants to have its ways and to follow the law of
sin. The inward man loves the law
of God and wants to walk in the law of God. It says, but I see
another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my
members. Which is in my members. Not in
the inward man, but in my members. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of death? Or who shall save me
from this body of death? Now this is the salvation that
we're talking about. The salvation that is waiting to the end For
the end is this salvation, being delivered from the body
of death. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then
with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the
flesh the law of sin. I believe this is the time that
it's talking about, the revealed in the last time, that faith
continues to work in us for that lively hope that, oh, this outward
man perishes, yet the inward man is renewed every day. And
that inward man being renewed every day, why? Because it cannot
be defiled. It is incorruptible. It fadeth
not away. Because the inward man sinneth
not, the inward man cannot go anywhere. That inward man is kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed.
We are kept until that day that we put off this old van and we
put on that which is glory. He says, even the temptations
and the trials that we go through, that the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it
be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and
glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. The testing, that word
temptation there is not an enticing to sin, but a testing the validity
of what is already there. Whenever Jesus was tempted, because
the Bible says that God cannot be tempted, right? The Bible
says that God cannot be tempted, but do you know that, not even
counting the time that Jesus was tempted in the desert, but
do you know that in the Old Testament the Bible said that Abraham tempted
God? Abraham tempted God. Well, wait a minute. I thought
the Bible said God cannot be tempted. There's a contradiction
in the Bible. The Bible must not be true. There
you go. It's written by man. Too many contradictions in there. Is it contradicting itself? No.
You just got to put the context of what temptation you're talking
about. Is it the temptation of the lust
and the desire being enticed? Or is it the testing or the validity
of something? Whenever Jesus was tempted in
the desert, The temptation of Satan was for him to sin. That was a lusting thing to try
to get him to. But what does the Bible say?
There was nothing found in him. There was nothing that could
be found in him to be tempted and tested and lust after. There was nothing there that
he could entice him with. Why? Because he was perfect and
righteous and holy. There was nothing in Christ he
was impeccable. So nothing could be tempted in
that regards. But in God's sending Satan to
tempt Jesus, God tempting His Son was tempting not in the way
of enticing to lust and to sin, but tempting and testing the
validity to show forth the impeccability of who Christ is. The whole purpose,
and I see a lot of people, and I'm not to get off on another
subject, but whenever you talk about impeccability, there's
a lot of people that say that Christ could have sinned. Matter
of fact, that very question was what brought me down the path
that led me into the doctrines of grace. That was the red flag
that came up in my mind that brought me down the path to God
teaching me the doctrines of grace is the impeccability of
Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ cannot sin. He had no ability
to sin. Therefore, he shows himself to
be truly God. And they always say, well, then
the temptation of Jesus was nothing. And then when it says that he
is like unto us and has experienced everything as us, so that he
might be our sympathizing Savior and everything, then that temptation
meant nothing if he couldn't have sinned. That's because the
temptation wasn't meant to entice and draw him away, because there's
nothing there to entice and draw away. The temptation was there
by God to show the validity of who He was. This man has nothing
in Him that can be sinned, therefore He is the spotless Lamb that
is going to that cross. The temptation was to validate
this is God in flesh, because God is the only one who cannot
sin. Why do we sin? We have God in
us. Why do we sin? Because we still
have the flesh, just like Paul said. In the inward man, I don't
sin. But in that outward man, it's
still full of sin. And it will continue to serve
the law of sin until the body of death be taken away by Jesus
Christ at His appearing. And that's what we see here. That the trial of your faith
might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith does not die. Hope does
not die. Belief does not die. Why? Because it's by the power of
God. We are kept by the power of God in that hope that this
body will be put down and that body will be raised up. that
as Christ was resurrected from the grave, we too shall be resurrected. And brethren, I believe that
we'll be resurrected to a newness of life that we've never experienced.
