1 PETER 1:1-122009 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Peter 1:1-12

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2009.

Peter starts out this epistle much in the form of the day introducing himself. And so we'll begin there in verse 1. Peter says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

Here we have Peter. Now, we are very familiar with Peter or Simon Peter. He was one of Jesus's 12 disciples. He was with Jesus for his ministry, the three years that he was ministering to the people as he was here on this earth leading up to his crucifixion. He was one of the inner circle, really, of disciples because he had Peter, James, and John that were with Jesus each

even when the other 12 were not with them. And so they got to participate in and be a part of a few more miracles. They got to be on the mountain of transfiguration with Jesus. There when he was transfigured and had Moses and Elijah ministering to him. And they got to be a part of Jesus' ministry in a very unique way. And so this man Peter now is called by God as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He's one who is

sent out by Jesus Christ. And he's one who's sent specifically to the Jewish people. It's always interesting to me to see who God chooses to use to minister to a group of people.

Peter, as you know, was a fisherman. He was not well educated. He wasn't a scholar. He wasn't, you know, some type of religious leader. He was a fisherman. He made his money. He provided for himself and his family by fishing in the Sea of Galilee. He was a common worker, a normal person, we might say. He was a fisherman.

Then you have the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul was educated extensively. He was a Pharisee. He was an expert in the law. He knew the scriptures. He knew the details. He knew the arguments. He had this great education. He was a scholar. And yet God sent them to...

Well, we might consider it to be illogical or something that we wouldn't do. God sent Peter to the Jewish people. To the Jewish people who they really respected and revered the scholars and the teachers. They really held in high esteem the rabbis and those who could expound the scriptures. And yet God sends to them Peter.

This common man, this fisherman, and God used him powerfully to minister to the Jewish people.

And then the Apostle Paul, who we might think, wow, he would be perfect. He would be the ideal person to reach the Jewish people. God sent him to the Gentiles who cared nothing about the Jewish law. They didn't care about the scriptures or the Torah or anything like that. That was the farthest thing from their mind. And yet, that's what Paul knew. That's what he was trained in. And God sent him to the Gentiles who cared nothing for those things.

And it's amazing to me as we look at these things to see that God uses the unlikely candidates to minister to a group of people. In Galatians chapter 2, Paul is explaining this and he talks about how God worked effectively in Peter.

as an apostle to the Jews. And then God worked effectively in Paul and himself as an apostle to the Gentiles. And I point that out and I share that with you because oftentimes we disqualify ourselves. We think, oh,

I'm not the right person to share with that guy or share with that girl. And we say, well, I'm too old and they really need a younger person to minister to them. Or we say, I'm too young and really there should be an older person who ministers to them. Or I'm like this or I'm like that. We have different backgrounds and we have all these reasons.

why we don't reach out and minister to certain people in our lives because it doesn't make sense, it's not logical. And yet we see in the scriptures that God uses the unlikely candidates so that he gets the glory.

And so I want to encourage you to take those opportunities that God gives you. It may not seem logical why God would use you in that situation or to that type of person. And yet perhaps God desires to pour out His Spirit upon you and to minister through you to those people.

And so I want to encourage you to give God an opportunity or take God's opportunities that he gives you and give him a chance to use you by ministering to the world around you and sharing with them the gospel message. And you say, well, what is that? Well, just pay attention to the rest of the message and you'll be well equipped with things to share about what God has done for us.

Peter, in writing this epistle, he introduces himself and he says who he's writing it to, to the pilgrims of the dispersion. Now, these are the Jewish people who have been dispersed, right?

You remember back in the book of Acts, very early on in the church, in Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit came upon the church and the disciples were baptized in the Holy Spirit and there was a great work that began and Peter began by getting up and speaking and preaching the gospel, preaching the good news and 3,000 people got saved.

And then a couple chapters later, I think it's chapter 5, there was another 5,000 people who got saved. And all of this is taking place in the city of Jerusalem. And so now in Jerusalem at that point in the book of Acts, you have quite a lot of believers, 8,000 at least, even more so because it says the Lord was adding to the church as those were being saved. And so there's this good population of believers in Jesus Christ in Jerusalem.

