We're going to be in the book
of 1st Peter. I intend to bring a few messages
from this book. I've been reading this book for
some time and wondering about it, whether or not I would begin
to bring some messages from it. So I want to do that beginning
today. And I hope that you will find great comfort in what the
Lord has told us here in this book through the apostle Peter,
according to his will. And hopefully it will be a great
instruction to us as we see here how the context in which God
sent this message to these people and the message itself, okay? Let's ask the Lord to be with
us. Father, we pray that you would open your word to us by
the Lord Jesus Christ, the master, our master and teacher, and by
your spirit, you would guide us to the Lord Jesus Christ,
our savior and our Lord, all of your glory seen in him and
only in him. Help us, Lord, by your grace
to know him. We pray most of all that you
would know us in this saving mercy that we've sung about and
that you've told us from your word the grace of God that is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. In his name we pray, amen. First
Peter chapter 1. Now I want to go through this
at a fairly rapid rate this morning so that we can see the overall
message that is given here. It says in 1 Peter 1, verse 1,
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, so he was sent by Jesus Christ
himself, and he has that authority that he's sent by the Lord of
glory, who sits on the throne of glory. to the strangers scattered
throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. That's the
area of Asia Minor, north of the Mediterranean Sea on the
east. And immediately he speaks to them, not of their relation
to Abraham, although they were mostly Jews that he's speaking
to here, Jews scattered from Jerusalem to the uttermost parts
of the world spoken of here. But he identifies them not by
their heritage through Abraham and their identification to the
nation of Israel as Jews, but their identification to Christ
by God's election. He uses the word elect. Elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Now, if you understand what these
people were experiencing when this book was written to them,
this letter that was written to them, first of all, realize
that Peter was speaking to a large group of people, many churches.
He doesn't speak to one church alone. He doesn't speak to one
nation or character of people alone. He speaks to these people
scattered through all these regions, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they were suffering. This book is about people who
suffered. They suffered greatly because
of the gospel. If you look in chapter one, he
says in verse Five, he says, who are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need
be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations, various
temptations. And if you go on in chapter two,
you'll see the same thing. He says in verse 15, For so is
the will of God that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance
of foolish men. And goes on, he says in verse
19, this is thank worthy if a man for conscience toward God endure
grief, suffering wrongfully. And so you can see that there.
And he goes on in chapter 3, he says in verse 14, if you suffer
for righteousness sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of
their terror. And then in chapter 4, in verse
1, for as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh,
arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he that has
suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. OK, so you can see
this book was written to those who suffer for Christ's sake.
And in this time, the Romans were in charge, and the emperor
of Rome was cruel beyond anything that we've experienced in our
own lives in our modern day. capture Christians, he would
put tar all over them and set them on fire and use them to
light the city where he was the emperor. And he would feed them
to lions, he would capture them and rip them from their families
and do so many things that we can't really imagine how hard
it was for them. And so the question naturally
comes then, what was it that God inspired Peter to write to
these people who were suffering? These people who were suffering
unjustly. There was no cause for their
suffering except the cruel madness of the emperor and the tyrants
they were under in the various countries that they lived in.
It was suffering for Christ's sake. It wasn't suffering for
some evil that they had done, but for Christ's sake. And so
they were suffering for no cause that you could say, well, no,
I deserve a fair trial. You can't do this to me until
you give me my rights. I have inalienable rights after
all. But that isn't seen here. There's
nothing like inalienable rights in the book of Peter, is there,
for the Christian? The believer is trusting Christ,
and no matter what, he's going to suffer for Christ's sake.
