When Abraham was commanded by God to sacrifice his son Isaac, Isaac asked a pertinent question of his father: where is the lamb for the sacrifice? Abraham and Isaac both needed a lamb, but neither conceived that such a lamb was possible! The idea of the substitution of a lamb to save Isaac apparently never entered their thoughts, until God suddenly provided just such a lamb to save Isaac. Abraham didn't think of a substitute lamb, and he dare not suggest it to God in any case! How could any sinner suggest that God judge his own sin in the body of God's Own Son as a substitute, and let the sinner go free? The very idea would be blasphemous, were it conceived by sinful man! It is the heart wrenching beauty of it all, that when there was no hope for Abraham and Isaac, suddenly, God provided Himself a Lamb! Isaac was spared by the Lamb that God provided! But there was another party that needed a lamb, and that was God Himself! What God "needs," or rather, REQUIRES to accomplish His purposes, those things are not ultimately dependent upon independent third parties. Rather, what God "needs," God always provides Himself! God requires for Himself a Lamb to be sacrificed for sinners. That's because sin must be judged, and crimes must be punished. God promised that judgment! The judgment for sin is death! God needed a lamb, and He provided Himself that Lamb! Indeed, God provided that Lamb, the Lord Jesus, before the world was made! Christ was designated that Lamb from eternity, but only revealed to sinners during His ministry, and upon the cross.

How are Christians to view the crime of starting a war of aggression against Iran, with all the murder and destruction that our nation and Israel have committed? The sermon delivers a prophetic and morally urgent indictment of America's involvement in a war against Iran, framing it as a war of aggression rooted in deceit, hypocrisy, and a violation of both constitutional and international law. It argues that the conflict was unjustified, triggered not by Iranian aggression but by a fabricated pretext—nuclear proliferation—after Iran had already capitulated on all nuclear demands, exposing the real motive as regime change driven by Israeli interests. Drawing on Scripture, particularly Isaiah 10, the preacher challenges the congregation to discern whether America is the instrument of God's judgment (Assyria) or the target of it, warning that praying for victory in such a war is a blasphemy against divine justice. The sermon insists that no prayer for protection or success can be made by those whose hands are full of unrepentant blood, and that only through repentance and faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice can sinners—soldiers, leaders, or citizens—find true forgiveness and hope. Ultimately, the message calls for a radical reorientation: not civic pride or nationalistic prayer, but a humble, gospel-centered repentance that acknowledges the blood of Christ as the only ground of salvation for all who have sinned, including those who have participated in or condoned war and violence.

Peter encouraged the brethren, by describing how their glorious, astounding salvation was foretold in their own history by the prophets. It was, in fact, the very Spirit of Christ Himself, that had revealed it all in the first place! They tried to discover what it all meant, and when it was to be, this promised suffering of Messiah, and the glory that would then follow. In Psalm 16, David had been told that Messiah would die, and rise again by God's promise, before His body could see corruption! Christ would then enter into eternal rejoicing in the presence of God. In Psalm 69, David foretold how Christ would be persecuted by wicked men, and that He would bear our sins, and be treated as though He were guilty of them. He would suffer great reproaches, and be mocked and disregarded by men. The hatred that men had for God would be laid upon Jesus. They would mock the Man Whom God had smitten. There would be no comforters found for the dying Messiah. In Isaiah 53, the prophet described the rejection of Christ by the people, and their believing that God had smitten Him for His Own sins. But the truth was, God would smite Jesus for the sins of God's people laid upon Him by God. He would be slain like a lamb of sacrifice in our place. God would be satisfied with His sinless offering, and by that offering, Christ would justify all those for whose iniquities He had been punished. In Zechariah 13, the prophet described how God's sword of judgment would awake against His Shepherd, the Savior, who would be struck down by God's wrath against Him. These texts, with others, set forth Christ's suffering and sacrifice, and then the redemption and salvation of God's people!

"Whom having not seen, ye love!" Love for another person is often tied up in our seeing them, appreciating their looks. That is why a pretty person often captures our heart. Even in politics, a good-looking person has the advantage of being admired for his appearance. We are more likely to vote for a good-looking person than for a plain person, much less an ugly one! Isaiah had warned Israel that Messiah would have no attraction to them when He came, and there was no beauty that they would desire Him. When Jesus was crucified, He was mutilated, as the devil provoked wicked men to abuse and torture Jesus with thorns and nails and horrible floggings and a spear in His side. No doubt Satan wished to strip Christ of being made in the likeness of man, to take away His dignity and humanity. In this text, Peter is noting how remarkable it is that the saints love Jesus, even though we have never met Him or seen Him! This illustrates the miraculous faith that the Holy Ghost works in our hearts, to cause us to believe Jesus, and love Him with all our hearts! No one can truly love Jesus except by the faith God has granted to us! "Though now ye see Him not, yet believing!" Peter stresses anew that our love for Christ and our faith in Christ are strongly tied together. We love that sacred Man Whom we trust! We believe and love in Jesus, though we have not yet seen Him! Peter notes this fact as proof of our Gospel faith! We love a Savior we have never seen, and we believe His promises to us! Contrast this truth with idolatry, and the external beauty of false religion. Mankind is captivated by beauty and looks, and false religions cater to that carnal desire.