But then something happens in Acts chapter 8.

In Acts chapter 8, this man Saul of Tarsus comes on the scene. And he is intent on putting out and abolishing this idea of Christianity and following Jesus. The way is what they called it. And so Saul was persecuting the church. And as a result, this great persecution breaks out in Acts chapter 8 verse 1. And it tells us that the...

The believers there in Jerusalem were now scattered throughout all Judea and Samaria. They're pushed out of Jerusalem and they go into the rest of Israel and then even beyond. As we see here, Peter is addressing those who have been dispersed as far as Pontus and Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.

These are Roman provinces in the area known as Asia Minor, or if you're familiar with the modern day map, it's the area of northern Turkey today.

And so Peter is writing to those Jewish believers. They are Jewish by heritage, by nationality, but they've believed in Jesus Christ. They've been dispersed and scattered as a result of persecution. And now they're here in the northern part of Asia Minor. And Peter is writing to encourage them in the midst of some great persecution and difficulty that they are facing. But

But I love how he starts out this book, and it's great for us to consider and to remember this morning the things that Peter is going to share with us in regards to salvation. You know, what we have that God has extended to us in this idea of salvation is...

Well, it's really awesome. And awesome really doesn't cut it. It's really incredible. And that's not a good enough word either. It's phenomenal. And that really doesn't explain it well enough either. It's really, there's no good word to explain. And so I want to share with you the things that Peter shares in order to explain to you how awesome this salvation is that God provides to us. There's two parts to this salvation. There's God's part and there's our part.

Now, right off the bat, I hope that you know that God's part, well, that's the real heavy hitting. Our part is much simpler, and so we'll spend a little less time on that. But here Peter outlines for us what God has done for us in providing us salvation. And he starts out that in verse 2.

It says, Here Peter is concluding his greeting, but he calls them the elect. He says, you guys, you're believers in Jesus Christ. You're scattered abroad. You're not going to be able to go to heaven.

But you are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. And this is the first thing I want to point out about God's part of our salvation. And the first thing that we must consider, the first thing that we see when it comes to salvation is that those who are saved, those who are receiving the salvation that God has offered are the elect. The word elect there simply means chosen.

He tells these guys that he's writing to, as well as you and I, if we're believers in Jesus Christ this morning, that they are, you are, the elect. You are chosen by God. Now when we talk about being elect, or the doctrine of election, we're talking about a subject that has caused lots of conflict and debates and confusion within the body of Christ.

Because when we talk about election, people kind of by nature try to make some logical conclusions based on what the Bible says about election. But the logical conclusions that they come to are things that the Bible does not teach. And so we need to understand that when there is a discrepancy between election

Our conclusions and the Word of God, we know the deficiency is not in the Word of God, but that it's in us. And that's the one that lacks understanding is not God, but it's our own selves. And so we need to be careful on the conclusions that we make based upon what the Word of God says. And we need to hold fast to what God's Word does teach instead of filling in the blanks and making it say what we think it might say.

Well, let me give you an example. One of the conclusions that people come to when it comes to the doctrine of election is that, well, if some people are elect, if some people are chosen and they are the ones that are saved, well, logical conclusion, what they say is, well, then God chose some for salvation and some for damnation.

And the ones that he chose for salvation are saved, and the ones that he chose for damnation, well, they are not saved, and they couldn't be saved even if they wanted to be saved, because God did not choose them, is the logical conclusion that people draw as they try to rectify this doctrine in their mind. But here's the problem. The Bible does not teach that.

The Bible does not teach that there are some who cannot receive the gospel message. The Bible doesn't teach that there are some who have been chosen by God for damnation. What does the Bible teach? Well, the Bible teaches in John chapter 3 verse 16 that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. The Bible teaches that God loved the whole world.

He loves every person so much that He sent His Son to die on the cross in our place. That whoever believes in Him, it's an invitation to anyone who will believe. Whoever will believe should not perish, but have everlasting life.