And these people suffered in a way that was incomparable to
what we've suffered in our day. We have sufferings from time
to time. Sometimes our body gives us trouble. Most of our affliction
is inward, isn't it? It's from our own sin and the
consequences of that. sorrow, confusion, distress of
mind, depression, all these things, anxiety, they all spring from
our own sin. Sometimes from situations in
the world. But mostly, we don't have this
kind of persecution in our day. So notice here that God is setting
up these people as a monument of those who suffered for Christ's
sake, and he inspires Peter to write to them as such, and the
message that he gives them then, therefore, is not only for those
who suffer so greatly, but for us who suffer much less. If the
message Peter was inspired to preach to them was sufficient
for them, then what message is sufficient for us in all of our
trouble? Don't you sometimes feel at a loss for words for
those who suffer? I do. And Peter found words because
God gave them to him. So notice here. It was written
to those who suffer for Christ's sake. And he exhorts them. He instructs them. He encourages
them. He comforts them. And what does
he do that with? What is that message? Notice,
elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace be multiplied. He points
them to the triune God, doesn't he? God our Father has chosen
us. That's what elect means. We're
chosen by God the Father. According to his foreknowledge,
which is a knowledge he had from eternity, and it didn't depend
on anything outside of himself. Foreknowledge of God is not just
his knowledge of all things throughout all time and eternity that happen,
but it has to do with his special knowledge of his people, because
he doesn't foreknow all. It says in Romans chapter 8 and
verse 29, for whom he did foreknow, then he also did predestinate.
So his foreknowledge has to do with a love God the Father had
from eternity for his people, a love that provided for them. So what did he choose them for?
Well, we see here he chose them to salvation. He chose them,
he chose them to something, which is salvation, and he chose the
way in which he would save them, which is given next. through
sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. And to those, he says, grace
unto you and peace be multiplied. He doesn't say grace and peace
to all men, does he? But he says, grace and peace
to you who are elect of God, who have been given by the Spirit
of God, the operation of the Spirit of God in you, you've
been given to see that Christ, by his obedience and his blood,
has justified you before God. That's what he's saying here.
God the Father chose you. He chose you to salvation. He chose you to a salvation which
would be accomplished by Jesus Christ and given to you, even
though you're dead in sins, through the operations of the Spirit
of God who would illuminate Christ and give you this grace of faith
in Him. And so that's what he says in
verse two. It's all of God. It's all of God. And so the comfort
that Peter gives to suffering believers is what? Their salvation
in God. Their salvation by God that was
accomplished by Christ to his glory and the spirit of God is
teaching us that. Didn't Jesus say in John chapter
15 and verse 26 that when he, the spirit of truth shall come,
he shall testify of me. He shall testify of me. He'll
make known the things of mine to you." And so the work of the
Spirit of God is to reveal Christ to us. So we see that God the
Father chose us to an eternal salvation, that He chose us in
Christ, And he chose us by Christ and made it known to us through
his spirit here. It's all the work of God. We
have no part in verse two. We have no part. We are the objects
of saving grace. And so the message to a suffering
believer who needs to be emboldened and encouraged and given grace
to endure and strengthened in the walk of faith in this life
is his eternal salvation by God. Isn't that it? Now, if that's
sufficient for these believers, what is it about that that's
not enough for us? It's all sufficient. He goes
on in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice, twice now, he's spoken
of God as our Father. These are suffering believers,
and what does he tell them? The God of glory, the God of
glory, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the
God and Father of you. by his choice. Now, in Roman
days, I remember that this was probably the first time that
I had ever heard of it happening in history, a man could adopt
someone who was not his biological son. It wasn't born to him, but
he could adopt someone. And when a man wanted another
young person to be his son, he would choose them to be his son.
