May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in His Word. Let
us turn to the first epistle of Peter, chapter 1, and read
in verses 3, 4 and 5. The first epistle of Peter, chapter
1, and read in verses 3, 4 and 5. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten
us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and
that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. This is surely a very wonderful
sentence that the Apostle uses under the influence of the Holy
Spirit after having given that introduction and may it be a
wonderful encouragement to us this evening to have the evidence
that we come within the words of these verses how necessary
it is that we are able to enter in to the word of God and this
first chapter in the Epistle of Peter is a beautiful chapter
and I hope you enjoyed it as we read it together tonight it
speaks great and glorious truths and as the Apostle goes on in
the 6th verse he says wherein ye greatly rejoice though now
for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations The Church of God have reason to greatly rejoice
in the goodness and mercy of Almighty God. Not because of
any good in ourselves, but because of what God has done in our souls. Great cause for rejoicing. And I hope, as the Holy Spirit
leads us, we may be able to appreciate the wonderful work of God in
our souls and therefore to be amongst those who the Scriptures
speak about being blessed indeed. Well, we read here in this third
verse, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
and I'm sure as the Apostle was able to make that statement I'm
sure that is the result of the evidence of the work of God in
our souls to be able to come and say and desire to say and
to join with the Apostle like this because it really is praise
to God and we should realise that praise is comely It's a
thing which we often fail to know and yet how much, how very
much we have to praise God for if we have the evidence in our
hearts that we're amongst those that these verses speak about. So says the Apostle, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. What it means is that through
the blessed work of the Lord Jesus Christ we are begotten,
which means born. And of course in this case means
spiritually born, born again. I'm sure you understand the wonderful
words in the third chapter of the Gospel of John where the
Lord speaks to Nicodemus and speaks to him very, very clearly. about being born again. He said,
tells him you must be born again there's no alternative every
one of us must be born again Nicodemus at that time couldn't
really understand it but it was seen from the later occurrence
when he was the one that helped Joseph of Arimathea to bury the
Saviour that the work of grace had obviously come to him and
he was blessed indeed but as the Lord Jesus spoke those words
he must be born again so they're so true for us here tonight all
of us and any listening to us this is essential essential many
things you and I think are important in our life The Lord Jesus spoke
to Martha and he said, one thing is needful, one thing. And you see that was really in
reference to that which Mary had chosen to be found listening
to the Lord Jesus, hearing his voice. and the blessings which
emanated from that and so here we have this statement here which
according to His abundant mercy now for all of us here tonight
it is an abundant mercy if the Lord has come and called us out
of the darkness of nature into the glorious light of the Gospel. It is His abundant mercy. It's lovely, isn't it, to read
a statement like that. We know what mercy is. I hope
we know what mercy is. But here the Apostle, he expands
it. And he says, abundant mercy. What it means is this. No sin,
no mountain of sin, is able to stop the great and glorious work
of the Holy Spirit entering into our heart and bringing about
that new life, that conversion. What a blessing then if we are
understanding God's abundant mercy to each one of us. Well, you must answer before
God, but can you say tonight, yes, by the grace of God, it
is abundant mercy to me. I didn't deserve it, I didn't
look for it, but God in his love to my soul brought this upon
me and showed to me his abundant mercy in blessing me with spiritual
life. Yes, spiritual life. What a change in our lives when
God brings about spiritual life. Because what occurs? All things become new. We are a changed person. We were dead. in trespasses and
in sins. We didn't understand the things
of God. We may have understood them perhaps in some natural
way, but we didn't in a spiritual way until the blessed work of
the Spirit came and convinced us before a holy God that we
were a guilty, hell-deserving sinner and we had to confess,
in me, as the Apostle said, in me that is in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing guilty, guilty sinners deserving endless punishment
and then to come to a position, to a situation to understand
the glorious truth, spelled out here, abundant mercy. Well, what a great truth that
is. And it is abundant mercy. And
you will want to acknowledge its abundant mercy. The Lord
has come. and convinced us of our need
of a Saviour. It's His mercy. What a blessing
if He's led us to Himself. Led us to the cross at Calvary. See, there's the place of forgiveness. And as I say sometimes, a true
believer will never tire, will never weary, being brought to
Calvary. We're never tired of by faith
viewing the Blessed Saviour dying upon that cross at Calvary and
finishing the wonderful work His Father gave Him to do in
order that we might be cleansed from all our sin. no death of
the Saviour no life for us how wonderful it is then to be able
to meditate on these things and as I say never weary of going
into Calvary perhaps sometimes we may feel very low and very
down well the Lord Jesus speaks those wonderful words in Isaiah,
look unto me Be ye saved, for I am God, and there is none else. See, there is relief for the
needy soul. Look unto me. We read in another
place, look and live. Remember in those, in the time
when the children of Israel were in the wilderness and there were
serpents that bit them? And many died. And what was Moses
to do when he was told to make a serpent, a brazen serpent,
and to put it on a pole, to hold the pole up high and direct the
Israelites who'd been bitten to look and live. My friends, it's just the same
for us today. Bitten with that poisonous venom of sin and left
