Now let us turn together to 1
Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1, and follow as I read verses 3
through 5, 1 Peter 1 beginning with verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy
begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead unto an inheritance incorruptible and
undefiled and that fades not away reserved in heaven for you
who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time. Let us again pray and ask
that God, the Holy Spirit, who guided his servant Peter to pen
these words, would be present to give us understanding in them. Let us pray. Holy Father, we come again into
your presence thanking you for your exceeding great and precious
promises many of which encourage us to believe that when we call
upon you, you delight to hear and to answer us. And we therefore
call again, now specifically praying with the psalmist, that
you will open our eyes, that we may behold wondrous things
out of your love. that as I seek to open up your
word, that I may be able to say that my speech and preaching
were not with enticing words of men's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power and that your people who sit before
that word would know the instruction of the Holy Spirit, that those
who are yet in their sins may know your word working in them
in such a mighty way, that even in this hour it may be said of
them that they were begotten again by the word of truth which
lives and abides forever. O God, hear our cry and answer
we plead in Jesus' name. Amen. On that dark and dismal night
of our Lord's betrayal, Peter had uttered his famous words
of wretched denial. Three times he said emphatically,
I do not know the man. He even sealed his denials with
oaths and with curses. But the scripture tells us that
within a very short time thereafter, A look from the Lord Jesus, a
penetrating, searching look from his master brought Peter into
a state of deep contrition and of penitence and the scripture
tells us he went out and he wept bitterly. And that same gracious
master whose look broke Peter's heart is found a few days later
drawing forth from the lips of that same man fresh affirmations
of his love to the Master. And in the context of those affirmations
of his love, the Lord Jesus recommissions this disciple named Peter and
gives him those words, feed my lambs, shepherd my sheep, feed
my sheep. Well now, some 35 years after
these never-to-be-forgotten events, Peter is engaged in one of his
two most significant exercises of feeding the lambs of Christ
and shepherding the sheep of Christ. He is writing this letter
to gatherings of those very sheep scattered abroad in Asia Minor. People who are identified obviously
with Christian assemblies, for according to chapter 5 in that
letter, he assumes that there are shepherds, elders, under-shepherds,
laboring in their midst. Peter is exercising that commission
given by his Lord with respect to his sheep and to his lambs. And as he begins his letter,
he identifies himself as Peter the Apostle. the recipients of
the letter in terms of their essential identification, where
they were dwelling, their fundamental spiritual privileges, and then
he pronounces that word of goodwill in the greetings, grace to you
and peace be multiplied. Then as he begins the body of
his letter, as we saw last Lord's Day, he breaks out in this passionate
eulogy, this speaking well of God, in which he is seeking to
draw the attention of his readers away from their present circumstances,
away from the pressures that are mounting upon them, and even
greater pressures that are yet to come. and seeks to focus their
minds upon the great salvation that is their possession in Jesus
Christ. And he does this because Peter
understands that great principle that it is only as the people
of God increasingly understand what they are and possess in
Christ that they will be equipped effectively to embrace and to
fulfill what is commanded to them by Christ. And so he sets forth this great
salvation in this passionate eulogy, pointing them to the
author of this great salvation, blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of this great salvation,
who according to his great mercy, their initiation into this great
salvation, he has begotten us again unto a living hope and
then the dominant features or blessings of this great salvation,
the living hope by the resurrection, and the glorious inheritance,
the inheritance that he describes as incorruptible. and undefiled,
and that fades not away, and as the capstone blessing of that
inheritance, he says, it is one that has been and continues to
remain reserved in heaven for these believers. But no sooner
does he open up those lines of this great salvation, culminating
in pointing their attention to this marvelous inheritance that
is the possession of all of these elect sojourners of the dispersion,
than it is as though Peter gets inside the mind and the heart
of some timid, some fearful, some faltering disciple who begins
