Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 905 Yadkin Street in Kingsport, Tennessee, would
like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. And now, Pastor Gabe Stoniker. I have a message of very good
news this morning. I have some very, very good news. The message is going to come
from first Peter chapter one. If you would like to turn there,
I encourage you to read along with me because this truly is
wonderful, wonderful news. Verses three through five will
be our text and they say, 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. Our Lord told Peter as he was
going to the cross, just before he went to the cross, he told
Peter, Satan has desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat. But he said, Peter, I've prayed
for you. And what an amazing thought that is. The Lord prayed
for Peter. He said in John 17, I pray for
them. I pray for my people. And the
Lord said, Peter, I have prayed for you that your faith fail
not. And he said, when you are converted,
I want you to strengthen your brethren. That's what I want
you to do. Strengthen your brethren. And
that's exactly what Peter has done in this epistle. Every word
was written by God's Holy Spirit. Peter was the penman. But he
felt this, he believed this, and he wrote some encouraging
words for God's people. The three verses that we just
read are one sentence. All of them put together. It's
only one sentence. And Charles Spurgeon, a man named
Charles Spurgeon, said these three verses are a New Testament
psalm. A New Testament song. Just like
all the psalms are written in the singing of praise to the
Lord. He said this is a New Testament song. Every word of this is good
news. every word of it. I just want
to go down through it and read what is written here. Line upon
line of good news. Now Peter is talking specifically
to, this is who he is directing this word to. Verse 1, he's speaking
to the strangers scattered throughout. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to the strangers scattered throughout. He said in verse 2, they are
elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. He said, that's
who I'm speaking to. I'm speaking to God's strangers
who are scattered throughout. A few here, a few there. Those
who are elect. Those who God chose to save. He said, I'm talking to sinners
that God chose to save. Those who cry. Not have I gotten,
but what I received. A lot of people go around saying,
I got saved. Well, he said, I'm talking to
those who cry, not have I gotten, it's what I received. Grace has
bestowed it and I have believed. Boasting excluded, pride I abase. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. To every soul who cries that,
if you cry that and if I cry that, then Peter writes at the
end of verse two, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Grace to you. If God has revealed
what we truly are by nature, we're just sinners and if God
has revealed The grace of salvation, the gift of salvation. He said,
grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Now he is about to explain what
that means. What is God's grace and peace
multiplied to a center? What is that? He has given in
those three verses that are our text, He has given a list of
things that God's people have received by grace. Received through the gift of
grace. Things that belong to God that
He has given to His people. And the first one is this. He
said in verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ which according to His abundant mercy." Abundant mercy. That's the first thing that he
says God's elect strangers have received. Abundant mercy. Abundant mercy. Because God's
grace and peace to us has been multiplied." Not just given,
but multiplied. He said, multiplied unto you.
That's the first thing we have received, abundant mercy. He said, blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God for this. Blessed
be God. You may know the song, blessed
be the name. Blessed be the name. I love how
the Apostle John said in Revelation chapter five, He said, I heard
10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands. I heard all these
other people. I was listening to all these
other people. 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands
and thousands crying, worthy is the lamb that was slain to
receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing. And then he said, every creature
in heaven and every creature on earth and every creature under
the earth heard me crying. I heard them crying and they
all heard me crying. I started crying too. Blessing
and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon
the throne and unto the lamb forever. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Verse three
says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which according to his abundant mercy. Now I have a center reference
in my Bible. I have a margin that gives scripture
references and it gives definitions of some of these words. And for
the word abundant, my Bible says, this is what it means. Much. much blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his much mercy,
there's much mercy. There's not just mercy. There's
much mercy, new every morning, mercy, brand new every morning.
from the God who delights to show mercy. That's what we have
in Christ. As God's chosen people, that's
what we have. If you want to look with me at
1 Timothy 1, it says in 1 Timothy 1, verse 12, the Apostle Paul
said, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me, for
that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.
who was before a blasphemer. Paul said, that's what I was,
I was a blasphemer. A blasphemer of the true and
living God, a blasphemer of His Word. And he said, I was a persecutor
and I was injurious. I injured God's people, killed
them. But he said, I obtained mercy.
