Fruition of Loving/Believing Unseen Christ

Introduction: The Rare and Strange Christian

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, May 3rd, 1998, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:12 1 Peter chapter 1, beginning with verse 3.

0:20 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His great mercy, begot us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, who, by the power of God, are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in manifold trials, that the proof of your faith, which is the proof of your faith, that the proof of your faith, which is the proof of your faith, that your faith, being more precious than gold that perishes, though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom, not having seen, you love, on whom, though now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Now, as we were reminded in the previous hour, let us, with conscious dependence upon God for the grace and presence of the Holy Spirit,

1:48 rightly to understand His word, let us together plead that we may know that presence and ministry in this hour. Let us pray.

2:00 Our Father, we would take to ourselves the words of the psalmist who pleaded, Open my eyes. That I may behold wondrous things out of your law. We know that your word is true. Your word is clear.

2:17 But we confess that we have the perversity of sin and untruth within our hearts. We have dullness over the eyes of our souls. And we pray that by the present and powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit, you will overcome the remaining sin in the hearts of, of your people that would stand in opposition to or indifference towards your word. That you will even, by the Holy Spirit, overcome the prevailing disposition of blindness and rebellion that exists in those who know you not.

2:55 We pray that you would so minister to us that we may know the reality of your word coming not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit. And in much conviction hear us and answer the cry of our hearts for our good and for your glory. Amen. A real Christian is both a rare and a strange creature.

3:29 He's a rare creature because the Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7 that the way and the gate that lead to life and salvation are one that few are able to understand. are one that few are able to understand. A real Christian is both a rare and a strange creature. He says that the way and the gate that lead to life and salvation are one that few find.

3:45 Do you remember his words urging people to enter in by the compressed gate and to walk upon the narrow way? He says that few are they who find it. He says that few are they who find it. So a real Christian is a rare creature but he's also a strange creature.

4:01 He's a strange creature because he stakes his highest concerns upon a world of reality which he cannot see with his physical eyes. He's a strange creature because he stakes his highest concerns upon a world of reality which he cannot see with his physical eyes. And he gladly confesses that all his hopes to attain that unseen reality rest upon a person whom he has never seen. So he is indeed not only a rare, but a very strange creature.

The Flow of Thought in 1 Peter and the Paradox of Christian Experience

4:27 In our text this morning, 1 Peter 1.8.9, we have a vivid depiction of this rare and strange person called a real Christian. For the Christians there in Asia Minor in the first century to whom Peter addresses his letter are described as those who, with reference to Jesus Christ, not having seen him, they love him.

4:56 And he is one on whom, though they see him not yet believing, they rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Now as we talk about this, we have a very interesting example. We have a very interesting example. As we take up these verses in 1 Peter this morning, let me take just a moment to remind you of the flow of thought in this letter of the Apostle Peter, written with deep pastoral passion and concern to these suffering and distressed saints in Asia Minor, in the area that is now known to us as the country of Turkey.

5:32 After the opening words of greeting, Peter launched into a eulogy, a speech, speaking well of God and of his great salvation. And in verses 3 to 5, he describes that salvation as rooted in the great mercy of God and culminating in this marvelous hope, this unfading, this indefectible hope for which every true Christian is being guarded by the power of God. Then beginning in verse 6, he begins to describe, he begins to describe something of the experience of these Christians who possess this great salvation, and he does so in what I called this paradox of Christian experience, in which at one and the same time they know what it is to experience abounding joy on the one hand and crushing grief on the other. He says, wherein that is in this great salvation, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you've been put to grief. They rejoice while they grieve, and they grieve while they rejoice. This is the paradox of true Christian experience, abounding joy in the midst of crushing grief.

6:59 Now here in verses 8 and 9, Peter takes up another strand of the experience of these believers. He describes them as to their experience as loving and believing in an unseen Christ. And so we're going to look at the text under this general title, Loving and Believing in an Unseen Christ, the Inseparable Realities of Christian Experience. If abounding joy alongside crushing grief is a paradox of Christian experience, then loving and believing in an unseen Christ is a paradox of Christian experience.

The Fact of the Christian's Love for Christ

7:37 Loving and believing in an unseen Christ are the inseparable realities of all genuine Christian experience. Now as I seek to open up and apply the text, note with me first of all, the fact of the Christian's love to the person of Christ. Peter no sooner mentions Jesus Christ with reference to His coming in glory and power at the end of the world, than he mentions the fact of the Christian's love to the person of Christ. Peter no sooner mentions Jesus Christ with reference to His coming in glory and power at the end of the world, than he mentions the fact of the Christian's love to the person of Christ, the time when true, tried, and tested believers will have their faith found to be unto praise and honor and glory.