to reason this way. Ah, Peter, You appointed us to
this great salvation. You appointed us to a salvation
that has as its climactic blessing this inheritance firmly and irrevocably
reserved in heaven for us. This incorruptible, this undefiled,
this unfading inheritance. But Peter, Peter, it is not enough
for me to know that the inheritance is safe. I'm here in this present
world. I'm an elect resident alien,
but I'm living in Pontus. I'm living in Galatia. I'm living
in Cappadocia. I'm living in the midst of pagans. I'm living with a horrible betrayer
within my own breast called my remaining sin. Peter, I'm living
in the midst of a wily devil who goes about as a roaring lion
seeking to devour me. Peter, it's not enough for me
to know that my inheritance is secure in heaven. Peter, what
do you have to say about me, the heir of that inheritance? Will I be kept for the inheritance? You've told us that the inheritance
is safe and secure in heaven. But Peter, will I be kept in
order to enjoy the inheritance? For example, back in the days
when plying the oceans was dangerous business, before the days of
modern ocean liners, often a seaman had no question what his welcome
would be when the ship came back to port. He knew there on the
shore his wife and his family and loved ones would await for
the first sight of the ship breaking up over the horizon as it neared
its port. He had no question about his
reception at his port. His question was, will I make
it through the storms, through the shoals? through the rocky
areas, through the tempest at sea. His question is, will I
be preserved to come to my anticipated welcome? And that's the anticipation
that Peter seems to have in the thinking of these believers,
for he no sooner points to the inviolable, irreversible inheritance
being reserved and safe, but he now turns to the heirs of
that inheritance and says, are equally safe. And so as we turn
to this passage this morning, we're going to consider it as
a statement of the preservation of the heirs of the glorious
inheritance, the crowning blessing of this great salvation. Let's look at the text together
and notice first of all the end of this preservation. He says,
who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time. And the heart of Peter's
statement is that you, for whom the inheritance is reserved,
you are guarded unto salvation. That's the heart of Peter's statement. You are guarded unto salvation. So the end of their preservation
is what Peter calls a salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time. Now, once again, in the opening
words of Peter's epistle, we come upon a gold nugget word
in biblical revelation. We've already encountered elect,
foreknowledge, sanctification, obedience, sprinkling of the
blood, great mercy, new birth, living hope, resurrection, and
now we've got another one of those golden nugget words, salvation. Salvation. Salvation. This rich biblical word that
has a breadth of use in the scriptures. In some context, it refers to
God's complete work of rescuing us from sin and its consequences
unto all the blessings secured for us by the saving work of
Jesus Christ. As one author has expressed it,
it has its positive and negative aspects. Negatively, salvation
involves deliverance from present sin and future destruction. Positively, it includes entry
into the fullness of the blessings that God has purposed for believers
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We must never
think of salvation in a truncated way. Think of a man who has been
violently taken from his own homeland. He has been guilty
or someone has been guilty of the sin of man-stealing. against
his will and for no righteous cause he has been wrenched loose
from his place of native dwelling and all of his surroundings.
He has been thrown into a dungeon. He's been shackled. He's been
beaten. He is under the iron fist of
a cruel, narrow-hearted, mean-spirited tyrant. Now if that man was to
be rescued, what would be involved in thoroughly rescuing him? Will
you say he would have to be brought out of his place of incarceration? Yes. He would have to have his
chains broken? Yes. He would have to have his
wounds healed? Yes. He would have to be nursed
back to good health through sound nutrition? Yes. But you see,
you couldn't say he was fully saved until he was brought back
to his original condition, into all the blessed relationships
that he once knew, all the associations that were favorable and in his
highest interest. And when the Scripture uses the
term salvation in its richest, fullest sense, that's what it's
reflecting. God not only delivers us from
the horrible effects that sin has brought into our lives and
into the human experience, but He brings us unto all of the
blessings that in the largeness of His great mercy, He has purposed
for hell-deserving sinners. And therefore, the Bible can
speak of salvation in its three tenses. We have been saved. The dominion of sin is broken.
