SPEAKER_00: You're listening to a message preached at Front Range Baptist Church by Pastor Dean Miller.
SPEAKER_00: It is our prayer that this message will be a help and an encouragement to you in your spiritual walk.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's Pastor Miller.
SPEAKER_02: 1 Peter chapter 1 today.
SPEAKER_02: 1 Peter chapter 1.
SPEAKER_02: When we read these verses right now, I want you to pay attention to the verse.
SPEAKER_02: But in the back of your mind, I want to think about when you got saved.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you remember when you got saved?
SPEAKER_02: How many remember where you were, when you were, how you were, when you got saved?
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: Think about that as we read these verses.
SPEAKER_02: So, 1 Peter chapter 1, verse number 10.
SPEAKER_02: Of which salvation?
SPEAKER_02: I want you to think about your salvation.
SPEAKER_02: When you got saved, of which salvation?
SPEAKER_02: The prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you.
SPEAKER_02: Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which is in them did signify when it testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: What a great passage.
SPEAKER_02: Did you think about when you got saved?
SPEAKER_02: Did you think about the moment that you heard the gospel and you trusted Christ?
SPEAKER_02: This salvation that has come to you is not just a it's not just an incidental thing.
SPEAKER_02: It was not just an accidental thing.
SPEAKER_02: It was not just a constructed thing from some religious experience.
SPEAKER_02: This was something rooted and founded in the very heart and mind of God from eternity.
SPEAKER_02: And it went through a process to come to you.
SPEAKER_02: God saw fit that it came from his mind in eternity to you in time.
SPEAKER_02: And what I'm going to preach this morning on is the subject.
SPEAKER_02: The title of the message today is Terra Firma.
SPEAKER_02: You say, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: It's New Latin.
SPEAKER_02: You didn't know I was that educated, did you?
SPEAKER_02: It's New Latin.
SPEAKER_02: It was first used in any kind of publication in 1638 when we were starting to traverse the oceans at much greater lengths, and terra firma was a word that means solid ground.
SPEAKER_02: These believers that Peter's writing to, as we get into this study, this is all introduction that Peter's laying a foundation for these believers.
SPEAKER_02: They are suffering people.
SPEAKER_02: They are displaced people.
SPEAKER_02: They are people who have been persecuted and chased out of their homes and families.
SPEAKER_02: They have been out of their places of their birth.
SPEAKER_02: And their living is in foreign lands, in Pontius and Galatia and Cappadocia and Asia and Bithynia.
SPEAKER_02: And Peter is letting these people know who are going through a crisis of faith.
SPEAKER_02: That they have believed in a man that they've never seen.
SPEAKER_02: They have fallen in love with a savior they've never met.
SPEAKER_02: And now they're in these places paying a price for this.
SPEAKER_02: And they're starting to waffle.
SPEAKER_02: They're starting to get shaky, like you would and like I would.
SPEAKER_02: Like you have and I have at certain times in our life.
SPEAKER_02: And Peter is giving them some things that are going to be solid that they can stand on.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to tell you, Peter has over and over and over talked about one theme in chapter one, and that is salvation.
SPEAKER_02: And may I tell you, listen, God wants you to be saved and to know it.
SPEAKER_02: He wants you to know it.
SPEAKER_02: It's not a hope-so.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have a hope so salvation.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have a hope-so that I'm going to get to heaven and I hope he lets me in.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not trying to prepare any kind of answer for some Saint Peter who's going to meet me at the gate.
SPEAKER_02: That's not the way it works.
SPEAKER_02: When I get to heaven, nothing in my hands I bring.
SPEAKER_02: Simply to his cross I cling.
SPEAKER_02: When I get to heaven, it is going to be on the basis of the Savior on the middle cross who said that he died for my sins, was buried and rose again, and that I'm been given eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: Now you better know that.
SPEAKER_02: These things, John said, have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: And he wants you to stand on terra firma.
SPEAKER_02: He wants you to be on solid ground when it comes to being saved.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because if you do, if you're saved and you don't know, then you will be saved and you won't grow.
SPEAKER_02: And if you're saved and you don't grow, then you'll be a saved believer who will not show.
SPEAKER_02: God wants you to know so you'll grow, so you'll show.
SPEAKER_02: That's God's plan for you.
SPEAKER_02: So you better know it.
SPEAKER_02: Are you saved today?
SPEAKER_02: And if you are saved today, this salvation came to you in a marvelous way.
