on the first two verses. And
there's a reason for that. When the letters were written,
they were written to the people. They were written by the apostles,
by the power of the Holy Spirit and the authority of Christ.
And they were written in these men's personalities and voices. And so there are things that
we see, especially in the writing of Paul, because we have so much, we can
see their personalities come through. And these letters were
intended to be received and then the people of the area would
take those letters, they would read them aloud when they received
them, the whole thing at one time. And then the dialogue and
the discussion and the teaching, the application of those letters
were lifelong. And something that we've done
in the last few hundred years is that we've made exposition
more of a system rather than a service to the church. In other
words, it's very easy, and I've been taught like this in some
ways, in hermeneutical instruction, that's learning how to interpret
and teach text. It's just a fancy word that they
like to use. In some way, you have this point, you do this,
and if you've ever seen some of these guys online, everybody's
doing a YouTube channel now, there's people that do over-the-shoulder
sermon preparation. And you can watch them read the
text, and draw, and circle, and highlight. And for those of you
who were really actively involved in Bible study in the late 80s
and the early 90s, you probably remember inductive Bible study.
We had 75 different colors, and 19 different shades, and even
little template sets, like an architect or a draftsman. And the only thing you could
read in your Bible was what was not highlighted, right? That's
what stood out. And we can find all these interesting
ways and they may help us in a lot of things, but ultimately
God's word has been promised to us in a way that if we just
listen to it and we just hear it in its context that God himself,
God the Spirit, will teach us something and then we will learn
to apply it together in community. And so teaching is both this
verse-by-verse exposition, and it's also the whole nugget. And not just the whole nugget
of what Peter is writing to the church there, to those suffering
saints all over those areas in Asia Minor, but also to us. And
Palestine, actually, is where this was. Also to us, as it's
written for us today, that we may hear it in its context. And
not just in what Peter has written, but what Peter has continued
to write in his second letter. And then in the whole of the
New Testament, in relation to the gospel narratives, all four
of them. And in relation to the whole of the Old Testament books,
which is the promise of God for Christ to his people. And so
we see all of these things, and I just want you to know that
if you notice a difference in the way I am putting this teaching
forward, it is because I'm trying to do the whole, and then as
we move into these things, then unpack it little by little. I'm
going to do the same thing this morning. I'm going to teach the
entirety of verses one through nine, and then over the next
few months, we will unpack significant things inside of this while we
don't lose sight of the whole thing. And we're not in a hurry. We're not in a hurry. There's
no wrong way to teach the Bible unless you come outside the Bible
to teach it. Unless you fail to teach it, unless you fail
to go, you know what, I missed something, or I misspoke, or
this is important. And that is one of the reasons
why being together is vital. God has promised certain blessings
to us that cannot be had. We will not receive them if we're
not together in these chairs. I'm gonna say that again. God
has promised certain blessings, certain gifts, certain empowerment,
certain glories, certain graces that are only possible if we're
sitting together in these chairs, physically. You just can't understand
it unless you're here. And part of that is that as we
relate to one another, we relate in such a way that we relate
to the scripture organically, naturally, and then supernaturally,
not, hey, did you read 1 Peter this week? What'd you think about
the second inflection of chapter three, verse one of that breath? What do you think that breath
means? You know, nonsense, we don't need that, that's a hobby
horse, yeah, we go, we just go to sleep, this is boring. But
grace and peace be multiplied to you. When we're here together,
we then are able to engage in such a way, even briefly, that
we're not even aware in our conscience that God is working through His
Word for our joy and to the benefit of one another and we are ministering
to each other and we don't even know we're doing it. That's the
beauty of how God works. And I'll give you an example
before I get into this text. A year ago, last week, I got online and I said I've
got about five or six minutes of something on my heart and
so I live streamed to YouTube and I talked about God's sovereignty
in suffering because at that particular moment in my life
I was suffering greatly. To the point where I don't even
know what I was trying to accomplish except to work in my head that
which God had shown me through the years, that which I knew
because of the scripture, but I was not able to functionally
apply it to my life because I could not find it. You ever been there?
And I spoke to the camera and after it was all said and done,
it was 22 minutes, and I put it out there and okay, got a
few looks and likes and never thought anything else about it.
That's sort of how I do. And last week, a sister in the Lord
sent me a message that said, I've gotten bad news, bad news
from the doctor with a 15% chance of success. And I'm not upset
about it. And I thought I was in shock,
but I realize now it's because of what you said in this video.
