If you would, open your Bibles
again to 1 Peter chapter 1. Pastor Brother Dan just read
for us. Lord willing, we'll begin studying
the epistles of Peter in the next few Wednesday nights. Now,
this epistle is called a general epistle. Peter didn't address
this letter to any particular person or any particular church.
It's written to believers throughout the various spots in the world. And it's interesting to me, anyway,
that this is thought to be the oldest epistle. If you look over
in chapter 5 of 1 Peter, this is the oldest epistle. The first
epistle is written by the apostles, that's included in Scripture.
And look what Peter says here. This is why he wrote this first
epistle, in verse 12. By Silvanus, a faithful brother
unto you, as I suppose, I've written briefly, exhorting and
testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand. This first letter that the apostles
wrote, included in scripture, was written to tell us of God's
grace, to leave no doubt in our minds that salvation is by grace
alone. And we'll see as we go through
this study in Peter, he also tells believers as we go through
our walk here in this world, to adorn God's grace. He writes
to establish believers in God's grace and to prepare us for our
walk through this world. Now tonight, I'd like to deal
with the first nine verses and look at the description of a
believer from a number of words that Peter uses in these first
nine verses. And the first one is strangers.
Believers are strangers. We see that in verse one. Peter,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Strangers. Now, that word actually means
a pilgrim. We're just traveling through this world. This world
is not the believer's home. Our citizenship is in heaven,
and we're going through this place on our way home. We're going home. Now, believers
are strangers to the world through which we walk. We're aliens in
another country, as it were. But we're not strangers to God.
We'll see this in a minute, how God's always known his people. They're not strangers to God.
And we're not strangers to each other. I've been able, over the
course of my ministry, to travel to different places and preach
and get to meet people that I probably wouldn't have gotten to meet
otherwise. And whenever Jan and I go someplace new, we get there,
I don't know anybody. Evelyn, you mentioned going to
Dingus the first time you went with Pat. The first time we went
to Dingus, we didn't know a soul in that place. I mean, Janet
looked out. I mean, you've got to pump sunshine
in that place in the daytime. At night, I mean, it was dark
like you've never seen dark. Janet looked out the window.
The girls were babies. And she said, where have you
brought me my babies? Well, here a minute, the phone rang. The
whole congregation was down at the restaurant. We went down
there. And I'm telling you, we weren't there five minutes. And
we knew everybody in the place. And that story is repeated many
times, the different places we've gone. We don't know anybody when
we get there, but quickly, we're bonded together. Quickly. We're
visiting like we've known each other our whole lives. Because
we've got the same spirit. We're brothers and sisters. We're
not strangers to one another. And I just wish we could be together
all the time. But that's not God's will, is
it? These strangers are scattered. They're scattered all around
the world on purpose, on God's purpose. These people that Peter
is writing to are Jews who fled persecution in Jerusalem. They
left that place and fled for their lives. And everywhere they
went, here they were scattered. Everywhere they went, they went
preaching the gospel of God's grace. God used that persecution. God used man's hatred of the
gospel to spread the gospel. Everywhere these people were
scattered, the gospel was spread. The one thing those people did
not want to happen was have the gospel preached. Well, by their
actions, God used it to spread the gospel to the whole world,
everywhere where his sheep lived. If you look over in Acts chapter
8, this is what I'm referring to, this persecution. Now, I'm
confident this was a difficult, grievous They never would have
left the comforts of home. They grew up there. They'd always
been there. They never would have left there if it wasn't
for this persecution. In Acts chapter 8, verse 1, and
Paul was consenting unto his death, unto Stephen's death.
And at that time, there was a great persecution against the church,
which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered.
They were scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria,
except the apostles. and devout men carried Stephen
to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for
Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house and
hailing men and women and committed them to prison. Therefore, they
that were scattered abroad," that's the same word Peter used,
scattered abroad, went everywhere preaching the word. These people
were scattered, but not randomly. It wasn't that they were scattered
randomly. They were scattered according to God's purpose. They
were actually planted where God had them to go. It wasn't a random
scattering. They were planted where God would
have them go according to his purpose. And you'll notice when
Peter begins this letter, he does not call himself the vicar
of Christ or the successor of Christ or the first pope or head
of the church. He doesn't take any of those
titles to himself. The writers all say he says he's just an
apostle. When apostles held pretty high
regard in God's church, aren't they? I don't know if you can
say he's just an apostle, but this is the title he takes to
himself, an apostle. Now believers, these strangers,
Peter's one of these strangers. He just happens to be scattered
in Jerusalem, but or wherever he's at when he wrote this epistle.