to ourselves, we shall die under it. We shall fall into hell under
it. What a blessing, therefore, if
we can look to the Saviour, look to Him for our salvation and
live. Yes, what a mercy it is then
to realise we have the wonderful Gospel explained to us in the
Old Testament. Never tire of reading the Old
Testament. Never think that it's not very
necessary. You should treat the whole Bible
and read the whole Bible and rejoice in the whole Bible. And be amazed as one part of
the Bible explains other parts. It is one whole glorious book
from Genesis to Revelation. Praise God for it. Thank Him
for it. Well then, here we have this
statement. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. Well, I can ask the question
tonight. Can you, can I say, blessed be
God, because, because of His abundant mercy in giving us this life, this spiritual
life, and as the Apostle goes on to say begotten us again unto
a lively hope that means a good hope that means a spiritual hope
and it's not a vague hope so expression it emanates from the
wonderful life of God within we have a good hope and I hope
you do tonight we have this good hope that it's well with our
soul. These are the important things.
You know, when we're young, we're very concerned about things in
our natural life, our education, our work, boyfriends and girlfriends
and marriage, all good and right. Never forget to take it to the
Lord in prayer. But above these things, on a
different plane, different level, is the salvation of our soul. And it's good, you know, if we,
by the grace of God, can put first things first. The Lord
says, seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these things will be
added unto you. The Lord knows exactly what you
and I need. But my friends, what a blessing
it is if he enables us to put our soul first. Everything else,
you see, will fall into place. The Lord knows what you and I
need in our natural lives. And the Lord can and will appear
and answer such requests and such prayers. But do not forget
the gracious word of the Saviour. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness. The devil will tell you You needn't
worry about that. There's plenty of time in your
life to put that in place. You go after everything else. No, that's the wrong way round. Don't listen to the devil. Listen
to the word of God. Unto a lively hope. That means a hope that is alive. It doesn't mean a hope that is
dead. It's a hope which is alive and it's a hope which is based
on the faith that God gives to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well may we have tonight, be
able to find in our spiritual life the evidence then of this
lively hope. The Apostle says, by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. As I've said, no death of the
Saviour, no hope. No resurrection of the Saviour,
no hope. But how wonderful it is to know
that the Lord Jesus rose from the dead a conqueror. Yes, he conquered sin, death,
hell, and the grave. And as the apostle says, we are
more than conquerors through him. It's not what we do, it's
what Christ has done. and that finished work upon the
cross and then when he rose from the dead. What an occasion that
was. How wonderful it was. And we
can think, can't we, of the time when those two were journeying
on the Emmaus Road. And they were puzzled. They couldn't
really understand what had happened. they knew there'd been that crucifixion
they couldn't ponder in their minds what it really meant and
we see there to them and to us the glorious love of the Saviour
because we're told Jesus himself drew near and went with them
that's a wonderful blessing for us today if you may be pondering
you may be wondering you may not really understand what's
happened then to be blessed with a wonderful favor of Jesus himself
drawing near and we're told of course the Lord opened to them
the scriptures yes in all the scriptures What a sermon that
must have been. What a wonderful journey. What
a blessed time they had, as the Saviour opened to them in all
the Scriptures. That's why I said, don't underestimate
all the Scriptures, because there, in all the Scriptures, you will
find the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, the Saviour Himself opened
to them the Scriptures. And what did they say? What was
the record? Did not our heart burn within
us as he spoke to us by the way and opened to us the scriptures? And I believe that is an experience,
an experience that in measure we do know. What does that mean? It means that we rejoice in the
Word of God. We rejoice in the application
of God's Word to our hearts. If we have a little sight, a
little insight of the glorious truths of the Word of God, the
wonderful plan of salvation, and we can say, whereas I was
blind, Now I see God has given us spiritual eyes and our heart
burns within us. You know, it's a spiritual experience
and it's a wonderful evidence of the life of God in our souls. It's not something that is natural,
it's something which is spiritual. And if the Lord grants it to
us, Can we not bless God for it? The resurrection. Jesus appeared
not only, of course, to those two on the Emmaus Road, but to
many others. We're told on one occasion there
were 500 or so on one occasion. And we know he was there on the
earth for 40 days before he was ascended to his father. What
a wonderful time it was. What a positive evidence it was
The Lord graciously allowed the Saviour to appear to many, and
it's recorded for our encouragement and for our establishment in
the truth to believe the Word of God, the resurrection. Well, I hope we're very thankful
that we can rejoice as we've sung, Christ the Lord is risen
today. risen physically, what a blessing
if he's risen in your and my heart, so that we are indeed
a new creature. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. We were dead. To remain alive
is the gift of God. You and I cannot produce spiritual
life. We cannot make a dead person
alive, can we? Naturally, if you've seen a dead
person, some of you may have done, some of you may not have
done, you've seen a dead person, you realize there is absolutely
no life. Doesn't matter how loud you shout
and yell and prod and everything else, no life. Dead. And that's just how we all are
by nature. Until the day when the Holy Spirit
touches our heart and that word enters in, live. We're a new creature. We're spiritually
alive. We think about things differently.