I'm like, I don't remember doing that video. So I listened to
my own voice. And it's uncanny when you hear your voice being
used by God, not only prophetically a year before, but to minister
to you that very moment. That's what we get when we're
together with the saints. And if you want that, you can't
make it happen. You can't make someone love you like that. You
can't finagle it. You can't romance it. You can't
entice it. You can't extort it. You have
to be present. You have to be present physically
and you have to be present emotionally and you have to be present when
you're not able to be present mentally and spiritually. Just
a simple discipline. And for me as a pastor shepherd
of over a quarter century now, I've realized for the first time
that I have no idea what I'm doing. I have no idea what I'm
doing, but I know that God knows what He's doing. So if I'm faithful
to what God has promised, then what's crazy is I don't have
to worry about anything else. I literally don't have to. I
can be burdened by it, but the burden comes to the feet of Christ
and rests like Mary. The flesh that is not led by
the Spirit works and works and works and works and works to
try to make things happen. The Word of God will do something
in you today. The word of God will do something for you in
ways that you can't fathom by being here today. And more importantly,
he will work through you in the life of someone else and you're
not even gonna know that you're doing it. And one day you may
wake up and you may look inside your own soul and lay inside
your bed and realize that what God has done for others through
you, he is doing for you as well. Chapter 1. Peter, an apostle
of Jesus Christ to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion
in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification
of the spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for the sprinkling
with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you. A
doxology. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy,
He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance
that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven
for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for
a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you
rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have
been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness
of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though
it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and
glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have
not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him,
you believe in Him and rejoice with a joy that is inexpressible
and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the
salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the
prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours
searched and inquired very carefully, inquiring what person or time
the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when He predicted
the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was
revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you,
and the things that they have now been announced to you through
those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from
heaven, things into which angels long to look. So you heard my
little introduction. Now you see that it is not extra
biblical. I'm not making this stuff up.
I'm not trying to manipulate you in certain ways to get what
I want to see out of your behavior. I'm showing you what the Bible
teaches, that without their knowing, the prophets spoke of things
that they never would see in their own flesh during their
own lifetimes. And it wasn't even necessarily
just for the people of that day. Yes, in a temporary way, just
like many of the things that we see in the Old Testament histories
and the narratives and the poetries and all of these things, It was
for you. What good is my life? What is
it for? Why am I going through this?
Why am I here? What in the world do I keep on
trying for? Because there is somewhere, someone
in the world today that God is blessing through you. Whether
you know it or will ever know it. And you might say, well I
don't even see people. Are you praying for them? had a brother tell me a couple
of weeks ago that he and his wife labored in the floor in
tears praying for our household. They just felt called upon the
Lord to just pray for us. And they were so caught by the
Spirit that they wept. And I'm thinking, you know, last
week was a really good week inside this old noggin. Perceptions
change when people pray for you. And there's nothing you can do
about it. When we pray for others, their minds are transformed. And all they think is that, I'm
having a better day. Must have got some sleep. It's not about us. It's not about
what we do and how we work and how we mold and model. My entire
life has so many things that I've always done that I thought
were just innate to my character, but they're actually habits of
construction. Habits of things that I wanted
to manifest in the lives of those around me, and I was none the
wiser to know that they were worthless. You do it as a parent, you do
it as a spouse, you do it as an employee, you do it as an
employer, you do it, we do it. We're taught to be careful, to
word it in such a way. And I'm not saying we don't learn
good communication skills and that we are not, you know, we
learn to respond rather than react and some things of that
nature. But I'm gonna tell you right now, beloved, it is something.
There is a huge difference than thinking that the way we do something
is going to cause the greatest effect versus what God can do. And when we spend more time worrying
about how we are going to affect the outcome of what we are going
to say or what we're going to do, we are not resting in the
proper place. I'm not saying we're not mindful
of it. Be mindful of these things. What's that mean? It's a buzzword
now, mindfulness. Please be aware, just don't walk
in a numbness. Have a conscious awareness of
what's happening, of what you're saying, of what you're thinking,
and of what you're feeling. This is a command of the Lord.
