1 Peter 1:1-9

[0:00] We will remain in the New Testament tonight in the book of 1 Peter and the 1st chapter. You all know that I normally like to give a little bit of a summation of where we are in the Scriptures, but we're going to be starting with the first chapter of 1 Peter tonight.

[0:29] The book of 1 Peter is thought to be written sometime between 62 and 65 AD.

[0:40] That's the general year range that's agreed on. Some people put it as late as 68 AD and some people I've actually read put it as late as 81 AD.

[0:52] Peter, as far as the historical accounts go, was executed by Nero in either 65 or 66 AD. So 68 or 81 AD would be a little bit impossible.

[1:06] Now there are those that say that Peter did not actually write 1st or 2nd Peter, but I would beg to differ that personally.

[1:18] But I know that some of the authors of the New Testament used other people, in certain situations, to pen their letters.

[1:29] They would say the words and have them pen by someone else. And I know that happened several times throughout the New Testament. But I don't believe personally that that's the case with either 1st or 2nd Peter.

[1:44] I had the privilege of teaching those two books when Missy and I were attending Bones Creek Free Will Baptist several years ago. And there's a lot in these books. But 1st Peter is written to a group of people, you read about them in the 1st verse, written to several groups of people actually that are beginning to see some persecution.

[2:09] They're beginning to go through some trials and some tribulation. And this was likely because Nero had just come to power. Nero being a wicked, wicked ruler.

[2:23] And the mission which followed Nero was just as, if not worse, than Nero was. But this would have been during the time of Nero's reign that the Christian persecution really got thrown into fast forward.

[2:38] It got thrown into overdrive. And these people were starting to experience this persecution. Y'all have heard me say, and I know I've heard Brother Verne say it as well, that here in the United States while we may see a little bit of persecution, we do not see the persecution that the 1st Century Church saw, or the 2nd or 3rd or 4th Century Churches saw.

[3:04] We don't see anything along those lines here in the United States. As of right now, we still have freedom to worship as we choose. We have freedom to worship when we choose.

[3:16] And we have freedom to worship what we choose for that matter. And we experience very little persecution just because your friends might call you a Bible thumber. I don't think that classifies as persecution.

[3:31] So we don't see that here. But these people here, they were starting to fill the strain of the persecution of the Christian Church. Nero, as I said, was a very wicked man.

[3:44] Nero was probably most well known in his persecution of the Colosseum and releasing lines upon the Christians, as well as other wild animals.

[3:56] He's also fairly well known for rounding up the Christians and putting them alive on posts throughout the city, and dipping them in oil, lighting them on fire to light the city streets while they were alive.

[4:12] And he also done the same thing in his rose garden. He would get Christians and hang them in metal nets and dip them in oil, and set them on fire to light his rose garden.

[4:24] Nero was a very wicked man. He came to power at the age of about 17, and his transition was very smooth. He had the Army's blessing. He had the Senate's blessing.

[4:37] There was no issues with Nero going into power. He almost immediately began persecution of the Christians. And that kind of gives you an idea of why Peter was writing to these people in the first verse.

[4:55] In the first verse of 1 Peter in chapter 1 says, Peter, in the possible of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pondus, Galatia, Capita, Seah, Asia, and Bethany.

[5:08] So he's writing to several groups of people. And once again, this would have been pretty much the onset of enlarged Christian persecution.

[5:21] But these were the people he was writing to, and this would have been a big relief. This letter, when they heard that Peter had written a letter, and it was making its rounds to the different churches in the different regions, this would have been a huge relief to them because Peter, they would have known Peter as being a follower of Jesus Christ, as being an apostle.

[5:42] We know Peter, Peter, as far as the Gospel accounts go. He was a fisherman by trade, and he was hand selected by the Savior Jesus Christ to follow him.

[5:53] And Jesus, when he said it to him, he said, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And we all know Peter's ups and downs throughout the Gospel. If you're any kind of Bible reader at all, we know that Peter, a lot of times, would stick his foot in his mouth.

[6:09] He would speak when he really shouldn't have spoke, and sometimes he would say nonsensical things. And there was a couple of times that the Lord actually had to call him out on.

[6:20] We all know about the denial of Peter, that Peter had to the Lord Jesus Christ. We all know that Jesus prophesied to Peter the night before the crucifixion that we preached about some this morning.

