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Please turn your Bibles to the Epistle of First Peter. And today we begin our first message. And I would like to read the passage from First Peter, starting from verse 1 to verse 12. So let us read this passage responsively. And so, if you have your Bibles, please turn to 1 Peter chapter 1, reading from verses 1–12 responsively. I shall begin.
1 Peter 1:1, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. 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 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 Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. (1 Peter 1:1-12)
Amen. We thank God for the reading of His precious Word.
Now, the theme for this camp—and I put it up on the board, it’s also in your camp booklet, right—Faithful in the Fire: Holding fast in the shifting world.
And I know many of you Bethalians, you spend time in Bible study, so you know what the theme in this epistle of Peter is about. It’s about readiness for the coming persecution, isn’t it? Which is what we have just read, because it says in verse 6, “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” (1 Peter 1:6) And Peter was going to warn his readers, the readers of this epistle, about the even greater persecution that is to come.
So where do we draw this theme, and how is it relevant to us today? You may say, yes, we live in a period of relative peace, isn’t it? It is so wonderful for us to live in these times. Truly, we are blessed with peace. We’ve just had a wonderful meal, isn’t it? Many of us—and I can say honestly—many of us do not truly know what it means to hunger, to starve. We’ve never experienced that, isn’t it? Maybe once in a while, we may have a meal that is delayed, or we skip a meal or two because of voluntary fasting. Yes, but we do not know what starvation is like. We do not know what true hostility is like. We do not know the threat of conflict and violence. When men who are determined to do violence and harm would want to come upon you to harm you. Thank God we live in an era of peace, and thank God that we are blessed.
But still we must know that this lesson is relevant to us. So I want to begin by setting the stage—a shift, right, in the shifting world. What does it mean when we speak of the shifting world?
Now, when I was a young man, I used to work in the desert, and I’m sure as Australians you all know more about deserts than most people, right? The entire interior, it’s called the Great Australian Desert, isn’t it? Am I right? That’s what it’s called geographically, am I correct? So you know about deserts. And when I was working in the desert, we used to rotate in and out. We’ll go in for a month, and then we’ll go out for a month to have our R&R—rest and recreation—then we’ll come back in and do our work, whatever that work needed to be carried out for the oil and gas industry in these countries, in these desert lands.
And it was very peculiar. You know, you could be standing in your camp and looking straight down the desert, and then you can see a pathway and a road that leads to perhaps, right, a destination several hundred kilometres down away from you in the desert. But then you go away for a month, and then you come back, and then suddenly this pathway is no longer there, and in its place you see a big dune. And why? And the answer is very simple—shifting sands.
The wind would carry sands and move entire dunes—dunes as big and as huge as hills that you see along the roadside that you’re driving to Philip Island. And the power of the wind is able to carry this dune and shift sand and change the entire landscape in a matter of weeks and months. That’s the meaning of shift—to move something with great force.
And I remember when we were little children, we used to play this game. This was long before the days of Lego blocks and Jenga blocks and whatever. We’ll take whatever blocks, right, our parents can find for us. Some of them are rectangular, some of them are square blocks, and we’ll just pile them on a table, and then we’ll challenge each other to see who can knock the table and move the structure without causing it to collapse, right? And of course, in our very deprived childhood, there was a fun game—we loved it. But what does it mean? It means simply this: that in a system that is meant to be stable, and you introduce a perturbation of any kind, right—it may be a little flap, it may be a little knock on the table—the entire superstructure can collapse. And these are the times we are living in now. And if we’re not careful, we’ll be carried away by that shifting sand.
Australia and the rest of Southeast Asia and the rest of Asia is now going through a very precarious political consideration. Will there be conflict? Isn’t it? It’s in your mind sometimes. I’m sure when you read the media, it is in your mind often when you read and look at these news clips about the naval manoeuvring that’s going along in the seas around us. And then we know that something momentous is about to happen.
The shifting world—and when I speak of that, you can identify with it, because most of it is political. It is something that you can see, something that you read about in the news. You can watch in those little clips, and you see those naval vessels colliding with one another, either accidentally or perhaps by volition in order to incite violence, whatever that may be.
