Our text begins in 1 Peter 1,
verse 3, with the Apostle Peter saying, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I just read Psalm 103 to you,
and we saw, Bless God, O my soul. When this word is used from God
toward men, it means favored. It means happy. God favors a
man, He makes him happy. But when this word is used from
a man toward God, as it is here with Peter, it means praise,
it means worship. It can literally be translated
kneel, kneel, bow to Him. The Hebrew writer said, by Him
therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to His name. Do you have something to be thankful
for? Believers have a lot to be thankful for, constantly,
continually. What do we praise God for? What
do we thank Him for? What do we praise His holy name
for? Well, here's what Peter says.
Verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again
into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you, for you who are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. Three things here that we thank
God for, that we praise Him for, that we kneel and worship and
adore our God for. The first is the cause for which
we thank Him and praise Him. It's according to His abundant
mercy He has begotten us again. That's the cause, abundant mercy. The means for which we thank
Him. By the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. That's how we're born again.
To a living hope. By the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. Who by Him are kept by the power
of God through faith. We're kept by God through faith. And then the end for which we
praise Him is that He's birthed us again to a living hope. Verse
4 says, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you. Verse 5 says, unto salvation
ready to be revealed. Now that, that's something to
praise Him for. That's everything. That's everything. That's everything that a believer
hopes in, stands in, praises God for and hopes thanks him
for first of all we praise God for his mercy for his mercy this
is the cause of our being born again according to his abundant
mercy now no Mary in the center is gonna cause God to give mercy,
that goes against what mercy is, what grace is. And the very
fact here that these spiritual blessings come to us by mercy,
that we're begotten again and our need of being born again
tells us something was wrong with us in our first birth. Something
was wrong by our first birth. Something wrong with you in your
first birth? Anything wrong with you in your first birth? I'll
tell you what God says is wrong with all of us. That which is
born of the flesh is flesh. Flesh, this flesh, this nature. that's born of man can't see
God, can't enter into the promises of God, can't rejoice in God.
It's flesh. It's a fleshly nature. That's
all it is. Whenever a child's conceived
in the womb, in their mother's womb, that Adam's nature The
first item, His nature is passed on to us so that we're conceived
in sin. That's what David said. Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive
me. Not that his mother did something
sinful. It means he was conceived in
corruption. The very life that was in him
was death. The very thing formed in her
womb was spiritually dead. That's what he's talking about.
Corrupt. Corrupt. What does this result in? What's
going to be the result and the cause of that? Or the effect
of that? Because you're conceived in sin,
because every sinner is conceived in sin, every man born of woman
is conceived in sin, sin's all we are, and sin's all we think,
and sin's all we do. It means that we come forth estranged. We come forth with no knowledge
of who God is, no fear of God, no desire to know who He is,
and no desire to have any reference for Him whatsoever. None. Just period. None. No desire
to even look after God, but in fact we're born with a dire hatred
of God. I desire not to know anything
about Him, not to hear anything about Him, not because we don't
want to praise Him by nature. We don't want to rejoice in salvation
by the free and sovereign grace and mercy of God in another. We don't want to rejoice in that
by nature. For those who are religious and yet in this sin
nature, who hear this and right now you think, that's not me.
That's not how I am. The very sin nature in you makes
you say that. It makes you say, that's not
me. That's not me. David said, Do you indeed speak
righteousness, O congregation? Do you judgeth uprightly, O ye
sons of men? Yea, in heart ye work wickedness. That's where it all, it's in
the heart, in the nature, in the very being of a sinner. And he says, he says, you weigh
the violence of your hands in the earth. You know that's what
we do? Really what we call goodness by nature, if we're religious
or otherwise, we just think we're alright. Really what we're doing
is we're weighing our wickedness. No goodness at all, it's just
all wickedness. And we're saying, well, this
is not as bad as that one, or this sin's not as bad as that
sin, or I'm better today than I was yesterday. In all of it's
wickedness, and we're weighing wickedness against wickedness.
Isn't that right? And David said, the wicked are
estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. The poison of asps is under their
tongue, of a serpent, of a snake. is under their tongue. You know
how poisonous a snake is. We have rattlesnakes where I
grew up and we had what they called cottonmouths and water
moccasins. Just big old nasty poisonous
snakes and just to see them made you think, it made you just shiver
and be afraid. The Spirit of God moved David
to say, that's what me and you are by nature. That's what's
under our tongue, is that very poison. Is that the case with you? And
he says we're like the death adder, like the death snake.
