That's a good song to magnify
His name with, isn't it? Go with me, if you would, back
to 1 Peter 1. I want to read what
will be the text for this evening, which is verses 3 through 5.
Let's read those verses again. 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. Now, Peter is the writer of this
epistle. And the Lord said to Peter just
before the Lord went to the cross as he was heading to accomplish
our salvation. This is what he told Peter. Satan
has desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat. He
said, but I've prayed for you that your faith fail not. And he said, when you are converted,
I want you to strengthen your brethren. You know, he let him
go through a real sin so that he could have compassion on his
brethren. and strengthen his brethren. And that's exactly what he has
done in this epistle. That's exactly what he has done.
These three verses are one sentence. And he says a lot in this one
sentence. He says so much. Charles Spurgeon
said these three verses are a New Testament psalm. He said if a
psalm was written in the New Testament, it would be these
three verses. This is a psalm of praise. Every word of it is
good news. every single word of it. So what
I want to do is just go down through it. I tried at first
to just pick out a certain portion, but let's just go through it
and we're just going to see and hear good news on top of good
news. Peter is talking specifically
to, verse one says, the strangers scattered throughout. Those who are, verse 2 says,
elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. He's talking
to sinners that God chose to save. That's who he's talking
to. Those who cry, not have I gotten. You know, while everybody's running
around crying, I got saved, I got saved. He said, I'm specifically
talking to those who cry, not have I gotten, but what I received. Grace has bestowed it and I have
believed. Boasting excluded, pride I base,
I'm only a sinner saved by grace. He said, that's who I'm talking
to. That's who I'm talking to. Every soul who cries that, Peter
said at the end of verse two, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Now he's about to explain what
that means. what is God's grace and peace
multiplied to a sinner. He gives a list of things in
this next sentence. Things that God's people have
received by His grace. What we're going to look at is
things that we have. Things that we have because of
God's grace and peace to us. Here's the first one. Verse three
says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which according to his abundant mercy. The first thing that he says,
God's elect strangers possess. The first thing that he says
we have, because God's grace and His peace has been multiplied
to us. This is what we have. Abundant
mercy. Abundant mercy. He said, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be
the name. Blessed be the name. I love how
the Apostle John said in Revelation 5, He said, I heard 10,000 times
10,000 and thousands of thousands crying, worthy is the Lamb. All
of them. Worthy is the lamb that was slain
to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing. He said, I heard 10,000 times
10,000 and thousands of thousands. And then he went on to say, and
every creature in heaven and every creature on the earth and
every creature under the earth heard me. I heard them, and then
they heard me cry, Blessing and honor and glory and power be
unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever. Verse 3 says, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His
abundant mercy. You see what the margin says
for abundant. Much. Blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his much mercy. New every morning mercy. From the God who delights to
show mercy. That's what we have. Much abundant
mercy. Turn with me to first Timothy
chapter one back just a few pages. 1 Timothy 1 verse 12 says, And 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,
and a persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained mercy. because
I did it ignorantly and unbelief. And the grace of our Lord, which
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 of whom I am chief. How be it for this cause? Because I'm the chief. 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 have obtained abundant mercy in Christ. That's where it's found. That's
where we have it. In His blood, through His death,
we have not received what we deserved. That's what mercy is. He received it for us. All right,
here's the next thing. Go with me back to the text.
First Peter 1. Verse three 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. Have you ever set out to do something
and then messed it up so badly? that you come to the place where
you realize this can't be fixed. The only thing to do is throw
it away and start over. You ever done that? Does that describe your life
like it describes mine? This can't be fixed. This can't
be fixed. God begat us. He gave us life. And we ruined it. And I'm not
just talking about in Adam. Adam Plum ruined it, but let's... Gabe Stoniker ruined it. I ruined
it. I absolutely ruined it. The record of this life right
here cannot be fixed. Cannot be fixed. That which is
flesh is flesh. But God told Nicodemus, he said,
my spirit is going to blow where it listeth. And he's going to
come to every single one of my elect strangers, and he's going
to give them a brand new life. They get a brand spanking new
life. They get to be born again. They get a brand new record.
