All right, let's look there at
1 Peter 1. Today I want to preach to you
on this subject, Every Believer's Living Hope. Every Believer's
Living Hope. I'm sure that all of you have
at one time or another heard this quotation from the communist
philosopher named Karl Marx. in which he said, religion is
the opium of the masses. In other words, what Marx meant
by that was religion is something people want to believe and they
hope it is true without any firm foundation in reality. You know, hope is a beautiful
thing, isn't it? If it's real, And if it's based
upon a firm foundation, that's why I chose that hymn this morning.
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, laid for our faith
in his excellent word. And for the most part, what Mark
said is true when it comes to man's religion. It is like a,
it's like a psychological drug that people take and hope in
the end, it's true. So many people have a hope that
is no more than wishful thinking, a pipe dream, because it has
no foundation in reality and certainly has no foundation in
God's word. You say, well, I hope I'm saved. Do you say that? I hope that I will die in the
faith and reach glory. I hope all of that. Well, what
is the foundation of your hope? What's that hope built on? My
favorite hymn, I often quote, my hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name, on Christ, the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sand, it's
filthy, it's nothing. Sinking sand. But here's the
point. If we know Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Christ of the Bible, and I'll tell you, we have to
make that distinction now. Everybody today says they believe
in Jesus, but who is Jesus? Who is Jesus Christ? What is
he like? What is the constitution, the
makeup of His person? What did He do on the cross?
What did He accomplish? And my view of Jesus, my view
of Christ, has to conform to this book, the Word of God, if
I'm going to say I have a firm foundation. So if we know Christ
as He's revealed in this book, and as He's revealed by God the
Holy Spirit to the hearts of God's people and the minds of
God's people. If we know the salvation that
God freely gives to His people, freely and fully, and those are
two important words, salvation full and free. Do you really
mean that? By His grace. What is grace? Everybody says grace. through
the Lord Jesus Christ, if that's your hope based upon God's word,
then it's a good hope. A good hope. The Apostle Paul
wrote of that hope in 2 Thessalonians 2 when he was talking about the
great deception of the world in the last days when everyone
would turn to a counterfeit Christ, a counterfeit God. But he says,
but I'm bound to give thanks, brethren, for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel, not man's gospel,
but God's gospel, wherein Christ is revealed in the glory of his
person as the God-man. Christ is revealed in the power
and success of His finished work as the one who saved His people
from their sins. That's how you were called. And
He said, now you comfort each other with this, with this hope.
And it's a good, firm foundation. It's God's Word in Christ. The
writer of Hebrews talked about how it was based upon two immutable
things, God's promise and God's oath. You know what God's promise
is? It's the promise to save sinners
by His grace through this Christ of the Bible. Based upon His
blood alone, based upon His righteousness alone. That's God's promise.
He'll save any and every sinner who comes to Him pleading the
merits of Christ. Knowing that we're sinners and
cannot save ourselves and we have no power. to be recommended
unto God by anything we are, anything we do, or anything we
decide. It's all of grace. And what is
His oath? He swears by Himself, it says
in Hebrews chapter six. In other words, God puts His
reputation, His glory on the line. Do you know that if Jesus
Christ the great shepherd, the good shepherd, the chief shepherd,
who laid his life down for his sheep. If he failed to save even
one of his sheep, God's reputation would be shot. God's glory would
be dismantled. And he's not gonna let that happen.