Though one charm, ever so wisely, you hear the gospel go forth,
you hear it being preached. Like the faithful man, he brings
treasures out of his house, new and old, and ever so wisely gives
you these This gospel from one side and the other side and this
side of the jewel and that side of the jewel is showing you these
precious things. And it's like the snake who closes his ear
to the charming of the charmer and won't hear it at all. Just
says, I won't hear it. How then am I going to hear this
gospel and how are you going to hear this gospel? How are
we going to be brought to know how we're saved? It's going to
be by mercy. By mercy. Look over to Ephesians
chapter 2. To your left there, Ephesians
chapter 2. You see, this is the problem
we're going to have to deal with first. We're not going to be
saved by knowledge. Not like you learn your book
knowledge in school. That's not salvation. Salvation
is not coming to a certain intellectual understanding of a certain amount
of truth. That's not salvation. Let's start here. What are you? What are you? You see, the word
saved means we're saved from something. Gotta be saved. What am I saved from? What am
I saved from and how am I saved? It's by the abundance of God's
mercy. Here's our case, Ephesians 2.1.
He's speaking to brethren here and he says, you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and in sin. Wherein in time past
you walked according to the course of this world, just like everybody
else walks. This world tries its best to
walk a different walk, and talk a different talk, and be an individual
from everybody else. And in the process, you're just
like the rest of them. You know, it's sad to see people
that thought they were going to be different from everybody
else by getting tattoos from one end of their body to the
other. Now everybody's got them. And the next thing you know,
it'll be cool not to have them. And then you say, well, now what
am I going to do? I think of that. You know, there
was a time when it was cool to smoke. In the world, it was presented
to the world as the hip thing to do, to smoke, and now You're
an outcast if you smoke. Now what do you do that you're
addicted to smoking? You see, the world's constantly
changing, constantly changing. If you try to be somebody by
being different in this world, you're just like this world.
We walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air. We didn't know we were under
his dominion, but we were. the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others." Now, he says here, we
all had this. If we're going to be a believer,
saved by grace, this is how we're going to identify with God's
people. We're going to say, that's me. That's me. Because this is
all God's children. All those that are saved by His
grace say this is the case. But what happened? Verse 4, But
God, who is rich in mercy, according to His abundant mercy, for His
great love wherewith He loved us. This is free love. This is love originating in Himself
and of Himself because there wasn't anything in us to love.
This is according to His mercy. Even when we were dead in sins,
now that tells you, you didn't have nothing, you didn't do this,
I didn't do this, we were dead in sin. Even when we were dead
in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ. by grace you're saved, the riches
of His mercy. And He's raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Why does
God save this way? Why does He save this way? Look
at verse 7, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding
riches of His grace the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace, by grace are you
saved through faith. And that out of yourselves is
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. We
were dead, just dead. For we're His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus on two good works, which He's foreordained that
we should walk in. That's why He did it, to show
us how freely He loved us, to show us that He did it without
a cause in us, to show us how abundantly He shed His mercy
on us, to show us how inexhaustible, how unsearchable the riches of
His grace is. That's why He saves this way.
Is there anything else, you children of God, you that believe God,
is there really anything else that is more precious and more
valuable to you than God's mercy and His grace. You have, you were conceived,
when you were conceived and you were shaping an iniquity, you
got, you had some eyes formed. You know the first thing that
they say that's formed in the womb are the bones in the ear? How does faith come? comes by
hearing. You know the first thing that's
formed are the bones in the ear. Fully formed. When all the rest
are not yet those bones in the ear and yet you're born spiritually
deaf. You're born spiritually blind. You're born without hands or
feet to walk after Christ, but by His grace, being born again,
begotten again, by the Spirit of God, by grace, according to
His abundant mercy. We're given ears to hear. We're
given eyes to see, we're given hands and feet to walk after
Him, a desire after Him, all because we're conceived and born
again by the incorruptible seed, by His abundant mercy. Who do you praise for your first
birth? You? Or do you praise your Father?
You know who the believer is going to praise for his second
birth, being born a second time? The mercy of his father. The
mercy of his father. This is our motivation. This is our constraint. Look
at 1st chapter 2. Peter says, We are for laying
aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies,
and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk
of the Word, that ye may grow thereby. If so be ye have tasted
that the Lord is gracious. What's going to make us lay aside?
