Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the portion that we read 1
Peter chapter 1 and reading through our text part of verse 21. The latter part of verse 21,
that your faith and hope might be in God. 1 Peter 1 and verse 21, the latter
part. When God exhorts to anything,
He always gives a reason why. We have in verse 16 and verse
15 and 16 Be ye holy, for I am holy. And the exhortation is be ye
holy. But the reason is for I am holy. We have as well in verse 17 an exhortation to pass the time
of our sojourning here in fear. And again, the reason is given
in the beginning of verse 18, for as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things, and what follows is a
cause of living in the fear of God. We have also in this chapter
an emphasis on the necessity of faith. In verse 5 we have
a people that are kept by the power of God. but it is through
the instrumentality of faith, who are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. And so faith is vital. We have then in verse 9, receiving
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, Faith
was first given as a gift by God, the Lord Jesus being the
author and finisher of our faith. And so these two graces, the
grace of faith and the grace of hope, are said before us in
our text, that your faith and hope might be in God. And so as we began, Our text
begins with a that, so that brings in all that follows, all that
proceeds in from verse 18 through to where our text is, that gives
us the reason or the foundation as to why our faith and hope
might be in God. And so I want to, with the Lord's
help, look at the words before us, that your faith and hope
might be in God, looking at two main points. Firstly, Why? Why our faith and hope might
be in God, looking at the verses that precede our text. And then secondly, our faith
and hope in God. Firstly, why our faith and hope
might be in God. What is said before us in this
portion. Again, there's two main points. The first is because of what
we are redeemed with. In verse 18 we have a contrast
with verse 19. Verse 18 we are told that we
are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
our vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. What we are redeemed with is a vital reason of why our
faith and hope might be in God. Let us just consider for a moment
why we need to be redeemed. If we think of what we are in
the Fall, that we have broken the Holy Law of God, the sentence
of death is upon us, spiritual death and death of the body,
and after that eternal death at the Last Judgment Day. We
are under the curse, we are under the judgment of God. Cursed is
every one that continueth not in all things that are written
in the book of the law to do them. The wrath of God abides
upon us, and we need to be redeemed and set free by the payment of
a price from that law, from that judgment, and delivered from
the wrath of God. If it were possible to take silver
and gold, things of this earth, mined from this earth, refined
from this earth, things that had no feeling, no soul, no being,
no hearing, no seeing, and that those things could be given by
God for the redemption of our soul, and with a payment price
that would avail to save us eternally, it would but be a presenting
of something that in itself had no feeling, no love, no ability
to impart anything to us whatsoever. It would have been given by God,
but given in such a way that did not add and impart anything
to us who were to be redeemed. The silver and gold would have
no ability, even if it could pay the price and satisfy the
justice of God, ability to give us a righteousness that we do
not have and that we do need to have if we are to stand in
the presence of God. And in all that we need as sinners
here below, we would have no provision in what was paid for
our ransom, of any help whatsoever in our journey, in our calling,
in our perseverance unto the end. And so there is a real contrast
here. The reason why our faith and
hope might be in God is because we were not redeemed with silver
and gold. But we were redeemed with the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and
without spot. God gave His only begotten Son. He gave Him to be made like unto
us, yet sin accepted, of the seed of Abraham, with body and
with soul. And He sent Him to live a perfect
life, to work out a righteousness for us, and to redeem us by shedding
His precious blood on Calvary's tree. The cost was felt by God,
by God the Son, in His sufferings, His grief, a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. one made like unto His brethren,
one that loved His people, one that loved them enough to bear
the wrath of God for them, to bleed for them, to suffer for
them. And we have this contrast, and
all that it means to us, all that our Lord and Saviour can
impart and do for us, that silver and gold could never do. All
that joins together with the redemption and what follows that
redemption. With silver and gold all it could
do is to pay a price. We would never, because the price
had been paid by silver and gold, say well that silver and gold
now has so demonstrated its ability to redeem that we can trust in
it for other things as well. It has no power at all. But with
our Lord Jesus Christ, when we see His love, when we see what
His people were to Him, that He should so do this for them,
we read in the Word that God commendeth His love toward us
in that while we were yet sinners, that Christ died for us. And so the reason why our faith
and hope might be in God is because of the very method and way that
was used to redeem our souls. Christ is a new and living way. course with the children of Israel
many times they turned aside to idols even so soon after they
bought out of Egyptian bondage they made themselves the golden
calf even at the foot of Mount Sinai even in the presence of
the law of God being brought to them and of course we have
the type of the broken tables, and then the restored tables.