The penalty of sin is passed over in those who are united
to Christ. No condemnation to those who
are in Christ Jesus. We are being saved, and we shall
yet be saved. Well, as Peter uses the term
here in this setting, in what sense is he using it? Well, look
at the text, and he tells us. He says that the great end of
our preservation is that we might be preserved unto a salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. The focus of the salvation
to which Peter makes reference is, first of all, a salvation
already accomplished. He describes it as ready to be
revealed. And the word ready could be rendered
prepared. That's how it's used in Matthew
22, 4 in the wedding feast. The announcement is made. All
things are ready. Come to the feast. Everything
necessary for this lush banquet is already there on the table. It is prepared. Mark 14, 15,
when the Lord Jesus goes, tells his disciples to go before him
and to prepare the room, we are told that they came and found
it ready, everything necessary for the adequate celebration
of the Passover was there. Paul uses it in 2 Corinthians
9, 5, concerning the offering for the needy saints in Judea,
and he says, I want that offering to be ready, already taken, already
gathered fully prepared when I come. So this salvation, the
end of our preservation in connection with this salvation is a salvation
already accomplished. It is a prepared salvation, but
it is secondly a salvation yet to be unveiled. He says, you
are guarded unto a salvation, though it is ready, it is ready
to be revealed, to be revealed. And this word revealed means
to be unveiled. Something is already in existence
and it has substance, but it is presently veiled from our
sight. It is not waiting to be created
or perfected. No, it is there. It is perfected,
but it is veiled from us. Think of the laborious task of
an accomplished sculptor. And he has spent months, if not
years, in that which will be the consummate expression of
his disciplined artistic talent and ability. And the day comes
when it is said that that marvelous work of art will be unveiled. And we all come to the place
where the appointment has been made for the unveiling. And as
we stand there waiting this ceremony of unveiling, we see under that
drape the basic contours and outlines of this magnificent,
magnificent work of art. Were we to be permitted to go
and to feel it, we could get some idea of what the work of
art will be like when it is unveiled. But as long as the veil is over
it, we do not see it in its own intrinsic glory and beauty. We
have some idea of its contours, its size, its shape, what it
may be, but we are waiting the unveiling. and in the unveiling,
then that which was there in its own inherent beauty and glory
will be seen to every looking eye. And that's a term used many
times with reference to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and
what it will be at His coming as not only the unveiling of
His glory, but the unveiling of the full, complete glory of
our salvation in Him. Peter uses this verb in 1 Peter
5 and verse 1, obviously referring to the second coming. He said,
I am a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. And in its noun form, he uses
it three other times here in his first letter, verse seven.
that your faith may be founded to praise and honor and glory
at the revelation, the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
13, set your hope perfectly on the grace to be brought to you
at the revelation, the unveiling of our of Jesus Christ in chapter
4 in verse 13 in as much as you are partakers of Christ's suffering
rejoice that at the revelation the unveiling of his glory. So when he says that you, who
are the heirs of this inheritance, are being preserved unto a salvation. He says that salvation is already
accomplished, but it is yet to be unveiled. And he says it will
be unveiled in the last time. You are guarded through faith
unto a salvation ready to be revealed when? In the last time. the last in the order of time
when time shall be no more and it points obviously in the light
of the other passages where he uses this term either in the
verb or noun form to that moment in human history. when, according
to the Scriptures, the voice of the archangel will sound,
the trump of God will blow, and the glorified Christ himself
shall come upon clouds of glory. And then this salvation for which
all of the people of God are guarded, that salvation in the
moment of unveiling will be seen in all of its resplendent glory. And the scripture says Christ
will come to be glorified in his saints, in his saints at
his coming. And it's in this same way that
Paul uses the term salvation in Romans 13, 11, when he says,
now is our salvation nearer to us than when we first believed. He's speaking of salvation as
that already accomplished and that yet to be unveiled in the
last time dimensions of the saving mercy of God in Christ. You see, Peter is not thinking
of what happens to the believer at death. Now, the Bible has
a clear doctrine in answer to the question, what happens to
the believer at death? Philippians 121, Paul says, I
desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.
Second Corinthians 5, 8, to be absent from the body is present
with the Lord. But you see, the great focal
point, the end of our preservation is not the intermediate state.
We shall be preserved in the intermediate state. Yes, we shall
be. and our spirits will immediately
go into the presence of Christ, and our bodies, in a way we cannot
fathom, still in union with Christ, will go to the grave. Then that
sleep in Christ, yes, we fall asleep in Jesus, and our union
with Christ is not dissolved even in death. But you see, the
great focal point of the believer's hope is not the intermediate
state. It is the glorious consummation. And Peter, writing to these whom
he's seeking to buttress for the trials and pressures they
will face, says, that you who have this inheritance, incorruptible,
undefiled, unfading, already and continuing to be reserved
in heaven, not only is the inheritance secure, but you are secure, and
the end of your preservation is that you will, without exception,
each one enjoy the consummate blessing of that salvation already
accomplished, yet to be revealed. that shall be unveiled in the
last time." But then notice, secondly, having considered the
end of this preservation, what Peter tells us about the author
of this preservation. He writes, who by the power of
God are guarded. The preposition can be rendered
in its most frequent way in, for you Greek students, as a
locative, But it's more likely that he's using it as an instrumental
preposition that you are kept in the power of God. You are kept by the power of
God. If we think of it in terms of
in the power of God, then it would bring to bear such passages
as Psalm 125. They that trust in the Lord are
like Mount Zion. As the mountains are round about
Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from this time
forth and forevermore. God himself is the atmosphere
in which his people live. God in covenant God in redemptive
love and mercy, or as Isaiah says in chapter 52 in verse 12,
to his people that he will go before them and he will also
be their rear guard. So God says, I am before you,
I am behind you, I'm your left flank, I'm your right flank.
