1 Peter 1, and I want to read from
verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though
now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations. that the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though
it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. whom having not
seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing,
ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which
salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who
prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. Searching
what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in
them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ and the glory that should follow. And to whom it was revealed
that not unto themselves but unto us did they minister the
things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached
the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
which things the angels desire to look into. Amen. May God bless to us this reading
from his word. When the Lord Jesus Christ commissioned
Peter to his great task of feeding the sheep, caring for the Lord's
little one, ministering to the church. When the Lord Jesus Christ
commissioned the apostle to strengthen his brethren, his brothers and
his sisters in the faith, the Saviour said to the apostle these
words, I have prayed for thee. that thy faith fail not. Is that not a wonderful prayer? That the Lord Jesus Christ should
pray that our faith doesn't fail? I think that's truly amazing
that the Lord would give that token of his grace to the apostle. That was a request that God,
our Lord and Saviour, made to his Father. Our Lord Jesus Christ requested
his Father that the faith of Peter would not fail. And the emphatic testimony of
Scripture, we have it, recounted to us in so many words in the
testimony of Martha to the Lord Jesus Christ with respect to
her brother Lazarus, the emphatic testimony of scripture is this,
I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will
give thee. Whatever the Lord Jesus Christ
asked of his father, his father gave it to him. For how would
a loving father deny the son in whom he was well pleased?
How would the loving father possibly retain those blessings that was
within his power to dispense and distribute at the request
of his own son? In Psalm chapter two, verse seven,
we read, I will declare the decree The Lord hath said unto me, Thou
art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall
give thee. What? What was the son to ask
of the father? What will the Lord God give to
his well-beloved son? the heathen for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. This
is the Lord's earth. This is the Lord's domain. Our God is in control, and whatsoever
the Lord Jesus Christ asks of his Father, he has given it,
even to the ends of the earth. Satan said to the Lord Jesus
Christ, Look out here and see all these nations. I'll give
them to you if you bow down and worship me. You liar! They're
not yours to give. They're the Lord's. They're the Lord's. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. So the Lord Jesus Christ gives
life and he gives grace and he grants faith and he prays for
the sustenance and maintenance and continuation of that faith
in the lives of his people. I think that's a wonderful thing
and I think that we should take that to ourselves this morning. I don't think there's any reason
why we should restrict this prayer for faith to Peter. I think that
the Lord Jesus Christ as he intercedes for his people, he intercedes
for us with prayers before the throne that we should be sustained
and that our faith should not fail. Does the Saviour treat
his people partially? Does he give to one and not another? Does he pray for some and not
for others? This promise is mine. This promise
is yours. This testimony is ours, just
as much as it is Peter's. In John 17, verse nine, the Lord
says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. And what is it that Christ asked
of his father? He said, I have prayed for thee. He says to Peter, I have prayed
for thee, that thy faith fail not. And if that prayer is for all
of his people, then how can our faith fail? If the Lord Jesus
Christ is asking of the Father who has promised to give him
all things, even to the ends of the earth, if the Lord Jesus
Christ intercedes for us, how can that faith fail? And so we
can safely say that if we have faith, even to the extent of
a mustard seed size, You can never lose it. You can never
lose it. Why? Because you keep a hold
of it? Because you're able to exercise
it and energize it and work it up? No, not for any of those
reasons. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
has prayed that that faith which has been given as a gift should
be maintained, sustained, upheld, and that it fail not. And that's
a lovely thing for us to remember when we go into work tomorrow
morning, or when we have to engage with the troubles and the trials
of this world, or when we have to carry the burdens of our family
responsibilities, or take the challenges of those things that