And where were the restored tables placed? But in the Ark of God,
in that which typified the Lord Jesus Christ. He had fulfilled
the law and made it honourable. And so the first reason is in
with what we are redeemed by, not silver and gold, not idols,
not things that work of men's hands, not things mined from
this earth, not things that are inanimate, they are just hard
and cold and no feeling and no knowledge, but the precious blood
of Christ coming from a living Christ, a living Saviour, who
laid down His life to take it again for His dear people. So that is the first main reason
that is given us here why our faith and hope might be in God. The second main reason is because
of our Redeemer Himself. because of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, and especially the relationship between Him
and His Father, and the approval and blessing of His Father. And we have five points that
follow on in this passage that give us these further reasons
why our faith and hope might be in God. The first is that
our Lord and Saviour was foreordained by God for this end. In verse 20 we read, who verily
was foreordained before the foundation of the world. Before we were
born, before the world was formed, God had appointed and ordained
His beloved Son to this end. Before ever man fell, the provision
was made for fallen man. Before ever there was the earth
formed and man formed upon it. And we see God making a provision
in His beloved Son. exalting His Beloved Son in His
foreordaining Him. And we think of what our Lord
says that, Thine they were, the people of God, and Thou gavest
them Me. A people which were not a people,
but a people which in due time would be born. But the Lord foreordained
to be their Redeemer, to be their Saviour. When we read in Jeremiah,
I love thee with an everlasting love, and therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee, we have a little glimpse into that everlasting
love of God in the foreordaining the Son of God and appointing
Him to this position. Well might then our faith and
hope be in God that should see the need of such a provision,
foresee it, and make provision in himself. As Abraham said to
Isaac, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. The second is because of our
Redeemer being manifested or revealed by God. God the Father revealed Him,
we read in the latter part of verse 20, but was manifest in
these last times for you. Sometimes we can highlight what
is being said by the opposite. Suppose it was that God foreordained
His Beloved Son but never revealed Him, never showed Him, never
told Him of it. Sometimes we've had those things
happen in our lives, and we've looked for some help, some relief,
and we haven't found it. And then afterwards, we've spoken
to someone about it, and they said, well, didn't you know?
I left it there for you, or I left the key there, and I made provision
for you. But if it wasn't actually shown,
say if we had our wife, say, go away for a day or so and they said that they would prepare
some meals for us and make that provision, But we came home from
work or we came to have our meal and we looked around and there
was no meal and we couldn't find it anywhere. It wasn't manifest,
it wasn't seen at all. It wouldn't be any help for us
at all. It wouldn't be help afterwards
for her to come home and say, well, it was in the freezer,
all you've got to do is to take it out and heat it up. how necessary
it is that not only something is done, but it actually be put
in a place where it can be found and used and actually seen. And so that which is from eternity,
that which is a provision by God, a vital part of that is
that it be seen, that His dear Son be sent forth into the world
and so we have the messages sent to Joseph and to Mary and to
the shepherds and to the wise men and then we have to Simeon
and to Anna And we have John the Baptist, behold the Lamb
of God, the taker of away the sin of the world. We have the
Father and the Spirit at His baptising. This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased, and the Spirit descending on
Him like a dove. The Father gave witness that
He had sent the Son, and by the miracles that He did, the Lord
said, the miracles that I do, they are they that bear witness
of Me. And it is the Father bearing
witness of His Son, by the power that was given, by that which
was done by His hand. He was owned by His Father. The scribes, the Pharisees, they
said, by what authority? Does thou do these things? Who
gave thee this authority? This authority was from God himself,
and so this is. why our faith and hope might
be in God, because God has manifested His Son. And really we have the
whole Word of God, Christ in all the Scriptures, the Old Testament,
the New Testament, in the Gospels, the Witnesses, in the Epistles,
the Witnesses, and the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we read in that which
comes before our text, but was manifest in these last times
for you, all that it means that the Lord was shown who He was. You think of the Apostle Paul,
you say, Paul, what did it mean to you to have the Lord manifested