[6:35] The night before that, the Lord said that you'll all be ashamed of me, speaking to his disciples. You'll all be ashamed of me. Peter says I'll never be ashamed of you.

[6:46] I'll never deny you, Lord. And Jesus said before the cross twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And we all know how that ended up. The third time that he denied that he knew Jesus Christ, Jesus, according to one Gospel account, Jesus looked at him with loving eyes, and it says that Peter went out and went bitterly, because he realized what he had done.

[7:10] He realized that the prophecy that Jesus had spoken had actually played out. And he realized what he had done in denying the Lord. But folks, when we go through Acts, we see Peter not as a, I hate to say it like this, but a stumbling buffoon like he kind of was during the Gospels at times.

[7:31] But by the time we get to Acts, I mean, he was the first one to preach a sermon there. In the book of Acts, he preached during Pentecost, and he preached boldly.

[7:42] And we see him all throughout the book of Acts, being bold and preaching sermons and healing people. In Acts chapter 9, we see him raise a woman named Dorcas from death unto life.

[7:53] Of course, this would have been through the power of God. But this is the same Peter that we were just talking about over in the Gospels. We see him with power all the way through the book of Acts.

[8:04] And then we get to 1st and 2nd Peter. And we see a huge change in this man, Peter, from the Gospels up into the books that we have, 1st and 2nd Peter. There's an enormous change that has taken place in Peter that only the Lord God could have been part of, could have caused in the life of Peter.

[8:25] So we'll begin reading here in the first chapter of 1st Peter. It says, Peter, in a possible of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pondysk, Galatia, Cavitasia, Asia, and Bethany, and to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fath not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time wherein you 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 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 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.

[9:52] We'll stop reading right there for now. We may continue on just a few verses in a little while, but if you go back to the first verse of the first chapter of 1st Peter, again we see him writing to the strangers that are scattered throughout Pondysk, Galatia, Cavitasia, Asia, and Bethany, and the strangers that he's trying to, this would have been the people that had been dispersed, this would have been the people that had gone out in different directions because of the persecution that was happening to the Christian church at this time.

[10:24] He was writing to all these groups of people in all these different regions here, and again this letter would have been a big relief to these folks knowing that Peter was an apostle of Jesus Christ, knowing that he was an elder in the church, knowing that he had walked with Jesus for three years.

[10:43] He had slept out underneath the stars with Jesus for three years. He had broken bread with Jesus. He had seen the miracles that Jesus had wrought. He had heard the sermons and the teachings that Jesus had spoke throughout his ministry.

[11:00] So this would have been a big relief to these people who were being persecuted. But verse two begins, He is whom he is writing the letter to. He's writing it to the elect.

[11:41] That's as far as we're going to go with it this evening, but he's writing to the elect to those that have been saved, those that are part of the church, that are part of the brow of Christ.

[11:58] He's writing about the blood of Jesus Christ and through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit.

[12:12] Peter is getting into deep water here immediately in this letter that he's writing. He's getting into deep water here immediately jumping in to this idea of the journey, this idea of the Godhead, which the scripture corroborates and backs up.

[12:29] There's many people out there that will say that Jesus Christ is God the Father. Folks, that is contrary to what the scripture says. Jesus Christ is the second person of a three-person Godhead.

[12:42] He is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit there and twine forever into one Godhead. And that is the way the scripture puts it and that's the way I'll teach it and that's the way that I will preach it.

[12:54] But he immediately jumps into this with these people saying, through sanctification of the Spirit, folks, we are incapable as Christians. We are incapable of sanctifying ourselves to the service of God as far as the immediacy of salvation goes.

[13:19] God saved you in order to sanctify you to His service and He sanctifies you and He sanctified me by the Holy Spirit, the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in my heart and in your heart if you're sitting here, born again this evening.

[13:35] This is the work of God and this is how He does it through His Spirit. He sanctifies us through the Spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

[13:47] He sanctifies us under His service, under His worship, under His rule, under His Lordship. God sanctifies us under all of these things and He sanctifies us under the obedience of His Word.

[14:00] That's why when we say that if someone's out here and they're living like the world and they're doing the things of the world and they're going to the places that the world goes to and they're saying the things that the world says, this is why we can rightfully assume that they are not a born again child of God because it is obvious they have not been sanctified under the obedience of the Scripture, the Scripture, all of thou shouts and the shout-nots.