What's going to make us just bring us down to be just like
babies, be like children? To no more sake to have the pride
of thinking we got something there we got to protect. Oh,
we lay everything aside, all the malice and the guile and
deal mercifully and come to God asking for mercy. Why? We owe
everything to mercy. Everything to mercy. If you've
tasted He's gracious, come to Him that way. Come to Christ
that way and lay aside everything else. Everything else that's
in us is just malice and guile and envy, evil speaking, and
it's all against God. It's all against God. Well, here's
the second thing we praise Him for. Verse 3, we praise Him that
we're begotten by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. in verse 5, and that we're kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation. You know, let
me show you something. Turn over with me to Romans 4.
Romans 4, and I want you to hold your place in Romans. We'll come
back here maybe in a minute. Turn over to Romans 4. by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. See, Peter's talking
to us about newness of life. He's talking about being born
again, like a baby coming forth in the midst of a perverse and
crooked world, a perverse and mean and evil world. And he's
telling us how we're going to be kept and how we're going to
be carried on and persevere through this life. And so he speaks of
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Because we're talking
about from death to life. From death to life. But it includes
everything our Lord did. Everything our Lord did. But
look here in Romans 4, verse 25. It says... He's talking about
Abraham and the righteousness of Christ being imputed to Abraham.
And it says, Verse 24, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed
if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.
And he applies this to him raising Christ from the dead. And this
is our hope, he says verse 25, who was delivered for our offenses.
That is, when he died, he had the sin of his people on him.
And he was delivered for the sins of a particular people,
given him of the Father before the world began. And when he
died, he died with all their offenses on him, bearing the
wrath of God toward them, and he satisfied justice. Just the
wages of sin is death. And he died under the penalty
of God's holy law. And when he did, He reconciled
those given him to the Father. And then it says, and he was
raised again for our justification. Clay, I thought you said justification
occurred when he died. It did. But he was raised again
testifying to us, to his children, for our justification, to testify
in our hearts that it's accomplished. It's been done. There's no more
work to be done. It's been accomplished by His
death and will be saved now, how? By His life. Because He
lives, we'll be saved by Him. Now, look down at chapter 5 and
verse 10. If you've experienced the greatness,
the power, exceeding greatness of His power, in giving you life,
spiritual life. How do I know I've experienced
it? Do you believe Him? Do you believe He died for you
and put away your sin? Do you need Him? Have you been
brought to see your need of His mercy? Do you believe He died
for me? He did that for me. He's raised
again for me. The greatness of God's power
that raised Him from the dead is the greatness, the exceeding
greatness of His power that raised you from the dead. The same power
it took in raising Him from the dead is the power that raised
you from the dead, from your spiritual deadness. That's what
Ephesians 1 verse 20 tells us. And it's not just His sheer power,
it's not just His sovereign power, although that is instrumental
and irresistible in raising us to newness of life, but it's
the power that demands we be raised because He justified everyone
for whom He died. It's the power of a God who's
holy, whose justice is satisfied, and His power of His holiness
demands they be given life. That's why Christ being raised
again for our justification is raised again to declare before
everybody God's satisfied. If He wasn't satisfied, He wouldn't
be raised. But He's raised and God's satisfied. Now, look at
this, Romans 5.10. It's by His resurrection that
we're kept by His power. We're being saved by Him being
raised because He ever lives to make intercession for us.