SPEAKER_02: Peter's already told these believers about a lively hope, that you've been born again to a lively hope.
SPEAKER_02: He told them about their inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, that fades not away.
SPEAKER_02: He's already told them in verse 5 that they are kept by the power of God through faith.
SPEAKER_02: You're born again to an inheritance, it never goes away.
SPEAKER_02: God is keeping you in his power.
SPEAKER_02: That is, this is solid ground.
SPEAKER_02: This is rock solid salvation.
SPEAKER_02: Their faith was being tried.
SPEAKER_02: They were ultimately in this fire and trial, ultimately, they would be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: But they had never physically seen Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: They had never physically heard him preach.
SPEAKER_02: And now Peter is seeming to say in verses 10 through 12, guys, listen, I've told you all about this salvation.
SPEAKER_02: I've told you that this salvation is a reality.
SPEAKER_02: But do you know how it got to you?
SPEAKER_02: How did it find you?
SPEAKER_02: In all the millions at this time and billions in our time of people on this planet, how did a salvation find its way to you?
SPEAKER_02: He's going to give them this chain of events that God revealed it.
SPEAKER_02: And then somebody told you.
SPEAKER_02: That is the chain of salvation.
SPEAKER_02: It is an amazing thing.
SPEAKER_02: Think about it.
SPEAKER_02: The prophets prophesied it.
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit revealed it.
SPEAKER_02: The apostles and the evangelists preached it.
SPEAKER_02: The believers received it.
SPEAKER_02: And the angels marvel at it.
SPEAKER_02: What are they marveling at?
SPEAKER_02: Your salvation.
SPEAKER_02: You know what they're marveling at?
SPEAKER_02: They're marveling that you're saved.
SPEAKER_02: They're looking at me and they're thinking, How are you saved?
SPEAKER_02: But guess what?
SPEAKER_02: I am.
SPEAKER_02: And you are too, if you've trusted Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Think about your salvation.
SPEAKER_02: They might want you got saved.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you were saved after somebody preached a sermon?
SPEAKER_02: You got saved after a sermon and you heard a message and then you got saved?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, good.
SPEAKER_02: Numbers of you.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you got saved after a Sunday school class or a Sunday school teacher led you to Christ in a Sunday school class, right?
SPEAKER_02: Many of you.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you, your parents led you to Christ?
SPEAKER_02: Man, numbers of you.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you, a friend, shared the gospel with you and you got saved through a friend?
SPEAKER_02: Uh man, that numbers.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you got saved through a gospel track?
SPEAKER_02: Somebody gave you a gospel track and you got saved?
SPEAKER_02: Man, numbers of you got saved through a gospel tract.
SPEAKER_02: That's why you should be passing them out, handing them out to people.
SPEAKER_02: You never know who's gonna read that and get saved.
SPEAKER_02: But I want to just say, all of us have a unique testimony of how we came to Christ, but we all have the same testimony.
SPEAKER_02: We heard a gospel that had been revealed by the Spirit of God to prophets, and prophets put it down, and preachers preached that, and the gospel spread, and it came to us, and we got saved.
SPEAKER_02: If you trace your salvation, whether it was your parents or whether it was a preacher or whether it was a friend at work or whoever it was that told you, if you trace your salvation all the way back of who said to them and who told them, so so my parents, my dad led me to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: When I was just a boy.
SPEAKER_02: But Bill Wickham, who worked with my dad in Red Lodge, in Deer Lodge, Montana, led my dad to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Now I have no idea who led Bill Wickham to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And I have no idea who I had no idea about who led him to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And I can take that all the way back, but if I get all the way back to the end of that chain, let me tell you what I'm finding out.
SPEAKER_02: Thus saith the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: God said it, and somewhere that went all the way through all these people, and it came to me as a boy in my dad's bedroom.
SPEAKER_02: He opened up the word of God and shared to me what Isaiah had preached, what Jeremiah had written down, what Paul had preached and Peter had preached.
SPEAKER_02: See, our salvation has a story.
SPEAKER_02: But that story is the story of God's truth being faithfully passed from one person and one generation to another person and another generation until here we are, 2,000 years after the cross, on a different continent, in a different language, believing in the same Jesus, indwelt by the same Holy Spirit, all with the same common salvation that came to us through the preaching of his word.
SPEAKER_02: So let's look at this passage of scripture.
