My subject this morning is found
in 1 Peter 1, verse 9. I want to talk to you about the
salvation of your souls. When all is said and done, there
is nothing that is of greater importance than the salvation
of your souls. Now, I hope you'll let that sink
in good. When all's said and done, there is nothing of greater
importance than the salvation of your souls. You see, you are
a living soul. You're sitting here in a body.
You possess a body. You are a living soul. When God created Adam out of
the dust of the earth, formed his body, then he breathed into
him and man became a living soul. It is this character that distinguishes
men and women from all other creatures on the earth. Man is
a living soul. That means you and I will spend
eternity somewhere. When this body is gone, the soul
lives on. When this body rots in the dirt
as it must, the soul lives on. It will either live on in everlasting
bliss in the presence of God in heaven, whatever that is. Or it will live on in everlasting
destruction, banished in darkness, banished from light, banished
from God in the torment of God's wrath in eternal death, the second
death. And that's hell, whatever that
is. The salvation of our souls involves
the very glory of God. You see, if God is pleased to
save us, If he is pleased to save you or me or anyone else
by his almighty, free, and sovereign grace in Christ, it will be in
order to show forth the praise of his glory. It will be to make
known in us and by us the riches of his grace. He says, for mine
own sake, even for mine own sake will I do it. He saved them for
his name's sake that he might make his mighty power to be known. It is the salvation of your immortal
souls that I'm talking about today. I'm not talking about
earthly, temporal things, but spiritual, eternal things. I'm
not talking about your bank account or your health. I'm not talking
to you about politics, history, or the economy. I'm talking to
you about something of real importance. I'm talking to you about the
salvation of your soul. Our Lord said, what shall it
profit a man if he shall gain the whole world? Man, that's
a big gain. The whole world. Get it all.
Get it all. Get it all. Start out with a
college dropout, develop the finest computer, Industry in
the world get me richest man in the world get it all get it
all folks forget about Bill Gates and learn your name Get it all
get it all All the riches all the fame all the glory all the
prestige all all the possessions get it all I Just said that I know I don't
have to leave it, but I'm telling it's nothing What shall it profit
a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What will a man give in exchange
for his soul? The salvation of your souls is
the subject of 1 Peter chapter 1. So hold your Bibles open here
on your laps as I endeavor to give you the message of these
verses of Scripture. In verses 1 through 12, God the
Holy Spirit describes what salvation is. If we are saved by the grace
of God, this is a description of our salvation. If we have
experienced God's grace, this is the salvation we've experienced. If we have not experienced this
salvation, Here again, if we have not experienced this salvation,
we have not experienced salvation, we've only experienced a vain,
satanic delusion that will land our souls in hell. You see, God's
salvation is plainly described in Holy Scripture. It's not something
you have to be guessing about, be ambiguous about. Is this salvation? Is that salvation? is God's salvation. If we've experienced salvation,
if our salvation matches this, we have God's salvation. If it
doesn't, we're yet in our sins. All right, look at what it says.
First in verse one. In Bible terms, be sure you get
this now, salvation is a radical thing. It's a radical thing. I mean top to bottom, head to
toe, inside out, radical thing. Salvation is something so radical,
so life altering, that it makes every saved sinner a stranger
in this world. Now, I don't mean make some strange. Religion makes folks strange.
It makes folks strange. I run across strange people.
Everywhere I go, religion makes people strange. But salvation
makes you strangers. Makes you a stranger while you
live in this world. So that as you pass through this
world, you pass through this world as a pilgrim. And the further
you go in your journey, the more certain you are that you're on
a brief pilgrimage, just passing through this land. But this salvation
also makes you a stranger to this world. Notice how Peter
addresses us. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia. Well, Peter was addressing the
Jews who had been scattered out in the dispersion. Well, I think
maybe there's more to it than that. If that's all he's addressing,
well, just tear this book out and throw it away. It doesn't
say anything to you. He's talking about you, stranger, living down
here in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. This stranger living here in
Danville. That stranger, his wife, living over in Lancaster.