That's why Christ said, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me, and him that cometh me I will in no wise cast out. Christ
put away our sins. and our sins cannot be charged
to his people. So let me urge you, if you express
any hope at all of salvation and eternal life, of being accepted
with God, get into God's revealed word, the scriptures, to make
sure your hope is true and sure in Christ and not just some psychological
opium to make you feel better as you struggle through this
life. only end up in eternal misery. That's right. That's what I tell our television
audience just about every time. Whatever we say, whatever we
believe, it must be based on God's word. It can't be the opinions
and the ideas of men in false religion. Now the Apostle Peter
speaks here of the sure hope that every true believer has
in Christ based on God's word, and it's a living hope. Now,
the first thing we need to understand in order to enter into this hope
is who is Peter writing to here? To whom is this letter addressed? Look at verse one. It says, Peter,
an apostle of Jesus Christ. So we know who's writing. Well,
now this is God's word. But God, the Holy Spirit, inspired
and used the apostle Peter. You know about Peter, one of
the disciples. And he calls himself an apostle
of Jesus Christ. What is an apostle? It's a messenger.
A delegate. You might say an ambassador.
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 20, we are ambassadors
of Christ as though we did beseech you by Him. Be ye reconciled
to God on the ground of the fact that God made Him sin and made
us the righteousness of God in Him. In other words, I'm not
preaching to you upon my own authority. None of this is true
because I say it. I'm preaching to you upon the
authority of God. You want to check me out? You
need to. It's right here in the Bible. And that's what Peter
said. I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ
and an apostle is one who was sent forth with the message that
he received directly from the Lord. There are no apostles today. There are pastors, there are
elders, there are messengers, witnesses. But here Peter is
writing, look here, to the strangers. That is foreigners, actually.
Aliens, strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia. These were Jewish people who
had been scattered from their own country. They were believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now why were they scattered?
Look over at Acts chapter 8 with me. You remember in Jerusalem, after
Pentecost, Peter preached that great message and then it went
on and then we see Stephen standing up in Acts 7 preaching a message
and he was stoned. It says in Acts chapter eight
and verse one, and Saul, now you know who Saul is, that's
the one that we call Paul. He was consenting unto Stephen's
death. He was right in agreement, kill
that guy. He didn't say what we wanted
to hear. And at that time there was a great persecution against
the church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles.
Peter and James and John, they remained in Jerusalem. But other
believers were scattered throughout, dispersed, they say. Verse two
says, and devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made
great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of
the church. He went after believers. Entering into every house and
hailing men, and women committed them to prison. He had them bound,
arrested, and taken to prison. And verse four, it says, therefore
they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the
word. Now that's the ones to whom Peter's
writing. We'll go back to first Peter.
Those who are scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, Bithynia. And they began preaching the
word all over the Gentile world. And God raised up churches. He
did many of those churches through the very man that was instrumental
in the scattering of this bunch. Think about that. Saul. You remember about the conversion
of Saul in Acts chapter 9. Saul who was a great hater of
Jesus of Nazareth and that message of the gospel. God brought that
man down. and saved him from his sins and
revealed himself to him and made him one of the greatest preachers
that ever walked the earth. One who was used instrumentally
by God to raise up so many churches and in writing the human instrument,
in writing over half the New Testament. Think about that. And Peter's writing to these
strangers that were scattered throughout. But Peter's not speaking
of all Jews, Without exception, he's talking to believers here.
Now he attributes to the work of all three persons of the Godhead.
Look at the next verse. Verse two. Who's Peter writing
to? He's writing to the elect. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father. That's the chosen ones. Some people try to ridicule that. They say, well you think you're
one of the chosen few. The only thing I know is what
God's Word says. And whoever Peter's writing to
here, he calls them elect according to the foreknowledge of God.
And that word foreknowledge is foreordination. It's predestination. It's not just a prior knowledge
of something that's given. As I said this morning, God is
not some crystal ball gazer who's just viewing future events and
either cannot or will not change those events. He's not some cosmic
janitor. We go in our lives messing up
things and He comes by sweeping up the mess and making it right.
No. He's the God of predestination. He's the God of foreordination. The Bible says that He chose
a people before the foundation of the world, and He gave them
to His Son. Made His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the surety of those people. All of their salvation conditioned
on Christ. Meant to be fulfilled in Christ. And this is the source and cause
of salvation. It's all of grace. Paul writes
in Romans 11 that this is the election according to grace.
