If you have your Bible or Testament with you, I wonder would you open it with me at this first chapter of 1 Peter. I want to speak this morning upon the great 8th verse of this first chapter of 1 Peter. The title of my message is Focus on Christ. And in the writings of Peter, if you give them careful study, you will find that Peter is always bringing into focus the person and the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this 8th verse he says, 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. 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. If you look at this verse carefully, you will find that there are five things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to note them. First of all, we are presented with the Christ we have not seen, whom having not seen. That's the first great fact concerning Christ that is presented here. Secondly, we have the Christ we love. Although we do not see him, praise God, we love him. And we are presented secondly with the Christ we love. Then in the next phrase of the verse, we have the suggestion that we're going to see him. Because Peter says, though now ye see him not, put the emphasis on the now. Now at this present time, we don't see Him, but praise God, we're going to see Him. So the third great fact concerning Christ is that He is the Christ we will see. When the now gives place to the eternal now, in God's great eternity, We shall see him face to face and tell the story saved by grace. Then fourthly, you will discover that he emphasizes another aspect of Christ, the Christ we believe in. He says, yet believing. Though now ye see him not, yet believing, the Christ we believe in, the object of our faith. And then fifthly, you will notice in the verse, the Christ we rejoice through, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. So we have five aspects of the Christ. The Christ we have not seen. The Christ we love. The Christ we will see. The Christ we believe in. and the Christ we rejoice through. Let's look then, first of all, at the Christ we have not seen. I want you to notice how carefully Peter writes this epistle. If you look at verse 3, you'll find that Peter here includes himself. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us. He includes himself. He says, I am part of this. He hath begotten us. But when he comes down to verse 8, he changes from the first person in the plural, and he comes and writes whom having not seen ye long, because Christ to Peter was someone that he had seen. Peter had seen him. I was thinking about the first time that Peter saw the Lord in bodily form. That must have been a tremendous day for Peter. You know, one day two men were standing with John the Baptist. John had preached a tremendous sermon. He had picked out a certain person in the throne and he had pointed to that person and he had said, The Lamb of God! And two disciples went after the Lamb of God. And they said, Master, where dwellest thou? And he said, Come and see. And they came, and they dwelt with him that day. for the Scripture says the day was wearing on to its conclusion. And after that day that those disciples had with Christ, they were filled with one great desire, to bring others to Jesus. Then Andrew findeth Peter his brother. and brought him to Jesus. And that was the first time that Peter saw the Lord. But do you know, my friend, that Peter was privileged to see the Lord in unique circumstances, limited only to other, to two others and himself. Peter saw the Lord bodily when he raised Jairus' daughter from the dead. And there were only James and John present and Peter. Peter saw the Lord bodily in the glory of his transfiguration. Only two others saw the Lord then apart from Elijah and Moses, and that was James and John, the inner circle. And Peter saw the Lord bodily in Gethsemane. when he was baptized in his own blood in the passion that preceded the cross. When being in agony, he prayed more earnestly and sweat as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. You know those three sites of Peter that Peter had of the Lord were important. The first one He saw the Lord bodily in the power of resurrection. He raised Jairus' daughter from the dead. Secondly, he saw the Lord in the glory of transfiguration. He saw the Lord in his reiving power. Thank God Jesus reived. And last of all, he saw the Lord in his redeeming power when he was bejewed with his own blood. But you know there was a day when Peter saw the Lord and he was the only person present. That was a very important day for Peter. Peter had denied the Lord with oaths and cursing. The Lord turned round in the judgment hall and he looked at Peter and Peter went out and wept bitterly. But when Jesus rose from the dead, he said to the woman, go tell my disciples and Peter. Don't leave Peter out. I know how he feels. I know the broken heart that Peter has. He'll think that I don't want him to come with the disciples. But remember Peter. You remember the two that went on the road to Emmaus? And you remember, they hurried back after Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of bread. And when they got home and met the other disciples, the other disciples had a message for them. And if you turn over with me to Luke's gospel, chapter 24, you will discover that when they arrived, Verse 33 of Luke's Gospel, chapter 