We want to thank you for listening to this week's sermon from Harvest Bible Chapel, Kansas City. We pray that you will be encouraged and challenged by God's Word today. If you would like more information about Harvest, please visit our website at www.harvestkansascity.org. Okay, salvation security. You know, we live in a society that is so security conscious. We do. I mean, and it's important. It's necessary. We need security. There are so many mechanisms out there that want to invade our life and cause us harm and damage. So we need security, isn't that right? We have home security systems. We have bank security systems. We have airport security. If you're a parent and you brought your child to church today, they have to go through our security system. They receive a tag, a number, so that we are on them, we are watching them, we are caring for them. You can have assurance this morning that your children are being cared for by people in this building who serve in our church, who have had background checks, security. It's all about security. How many passwords do we have? How many passwords do you use? I get so confused over my passwords. Don't you? Amen, absolutely. We write them down, we have them stashed away somewhere, not for public display because we are so security conscious, it's necessary, it's important. But all this security that we engage in is temporal, it is, we know that. It's designed to protect our possessions, it's designed to protect our lives, it's designed to protect our family, but it's still temporal. God, in Jesus Christ, offers to us, amazingly so, eternal security for the soul, for the immaterial part of us. All the security that we engage in on a horizontal level is all for the temporal. God is concerned about the soul, the eternal, and he offers to us eternal security in the person of Jesus Christ. So brethren, when we die, we do not have to go to hell. That's the reality. And when the great white throne judgment takes place, God will cast into the lake of fire everyone who has not come to him on his terms, Jesus Christ. We have to acknowledge our sin, repent of our sin, which is being willing to turn, we know this, and then sink our trust into a person, Jesus Christ. God will forgive us, he will cleanse us, he will give us eternal life, and he sets us on a path towards eternity. We are secure in Jesus Christ. Praise God. Peter wants to unpack these thoughts here this morning for us to build us up, to build us up in our faith so that we are learning to stand firm in the true grace of God. So we're not turning from Jesus Christ. We're not denying him. And he has many lessons here for us. So let's go ahead and begin. This morning we have four points. We want to begin with salvation's honor. Salvation's honor. Honor goes to one person relative to our salvation, and that's God, God the Father specifically in this passage. God shares equal glory with the Son and equal glory with the Spirit, of course. But in this context, Peter is pointing out how all glory and honor goes to the Father. Notice verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again. Blessing to God the Father for what he's done in our lives. You and I came to Jesus Christ because God initiated that process. We may not think about it in those terms. That's exactly what Jesus said. Jesus said, all that the Father gives me will come to me and no man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. We came to Jesus Christ because God initiated our regeneration. He caused us to be born again. Jesus said, whoever hears of the Father and learns from him comes to me. Think about that. When we heard the gospel, perhaps, and we rejected the gospel, there came a point in time when all of a sudden the gospel made sense to us. Our eyes were open, our ears were open, our heart was open. It's because in the moment, God the Father, according to this verse, And according to what Jesus said in John chapter six, God the Father is the one who teaches us the gospel, who enables us to understand and comprehend the good news so that we in that moment turn from our sin and come to his son Jesus Christ by faith for salvation. Blessed be God the Father, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again. We need to be born again to go to heaven. We need a new nature. We need to be cleansed from sin. We need righteousness in order to be the presence of God. And as you and I know, nothing we do on the outward surface can change the inner man. So religion, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, New Ageism, Roman Catholicism, and on and on we can go. It's all about outward activity, works of righteousness, trying to do good, to somehow earn our way, when there's nothing we can do on the outside to change the inward man. We need to be born again. And when we are born again, we become a child of God. We are born of God. God is the one who initiates that process by his grace. He has caused us to be born again. And he's done it by his great mercy. You know, God does not just wave upon us a hand of mercy and say, you're forgiven. His wrath is upon us, but he has redirected his wrath to the cross. Justice has to be served. And as a result of justice being served, now God is willing to have mercy upon us. He's willing to withhold from us what we deserve, which is his wrath, because he's redirected it to the cross. Mercy. Mercy and grace found in