SPEAKER_02: Verse number 10, again, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you.
SPEAKER_02: Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehands of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, I want you to see about terra firma.
SPEAKER_02: You are standing on a solid foundation of salvation that came through prophesying.
SPEAKER_02: What you see, number one, the prophesying.
SPEAKER_02: There was a prophesying.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel was not invented by man.
SPEAKER_02: There's an unbroken chain that goes back to the very beginning and then beyond into eternity.
SPEAKER_02: And that is the gospel plan of God.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, God had a plan of salvation to save you from eternity past.
SPEAKER_02: And the prophets were declaring this, and they didn't really even understand all that they were saying.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says they were prophesying it, but they were searching for it and inquiring about it.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know that they were reading each other's prophecies?
SPEAKER_02: Do you know that Jeremiah read Isaiah's prophecy and heard about a guy named Cyrus?
SPEAKER_02: And all these guys were reading different prophecies.
SPEAKER_02: Daniel was reading Jeremiah's prophecy and found out that they were only going to be in Babylon for 70 years.
SPEAKER_02: And so they were reading and they were studying and they were searching out all of these things.
SPEAKER_02: What were they doing?
SPEAKER_02: They were trying to understand how all of this was unfolding.
SPEAKER_02: The prophets were searching and they were inquiring about the gospel of grace that was going to come in the person of God the Son.
SPEAKER_02: They knew that there was a Messiah.
SPEAKER_02: They knew that God had an anointed one.
SPEAKER_02: We call that the name for Messiah that we use today is Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Christ means the anointed one.
SPEAKER_02: Christ means the Messiah.
SPEAKER_02: Before he was ever our Jesus, he was God's Christ, his anointed.
SPEAKER_02: And these men are writing about God's anointed.
SPEAKER_02: They're writing about this Messiah, this king, this shepherd, this deliverer, this warrior, this Joshua who was going to come one day and deliver the world.
SPEAKER_02: And they were writing about it, but they didn't understand all of it.
SPEAKER_02: They believed it, but they didn't fully understand it.
SPEAKER_02: But they were part of God revealing it piece by piece by piece.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, why did God do it that way?
SPEAKER_02: Well, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: He's God.
SPEAKER_02: But I will tell you today that God's revelation of his word is one of the greatest proofs that the Bible is the Word of God.
SPEAKER_02: Forty different writers over 1,500 years of time on three different continents in three different languages.
SPEAKER_02: And this book of 40 different writers, 1,500 years of time, three different languages, three different continents, three different cultures, all of these things that came together into one book that seamlessly fits into the revelation of God.
SPEAKER_02: And I'll tell you why.
SPEAKER_02: Moses didn't write it.
SPEAKER_02: Jeremiah didn't write it.
SPEAKER_02: They were signifying by the Spirit of Christ the revelation of God.
SPEAKER_02: And they were searching for this and inquiring about it.
SPEAKER_02: Think about this for a minute.
SPEAKER_02: The prophets made around 330 prophecies of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah 7.14, that he'd be born of a virgin.
SPEAKER_02: Micah 5.2, born in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_02: Genesis 49, 10, born in the tribe of Judah.
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah 9:1, his ministry would begin in Galilee.
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah 35, he would work miracles.
SPEAKER_02: Zechariah chapter 9, he would ride in a donkey into Jerusalem and be glorified.
SPEAKER_02: As Psalm 41, he would be betrayed by a friend.
SPEAKER_02: Zechariah chapter 11, he would be sold for 30 pieces of silver.
SPEAKER_02: In Isaiah 53, he would be wounded and bruised.
SPEAKER_02: In Isaiah 50, his beard would be plucked in humiliation.
SPEAKER_02: In Psalm 129, he would be scourged.
SPEAKER_02: He would be scourged in a very cruel way.
SPEAKER_02: As a farmer ploughs furrows in his field, they would plow furrows, long furrows in Psalm 129, 3 in his back.
SPEAKER_02: In Psalm 22, his hands and his feet would be pierced.
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah 53, he would be crucified between two thieves.
SPEAKER_02: In Psalm 22, his garment would be torn and parted, and they would gamble and cast lots for the pieces of his garment.
SPEAKER_02: In Psalm 34, not one bone of his body would be broken.
SPEAKER_02: Zechariah chapter 12, his side would be pierced.
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah 53, he would be buried in a rich man's tomb.
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 16, he would rise from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: Now think about this.
