Morning again. Turn back to 1
Peter 1. Before we begin an announcement,
I text with Frank Tate this morning. Frank was supposed to come preach
for us tonight in Todd's absence. I guess the roads up in Ashland
are just terrible right now. He doesn't know whether he's
going to be able to get out. Obviously, they're not great here, so we're
just not going to have evening services tonight, evening service. there
in 1 Peter chapter 1. I want to read you a Scripture
before we begin and we look at the text here. Listen to this,
this is Paul in 1 Corinthians 13.5. He says this, he says,
"'Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith. Prove your
own selves. Know ye not yourselves how that
Jesus Christ is in you, except or unless ye be reprobates.'"
Not real. And the word that is commonly
used to replace that word, reprobate, in the Scripture is cast away.
Cast away. Paul tells us there are only
two different types of people, just two. You have those who
are in the faith. those who the Lord has saved,
He's given them the knowledge of Christ, brought them to faith
in Christ, that common faith that's common to every believer,
faith in Christ. And then you have reprobates,
castaways, people the Lord has not saved, people who are not
of the faith, they don't believe in Christ. And I found this very
interesting. You know, Paul had a worry and a concern and a fear
that he was in fact a castaway. He said that. 1 Corinthians 9.27
he said, "'But I keep under my body,' which means I beat this
flesh up, "'and bring it into subjection, lest by any means,
when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.'"
A reprobate, hypocrite, not real. And let's consider who this man
is, this man Paul. This is the man who the Lord
brought up into the third heavens and He taught him the Gospel
directly. This is a man who when he was
on the earth the Lord spoke to him directly. This is a man the
Lord used mightily and greatly to establish His Church and spread
His Gospel right after his death. Think about who this man was
and what he had experienced and he says, here's my concern that
I'm a castaway, that I'm not real, that I'm a hypocrite. And I'll tell you what if Paul
was concerned about that I need to be concerned about it, and
you need to be concerned about it. So the question is can we
know? If you want to know whether a stick is straight, what do
you do? You take a stick you know is straight and you sit
it next to it and you compare the two. Okay, it's straight. We have
the just here, right? We compare it next to it. Do
we have some sort of rubric that we can know? Well, Peter gives
that right here in 1 Peter chapter 1. He gives a description of
God's people. As far as I can tell he gives
seven different markers here, seven different descriptors Lord's
people. If we belong to the Lord we are
going to go through this passage of Scripture and look at all seven
of these different things and we are going to match up just
perfectly with what Peter says here. So, since we've already
read it I'll give you the points up front and I'll show you where
Peter is saying that in the Word. And here is the first point,
God's people they are people who are strangers to the religion
of this world. Look down at verse 1, Peter an Apostle of Jesus Christ
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia. They are in fact strangers. Now we read about that in the
Scriptures quite often. Lord's people we are strangers and pilgrims
in this world. We are sojourning. We are not
passing through this world. It is not our home. I ask you
though what does that mean? What does the Scripture mean
by that? Does that mean that we live like monks and we seclude
ourselves in a monastery and we put the blinders on and we
have no dealings in this world and try to avoid it at all costs?
Well, absolutely not. This is where we live. This is
where the Lord has put us in this present time. We live in
Lexington, Kentucky, our surrounding area right now. It's exactly
where the Lord has purposed us to be and He's set our bounds
and our boundaries. This is where we belong right now according
to His will. This is where we raise our families.
This is where we work. This is where we worship God,
right here in this place right now. And in this world we have
responsibilities. homes, in our places of worship,
at our jobs. We have civic responsibilities.
When you think about the Old Testament characters, Daniel,
under four different Babylonian kings, right? Four different
kings. Under each one of those kings, Daniel, this man who was
a captive, they all promoted him to a position of power and
responsibility within the Kingdom. Under Darius he was second in
command. Kind of like Joseph the Pharaoh, Daniel was second
only to Darius in the entire Kingdom. And he had a civic responsibility
to ensure that the king accrued no hurt, that the kingdom ran
the way it was supposed to and the people were taken care of.
We have responsibilities in this world. We don't shrug those.
We don't turn a blind eye to that in this world. And does it mean
that we separate ourselves from the people of this world? Put
on blinders, just try to avoid them at all costs. No. This is what the scripture says.