And so we know that the Bible teaches the invitation is to all. Not just in this verse. This is just an example. But the whole scripture is pointing out and it's God's invitation for people to respond. Whoever will respond, God will receive. Whoever will believe will be saved and will not perish. So how does that square with the idea of elect and being chosen by God? Well,

What we need to understand is what Peter explains in verse 2. He says, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. And this is where we begin to have trouble. Because God's election is based on His foreknowledge. It's according to His foreknowledge. And we have no idea what that is like. We don't know what it's like to operate when you know everything.

Sometimes we think we know everything, and then we have some rude awakenings, and we realize we don't know everything. But we don't really know what it's like to be omniscient like God is. If there is ever a time that God is going to know something, He has always known it. Tomorrow, you may not know what you're going to have for lunch, but God knew what you're going to have for lunch tomorrow before He even created the world.

Before he even began creation, before the universe existed, God knew. Because God, well, he has foreknowledge and that's really hard for us to understand. But it's important for us to grapple with it a little bit so that we can understand that the elect, God's choosing is based upon his foreknowledge. Because he knows everything.

And He knows those who will respond to His invitation of salvation. He knows who the whoever's are that will believe in Him.

But it's very hard for us to figure out and very hard for us to contemplate and understand what that is like. It's a little bit like, those of you guys who know my background a little bit, for several years I worked for a payroll company and I was the technical support. So I worked on the computer problems for the customers and

Very often I'd have to go out to the customer's location and they've been fighting with this problem for many days, weeks, sometimes months and having trouble and finally it gets to the point where I need to go out and try to resolve the problem. And I'll tell you, as a tech guy, one of the greatest days, one of the greatest tech calls you can have is those calls, and they happen quite frequently, where you go in, you push like two buttons and you walk out because it's fixed.

It's like they've been wrestling with it for weeks. They've been fighting and trying to figure it out and talking with different people. And then it's just ding, ding, and then it's done. It's fixed. And it's really great as a tech guy because the people begin to think, wow, like you're so incredible. Like there's some kind of genius. There's some special powers you have when it comes to tech things. And they cannot understand how you knew to do that.

It's just, it's beyond, it's so mysterious in the same way, or similarly, not really in the same way, but God's the ultimate tech guy in regards to all of life. And, you know, we struggle, we wrestle with issues, we don't have any idea what the answer is and the proper response is, but God knows. He's got it all figured out. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows all things. And

And so we can look at what God says and think, "Now how on earth did He know that that was going to work?" Or, "How did He know that that's all that was needed?" "How did He know who would choose Him?" "How did He know who to choose?" And we can wrestle with it, and we can fight with it, and try to figure it out, and try to make sense of it. But the reality is, we just don't know what it's like to operate with all knowledge. Now, let's just set aside those things for a moment. Forget about wrestling over and trying to make it make sense in our head.

Let's just enjoy the fact that God has chosen us. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Do you believe that He, being God, became man and died on the cross in your place and received the penalty for your sin that you could be forgiven and have everlasting life? Listen, if you believe that, understand that God chose you.

I love when Pastor Chuck shares on the doctrine of election because he always shares about the example, the illustration of if you knew everything, if you knew the future and you went to a racetrack to bet on horses, which ones would you bet on? You know the end. You know the outcome. Are you going to bet on the losers?

Well, no. You'd have to be a dummy to know the future, to know the winners, and to bet on the losers. That doesn't make any sense. No, you would go and you would bet on the ones that you knew were going to win the race. Well, listen, it brings me great comfort. I get really excited when I understand and remember that God chose me. He knows everything and He chose me.

He knows my past. He knows my present. He knows my future. He knows my struggles. He knows my deficiencies. And He chose me. Well, how do you know He chose you? Well, because I believe in Jesus Christ. I've received Him as my Savior and Lord. I've been born again. He chose me. That is exciting to me. I don't know if it's exciting to you, but it's exciting to me that God, He handpicked, He specifically said, I want to spend eternity with that one.