SPEAKER_02: This is just 18 predictions.
SPEAKER_02: Peter Stoner, that great mathematician, said that if one man could only fulfill eight prophecies about his life, the odds of that happening is one to ten to the power of seventeen.
SPEAKER_02: That means nothing to me, so let me tell you how I ex how I understand it.
SPEAKER_02: If you took the state of Texas and you buried it three feet deep in silver dollars, from El Paso to Texarcana, from east to west, you buried the state of Texas in silver dollars, three feet deep.
SPEAKER_02: Marked one of them with a red X, blindfold a man, let him wander into Texas.
SPEAKER_02: He gets one chance to reach down and pull up one silver dollar.
SPEAKER_02: The chance that he pulls up the one with the red X is one to ten to the power of seventeen.
SPEAKER_02: And that's just eight prophecies.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus fulfilled hundreds of prophecies.
SPEAKER_02: The prophets prophesied it.
SPEAKER_02: The prophets had the plan of God and his gracious redemption revealed to them in a progressive plan of revelation.
SPEAKER_02: They preached that grace would come.
SPEAKER_02: Think about this in John 1.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says in John 1, 16, and of his fullness have we all received, and grace for grace.
SPEAKER_02: For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: They preached that the plan involved the suffering of the Messiah and the glory that should follow.
SPEAKER_02: Now let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_02: They did not understand that.
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah is writing, wondering, how could this Messiah be the glorious king, but forsaken by God and crushed?
SPEAKER_02: David is wondering, how could this great shepherd Messiah that is going to lead his people, who is going to come in with the keys of glory, how is he going to be pierced in his hands and his feet?
SPEAKER_02: And die?
SPEAKER_02: Micah is wondering how the great deliverer of his people would be born in near obscurity in Bethlehem Ephrata.
SPEAKER_02: Who?
SPEAKER_02: Who is this one?
SPEAKER_02: Who would be Messiah and pierced?
SPEAKER_02: Who would be the shepherd and forsaken?
SPEAKER_02: Who would be the deliverer and be obscure?
SPEAKER_02: And the prophets inquired about that.
SPEAKER_02: They searched diligently.
SPEAKER_02: They didn't understand.
SPEAKER_02: They knew that something magnificent was coming, but they couldn't see the whole picture.
SPEAKER_02: They had the revelation, but without complete explanation.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to tell you, the authority of their message did not depend on their full understanding.
SPEAKER_02: It depended on their faithfulness to declare it.
SPEAKER_02: I'm glad today that I don't have to understand everything about what I preach in this book.
SPEAKER_02: I just have to declare it faithfully.
SPEAKER_02: See what the Lord had reminded the prophets is that they were ministering to future generations that they didn't know.
SPEAKER_02: The prophets didn't understand.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, the prophets didn't understand the mystery program of God that was hidden called the New Testament church.
SPEAKER_02: So they only saw two mountains in the future of prophecy.
SPEAKER_02: The mountain of Calvary, where he would be pierced and forsaken and broken.
SPEAKER_02: They understood that.
SPEAKER_02: They knew that he was going to be forsaken and broken.
SPEAKER_02: And they understood Mount Zion, where he would be glorified.
SPEAKER_02: And oftentimes in one verse, they would talk about both mountains: his suffering and his glory.
SPEAKER_02: And they didn't understand.
SPEAKER_02: They didn't understand that there was a valley in between those two mountains of his suffering at Calvary and the mountain of his glorification at Mount Zion.
SPEAKER_02: They didn't understand there was a valley in there called the church age.
SPEAKER_02: This is why Jesus, when he sat down in Galilee and he opened up the scriptures, he opened them to Isaiah 61 and he read, Hey, the Spirit of the Lord hath anointed me to preach the gospel unto you.
SPEAKER_02: And he read that verse and then he closed the book in the middle of the verse at a comma.
SPEAKER_02: And the comma separated the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of salvation from the day of vengeance.
SPEAKER_02: And the comma that separated salvation from wrath is the church.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus closed the book in the comma.
SPEAKER_02: Prophets didn't understand all that.
SPEAKER_02: What mattered was faithfulness to proclaim what they knew.
SPEAKER_02: See, and that's what really matters in the work of God is faithfulness.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know what I found out a long time ago?
SPEAKER_02: I cannot preach as well as other people preach.
SPEAKER_02: I don't administrate as well as other people administrate.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have that kind of mind sometimes that other people have.