But know this also, that the devil has a way to cause that disturbance and perturbation among God’s people. And how does he do it? In the case of the Epistle to Peter to the early church, he does it by persecution. He does it by persecution. And that’s why Peter have to warn them, though ye may be in heaviness through manifold temptations, “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” (1 Peter 1:6)
They already experiencing persecution, and they will experience greater persecution to come. There is no denying that. We know that, and we know of the time in the early church, especially in those times which was the reigning superpower in those days—we know them, the Romans, isn’t it? They were the superpower of that age, and they ruled with a strong and mighty arm. They ruled with an iron fist, and when it suit their purpose, they will choose later on, as church history has shown us, to adopt the religion—Christianity.
But prior to that, what the world then saw—and when I say the world, I meant the world in general, which means Jews, Gentiles, Christian churches in general—what did they see in those days? They saw a power that is cruel and willing to use force and violence in order to subjugate the will of the people. And they did that very effectively. It was known in the times by church historians that there was an emperor called Nero, and he caused Christians to be persecuted terribly, and he was pretty creative with his methods of inciting and causing violence.
One of the favorite ways amongst the Romans was to starve animals, predatory animals, and then set them upon innocent Christians in the arena to make a spectacle of them. Some Christians would suffer in the same way that the Lord Jesus suffered, to be crucified. And as if the pain and the violence that they suffered was not enough, the cruel Roman mind of that age would set the human corpse on fire and let that flame be like, as it were today, the street lamps that you see to light up the streets city was what it was like. Terrible times, and worse will come upon them.
So Peter had a very important message to the people. That is the kind of message that will cause a shift. And this is the first message for today. I want to begin with this, and I write that in red, right? Every day we’ll have a new—every message will have a new theme: the shift in faith and spiritual things.
You see, when a person is undergoing pain and duress and stresses of all kinds, your faith will be shaken, isn’t it? It is only natural, right? Especially if that violence or that pain is inflicted upon you as a result of your profession of faith, you will start to think, am I right in being a Christian? And the Romans were very good at that. They will take the head of a household—any, have you a head of household here, Uncle William? I’m sure you’re the head of a household. Elder child, how about you, Dr. Chilton? You’re the head of a household, right?—take one of the family members and ask, with a sword to the throat, do you reject and blaspheme Christ right now and worship the idols? And if you won’t, you will lose a loved one immediately.
And under those form of duress, the Christians of that time cannot help but feel that shifting momentum to move them away from the faith and the spiritual things that have been taught.
So is it relevant to us? Let us read the Word of God and see what the Word of God has for us. So I begin in chapter 1, verse one, right? It says this, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you and peace be multiplied.” (1 Peter 1:1–2) What was the primary audience that Peter was trying to address?
And I will use a very simple term that all of us understand, because we are that today. This is the Christian diaspora of the first century. That’s why they’re all over. They in Bithynia, they in Cappadocia, they in Asia. They’re all over these places where churches have been found.
If I were to read this in the context of today, I would say Calvary, Bethl BP Church, right? Maybe Pandan, True Life BP Church, Meri BP Church, all these scattered diaspora of Christians that are all over in these places.
And the Apostle Peter says, verse two, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, reminding them that they are special. They are chosen by God. Yes, they may be diasporic. They may be dispersed. True. They may be in small groups. Very often they may be poorly led by men, perhaps ill-equipped to lead them. But nonetheless, they are elect by the foreknowledge of God. They’re special, just like you. And you and every one of you who profess Jesus to be your Lord and Saviour, you’re elect, special in God’s sight.
And that is the audience, the readership that Peter wants to address, and that is us. Peter the apostle has a message for the people in those days who are about to undergo that form of persecution.
And so in that, what did Peter say to them? He begins by saying in verse three, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy have begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3–5)
Now, as I go through the verses of this passage today, I want you to remember three important things about standing firm and holding fast despite the shifting sands that will move our faith and the spiritual things that we treasure as being precious. And the first of these things is this. The first of this is to remember that we are kept by the power of God.
We have a very heavenly inheritance that God have reserved for us, and He will keep it, and it is by His power that we know that we can possess it. The power of God begins to key, so you can remember that if you are taking notes, write that down, right? We do not shift in faith and in spiritual things. Why? Because we are kept by the power of God.
