We turn again to the first epistle
of Peter in that first chapter. This morning, of course, we were
looking at what I called the foundations of the faith, those
things that Peter felt were so important to speak to these ones
who are those who are the dispersed, because in verse 7 he recognizes
that trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold
that perishes, though it be tried with fire. These were those who
have been greatly tried. We know that in our world today
many dear children of God are under great trial and affliction. And this is our comfort in the
end, is knowing these truths, these truths are the things that
will strengthen them, will uphold them and encourage them above
all things. And when we look at these things,
we don't come to these, I don't come to them with a, like a,
you know, I'm called upon to minister, I'm not coming to these
as it were with a sort of academic attitude to sort of set forth
a theological study. These are things I believe. These
are the things that matter to me. These are things that I personally
get very emotional about and hold to. This is why I come to
Salem. This is where we are. We love
these doctrines of free and sovereign grace because they give glory
to God and these are the only truths that will give comfort
to your soul and my soul. There's nothing else. You can
go to places, I was reading in Evangelical Times, somebody's
just got an Evangelistic Award because they do puppetry and
miming. Well, I'm afraid that's a dead
end. Is God being mocked? God does
not require us to do such things. These are the things that we
need. And there's a great blessing
in them. Verses 3 to 5 are what we're going to look at. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy have 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. These are fantastic truths. We might get familiar with the
words but we need to look at these things so carefully. We start off with these words. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the blessed, there's an
adjective, and adjectives are only used in Scripture for God. We only ascribe blessedness. God is a blessed God. That's
what we're saying. Don't be deceived about humans
being called blessed. That's quite a misunderstanding.
When people talk about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the word is actually
the noun. She's blessed. It's a verb, Robert. It's a form of the verb. She
is blessed of God. She is not inherently blessed. The only one who is blessed,
and blessed in that true sense, is God. It's His nature, His
perfect character. And that is the basis for all
that comes. God the Father. We worship Him. The Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. All this emanates from God. Not from man or the works
of man. You can go to churches where
they purport that it's the church. All their ministries, their ordinances,
all the things they do, that's how you receive grace? That is
a wicked lie. Grace comes from God, the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Why does it come? Why does
God take any, we looked at it this morning, take any notice
of people like you and me? And it's because It's according
to His abundant mercy. It's like His grace, His mercy. God is merciful, even to sinners,
even those like us who have nothing about us that He could love,
because He is all perfection and we are imperfection. We have
sinned. Yet God is able to love us in
Christ. It underpins full. It's abundant. It's a superlative. It's full
of mercy. Overflowing mercy comes from
our Lord and our God towards us. In the prayer I quoted from
Habakkuk 3.2, in wrath, remember mercy. God is justly a God of
wrath. All the sons of men are children
of wrath that we saw this morning, but by His mercy He saves them.
We know not why. Why did God save me? Why did
He save you? Because of His mercy, we have
to accept it, we don't fully understand it. But that is how
God works. And He's the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And how does that come forward?
It comes forward into this, we are begotten to a lively hope. And it's wonderful, this idea
of begotten is something from above. It's being born again,
a new birth, something that comes from above. It's from God. Now,
you can go to many churches, but the majority of evangelical
churches will tell you that salvation comes from below, really. If
you believe in Christ, if you accept the Gospel, if you do
this, if you say that prayer, if you take Jesus to your heart,
you will be saved, or you might be saved. That isn't the Gospel.
We know that people, some of us, have been in such places
by the grace of God. God has spoken to us. But actually,
the new birth is from above. God is a sovereign agent. He
comes to us, doesn't He, in His mercy. When we were dead, that's
what Paul says, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. and
there are those who say, well we weren't completely dead, you
know, there was still some light of life in us, that's the Arminian
era, you know, there's still some hope, people still had the
facility to turn to God. No, says Paul, and you have equipped
who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein times past you
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
principle of the power of the air, the spirit that worketh
in the children of disobedience. Those were you, you were lost
You are serving the devil. Why are we saved? Because of
the grace of God. He comes and there is that new
birth. We are begotten from above. Not just begotten, not just made
alive, not just enrolled in the church and so on. That's not
what salvation is all about. It's not just to make us members
of churches. That's not what Peter's saying.