SPEAKER_02: But I could tell you this listen, there are people who can preach the gospel better than I can, but nobody can preach a better gospel than I can.
SPEAKER_02: And I just found out long time ago, all I have to be is I have to just be faithful to what God has called me to do.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have to be somebody else.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have to be like anybody else.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna be the man who God made me to be and be faithful to do what God has called me to do.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm gonna preach the glorious gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Some may preach it with greater oratory, but no one's gonna preach it with more heart and more power and more faithfulness because I want to preach the gospel the way God wants me to preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: See, you got saved today because somebody faithfully taught a third-grade Sunday school class.
SPEAKER_02: You're saved today because a pastor got up and faithfully preached a message.
SPEAKER_02: You're saved today because a parent faithfully instructed you in the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: And these disciples that we hear from today, Peter and Paul and John, these guys were all instructed and ministered to.
SPEAKER_02: They were ministered by the prophets.
SPEAKER_02: They ministered to them and they, through their prophecies, they were teaching them the revelation of God.
SPEAKER_02: I've got to hurry.
SPEAKER_02: Number two.
SPEAKER_02: So this passage of scripture says, your salvation is terra firma, because it was prophesied.
SPEAKER_02: But not only that, it was preached.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to see the preaching here.
SPEAKER_02: Not only was it prophesied, but look down in verse number, look down in verse number 12, the Bible says, These things are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Notice the word preached.
SPEAKER_02: That word preached is or that word reported.
SPEAKER_02: Notice the word reported.
SPEAKER_02: That word reported is used.
SPEAKER_02: They preach, it's reported unto you.
SPEAKER_02: This gospel is reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you.
SPEAKER_02: Reported is exactly Exactly what preaching is.
SPEAKER_02: Preaching is nothing more than being a reporter.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not creating the news, I'm delivering it.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just announcing what has happened.
SPEAKER_02: I'm at the scene telling you what God has done.
SPEAKER_02: See, the gospel is the good news because it is the news about what God has already done.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, the prophet said Jesus is coming.
SPEAKER_02: Well, he came.
SPEAKER_02: The prophet said that he was going to live, he lived.
SPEAKER_02: The prophet said he was gonna die, he died.
SPEAKER_02: The prophet said he was gonna be buried, he was buried.
SPEAKER_02: The prophet said he would rise again, he rose again.
SPEAKER_02: And the prophet said that he was gonna save transgressors and sinners, he saves transgressors and sinners.
SPEAKER_02: And we have the privilege now, the prophet said it was gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02: We have the privilege of just reporting it happened.
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah said he was wounded for our transgressions.
SPEAKER_02: Paul said Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: David said, Thou shalt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption.
SPEAKER_02: Peter said it this way Jesus that hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses.
SPEAKER_02: See, the prophets prophesied it, Christ accomplished it, the preachers reported it, and I believed it.
SPEAKER_02: And you believed it if you're saved.
SPEAKER_02: Now notice how God chose the means of preaching to spread the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: God could have used any means to spread the gospel, he could have put it in the stars.
SPEAKER_02: And I believe he did in the constellations.
SPEAKER_02: That's another message for another time.
SPEAKER_02: But God could have written it in the stars.
SPEAKER_02: But man would turn it into zodiac, and man would worship the stars more than the creator.
SPEAKER_02: God could have sent an angel to fly over the whole world to declare the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, he will in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, somebody said, Well, why doesn't God just come down here and tell us about it himself?
SPEAKER_02: He did.
SPEAKER_02: And we spit in his face and we plucked his beard and we scourged him and we crucified him.
SPEAKER_02: So what did God choose?
SPEAKER_02: God could have chosen any means to spread the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: What did God do?
SPEAKER_02: God just chose to use a whole bunch of people to report it.
SPEAKER_02: He chose those that have preached the gospel unto you, preaching, the foolishness of preaching.
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, what I'm doing today is shepherding and pastoring, even though I'm preaching and I'm declaring, I'm reporting, but we are all to be reporters.
SPEAKER_02: There could be any number of ways that the gospel could have gone out in the world, but God chose saved people to tell lost people about Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And I'll tell you why.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to me very carefully.
SPEAKER_02: I'll tell you why God did that.
SPEAKER_02: Because the greatest power that you have is the power of a transformed life.
SPEAKER_02: You have a time that you were blind, but now you see.