And it could be that Peter is pointing to God as the author
of their preservation, God himself. But because he says you are kept
in or by the power of God, it would seem more likely to understand
his words to point in this direction, that the author of your preservation
is God himself, but God particularly in the exercise of his power. Now we all know what power means.
Power is ability to do. It's ability to perform or to
accomplish. We say if someone has the will,
but he lacks the power. I had a clear example of this
earlier, or not this week, but last week. I was in the home
of one of our families, and they got a couple of boys, and as
you know, boys who are coming to some sense of their identity
as boys, realizing that one of the characteristics of manliness
is strength. They like to assume they have
more strength than they really have. Some of us can remember
the first time we found a little pimple here when we flexed our
arm, and we felt, well, maybe there's hope someday I'll be
a man. Now, you may not admit to others, but you remember looking
in the mirror when no one else watched to see if you were developing,
quote, a muscle. Well, in this family, there's
a couple of boys beginning to feel their oats. And it's always
humbling when a 63-year-old man gets on the floor to wrestle
with boys, and they find they can't handle him. So I planted
myself all fours, my knees and my hands. I said, okay guys,
just take me down. And they struggled, and they
wrestled, and they pushed, and they pulled, and they couldn't
budge the old buzzard. And then I locked my hands and I said,
all right, separate them. And they grunted, and they groaned,
and they pulled, and they sweated. They had the will. I tell you,
they lacked nothing of will. It was written all over their
faces. I mean, this was serious business. There was one problem. They lacked the power. They had
the will, but they had no power. Now, a couple of years from now,
that will greatly change. I know when to quit when I'm
hit. You see, we all understand what power is. It has to do with
ability to perform. It has to do with ability to
accomplish. And this power is not some energy
that is divorced from God himself. It is an attribute of God himself
in action on behalf of his people. And so, as Peter writes to these
distressed saints there in Asia Minor, having, as it were, put
a glint in their eye as he fixes the eye of the soul upon the
inheritance that awaits them, and says that inheritance is
there, incorruptible, undefiled, unfading, it's reserved in heaven,
he says to the most timid, don't be fearful. You, the heirs of
the inheritance, will be kept to enjoy the inheritance because
the author of your preservation is God himself. God in the exercise
of His gracious power. God actively committed to accomplish
all of His saving purposes. You see, the Apostle understood
this well when he threw out the challenge in Romans 8 31. What
then shall we say to these things if God before us, who is against
us? And so in this great salvation,
Peter, who has pointed us to the great mercy of God that shapes
all the contours of our salvation, now says mercy is joined to power
in the effecting of that salvation on behalf of all for whom it
was procured. So the end of their preservation
It is a salvation to be revealed in the last time. The author
of this preservation is God in the exercise of his gracious
power. But now notice, thirdly, the
nature of this preservation. Our text says, who by the power
of God are guarded, are guarded. And if you were living out there
in Asia Minor, and on a given Lord's Day, one of the readers,
one of the leaders, one of the pastors were to stand and read
this epistle, the moment you heard the word guarded, your
mind would have shifted into a military mentality. This is the word that these people
would have heard to describe a military siege. When a town
was either protected by a military garrison or was being sieged
by a military power, this is the word they would have heard
many times. And Peter uses this word to underscore
the nature of this preservation. This is the word found in 2 Corinthians
11 32. Perhaps you want to turn there
with me where Paul is giving his badges of honor as an apostle
and all of the things that he underwent in the service of Christ. And as a capstone, this very
undignified incident 2nd Corinthians 11 32 and in Damascus the governor
under Aretas the king. Here's our word. Guarded the
city of Damascus in order to take me and through a window.
I was let down in a basket by the wall and escaped his hands.