The second thing we want to learn—and I’ll come to that in the later verses, especially when you come to verses six and seven—that we have a faith that is precious, another word beginning with P. Precious is even more precious than gold. If you think of the finest grade of gold that you can find today, or the purest diamonds that you can find today, well, our faith is even more precious than that. And therefore, it is worth treasuring and keeping, and therefore it is worth holding fast onto, not letting go, not being—not allowing ourselves to be moved or to be shifted in the faith, in spiritual things.
And then finally, we want to know and understand that the promise and the prophecy, right—again beginning with P—is given by God and transmitted and conveyed to us for our comfort and assurance.
So we will never move in our faith, in our spiritual things, because number one, we are kept by the power of God. Secondly, because we know and we treasure that our faith is truly precious. It is not a base and common thing. It is not like a club membership that you can pay money and purchase a card to say you’re a member. It is more precious than that.
And it is more precious than all the gold and silver and all the precious stones that you can own, which includes all the properties and the fine cars and all the wonderful things that this world can bestow upon you. It’s more precious than that. Thirdly, we know that it was given and conveyed by the prophecy by God and by the servants of God.
I. The Power Of God
So let us begin where we were, from 1:3. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy have begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Peter 1:3)
We are not moved. We do not shift. We are not easily shaken in our faith or the spiritual things that we lay hold upon and hold and treasure in our heart, because the power of God proves that we possess it.
This message was preached just last Sunday at Easter. Right? You see that in verse three, who have begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. How does a Christian prove that he has a living hope? You can’t see a living hope, right? You don’t have a certificate to show I’ve got a living hope. No, we don’t have that. You got a car membership that says I have a living hope. No, you don’t have that. The truth and the proof that you and I have a living hope is in the power of God in raising Jesus from the dead.
Last Easter we rejoice and celebrate that the power of God—and more than that, it is more than just a demonstration. You see, if we read on and we continue in the reading, right? Verse four says, “To an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.” (1 Peter 1:4)
You know, one of the characteristics of a person who knows what he truly possesses is his ability, or her ability, to express it and to give it a true descriptive account. Isn’t it? Isn’t that true? A man may say, “Oh, I love my wife.” Ask him, “What is it about your wife you truly love?” Um, let me think. You know, he’s in trouble already, right?
A man may tell his boss, you know, “Boss, I really love this job. I enjoy doing this.” Maybe he wants his boss to feel really good about it. But a boss may turn and ask him, “Yes, can you tell me what you really like about this job? Do you like that 14 hours day that you have to put in? Do you like that nasty customer or client that’s harassing you day and night, giving you messages and phone call?” He has to think about it. What is it I really like about this job? You can’t give a description.
We have a living hope that is fully described for us, and you find that in verse four. What is it? Incorruptible. What is it? It is undefiled and that fadeth not away. If somebody were to ask you, how do you know you have a living hope in God? Well, I know God has forgiven my sins. I know that I have salvation in Jesus Christ. I know that for certain. Can you describe it? Yes, I can describe it. It is incorruptible. It’s undefiled. It fadeth not away.
You know, the Greek language is actually very descriptive, because each one of these words tell us a different aspect of the quality of our living hope in Christ, and it can only be accomplished by the power of God.
Incorruptible means what? Doesn’t decay, right? Everything on earth decays. Look at metal around you, right? They rust. Some people say, “Oh, aluminium, if you give it a good powder coating, it doesn’t rust.” Well, give it time, right? What will happen? It will fade. Those of you who own cars, you will know about it. Everything decay. If you own a house, you will know it. Everything on this earth will corrupt, including our bodies.
And I’ll be the first to acknowledge that with a passing year, right, you will diminish in strength and ability and sometimes mental capacity too.
Incorruptible—that’s the living hope that we have. Undefiled, never stained, never turned or discoloured or found to be dirty or to be filthy or to be tainted—undefiled. That’s the nature of our living hope, and only God can do that.
Man can do things to clean temporal objects. You clean your car, but you drive it around the city and you come back, you’ll find that it’s dusty again, isn’t it? You do your laundry, yes, but you wear it once or twice, you find that you need to do your laundry.