I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. and
the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love
which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. He said, of whom I am chief. He said, I'm still the chief. Verse 16, how be it for this
cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might
show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting." Those who God the
Father has put in Christ, placed in Christ, given to Christ, have
obtained abundant mercy in Him, through Him, in His blood. through His death, we have not
received what we deserved. That's what mercy is. Not getting
what we deserve. That's mercy. And that's what we have in Christ.
All right, if you look with me back at our text in 1 Peter 1,
here's the next thing we have. Verse 3 says, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His
abundant mercy hath begotten us again. We have a brand new life. We
have a brand new life. In Christ, we have a brand new
life. Have you ever set out to do something
and then messed it up so badly? You finally come to the place
where you realize this can't be fixed. You start in on something
and then you mess it up and it gets worse and worse and worse
to the point where you know the only thing I can do with this
is throw it away and start over. It's just too late. It's too
far gone. It cannot be fixed. Well, let me ask you this question.
Does that describe your life like it describes mine? Does that describe your life
like it describes mine? This can't be fixed. I've ruined
it. My standing before God, I've
ruined it. God begat us. He gave us life. Every child that is born, God
gives life. He gave life to us and we ruined
it, we all ruined it. I ruined my life and you ruined
yours. I was ruined in Adam. When Adam fell in the garden,
he became ruined. But forget about Adam, I ruined
my life on my own. Gabe Stoniker ruined this life. The record of my life, it can't
be fixed. My record is ruined. That which
is flesh is flesh. That's all it'll ever be is sinful
flesh. But God told Nicodemus, He said,
My spirit is going to blow where it listeth, wherever it has purposed
to blow. And My spirit is going to come
to every single one of My elect people. It's going to find all
the strangers, all of My elect. And my spirit is going to give
them a brand new life. It's going to bring the spirit
of the life of Christ. They are all going to be born
again, born again. They get a brand new record.
They get a brand new life. It's the life of Christ himself.
This new life that is in him. It can't be ruined. It cannot
be ruined. If you'd like to look with me
at 1 John chapter 3, it says in 1 John 3 verse 9, Whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in
him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. If you're honest with yourself,
like I have to be honest with myself, we read this and think,
that doesn't describe me. Cannot sin, does not sin, that
doesn't describe me. All I have to do is go into my
mind for just one moment in time and I see sin. Immediately, you
know what comes out of this heart? Sin. That doesn't describe me. That does not describe any man
but one. That does not describe any man
that has ever walked the face of this earth but one. Only one. Those who are begotten again,
they don't just receive a replacement life so they can take that life
and go ruin it just like they ruined the first one. They don't
just get another try, that's not what it is. They receive
the perfect, finished life of Christ. The life of Christ is
given to them, the record of Christ. The Apostle Paul said
in Galatians 2, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I
live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And now every time God
looks on me, every single time He looks at me, He sees the record
of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's no sin on
it. There is no sin on it. Christ put our old ruined life
away on the cross. That's what He accomplished on
the cross. He nailed that old ruined life to His cross, and
when He did that, we were begotten again, born again. All right,
here's the next thing we have. If you look back at the text,
1 Peter 1, verse 3, 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. We have a lively hope. Listen
to what the word lively means. It means to live, to breathe,
to be among the living. It means not lifeless, not dead,
to enjoy real life, to have true life worthy of the name. worthy to be called life. Life. It means active. Lively means
active. It means blessed, and it means
endless. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a true, real, worthy, active, blessed
endless hope of life. That's what we have in Christ.
Life. True life. The endless glorified
life that God's people are about to live once they're rid of this
body of death. That's what the apostle called
his own body and that's what we have to say about our own
bodies. This is a body of death. The body of this death, this
endless life, this glorified life that God's people are about
to live in and with Christ for all eternity. It is so active
and it's so real. It's so worthy to be called life
that we have to consider the life we live on this earth to
be death. The body of this death. David
said, this is the valley of the shadow of death. The only way
that this lively hope that we have for what's coming with Christ,
the only way that it can be described is, our Lord said, it's life
more abundant. It's life more abundant. Much
more life. Much more life than we could
ever imagine. Much more life than we have here.
Peter's saying, you think you enjoy life now? Wait till you
start living. Just wait till you start living. God's people
are about to start living. They're going to start living.
We have a lively hope. All right, here's the next thing
we have. As God's elect strangers, that's who he's speaking to.