8:18 He no sooner mentions Jesus Christ, but that he goes on to say, whom, having not seen, you love. And he sets before us the fact of the Christian's love to the person of Christ, and in doing so, gives us at least three strands, of thought. First of all, note the object of their love. The whom, with which verse 8 begins, refers back to Jesus Christ at the end of verse 7. It is Jesus Christ whom they love. Now when Peter says whom you love and is referring to Jesus Christ, what does Peter have in his mind? Does he have the concoction of the religious enthusiasm of a bunch of zealots in the first century? Does he have some undefinable religious symbol in his mind called Jesus Christ? No, as we have had occasion to point out in expounding the previous verses,

9:26 for Peter, who spent more than three years in the immediate presence of Jesus of Nazareth, to speak of Jesus Christ, Jesus Messiah, is to speak of the Christ of biblical revelation. It is to speak of the Jesus Christ introduced in verse 1, Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ. He speaks of the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ in verse 2. In verse 3 he speaks of God the Father being the God of the world.

10:04 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when he speaks of Jesus Christ in verse 7, for Peter, this can mean no other than the Christ of biblical revelation. The Christ whose person and work, whose life, whose miracles, whose death and resurrection are recorded for us now in the gospel records. It is this Christ who was the object of their love. But notice what Peter says about the context of their love. He writes, whom not having seen you love. The context of their love was entirely different from the origins of Peter's love for Jesus Christ. Peter did see him. Peter did behold him. And we traced

11:01 out those significant encounters between Jesus and Peter. Jesus and Peter. We saw him in that initial counter in John 1 where his brother brings him to Jesus and Jesus looks upon him and tells him what he by his grace will make Peter in the days to come. And it was Peter who had that privilege of being part of the inner circle of the twelve, who alone was there on the Mount of Transfiguration, who alone with the other two was there in the Garden of Gethsemane.

11:37 But this Peter who had seen him recognizes that when he writes to these first century Christians there in Asia Minor, the context of their love is one in which they had never, never beheld him with their physical eyes. And so he describes them not only in terms of the fact of their love, its object, it is the very same Jesus Christ whom he had seen. And yet he says of these believers, the context of their love is one in which they have not seen him. But then he also addresses as the third strand under this first century, first heading the present reality of their love. He uses a present tense to say, whom not having seen, you are continually loving. He doesn't use an imperative and say, whom not having seen, you must love. Or a subjunctive, you may love, or a future, you shall love.

12:49 But he uses a simple present tense. He uses a simple present and indicates that the love that they have for Jesus Christ is a present and a constant reality in their experience. Now how in the world could Peter write a letter, most likely from Rome, way over in the western part of the existing then world of the Roman Empire, and all the way across to the eastern borders. How could Peter, for the perfect human purpose, be living in the radial order of that empire?

13:26 How could he write and say that company of people in those provinces of Asia Minor are all marked by this experimental reality that they love an unseen Christ? That the object of their love was Jesus Messiah. The very Jesus whom Peter knew by personal experience. That they loved an unseen Christ.

13:52 They were presently loving him. That though the context of that love was one in which they had never seen him, Peter does not write with any tentativeness. He does not write with any suspicion that what he says will not be true of those elect sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia. Well, Peter can write as he does, because Peter knows that wherever the word of God takes root in the heart of a sinner, and God by the Spirit begets them unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away reserved in heaven for them, wherever you have a company of people who by the power of God are guarded through faith, unto a salvation ready to be revealed, there you will have a company of people who without exception, if they possess all of that glorious salvation which Peter has been eulogizing, there you will find in the heart of every one of them love for the person of Jesus Christ. The word of God, if it makes anything clear,

Biblical Affirmation of Love for Christ

15:18 makes clear that every true Christian, does indeed have love for an unseen Christ. And I want you to look at three texts of Scripture which affirm this in unmistakable language. And remember, we're not engaging in an abstract Bible study. If sitting here today, it cannot be said of you, whom having not seen you love, you are not a true Christian.

15:51 You are not one who can be called, by any stretch of the imaginations, an elect sojourner of the dispersion, one who is under the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, one who has been begotten again to a living hope, for this is true of all who possess that great salvation. Listen carefully then to these three confirming texts in John 8 in verse 41, seeking to demonstrate that Peter can write as he does, because Peter knows that every true Christian possesses love, love for the person of Jesus Christ. In the midst of one of those controversial interchanges between our Lord and the religious leaders of his day, Jesus says in John 8, 41, you do the works of your father. They said unto him, we were not born of fornication. We have one father, even God. They claim to be children of God.

16:50 We are God's children. We are in God's children. We are in God's children. We are in God's family.

16:56 Jesus responds by saying, if God were your father, you would love me. If God were your father, you would love me. And the Lord Jesus by his word and spirit stands in this place today and says to every one of us, if God were your father, you would love me. Jesus regards none, as in the family of God, but those who love his person.

17:32 Listen to the same witness from the Apostle in a totally different setting, 1 Corinthians chapter 16. And though a sister word for love is used, it does not alter the fundamental weight of this text. Paul has addressed a whole gamut of practical problems in the church at Carmel, all the way from divisions to immorality to questions about marriage, to questions about eating meats offered to idols, to spiritual gifts. And in every problem, He constantly brings the people back to some aspect of the person and work of Jesus Christ as being the fundamental resolution of that problem.