But he was never born to that father. But because he chose
them to be his son, he also chose that man, or that boy, however
old he was when he adopted him, to be an heir of his own things. He would give him all that was
his, just like he was his own son. But in the gospel, God the
Father has not only chosen us to be his sons by adoption, but
he has done it by Jesus Christ, who is the only begotten Son
of God. Because by Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, he made
us sons by his redeeming blood, and by his redemption gave us
his spirit to know our sonship. And not only that, but he says
in verse three here, blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, notice, which according to his abundant mercy,
not according to our works, but to his mercy, he has begotten
us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. So now, not only did He choose
us in election, but He birthed us. And a human father can't
do this. He can't choose his sons first
and then give birth to them. But God the Father could. He
chose His people to be His sons. He chose the way they would become
His sons by Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God given to
them. And in that Spirit of God given to them, He would birth
them. He would create them new in Christ, and He would raise
them from the dead spiritually so that they would be His sons,
and He would conform them to the image of His own Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now think about this. Is this
comforting? The God of glory has adopted
us, birthed us by His Spirit, and all of that was made possible
by His own righteousness in the life, the obedience, and death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Peter is saying here.
Our eternal salvation, appointed and ordained by God the Father,
and us chosen by Him to be His sons, and chosen to this salvation
by Jesus Christ, has shed the blood of His Son. in order to
make us his sons and sent his spirit to conform us into the
image of his son as we are given faith in this life to look to
Christ as all in our salvation. And so the message here is wonderful,
isn't it? We're born of God by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. Because Jesus Christ did all
that God required of Him, bearing our sins in submission of obedience
to His Father and in love for His people, God raised Him from
the dead. He justified Him. And He not
only raised Him, but all those for whom He died, those for whom
He stood as surety and paid with the blood, His own blood in sacrifice
to God. And so this resurrection of Jesus
Christ is not only the foundation, the ground, the basis on which
God righteously gives life to dead sinners, but it's also the
cause of our hope. Because if God, by Jesus Christ,
has raised us to life, and given us this hope of eternal life.
He's telling us here that God's purpose has no end. If it began
in His electing grace, then it will not end until He brings
us to that salvation we were ordained to receive by Jesus
Christ. Eternal salvation and an eternal
glory. So God chose us, He chose the
means by which He would bring us to Himself as sons, which
is by Jesus Christ, and make known to us by His Spirit, and
He chose us to eternal salvation in eternal glory. Look at 1 Peter
5. First Peter chapter 5 and verse
10, he says, but the God of all grace who hath called us unto
his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After you have suffered a while,
make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. So
you can see the context here in this book. It's to suffering
believers scattered throughout the world who believed on the
Lord Jesus Christ, but who now are given grace through the gospel
preached to them again to be encouraged and strengthened and
to be settled and to go on. And so he goes on here. So the
message of the first chapter here is our salvation and the
eternal inheritance God has chosen us to and purchased for us. Look
at verse four. We were given this, we were born
again or begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. And verse four, he says, to an
inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you. This is what's given to the heirs
of God the Father, an eternal inheritance that's incorruptible,
that does not fade away, that's undefiled, and it's reserved
for you in heaven. It's going to be given to you.
It's yours, but you won't realize that, you won't experience the
inheritance until it's given to you in God the Father's good
time, which we'll see here in a minute. Now, until then, until
that inheritance is fully given to you, notice verse 5. What's
happening to these suffering believers who are being reminded
of their salvation by God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit? What are they told? Not only
are you heirs of God, you are predestinated for glory, you're
raised from the dead by Jesus Christ, given this hope of eternal
life and eternal glory, this eternal inheritance, but in the
meantime, what's happening? In all of the sufferings, in
the trials of your life, he says in verse 5, who are kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. So the salvation has a culmination. It has a time where we're going
to receive it, and it's going to be the full salvation, the
experience of what God has been speaking of, these eternal inheritance,
eternal life with Christ in glory. And it's going to be in the last
time. When will we receive it? In the last time. It will be
revealed in the last time. But what's happening until then?
We're suffering. And how are we kept then through
the suffering? Isn't it possible that one of
God's people would fall away because the sufferings are too
great? No. Because we're not kept by our own power. We're
kept by the power of God. The God who chose us and redeemed
us by the precious blood of His Son and sent His Spirit to us
to know it, That God, also consistent with His eternal plan and His
unchanging nature and purpose, gives all of His power to keep
us. And the way that He does this
is by grace, because it is through faith. It is not through our
works that we're kept. It is through faith. unto salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time. Okay? Now, notice in verse
six. So here we are, suffering believers
being told again of the great salvation in Christ by God the
Father for us. Verse six. We're in, we're in
what? We're in this great salvation,
this eternal inheritance. We're in you greatly rejoice.