SPEAKER_02: There was a time when you were lost, but now you're found.
SPEAKER_02: And you can tell.
SPEAKER_02: That's why the Bible says, Whosoever in Romans chapter 10, verse 13, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
SPEAKER_02: But he says in verse 14, how then shall they call on him and who they've not believed?
SPEAKER_02: How should they believe on him and who they have not heard?
SPEAKER_02: How shall they hear without a preacher?
SPEAKER_02: Somebody's got to go report to everybody else what has happened.
SPEAKER_02: The prophets were telling us what would happen.
SPEAKER_02: We get the privilege of telling people what did happen.
SPEAKER_02: See, the power to transform lives is not dependent on the messenger or his cleverness or his oratory or his ability to argue.
SPEAKER_02: No, listen, the power of the gospel is in the gospel he proclaims.
SPEAKER_02: Paul said in Romans chapter 1, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: It is the power of God unto salvation, unto everyone that believeth.
SPEAKER_02: So I said, number one, the prophets.
SPEAKER_02: Number two, the preaching.
SPEAKER_02: Number three, let me show you the power.
SPEAKER_02: What is the power of the gospel that came to you?
SPEAKER_02: How did the gospel survive from Moses to you?
SPEAKER_02: What is the power of the gospel?
SPEAKER_02: Notice verse 11.
SPEAKER_02: The prophets were prophesying by the Spirit of Christ which was in them.
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah was filled with the Spirit of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Jeremiah had the Spirit of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: He was in their message.
SPEAKER_02: He was in their writings.
SPEAKER_02: He was inspiring them and revealing to them.
SPEAKER_02: And then in verse 12, notice what it says.
SPEAKER_02: They preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
SPEAKER_02: You see, it is the Holy Spirit that is the power behind the preaching of the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: It was the Holy Spirit that inspired the prophets to preach and to write.
SPEAKER_02: There's been many times I'm preaching up here and the Holy Spirit is giving me power to preach.
SPEAKER_02: He's giving power to the message, but he's also in the pew and he's opening somebody's heart to hear it and receive it.
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit has convicting power.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have time to go into it, but in John chapter 16, Jesus said, when the Spirit of truth has come, he's going to do three things.
SPEAKER_02: He is going to convince the world of sin, he's going to convince the world of righteousness, and he's going to convince the world of judgment.
SPEAKER_02: And what he's going to do is he's going to tell you that you're a sinner because Jesus died on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: Why would God let his darling son die on that cross?
SPEAKER_02: Because you and I are in sin.
SPEAKER_02: And the and Calvary declares one thing that we are sinners.
SPEAKER_02: Then he's going to judge the world of righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because God took this one who we crucified and rejected.
SPEAKER_02: God is going to raise him from the dead, bring him into heaven, and set him on the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_02: What God is declaring when he does that is he is righteous.
SPEAKER_02: He has the right to come into heaven.
SPEAKER_02: God has brought him in and given him power.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: He's righteous, which means then you and I are unrighteous.
SPEAKER_02: So the Holy Spirit judges the world of sin, judges the world of righteousness, and then of judgment, that Jesus at Calvary crushed the head of the serpent.
SPEAKER_02: And he took the judgment of God himself.
SPEAKER_02: It's an amazing thing that happened at Calvary.
SPEAKER_02: So the Holy Spirit is given this as a way to convict us that we have sinned, that we are unrighteous, and that we will face the judgment of God.
SPEAKER_02: He also reveals then that Christ died for sin, that Christ was received into heaven because he was righteous, and that you can forego the judgment of God if you hide in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, here's what happens: the Holy Spirit is saying this: man has a problem, sin.
SPEAKER_02: God has a solution, Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Man has a problem, sin.
SPEAKER_02: God has a solution, Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And the Holy Spirit is the power that makes that known to your heart.
SPEAKER_02: Who do men say that I am?
SPEAKER_02: Thou art the Christ, Peter said, the Son of the living God.
SPEAKER_02: Blessed are you, Simon Barjona.
SPEAKER_02: Flesh and blood did not reveal that unto you.
SPEAKER_02: But my Father which is in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: How did Peter know who Jesus was?
SPEAKER_02: It was a spiritual work of the Holy Spirit opening his eyes to understand who Jesus was.
SPEAKER_02: See, that's why today in all the religions of the world, Jesus is a good teacher, he's a good prophet, he's a good man, he's a miracle worker, he's a healer, he has some kind of a connection with divinity, but he's just a man like the rest of us.