Matthew 5.16, "'Let your light so shine before men that they
may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.'"
We are ambassadors for Christ. We are His witnesses. And this
is the way I look at it. Every opportunity we have to
come in contact with somebody who doesn't know the Lord Jesus
Christ, we should look at that as an opportunity to preach the
gospel to them. With this thought, maybe the Lord will open a door.
Maybe the door will be open and I would have something to say.
The Lord will use me to say something to this person that they may
know my Savior. We don't shy away from that.
Now, we'll give this caveat. If you make the people of this
world, those who do not know God, your close friends and your
close allies, you will do yourself damage. I say that from personal
experience. Sheep flock together. But we
don't turn a blind eye to the people of this world. And what
about the good pleasures of this world? about all of the good
things that we enjoy? Should we walk through this world
and always feel guilty about enjoying the things that the
Lord has given us? No. Listen to what Solomon said in
Ecclesiastes 5.18, he said, "'Behold, that which I have seen, it is
good and comely for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good
of all his labor that he taketh unto the Son all the days of
his life, which God hath given him, for it is his portion.'"
You know, the Lord has given you a warm house in this snowstorm
out here. Enjoy that. Maybe you have a
little extra money. You can take a vacation. Enjoy
that. The things the Lord has given you in this life, enjoy
those things. There's nothing wrong with that.
But if that's not what it means, what does it mean? We're strangers
in this world. It means we have no love for
this world. have no love for this world's
goals, its principles, and we absolutely have no love, and
no respect, and absolute hatred of the religion of this world. Now let me give you a scripture.
I'm going to read this to you it's a little lengthy but you
don't have to turn there just listen to it. This is 1 John 2 it starts
in verse 15, the Lord says, "'Love not the world, neither the things
that are in the world. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him.'" For all that is in the
world, the lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the eyes and
the pride of life is not of the Father, but it is of the world.
And the world passeth away and the lusts thereof, but he that
doeth the will of God abideth forever. The lusts of the flesh. What does the flesh desire? Evil, wicked, fallen human flesh.
What do the natural eyes love to behold? What fuels wicked
pride? An opportunity for self-glory.
That's what fuels pride. That's what the flesh loves.
That's what the natural eyes want to see. And that's the principle,
that's the maxim, that is the goal of this world. It is to
glorify man at all costs. And that's why this thing we
call the world, and the people of the world, people who do not
know God, that's why they all buy into this lie that is called
salvation by works. It is the religion of this world.
Because in salvation by works, man is glorified. They say, God
must do His part. He has His part to play in this
thing of salvation. Whoever their God is, whoever
they design Him to be, He has His part in salvation, but you
must do the thing. And this religion of works has
many branches, and they all have something different. This is
the thing you must do, but you must do the thing. And when you
do the thing, you will be saved, or rather, you will save yourself.
And therefore, they will give God some glory, but man gets
the glory in all this. I tell you what, I hate that
religion. Every child of God hates that religion for two reasons.
Number one, it poses my God as someone He is not. He's a failure. He is thwarted in His purposes.
He is not sovereign. He is relying on man to do something
or to make a decision. It poses my God as someone He
is not, almighty and in control. It is a blaspheme of His name.
And number two, under that manner of religion, that false manner
of religion, I cannot be saved. something I must do, if salvation
is not all of grace, and all accomplished in the person of
Jesus Christ, I cannot be saved. I will go to Hell under that
manner of religion. Therefore, all I can do is sojourn
here. I cannot lay down roots. I cannot
make my home here. All I can do is sojourn through
this world looking for a better country. Now that is how the
world sojourns here, glorifying man. Here is how we sojourn.
Look across the page at verse 17, Peter says, And if ye call on
the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according
to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning, your
passing through here, in what? In fear, in the fear of God. Being afraid to look anywhere
but Christ alone as all your hope and salvation. Being afraid
of this as well, being afraid of anything that gives man any
glory. fear that, remove yourself from that, get away from that
as far as you possibly can, looking to Christ every step of the way,
knowing something, knowing, look, verse 19. No, I'm sorry, verse
18, for as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ. as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who verily was foreordained, purposed before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you." That's our walk. That is not the walk of the world,
but that is our walk, looking to Christ, hoping in this, the
Father foreordained Him, purposed Him to go to that cross for us.
