John Pittman Hey on SermonAudio

The Old Testament Passover, where Israelites provided their own lambs for temporary deliverance, contrasts sharply with the New Covenant reality, where God Himself provides Jesus Christ as the eternal Paschal Lamb. From Genesis 22 and Isaiah 53, we find that salvation is entirely God's provision, not a human effort, fulfilling the type of substitutionary atonement. Christ's sacrifice was once-for-all, rendering any notion of ongoing propitiation through man-made rituals to be entirely blasphemous. Consequently, the Lord's Supper serves solely as a memorial to celebrate Christ's finished work, rather than a means to repeat it. At the Lord's Table, we worship God for providing the perfect sacrifice that justifies believers forever.

The historical instances of the Passover in Scripture demonstrate how Jesus Christ fulfills and surpasses these Old Testament types. The temporary, memorial nature of the Jewish Passover contrasts with the eternal, sustaining salvation provided by Christ as the ultimate Paschal Lamb. The old Passover Lambs had to be sacrificed in the temple. Christ's body serves as the true Temple, where He, as our high priest, offered Himself as a once-for-all sacrifice for sin on the cross. This theological insight refutes the idea that His death outside Jerusalem invalidates His role, showing instead that He is the fulfillment of both the Passover and atonement sacrifices. Believers must partake of the Lord's Supper with gratitude, recognizing Christ's perpetual benefit to His people, rather than viewing His sacrifice as merely a past event.

The five recorded Old Testament Passovers highlight their ceremonial limitations and foreshadowing of Christ. They contrast the temporary, external purification of the old covenant with the permanent, internal cleansing provided by Jesus' sacrifice. While ancient rituals required strict physical purity, believers are made clean through faith in the Lamb who takes away sin. This theological shift serves as a rebuke against antinomianism, with Paul urging the church to purge open sin rather than excuse it under grace. Ultimately, the Lord's Table is the fulfillment of Passover, where Christ's death secures true forgiveness and holiness for His people.

Paul expounds on the doctrine of reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 5, emphasizing that God does not impute sins to believers but instead credits them with Christ's righteousness. Paul contrasts this unilateral divine peace with human attempts at negotiation, highlighting the theological concept of double imputation where sin is laid upon Jesus and His obedience is credited to the believers. By comparing passages from Romans 3 and 4, the text illustrates that justification comes solely through faith in Christ's sacrificial death rather than works. Thus we have an urgent appeal for both lost individuals and believers to accept this declared peace, and rest in the finished work of Christ. Ultimately, we are called to celebrate this profound mercy by remembering Christ's body and blood in the Lord's Supper.

In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul expounds the doctrine of peace with God, emphasizing that believers serve as ambassadors for Christ. Vain human attempts to earn favor with God contrast sharply with the unilateral act of divine grace where Christ bears the penalty for our sin. Both lost individuals and existing believers are urged by Paul to accept this declared peace rather than negotiate or doubt it. By highlighting the permanence of Christ's atonement, the message aims to comfort the faithful and convict the unbelieving. Ultimately, Paul calls for a constant reliance on the finished work of Jesus to maintain spiritual assurance.

All believers have a role as ambassadors for Christ, and Paul gives an urgent call to preach the gospel of peace and reconciliation to a hostile world. The self-righteous resentment found in religious leaders contrasts with the boundless grace offered to sinners through Jesus' substitutionary death. God removes the cause of enmity against us by not imputing trespasses to those who trust in Christ, thereby establishing peace. This divine reconciliation empowers believers to live for Him rather than themselves, motivated by the love of Christ and the reality of future judgment. Ultimately,Paul underscores that the ministry of reconciliation is a continuous responsibility for all Christians, grounded in the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

The profound theological truth of Christ's substitutionary atonement is illustrated through the metaphor of the 'cup'—a symbol of God's wrath poured upon Jesus for humanity's sins. Scripture, including John 18, Isaiah 53, and Jeremiah 25, emphasizes that Christ willingly drank the cup of divine judgment in our place, enduring not only physical death but the full weight of God's righteous wrath for our transgressions. This act of sacrifice, though rejected by Peter and misunderstood by the disciples, was the Father's will and the very means by which salvation was secured. There is paradoxical unity of this cup: while it was a cup of wrath for Christ, it becomes a cup of salvation for believers, as His death on the cross provides forgiveness, joy, and eternal life. The Lord's Supper, therefore, is a sacred remembrance of both Christ's suffering and our redemption, where the same act that bore divine judgment now brings eternal blessing and communion with God.

