I wonder how many sermons you've heard preached, gospel sermons, salvation sermons from the Old Testament. In fact, we learned that the whole of the Bible is really fixed and focused on the death of the Lord Jesus. Like this morning, we took from Exodus and the picture of the tabernacle, and we got to the altar, a picture of the cross, and we could see the cross in the book of Exodus. You can go back to Genesis and see the altars that were built and the lambs and the sacrifices that were slain. You can go to the prophets and you can hear Isaiah preach about, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And so they preached the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. And that of course sets the stage for the whole of the Bible. Welcome again to Let the Bible Speak. This is Ian Golliher and I'm thankful for the opportunity to minister the Lord's Word today. We come again in our series on 1 Peter and it is a word that is based upon 1 Peter chapter 1 on the mystery of the inspiration of the Bible. We call it a mystery because it really is higher than human understanding and yet the Bible's claim is very adamant that this is not the word of men but the word of God. Let me read to you here in 1 Peter 1 7 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 inquired 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 had preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. which things the angels desire to look into. And what a mystery this is, that the angels want to know what's going on in the redemption and salvation of sinners. I hope that today the Lord has drawn near and will draw near as we open the book and let that word speak to your heart. Now I want to mention again the My Study Bible template. this is available on our website that you can go to resources bible studies and print this out for yourself it'll become your own personal bible study free of charge one page template that will enable you to focus on the important parts of the scriptures and uh... just let me give you an example steps for me to study they are one two three four five six seven eight parts read the portion study any new words with your concordance and dictionary. You can do that, of course, on computer software. Esword.com is very, very valuable. My statement for a chapter heading and how important it is just to summarize in one short sentence or one little statement on what this chapter is about. Then you look for the key verse of the Bible chapter, and then what does this passage teach me about the character of God or Christ? And again, this enables you to focus on certain things, what to look for, and just write it out, and it will become an invaluable tool to help you in your study of God's Word. Now we're coming to our message in song today, Fairest Lord Jesus. ♪ O come, O come, O come, O come, O come, O come, O come, O come, O come, to Bethlehem. Oh, say does that star-spangled Now they prophesied, verse 11, They searched what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ. They prophesied. They testified beforehand, it says. Now, that takes a miracle. It's one thing for me to come to the pulpit tonight and call myself a preacher. It's another thing to call myself a prophet, in the sense that I am going to tell you what's going to happen tomorrow, next week, next year, in your lifetime, or whenever, and get it right. The Old Testament prophets got it right. They preached. Who would come? He'd be a divine person. They preached when he would come, the fullness of time. And indeed, there are prophecies that link right from Daniel to the cutting off of Messiah. And then they preached why he would come. And so their gospel was accurate, verifiable. Someone recorded that there are 2,500 prophecies in the Bible, 2,000 of them in the Old Testament that have been fulfilled, 500 that remain in the future. In the book of Acts, the evangelist like Apollos, he took the Old Testament scriptures to convince his hearers that Christ was the Messiah, that was the power of their preaching, and therefore they got it right. I hope tonight you're convinced that your salvation is based upon a Bible foundation, the same foundation as the prophets and as the apostle. And let me tell you, there's no other way for God to reveal his son. You remember the rich man who died? And he remembered his five brethren who had yet not come to the place of torment. And he cried out and he said, send Lazarus to my five brethren to warn them. And the answer was given. They have Moses and the prophets. If they do not listen to the scriptures, neither will they hear them. Faith, salvation is based on the scriptures. Old and New Testament. And that's why as evangelists and witnessing to the lost, our task is to bring them to the Word every time that we might convince them of Christ. Now these prophets, we see here that salvation is focused on the sufferings of Christ. They testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ. And of course, this is the whole essence of the gospel. And the more detail we can pick up on the death and sufferings, the atoning, redeeming work of our Lord Jesus, the stronger our faith will be in the gospel. So therefore, we can say that the Old Testament prophets preached the cross. They preached redemption by the blood of God's Son. I wonder how many sermons you've heard preached gospel sermons, salvation sermons from the Old Testament. In fact, we learn that the whole of the Bible is really fixed and focused on the death of the Lord Jesus. Like this morning, we took from Exodus and the picture of the tabernacle, and we got to the altar a picture of the cross, and we could see the cross in the book of Exodus. You can go back to Genesis and see the altars that were built and the lambs and the sacrifices that were slain. You can go to the prophets and you can hear Isaiah preach about, he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. And so they preached the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. And that of course sets the stage for the whole of the Bible. Jesus is the Lamb of God. and suffered in our place. He's typified in the sacrifices, he's prophesied in the scriptures, he's identified by John the Baptist, he's crucified in the gospels, he's explained in the epistles, and he's glorified in the book of Revelation. The Lamb, the suffering Lamb, is the whole theme of the Bible. And this is what these Old Testament prophets expounded. And so what has to be our focus? The suffering lamb. And your faith, your confidence, it's not in Peter. Peter didn't preach himself. In fact, Paul said, we preach not ourselves, we preach Christ crucified. Your faith is not in Peter. Your faith is not in men. Your faith is not in a church institution. Your faith is in the Lamb. This is your salvation, faith in the Lamb of God. Now, Peter, in this epistle, if you were to take time and look at the many references to the sufferings of Christ, you'll find that this is a constant theme that he makes. Let's look at one of them, chapter 118. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed, by corruptible things, as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb." And so these Old Testament prophets, they searched the scriptures and they prophesied of a suffering Savior. Peter presents the same gospel and he says, you're not redeemed by silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb. Peter's gospel dovetails. It matches with the nature and character of the gospel in the Old Testament. And this has to be our message in the 21st century to modern man. People in Cloverdale need to know about the sufferings of the Lord Jesus in the place of sinners. They need to know that there is a Redeemer who washes away sins, that peace with God is promised to all those that believe, and it is a full salvation purchased by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, our last thought here tonight, moving on to verse 12, is that this salvation is applied by the Holy Spirit through preaching. preaching, verse 12, 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." Now, I spoke a little bit about chapter 1.1 about the diaspora, the strangers scattered abroad in Asia, Bithynia, Pontus, Cappadocia, all those provinces of Asia Minor. They had the gospel preached to them. How did they become believers? How were they born again? How did they become a part of the church, Christians? Well, we know of the labors of Paul the apostle. We know of Barnabas and Silas and those first missionaries that went into Asia Minor and preached in that first century. This is now somewhat later, and Peter is living beyond the apostle Paul, and he is certainly older, and he is saying to these believers, this is God's way of reaching men. This is the gospel that has been preached unto you, but it's not the product of man. Please understand this. Salvation is not dependent upon a man, because it says the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. Have you ever been in a church service where the Holy Spirit was evidently, mightily at work convincing convicting, converting. That's how these people were saved through the preaching of the Word of God. It's God's way. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. It pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Faith is bestowed by the Holy Spirit as a preacher handles, expounds, explains the Word of God. And that has been in the history of the Christian church from New Testament times, God's singular way of bringing men, women, young people to faith in the Lord Jesus. I guarantee tonight that if we took a poll of everyone in this meeting, how were you converted? You would Most likely, almost to a person, say, I was regularly under the preaching of God's word. Now, you may not have trusted the Lord in a meeting, you may not have trusted the Lord after some kind of an invitation in a gospel service, but you were under the preaching of the word of God. The exceptions to that are rare. The only one I know of in the Free Presbyterian Church is the Reverend Tony DiDerno. He was an Italian, Roman Catholic. And I don't know what was going on in his life, but he was shut up in his bedroom for days with a Bible. And the Lord saved him. But testimonies like that are rare. God works through preaching. But it's not just a man in his own strength. It's not just a man with ideas to set before people. We need the Holy Ghost in such preaching. And that's what prayer meetings are about. That's why we as ministers come together tomorrow. We take the time and effort to get together for a few days away from the regular routine of things to get on our knees to pray because we know that we need the Holy Ghost in our preaching. I plead with you, my congregation, and those who come to Wednesday night prayer meetings know this, I plead with you to pray for the preaching of God's word in this church. I never take offense when I hear people say, Lord, help our preacher. He needs help to preach. He needs God's power to preach. You see, the experience of this is not just the illuminating of the preacher and great words and great sermons. The miracle of it is somewhere between this book and the heart of the hearer. I can't explain the operation of the Holy Spirit. who brings a person who's blind and dead in sin, and a person is brought out of the grave of their deadness to new life in Christ through preaching. Now, if you go to chapter one, verse 23, you will read what Peter thought about it. He said, being born again. not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Born again, regeneration, the miracle. This is God's work. The miracle of planting divine life in the soul of a dead sinner. Born again, not of corruptible seed, And sometimes I've preached it that when we are saved, God as a surgeon, and he just opens up our very breast and he puts his word right inside. So that from that moment of conversion, we delight in the law of the Lord. And the person that says to me, I have no time for the Bible, I have no interest in the Bible, is not saved. The miracle of the new birth is the Holy Spirit planting spiritual, scriptural life in your soul. That's a miracle. And if we're going to see the church advance, if we're going to see God's blessing, we desperately need that power. And it's not the power of man, it's the power of the Holy Ghost. A man was sent to check on the preaching of C. H. Spurgeon. As to his style of preaching, He wanted to analyze. He wanted to go as an observer and see, well, why is God blessing this man's ministry? When he came back, he was asked, well, what did you think? And he had no word to say about Mr. Spurgeon except the Savior that Mr. Spurgeon preached about. He was so enwrapped in the message, preaching Christ, the sufferings of the Savior, that he forgot all about analyzing the preacher. That's God's working. That's God's doing. You see, the Bible and preaching, Christ, is the object of our faith. The Holy Spirit is the agent of our faith. And preaching the cross is the mystery of our faith. That's why it's called the mystery of preaching. And the longer I live and the more I preach, the more of a mystery I realize it is. But we must have it. And so this is salvation A to Z. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega. He doesn't leave a man half in or half out. This is complete. Receiving the end, the goal of your salvation. This is glorious. Glory is born in our souls. We are as sure of heaven tonight as if we're ready in it. Indeed, Christ is there, and we have our standing in him and with him. This is such hope-building material that Paul says in verse 13, wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind. Now, I'll preach this next week, Lord willing. Girding up the loins of your mind is an athlete or a soldier gathering up his long gown or tunic, wrapping it around him tightly to get going. And Peter is saying, because of this salvation, full to the uttermost, gird up the loins of your mind. Don't lie back and be lackadaisical, apathetic. This is the basis upon which we serve God. And indeed, that's What this gets into, you'll notice verse 14, obedient children, being holy. That's what Peter's getting to, and we don't have time to preach that tonight. I've got to split this up into separate sermons. But Peter is taking this full salvation, and he wants it to be the basis upon which we serve God and go through with him. So tonight, let this fill your heart and mind, and let this gospel which was Old Testament and new, and it's for us tonight, Be Our Glory. O come, O come, ye children of Israel! O come, O come, ye children of Israel! you're listening to let the bible speak the radio broadcast of our free presbyterian church this is in dollar and i thank you for joining with us today and i hope you've been encouraged through the ministry of the lord's word now we put great emphasis on the power of the bible We believe that this is a supernatural book. Everyone who gives himself to personal Bible study and a prayerful attitude will know and experience the power of that word. And I've been mentioning the Bible study template that's available on our church website, www.cloverdalefpc.ca, and there you will find that under Resources and Bible Studies. So that's my Bible study template and on that you will have a number of focusing questions and as you go through that template it will help you in your own personal study to help you to focus on what to look for as you read and study the precious Word of God. That's my Bible study template available to you free of charge on a PDF format that you can print out and use in your own personal Bible study. I have also here this little booklet called Profiting from the Word by Arthur W. Pink, and he says that an individual is spiritually profited when the Word fortifies against sin. The Holy Scriptures are given to us not only for the purpose of revealing our innate sinfulness and the many, many ways in which we come short of the glory of God, but also to teach us how to obtain deliverance from sin, how to be kept from displeasing God. The psalmist put it this way in Psalm 119.11, Thy word have I hid in mine heart. that I might not sin against thee." This is what each of us is required to do. Receive, I pray thee, the law from His mouth, and lay up His words in thine heart. It is particularly the commandments, the warnings, the exhortations we need to make our own and to treasure, to memorize them, meditate upon them, pray over them, and put them into practice. The only effective way of keeping a plot of ground from being overgrown by weeds is to sow good seed therein. Overcome evil with good, Romans 12, 21. So the more Christ's Word dwells in us richly, the less room there will be for the exercise of sin in our hearts and lives. It is not sufficient merely to assent to the veracity of the Scriptures. They require to be received into our hearts. Affectionately, we must love the Lord's Word. It is unspeakably solemn to note that the Holy Spirit specifies as the ground of apostasy, because the love of the truth they receive not. If it lie only in the tongue or in the mind, only to make it a matter of talk and speculation, it will soon be gone. The seed which lies on the surface, the fowls in the air, will pick up. Therefore hide it deeply. Let it get from the ear into the mind, and the mind into the heart. Let it soak in further and further. It is only when it hath a prevailing sovereignty in the heart that we receive it in the love of it. When it is dearer than our dearest lust, then it will stick to us. These are the famous words of Thomas Manton. And so, let me add my high recommendation to profit from the word of God by letting it fortify you from the lusts of sin. Hide God's word in your heart that you may not fall into sin. May the Lord's word be a word of help and grace to your own soul today, and I trust this program has been a help to stir your own heart to walk with God, go through with God. Do not give in to the contemporary modern notions of this age, but get your heart fixed in the mind of God. to walk with Him and serve Him all your days. And again, I recommend this book, Profiting from the Word, by Arthur W. Pink. Again, available for a small donation to let the Bible speak. Stay tuned with us now for all the details. May the Lord bless you and encourage you. This broadcast comes to you today from the Free Presbyterian Church in Cloverdale, located at 18790 58th Avenue, Surrey. at the corner of 188th Street and 58th Avenue. On our website you can find gospel articles, links to our sermons and our gospel booklet called A New Beginning. There you can find a link to our Sunday services that are broadcast online. For all this information, please go to our website at cloverdalefpc.ca. You're warmly invited to attend any of our Sunday services at 10.30am and 6pm to meet with us as we worship God and to hear the preaching of his precious word. We also meet for Bible study and prayer at 7.30pm every Wednesday evening. Our Sunday School for Children and Adult Bible Class meet every Lord's Day from September to June at 9.30am. You can contact us using our office number which is 604-576-1091. Alternatively, you can email me at pastor.cloverdalefpc at gmail.com. Again, for all this information, please go to our website at cloverdalefpc.ca. Our burden is that you will hear and understand the Gospel that will lead you to know the Lord Jesus Christ and his great salvation. This is Pastor Andrew Fitton. Thank you for listening today and be sure to listen Monday to Friday at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. and on Sundays at 9.30 a.m. on this station for our full or church service as we worship the Lord through the ministry of His Word.