And on that cross we were redeemed, bought with a price, never to
return. It is finished. sojourning through
this world. That's the first point right
there. The people of God are strangers to the world's religion.
Here's a second one. The people of God are a place
where both sin abounds and where grace abounds. Look at verse
2. Peter describing the people of God he opens with this word,
elect. If you don't believe in election it's right there. There's the Word. This is the
inspired Word of God, you know that, and the Word is right there.
Who are they? They're elect. We'll talk about that here in
a minute. 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 or abound. The grace of God, the free unmerited
favor of God, the peace of God, it abounds unto you, these people. What's the verse of Scripture
you think of? Romans 5.20, Now this is the chief hallmark, this
is the attribute of the people of God. They are a place where
sin abounds. You know what it means for someone
to overabound? It means it overflows, it saturates, it seeps into every
single pore. This wicked and fallen nature
we were born with, this sin, it seeps into every particle
of our being. Everything, the thoughts, the
heart, the actions, the speech, everything is tainted by sin. Sin, we are sinners. But I love
this. If there is anything I enjoy
talking about as far as the Gospel is concerned this is it right
here. Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. where
sin abounds, where it overflows, where it saturates everything,
to where you have no good works, and you have no merit before
God. There is no possible way you could please Him in and of
yourself. That is where the grace of God abounds. That is where
the free unmerited favor of God abounds. And that is where the
peace of God abounds. Those people have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. My question is this, how can
that be possible? If God is who He is, if He is
holy, He's just. And every time He sees sin all
He can do is pour down His wrath upon it. That's the only thing
He can do. How possibly in this place where sin abounds can His
grace, His free unmerited favor, and His peace abound? Well Peter answers that question
using that entire portion of verse 2. Look back at the beginning
of verse 2 there, first couple of words. There it is. Verse 2, Peter says,
elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Now, if you
want to understand that word foreknowledge, it's real simple.
You can take that word out and just put the word purpose there.
It means the exact same thing. Foreknowledge, is it true that
the Lord knows what is going to happen before it happens?
Yes, but that's not the full story. He knows what is going
to happen because He has purposed everything that happens. Because
He is sovereign and in absolute control of everything that takes
place. Everything that happens is according
to His good will and purpose. And it is a purpose because He
is sovereign, because He is almighty that is unalterable. It's immutable.
It cannot be changed. As soon as He purposes it, it
must be. Man can have no effect on it.
It cannot not be done. His foreknowledge, His purpose,
everything He does is on purpose. And that's where we begin with
the purpose of God. To glorify the Godhead in the
person of Jesus Christ through the salvation of a particular
people that they might be saved completely and utterly by His
Son. That's his purpose. And in working
in that purpose, he has all side purposes and minor purposes leading
up to that big purpose. And in that purpose of glorifying
his son, he elected, he chose before the foundations of the
world, he chose a particular people. I don't understand this.
This is simply the teaching of scripture. And we bow to this. He chose us in Christ. people,
God's people, we've always been in Christ. All the Father's love
is in Christ. His choice is of Christ. He is
His first elect. We were chosen in Him. He chose
us in Christ, then gave us back to Christ. Said, these are yours,
they are mine, and you will do everything that is necessary
for them to be saved. And because it is in an unalterable
law. You read the book of Daniel,
you read about the Babylonians, they had the law of the Chaldeans. the Medes and the Purgeons. And
under that law as soon as the king made that law it cannot
be altered. The king himself can't alter that law. As soon
as he writes it down he says, that is law, it must be. That's
the purpose of God. These people must be saved because
they were chosen and purposed unto salvation and given to Christ.
And election tells us two things chiefly, two. Number one that
God really is sovereign. He really is in control of everything
and everyone at all times. He chose, therefore, they must
be saved. And this is the second thing
it teaches us, that salvation is not of works in any way, shape,
or form. If the choice of who would be
saved in the election of grace took place before the foundations
of the world, and that is an unalterable law, That means that
purpose must be accomplished. That means these people, their
bad works don't condemn them, and their good works don't help
them at all. It is not of works. What's the scripture for that?
