Salvation As It Is Now Received

Salvation As It Is Now Received

(No. 3223)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1910.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE
23, 1872.

"Whom having not seen, you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet
believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory,
receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." 1
Peter 1:8,9.

[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text is #698, Volume
12–SEEING IS NOT BELIEVING, BUT BELIEVING IS SEEING.]

We usually speak of the greater benefits of salvation as being in the
future. We desire that we may be found in Christ in the day of His
appearing and that we may have a share in His eternal Glory. But,
Beloved, salvation is not altogether a thing of the future–it is very
decidedly a present matter, a blessing to be possessed now and to be
enjoyed now–and our text brings out that idea very clearly! Peter does
not write about the elect strangers hoping to receive salvation,
by-and-by, but putting it all in the present tense, he says, "Whom
having not seen, you love. Though now…you rejoice… receiving the
end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." The perfection of
salvation is reserved for the Second Coming of the Lord, for at present
the body is mortal because of sin–it is subject to pain and it will
die unless the Lord should first come and it will, for a while, lie in
the grave. But at His appearing shall be a resurrection of the body and
then body and soul reunited shall experience the fullness of salvation!
In that respect, therefore, salvation still remains in part a matter
for the future, yet with the true child of God, the essence of
salvation is a thing of today. Even now we rejoice with unspeakable joy
and full of glory, receiving the end of our faith, even the salvation
of our souls!

I am going to speak upon this matter in the following way. First, we
will enquire, what part of salvation do we receive here and now?
Secondly, how do we now receive salvationl And then, thirdly we will
make the solemn enquiry for all here, Have we received salvation, and
if so, how far have we gone in the reception of it?

I. My first question is, WHAT PART OF SALVATION DO WE RECEIVE HERE AND
NOW?

My first answer to the question is that, in a certain sense, we already
possess the whole of it, for all salvation is wrapped up in Christ and
Christ is ours if we are truly believing in Him. He is this day our
Savior and our All-in-All– He is already "made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification and redemption." There is nothing of
salvation that is outside of Christ and, therefore, since Christ is
ours, the whole of salvation is ours. It is ours by the grip of faith
and the Grace of hope–that living hope which is sure of
realization–that well-grounded hope which cannot be disappointed. Our
expectation is of so vivid a character that it brings not only near to
us, but into actual present possession, joys which as yet are not
revealed! So again I say that, in a sense, it is true for us to say
that we have received in faith and hope the salvation of our souls if
we have truly believed in Jesus, for–

"The moment a sinner believes, And trusts in his crucified God, His
pardon at once he receives, Redemption in full through Christ's blood."

But, secondly, if we are to answer the question distinctly and in
detail, we should say that if we have really trusted in Jesus, we have
so far received the salvation of our souls that we have, at this
moment, the assurance of the perfect pardon of all our sins. Let me
repeat those words–if we have really believed in Jesus, we have, at
this moment, the assurance of the perfect pardon of all our sins! And I
will venture to put it as strongly as this and to say that yonder
white-robed spirits before the eternal Throne of God are not more clear
of the guilt of sin before the bar of Infallible Justice than was the
dying thief the very moment that he turned his eye in faith to Christ
upon the Cross of Calvary–or than you are if you are now trusting to
the same Savior, or than I am as now depending alone upon the blood and
righteousness of Jesus

Christ, my Lord and Savior! The pardon which God gives to Believers in
Jesus is not a semi-pardon. It is not a putting away of some of their
sins, or a putting them away for a time–it is a perfect putting away
of their sins forever, a casting of them, once and for all, behind
God's back into the depths of the sea so that they shall never be found
again! Yes, they shall be so completely put away that they shall cease
to be, according to that Divine declaration, "The iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for, and there shall be none." Oh, what a glorious
Truth of God is this, that although a poor tried child of God may feel
the force of his inbred sin and have to continually struggle with
it–and though he may, from day to day, be conscious of his many
imperfections, yet before those Eyes that see everything, there is no
spot to be seen upon the Believer in Christ–I mean no spot in this
respect–that he can never be condemned or punished for his sin! His
sin is finally and forever pardoned! God has blotted it out like a
cloud that has been blown away and completely dispersed. Therefore let
our spirits rejoice if we are truly trusting in Jesus! And oh, that
some who have never done so before, would now look believingly unto
Him! If they do thus look this moment, they shall obtain perfect pardon
and so shall receive the end of their faith, even the salvation of
their souls! I cannot help repeating that sweet verse of Kent's which I
have often repeated to you, which sounds so strange, but which is, I
believe, absolutely true–