I want Him to be with me forever and ever. I choose Him. God chose us. He picked us because He wants to spend eternity with us. And so as we begin looking at God's part in our salvation process, we first of all understand God chose us. Just like He told His disciples in John 15, 16, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.

Jesus told his disciples, he tells you and I today, listen, you did not choose me, but I chose you. I picked you because I want to spend eternity with you. Well, he says, we're the elect, according to the foreknowledge of God, in sanctification of the Spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. We're sanctified or set apart by the Spirit for obedience, that is to walk with God, to be obedient to God, and for the sprinkling of the blood, that is to be forgiven of

By the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We're sanctified. We're set apart by the Spirit. Chosen by God to be set apart to walk with Him and to be forgiven of our sins. Well, this is just the beginning of what God has done for us. As we continue to look at God's part in salvation, next we find that God begot us again. We've been born again by God. Look at verse 3.

He says, Now, please pay attention as we look at these things to how this is all about the work of God.

He says, blessed be God. You can see Peter rejoicing as he's writing these things. God is so good in what he's done for us. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy, his abundant mercy, God's mercy is abundant. And it's because God's mercy is abundant that we've been born again. You know, it's not according to my good looks.

It's not according to, thank you for the laugh, it's not according to your good works. It's not according to our religiousness or our faithfulness. It's not according to us that we've been born again. What's it according to? His abundant mercy. God's mercy is abundant.

Mercy is God having compassion on us and not giving us the judgment that we deserve. God does not deal with us according to our sins. That's mercy. And because His mercy is abundant, that means there's more than enough. The cup is overflowing. It's more than sufficient. He's got more mercy than we could need. And we need a lot of mercy. The worst of the worst is,

God has enough mercy for them. There's no one that is still alive that is outside of the reach of God's mercy. There's no one who still has breath that is unable to receive God's mercy. The good news, the gospel message is for everyone who will receive it because God's mercy is abundant. It's not because of us, it's in spite of us, it's because of Him.

He says, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope. God has begotten us again. Or in other words, we have been born again. Now, Jesus talked about the subject of being born again in John chapter 3.

I would encourage you to spend some time there in John chapter 3 if you're not familiar with it and hear what Jesus has to say as he explains to Nicodemus, you must be born again. If you want to enter into eternity, you want to enter into the kingdom of God, you must be born again. Why must you be born again? Well, the scriptures teach us that as a result of sin, we are dead. Spiritually, we are dead.

Now here as you're sitting in service, you have a body and that body is alive. Your heart's beating, you're breathing. You might be snoring, but you're breathing. And as you sit, as you walk, you have life. You've been born. And ever since you've been born, you've been alive. But that life is physical life. Your body is alive. Mentally, emotionally, we're alive. But spiritually, when we are born, we're dead.

Spiritually, our spiritual nature is dead when we're born into this world. Because of our sinful nature, we're separated from God. In Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1, the Apostle Paul says, "...and you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins." You and I, apart from Christ, before Christ, we were dead in trespasses and sins.

No spiritual life at all. And we could not communicate with God because, well, God is spirit. Those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And spiritually, we were dead. You can't have a relationship with something that is dead. That's why we must be born again. That's what we talk about when we're talking about being born again. We're not talking about physical birth. We're talking about a spiritual birth, a regeneration,

Again, Paul says, and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. We're talking about a spiritual birth so that now we have spiritual life. So that now we can have relationship with God and communion with God. And this is what God does. Because of his abundant mercy or according to his abundant mercy, he has begotten us again. We've been born again. We've been given spiritual life again.

In 2 Corinthians 5.17, it tells us that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. New creation. Because the old man, the old nature, was dead. It was lifeless, worthless, useless. There needed to be a new work. There needed to be a new life. Now, no amount of good behavior could resuscitate our dead spiritual nature. We couldn't earn anything.

spiritual life. We couldn't revive it somehow by being good or by being religious. There was nothing that we could do. It was beyond our power. We were spiritually dead and nothing we could do about it. The only thing that could be done is for God to intervene to make us a new creation, to give us new life, to make us born again.