Peter describes how we greatly rejoice in all of this: everlasting life, salvation by the precious blood of Jesus, our eternal inheritance, the power of God, and the faith that He has given to us. These are far better things than all those things we have lost in this old world. Peter notes that now there are temptations that can cast us down, and fill us with worry and heaviness. But our sadness is due to our failure to believe the promises of God of such great things He has done and will do for us! Peter explains that these trials are brought about by God Himself to purify and strengthen our faith. All along, our God-given faith is more precious than gold itself! The temptations and trial of our faith are likened by Peter to the use of fire to purify gold. The fire melts the gold, and the dross rises to the surface, where it is skimmed off, leaving gold that is purer and brighter and more valuable than before the refining. Peter notes that gold perishes – it tarnishes, it can be stolen, it can be lost, and in the end, it will all be burnt up in God's judgment of this world. But our faith does not perish, because God, who gave it to us, maintains it, and perfects it through tribulations, so that it increases more and more in the saints. In our lives, these trials burn off our lack of faith, and drive away the things that pollute our faith and mar us in our service to God. All those ways in which we don't trust in the promises of Christ, are driven away by the trials God sends to us. By the time we die and appear with Jesus, our faith is unalloyed with anything left of this world, or of our sins. Then, Peter exults, that faith glorifies and exalts the Lord Jesus!

Peter's views and desires were completely turned upside down by Christ's relentless teaching. In the Scriptures, after Christ's ascension, Peter never spoke again of any hope for that old kingdom of Israel in this world. Rather, Peter urged the Gospel upon everyone, and described a new people of God, both Jews and Gentiles together, saved forever by Jesus. In 1 Peter, the apostle addresses in particular the Jewish believers in the diaspora. They had already lost their natural inheritance of the land, when God sent them into exile. Exile was part of the curse God promised in the Mosaic Law to all those who rebelled against His commandments. But God had chosen these saved Jews from eternity past to be set apart unto Himself by the Holy Ghost, unto salvation by the blood of Jesus, and to obedience unto the Lord! This was that New Covenant promise of old, wherein God would change His chosen people to love Him, and to know His law, and to be conformed to it, and to be forgiven from all their sins by God. They were not chosen simply because they were rebellious Jews, but by the desire of God, both Jews and Gentiles were chosen unto salvation apart from the keeping of the law, which none but Christ could ever do. This effective election by God is far better than being amongst the physical nation of Israel. Experience had already shown that being a part of physical Jewry would get you nothing more than the curse of the law and judgment. But these believers were elect beforehand to be set apart unto God, that through the miracle of the work of the Holy Ghost in their cold dead hearts, they should be saved and cleansed by the blood of the Lamb unto obedience!

Christ's prayers for Peter, that his faith not falter, had sustained Peter as one of Christ's, when the facts on the ground utterly overturned Peter's expectations and false ideas about Messiah's work and purpose, and the future of the Lord's people, and the kingdom of Christ. Peter had looked for a Messiah to rescue and restore Israel, and restore the physical kingdom for Israel immediately. Jesus emphasized the distinction between physical Israel, and Christ's Church. His Church today is not a physical kingdom, but is rather the whole elect called out people of God, saved by the blood of the dying Jesus on the cross. That's when Peter spoke up against Christ, and pushed his own expectations. He denied that Christ must die, and seemed to pay no notice to Christ's promise to rise again the third day. Jesus sharply rebuked Peter for his statements against Christ's death, and warned him that he, Peter, loved the things that the world loves, and not the things that God loves. Man loves power, and force, and the rule of a physical kingdom right now. God loves the sacrifice of Jesus as His Own Lamb, slain to take away the sins of His loved ones, who cannot save themselves from God's wrath. If you reject the Gospel of Christ's death and resurrection, and pursue your own carnal ideas of the kingdom, you will lose your soul and life eternally! In this teaching, Christ was radically overturning and re-orienting Peter's expectations, and showing what things we must value, and what things we must let go of in this life. Peter still resisted Christ's teaching on these matters, which is why Jesus warned him of his impending betrayal, and prayed for his faith to be upheld.