When speaking of separation among believers—whether through death, relocation, or life's transitions—we joyfully affirm the eternal, bodily reunion promised in Christ. Rooted in Scripture, it emphasizes that Christ, as the Good Shepherd, guarantees the preservation of His people, ensuring no one is lost, and that all will be raised in glorified bodies to dwell together in the presence of God. The Lord's Supper is presented not merely as a memorial but as a living anticipation of the future banquet in Christ's kingdom, where believers will gather physically, joyfully, and eternally with the Savior and one another. The imagery of the marriage supper of the Lamb, the river of life, and Christ's joy over His redeemed people underscores a future of complete restoration, where all partings are undone and every believer is accounted for. Ultimately, the promise is one of hope and assurance: because Christ died and rose again, the sorrow of earthly separation will be forever replaced by the eternal, tangible fellowship of the redeemed in the glory of God's presence!

It is the divine mission of God's ambassadors to proclaim peace through Christ, despite relentless opposition from those who reject reconciliation, whether through hypocrisy, envy, or pride. Jesus, the ultimate ambassador, faced hostility from religious leaders who sought to destroy His message, even as He offered living water and eternal life to all who believed. Key passages—John 7, Matthew 23, Luke 15, Acts 13, and Jonah—illustrate the recurring pattern of resistance to God's grace, especially when extended to the unworthy, revealing the heart of spiritual rebellion rooted in self-righteousness and the devil's deception. Yet, through the blood of Christ, the accuser is defeated, and peace is secured for all who believe, regardless of past wickedness, demonstrating that true salvation is not earned but received by grace. True Christians must embrace this peace with joy, to reject the spirit of condemnation, and to live as faithful ambassadors, knowing that the gospel triumphs by the power of Christ's sacrifice and the Holy Spirit's work.

The sermon centers on Christ as God's ultimate ambassador of peace, whose ministry was repeatedly obstructed by religious leaders and the world's hostility, yet ultimately fulfilled through divine sovereignty. Drawing from John 7, it highlights how Christ's truth-telling, healing on the Sabbath, and claims of divine origin provoked rejection, violence, and deception, revealing the world's deep enmity toward God's truth. Despite widespread ignorance, false beliefs, and attempts to silence Him, Christ's message of salvation through faith in His atoning sacrifice could not be thwarted, as God protected Him until His appointed hour. The sermon underscores that God's peace is not achieved through deception or force, but through the humble, truthful proclamation of the gospel by redeemed sinners—once enemies, now ambassadors—whose witness is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, the cross stands as the definitive act of God's peace, where Christ's death, though orchestrated by human malice, secured eternal redemption for all who believe.

The sermon presents the gospel as God's ultimate peace offering through Jesus Christ, His divine ambassador, whose crucifixion—though an act of human hatred—became the means by which God perfected salvation and reconciled sinners to Himself. Drawing from Scripture, especially Luke 24 and Ephesians 6, it emphasizes that believers, once enemies of God, are now His ambassadors, called to proclaim repentance and forgiveness with the same gentleness, love, and patience that Christ demonstrated. The message contrasts this divine diplomacy with the world's dishonest, coercive, and often war-motivated negotiations, particularly in the context of international relations, where broken promises, lack of transparency, and sabotage undermine peace. It warns that such treachery, as seen in historical and contemporary conflicts, ultimately leads to judgment, while affirming that God's persistent, grace-filled outreach to sinners—despite their rebellion—reveals the unmatched power and beauty of the gospel. The sermon concludes with a call to gratitude and mission, rooted in the Lord's Supper, where the broken body and shed blood of Christ are remembered as the foundation of eternal peace and the enduring call to witness to all nations.