18:15 So at the end of an epistle where He has demonstrated that Christ and the dynamics of His grace and the realities of who He is and what He has done is the answer to every pastoral problem, His mind and heart are suffused with a fresh awareness of the utter sufficiency of Jesus Christ. So when He comes to close His epistle, notice what He says in verse 21 of chapter 16 in 1 Corinthians. The salutation or greeting of me, Paul, with my own hand. If any man loves not the Lord or the Lord Jesus, let him be.

18:56 And then He uses, He uses a word which is the strongest word in His Greek vocabulary with which to express the curse of God upon a man. What a way to close an epistle. If anyone loved not the Lord, let him be anathema. Let him be accursed of God.

19:23 How unloving.

19:27 How nasty can you get? Don't you impugn the wisdom or the love of the Holy Ghost.

19:37 Paul has been so filled with a fresh sense of the wonder of all that God has stored up in Christ and the grace available to the people of Christ in their Savior that he can only close his epistle by saying, If anyone does not love so lovable an object as the Lord Jesus, let him be accursed of God. And then he says, Maranatha, even so come Lord Jesus. He's vexed at the thought that there would be a world in which Jesus Christ would be revealed in all the glory and lovableness of His person and men would not love Him. And he longs for the return of his Lord Jesus when in the new heavens and the new earth there will be none on this earth but those who do love the Lord Jesus. You see why Peter can read this? He can write to people way at the other end of the Roman Empire and say, here is the mark of all who are true Christians whom having not seen, you love. Why?

20:45 Because love to the person of Christ is an inevitable accompaniment of any saving relationship to Christ. Jesus says it, If God were your Father, you would love Me. The Apostle says here, If anyone love not the Lord Jesus, let him be accursed of God. And then the third witness is taken from the book of Ephesians, chapter 6.

21:08 As Paul so often does, at the end of the epistle he's going to pronounce a blessing. But it's not a blessing upon just anyone, no matter what their relationship is to God in Christ. Look at verses 23 and 24 of Ephesians 6. At the end of this marvelous epistle that takes us to heights and depths of the grace of God and the marvelous salvation of God, he closes with these words.

21:38 Peace be to the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all them that make a profession of faith. No. Grace be with all them that have a notion that somehow or other Jesus is for good and I'm for Him and He goes His way and I go my way.

22:03 No. Grace, be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible. He pronounces the blessing of God's grace only upon but all who love our Lord Jesus Christ. So as we go back to 1 Peter, and we see Peter describing the experience of these first century Christians, he affirms the fact of their love for the person of Christ, because Peter understood that love for that person was an indispensable accompaniment and the inevitable fruit of a saving relationship to that Christ. Now if that's so, then you see the tremendously important question you need to ask of yourself, and as we conclude the message, I hope to ask, help you to ask that question in a way that I trust will enable you to answer it with judgment day accuracy, but suffice it to say for now, how can I know if I love him? Well, it's not my purpose to expand all the biblical testimony that answers that question,

23:27 but suffice it to say wherever there is genuine love between one intelligent, rational human being and another. It will always be characterized by desire towards the object of love, be characterized by delight in the object of one's love, and determination to please the object of one's love. And those are the nuts and bolts, commodities of genuine love to the Lord Jesus. Whom have I in heaven but you, the psalmist says, there is none that I desire upon earth besides you.

24:04 Delight. Delight in him, desire to be with him, one thing have I desired, that will I seek after, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple, and determination to please him. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. You see, Peter very naturally can write as he pens his letter, whom having not seen, you love.

The Fact of the Christian's Faith in Christ

24:32 Love to an unseen Christ. The fact of it, he affirms in these opening words of our text. But then notice, secondly, the fact of the Christian's faith in the person of Christ. Not only does Peter write as part of the experience of these Christians that they love the person of Christ, but he says they have faith in the person of Christ, whom having not seen, you love.

25:01 On whom, though now you see him not. Yet, believing. Now let's follow the same outline as we did with the matter of love for the person of Christ. Notice the object of their faith.

25:16 Peter says, on whom, and then you can take the phrase, though now you see him not, and just hold it in suspension for a moment, and here's the connection of thought. On whom, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. The object of their faith. The object of their faith is, again, not a set of propositions, detached from Christ, not a standard of conduct that grows out of Christ, but it is Christ Jesus himself.

25:52 The very one whom Peter described as the object of their love, is the Christ who is the object of their faith. He says, on whom, literally into whom, on whom, believing. One of the best descriptions of faith that captures the biblical emphasis, where again and again we are told to believe into, ice, or N, in, or F, P, upon Christ, is that faith is the movement of the soul out of itself and into Christ. That's what faith is.

26:31 It's the movement of the soul out of itself, and into Christ. And Peter understands that, so he can describe these believers. They are not great theologians. He can describe them in this simple language, as those who not only have love for the person of Christ, but one, those on whom, speaking of Christ, though now they see him not, yet believing.

26:59 The object of their faith is the person of Jesus Christ. Now note, that the context of their faith, like their love, the context is, they have not seen him. Whom having not seen you love, on whom, though now you see him not. And you great students will probably discover, that in the first reference, with regard to their love, it's as though Peter looks back on their whole history, and says, you've not seen him.