That wasn't going to help these poor people in Asia who have
been persecuted, who are in a fiery trial for their faith. We see
that in parts of the world now. People dying for their faith,
being murdered and arrested. Churches burnt and so on. That
wouldn't keep them, would it? No, we have gotten to a lively
hope. There's a living faith, a living
principle. God put something alive within
us. The new birth is a dynamic. And if it isn't dynamic to us,
then we haven't got it. Something is a life in us. And I love, I said last week,
I love that wonderful expression, we're begotten again. unto a
lively hope, a living hope. But I said I like that word lively.
Sometimes I find some of the words used are quaint in the
authorised version, but sometimes they're quite riveting, and this
is one of them. It's good. I like that. It's a living principle. It's an active principle within
us, a living hope. And we thank God for that, this
being begotten again. And it's by the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. That's at the centre
of the Gospel. No resurrection, no Gospel, no
life, no hope, no salvation, nothing. The resurrection is
at the core of these things and it's by the power of the resurrection. And it was a most wonderful thing,
wasn't it? What a powerful thing that someone
should be risen from the dead in the amazing and powerful way
that Christ was to be taken into glory. It could only be the power
of God. 1 Corinthians 15 and 20, but
Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of
them that slept. He's gone before. He's the pattern.
He's the one who has set that path before us. And then we read
on. for since by man came death by
man came also the resurrection of the death in Adam there was
that terrible power of death that came upon us but in Christ
there is life for as in Adam all die and we are all in Adam,
aren't we? even so in Christ shall all all
those who God is dealing with shall all those who are saved
shall be made alive It's a powerful thing, and we see that even more
so in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 10. It says Paul, in verse
9, he wants to be found in Him, he says, not having mine own
righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. This
is what Paul desires, that I may know Him and the power of His
resurrection. and the fellowship of his sufferings
being made conformable unto his death. He wants to know the power
of the resurrection. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ was the most powerful event. It's that that, as it
were, brought newness of life, because in that resurrection
he triumphed over death, dealt with death, that the power of
death should no longer hold us, that we should be set free from
the law of sin and death. through that complete work of
Christ, His death, His life lived for us, His resurrection, His
ascent into glory. All of this is the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ. It's such a vital truth. You
know, don't need to go into it, the liberals of our day pour
scorn upon this. They use blasphemous expressions
to discuss the doctrine of the resurrection. Take the resurrection
away, you have no gospel. You have no hope, you have absolutely
nothing. That's what they've got, nothing.
They have their reward, says our Lord Jesus Christ. They're
denying the power of God. It's all in that glorious work
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we've been gotten to a lively
hope, but that's not all. It's not just to a hope in this
world, and I've done studies, you know, in hope in recent months,
what a wonderful and powerful word is, is hope. You know that
we say it's not just like I hope the bus is going to come. A Christian
hope is an expectation. Expectation of all that God reveals
in his word. And what is this hope? What is
the product of our resurrection? It's to an inheritance incorruptible. There's an inheritance. God not
only raises us from the dead, He grants to us an incorruptible
inheritance. Essentially, that's salvation. All that salvation is, verse
5, we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. We have a great inheritance and
it's best described as salvation. All the perfection of that, verse
9, receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your
souls. All that means, all that means
for now, all that means for eternal glory is what is involved in
that inheritance. As it were, we come into an inheritance
now. We enter into the Kingdom of
our Lord Jesus Christ when we are saved. We are in the Kingdom
of God. We only see it as it were through
a glass darkly. Ah, but we shall see the glory.
We shall see, as it were, face to face, all the glories that
God has for us. And we have an inheritance. And
I love this truth. Our pastor explains this often
to us so clearly, and it's important that we understand these truths
of covenant, because they are such a vital part of the Gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, we come to look at aspects of
that in Hebrews and in chapter 9 of that book there are some
lovely words and these are words that we love to come back to
Hebrews chapter 9 and verses 14 to 17 how much more shall
the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works and
serve the living God for this cause He is the mediator of the
New Testament or the New Covenant that by means of death for the
redemption of the transgression that were under the first testament
they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance
by death, by all that he has purchased for us, by that glorious
redemption He purchases that promise of an eternal inheritance. I love this verse 16, for where
a testament is there must also of necessity be the death of
the testator. Now the testament is like a will,
isn't it? In a will, something is left,
something is promised and will belong to a person on the death
of the person who bequeaths it. So if your parents, for example,
my parents left me things, on their death, in their will, certain
possessions and things came to me and to my brothers. But it
was only on their death. In the death of Christ, what
is it we receive? He is the testator. What is it
we receive? What was in the will as it were?