[14:30] I know that we are incapable of keeping the entire law for that is the reason, the very reason that Jesus Christ had to come and suffer and bleed and die was because of our inability to keep the law, our inability to satisfy God.

[14:46] But Christ came and He kept the law perfectly to a T, every judge and every title, precept upon precept and line upon line. Jesus Christ kept the entire law and He was slain on the cross at Calvary and He was raised from the dead for my justification and for your justification and He ascended to the Father to forever mediate between God and man. Hallelujah!

[15:14] But this began, this all began in your life if you were born again and in my life being born again. It all began with the sanctification of the Holy Spirit unto obedience.

[15:27] I said we can't keep the law perfectly and I don't expect any of you all to for I can't do it. All of us sin. We sin every day. We didn't hardly probably get out of bed this morning before wrong thought crossed our mind.

[15:41] Probably on the way to church, maybe even since we've entered the doors of the church house this evening. A wrong thought has passed our mind. A wrong word may have come out of our mouth. Whatever the case is, folks, we are sinful creatures.

[15:54] We are not sinful creatures because of what we do. We are sinful creatures because of who we are. We are children of wrath by nature and that natural man, it still abides on the inside but praise God.

[16:08] The sanctification of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit moved in and Paul writes about it well in the letter that he wrote to the Romans. He writes about the constant war between the flesh and the spirit and the flesh wants to do certain things.

[16:24] The spirit tries to get in the way of the flesh and the spirit succeeds many times in doing this and guiding us in the right direction. Guiding us along the right path, keeping us on the straight and narrow path that Almighty God has set before us.

[16:40] The spirit has sanctified us unto obedience to the Word of God and he has also sanctified us unto the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

[16:51] This is the covenant that Almighty God has made with man. The blood of Jesus Christ is the covenant. The blood of Jesus Christ being sprinkled upon the believer. The blood of Jesus Christ washing away all sin.

[17:05] If you read in the Old Testament and Exodus in chapter 24, you'll read where after the law was given, there was a covenant made and Moses took the blood of the sacrifice.

[17:16] And he sprinkled it upon the people and he said, this is the covenant that is made with blood between God and his people, between God and the Israelites. And the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ is part of the new covenant that Almighty God has made. We no longer have to keep the law.

[17:36] We no longer have to concentrate upon the law. We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ and we are saved by repenting of our ways. And this repentance would be to try our best, to try our dead level best, to follow the law that the Bible has put in place for us.

[17:55] That's repentance because before when I was a child of wrath, I could have cared less about the law. Before you were born again, you could have cared less about keeping the law. Yes, you knew right from wrong. Yes, you knew good and evil.

[18:11] You knew all these things just as I did, but it didn't bother me if I broke one of those laws. It didn't bother me if I lied. It didn't bother me if I stole. It didn't bother me if I done any number of things that I'm guilty of.

[18:26] And it didn't bother you to do any number of things that you were guilty of before the Holy Spirit sanctified you under the service of God and sanctified you unto obedience to the word of God and sanctified you under the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

[18:45] Breaking the law didn't really bother us, but now that we're born again, now that we're saved, now that we're redeemed, now that we have that inward man on the inside, now that we have the Holy Spirit of God, which is God himself abiding within, it grieves the Holy Spirit when we sin.

[19:03] It grieves the Holy Spirit when we have a bad thought crossed through our mind or whatever the case may be. It grieves him because he, which is on the inside, is God himself. The Bible calls him the Spirit of Christ.

[19:16] It calls him the Spirit of God. It calls him the Holy Ghost. It calls him the Holy Spirit. Either way, it is God living on the inside of every believer, and God is holy, and God is righteous.

[19:29] And the reason that he is grieved whenever we have sin in our life is because it's a holy and a righteous God dwelling on the inside of a vessel that has done an unholy act.

[19:42] This is why it grieves the Holy Spirit. But praise God, we're sanctified. We're sanctified unto obedience and the sprinkling of blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. Peter, the apostle again that followed Jesus for three years and witnessed the many things that Jesus done.

[20:02] Praying grace, wishing grace, wanting grace for the readers of this letter. Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[20:15] Once again, Peter making a separation, a very direct distinction between God the Father and Jesus Christ. He says, 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 by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

[20:35] So Peter, in the first two verses, he's talked about whom he is and talked about whom he's writing to and spoken about the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.

[20:50] And after he does this, and he talks about being sanctified by the Holy Spirit to obedience and to the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, it's almost as if the Holy Spirit has given him unction to just praise God in this first line of verse 3.