24, you will discover that when they arrived at the upper room, the eleven were gathered together and they were all saying, the Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared unto Simon. The Lord had a special interview with Peter. You know, there's some of the interviews in the Scripture I'd like to have been an eavesdropper at. I'd like to have heard what happened. That must have been a wonderful day when the Lord met Peter after his resurrection. Poor Peter, the man that had denied his Lord with ulls and cursings, the man who had denied His Lord, after boasting that He would go with Him to the cross. And Peter saw the Lord in His flesh after His resurrection. Paul confirms that in 1 Corinthians chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He says He was seen of Cephas, which that is Peter, on Dan of the Twelve, before that the Lord appeared to the twelve, he appeared to Peter. So Peter couldn't say, whom having not seen, because Peter had indeed saw the Lord. But he says this of us, and you know, strange as it may seem, we have a far greater blessing than Peter had, because the Lord teases in speaking about those that would believe in him. He says over in John's gospel, after the vision that was given to Thomas, if you look it up with me, John's gospel chapter 20 and verse 29, Jesus saith unto him, Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. Whom having not seen. And to those of us this day to whom this text is directly related. We haven't seen him with these natural eyes. We have never been given the joyful look of seeing Christ incarnate in the flesh. But Jesus said, there's a greater blessing for you because the man that sees Christ with the eye of faith has a greater blessing than the man that beholds him with the natural eye. The Christ we have not seen. Secondly, the Christ we love. Whom having not seen, we love. But how can we love a person we have not seen? How can we pour out our heart's affection to one we haven't seen? Paul tells us the secret. We love him because he first loved us. Our love for Christ is not something that wells up of its own within our hearts. Our love for Christ is the response to His own redeeming love, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. There was a time when we did not love Him. There was a time when everything concerning Christ was obnoxious to us. We neither loved his book, nor his people, nor his house, nor his word, nor his gospel. But one day a great change came. What happened? We were born again and we started to love him. It's the new heart that loves Jesus. It's the new man. that loves Jesus. It's the regenerated heart that pours itself out in love and adoration at the foot of the cross. And we can say today, I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow. If ever I loved thee, my Jesus tis now. How can we show that we love Christ? Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command thee. And our life of obedience is the only proof that we really love the Lord. The man that obeys is the man that loves his master. I trust that by a life of obedience we shall show to the world and the flesh and the devil that we really and truly love Christ, the Christ we love. But then let's look at this third one, the Christ we will see. He says, whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not. You don't see him now. He's gone within the veil. He sits at the Father's right hand. He's invisible to the natural eye, but we're going to see him. The great hope of the Christian church is the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me say from this pulpit this morning, Jesus is coming again. Let me emphasize that though the scoffers mock, and the infidels deny, and apostasy pours out its fury of opposition to the doctrine of the visible, personal return of Jesus Christ, That will not alter the fact that someday the trumpet will sound. Someday Jesus will come for his people. Wonderful day, glorious day. Hope of the church burns within our breast this morning that our master will soon return to call us home. You know, Peter was going to die. He was going to receive the full effects of the prophecy that Jesus prophesied concerning him. He said, Peter, when you're old, you'll be led by a way that you don't want to go. And history records that Peter was crucified for his faith in Christ. And when he came to the cross, he said, I'm not worthy to be crucified as my master. crucify me upside down. I'm only a sinner, and history tells us he was crucified upside down and wears today the martyr's crown, as well as the apostles' palm of victory. But Peter was to die, but Peter wasn't looking for his own death. Peter was looking for the great and glorious resurrection when Jesus would come again and when his immortal spirit would be wed in the abundance of an eternal wedding, to his flesh raised again from the dead, and when Peter would see his Lord, whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, and we don't see him this morning, but praise God we shall see him, He is coming in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh. May the Lord help us to live in full expectancy of the great coming of our great Savior. For a day that will be when we will see Him. I wonder what it'll be like, my dear brethren and sisters in Christ, when we first view the