They get the record of the life of Christ Himself. This new life
that is in Him cannot be ruined. It cannot be ruined. I want to
show you something in 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3 verse 9 says,
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. That strikes fear into every
one of us, because we look at that and say, that does not describe
me. That doesn't describe me. That right there does not describe
any man but one. Just one. Those who are begotten
again, they do not just receive a replacement life for them to
ruin that one just like they ruined the one before. If I just
got a do-over, if that's all it was, well, he gets a mulligan.
I'd mess that one up just like I messed the first one up. That's
not what God's people receive. They receive the perfect, finished
life of Jesus 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 because of that now, every
single time God looks on me, he sees the record of the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every single time. And every
time he looks on that record, there's no sin on it. No sin. Christ put our old ruined life
away on that cross. That's where the we're living
it out right now. Why do we still sin? It's because
we're living out the entire life. But Christ put the entire old
life away. On the cross, and when he did
that, we were begotten again. Alright, here's the next thing
we have. Go back to the text. First Peter
one. 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. We have a lively hope. I have so enjoyed that word today. Listen to what that word means.
It means to live to breathe, to be among the living, not lifeless,
not dead, to enjoy real life, to have true life worthy of the
name, worthy to be called life. It means active, blessed, and
endless. 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 true, real, worthy,
active, blessed, endless hope of life. I mean life. We're about to start living.
We're about to start living. Eternity is never ending. And
this life right here on this earth is three score and ten.
It's a finger prick is too long to compare the pain we're going
to endure on this earth to eternity. And I'm telling you, we are about
to start living. The endless, glorious life that
we are about to have in Christ and with Christ is so active. And I think that's a wonderful
word. It is so active and it is so
real and it's so true and it's so worthy to be called life.
It's so much those things. The life that we right now have
on this earth in comparison has to be referred to as death. The apostle Paul said 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 can be described is, our
Lord described it. He said, it's life more abundant. Life more much. Life more much. Much more life. He said, you think you're enjoying
life now? Wait till you start living. Wait till you start living. Everything is so cloaked in death
right now. Just wait till you start living.
We're about to start living. You know, we think of Going to
be with our Lord is, well, there's no more pain. And that's so wonderful.
I don't want pain. But we're missing a major portion
of it. We're about to start living.
We're about to start living and breathing and moving and having
our being. We're about to have our being.
We have a lively hope. Here's the next thing we have.
This is what God's elect strangers have. who have received that
grace and peace multiplied to them. 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 by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We have a risen
Savior. We have a living Lord. Go with
me to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 12 says,
now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say
some among you that there's no resurrection of the dead? Why
would anyone believe that there's 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. It's empty. 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. You are yet in your sins. Then
they also, which are fallen asleep in Christ or perished. If in
this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most
miserable. But now is Christ 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. Peter said in the text,
if we're one of God's elect, If we're one of God's chosen
elect, he said, let me give you some good news. All right. Let
me pass along some good news. I'll tell you what we have. We
have a risen Lord. The reason that such good news
is because if he arose, so will we. I mean, after they put our
body in the ground. If His body arose, so will ours. This body will rise from the
dead. Sinless, glorified, but this
body, He said, I'm not going to lose one hair from my head.
Isn't that what He said? If I belong to Him, if I'm one
of His redeemed, every soul that is risen in Him, He's going to
be able throughout all eternity to see their risen Savior seated
on His throne, and they're going to be able to walk right up to
that throne with boldness, with acceptance, that they may obtain
mercy and grace in time of need. That's just glorious. All right, here's the next thing.
I'm going to be brief. Back in our text, 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. As strangers chosen of God, this
is what we have. We have an inheritance. We have
an inheritance. The Lord said, Peter, I want
you to strengthen your brethren. He said, brethren, we have an
inheritance. Down the road in your life, is
anyone expecting a big inheritance? In the life that we have here
on this earth. A big, huge inheritance. We have an inheritance. I mean,
we have an inheritance. This inheritance is 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 is
undefiled. Sin cannot touch it. What is
the inheritance? It is Christ Himself. David said, the Lord is the portion
of mine inheritance. Our inheritance is a person.
We have been betrothed to, we've been given in marriage to, we've
been vitally joined to a person. And it just so happens that this
person owns all things. We get Him, we get everything
that He is. As He is, so are we. We get everything that He has.