To be mindful, to renew our minds, to pay attention. As the scripture
would say, to arrest every thought, hold every thought captive. And
put on the glasses, the filter of the gospel, and filter that
which we think and want and do. and perceive through that lens. It's been joked with me that
I sound a little Pentecostal. I'm okay with that. Because there
is a supernatural sense in which most Christians never live. And God is supernatural. The
Spirit is supernatural. Jesus Christ is both natural
and supernatural. He became the natural. He took
on the natural. Paul in Ephesians talks about,
that's why when I teach Ephesians, I always start out my introduction
with Ephesians 6 and the spiritual warfare of it. I get to the end
because it takes us so long to read the letter in whole. that we'll be bound up and have
an entire structure and system of how we're gonna apply everything
we learn without the knowledge of knowing that we're not gonna
be able to do it because we're in a war that we cannot see and
we're in a battle that we cannot win and we're fighting an enemy
that is not with us. And the victory is ours already
in Christ, you see. but it's not a boogery mojo type
situation. It is literally being able to
rest. The disposition of repentance is having a mind that has changed,
that knows that not only is our salvation effectual and solid
in the person of Christ and His Word, but the outcome of our
daily lives, everything Whether we have hair that goes down the
drain, or whether the sparrows outside fall, or whether we're
sleeping five hours or one hour, or whether we're worried about
things that we can't name, or we know what's on our mind, God
is near and he is ministering to our needs, even when we feel,
and for all intents and purposes, we can see that he's nowhere
to be found. But Peter has something to say
about that. Let's look at it, the whole section
there, verses three through nine. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, it's just a doxology. It's
just a praise. It's just one of these things,
blessed be God. I mean, how often, how often
is that on our minds? How much more is it on our lips?
And I don't mean like walking around just saying, blessed be
the Lord. I mean, you know, we have so many cliches in our culture
that we don't even know what's sincere. I roll my eyes sometimes,
proverbially, when people, you know, the Lord is good type thing,
you know. God bless ya. I mean, it's just like when people
sneeze. I mean, that's what we've relegated the blessedness of
God to, cliche. But my cynicism doesn't erase
the reality that God is blessed. And my attitude, and my bitterness,
whatever it may be, whatever season of my life, or my ill
attitude towards spiritual things, has no bearing on God's awesomeness. Has no bearing on God's love
for me. He doesn't love me less because I refuse to actually
see the spirituality in every aspect of life. He's not sitting
there going, well, you know, I tried to show you I was a blessing,
but oh well, better lucks next time. That doesn't work that
way. God is actively loving us and holding us and embracing
us. This very moment, no matter what you're experiencing, no
matter how spiritually dead you might feel inside, you are alive
in Christ. What did Peter write right before
he said this? May grace and peace be multiplied
to you because of the sprinkling of the blood of Christ in whom
you find obedience to love one another and to love God because
you've been set apart and regenerated by the Spirit. You've been justified
by the Father because He has known you from the beginning.
He has loved you before you were. Before the world began, you were
His. And no matter where you are in all of these cities, no
matter how you're suffering, no matter the fact that you've
lost everything and everyone dear to you, you are God's elect. You are something. You are special. You are an amazing adopted child. My eye is itching like crazy. So that's how Peter can say,
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
there's so much there, and next week I'm gonna start to unpack
some of those amazing depths. So what is it that Peter's getting
at? We know the suffering, we know what's happening here in
all of these areas, we know what is happening to these people.
who their entire life thought that they were elect by bloodline,
that they were special. And then they came to realize
through the gospel that not only was that not what made them special,
that everything that they thought was special about all of their
liturgy, all of their spirituality, all of the way they walked, thought,
talked, prayed, and acted was not special at all. It was just
a sign and a symbol of a temporary picture of an amazing reality,
of a microcosmic kingdom. that was not of this world. And so Peter's like, blessed
be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And here's why
he can say such a thing. According to his great mercy,
he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now let's just
stop for a second. I mean, when we praise God, bless
you Lord, you're so amazing, thank you Father, you're awesome.