It's not God looking down through a telescope of time and foreseeing
what you would do or what you would decide. It's God in His
sovereignty, having mercy on whom He will, being gracious
to whom He will. He said, it's not of Him that
runneth, nor of Him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy.
What are we to do with that? We're to bow to it. We're to
believe it. And we're to beg God for mercy.
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That's what I am. And look on,
he says, this elect, how do you know these are elect? He says,
through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. That's the fruit and result of
salvation. That's the new birth. This sanctification
of the Spirit is being set apart by the Holy Spirit under the
preaching of the Gospel where He gives life to the dead and
brings us to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works. That's our calling, Peter says.
In 2 Peter, he says, give diligence to make your calling and election
sure. What does that mean? Our calling
comes before our election? No, our calling is the first
evidence of our election. The ground and foundation of
salvation is what? The righteousness of God, established
by the death of Christ and evidence by his resurrection from the
dead. and therefore from him we have life from the dead. So
it's evident that Peter is writing to believers in Christ. He says,
grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Grace and peace, saved by grace,
which reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord, and at peace with God because of the blood of his cross.
And he says, may it be multiplied. Much abound in our lives. That's
what we need every day, grace, mercy, peace with God. The peace that passes understanding. Yes, they say, make your peace
with God. Oh, somebody beat you to it.
His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our election unto salvation by
God is known by our calling by the Holy Spirit and the faith
in Christ where he brings us to plead the blood. That's why
he calls it the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus
Christ. What he's talking about there is the application of the
reality and truth of the blood of Christ to our hearts, our
consciences, our minds. Paul wrote, or the writer, I
believe, you know, when I say that, I believe Paul was the
human instrument that wrote Hebrews, but not a lot of scholars agree
with that, but it doesn't matter, this is God's word. But look
over at Hebrews chapter 10. Here's what Peter's talking about
here, when he talks about the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus
Christ. What does he mean? How is that
blood sprinkled on us? Well, here's how, look at verse,
verse, 17 of Hebrews chapter 10. The Lord is speaking about
the death of Christ, which put away all the sins of all of his
chosen people. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified, set apart. And he says in verse
17, he says, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no
more. What does that mean? Well, that means God will not
hold a record of them. He will not hold them against
us. He knows our sins. He knows our thoughts. But they're
not charged to us. They're not imputed. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. It's Christ that died. We have
his righteousness imputed to us. And we stand in him. So he
says in verse 18, now where remission, forgiveness, a pardon of these
is, there's no more offering for sin. You know what he's saying
there, don't you? If Christ died for my sins, there's
nothing else I can offer to help that. I don't need to fill in
any gap. There is no gap. People today
say Christ died for everybody, and it's no good for you unless
you fill in the gap, or seal the deal, or make the right decision. Oh no. We're remissioning, we're
forgiveness of sins, we're pardon of sin is, and it is in the blood
of Christ, There's no more offering. There's nothing I can offer.
Nothing you can offer. That's it. That's completeness.
And he says in verse 19, now listen to this, having therefore,
brethren, boldness, confidence, liberty, to enter in the holiest,
the very presence of God, by the blood of Jesus. By a new
and living way. We're talking about a living
hope. which Christ hath consecrated, made new for us as our surety,
our substitute, our redeemer. Through the veil, that is to
say His flesh, He, God in human flesh, died on that cross to
make the way. And having an high priest over
the house of God. Now look at verse 22. Let us
draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, God-given
faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and
our bodies washed with pure water. That's what Peter's talking about
over here when he says, he says, through sanctification of the
Spirit, being set apart by the Spirit in the new birth, unto
obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. That's
when God gives faith to believe in Christ, to rest in Christ,
to plead His blood, His righteousness. as our only acceptance before
God. Well, secondly, of what is Peter
writing? What's his subject? Well, he's
saying this. Every believer's living hope
and the foundation of that hope has these things in mind. Number
one, our hope is not in ourselves. It's not in ourselves. It's not
in our works. It's not in our power. It's not
in our goodness. We have none. It's not even in
our faith as far as our believing. It's not in our walk. It's not
in our purpose. Our hope is in Christ. Our hope is in His blood. Our
hope is in His righteousness. And that's what he says here.