SPEAKER_02: But I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_02: Their eyes are holding.
SPEAKER_02: That's a lie of Satan.
SPEAKER_02: If the Holy Spirit opens your eyes, you will have one thing to declare.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh.
SPEAKER_02: And he came to deal with sin.
SPEAKER_02: So the prophets prophesied that, the preachers preached it, the Holy Spirit empowered it.
SPEAKER_02: And let me show you something.
SPEAKER_02: I want to show you the pondering.
SPEAKER_02: The angels desired to look into it.
SPEAKER_02: What a statement.
SPEAKER_02: Peter gives a word picture, and I want you to see it.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to see angels stooping low to observe and to examine this.
SPEAKER_02: The angels are fascinated.
SPEAKER_02: They're fascinated with it.
SPEAKER_02: They were there when he was born.
SPEAKER_02: There was with the angel a heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, goodwill towards men.
SPEAKER_02: The angels were there at his birth.
SPEAKER_02: The angels were there at his temptation.
SPEAKER_02: The angels were there to minister to him.
SPEAKER_02: The angels were standing around Calvary, ready at any moment to come and unleash warfare on this uh depraved human race and to rescue the Son of God.
SPEAKER_02: They were watching all of that, they were looking into it.
SPEAKER_02: Why is that?
SPEAKER_02: They saw Jesus scourged and rejected, they saw him bleeding at Calvary, they stood back, held back by the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: They had to watch the Prince of Glory die.
SPEAKER_02: They had to watch this one who was holy.
SPEAKER_02: They had seen him, the Bible said, in eternity past, create the sun and the moon, and the sons of the morning clapped their hands.
SPEAKER_02: These angels worshiped him as he created the sun and the moon and the stars.
SPEAKER_02: These angels saw him in his glory and his power and his infinite might as God Almighty.
SPEAKER_02: And they saw him humbled into the body of a baby.
SPEAKER_02: They saw him stumbling and walking in the dust of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: They heard him reviled and mocked and scourged and stoned and rejected and crucified.
SPEAKER_02: They saw Jesus go through the humiliation.
SPEAKER_02: They saw him stripped naked.
SPEAKER_02: They saw the Prince of Glory in all of that execution and gore of Mount Calvary.
SPEAKER_02: The angels observed that.
SPEAKER_02: And then they looked at you and me and they thought, why?
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Why would he, who is so glorious, die for these who were so hideous?
SPEAKER_01: The angels looked into this thing of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: They examined salvation.
SPEAKER_01: They stooped down to look at it.
SPEAKER_01: Because the angels have never experienced salvation the way you and I do.
SPEAKER_02: The angels sing at the throne of God, holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty.
SPEAKER_02: But let me tell you what, the angels have never sung.
SPEAKER_01: Amazing grace.
SPEAKER_01: How sweet the sound.
SPEAKER_01: It saved a wretch like me.
SPEAKER_02: They've never sang Amazing Grace.
SPEAKER_02: They've never stood at the throne and sang, at the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light.
SPEAKER_02: They saw the cross, but the angels cannot say, He died for me.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm going to tell you, according to Ephesians chapter 3 and verse number 10, they are still looking into this.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says, about you and me in the church, to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hidden God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent.
SPEAKER_02: Why did God do all this?
SPEAKER_02: To the intent that now, under the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: The angels are seeing played out in time.
SPEAKER_02: The angels and the demons, Satan and Gabriel, are watching played out in real time in the New Testament church with people being saved.
SPEAKER_02: The manifold wisdom of God in redemption.
SPEAKER_02: He is making his glory known through the church.
SPEAKER_02: Unto him be glory in the church forever and ever.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: See, let me tell you something about your salvation.
SPEAKER_02: You thought about it on a Thursday night.
SPEAKER_02: One time you knelt down somewhere and got saved.
SPEAKER_02: But let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_02: The prophets prophesied it and searched all over about it.
SPEAKER_02: The apostles preached it, the Spirit empowered it, and the angels marvel at it.
SPEAKER_02: And too often Christians are bored with it.
SPEAKER_01: We should never get over the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Let me tell you something right now.
SPEAKER_02: If heaven finds your salvation fascinating, the church should never find it ordinary.
SPEAKER_02: When somebody in one of our services raises a hand and trusts Christ as Savior, that is a miracle that the angels rejoice in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: There is rejoicing over this because they're seeing the prize for which he died.