We greatly rejoice in God our Savior in Christ. Though now,
for a season if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold
temptations." Temptations doesn't mean temptations to sin, it means
trials. God's sending trouble in our
lives, and in this case through persecution, in order to do something. Notice here, even though we do
not yet have the eternal inheritance God has promised to us, In our
experience we have it by faith So we're kept by the power of
God through that faith and to that salvation which will be
revealed in the last time But now even though we suffer he
says we have this these two things going on you greatly rejoice
But you are also in heaviness through manifold temptations,
isn't that amazing? How can you both be happy and
be troubled? because that's the nature of
faith. Faith sees what God has done,
is persuaded of it, and faith believes God's word in spite
of all the evidence to the contrary. In our experience, we think things
ought to be well and easy. They are well with our soul,
but they may not seem well in our everyday life. Even while
we were driving to church this morning, we were delayed by an
accident. Things happen. And why do they
happen? Because it's God's will to bring
various trouble into our life in order that, notice verse 7,
that the trial of your faith being much more precious than
of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might
be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is coming again.
He is going to appear. And when He appears, the faith
that God has kept by His power, that faith He has kept alive
in us by His Spirit, the power of God in us, keeping us looking
to Christ, that faith and God's power toward us will be glorified. God will be glorified in our
salvation. And it will be found to the praise
and honor and glory of Jesus Christ at His coming. And we
also will receive that glory that God has given to us because
of Christ. See, though, in these first few
verses our salvation in the midst of trial, God's Word to us and
His Spirit to us upholding us, which is the way that we're going
to survive in this world. How are we going to endure in
faith? By the power of God. Why is God's
power deployed for us? Because He purposed to do so
by Jesus Christ from before the foundations of the world. And
since God purposed to do it then, he's not going to fail to bring
it to its consummation. He will accomplish our full salvation. Okay, so that's the first part
here. And notice that in verse 8, he
says, whom having not seen Jesus Christ, whom having not seen
you love, in whom though now you see him not, yet believing
you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. See, that's
what faith does. God's power exerted in our lives
enables us to believe Christ. And in believing Christ, what
do we do? We haven't seen Him, yet we love Him. And we even
rejoice with joy unspeakable in anticipation of the fulfillment
of His promises towards us to conform us to the image of His
Son and to bring us to Him that we might see Christ in His glory.
And when we see Him, we will be like Him. Isn't that amazing? That we will have the same, we
will know the truth even as we're known, we will see Christ as
he is, and we will be made like his glorious resurrected body
in our body. Amazing grace. Now, so he says,
through all the trouble, through all the trouble, though we don't
see Christ now, yet we believe him, in verse nine, you receive
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, because
that's what this is about, isn't it? What's the most important
thing in your life? What is it? Isn't it the salvation
of your soul? What is the one thing you need
to have an answer to in your life today? How is God going
to save me? Is He going to save me? Isn't
that it? Isn't that why we go to the Lord
in prayer? Lord, save me. How are you going
to save me? How do you save me? That's what
we've been talking about here. God does the saving. He does
it when it's impossible for us, and He does it by Jesus Christ.
He gets all the glory because He does all of the saving. And
so we're kept by this faith and the end of this faith, the result
of this faith, the consummation of it is our eternal salvation. And that salvation, he says in
verse 10, was prophesied in the Old Testament by the prophets.
And what is the message of those prophets? It says in verse 11.