What is the typical response? What is that response typically
from? What's the catalyst for such things? It's usually because
we have something going wrong and then that thing turned to
something going right, right? I mean I read in my journals
a lot and sometimes I just cry and pray to the Lord in prayer
for Him to plead with Him about some things and then sometimes
He answers those prayers according to my desires and sometimes He
answers those prayers against my desires but they're all according
to His will and for my good. But I don't go back in. I notice
that I'll go back in sometimes and say, thank you Father, you
answered this prayer. But I've never gone I haven't
found it and I'm not gonna go through everything I've ever
written to try to find it But I just don't remember a time when I've
actually gone back in and journaled About how God answered my prayer
by not answering my prayer and thanking for it But I have examples of that people
in my life who have done that We know it to be true and we
may have been thankful and But it's not so much that we actually
roll around and go, I think I need to go write a poem about that. I think I need to go, I mean,
look at the Psalms. I mean, thank you, God, for not answering my
prayer. Thank you, God, for not, thank
you, God, for turning me over to your enemy. I mean, you don't
see David write that. So we don't get poetic. And oftentimes
we praise God publicly and in our spirit when things have gone
better. But beloved, that's not the context here. Peter and these
people are not praising God because things are better. They're praising God because
He is better, because His promises are better, because His purposes
are better, because Christ is alive. They're praising God because
of what He has done. And that, in and of itself, is
the filter through which we live our lives in the midst of the
hardest times. And let me tell you something,
I'm saying these words and I'm hearing them in my mind and I've
got about four paragraphs ahead in my brain that I've got to
get out before I lose focus. But here's the point that we
need to make sure that you understand. I'm not standing, here's a point
that I need you to understand. I'm not standing here having
perfected this or even applied this in my life correctly. And that needs to be said. I'm
not teaching you what I have perfected, I'm teaching you what
God has promised. And He's promised it to me too. And no matter the emphasis or
the charisma that I may stand before you as an orator and just
project the stuff from a pulpit or from a podium, it's not me. It's not the authority that I
hold. This is not this classiness of stature or stoicism that I
have in a spiritual way. I am fighting this battle just
like you are. And so was Peter. And if you know the outcome of
Peter's life and ministry, what happened to him? He was crucified as a criminal. And the annals of history tell
us that Peter was so offended by the fact, and you know Peter's
zeal, remember we spent the first sermon talking about the zeal
of Peter. Peter was so offended at the fact that he was going
to share in the like death of Christ, he refused it. You will
not crucify me like Jesus, you will turn me upside down so that
I may choke to death but not like my Lord and Savior. I don't
even deserve to hang like he hung. And I have no desire whatsoever
to be like Peter. He's not my role model. Because when the time comes,
I know what James is going to do. He's going to fight. I'm not
going to lay down. I'm just being honest. The Lord
may give us that peace. But I'm not going to stand here
and lie. Yeah, I'm just going to take it. Probably not. But it's very unlikely
that I'll ever have to even worry about that. As generations before
us have never had to worry about that. But this praise Blessed be the
God and Father according to His great mercy. They're praising
God because of His great mercy, His great love, His great kindness,
His great patience, His grace. What has He done in this grace?
We're alive but we're not living. Look at what we're suffering.
Peter says, yes, but you are alive through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ and you have a hope. Oh, what hope is it? I'm halfway done through an article
to publish this week on goal setting. I've never written an
article on goal setting. And I'm sitting there thinking,
you know, what do I want for today and tomorrow, next week,
next year, and for 10 years from now? And I have things that I
want to see. So I'm trying to learn to pivot
my thoughts and my desires. Are they what God would want?
And even if I can't know that, can I subject them to what God
would want? Your will be done, not mine, you see. But when you're in these turmoil,
tumultuous time, when you're in this turmoil, when you're
in this trial, your hope is gone. Why? Because anguish and grief,
it's like one of my children told me yesterday, it's sort
of like a, it's love with nowhere to place it. It's affection with
no focus. Sometimes you don't know where
to land. Where do I point my feet? Where do I reach my hand?
There's nothing there to grab. There's nothing there to walk
on. I'm just stuck. I'm here and there's nothing
there. Have you ever felt that way? I mean, imagine not having a place to
live all of a sudden and being kicked out of everywhere. Imagine losing people. Losing
a foundation. It's hopeless. And that's okay,
it's rational. You'd have a well-reasoned mind
to look at situations like this and go, this is fairly hopeless. And that's why Peter changes
our focus. Blessed be God in His electing love, in His
eternal love. That's something you need to
understand about that idea. It's eternal. He has caused us,
because of His mercy, because of His love, Not in pity, but
in affection. He has caused us to be born again
to a living hope. A living hope. Through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. And if we stop there in the midst
of that sentence, we go, okay, yes, so I'll find hope when I
die. Okay, great. But it still has
the stain of the macabre. And the Christian life is not
supposed to be spent in suicidal ideation. I don't wanna die,
but when I do, it's gonna be great. I mean, that's not, that's
not okay. Well, beloved, I've lived there
a long time in many different seasons, in many different ways.
And I'm sure most of you have too. But Peter reminds us of something.