[21:09] He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he continues, which according to his abundant mercy, to whose abundant mercy? God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is his abundant mercy.

[21:23] He hath begotten us again. And here we can actually go back to John chapter 3, and those of you that have been in the adult Sunday school class here, just a couple of weeks ago, we covered this part of John chapter 3, where Jesus Christ is speaking to a Pharisee named Nicodemus, and he tells that Pharisee twice that he must be born again.

[21:44] He tells him once, and then he says, Marvel, Marvel, not that I told you you must be born again. And folks, this is basically, this is Peter saying the same thing here.

[21:55] He says, according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again. In other words, we have been born again. And being born again, we have been sanctified in the previous verse.

[22:07] We've been sanctified by the Holy Spirit for the service of God and for the worship of God, for his glory and for his honor. Nothing to do with ourselves, nothing to do with our own lives, nothing to do with any honor or glory that may come our way.

[22:22] We were saved to glorify God and to glorify the name of Jesus Christ, that name which is above all names. Praise God.

[22:33] This is why we were saved. This is why we were saved to glorify God. But it was according to his abundant mercy. He hath begotten us again unto a lively hope.

[22:46] He's begotten us unto a lively hope. He goes on to say what this is by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead folks. This is the hope that we have.

[22:58] Yes, I'm born again. And I'm born again by the grace of God and by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in my life. Yes, I'm born again, but my hope is in the resurrection of Jesus Christ this morning.

[23:12] We talked briefly about how yes, Christ was born of a virgin and yes, he was killed and without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. And we talked about the burial and the resurrection and the ascension this morning.

[23:25] But here we have the resurrection of Christ brought up and this being our lively hope. Paul wrote to Titus in the letter that he wrote to Titus.

[23:36] He said that the coming of Jesus Christ at the scene of the Lord was the blessed hope that we had. This tells me that Jesus Christ is our lively hope and our lively hope is in his resurrection.

[23:49] Because with his resurrection, according to 1 Corinthians in chapter 15, he was the first fruit of the resurrection, and we are guaranteed that there will be a harvest to come.

[24:01] Jesus Christ went on to heaven. Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of majesty right now and he is the guarantee of what is yet to come.

[24:12] That's me and that's you. If you are a born again child of God, how do you, I'm part of that resurrection. And this is a lively hope.

[24:23] It's alive folks. We don't have hope and something that's dead. We were dead before we were saved. We were dead in our trespasses and sin, according to Ephesians chapter 2. All of us were dead.

[24:35] And it takes an act of God to do something about that. It took God to look down upon something or someone that was dead and to open those dead eyes, to open those blinded eyes that they might see and to raise as someone that was dead under spiritual life.

[24:51] It took Almighty God to do that. It can only be a supernatural act of God that can save a soul. I'm incapable of saving me. I'm incapable of saving you and you cannot save yourself or anyone else.

[25:05] It is God and God alone who is able to do this. And after we are saved, we have this lively hope because of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

[25:17] Praise God for the resurrection of Christ. Hallelujah. By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, the faith not away, reserved in heaven for you.

[25:30] So not only do we have a lively hope in this resurrection, but Peter goes on to tell us here what that resurrection is unto or what it's to.

[25:41] He says to an inheritance, incorruptible. Praise God, it's incorruptible. It can't be corrupted. No moth can destroy it. No rust can destroy it. It is incorruptible.

[25:52] Sin can't get ahold of the inheritance that I have promised to me waiting for me up in heaven. It's just an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled. It's undefiled.

[26:03] Sin will not be able to defile the inheritance. Sin won't be able to defile that city that's up yonder whose builder and maker is God. It won't be able to defile. It won't be able to enter in.

[26:15] No man, no man that is undefiled will be able to enter in and nothing that defiles will be inside of that city. It is incorruptible. It is undefiled and that faith not away.

[26:27] Folks, it ain't like our cities here. It's not like the cities in the Bible times that once upon a time Babylon was a huge city. Once upon a time Rome was a wonderful city.

[26:38] Once upon a time we read about all these cities, Nineveh and others that we can read about in the Scriptures but over time, regardless of their luster, regardless of their glittering, regardless of how rich they were, or how well off they were, eventually all of these cities faded out into nothingness, but the inheritance that I stand to have for I'm an heir to God and I'm joined there with Jesus Christ according to Romans chapter 8.