Here's our word under Aretas the king guarded the city of
Damascus. set a guard to keep Paul in. He did not want Paul getting
out. So he set a guard to keep him
in. And we are told by those who
have studied this word in its secular usage, it was also used
not only to describe a military operation to keep someone in,
but to protect people within a given framework. It's used
metaphorically that way in our well-known words of Philippians
4.7, and the peace of God that passes all understanding shall
keep, shall guard. There's our word. shall guard
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. There the protection is
set around us so that all within will be undisturbed. So it's
a military concept. So what is the nature of this
preservation? It is to be understood if God
himself, in the plenitude of his gracious power, were an army
committed to protect and preserve all the citizens of a city threatened
by dangers from without and from within. Now, if you have a competent
garrison of soldiers protecting the city, the weakest child and
the most trembling woman is as safe as the most courageous and
strong man, because the safety does not depend on the strength
of the citizen, but on the competence of the protector. And Peter says
to these saints, among them no doubt the Mr. Fearings, the Mr. Ready to Halt, the timid ones,
the fearful ones, the weak ones. He said, look, you're being kept
and preserved as the heirs for that preserved inheritance ultimately
has nothing to do with your strength. but with the power of God committed
to guard you, to protect you, to preserve you unto that inheritance. So the nature of the preservation
is one to be understood in those military concepts of God himself
in his supreme but gracious and merciful power committed to the
preservation of every heir, of that inheritance. But then having
looked at the end of their preservation, the author, the nature, now notice
the means of this preservation. Our text says they are guarded
by the power of God through faith. Not apart from faith, but Peter's
very careful in the way he writes, not on account of faith. You
have heard, and I trust you remember, that whenever the scripture says
we are justified by faith, a construction is used that does not mean we
are justified on account of faith, but through faith, or by means
of faith, or out of faith, but never on account of faith, as
though faith is the ground of our salvation. No, it is the
divinely appointed means to lay hold of a salvation that is grounded
in the work of another, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Well,
Peter uses the same construction, and he writes, saying, we are
kept by the power of God through by means of faith. You see, while God's efficacious
power is the agent of our preservation, we are not preserved as animals
in a cage or prisoners in a cell. We are preserved in keeping with
what we are as free moral agents, renewed by the Holy Spirit, indwelt
by the Holy Spirit, and the God whose power has been operative
to bring us to new birth thereby bringing us to faith, the God
who creates that faith, sustains it by His power, and the evidence
that He is keeping us in His power is that we are kept in
the way of faith. We are guarded through faith
unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. We are guarded as this God who
brought us to faith causes us to continue in the way of faith.
And faith is not our achievement, but a whole soul trust in God's
achievement. It is the empty hand of human
need. laying hold of the outstretched
hand of divine provision. That's what faith is, the empty
hand of human need reaching out to take hold of the gracious
hand, the outstretched hand of God's gracious omnipotent. John
Brown has made a helpful comment on this means of our preservation. I quote him, it is through the
persevering belief of the truth that the Christian is, by divine
influence, preserved from falling and kept in possession both of
that state and character which are absolutely necessary to the
enjoyment of the heavenly inheritance. You see, the Bible teaches that
only the holy will enter heaven. Only those who pursue holiness
will enter heaven. only those who love their brethren,
only those who mortify their sins. John Brown is saying that
character and that state which God's Word everywhere says is
the only consistent state and character with those who are
going to attain the heavenly inheritance, it is all shaped
and formed by belief in God's Word. And God's power keeps us
by continuing to produce in us that faith which is unto this
consummate salvation. And I wonder, and several of
the commentators picked up this thread, I wonder if Peter is
not here remembering his own experience. And the Lord Jesus
said to him in Luke 22, Satan's desired all of you to sift you
as wheat, but I've prayed for you in particular, Simon, and
I'm just reflecting by paraphrase the nuances in the original.
I prayed in particular for you, Simon, that your what fail not,
that your faith fail not. I've prayed for you that your
faith fail not. If faith were to fail, Simon,
you would not be preserved by the power of God. You would become
a veritable Judas, turning away in apostasy. But Simon, I prayed
for you that your faith fail not. Or in the language of Hebrews
10, 39, after that sober warning, the writer says, But we are not
of them that turn back unto perdition, but of them that go on believing
unto the saving of the soul. The mark of faith that is at
any point genuine is that it is never static. If I have truly
believed on Christ, I will continue to believe on Christ. And the
proof that my past faith was genuine is that it's present
faith. And therefore Peter has no problem
setting out this marvelous statement of the preservation of the heirs
of the inheritance in these terms. The means of their preservation
is by or through faith. So we come around full circle
to where we began. Put yourself in the place of
one of those first century believers. With all of the pressures coming
from society without, and as you read through the epistle
you know they were many. Pressures from within and pressures
from their own hostile circumstances. The devil himself is a roaring
lion seeking to devour them. The Peter who by the Spirit of
God pointed them to their glorious inheritance and says that inheritance
is inviolable now says of every heir of that inheritance that
he is guarded by the power of God through faith unto a salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time. Well, I've sought at least
to open up the major lines of the text now. What does it say
to us sitting here this morning? Well, it has, first of all, a
very helpful doctrinal emphasis that we need to grasp afresh.