They were searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit
of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
What was the message of the prophets? Christ from heaven coming to
earth, suffering for our sins, rising from the dead, going back
to glory, reigning and saving us by His almighty power. That's
the message of the gospel. The one man crucified sits on
heaven's throne, and he himself, by his will, accomplished our
salvation and gives it to us. Nothing can separate us from
his love. Even our own sin won't do that because, as the apostle
Paul said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Now, what's the next thing here in this book? Not
only has he been talking about our salvation and all the privileges
and the eternal blessings that God the Father has bestowed upon
us out of his own free grace, but notice in verse 13, he says,
wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind. You know what you
would do when you're getting out of bed in the morning? You
put your pants on, don't you? You get yourself ready. You get
your clothes on. So he says, that's what you need
to do. In your mind, gird up. Put on these things that God
has given to us. Be sober and hope to the end
for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus
Christ. When is that? It's the end of
time. Christ will be revealed from heaven at the end of time.
God's grace to his people will be fully revealed then and brought
to them. And notice in verse 14, given
all of this, what does he say to us? As obedient children,
as obedient children. God the Father is speaking to
all of his children through this epistle. And what does he say
to them? as obedient children do these things. Do not fashion
yourselves according to the former lust and your ignorance, but
as he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner
of conversation. As it is written, because it
is written, be ye holy for I am holy. In other words, we are
to follow the Lord Jesus Christ as dear children. Look at Ephesians
chapter five. We don't have to make this complicated.
Ephesians chapter 5, he says this in verse 1. Ephesians 5,
1. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children. Following our Father. How do
we follow our Father? By following the Lord Jesus Christ,
our elder brother, who is our master and teacher. Isn't that
what faith does? It causes the sheep to follow
Christ. We hear His voice. We follow
Him. We believe Him. He's all of our
salvation. We rely on His grace to save
us to the uttermost. We're constantly calling upon
Him, not only for grace that sin might not have dominion over
us, but for grace to endure patiently in all the trials of life, that
we might honor God's will for us Like Jesus prayed, thy will
be done, and that we are to pray, our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. As dear
children, we're following the word of our Father given to us
through Christ, who is our Savior and our Lord, as dear children. This is why it's so important
that we, in this life, learn to obey our parents. Because
as we experience the God-given delegated authority of our parents
in this life, who in love correct us and cause us to walk in the
right way. That's what parents do. They
cause their children to go the right way. So the children learn
that they do it out of love, and they learn that reverential
fear of their parents that they're arrested in their behavior and
they're caused to pay attention and be sober in their minds as
they listen to what their parents tell them to do. and tell them
of the truth of the way things are. They learn about the world
through their parents. They learn about God. And this
is what God the Father does only on a much greater scale. He sets
before us His eternal will to save us from our sins by His
Son Jesus Christ. How He sent His Spirit when we
were dead in our sins to make Christ known to us. And then
how even in this life we suffer, and he upholds us by faith in
Christ, and it's his power that does so, so that when one day
we will receive the full inheritance he's given to us as his sons
by Jesus Christ, when Christ comes and he is revealed, and
we will be revealed with him. Now he's telling us all that,
and he says, therefore, he says in verse 14, as obedient children. Do you see it? as obedient children. Don't follow those things that
you did or thought or believed before you knew Christ. Follow
Him now. Look at chapter 2 and verse 25. Chapter 2 of the same book, 1
Peter, chapter 2 verse 25. You were as sheep going astray.
Isn't that what we were? What happened? But you are now
returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. Follow
Him. Follow the Lord. Follow the Lord
Jesus Christ, our shepherd. When you do so, you're following
Him who is holy. What we do in our life doesn't
establish our holiness before God. We can't be something we
are not. But God has given us holiness
in the blood of Christ before him, and he gave us his spirit,
which in Ephesians 4.24, our spirit is created in righteousness
and true holiness. But in our outward behavior,
in what we say and what we do, the pursuit of our life ought
to be following Christ. as obedient children. So he says,
as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former
lust in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy,
so be ye holy, consecrated to God. in all manner of conversation,
because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. And if you
call on the Father, verse 17, 1 Peter 1, 17, if you call on
the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to
every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.