Savior. I'll tell you this, it'll be beyond our expectation. You know, by the Spirit of God, we know Christ. Paul said that I might know him. We do know him. He's not a stranger to us. We have walked with him for many a day. We have communed with him in many a dark hour. We have communed with him in our hour of sorrow, in our hour of bereavement, in our time of temptation, in our day of sickness. But praise God, we're going to see him, to see the Lord. Face to face shall I behold him. Far beyond the starry sky, face to face, in all his beauty, I shall see him by and by, only faintly now I see him. We have discerned his features. We know his person. In the shadows, we have touched his kneel-pierced hand. But blessed be God, we're going to see Him. And there's something nice about it. We're going to be like Him, for we're going to see Him as He is. The Christ we will see, but there's something else here. The Christ we believe in. Ah, yes. Yet believing. You know, if you look with me at this chapter, you will be amazed that the great doctrines of Christ are all in this first chapter of Peter. This is the Christ we believe in. Look at it. Verse three, the blood of Christ. And I want you to notice something about this, that everything in this chapter is surrounded by the blood of Christ. Verse 3, you have the blood of Christ and verse 19, you have the precious blood of Christ. So the blood of Christ is the foundation stone and the blood of Christ is the key stone of the whole building. It's Christ's blood on the foundation and Christ's blood on the top stone of glory. And in between, what do you read? You read about the relationship of Christ, blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is the eternal Christ. The Christ we believe in is God. That's what Peter's saying. I'm not trusting in a mere man, Peter says, I'm trusting in the Son of God. And when Peter wrote that, you know what he was thinking about? He was thinking about one day in Caesarea Philippi, when Jesus said, whom do man say that I, the Son of Man am? And Peter said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. When Peter starts off his epistle, he talks about the eternal sonship of Christ. Look at the same verse. He talks about the resurrection of Christ. The Christ we believe in is the eternal son of God, but praise God, He has been declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from among the dead. How do I know He's the Son of God? Because He's conquered death and hell and sin and He's alive forevermore. We are not kneeling before a Christ kneeled to a cross whose hands are limp We are kneeling today before the Christ of the throne. Thank God there's power in His hands to save and to keep and to satisfy the resurrection of Christ. The Christ we believe in is the eternal Son of God. The Christ we believe in is alive evermore. Look at verse 7. The Christ we believe in is going to appear a second time. What does it say? Might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing. There are three appearings of Christ according to Paul in Hebrew. Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin. Christ appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He now appears in the presence of God for us. Where is he now? He's appearing for us in heaven. He's putting in an appearance at God's right hand for you. You know, one of the greatest things in scripture ever recorded of Christ is that Christ is praying for us. That's why this church will go on in spite of unionist prime ministers, for Christ is praying for us. That's a great thing, isn't it? We'll win, you know, we're going to win this battle. I'm glad the Lord prays for us. He said to Peter, Satan has desired to sift thee as wheat, but I have prayed for you. The prayers of Jesus are stronger than the power of hell. Jesus is praying for. We have a great high priest. We don't, as believers, reckon upon the high priestly ministry of Christ enough. But He's going to appear for those that look for Him. Are you looking for Him? Shall He appear the second time, apart from sin, for He has dealt with sin, unto salvation? The appearing. He believed in the appearing of Christ. Let's look at verse 11, the sufferings of Christ. Peter believed in the sufferings of Christ. And then look at verse 13, the revelation of Christ. That's going to be to the saints of God. And the day that he comes, he's going to reveal himself in all his glory. to His people. This is the Christ we believe in. But you will notice that He starts off with the blood in verse 2 and He starts off with the, He finishes with the blood in verse 19, so this whole thing is surrounded How do I know He's the eternal Son of God? How do I know He's alive evermore? How do I experience the power of His sufferings? How shall I see Him in His glory? Because of His precious blood. The blood of the Lamb is the passport to heaven for His people. And thank God for every soul that's blood-marked and is ready for none but blood-washed ones are there, the ransomed and forgiven. My final thought in this verse is the Christ we rejoice through. Look at this, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. That, my friend, is a text for another sermon. Joy unspeakable and full of glory. Joy unspeakable. You know, you can't describe the joy of pardon. I had a great meeting in