Strangers. Strangers. Scattered. Scattered
in God's good providence here and there. Therefore the world
knows us not because we're strangers. Because it knew him not. Believers
are strangers to the people of the world. We're a paradox. A people who are puzzling to
the world. They'll never get it. They'll never get it. The
world can never understand what makes the believer tick, why
he does what he does, why he lives as he lives, how he lives,
or what motivates him in his life. The world simply cannot
understand. Now, you listen to the talk shows
on television and you'll find out in a hurry the world can
understand and the world can explain any and every form of
human religion. No difficulty at all. No different.
The world can understand the most radical forms of human religion
that involve persecution, that involve warfare, taking up sword.
The world can understand it. May not agree with it, but they
can understand it. The world can understand the pacifist religion. They can understand anything,
any form of human religion. But the believer, the world just
can't understand. They don't get it. They don't
get it. I have a good many black friends around the country every
now and then. See somebody in a t-shirt from
a travel none of my friends I don't think I've seen wearing this
but I have a t-shirt walking down the street said a black
thing you can't get it Let me tell you something. This is a
Christian thing. You can't get it This is a grace
thing without grace. You can't get it. You can't get
in on it. You don't understand it grace
Experienced in the soul makes a man or a woman a stranger in
this world Look at verse 2 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 Now here the Apostle tells us that salvation
is the work of the triune God in its entirety He takes in the
whole gamut of salvation, from election to sanctification to
glorification, which is the ultimate end of multiplied grace and peace. He said God did it. God did it. Salvation is by God's work alone. It began back in eternity. Salvation does not begin with
you in time. Salvation does not begin with
your decision at an appointed time. Salvation does not begin
with something you will, you desire, or you do. It doesn't
begin with you seeking the Lord. It begins with God in eternity
choosing a people. Oh, thank God for electing love. Were it not for God's election,
no one would know anything about His grace. Were it not for God's
election, no one would ever be saved. Salvation is then wrought
in chosen sinners by the regenerating, sanctifying work of God the Holy
Spirit. When the Holy Spirit sanctifies
a sinner in the new birth, He puts a new nature in you. Gives
you a new heart, a new will, a new nature. The old man's still
there. The old man's gonna be with you till you die, but this
new man been put in you, causing you to love what once you hated,
to desire what once you despised, to bow to him whom once you rebelled
against. The salvation is earned by or
was earned by and is purchased for us by the obedience and death
of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ as our substitute. By
his sprinkling of his blood upon the mercy seat, Jesus Christ
obtained eternal redemption for us. God's salvation brings both
grace and peace. Now, I could spend a long time
there. I'll come back to it another time, though. But I want you to get this. Lindsey
Campbell, if God dropped His grace in your heart, His grace
keeps you in peace. Peace. So that the believer in
the tenor of his life is a person at peace. A preacher, that just wipes about
everybody I know out of this thing. Me too. But where grace
comes, there's peace. Peace, being reconciled to God. Peace, knowing God's on his throne. Peace. In the midst of turmoil,
in the midst of confusing circumstances, peace! My God rules. That's peace. Now look at verses
three and four. Peter tells us thirdly that salvation,
as it is described in the Bible, both honors God and gives all
praise and honor to God. Look at it. be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, bless His name. Salvation
is God's work. Why shouldn't we bless Him for
it? If salvation somehow depends on you, if somehow, Bob Potts,
if the reason you believe God is because of your will, your
decision, your choice, your making some move toward God, then let's
bless you. Oh, but that's not the case.
The reason preachers everywhere bow and scrape to men, the reason
preachers everywhere exalt men, the reason churches are designed
and built around men and entertaining men and pleasing men and pampering
men is because they're blessing men. You had something to do with
this thing. We're going to bless you. We're going to honor you.
No. God's people bless him because
salvation is his work. It's his work. What do y'all meet for? To honor
God. How come y'all come together? To worship God. What do y'all
do down there at your church? Well, we try to worship God,
seek to hear from Him, seek to honor Him. I mean, what do you
do for people? That's what we do for people.
