We're going to be turning to
1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. Today we're going
to look at a verse in which our Lord teaches us four foundational
truths that make up the hope of every believer in Christ. Four foundational truths. The
verse is 1 Peter 3, verse 18. Let's read that. For Christ also
hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit. This verse declares the foundation
of Jesus Christ of our Lord, this is the foundation of Jesus
Christ, and it's upon this foundation believers rest all their hope
in Him. What we're told here that He
did and accomplished for us, this is our hope. This is the
hope of our salvation. This is the hope of our resurrection,
you that believe Christ. Look above at verse 15. 1 Peter 3, 15, it says, but sanctify
the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer
to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is
in you with meekness and fear. Well, verse 18 gives us the specifics
of that hope. They tell us exactly why we have
hope in Christ, what he's done. This is our hope. And you'll
notice that everything in this verse 18 rests entirely upon
Christ. It's looking to Christ, not looking
to you and me and what we've done. It looks to what Christ
has done for his people. for his people. So this speaks
to what we call the redemption of Christ. This is the redemption
of Christ. Redemption means, it speaks of
a payment. Our Lord Jesus Christ paid a
price. He paid the demanded price for
the salvation of his people. He redeemed his people. paying
a price that we owe to let us go free from the hands of holy
justice, that we might be free of our death and free of our
condemnation, that we might have life and fellowship with the
true and living God. Christ paid the price that we
owed to the justice of God. When we read a verse like Galatians
3, verse 13, where it says, Christ hath redeemed us, he's purchased
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. There's the price. There's the
price. He was made a curse for us, for
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. The scriptures,
when you read a verse like that, the scriptures are telling us
that he paid what we owed. We owed to God a perfect righteousness
and could not pay it, therefore, we must die. That's what we owe
to God. We must die. Well, Christ, as
the substitute of his people, he came, he interposed himself,
he put himself there for his people, and he paid the price
that we owed. that we might go free. And so
I want to highlight just in that thought two things that Christ
did for his people before we get into the meat of our text.
Two things that he did. He obtained the forgiveness of
our sins for his people. And he gives us, he reconciles
us to God so that we have fellowship and life with the true and living
God now. He did that. This is the double
for our sins that we receive. Isaiah 40, verse 1 and 2, Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, sayeth your God. Tell them this good
news. The Lord says, for me to tell
you this good news, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Not
that Jerusalem which is yet in bondage in political Israel,
but the Jerusalem which is from above, which is free. She's not
in bondage anymore. He says, cry unto her that her
warfare is accomplished. that her iniquity is pardoned,
for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her
sins, the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life, which
the Savior gives us. We have received forgiveness
and we have life in him. And so this is my hope. This is the hope of everyone
here who believes that Jesus Christ is all their righteousness
and that he accomplished what he was sent here to do. He did
it. He did it. And we have a good
hope. Let's read 1 Peter 3.18 one more time. For Christ also
hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the spirit. You know, there's a humiliation
of Christ and an exaltation of Christ. And this verse actually
speaks of both, of Christ's humiliation and of Christ's exaltation. And I was thinking about this,
that our hope is that as Christ partook of our humiliation in
coming in the flesh, and bearing the contradiction of sinners
against himself, that as he partook of our humiliation and the weakness
of the flesh, being fully dependent on the Father for all things
and going to the cross and dying as a sacrifice of his people,
as he partook of our humiliation, so we shall partake of his exaltation. Because his exaltation is when
he rises from the dead. and ascends unto the Father,
and his session is at the right hand of the throne of God, ruling
and reigning right now, and he shall return again, yet this
time without sin, this time as the triumphant King and Savior.
And so we see his humiliation and his exaltation, and as he
partook of what we are in our humiliation, so we shall be partakers
in him of his exaltation, being raised again. being raised again
to have life with him forevermore. So I'm gonna give you four foundational
truths that are found in this verse that make up our sure and
certain hope, a confident hope, a sure hope, a hope that is ours
in Christ. And you can tell others that.