Incorruptible, undefiled, fadeth not away. Everything has a time stamp and expiry on it, isn’t it true? Including ourselves, our bodies. So in these three aspect, the power of God is seen, and the demonstration of this power of God that we have this living hope is that the power of God is able to raise Jesus Christ from the dead. And then finally, the power of God is demonstrated in its preservation of our living hope, our faith, and our spiritual inheritance. Look at verse five, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:5)
It is not the hope of God. It is the power of God that demonstrates to us we have that living hope. It is the power of God that preserves that quality of that living hope, keeping it incorruptible, undefiled, and never fading away. It is the power of God who preserves and keep us for how long? A week, a month, a year, a decade, a lifetime? No. Verse 5 ends with to be revealed in the last time—till Jesus comes again, and there on to eternity, when we shall forever be in his presence.
How wonderful it is to know the power of God.
So as we see and we know and we understand this, to the readers of the Epistle First Peter who are about to undergo terrible persecution, terrible testing, the power of God is a great comfort to them.
Now what about to us? What is shifting in this world that we need to watch out for? I began the sermon by saying that we live in a time of relative peace, and truly we enjoy it. It’s a wonderful time, but there are major shifts in the world around us that are making huge changes to the Christian faith.
Now one of this is one of these important change is this, right? You know, since the year 2000, now prior to that, of course, we talk about the computer age, right? And then, you know, of course, before that, you know, there was space exploration, putting man in the moon, and there was a computer age when computers became an everyday item in many people’s life, and then there was the internet age, and then now we move—okay, shortly before this there was the knowledge age, isn’t it? When people talk about the ability to acquire knowledge through the internet, and then now we’re talking about artificial intelligence, and all of that kind of development erodes very quickly the authority of the Bible. It erodes very quickly authority of family leadership, because what it does is it brings to the young people in this age especially not only an inquisitive and questioning mind, but also a mind that does not recognise human as authority over them. That human can be a lecturer in the university. That human can be his or her father or mother. That human can be like me, a pastor preaching to his congregation, or a preacher or a teacher or a Sunday school teacher. Why? Because when that child picks up the phone or that teenager picks up the phone, he or she has access to that mighty computing power that far exceeds what you or I can come up with, given even days and weeks and months of research.
You know that, and it has come to a point when the youth of today, if they have a question—can be a question about relationship, it can be a question about their own spiritual life—they will be quicker to ask AI to get an answer than they would to ask their Sunday school teacher or their parents or their pastor. And that is a major shift.
It’s happening now. You say, “Oh, yes, this is, you know, this is what you think. You know, Reverend Lim, it’s not what I think.” The numbers show it, and the numbers are glaringly obvious. You know, a lot of trends that happens in the rest of the world starts in the US. You know that, right? Right. Because they tend to be more progressive. They tend to be more liberal.
And you know, you see even today, right, in the year 1972—so how long ago was that? Now we’re in year 2026, so 1972, 50 years ago—have you heard about this religious category called nones? N O N E S. Nones. You might have heard of it, right? This was never in existence in the 70s. This was never in existence in the 80s. It’s only these days. And what is a nuns? N O N E S. If you have a religion, well, first you write your name and then your sex, of course, M or F. Of course, even that is a confusion these days, right? And then you write your address, and then it comes to religion, right? So we have, you know, all the major faith of the world, right—Christianity, Muslim, Buddhism, whatever—and the last box, nuns. And many years, in the year 1972, 5% of the people ticked that nuns box. Of course, in those days there was no nuns, right? There were atheists or no religion or whatever. And most recent days today, right, in the last two or three years, 28%.
So how many times is that? 14-fold, 14-fold increase over that time. It changed. And then what is growing rapidly even more, especially among the Gen Z these days, right? Of course, I would say Gen Zed, right, being educated in a certain manner that the letter is Zed—they call it Gen Z these days—this group, nuns, account for 40%. What does it tell you? That the idea of our faith, the faith that we hold dear, that I am a sinner, that I need to be cleansed by the perfect sinless Son of God who came to earth and died for me—to them, it is absolute. I don’t need that. None. They don’t need that.