Romans 9-11, for the children, speaking of Jacob and Esau, being
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand not of works, not
of any shape or form of works, but of Him that calleth. He's large and he's in charge,
folks. God really is who he said he is. Now, he didn't stop there. Go back to verse 2. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God, listen to this, through sanctification of the spirit. What does it mean to be sanctified?
It means to take something common and ordinary and to set it apart
for holy purposes and in fact make that thing holy. purpose of glorifying the Godhead
in the Son. He chose a people unto salvation,
and the Godhead sanctified all those people. All three persons
of the Godhead are attributed to this thing of sanctification.
Jude 1.1 says that the Father sanctifies. You know what that
was? It was the setting apart. When
the Father took the elect, gave them unto Christ, set them apart
for holy purposes, making them holy in Christ. The Father sanctifies,
the Son sanctifies. This is what it says, Hebrews
10.10, by the witch will we are sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. When he shed his precious
blood for us folks, holy and unblameable and unapprovable
we are in him. But that answers the question,
how can where sin abounds? How can the grace of God and
the peace of God abound there? Because that sin that abounds
in you, that you have some knowledge of, it's paid for sin. it's sin
that's been put away. As far as the East is from the
West, never to remember no more. You suffer with it right now,
you feel it right now, but folks in the mind and the eye of God
it's gone. And that's why the grace of God can abound because
justification has taken place. And the Spirit sanctifies, that's
what it says in our text. We're sanctified by the Spirit. I'll give you a scripture for
this. 2 Thessalonians 2.13 says, 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 to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth." You see, everybody the Father
purposed unto salvation and elected, and everyone the Son died for,
and everyone the Holy Spirit gives life to, gives that new
man in Christ Jesus, that new man, he believes something. and
he believes on someone. And everybody who has this spirit,
the Spirit of God, they all believe the exact same thing. And Peter
tells us what that is. Look at verse 2 one more time.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. Everybody who is born of God
and has that spirit, this is what they believe. They believe
my only obedience is the obedience of Jesus Christ. That there is
one righteousness, that's it, and it is His. Not a speck in
me, but I have His. His obedience is mine, and His
blood, that blood of sprinkling, that is my sin payment. What
can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. I can't do anything about it.
I can't even stop the sins of tomorrow. But they're paid for
with the precious blood of Christ. Our salvation is all in Him. Can you identify with that? I
can. A place where sin abounds, but
where the grace of God and the peace of God abounds. Number
three. people are a people of lively
hope. Look at verse 3, "'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.'" Listen to this though, here's
what it's based in, "'By the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead.'" Hope. people, the people of God they
have a lively hope, they have a living hope because their Savior
lives, and because He lives they have life. Now on the Day of
Judgment there are only two sentences that will be handed down. Every
man will hear one of two statements from God, this is it. The first
one is this, "'Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter
into the joy of thy Lord.'" To the Lord's people He will say
this because He is saying it to Christ. Enter in, you've done
well, come with me. To the others he will say this,
depart from me ye that work iniquity, I never knew you. There's only
two, right? That's a theme of this right
here, there's only two. That's it, we're gonna hear one of those
two words right there. But we have a hope, the people
of God have a hope that we will hear that word of acceptance. The question is what's the hope
grounded in? because there's going to be a
whole lot of people on that day that have a hope of acceptance. They're
going to hear those words, well done thou good and faithful servant,
and they're not going to come. What is this hope grounded in
that is a good hope? Well, he tells us there, the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. What does the
resurrection tell us? Romans 4.25, who was delivered
for our offenses and was raised again for our justification,
or more particularly, because of justification. Lord Jesus
Christ went to the cross bearing the sins of His people. He died
under the wrath of God. He went to the heart of the earth
for three days and three nights, and the Father raised Him from
the dead. Why? Because He did what He sent
Him to do. He put away the sins of everybody
He died for and made them acceptable unto God. And the Father says,
it's finished. It worked. What I sent you to do you were
successful and therefore I will raise you from the dead and I'm
going to raise all of them from the dead too. Holy and unblameable
and unapprovable in His sight. And the Lord tells us in no uncertain
terms that is your one sign. That is your one ground of hope.