We pray differently. What a mercy, then, to know that
we are no longer spiritually dead, but to know that we are
spiritually alive. And that's why the apostle then
goes on to speak. He goes right ahead really. He says if we are alive, we are
alive for this purpose. And what is the purpose? To an
inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not
away reserved in heaven for you. I guess we all know what an inheritance
is an inheritance is something that we receive when somebody
has died and somebody has made a will and has left us in that
will an inheritance, whatever it may be and to realise that
that was something that we never worked for it was given to us by the person
that died. There was a record made of what
our inheritance would be. Now the great blessing is, for
the people of God, is this, that by the grace of God, we receive
an inheritance. And that inheritance is the glorious
gift of eternal life. It's not something that we ever
deserved, is it? It's not something we worked
for. It was something that we received, the gift of eternal
life, the gift of an inheritance. And this is to everyone who we've
been speaking about, who have received this abundant mercy
and have been blessed with this spiritual life and this good
hope through Jesus Christ, alive and the dead, they have before
them an inheritance. Now what a mercy if you and I
then can trace out in our lives these truths to believe that
by the grace of God we have an inheritance to look forward to. Now this is not a natural inheritance. A natural inheritance, whatever
it may be, will perhaps be used up. If it's money we may spend
it and it'll be gone. If it's lands, we may not be
able to occupy them, and in any event, we shall have to one day
leave them all behind. But here we have a glorious inheritance
given by God. And it's described in a number
of ways. It's described as incorruptible. And that means nothing can corrupt
the inheritance which God gives to us. It's incorruptible. The same as our new nature is
incorruptible. Our old nature is corrupt. Our new nature is incorruptible. And we can look forward to this
wonderful inheritance which is incorruptible. It's not a morbid theme. People sometimes will say, I
don't want to hear about such a position, such a situation,
where the Lord God has very graciously given us some little view of
the greatness of this blessing. and it far surpasses all the
things of time. And it would be a wonderful favour
if the Lord enables us to look forward to that great day when
we shall be in possession of this inheritance in glory. And it is not corruptful. Nothing can corrupt it. There's no corruption in heaven. There's no sin in heaven. It's
sin which corrupts. In heaven, there's no sin. Just think of that. It's very
hard for us on this earth to think about that really, because
we're sinners. and to think of a situation where
there is no sin and if you try and analyse that in your mind
and realise how many of the things there are in fact virtually everything
we touch and do and say sin is mixed with all we do but in this
inheritance it is incorruptible and the Apostle goes on to clarify
this He says it's undefiled. Undefiled. Nothing can define
it. The things of time are defiled
by one way or another. But the soul of the believer
inherits this glorious, wonderful place in heaven where there is
no incorruptible-ness and everything is undefiled. Everything is perfect. Everything is perfect. Nothing
to make us upset. Nothing to worry us. We won't
be jealous. We won't be proud. shall be able to praise and glorify
the blessed Saviour who gave his life on this earth that you
and I might receive the blessed gift of eternal life. Well what a wonderful favour
it is that the Lord has graciously recorded such words for our encouragement
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth
not away. And things of time fade. Fade away, don't they? Everything
you can think of in time doesn't get better with time. It always
gets worse. It fades. It becomes corrupt. It becomes defiled. And yet the
things of glory do not. They do not fade. They will always
remain bright and shining forever and ever. Ever and ever. No incorruption. No defilement. And no fading away. You try and
think of that. It's wonderful, isn't it? To
think of, and that's what the Spirit of God here directs us
to. And then, he goes on with this
wonderful clause. Reserved in heaven for you. Not someone else. Reserved in
heaven for you. We won't get to glory and find
there's no room for us. We'll find that God, in his matchless
condescension, has reserved a place for sinful you and me. Why did
we deserve it? We didn't deserve it. but it's
because as we spoke this morning of His wonderful love. His wonderful love. That's why
there is this place in glory which is reserved for us and
how very, very thankful we should be to realise these words are
true. and these words are recorded
so that we might indeed be encouraged by them. I think the words in Jeremiah
are very wonderful and beautiful. In the 31st chapter and the 3rd
verse, this is what the prophet says. The Lord hath appeared
of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. So this love will not be taken
away and it won't diminish. It's a wonderful thought, isn't
it? God's love for you and me won't
diminish. And my friends, wonder of wonders,