What was it that the Lord Jesus Christ left for us by his perfect
death upon the cross? Is it not that we have an eternal
inheritance? It's that so sure, it's so sure
for us. A testament is of force after
men are dead. Otherwise, it is of no strength
at all while the testator liveth. And therefore it was necessary,
as we know, for Christ to die for our sins. He's made us heirs
now of eternal life. Eternal life and everlasting
life are the same. Jehovah's Witnesses will come
to your door and tell you they're different. But they're not. It's
the same word each time. And we thank God for that great
truth. And it's a great thing. What
we're looking here is the greatness of our inheritance. One says,
you know, perhaps too often, people think we come in with,
it's pretty miserable what we do in here, it's a mean thing,
or to be a Christian that's terrible, I've heard people say it's terribly
boring, you go, the things you do, who wants to sing hymns and
so on, that's because they don't know the truth, but what we have
is a great thing, if we read the psalm this evening, if we
read the scriptures, The words here are written by Peter deliberately
to make us see the greatness of all our inheritance. To receive,
to possess, and we have it as a right. That might sound strong,
but we can see that from the Scriptures because of the work
of Christ. It's so wonderful what we have.
It's inheritance incorruptible. Now if your parents leave you
something, say they leave you a property, you know what happens
to houses over time? The paint pours off, doesn't
it? The heating system packs up, you know, the walls start
to crumble, the mortar goes, the tiles come off the roof,
because they're corruptible. So with our bodies, isn't it,
you know, as we get older? We feel it. We feel the age. We feel the breakdown. That is
the life around us. That is the reality of life all
around. Change and decay is all around
I see. That's what light said in that
lovely hymn, and it's true, isn't it? The scientists say we see
evolution, we see things getting better. It's complete, utter
nonsense. But that we have in Christ, that
newness of life in our souls, that's different. The outer man
decays, but the inner man is always alive, because we have
something that is incorruptible, as opposed to what is inside
us, inside you and me, I own it, to be utterly corruptible.
What we have is free from death and corruption. Isn't that wonderful?
That newness is a principle in us, wearing up unto everlasting
life. We won't see the fullness of
it in this world, but we will know it. It says Paul, again
in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 40, says there are celestial bodies,
there are bodies terrestrial, but the glory of the celestial
is one and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory
of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory
of the stars. For one star differeth from another star in glory. So
also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption,
it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is
raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is
raised in power. That's what God desires to do
to the believer. desires that powerful work of
the Spirit that spiritual life and eventually eternal life and
all its fullness should be in us and be raised in power it
is sown, when we die this body is sown a natural body but it's
going to be raised by God by the power of the resurrection
a spiritual body there is a natural body There is a spiritual body. We have been brought by God into
an experience of these things. We have that hope of a spiritual
body. It's a great thing. And it's
undefiled. Everything around us in this
world we know is defiled, don't we? In every sense. We don't even need to go into
it in detail. You know the filth and corruption
of the human heart and we see when you let it loose you see
the impact it's now having in our national life. Isn't it a
great shame on our nation and it will only bring harm. God
has given us as a nation up to these things. But that we have
in Christ is undefiled. There's no contaminate. It's
all good. It's all perfect. Sometimes you buy a product,
if you're like me, you buy something you've not seen before and you
pick it up and you read the label. If it's food, you want to see
what additives it's got in it. Or if it's some piece of equipment,
you want to see if it's dangerous and how to wire it up. To be
absolutely sure what you're dealing with. But when we get something
good from God, we don't have to worry about this. Don't need
to check it out. This is uncontaminated, this
is perfect, incorruptible, undefiled. It's just good in all the fullness
of what good means. And it fades not, oh we're unfading,
undimming, it doesn't wither. And you know, this is what Peter,
he sees that there is a trial to us. He says, you know, we
are born again, in the end of this chapter, verse 23, not of
corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. He says all flesh is as grass
and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth
and the flower thereof falleth away. That describes the state
of men, the state of the world, naturally speaking, doesn't it?
that we read the word of the Lord endureth forever says Peter
and this is the word which by the gospel is preached to you.
Peter says I'm bringing to you this confidence this is what
you need to stand against the fiery trial confidence in what
you have and it doesn't fade away and it's reserved in heaven
for you Jesus said, and Peter would have been there and heard
it, that last supper, that last night when he had all that intimate
time, particularly in John's Gospel we read with the disciples.