Those who believe in Jesus Christ and receive Him as Savior and Lord are born again. They're given new spiritual life. And now we're able to have relationship with God. In John chapter 10 verse 10, it tells us that the thief does not come except to steal and kill and destroy. But Jesus says, I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.

Jesus says, I've come that you may have life. He's not talking about, you know, the luxurious life. He's not talking about an abundant life of possessions or finances or those types of things. He's talking about, I've come that you may have spiritual life. Spiritual life is an abundant life because as spiritual life, you get to walk with God. You get to have relationship with God. You get to commune with God.

You get to be filled and satisfied with the things of God. And so as we look at God's part, we see this is incredible. God does the heavy hitting. What do we do? Well, we're not done looking at God's part. There's one more thing. Look at verse 4. He says, actually there's two more things. I better pick it up the pace a little bit. Alright, verse 4. To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. So the next thing we see about God's part is that He has made a reservation for us.

This reservation is for an inheritance that is incorruptible, that is undefiled, and that does not fade away. It's incorruptible, which means it does not decay, it will not perish. It's undefiled, which means it is not impacted by sin. It does not fade away, which means it's unfailing. Now, if you were to receive an inheritance from a relative, well, that inheritance would not be like the inheritance that God has for you.

You could get a house, but it's corruptible. And it's defileable. It's subject to fading. It'll pass away. It could burn down. It could be broken into. You could receive a lot of money or perhaps stocks. And those things we've seen, they can just disappear overnight. Maybe you get a million dollar painting and then your five-year-old writes on it with a crayon and there it goes. It's defiled. The inheritance that God has for us

It's not like any of those things. It's incorruptible. It cannot be corrupted. It cannot be defiled and it will not fade away. And not only that, but it's reserved in heaven for you. It's reserved in heaven for you. Now, God's reservations are not like some of the reservations that we experience. Have you ever made a reservation on an airline and you have your ticket and you get to the

and they say, I'm so sorry, we've overbooked the flight. And the flight is full and we're going to have to put you on a different flight. I have my ticket. I made the reservation. What's going on? Well, that's how we operate and usually not everybody responds and so usually it works out. The percentages are good, but this time the flight is overbooked and so we're going to have to put you on a different flight. Well, that's a lousy reservation and God does not work that way.

I don't think that I've ever rented a car and picked up the car, the size of car that I reserved. You know, you reserve a compact and then they say, well, we're out of that. We could, for $30 more, we can give you the midsize. It's always a different car that they offer to you, or at least in my experience, because they have a different size than I reserve. God's reservations don't work that way. You don't get into heaven. You know, you get up there and enter into eternity and God says, I didn't think so many people would respond. I kind of overbooked.

You have a little place right outside hell. I hope you don't mind too much. We're just going to put you there for a little bit. You don't get there and God says, oh, yeah, I had this nice mansion, but yeah, someone else already took it. They got here before you. You should have died sooner. So we're going to get you this other place, but hang on, you know, it's just going to take a few minutes. No, God's reservations, they're solid. The word reserve here means to attend carefully, to guard and to keep. God's setting it. He's guarding it. He's keeping it. This is guaranteed.

He has reserved this for you. Jesus told his disciples in John 14, Hey, I'm going to prepare a place for you. For you specifically, God has a place. He's made a reservation. He's got an inheritance set apart for you. And I'm not talking about a reservation at a restaurant where the food is heavenly. I'm talking about a reservation in heaven for the rest of eternity. God has set aside a place for you, an inheritance for you.

We're still looking at God's part. Here's the last one. He keeps us by His power. Look at the first part of verse 5. Who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. He says, we are kept by the power of God. God keeps us by His power. Not only does He reserve us, not only does He choose us, not only does He make us born again, but He keeps us by His power.

This word keep, it's a really good word. Pay attention here. It's a military word which means to guard either to prevent hostile invasion or to keep the inhabitants of a besieged city from flight. Two parts to it. It's a military term to guard either, number one, to prevent a hostile invasion.

God keeps us by His power. He protects us from hostile invasions. It's like what Jesus said to His disciples in John chapter 10 verse 29. He says, look, no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand.