But these strangers don't take any special titles to themselves
other than what God's word gives. Because they're all equal. They're
all equal in Christ. Now, there are no apostles today,
and we use different terms. We use the term pastor as a term
of respect or endearment or something. But what's the term we normally
use? Brother and sister, brother and sister. I'm looking at my
brothers and sisters. What higher term could you use
for a person than a son of God, a daughter of God, brothers and
sisters or children of God? That's the way these believers
look at themselves. Now there are strangers in this world,
and all the rest of their description is a spiritual description. This
world does not hold them in very high regard, these pilgrims that
are passing through. But God does. God chose them
out of the world. He chose them to be His people.
He chose them to save them from their sin. And that brings us
to the second word. Believers are elect. Verse 2. according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, and obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Elect. Now, the salvation of a sinner
absolutely must begin with God's election. It must. Because no
sinner will ever choose God until God chooses them. We're not capable
of choosing God. Nor do we want to choose God
by nature. Salvation must begin with God's
election. And the cause of God's election
is God's foreknowledge. Now, the reason that God would
elect the people, that reason is not found in us. It can't
be. There's nothing good in us. The reason for God's election
must be found in Him. And that reason is His foreknowledge.
Now, many people think of foreknowledge and they have a wrong definition
of what the word means. God did not look down through
the telescope of time and see who would believe on him and
who wouldn't believe on him and then he just chose, elected those
who would believe on him. That's not foreknowledge. Foreknowledge
means foreordained. God knew who would believe on
him, certainly, because God ordained them to believe. God knew who
would believe Because He willed for them to believe. He chose
them and it was His will that they would believe. God's election
came first. And the cause of that is His
foreknowledge. Now before we left the house this evening,
I was watching the news. And the meteorologist was on
there predicting the weather. And that's what they do. They
predict the weather. And they make their prediction
based on certain conditions that they see. Models and so forth
that they see. And they predict. that it will
rain. God doesn't predict. God says it will rain in a certain
place on a certain day at an exact moment because God sends
the rain. He wills it. He sends the lightning
and the thunder where and when He will. And that's the way everything
happens. Everything happens when God wills,
according to His will. In Acts 2, you don't have to
turn over there because I refer to it often. It's one of my favorite
scriptures. Peter was preaching Him being
delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of
God. You have taken Him by wicked
hands, crucified and slain. Now, you did what your wicked
heart wanted to do. You took the Lord of glory with
your wicked hands and you crucified and slain Him. You did exactly
what your wicked heart wanted to do. But your wicked heart
wasn't in control there. You did what you did according
to the foreknowledge of God. It was God's will. that Christ
be crucified and slain to redeem his people, that his blood would
be shed to redeem his people from their sin. That was the
determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God. And every bit of it happened
exactly according to God's will. And this is the way salvation
must happen. Now look over 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. Election. It's a truth. God's electing love is a truth
that we hold very dear. But election is not salvation. Election is unto salvation. 2
Thessalonians 2, verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you. He elected you, chosen you
to salvation. through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. God chose you to salvation. Collection is unto salvation. The Father chose a people. The
Son came and He redeemed those people through the sacrifice
of Himself. And the Holy Spirit comes and applies that blood,
gives life to all those people that God chose and all those
people that the Son died for. This is the means. that God uses
to carry out his purpose in redemption, or his purpose of election, is
through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. The Father chose a people to
salvation, but now there's no salvation unless Christ comes
as a man and he suffers and he dies for those people. The sacrifice
must be slain. But there's still yet no salvation
until the Spirit comes and applies the blood of Christ to the hearts
of God's elect and gives them life. God must choose a people. The sacrifice must be slain. And the blood of that sacrifice
must be applied, must be applied. And any preaching that does not
glorify all three persons of the Holy Trinity is false doctrine. And any preaching that exalts
one of the Holy Trinity above the other two is false doctrine. Salvation, God's purpose in salvation
is carried out by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And God saves His people through the obedience of Christ, through
the sprinkling of the blood of Christ that the Holy Spirit applies.