Philadelphia. It was a pretty rough meeting. We had opposition. We have had a lot of opposition. I'll tell you some things tonight. But it was a unique meeting. There was almost 120 converted Roman Catholics in the meeting. And included was a priest, a converted priest from Spain. He sung A Beautiful Soul. concerning the wonderful Jesus. There was a nun from Italy, and she had just been back to Rome and rescued one of her poor colleagues in the nunnery and brought her out. And she was there, too, testifying of the grace of God. But you know what happened in that meeting? A Roman Catholic got saved in the meeting. That was good. Amazed us all was this, that every testimony given at that meeting was the testimony of someone that couldn't tell. They just said, we cannot tell what Jesus has done for us. And of course, we had the IRA men in the meeting who got up and tried to break it up. One man got up And I was standing at the pulpit, and he started to shout. And one of the converted Roman Catholics, he just walked over to the pulpit. And he said, Sir, I was in your church. I know all about it. If I had stayed in your church, I would have gone to hell. You'll go to hell if you don't get saved. You never saw a fellow shut up as quick in all your life. That was a personal testimony. The joy that is unspeakable. You can't speak of this joy. The world doesn't understand. When you tell an ungodly man of the peace you have in Christ, he doesn't understand. Don't be hard on him, friend. There was a day you were the very same. This is joy unspeakable and full of glory. Full of glory. Like a little boy in the Sabbath school was singing that chorus, My cup's full and running over. And the teacher realized that he wasn't singing it right. And she listened and he was singing, My cup's full and so was my saucer since the Lord saved me. That's the overflowing life, isn't it? That's the overflowing life. Full of glory. You're so full of it. that the glory radiates to others. The last service I had was in Indianapolis, and I had to rush to get my plane at 9.15. I started to preach at half past seven. I was still preaching at half past eight, and there was a dear woman there, God's smoker with old-time conviction. And she walked down that aisle with tears streaming down her face. And she said to me, I know I'm a sinner. I'm just coming to Jesus. If you'd seen that woman when the tears were wiped away and when she had embraced Christ freely offered to her in the gospel, you could have seen in her very countenance the joy that's unspeakable and full of glory. all of what the world doth boast, I have learned to count but loss, and the sight that charms me most is a sinner at the cross." Maybe there's some sinner here this morning. Thank God you can come to the cross and be saved. There's room at the cross. for you. Let us bow our heads. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for a real sense of Thy presence. We thank Thee for the Christ that we have been viewing this morning, the Christ we have not seen, the Christ we love. the Christ we will see, the Christ we believe in, and the Christ we rejoice through. O God, we pray that we may love him with all our hearts. And if there should be one this morning without Christ, Lord, may they come to Jesus now. As our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, I don't always make an appeal on a Sunday morning, but I feel I should appeal this morning. Perhaps there's someone here and you're not saved. You don't know Jesus Christ as your own and personal savior. You've never accepted him. You have never trusted him. You don't know him. But as I have preached today, there is awoke within your heart a longing to know Jesus, a desire to be saved, a desire to be washed in the blood of the Lamb. Young man, young woman, father, mother, brother, sister, there's room at the cross for you. Will you come to Him? The Bible says, whosoever, that's wide enough. shall call upon the name of the Lord. That's simple enough. Shall be saved. That's certain enough. Will you come? As our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and the people of God are praying, if there's a man or a woman, a boy or a girl in this service this morning would like to come to Christ, I wonder right now, would you lift up your hand? As a simple token, you want to trust the Savior and we'll remember you in the closing prayer. Would you just do it now? Anywhere in the meeting, let me see your hand. You need to come. Yes, just make it now. Let me see your hand. The Lord has spoken to you. You need to come. Would you lift your hand now? Where are you, sinner? Oh, trust him now. Receive him this morning. He loves you. If you need them, will you come? Let me see your hand now. That's right, just do it now. Just do it now, friend. Just slip up your hand, quietly, and I'll acknowledge it. We'll remember you in the closing prayer. Just as I am, let's sing it. Anywhere in the meeting, let me see your hand now. Just do it now. Yes. Let me see your hand now, friend. This is your invitation. Will you come? Anywhere in the meeting. We're not going to sing any more. We've given you the opportunity. I'm here, your servant for Christ's sake. Don't leave the meeting. We're here to help you. Father, separate us with thy blessing. Keep thy good hand upon us. For Christ's sake. Amen.