Our world is now overcome by a war that we started with Israel, and the damage is incalculable. Just now, one billion barrels of oil are lost from the supply chain. That will soon catch up with us worldwide as petroleum reserves are exhausted. Then the price of fuel will zoom much higher. There seems to be no way for everybody to stop fighting all at once. With Israel, the United States, Iran, Hezbollah, and now the United Arab Emirates all shooting at each other, there's no way to get a real cease fire. In any event, the Israelis will not stop killing people no matter what the rest of the belligerents do. Our President also insists on maintaining a blockade and shooting at freighters in spite of the cease fire. Nobody so far has been satisfied with the terms of peace presented by the United States and Iran. Countries want the attacks against them stopped, so long as they can keep attacking the others! You cease, I keep firing! The Psalmist lamented, "my soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war." But God makes peace with people opposed to Him! He declares peace on a one by one basis! God does not require everybody to stop warring against Him. He makes peace with His loved ones, even while the world war against Him rages on! In other words, with God, there can be peace even while everybody else is still fighting! God's peace comes about while there is no world-wide ceasefire in place! Making peace with everybody all at once is not a hinderance for God to make peace with you and I now!

Ambassadors and negotiators have a history going back to the first organized tribes, and then states. Over time, a set of rules evolved about how ambassadors must be treated in order for states to engage each other in a predictable manner. Truthfulness, security, and courtesy became the norm. The white flag of parley, for example, became a pledge of safe passage, so that discussions can take place. Negotiations take place in the context of mutual pledges of good faith and sincerity in the purposes of such talks. All of which brings up the sin of treachery, the crime of using negotiations as a cover for surprise attacks. The Japanese at Pearl Harbor are the prime historical example. In President Roosevelt's speech calling for a declaration of war, he repeatedly referred to Japan's perfidy, dishonesty, and treachery in engaging in peace talks while secretly plotting a massive surprise attack, without a prior declaration of war, or even withdrawal from peace talks. Yet now, the United States has engaged in such treachery and perfidy against the nation of Iran, by using talks twice in less than a year to conceal surprise attacks and wars of aggression against a nation at peace with us. Because of this, further negotiations are impossible, since the United States has several times now been caught lying to the Iranians and engaging in dishonest negotiations. Without truthfulness, there can be no negotiations. Scripture speaks of ambassadors in several places. Ultimately, the greatest ambassadorial outreach is the Gospel, the greatest such appeal for peace with God that will ever be seen in the world!

Scripture condemns the modern Christian acceptance of assassination and retaliatory violence, since such actions violate the biblical command for equal standards of right and wrong. Based on Genesis 9 and Matthew 7, returning evil for evil is a sin that undermines justice and reflects hypocrisy. Historical Christian doctrine once rejected assassination, contrasting this with contemporary political justifications for targeted killings. Ultimately, believers must reject vengeance, and instead follow Christ's example of suffering without retaliation, relying on God's righteous judgment and the redemptive power of His sacrifice.

When Moses revealed to the people of Israel the means by which they would be redeemed from the slavery of Egypt, the people bowed their heads and worshipped. It was by means of the sacrifice of the Passover lamb, and the display of the blood upon the door posts of their houses. Otherwise, the death angel would pass through all the land and kill all the firstborn, man and beast. Israel was an idolatrous and sinful people, as were the Egyptians. God's wrath against the entire land would have punished them all, but for the substitute lamb, whose blood displayed was a sign, that the sins of Israel had been paid for in the blood of an innocent victim slain in their place. This was a clear example of substitution, the death of a lamb in the place of poor sinners. It points to the Lamb of God, Who one day would die in the place of His people, and for our sins. Rather than being judged by God for our sins, God would judge His Dear Son as our surety, our savior, Who gave His life a ransom for us. All this raises the question, why did Israel so quickly rebel against God? It was right after God had made a covenant with Israel, and given it the law, that the people made a golden calf to worship at the foot of Mount Sinai! Their worship was debauched, and God's wrath was kindled against them. Why didn't the Passover sacrifice, and all the other animals slain as offerings for sin, change the hearts of the people away from rebellion against their God, Who had rescued them from slavery and oppression? Still today, the Passover is celebrated by the Jewish people, yet they are not saved, yet they are not faithful to God at all.

