1 Peter 1. And back in verse 9, the apostle
tells us that in believing on Christ, we have received the
end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls. Salvation is not in our faith
or by our faith, But we're given faith to lay hold on that salvation,
which is secured for us in heaven. Salvation in Christ is everything
that's needed to save the sinner from his sins. Everything that's
needed. You don't leave Christ. Christ is all. Christ is everything. He's the wisdom. His righteousness,
His sanctification, and His redemption. And I would say this to you in
all sincerity, beware of any man or any tendency or any teaching
that would attempt to add something to the redemption accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Lots of folks say, yes, yes,
that's the preeminent thing, but, There is no but. It pleased God that in Him should
all fullness dwell. Pleased the Father. And Paul
wrote to the Colossians telling them that as they had received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so they were to walk in Him. They received
Him as their federal head and representative. He was appointed
by God the Father for the salvation of His church. They received
Him that way and they walked in that way. They received him
as their sin-bearing substitute, making peace with God by the
blood of his cross. And so they walked. They walked. They received him as one who
by his person and work had reconciled them to God. And so they walked
in that reconciliation and with that knowledge. And they received
Him as One who through the body of His flesh through death could
and did present them wholly unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. And so they were to walk. And now He tells them in Colossians
2, 6, As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk
ye in Him. Now watch this. Verse 7 of Colossians
2. rooted and built up in Him, and
established in the faith as you've been taught, abounding therein
with thanksgiving. And beware, beware, lest any
man spoil you, try to steal from you this great treasure through
philosophy. You know what philosophy is?
I looked the word up just to be sure I had a right understanding
of it. Philosophy, according to the
dictionary, is the pursuit of wisdom by intellectual means. That's philosophy. It's to seek
wisdom. It's the pursuit of wisdom by
intellectual means and moral discipline. It's inquiry into
the nature of things based on logical reasoning. Paul said,
you beware of that. You beware of that. You beware.
You've got something you hope in. You hope in the sovereign
grace of God. God has dispensed his grace sovereignly
to you. Now, you beware because the reasoning
of this world will say, now, wait a minute, wait a minute.
That can't be. That can't be. That wouldn't
be fair to men. You see what I'm saying? That's
the philosophy of this world. He said you beware of it. That's
not how this grace came to you. That's not how you learn Christ.
And don't walk that way. Don't let men spoil you through
philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, the rudiments
of the world, and not after Christ. These things by which men spoil
us. Now, we're still back here in
1 Peter 1. I'm talking to you about that
salvation that you receive by faith and what that faith is. And there's religious principles
accepted and practiced by deceived men and women. They practice
them every day. They live according to those
principles. Here's one of them. If you do
good, God will bless you. Huh? Well, that has no application
toward us. There's none good. Isn't that
what the Scripture says? There's none good. So that can't
be. God will help those who help
themselves. My mother used to tell me that
when I was growing up. God will help them that help
themselves. The Jews tried to help themselves, and God cursed
them for it, didn't He? The truth is God helps the helpless. Our Lord said to the Pharisees
who were going about ignorantly trying to establish their own
righteousness, He said, Christ did not come to save the righteous,
but to call sinners to repentance. And then He says this to them.
He said, I'll have mercy and not sacrifice. Now you go learn
what that means. This religious world operates
under the delusion of being free to pursue their own destiny.
