So this salvation, take it away, what are you left with? Well, you who are saved, you know the answer to that. Maybe there is someone here this morning, someone listening online, someone who will listen in the future. You're not saved.
So what are you then? You're just gliding through your existence, not knowing where you're going to land, sure hope you don't fly anywhere on a plane like that. Why would you take your soul on such a foolish flight when you can know, you can know where you're going? This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 1st Peter.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of 1st Peter chapter 1 as he begins this message called the Spirit of Christ. If you have your Bibles, please turn to chapter 1 of Peter's first letter, his first epistle.
We will take verses 10 through 12. 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. To them it was revealed that not to themselves but to us, they were ministering the things which now have 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. This morning's message is entitled the Spirit of Christ.
It is a title given to us from the 10th verse. Peter is schooling these Christians who are persecuted at this time, the time that he is writing this letter to them, he is schooling them on the special processes that belong to the prophecies of Christ and our salvation. He is alerting them to the fact that God is in control, that God is indeed sovereign, the Christ that they love whom, as Peter said, though they have not seen him, they love him nonetheless in this age of grace, writing to Christians again in troubled times.
For them it was persecution, for us it could be anything. It applies to any Christian anywhere at any time who's going through anything that is troublesome. Look with me at verse 7. There he mentions, and I'll just take fragments of verses 7 through 9 to lead up to our beginning verse 10, the genuineness of your faith.
Is there any Christian here who is satisfied with a fake faith, a false faith? The genuineness of your faith, faith tested by fire, he says, found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ whom having not seen you love, yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible, full of glory. Pause there because we come to those times in our Christian walk where we don't feel like expressing praise and joy with inexpressible delight, full of glory. There are times where we're just getting hammered, but we know it's true nonetheless, so we keep going. Even though we don't feel it, we know it's true by faith, and Satan has no defense against that. He continues in verse 9, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
That's what it's all about. Where am I going to go? Where am I going to be 150 years from now? Where am I going to be?
It matters everything. So we look at verse 10, of this salvation, the one he just mentioned in verse 9, of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, the grace we have now. We're not under the law of Moses. The law of Moses has been developed into the law of grace. Christ has fulfilled the law, not destroyed it. He has developed it.
In the same way, an acorn is not destroyed, it's developed into an oak, an oak tree. So this salvation, take it away, what are you left with? Well, you who are saved, you know the answer to that. Maybe there is someone here this morning, someone listening online, someone who will listen in the future. You're not saved.
So what are you then? You're just gliding through your existence, not knowing where you're going to land. I'm sure if you don't fly anywhere on a plane like that, why would you take your soul on such a foolish flight when you can know, when you can know where you're going? In Mark's Gospel, Jesus asked this question, what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? What if you get all that you think you want in this life, a career, money, fame, whatever it is, and you go to hell at the end?
Who wants to fly to hell first class? Jesus has invested himself in this, and if you don't believe that, well the Spirit of Christ is not in you. The Holy Spirit is not in you. Something else is.
You think it's just you. You've been suckered again if you believe that. You are going to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, are you going to serve the devil whether you like it or not? Those are the terms we face as human beings, each and every one of us. It's what Jesus had in mind, the salvation of the souls when he spoke to Peter and those with Peter. He said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. That's what it's about, scooping them up out of this sea of doom that the human race has found itself in, the guilt upon humanity for not obeying God, for falling short of the glory of God, sin.
We all have done it and do it. Jesus also said this, the Son of Man, that would be him, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. He's on a search and rescue mission from then till now. Now he does it through the Holy Spirit. From hell's perspective, this salvation stuff's not going away.
Hell doesn't like that and nothing you can do about it overall except pick off individuals who refuse to accept it, who have followed what some human being has said instead of listening to what God has revealed. The ancient prophets, they were very much into this subject. So he says in verse 10, of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched. They were into it.
It was not something they moonlighted with or did okay as a hobby. They were invested in what God was saying. So if you're not saved, you're lost. And there's no excuse. You either repent or you don't.
You have no one to blame. It's such a lame thing to think that you're going to stand in front of a holy God and say, I didn't believe you because of them. Well God will deal with them, whoever they might be, if they are guilty of causing you excuse to not follow. But you are accountable because Jesus never said follow my disciples who aren't following me. Jesus said follow me. And that's why the scripture is available. So many have heard the message so often, so many times without any, without trying, they tune it out when it begins to be preached to them.
They may be doing it to me right now. And so when they hear those beautiful words, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Think not that I came into the world to condemn the world but that the world through me might be saved. They've heard it so often they don't want to hear it anymore.
When the day comes they wish they heard it, it will be too late. There will be no court of appeal. There will be no expiration date. There will be no temporary place where you can be bought out, prayed out, or get out at death. You're done. You're either going to be with Christ or not.