We seek to worship God. We seek to honor Him, make you
know Him. All right, look again at verses
three and four. That salvation which is described in the book
of God, Give sinners hope. 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, a living hope, by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance, incorruptible,
undefiled, and fadeth not away, reserved in heaven, get it now,
for you. Reserved in heaven for you. That salvation, which God has
wrought in us and given to us and obtained for us by His grace
through the blood of His Son, gives us a hope, a living hope. I like the word lively. That's
a good translation. It has the idea of a hope that
puts a little skip in your step, a hope that but they'll bounce
in your step. A hope that's lively, but it's
also a living hope, because the hope is in Him who is life. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. This hope is a hope that's based
upon and found in God's abundant mercy. Oh, mercy, mercy, mercy! How we love God's abundant mercy. According to His mercy, He forgave
us. According to His mercy, He accepts
us. According to His mercy, He chose
us. According to His mercy, He redeemed
us. Our hope is not in what we are,
not in our merit, but in God's abundant mercy. Look at it now. It's a hope that's in a risen
Savior. We have hope because he who bore
our sins under the wrath of God, bearing the judgment of God in
his body, with our sins in his body on the tree. When he died
and was laid in the tomb, he came out of the tomb declaring
justice is satisfied. Sin's pardoned. Now I have hope.
My risen Savior gives me hope. It's a hope. eternity. I'm not a pessimist. You who
know me very well know that. I have a fairly optimistic outlook
on things. A fellow can't help but have a fairly optimistic
outlook if he believes God rules. I'm not a pessimist about things. But I don't have any hope for
this world. I don't have any hope for this
generation. I don't have any hope for this
nation. Not this nation or any other. That's just plain reality of
the world. No hope. Our hope is for another world. Our hope is set in eternity. We have a hope of an inheritance. An inheritance is something given
to you because you can to somebody. We have a hope of an inheritance
with Jesus Christ, our elder brother, our savior, and we are
heirs of God and joint heirs with him. We have hope of an
inheritance that is incorruptible. Incorruptible. Shelby and I went
down to Her mom drove her over to the old home place. Her dad
bought the farm in 1938, I believe. 1938. Used to work hard keeping
that farm up. He died in the 70s, early 70s. And the farm began to go down.
Miss Peters just couldn't keep it up. And then a few years ago,
she moved off the place. Just moved up on the hill right
above there. Hey boy, it's sure corrupt. I stepped out of the
car, going over to look at something. I walked through the field. It
used to be a luscious, green field full of rich, rich, grassless
cattle. Spent many hours walking through
there. I was walking through there with a pair of Bermuda
shorts on and a pair of sandals on and realized when I got right
in the middle of it, I'd walked through a whole field full of
poison oak. Just all over the place. I went home scrubbed up
in Clorox. Just the inheritance. Going to weeds. Corrupted. We have an inheritance that is
incorruptible. An inheritance that's undefiled. That means that it cannot be
corrupted. It cannot decay. And it cannot
be corrupted. It cannot decay because there's
nothing that shall defile it. No touch of sin shall ever come
into this inheritance. No corruption shall ever inherit
the kingdom of God. No evil shall enter there. It's an inheritance that fadeth
not away. And it's reserved. Reserved. Here I reserve things and sometimes
it works out, sometimes it doesn't. I've gone places and had a motel
room reserved months in advance. Have them give you a credit card
number months in advance, got a confirmation number. Well,
I'm sorry, sir. There's nothing we can do. But this inheritance is reserved
by God Almighty specifically for you. That's what it says,
isn't it? For you. Reserved. Look at verse
5. For you who are kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. You see, God's salvation is a
salvation that keeps. It keeps all in grace by grace. Kept. The preacher of the text
says we're kept by the power of God through faith. I know.
But it's his grace that gives me the faith through which I'm
kept by his grace. were kept by the power of God
through faith. Look at the next thing. This
great salvation, as it is now in this present earthly experience
of it, is a salvation ready to be revealed. I kept looking at this over and
over again. What does that mean, ready to
be revealed? I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered
into the heart of man the things which the Lord hath prepared
for them that love him. But he's revealed them to us. That's what
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2. He's revealed them to us. Now,
I grant it's ready to be revealed in its fullness. Perhaps that's
what Peter has in mind. But I think there's more to it
than that. More to it than that. I'm looking at J. Hart back yonder.