27:28 He uses an heiress, yet you love him. And though presently, right now, you do not see him, a subtle nuance, that you shall one day see him. But right now, though you are not seeing him, in your present experience, yet you believe into him, or in him. The context of their faith is that of an unseen Christ.

27:55 Now that context will not be ours forever, but it is ours for the now. As Paul said in the parallel passage, 2 Corinthians 5, 5-7, we walk by faith and not by sight. Their faith and sight are contrasted. And not until the soul departs the body at death or at the return of the Lord Jesus, soul and body are glorified and behold Him face to face will we be able to say anything other than our present faith relationship to Christ is in the context of not seeing Him. Though you see Him, not yet believing. But then he notes the reality of their faith, you are believing. And he uses again a present participle. Not you believed, you raised your hand, prayed a prayer, shot up so-called faith to Jesus, took care of your eternal insurance against hell.

28:57 My friends, that's not the biblical concept of saving faith. It's not an act performed concerning which you remember the date and the time and the circumstances whenever you wonder, am I going to go to heaven when I die? Faith is a disposition born in the heart by the Holy Spirit and a disposition that marks the very life of the true believer until faith turns to sight. If you have ever once truly believed on Christ, the proof is you are believing upon Him here and now. And you will continue to believe upon Him until faith merges into sight. So Peter describes these Christians as those who truly do believe. The context of their faith is an unseen Christ, but the reality of their faith, it is a present disposition of the heart and of the soul. And why can't we believe? Why can't we believe? Why can't

Biblical Affirmation of Faith in Christ

29:57 we believe? Why can't we believe? Why can't we believe? Why can't we believe? Why can't we believe? Why can't we believe? And why can Peter do that? Because Peter understands what is made clear in the rest of Scripture, in the language of the previous hour. The analogy of faith points again and again to the fact that all of the promises of God in connection with salvation are given to those who are believing present tense. What's the most familiar gospel text we all know? John 3.16. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, who knew the second coming and ent encanta God . God knew that he loved Him but God loved no other. John 3.16. In fact, Which is a more awake way to Gospels than the Gospel of the Gospel of the Gottes Bert. One does not know what it is B. Why did the Gospel of the Gospel this month say? Next week again, we paprika to the therapeutic Even the old authorized underscores that whosoever believed, no, whosoever believed that. When you see the F in the old versions, that's a present tense. Whosoever believeth, whosoever is continually believing in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

30:52 John 3.36, the same thing. He that believes on the Son hath life. He that is not believing shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him.

31:06 That's why Revelation 21.8 can say, but the fearful and the unbelieving, those who live and die in a posture of unbelief, the opposite of believing, that they shall be cast into the lakes. You see, Peter was there by the shore of Galilee, the incident recorded in John chapter 20. Peter was there, not by the shore of Galilee, I'm sorry, that's chapter 21, that comes later.

31:39 But in chapter 20, that incident where the Lord Jesus appears in the midst of the fearful believers. And you remember doubting Thomas? He's not going to believe unless he can see and touch. He's the empiricist. He said, I've got to have evidence.

31:54 I've got to see it, got to touch it, got to smell it, got to feel it. And the Lord Jesus accommodates himself to him. John 20 and verse 27, he said to Thomas, reach hither your fingers, see my hands, reach hither your hand, put it into my side. Be not faithless, but believing.

32:12 Thomas answered and said unto him, my Lord and my God. He acknowledges Jesus to be indeed the resurrected Lord. His very Lord and his God. Now notice what Jesus said to him.

32:27 Jesus said to him, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. And all of those elect sojourners in Asia Minor came under this peculiar blessing of the Lord Jesus. They had not seen him, yet they were believing upon him.

The Fruition of Love and Faith: Rejoicing and Receiving

32:50 But now we move thirdly in opening up the text. Having looked at the...

32:54 The fact of the Christian's love for the person of Christ. The fact of the Christian's faith in the person of Christ. Note with me thirdly, the fruition or the result of a believer's love and faith toward the person of Christ. Peter has affirmed that all of these believers love Christ.

33:16 They are believing in Christ. But then he describes the fruition of that love slash faith. Love slash faith. Love slash faith.

33:24 Love slash faith. Love slash faith. Faith relationship to the person of Jesus Christ. And it's the language of rejoicing and receiving.

33:35 Look at the latter part of verse 8. In the light of this loving him and believing in him, you are rejoicing greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. There are two things highlighted as the fruition of loving the person of Christ, believing in the person of Christ. And those two things are rejoicing, verse 8, and receiving, verse 9.

34:11 Now when I was originally seeking to unpack the text and give it headings to preach it, I put down the immediate fruition of faith, and that was rejoicing. The ultimate fruition of faith. Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. That was a nice, convenient, homiletical handle, but it had a deep, deep problem.

34:34 It didn't reflect accurately the tenses in the verbs or in the participles used. They're both present tenses.

34:43 The rejoicing and the receiving are concurrent realities. So I came up with two different headings. The first is the subjective fruition of love and faith. That's the rejoicing.

