1 Peter 1:3-12
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth 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 ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold trials,
that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth 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 ye love; on whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
Concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow them.
To whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto you, did they minister these things, which now have been announced unto you through them that preached the gospel unto you by the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven; which things angels desire to look into.
1 Peter 5:10-11
And the God of all grace, who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ, after that ye have suffered a little while, shall Himself perfect, establish, strengthen you.
To Him be the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Dear heavenly Father, we do thank Thee for giving us the privilege of gathering together to remember Thy beloved Son, Who died for us, Who shed His blood for us, and gave His life for us.
Our Father, we do appreciate what Thou hast done in giving, not sparing even Thy only begotten Son for us. And, our Father, we gather again to thank and praise Thee for Thy Word. We thank Thee for giving us Thy Word.
We do look to Thee to bless Thy Word, making it life and spirit to us, that through the written Word we truly may be partakers of the living Word.
Father, we do commit this time into Thy hands. We acknowledge that without the revelation of the Holy Spirit, we may touch the letter, but we will miss the Spirit. So we just look to Thy Holy Spirit to reveal Thy Son in us through Thy Word.
We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
The great reformer, Martin Luther, designates this epistle of Peter as one of the most noble of all the writings in the New Testament, because this letter exhibits such a wealth of thought, dignity, humility, love, a certainty of believing hope, and readiness for the coming of the Lord Jesus.
It fits very much the individuality of the apostle Peter. I believe, brothers and sisters, we know Peter more than any of the other twelve, because Peter is such an open person. He exposes himself all the time.
Not only that, he is disciplined among the twelve more than any other; yet we do thank God that God has committed very much to this Peter. Now, even though we know quite well of this man, I wonder how much we know of his letters.
Most likely, Peter wrote First and Second Peter in his later years, probably around AD 64 to 68.
We know that Peter was a very active person. The last mention of him in the book of Acts is in Acts 15, at the council in Jerusalem. We hear Peter there, but after that nothing is mentioned of Peter in the book of Acts.
We know through Galatians that after that great council in Jerusalem, Peter went to Antioch, and there he had an encounter with the apostle Paul. But aside from these things, we do not find any record of the years afterward until we have these two epistles.
But we know that he was a very active person. He must have been preaching, visiting, traveling, and visibly occupied with the affairs of his Master and Lord.
When he wrote this letter, he mentioned that he wrote it from Babylon. Now, I do not see why people should spiritualize Babylon into Rome, as some commentators do.
In the beginning of this letter, he addressed it to the sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. These five places are real places. Therefore, there is no reason why we should think that Peter did not write this letter from Babylon, but that Babylon actually means Rome.
So, I personally believe that Peter traveled a great deal, and he wrote this letter from Babylon.
He wrote this letter in fulfillment of his ministry. Do you remember that our Lord Jesus said to Peter in Luke 22:32, “When once thou hast turned again, establish thy brethren”?
Again, we find in John 21 that the Lord said, “Feed My lambs. Tend My sheep. Feed My sheep.” So Peter was fulfilling that which Christ had committed to him.
In writing these letters, he was trying to strengthen, confirm, feed, and shepherd the flock of God.
He wrote this letter to the sojourners of the Dispersion. The word Dispersion is a very special term. It is used to describe the Jews who were scattered throughout the world outside Palestine.
Peter, being an apostle of the circumcision, no doubt had great concern for the Jews. But, of course, we know that God used him to open the door of the gospel to the Gentiles, and the church is composed not only of Jews but also of Gentiles.
So when he wrote this letter to the sojourners of the Dispersion, he was not really writing to the Jews in general. Actually, he wrote to Jewish believers in the Dispersion, who were sojourners—strangers and sojourners in this world.
And not only the Jews, but including the Gentiles. Why? Because in the letter we find such phrases as, “Once ye were not a people, but now are the people of God: ye had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” We know these words can only be applied to the Gentiles.
So we believe that this letter, even though it may have been mainly directed to Jewish believers in the Dispersion, includes all believers—all those who are elect according to the foreknowledge of God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, we know that we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God. This is a wonderful thing. It is something that we cannot explain; it is beyond us. But we do thank God that we are chosen, elected, according to the foreknowledge of God.
God knows us even before we are born. He knows us even before the foundation of the world. He has chosen us according to His foreknowledge.