Those who are His, we're in the palm of His hand. Nobody is able to snatch us out of God's hand. Nobody can take us by force from God. Nobody can attack us by force and be successful. God keeps us. He protects us. He guards us by His power. But it also means that He keeps us and He guards us and He protects us from flight, from running away.

There's a verse and the reference alludes me. I apologize. But God says that He devises means. He's not willing that His children to be, that they be lost. He's not willing for that. And so He devises means by which they may be restored to Him.

God does that in our lives. Man, I've seen it in my life. I've seen it in so many lives where God works out. He devises means. He brings His children back to right relationship with Him. God keeps us by His power. Now, there's balance. We shouldn't take that so far then to say, well, you can forget about holiness and obedience and just live however you want to. Hey, no, we still have a free will. God will not force us to spend eternity with Him. But it does mean

We don't have to stress out. We don't have to be freaked out. Oh, maybe I lost my salvation. I lose my keys all the time. How do I know I could have lost my salvation? What if I committed the unpardonable sin? Or what if I sinned, you know, one too many times and that's it, God's done with me. No. God keeps us by His power. And may I remind you that God is all-powerful. He's not limited in power. He's not lacking in power. He's not, oh man, I really wanted to preserve that person, but...

I was just overcome by this force or this thing. No, God is all, He keeps us by His power. We're in His protection. We're in His hand. No one can snatch us. He protects us. He keeps us. That's God's part. He chose us. He begot us again. He made a reservation for us. And He keeps us by His power. And here's the crazy part of this salvation. It's free. It's free.

It doesn't cost us. We don't have to have a large bank account. We don't have to earn it or deserve it. And we couldn't even if we tried. Now, back on the 11th of this month, about two weeks ago, July 11th is free Slurpee Day at 7-Eleven. I know because every year Mario sends me a message to remind me.

And as he sent me the message this year, it really caused me to think. And I began to ponder this idea of a free Slurpee. And everybody's excited. Ooh, a free Slurpee. And I began to wonder, how can salvation be put in the same class as a Slurpee for this day? And that it's free. It's free. God, He doesn't charge us, but He offers it to us for free. We don't have to earn it. We don't have to tithe in order to be saved.

We don't have to do good works in order to be saved. It doesn't come out of our checking account. It's not like an automatic deduction. Alright, you're on the salvation plan. Alright, automatically deducted. $100 a month. It's free. And yet, on that day, I didn't go to 7-Eleven and I did not get a free Slurpee. I chose not to. In the same way, salvation, it's free, it's there. If you want it, you can go get it. But it must be received. And that's our part.

And that's what we see as we go on here. And don't be freaked out. I'm covering this quickly. It's intentional. Because the emphasis here is on God's part. Our part? Well, what is our part? Well, look at verse 5 again. He says, We're kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. This is our part. Faith. We are called to believe God at His word.

And that's our part. That's how we receive. It's by faith. We receive the salvation that God is offering to us. Salvation comes to us through faith. Our part is to believe God at what He has said. To receive what He has offered to us. God does all the heavy hitting. All we have to do is receive. In John chapter 6, the people were asking Jesus, Hey, what do we need to do to do the works of God?

And Jesus tells him in John 6, 29, Hey, this is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He sent. You want to do good works? Great. Believe in the one that God sent. Believe in Jesus Christ. Have faith. Put your trust in God. Believe Him at His word and receive His offer of salvation. Well, the next thing in our part is we get to rejoice greatly. Look at verse 6. He says, In this you greatly rejoice.

Now, Peter talks a lot about suffering in this book, and we'll be dealing with that in chapters to come. As Christians, we do suffer. We face trials. We face hardship. And yet, in the midst of it, we can greatly rejoice. This is what our part is. We get to greatly rejoice, not because of the trials and hardship that we face, but because of the trials and hardship that we face.

But because of our salvation, He says, in this you greatly rejoice. In the salvation, in the things that we have to look forward to in eternity, that God has reserved for us, in those things we greatly rejoice. And so we can walk in the midst of trials and difficulty and persecution in this life with great joy, the salvation that is ready to be revealed. He says, though now for a little while you go through these trials.