to you, to shown to you, revealed to you? It was everything, because
before that all he was was Jesus of Nazareth, a root out of dry
ground, and he persecuted those that called upon his name. But
how different when he appeared to him on the Damascus Road. We have a Redeemer, Saviour,
that is manifested by God, owned and blessed by God. which is
why our faith and hope might be in God. The third reason is
that it is by Him, that is, by Christ, that we believe in God. In verse 21, who by Him do believe
in God. By Him do believe in God. The Lord said, ye believe in
God, believe also in me. And the Lord Jesus Christ, no
man cometh unto the Father but by me. If ye have seen me, ye
have seen my Father also. The way of the true knowledge
of God is God manifested in the flesh. The works that I do, they
testify of me, and they testify to the Father. They gave glory
unto God. And so it is through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Tis Christ, says the hymn writer,
makes a believer and gives him his crown. If we are to believe,
this is the work of God, that ye believe in him whom God has
sent. And it is the work of our Lord
to make such a believer and to impart such faith and such belief
to his dear people. So then this again is a reason
why our faith and our hope might be in God. because it is by the
Lord Jesus Christ that we believe in God. But fourthly, we read
that God raised him from the dead. In verse 21, By him do
believe in God that raised him from the dead. the empty tomb,
he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised
him from the dead. Our Lord said that he had a commandment,
this commandment have I received from my Father, that I lay down
my life and take it again. It is again a reason why our
faith and hope might be in God. that the sacrifice offered by
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that redemption blood that was
shed on Calvary, was accepted. His sacrifice was a wrath-ending
sacrifice, a propitiation for our sins. And so in that empty
tomb, in the raising of Him from the dead, is that assurance and
that comfort, that realisation, that we might have our faith
and hope be in God, because He raised His beloved Son, after
He had borne our sins in His own body on the tree, after He
had borne the wrath of God, after He had suffered according to
the Scriptures, He raised Him from the dead. The last reason that is given
to us in this portion before our text is that God gave him
glory. That raised him up from the dead
and gave him glory. Gave him glory. What does his
glory consist of? Well, first is the crown of being
a saviour. He shall save his people from
their sins. There is none, none that shall
take that crown from him. is none other name given among
men, whereby we must be saved. If ye believe not that I am He,
ye shall perish in your sins, saith our Lord. And that glory
that the Lord has, He says, that He has lost none but the son
of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. All have
been saved, all have been redeemed. He hath finished the work the
Father gave Him to do. and the glory that was given
to the Lord on the earth, the voice from heaven, the glory
of rising again, the glory that He showed on the Mount of Transfiguration,
the glory as He revealed Himself again and again to His disciples,
the glory as He ascended up into heaven and sat on the right hand
of the throne of God on high. that glory that He has given
Him, a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow. When we think of the types in
the Old Testament, we think of Joseph and the glory that he
had next unto Pharaoh, and we think of Mordecai and the glory
that he had next to King Ahasuerus in all of that vast kingdom of
127 provinces. And we have this type of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the glory, and how that He is exalted above all principalities
and powers, sitting at the right hand of God, to appear in the
presence of God for us, to be our advocate with the Father,
to give Him a position of glory, and yet still a relationship
and a position with us, with those whom He has redeemed and
saved. These are the reasons why our
faith and hope might be in God. They are the reasons why it should
be in God, why it can be in God, and why it might be in God, because
the Lord is the author and finisher of faith, And that hope that
He gives to His dear people is a hope that comes from Him and
fastens upon Him. And so in this portion, when
we have our text, that your faith and hope might be in God. We have as clear as a simple
declaration, be ye holy for I am holy. We have as clear as that
with the words that go before our text the reason why your
faith and hope might be in God. I want to look then lastly at
our second main point, our faith and hope in God. Faith is trust. that which we
trust in. You think of those two and the
way to Emmaus. When the Lord drew near to them,
they were full of sadness. And the Lord probed them, and
He asked the reason for their sadness. And they told Him what
things had been done at Jerusalem. And they said, but we trusted
that it should have been He that should have redeemed Israel.
