A work for you, in you, by you, through you

Turn to 1 Peter, please, chapter 1, verse 18. For as much as you know that you are not redeemed with 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 without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Now just for sake of time, 23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever.

Chapter 2, verse 1. Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby, I have so been ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Verse 9 says, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Now I know that God will bless his word with what has gone before. The first thing I want to speak about is from the last part of 1 Peter, of a work done for you. Wonderful thing to know that there was a work done for us on the cross at Calvary.

And Peter loved to speak of that. And he said that the Lord Jesus, Lamb without blemish and without spot. You and I had nothing to do with that.

That's what makes us so sure of our salvation. It's something that was objective, done right outside of us all together. And that's why we love to come among God's people and hear the word of God.

And no matter where they read, you can almost just get to the cross. And to know that there was one who loved each one of us. He was without spot, but I tell you, we were steeped in sin.

And yet in love to us, he went to the cross at Calvary. So we should never doubt it. There's nothing to do with us what he did.

It's not how we believe or anything like that. But a work done for us on the cross. Now then he said, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever.

So if there's a work done for us, there's a work done in us. And that's what we've been reminded of in the conference of the work done for us. But there's a work done in us that changed our lives.

The great thing to be really born again, used to be people talked about it and everybody had heard about movie stars and others that were born again. But there should be a change in a person's life. Before God saved me, he never would have found me in a place like this.

I thought the Christians were a misguided bunch and just taking refuge in the Bible. Well, if that's true, I'm one of them today. Changed my life.

To really do it of God, we can be occupied in many things. And I think it's sad in the world today that many are occupied with the world itself. Sports is a big thing.

I was a sportsman, played sports. But you know, there's one of our preachers, I shouldn't, I could tell you who he is because he's not here anymore. He's gone, he's dead.

But he had just gotten saved and he's walking down to the shipyard in Belfast reading the sports page. And guess who came along beside him? My father. Didn't say much.

He just pulled the edge of his sleeve and he says, you'll not get anything for your soul out of that. And you know, that man went on to have a great knowledge of the word of God. That's not where we get these things.

Our life has changed. We're born again. We're new creatures in Christ and the things that we didn't like before are things that we love today.

We love to learn more of the Lord Jesus. Is that why you're here? That's why I came to the conference. Since I'm in fellowship here, I wasn't intending to speak at all, but somebody might as well take the last few minutes.

So here I am. A work done for you. Are you enjoying that work? Doesn't depend on you at all.

The work done in you. Has your life been changed? Have you really created these changed desires? When I was first saved, I told Mr. Norman Crawford, I'd just like to learn more about the Lord and learn more of my Bible. And he said, you won't have much opposition.

You know, I couldn't believe it. I thought every Christian would be into the Word of God. If someone did a work for you, would you not want to know more about them? I tell you, I'm not saying I went into it as I should, but I enjoy reading my Bible.

And I like to read a Bible that you know is a Bible. I know some people can read these pads and stuff, but I often thought, well, when the grandkids come to our house, they know at least I'm reading the Bible. I'm not playing games.

I'm not saying you're playing games all the time. But it's good to learn more, to have that desire. Then there's a work by you.

Work for you. A work in you. A work by you.

What is that? Laying aside all malice and guile, hypocrisy, and all evil speakings. Those are things that belong to the flesh. The verse before said, verses before all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is a flower of grass.

The grass withereth, fadeth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is a word whereby the gospel was preached unto you. You love the word.

That's how the gospel came to you, through the word. Would you not like to get into the word? But then these are things that don't believe in the priesthood or among God's people. And someone has talked about guile.

They put Jacob in there and hypocrisy. Well, there's malice. Maybe that would be Cain against his brother, and guile, Jacob, and then King Saul, hypocrisies, and envies, and evil speakings.

Of course, evil speakings would be Aaron and Miriam, maybe speaking against Moses. And you have Esau maybe brought in there as well. So those are things that don't belong among God's people.

How are you going to be cured from those things? They're the things of the flesh by occupation with Christ. Now, the next point is a work done by us. All these things that we enjoy and we learn about the Lord, they should be worked out in our lives.

And that's what we have when we read all about what we are, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. That means a people for a possession, although it might apply to some of us in other ways, but that's not the way it's applied in the Scripture. But he said that ye may show forth the virtues of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

The praises are virtues. What are these? Well, if it's the virtues of God, they're all seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. So it doesn't really matter if they're virtues of Christ.

That's what should be seen in our lives. There's things to give up. Sometimes it's hard just to stick to the passage, but five things to give up.

2 Peter 1, there's seven things to add. So you're not going to lose anything by giving up five and getting seven things to add, but to show forth the virtues. I wonder how much of Christ you'll see in you and you'll see in me.

Will there be any more after the conference? You know, in Ephesians chapter 4, it speaks about the ministry of the word, and I believe it goes right on. And we should be making progress in our lives right till we get home to heaven. So I wonder how much we're taking in from the conference.

We only know what we put into practice. So some of us may not know too much after all, but we put these things into practice, the virtues of Christ, the beauties of Christ. I wonder if any of them are seen in me.

Well, I hope I've become more and more like him. I'm going to be like him, for we shall see him as he is. But I would like to be just getting a little bit more like him day by day.

Oh, there's going to be a big change. No, especially in my life. We got home to heaven, but just a little bit less each day by getting to appreciate the work that was done for me.

The work that was done in me. Imagine a poor person like me, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but desires to learn more of Christ. Am I willing to shave the flesh? You know, Levites shaved all the hair of their body.

Nothing from the flesh because of occupation with Christ. And then being like him, showing forth the virtues of him. A priest, first of all, in the sanctuary.

But then we're all priests in the testimony. So it's not just when we're in God's presence at home or wherever it is, but to be testimonies to the saving grace of the Lord Jesus. So remember, you don't remember anything else I have said.

This wasn't, of course, what I had in my mind at all. But a work for me, a work in me, a work by me, and a work through me to reach out to others and show forth the virtues of him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light.