A little while. Now, our whole time on earth could be described as and categorized as a little while. And it may not feel that way to us, but it's true. When you look at the scope of eternity, our time on earth is just a little while. And during this little while, yes, there's trials, there's difficulties. We've been grieved by various trials, Peter says.

But in this we greatly rejoice, even though we have trials, because of the salvation that God has given to us. You know, outside of Christ, you still have hardships and trials and difficulty. But that's all they are. They're just hardships and trials and difficulty. Inside of Christ, as Christians, trials and difficulties, God uses them to bless us for eternity.

He uses them to purify us, to mature us, to separate from us the things of the world. They're of eternal value to us. He works all these things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. In Christ, knowing that He keeps us by His power, we know that everything we experience is necessary and good and right and is accomplishing for us eternal things.

And so in this we greatly rejoice. That's our part. We greatly rejoice. Look at verse 7. That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. He compares it for a moment with gold. And gold perishes. Even though it can withstand fire, it is not eternal. It will not last. Your faith is much more precious than gold.

Because it will last for eternity. And your faith, like gold, is tested by fire. Our faith is tested in the furnace of affliction. But it will not perish. Instead, that furnace, that fire, purifies it. So that in the end, we bring praise, honor, and glory to Jesus Christ. The trials, the things that we face, yes, they're tough, they're difficult. But we can greatly rejoice in the salvation that God is working in us.

the reservations that He's made for us, and the results, the accomplishments, the things that He's working on our behalf as a result of the trials that we face, the hardship and difficulty that we endure. Well, the next thing that's our part in salvation is we get to love Jesus. Look at verse 8. He says, "...whom having not seen, you love."

Now this is a get to, not a got to. We get to love Jesus. We have the privilege of a loving relationship with Jesus Christ. We've not seen Him, but He is alive. He's resurrected. He's seated at the right hand of God. And we get to have a real, intimate, loving relationship with Him.

How awesome is that? We've not seen Him and yet we love Him. We get to walk in communion with Him. We get to enjoy this relationship with Him. Not only that, going on in verse 8, He says, Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. Here's the next thing on our part. We get to believe with joy inexpressible. Believing in Jesus...

results in a joy in our hearts that cannot be described or expressed. I cannot express to you the joy that comes from believing in Jesus. I can try, I can talk a little bit about the joy, but I cannot express to you what it means to me that Jesus Christ died upon the cross for me. And that by believing in Him, I know...

It's not a hope in the sense of it's a possibility. I know I have salvation. I know I look forward to eternity with Him. There's this inexpressible joy that comes from believing in Jesus Christ. Verse 9. He says, Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Here's the final thing that's our part. We receive it. You see, God's part. He chose us. He begot us. He made a reservation for us. He keeps us by His power. What do we do?

We just believe. And then we walk in the joy that comes from believing in Him. This joy that's inexpressible. We walk in this loving relationship with Him and receive what He has done for us. He did it all. He accomplished it. He did the work there upon the cross. Our part is to receive that work. To receive His Word. He establishes us. He keeps us. He reserves us. He makes us born again.

What we do is we receive it and walk in the joy and love that comes from it. I've been working recently on some kitchen cabinets that needed to be redone and

The cabinets, man, needed some desperate attention. They've not been cleaned, it looks like, for about 30 years. And so there's a great buildup of grease and gunk and just, it's hard to even describe what is on there. And so I've been working really hard and it's several processes and lots of different solutions and

scraping with sponges, with putty knives, and with little tiny screwdrivers to kind of just get the gunk out, to clean it out, to scrape it off. But you know, all the cabinets do while I'm working is they just sit there. And I do all the work. And as I've been doing that this week, I've been thinking about this is what God does. You know, He gets all the gunk out of our lives. We've got 30 years of gunk.

Maybe more some of you. 30 years of gunk that's just built up in our lives and He goes through and He cleans us up. He does the work. Our job, our responsibility is just to sit there and receive it. To let Him do the work. To let Him do in us what He wants to do. This is the salvation that God offers to us. This is awesome.