[27:06] This inheritance is incorruptible. It is undefiled and it will not and it cannot ever fade away. Hallelujah.

[27:17] Folks, if you're here in Bournemouth again, you stand to get that same inheritance that we're preaching about tonight. It can't, that faith is not away reserved in heaven for you.

[27:31] It's reserved for me. Now think about the encouragement that this would have given these believers that Peter was writing to. Think about the encouragement considering the persecution we were talking about, that they were coming underneath at that time.

[27:45] Peter here is encouraging these folks. In fact, if you read through 1 Peter, you read 1 Peter chapter 1 through chapter 5, something is brought up about suffering or trial or tribulation in each one of those chapters and this entire book was written to encourage the believers to keep on in your faith, continue in your faith, don't get down, don't get downhearted, don't get disgusted, don't you get weary and you're well-doing, you don't do any of these things, you continue going on for the cause and for the glory of Jesus Christ.

[28:17] This is the purpose of the letter here that we are reading that Peter wrote. But it says it's reserved in heaven for you and this fasts forward to me.

[28:28] It's reserved in heaven for me and it fasts forward to you. If you're a child of God, it's reserved in heaven for you. It's reserved for you. We all know what this means.

[28:39] If you've ever eaten at a more upscale restaurant, you call home for a reservation. When you arrive, you expect a table to be there. It's been reserved for you and your spouse or whoever it is that you're going with.

[28:52] It's reserved for you though. It's a special place reserved just for you. Heaven is the exact same way. Heaven is a place that God or that Jesus Christ has gone to prepare.

[29:03] He said, I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will receive you under myself that where I am there, you may be also. John chapter 14, Jesus spoke these words.

[29:15] Jesus himself has gone to prepare this place and Jesus himself wants it is prepared. It is reserved for me, a child of God. It is reserved for you, a redeemed and reconciled child of God.

[29:27] It is reserved for the bride of Christ and it is for no one except for those that have repented of their ways and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Praise God for his perfect plan, for his perfect place and for his perfect reservation that he has up yonder for each and every one of us.

[29:46] Hallelujah. Hallelujah to God who were kept by the power of God through faith and to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. It is reserved, this place is inheritance, it is reserved in heaven for us, for us who are what, who are kept, who are kept by the power of God.

[30:08] I don't know about you, but I am glad that God keeps me and I am glad that you don't leave it in my hands to be kept. You should be glad that you don't leave it in your hands to be kept.

[30:21] Now, are we expected to be obedient? Absolutely. We talked about that in verse 2 of the same chapter in the same book. Are we expected to be obedient? Absolutely.

[30:32] But folks, those who are kept by the power of God and there are people out here right now that are trying to, they are trying to, their own works to keep their salvation.

[30:44] They are trying their own deeds to keep their salvation. Folks, we have no power to save ourselves and I can promise you we have no power to keep ourselves. Both of those things are supernatural acts of an Almighty God.

[30:58] We cannot save nor keep ourselves. I am glad that Almighty God, when he saved my soul, that he is also the one that keeps me. He is the one that has promised me the way home.

[31:09] He is the one that has shown me the way home one day. After a while, folks, we sing it quite frequently in the church houses about God's amazing grace.

[31:21] And we say it is grace that has kept me in His grace that will take me home. But how much do we really believe those words? Hey, folks, I am kept by the power of God.

[31:33] I was saved by the power of God. I was washed clean by the blood of Jesus Christ. And I was unable and am unable to do any of these things. This is an inheritance reserved for those that are kept by the power of God.

[31:49] Don't try to keep yourself. Don't try to keep yourself. I hear people say it all the time. I am just holding on to Jesus. And I understand they got good intentions when they say that. But I am glad that Jesus is holding on to me.

[32:02] My grip is weak. My grip is weak. The Spirit's will, the flesh is weak. My grip is weak. I am counting on Jesus to hold on to me.

[32:15] I am counting on Jesus to get me home. I counted on Jesus for salvation. And I am counting on Him for the completeness of that salvation. One day after a while, who are kept by the power of God through faith and salvation, ready to be revealed.

[32:31] And the last time we are kept by the power of God through faith, through believing what God has said. And if we continue on, I don't know if we will or not, but it talks a little bit about the Old Testament prophets.

[32:45] And it talks about how, yes, they believed what God said. They believed in the Old Testament. They believed in all the promises that were made. But folks, they were looking toward a Messiah to come.