And there are the youth of today. And I say youth of today, I mean men, women, perhaps in their 30s, grow up in a Sunday school. I know because I taught some of them. They were just slightly older than toddlers when they entered Sunday school. That would be about elementary school age, isn’t it? And then they grow up in teenagers in church, and then later as youth. But when they got out into the working world and they’re ready to take flight on their own, they can tell their parents, you know, dad, mom, actually I don’t share any of your beliefs. You know, whatever faith you may hold, I don’t want a part of it. I want to live my own life.
And I’ve seen parents in tears. So, what have I done wrong?
That is the threat to the shift in the faith and spiritual things that’s threatening us now. And the first thing we must know is this. The power of God must be real in us, and the power of God must be taught to the little ones. I saw the little ones going off to their Sunday school, right? I pray that the teachers will have the wisdom to teach them that there is an almighty and all-powerful God who raised Jesus from the dead, and He’s able to keep them, and they have to begin by believing that, and they don’t believe that, and that is a very quick slide down here.
So that’s where we begin with number one—how to hold fast and not to shift in your faith and in spiritual things, even in persecution. First answer: know and acknowledge the power of God to keep you, to raise Jesus from the dead.
II. The Preciousness Of Our Faith
Next thing we want to learn and acknowledge is this: the preciousness of our faith. So I continue to read in verse six, right? “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” (1 Peter 1:6) Verse seven, “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:7) the preciousness of our faith.
You see, for those who depart from the faith—and I’m not just speaking of the young men and women who do not believe anymore in salvation in the Lord—I’m also talking about older men and older women who perhaps may have been attending church for years, may some of them even decades, and even have children and grandchildren growing up in the midst of that environment, that church environment where they have taught the scriptures in the pure Word of God, and then they turn from the faith, either in coldness or in simple indifference. I used to be a Christian, some say, or I used to attend church regularly, but what of now? And the answer is very simple—that faith that I used to be so zealous about, that I used to be so devoted towards the Lord whom I look to for my help and my life and for my supply, that faith is no longer precious to me, is no longer precious to me. It is as common to me as it is if I were a member of a social club or perhaps being a part of an employment of a large corporation.
There’s a certain value in that attachment. Yes, there’s a certain recognition in being attached to that social club or that corporation or that particular community. Yes, that was what Christianity is like to me. Was like to me. It’s no longer precious. But how does the Word of God describe the faith that is to be seen? You know, if you turn the clock back 2,000 years to the time of the Roman Empire, and if you and I are being chased down by persecutors, ready to end your life the minute you’re caught, and to end your life in the most cruel and painful way, would you hold fast if your faith was not precious in your mind? You wouldn’t.
You would just as quickly say, “Oh, Roman soldier, sorry, I’m no longer a Christian. Don’t kill me.” Roman soldier will say, “All right, you confess. Please speak out loud to the crowd. Confess your—and renounce your faith—and you’re free to go.” And some do. Some will do that.
And Paul the Apostle, when he wrote the epistles, he spoke of a man who did that. He spoke of a man who gone back to the world, renouncing the faith, not finding that faith precious anymore in his sight or in his heart.
And I pray to God all of us, every one of us who profess faith in the Lord will never lose sight of that preciousness of that faith. You know, what do you do with precious things? I know many people have different ways of keeping and preserving and safeguarding precious things, isn’t it?
Some of you have safes at home. Do you have a safe box at home for safekeeping? I’m sure some of you do. Well, if you don’t, perhaps you may engage a bank to provide you the service of safekeeping, isn’t it? And then you would keep your precious things, whatever that may be. It may be a family heirloom, maybe jewels, it may be jewellery. Keep it locked away, and you polish it and take it from time to time just to admire it and to look at it because it’s precious to you.
Or it may not be something of great monetary value, but it has great sentimental value, right? A letter that a loved one wrote to you, and for many years, right, you desire to be close to this person, and that became precious to you. And what do you do? You keep it, isn’t it? Some may even frame it, as some do when they receive a letter of commendation from a government body, perhaps from the authorities, and to frame that letter and put it on the wall. I’ve seen that in professional offices.
Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that at all. But it tells you that this man or this woman who received that letter of commendation held that letter in high regard. It is precious to me. It’s something I’m proud of.