Christ has been raised from the dead. So the efficacy, that means
the actual workingness, the power of what God has done through
Jesus Christ is effecting a different life. And because of that, it's
effecting a different outlook on life. And beloved, I'm going to tell
you right now, we have habits that have stopped us in our tracks. I started reading a book yesterday
on habits. I don't want to get into that because it's sort of
neuroscience, but just the same, God created this stuff. If we
do the disciplines that he says to do in the Bible, our brains
will recheck. Those ruts inside our brain,
they're not real ruts, they're neurological ruts. Water goes
to the path of least resistance. Habits are because our brains
have wired itself to the path of least resistance. Spiritual
disciplines, when we do them, come with not only restoration
and healing of the mind, and restoration and healing of the
body therein, because if our mind is not well, our body is
not well, and vice versa, but also the mending of our perspective,
the mending of our relationships, the mending of all of these things.
That's why we see people who are not even in Christ, who reject
the very nature of the sublime, I mean of the divine, and the
sublime, all of it, there's a little tongue-in-cheek there, who reject
the very nature of God and live in the sublime and is like, oh,
whatever, these naturalists or humanists. But many of them also
find freedom in this temporal life from the things that most
Christians suffer from because we, who have the power of God,
fail to do the disciplines that are required for us to rest.
Because we're trying to make ourselves rest. It's not that
way. If your hand is blistered, wear
gloves. If your face is red because of
it being slapped, stop hitting yourself. We have a living hope. We have
a living Savior. We have a living God. God is
not far off and He feels that way. He feels that way sometimes so
far that we even question whether or not we've been believing a
lie. And the Spirit of God, through
His Word, challenges that, and we rest anyway. And that's beautiful. But it's not just about us taking
and saying, well, there's hope. Because if our hope is set on
successful life or our little painted picture of
an outcome, our little picket fence of an outcome, or whatever
it is that you think is pure and exciting, we're gonna be
let down. So he says we have a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and we're
born again to this hope. I wanted to preach all of this,
but I don't want to let this pass. We are born again to this
hope. It's not about this restoration
of this messy mess. Because even when it is restored,
right, what happens? And I always use the story of Lazarus who
was brought back from the dead to die again. Job, everything
was restored so that he might lose it all again in death. But we're born again. A new creation. Jesus Christ, the new man inside.
His righteousness. We will share in His glory. That
is the inheritance. That is what we've been given.
That is what we've been promised. That is what we've been made
to be. Jesus doesn't say one day in eternity when everything
is gone and all the stuff has just washed away Then you'll
have the picture of happiness and fulfillment. No, he says
today I Want you to live in this abundance right now now see how
scary what I just said is because I could take this like the world
takes it and really uber spiritual eyes abundance and and then snatch
it into the sublime of nature. Snatch it into the stupidity
of materialism. Snatch it into happiness rather
than resting joy. And what I would do if I taught
that to you is to take your eyes off the imperishable hope and
put it on everything that dies, fades, and rots. And John has
something to say about that in the second chapter of his first
letter. Do not love the world. because the world and everything
in it is passing away. It's okay to have temporal joys,
temporal happiness, temporal pleasures. God gave us the things
of this world that we may have pleasure in it. God gave us each
other that we may have pleasure. God gave us stuff that we may
have pleasure. God gave us drink and food and entertainment that
we may have pleasure unto his name and unto his glory. But
it's not forever. What's forever is an eternal
hope An inheritance that is, listen to these identifiers,
listen to these adjectives, this inheritance that is imperishable. It cannot be lost. It cannot
be spent. It cannot be overused. It cannot
waste away. It cannot rot. It is impossible
for what God has promised to be taken away. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God. Nothing can separate us from
the promises of God. We cannot run from Him. And He
cannot deny us unto Him. For Christ has been raised from
the dead. Therefore, because Christ is
alive, our sins are paid for. And if our sins are paid for,
God is not angry. There is no wrath. There is no
justice. There is no judgment waiting
for us at all. It is, we are free. To receive
the inheritance as children. To receive the glory, to receive
the love, to receive the blessing, to receive the peace, to receive
the hope. And not as unworthy, but as loved, beloved, blessed
children. See yourself through the eyes
of your father. Not through the eyes of Christendom.
Not through the eyes of theological history. Because it is severely
wanting, in my opinion. This is imperishable. It is undefiled. It's not like having a storage
container full of incredible grains and going in there only
to find the rats have come first. It is undefiled that no one can
taint it. Nothing can steal it away. No
one can make it impure. No one's going to create a suffering
element of our inheritance. It is undefiled and it is unfading. It is going nowhere. It is not
being reduced. There is no deflation. There
is no inflation. There is nothing but absolute
riches of glory. And this is us in Christ. And you might say, well, in this
world and in this life, it's very difficult for me because
It is difficult for me. You don't have to explain why
it's difficult. We all know why it's difficult. And I'll tell
you something, and I'm saying this, and some of you may say,
well, I've told you that. Well, I'm just gonna say what I need to say.