Look here at verse 10. For if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, Much more,
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. The Savior's work which cost
Him His life, which cost Him His very life's blood, which
demanded He lay down His life, that work given Him of the Father,
which demanded He lay down His life, was done at the cross. He said, It is finished. That work was accomplished. The
work he's doing now, he's doing from his throne in glory. And
if he did that work of reconciling those given him of the Father
to God by his death, when we were enemies, much more now,
being reconciled, He's on the throne, not on a cross. He's
in glory, not in the earth. All power in heaven and earth
is His. He's doing as He will in heaven and in earth. And He's
not doing it towards those who were His enemies. He's doing
it towards those He's already reconciled to God. Now much more,
He did that for us, laid down His life for us when we were
nothing but a bunch of rebels against God, not purged by His
blood. Much more now, being purged by
His blood, by His resurrection glory, do you not think He's
going to call us out and give us this righteousness that He's
wrought by Himself and bring us into this glorious union with
Him and make us to rejoice in Him? And not only that, but keep
us all the days of our lives. If He did that for us when we
were enemies, we'll be saved by this one that's seated at
God's right hand. That's what Jude said. Now to
Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you
faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty and dominion
and power both now and forever. His is the majesty and the dominion
and the power. Oh, you see, to be kept by the
power of God through faith, this is the strength of our faith,
of true God-given faith. This is what the strength of
our persevering through faith. Not that faith, that strength
of faith which is an extension of many who boast of their faith
and make their boast of their persevering and their boast of
their continuing. Not that kind of faith. Not that
kind of perseverance. This kind who is ever wholly
depending upon He that's seated on the throne of God. God our
Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ. Kept by
the power of God through faith. We're looking to Him. We're not
rebellious and disobedient to Him. We're looking to Him. He's
all my hope. Is He all your hope? We're looking
to Him. We're leaning on Him. We're wholly
dependent upon Him. And we believe. This is all our
hope. We've been born by Him. Look
down at verse 21. 1 Peter 1 verse 21. Who by Him
do believe in God that raised Him up from the dead? and gave
Him glory that your faith and hope might be in God. Where is
it? It's in Him. It's in Him. Faith that looks
to Christ, that lives by Christ, that leans upon Christ. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do we praise
Him? Do we? Do we say blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? It's by His mercy. He's
forgotten us again. And it's by Jesus Christ that
He's done it. Everything that was given to
Christ when Christ was raised from the dead, given to His people. That's what Paul meant in Ephesians
2 when he said, when we were dead in sin, when Christ was
raised, we were raised in Him. And then He comes in time and
He quickens us and makes us alive by the power of His Spirit and
He says, now look. Look where you're seated. Look how you're
kept. You're kept by the power of a
holy righteousness that demands you be kept. Well, here's the
third thing we praise Him for. We praise God because the end
to which He called us is everlasting life with Him in glory. Look
here, verse 3 says, He's begotten us again unto a lively hope. That means a living hope. A hope
that's alive. Verse 4, he says, to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you. Verse 5, he says, it's salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time. Our hope is a living hope
because our Redeemer liveth. Our God's alive. Our God lives. Our Redeemer, this One who took
part of flesh and blood that I am, He lives. He lives. You know, He was talking
to people here when He said, to an inheritance incorruptible.
They had seen the Roman government come in and just destroy city
after city after city. We can enter into that, can't
we? Everything it seems in our country that the forefathers
worked to build and to establish, it seems like our generation
is, whatever side you're on, it seems like we're just together
tearing it apart. Well, this is an inheritance
that can't be destroyed. It's eternal. It's an eternal
inheritance. God the Father blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Christ accomplished
the work and there's laid up for every believer a crown of
righteousness. It's undefiled. Undefiled. No sooner do we think we found
something pure in this life than we discover it's been defiled
because we discovered it. We touched it. It's defiled. Everything new you've ever found
that gave you some kind of blessing, it didn't take long and it just
became old and defiled. And you realized it wasn't all
it was cracked up to be. But not this. He says, there
shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither
whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's book of life. Nothing that defile. This treasure, this inheritance
is undefiled. And it fades not away. It's eternal
as our God. It's as eternal as our redemption
accomplished through the eternal Spirit of God. It's as eternal
as the Spirit of life that you have in you now by His grace,
who are begotten of Him. Do you have it? Do you have this
eternal life? It's an eternal inheritance. It fades not away. Everything
else fades, but not this. And He says it's reserved for
you. You're reserved for it. You're
kept by the power of God and your inheritance is reserved
for you. Kept by the same power of God.
That's right. Nothing remains to be done. It's
salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Now, don't
you look back at Romans 6, just briefly. Romans 6. Do you believe this? Do you believe
this message? Are you in your heart praising
God and thanking God for His mercy? His abundant mercy whereby
He has borne you again? to a living hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible,
undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who
are kept by the power of God unto salvation, or through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. You believe
this? You rejoicing, you praising God and thanking God for this?
This is what he says, Romans 6, 8. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
We believe that we shall also live with Him. Knowing this,
knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more. If He raised from the dead and
He dies no more, you know what that means? I'm not going to
die anymore. That's what that means. I'm not
going to die anymore. Death hath no more dominion over
him, for in that he died, he died unto sin once. But in that
he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Now this, brethren, look back
at verse 4. This is what we confess in water
baptism. This is why we're delighted to
obey it, to walk after Him. This is going to be the first
thing we do when He calls us to faith in Christ and believe
on Him. We're going to follow Him. We're going to start right
here. We're going to confess. Therefore we're buried with Him
by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from
the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. If we've been planted together
in the likeness of His death, that's what we're showing by
water baptism. We've been planted with Him.