"Here's pardon for transgressions past, It matters not how black their
cast. And, O my Soul, with wonder view, For sins to come, here's
pardon, too."

And next, Beloved, we have received the salvation of our souls in this
sense, that the alienation of our hearts from God is now effectually
removed. We are saved from that alienation and that is a very great
part of salvation. Once our backs were turned towards God, but now our
faces are turned towards Him. At one time we did not admire His
Character, nor desire to imitate Him, nor wish for His friendship nor,
perhaps, even so much as think of His existence, much less did we
aspire to give Him honor! But now, having believed in Jesus, we have
undergone a complete change! We are not yet what we ought to be–we are
still a long way off what we expect to be one day–yet we do desire to
be what we should be. We admire the Character of God even though we
have to prostrate ourselves in the dust when we see how far our own
character is from likeness to it, and the whole set and current of our
desires is towards purity and holiness. If we could have our way, our
way would not be a sinful one. If our will could be gratified, our will
would be that God should have His will with us and that we should be in
all things conformed to the Divine Will! All true Christians are
conscious that it is so with them and this is a great part of
salvation. Indeed, it is destruction to be alienated from God, and it
is salvation to be reconciled to Him! It is destruction to anyone to be
a lover of sin. The man who loves evil is a destroyed man–a man who is
broken in pieces–that which should be the glory of his manhood is
absent from him. But when he is brought to love God, the ruins are
rebuilt! And though, as yet, every part of the renovated building may
not be finished, the Divine Architect who drew the plans of it from
eternity, will never leave the work till the last stroke of the sacred
hammer and chisel shall have been given–and the completed structure
shall have had the headstone placed upon it amid shouts of, "Grace,
Grace unto it!" Blessed be God that we have this salvation, now, in
that we are saved from our former alienation of heart from God!

In the next place, we have received the salvation of our souls in the
sense that we are saved from the killing power of sin. Before we
believed in Jesus, we were not capable of those sacred actions which
are now our daily delight. We could not pray. We may have "said our
prayers," as so many do, but the living breath of true God-inspired
prayer was not in us. How could it be in us while we were still dead in
trespasses and sins? We could not believe. How could we do so when we
had not received the gift of faith from the ever-blessed Spirit? The
fact is, we were under a terrible bondage and just as a corpse is under
bondage to death and cannot stir hand or foot, lip or eye, so were we
under bondage to sin and Satan. But we are under that deadly bondage no
longer, for we are living men, free men in Christ Jesus our Lord who
has overcome that death for us! Now we can pray! Now we can praise–not
always as we would like to do, but still, the aspiration is there and
the power is there–and when God graciously helps us by His Holy
Spirit, we rise to a high degree of vigor in both those sacred
exercises! So, when the killing power of sin is gone, what a mercy it
is! What a bliss it is! And in this sense, also, we receive the
salvation of our souls.

More than that, Beloved, the reigning power of sin has now gone from
every Believer Once we were slaves to sin, under sin's domination. Sin
said to us, "Go," and we went, or sin said to us, "Stay! Obey not God,"
and we stayed and at sin's bidding disobeyed God. But now, sin no
longer has dominion over us, for we are not under the Law, but under
Grace. And though we even now sometimes hear sin's mandate and the
flesh inclines us to yield obedience to it, there is a

blessed spirit of rebellion against sin within our heart so that we
will not obey sin's commands, but seek after that which is just and
holy and right in the sight of God!