Those who have been given grace and peace from God the Father,
verse 3 says, 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 have a risen Savior. We have a living Lord. Over in 1 Corinthians 15, The
Apostle Paul said in verse 12, Now if Christ be preached that
He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is
no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen,
then our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea,
and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified
of God that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up, if so
be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then
is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain, and you are yet in your sins. Then they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life
only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
But now is Christ risen. He is risen from the dead and
become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man
came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made
alive. As in Adam, because of Adam,
every man or woman who is in Adam, which is every man on this
earth, as in Adam, all die. Even so, every man and woman
who is in Christ, which is the elect, the strangers scattered
throughout, God's chosen people, every soul in Christ is going
to be made alive. Eternal life. Peter said, Over
in our text, he said, if we're one of God's elect, I'll give
you some good news. I'll tell you what God has done.
God has raised Christ from the dead. And what that means for
us is if God raised him from the dead, God is going to raise
us from the dead. True resurrection. If He arose,
so will we. If His actual body arose, so
will ours. Our actual body. This body will
rise from the dead. Is that not amazing? If I'm one of Christ, if I belong
to Christ, every soul that is risen in Him, risen with Him,
is going to throughout all eternity see their risen Savior seated
on the throne. They're all going to be able
to walk up to Him in this body. With boldness, approach His throne
to find mercy and grace in time of need. Life, true life. Well, back in 1 Peter 1, here's
the next thing He said. Verse 4, He said, "...to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you." As strangers chosen of God, this is what we
have. We have an inheritance. We have
an inheritance. This inheritance waiting for
us, it's incorruptible. Moths will never eat it. Rust
will never dissolve it. Thieves will never be able to
break through and steal it. It's incorruptible and it's undefiled. Sin cannot touch it. What is
the inheritance? It's Christ Himself. Christ Himself. David said, the Lord is the portion
of mine inheritance. Our inheritance is a person.
Our inheritance is a person. We have been given to a person. We belong to a person. And it
just so happens that He owns all things. We inherit Him. We inherit everything that He
is. We inherit everything that He has. Joint heirs with Him.
That's our inheritance. And God said through Peter, it's
incorruptible, it's undefiled, and it'll never fade away. It'll never run out. It'll never
be exhausted. And he said, there's no possible way it could mistakenly
go to somebody else. No possible way. He said, it's
reserved in heaven for you. Reserved in heaven for you. If
God purposed to give it to you, then it's reserved with your
name on it. That's wonderful. That's a wonderful thought. He said in verse four, this inheritance
is incorruptible, it's undefiled, it fades not away, it's reserved
in heaven for you. Verse five, who are kept by the
power of God. We have absolute security. In Christ, we have absolute security. We're not just kept, we're kept
by the power of God. We're in God's hands. And God
is in God's hands. That's what our Lord said. He
said, you're in my hands, and I'm in my Father's hands, and
no man is able to pluck you out of my Father's hands. We're kept. We're kept now. We have always
been kept. We will always be kept all the
way to the end. Jude said, unto him that is able
to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before
the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." If we're one
of God's elect strangers, we have absolute security. All right, now here's the last
thing he mentions in this one sentence. Verse five, who are
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to
be revealed in the last time. God has given us faith. He's given us faith. He said
we're kept by the power of God through faith. And that God-given
faith, faith is not of ourselves, that's the gift of God, that
God-given faith will not let us go. Every child of God knows
if God would let him, he would run, but faith will not let us
go. Faith will not let us stop looking
to Christ. It will not let us stop coming
to Christ and stop needing Christ. Faith will not let us not believe
Christ. Faith will not let us not trust
Christ. It keeps us. It keeps us. And it'll keep us all the way
until the day that we realize our ultimate physical salvation,
eternal life with Him. That's glorious, isn't it? I
pray the Lord might make these promises a blessing to our hearts.
Till next week, the Lord be with you. You have been listening
to a message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport Sovereign
Grace Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like a copy of this
message or to hear other messages of sovereign grace, log on to
our website at ksgctn.org. If you would like to come and
worship with us, our service times are Sunday morning Bible
study at 10 o'clock a.m., worship at 10.45 a.m., and 6 o'clock
p.m., Wednesday evening at 7.30 p.m. Please tune in next week
for another message of God's free and sovereign grace.