Look at verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The good hope of salvation and
eternal life is not believe in yourself. It's believe in God
as He reveals Himself in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ's
person. You see, this thing is not about
who we are. We're nothing. We're sinners. We don't have anything to boast
in or brag about in ourselves. This thing is about who Christ
is. And who is He? His name shall be called Emmanuel. God with us. He's the Word made
flesh. He's the Lord of lords, the King
of kings. He's the Lord our righteousness.
He's the Savior, the Redeemer, the one mediator between God
and man. We could go for days From Genesis
to Revelation, talking about who He is. It's not about who we are. And
then it's about His works. His merits. What He has done. It's not about, let me tell you
what I've done. Or what I'm trying to do for
God. It's about what Christ did for
us on the cross in putting away our sins. in establishing all
the righteousness that we need in order to be justified, forgiven,
and declared righteous in God's sight. That's what this is about. Who is he? What did he do? Why did he do it? Where is he
now? And it's according to his abundant
mercy that he's begotten us again unto a living hope. Look at that
in verse three. Jesus Christ, which according
to His abundant, His much mercy. Is there enough mercy for God's
people? Oh, there's more than enough.
Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And hath begotten
us again, that's the new birth, unto a lively or a living hope
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. You see, we serve a living Savior. I'll give you just a little preview
of next week's Bible study in Exodus about the burning bush. You remember when Moses was first
called up to Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai is really what it was.
And God, Christ revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush
and the bush burned with fire, but it was not consumed. And
that's a picture of our Lord on the cross. being burned with
the fire of His Father's wrath in the place of His people for
our sins imputed to Him. And He did die. He really died. He was buried. But what happened? He arose again the third day.
He was not completely consumed. He lives. We serve a living Savior. And He is our hope. A living
hope. The Bible calls it the hope of
life. the hope of glory, the hope of righteousness by faith. Oh, it's such a hope. And listen
to what he says. It's the assurance of eternal
life and all the blessings and benefits of eternal life that
are made sure in our surety, the Lord Jesus Christ, based
upon His righteousness. And let me show you what he says
about this. It's an inheritance, verse four, to an inheritance. That means we didn't earn it.
And what it means in our situation is we don't deserve it. This
is something somebody else worked for and died in order to bequeath
it to us. That's what Christ did. But now
look at it. It's an inheritance, incorruptible,
undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for
us." Have you ever heard stories about supposed rich men or women
dying? And all their heirs come to the
reading of the will only to find out that they had squandered
all the money and there was nothing left. Nothing but debts left. Ever heard anything like that?
I have. That can't happen with us in the Kingdom of God. You see, our inheritance. What
is? It's the inheritance of God's grace. It's the inheritance of
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It's
salvation and everything that comes with it that we don't earn
and cannot deserve. It's an inheritance. It's grace
given. And it's incorruptible. It's
incorruptible. It can't change. It can't turn
out bad. And it's undefiled. Our sins
cannot mar it. Our sins cannot turn it bad,
spoil it. Because our sins are as far from
God as the East is from the West. Think about that. The sins that
I fell in Adam, I was born dead in trespasses and sins. I come
forth from the womb, speaking lie. I sinned every day of my
life, and the sins that I've committed this morning, the sins
I'll commit the rest of my life, they've all been put away. They've
all been dealt with. Jesus paid it all. The price
of His blood. So it's undefiled. We can't defile
it. Think about the robe of His perfect
righteousness that's imputed to us for our justification.