As usual during His ministry, Christ didn't explain to Martha how He would give eternal life to His people. He simply called upon them to put their trust in Him, and He would take care of their bodies and their souls. Most of them seemed not to grasp the intractable problem of granting eternal life to sinners. How can a just God forgive sins, when He promised never to clear the guilty? How can God put our sins behind Him, never to remember them against us anymore, as He promised in the New Covenant? Not understanding this, how Martha must have been crushed when Jesus was taken and put to death! She probably had not heard Christ's own promise that He would give His life to save His sheep. How can Jesus be the Resurrection and the Life if He is dead? How can a dead man save anybody? They didn't know, that it was His dying that would save us. Did Martha's faith waver when Jesus hung on the cross in agony and woe? It reminds us of the old Negro spiritual song we know well: Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree? Were you there when they pierced Him in the side? Oh, sometimes, it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble! There was one man there who believed in spite of Christ's dying, and that was the penitent thief on the cross. Others were crying out, taunting Jesus to save Himself and the thieves who were crucified with Him. But the penitent thief, by an astounding work of the power of the Holy Ghost, was convinced that the Lord would reign in His kingdom one day, and he cried out to Jesus to remember him when that kingdom came.

Just last week, we saw a shameless exploitation of the resurrection by prominent religious leaders, comparing our President to Christ, and blasphemously assigning the resurrection image to him. The resurrection of Christ was repurposed as a political propaganda event. This called to mind something that Jesus said to Martha on the way to raise her brother Lazarus from the dead. When Jesus informed Martha that Lazarus would rise again, Martha replied that she knew that Lazarus would rise again at the last day, but that she believed that Jesus could ask God, and God would grant it to Him now. This statement by Martha was incomplete and insufficient, because mere resurrection is not enough. Jews mostly believed in the resurrection of the just at the last day. The Pharisees believed it dogmatically, yet most of them died and went to Hell. It is not enough to believe in the resurrection! Christ's resurrection work includes resurrection unto eternal life, and resurrection to eternal torment and wrath. Now we can see why Christ corrected Martha, that her view of the resurrection was not acceptable. Jesus' point to Martha was this: the resurrection is not enough. Her error was, that she did not recognize the true power and authority of the Person standing before her. She did not recognize the Resurrector! Christ then made it clear to Martha. It wasn't good enough to know there would be a resurrection one day. It was not even good enough to assume that God would raise up His people. What was necessary was to believe that Jesus is the Resurrection, and Jesus is the Life! Without Jesus' life-giving power, the resurrection becomes an horrible judgment.

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.

Consider further the blessing of the saints being a royal priesthood. This was promised to Israel of old, but upon reading the actual promise, we immediately spy the problem. It was a conditional promise, requiring that "ye obey My voice, and keep My covenant." Israel eagerly declared that it would do so, but Israel never could obey the Lord and keep the Old Covenant, so those promises could never be obtained. All of Israel's history shows this to be the case, as it is filled with rebellion, idolatry, disobedience, hatred, and betrayal against God. By the time Isaiah prophesied, the nation was filled with innocent blood shedding, injustice, and bribe-taking. God forbade their sacrifices, temple rituals, offerings, and incense. God refused to hear their prayers any more. If any promises were to be obtained, there would have to be a huge revision of the covenant of blessing, for it is manifest that blessing cannot be obtained by law keeping and obedience to God. That better covenant was laid down in Jeremiah 31, where a New Covenant was promised, by which God would write His law upon their hearts, they would be His people, and He would be their God. Moreover, God would forgive their iniquity, and refuse to remember their sins against them! By operation of the New Covenant, it must be with a truly saved people, and it would be unilateral by God to them, since God would perform all the duties of the covenant, and there would be no duties required of the people. How could God do that? Their animal sacrifices couldn't forgive their sins, and Aaron's priesthood had utterly failed. So long as Aaron is the priest, there could be no hope for Israel receiving these promises!