the person of Jesus Christ. So God works in our heart. He gives me a seeing eye. He gives me a hearing ear. He gives me an understanding heart by His grace so that I come to Jesus Christ. Blessed be God the Father. because he has caused us to be born again. The word blessed here means to eulogize. It means to pay homage to, to speak well of, to praise, to exalt, to glory, to glorify. We're to do that to God the Father. You know, about four months ago, my mother-in-law passed away. And her four children eulogized her in her home going service. They praised her. They blessed her. They paid homage to her. They spoke well of her, her four children. Why? Because she brought them forth. She was their biological mother. They have only one biological mother. You and I have only one biological set of parents. And my mother brought me forth And my wife's mother brought her forth, so her four children eulogized her for the privilege of the gift of life that their mom gave them by the grace of God. Peter says, we are to bless God the Father because he has caused us to be born again. I have a child of God. Brethren, that is a gift from God. We are born children of God, sons and daughters of a living God, born into his family because he caused it to happen by his grace. And Peter says the only proper response in the context of God's saving grace is we are to bless him, we are to honor him, we are to speak well of him. Question for us this morning as God has asked me this question this week, am I blessing God the Father for saving me? Do I bless God the Father for saving me? Now, what does that mean? It doesn't mean a one-off. It means is blessing God, get this, is blessing God the center of my life? Am I living my life so that in the center of my life, I am offering praise and glory and honor to God the Father because he has caused me to be born again? It's not a one-off. Blessing Him should be the center of my being. That's a challenge. because we are so prone to complain and murmur and focus on all the horizontal human noise and brainwash, and God is telling us, bless me for the gift that I've offered you and given to you in the person of Jesus Christ. We're to bless him. So my dear brothers and sisters this morning, as we have been mutually born again, as we are mutually all members of God's eternal family, let's bless God. Bless Him for the amazing gift of eternal life that He's given to us. Can we do that this very moment, in the moment? We just bow in our hearts before God and just praise Him and thank Him for this amazing gift of eternal life that He's given to us. It's personal. It's one-on-one between me and God. It's one-on-one between you and God. We do it collectively, but we can offer Him praise. And I'm going to give us a moment to do that. We're just going to be silent. and take the opportunity to apply blessing God right here, right now. Salvation's honor, the father alone is deserving of it. Let's notice our second item here in front of us today. We move from salvation's honor to salvation's hope. You know, God has saved us, he's begun to work in us, and he's leading us somewhere. He's leading us to glory. It's not just about living out this life on this planet, he's leading us somewhere. Notice what Peter says in chapter, again, in the middle of verse three. He says, according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again, get this, to a living hope. through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. That is one top-heavy section. It's amazing what he's telling us here. He's telling us about our hope, salvation's hope. And I want to share three things about salvation's hope. The first thing is, notice the direction of this hope. He says here that we've been born again to a living hope. That's direction. That means that God is moving us somewhere. God has saved us and he hasn't just abandoned us. He has a plan to move us somewhere. He's moving us to a destiny. We have an eternal destiny, hope. The hope that he's referring to literally would be a reference to the second coming of Jesus Christ. But then again, that is not a one-off in and of itself either. Jesus Christ comes for us so that now we can be with him forever. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Paul writes about the blessed hope that we are waiting for in Titus chapter two. It relates to us being with Jesus Christ forever. That's our hope. And that word hope in New Testament language. means confident expectation for a future reality. Brethren, one thing is absolutely certain. You and I are going to be with Jesus Christ forever, because we're his children. We've been born of God. We're his child. He has a plan for us to be with him forever. That's what we're saved for. That is our eternal destiny. And God right now is moving us, whether we realize it or not, day by day, he's moving us towards that destiny. He will never leave us. He will never forsake us. We cannot become unborn again. We are his children. And he has saved us to bring us into his presence so that we can be with him forever. Now, brethren, when we are in the presence of Jesus Christ, get this, We will be living in the center of the fullness of His attributes. We will be living in the center of the fullness of His glory, His majesty, which equals only one thing—fulfillment, meaning, purpose, direction in serving Him, loving Him, honoring Him, being absolutely fulfilled