Now, we've been resurrected by the begotteness of God in this
inward man to a spiritual thing that we could never have done
in the flesh. But brethren, the newness of life that we are going
to experience when this body of death goes away is a life
that we have never experienced, that we can't even comprehend.
Can you comprehend living without the effects of sin? Not just the internal struggle
that we have of lust and evil and to transgress the things
that God has said, but the effects of sin in its sickness and aging
and death and hurt and sorrow and pain. No one has ever experienced
that. But yet to be resurrected with
Christ, we will walk in newness of life in a body that is not
going to ever experience that. He shall wipe away all tears.
He will remove every pain, all the sorrows. Everything will
be removed from that body. That body will be a glorified
body like unto His body Before he became like us, that body
never experienced that. What a great thing that we're
going to have whenever our inheritance comes to full fruition. Having not seen ye love, in whom
though now ye see him not yet believing, ye rejoice with unspeakable
full of joy. And so it says, drop down to
verse 13, what we've done. 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. So may our minds be built upon
these things that we have this hope given to us. And this hope
is a hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's a hope
in what happened with Christ will also happen with us. As
He was raised in newness of life and ascended back to the Father and reclaimed the glory that
He had with the Father before, so we too will be resurrected. And we will ascend back to our
Father with the glory that he has had. Look one more time if
you would. I said that would be the end,
but look one more time at John chapter 17. So I said that I was going all
over the place and I hope that what I've said has not been too Jesus prayed this in John chapter
17. While Christ still had to die, be buried, and resurrected,
and ascend to the Father, He's praying the things that are already
completed in the mind of God because God is eternal. He's
not bound to time. And everything that is happening
in time, God knows because He has purposed all things. Christ
stood as the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
Yet He came at the time appointed by the Father to be the actual
Lamb slain. But yet to God, those things
that are not, He sees as though they are. It says, Father of the hours, come
glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. He says, I have glorified, verse
4, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work
which thou hast given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world, thine they
were, and thou gavest me them, and they have kept thy word.
Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given
me are of thee, for I have given unto them these words which thou
gavest me, and they have received them and have known surely that
I come out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst
send me. I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them
which thou givest me, for they are mine, and all mine are thine,
and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I
am no more in the world, but these are in the world. And I
come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me. So here we see the keeping again
by the power of God. Keep them which thou hast given
me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in
the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest
me, I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition
that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee, and these
things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them, because they were not of the world."
We were strangers, right? Even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them
from the evil. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world. They've
been scattered into all the regions of the world. And for their sakes,
I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the
truth. Neither pray I these alone, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word, that they may all be one, as
thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may
be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent
me. And here it is, verse 22. And the glory which thou gavest
me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one.
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one,
and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved
me, and thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, and that they
may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest
me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the
world hath not known me, but I have known thee, and these
have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto
them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. We see that perfect
union that we have with Christ Jesus and how that glory that
God has given to Christ in His manhood, I would hold, that we
also will have that same glory given unto us. So we see what he says here.
He says, gird up the loins of your
mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is brought
unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. We are going to
see grace fulfilled in all of its fullness. Now, we already
are experiencing grace, right? We've experienced His grace,
but we are also growing in grace. We were talking about that this
morning. that we are growing in grace, not necessarily that
we're growing in holiness. We are not becoming more and
more holy. That which is on the inward man
is already holy and without blame and sinneth not and is created
in true righteousness. Now the outward man, it cannot
ever be holy because it continues to perish. It is always sinful. It cannot please God. But what
we see here is we see that we grow in the grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We grow in our not only understanding
of the grace of God, but we grow in our experience of that grace. He gives us more and more of
not only the understanding of what He has done for us, but
He grows us in faith as the temptations and the trials and the tribulations
come. That testing of our faith, what
is the testing? He gives the illustration here
of gold in the fire and everything like that. What is that? Whenever
they heat gold up, what does it do? It proves the validity
of gold, right? If there's any impurity in that
gold, what does fire do? It brings that purity out and
reveals it. But what is the end product once
you have put the test to the gold? The end product is purified
gold, right? Well, our faith is being tested.
being shown the validity. And it is being validated. Why?
