1 Peter, and we're going to read
chapter one. 1 Peter, chapter one. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia. elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you,
and peace be multiplied. 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. unto whom it was revealed
that not unto themselves but unto us they did 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. Wherefore, gird
up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end, for
the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of
Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not fashioning
yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but
as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner
of conversation, because it is written, be ye holy, for I am
holy. And if ye call on the Father
who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's
work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. For as much as
ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him
up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope
might be in God. seeing ye have purified your
souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love
of the brethren. See that ye love one another
with a pure heart, fervently, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord
endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you. Amen, may God bless to us this
reading from his word. The Lord Jesus Christ, towards
the end of his ministry here upon earth, it was following
his crucifixion and his resurrection and just shortly before his ascension
back to glory, he spoke to his friend, Simon Peter, his follower,
his disciple, Simon Peter. And he spoke to him at the side
of Galilee, the side of the sea, concerning that man's own subsequent
service. He spoke to him about the things
that would be required of him as a follower and as a disciple
and as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in John chapter
21, we have the account of that conversation that took place,
worth reading at your leisure. But at that time, there were
a lot of burdens being carried by Peter, a lot of anxieties
and concerns about the way he had acted, the things that he
had said. And the Lord Jesus Christ, gently
and kindly, addressed this bruised and battered disciple and comforted
and encouraged his heart. It was, as it were, that Peter
was given a fresh vision, a fresh view of the trust that the Lord
Jesus Christ placed in him and that calling which had been granted
to him to go forward and to serve his master for the rest of his
life. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
to Peter, Peter, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. And Peter never
forgot. Peter never forgot those words.
We see it in the ministry of Peter for the rest of his life. He knew his life's work had been
set before him and he knew that that life's work was to feed
the flock of God, to comfort the Lord's people, to help the
Lord's people. And he was conscious of that
shepherding role that was committed to him, that was left to him
as a pastor, as an under shepherd, delegated by the chief shepherd,
the chief shepherd of our souls. He knew that that delegated responsibility
of shepherding the Lord's flock had fallen to him, had fallen
to him. And so we discovered that these
allusions to shepherding and the Lord's flock recur in Peter's
ministry. He knew that he had to feed the
sheep. And so he writes in the next
chapter, chapter two of this book, in verse 25, ye were as
sheep gone astray. He understood this shepherding,
this sheep analogy, but are now returned unto the shepherd and
bishop of your souls. And later in the book, in chapter
5, verse 2, we read, chief shepherd that is the Lord
Jesus Christ. Peter, as he grew old, as he
came towards the end of his own life, committing unto faithful
men the same task of feeding the flock of God. That's what he had been commissioned
to do and that's what he passed on to those pastors and undershepherds
who would follow after him. Just another picture with respect
to this commission that he was given. In Luke chapter 22, the
Lord Jesus Christ spoke to Peter specifically amongst the apostles
and he says this, That wasn't talking about conversion
to new life. Peter was already a believer,
but he had to experience some things. He had to undergo some
winnowing, some trials, some challenges. He had to realize
the kind of person that he was. He had to learn about himself
as well as learn about his savior. And the Lord says to him, when
thou art converted, when thou hast had these experiences, Peter,
that will give you such a single-minded approach to your responsibilities
to this new church in my absence. Here's what I want you to do.
Peter, strengthen thy brethren. Strengthen thy brethren. It's a wonderful thing to see
these responsibilities in the life of a faithful pastor to
the Lord's people in these days. This is what a pastor is called
to do. And you men, perhaps, if some
of you have the desire to be in some sort of pastoral capacity
in days ahead, or if you find yourself having responsibility
granted to you to take care of a service or to preach a sermon
or to take responsibility for the wellbeing of the church,
remember what Peter was told. Feed the flock, strengthen thy
brethren. This book that is before us is
the testimony of Peter's fulfilment of that great commission. as
he was sent to preach the gospel, as he was sent to nurture the
church, as he was sent into the world in order to bring the words
of Christ that had been committed to him as an apostle and disciple
to the larger audience of those who would be called by the preaching
of the gospel and the gathering of the Holy Spirit, so Peter
understood these responsibilities. And when we come to this epistle,
we will have these things in mind. It's my intention in the
coming weeks to spend a little bit of time in this epistle of
Peter. It would be nice if in the time
that we have allotted to us, we could get through the whole
book, but even just reading this first chapter this morning, I
think to myself, how are we going to get through the wealth and
the riches that are in this opening chapter of this book? This is
the saint's delight to read these things, to meditate upon these
things, to hear these things being reiterated in our presence,
that we might have the very words of this man, Peter, commissioned
by the Lord to feed his flock, commissioned by the Lord to strengthen
his brethren at our disposal. right here and right now. What
a blessing we have, brothers and sisters, to be able to read
the apostles' words and apply them to ourselves. I want to
ask a couple of questions just generally, as it were, this morning
by way of introduction to this chapter and this book. Who is
it that is writing here? It is Peter. It is Peter the
fisherman, but it is Peter the apostle. Peter, who was a disciple
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is a man with a message. He
is writing to these churches because he has a burden upon
his heart, a burden for the Lord's people. And he was seeking to
feed the flock in his writing. He was seeking to strengthen
the brethren in the things that he had to say. And so he speaks
to us immediately of the Lord Jesus Christ and he speaks to
us of these things which he himself had learned. He is going to comfort
us with these truths first hand. He hears them at the lips of