That's what God's correction and discipline does to us. We're
not here to live for ourselves. We are not here to accumulate
wealth and to put ourselves at ease. We're here to follow Christ,
to be conformed to his image. And this is done through the
revelation of God's salvation and eternal will for us as our
father who has adopted us and birthed us and given us an eternal
inheritance by Jesus Christ and made us his sons. What could
surpass this? And this is the way we're upheld
even in the worst of sufferings. And he goes on, he says, For
as much as you know, you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation. That's
the way you live your life. It was vanity, which you received
by tradition from your fathers on earth. But with the precious
blood of Christ, you were redeemed as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you through
the gospel. You see, who by Him, by Christ,
do believe in God, that raised Him from the dead and gave Him
glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Okay? Christ was risen from the dead. He shed His blood. He accomplished
our salvation. We are redeemed with an eternal
redemption. And that redemption, in that
redeeming work by Him, we're given faith in God through Him,
faith in Christ. Okay, seeing, verse 22, you have
purified your souls and obeying the truth, that obedience of
faith in Christ through the spirit, because we can't believe without
the spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren, because the
work of faith is to love God and love his people, see that
you love one another with a pure heart fervently. Do you see how
instructive this is? From the Father, here he has
all of his people gathered around him, and he's speaking to them
by Jesus Christ, who spoke to Peter, the apostle, and gives
it to us here by the inspiration of the Spirit of God. And he
says, Now, you were not redeemed by corruptible things. You were
redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. God foreordained Him
before the foundation of the world for you. And in these last
times, He was made known. He was revealed and He shed His
blood. In His obedience, you are justified. Now by Him, you
believe in God and your souls have been purified in obeying
the truth because you've been born again, verse 23, not of
corruptible seed, not of your fathers, but of the Spirit of
God. but of incorruptible, and he did it by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers,
the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endures
forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached
to you." What is the word of God? How do we know it? through
the gospel. And how is it preached to us?
By preachers. How are they sent? God sent them,
the Lord Jesus Christ. But how do they preach in such
a way that we can hear it and believe it? The Spirit of God
is given to them. See in verse 12, 1 Peter 1 verse
12, unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, But
unto us they did minister the things which are now reported
to you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. You see, the preaching of the
gospel is the preaching of Christ and him crucified by men who
are given the ability to do so by the Holy Spirit of God to
preach the gospel to the salvation of your souls. Do you see how
dependent we are on God? on Christ, on His Spirit, on
the preaching of the gospel. How it not only saves us, this
is God's way, He elected us to this salvation through this way,
but also because it upholds us in sufferings, keeps us on track
by the power of God. Now, in chapter 2, he's going
to describe in the first nine verses here how we've been set
apart. How we've been set apart as newborn
babes, therefore we are to desire the sincere milk of the word. And then he says in verse 3,
if so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. What have
we tasted? God is gracious. to sinners,
because He saved me from my sins." Notice he says, Christ was chosen,
in verse 4, to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed
indeed of men, but chosen of God. God not only elected us,
but He elected us in the choice of Christ as our Savior, our
surety, our Redeemer. And then he talks about the building.
In the Old Testament, there was a temple. In the New Testament,
it's revealed that the temple are the people of God who are
indwelt by the Spirit of God. And so then he goes on, look
at verse 11, chapter 2, verse 11. Dearly beloved, I beseech
you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which
war against the soul. having your conversation honest
among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak evil against you,
or they speak against you as evildoers, you may by your good
works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation."
