Dwelling Place

Al Pittman: Today on the Dwelling Place. We don't have the power to save. If I had a better education, I could. No, you don't need a better education, you don't need to be better gifted or anything else. Just simply speak the word. It's powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, able to pierce down into the bone and the marrow of a man or woman's conscience. Amen. Give them the word. Just deliver the mail. Amen.

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Guest (Male): Thank you for tuning in to the Dwelling Place, a radio ministry from Pastor Al Pittman and Calvary Worship Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We hope today's message is a blessing to you. If you'd like to partner with us financially, you can go to cwccs.org/give, text GIVE to 719-354-2778, give directly on the OnePlace app, or mail a check into 501 Castle Road, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80904.

We appreciate your generosity to help us spread the Gospel. Today we continue our new series, Strategic Living: A Believer's Journey in a Strange Land, in 1 Peter. Last time, we heard about our joyful inheritance in Christ. Now we are in 1 Peter chapter 1, looking at verses 10 through 16, titled "This Salvation." Now here's Pastor Al.

Al Pittman: Well, God bless you today and welcome to those of you joined us online. We are in 1 Peter chapter 1. We'll be looking at verses 10 to 16. The title for this message series is Strategic Living: The Believer's Journey in a Strange Land. Today we want to talk about our salvation, this salvation.

Last week we talked about our inheritance and now today, our salvation in Christ. Salvation by definition is the preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss. Indeed, that is what the Lord has done for us. Jesus Christ has delivered us by dying on the cross for our sins, the Bible says, delivered us from harm and has granted us hope, and has taken away ruin and given us righteousness, and taken away our loss and given us everlasting life. Amen to that.

Thank God for our salvation in Christ. It has delivered us also from the wrath of God against sin. People say Jesus saves and you say, well, from what? Really, from the judgment of God. God is a God of love, but God is also a God of justice. There's no such thing as no-fault sin because we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.

And God, being a God of justice, must punish sin. California recently passed a zero-bail law and, basically, you commit a crime and there's zero bail and they just release you and that type of thing. I was reading where even the rapper 50 Cent said LA is through with the passage of this zero-bail law. Why? Because there's no penalty, no accountability for the crimes and for sin.

And so, you know, it is, and in the Lord there is no such thing as zero bail. Amen. A price had to be paid for our sins and Jesus paid our price on the cross. Amen. Thank the Lord. And as a result, the Bible says to those who have put their faith in him, Paul says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, "For God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ."

My question to you today, as compassionate as I can say it, is what appointment will you keep? Is it an appointment unto wrath or is it an appointment unto salvation through faith in Christ? As believers, to live strategically in this world for the glory of God, we need to understand that we are in the world but we are not of the world. We've been delivered. Amen. And this message is to embolden you in your salvation through faith in Christ.

Our salvation in Christ is certain because of three things that we find here within our text. Our salvation in Christ is prophetic, number one. It is disclosed, number two. And number three, it is transformative. So those three things we want to look at today in relationship to our salvation in Jesus Christ.

First, it is prophetic, prophetic salvation. Verses 10 and 11, the salvation we have is not something that just was happenstance or a fluke or whatever. It was prophesied. It's prophetic. Verse 10 says Peter writes, "Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow."

2 Peter chapter 1 verse 21 talks about those who prophesied and spoke forth the word of God. And he said, "For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." That Bible you have in your lap or on your pad or your iPhone or whatever, however you're following along, that is the God-breathed word. It is God's breath, amen, his word revealed to us by the prophets and by the Holy Spirit.

And it is not of man. Some people say, oh, it's a man-made religion. No, it is God-breathed. Amen. Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by Holy Spirit. Amen. Oh, give God praise and glory for that. Amen. It was prophetic in the spirit, Peter says in verse 11, the spirit of Christ was in them. In even in the Old Testament, the spirit of Christ was there.

The Bible tells us in John's Gospel in chapter 1 that Christ was there in the very beginning, and apart from him nothing was made that was made. Amen. The scarlet cord, the scarlet cord it's been called, is that theme throughout scripture from Genesis to Revelation that speaks prophetically of the salvation or the Messiah, the promised savior of the world, from Genesis to Revelation.