You can speak of these things when someone asks you, why do
you hope in Christ? I remember when I was, I think,
about 19 years old, I really didn't know these things too
well. I only knew that, I only believed that Jesus was the son
of God and that he died to save his people from their sins, but
I really didn't understand what that was. And I remember a young
girl asking me once, she said, saved from what? What did he
save us from? I didn't know how to explain
that. Well, now this verse right here
tells you exactly what he saved us from. He's put away our sins
and he's given us life in himself. We are saved from the death and
condemnation that our sins deserve, and we have life in Him. So the
first foundational truth is that God the Father sent His Son to
save His people from their sins, the condemnation, the judgment
of our sins, that what we owe to God, He saves us from that,
and that's declared in this first phrase here, for Christ also
hath once suffered for sins. You see, the Lord is teaching
us that man does not save himself by his own works. We're not the
makers of our own righteousness. We're sinners and everything
we touch is polluted and vile and sinful. We can't make a righteousness
of our own. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. We've fallen, we're fallen sinful
creatures and we've earned the wages of sin, which says the
wages of sin is death. but the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so Christ Jesus suffered
the wrath of God for his people, for the sins of his people, as
their sacrifice. He gave himself for our life. And by his life, we live. And so the Son of God was manifest
in the flesh. He was made like unto his brethren,
yet without sin, in order that he would be the fit sacrifice. He's the seed of woman. He's not born of Adam's corrupt
seed. He was formed in Mary's womb
by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, who formed that holy thing
in her, so that he's not born of corrupt seed, like you and
I and Adam, he's born of incorruptible seed. He is the Son of God, come
in the flesh, manifest in the flesh. And so he's perfect, that's
why he's perfect. That's why he fulfilled all righteousness
and we in him fulfilled all righteousness because he is our substitute.
We're told, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5.21, for God hath made Christ
to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. In him not knowing him and doing
what you got to do now to make yourself righteous No, we are
righteous. We are the very righteousness
of God in him in him I want you to turn over to Hebrews chapter
2 And when you get there just put
a marker there because we'll come back to it a little later,
but I'm gonna read verses 9 through 11 and This is speaking of the suffering
of our Savior in the flesh. This is his humiliation when
he humbled himself, taking off his robe of glory and coming
in the likeness of our flesh, in the weakness of our flesh.
So Hebrews 2.9, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death. crowned with glory
and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for
every man. For it became him, for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons
unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. for which cause he's
not ashamed to call them brethren. And this brings us to our second
point here, the second foundational truth, that as he was sent to
the Father to save his people from their sins, the second foundational
truth is that there is a people for whom Christ came, and for
whom Christ laid down his life, and all for whom Christ died. everyone that he redeemed, they
are saved without fail. He said none of them is lost,
save the son of perdition, because it was the purpose of God to
do so. And so this truth is declared in these words, the just for
the unjust. Now the promise of God tells
us, he tells us in his word that he would send our savior. He would send the one who would
save us from our sins. He would send the one who would
deliver us and reconcile all things and restore that which
was lost in Adam. And so the promise was first
spoken in the garden, right? Chapter one of Genesis tells
us, it speaks of, it shows us in type what Christ came to do. We see it in type, but in chapter
3, verse 15, that's the first time where this promise is declared,
literally declared, not in type, but what the Lord tells his people
who heard him say these words to the serpent. Genesis 3, 15,
and I will put enmity between thee, that is the devil, and
the woman, my people, the church. I'll sever that enmity because
right now by nature in Adam, there's a love, there's a following.
There's not that, I don't know if it's a love, but there's a
willingness. That's all the voice that we
hear by nature. And we hear the devil. We follow
the devil. We go the course of the world,
but I'll put enmity between thee and the woman, between my church.