Stranger in this world. Stranger. Stranger. Stranger. The world can't understand
you. The world can't. They don't get
it. They don't get it. What makes
a fellow give? What makes a fellow sacrifice?
What makes a fellow devote himself to the cause of Christ? What
makes you tick? One of these days, the world's
going to get it. It's going to be revealed. God's
going to reveal His goodness and His grace in you to all the
world. Ready to be revealed. Look at
the next thing. This real salvation causes saved
sinners to rejoice in the Lord. I'm not talking about a giddy,
giggly, ha ha hee hee kind of joy. You can get that if you
smoke the right stuff. That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about joy. I'm not talking about the kind
of joy you get if you take enough tranquilizers and the doctor
keeps you doped up so you're out of your head. No, I'm talking
about joy. Real joy in the depths of your heart, even when your
heart's breaking. Real joy in the depths of your
soul, even when your soul is crushed. For it's joy in God
our Savior. When we have nothing else in
which to rejoice, we can and should rejoice in God our Savior
and in His salvation. David did. He sure did. When his boy Absalom was trying
to kill him, David rejoiced and sang to the Lord. When he was
dancing before the ark of God, his wife despised him, but he
was rejoicing. When he lay on his deathbed and
his house was in a turmoil, he was rejoicing in God his salvation. Wherein, look at verse six. Wherein,
that is in this salvation ready to be revealed, you greatly rejoice
though now for a season if need be, year in heaviness through
manifold temptations that the trial of your faith This is the
reason for the heaviness and the temptation, that the trial
of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and
honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom, having
not seen, you love, in whom, though now you see him not, yet
believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Receiving the end of your faith
Even the salvation of your souls now, this is what Peter tells
us Those who experienced God's salvation Joy in the midst of
heavy trials And look what it tells you about
our trials Mark them down these three things and remember them They're only for a season. You
see that? It'll soon be over. It'll soon be over. Number two,
there's a need be for them. A loving father never causes
his child a needless tear. Never. Never. I just have the one child and
I kindly dote over her. One grandchild thus far, kindly
dote over her too. I don't assume the responsibility
of disciplining the granddaughter. It was my responsibility to discipline
and raise the daughter. And I caused her a lot of pain
over the years. I burned her butt a lot of times. I did. On purpose. On purpose. But never without a reason and
the reason being for her. Never. In my knowledge it never
caused that girl any pain when necessary. Not knowingly. Not knowingly. And our Heavenly
Father never ever, ever brings pain without a purpose, a purpose
that's necessary. And thirdly, these trials, when
they're done, they'll make heaven more glorious and blessed than
it otherwise would be or could be. Anyone say this? 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 Jesus Christ
our Savior. We joy because of Christ, what
it says in verse 8. We joy because of the end of
our faith, which is salvation itself. Oh, I recall years ago
When we first started having camp, I was pastoring at Lookout,
and we took kids from several states, had camp once, one week
a year, and we had arranged to have a speaker come down from
Pennsylvania, a nice fella, Bob Lucilius. He came down and was
gonna be preaching for us and preaching for the kids all week
long, and the facilities weren't much, and I started walking along
with him, I started apologizing. I said, Brother Lucilius, I'm
so sorry for the accommodations He walked in, he said, all this
and heaven too? Oh, all this and heaven too? Let me bite my tongue every time
I want to complain. All this and heaven too? This salvation? is a salvation that is entirely
consistent with all the scriptures. Look at verse 10. Of which salvation
the prophets inquired and searched diligently.
That is, they sought after this salvation. That is, Christ the
Lord, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you. They
spoke of it long ahead of this, seeking after it themselves,
just like we do. Searching water what manner of
time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify Which
it testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and the
glory that should follow Now what's he talking about? He's
telling us That this salvation is a salvation that is spoken
of throughout all the scriptures all the scriptures prophesied
in the Old Testament and promised, typified, foreshadowed, pictured,
and now it's made known to you by the report of the gospel revealed
to you. This salvation is a salvation
that can only come by divine revelation. That's what it says
in verse 12. Unto whom it was revealed. Revealed. Oh, may God be pleased now. to
grant you his salvation. Amen. All right, would you come lead
us in a hymn, please?