Now, the end, the goal of God's election is that His elect be
holy. The Father makes His people,
those that He chose, He chose them to make them just like His
Son. He sanctified them. That's our
third word, sanctified, made holy. In verse 2, through sanctification
of the Spirit. God chose the people, but not
because they were holy. He chose them because they were
sinners, and He chose the people that He would make holy. by washing
them in the blood of his Son, and imputing the righteousness
of his Son to them. Look at Ephesians chapter 1.
I'll show you this. In Ephesians chapter 1, verse 4, according as he has
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, That we should
be holy, not because we were holy, but that we should be holy
and without blame before him in love. God chose the people
and he sanctified them. He made them holy. And if you
look over in John 17. I'll show you how God makes his
people holy. God's people are sanctified through
truth, never through a lie. It's always the truth. John 17,
verse 17. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy Word is truth. God's elect
are sanctified through Christ, the incarnate Word, and through
Christ, the written Word. That's why we go verse by verse
through God's Word. That's how God's people are sanctified.
It's through the Word, through the truth of the Word. Our fourth
word that describes believers is obedience. Believers, wherever
you find them, are obedient. In verse 2, through sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. Now we're saved by the obedience
of Christ. Not through any obedience to
the law of the sinner whatsoever. None. Salvation is completely
found in the obedience of Christ. But believers do have an obedience. That's the obedience of Christ
that's been given to us. And the obedience of Christ has
become my obedience. And every believer is made obedient. Now, we're born, in Adam, we're
born rebels. I mean, rebels through and through. Well, the only way a rebel can
be made obedient is by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
And when God saves a person, we become obedient. We're obedient
to the gospel. If you are a believer, if you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you submit yourself to the righteousness
of Christ. You leave all of your works of
righteousness and you claim, you trust in, you look to Christ
alone. You're obedient to the call of
the gospel. God says, come, you come. I mean,
you're obedient. You're obedient. to follow the
Lord's command and publicly confess Him in believer's baptism. That's
His command. You obey, because believers are
obedient. We're obedient to only come to
the Father through His Son. We wouldn't dare come to the
Father any other way than through the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
why not? God's made you obedient. That's why, because that's the
way He said come. Well, then that's the way you come, because
you're obedient. Believers are obedient. Fifth,
grace. This word that describes believers,
grace. See at the end of verse two?
Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. Every believer enjoys
the grace of God. Grace is defined as the unmerited,
unearned, undeserved favor of God. Sinners, if they're going
to be saved, Isn't it obvious? It must be by grace. It must
be undeserved, something God gives us that we do not deserve.
Noah was just like everyone else who lived on the face of this
planet when Noah was alive. He had the same nature. He was
born in Adam. He was just like everybody else.
But what does Scripture say? Noah was not destroyed in the
flood because Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And
God put Noah in that ark and saved him and his house. That
was by God's grace. Now Noah was obedient, wasn't
he? Noah built that ark because God told him to. He was obedient.
But Noah wasn't saved because of anything he did. Noah was
saved by grace. God put him in the ark and shut
the door. And he was saved by grace. And
a believer experiences and knows God's grace. If you're a believer,
You know God's saving grace. He saved you by His grace. You know God's calling grace.
He called you by His grace. That was a gracious call. You
know His justifying grace. Justified freely by His grace. And you know His keeping grace.
You know the only reason you haven't run off screaming into
the night, into false religion, is He keeps you. That's His keeping
grace, and we're so thankful. Every blessing of God springs
from His sovereign, free grace, grace alone. Sixth, the sixth
word that describes believers is peace. In verse two, grace
unto you and peace be multiplied. Now, believers are peaceable
people. A sure mark of false religion
in any group that you might find is they're constantly fighting
and fussing and bickering with one another. My dad was, for
a time, a pastor of Cleveland. He told me this one time. He
said, I figured out they were wrong. My first clue was this. I thought, where's the love?
Where's the brotherly love? There's a problem if there's
no brotherly love. Believers are peaceable people.