And the Apostle Peter describes to his people reading his epistle that the trial of faith, being much more precious than gold that perisheth, “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:7) That’s how precious it is—being much more precious than gold that perishes, should be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
You will continue to keep that precious thought about your faith until Jesus returns. Don’t we want to do that? To hold our faith precious until you see the Lord in the sky, or if the Lord carries, when we are resurrected, we see him face to face—how wonderful, isn’t it? And that thought can only be wonderful if the faith that you possess is found to be precious in your eyes, in your heart, same for the early Christians were undergoing persecution, preciousness of their faith.
But you know, how can you test whether that faith is precious or not today? And the Bible does give you an answer, and the answer is found in verse 8. Verse 8 says this, “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye 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)
That preciousness comes to your heart, and it is retained in your heart, and it is expressed by your love for the Lord Jesus, despite not being able to see him. The Lord Jesus is to us invisible. The Bible tells us he is seated at the right hand of God, interceding for us. The Bible also tells us that he is the omnipresent God, so he’s everywhere all the time as well, or we can’t see him, but yet we love him.
If our faith were to be precious in our hearts, we would love him. And not only that, we would love him with joy unspeakable. You can express it. There’s a gladness in my heart in knowing that Jesus is my Saviour. It is in yours too, isn’t it? And when you have that thought in you, you can tell yourself how precious my faith is. No sword, no fire, no violence of any kind can shake me or move me. That’s the precious.
So what have we learned so far? You see, in the sight of persecution—and this is the circumstances under which Peter wrote this epistle—men and women can be easily shaken and moved. But they will not be shaken and moved in their faith and in their spiritual development and the spiritual things that they find and they treasure if they knew that this was by the power of God. Secondly, they will never be moved from their faith if they held their faith in a precious position, knowing that it is treasured, holding it close to their heart.
III. The Promise Of God
And then finally, we want to know and understand that it is by the promise of God, because verse 10 tells us, “Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you.” (1 Peter 1:10) So if you pick up the Old Testament and you go through the Old Testament—and I don’t need to go through that now because I know you Bethalians are very much schooled and you understand the gospels in the Old Testament as well—the prophets have prophesied of it, that Jesus the Saviour will come, and he will die, and he will be buried, and on the third day he will rose, he will rise again.
And not only that, well, this is what verse 11 tells us, right? “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, which testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” (1 Peter 1:11) the promise of God in prophecy.
So, we’re never shaken in our faith because our faith is founded upon the promise of God that have been delivered to man by prophecy.
But it does not end there, because we are also called upon to be an instrument to convey that precious message, which is why verse 12 goes on to say, “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 Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.” (1 Peter 1:12) Our duty, our responsibility is not only to acknowledge that our faith is precious, that our faith is kept by the power of God, but it was prophesied, promise given by God, and it is to be preached. It is to be conveyed. It’s to be transmitted.
It’s not a knowledge that we write in a note and tuck away as a bookmark. No, it’s meant to be told to those who have yet to know it. And when it is told to those who have yet to know it, prayerfully, we know this, it is attended by the Holy Ghost, because this is how verse 12 ended: by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
The Holy Ghost instructs hearts, hearers to receive that message of the gospel. How wonderful and a marvellous thing this is. Our salvation in Jesus Christ, the power of God in keeping us, the precious faith that we have, and the promise of God.
And if you know these three things, as the readers of the Epistle of Peter would do, they would then stand firm in their faith, and their spiritual life will never, never shift.
So, brothers and sisters, I end with this message, and I pray that all of us will have this tonight. We have some time—ponder about these thoughts. How precious is this faith that I hold about my salvation in the Lord? And how much am I willing to invest in my life, in my effort, in my resource, in order to continue to convey this message to others who are still outside the community? Let that be your thought tonight, because I know in your heart you already know and you want to stand firm and hold fast. But make that your forward thought, your carryway item, so that you can think and pray about it as you pray for one another.
Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, we praise and thank thee for thy precious Word. We pray that thy Word will continue to encourage thy people and strengthen them, and cause them, Lord, to live lives that will bring glory to thee. Pray, Lord, that thou will continue to be with us in the rest of the activities this evening.
For we pray and ask all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.