He says, in my Father's house, beginning of John 14, doesn't
he, there are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you. If it were not so, I would not
have told you, says the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in my Father's
house, in heaven, in the heavenly realm, And mansions mean rooms
or places. In my father's heavenly realm
there is a place for you. I go to prepare a place. He said
that to the apostles and to every disciple. Christ has gone before
to prepare a place. We have an eternal hope, a happy
outcome. We see something of that in the
eternal state in Revelation 21 and 22 where we see the Father, the Son. There is
no need of moon or stars. We see the glory of God in the
heavenly realm. We have an inheritance then,
a glorious inheritance. And we have one, we remind ourselves
again, we have one in Adam. We've all got that inheritance.
We all have that inheritance of sin. Roman Church says if
you are baptised, that deals with original sin. Baptised babies
in the Roman Church. Original sin, done away with.
Well, I'm afraid that's a lie. Sin is dealt with by Christ,
not by the Church. They say, all the sins of your
life that you continue to live, still we the Church will sort
that out for you. So you have to keep coming to
us. No, that's not the truth at all, as it is in Jesus. Jesus
died for our sins, not anything that man did. We read in Romans
5.12 as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin
so death passed upon all men for all are sinned we read also
that death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that
had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression but we
read but not as the offence, so also is the free gift for
if through the offence of one many be dead, that's through
Adam much more the grace of God by the gift of grace which is
by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded to many God abounds
and deals with that horrible curse of sin by that work of
Christ who is the testator, as it were, he leaves us to his
children If you so be, you're a child of God. In His will,
that's what He leaves you, a wonderful inheritance, things that you
enjoy now in the church. And that great hope of all the
things that are yours to come to all those who follow the law
of Jesus Christ. And these things are, I love
this word, it's reserved in heaven for you. I'm sure you've all
had that experience. that you, it's a special occasion
and you're going out for a meal perhaps with the family and you
go to the restaurant and you ring them up in advance and you
reserve the table because you know it's quite a popular place
and when you go there on the day the place is full of people
there's a sea of people and you think oh dear are we going to
are we going to be able to go to our seat and then you go and
say oh I've booked a table in this name particular name and
they say oh yes come this way and they take you and there's
a table It's all nicely set out as you've asked for, everything's
there, all the cutlery that you wanted, and the rest of it is
there, the menus, and it says reserved. And it's a nice feeling,
isn't it? Well, it's a poor picture perhaps,
but that's what the Word of God says. This is reserved in heaven
for you. It's particular. That's what
I love about the Gospel. There are those who say, well,
it's a kind of usurper will, it's a sort of general Gospel,
it's a take it or leave it, you present it, and people feel like
accepting it, they'll come to it, and if they don't, well,
that's up to them. But that's not the Gospel we
read, is it? That's not what we're reading here. God, this
particular redemption, God has those whom He loves. That's what
will hold us in the fiery trial. He's loved us. and desired us
from the foundation of the world. This is what we read here. And
he's died for us. Christ has died for us. He's
taken away the curse of our sin. He's paid the price. He's made
over to us the power of the resurrection. He's made over to us a testament,
a will, an inheritance. And it's reserved in heaven for
you. That's why we believe particular
redemption. Not because it's a doctrine we
like and we like to argue theology with people. Because it's what
the Word of God says. It's for you. Isn't that wonderful? And more than that, God says,
He's going to keep us who are kept by the power of God. Before this inheritance, we are
kept I can remember, I think I've said it before, as a young
Christian, I used to worry about being a Christian. I went to
listen to various talks and they were saying how I had to keep
myself in the faith, make sure I didn't do this and didn't do
that, I might slip and fall away, I might be found out of the faith.
I had great worry in my early days, very early days as a Christian,
because I didn't know the doctrines of grace at all. And I thought
that you could fall away, I could become a lost person. I thank
God that after I'd been a believer about a year, I came into a knowledge
of the doctrines of free and sovereign grace and started reading
the good books that were then being published by the Banner
and other people and discovered these truths for myself and saw
that God loved me. He wasn't going to let me go.
He'd saved me in Christ. He wasn't going to abandon me.