my church, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise
thy head, because that seed is Christ, it shall bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise his heel." Now, we're told about the fulfillment
of this very promise here in 1 John 3, 8. 1 John 3, 8 says,
he that committed sin is of the devil. That's you and me by nature
and Adam. He that committeth sin is of
the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. That's the
curse of the fall, that we come forth born of Adam's corrupt
seed, spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. That's us. He that committeth sin is of
the devil. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested
that he might destroy the works of the devil. That goes back
to that promise. That's why Christ came, to destroy
the works of the devil. Now continuing to speak of that
fulfillment, you can turn over to Galatians 4. In Galatians
4, verse 4 through 6, this is the continuing of the fulfillment
of that promise. Galatians 4.4 says, but when
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,
made of a woman, made under the law, not born of Adam's seed,
but the Holy Ghost overshadowing Mary, to redeem them, for this
purpose, to redeem them, to purchase them that were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons,
that we would be delivered from that seed, doing the will of
the devil, doing what this flesh loves to do, and that we would
be brought into the family of God as the sons of God. And because
ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Now that there's life, there's
a cry. Lord, have mercy on me. Lord,
you show me what a sinner I am, what a vile, wretched man I am.
Save me, Lord. He works that in his people.
His people are made to know, I've sinned. I've offended holy
God. I've broken his law, and I cannot
fix it. I cannot make myself righteous. Now, who are these sons that
God manifests his spirit in? because not everyone manifests
that faith and love for God. Not everyone believes Christ. Not all have faith. All men have
not faith, Paul said. There's a particular people who
are manifest by the power of God to be the unjust that are
spoken of here. They are the unjust ones for
whom Christ died. I want you to notice if you still
have your finger or something in Hebrews 2, but Hebrews 2 11,
it says, for both he that sanctified and they who are sanctified are
all of one. Christ has a body. Right? Someone else's arm is not your
arm. You have your own arm. You have your own legs. That's
your body. Well, Christ has a body of which
his people are members of. You're members of his body. And
Christ died for, he didn't, well, I should say if Christ died for
all individual men and some are saved and yet others go to hell,
even though he died for them, has Christ failed then? Has Christ
failed? Has his blood failed to deliver
those for whom it was shed? Is Christ then now divided because
some are with him and some are in hell? Is the body of Christ
divided? No, it's not. Christ has lost
none of his people. He successfully saves all for
whom he shed his blood. He saves them all. It's not possible
that Christ should fail. He is the successful Savior.
He's called the captain of our salvation who perfected us through
sufferings. And that verse there about sufferings,
it doesn't say whose sufferings. I really believe it's speaking
of Christ's sufferings and our sufferings, because you that
are Christ's, he chooses and purposes and gives you sufferings
whereby he manifests his grace unto you. And he makes these
words effectual in your heart, seeing the promises of God fulfilled
unto you. He suffered that you too might
suffer with him and know him as his body. I hurt my finger
this past week and my whole body is well aware of that pain because
it's one body. When I go to do the things I
would do, I'm reminded of this pain here, I have to be a little
more ginger, a little more careful with grabbing things, because
it's my body. Well, we're one body with Christ,
and it's given to us of the Lord to suffer for Christ's sake. And he blesses those sufferings
to you because in those sufferings, whereas the world suffers, but
they don't think of Christ, they don't have a knowledge of these
things, but you and your suffering are made to think of Christ,
to remember him, to remember his word. You're made to cry,
Abba, Father, remember me, Lord. I'm hurting, I'm broken, I'm
weary, I'm sad. Or thank you, Lord, thank you
for your grace. I see how you delivered me. I
see how you answered that prayer, how you gave the prayer and you
answered it. And we see the Lord in all the things that we suffer
and go through, it's for your sanctification. He's the one
who does it for you, in grace and in mercy. He does that. And
so we suffer with him, because we're made one with him, and
he's manifesting that we are his through faith, that we are
members of his body, that we are brethren, brethren, testified
in due time. And as Paul said, he's a ransom
for all, that is, those testified to in due time, of who are his. Because faith is manifested in
them. Grace is manifested in them.