34:55 With joy unspeakable and full of glory. That's the subjective. That is in the realm of their experience consciously. And the second is receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

Subjective Fruition: Unspeakable and Glorified Joy

35:11 That is the objective fruition of love and faith. Now let's take a few minutes to unpack then those two elements of the fruition or the result of a believer's love and faith toward the person of Jesus Christ. The first, the subjective fruition of love and faith. He says, you are rejoicing greatly.

35:35 Now that's an attempt to translate one Greek word. Same one we had up in verse 6. It's not the ordinary word for rejoicing. It's the word for super rejoicing.

35:47 Real foot tapping, holy dancing rejoicing. This is the rejoicing that Jesus calls us to in Matthew 5.12. Rejoicing.

35:57 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad. When men revile you, persecute you, say all manner of evil against you falsely for my name's sake. And I'm not going to go back and do another word study, but just to underscore, it's the same word as is found in verse 6. Translated there, you greatly rejoice.

36:15 Why they inverted it here, it's one of the few places where the old American standard threw a curve at me. I said, why did they put you rejoice greatly, whereas before they put you greatly rejoice? I don't know. And none of them around asked them, but it's the same word in the original.

36:31 So that this subjective fruition of love and faith directed to the Lord Jesus is this exuberant, this deep, this abounding, overflowing joy. And he uses two descriptive qualifiers to describe it. He calls it unspeakable. Well, if it's unspeakable, why is he trying to write about it?

36:54 And this is what, we'll probably get this later on. In our studies in how to interpret the Bible, it's amazing how the biblical scholars come up with big words to confuse us. This is called a hopox logomena.

37:09 Well, a hopox is once for all. That's the Greek word for once for all. Christ once for all died. Log, word, has something to do with that.

37:18 A hopox logomena is a word in the New Testament found only in that one place. You only got it once for all. So you can't turn to other passages to see what it means. So you turn to secular writers.

37:28 You turn to see if it's useful. You turn to see if it's used by any of the theological writers of that area and that era. I'm sorry, that time period. And as best we can discern, this is the word that one would use to describe something that really is beyond the normal sphere.

37:45 Well, it's like this, it's like that. One of the early church fathers used it in trying to describe that star that God placed in the heavens in conjunction with the birth of our Lord Jesus. And it described it. As a star of unspeakable glory.

38:04 And so Peter reaches into the grab bag of vocabulary and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he says the fruition of the love and faith directed to the person of Christ in these ordinary first century Christians in Asia Minor was that they were experiencing a joy that was unspeakable. You see, that's in direct contrast to what the world, the world and the devil promises us in the pursuit of joy. The promise and the product held out always exceeds the reality and the experience.

38:43 But Peter says the joy of the child of God exceeds whatever the promises say will come in the way of faith and loving attachment to the Lord Jesus. And then he says, second qualifier, it's full of glory. Literally glorified. He uses a perfect passive participle, the word for glorified.

39:06 And he says that joy has been and remains glorified. Now here the commentators go around chasing each other to try to find out exactly what Peter was talking about. Well, I believe that what he's talking about is in the direction of what Mr. Grudem in his excellent commentary on 1 Peter suggests.

39:28 He says the sense of this word glorified. Could be given more fully by paraphrasing, quote, It is a joy that has been infused with heavenly glory and that still possesses the radiance of that glory. It is thus joy that results from being in the presence of God himself and joy that even now partakes of the character of heaven. It is the joy of heaven before heaven.

39:58 Experience now in fellowship. With union in Christ. So what is the fruition of the believer's love and faith toward the person of Christ? The subjective fruition is this rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

40:22 A joy that according to this passage in the universal teaching of scripture is in no way dependent upon external circumstances. What were the external circumstances of these believers? Peter described it in verse six. Wherein you greatly rejoice though now for a little while if need be, you've been put to grief in manifold, many colored trials or testings.

40:52 Their joy was not in their external circumstances. Their external circumstances were producing this concurrent experience of grief. Their external circumstances were producing this concurrent experience of grief. But in the midst of grief, they are rejoicing with a joy that he describes as unspeakable, a joy suffused with the glory of heaven itself.

41:17 Now, how in the world can that be? Well, we go back to that great salvation. He's blessing God that according to his great mercy, they had been begotten again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Do your external circumstances reverse the resurrection and the implications of the resurrection for believers?

41:39 Yes or no? What trial can you go through that reverses or cancels or negates or vitiates the purpose of God in the resurrection of his Son? Well, then the begetting again unto a living hope that is the source of your joy is unaffected by your circumstances. And it's unto an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fades not away.

42:03 Already having been and remaining reserved in heaven for you. What of your circumstances or mine can touch that inheritance? Anything? Well, then what in the world are you going around with a long face for?

42:18 Because God's tweaked your flesh with a few unpleasant circumstances.

42:23 It wasn't true of these Christians. He could say in the midst of these circumstances that people would say were difficult and stressful. He describes them as, As rejoicing with unspeakable joy and a joy that is suffused with the very glory of heaven itself. That's why Paul could write in Romans 14, 17, The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking.

42:52 The tap roots of our true identity as sons and daughters of the kingdom is not related to external stuff. But he says, Righteousness, peace, and joy. Joy in the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit.