In his first epistle, Peter continued to stress the spiritual unity of believers by faith, turning away from any sectarian view of Jews and Gentiles, and stressing the spiritual temple being built by the Holy Ghost of all those with faith in Christ. Peter describes Christ as the rejected cornerstone, promised to Israel of olden times. It had been described as the place where rebellious Israel would be destroyed, and believing people would be saved! Christ is that living cornerstone, chosen by God, and precious. All who trust in that Stone are built up a spiritual house atop it, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Christ had told Israel that it would murder Him to seize possession of the kingdom, and that God would destroy the nation, and give the kingdom to a nation that would obey God. Jesus explicitly connects this judgment with the ancient prophecy of Israel's rejection of Himself as the cornerstone. Peter repeated the same judgment against unbelievers, Jews and Gentiles, and used the identical metaphor of the rejected, precious cornerstone. But then Peter described that other nation Christ had promised would be given the kingdom: you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a special people! These blessings Peter described to this spiritual nation that trusts in Jesus, are the very same blessings that God promised Israel just before He gave them His Ten commandments at Mount Sinai. But Israel had disobeyed God, and rejected the cornerstone, and tried to seize Christ's inheritance by destroying Him. Therefore, all those blessings fall upon a new nation, that glorious house of faith!

The salvation of the Gentile Cornelius at God's command was bound to result in negative repercussions in the church at Jerusalem from certain legalistic Jews. The cry arose, "they are not like us!" But Peter easily rebutted such objections. Gentiles had been saved when he obeyed Christ and preached the Gospel to them! The Judaizers took another crack at it sometime later. Now they insisted that Gentile believers must be circumcised, and keep the Mosaic Law! In effect, Judaizers annex the curse of the law to the Gospel, because under the law, we are all condemned. But Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse in our place, when He was crucified at Calvary. Peter now recalled that God had chosen him to first carry the Gospel to the Gentile Cornelius. They had believed the Gospel, and God had placed His stamp of approval on their salvation, by filling them with the Holy Ghost, putting no difference between Jewish and Gentile believers, purifying all their hearts by faith. Peter then makes this argument: if we Jews couldn't keep the law, with our centuries of rebellion and idolatry, why should we now test God by forcing the law on Gentile brethren, as an added condition upon what God has already granted to them without the law? But then, Peter articulated a glorious truth: we Jews believe that we shall be saved, just like the Gentiles! This is a new-found insight for Peter. No longer would he say that the Gentiles were saved just like us Jews. They were saved without law-keeping, without circumcision. We had tried and failed at salvation before we believed on Christ, but the Gentiles had come directly on in by faith alone in the Gospel!

There are many instances of how God's power worked mightily in Peter, through the prayers of Jesus, to strengthen Christ's church. God instructed Peter that the Gospel was not just for Jews, but for despised Gentiles as well. When the Lord instructed Peter to go to Cornelius, Peter began to discern the true extent of Christ's revelation to him: that he must no longer separate himself from Gentiles as unclean persons, as the Jews did, because God would open the Gospel up to them also! The salvation of the Gentile Cornelius at God's command was bound to result in negative repercussions in the church at Jerusalem. Ethnic supremacy rises up whenever an exclusive privilege is opened up to others! The cry arises, "but they are not like us!" Cultural and ethnic clashes rose to the surface, and some Jewish believers objected to Peter's having consorted with uncircumcised Gentiles and even eaten with them! But this had been Peter's immediate objection when he told the Savior, "Not so, Lord!" The unthinkable things that had transpired, had been accepted by Peter, with the evidence of the Holy Ghost filling the new Gentile believers, so Peter was well suited to answer the demands for ethnic and religious separation that arose at the Jerusalem church. Peter related the entire sequence of events to the objectors, in particular Christ's command that Peter not call anything unclean which Christ has made clean. Peter had obeyed the Holy Ghost, doubting nothing. This itself was a rebuke to those who now insisted on second guessing Peter's actions and the Holy Ghost's commands to him. The Spirit's commandment trumped all their objections!

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Bible Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Strengthening ALL the Brethren Subtitle: Christ Had Prayed for Peter Speaker: John Pittman Hey Broadcaster: Grace Bible Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 11/16/2025 Bible: Acts 10; John 10:14-16 Length: 44 min.