in the intimate knowledge of God forever. God has saved us for that destiny. That's our hope. And we're moving in that direction. Now, we're here this morning, and we have burdens, and the world caves in on us, and it distracts us. And Peter wants us to set our focus on our hope in order to clear away the debris of this world so that we are regenerated or renewed and strengthened anew and afresh that this is the true grace of God and God has a plan to get us there and he will get us there. He will bring us into his presence because we are his sons and daughters. We are the born-again children of Almighty God. And I love the way Peter frames this. He says this is a living hope according to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. You know, Peter is not just spouting out theology here. Peter was a witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He knows what he's talking about. Jesus Christ, Peter, saw Jesus Christ outside of the tomb. So he's telling us that our hope, our future reality of being with God forever in his presence, that is as sure and as certain as the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which I witnessed. Jesus Christ is coming, and he will take us to be in his presence forever, and that will not be a boring place, brethren. That will be a place of being absolutely stunned and amazed with eyes wide open at the absolute majesty and growing in the knowledge of God for all eternity. That's a gift. That's a gift. And we need to bless God for sharing his grace with us and sharing this destiny with us. That's the direction of our hope. Notice the design of this hope. He goes on here. He says that it's a hope that is an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. The word inheritance means promised possession, portion. I love this. You know, think back to the Old Testament times when God redeemed the nation of Israel out of Egypt. He covered their sins by his blood, led them out of the nation of Egypt, went through the Red Sea, and then they got caught up in the world for 40 years, like you and I can do at times, get caught up and distracted by the world. God had to chastise them, purge them, purify them. Then he led them into the Promised Land. And as he led them into the promised land, each tribe had a promised inheritance, a promised possession, an allotment. And God portioned out the allotment to each one of those 12 tribes. Pete is telling us here, based on this hope of being with God forever in his presence, he's telling us here that we have an inheritance. That means I personally have an allotment. You personally have a divine allotment and that allotment is in God. I have a portion in the God of the universe. You have a portion in the God of the universe. God has a place for you with him where he will reveal himself to you more and more in fullness so that you absorb the intimate knowledge of who he is as the amazing God of the universe where we will just sense the glory, and the majesty, and the intimacy, and the peace, and the joy, and the overwhelming sense of absolute fulfillment. Because we are sons and daughters of the living God. I have an allotment in God, and so do you. And Peter tells us here, notice how he drills down. He says, this inheritance is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. You know, sometimes we see dust particles kind of floating around. We take a moment and we concentrate and we look in the lights. We might see, kind of bright in here, maybe we won't, but we might see some dust particles floating around in the air. Why is that? Why do we see dust particles everywhere? Because we live under a certain law. It's called the second law of thermodynamics. It means everything is breaking down, which counters evolution, by the way. Because the evolutionist wants to convince us that everything is going up, but everything is coming down. Everything is breaking down. We live in a universe of decay and corruption because of one thing, sin. Everything is breaking down. So there's dust particles everywhere. Everything corrodes, everything corrupts, there's rust. My colors fade. These pants are new pants. Probably after a few washings, they'll begin to fade, right? Flowers fall off because we live underneath the second law of thermodynamics because of sin. Everything is breaking down. In God's inheritance, complete opposite. Complete opposite. Notice the words he uses. It is imperishable. Nothing will destroy it. Nothing will corrupt it. Nothing will rust it. It will not fade away. It's unfading. It's undefiled. Nothing can touch it. Nothing can do any harm to it. No thief will break into it. Because this is God's inheritance, and the luster and the brilliance and the brightness and the glory of God's amazing presence will never fade. That's our inheritance, brethren. That's where you and I are headed. God is moving us toward that. And Peter wants us to lay aside, to try to lay aside the debris of this horizontal world that just caves in on us and realize that even though we are in the world, we are not of the world. God has set us apart. We do not belong to this world. We are different because we have been born again. We are children of the Father, the children of the living God. And I want to tell you, that really encourages me. Because I've got my burdens and I've got my heartaches. We have our struggles. And yet, God tells us we can rejoice