would draw us down and cause us to be dark in our minds and
in our hearts and in our spirits. The Lord Jesus Christ right now,
is in the presence of his Father praying for me. That's pretty
awesome. Sometimes you'll say to me and
sometimes I'll say to others, I've got something happening
just now. Will you pray for us? Will you remember us? Will you
bring us before the Lord in prayer? And it's a privilege for us to
be able to do that for one another. But Christ himself is praying
for us. If you believe in Christ, you
will be saved. If you rest on the promises of
God, if you look to him for grace and glory, they will never be
denied you. God would disown and deny his
own beloved son before he could deny you that which he has granted
to you. And I want to show you something
very important. My thoughts this morning really
are surrounding the idea, the theme of faith and the faith
that we have spoken of in this passage by Peter. And I've got
four features of faith that I want to draw your attention to. Faith and hope go together. They are bound together in scripture
and sometimes faith and hope can be used interchangeably in
the Word of God. Normally, when we speak of hope,
we are speaking of something that is still to come, something
that is yet to happen. We say, I hope it will, whatever
it is that we hope might happen. And that kind of hope is an aspiration,
usually couched in doubt and uncertainty, because we really
don't know whether it's going to happen or not, but we hope
it will. But when the apostles speak of
hope, they speak about hope based on Christ's work. They are speaking
about hope founded upon something that has already taken place,
that is already achieved and accomplished, that is complete
and secure. And so when we speak about hope
as believers, and when we speak about hope in the context of
the New Testament, we're speaking not about something we hope is
going to happen, but is couched in uncertainty. Rather, we are
speaking about the things that God has promised. And when we talk about hope,
we're talking about Whether or not, the only degree of uncertainty
that appertains to that is whether or not God will be faithful to
his word. In 1 Timothy 1 verse 1, Paul
is writing to the young man and he says, he's introducing himself
as the writer, he says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by
the commandment of God our saviour and Lord Jesus Christ, which
is our hope. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
hope. You see, so when we're talking
about faith, when we're talking about hope, it's not aspirational
that maybe it's going to occur. We're looking at a person. We're looking at what Christ
has done. And we are believing in him. We are putting our trust in him.
We are placing our hope in Him that those things which He has
said, those things which He has accomplished, those things which
He has promised will indeed be fulfilled to us. Now that ought
to give us some encouragement. That ought to put a little bit
of meat, as it were, on the bones of what it is to trust in Him. The promises of God, or rather
of Christ Himself, who is the revealer of God in all things,
is our hope. Can we believe God? Is God worthy
of our belief? Is God faithful to His word? Would it not deny the very nature
of the holiness of God to be partial in the things that he
says and does? Therefore our hope is founded
upon the integrity, the holiness, the unchangeability, the immutability
of Almighty God and his decrees and his purpose. In Colossians
1 verse 5 we read, For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven,
whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel. Here is a hope laid up for us
in heaven, declared or revealed to us through the word of truth
in the gospel that has been preached to our hearts and souls. The
word of truth of the gospel. is not doubtful or questionable,
but certain and sure. It is the word of truth of the
gospel. It's not conditional. It's unconditional. It's firm,
it's absolute. And that hope is already laid
up for us. There's nothing doubtful or dubious
about the promises of God for his people. In Titus 1 verse
2 we read, Can it be any more emphatic than that? In hope of
eternal life. The Lord's people face the future
with the hope of eternal life. Those who are unwell, Those who are ill, those who
are frail, those who see their bodies aging. Those of us who
look forward with a degree of uncertainty as to what the future
might hold have no doubts about this matter. This eternal life
which God has promised us, this is our hope and it is a hope
founded upon the absolute honesty and integrity of a promise-giving,
promise-keeping God. in hope of eternal life which
God that cannot lie promised before the world began. It's
an eternal guarantee based upon God's own honour. Colossians
1.27 says, Christ in you, the hope of glory. That is the Lord
Jesus Christ indwelling his people is the promise of eternal life
and glory for us. Ephesians 1 verse 13, you are
sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest. The earnest, we don't use the
word too often these days in the sense in which Paul's speaking
to the Ephesians here, but it simply is a pledge or a token. It's the Lord's pledge. The Holy
Spirit has been given to the church, given to his people as
the earnest or the pledge of our inheritance, everything that
God has for us. So here when Peter talks in this
passage about a living hope, When he says in verse three of
1 Peter 1, that we are begotten again unto a lively hope. He is speaking about a living
hope in the same sense as the Apostle Paul has been speaking
in his epistles about this hope that is ours. A lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Something that's
already happened is the ground of our hope. Paul tells us faith
is God's gift to his people. And when Jesus says that he would
pray for Peter's faith, that it would not fail, he was speaking
of this faith, this hope that endures, a living faith, a lively
hope. And that's the first feature
of faith that I want to leave with you, because our hope is
a living faith. It's a living faith. It's a lively
hope, says Peter, because it's founded on the promises of God
the Father. It's our real experience. the glorious person and successful
work of God the Son, and the intimate day-by-day comfort of
the Spirit, that internal witness of God's Spirit in our lives. These are the things which give
us grounds to believe the promises of God. Peter says that we are born again
to lively faith by the Holy Spirit and that's the teaching of Scripture,
that regenerating work, that new birth work is the work of
God the Holy Spirit. But it flows to us through the
abundant mercy of God the Father. And it's given its energy in
our thoughts and in our spirits and our understanding by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So here we can
see the triune God reinforcing this great promise to his people
day by day that they have a living hope and the promises of an eternal
security. So our hope's not a hoped for
outcome that it's going to be all right in the end, although
we're not quite sure how it's all going to work. But rather it's a vital relationship
with the triune God resting upon the sure testimonies of scripture
and the promises of the covenant of his goodness to us. The next
feature that I want to draw your attention to with respect to
faith is that it is preserving faith. It preserves us, it keeps
us. Peter says, believers are kept
by the power of God through faith. Kept. Here is a faith that has
been granted to us that keeps us safe. As it were, this is
like a lifeline. If someone gets thrown overboard
into the water, it's always a good thing to have a rope handy that
you can throw to them so that they can hold onto that rope
and be pulled back to the safety and security of the ship. I don't
know about you, but sometimes I feel my life's like a little
bit, a little bit like getting thrown off a boat into the water. and you try to put your foot
down and there's nothing there. And you try to take a breath
and you get a mouthful of water. And there's just nothing that's
stable and there's nothing that's firm and there's nothing that's
dependable and we're getting washed here and there and buffeted
here and there. Well, faith is the lifeline that
gets thrown to us. Faith is the umbilical cord by
which the goodness of God flows to his people. How we're sustained,
how we're nourished, how we're kept alive in the midst of the
problems and the opposition and the trials and tribulations of
this life. Here is preserving faith, faith
that keeps us. And until that day, that we step
into the reality of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. Our faith will keep us till that
very instant, that very moment when we see the reality and faith
is no longer required. Brethren, we are blessed indeed
Are you seeing what this says to us? It says that our inheritance
is reserved in heaven for us. No moth can corrupt that, no
rust can corrupt that inheritance. And we are preserved amid a thousand
trials until the time appointed that we shall enter into his
glory. No matter what those trials might
be, no matter how deep that hole we might find ourselves in, no
matter how dark and how black the feelings of our nature, that
faith is the cord which keeps us connected to Christ. It's the power of God and it
keeps us safe and secure. and the divine wisdom of our
God employs our faith to do it. Now it's his faith insofar as
it comes from him, but it's ours in as much as we possess it. Now I think this is important,
listen to this if you will. We are sustained in this world,
in the trials of this world, not by the things that we do,
not by how clever we are or how able we are or how accomplished
we are at stacking things up around about us to sustain us.
Now I know that Our experiences are all different. Some of us
have more money. Some of us have less. Some of
us have better intellects and minds. Some of us have less.
Some of us have more experience of life. Some of us have less.