[32:58] And we are talking about, Peter was writing about, and we are preaching about this evening, about a crucified Christ and a risen Christ that has already come. And he has already gone. And he is guaranteed to come back again.

[33:11] These believers that Peter was writing here to, they knew that Peter was standing there at the Ascension of Jesus Christ. And they would have known that Peter heard the words that Christ spoke, that he would come again.

[33:24] And this had to be awfully comforting and encouragement to these believers. But they were, but they are kept and Peter is trying to get through to them. They are kept by the power of God, through the faith that they have in this same God.

[33:40] And I am kept by that same power and by that same faith, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

[33:51] Wherein you greatly rejoice though now for a season if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations. So here, we've already brought it up. Peter says you're in heaviness through manifold temptations, but Peter is encouraging them.

[34:07] And these few lines that we're reading and preaching through tonight, Peter is encouraging them, please keep your faith. Keep your faith. Don't stray to the right. Don't stray to the left. Don't listen to the false teachers.

[34:19] Don't listen to demons. Don't listen to the whispers. You pay attention to the word of God. You pay attention to the gospel that was preached to you, that brought you salvation. For the Bible says that there's the gospel of Jesus Christ, that is the power of God unto salvation.

[34:35] And Peter is encouraging them here to keep their faith. But he says, wherein you greatly rejoice though now for a season if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations.

[34:46] But he's telling them keep your faith. You're guaranteed an inheritance. You were already sanctified unto obedience and unto the sprinkling of the blood. Of Jesus Christ. And you're guaranteed this inheritance that is incorruptible.

[34:59] It is undefiled. And it is reserved for you in heaven. He is encouraging these people to keep their faith, to continue on for the ways of God and for the glory of God.

[35:10] Continuing on in the very faith that saved them to begin with. In church, I will encourage you to do the same thing. Don't try a new faith if you're sitting here saving and born again.

[35:22] This evening, the original faith that saved you is in the original God, the only God of the universe, the very maker of heaven and of earth. It is in him and he only can save your souls and get you home.

[35:38] Keep that same faith and keep it in the same God. They've talked about the manifold temptations that they're having. This reminds me of James in chapter 1, James, encouraging his readers.

[35:51] Remember in James chapter 1, he was writing to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad. They're in the first verse of chapter 1 of James, the very next verse. James 1 and verse 2, he says, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diver's temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith work with patience.

[36:09] He's telling them the trying of your faith will work patience in your life. And that continues on into the next verse. He says, but let patience have her perfect work, that she may be perfect and entire, and only nothing. Let patience have her perfect work in your life right here in 2023, dear Christian. Hey, it don't matter what trial comes your way.

[36:30] It don't matter what tribulation comes your way, or what persecution may come the church's way. If we keep our faith in the God that saved our souls, we are guaranteed this inheritance that Peter was talking about to these people, which he was writing to.

[36:45] Through heaviness and manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold, that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, it might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

[37:00] So he's talking about in verse 6, year in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, he says, the trial of your faith, your faith is much more precious than gold.

[37:13] Folks, that's quite a statement that Peter was making. It was quite a statement 2,000 years ago. It's quite a statement now. Gold is still a fairly hot commodity in the worldwide markets.

[37:26] The praise God, I've got an inheritance. I've got an inheritance that's promised to me. Where gold ain't nothing more than asphalt. If the street is paved with gold in that city, it is nothing more than something for people to walk on where I'm going.

[37:42] Hallelujah. He says, the trial of your faith being much more precious than that of gold, that perisheth. He's talking about the gold that is here now, as precious as we might see it, and as much as a commodity, as much value as it may have right now, sooner or later, that gold is going to perish.

[38:00] Hey folks, the Bible says, in fact, it was Peter himself that said that the very elements were going to melt with a fervent heat one of these days, and the gold of planet earth is going to go up with everything else that is here.

[38:13] But our faith is much more precious than gold is, and the trial of our faith is as precious as the gold is. He said, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

[38:28] One day when we stand before Christ, one day when we're taken up out of here by our Lord and by our Savior, our trials will be turned into honor. Our trials will be turned into praise, and our trials will be turned into glory for the very one that walked with us through the fiery trials.