And it is there in scripture. You see it all throughout scripture about the promised savior. The prophets spoke and inquired about the promised grace of God that would come to visit the earth. When would God send this grace? They inquired, they wondered when it would appear on the earth, this promised savior.

Salvation therefore was, again, not of ideology, but it was of a promise. The salvation that you have is the fulfillment of God's divine promise from Genesis all the way to Revelation. In Genesis chapter 3, we see the first sign of God's promise of salvation. How is that? Well, Adam and Eve, you know the story, many of you, that they sinned against God.

And when they sinned against God, they tried to hide their sin, like a lot of people try to hide their sin. And they sewed fig leaves, amen, because they realized they were naked. They realized they had sinned against God. And God came into the garden and inquired of Adam, "Adam, where are you?" And Adam was afraid when he heard the voice of God because he had sinned against the Lord.

And the Bible says that indeed they had sinned against God, sewing these fig leaves together, trying to cover up from God like a lot of people try to cover up their sins today and hide and sew fig leaves metaphorically to hide something that God clearly sees with his own eyes. The Bible, however, tells us that God intervened. He provided a covering of skin, an animal skin for Adam and Eve.

And you wonder where did the animal skin come from? It came from an animal. An animal was sacrificed. And by the death of an animal, God took the skin and covered Adam and Eve's nakedness. An animal was sacrificed. What does that speak of? It speaks really prophetically of what God would do for us through faith through Christ on the cross.

Genesis chapter 3 verse 21 says that also for Adam and Eve, or Eve his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. The covering provided for Adam and Eve again is a prophetic act by God pointing to the death of Christ on the cross who would die for our sins and by his death and his blood would provide a covering for our sins, an everlasting covering before God. Amen.

So it's the, oh, give him praise, amen. This is good stuff. This is good stuff. It speaks of salvation. It speaks of God's promised savior even way back in Genesis chapter 3. God would provide an everlasting covering for our sins through faith in Jesus Christ.

The Old Testament prophets, again, they searched the scriptures to see when this was going to happen. And in the book of Daniel chapter 9, we find one of the most significant prophecies regarding the time the promised Messiah would arrive on earth. In Daniel chapter 9 verses 24 to 26, we find Daniel's what is called Daniel's 70-week prophecy.

And these 70 weeks are prophetic weeks. A prophetic week is equivalent to seven years. Daniel chapter 9 verse 25, the first part, again, gave an idea hundreds of years before Christ came on the scene when the Messiah would return or would come first come to the earth, Christ's first advent to the earth.

Daniel 9:25 says, "Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince." Who is that? That's Jesus. The promised Messiah. "There shall be seven weeks and 62 weeks." Now remember there are 70 weeks in Daniel's prophecy. 7 weeks and 62 weeks is 69 weeks. We'll talk about the 70th week in just a moment.

But 69 weeks times 7 equals actually 483 years. From history we know when the decree went out to rebuild Jerusalem. The Bible is not only a spiritual book, it's a historic book as well. And the decree was issued and you say, why rebuild Jerusalem? Well, Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Babylonians.

And after the 70-year captivity, the decree went out by a king by the name of King Artaxerxes. He was the king of Persia. And he gave that decree according to history in 445 BC. 445 BC. The order is recorded for us in Nehemiah, Nehemiah chapter 2 verses 1 to 8. Now, if you want to read up more on this, I have a link that you can go to, it's called christian.net and you can look under the Jewish calculation about the 70 weeks of Daniel.

Now I point this out because in this article, this revealed rather that the numbers that were this prophecy was calculated or certified by astronomical calculations at the British Observatory and it was reported by Sir Robert Anderson, who was a famous well-known Scotland Yard official. He was also a believer and Charles Spurgeon spoke very highly of Mr. Anderson.

But I want to share that because I want you to know that these are not numbers I'm pulling out of the sky or made up, but they're certifiable numbers concerning the prophecy of Daniel. Using the ancient Jewish calendar of 360 days. Our solar calendar is 365 days, but using the ancient Jewish calendar of 360 days instead of 483 years, we have 476 years.