And a mark of the lack of God's grace in an individual person's
heart is a lack of peace. Now, if somebody's always got
their fists up, they're fighting with somebody, they're finding
fault with someone, they're bickering with somebody, there's no peace. Now, there's a problem there,
and I think the problem is a lack of grace. I'll show you this
in a minute. I'm jumping ahead of myself. But now, grace comes
first. There's not going to be any peace
apart from grace. And the Lord Jesus Christ made
peace with God through the blood of His cross. And the Holy Spirit
comes and speaks peace to the heart of God's people for whom
Christ died. Everyone for whom Christ died,
the Spirit speaks peace. Now we should be a peaceable
people. Believers have peace in their own conscience. I know
this. I'm a sinful man. It grieves
me every day it grieves me. But my conscience is clear. Now
how can that be? Because Christ died for my sins.
My conscience is at peace. I hate my sin. I hate it. But
my conscience is at peace. God gives his people peace because
the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, his blood, put my sin
away. All that peace in my conscience. There's something wrong with
a person going around like these old Puritans, just always down
to mouth, you know, like Eeyore. No! Christ put away our sin. Now, we ought not be happy about
our sin, but now Christ put it away. Our conscience is clear.
And believers have peace with one another. Why? Because we've been given a new,
peaceable nature in the new birth. Believers can't have peace with
the world. You can't have peace with the way of the world. You
can't have peace with the religion of the world. But as much as
is possible, believers live peaceably with one another. You live peaceably
with your neighbors. As much as is possible. And when
that's not the case, there's a problem. Especially when we're
not at peace with one another. Now that's a problem. And we
ought to be Much in prayer about it, because I'm telling you,
it's a serious problem. Because look how Peter of the
Order puts this in. Grace comes first. Grace unto
you, and then peace. Be multiplied. Grace comes first,
and then peace follows God's grace. And if there's no peace,
more than likely, it's because grace didn't come first. If grace
goes first, there must be peace. Matthew Henry wrote this. He
said, peace without grace. is mere stupidity. Now, I just
try to envision him sitting right now. You know, peace without
grace is mere stupidity. It's just words. But where God's
grace is, there's peace. There's true peace. Now, look
at verse three. Peter says, Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every time the apostles
spoke of God's electing love, never one time did they apologize
for it. ever, and we ought not either.
They gave thanks. This is the cause of rejoicing,
that God would elect a people. Now, if you look over in Luke
chapter 10, our Lord himself prayed this exact same way. I
know where the apostles learned to give thanks this way. It's
from our Lord himself. In Luke chapter 10, verse 21. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced
in the Spirit and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in Thy sight." When our Lord thought
about His Father's electing love, He rejoiced in the Spirit. He rejoiced, You've hid these
things from the wise and prudent, and You've revealed them unto
babes, because that's Your will. And it caused our Savior to rejoice. And it should us too. Because
God's election never keeps a sinner out who wants to be saved. Ever. God's election in mercy and grace
brings sinners in. Opens the door. The only way
that door is going to be open is God's electing love. His mercy
and grace that brings sinners into God's presence and gives
them eternal life. The seventh word that describes
believers is born again. Believers are born again. It
is here in verse 3, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten
us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. Believers are children of God.
We are born the first time sons and daughters of Adam, aren't
we? We are born in Adam's likeness, children of wrath even as others. We bear Adam's image. So, if
we're going to be a child of God, we must be born again. Marvel not, thy said unto him,
ye must be born again. And when a child of God is born
again, we're born from a new seed, with a new Father. We're
born in the image of God. We're born from the seed of God's
Word. If you look over in verse 23 of this chapter, being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the
Word of God. which liveth and abideth forever."