They call on the Lord. They hear the Lord. They believe
the Lord. So Christ died for a chosen people given to him
by the Father. If you're still there in Hebrews
2, look at verse 16 and 17. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. We're going to look at who this
seed of Abraham is. Wherefore in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren, those in his family. those of his seed, that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. There
is a people of God, and these are his brethren. They are the
seed of Abraham. Now let's go over to Galatians
chapter three, and I just want to show you a few verses in Galatians
three and chapter four as well. First Galatians three, verse
seven. Who are the seed of Abraham? Galatians 3, 7. Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. So Abraham's
children are his seed. And we're told here that they
which are of faith are the children of Abraham. God's not limited
to the physical lineage of Abraham. He's saying those who are spiritually
the seed of Abraham, those that are of faith, are his children. And it's they which are of faith,
whether Jew or Gentile, if you believe that Christ died for
your sins, that you're a sinner, that you cannot save yourselves,
but Christ died for your sins, and that he rose again for your
justification. If that's your hope, then you
are of faith, and you are of the seed of Abraham. Now drop
down to Galatians 3, 29. And if ye be Christ's, then are
ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Those whose faith looks to Christ
for all their righteousness are most definitely Abraham's seed
and heirs according to the promise. And turn over finally to Galatians
4, verse 28. Now we brethren, as Isaac was,
are the children of promise. And so all who are born of his
grace, all who are of faith, are free. We are free born, like
Isaac was. We're not children of bondage,
as Ishmael was. Born of the bond woman, he pictured
that those that are under the law trying to come to God under
the covenant of the law, no, we've been set free. We're born
of the free woman by faith so that we come to God under the
covenant of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the work
of the Spirit. That's the Lord opening your
ear, causing you to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches
because there's multitudes that keep trying to come to God in
the works of the law, trying to work a righteousness for themselves
and keep looking to what they're doing rather than what Christ
has done and accomplished for us by his grace. That's the Lord
opening your ear so that you hear the good news of what Christ
has done for you. Rejoice, rejoice and be glad
in the Lord because not all men are of faith, not all have faith. And that's his work of grace.
So we're not laboring for righteousness. We're not striving to justify
ourselves. We've been justified. We are
justified. We are free and alive in Christ. And that's all of the grace and
power of God made effectual unto you. And so we look to him, we
that believe, are one in the same body with Christ, and he
manifests that grace in us in the day he chooses to manifest
it in each one of his children, and the day of grace for them.
He'll make it evident and he'll keep showing you, he'll keep
drawing you to himself in faith and revealing faith and he'll
give you the trials and the afflictions and the sufferings to bring you
to him. To break you of trusting yourself
and your own strength, he's gonna shut that confidence of this
flesh down to make you find your all in Christ. And though the
flesh whines and cries about it and carries on about it, the
spirit, the new man rejoices and thanks God that he did it
and didn't let you have relief in the flesh, but stayed on you
and delivered you from death in Christ. Because it delights
him to do that. It delights him. And if none
of those verses convinces you that there's a chosen people,
I'll just quote Ephesians 1, 4, and 5, which says, it's according
as God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
If that's God's will, you can be certain it shall come to pass
for every one of his people. Because God's will is fulfilled. It's done. Now the third foundational
truth is that all who Christ died for are reconciled to God
by the gift of the Holy Spirit. And what I'm getting at there
is he does not leave his children in darkness. He makes this known. He gives us life, a new birth. He makes us new creatures in
Christ. So it's the Spirit that regenerates
us, that makes us new creatures in Christ. And the Spirit regenerates
all those for whom Christ died. He's gonna make you. If Christ
died for you, you're going to know the true and living God.