But you know what? It really doesn't matter because
I will be absolutely certain that you have got a whole bag
load of worries, no matter how smart you are, how rich you are,
how healthy you are, how well you've organized yourself, how
much insurance you have. How much you've got to preserve
the lifestyle that you've become accomplished, that you have and that you enjoy. These things are what we build
around about us to sustain us. But they don't sustain us. They're
an illusion. Because they can be taken away
so, so easily. A moment. Your eyes get distracted
on the road. A moment. Your children stumble and fall
and bang their head. Your life's upside down. Everything's
changed. Your pension firm goes bust. And all the plans that you made
for that time when you wouldn't have to work. Your health gets
taken away from you because one doctor did one test that showed
you what you didn't know was there. And everything changes. And not your money, not your
health, not your wisdom, not your experience, not your friends,
not your family, not nothing except faith. Faith is the thing
that endures. Faith is the thing that will
carry you through. Trust in the Lord. That's what
the Lord gives us. And these trials, these trials
that we experience, let us remember that they are combated with faith. The trials, the temptations,
the doubts, the assaults on our belief that will come. But the
gospel isn't a mere proposition to be believed on and then forgotten.
You see, part of the problem with religion today is that people
think that they became a Christian when they were 10, because they
gave their heart to Jesus. Or maybe when they were at university
or college, or maybe in the early days of their... And that's their
faith. Yes, that's their faith. Because
they can look it up in a diary. or they've got a piece of paper
in their pocket, or it's written in the inside of a Bible that
they were given, and that's their faith. Well, no, that's not your
faith. That was an incident, that was
an experience that you had way back then. The question is this,
have you got faith today? Have you got faith right now?
And what is it based upon? This isn't just a proposition. That might suit the free willed
Arminian that wants to get as many ticks, as many numbers as
he possibly can to make him feel good that he's a soul winner
for God. But it fails our needs. It fails
our needs today. It fails our needs in the face
of the fiery trials that we have to encounter in this life. Well, here's the thing. Our faith,
our hope, if you like, is resting on the promises of
God. And that's all it is. It's resting
on the promises of God. Day by day, hour by hour, minute
by minute. It's the application by grace
and mercy of our fellowship and communion with God in Christ. It's the experience that we have,
the encouragement from God in Christ, that what he has said
to us, he will most surely fulfil. It's the promise of God that
he will mature us by our experiences, that he will allow us to experience
spiritual growth by the things that he brings against us, and
that those very things are purposeful to that end. All our hope is resting in the
promise of God in Christ. Now how does that rest come to
us? It comes to us by faith. That's what lays hold upon the
promises of God. Trusting the promises in the
face of our difficulties. Bringing every need that we have
to God in faith. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 2 says,
You see what it's saying? It's talking about the Old Testament
Israel. They all heard the same gospel. Same message was preached. Everybody heard it. But it wasn't
mixed with faith. And if it's not mixed with faith,
it doesn't do us any good. So here's a bit of an advertisement. How do we know what the promises
of God are? How do we know what the promises
of God are? We hear them in the gospel when
it is preached to us. That's what Paul is saying here
to the Hebrews. That gospel that is preached,
And where are the blessings and the promises of the gospel set
forth to us? From this pulpit. From this pulpit. How do we know the promises of
God? We hear them declared to us. Where is it that the Lord,
our God, ordains that he will meet us to have this personal
relationship with us? in the gathering of his people,
in the fellowship of the saints, in a gospel church, under a gospel
preacher, where there is a gospel message declared, where the flock
of the Lord Jesus Christ gather together. That's where the promises
of God in the gospel are dispensed. That's where the goodness of
God is to be had. That's where we suck. in the great congregation. Now
we could be metaphorical about this and use it as a picture,
as an analogy, or else we could be absolutely realistic and say,
you know what that means? That means that you're here when
the gospel is preached. That means that when we set aside
two hours in the week, that's all, two hours. How much time
do we spend eating? How much time do we spend sleeping? How much time do we spend working? How much time do we spend entertaining
ourselves? Two hours. Two hours. Maybe a little bit more if you
have to travel. But this is where our faith is fed. This is where
we are nourished. This is what gets us through
the day. This is what enables us. This
is what keeps us in the face of our trials. Do you desire
to be kept by the power of God through faith? Do you desire
that? Then feed your faith by gospel
preaching and gospel fellowship, and let that be a priority in
your life. Peter explains a little here
about a believer's daily life. He says, you are in heaviness
through manifold temptations, the trial of your faith. Well,
I guess that there are some of us here today could understand
what that means. Ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations, the trial of your faith. So here's the third point. True faith will be tested and
true faith will have to be proved. Tested by fire, that's the opposition. And that's simply the reality
of our daily life in this world. It's the consequence of those
two natures we were speaking about on Wednesday evening. It's
the outcome of the warring of the spirit and the flesh in the
heart and soul of every believer. And it's difficult. It's hard.