He said that in Matthew 16.4. I'll read this to you. says, "'A wicked and adulterous
generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given
unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonah.'" What happened to Jonah? Jonah went overboard, went down
in the whale's belly three days and three nights, and after three
days and three nights that whale spit him up on dry land, the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. I used to read that, a wicked
and adulterous generation they seek after a sign. As if to say,
well these wicked and adulterous people over here they seek a
sign. And then one day I read it and I said, who are you kidding? You want a sign. I want a sign
I'm loved of God. I want a sign that I'll be saved
on that day, that I'm going to hear those good words. I desire
a sign. Wicked and adulterous, yes. Son wanting, yes. That's me right there. You get
one. This is your hope, the grounds
of your hope. I've raised my son from the dead
and if your hope is in Him, guess what? You've been saved. Like
I said this morning, it's historical. It's done. It's finished. Salvation
is a done deal. Stop working. It's over. Now here's the fifth thing, or
the fourth. The people of God are people who have an inheritance
with God. Look at verse 4. He says, "...to
an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and it fadeth
not away, reserved in heaven for you." What's an inheritance? I wrote a bunch of definitions
on this, and this one I really liked. Listen to this. An inheritance
is wealth and privilege received based on your association with
one who went before you. That's our inheritance, folks.
We have this inheritance, everything the Lord Jesus Christ has with
His Father and coming from His Father to Him, we have in Him. I want you to consider the gravity
of that statement, we have in Him. We are in Him. Therefore,
when the Father showers down His love and His praise and acceptance
upon His Son, He joys when Christ is in His presence. He does that
to us because we are in Him. Partakers of the divine nature
and partakers of this great, great inheritance that the Lord
Jesus Christ has with His Father. You think about everything we
have in Christ, particularly this, this righteousness and
this sinlessness. It's incorruptible. It's undefiled. It can't fade away. It's solidified. It's concreted. It's founded. It is over. We have this and
it will never go away. And at the end of this life,
this sin that drags us down so terribly, we're going to put
that down and we're going to see Christ as He is. And we will
actually worship Him without this flesh, without this sin
that we have to contend with. We will see Him as He is, and
we have a reservation for that. He says, reserved in Heaven for
you. There's a body there for the people of God, individually.
There's a mansion there for the people of God, individually.
If you're a believer, you have a reservation in Heaven to where
you will wake up and behold the Lord Jesus Christ as He is, and
for once, for once, you will worship Him perfectly. You think
about this, we work all week to maybe take a day off and maybe
find a couple of pleasurable moments or hours in there, do
something fun, do something you like. We work an entire year,
maybe take a week vacation, have a couple of experiences that
are fun and enjoyable. We put down this flesh, this
flesh that drags us down, and we behold Christ as He is. Folks,
the euphoria and the joy unspeakable. We can't even talk about it.
We can't even experience it. That's your inheritance. That's
what you have coming. That day is coming. It's coming
soon enough, folks. You will behold Him in glory,
and you will worship Him as you ought. What a great inheritance. All right, here's the fifth one.
People of God are those who are kept by the power of God, and
they must be kept by the power of God. Look at verse 5. It says,
"...who are kept by the power of God Through faith, unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. I ask you this, when you
first came to Christ, what did it look like? I'll speak as a spokesman. Sinful, scared, worried, begging,
groveling, clinging to Him, hoping so greatly that He was my Savior.
trusting Him to be my righteousness before God. Trusting Him to have
put away my sins. Just clinging to Him, and standing
on His promise. His promise that He was in fact
the Savior of sinners. Henry Mahan said something once,
I listened to it in a message, I really enjoyed it. He said,
Christ is the object of our faith. But that word, His word here,
it's the grounds of our faith. We wouldn't dare come to Him.
We wouldn't dare believe on Him. We wouldn't dare trust Him. unless
he said, do it, my word. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. Come unto me all ye who
labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. What's the grounds
that I might come in confidence? Because he told me to. Because
he commanded me to. And we come with absolutely no
entitlement, groveling, pleading, clinging on to him because he's
only God. That first time we came, it's exactly how it has
to look the last time we come. We close these eyes in death.