Now, he's about to launch into a whole other avenue here. Not
only have we been saved by grace, but something else. God has given
us a life to live, a life of faith in Christ. And he says,
in living this life, We are to have our behavior, our conversation
in such a way that amongst the people we live, we live honestly. And he says that that way, though
they speak against you as evildoers, they'll see what you do. They'll
see the way that you behave, and they will have to glorify
God when the Lord returns. Yeah, the testimony of their
life was such that it was consistent with the message that God had
saved them from their sins. They trusted Christ. It was God's
power that faith in Christ enabled them to maintain, to continue
in the faith. And in continuing in the faith,
they continued in the love that results from faith, the love
of the brethren and the love for Christ. As dear children,
they were obedient to God through that faith. Now notice, how does
God preach the gospel? Not only through preaching, but
through something else. See what he says here, verse
13. All right, they speak against you as evildoers, and yet in
trusting Christ, you're just submitting yourself. You're not standing up and saying,
you know, to heck with authority. I'm going to live my life the
way I want to. No one can tell me what to do. That's not being
an obedient child of God, is it? So he says this. And notice
that this message of submission now goes through the whole rest
of the book. Look at Chapter 3, verse 1. Likewise, you wives be in subjection
to your own husbands. Look at chapter 1. I should have
read a little bit further. Verse 16. As free, because you
are free in Christ, yet not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness,
but as the servants of God. You're free, that's true, but
you're willing servants to Christ and to God, aren't you? Because
you are willing servants to Christ and to God, then they can't speak
evil against you. He serves the Lord. He serves
Christ. His master is the Lord of glory. I know, as an unbeliever, I refuse
to submit to Him, but He does. That's God's grace evident in
his life, God working that will. So we submit to God, we submit
to Christ as our master, we honor all men, verse 17, we love the
brother, we fear God, we honor the king. And servants, he says
in verse 18, be subject to your own masters with all fear, not
only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. This
is thankworthy. If a man for conscience toward
God endure grief, suffering wrongfully, This is something that God has
ordained, and God gets glory from this by upholding our faith
as we suffer, giving glory to God. How does this give glory
to God? Well, in one way, in the main way, it's because Christ
suffered for us. And in our sufferings, in submission
to the will of God, what happens? God speaks through that, and
he brings power, he brings The word I'm looking for is he
brings a point to his word, not only through what we say, but
through our submission to Christ in our lives. And in doing this,
the gospel is carried forward. Notice chapter 3. He says, likewise
you wives be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any
obey not the word, they may also without the word be won by the
conversation of their wives. Conversation doesn't mean talking,
it means what you're doing. So the wife, in submission to
Christ, in faith in Christ, not trying to be the teaching authority
in her family, but by submitting in trust to Christ, submitting
to her husband, by that God is saying the husband may be won
by that behavior of his wife. And this is exactly what happened
in our own case. Christ suffered for us. The master
took the place of a servant. He bore our sins, and he suffered
for our sins to save us from our sins. And so as believers,
we're called to suffer for the sake of the gospel for those
to whom the gospel comes, to the glory of God and for the
work of the gospel. Now, you can read about this
throughout the rest of this, but notice in verse eight, chapter
three, verse eight, finally, be ye all of one mind, having
compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful and be
courteous, not rendering evil for evil, railing for railing. This is what we would do by nature,
but contrary wise blessing, knowing that you are there unto call
that you should inherit a blessing. Okay? So we see the theme of
suffering here. We suffer by the will of God.
We suffer for Christ's sake. We suffer in following Christ.
And that suffering and submission to the will of God is the way
by which God makes the gospel effective to those who hear it
when we speak. Then, if you go on in chapter
four, it's more of the same, and it goes on further, and being
reproached, he says in verse 14, if you be reproached for
the name of Christ, happy are ye. Then in Chapter 5, what happens? In Chapter 5, he speaks to those
who are given the stewardship of the gospel to the churches
of God. They're called elders. The elders
which are among you, I exhort whom also an elder and a witness
of the sufferings of Christ. See, that's what elders do. They
witness the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory
that shall be revealed. He tells them this, feed the
flock of God. That's your job. Your job is
not to run the finances. It's to open the word of the
gospel of Christ for the salvation and the edification of the body
of Christ. Don't be lords over them. Verse
three, remember, Not taking the lordship, but as examples, as
someone who is on the bottom of the boat, rowing. That's what
you're supposed to be, a servant. And when the chief shepherd shall
appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that doesn't fade away.