There are many instances of how God's power worked mightily in Peter, through the prayers of Jesus, to strengthen Christ's church. After Peter persisted in preaching Christ's Gospel, the rulers beat Peter and the others, again prohibiting them from preaching about Christ. But the prayers of Christ for Peter, and the strengthening of the brethren, resulted in them all rejoicing, that they were counted worthy to suffer shame and persecution for Christ's sake! They went right back out and kept on preaching the Gospel, defying what the rulers had commanded. Soon, God instructed Peter that the Gospel was not just for Jews, but for despised Gentiles as well. Christ accomplished this by showing to Peter various unclean animals in a vision, instructing Peter to partake of them. Peter at first refused, saying "not so, Lord!" Under the law, Jews were forbidden to eat unclean animals. But the Lord explained that Peter must not call anything common or unclean that He had cleansed. Meanwhile, God had instructed the Roman centurion Cornelius to summon Peter, and he would come tell Cornelius what the Lord required him to do. Upon seeing Cornelius and his family and friends gathered together to hear what the Lord wanted Peter to tell them, Peter described why he had come: you know that it is unlawful for a Jew to keep company with the Gentiles, but God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean! God had busted Peter out of his cultural heritage and prejudiced thinking, in order for Peter to lead the Gentiles to the Lord Jesus as their Savior. He could no longer avoid doing so by clinging to the idea that they were somehow inferior or outside of God's grace!

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Bible Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Strength to be Beaten for the Gospel's Sake Subtitle: Christ Had Prayed for Peter Speaker: John Pittman Hey Broadcaster: Grace Bible Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 11/9/2025 Bible: Acts 5; Acts 7:51-58 Length: 49 min.

The rulers threatened the apostles not to preach in the name of Christ, but had to let them go that time. But the violence against the church escalated during the next encounter: Peter and the others were again preaching at the temple the Gospel of salvation by faith in Christ. The rulers arrested and jailed them, and reminded them that they had been told not to preach in the name of Christ, yet they were still doing so, filling Jerusalem with the Gospel, and accusing the rulers of murdering Messiah! How dare they try to bring Christ's blood down on the rulers' hands! Early Christians were very clear on this point, because it was true: Peter had repeatedly accused the people and the rulers of crucifying Christ, even as he proclaimed the glad tidings of salvation by Christ through faith in His offering for sin. What a privilege it was for the early Christians to be able to confront those wicked rulers who crucified Christ, and face to face, force them to acknowledge the accusation of what they had done. After all, these very same people had demanded of Pontius Pilate, that Christ's blood be upon their hands, and the hands of their children! But now they were not keen at all to be confronted with their crimes against Messiah. Once again, Peter made it clear: that it was obedience to God's command that they both preach the Gospel of Christ, and accuse the rulers of murdering Him on the cross! Peter refused to cease preaching, and would not withdraw the accusation, even before the face of those very rulers who strongly objected to the truth. Therefore, Peter did it again to their faces! "The God of our fathers hath raised up Jesus, Whom ye slew and hanged on a tree!"

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Bible Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Brethren's Wonderful Understanding Subtitle: Christ Had Prayed for Peter Speaker: John Pittman Hey Broadcaster: Grace Bible Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 11/2/2025 Bible: Acts 4:23-32; Psalm 2 Length: 32 min.

After healing the lame man at the temple, and preaching the Gospel to the amazed crowd that gathered, the wicked rulers tried to shut Peter and the others up. Peter confronted them by the Spirit with great boldness, but they rejected the Gospel, and showed no conviction or conversion at all. These wicked rulers didn't believe, because the Holy Ghost did not work in their hearts to believe. God had other purposes for them – not salvation, but wrath and judgment! They threatened Peter and the others not to preach in Christ's name again! The response by the church to all these threats, and this hatred by the rulers, is very revealing! It shows just how well Peter and the other apostles had obeyed Christ's command to strengthen the brethren. It turns out that they had all been very well prepared to react properly to the very first persecution of the church by the world. First, we find that they all raised their voices in praise to Almighty God as the creator of everything. This is in keeping with numerous psalms which were prefaced with the same attitude of worship. Next, they recited David's prophecy, that the nations and the people would rebel against Messiah. David asked the question, why do they rebel against Messiah? But the church now understood why: it was in order to carry out the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus by the hands of those rebellious people! God had before determined that they should do all those things. Why would that be? Because Messiah MUST BE put to death for the sins of His beloved ones, so that He could suffer all the demands of the divine justice that our crimes warranted from the hand of a holy, righteous God.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Bible Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Peter Bold Before Wicked Rulers Subtitle: Christ Had Prayed for Peter Speaker: John Pittman Hey Broadcaster: Grace Bible Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 10/26/2025 Bible: Acts 4; Matthew 26:57-27:26 Length: 36 min.