That coming, that final coming, that final looking to Christ
has to look the exact same way. No entitlement. Just a sinner
in need of mercy looking solely to Him, having nothing else and
standing on the grounds of the promises of His Word. It has
to look the exact same way. And folks, if that was up to
us to keep ourselves in that place or bring ourselves to that
place in the first place, we would all be lost. But He says,
you're going to be kept. by the power of God through faith
unto salvation. Disclaimer, that power of keeping,
keeping us right there in the dirt, it normally involves Him
having to cause us a fair amount of suffering. And brings me to
the next point, which is this, the people of God are unnecessarily
tried people. Look at verse six. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, Though
now for a season, and look at these words, if need be. He never
hurts us unnecessarily. He never causes suffering unnecessarily. Don't think for a second, well
Christ suffered, I guess I just have to suffer too, that's the
way the world, no. If need be. Wearing you great rejoice, though
now for a season, if need be. You're in heaviness through manifold
temptations 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." What happens? Here's what happens. We have
to contend with this flesh. And it drags us down. And it causes
us to be distracted with the things of this world. And self-righteousness
creeps in. I've been doing this a while,
doing pretty good. I'm a good little Christian, serving the
Lord. I'm doing all right, making headway, making progress. All
of a sudden, you've left that dirt that you were once in, and
you're up a little bit. And that gaze on Christ just
starts to drift away. You're looking at other things, maybe
looking within. And that's what happened to the church a lot
of you see. I got lukewarm, and here's what's said about them.
"'Thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have
need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched and
miserable and poor and blind and naked.'" That's what happens,
we forget what we are. So what has to happen? The Lord
has to send the trial. Beat us down, put us down in that dirt,
which is the safest possible place we can be, cause us to
rely on Him all over again. And once it's been accomplished,
purpose, Remember He is a God of purpose. Once the trial accomplishes
the purpose, and we are down there in the dirt, and we are
looking at Christ all over again, He removes the hand and peace
is restored until the next time. Because it is a life cycle, over
and over again, getting haughty, proud, rising up, the Lord puts
us back in the dirt. And yes, it is painful, absolutely
painful, light afflictions, what the Scripture says. Compared
to the sufferings of Jesus Christ, Compared to my own experience
and your experience, no. There's nothing light about these afflictions.
But think of the purpose behind them, is to keep us all the way
to the end, if need be. It's necessary. So thankful,
though, that this is what He does. He keeps us all the way
to the end. He gives us exactly what we need. And finally this, last point.
The people of God, there are people who love God as He is. Look at verse 8. It says, 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. How often do you doubt that you
love Jesus Christ? Constantly. Constantly. I'll
give you my experience and see if it lines up with yours. My
heart gets so cold. My love for Christ seems so undetectable.
It seems so apathetic, heart-frozen, rock-like. I think, how could
I possibly be a believer? Is this what the Lord's people
experience? Is this the experience of a believer? How could I possibly
be saved? This heart so cold, this love
seeming not even there. And there are other times, there
are other times where the Lord grants just a few moments of
hearing the gospel, a few moments of meditating on his person.
And like the disciples that walked with him on the road to Emmaus,
our hearts burned, our heart burned. That's the terminology
they choose because it's one heart. And from time to time,
we enjoy that. Every once in a while, I'm given
an opportunity to meditate on His person, especially His goodness.