43:08 Not the fruit and the product of favorable circumstances. No visits to the doctor for six months. All the bills paid. Your wife's been sweet.

43:17 Your husband's been kind. The kids have been obedient. So now you can have a little joy. But let God touch your flesh.

43:24 And let God touch your bank account. And let God touch your kids or fail to change your kids. And let them begin to show what they really are as Adamic sinners. And your joy goes down the tubes.

43:36 Why?

43:38 Because your joy is in the wrong thing.

43:41 He could write of these believers, confident that in spite of the present manifold trials, and he said there's something worse coming. Chapter 4, he says, A fiery trial is coming upon you. It's going to get more intense. God's going to turn up the heat in the smelting furnace of purifying your faith.

Objective Fruition: Receiving the Salvation of Souls

44:02 And yet he can say, As a company of those who love the Lord, who believe upon the Lord Jesus, they are reaping the fruit of that love and faith. They are rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory. But now quickly, note the objective fruition of love and faith in Christ.

44:22 He says in verse 9, Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. While they are rejoicing, they're receiving. And this again is not the ordinary word for receiving, but it's a word for receiving which in its particular form means to take away for oneself a present or a reward. It's the word used in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 25 and 27 for a man who receives to himself his inheritance.

44:59 If you were going to describe someone in the Olympics who took gold, you could use this word. That man took the gold. That is, he received for himself. He took out the prize for his accomplishment.

45:11 It's what Peter uses in 1 Peter 5, 4 to encourage pastors. When the chief shepherd shall appear, then he says, You shall receive, you shall take away for yourself a crown of glory that shall not fade away. So he says, Here's the objective fruition of that faith and love directed to Christ. You are taking away for yourself what?

45:35 Look at the text. Receiving the end, and the goal, the goal of your faith. And what is the goal of our faith? He says, Even the salvation of your souls.

45:48 There's some question about whether those two words, even and your, were in the original, but the sense is nonetheless clear that Peter describes these first century Christians in that posture of loving the person of Christ, believing upon the person of Christ, not only rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory, but there and then receiving, taking away for themselves the very end of their faith, even the salvation, the gracious deliverance from sin and its consequences, and he describes it as the salvation of your souls. Now does Peter mean that just the non-material part of them is saved? No. Peter's writing more, like a man steeped in his Hebrew thinking, than as someone for whom Greek was a second language. And you'll find this in the book of Acts, you'll find it again and again in the Old Testament, you'll find it right here in 1 Peter, where the word souls often is standing for the whole person.

46:54 Not just the non-material part of us, but the whole us. For example, look at chapter 3 and verse 19. Speaking of the Lord Jesus, in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison that aforetime were disobedient, when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved through water. Well, I didn't read about disembodied spirits floating into the ark.

47:21 It says that Noah and his family walked into the ark. So who are the eight souls? That's the eight human beings in the totality of their psychosomatic entity. Souls stands for people.

47:33 You find the same thing in chapter 4 and verse 19. Just let Peter show us how he uses it. Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-being as unto a faithful creator. In the midst of suffering, it's not just your soul that feels the agony.

47:51 There are times, and in the case of these believers, some were suffering persecution and affliction. Commit yourselves. And you find that usage again and again in the book of Acts. You find the reference to many souls were added unto them.

48:07 You find in Exodus 1, 5, so many souls went down into Egypt. I don't want to multiply text. Suffice it to say, if you just take your concordance, look up the word souls, you'll be persuaded that when I tell you, when Peter says that the salvation of souls, he is not speaking like a Platonist, that the only thing that matters is the non-material part of us, and all material is evil. No, no. God is committed to the salvation of the whole man.

48:35 And what Peter says here, is the objective fruition of that faith and love directed to the Lord Jesus, is that you are here and now receiving the very end, the very goal of your faith, the very end for which you initially believed on the Lord Jesus. And what was it? It was for the salvation of your whole person. That body and soul which, if not saved, would end up in hell.

49:03 You committed the entirety of your being to Christ, that body and soul, bless God, would one day be resplendent with the very glory of the risen Christ, for whom He did foreknow, He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, and we shall be like Him when we see Him as He is. No wonder, no wonder, these first century Christians were a marvel to all around them, because in the midst of that pressure, they had learned something of what it was to bring near by faith, the reality of all that God's salvation would effect in them, in its consummation. And they were feeding, as Paul says, not upon the things that are seen, but on the things that are not seen. Well, I've attempted to unpack the leading lines of thought in the text. We've considered the believer, I'm sorry, the love toward the person of Christ that every true Christian has, faith toward the person of Christ, the fruition of that love and faith. Now, I want to bring home the whole message into the theater of your conscience by asking three very simple, but I trust helpful and searching questions.

Application Question 1: Do You Love Me?

50:25 I want first of all that you would imagine with me, you're back in John 21, and I'd like you to turn there for a moment. You're back with the disciples by, the shore of Galilee, the resurrected Lord has seen you out in your boat, fishing. He's prepared breakfast for you. You've arrived at the shore, you've seen the coals, the fish upon it.