It was by the power of God's work in Peter, and by the intercession of Christ, that Peter believed, and not because of Peter's own so-called bravery and boldness! There are many instances of how God's power worked mightily in Peter, through the prayers of Jesus, to strengthen Christ's church. At his powerful sermon preached at Pentecost, Peter was bold in the Holy Ghost, and confronted the enemies of Christ, called them out for their sin in murdering Jesus, and commanded them to repent of their sin and have them washed away by the blood of Christ's sacrifice for sinners. After healing the lame man at the temple, and preaching the Gospel to the amazed crowd that gathered, the wicked rulers tried to shut Peter and the others up. Peter confronted them by the Spirit with great boldness, but they rejected the Gospel, and showed no conviction or conversion at all. In the Gospels, those same rulers were described as exceedingly wicked, accusing the Lord Jesus of evil crimes, and falsely condemning Him to death. Then they betrayed Him into the hands of their pagan tyrant Pilate, and gloated at the foot of Calvary as Jesus died there to save His people. Those very same rulers brought Peter and the others before them, and demanded to know by whose authority, and by whose name, they had healed this man. Such is always the way with sacralist, state-church religions, that they seek to control the Gospel, and to shut down "unauthorized" Gospel preachers. This is the challenge of the established religion, and explains the murder of Tyndale by popery, the imprisonment of John Bunyan by the Anglicans, and the persecution of Isaac Watts by the same crowd.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Bible Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Peter Does Strengthen the Brethren Subtitle: Christ Had Prayed for Peter Speaker: John Pittman Hey Broadcaster: Grace Bible Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 10/19/2025 Bible: Acts 2:22-41; Acts 3:12-26 Length: 37 min.

Peter is an example of Christ's power to save us in spite of our fears and failures, because God has given us our faith, by the power of the Holy Ghost, and Christ prays for our faith to be upheld and strengthened. At his powerful sermon preached at Pentecost, Peter was bold in the Holy Ghost, and confronted the enemies of Christ, called them out for their sin in murdering Jesus, and commanded them to repent of their sin and have them washed away by the blood of Christ's sacrifice for sinners. Not only were believers strengthened and encouraged by the manifest demonstration of the power of the Spirit, but thousands of lost souls fled to Christ for forgiveness and salvation that very day! Peter testified to the glorious ministry of Jesus, and how the evil men in his audience had murdered Him by wicked hands. This was carried out in accordance with God's foreknowledge and determined counsel. Yet they were all still guilty of regicide and deicide. This was a bold accusation of criminal conduct of the worst kind! No longer was Peter afraid of these wicked people, but stood up to them and held nothing back of the truth. This sermon by Peter brought extreme fear and conviction in the hearts of many of his listeners: men and brethren, what shall we do, they cried out. This gave Peter his entrée to declare salvation and forgiveness of sin by the Lord Jesus! Repent and be baptized for the remission of sin! Soon after this, Peter and John healed a lame man at the temple gate by the power of the Lord Jesus. Peter then launched into the praises of Christ, how that the God of Israel had glorified His Son Jesus, the very same person Whom they had delivered up to Pilate.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Bible Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: God Strengthened Peter's Faith Subtitle: Christ Must Open Our Eyes! Speaker: John Pittman Hey Broadcaster: Grace Bible Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 10/12/2025 Bible: Mark 14:53-72; Mark 14:27-31 Length: 35 min.