You have one entire lifetime to get off the fence and make a decision. You who are Christians already, you've made this decision, you still struggle. You say, where's all the beauty of the Christian faith? Why am I not a better person? Because sin is on you, that's why.
And you've got to fight through it because you have no reason to quit, no reason to give up. Hopefully you've come across pastors and ministries that have done whatever they can to make you stronger at facing life in Christ Jesus and not running from life, not selling you a bag of goods that does not help you, what hurts you, making false promises and false claims. And so he says here again in verse 10, the prophets inquired and searched carefully. Great was their interest and great should be our interest also. It was really an easy thing for the prophets to understand so many of the prophecies that they were entrusted with. For instance, when God spoke of the fall of Babylon, they got that. When God spoke about the fall of the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, they understood that. When God said the dogs will eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel, they understood that.
No problem. It all happened just as they prophesied. But when it came to the prophecies concerning the age of grace, the salvation of the Gentiles, the virgin birth, the resurrection, just mentioned in the Psalm, Psalm 16 for example, he will not leave him in Sheol.
He will not experience corruption. That is a reference to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When they wrote such things, they knew it was from God.
They had no doubt this was from God, but many of those things about the Christ were vague to them. They're not to us. This is designed by God. It is good. It is on purpose.
It is necessary. They staggered and they wobbled concerning Christianity. It took a long time, even after Christ came, for many of them to figure it out. Had they not been unclear on so much of this, they would have elaborated on it.
They would have written more, but they did not because it was not given to them. That would not have stopped the false prophets. The false prophets just fill in blanks. They just make stuff up or they receive it from demons. But the true prophets, they know how to shut their mouths. They know when, okay, this is no longer God speaking and so I have nothing to say as a prophet about these matters.
God revealed what men could handle at the age that it was revealed in, even though it was for an age long, long away. Some, of course, insist that God cannot relay his messages through men, through sinful men, which is perplexing to me. Somehow, it is unacceptable and untrustworthy to receive a message from God from another human being.
Why is that? Where is that written? Why should I follow such a thought? So they say, men wrote the Bible supposing that it invalidates the message. You see, it's still written by men. Yeah, they wrote it as scribes.
It was dictated to them by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ in them, as Peter will say in verse 10. This tells us that their idea of God is one of a puny God. He's not strong enough to do it.
He can't pull it off. It is quite revealing what their ideas of religion and the spiritual realm is about and it is wrong, it is false, but they're comfortable with it and that's what is damning to them. The Thessalonians knew better, those Greeks living in that ancient city. Paul wrote about it. You know, again, those of you who've been attending here, you've heard this several times and hopefully it's not stale to you, but when Paul showed up at that city of Thessalonica, he and Silas, both of those men still had on their backs fresh marks from being caned, from being beaten.
The wounds still were not healed yet. They arrived at Thessalonica and they made converts. Paul was chased out of that city not long after his arrival, so he writes back to them because he's concerned about these new converts. He says, for this reason we also thank God without ceasing because when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. It says it all for us. We who have heard the voice, we who have seen the love of Christ, we understand it, we get it, we've got it.
We're not letting it go. But, to whomsoever much is given, much is required. What are you going to do with that? What are you going to do with this now, Christian? To the Ephesians, Paul said, in him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
The deal was closed. Your salvation is complete because you received, you trusted the word after you heard it. Those who hear it and don't trust it, the consequences will be on them and they will be self-inflicted because there's no excuse. You go through the Scriptures, when you become a new Christian, you're looking for a mistake subconsciously. That's why when you find a contradiction, apparent contradiction, you are alarmed.
And then it is settled. Then you are strengthened. And as time goes on, you stop looking for the contradictions, you're now going forward in the strength of what you know. Even Mark Twain, his name has a twang to it, a heretic to his death, but he said, you know, it's not the verses in the Bible that I don't understand that bother me, it's the ones I do understand.
So many people get bent out of shape by things that they don't get. In preparing for this message, you know, I certainly asked the Lord, do you want me to go somewhere else? I considered some of the other passages of Scripture that have to do with celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And he led me back here after a long trail, not too long, but long enough.
Not too long for my liking. Anyway, when I arrived here and struggling with this easy text and the Lord simply spoke through another prophet and he said, relax. And now it's fun. I stand here enjoying what I am preaching because it's true, because I have the God of the universe backing it up. He's in front of it, he's in back of it, on both sides. You can't get away from him when you come to his word in earnest. Luke's Gospel chapter 1, there we read, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been since the world began. That tells us we have this unbroken witness. We have this line from Adam, the first human being, all the way to the present.