Now I am going to take another step and possibly some of the feebler
folk among us may think it is too long a step for them to take. Yet I
pray God that many of us may practically prove that we have taken it.
Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, it is possible and it ought to
be the general rule for Christians to enjoy present salvation in the
sense of being now free, to a very high degree, from sin in their daily
life and conduct No, more–they ought not to be satisfied without
aspiring to be absolutely free from it! It is after this that they
should seek, even though they do not attain to it. I am fully persuaded
the perfection in the flesh is not attainable here, yet that Truth of
God, as I believe it is, has been used by a great many persons as a
sort of damper to the sad ambition of renewed spirits! I do not think
it ought to be so used, nor that it would legitimately be so used.
Suppose I am a sculptor? If it is not possible for me to attain to the
perfection of Praxiteles or Phidias, yet I must come as close to them
as I can–and I shall not be a master of the sculptor's art unless I
seek to imitate those who have been the most proficient in it. Suppose,
also, that through the infirmity of the flesh, I shall never in this
life be perfect, like Christ–yet I must have no lower model, nor must
I say to myself, "I cannot imitate that perfect Model," but, crying to
the Strong One for strength, I must believe that the Omnipotence of God
can overcome every sin! And I must also believe that it is possible for
me, by the Grace of God, to get every sin beneath my feet. And I must
never say to any one sin, "I shall have to spare you, for you are too
strong for God to slay." It would be blasphemy to talk like that!

I fear that some Brothers and Sisters think that a quick temper can
never be overcome. But it must be overcome! The reason why so many
professors so often fall into that sin is that they do not believe that
it is conquerable and, therefore, they do not pray it down! Another
person, perhaps, has a sluggish disposition and he thinks, "I must
always be so. It is my nature and the flesh is weak." It is true that
the flesh is weak, but it is equally true that God is Almighty! And it
is not our own strength but Divine strength that is to procure the
deliverance of our soul from sluggishness! So we must cry mightily unto
the Lord for Divine Grace to overcome this or any other sin to which we
are peculiarly prone. God has not put us into Canaan and said to us,
"You may spare some of those Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites,
Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites!" His command to us is,
"Slay them all! Let not one of them escape!" There must be no sin
tolerated in any Believer in Christ! And though you are not perfect,
you must never say, "Up to this point, I am perfect, and that is as far
as God can make me perfect." Dear Friends, do you believe in an
Infinitely powerful God? Do you believe that the Holy Spirit is able to
work in you anything and everything that He wills to work? Then,
Brothers and Sisters, stop not short of the highest point that is
attainable by mortal men and seek to be "holy as God is holy!" Alas,
some professors of religion are hardly even moral! Their pretended
Christianity is a stench even in the nostrils of worldlings, for they
do not conform to the common rules of ordinary decent society–and what
true Christians long for is to possess real holiness, to walk with God
as Enoch did, to abide in Christ, to shun every false way, to have–

"A heart from sin set free"–

and a conscience tender as the apple of the eye! Oh, that we could all
come up to this standard! And we can! It is possible! This is
attainable, by the Grace of God, through the effectual working of the
Holy Spirit. I again say that I do not think that absolute
perfectioncan be reached here, but I cannot tell how near we can come
to it. That I would like to prove by happy personal experience–and I
beseech every Brother and Sister in Christ here to join with me in
seeking to know how we may, even now, receive the salvation of our
souls from the power of sin!

I am quite sure that there are many Christians who have been completely
delivered from sins into which they readily fell in their early days.
You know that infants suffer from a great many diseases. All through
the period of babyhood, they are liable to various ailments which no
longer afflict us who are grown-up men and women. So it is with some
Christians–when they have grown in Grace to the stature of men in
Christ, they do not have the little complaints of babyhood. I do not
say that this is true of all professors of Christianity, for alas,
there are many of them who have to be wheeled about in baby carriages
although they are 50 or 60 years of age! While they were little
children, we had to dandle them on our knees and carry them in our arms
and give them milk–and they still want milk, and still want dandling
now that they are getting gray–gray-bearded babies! But we need to get
them out of that state of babyhood, for there is something far better
even on earth than being spiritually mere babes all our lives! May all
of us who are in Christ grow to the stature of men and women in Christ!
The more of such any Church shall have among her members, the better
will it be for her and the more will God be glorified! Let us who are
the Lord's, resolve that everything that is to be had of God this side
of Heaven, we will have! Let us not be content to get just inside
Christ's house and to sit down there and say,