We are sanctified by the Holy Spirit—set apart for God by the Holy Spirit—unto the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. His blood has been sprinkled upon our wicked conscience and has purified our conscience. And unto the obedience of Jesus Christ: not only are we sprinkled by the blood, but we are to obey Him—obey our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are the people who are strangers and sojourners in the world. So we believe that this letter is not only for those in the first century, but that it can apply to us too.
If we want to understand this letter, probably we should reconstruct the historical condition of the Christians around AD 63 or 64.
We know that Paul was released from the Roman prison probably around AD 64. The great persecution that came in the time of Nero had not yet come, but it was approaching.
So during that period, after the release of Paul and before the great persecution under Nero, what were the conditions of the Christians during that time?
We know that even though that great persecution had not yet come, believers were really assaulted, attacked, and persecuted by both the Jews and the Gentiles everywhere.
It seems as if such pressure upon the believers not only did not decrease, but actually increased. The Christians were constantly under harassment and persecution. It did not seem to be letting up. As a matter of fact, it looked as if it would increase.
Now, situated in such a situation, how would you help these Christians? What would you say to them? How are you going to encourage them?
Peter himself says that he writes briefly to them to exhort and to testify—exhort by word, testify by experience. He is not only exhorting them, encouraging them, and warning them by words; he is bearing witness through his personal experience that what he has said is true.
He is trying to tell them that this is the true grace of Jesus Christ in which they stand. In other words, Peter, in this letter, is trying to tell them: do not think it strange. Do not be disappointed or discouraged. Do not think that perhaps something is wrong with you, and that is the reason why the pressure increases and never lets up.
Peter says, “No, you are all right. You are on the right track. This is what the brotherhood should expect. This is the footstep of our Lord Jesus Christ, and all this happens according to God’s plan.”
All this happens for one reason: not because God does not love you. It is because God loves you so much that He wants to purify you. He wants to complete you. He wants to perfect you, that you may inherit the glorious inheritance that He has prepared for you.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, if this is the case, do you think this letter is very relevant to us today? We are living in the end time, and we do feel that the pressure upon us is increasing.
We find God’s people everywhere under trials of many kinds. Sometimes you begin to wonder, “Is there anything wrong with us? Does God have a word for us today?”
God does have a word for us today. And what is the word? The word is the salvation of the soul.
What does He expect us to see? He wants us to see Christ as the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.
Dr. Thomas, a great teacher, divides this letter into three sections. I think that is the simplest analysis, and I have always liked that.
He divides this whole letter into three parts, and they are all divided by one word. That one word is beloved. You find the word beloved twice in this letter: once in 1 Peter 2:11 and again in 1 Peter 4:12.
He uses these two occurrences of the word beloved to divide the whole letter into three parts. He calls the first part, from 1 Peter 1:1 through 2:10, privilege. He calls the second part, from 1 Peter 2:11 through 4:11, duty. Then the third part, from 1 Peter 4:12 to the end, he calls trial.
I would like to follow this division, but change the terms. I would call the first part the call, the second part the commitment, and the third part the consolation.
Peter begins this letter with privilege, or, to put it another way, the call. God has called us with a call, and this calling is a tremendous privilege that God has offered to us.
He says:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
God, in His great mercy, has begotten us through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Then, in the same letter, he says that we are begotten by the living and abiding Word of God. So, first of all, we are begotten of God. This is a tremendous mercy.
Why? Because mercy is something given undeserved. In other words, we are undeserving people, and yet God is willing to show mercy to us. And what mercy is that? Not just giving us something, but even begetting us. Now think of that.
We are born of God. Not only has He washed us from all our sins, but He has given His very life to us. We are begotten into the family of God. We have His life in us. We are His children.
Now, brothers and sisters, I believe we have all experienced this new birth. And what a tremendous experience that is. Think of it: before that, we were dead in sins and transgressions; now we are alive unto God. Before that, we were enemies of God; now we are in the family of God.
Before that, we were condemned; now we are forgiven. Before that, we were under guilt; now we are freed. Before that, we had no life; now there is life in us—a relationship with God.
We who have experienced this new birth know that it is a tremendous mercy of God, and we cannot cease thanking God for that great mercy.
But do you know that to be begotten of God is just the beginning of God’s mercy? To be saved, to be born again, is just the beginning of the grace of God that knows no ending.
Unfortunately, you will find many believers take the new-birth experience as the end, as if there is nothing more. Or, in other words, after you are born again, what more can you expect but to die and go to heaven?