The child of God is born again from incorruptible seed, the
seed of God's Word. So that new nature that's born
from this incorruptible seed is just like the seed. It's incorruptible. That new nature is holy. It cannot
sin. It's born of God. It's born in
the image of God. And all our first birth is, is
a curse unless we're born again. And this new verb comes from
the preaching of God's word. This is the seed. It comes from
the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the seed. So
we preach and we pray that God the Holy Spirit will give life,
that he'll give the increase. If he's going to do it, he's
going to do it through this seed. No other way. Life comes from
the seed. Now, we're not born again because
of our dead works. We're born because of a living
hope. And to a living hope, believers know they've been born again
because Christ was delivered for our offenses and He was raised
again for our justification. And because our Savior arose,
we're born again with His life. We're given life in Him, raised
just like He was. And because Christ rose, one
day our bodies are going to be raised up out of the grave. in
a body, in a flesh, just like his perfect body, his perfect
flesh, because Christ is the firstfruits of them that slept.
He's the first who arose and never die again. He's the firstfruits. There's going to be many more
to follow. It's all these people that God chose, all these people
that God calls to be born again through the seed of his word.
The eighth word that describes believers is mercy. He says here
in verse 3, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten
us again. Now the new birth comes from
God's abundant mercy. Mercy is such good news to a
guilty man. Because mercy is getting what
we do not deserve. Now by nature, we're dead. And
dead sinners, we're rebels, we don't deserve to be born again.
What do we deserve by nature? eternal death, eternal punishment.
But every person who's been born again will say this, the only
reason for that new birth is God's abundant mercy. Wasn't
anything I did. The only reason it possibly could
be is God's mercy. God gave me what I did not deserve. Now, every believer is a mercy
beggar. And Peter comforts the hearts
of mercy beggars here when he tells them We've been born again
according to God's abundant mercy. Now I don't know about you, but
I'm a mercy beggar. And I like hearing there's abundant
mercy. If there's abundant mercy, there's
going to be some for me. If it's abundant, that's good
news. Because great sinners need abundant
mercy. Let's never talk about God's
mercy in small terms. God doesn't just barely have
enough mercy to, you know, for everybody to scrape by. God's
rich in mercy. So rich, the hat's not been told. He's abundant in mercy. He has
an abundance of mercy for the guilty. Now, mercy can only be
for the guilty. The question for you is. Are
you guilty? Are you? Well, if you are, God's
got mercy. reserved for you. He's got abundant
mercy for the guilty. Thank God, where sin did abound,
grace, mercy, did much more abound. Well, the ninth word that describes
believers is heirs. Believers have an inheritance
and they're heirs. Look at verse four. To an inheritance,
incorruptible and undefiled, and it fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you. Now, the people who have an inheritance
in the will are children, and believers are God's children.
We've been born into His family, and our Heavenly Father has an
inheritance reserved for His children. Now, believers are
poor in this world. They're strangers, they're pilgrims
just passing through. But boy, what an inheritance
our Father has waiting for them. Now, an inheritance can only
be received after the death of a testator, right? Well, our
testator has died. But not only has he died, he's
risen again. He's risen again so he personally
will enforce the terms of the will. The children aren't fighting
over this will. The Lord himself, the testator,
has risen to enforce the terms of his will. And the believer's
inheritance is secure because Christ died and he rose again. And we are joint heirs with him.
Now, there are times An inheritance could be lost. You know, a parent
may save up this big amount, you know, to have for an inheritance
for their children and a stock market crashes and it's all gone.
The inheritance is lost. Maybe they go out to Vegas for
a weekend and gamble it away or something, you know, get a
wild hare and gamble it away. Maybe somebody comes and steals
it. Who knows? It could be lost. Or maybe the
child can receive the inheritance and then they gong it away and
it's gone and it's lost. That will never happen with disinheritance. Ever. You cannot lose it. It's
incorruptible. It'll never rot or decay. Ever. It's undefiled. It's pure and holy. Sin's never
touched it. The corruption of our nature
has never touched it. It can't be defiled by someone
else. And more importantly, it can't be defiled by me. God's
kept it undefiled. And it fades not away. Now, the
fashion of this world fades away. You know, you might inherit something
from a crazy old aunt or something. You get it and you think, well,
that's been hostile a long time. I don't want that. That'll never
happen with this inheritance. The value of this inheritance
fadeth not away. It's always priceless. Perfect. And where is it? It's reserved
in heaven for you. It's just waiting for you. Our
father has it just waiting for you to show up and he'll give
it to you. It's reserved in heaven for you. Who are kept, that's
the 10th word that describes believers kept. This inheritance
isn't just reserved in heaven for you, period. It's reserved
in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith.