A man makes his own destiny. The truth is that even his saints,
which he called out of darkness, were by nature the children of
wrath, even as others. The truth is it's not of him
that willeth, and it's not of him that runneth. but it's of
God who shall with mercy. And then here's another illusion
under which this whole world tries to walk. They're attempting
by their works, philosophy, and vain reasoning to reform this
sinful flesh, trying to make it better, trying to purify this
sinful flesh. Do this and don't do that. Wear
this, don't wear that. Look this way, don't look that
way. Talk this way, don't talk that
way. Now, my friends, listen to what
Paul told the Colossians. He said, let no man therefore
judge you in meat or drink or in respect of a holy day or of
a new moon or of Sabbath days which are a shadow of things
to come, but the body or embodiment of these things is Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him, which is
the head of all principality and power." Can you see what
Peter is saying over here? Wherefore, he says in verse 13,
1 Peter chapter 1, gird up the loins of your mind and be sober,
and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you
at the revelation of Jesus Christ. There is nothing else. I hope
you can hear me, even you young kids. I hope you can understand
what I'm telling you. There's nothing else beyond the
revelation of Christ. There's nothing else. Not until
His return. And at His return, He'll reveal
Himself to us as He is. We'll see Him as He is. And we'll
be like Him. Until that day, sin is a fact
of life and every believing sinner is aware of it, repents of it,
and longs to be shed of it. He's a sinner. He can't worship
like he wants to. He can't pray like he wants to.
I can't preach like I want to. I can't read and understand this
book the way I want to because sin is ever present in me. Paul said, the good that I would,
there's a part of me that would do these things. But the good
that I would, I do not. And the evil that I would not,
I do. He said, therefore, I find a
law, a movable law, uncontested law, that when I would do good,
evil's present with me. It's a fact of life which the
believer lives with. Nevertheless, we, the Apostle
Paul, said we understand with the mind of Christ and we serve
God, we serve His law with the mind, with the mind, with the
understanding, the understanding of that law being kept perfectly
by the Lord Jesus Christ, that it was honored and exalted by
His death to its highest standard. We serve that law on those principles
with the mind of Christ. And with the flesh, this body
of flesh, we serve the law of sin. The work of sanctification, and
this is what I'm getting at here in this chapter. The work of
sanctification is not a purification of the flesh, but the purification
of the revelation of Christ our Lord and Savior. That's what
sanctification is. We grow in grace and knowledge
of Him. That's the sanctification. We're
rooted and grounded in him. We're established in him who
is the object of our faith. And we're to live our lives as
sinners saved by the grace of God through the redemption accomplished
by our Savior and revealed to us through the preaching of the
gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit. Believers are never told
to put on a new doctrine. We receive doctrine. Doctrine
is important. Doctrine helps us to understand,
but we're never admonished in the Word of God to put on a new
doctrine or a new way but a new man. Isn't that what it says?
Put on a new man. Throw off the old man. Put on
the new man, which is renewed. Now listen, it's renewed in knowledge. after the image of him that created
him, where there's neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all in all. That's the new man. And in doing
so, we have and do show the holiness of God, which holiness we have
by virtue of our union with Christ. The man who has the revelation
of Christ, the understanding of Christ, he knows that his
holiness is by virtue of God putting him in Christ, because
that's what the Scriptures say. And so we walk in this world
with a reverential fear of God. All right, now look over here
at 1 Peter 1.18. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation, that is, behavior received by tradition
from your fathers, that is, in their vain interpretations and
applications of the law, and not viewing the law as spiritual,
not viewing the law as given to testify of Christ and His
work. Verse 19. but with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,
who barely was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times for you, who by Him do
believe in God that raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory,
that your faith and hope might be in God. Redeemed your soul is not your
faith, but the object of your faith, which is Christ. And receiving
those things, we receive the end of our faith, even the salvation
of our soul. And in knowing Christ, we know
God in all his glorious persons and attributes. Christ was promised,
prophesied of, and pictured from the garden to his appearance
on this earth. But he was manifest, the Scripture
said, in these last times for you who by him do believe in
God who raised him from the dead. And he did it that our faith
and hope might be in God. You know, I hear men say this
all the time. It's God's purpose to save sinners. That's true. That's a true statement. Paul said this is a faithful
saint, worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. But how do we know that? That's my question. How do we
know that? How do I know? No man's ever
seen God. How do I know that? How do I
know that's God's purpose? How do I, the ignorant sinner,