No, Johnny, come lately is in this. It's an unbroken witness. No other religion on earth has it. They all fall off after a while. You've traced them back to Papa said. Somebody told them, my fathers have done this. Where is the proof? Where's the beef?
It's missing. So they just become insistent. You may say, I don't like you mocking them. I'm not mocking. I'm telling you how it is.
If it's humorous, then it is what it is. So he says, Peter does who prophesied of the grace that would come to you. That word prophecy is an outstanding word. It means something foretold in advance, something that's that's fantastic.
That's not normal. That's outside of humanity. It is here now, this grace who prophesied of the grace that would come to you. And it is here this again, not the law of Moses, but the developed law of God and the grace of Christ. What is grace in the Old Testament?
It's there to teach us. We don't really see the Bible as two books, the Old and New Testament. It's really one. And there's a progress as a development. One and the latter part seals the first part and defines it for us.
We get that. But it's one book. It is the book, the Bible. Grace is this undeserved kindness that God gives to us. Who here deserves a holy, pure God? Who here thinks that they deserve kind treatment from him, being a sinner?
If you feel that way, you are out of step with reality, with truth, with revealed truth, with just the laws of reason. And so grace is kindness nonetheless. You don't deserve it. You're going to get it.
You're going to get this kindness. Grace, it saved eight souls in an ark from the flood waters of God's judgment on the earth. Grace rescued Rahab from Jericho and the fate of that city as it thumbed its nose at the miracles of God. See, that harlot, she got it. She understood. She saw God moving through the Jewish people.
His love and care for them. She wanted a piece of that. And she got it. If she got it, what was wrong with the mayor of Jericho?
What was wrong with all the soldiers and the people? Everybody else refused it. She did not. Grace fell upon her and her household. Grace, it brought Ruth, that outside Moabite, into the royal family of God. And as a bonus on the life of Ruth, Naomi was blessed and refreshed and not in a spiritual sense, but in an emotional sense, born again. She came back to life.
After that sour experience outside of Israel, God brought Ruth into her life through grace and blessed a heap of people. So the Old Testament prophets, they knew about grace. They also knew what stirred them, what led them, what moved them, and who informed them. They knew this.
They weren't groping around, who's this? They got it. They understood it was God. And in that strength, they wrote, they preached, they lived, and they acted. I mean, we think of a classic example, not having to do directly with the salvation of Jesus Christ and his prophecies. What you think of Elijah, if I'm a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you.
And boom, it did. And then, instead of Satan saying, do it again if it was really God. So he does it again.
The second group comes out. So the third one says, okay, look, peace. Let's not do it that way.
It doesn't work well. But the prophets understood who it was working in their lives. God was moving and sharing this message that we enjoy in greater fullness, incidentally. Whatever the details, the facts surrounding the prophecies defy naturalistic explanation. You just cannot take someone to Psalm 22 and say it was written after the crucifixion. You just can't take them to Isaiah 53 and say this was written after the, oh, Jesus self-fulfilled that.
These are miraculous events. Those scriptures were in place already. The Jews understood they spoke of Messiah. They just rethought everything after Messiah came and died and they rejected him.
Then they applied it to Israel and not the Messiah. That's what sinners do. And they're real good at doing it. And we are aware of these things. And we know what to do with them. We stick close to the Lord. We look to order our lives in such a way that he can use us. Peter gives the very best answer concerning these prophecies that we know them to be. He speaks 30 years earlier about a Psalm of David in Acts chapter 2. Thirty years before he wrote this letter, he said this about David and his prophecies in the Psalms. He said, David, being a prophet, he, foreseeing this, spoke of the Christ. The New Testament apostles understood that the Old Testament prophets were moved by God to give us this message. That they were in the presence of spiritual things, not natural things.
That we are too. That when you're going through whatever it is you're going through in life, sickness or whatever else, persecution in their case, whatever it may be, God said, I will never leave you. He didn't say, you will never leave me.
Just make sure you don't. He said, I will never leave you. He's there. Now what I want from God, even when there's no drama going on in my life and I'm just not feeling his presence, I want him to make his presence known. Too often he says, no. Because the just shall live by faith.
Because there's no weapon against faith formed that can defeat it if you would just abide in me. And he lets me live it out. And I know it. I don't like it sometimes.
Sometimes I even pout, believe it, at my age. We're so glad you tuned in today to study the book of 1 Peter on Cross Reference Radio. Cross Reference Radio is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. And we're blessed to bring you God's word with each broadcast. If you'd like more information about this program or want to listen to additional teachings from Pastor Rick, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never have to miss a program. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music or your favorite podcast app. We hope you'll tune in again next time to join us as we continue our study through the scriptures right here on Cross Reference Radio.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-03-23 17:17:30 / 2024-03-23 17:26:45 / 9