See, the description of all these promises are for you who are
kept by the power of God through faith. This is for you if you're
the elect of God. This is for you who are holy
and have been washed in the blood of Christ. This is for you who've
been born again, who are heirs of God and join heirs with Christ.
Not far behind the world, there's a description here of who this
is to. It's to you who are kept by the all-powerful hand of God,
and these who are kept can never fall away. At the exact appointed
moment, they're going to show up and receive this inheritance
when God calls them home. They're kept by the power of
God, and they're kept by the gift of God, which is faith in
Christ. That's our eleventh word, faith.
You're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Now, all believers Just believe. They believe God. They can't
help it. They just believe God, because
believing God is their new nature. The nature is to believe, just
like their nature is to be obedient. Their nature is to believe. They
read in God's words and, huh, I never thought that before,
but I believe it. They just believe. And they're kept from falling
away by that faith that believes God. that clings to Christ and
cannot and will not look anywhere else except to Christ. They have faith, God-given faith. The twelfth word is rejoice. Verse six, wherein ye greatly
rejoice. Now God's people are happy people. Now I'm not talking about a silly
happiness like they're on drugs or something. They're happy.
They're just a happy people. They've got something to be happy
about. We rejoice in God's electing love. I mean, I could just spend
the whole message on God's electing love and you'd leave here just
skipping if you're a believer. We rejoice in that. I'm so thankful. How about the new birth? Does
that make you rejoice? God made you be born again in
the image of his son. God's given you faith. that sees
Christ and believes Christ. Doesn't that cause you to rejoice?
How about the forgiveness of sins?
Will you ever stop and think about that for just a minute?
Not take it for granted one day and just rejoice? Oh my! Rejoice in the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. How we rejoice that God's Son
would take our sin and suffer and die to give us His righteousness. I'm telling you, I rejoice in
that. Here's one. How about you rejoice
that you're just a pilgrim here? Look around this world. Are you
happy this isn't your home? Oh, I rejoice. We have a citizenship
that's in heaven. We rejoice, every believer rejoices
in Christ Jesus and has no confidence in the flesh. God's people are
happy people. Verse 8 says, at the end of verse
8, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. John Gill
says the joy in believing Christ is better experienced than expressed. I'm doing a mighty poor job of
putting it into words. But if you're a believer, You
rejoice because you know exactly what I mean. It's heart language.
The thirteenth word is TRIDE. 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 the gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ. Now, believers are always sorrowful,
yet they are always rejoicing. That's just the paradox of a
believer. He's sorrowful and rejoicing. Well, why is that?
Because believers are a tribe people. Now, there are many different
kinds of tribes. There are manifold tribes, many
different kinds. And even in all those different
kinds of tribes, a believer has reason to rejoice. The reason
never changes. Our circumstances change. The
trial changes our fleshly circumstances. But the reason for our rejoicing
never changes. That's Christ. And He never changes. Well, these are manifold trials.
What kind of trial will I have? The kind that need be. If need
be, Peter says. God sends us a trial if need
be. And He'll send us the trial that
need be. for me, and it won't last any
longer than need be either. It's four seasons, and that season
is as long as need be. And God's purpose in sending
these trials are not to punish His people. It's for our good,
for our gain. He says here in verse 7 that
your faith might be found in the praise and honor and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ. These trials are for our good.
Now, we've already looked at faith. All believers have faith,
but faith must be tried. Faith must be tried, first of
all, because faith is revealed in trial. Faith is never revealed
in times of ease. It's revealed in a time of trial.
I like what Brother Dan said in his prayer. These trials are
sent, he said, to show us we have no hope outside of Christ. Truth, faith is revealed in trial. A trial won't chase a child off. A trial will draw a child closer
to God than faith has revealed. Secondly, faith must be tried
to reveal the value of faith in Christ. And third, it must
be tried to reveal to me the value of faith in Christ. I didn't know how precious Christ
was. into putting in the furnace.
That's where you learn. That's when it became the value
of it was made known to me. And faith, fourthly, must be
tried so that it becomes more precious. Peter likens it to
gold. Now, gold is precious. Everybody
here would like to have more gold. And you know how you make
gold more precious? Putting it in the fire. Put it
in the fire and melt it. and it burns off the draws. It
makes the gold more valuable and it makes it more beautiful
and shiny. And that's exactly what we need.