And adjusting for the switch from BC to AD, what happens is that according to these calculations is that 476 years places us at April the 6th, AD 32. What happened on April the 6th, AD 32? Jesus was entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. 483 years, 173,880 days from the time the decree went out to rebuild Jerusalem by King Artaxerxes to the time Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

A fluke? I think not. A fulfillment of prophecy for your salvation. Amen. Praise God. Messiah has come, the promised Prince of salvation has come. And yet, the religious leaders of that day, they missed it. Most of the Jewish people in that day, they missed his coming, knowing the Old Testament, knowing the books of Moses and all and the prophecies, yet they missed it.

And so therefore we find on that Palm Sunday Jesus weeping in Luke 19. And the Bible says, "Now as He drew near, He saw the city, the city of Jerusalem, and He wept over it, saying, 'If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace; but now they are hidden from your eyes.'"

They missed it. The Lord still moans today because people are still missing Jesus. They don't understand the true significance of his coming. The last prophetic week, the 70th week, is the week that many scholars believe, biblical scholars believe, that that last seven-year period is what is called the tribulation period, written about in the book of Revelation.

Seven years, three and a half years of what is called pseudo-peace offered by the Antichrist who will be leading the world, followed by three and a half years of horrendous tribulation, called the tribulation period. Seven years. That is the next unfolding of Daniel's prophecy, that last week. It is yet to come, and I believe we're on the very threshold of seeing that take place.

The good news is we as believers will be out of here. Amen. Amen. Something that's called the Rapture of the church. But back to Christ's entrance into the city on that day, many missed it. Many of the leaders, the Jewish leaders and all missed it, because they were not looking for the right Messiah. They were looking for a conquering Messiah, or a conquering King, who would overthrow the Roman government and establish his throne.

Even the disciples, remember the Sons of Thunder? They sent their mama, they were mama boys. They sent their mom to inquire of Jesus if they could sit on his right hand and his left hand in his kingdom. Because they thought, the disciples thought up to the very time he was crucified, that he was going to overthrow the Roman government and establish God's kingdom on earth.

And so they thought the kingdom was going to, that's why he was here, to bring back the prominence and glory, former glory of Israel. And when he was crucified, you can imagine, in their minds they thought, this, maybe he's not the Messiah. Because in the Jewish mind, there is no suffering Messiah. He's coming to overthrow.

And he will, but when he comes the second time. The first time he came as a lamb. Next time he comes he'll be a lion. Amen. And so they missed it. They missed it. And how could they miss it? I mean, the scribes and the Pharisees who poured over the scriptures, who knew every jot, every tittle of God's word, how could they miss it? Because they were focused on the world rather than on God's word.

Because the Bible talks about the fact that the Messiah would come and that he would suffer for the sins of the world. They were looking for Jesus to overcome the Roman government. But Christ came to fulfill a much more higher purpose and a greater need, the greater need of mankind. Not a politician, not economic advancement, but he came to die for our sins, because our greatest need is a savior. Amen. And they missed it.

Isaiah chapter 53 talks about the fact that Jesus, the Messiah, would be a suffering Messiah, for it says there, "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him, Jesus, the iniquity of us all."

That's the savior that came through that gate on Palm Sunday. The suffering savior who came to bear our sins and deliver unto us everlasting salvation. Thank God for his grace. His grace has descended. We're not looking for the Messiah to bring us salvation. We already have salvation. We are looking for him to come the second time. But he came the first time to bring us salvation. And yet people missed it.

Our salvation is prophetic, a fulfillment of God's word, the promise of a savior. Our salvation is also disclosed. Verse 12 says it's disclosed. In other words, the Gospel is not hidden but fully disclosed in Christ. And they would accuse Jesus when he was teaching, when he was on earth, that he was trying to hide something. Jesus said, "I've taught openly in the temple. I'm not in, there's no shame in my game."

But they were accusing him of doing that. There's no shame in the Gospel. It's fully disclosed through faith in Jesus Christ. It's fully disclosed and preached even in the world. Verse 12 says, "To them it was revealed that, not to themselves," in other words, not just to the prophets, "but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the Gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into."