You know, people say, come to Jesus and he'll answer all your
questions. He'll give you all the blessings
of life. No, you know what? A Christian's
life, I suspect, is harder than an unbeliever's life because
he doesn't have to fight inside. He only has to fight with the
world outside. But the Christian has to fight
a rear guard action as well with that old man. Why is our life
not Eden-like. Why are we not constantly rejoicing? Why is there a coldness and a
dryness and a weariness and well-doing which is part of our life? For the simple reason that the
Lord will have our faith to grow. The Lord wants to grow our faith
because our faith is what connects to Him. Our faith is what gives
us that relationship with Him. And He wants to exercise our
faith so that it will be stronger, so that it will be deeper, so
that it will be more mature, so that we will go to Him more
easily, more frequently, more regularly. and we trust in him. So he gives us these trials,
he gives us these problems to test our faith. I think the comparison
that is made here to gold is very interesting. Gold, when
it is burned in fire, diminishes only to the extent of its impurities. Pure gold doesn't diminish at
all. In fact, naturally speaking,
there's nothing that you can do to destroy gold. When it goes through the fire,
its quality is enhanced. It glows more brightly. Its value increases. It doesn't rust, it doesn't tarnish,
it can't be destroyed. And our faith is more precious
than gold. That's quite a valuation that
God the Holy Spirit places upon it. Peter says it is tried and
it's tried with fire that it might be found unto praise and
honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. And hard as
it might appear, the Lord designs trials for our comfort. Sometimes
it is to enable us to resist the devil when he flees from
us. Sometimes when he comes in like
a flood, we discover the strength of Christ anew, and we are made
perfect in our weakness. And sometimes when those fiery
darts wound us, and our strength gives way, and we fall under
the temptations of this life, Even then, in our fallen state
and condition, our souls, humbled, can shout victory in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ through faith. So faith is what teaches
us and leads us all the time out of our trials, to understand
our trials, to overcome our difficulties, and to see the Lord's hand at
work in our lives. Faith is the anchor of the soul. It is both sure and steadfast
in the trials and troubles of every believer's experience.
And then lastly, we say this, true faith will endure. Peter
speaks here of the end of your faith, even the salvation of
your souls. And every believer has grounds
to trust the author and finisher of our faith. He will bring his
people to glory. We will be complete in him. We are his workmanship. and we shall be with him and
we shall be like him. The Lord Jesus Christ prayed
that Peter's faith would not fail and he intercedes for you
just as much as he did for Peter. Someday our faith will be found
unto the praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ. Someday We shall hear those words. Well done, good and faithful
servant. Thou hast been faithful over
a few things. I will make thee ruler over many
things. Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord. And what will we say on that
day? What will we say to the Lord
Jesus Christ when our faith is found unto praise and honour
and glory? When our faith is found unto
praise and honour and glory? That means that our faith is
to our praise, our honour and our glory. What will we say when
the Lord Jesus Christ says to us, well done, thou good and
faithful servant. I think we will reply with the
psalmist. In Psalm 115, verse one. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. Amen.