The night He was betrayed, Christ addressed Peter's failure, and that Satan desired to snatch him away from the Savior. But Christ prayed for Peter's faith, that it would not fail, and that Peter would return to Christ, and then strengthen his brethren. Peter is an example of Christ's power to save us in spite of our fears and failures, because God has given us our faith, by the power of the Holy Ghost, and Christ prays for our faith to be strengthened and upheld. Peter acted very boldly on occasions, contradicting Jesus, and denouncing the death that Jesus said He must die. Peter loudly proclaimed he would never deny Christ, and would die with Him, if it came to that. Peter swung a sword when wicked men came to take Jesus, but once Jesus made it clear that He would not resist, nor should His disciples, Peter and all the others forsook Christ and fled. Peter followed Him afar off when Jesus was taken to His unjust trial at the palace. There Peter warmed himself with the other servants, but his boldness completely collapsed, when a servant girl pointed out that Peter was one of the disciples of Jesus. Peter denied Christ three times, swearing and cursing that he didn't even know his own Savior! Peter wept bitterly at his betrayal of Jesus. Peter now understood the horrible truth, that Christ knew what Peter would do, no matter how much Peter boasted to the contrary. Jesus always knew. That meant, that Jesus' promise, that He would die at the hands of wicked men, was no doubt true as well. There was nothing Peter could do to stop the death of Messiah. To Peter, that meant that all hope was lost -- the kingdom Peter had longed for would not be established.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Bible Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Christ Prays for Our Faith Subtitle: Peter Could Not Save Jesus Speaker: John Pittman Hey Broadcaster: Grace Bible Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 10/5/2025 Bible: Luke 22:14-34 Length: 37 min.

When Jesus instituted the Lord's Table the night He was betrayed, there was no such faith exhibited by His disciples in the death that He would die to save them. Instead, there was only bluster and boasting about what they would do, all of which collapsed as soon as Jesus delivered Himself up to wicked men. But from the gospel text, we can plainly observe that Jesus, in His humanity, had great faith in what He would accomplish on Calvary's tree! Christ declared His desire to eat that last Passover with His disciples, before He suffered for their sakes. He believed He would accomplish His sacrifice of Himself to save all His people. Next, He declared His faith that His Passover supper would be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. That fulfillment would take place, even though the King would first be traitorously crucified! Jesus gave thanks in faithfulness for the cup, because one day, even though He would soon die, He would drink it new with His people in the coming kingdom of God. He gave faithful thanks for the bread unto God, that His very body would soon be sacrificed for His beloved people. He gave thanks for the cup, trusting that His blood shed on the cross, which that cup portrays, would execute the New Covenant, and that God would thereby forgive all the sins of His loved ones. Christ declared His trust in all these things, even in the face of His looming betrayal, and terror, and suffering, and abandonment by His disciples. Jesus believed that His death as our sacrifice would save His people from their sins! Thus, Christ in faith gave thanks for His Own cruel and bloody death for us. Christ declared His belief that His people would remember His death!

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Bible Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Faith is the Work of God in Us Subtitle: No Man Can Come to Christ! Speaker: John Pittman Hey Broadcaster: Grace Bible Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 9/28/2025 Bible: John 6:22-71; Romans 10:1-4 Length: 34 min.

In John 6, Christ describes in various ways, some of the work that God must do in poor lost people in order for them to trust in Jesus. This teaching is in the context of the people refusing to believe in Jesus, even though they saw and partook of an astounding miracle, the feeding of the five thousand. As we have considered before, physical miracles are not sufficient to bring a person to trust Gospel promises. Instead, we must have the miraculous work in us of the Holy Ghost, to change our hearts, and to give us the faith to believe in Christ's Gospel. The people asked Christ, what additional works of God must we do to obtain eternal life? As usual, the Jewish people were seeking to obtain their own righteousness by their keeping of the law. Christ turned their question around by His answer -- the work of God is that you believe on His Christ. Some theologians argue that the work being done is not that of the lost sinners, but rather by God Himself. In other words, it is God's Work in us, that we believe the Gospel! Faith is surely an act by us, but only because God works that faith in us toward Christ. No work of or by us can bring us unto Christ. The context in John 6 supports this interpretation, because Christ teaches us that men cannot believe unless God works in them, to cause them to believe. As Christ noted, though many of them had seen Him, yet they did not believe on Him. That is because only those whom God the Father gives to His Son will come to Christ, and everyone given to the Son will come to Him. Thus, no man can believe the Gospel unless God has first given that man to Christ, and every such man given to Christ will certainly believe in Him.