In other words, our faith had been in that dear man, that He
would redeem Israel. But now these things have happened,
and it has shaken our faith. We are now not sure. It has been
cut off. We don't know now where to look,
what to expect, or how to look forward. It's like a blank wall,
just blackness. We can't see. We had an expectation,
and now that expectation is gone. But when the Lord opened up to
them in all the scriptures, the things concerning Himself, then
their heart burned within them. Then they were able to see and
they could see where their faith was to be in the Lord Jesus Christ
and in His sacrifice. And for you and I, that our faith
and hope might be in God as sinners, that we might have that strong
trust and faith that the Lord Jesus Christ has been sent by
God the Father out of love for our souls and that He has died,
and endured the wrath of God, and risen again. And it is all
as a token of the love of God. God commendeth His love toward
us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And these
things that we've spoken of in our first point, our faith, our
hope for time and eternity, What we trust in as sinners, though
we see and feel our sins, though we see so much against us, to
believe that Christ has finished the work His Father gave Him
to do, His salvation is effectual. We shall be saved at last. Faith, remember, is the evidence
of things not seen as yet. hope is that which we do not
see. Why doth a man hope for that
which he seeth? His hope is placed in that which
he doesn't see, but that which faith lays hold upon in the word
of God, the record that God gave of his Son, and those things
that our faith and hope might be in God. These two graces,
they come together and they're not fastening on our frames,
on our feelings, they're not framing themselves on silver
or gold, but upon the living God, He who lives to carry on
His people's cause above, He who speaks as a voice for His
people, appearing in the presence of God for them. Our faith and
hope has a ground to it, has a foundation to it. When we think
of those points that we spoke of and bring them to ourselves,
what has been shown us personally, Has He been manifested, revealed,
those two on the way to Emmaus? Would say most certainly He was
revealed to us. Paul would say He most certainly
was revealed to me on the Damascus road. So do we believe? Have we had that joy and peace
in believing, and those sweet the moments rich in blessing,
which before the cross that we spend, There are many times we
feel so bowed down with unbelief and hardness of heart. But have
there been those times that we have been able to believe, Lord,
I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Those times that the Lord has
so sweetly come, we could not do anything but believe. And
where the Lord has done this, and raised him up before us like
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but should have everlasting life. And if that has been so with
us, then our faith and hope is centered on that outside of us. It is what Christ has done. It is the gospel, the good news
of salvation that is set before us and to be preached in all
the world as a witness that whoever believeth and is baptized shall
be saved and whoever believeth not shall be damned. The faith
and hope that we have is to be that which centres on the Word
of God, on what God has revealed and shown to us. And it's very
important to realise that. We have many changes, we have
many doubts, many fears, many times that we would stumble and
fall But we have a God that cares for us, keeps us, holds us in
His hand, lifts us up. A God that even in what He has
done in quickening us, bringing us to know this faith of God's
elect, that with that knowledge and with that blessing, He says,
I have shown you this. and shown it to you as a token
I will never leave thee nor forsake thee and that you may truly trust
and you may truly hope and ever hope that pierces through every
dark and lowering cloud and enters really into heaven itself where
Christ is Our hopes, as the hymn writer, are placed above the
skies. What a wonderful provision and
way that God has done, that He should bring His dear Son where
He'd have His people to be. Father, I will that they in Thou'st
given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory,
and that He has sent forth His Spirit here below, so that through
the Spirit our faith and hope might be in God. Not looking
on earth, not looking at self, but as Paul says, let us run
the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. And there
is where our faith and hope is to be, in God. And the reasons given us here,
that your faith and hope might be in God. May thee Spirit be
pleased to seal this word so that when we read your faith
it is your faith. That for me it is my faith, that
for you it is your faith and that which the Lord has given
you. May the Lord be pleased to bless the word this evening
that through the word your faith and hope might be in God. May the Lord have all the honour
and glory and the comfort and joy and assurance be ours. May the Lord bless the Word.
Amen.