in our salvation because it's real and nothing can change it. So we have a design here that it will last forever. Notice the third thing here. Notice the dynamic of this hope. It says that it's kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. That future salvation of being with Christ forever is so certain that God says it's already ready to be revealed, just a matter of time. It will be on public display. It is just a matter of time. But notice the dynamic. He says here that that inheritance, two things. First of all, it's kept in heaven for you, right? Unalterable, unchanging, it's there. And he says that we, by God's power, are being guarded through faith for it. So God is keeping the inheritance, but he's also guarding us, and he's doing it by his great power. Love this word, power. It's the word dunamis, where we get our word dynamite from. God has almighty power, and he's preparing. In fact, it says it's already reserved for us, so it's already there. And he's keeping me for it by faith. That's an important phrase, through faith, because the proof that I belong to Jesus Christ is not that I prayed a prayer in 1972, on November 26. It's not because I have this one-off relationship. You know, I say I'm a Christian. I did it 50 years ago. No, it's a faith that continues. I continue to trust God. I continue to embrace Jesus Christ as my Savior. And God's keeping power is there. He's begun a good work in us. He will complete that work. And he's preparing us for that salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. Brethren, that is our destiny. That is our destiny. And that is cause for rejoicing. Amen? Is that not cause for saying, Father, thank you? Father, I bless you. I praise you. I exalt you, O God. for being so kind to me and saving me from my sin and that you're leading me in a direction and you will get me there, God, even though I have all my baggage, even though I struggle, oh Lord, you have a plan and a purpose to get me there and you promised me that you will do just that. That is worthy of praise and honor to God and to trust him more. So we have hope, brethren. We have salvation's honor. And we have salvation's hope. Now, as soon as we come to Jesus Christ, we're on that path towards heaven. But you know what? We have pain. We have suffering. We have heartache. And we have struggle. And we have failure. And our children rebel. And we and our spouses don't always connect correctly. So even Christian marriages can end in divorce. And there's all kinds of heartache associated with that. And all these other burdens. We can lose our job. We can get in an accident. We can lose our health. We have pain. We have suffering. We have heartache. We have distractions. And yet Peter tells us here that in light of these things, we have the true grace of God and we are to stand firm in it. So as we journey towards glory, notice the next item here, salvation's hardship. Notice the hardships that we go through. Notice verse six, in this you rejoice. Can we stop there? In this, you rejoice. What's the this? What is the this that we rejoice in? It's this incredible inheritance. It's this incredible salvation. The this is this, brethren. It's realizing that I have Jesus Christ and I can never lose him. That's my salvation. I have Jesus Christ, and I can never lose Jesus Christ, because my inheritance is Jesus Christ. I have an allotment in God. It's all based upon my eternal relationship with Jesus Christ. I have that allotment. And God says, because you have Jesus Christ, and you can never lose him, therefore, in this, you rejoice. I want us to just have this imprinted in your minds the way God is imprinting it in my mind this week. This has really impacted me because I have Jesus Christ and I know I can never lose him. I can rejoice in that. And the reality is this, it is not Christ plus anything else. This joy that we can have in Jesus Christ operates completely independent of all my trials, all my circumstances. My circumstances want to pull me down, and they can. And circumstances at times can pulverize us and crush us. And Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, he was crushed and beaten down in his walk with Jesus Christ, in all the sufferings he experienced. But he said he was not destroyed because Paul realized he had Jesus Christ. He could never lose him. And because that's true, joy operates and can operate in our lives independent of all my circumstances. And Peter is going to tell us now, in this next section, circumstances. But he's saying, listen, you don't rejoice in your circumstances. You rejoice in the fact that you have hope. You have Jesus Christ, and you can never lose him. Therefore, you rejoice. And by the way, the word rejoice here means inward cheer. Does it mean smiling? Does it mean going around jumping for joy? It means that we have a settled sense within our hearts, put there by the Holy Spirit of inward cheer, I'm glad because I know I have Jesus Christ and I can never lose him. Will you be glad this morning in that alone? Can you be glad this morning, brethren, in that one thing and nothing else? That we have Jesus Christ, And he's ours forever. We can never lose him. We'll never lose our salvation. We're kept. We're in him. Grace of God. And now I have trials. But these trials do not have to nudge away from me my sense of gladness, which isn't a feeling. And it's just this upper facet. It's a sense of inward stability because I have Jesus Christ. And I know I can never lose him. That is security. And that's what the grace of God brings into our lives. And notice what he says. In this you rejoice. We get that straight. Now he says, though now, for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Notice this. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. Obtaining the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. Trials here are sandwiched between two statements of rejoicing, and they both have to do with having Jesus Christ in my life. Christ plus nothing is what helps us as believers to rejoice. So now let's notice a few things that he says about trials. He says, although now for a little while, if necessary, You have been grieved by various trials. Notice the word now. It tells us that trials are current. They're in our lives, right here, right now. Do you have trials in your life? What are you struggling with? What are you going through? What's really pounding at your heart's door with pain and suffering and concern? He says they happen right now for a little while. Trials may be lasting. but they're not everlasting, because we look at our trials in light of our hope. I look at my hardship. I have to train myself to look at my hardship in light of my hope. And because I have Christ and I can never lose him, that helps my trial to see it in its real light. It's just for a little while. It's lasting, but it will not be everlasting. Brethren, understand this. Every single day, your faith walk with God is on trial, every day. Every single day, your faith walk with Jesus Christ is on trial. And the question is this, are you going to trust God or not? That's the question. Things come in out of the blue and they just pulverize us. The question is, Are you going to trust God or not? That's the question. Our faith experience with God is always on trial. Trials are current. And he tells us here that we can become grieved, distressed, burdened, absolutely pulverized by various trials. They come in variety. It means multi-sided. Right now, you can be in a box. Your trial can have you in a box. That trial can turn into a pentagon. It can all of a sudden grow a side and have five sides to it. It can grow another side and have six sides to it, a hexagon, and on and on. They come in various sizes. That's what the word variety means. It means multi-sided, multi-colored. But get this. Would you fast forward with me to 1 Peter 4 in verse 10, please? Don't lose it, don't lose the thought, follow me here. Notice 1 Peter 4 verse 10. As each has received a gift, Use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's, notice, God's varied grace. Same word, multi-sided, multi-colored, kaleidoscope grace. In other words, we enter into a period of kaleidoscope trials, God has kaleidoscope grace to match every single side of that trial. So the question is this, are you gonna trust God or not? Are you gonna trust him? Or are you gonna deny him, curse him, abandon the gospel? What are you gonna do? They come to test us, Peter says. So the question is, am I gonna trust God or not? He says, notice, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tested by fire, may be found to result in glory to Jesus Christ. You know, I learned some things about gold this week. Gold. We have all these commercials about gold. Buy gold. What's that guy's name, William Devane? Gold, right? Listen to some things I learned about gold. Maybe this will help us understand this passage. Gold is rare. Did you know that? Did you know gold is scarce? It's rare. That's what makes it so valuable. It's rare. It's scarce. Secondly, gold, Never rusts. Gold always maintains its gold finish. Did you know that? I didn't know that. And because that's true, it never loses its value. It maintains its value. Gold's value is timeless. It's unaffected by time. In other words, if you mine a nugget of gold today, it maintains the same value as it did 100 years ago. Gold is valuable because it's scarce, because it never loses its luster, and because its value is timeless. And it can be reshaped and remolded. It could be a necklace. It could be a coin. It could be a bar. It makes no difference. That's why gold is so precious. It runs the economies of this world system. God says that your faith is put in the fire because it is even more precious than gold that perishes. Brethren, listen up very carefully. Do you realize that faith is rare on this planet? Faith is rare. Do you realize that faith like gold never loses its luster in God's eyes? Do you realize that faith in God is timeless? It is just as valuable today as it was way back when in Abraham's time. God values faith. And he allows trials to come into our lives, not to destroy us, but to test and purge and purify faith. Because faith is so valuable, he wants us to grow in our ability to trust him. So the question always is, are you going to trust God or not? That's the question. And faith doesn't operate in a vacuum. It's always connected to the word, which means we need to be applying his principles. We need to be sourcing our hearts with his word so that we grow in our faith and our trials. And notice the end result goal here. I love this. Notice it. So that our faith may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Why is that so important? It's important for this reason. God's