We have in this text one of the most clear and comprehensive
statements of the biblical doctrine of the preservation and the perseverance
of the true people of God. This is a watershed text. If
someone were to say to you, I understand you believe the doctrine of the
preservation and perseverance of the saints, that all who are
truly saved, none of them will ultimately perish. But of those
who are truly saved, they manifest their salvation by their lifestyle
being framed as a life of faith. What text sets this forth unmistakably? Here's one of them. Philippians
1.6 is often used. He that hath begun a good New
York in you will perfect it until the day of Christ. John 10.27-30,
the Lord Jesus said, I know my sheep. And they hear my voice,
they follow me, I give to them eternal life, they shall never
perish, no one shall pluck them out of my hand. Romans 8, 29
to 39, whom he formed new, he predestined, whom he predestined,
he called, whom he called, he justified, whom he justified,
he glorified, and he doesn't lose a one along the whole line.
John chapter 6 verses 37 to 41, this is the will of him that
sent me that of all that he hath given me I should lose nothing
but raise it up at the last day. But among those watershed texts
always put 1 Peter 1.5. It is a marvelous distillation
of this truth. What does it tell us? All who
are begotten again, truly regenerated, justified and united to Christ
by faith, will be kept and preserved unto final salvation. He says,
who? Referring to the you described
at the end of verse four. all, without exception, who are
the elect sojourners of the dispersion, who have been known in God's
loving, sovereign, free purpose, the foreknowledge of God, sanctified
by the Spirit, brought unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Christ. all who have experienced the divine begetting unto a living
hope and unto this incorruptible inheritance, all of them, who,
without exception, every one of them, are being kept, guarded,
preserved by the power of God. That's the one side of the doctrine
of the preservation of the saints. God who has marked them out and
given them to Christ before the world began. God who has sent
his son as their head and representative who lived the life they should
have lived but did not and died the death they should have died
but dare not. the God who in time sends his
spirit to quicken them, take out the heart of stone and give
them a heart of flesh. That God is committed to preserve
every last one of them until they come to the inheritance.
Not a one of them will have the inheritance rightly gleaming
in his eye, who will not attain to it in his experience. But
now the other side of the doctrine is all who are begotten again
and truly regenerated, justified and united to Christ by faith
will continue in faith and bring forth the fruits of faith on
their way to the inheritance. That's the perseverance of the
saints. All who are truly begotten again
and truly united to Christ, all who are truly sanctified in the
Spirit, brought unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood,
all of these will continue in faith, bringing forth the fruits
of faith on their way to final salvation. The Bible knows no
doctrine once saved always so saved, no matter what you do.
The Bible doctrine is once saved, always saved, and what you do
proves you are saved. And shall yet be saved when that
salvation is unveiled at the last time. That's the biblical
doctrine of the preservation and the perseverance of the saints. And it's not double talk. That's
the biblical truth. That's why Peter can write, who
are by the power of God guarded through faith unto a salvation,
not ready to be jettisoned, not ready to be lost, but ready to
be revealed in the last time. And you see, this has tremendous
practical implications for elect sojourners. dispersed among the
heathens, seeking to live in a way that pleases God, as Peter
will further describe it in this chapter, living under the fear
of God and the eye of God as a loving Father, seeking to pass
the time of our sojourning with a good conscience, living out
life under the eye of our gracious God and Father. As we face the
pressures, as we face temptation, as we feel at times, I'm not
going to make it. What do we need to do? We need
to fasten the eyes of the soul upon the doctrine of God's commitment
to preserve us. And as we do, we say, Lord, it
wasn't my idea to get in this struggle. There was a time when
there was no struggle. All I had to do was try to silence
an accusing conscience, but there was no struggle. Seeking to live
a holy life right down to the deepest springs of thought, seeking
to walk before you with integrity in every relationship, public
and private, every single aspect of my life. Lord, I didn't know
this struggle. And I didn't realize that there
was a personal devil. I was his doof. I was his lackey. I was led about by his rope.
