Sermon Tone Analysis

*PREPARATION*

I.        Prayer

II.

Devotion~/Mediation

a.                               Tozer: A Solid Hope

b.

The “new birth” (1:3) that we have experienced by the action of the enduring word of God introduces us to “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power” (1:4–5).

c.

To the Father, the Stone is precious (2:4, 6).

“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt.

3:17).

According to Peter, everything about Jesus Christ is precious: precious blood (1:19), precious faith (2 Pet.

1:1), and precious promises (2 Pet.

1:4).

Even the trials we endure are precious for his sake (1 Pet.

1:7).

The better we get to know him, the more precious he becomes in our lives.

d.

The word translated “precious” carries with it the idea of honor as well as value.

To us who know and love him, Jesus Christ is worthy of all honor (Rev.

5:12–14).

e.                              Purpose in Suffering May 20 - “My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Yes, oh my soul, God is your portion! - Again Satan is busy with his suggestions to doubt my whole religious experience, and it seems as though they hardly were doubts, but the very truth.

I feel like a poor miserable self-deceiver!

But, oh my God, save me from entertaining these feelings for a single moment.

Oh, be my Keeper, now, in this time of sore need!

You are dwelling in my heart and I am wholly and altogether yours.

I dare not doubt—I will not!

Oh Saviour of the helpless.

Save me!

f.

I have been crying to the Lord and lately He has given me a text which greatly comforts and sustains me 1 Peter 1:6, 7. “Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; 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 honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”

Since my Jesus is to get praise and honor and glory through this trying of my faith, I am willing, yes, even thankful for every moment of it!

—Journal, June 21, 1869

g.                               PASS OR FAIL?

When we speak of a trial or test, we will either pass or fail.

Thus every trial God allows can turn into a temptation.

Long after Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt, he told them, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Gen.

50:20).

Every struggle and trial we experience is allowed by God to test us, to exercise our spiritual muscles, and to help us mature (cf. 1 Peter 5:10).

But if you don’t commit the situation to God and stand in His strength, Satan will turn it into a temptation.

He will entice your lusts and may draw you into si

h.

Come!

Come Quickly!

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.

—1 Peter 1:8 The people of God ought to be the happiest people in all the wide world!

People should be coming to us constantly and asking the source of our joy and delight—redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, our yesterdays behind us, our sin under the blood forever and a day, to be remembered against us no more forever.

God is our Father, Christ is our Brother, the Holy Spirit our Advocate and Comforter.

Our Brother has gone to the Father’s house to prepare a place for us, leaving with us the promise that He will come again!

Don’t send Moses, Lord, don’t send Moses!

He broke the tablets of stone.

Don’t send Elijah for me, Lord!

I am afraid of Elijah—he called down fire from heaven.

Don’t send Paul, Lord!

He is so learned that I feel like a little boy when I read his epistles.

Oh, Lord Jesus, come Yourself!

I am not afraid of You.

You took the little children as lambs to Your fold.

You forgave the woman taken in adultery.

You healed the timid woman who reached out in the crowd to touch You.

We are not afraid of You!

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Come quickly!

154

i.                                 June 29:Normal Christians 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.

—1 Peter 1:8 Is the Lord Jesus Christ your most precious treasure in this world?

If so, you can count yourself among normal Christians.i

s the moral beauty which is found only in Jesus Christ constantly drawing you to praise and worship?

If so you are indeed among those whom God’s Word identifies as normal, believing, practicing Christians.

But I can almost anticipate an objection.

If someone is that delighted and that occupied with the person of Jesus Christ, is he or she not an extremist rather than a normal Christian?

Have professing Christians really come to that time in their humanistic and secularistic leanings that they can sincerely deny that loving Jesus Christ with all their heart and soul and strength is normal Christianity?

We must not be reading and studying the same Bible!

How can anyone profess to be a follower and a disciple of Jesus Christ and not be overwhelmed by His attributes?

These divine attributes attest that He is indeed Lord of all, completely worthy of our worship and praise.

105–106 Lord, I pray that You would restore in Your Church a belief that those who love You with all their heart, soul and mind are normal, and worthy of imitation.

May we be overwhelmed by Your attributes.

Amen.

*PASSAGE*

*I.        **INTRODUCTION*

A.                  Opening Illustration

B.                  A gardener took great pride in caring for his lawn.

But one year it grew full of dandelions.

He tried every method and product to get rid of them, but nothing worked.

Exasperated, he wrote the Department of Agriculture explaining all he had done.

“What shall I try next?” he wrote.

“Try getting used to them,” came the reply.

C.                  Background Summary

a.                                           Date of Writing

i.

The time and the place of the writing of I Peter, granting its Petrine authorship, are closely connected.

From 5:13 it appears that the epistle was written from “Babylon.”

ii.