But here you find the apostle Peter saying, “You are begotten unto a living hope.” Do you hear the words? To be begotten is not the end. To be begotten of God is the beginning of something more. We are begotten unto a living hope.
We often say Paul is the apostle of faith, John is the apostle of love, and Peter is the apostle of hope. So here he tells us that we are begotten unto a living hope.
Dear brothers and sisters, we have hope. People who do not have God have no hope. What hope do they have? It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment. So what hope is that?
But we who are begotten of God are begotten unto a living hope. And what is this living hope?
Unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.
Here you find there is an inheritance reserved in heaven for you. This does not refer to your new birth. It is because you are born again that there is an inheritance reserved for you.
If you are not born into a certain family, then you have no promise and no right to any inheritance from that family. The reason why you have the hope of inheriting the family inheritance one day is because you are a child of the family. You are born into the family.
The same thing is true in the family of God. Unless you are born into the family of God, you have no hope of inheritance. But because you are born again, there is the hope of inheriting an inheritance.
This inheritance is called incorruptible. Now, brothers and sisters, we know everything upon this earth is corruptible and corrupted. Everything upon this earth is defilable and defiled. Everything upon this earth is fading and perishable.
But we have an inheritance reserved in heaven, and that inheritance is incorruptible. Not only has it never been corrupted, but you cannot corrupt it. It is not only undefiled, but cannot be defiled. It is not only unfading, but it will never fade, because it is eternal.
Now, there is an inheritance. Dear brothers and sisters, we are called heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. What is the meaning of an heir? An heir is one who is to inherit.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we have a living hope. We are to inherit an incorruptible, undefiled, unfading inheritance reserved in heaven for us. It is reserved there. You have a reserved seat there, reserved for you in heaven.
Because it is something reserved, it is something in the future. Therefore, in order to inherit our inheritance, we need to be kept, lest we lose it.
Reserved in heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith.
Dear brothers and sisters, we cannot keep ourselves undefiled and uncorrupted. We cannot. But there is One Who is able to keep us. The power of God is so great that He is able to keep us and guard us, so that we may inherit our inheritance.
But on our part, we need to believe it. So he says, “Guarded by the power of God through faith.” We need to have faith.
The faith here is not faith in the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; you already have that. The faith here is believing in the keeping power of God. We not only believe that He can save us; we also believe that He is able to keep us.
That is the preservation of the saints—the perseverance of the saints. He is able to keep us without stumbling and to present us holy and blameless before Him in glory. He is able to do that, and we believe that He is able to do that.
If we who are the Lord’s are saved and believe that He is able to keep us, then there is a full salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Dear brothers and sisters, the salvation here is not the initial salvation that we all know. The salvation here is something kept and reserved for you in the last time. That is something in the future.
Here you are, begotten unto a living hope. This living hope has to do with an inheritance—incorruptible, undefiled, unfading. This inheritance is reserved for you in heaven, for those who are kept by the power of God through faith unto a full salvation.
In other words, it is salvation, but it is not salvation of the past; it is salvation yet in the future.
In the process, you find that you have to go through many trials. But it is only for a little while. The reason is that your faith may be tested and purified and become more precious than gold, so that you may be found at the revelation of Jesus Christ unto praise, glory, and honor.
In other words, an inheritance is reserved for you in heaven, but today God is making you worthy of taking it. If the inheritance is incorruptible, then anything that is corruptible in you has to be purged out. If the inheritance is undefiled, then anything that is foul in you has to be taken away. If the inheritance is unfading, then whatever is passing in your life has to be gone.
How can these things be removed so that you may be fit and suitable to inherit His inheritance? It is by trials—trials so that your faith may be more precious than gold.
Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
Now, I know we are treading in an area that has been overlooked through the centuries in Christianity, especially in the Protestant churches.
Salvation is a broad term. Oftentimes, we limit salvation and equate it with being born again, regeneration, and being saved in order to go to heaven. But if you read the Word of God, you will find salvation is a big word. It includes a great deal.
Salvation reaches not only to our spirit; it reaches to our soul and to our body. When salvation touches our spirit, we call it being born again, or regeneration. When salvation touches our soul, we call it transformation. When salvation touches our body, we find that our body is transformed from a mortal body into an immortal body.
Salvation reaches the whole being. We as human beings are created with a spirit, a soul, and a body.
When salvation comes to us, it not only comes to our spirit; it also reaches our soul and our body, so that our whole being may be sanctified. As we find in 1 Thessalonians 5, “Your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame.”