Please don't say this again. When someone comes to you and
they're just sometimes opining in the mire, and I'm still trying
to learn this myself, because I like to fix everything. I think most of us men are in
that context. And there's a little hubris in that that we think
we can. And then if we can't, we'll pretend we did and then
it'll fall apart. I thought you fixed this thing.
Well, I didn't. When someone is just sharing,
sometimes we just have to let them share. And they don't need the, it's
going to be okay. God's going to work it out. Don't
worry. You know what don't worry is
like? Stop breathing. Stop blinking. Don't go to sleep. I've been
thinking about that a lot this week. And Peter, you know. All Jesus
wanted him to do was to stay awake. and to be mindful of his
suffering, Jesus' suffering, and intercede on his behalf to
the Father. And they couldn't. It was impossible. Because the body cannot stay
awake when it's had enough. It's not lazy. It's biology. It's physiologically impossible
to stay awake when you have not had enough sleep. There's a point
where you will pass out or die. Or lose your mind. Just so you
know, you don't sleep enough, you will lose your mind. And you won't have enough mind
left to go find the fact that you need to go to bed. and get
some rest. And I'm not talking about just
like bedtime. I mean just rest. Rest from the labor. Rest from
the emotions of it all. Take time out. But it's not in this world, is
it? Look at this next line. It's kept in heaven for you. It's
kept in the abode of God. It's kept in the presence of
God. This is God keeping us. And don't misunderstand this
metaphor about an inheritance that's sitting there waiting
on us. The inheritance is us in glory, being with our Father,
being with one another in celebration of our Father loving us through
Christ Jesus, together standing with Him, shining in His glory. That's why I think there's a
huge necessity to understand the equality of standing of the
priesthood of believer in the presence of God the Father. as
we get over into chapter three. Even in the imagery of the marriage
supper, the Lamb, who is Jesus Christ, the God of glory, is
serving his people. And you might say, well, that's heaven.
But look at what heaven is. We are the ones who are the inheritance
in Christ, we will not perish, we will not be defiled with sin,
and we will not fade away. Because we will be with Christ.
That's why verse 5 has a pronoun there. Who. Not that. Not which. Who? Who by God's power are being
guarded. See God's power is guarding us
for this hope. God's power is guarding us in
this promise. But we don't feel it. We don't
experience it many times because our focus is on our suffering
and Lord have mercy this is me. Rather than on what God has promised.
And that's why I say we're being guarded. That's God guarding,
but we're aware of this guarding, how? Through faith. Through faith. And in this reality that we see,
what we want is salvation, not just from the context of the
spiritual sense, from the wrath of God, we have that, but we
also want salvation from this world. And we have that also. We have that also. Guard it through
faith for salvation, which will be revealed, because it is ready
to be revealed in the last time, in the last day, in the day of
what we have often been told, the day of judgment. But the
day of judgment is not for the believer. The day of judgment
is the day of glory for the believer. And I know all these eschatological
ideologies and all these great seminarians and I respect them
and I appreciate them and all that kind of stuff throughout
history. And I appreciate the systematic way in which they've
unpacked every stinking space between every, well there were
no spaces in the Greek originals because they didn't have time
to write them, but every supposed space in the context of the New
Testament writings and have come to a very fine conclusion about
what will happen at the day of judgment and what will not happen
and who we will be. It does not matter, for there
is nothing for you to fear, and there is no condemnation for
you. And there is no shame. There is nothing that can be
said of you in judgment that will cause you shame. I want
you to hear that, beloved. Oh my Lord, this is not even
on my radar, it just popped into my mind. There is nothing in
the world that you have ever done, thought, or considered,
or seen that will cause you shame at the day of judgment. You will
be naked before the Father and before the Son and before every
person in creation. You will not be ashamed because
everything that could ever be brought against you is settled. Everything. Now let that sit
for a minute. That's power. Verse 6. In this you rejoice. What? Yeah. Don't you feel like
breakdancing right now, sort of? If you can, do it. I don't
care. Just don't be loud. In this you
rejoice, in this it is settled, in this space of peace and grace
multiplied to me right now in this world where every problem
that I had yesterday is still on my plate today and will still
be there when I wake up in the morning. But, I rejoice in that, not this. For those of you who can't see
me, I rejoice in the gospel that I just expounded upon rather
than the problems that I oftentimes get entangled with. And you rejoice. And then Peter
reminds us again, though now for a little while, for a little
while, you know, I mean, when you hear that, what comes to
mind? It's always 2 Corinthians for me. It's always 2 Corinthians. Chapter four. Paul starts to talk about this
treasure in jars of clay. To show the surpassing power
belongs to God and not to us. We're afflicted, but not crushed.
Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken.
Struck down, but we're not destroyed. We carry in the body the death
of Jesus so that we also can manifest the life of Jesus in
our bodies. We who are living right now are
always being handed over to death, being given over to death for
the sake of Christ so that the life of Christ may also be manifested
in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but
life is at work in you. So we have the same spirit of
faith according to what has been written. I believed and so I spoke. We
also believe and so we speak, knowing that he who raised the
Lord from the dead will also raise us with Christ and bring
us into his presence. It is all for your sake. So that
as grace continues to reach more and more people, it may increase
thanksgiving to the glory of God. So because of this, we don't
lose heart. We don't lose heart. Though our outer self is just
like wasting away. Though this life is just, oh,
will it ever end? Our inner self is being renewed
every single day, after day, after day. And this is the text
I was getting to. For this light. affliction, for this momentary
affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond
all comparison. An inheritance that is imperishable,
undefiled, and unfading, kept in you, who by God's power are
being kept by faith. and guarded through faith for
this salvation that will be revealed to you in time. Just hold fast,
oh dear precious children. And now though if necessary you're
going to be grieved by trials, you will. Why? so that God can prove to you,
and there's many, many reasons, but we'll break that down as
we get to that in the weeks to come. Many, many reasons that
this New Testament teaches us that this is necessary, and what
it does for us, and how we identify with the Lord Jesus. And I'll
give you a sort of little preview. Have you ever tried to help someone
emotionally who has gone through something tragically, but you
didn't know how? So all you can do is just sit
like a brick wall dumb with your mouth agape. Oh, I don't know
what to say. And then we try to fix it and we make it worse.
But then we go through it a few years later and then we go, oh.
And then that person comes back and they know exactly what to
say to us because they've been there. Beloved, that's one of
the many facets of what our suffering does in this life. It blesses
others. Just like I told you in the beginning
with that video that I made a year ago. Had no idea what I was trying
to accomplish. Did not even apply it to my life. I just know the despair that
I felt with everything that I had experienced and all of the things
that I was trying to work through. There was only one thing I knew
to do and I thought well I'll just share this. And it was a
year later where God blessed me through it. And blessed many
other people. He did it. But our faith will not perish. That doesn't mean it won't wane.
It doesn't mean it won't get hot and melt and ruin other places.
It doesn't mean that our faith is going to be perfect because
our faith is one of the most imperfect things that ever exist
in the salvation experience of this journey on life. That's
why Paul, when he writes to Timothy, he says, listen, if we're faithless,
he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself. We see the narrative in the Gospels.
I think it's this interior honor. One of the community leaders
said, Lord, help me. I believe, but help me in my
unbelief in the same breath. So you rejoice in this gospel,
you rejoice in this hope, you rejoice in the love of God, you
rejoice in the promises of God, you rejoice in the power of God
in the midst of these trials, which you are going through,
various trials, but they're really short. Understand that. And as
we age, you know how fast a year is? You know how fast a decade
is in my mind now? It's like, oh my goodness, I'm
scared to death of ten years, just pew! What's it going to be like ten
years from now? Some of you know, you're shaking
your head, yeah. Like a year a day. You've been grieved by various
trials. So that, verse 7, the tested genuineness of your faith.
And it's not like we're going to test to see if you believe.
No, it's just testing it. Like our children test our patience.
Our spouses test our patience. Our jobs test our patience. Our
trials test our patience. Our trials put our faith to the
test, and God proves Himself through it. We're not proving
anything to God, He's proving everything to us. You should
write that down and put it on your forehead, so that I can
remember to do it to mine. Even gold, as precious as it
is, when you heat it up enough, it dissipates, it destroys it. It reconditions that matter to
go into a different form. And it's no longer gold. And
that's as far as chemistry is going to go for me. Because gold will perish. But your faith will not. Your
hope will not. It cannot! See? Your inheritance
is imperishable. The love of God is imperishable.
The hope of glory is imperishable. Your faith is imperishable. And
what will happen at the end of the trial is that you will be
found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation,
at the revealing of Christ Jesus. This is at the day where we are
reconciled fully in glorification. It is also right now as we long
and wait. And then it begs the question,
doesn't it? Verses 8 and 9 just really just understands the human
condition. But I can't see Jesus right now.