But Lord, when you broke his chains and brought me into gracious
servitude to yourself, I realized I have a vicious enemy. Lord,
I didn't create this problem. You did. You caused me to be
begotten again. You gave me a new heart. You
implanted a principle of righteousness and holiness, giving me a determination
to live for your glory. And oh God, this struggle, this
battle, this pressure from my former ungodly friends, this
wasn't my idea, Lord. It's because you begot me again. And Lord, since you started your
work, you're going to complete it? You said I will be kept by
your power? And you see in the midst of the
struggle, you recognize the struggle is the evidence that God himself
began the work, and then you lay hold of the truth of his
commitment to preserve you. But then when you're rocking
along and you begin to get careless, and you begin to reason with
the devil's logic, well, since salvation's all of God and all
of grace, and he begins it and he completes it, You begin to
get your eyes off the unseen world of spiritual reality upon
which faith feeds. And you begin to get your eyes
off a Savior whose claims over you are graciously totalitarian. You've been bought with a price.
Glorify Him in your body which is His. And you begin to slack
off and say, oh well, kept by the power of God. You remember
through faith, through faith, through faith, and you stir yourself
up to say, Oh God, I step out of the way of faith and I have
no promise that your power is keeping me. And you load your
conscience with the biblical doctrine of the necessity of
the perseverance of the saints. And when you're discouraged and
say, how can I ever recover from this state of declension and
backsliding? Once your mind and heart is set
upon that recovery, then you may hold afresh upon that great
reality that he who began the good work in you will perfect
it until the day of Jesus Christ. Resonant aliens in the midst
of danger and opposition and suffering, Peter says, fasten
your eyes upon the God of power, who is the God of mercy, and
he is committed to guard you, the heirs of that marvelous inheritance,
and bring you safely into it. But we have also in this text
one of the most powerful incentives to press on in the Christian
pilgrimage in spite of all its difficulties and discouragements.
We are guarded by the power of God unto what? unto a salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time. Imagine with me two men
setting out on a journey. They've been told that the journey
is difficult. They will face hazards. They
will face life-threatening dangers along the way. And you say to
the one man, however, I am able upon good authority to tell you,
you will arrive at your journey's end. And what awaits you at the
end of the journey, and then you read out this litany of all
of the marvelous things that await him. And you tell him,
the end of the journey is glorious. Here's what awaits you. In between
there are all kinds of difficulties, but your arrival is certain. You tell the same man all the
same things about the difficulty of the journey. And you even
tell him about awaits the end of the journey for those who
make it, but then you tell him, but I have no assurance that
you're going to make it to all the wonderful things that await
you at the end. Now, as the two set out in their journey, which
one is more likely to press through the difficulties and to nerve
himself to press on until he arrives at the end? The one who
is uncertain about the result of his journey or the one who's
absolutely certain about the result? You see, a certain confidence
that I shall make it to the glorious end does not discourage the traveler,
it nerves him in his most difficult hour. And isn't that what happened
to our Lord Jesus? Hebrews 12, 2 says, who for the
joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame. When his enemies were hurling
false accusations at him left and right, and I want to pause
to say in the light of some of the things we are dealing with
in this assembly, the repetition of accusations doesn't make them
fact. Many false witnesses rose up
against him. And it's time some of you recognize
that. 30, 40, 50 people all saying
the same thing doesn't make it true. And when our Lord faced these
wretched accusations, creatures that He made and sustains by
His own life-giving power, spitting on Him. Think of it. The face
of the Son of God dripping with spit. It says they struck Him
with blows. pressed the crown of thorns upon
him. He looks out and he sees Peter, vain, standing out in
his neck, affirming, I don't know the man. What caused him
to press on? Who, for the joy that was set
before him. When he's dragged out impaled
upon a cross, and the nails are pounded into his hands, and the
heavens are shrouded in blackness, and his soul is sunk into the
abyss of forsakenness. Why do you not heed the jeering
crowd? Come down from the cross! Show
your stuff!" Who for the joy that was set before him? He saw
the great multitude of no man can Out of every kindred, tribe,
and tongue and nation, the fruit of his travail, he saw the certain
end of the journey through the darkness of Gethsemane and Golgotha
in the tomb. Now, he says, following my train,