how do I know that God has purposed to save sinners? No man has seen
God at any time. How do we know God purposed to
save sinners? Maybe God's just indifferent
about the whole thing. Huh? Maybe God just put man in
the garden and said, well, I'm just going to let the race develop
on its own, go where it will. Maybe God's left men to save
themselves. How do we know that God has purposed
from all eternity to save sinners? Because Jesus Christ came into
this world to save sinners. And when he came, he said, I
come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will
of him that sent me. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose
nothing. but raise it up again at the last day. And this is
the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the
Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life." This
is God's purpose. The Lord said to Joseph, thou
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. And the apostles whose writings
are the foundation of our faith tell us that God has saved us
and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began, and made manifest by the appearing
of our Savior. Everything we know about God,
His eternal purpose and character, is revealed in the person and
work of His Son. And this, He tells us in 1 John
5, 20, is eternal life. It's eternal life. Now, go back
to 1 Peter chapter 1. Let's read verses 22 and 23. Seeing you have purified your
souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love
of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure
heart, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. Turn with me to Titus chapter
3. How is a man's soul purified
in faith, which is the result of this new birth. Titus chapter
3, verse 3. For we ourselves also were sometime
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after
that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
this is talking about His appearing to us by the revelation of the
gospel, the revelation of the Spirit. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed
on us abundantly through Christ our Savior, that being justified
by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. We're purified as we are washed
in regeneration by the establishing of the gospel truth in our minds
and hearts. That's how you're washed. You're
not, those things which at one time seemed perfectly logical
to me, by gospel truth, by gospel understanding, have become totally
ridiculous to me. At one time, it seemed perfectly
logical to me that a man would determine his own destiny. Knowing God and an understanding
of his word and an understanding of the gospel, it's totally impossible
for a man to do that. It's the revelation of Christ
in whom we're justified by his grace that we're made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. And the evidence, the evidence
of this new birth is not speaking in tongues. It's not some kind
of supernatural power to heal. It's not even the ability to
live a sinless life. Men claim that to be an evidence.
That's not an evidence of eternal life. The true evidence of the
new birth is the revelation of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's what it is. And in knowing
that, our souls are purified. But to know that, you must be
born again. And this new birth and this understanding
that the new birth don't happen today, and then somewhere down
the line, you come to a knowledge of the truth. This is all done
in one action. One is describing the other.
And that new birth, when it's given, it comes through the seed
of the gospel. That's how it comes. The Word
of God. And for the first time in our
lives, we understand who Christ is. We understand why he came. We understand what he did and
where he's at and why. For the first time in our lives,
we see that salvation must be by grace, both to manifest the
glory of God and to make it effectual for fallen sinners. For the first time in our lives,
we see a way of salvation that does not compromise the character
of God or make its objects hypocrites in their professions. Believers
are holy in Christ, just in Christ, perfect in Christ, unreprovable
in Christ. And what this work does is enable
believers to be thankful. It enables believers to be at
peace with God. It enables believers to have
assurance with God, to worship God, and to have a good hope
by grace. Being born again, he said, not
of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. This hope, this assurance, this
inward work of the Holy Spirit is in line with, in accordance
with, is the true teaching of the Word of God. It's the message
of this book. And man's ideas, reasoning, and
hope is fleeting at best. He says here in this next verse,
after verse 23, verse 24 of 1 Peter 1, he tells us that man is like
the grass. And his wisdom and beauty and
all those things, that's like the flower of the grass. That
dandelion comes out and it blooms and pretty soon it fades. And
the wind blows it away. Verse 25, but the word of the
Lord endureth forever. It never changes. It never fails. It's never disproved. It's never
defeated. And he tells us, this is the
word, are you listening, which by the gospel is preached unto
you. This is the seed of that regeneration. And the effects of that regeneration
is the revelation of Christ. The work of the Holy Spirit when
it comes through the preaching of the gospel causes a man to
submit. It causes him to hear. It causes
him to understand. It enables him to believe. It enables him to enter into
that rest of Christ. It enables him to have a good
understanding by grace and a good hope. by grace. May God make
it so in our hearts today. Thank you.