I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, is what the Word
of God says. we have a what a wonderful God
we are kept by the power of God I don't keep myself What is it
that keeps us? What is it that will uphold us
to the end if we be children of God? It is the power of God. I was taught that it was my own
power and I have no power. I am powerless in myself. If
that was my hope, I was without hope. It's a gift. I said earlier
that we are made fit and we are careful when we say that. That
might sound, ooh, can we be fit for heaven? Does that sound like
work? Well, no, that's what the Word of God says. But we need
to understand it. Philippians chapter 1. Let's
see if I've got the right passage
here. I've got the wrong chapter, sorry. I mean Colossians. I'm looking
in Philippians. Colossians chapter 1 verse 12. He says here, giving thanks unto
the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in like now he has therefore made us fit or
meet but it's not what we did I don't make myself fit for heaven
this is what God has done this is what the Apostle is saying
here The Father has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints. It's by that work that he does
in us, that new life, that salvation in Christ. And it's back to what
we were looking at earlier, who have delivered us. from the power
of darkness and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear
son. This is why we believe in particular redemption. This is
why we believe in sovereign grace, because this is what is clearly
taught in the word of God. It's all God's work and it's
all to his glory. It is not to the glory of man
in the sense that we refer to the articles this morning. I
do commend them to you. It's good to read them through.
And our Article 9 in this refers to all that were chosen by the
Father shall at their appointed time be convinced in their hearts
shall be saved. God does that work of salvation. We do not do that work. God comes
and convinces through the agency of the Gospel. And we also reject
in Article 22 the doctrine of backsliding. and we believe in
doctrine article 23 in the doctrine of the final perseverance of
the Saints that however much we might be tried it says here
and opposed by Satan they shall all eventually attain to everlasting
glory why? because of the power of God that's
what we read here you are kept by the power of God we don't
keep ourselves we are very weak and I'm sure you and I all go
through periods when we do feel that weakness don't we? We wonder
where we are. There was a dear brother who
was a member of this church years ago. Some will remember Brian
Edwards used to come here. I got the wrong name? Chris Edwards. Do you remember
Chris? He was a deacon here. But he
used to go through periods of doubts and I used to talk to
him. He used to say, oh, sometimes he used to say, I wonder if I'm
a Christian. He said some of the things that I think and some
of the things that I do and then the next week he will be full
of the Lord. He felt those doubts. He felt a soul concern. In a
sense, that can be a good thing. That's the Spirit of God working
within us. We are challenged. Now, this
is not the end of things. We only see, as we said, through
a glass darkly, but it's ready to be revealed in the last time. There's a revelation yet to come
of a fullness. Now we know that we are in those,
in the last times, the times from Christ until he comes again
are the last times. Whatever people will try and
tell you and come up with all sorts of theories, we are in
those last days. But there comes of course the
final, as you were, the final days. and they will be revealed. Things of Christ will be revealed
to us. We have an eternal hope and therefore
we are called now to enjoy Him now. We are called upon to enjoy
our salvation, to enjoy our membership of the church, to enjoy the fellowship
of the saints, to enjoy all the blessings that God will bring
us through spiritual worship, through the church where we walk
together, we encourage each other, we pray for each other. It's
a corporate thing. Again, when I was a young man,
I thought that the life was very much a personal, an insular thing,
and I had to battle on my own. And I thank God, through his
word, I've come to see that's not the case, that we need each
other. That's why the analogy of the church being a body with
different parts, so important. We work together, we need each
other, it's a cooperative thing, we should pray for each other
and so we thank God that we now in this life already if we be
in Christ we have the firstfruits there are those things that we
enjoy now and verse 6 says Peter where in ye greatly ye rejoice
greatly they're rejoicing he says rejoice in these truths
these are the ones that will hold you up it says though now
for a season if need be You are in heaviness through manifold
temptations. We all know that. We go through
very heavy and difficult seasons. Now there's a lovely hymn in
that Grace hymn book. I'm sure you know these words.
It's one of my favourite hymns, number 662, and it's been arranged
by Frederick Taplin. It's actually from, I think,
a French hymn, but you know these words. Just read a couple of
the verses. And it sums up so much of, I think, the heart of
what we've been looking at here, that God loves us in Christ. That's really what we're saying.
This is what Peter's saying to me. He said, He really loves
you. He's done all these things for you and He's going to keep
you. And the heading of the hymn is from Song, chapter 6 and verse
3. Again, you know these lovely
words. I am my beloved and my beloved is mine. love with everlasting love, led
by grace that love to know, spirit breathing from above thou has
taught me it is so. O this full and perfect peace,
O this transport all divine, in a love which cannot cease,
I am his and he is mine, his forever, only his, who the Lord
and me shall part Ah, with what a rest of bliss Christ can fill
the loving heart, heaven and earth may fade and flee, firstborn
light in gloom decline, but while God and I shall be, I am His
and He is mine. blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy
have 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. Amen.