guarded by the power of God unto salvation, ready to be revealed. The inheritance is secure, and
the heirs are guarded. Therefore, elect sojourners of
the dispersion, your former friends buffeting you because you don't
run with them to the same excessive riot. You feel the pressure of
a mean and a malicious devil. Press on. The end is certain. The inheritance is secure, and
every heir of the inheritance is equally secure. What a wonderful
principle of God's truth to have stored up in our hearts that
whatever we face on our way, we're going to arrive at the
celestial city. Some of us in our old circles
used to sing the song, it will be worth it all when we see Jesus,
not if, when we see Jesus. One look at his dear face, all
sorrow will erase. So what's the conclusion? Bravely
run the race till we see Christ. And then my final word of observation
and application is this. We have in this text a frightening
contrast to the state of those who believe not. A frightening
contrast with the state of those who believe not. When Peter writes,
he says, this inheritance is reserved in heaven for you. And the you are those whom he's
described as those who have been begotten again unto a living
hope. He is describing the you that
he has already addressed in verse two, who have known the sanctifying
work of the Spirit, who have been brought under the gracious
yoke of obedience to Christ and sprinkling of the blood of Christ. And such are kept, guarded, preserved
by God for the inheritance. But you know, my unbelieving
friend, you have an inheritance if you go on in your unbelief.
You have an inheritance. And you are adding to that inheritance
every day, remaining in your unbelief. You see, your inheritance
is not fully accomplished and prepared and stored away in heaven. Yours is an open-ended inheritance.
And you are increasing it every single day. I said, Pastor, what
are you talking about? Well, just look at a final passage,
Romans chapter two. Romans chapter two. You have an inheritance and you're
adding to that inheritance, remaining in unbelief in each day. You
place more deposits in that inheritance. Romans two and verse four. Do
you despise the riches of His goodness in forbearance and longsuffering,
not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance,
but after your hardness and impenitent heart, look at the language,
you are treasuring up for yourself. Yes, you are collecting an inheritance. treasuring up for yourself, but
what is that inheritance? Wrath in the day of wrath and
revelation of the righteous judgment of God. What frightening words. Frightening words, but I didn't
write them. The Holy Ghost has written them.
My unbelieving friend, what a contrast! The believer's inheritance, incorruptible,
undefiled, in faiths not away, reserved in heaven, and you are
building up an ever greater inheritance of the wrath of this God, the
very God whose power preserves His own, is the God whose power
will uphold your existence as a human being for all eternity. While that power joined to righteous
wrath funnels down upon your body and soul the frightening
prangs of hell. Kept by the power of God unto
an inheritance, unto a salvation ready to be revealed. upheld
by God's goodness. He gives you his breath. He gives
you his sunshine. He gives you sanity of mind.
But what do you do with his goodness? You despise it. You misinterpret
it. You say, there is no God. There
is no wrath. There is no hell. And all the
while, God says, while his goodness upholds you and his power sustains
you in life, you are putting stock in your inheritance. and
were you to die in the next moment in unbelief, you'd come to your
inheritance. My friend, don't treat lightly
the things of God. Don't despise the overtures of
God's mercy. For the God who has sent his
son into the world to die for sinners bids you today in the
word and promise of the gospel repent and believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and you too will be saved. May God grant that
as you have, as it were, looked with us at the glorious inheritance
of the people of God, and by contrast seen the frightening
inheritance that you are laying up for yourself, would God that
this moment you flee the wrath to come and run into Jesus Christ,
who is a refuge for the neediest of sinners, kept by the power
of God, through faith, unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time. Let us pray. Our Father, we do thank you for
your holy word. We thank you for this great and
glorious salvation, and we thank you for your commitment to preserve
the heirs of that salvation. O Lord, we ask that our hearts
will expand with joy and with wonder and with praise and with
adoration, and that we may show our gratitude by lives of careful
and meticulous obedience to all that you've revealed in your
word. We do acknowledge joyfully that we do not have the power
to guard ourselves, and we thank you, you are committed to guard
us unto that ready-to-be-revealed salvation. We do ask that you'd
be merciful to those who this very moment in their unbelief
are setting themselves up to inherit a frightening inheritance. Oh Lord, cause them to tremble,
to fear, to flee from the wrath to come and to find refuge in
the Lord Jesus. Seal then your word to every
heart we plead in our Savior's name. Amen.