50:53 And then the Lord Jesus, as you remember in verse 15, singles out Peter. When they had broken their fast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me, more than these? He said unto him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said unto him, feed my lambs.

51:17 He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And he said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said unto him, tend my sheep. He said unto him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

51:34 Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. May I ask you to use that amazing faculty that God has given to you as a human being?

51:54 He's not given it to the highest brutes of the field, possibly given it to angels, and you'll see why I dare say that in the light of verse 12 of 1 Peter 1, when we come to that, God willing, next week. But I want you to take that marvelous, God-given faculty of imagination, and imagine that you are standing there next to Peter by the shore of Galilee, and the risen Christ singles you out, and he calls you by name. He says to you, boy, girl, man, or woman, John, Mary, Harry, Pete, Sally, do you love me? No big words. No complicated philosophical ideas. He's engaging you eyeball to eyeball, and he's asking you a simple question.

52:54 Do you have love for his person? Now imagine the Lord Jesus looking you in the eye, calling you by name, and saying, do you love me? Not do mom and dad love me? Not does the person sitting next to you, left, right, but do you, do you, do you not love my house, love my people, love my ways, love my word?

53:17 No, no. Do you love me? Is your heart possessed of affection directed to my person? Peter could say in his first response, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

53:43 He then went on to say, you know all things. You know that I love you. See what he's saying? He's saying, though I am the Peter, who a short while ago took oaths and maledictions and openly denied you in your court of trial, that was a temporary suspension of my love and attachment to you.

54:06 But, oh, blessed Lord Jesus, you who know the deep secrets of the heart, you who can see beyond the temporary lapses and the temporary eclipse of love, you, Lord Jesus, you know that I love you as the omniscient incarnate God, you who know everything, you know that whatever else is true of me, Lord Jesus, I love you. Can you say that to Jesus Christ, standing in this place this morning by his word and spirit, engaging you personally? He says, do you love me? What's your answer? Is your answer, Lord Jesus, you who know everything, you know that I love you. Can you?

55:11 Can you? Can you say what Peter did? There was no special revelation to Peter. There was no unusual present augmented assistance of the Holy Spirit.

55:27 He was to rely upon his own consciousness of the state of his heart in the presence of his omniscient Lord. What do you answer him? The question is not, do you love me as much as you'd like to love me? Not do you love me as much as you know I'm worthy to be loved.

55:49 The Lord does not bring in degrees. He simply says, do you love me? If not, may I ask you another simple question? Why not?

56:04 Why do you not love so lovable an object? Why will you not love so desirable? And worthy an object of your affections? And if I as a human being can ask that question with an element of bafflement, think of what the eternal God who fully knows the worth and the loveliness of his son must feel when he sees a race of men and women, boys and girls who hear about his lovely son, who hear the truth about his love for sinners, and they will not love him.

56:43 No wonder his word says, but the fearful and the unbelieving shall be cast into the lake of fire. If any man loves not the Lord Jesus, let him be accursed of God. My friend, loving the person of Jesus Christ is not some augmented state of a higher life of Christian experience. It's the baseline of any genuine Christian experience.

Application Question 2: Do You Believe on Me?

57:06 And if you don't love him, you don't know him. My second question is this. Imagine the Lord Jesus asking you now, and I couldn't find, a text where he did this directly. I found text where he chides unbelief and encourages greater faith.

57:27 But surely, if he asked the question, do you love me? The general tenor of scripture, he would come to us and ask the question. Do you believe on me? He complained when people didn't.

57:40 John 540, you will not come to me that you may have life. He constantly reiterates that the medium of receiving him and his salvation, his faith, and particularly in the Gospel of John, again and again, he appeals to men to believe upon him. He uses the imagery of eating his flesh and drinking his blood, but he makes it plain in John 6, that's to believe upon him. In John 3 to Nicodemus, he makes it plain that believing upon him is like looking to that serpent of brass in the book of Numbers, when those who were bitten and were slated to die looked up and beheld the divine provision.

58:19 And he says that, in a similar way, the son of man must be lifted up that whosoever believes in him. So the Lord Jesus, again and again, in his recorded word, urges men, invites men, entreats men to believe upon him. Many men thirst, let him come unto me and drink, as the scripture says, he that believes on me, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. There is no question that again and again in his word, he urges faith, he entreats men to believe.

58:50 He has every right then to ask you, do you believe on me? Do you believe on me? Have you come to the place where those two basic elements of faith are your experience? You go out of yourself and into Christ.

59:09 You rely solely upon him for salvation and you utterly resign yourself to him for the direction and government of your life. One of the most helpful, little things I read in my preparation was that at the heart of saving faith, there is reliance and resignation. It captures the essence of saving faith. Reliance, not upon myself, but upon this person in all the glory of his person and the perfection of his work.

59:43 Reliance upon him. Faith is the movement of the soul out of itself and into Christ for life and salvation. But in that movement of the soul to him for salvation, there is always unreserved resignation to him. Thomas cries, , my Lord and my God.

60:09 All that God is to those who own him is God. He says, Jesus, you're that to me. That's faith. Do you believe on him?