All things. That's our inheritance. God said
through Peter, it's incorruptible, it's undefiled, it'll never fade
away. It will never run out. It'll
never be exhausted. Never. And I love this. He said, there's no possible
way that it could mistakenly go to somebody else. There is
no possible way that it could mistakenly go to somebody else. He said at the end of verse four,
it is reserved in heaven for you. Now there's only one illustration
to give for that. Don't you love that story of
Roland Hill having that dream? He said, I had a dream that I
received my lively hope, and I was carried up into glory. And he said, when I got there,
I heard the most beautiful music. I heard a choir. At this time
of year, we sing these Christmas carols, and I always loved the
line, sing choirs of angels. Well, he said, I heard the most
beautiful choir of people, brethren. And he said, they were singing
the most beautiful words, and he said, I came up and saw this
great, massive choir, and I thought, oh, I'd love to sing with that
choir. It's just so perfect. Every note is perfect. It's so
beautiful. I'd love to be a part of that.
And he said, I looked up, and near the very top of the choir,
way up there, was one empty seat. And he said, when I saw that
seat, I thought, maybe I can get all the way up there before
that seat is taken and join the choir. So he said, I started
up those steps all the way to the top, and I got up to that
row, and he said, I made my way down the row, and I came up to
the seat, and he said, it had a name on it, reserved for Roland
Hill. And he said, I sat down, and
I started singing, and I knew every single word. worthy is
the lamb for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy
blood. This inheritance is incorruptible,
undefiled. It's never going to fade away
and it is reserved in heaven for you. What is man that thou
art mindful of him? Our Lord said, You rejoice. You
don't rejoice because the devils are subject to you and this and
that. He said, You rejoice because your names are written in heaven. That's amazing. We have a reserved seat. That's
what we have. Verse. We have an inheritance reserved
in heaven for you, verse 5 says, who are kept by the power of
God. We have absolute security. The mercy that we have is not
in theory. We don't have mercy in theory. We have mercy. We don't have this lively hope
in theory. We have a lively hope. We don't have this new life in
theory. We have a new life. And we don't have this inheritance
in theory. We have an inheritance reserved for us. We are not kept
and hedged about and preserved and guarded in theory. We have
absolute security. Absolute security. We're not
just kept, we're kept by the power of God. We're in God's hand and God is
in God's hand. Christ said, you're in mine and
I'm in my father's and no man is able to pluck you out of my
father's hand. We're kept now. We have always
been kept and we will always be kept. We're his children and
he's going to keep us all the way to the end. Jude said, unto
him that's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy all the way
to the end. If we're one of God's elect strangers,
we have absolute security. Here's the last thing. The last
thing he mentions in this sentence, this could be the thing we take
most for granted. But the reality of this has,
has really sunk into me. This is our greatest help. This is what pulls us through.
This is what keeps us going when we feel like it's time to scrap
it. and be done. This is what keeps
us going every single time. Verse 5 says, who are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. God has given us the gift. This is what we have. God has
given us the gift of faith. He said we're kept by the power
of God through faith. That God-given faith will not
let us go. Every child of God knows that
if God would let him go, he would go. That God-given faith won't
let him go. It will not let him stop looking
to Christ. He tries. He tries to stop looking
to Christ. It takes nothing to try to look
to something else. And God in mercy, through faith,
will not stop let him turn into Christ. That faith will not let
him stop coming to Christ. He tries to go everywhere he
can, but faith always brings him back to Christ. That faith
will not let him stop trusting. It will not let him stop needing. Faith puts him down in the dust
again. So he'll cry out in need. Faith
keeps us. We're kept by the power of God
through this faith. And it'll keep us all the way
until the day of our ultimate realized salvation. That actual
realized salvation when Christ and all of his kingdom are revealed
at the last time. You talk about a day, we sing
what a day, glorious day that'll be. I'm telling you on that day
when the trumpet resounds and the clouds roll back and the
Lord himself descends, all of his angels with him and all of
his people with him. That realized salvation, at that
moment, we're going to say, He kept us all the way. He kept
us all the way through faith. We just kept looking to Christ.
Well, did you do that on your own? No, sir. That was the gift
of God Almighty. We were kept by the power of
God through Him continually bringing us back, continually. He wouldn't
let us get comfortable. I just don't see why I can't
get comfortable. All I want to be is comfortable. He wouldn't let
us get comfortable. He just kept bringing us back.
He kept bringing us back. He kept bringing us back. And
one day, those to me are some precious
verses. I needed those. I personally
needed those. I thank God for those verses.
I pray the Lord will make it a blessing to us. Let's all stand
together.