our love for God won't diminish. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with everlasting love,
and therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. as we ponder these descriptions
of the believer to be able to recognise that it's the Spirit
of God which has brought about a change in our life and has
drawn us to the things of God again that's a wonderful evidence
of the life of God in our soul just think about that for a moment
Can you say, well, I believe that in my little life, God has
graciously brought about a change and given me a desire for spiritual
things. That's good, isn't it? What does
that mean? It means he's drawn you to himself. Why? because of his loving kindness. And if he's done that, to think
then that there is a place reserved in heaven for you amongst all
the billions of people that have ever lived and are living and
will live. There are a number. that no man
can number that God has reserved a place for in heaven, a place
that cannot be taken by anybody else. Very humbling, isn't it? Very
glorious, very wonderful to ponder, isn't it? as you and I travel
through our little life on this earth with many things to disturb
us sins which so easily beset us and yet may God give us grace
to look beyond this life to this inheritance incorruptible and
undefiled, and that faileth not away, reserved in heaven for
you. And of course, the great blessing
is this, Jesus in the midst. To view our Saviour, to praise
Him as we ought, with no sin, It's a wonderful consideration. To an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for
you who are kept by the power of God. Well I wonder if we know,
if you know in your life situations where God has wonderfully kept
you. There may have been a very real
temptation, something that may have been very attracted to you,
that you wanted to indulge in. And yet, situations developed
or arose which inhibited you. or may have truly stopped you
and brought you to that situation where you weren't able to pursue
the avenue, the thing that you so wanted to do. You may have been very frustrated. You may have been very upset. You may have been very rebellious. and I won't give examples because
I might miss an example out which might be very relevant but think
in your lives and it has a very wide coverage to think that there
were, there was, there may be something that you earnestly
want and it doesn't seem possible for it to occur now it may be
that God's testing but it may be that it's not God's will because
it won't be for your eternal good the Lord knows what is best
for us that's wonderful isn't it? He knows what's good for
us and it's good therefore to come under that word to submit
ourselves under the mighty hand of God that hand of God may be
on you and restraining you from something, and you wished it
wasn't there, and you wished it was taken away, and gave you
freedom to do what you wanted to do. Well, pray that God may
give you a gracious submission to His will, because it is likely
that God has and will provide some better thing. Some better
thing. And therefore, pray that you
will not be rebellious to Almighty God. But that you will submit
yourselves, therefore, to God's will. And then you may be able
to look back and say, well, God kept me from that. I didn't like
it. I look back now and I can see
how kind, how gracious was God to me. And why was it? You can then say this, it was
because of his love to my soul. that's very humbling as you look
back don't be distressed therefore if things don't appear to be
working out as you wanted them to perhaps as you expected them
to just realise the Lord perhaps is graciously directing you kept
by the power of God because We've had this description of a child
of God. We've had this description of
the inheritance. And now he says, who, referring
to those, to such, who are, not maybe, who are kept by the power
of God through faith under salvation. God comes and gives us faith
to believe. What does he give us faith to
believe? He gives us faith to believe this. As for God, his
way is perfect. See, our way, we often look at
it through our natural eyes. But God, you see, knows the end
from the beginning, which we don't. and therefore he gives us faith
then to cast all our care upon him and to submit ourselves under
the mighty hand of God that he may exalt us in due time casting
all our care upon him because he cares for us who are kept
by the power of God through faith Unto salvation. This is the great
thing, isn't it? The saving of our souls. The
most valuable thing in our life. Our salvation. Unto salvation. Ready to be revealed in the last
time. On that great day. That judgment
day. To be revealed. That you and
I are a child of God. That we're not a castaway. but
that God is in love to our soul, has dealt with us in this way,
so that it will be revealed, and we shall be able to truly
bless and praise God, and that throughout eternity. Well, may we be able to understand
a little of what the Apostle Peter writes here, and be able
to trace out in some measure our little life, and to praise
God, there is evidence that we are amongst those whom God has
called, whom God has blessed, that God has granted a reserved
place in heaven for us, and that that time will come when we truly
are blessed with this wonderful salvation, and we are ready to
be revealed in the last time.