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The Book of First Peter: Message Nine
By Dr. Michael
Guido, D.D.
Walking down the street one day a
lady saw a little girl leaving the church. Going to her, she asked,
"What were you doing in there?" "Praying," she
answered. Thinking she had a burden, she asked, "What were you
praying for?" "Nothing," said the girl. "I was
just loving Jesus." Do you love Jesus? Let's turn to 1st
Peter 1:8 and
Note the attachment. It's written,
"Whom having not seen, ye love." You can't love one unless
you have a clear-cut conception of that person. You must know a
person to love him. "Oh," you ask, "how can I come to
know the Lord?" Through His word. The Bible says, "Belief
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." You
don't love Him? Then where have you failed? You've heard His word.
You're hearing it now. What will you do with it? Will you believe
it? You must have the nature of an artist to love art. And you must
have the nature of God to love the Lord. When you believe, you're
born again, and you're given the very nature of God. Then you'll
love Him. A little girl asked her father, "Dad, do you love
Jesus?" "Jesus is dead, my dear, He was crucified, and
that was the end of Him," he answered. "But Jesus rose
again," she answered. "But how can I love one whom I've
never seen?" he asked. She was puzzled, but then she said,
"Dad, how old was I when Mother died?" "Six months,
my child." "Then I can't say that I ever saw her, for I
don't remember her. But you've always tried to make me love her by
telling me how good and kind she was, and I do love her, although
I've never seen her that I can remember." Tears came into the
eyes of the father, and kissing his little girl, he said, "God
has spoken to me by you, my dear. Now you must pray for me. Ask God
to give me a new heart, with which I shall love Jesus." She
did, and the prayer was answered.
Note the affinity. Should you say,
"From this very moment on, I'm going to love Jesus,"
without believing on Him as your Savior from sin, your efforts will
end in disappointment and despair. It was when I learned that
"the Son of God loved me, and gave Himself for me," that I
believed on Him. Then His love won my heart, and I cried, "I
love Him, because He first loved me." But first there was the
believing. That's why it's written in the next phrase, "yet
believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory."
Believing? What does that mean? Trusting. When my car won't run, I
take it to a mechanic. When I'm sick, I go to a doctor. In going to
these folk for help, I trust myself to them. Just so, when I saw
that I needed to be saved I went to the Savior. I turned my heart
and soul over to Him. I trusted Him to save me, and He did. That's
believing or trusting. It's committing your life to the Lord. The
other day, to keep a preaching engagement, I had to fly. When I
stepped into the plane for the flight, I committed myself to the
pilot. I had faith that he'd carry me through the storms and the
darkness to my destination. Now that's what I did when I trusted the
Lord. I said, "Lord, I have sinned, but You died for my sins.
Save me. I now trust You to take me through the storms of life and
bring me safely home to heaven." Won't you trust the Lord now?
Then not only will you be saved, but you'll have "joy
unspeakable." Joy isn't found in pleasure, only in a Person,
Jesus. In having Jesus, you'll have joy. A man was traveling by
train through the South, and during a stop he asked a Southerner,
"Do folks down here enjoy religion?" "The folks that
have it do," he said.
In closing, note the anticipation.
It's written in 1st Peter 1:9, "Receiving the end of
your faith, even the salvation of your souls." There's
salvation from the power of sin, and there's salvation from the
presence of sin. That's when a believer goes home to heaven. Now
there are two avenues. One, is death. If you're trusting in the
Lord, and should you die now, immediately your soul, the real you,
will be carried by the angels to heaven. As the Bible says, you'll
be "absent from the body…at home with the Lord." The
other avenue is the coming of Christ. Should the Lord come today and
He may, if you're a believer, you'll not die. You'll be caught up in
the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so will you ever be with
the Lord. Robert Bruce believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and was
saved. One morning, during his illness, he said to his children,
"I've had breakfast with you, but I shall have dinner with my
Lord Jesus Christ." Within a few minutes he closed his eyes to
open them in heaven. What glory. To a believer, there's
"Only glory, by and by, only
glory, by and by,
Every heartache gone for ever,
only glory, by and by."
"For I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with
the glory that shall be revealed in us."
copyright 2000 Guido Evangelistic
Association
All Scripture verses are
quoted from the New King James Version..
This series of messages on the
books of the Bible were originally written for
broadcast on Dr. Guido's radio program, "The
Sower." They are collected and reprinted here
for your enjoyment and spiritual edification.