"Thank God, we are safe. We have got over the threshold," but let us
seek to press onward to the chief table of rich refreshment and inner
fellowship with Christ and to know the secret of the Lord which is with
them that fear Him, that so we may find that "glory begun below" of
which Dr. Watts so truly sings–

"The men of Grace have found

Glory begun below!

Celestial fruits on earthly ground

From faith and hope may grow." II. And now, secondly, (and with greater
brevity, not professing to dive into the depths of the text, but merely
skimming its surface, as the swallow touches the brook with its
wing)–HOW DO WE NOW RECEIVE THE SALVATION OF OUR SOULS?

First, it is entirely from Jesus Christ–" Whom having not seen, you
love, in whom, though now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your
faith, even the salvation of your souls." Everything of salvation that
a Believer receives, comes to him out of the one storehouse wherein all
fullness abides–that is in Christ Jesus! Never believe, Christian,
that you will ever get any Divine Grace out of yourself! It is a dreary
and useless task to send the bucket down into the dry well of our
nature in the hope of drawing up a supply of Grace. Oh no, Beloved,
look away from self and look alone to Jesus, for from Him, and from
Him, only, do we receive the salvation of our souls!

Then note that the channels through which we receive salvation from
Christ are first, faith–"in whom, though now you see Him not, yet
believing, you rejoice." None of us have seen Christ. We sometimes
foolishly wish that we had, but believing in Him is better than merely
seeing Him–for many saw Him when He was upon the earth–and yet
perished! But no man ever truly believed in Him and then perished.
Faith is that eye which savingly sees Christ on the Cross. And it is
only as we continue to look to Him by faith that we receive the present
salvation of our souls from sin. You can never kill any sin if you turn
your eyes away from the Cross. There is no stream that can cleanse from
inward lusts but the precious blood of Jesus that flowed on Calvary.
Whoever has been victorious over any temptation, it may truly be said
of him, "he overcame through the blood of the Lamb." So that there is
no way of receiving the blessings of a present salvation except through
believing in Jesus!

Our text also tells us that another channel of salvation is love–"Whom
having not seen, you love." The love of Christ is the great force that
enables Grace to kill sin! The love of Christ and sin are like the two
balances of a pair of scales–if sin goes up in our esteem, our love to
Christ is going down! And whenever our love to Christ goes up, sin must
go down in the same proportion. With little love to Christ, you will
walk unwarily, but with great love to your Lord, you will walk
carefully before Him and your practical holiness will become manifest
to all around you. Though we have not seen Christ, we love Him! And
through that love we receive a further assurance of the salvation of
our souls from inward as well as outward sin. This is the precious
golden conduit through which the power of Divine Grace flows freely
into our souls. Oh, for more fervent love to Christ!

Then our text stays that we also receive this present assurance of
salvation through joy in the Lord–"In whom…believing, you rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory." This joy is a flaming sword
like that which the cherubim waved at the gates of the Garden of Eden!
It blazes, it cuts, it kills. Once let us really rejoice in Christ as
our Savior and we become immediately guarded from sin. I believe that
many sins are hatched beneath the wings of doubt and fear, but when we
get away from those ugly things and live rejoicing in God, then we say,
"Down with sin! We cannot endure to have it in our lives." He who has
sweet flowers in his hand flings away evil-smelling weeds! And he who
has such a diamond of Heaven as "joy unspeakable and full of glory"
casts away the pebbles of earth with which He was pleased before. He
who rejoices with joy unspeakable is not likely to be allured by the
paltry joys of earth–they have lost all their former charm to him.
Their siren songs have no attraction to his ears for he has heard the
celestial note of the harps of Heaven! What bliss it is to be able to
rejoice in Christ as our Savior, for this guarantees to us the
salvation of our souls, not only now, but to all eternity!