When God does any work, He always works from within, from the center to the circumference. So when God saves us, you find He saves first our spirit.
Our human spirit has the capacity and ability to communicate with God and to receive God. Yet that spirit was dead in sins and transgressions.
God said, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and they lived on for hundreds of years. But the Word said, “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” What was that? Their spirit was dead.
As soon as sin entered into their lives, the human spirit—that spirit which has the ability to communicate with God and the capacity to receive God—was dead. There was no more communication between man and God, and there was no more possibility of union between God and man.
When salvation comes to us, do you know what happens? The Holy Spirit quickens our dead spirit and makes it new.
In John 3, we are told, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Our Lord is talking about new birth. The first “Spirit” is the Holy Spirit; the second “spirit” is the human spirit. He that is born of the Holy Spirit is spirit.
The Holy Spirit touches our dead spirit and raises it to life, revitalizes it, and makes it a new spirit. Then He, the Holy Spirit, comes and dwells in our spirit.
That is the experience of new birth. Immediately, you find that communication with God is there. The ability is restored, and the capacity is functioning. God comes to dwell in your spirit and bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God.
Now, that is the experience of salvation—the experience of new birth. When that happens, it happens in your spirit. Remember, it does not happen in your body. You are still in this mortal body; your body has not become immortal yet.
Neither does it happen in your soul, because you find that you still have the old way of thinking. You still have your own will, likes, dislikes, choices, and all these things. You are still yourself. It happens not in your body, not in your soul, but in your spirit. You know you are a child of God.
But remember, that is just the beginning of salvation.
God has put His Spirit in our new spirit, and He has put the life of Christ in us. Remember, when the Spirit dwells in us, He is the Spirit of life—the life of Jesus Christ. The very life of Jesus Christ is in you, and this life in you is to live.
This eternal life, this life of Jesus Christ now in your spirit, is not there merely to be kept in a safety box until you die and go to heaven. No. This life in you is to live.
How does it live? It has to live through you. In other words, Christ is not to be confined in your spirit. Christ is to come forth from your spirit to penetrate and occupy your soul, and to use your body.
That is the reason why, in Ephesians 3, Paul’s prayer is that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. Christ dwells in your spirit, but He wants to dwell in your heart too. In other words, He wants to displace and replace the occupant in your soul.
Who is the occupant in your soul? Yourself. Yourself is the life of the soul—the flesh is the work of the soul. I mean the fallen soul.
Here you are: Christ lives in your spirit. You are a new creation, and you are supposed to live a new life, a life just like Christ. Why? Because it is He Who lives, and not you anymore.
But unfortunately, you find that our soul has been inhabited by self for so long, and self wants to continue to dwell there. Self does not want to give up its rights.
In other words, brothers and sisters, even though you are born again, you may still be under the tyranny of yourself. Deep down in your spirit, you know what you should do, but your soul refuses to cooperate. Not only does it refuse to cooperate; it opposes it.
This old Adam, as the reformer Martin Luther said, “Old Adam is too strong for young Martin Luther.” This soul has to be saved. Self has to be displaced and replaced by Christ.
Your soul is the seat of personality. Your soul expresses yourself—your personality. “This is the way I think. This is the way I feel. This is the way I want.” It represents you.
But God’s salvation is to reach your soul, so that all that is expressed from your soul will represent Him instead of you.
“Not my will, but Thy will be done.” Not my mind, but the mind of Christ. Not my love or hate, but the love and hate of God.
How can it happen? You find that self is in your soul and will not give up. That is the reason why you have to go through trials—pressure, suffering. All these are measured by God in your life for one reason: that your soul-life may decrease and the spirit-life of Christ may increase in you.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, our soul is given to us by God. God is not going to destroy our soul. If God destroyed your soul, then you would no longer be there; in other words, your personality would be gone. God does not want you to be a soulless person.
But God wants to save your soul. Your soul needs to be saved.
Brothers and sisters, do you realize that your soul needs to be saved? Do you realize that after you are born again, that which troubles you most is yourself?
Our worst enemy is not Satan. Our worst enemy is ourselves.
You know Romans 7. Here you find a conflict, a civil war within a person: “What I want to do, I cannot do; what I do not want to do, I do. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ.”
Do you know that this is not the experience of an unbeliever? This is the experience of a believer. In other words, a believer who was saved needs to be constantly saved, and will yet be saved.