God will put us in the refiner's fire to burn off the draws. Boy, we got plenty of that. To
burn off the draws and to make us more beautiful. You know how
a believer is made more beautiful? when they trust more and more
and more in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a beautiful person. And
fifth, faith must be tried so it will grow stronger and increase. Now, I liken this, I don't know
how good this is, but it makes sense to me. I liken it to exercise. Muscles, if you want to grow
big strong muscles, Have those muscles increase in size. You're
not going to do that lifting little teeny tiny hand weights.
It's going to be weight. Heavy weight. That's what you're
going to have to lift if you want those muscles to grow and
increase in size. That's what trials are. They're
heavy. So that our faith will become
stronger and increase. Can't do it with light weight.
It must be heavy. And Peter's writing to prepare
us for these things. Fourteenth, Believers always
love. Whom having not seen, ye love. In whom, though now ye see not,
yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Faith is never alone. Wherever
you find faith in Christ, you will always find love for Christ.
They're two sides of the same coin. They always go together,
faith and love. We love Christ. Because He first
loved us and He gave Himself for us. We love Christ just because
of who He is. He is altogether lovely. Oh, how we could just talk about
how we love Him. How much time do you got? Oh,
how we love Him. We love everything about Him.
I just cannot describe to you how much a believer loves Christ.
But this is that heart language again. If you love Him, you know
exactly what I'm talking about. Oh, you love Him because He's
your all. And we'll love others too. If
you love Christ, you cannot help but love others. Even the world
around us. And our enemies. Now, let's be
real honest. We don't love our enemies Like
we love our children. Just being honest, it's not humanly
possible. But if you love Christ, you cannot
help but care for their souls. I'd a whole lot rather have God
save my enemy, show mercy to my enemy, than destroy him. I
would. Because if God saved him, I wouldn't
have an enemy anymore. I'd have a brother or a sister.
And we pray for our enemies. You just can't help it. It's
believer's love. Fifteenth, believers are receiving. Look at verse nine. Receiving
the end of your faith. Everything we have, God gave
us. And not because we deserved it. It was because He gave a
gift of His free grace and we received it. A child of God is
constantly receiving blessings from the hand of our Father.
We're receiving people. And last, I didn't start out
telling you I had 16 points because he's got scared to death and
he's been trying to count. Last, the last word that describes
believers is salvation. Receiving the end of your faith,
even the salvation of your souls. The end, the goal of God given
faith is salvation. Now, a believer is saved. If
you believe Christ, Then you're saved. You'll never be more saved
than you are right now. Yet this is true. I'm saved.
I'm being saved. And one day I shall be saved.
One day I'll receive the ultimate salvation, ultimate glorification,
salvation of body and soul together. Look over at 2 Corinthians chapter
1. I'll show you this. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Peter here is talking in the
present tense, receiving. In 2 Corinthians 1, look at verse 9. But we have the sentence of death
in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in
God, which raised up the dead, who delivered us, past tense,
who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, present
tense, in whom we trust. that he will yet deliver us.
Future tense. Delivered, doth deliver, will
deliver. I'm saved. I'm being saved. And one day, we'll be saved. One day, we won't be receiving
anymore. It will be received. Full, complete salvation in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the description of a believer. by God's grace that describes
us. Let's bow in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, how we thank
Thee for this precious portion of Thy Word, and we pray that
You would bless this study and this epistle in the coming weeks. We pray that You bless it to
our knowledge, our understanding, our blessing, and Thy glory. Father, we're thankful. that
You've given us a description of Thy children, then we can
leave here tonight knowing by Thy grace, by Your infinite calling,
electing, redeeming, keeping, sovereign grace, You've made
us Thy children. And Father, we're thankful. Oh,
how we thank Thee. And we pray that You would continue
to bless us, that we would continue to receive Receive these blessings
from Thy hand and be a thankful people, be a loving, thankful,
peaceable people who carry Thy Gospel out into this lost world
in which we live. We pray this for the glory, the
majesty, the honor of the name of Thy dear Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen.