I've read this a number of times,
and as is always the case with scripture, the more you read
it, the more you see in it. It's a fantastic, fantastic letter
or epistle as it's called, First Peter. There's only two books
in the Bible that I know of that Peter was the author of, And
ultimately, he wasn't the author, but the spirit of God was. But
God spoke through him to us. And it's most endearing when
you read about Peter in his life. He was a mixture of things, just
like I find myself to be. He was only much more honorable
than I am, or ever hoped to be. Peter was extremely, it seems
as if his character was extremely strong. And so we see that in
his life when the disciples were going to do something, it seems
like he was always the one who first had something to say out
loud. And in that case, you might think
he was a leader. And obviously, he was chosen
by Christ and used by Christ. Right after the resurrection
and ascension of Christ, when the Spirit of God was poured
out, he preached in the Book of Acts. And that sermon was
a powerful sermon. Thousands were saved in two different
sermons. And we think, man, that was a
hugely successful ministry. And it was, obviously. But even
in that, you see that there was just a remnant that was saved.
Because there were probably a million people in the city of Jerusalem
at Pentecost. And so 3,000, I think, and then
another time, 4,000 or maybe 5,000. A couple of sermons, that's
a small number compared to the number of people in that town.
And especially on the occasion of Christ's resurrection, all
that. But anyway, I'm taking a detour now. and rambling, but
I don't want to do that. But Peter was a very endearing
character, especially when you see his weaknesses. At the Mount
of Transfiguration, he piped up and said, Lord, not knowing
what to say, but feeling like he had to say something. Don't
you identify with that? I'm sorry, I do. But he said,
Lord, it's good that we're here. Let's build three tabernacles,
one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. And that's when God
the Father spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved
son. Hear ye him. Oh, what a powerful
word that was. But it helps us to see ourselves
in Peter's weakness. And then remember, when they
came to take, when Jesus told his disciples that, yes, he is
the Christ, and it was God the Father who revealed that to them,
and he began to tell them how he must be taken by the rulers
and by the elders of the Jews and crucified and slain. And
Peter took him aside and rebuked him. And he turned to Peter and
said, get behind me, Satan, because you savor the things of this
world. Because that was Satan's temptation. Just bow down and
worship me and you can have all the kingdoms of this world. So
let's short circuit this thing. You don't have to go to the cross.
Oh yes, I do. And so Peter was rebuked then. And then, of course, when Peter
denied the Lord Jesus Christ, I am not going to deny. In fact,
I'm going to lay my life down for your sake. And Jesus almost,
we would think, are you going to lay down your life for my
sake? And then Jesus told him what he was really going to do.
He was going to deny him three times before the morning rooster
crowed. And he did, just exactly as Jesus
foretold it. But then you remember after Peter,
after the resurrection and Jesus had appeared to them and Peter
was with the rest of the apostles, what happened? He said, I'm going
fishing. What? You're going fishing? Didn't
Jesus tell you to stay here and pray in Jerusalem? that you're
gonna be my witnesses, all these things. Well, that was coming
a little later. But anyway, Peter is like, he
didn't know what to do. He wasn't like, he didn't have
this great insight into what God's will was. He had to be
taught also. And it was at that occasion when
Jesus came to the shore and they're all out in the boat and he says,
you guys have anything? You caught anything? No. Well,
try casting the net on the other side. That had to be a reminder
to them. They had heard that before. So
they did. And 153 fish got in the net,
and they drug it all to shore. And there when they got there,
Jesus was already prepared, had prepared for them on a fire,
bread and fish. And they ate. And after that
meal, he turned to Peter and he said, Peter, Simon Peter,
lovest thou me more than these? And Peter said, Lord, you can see the confidence was
gone now. You know all things. You know that I love you. And Jesus said, he entrusted
to him the most precious thing in all of eternity to the Lord
Jesus Christ when he said, feed my lambs. And then he said it
a second time, Peter, Simon Peter, Lovest thou me? And he said,
Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. And
he said, feed my sheep. And he said the third time the
same things. And Peter was concerned that
he said it the third time. And he said, Lord, thou knowest
all things. You know that I love you. And
he said, feed my sheep. And then Jesus went on to tell
him what would happen at the end of his life, how he would
be martyred for Christ's sake. But that didn't happen all at
once, did it? It took a long, long life of living upon Christ
by faith. And so that's why I say, Peter
is an endearing apostle, isn't he? Can't you identify with him?
I identify with his weaknesses. I identify much less with his
strengths. But I would love to be as Peter,
who would say, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love
you. But don't you know that in your
heart of hearts, as much as you want to love the Lord, you find
this mixture, this apparent conflict within. Where on the one hand,
you can say, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love
you. I have nowhere else to go. You're my only hope of salvation. And I see that by your own love
for me, you have given all things for my life. And why would I
not love you? This is the greatest joy and
peace in my entire life, that I can come to God knowing that
I come in Christ. Yes, I love you, but as soon
as you say those words, then you say, but wait a minute, I
feel hypocrisy, I feel compromise. And so I ask the Lord, Lord,
you know all things, answer for me. Tell me the truth and provide
what I need and want in yourself. And so I love to think about
Peter's life. And now we're at this epistle
here. He writes this epistle not to
one particular church, but to all of the Church of God, all
of the sheep that Christ gave him that mandate, you go feed
my lambs, feed my sheep, because you love me. Only those who love
Christ are given that warrant. And our love for him is because
he first loved us. So we want to look at this again
together today. And let's ask the Lord himself
to give us this grace. Father, we pray that according
to your great love for your people and the love for your son and
the gift of your people to your son and your almighty and holy
spirit that directs us to Christ and him crucified, you would
bless us from your word today so we might see him and like
Peter, we would be and compelled to say, Lord, you know all things.
You know that I love you. May we find it so in our heart
because you have found us in Christ and put us there and shown
us our savior as our master and our Lord. In his name we pray,
amen. Now last time we were on this
subject, I said the title of the message is, What Hath God
Wrought? What has God done? What has he
worked? And this is really a second part
of that because we didn't complete by any means what that is. But
when you read the book of First Peter or New Testament at all,
realize this is telling us what God has done. And so that text
of scripture that I quoted, what has God wrought from Numbers
23, 23, was spoken by the false prophet Balaam, but it was at
the inspiration of the spirit of God concerning all of God's
people. When he looked at Israel after
the flesh, he was looking at the church of God in the spirit
and saying, what has God wrought? What has God done? And that gives
us such encouragement. And that's the reason this letter
of Peter was written, was to the church, the suffering saints
of God who had looked to Christ, that they might see their life
in this world is short, that is by the will of God, that it
is by the, according to not only the will of God, but by the love
of God in Christ, and therefore they have every reason to have
confidence in Christ and know that all of their sufferings
and trials are given to them by God's wisdom out of His love
because they need it. It's for His glory and for their
good. So, I want to continue that. What has God wrought here? And when we read this, what we're
going to find is everything said here is true. Everything said
is true of all of God's people. Secondly, what is true of all
of God's people is God's work. Therefore, we have only cause
to give credit and glory to God alone in our salvation during
this life. And our life here is short. Our
life is short. Never think about your life as
I'm living my life in order to be a good Christian. Realize
that if you are a Christian, it's God's work. And this describes
you. It describes the work of God.
We are His workmanship. If you remember those words from
Ephesians 2.10, you'll remember that He's describing His work
in describing His church, His people. And we don't even begin
to understand how precious God's people are to him. We can't even
begin to understand it. He calls them dear children. God, the infinite God, the holy
God calls us his dear children. He says in Romans 8.32 that,
if he has delivered up his son for us, how shall he not with
him also freely give us all things? If he's given Christ for us,
then he will give us all things with him. That is incredible,
immeasurable, incomprehensible love of God. And so when we read
in verse two, we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father, We understand immediately the meaning of that word for
knowledge because it's God's knowing what he would do knowing
his people and knowing them in love, what he would do for them
out of his love for them. We know it has to do with love
because God knew them in love. He says in Jeremiah 1 verse 5,
before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And that's true
of all of God's people. Before we were conceived in our
mother's womb, God knew us. And in Jeremiah 31.3, he says
that the Lord says, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee. We're drawn
to Christ because we were loved from eternity by the love of
God the Father. Now that love is incomprehensible,
but God doesn't do anything that he didn't know he would do before
time began. Acts 15, 18, known unto God are
all his works from the foundation of the world. Therefore, whatever
God does in time or is done at the end of time, he already had
done before time in his eternal will, his decree. Therefore,
the foreknowledge of God is his eternal love for his people in
Christ. That's why he chose them in Christ.
And he says in verse two, this is true of all of God's people.
All of God's people are his work because he loved them before
in Christ, chose them in Christ, gave them to Christ to save. And that's what he's describing
here, this work of God. And then he says in verse two,
the middle, he says, through sanctification of the spirit.
Because God chose us to salvation, he also chose the means, and
that means was his own spirit would set us apart. To what? To what? How would he do that?
Well, His operations, His almighty power, the Spirit of God. It
says in Zechariah 4, 6, not by might nor by power, but by My
Spirit, saith the Lord. His Spirit created the worlds.
When it says God spoke and it was done, it was by the breath
of His nostrils. That refers to the Spirit of
God. The Spirit of God was there brooding over the face of the
waters. And when in 2 Corinthians 4,
6 it says, God commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
It was referring not only to God the Father's will and Christ's
work, but it was the Spirit of God by which Christ created all
things, just like it was by Christ that God the Father created all
things. And so we see the power of God in His Spirit. And what
does that Spirit of God, the almighty, all-holy, all-wise
Spirit of God do? According to the eternal will
of God and His love from before the foundation of the world of
His people in Christ, He sets them apart in time. In our own
history, throughout the history of this world, the Spirit of
God has been dividing and separating and setting apart his people.
That's the work of God. Look what God has done. Consider
what God has wrought. And so he says here, in result of that setting apart,
what has he set us apart unto? And that's what's spoken of next.
Unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
The obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ and the sprinkling of
his blood. We are set apart to Christ. We
are brought by the Spirit of God to life from the dead. We're dead in sins and trespasses.
that we walked in and in our darkness of our mind. We're brought
to light and life by the Spirit of God and it's through the gospel
unto Christ and His obedience and His shed blood. You see,
the whole work of God is to bring us to Christ. I think I mentioned
it last time. John the Baptist was full of
joy and his joy was complete when he saw the bride brought
to the bridegroom because that was the unction of the Spirit
of God. The work of God had brought John the Baptist to that in that
time of history and his ministry to point to Christ and to direct
his people to him. Even those men who were disciples
of John, he said to them, behold the Lamb of God. And then they
followed Jesus. That's exactly what John was
sent to do. came before to direct men to
Christ. And so the Spirit of God sets
apart His people. He calls it sanctifying them,
making them holy by directing them to Christ's obedience and
His blood, by which they were made holy. And the original,
the source of that was the love of God the Father who gave them
to Christ. He set them apart when he gave
them to Christ. It says in Ephesians 1, 4, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places,
according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. It was an act of the Father to
choose us in Christ that we might be holy and then Christ by His
own blood, Hebrews 10.10 and 10.14 and 13.12 and so many places,
His own blood is what made us holy, the sprinkling of His blood. And His righteousness is given
to us. Remember 2 Corinthians 5.21,
God has made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. When Christ, as our
Redeemer, bore our sin and the curse of God for our sin, He
redeemed us from sin. He washed us from our sins. He set us free from our sins,
from the guilt and the condemnation of them, and even the power of
them. And the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God is to liberate
us according to the redemption of His blood. And so we see that
the work of God is to save His people according to God's eternal
will, through the work of the Spirit directing us to Christ
and his redeeming work for us. This is the message of scripture.
Let me give you a couple of scriptures here I wanted to direct your
attention to. Look at Galatians chapter three
first. I wanna take you to three or
four little scriptures here. Galatians chapter three in verse
13. These are so pivotal. It's important
that we have them ever in our mind. It says in Galatians 3.13,
Christ, hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us. That's substitution. We were
under the curse of God because of our sin. Christ set us free
from that curse because he himself was made sin and cursed for us. And he goes on to prove that
when he was hung on the cross, he was cursed. He says, for it
is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Verse
14, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ. How does this blessing come upon
the Gentiles? What is the blessing? Well, the
blessing is that we would be given the promise of the Spirit.
And something had to happen first. We had to be redeemed from the
curse. We had to be redeemed from our
sins. And he says that the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.
How is the Spirit of God given to us? Through Jesus Christ.
What had to happen before the Spirit of God set apart his people
in time? Jesus Christ had to come. He
had to die on the cross. He had to redeem his people from
the curse of the law and from sin. Galatians 1.4, if you were
to turn back there, he says, who gave himself for our sins. Christ gave himself for our sins
that he might deliver us from this present evil world according
to the will of God and our Father. So you see the work of Christ
in his redeeming work was to deliver us from our sins, from
the curse of God's law in order that he might give us the predestinated
purpose God the Father destined us to was to be his sons in this
look at Galatians 4. Galatians chapter 4. Verse one,
now I say that the heir, meaning the one who is entitled to his
father's inheritance, the heir, that the heir, as long as he
is a child, differs nothing from a servant, though he be Lord
of all. Though in his status as a son, he is the Lord of everything,
yet until he's grown up, he's under a tutor, a schoolmaster,
who treats him just like a servant. That's what he's saying here,
that's the comparison. But this one who was an heir of his father's
estate, he says, but he is under tutors, verse two, under tutors
and governors until the time appointed of the father. His
coming forth and being made known and given the full rights of
sonship is at the time appointed of the father. So it is with
us. At the time appointed by God
the father, Until that time, we are kept under, as a governor and a tutor, under
the law, under the rudiments of this world. He says in verse
3, even so, we, when we were children, not yet known to be
sons, nor did we know we were sons, we were in bondage under
the elements of the world. But, here we go, when the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth his son. his only begotten
son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of
his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, father, my father. The Spirit of Christ is given
to us because we are sons by eternal adoption and because
we are sons by the redeeming blood of Christ. Therefore, the
point here is, is that we were made sons by Jesus Christ and
the Spirit of God is given to us through His work, His redeeming
work. Now look at John chapter 17. Jesus is speaking this truth
in these words. In John 17, it says in verse
2, this is Christ's prayer. Verse 1, Jesus opens his prayer. He says, these words spake Jesus
and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has
come. Glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. as thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him." Who gives eternal life? Jesus Christ. How did he come by this authority
and power? by His redeeming work as the
Son of God. The Redeemer gives eternal life. This was according to the will
of God. God, in the counsel of eternity,
in the Godhead, designated the Son to be the Redeemer, chose
Him to be the Redeemer, And He would be birthed by a woman and
made under the law as a man and live under the law and fulfill
that law. And as a perfect man, a perfect
Redeemer, would give His life a ransom in blood in order to
redeem us from the debt we owed and free us to enjoy the full
liberty as full sons of God. And that liberty is realized
when Jesus Christ gives us eternal life when his spirit is given
to us to know what? To know Christ and him crucified
for us. So that it comes down to this,
God chose us in Christ, gave us to Christ, Christ redeemed
us by his perfect life and precious blood, and then the spirit of
Christ is sent to us from his exalted throne in glory that
we might know our sonship when he comes into us. When He becomes
our life, Christ is our life, and in that life of Christ in
us, we are given a sight of Christ's obedience and death for us, so
that it all gets back to His Son. It was all for the exalting,
all for the lifting up of Jesus on high, you see. And so when
Jesus prays in John 17, Father, glorify thy son. He's talking
about not only his exalted place in glory, having accomplished
our redemption, but glorify him in the hearts of his people.
What hath God wrought? Back to 1 Peter 1. How endearing it is that Peter,
like us, needing this grace and knowing his life and salvation
and all of his trials in this world, hung on the work of Christ
for us, God's work from eternity and the almighty operations of
his spirit, the spirit of Christ, the spirit of God's dear son
in us, directing us to God the Father as our Father because
of the work of Christ. He speaks these words, we were
elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the
sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ to you, those for whom Christ
laid his life down in obedience and shed his blood and obtained
our eternal redemption. Now, having known this now by
the Spirit of God, according to the foreknowledge of God and
his election of his people in love, he says to you, grace and
peace be multiplied. What a pronouncement of blessing,
God the Father from His throne, Christ from His throne, inspiring
by His Spirit, the Apostle Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to
write these words to the church. He says, to you who believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, whose life hangs on His obedience and
blood, and you know it in your heart, grace to you. and peace
be multiplied. You have been given grace, and
grace is continually given. It's abundantly flowing from
God's throne as a river of life out of the river of His infinite,
immeasurable love in Christ. Oh, what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of
God. It doesn't yet appear what we shall be, but we know when
he shall appear, we shall be like him. And so this river of
grace continuously flows, grace for grace, all in Christ, and
he says, grace to you, and peace be multiplied. And then he goes
on in his praise in verse three, 1 Peter chapter one, verse three.
He says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And all the church says, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, this
is God's work. He tells us how he has saved
us according to his electing, sanctifying grace and the blood
and obedience of Christ. And then he points us back by
grace and his peace. He says, we raise our praise
to God the Father the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
We are born of God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Spiritual birth again is grounded and founded on the meritorious
work of the Lord Jesus Christ according to the will of God
the Father. We were made holy by His precious blood, and now,
because we were made holy by His precious blood in Christ,
that blessing is given to us in the Spirit of God. We're birthed,
and our birth is a holy birth. It's a spiritual birth. It's
an everlasting life. Christ is formed in us. We're
born of the Father. God the Father birthed us by
His will. James chapter 1. Let me read
this to you, James chapter 1. And verse 17, this birth that
we experience, it says in James 1.17, every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of
lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of
his own will, begat he us with the word of truth. The father
of his own will, not our will. His will was from eternity, unchanging. We weren't there to influence
him. He didn't need our influence. We couldn't have influenced Him
except for our damnation by our sin, but of His own will, in
spite of our sin, chose us in Christ, and then having redeemed
us by Christ's precious blood, He birthed us. with the word
of truth, the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we should
be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So back to first
Peter. It was all because of the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. We were crucified with Christ. He put our sins away. Our sin,
our body of our sins was put to death and then God raised
him from the dead. That resurrection was evidence
that our sins were put away and we were justified. Having been
justified, He gave us life. Life is given to the righteous.
Because we were justified in Christ, God gave us life from
the dead, and that life is by His Spirit, and that life is
Christ in you. And that Christ in you life is
the birth, it takes place at the spiritual birth of every
believer. We are created in Christ Jesus. We're raised from spiritual death
to life. We're birthed by God. What an
amazing thing. How can we understand this? It's
a spiritual work of God. What hath God wrought? This is
true of everyone who is born of God. We are begotten again
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Just as Christ's resurrection
was resurrection from death to life, the birth of every believer
by the Spirit of God is a resurrection from death and sins to life to
Christ in righteousness. And we understand this now. It's because of the justifying
work of Christ. Therefore, according to God's
holy will from eternity, his spirit is given to us from Jesus
Christ on his throne, and he himself sends his spirit into
our hearts so that we might know. that we're God's sons. All right, verse 4, 1 Peter 1,
verse 4. Not only are all of God's people
the work of God, we're like strangers in this world. We worship God
in the spirit. Unlike the rest of the world,
we're also elect of God, sanctified by his spirit, purchased by the
blood of Christ, made righteous in his obedience. Grace and peace
is given to us and we're born of God by the resurrection of
Christ. But listen to this also in verse four. We were born of
God to an inheritance. We're heirs of God, an heir. That means that everything, you
know what it's like to be an heir. When your parents, normally this
is what happens, when your parents die, they leave what they had
to their children, don't they? Remember the prodigal son? He
said, Father, give to me that which is mine. And his father
said, OK. He divided his living to his
sons. And he gave to that prodigal
son. Here's yours. And then he went out and wasted
it. So we have an inheritance because we are what? Children
of God. Children of God. We're heirs
of God, just like Christ is an heir of God. He receives all
that is the Father's. All that is the Father's, according
to Christ, he says, is mine. But it's not just his for himself,
it's his for himself with his church. And this is what boggles
the mind. Look at Ephesians chapter one. In Ephesians chapter one, this
inheritance, it's beyond our ability to fully comprehend. We can only partially understand
it now by faith. But in Ephesians chapter one,
it says, There's a prayer given by the apostle in this letter
to the Ephesians. He says in verse 16, notice,
I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in
my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of him. That sounds just like 1 Peter
1, 2, doesn't it? God the Father gives us the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of Christ. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his
calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints. Now, this is phenomenal that
God considers his people His inheritance. The church is Christ's
inheritance. Verse 19, he goes on in his prayer,
and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us, word who
believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he
wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him
at his own right hand in the heavenly places. Just like in
1 Peter 1.3, we were begotten of God by the resurrection of
Christ, by His almighty power when He raised Christ from the
dead, that same power is given to us now so that we're born
of God and we're given this life, this enlightening of our inheritance,
of God's inheritance in Christ and ours in Him. Now, notice
verse 21. He raised Him from the dead,
set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above
all principality and power. Christ is above all things, and
might, and dominion. He has all power. He has dominion
over everything, and over every name that is named, not only
in this world, but also in that which is to come. Notice, and
God the Father has put all things under His feet. and gave him
to be the head over all things to the church. You see that? Which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all. Now, these words are enough for
us to live the rest of our life on. The Lord Jesus Christ has
a body. It's made up of all of his people.
He himself would be incomplete as Christ without his people. And all of the fullness of Christ
isn't realized without his people. So that they make up all that
he is as Christ, as the Redeemer, with him as one. And therefore
he says, he put all things under his feet and gave him to be the
head over all things to the church. His precious inheritance is his
people, and theirs is him. And he gave all that is his to
them, and they find they're all in him. You see this mutual love
that occurs? This admiration on their part
of their husband, and his love for them as his wife, his bride. It's incredible. So back in 1
Peter 1, verse 4, we were begotten of God, we're made the children
of God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ through His Spirit
to an inheritance incorruptible. Christ rose from the dead, ascended
to heaven, took his place on the throne. What did he do? He
sent his spirit. And what did he send his spirit
to do? To find his sheep. To call them through the preaching
of the gospel. To give them light. To enlighten
them and give them life. To put their faith and hope in
Christ. And that's the work of the resurrection. It's a lively hope, a living
hope. It's not like a dead hope. It's a living hope. Day by day,
we're constantly expecting God to hear us and God to fulfill
his will and promises to us because of Jesus Christ. So this is an
inheritance incorruptible. It's undefiled and it does not
fade away, but it is reserved for you in heaven. There you
have it. And that's just the part of it.
We're gonna have to continue this next time. It goes on and
on. Not only were we saved by the
triune God in verse two, blessed by the Father with this being
born of God by the resurrection of Christ to this lively hope,
this inheritance we're given, which is God's inheritance to
his people and ours in him and his in us. Can't fade away, it's
in heaven. But meanwhile, in this life,
we are kept by the power of God. Now there's a phrase, the power
of God. Limitless power, holy power,
unfailing, unstoppable power of God. Unfrustratable power
of God is the very power. It's a holy power because it's
based on what Christ has done. He will keep his people. All
of them are kept. Not one of them is lost or Christ's
body would be incomplete. He gave his all, therefore God
gives him all things. And if God didn't give him all
things, then he would be short because he gave everything of
himself for his people. Amazing grace. Consider these
things coming from the pen of Peter by the Holy Spirit of God
for the comfort of his suffering people in this world, to direct
them to Christ, ever, ever direct them to Christ, let's pray. Father,
thank you for the work that you have done in our Redeemer, by
your Spirit, in us and for us, giving yourself and your Son
for us. giving him to us by your Spirit,
and directing us back to him with his grace of saving faith,
so that we might see not only that we are raised with him,
born to you by his Spirit, but we've been given this inheritance
that's incomprehensibly large, immeasurable, because it's all
that has been given to Christ with his people, What a blessing. Help us to hold these things
ever in our minds so that we might be enabled to endure the
short and brief and light afflictions of this world, of our mind and
body, and the circumstances of this world, to ever live in hope
of this, the work of Christ for us and His inheritance and ours
in Him. Help us to love as He loved and
to lay our lives down as He laid His life down for the sake of
Your glory and Your people in this kingdom. In Jesus' name
we pray, amen.