Why does the Apostle say that we rejoice with joy unspeakable?. Is it
not, first, because this joy is too great to be told? He is indeed rich
who cannot count his wealth. He has so much that he does not know how
much he has and he is indeed full ofjoy who has so much joy that he
cannot tell anyone how much he has!

I also think that Peter calls our joy, "unspeakable," because if we
were to try to explain or describe it to carnal men, they could not
understand us. You cannot explain to a person who has never tasted
honey, how sweet it is. Neither can

you explain to a man who knows not the joy of the Lord, how joyous a
thing it is. He could not comprehend what your words meant–you would
be talking to him in an altogether unknown tongue!

Moreover, Brothers and Sisters, you all know the old proverb, "Still
waters run deep." The worldling joy barely covers the stones of his
daily sorrow and, therefore, it babbles like a shallow brook as it runs
along in its narrow bed. But the Christian's joy is broad and deep and
it scarcely makes any sound as it majestically rolls on like some great
river on its way to the sea! The Christians joy is unspeakable because
it is unfathomable even by those who enjoy it! And wherever this joy
comes, it has a purifying effect, delivering us from sin and making us
thus receive the salvation of our souls.

This joy is also said to be "full of glory." Now, the joys of this
world have no true glory in them. Look at the worldly man who is most
joyous and glad–what glory is there about him? Any so-called joy that
comes through sin is just the opposite of glorious! The drunk's joy
puts him below the level of beasts. But there is an elevating power
about the Christian's joy–the joy of salvation, the joy of adoration,
the joy of gratitude, the joy of love to God, the joy of being made
like Christ, the joy of expecting His coming–all this is glorious joy
and it is "full of glory!" I saw lately a picture representing the
Coming Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. It represented Him as having in His
hands cannons, triumphant arches, flags, kings, emperors and all the
insignia of royalty–and blowing them away as chaff is driven before
the wind! Come, O blessed Coming Man! You know how we need You! Well,
He will come at the right time–and all the glory of this world will
fly away just like that when He comes! But our joy is full of a glory
which the Coming Man who is, "over all God, blessed forever," will keep
on increasing so that it shall be to us the more full of glory forever
and ever! Such joy as this glorious joy is, makes us look down upon the
world's joys and sin's joys as utterly despicable! And so, by lifting
us up above them, it further enables us to receive, here and now, the
salvation of our souls!

III. There was much more that I wanted to say, but my time has almost
gone. In the good old Puritan times, they had an hourglass on the
pulpit and when the sands were running out, the minister was warned
that it was time to stop. But he often turned it over, again, and went
on for another hour! I cannot do that, so I must hasten to a close with
the

solemn enquiry, HAVE WE RECEIVED THE SALVATION OF OUR SOULS? AND IF SO,
HOW FAR HAVE WE

GONE IN THE RECEPTION OF IT?

The first and most vital question for you, my Hearers, is this–have
you received the salvation of your souls I know that you have heard
about salvation and many of you know what the Bible says about it. But
that is not enough. "I know what salvation means," says one, "I know
the way." Then take heed that you do not perish in the light! If two
men have to go out in the dark, which is the one to whom the darkness
is the more dense? Why, the one who has been sitting in the light! If
you go out of your brilliantly illuminated room, you realize how dark
it is outside where there is no light above or below. Take care, you
who are sitting in the Light of God today, lest for you there should be
"reserved the blackness of darkness forever" because you shut your eyes
to the Light and will not receive the salvation of your souls.

"Ah, but," say some, "we profess to be saved." I am glad to hear that
and I would not even hint that your profession is not sincere, but I
would urge you to hint to yourself that there is a possibility that all
may not be well with you! Are there not many who think they have
received the salvation of their souls, but who have not really done so?
In St. Peter's, at Rome, I saw monuments to James III, Charles III, and
Henry IX–kings of England–but these potentates were quite unknown to
me! Certainly they never reigned in this land, so the royal names upon
their monuments are only a subject for ridicule and scorn! And you
profess and call yourselves Christians? If you really are so, it is
well, but if you are not so, I can conceive that in the next world
there may be spirits that shall say to you, "You professed to be
Christians, yet you are in Hell! You sat at the Lord's Table and ate
the bread and drank the wine in memory of His death–that death in
which you had no saving interest–the Atonement that never redeemed
you!" O no, my Hearers, may this never be true of any of us! But may
God, in His Infinite Mercy, save us and so may we really and truly
receive, and not merely profess to have received the salvation of our
souls! If we have really cast ourselves upon Christ, though we have not
seen Him–if we do truly love Him and if we have, to some extent, at
least, the joy unspeakable and full of glory within our hearts– then,
indeed, we have received the salvation of our souls!

Then comes the other question, how far have we received this salvation?
If we had a sacred thermometer given to us in order to measure our
spiritual heat, what would our temperature be? Are you, Brother, above
freezing? I fear that some here are below zero! Have any of you come up
to anything like blood heat yet? What a wondrous heat of love that must
have been when the lifeblood of Jesus flowed from His wounds as He hung
upon the Cross of Calvary! Oh, that we could always have our religion
at such blood heat! Have we reached that spiritual temperature yet?
There have been saints–and there are still saints willing to suffer
the loss of all things for Christ's sake. Nothing has been too hot, too
hard, or too heavy for them to endure in His blessed service. They have
counted shame and loss to be honor and gain if they might but "glorify
God and enjoy Him forever." Have we come anywhere near to them? We do
have occasional communion with Christ, but have we abiding fellowship
with Him? Do we dwell near to Christ?

But what about these who have not yet believed in Him? I heard an
evangelist say one night in this Tabernacle, "He that believes on the
Son has everlasting life. H–A–S–that spells, 'got it.'" That is an
odd way of spelling, but it is sound divinity! The Lord enable you all
to believe in Jesus! Then you will have "got it," as our friend said.
Or, as Peter, writing under the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote,
"Believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls."

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 PETER 1.

Verse 1. Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ It must have been very
pleasant to his heart to write those words–not "Peter, who denied his
Master." Not, "Peter, full of imperfections and infirmities–the
impetuous and changeable one of the twelve," but, "Peter, an Apostle of
Jesus Christ," as truly sent of God as any of the other Apostles and
with as much of the Spirit of his Master resting upon him! "Peter, an
Apostle of Jesus Christ"–

1, 2. To the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia,
Cappadocia, Asia andBithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of
God the Father You might go for 50 years to some places of worship and
never hear the word, "elect," ever mentioned! Modern ministers seem to
be ashamed of the grand old Doctrine of Election, but it was not so
with the Apostles and the early Christians! They were accustomed to
speak of one another as the elect of God. The Doctrine of Election was
most precious to their hearts and, therefore, Peter writes, "elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the

Father"–

2. Through sanctifcation of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
We not only need Grace, but we need much Grace! And also peace. And we
need a greatly increased measure of both those blessings. Do not be
satisfied, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, with the Grace that you
already have. Be thankful for it, but ask for the Divine multiplication
of it–regard the Grace which you have already received as being like
the boy's loaves and fishes–and expect that Christ will continue to
multiply it for you and for thousands of others round about you! "Grace
unto you, and peace, be multiplied."

3-5. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an
inheritance incorruptible, and unde-filed, and that fades not away,
reserved in Heaven for you who are kept by thepower of God through
faith unto salvation

ready to be revealed in the last time. [See Sermon #948, Volume 16–A
STRING OF PEARLS.] What a vast mass of meaning is packed away in these
words! Men's books, even when they are good, are like gold-leaf–a
little precious metal is very thinly hammered out so as to cover a wide
surface–but almost every Word in the Bible seems to contain a whole
mine of heavenly wealth! Note, Beloved, what Peter says concerning your
new birth–you are begotten by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ! At your first birth, you were born in sin. But now you have
been born-again, through Grace, by the almighty power of God! Notice,
also, unto what you are born–unto a hope that is full of life, a
lively hope, a hope of immortality, a hope whose root is in the grave
of Christ, the empty grave from which He has risen and which is the
assurance that because He has risen, you also shall rise. See, further,
to what you have been born–"to an inheritance incorruptible, and
undefiled, and that fades not away." See, also, how that inheritance is
entailed upon you, for it is "reserved in Heaven for you." And see,
too, how you are kept for it, for you "are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."

6. Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if necessary,
you are in heaviness through manifold temptations [See Sermon #222,
Volume 4–THE CHRISTIAN'S HEAVINESS AND REJOICING.] What? Can there be
rejoicing and heaviness in the same heart at the same time? Oh, yes!
Our experience has taught us that we can be at the same moment in
heaviness of heart and yet rejoicing in the Lord!

7-9. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of
gold that perishes, though it is tried with fire, might be found unto
praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: whom
having not seen, you love; in whom though now you see Him not, yet
belie ving, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.You
have that already if you have believed in Jesus! You have received a

present, immediate salvation! There are some who do not understand or
realize this. They miss the whole joy of our holy religion. They are
always hoping to be saved, by-and-by, but those who are in Christ Jesus
by a living personal faith, receive here and now the end of their
faith, even the salvation of their souls!

10-12. Of which salvation the Prophets have enquired and searched
diligently, who prophesied of the Grace that should come unto you:
searching what or what manner of the time the Spirit of Christ which
was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed,
that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things
which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel
unto you with the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven; which things the
angels desire to look into.

[See Sermons #1524, Volume 26–YOUR PERSONAL SALVATION and #2697,
Volume 46–ANGELIC INTEREST IN THE GOSPEL.] Observe, dear Brothers and
Sisters, that the Prophets did not speak without due consideration, but
they "enquired and searched diligently" into the meaning of that
salvation of which they "testified beforehand." Holy Scripture must not
be read by us carelessly. We ought to peer, pry and search into it to
get at its hidden meaning. And the prophecies as well as the rest of
the Word are to be searched into by us upon whom the ends of the earth
have come. Observe, also, that this Divine Revelation is of great
interest to the holy angels before the Throne of God–they stand gazing
down as if they were trying to understand the wondrous mystery of
Redemption and the great and glorious Gospel of the Grace of God.

13-16. Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to
the end for the Grace that is to be brought unto you at the Revelation
of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves
according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as He which has
called you is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversation;
because it is written, be you holy; for I Am holy. Be not only moral,
upright, truthful and so forth, but, "be you holy." That is a very high
attainment! "Be you holy" and observe the reason for obedience to the
command–"for I Am holy." Children should be like their fathers. There
are many children who bear in their very faces, evidence of their
sonship. You know who their fathers were by the image that the children
bear. Oh, that it were always so with all the children of God! "Be you
holy; for I Am holy."

17. And if you call on the Father, who without respect of person judges
according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in
fear. You are only here for a while. You are sojourners, foreigners,
pilgrims passing through a country where you have no abiding place. Be,
therefore, careful and even fearful lest you should become like the
people among whom you dwell! Have a holy dread of the contaminations of
sin–"Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear."

18-21. Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with
corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation
received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was
foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in
these last times for you, who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him
up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be
in God. What a well of joy this always was to Peter, that God had
raised His Son, Jesus Christ, from the dead! And this is our joy today!
This is one of the facts which are proved beyond all question, that
Jesus Christ, who died upon the Cross and was buried in Joseph's tomb,
did actually rise again! This is the cornerstone of the Christian
faith– one of the great facts upon which we found our confidence as to
salvation by Jesus Christ.

22, 23. Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth
through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you
love one another with a pure heart fervently: being born-again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which lives
and abides forever. God's Word never dies! God's Word never changes!
There are some who think we ought to get a new Gospel every few years
or even every few weeks–but that was not Peter's notion. He wrote and
he was Divinely Inspired to write concerning "the Word of God, which
lives and abides forever."

24, 25. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the
flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away:
but the Word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the Word which by
the Gospel is preached unto

you. [See Sermon #999, Volume 17–THE WITHERING WORK OF THE SPIRIT.]