Because we will preserve to the end. We will continue to the
end. Those who persevere to the end,
they shall be what? Saved. Well, where I started
at this morning was in Jude 1. What did it say there? Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ
and the brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God
the Father, That's elected of God, set apart by God, called
by God to be His and preserved in Christ Jesus. Preserved in Christ Jesus. We
are preserved in Him. The hope, the belief, the faith
is kept by the power of God through faith and it is the work of God
that you believe. We are kept by Christ Jesus until
the revelation of Christ Jesus. And at the revelation of Christ
Jesus, we will enter into the inheritance of Christ Jesus,
an inheritance that is undefiled, that cannot fade away. We shall be made like unto our
Savior. We shall be made like unto Him. So brethren, may your minds be
set on that. May your hope be always to that end result as
the Lord perseveres you, preserves you, as He keeps you, as He holds
you, as He brings you along, as He grows you in the knowledge
of that, but also in the experience of that. I know more of the grace
of God now than I did before. Not because I've become more
holy. Matter of fact, just the opposite. The more I realize
how sinful I am, the more I see how much grace has been extended
to me, given to me, how much of a recipient of grace I truly
am. And so I grow in that grace, the glorifying of that grace,
the exaltation of that grace, the declaration of that grace.
Why should our Preaching be anything but filled with the grace of
God in Christ. Grace. Grace. Marvelous grace. Grace that exceeds our sin. Why
do we speak of grace? Because it is something that
we didn't deserve, that is given to us, and something that we
are not going to be able to fathom until we enter into that day
of revelation. That day of putting off of this
man and receiving from the Lord the inheritance that is laid
up, that the Bible says here, that is reserved for you. Brethren, at that point, I think
we're really gonna see how much grace was really given to us. All right, we'll stop with that.
Does anybody have any comments or questions or anything you'd
like to add? Now unto Him that is able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise
God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion, power, both
now and forever. He's the one that keeps us from
falling because He has kept us by His power. Amen, brother. Any corrections or rebukes or
anything? I've never really put together
those passages, scriptures with our glorified body. And again, I may be wrong. And
I'll be glad to take correction of that. But that's how I come
to see it and believe it. And the many witnesses that we
looked at this morning that testified of that seems to lend it to be
the case. And there may be more there.
Listen, brethren, a lot of times the scripture, there are layer
upon layers that we, it can be, you know, you can, it can be
talking about something, but it can even be having an even
more overarching meaning to that, which we're looking at. There
are a lot of things that we, that we see that the Lord teaches
us and oh, the depths of him, you know, line upon line, precept
upon precept. Here a little, there a little.
We see the things and the depths and the knowledge of God that
we can never get to the bottom of. But again, I pray that that
is of the truth and that it's been an encouragement to you
and that I've not lied upon Jesus. All right? Anybody else got anything?
All right. Lord Jesus, we are grateful for
your love and your salvation. We're grateful for Your keeping.
We're grateful for the hope that You've given us. If we were Yours,
we're grateful, Father, for the life that has been given to us. We're thankful for that which
is awaiting us when this body of death shall be put down. And
Lord, we look forward to that day of Your coming. We look forward
to the day that we put off this old man, put off this body of
flesh, that we might be able to be before You in love, that
we might be before You blameless, not only in the inward man, but
also in the outward man. Father, we just thank You so
much for all that You have done for us in grace. Lord, I pray
for these brethren that are here. I pray that You have encouraged
them, that You have taught them this morning. I pray, Lord, that
You will keep them this week in safety, but also, Lord, that
You might keep them as You have promised in Your Word. and in
the hope and in the faith of our Lord, Savior Jesus Christ.
Father Lord, we again just ask that you might be with us as
we leave, that you might enable us to be testimonies of your
grace, of your mercy, and of your salvation, and that you
might gather us back again as you see fit. It's in your Son's
name that we pray. Amen.