Notice in verse five, likewise, you younger, submit yourselves
to the elder, yea, all of you be subject one to another and
be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives
grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. And
since you're humbling yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
cast your cares upon him, all of them, because he cares for
you. All right. So you see the book in some kind
of an overview here. It's about suffering believers
submitting to Christ because of the great salvation he has
provided for them according to the will of God. And this is
brought to us by the spirit of God. given to us through this
gift of faith, which is God's gift of grace to us, to see what's
true and to run this race in hope of eternal life and eternal
glory that God has chosen us to. It's not without effort on
our part Enduring sufferings patiently requires everything
that we have, which is faith in Christ. It requires the strength
of the Spirit of God in us. Submitting against our will to
things that seem contrary to us, that humble us, that's exactly
the opposite of what we would want to do by nature, isn't it? But what are we after? the glory
of God and the salvation of our souls and the salvation of the
souls of others. That's what our life is about.
We don't live our life for the 40, 50, 60, 90 years that we
live in this world, even 100, 110. We don't live for that. We live
for Christ. We're strangers and pilgrims.
These people were scattered about. They were strangers from the
Commonwealth of Israel, but they were also strangers because they
had seen that their inheritance was not in this world. They were citizens of heaven.
They belonged to Christ. They were predestined for glory
and they were going to arrive there too. And so they lived
their whole life hanging on the promises of God, drawing from
Christ the salvation he accomplished through faith and drawing from
him the strength to endure all trouble and in all obedience
that God is requiring of us, God requires of us. How much
grace does it take for you to submit to God in obedience? An
infinite amount. You know why? Because we have
no strength to do it. God has to give us a new nature,
and He has to uphold us in that nature by His Spirit. The power
of God has to be exerted in order to give us this grace. So pray
for it. Come to God as obedient children.
Father, I heard you telling us to do this. Give me the grace
to do it through the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who, by
whose work on the cross and whose rule in heaven, I receive all
grace. Go to the throne of grace, boldly,
openly, through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only
reason we fail is because of our unbelief, isn't it? So go
to him for faith. Everything you need is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. May God bless his word to your
heart. Read 1 Peter, read 2 Peter 2, read it and see if the Lord
doesn't speak plainly to you. Peter was a simple man. His words
were powerful in this because he spoke by the Spirit of God.
But notice how powerfully he spoke, elect according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the
Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
You're kept by the power of God. The trial of your faith being
much more precious than of gold that perishes. All these phrases
are the revelation of the truth of God to his people. Let's pray.
Father, thank you for your word and bless it to our hearts as
your dear children, we pray that we would be enabled to be obedient
children, that we would be found obedient and trusting Christ
and that in trusting Christ, we would go at all times to him
to receive the grace we need through your spirit to continue
trusting and believing him and entrusting to live our lives
in submission to your will, knowing that you do all things in order
to conform us to the image of your dear Son, and to bring us
to that eternal inheritance you promised us in Christ to give
to us, and that you will surely give to us, not because of our
own goodness or works in any way, but because of Christ's
faithfulness. We thank you that our salvation
is by the obedience and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, made
known to us through the Spirit of God Himself, according to
the sovereign will of our God who chose us to this eternal
salvation, and therefore we are born of the Spirit of God to
receive what Christ has purchased for us by His precious blood.
What a salvation, what faith this is you've given to us in
such a precious word and promise that you've made known. We pray,
Lord, that we would be sober-minded in this world, that we would
submit to you in all obedience, and that we would be happy to
do so, to follow our Savior as our shepherd. We were going astray
as sheep, going out of the way, but you've brought us to him
through the blood and righteousness of your Son, by the power of
the gospel. In Jesus' name we pray, and for
his glory, amen.