He's going to show you that light, the light of Christ, that he
is the light of God. It's going to shine in the face
of Christ. And this is declared in these words, that he might
bring us to God. He's gonna bring you to God if
you're His. Where naturally, spiritually,
dead in trespasses and sins. And in 1 Corinthians 2, verse
14, Paul says, but the natural man, that which is born of Adam,
that which we have by nature, by birth, receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, for they're foolishness unto them. They think
that's nonsense, that a man could be forgiven of his sins by something
that Christ has done, surely I have to do something. Surely
I have to give up something to earn this salvation. No, not
at all. Not at all. We don't save ourselves,
Christ saves us. Neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned. All there is in us by nature
is enmity against the true and living God, and Christ is gonna
deliver us from that enmity. That hatred of the true and living
God our Lord tells us when he was speaking to Nicodemus. He
tells us Marvel not that ye must be born again because we're born
of Adam see and There's no spiritual life in Adam see and you don't
add it. You don't work for it You don't
get it by your works and by your studying it's given It's a new
birth by the Spirit of God regenerating, giving a new birth to whom God
wills. It's a new birth, brethren. He
says it this way in Galatians 6, 14, and 15. But God forbid
that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision. It's not my works in the law. It's not my works in religion. It's not my having the right
doctrine. It's not my knowing a few of the right things and
being able to put down the lies and the falsehood. That's not
my salvation. What's our salvation, what is
manifest in us that we are saved is a new creature. One that hopes
and trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ for all my salvation. We're dependent on him entirely. We are new creatures by the giving
of the spirit because of what Christ has obtained for us in
his death and resurrection. Christ delivers all his people
from that old wine, that old religion, those old works. He delivers us from those works
and he makes us partakers of the new wine, of the new, of
his spirit, and we drink of him and grow in him and rejoice in
him for what he's accomplished for us. So it's a new birth,
brethren. It's a new birth, it's a regeneration
of being born again by the Spirit of God. We don't make that, we
don't make it stronger, we don't make that for ourselves. The
Lord gives it freely to whom he will because he's obtained
this for us by his death and resurrection. And so by his grace
we're severed from the love of this world. and were made to
know Him and to grow in Him. So Colossians 1 21 and 22 says,
And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh. through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight." And so these words here, they're written to believers. They're written to you that hear,
to you that the Lord has opened your ear and made you to hear
Christ, to know your need of Christ, to know that you're sinners
and cannot save yourselves. He does this for us. For by grace
are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God. He's done it. Now, this brings
us to our fourth and final foundational truth. We hear how Christ obtained
this life for us and how he's obtained these spiritual gifts
for us. He obtained them all by his death
and resurrection. And this is declared in these
final words, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by
the spirit. And so Christ's suffering not
only included his humiliation where he came in the flesh, where
he suffered in the flesh, where he endured the contradiction
of sinners against himself and all the blasphemies that they
said to him and charging him with sin. But in his sufferings,
he was made sin for his people to put the sins away forever,
to die as their sacrifice, to obtain the forgiveness of our
sins through the death of the cross. And he was buried. But brethren, he did not remain
dead. That tomb is empty. He is risen
again. And that is the promise and the
hope that we too live in him, that we shall be exalted with
our Lord and Savior just as he partook of our Humiliation so
we are made partakers of his exaltation Everything in him
our God has raised him from the dead justifying him everything
he said and did and it justifies you that believe in him because
You're right. God is God has given you that
God has done that in you you've you trust the the true and living
God you trust the Lord and You trust Him. Everything He did
was as the servant of God. And by His obedience, even unto
the death of the cross, He obtained our eternal redemption, our purchase. It's made. It's done. We're His. We're His. We are not our own.
We are the Lord's. And God testifies that we shall
his word that we shall and by in his word and by his spirit
that we are saved through Christ through him now quoting from
Romans 5 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 and so here's the confession brethren of every
believer, this is the confession of our hope, that if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, that he is my salvation,
that he is all my salvation, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. And so rest all your
hope on the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that he did was to
redeem you, to purchase you, to obtain your forgiveness, and
to give you life evermore in himself. and you that rest upon
him, you shall not be ashamed. You shall not come short of the
goal that you seek, which is life evermore with the true and
living God. It's yours in Christ. So four
foundational truths. They are God the Father sent
his son to save his people from their sins. And the second one
is that all for whom Christ died, they are delivered. There's a
people that he laid down his life and none of them is lost. And third, this salvation includes
our reconciliation. We're not left in darkness, but
we are given his spirit, whereby we are born again, made new creatures
in Christ. The old things are passed away
in Adam. All things have become new in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And fourth, he obtained this
life by his death and resurrection. I'll close with what Paul said
to Timothy. He said, I know. whom I have
believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. And I pray that's the
hope of every one of you that hear him and rest in him and
believe him. That's our hope, brethren, that
he's done it all. Everything I need, it's done
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.