I think about this, that He is, in fact, a good God. I think
about what the opposite of that would be, that He would be an
evil God, and He would be like you and me. And you would think
about what this world would be like and what eternity would
be like if He was, in fact, an evil God, what misery there would
be, but He's not. The God we have, the God of of
creation is a good God, righteous and just in all things. Everything
He does is good. Even the things that don't appear
good, it's all very, very good. And we look on that and we say,
well, how could that possibly be good? I'm a sinner. What judge
am I of what is good and what is not? I have no right to judge. He's good. And I think about
this, and I offer this simply because it may give some other
people some comfort. I think about this from time
to time. What if, kind of like Paul thought, I hit that day
of judgment, and I hear, depart from me. You that work iniquity,
I never knew you. And he casts me aside, and he
passes by me. That is a dreadful and a terrible thought. Fills
me with all kinds of fear and worry. But I say this, there
is a small comfort and solace in this, that if he did that,
he'd be doing in goodness. He would be doing it because
it is right. He would be acting in perfect justice. He would
be doing it in the preservation of His good kingdom. And knowing
that there was a place that was truly good, and there was a God
that was truly good, and there was a people that were worshiping
Him that were truly good, it provides just the smallest bit
of comfort in that. There is One who is going to
do what is right every single time. He truly is good. Oftentimes, we worry, do I love
the Lord? And we are not alone. You remember
John Newton? He lived some 300 years ago. He was a preacher,
also a hymn writer. The most famous one was Amazing
Grace. I'm sure you've heard of it. He wrote another song,
and it sounds like this. I'll read you a few stanzas of
it. The title of the song is Lovest Thou Me? If you've never
heard this before, I recommend you listen to the song or at
least read it. I'll just read you a few lines. John said this,
"'Tis a point I long to know. "'Oft it causes anxious thought. "'Do I love the Lord or no? "'Am I His or am I not? "'If I love, why am I thus? "'Why this dull and lifeless
frame? "'Hardly sure can they be worse
"'who have never heard His name.'" Listen to this, "'Could my heart
so hard remain? Prayer a task, and burden prove. Every trifle give me pain, if
I knew a Savior's love. And this is how he ends it. He
says, let me love thee more and more, if I love at all. I pray, if I have not loved before,
help me to begin today. I figure if old John Newton struggled
with this, and I struggled with this, there's probably some other
folks that struggled with this. Thankfully enough, the scripture gives us
a litmus test. Actually, it gives one in the Scripture. If you
want to know whether you love the Lord or not, it gives us
a test here. And this is where we're going
to end. Turn over to 1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5 and look at verse
3. says, "'For this is the love
of God.'" And what that means is this, this is how you know
whether you love God or not. "'For this is the love of God,
that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not
grievous.'" What commandments is he talking about? What's the
commandments He gave in 1 John 3, 23? "'And this is His commandment,
that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another, as He gave us commandment. And folks, by
His grace we do that. We believe on the name of His
Son, Jesus Christ. We look to Him for everything
in our salvation. His name, His attribute, His
work, that's where we look, to Him. Here's what I want you to
understand though. There's a difference between
something being grievous and it being difficult. We look unto
Him. It's not grievous. It's exactly
what we want to do. But it is difficult. It is difficult
because we have this flesh to drag us down. This old man of
unbelief, he never believes God. He never wants to believe God.
He will always be filled with unbelief. And we look to Christ
in the new man, but constantly it is difficult. Resting in Christ,
doing absolutely nothing, just trusting Him is the easiest thing
you have ever done. It is the hardest thing you will
ever do. It's difficult, but it's not grievous. It's exactly
what you want to do. Isn't that the case for you?
I just want to rest in Him. I just want to be found in Him.
I just want to cling to Him. We come to everything in salvation,
including faith. Give me the faith to trust you
and to rest in you. Difficult, but not grievous.
It's exactly what we want to do. And loving the Brethren.
It can be difficult, can it? If you and I are going to love
each other, we've got two barriers in the way, my sinful nature
and your sinful nature. Two of them. Being alone is hard
enough. You put two of us together, we've
got to deal with two sinful natures. And it can be difficult, can
it? But it's not grievous. It's exactly what we want to
do. I want to love you with my whole heart. I want to exalt
you above me. I want to take the lowest seat. I want the best
for you in all things. It can be difficult, but it's
not grievous. So there, in fact, is the litmus
test. His commandment, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
love your brethren. By his grace, we do that. And
that's the proof that we do love God. Now I'll leave you with
this, and I hope for the Lord's people this has proved some comfort.
Here's the seven things we talked about. Number one, the people
of God. They're strangers to the religion
of this world. Salvation by works, they're a
stranger to it, they hate it. Number two, the people of God
are places where sin abounds, which means they're also places
where the grace of God and the peace of God abound. Number three,
there are people of a lively hope, and that hope is founded
in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was raised from the
dead, therefore all my sin is put away, and I must be saved.
Number four, they have an inheritance with God, and it is based solely
on their relationship with one who went before them. They haven't
earned a thing. It's all a free inheritance.
Number five, there are people kept by the grace and power of
God, and they know they must be kept that way. There are unnecessarily
tried people, prone to wandering, prone to walking away from the
Lord, and he has to reach out and bring us back every single
time. And number seven, there are people who love God as he
is, and it's not grievous. Difficult, but not grievous.
I can get in on that. Hope you can too.