salvation so secures us that when we have trials that pulverize us and we do not give up or give in and continue to stay the course with Jesus Christ, that brings great glory and honor to him when he returns. You know, I was reading on the internet yesterday about two Christian musicians. It made me sad. I'm not going to tell you who they are. I'm not going to tell you what bands they played in. But you would know them. Two separate bands, two separate Christian musicians. One has walked away from the faith. One said the song that he wrote, which was a real popular song, he no longer believes the theology of that song. Walked away, denying Jesus Christ, denying the gospel, cursing God, if you will. Brethren, when we go through our trials, and we do not give up or give in by denying Christ, by cursing God, by denying the gospel, and we keep steady, even though we're being pulverized by our trials, I will not deny Jesus Christ. I will continue to trust him. That brings great glory and honor to Jesus Christ because it proves that we are truly saved, that his salvation has brought us through. Why? Because I have Jesus Christ, brethren, and I can never lose him. And Peter says, that is the joy of your salvation. And that's what we rejoice in. It's not Christ plus right circumstances. It's Jesus Christ, period. And because I have him and I can never lose him, that enables me. in times of heartache, to have a sense of confidence and cheer within, because I have Christ. I'm saved. I belong to him forever. Peter says that is what you ought to be focusing on, and that's what you ought to be rejoicing in, because that will never change. You belong to God forever. Keep standing firm in the true grace of God. Praise his name. And then we wrap it up here with a final H, if you will. Notice salvation's heritage in these verses. And I'm not going to take too much time to really go through this. These verses really amuse me. They kind of, they just bring such, I was going over this this morning, I was just standing there just kind of laughing to myself at how amazing these verses are. Notice what he says in verse 10. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glory. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you. in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. You should underline the word you in that section. It's there four times, yours, you, you, you, because we are the theme, in a sense, of that section. Notice some things real quick. Prophets in the Old Testament prophesied about this salvation. And they searched and inquired through their own scriptures. They wrote the scriptures, and then they started to dig into the scriptures, because they had two burning questions. Who is this person, and when is he coming? Notice it. Inquiring what person or time. They wanted to know who this Messiah was. Who is he, and when is he coming? But we're told here that God revealed to them, hey, guys, slow down, in a sense. This is prophecy. It's not for you. This is for the future, which is what prophecy is all about. Prophecy is all about the future. So even though they were searching the scriptures to try to understand who this person was and when is he coming, God revealed to them, not for you. It's for a future time. It's prophecy. All right? So they didn't experience that salvation. They experienced the benefit of the cross, now that the cross has happened, but it did not happen in their lifetime. But they searched, they wanted to know, they were thriving to know. So that's the Old Testament prophets. Notice the angels at the end of the verse. It says, angels long to look into these things. What's he saying? Jesus Christ did not die for angels. So salvation is not for angels. Salvation at that time was not for the Old Testament prophets in their lifetime. It also was not for angels because Jesus didn't die for angels. But the angels are so interested in this salvation that it says here that they stretched their necks out, longing to look into these things. It's exactly what it says. I was thinking if I was at the World Series, say bottom of the ninth, two out, bases loaded, tie game, our team is up at the bottom of the ninth, and say I'm sitting in a section of the stadium where I can't see the left field corner, let's say, and a ball is hit in that left field corner, what am I going to do? I'm going to stretch my neck out to try to see what the heck is going on in that corner. Did they catch it? Was it hit? Are we going to win the game? Whatever. because I would be so interested and on the edge of my seat to want to know what is going on. That's what the angels are doing today. They long to understand about this grace of God because it's not for them. Jesus didn't die for angels. They weren't sinful. He didn't come to save them. He came to save you and I. So what's Peter's point? Peter's point is salvation did not occur in the lifetime of the Old Testament prophets. Salvation is not for the angels. Salvation is for you and I who live on this side of the cross. Therefore, we are absolutely privileged to have received this gift of grace by God the Father. Therefore, stand firm in it. This is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. Trust God more. Love Him more. Obey Him more. Rejoice in Him more. Because we have Jesus Christ, brethren, and we can never lose Him. That's our salvation experience. Let's pray this morning.