60:22 If not, why not? What is there in him unworthy of your, reliance and your resignation? Do you question whether he has the power to forgive your sins? Think of the mountains upon mountains of sin that have been buried in his precious blood as sinners through the ages have fled to him for refuge.

60:49 Why do you not believe upon him? Why? Unbelief is the most irrational thing in the world. He's a willing savior.

60:58 He's an able savior. He's an inviting savior. He's a commanding savior. He's a promising savior.

61:05 What more can he say than to you he has said, come and I'll give you rest. You see, dear folk, we're not just studying the Bible. Go away and say, oh, I learned something about first Peter. No, no, no.

61:20 The day I preach simply to fill your head with facts, I pray God will shut my mouth. I want to take some of you to heaven with me. And until you believe, you won't go. I can't reach it.

61:34 I can flip the switch. But I can plead. I can entreat. I can announce the worthiness of the savior, the invitingness of the savior, the entreatingness of the savior.

61:47 But I must remind you that unbelief is not a sickness. It's moral culpability. Therefore, the unbelieving shall have their part in the lake of fire. It is morally perverse not to believe on the Lord Jesus.

62:03 He's worthy of your trust. He commands your trust. He invites your trust. Then my third and final question is this.

Application Question 3: Why No Unspeakable Joy?

62:13 The Lord Jesus would say to us, if you love me and trust me as your unseen savior and Lord, why are you not experiencing joy, unspeakable and full of glory like those Christians in Asia Minor did? We say we love the same Christ they loved. We believe in the same Christ that they believe in. We've not seen him yet.

62:36 We love him. We've not seen. We do not now see him yet believing upon him. Can it be said that we are rejoicing with joy, unspeakable and full of glory, receiving here and now the end of our salvation, even end of faith, even the salvation of our souls.

62:54 There's a key text in first Peter 410. That may be the answer as to why some of us possessing the same salvation, basically loving the same savior, believing upon the same savior, do not have joy, unspeakable and full of glory. Could this be the answer? Notice what Peter says in first Peter 4 and verse 14.

63:21 If you are reproach for the name of Christ, blessed are you because the spirit of glory and the spirit of God rests upon you. He says to these who are presently being reproached and he tells them some greater trial is yet to come upon them. If you are reproach for the name of Christ, you're blessed. And he said you are blessed because the spirit of glory, the spirit who comes from glory, who brings something of the glory of heaven with him into the soul of the believer, the spirit of glory and the spirit of God rest upon you.

63:59 The fruit of the spirit is love. What's the next joy? Peace long-suffering kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy. Where? In the Holy Ghost.

64:15 Could it be that at some point you've got an ethical controversy with God that is grieving the spirit and therefore his fruit of joy is not being manifested in you? Could that be the reason? When I spoke of joy, unspeakable and full of glory, you said I see it in the text, but I don't see it in my own heart. Why is it not there?

64:38 Does God have his little favorites and say, Oh, I'll give this one joy unspeakable, but I'm not going to give it there. No. Could it be that there's an area of ethical controversy that's grieving the spirit, quenching the spirit, who alone can impart that joy unspeakable and that joy which is glorified, that joy which brings something of the joys of heaven to come into the soul in the now? I do not accuse.

65:08 I only ask the question, knowing for weeks, that I was going to have to preach on this text. You know what I told God? I said, God, I can't preach on verses eight and nine, unless you do something fresh in my own soul. Little did I know how God would do it, but I would denigrate the grace of God if I didn't stand before you and say, he's done it and imparted a measure of joy and the glory of the world to come that I have not known.

65:43 I believe in years of my Christian, experience, dear people of God. This is not some special, exotic, limited experience of a few. The scripture would lead us to believe that all those who are part of God's present, elect sojourners in the dispersion of this present wilderness called the world, who have been begotten again unto a living hope by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, from the dead unto that inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled in the phase, not a way reserved in heaven, who are being kept by the power of God in the midst of this needs, be trial, whatever it may be that God has brought upon you. It is the will of God for you. And for me, that is those who love an unseen Christ, who trust in an unseen Christ, that we shall, also, be marked as those who are rejoicing with joy, unspeakable and full of glory and receiving the end of faith, even the salvation of souls,

67:03 living as those whose hearts are already in heaven and into whose hearts something of heaven has already come. This is not something for our charismatic and Pentecostal friends. This is ours. In Christ.

Conclusion and Prayer

67:21 May we glorify him by knowing more of its reality in the days to come. Let us pray. Our Father, how we thank you again for your word. Thank you for moving your servant Peter to pen these words to your people centuries ago.

67:45 And we thank you for the livingness of the word and pray that you would write upon our hearts. The things we have considered together today. Oh God, for those who do not love your lovable son who do not believe upon the Lord Jesus. Oh God, give them no rest today until believing upon him.

68:08 They begin to love him and loving him begin to know the blessed reality of those peculiar joys found only in union with Christ. We pray for any of your people for whom joy, unspeakable and full of glory is just a distant memory or a deep longing and wish have dealings with each heart that by your grace. These words may be as natural of us as they were of those believers to whom Peter wrote seal your word then to our hearts and accept our thanks for your presence with us. We plead in Jesus name.

68:50 Amen.