I'm having a hard time looking. He's not on the earth anymore.
It would have been easier. Was it? Was it easier for the
disciples? Was it easier for those? I mean,
how many hundreds of people followed Christ? How many thousands of
people? Look at just what the narratives teach us of the men
and women and children who followed after Christ as disciples. and
did not have hope when they saw Him. But all of a sudden have a greater
hope when they didn't see Him. So there we go. Though you have
not seen Him. This letter was written somewhere
around 63, 64, 65. In the common era or AD, whichever calendar
you go by. And so, majority of these people
Never seen Christ, never heard Him teach. Never seen Him. Even though you haven't seen
Him, you love Him. Why? Because you've been given the
Spirit of God. You've been shown the love of God in His electing
love, His eternal knowledge of you. the sanctification of the
Spirit, so obedience to Christ and love for the sprinkling of
His blood, you have been made right. May grace and peace be
multiplied to you. You have been granted this change
of mind to believe even when it's unbelievable, even when
you can't believe, you still rest without the cognitive processes
of working through the understanding of what's been happening in your
head. You're just resting and you oftentimes can't even express
it and in that you have joy. You don't see Him now, but you
believe in Him. And in that belief, in that faith,
in that hope, you rejoice. And sometimes we say, but I'm
not able to rejoice. It's okay, you're still rejoicing. And rejoice with a joy that is
inexpressible. And filled with glory, obtaining
the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul. See,
that's supernatural. It's beyond the world, it's beyond
logic, it's beyond reason. It's beyond everything that we
could ever fathom to work on in a functional way in this world,
whether it be psychological or biological, we cannot fathom
that. And beloved, sometimes that joy
is inexpressible. It doesn't come out as happiness.
It comes out as settledness, but it stays inside. And I think
I said this last week, just as like a pre-runner to today. is that it's okay to have an
expressible joy. As Trace said it some, almost
a year ago, it's okay to not be okay. It's okay. And everything that is, beloved,
we have to learn to say it's okay. And we have to learn to
say, I'm okay in where I am. Because God's got me. And there's
a joy in there that settles us filled with glory. What is glory?
Seeing God for all that He is. Knowing Him for everything that
He is. And being with Him in everything that He's promised.
Just to name a few. And sometimes that joy is inexpressible
because we just can't find the words to say it. Where is it with you? Beloved, be settled in this.
This text is power for you. These promises are not an option. These aren't things you have
to grab hold of. These aren't opportunities that God has set
out before the table this morning for you to come up and take.
There is no response necessary. God is not sending out this joy
with an RSVP attached. Because sometimes we say no. I know I do. No. I don't want
to hear the promise. I don't want to see the promise.
I don't want to think of the promise. I don't want to hear from the
Lord. I don't want to hear His word. I don't want to pray. I
don't want anything to do with His people. Be honest about it. Stop posturing
like we're some... I mean, Moses, Peter, the rest
of them, they all had the same attitude. No. I don't want to hear it. that thank God His promises are
not for our taking, they're given to us. But our joy, oh, the settleness
of our spirit is ours in the Spirit, ours in Christ, but how
is our faith strengthened in that? Through the hearing of
the word together, through the taking of the Lord's table together,
through praying and singing, And through ministering, when
we're able, as we're able, God will bring us to this place.
And beloved, what we think we have had and what we oftentimes
wish we still had is nothing in comparison to what we do have
that we can't see yet in Christ, even in this life. We need to
stop trying to make things like they were and just embrace the
fact that God has promised a better tomorrow. even if the circumstances
don't seem possible. Because we have our hope in the
hope of glory. Let's pray. We thank you, Father,
for just the privilege of hearing your word. And Lord, I thank
you for humility, that even when we find it, we get a little arrogant
about it. But Lord, it's not about us and
how we navigate these things that make much of a difference
anyway. It's what you've done in us.
It's what you're doing for us. It's how you're working through
us. So Lord, as we take the table,
as we remember Christ, we also need to remember each other.
And as you've told us in your word that we can't serve you
without serving others. And we can't serve the world
without serving our employer. And we can't serve our employer
without serving our spouse and our children. And we can't serve
the church without truly being a servant in our homes. So, Lord,
let us start with ourselves. As was said last week in the
teaching, Father, serve the one you're with. Love the one that
is with you and before you. That's how we know what you want
from us is who's with us. And so we thank you for that
encouragement and we thank you for Christ. In his name we pray,
amen.