When our Lord Jesus was on earth, you find what He said to the disciples. If you read the Gospels, you find that He often says, “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
“He that would save his life shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for My sake shall find it.” Now we know that the word life there is the same word as soul. It is the same Greek word.
He who desires to save his life, or desires to save his soul, shall lose it. But he who is willing to lose his soul for the sake of the gospel shall save it unto eternity.
What does it mean to try to save your soul today? If you try to save your soul today, you will lose it. That is not the salvation of the soul. The salvation of the soul is that today you are willing to lose it; then you will save it.
The soul is where your personality is. It is you. You have your emotions, and your emotions express you—your love and your hate. You love because you feel good; you hate because you feel hurt. It represents you.
How we, as believers, still cater to our own emotions! Our own emotions still represent ourselves. We love when we feel good, and we hate when we are hurt. Our soul does not represent Christ.
This is why the Lord Jesus said, “If any man cometh unto Me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.”
Now, this does not mean natural love or natural hate. No, the Lord is trying to save our souls. In other words, in your emotional life, you have to be willing to lose your soul.
You love not because of yourself. You hate not because you are hurt. You love because the love of God constrains you, and you hate because the hatred of God constrains you.
Love and hate are emotions; they are neutral. If you love what you should love, that is good. If you love what you should hate, that love is wrong. Or if you hate what you should love, then that hate is wrong. Love and hate are simply emotions; they are neutral.
God loves sinners, but He hates sin. So, dear brothers and sisters, our emotional life needs to be saved. In our emotional life, we need to be dealt with by the cross, so that we will not react according to our own feelings but according to God—according to Christ.
Then we can love the brethren. Otherwise, there is no way to love the brethren. How can we love a brother? What is brotherly love? Brotherly love simply means you love him because he is a brother—a male brother or a female brother, a brother.
Not because of what he is, not because of what he does to you, not because he is lovely or unlovely, lovable or unlovable, whether he suits you or does not suit you. No. To love the brethren means you love every child of God notwithstanding.
How can you do that unless your emotional life has been dealt with? If our emotional life has not been dealt with, we will love only what we naturally love, and we will hate what we naturally hate.
In expressing our natural love and natural hate, our soul is satisfied, right? But when you try to satisfy the self in your soul, you lose it. You gain it for a while, but you lose it.
On the contrary, if we are willing to have our emotional life purified through the cross, we deny ourselves.
Now, what does it mean to deny yourself? Some people think self-denial is self-control. Self-denial is not self-control. You know, self-control means you are still in control.
To deny yourself simply means that you do not know yourself. The best illustration, though it is a wrong illustration, is Peter. Peter denied the Lord three times. How did he deny the Lord? He said, “I do not know Him. I do not know Him.”
If Peter should deny himself, he would say, “Peter, who are you? I do not know you.” But he denied the wrong person. He denied Christ. Often, brothers and sisters, we make the same mistake.
We ought to deny ourselves. When our own emotional life comes forward, we should say, “Now, who are you? I do not know you. I have no reason to gratify you. I have no reason to yield to you. I do not know you at all.”
If you deny yourself, then He says, “Take up the cross and follow Me.” To deny self is a matter of the will. To take up the cross is a daily experience.
Brothers and sisters, all that God requires us to do is that we are willing to deny self. If you are willing to deny self, then the Holy Spirit will arrange your circumstances to give you crosses to take.
Do not try to create your own crosses. Do not try to create crosses for your brothers and sisters; they have enough. Let the Holy Spirit manufacture crosses. We have too many firms in the world manufacturing crosses. Let the Holy Spirit manufacture crosses.
But on one condition: you have to deny yourself. If you do not deny yourself, brothers and sisters, may I boldly say that you have no cross to bear?
Why? If there is a cross, you will bypass it. I think this bypass is a wonderful thing—you bypass all the traffic. And, you know, Christians are all on the bypass.
If you deny yourself, if you are willing, you have the mind to suffer, as Peter says. Peter says, “Arm ye yourselves also with the same mind.” It is true that to deny self involves suffering.
Who wants to suffer denial? Yourself will suffer. You do not gratify it, you do not satisfy it, you do not please it, and of course you do not want to do that. So we have to have the mind to suffer. In other words, we are willing.
If you are willing, the Holy Spirit will arrange crosses for you to bear, and the grace of God will be given to you to bear these crosses.
Sometimes you hate a person. Do not think that Christians do not hate. I am afraid Christians are not completely delivered from hatred.