[38:47] He helped us, and he shielded us from the fiery darts of the devil. He helped us through and along this path which we are trotting, and all of these trials that we are facing now, they will be turned into praise and glory toward Jesus Christ, the Savior of our souls. Praise God for the Lamb of God.

[39:08] Hallelujah. 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.

[39:26] Whom having not seen, you love. Folks, now I have no doubt that the people Peter was writing to here, because I said this would have been early to mid-60s that this would have been written, AD.

[39:41] Jesus Christ was about 33 and a third years old, 33 and a half years old when he was crucified. I have no doubt in my life that some of the people that believed on Jesus Christ that Peter was writing to here were alive at the time that Jesus Christ was crucified.

[39:58] I mean, you're only looking at 20-some odd years, their possibility. Now some of them would have fallen asleep in the grave, some of them would have passed on granted, but without a doubt in my mind, some of those people would have been alive that Peter was writing to here at the time that Jesus Christ was crucified.

[40:17] But he says, Whom having not seen, you love. So this is for some of those people, and it's for all of us. Whom having not seen, you love. I've never seen Jesus Christ face to face.

[40:31] Never seen the man, but I love him. And I know that he loves me, praise God. I've never seen him. Whom having not seen, you love. And whom though you see him not yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

[40:49] Even though we've never seen him, we love him. And once again, you keep in mind that Peter is writing to believers here. He's writing to the broad of Christ of those that have been bought by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

[41:02] Whom having not seen, you love. Whom though now you see him, now you see him not yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Once again, Peter is doing nothing more than encouraging them here.

[41:15] He's saying, yes, maybe Jesus Christ isn't here on planet Earth right now. Maybe he has ascended to the Father, but we, even though we don't see him now, and you keep in mind that Peter walked with the man for three plus years, but even though we don't see him now, even though we don't have him physically now, we have him spiritually, and even though we don't see him, we can love him as he loves us.

[41:42] And we can rejoice in the love that God has towards us, and we can rejoice in the sanctification of the Spirit, and we can rejoice in the inheritance that has promised us.

[41:53] Folks, we have reason to rejoice because we have a God that loves us. We have a God that saved us. We have a God that sinned his only begotten Son into this world that you and I could have loved and have it more abundantly.

[42:09] We can rejoice because of these things. These people here can rejoice. He says you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

[42:25] We have all kinds of reason to rejoice, to rejoice in the things that Peter is writing about here, but most of them I just listed, but folks, that list could continue on and on the things of God that we could rejoice about, but most of all, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

[42:49] What is the end of my faith? One of these days, my faith is going to be turned into sight. My faith is going to be turned from spiritual into physical. When I reach glory land over there, when I finally get home, when I receive the inheritance that Peter was writing about here, when I receive that, it will no longer be by faith, it will be by sight.

[43:10] Right now, I've realized we walk by faith and not by sight. That's what Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, and I praise God for that. That's kind of what Peter was talking about there in verse number eight of the first chapter of 1 Peter.

[43:24] When he says, whom having not seen you love, even though we haven't seen Christ, we love Him. He sees us praise God, and he knows exactly where we're at, he knows exactly what we're doing, he knows exactly what situations that we're in, and he is a great help in a time of trouble.

[43:43] Praise God, but the ultimate is receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. The end of my faith will be forever in eternity with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to forever worship Him and to forever bring Him honor and honor and glory for what He has done for me.

[44:04] Now, some folks, and I guess it's somewhat debatable, that when we get over to glory, will we remember while we are there?

[44:19] What is the end of our faith? Peter here says, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Will we remember that we were lost sinners in need of a Savior, or will we just know that we have a Savior in His name Jesus and we're praising Him for it?

[44:37] And that's a highly debated topic in the theological realm, and that's probably better saved for a teaching session than a preaching session, as far as that goes.

[44:49] But I believe that we will know who Jesus Christ is and I believe that receiving the end of our faith, that culminates in heaven and will ultimately be culminated at the marriage supper of the Lamb when we are actually wed to Christ as His bride.

[45:10] That's the ultimate culmination of our faith. It says, even the salvation of your souls. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I have salvation of my soul right now, but that salvation has not been brought to completeness just yet.

[45:31] I've still got some things over in glory that I have yet to see, and you have some things over in glory. If you're a born again child of God that you have yet to see, that will be the completion of the salvation of our souls.

[45:45] And that's tonight's message. I'm not going to go any further than that. God bless you all. I appreciate your attention. If anybody would like to pray, you're more than welcome to.