Let's wrap it up. Verses 10 through 12. He says, Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

He says, look, the prophets beforehand, the Old Testament is full of scriptures and prophecies of these prophets who talked about the coming of Jesus Christ and what he would do and what would be available for us, a salvation for us.

They wrote about these things and it says that they inquired and they searched carefully. They really wanted to find out. They're excited about this thing that God is telling them about. They didn't fully understand it. They're trying to figure out, well, how can the Messiah suffer and be victorious and reign on high? How's that all going to work out? They didn't have the full picture, but they were seeking, they were inquiring, they were searching it out, wanting to know, well, when's this going to happen, God? How are you going to do these things? And they were looking at it

And so we have the scriptures here that are all about the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ. He used a whole book to begin to describe to us what salvation is and what it means to us. And it's just the beginning. We don't even know the half of it. We don't even know a quarter of it. We're going to spend the rest of eternity understanding what God has done for us. The prophets searched carefully.

As they pointed towards it, as they wrote things that they didn't understand that the Spirit was giving to them about Jesus and what He would do and how He would suffer and yet how we would be able to walk and have new life in Him. They spoke about it. They searched for it. Verse 12, To them it was revealed that not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which have now been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look into. Verse 13,

Here's the final point this morning. Salvation is for us. It's for us. They wrote those things. They didn't understand them. It wasn't time yet. But now is the time. It wasn't for themselves that they wrote those things. But they were ministering to us. The things, he says, that have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit. This salvation message, this salvation that God offers to us,

is for right now. It's for us. God has already done the work. He's already accomplished it. It's so amazing. The prophets, they really wanted to find out. This is so exciting. I want to know more. But God said, look, it's not for you. It's for these people coming later. When my son comes, it's going to be revealed. The gospel message is going to go forth.

People are going to have an opportunity to respond to it. This gospel message, this salvation that God offers is so amazing. He concludes verse 12 saying, things which angels desire to look into. The angels trip out. They look at our lives and they look at us and they look at the work of God and they say, this is amazing. We want to look into this. We want to check this out. How is this possible? How is God doing this? Why does God love these people so much?

It's amazing the salvation that God has given to us. It's awesome to behold. It's awesome to receive. And it's for us. It's for right now. It wasn't just for the book of Acts, the New Testament times. It wasn't just for your grandparents' generation, for your mom and dad. This is for you. This is for me. This is the salvation that God offers to us. He does the work. He chose us.

He begot us. He made a reservation for us. He keeps us by His power. Our part is simply to receive by faith what He has done for us. To walk in the great inexpressible joy that comes as a result of that in a loving relationship with Jesus Christ. This morning I want to encourage you. Hey, if you've already been born again, you've accepted this, be reminded, be refreshed. Walk in great joy inexpressible.

knowing what God has done for you. But if you've never received this offer of salvation that God has offered, if you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and said, "Yes, I believe." If you've never been born again, this message is for you. The whole book, the whole Bible is for you. It's a message of salvation, that God loves you and He wants to spend eternity with you. Won't you receive this free offer, this free gift,

that God extends to you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this wonderful gift of salvation that you offer to us. God, the word wonderful, awesome, incredible, it just doesn't describe it well enough. But you're so good to us. We thank you, God, that you loved us so much that you made a way of salvation for us. Knowing that we couldn't do it and if there was any other way, you would have done it that way. You sent your Son

to die upon the cross for us. You did the work. You accomplished it. You made the reservation for us. You gave us new life. Lord, you're still doing the work in our lives, cleaning out the gunk and working in us, transforming us and conforming us into the image of your Son. God, I pray that you would help us to receive what you have for us, to allow you to do the work in us that you want to do. Help us, God, to walk in great joy

knowing the salvation that is in store for us, the eternity that awaits us. God, if there are any that do not know you, that have never been born again, I pray, God, that you would draw them. Help them, Lord, to make a decision to follow you and to receive the offer of salvation that you extend to them. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.