Suppose you hate a person—perhaps with reason, or perhaps the reason is yourself. You always have a reason. The Spirit of God begins to point it out to you. What will you do?
Are you willing to go to the Lord and confess that it is beyond you not to hate? But if it is His will for you not to hate but to love, then ask God to take away that hatred from you and fill your heart with love, that you may love that person instead of hating him.
In doing that, actually you are giving up something of your rights, because you think you have the right to hate. But if you are willing to be dealt with in that way, what do you find?
You find that instead of your heart becoming narrower and narrower, bitter and bitter—it really eats you up—you find that your heart is enlarged. You save your soul. The salvation of the soul has come upon you.
Or suppose you love a person, and the Spirit of God begins to point His finger at you and says, “This love is not what you should love.” Oh, you struggle before the Lord, but you just love it.
But are you willing to deny self and say, “Lord, if this is not what I should love, then give me grace to give it up for You”? Do you think you lose your soul? Yes, but you are gaining your soul. Why? Because the love of God fills you.
Our emotional life needs to be purified so that our soul may be saved.
The same thing is true with our mental, psychological, and intellectual life. There are many strongholds that the enemy has raised up in our minds. These strongholds stand there opposing God, so that the life of God and the Word of God cannot penetrate.
Paul says that all these strongholds have to be torn down, and every thought brought into captivity to Christ. Our minds, all our thoughts, have to be dealt with.
I do not have time to tell you, but you find among believers there are so many mental blocks. Much of the truth of God simply cannot penetrate. These are the strongholds of the enemy—the reasonings of man.
The Lord said to Peter, “Thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men.” Peter thought he was minding the things of God because he told the Lord Jesus, “Pity Thyself: this shall never be unto Thee.” He was being good. But the Lord said that was a fleshly mind, not the mind of the Spirit.
Oh, we need to have our mental and intellectual life purified.
Then, of course, there is our volitional life. We all are strong-willed persons, you know. Some are stronger, but we are all strong-willed. Sometimes people say, “God uses only strong-willed persons.” Is that true?
If you are a person whose will is weak, what can God do with you? But let me tell you one thing: a person can be strong-willed in everything, but when he comes to the will of God, no longer strong.
Our will has to be purified. Sometimes God has to bring you to a point where you have to make a choice: “Not my will, Thy will be done.” It hurts not to have your will. It hurts. But the salvation of the soul comes upon you.
So, brothers and sisters, let us remember this: First Peter is telling us there is a salvation going on today. It is the salvation of your soul, and it is to this that we need to commit ourselves.
We need to return to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls, Christ Jesus. You see, Christ is our Shepherd. I believe we all love Psalm 23. But do you know Psalm 23 has a condition? It says, “The Lord is my shepherd.”
To say, “The Lord is my shepherd,” means that I, as a sheep, commit myself to Him and let Him lead me. Do we know the Lord as the Shepherd of our souls?
He is the Savior of our spirit, but He is also the Shepherd of our souls. Brothers and sisters, you need to commit yourself to Him. Give yourself to Him, so that He can lead you.
He will lead you to green pastures. He will make you lie down beside still waters. He will restore your soul. Sometimes He will lead you through the valley of the shadow of death.
His rod and His staff, they comfort you. The word comfort does not mean merely patting you on the back and saying that it is all right. It strengthens you.
The Lord is our Overseer—our Supervisor—also. Do you commit your soul to Him and let Him supervise it, or are you still taking care of your own soul?
If you still try to take care of your own soul, you lose it. But if you commit your soul to Him, He will supervise it, see to it, and take good care of it.
The consolation of the whole matter is that Christ suffered, and then He entered into glory. Therefore, for a little while, we shall suffer. The grace of God will strengthen us, ground us, and establish us, that we may enter into eternal glory.
Dear brothers and sisters, the salvation of the soul is going on today. Your soul is under transformation—from glory to glory—until one day you are conformed to the image of Christ.
That is the consolation: He will bring many sons into glory, and there you will inherit the kingdom with Him. That is the consolation.
All the time, remember one thing. Peter says, “This is the true grace of God wherein ye stand.” There is nothing wrong. You are in the right course. Just keep on going, trusting His grace.
His grace has given you all these trials, and His grace is sufficient for your every day.
Shall we pray?
Dear heavenly Father, we thank Thee because Thou always hast a word for us. We do pray that Thy Word may register in us and be like a seed growing until it bears fruit unto the praise of Thy glory.
We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.