We didn't make it. We didn't sow one thread of it. We didn't contribute to it. And
we can't defile it. We can't dirty it up. When the
Holy Spirit comes to us and sets us apart in the new birth, what
does He say? Take away the filthy rags of
your own works, your own righteousness, and give them a change of raiment.
You remember that in Zechariah 3? Put a new robe on Him. That's the application in our
minds of the righteousness which God has already imputed to us.
And that can't be defiled. And look on, it says that fadeth
not away. Age cannot touch this. Wear and
tear cannot do it. This is a robe of righteousness. This is a salvation. This is
an inheritance that cannot be diminished by time. It's eternal. Because our Savior is eternal.
He's Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, forever. And then look
on, it's reserved in heaven for us. We have a reservation. I've
made reservations in hotels before and I show up and give them my
reservation number and they say, we must have lost your reservation. We can't find your reservation.
And the hotel's filled up. Well, that can't happen here.
It won't happen. It's reserved in heaven for us.
And where does it reside where it's reserved? In Jesus Christ. He is our intercessor. He is
our mediator. He's the Lord our righteousness.
And then, now, on our side of the issue, listen to this. Now,
it's an inheritance. It can't be It's undefiled and
does not fade away, it's reserved. But look here, on our side of
it, as far as God dealing with us personally, look at verse
five. Who are kept by the power of God through faith and salvation.
And ready to be revealed in the last time. There's two things
here said about us. Number one, we're kept. We're
preserved. Somebody said, well, you can
be saved, but now if you don't do this or do that, you can lose
it. No, sir. Not according to this. We're a kept people. Paul wrote,
for I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. And what have I committed unto Him? Well, if I've been
set apart by the Spirit through faith in His blood, that the
blood's been sprinkled on my heart, my mind, my affections,
and will, think about it. I'm kept by the power of God, not through
my own power. Aren't you glad? Through faith, God-given faith,
by looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. What
have I committed unto Him? My whole salvation's committed
to Christ. None of it's committed to me.
You say, well, preacher, aren't you committed? I'm committed
to look to Him and Him alone. To cling to Him for dear life.
But not only are we kept and preserved, you know, that's what
Christ said about His sheep. He said, I won't let them go. We're preserved. Sometimes we lose sight of that,
don't we? We think, Lord, how in the world
could you save a sinner like me? Well, what happens when that
happens? By the Word of God, the Spirit
brings us back to show us how great our Savior is, how powerful
He is. But not only are we kept, see
that word ready? That means prepared. Talking
to a fellow last week about some reformed church that he was going
to. And he said, the pastor talks
about salvation by sovereign grace, but when he gets into
speaking about sanctification, He speaks about it as if it's
a cooperative effort between God and the sinner to get the
sinner ready for heaven. Now that might sound good on
the surface. But my friend, it's not good
at all. We're ready now. We're prepared. The very moment the Spirit brings
us to look to Christ as our host salvation, We're ready. And it's ready to be revealed
in the last time. What's that? That's the time
of His second coming. That's the day of judgment. You
see, when God saves a sinner, He doesn't start that sinner
on a road of gradually getting ourselves ready. He points us to Christ, who's
already made us ready. When I was a boy, they used to
talk about different things that we would do that just weren't
too kosher. Sins that we would commit. And
sometimes a Sunday school teacher or a preacher or somebody like
that, he'd make this statement. He'd say, what if Christ came
back while you were doing that? You ever heard that? Especially when we were teenagers.
We'd go out and start drinking or something. What if Christ
would come back when you were doing that? Where would you be?
Now the implication to us is that we'd be dragged into hell. Now listen. None of those things
are things we should have been doing. That's not the point. But my friend, when God saves
a sinner by His grace, and brings that sinner to a saving knowledge
of Jesus Christ, the Lord our righteousness, He's made us ready. Ready in that day. The day for when we die or the
day that He comes back, the day of judgment. Ready to be revealed
in the last time. That's our living hope. Jesus
Christ, the Lord of glory.