SPEAKER_02: So what is Peter telling these believers in 1 Peter?
SPEAKER_02: He's saying, You see this salvation that you have today?
SPEAKER_02: You're standing on terra firma, solid ground, rooted in an unbroken chain of revelation, from the heart of God to the heart of a sinner, saved by the grace of God.
SPEAKER_02: And we have a responsibility to pass that on.
SPEAKER_02: Think of the wonder of how the gospel got to you.
SPEAKER_02: And then ask yourself, who will get the gospel?
SPEAKER_02: Because it came to me.
SPEAKER_02: What a joy to be saved.
SPEAKER_02: On Christ, the solid rock I stand.
SPEAKER_02: Terra firma today.
SPEAKER_02: Father, I pray that in the preaching of your word, the same power of the Holy Spirit would open the eyes and the hearts of every one of us to the glorious gospel.
SPEAKER_02: How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
SPEAKER_02: What a salvation, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: I pray today that every person in this room would once again rejoice with great rejoicing over the joy of salvation.
SPEAKER_02: Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you will say, Pastor, I'm saved and I know it?
SPEAKER_02: I'm standing on terra firma.
SPEAKER_02: I know it, I know it.
SPEAKER_02: Slip your hand way up high.
SPEAKER_02: I know it, I know it, I know it.
SPEAKER_02: What a scene.
SPEAKER_02: Terra firma.
SPEAKER_02: We are rock solid.
SPEAKER_02: We are standing on firm ground.
SPEAKER_02: May lower your hand.
SPEAKER_02: How many of us would say today, Pastor, I couldn't raise my hand with assurance?
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: And if God wants me to know it, then I want to know it.
SPEAKER_02: If I could know that my sins were forgiven, if I could know that I was a child of God, if I could know that eternity was secure, if I could stand on solid ground in Jesus Christ, I want to know that today.
SPEAKER_02: Slip your hand way up high and admit that with all your heart.
SPEAKER_02: I want to know that I'm saved today.
SPEAKER_02: Just slip your hand up.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to embarrass you or come to you.
SPEAKER_02: I want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_02: I want to know that I'm saved today.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you say, I want the gospel to continue from me?
SPEAKER_02: I want to report it to somebody else.
SPEAKER_02: Would you slip your hand way up high?
SPEAKER_02: I want the gospel of Jesus Christ to go on from me unbroken.
SPEAKER_02: God bless you.
SPEAKER_02: You got to get the salt out of the shaker.
SPEAKER_02: We got to get this out in the highways and byways and hedges and compel men to come in.
SPEAKER_02: If you're able, would you stand with me, please?
SPEAKER_02: Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed.
SPEAKER_02: Would you just pray right now?
SPEAKER_02: Hey, husbands, wives, whoever you're with, just grab hands and just pray and thank God for so great salvation.
SPEAKER_02: Would you thank the Lord for your salvation?
SPEAKER_02: And if you say, you know what, I didn't raise my hand, but I should have.
SPEAKER_02: I need to be saved.
SPEAKER_02: Just step out from your seat, walk right to the back.
SPEAKER_02: Let someone take the Bible and show you what it means to be saved.
SPEAKER_02: Just right where you are, just step out.
SPEAKER_02: Someone will move right to you.
SPEAKER_02: We're praying for you.
SPEAKER_02: We want to help you.
SPEAKER_02: Thank God for your salvation right now.
SPEAKER_02: And ask God to help you to be faithful to declare it.
SPEAKER_02: To see people saved.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing like that.
SPEAKER_02: Father, I'm praying right now in the name of the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I'm praying through the mediation of Christ my Lord and through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Father, I'm asking today for a fresh and renewed vision of the power of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Of which salvation?
SPEAKER_01: The prophets, the Spirit of Christ, the reporters, and the angels.
SPEAKER_02: What a marvelous work.
SPEAKER_02: Father, may I never weary of preaching it.
SPEAKER_02: May I never be ashamed of living it.
SPEAKER_02: May I never be restrained from sharing it.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, give us power to stand on firm ground as believers in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: That whatever shakes around us cannot shake us loose of terra firma that is in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, one of these days we'll leave this terra firma and we'll stand on gold.
SPEAKER_02: And we will worship you face to face.
SPEAKER_02: Until then, may we be faithful in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: And all God's people said, Amen.