When He died, I really went down into the grave with Him. We believe we shall also be in
the likeness of His resurrection. When I came up out of the grave,
He came up out of the grave, I came up with Him. That's what
we're saying by baptism. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with Him. that the body of sin might be
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." Now, this
is what every believer confesses. This is what every believer believes.
This is the answer of a conscience that has been purged by the Spirit
of God's grace, and we confess it in Believer's Baptism, that
we believe Him. This is all our hope. We want
the world to know that. We want others to know it, that
we're saved by Him. We start out, don't we, strong
and we start out rejoicing, we start out thinking, now I'm not
going to falter. I'm going to continue in Him
and it's going to be, I'm going to walk in newness of life. But
then we come into all kinds of trials and we come into all kinds
of storms in this world and by the rulers of this world and
the manners in which they rule and the And in our own families
and every place, we come into this constant reminder of our
weakness. But aren't you glad the apostle
Peter wrote this? You know, Peter denied the Lord
three times. He believed God. He was called
by Christ Himself. And he trusted, believed Him,
was given faith to trust Him. And he denied the Lord three
times and he went back to his nets and he was done. And you know, Christ didn't come to him this
side of the cross and restore him. You know where Christ came
to him? When Christ came to him? He went
to the cross and put away all Peter's sin. And he went into
the tomb and was buried. And he was raised from that tomb
by the glory of the Father, by his own glory. And he came forth
then, and he came to Peter. And he said, Peter, do you love
me? Not only that, he came to those
on the road to Emmaus, and he told them. They were cast out.
They said, we thought this should be the Christ. Look at that,
Luke 24. Look over there with me. I want
you to see what he said. You see, Peter's telling us here
of this glorious good news. Peter's rejoicing that all this
came to him by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And he's saying,
I'm telling you, I'm eyewitness. I know. He's risen. And he's saying, let me tell
you something I know. Look at verse 38. This is what he said
to him. He said unto them, why are you
troubled? He's risen. He's risen from the
grave. He's not yet ascended to the
Father, but He's risen from the grave and He comes to them. And He says, why are you troubled? Why do thoughts arise in your
hearts? Do thoughts arise in yours? They
arise in mine. Thoughts of unbelief. But He
says, behold My hands. in my feet, that it is I myself. And handle me and see, for spirit
hath not flesh and bones as you see me have." This is Christ
risen from the grave. And when He had thus spoken,
He showed them His hands and His feet. Look down here at verse
51. And while He blessed them, He
was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And what was
the result of all this? What did it cause them to do? And they worshipped Him. They
said, Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's
begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, according to His abundant mercy. He's raised us to an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, that's reserved
in heaven for us. We're going to be kept by the
power of God through faith in Him unto salvation that's already
ready and ready to be revealed. They worshipped Him and returned
to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple
praising and blessing God. This is what he's telling us.
You know, Paul said, this was his strength that made him fight
with beasts at Ephesus. He said, if I didn't have the
hope of being raised from the dead, he said, if after the manner
of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it
to me if the dead rise not? I crawled into that. into that
ring with men and fought with men as beasts because if they
kill me, I've got life with my Lord. I've got an advantage. Now that's an advantage. But
He said, if I don't have this soul, what advantage do I have? The Spirit that raised Him up
will raise up His children from the dead. We bore the image of
the earthy, and we'll bear the image of the heavenly. That's
right. We'll be born of Him, and it'll
be brought to pass the saying that so, O death, where is thy sting?
He's given us the victory through Christ Jesus the Lord. If you're experiencing this joy
for the first time, Rejoicing, just tasting the Lord's grace,
tasting this mercy. I rejoice with you. Praise Him. Praise Him for His mercy. Praise
Him for the resurrection of Christ. Praise Him for this inheritance
reserve. And follow Him. Confess Him in
baptism. Follow after Him. And for you
brethren that have been going a little while and been Experience
this casting down and languishing of hope sometime. Rejoice. Rejoice. Peter here is rejoicing and he's
encouraging the brethren. May God use us for that too.
Encourage one another. Refresh one another. Revive one
another with these words as Peter's doing here for the brethren.
That's what he's doing. He's saying, we got a good hope. This is what it is to be made
a partaker of the divine nature, Christ in you, living in you,
abiding in you, and you in Him, so that you can't be let go.
The hope of glory, forgotten again by the resurrection of
Christ from the dead. That's good reason to praise
Him, isn't it? Amen.