the Lord and he conveys them in writing to all who will read
his words. And he's going to be describing
the grace which flows from God to his people. And he's going
to be unpacking some of the practical effects of that grace in the
lives of his people. And Peter had experienced these
things. He had known the trials of Jesus'
life. He had faced the opposition that
the Lord faced. He knew what it was to come hard
against the religion of the natural man. He knew what it was to face
the rising opposition of his own flesh. He knew what it was
to fear even the words of a little servant girl who said, I know
you. I know you. You're one of his people, aren't
you? And he knew the depths to which a man's actions can take
him because of the fear of flesh. Peter lived through these trials
and therefore he is equipped to speak to us who carry these
trials also and to lead us and to help us and to strengthen
us in these matters. But Peter also carries apostolic
authority. And I come and I speak to you
this morning and I am delighted to be here and I am grateful
for your attention and I thank you for your ear. But Peter's
message is a message that comes with authority. My authority
this morning is only in as much as I repeat these things which
I have before me in the Holy Scriptures. Peter's authority
came from Christ directly, and he carries that apostolic authority. He was commissioned by the Lord
Jesus Christ, he was authorised by the Lord Jesus Christ, and
he was witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is going to have some
wonderful things to say to us. And I trust that in the coming
days, we will have opportunity to dwell upon some of these things
and draw from them some of the sweetness that is to be had in
this faithful brother's testimony of the things that he had seen
and heard. To whom was this book written? You know, it is always useful
for us to Look and think about who the addressee is when we
read the scriptures, because that will help us to understand
the significance of what it is that's said. I wonder if you've ever discovered
somebody's diary and had a little look inside
it. You should never look at anybody else's diary, unless
they send it to a publisher for it to be published. That's another
matter. Or give it to you and say, yes,
you can have it, but don't look at anybody else's diary. Because
you'll see things in there that you're not supposed to see because
it wasn't written for you. But when something has been written
for us, then it has so much more meaning. If you ever open a letter
and it says, I love you, have a look at the front and see who
it's addressed to, in case you make any mistakes about who the
person's speaking about. Who is this letter written to? It's written to strangers scattered. Scattered strangers. It's written
to professing believers. And these believers were scattered
abroad. They had been chased from their
homes. They were strangers because they
were not living in their own land. He is writing predominantly
to Jews, though not exclusively, and he is writing to Jews who
had been chased from Jerusalem, chased from Israel because of
the persecution that arose at the time of Saul of Tarsus, when
the church was broken up. And so these people are not living
in their own land. They're living amongst strangers
and they have become strangers. And they're scattered because
they've been driven by this persecution. They're living in a place which
is a modern day Turkey. It's what we now call Turkey. It's just underneath the Black
Sea. in your map. So it's right to
the north of where Israel was, the Mediterranean, and then up
Turkey and the Black Sea. It's right on the northern coast
of that area there in northern Turkey. Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, Bithynia. Basically, these people had been
pushed to the extremity of where they could go. Of course, there
was land beyond the Black Sea, but They'd been pushed pretty
much to the outermost edge of where they could go. As a scattered stranger, they
were tried, they were troubled, and they were a needy people.
And I don't think that we should lose the significance of this
description. It fits us today. We ought to identify with strangers
and pilgrims. The apostle Peter in chapter
2 verse 21 speaks of these people as being strangers and pilgrims. Because the people of God are
a scattered people. The people of God are a pilgrim
people. We are making our way through
this world and we ought not to make it look as if there's a constancy about our lives here. We're looking for something beyond. We're looking for another home. Now you may have been born and
bred in Great Falls. You may live and die in Montana. And yet this will never be your
home. if you're one of the Lord's people,
because always you will be living in an alien environment. Always you will be seeking for
that which is yet to come. And if we truly understand these
things, we will be wise to appreciate that we are just passing through
this time, passing through this world. and ultimately our aspirations
are to enter into another land, to a holy land, to Beulah land,
there to dwell with our Saviour forever. The Lord's people are
scattered strangers and we ought to be sympathetic to those who
are scattered with us. We have much going on in our
nation and in our world today about the displacement of people,
about refugees, about those who have been forced to leave their
homes and to flee from situations and circumstances that are oppressive. And we discover that there is
a natural inbuilt fearfulness of those situations. because
no one is comfortable with strangers. And yet we're the strangers.
So let us remember to have an empathy with those who are strangers,
with those who are displaced, with those who are fleeing persecution. For the testimony of the Church
of Jesus Christ is this, that it has always been scattered
strangers, and that is who Peter is writing to. He writes to these
brethren in northern Turkey, but he writes to us as he writes
to them. and therefore we can take these
words and apply them to our own circumstances. What is it that
he writes? Well, there are only five chapters
yet, there are only five chapters in this book, yet I think there
is a fullness to it, there is a revelation, there is a truth
and a meaning in these chapters. which will do our hearts good
if we give them some time and consideration. There is thanksgiving
to God set before us for the blessing of salvation, even although
there may be for a season heaviness and trial. In the midst of our
hardships, we are called to thank God for his salvation. There
is a word about the implications and the consequences of having
received the Lord's salvation. Salvation does not come alone. It brings with it privileges
and rights and gifts to be possessed and enjoyed and responsibilities
to be undertaken. And we are called to live as
heirs of the promises that we have been given. Don't live as
if this doesn't matter. Don't live as if these are inconsequential. Don't live as if, well, we've
got it. We can put this salvation in our pocket. We can put it
in the cupboard. We can put it up on the shelf
and forget about it. No, if you are one of the Lord's
people, then you are called to follow him. And therefore, Peter
will address some of the consequences and implications of our salvation
in these chapters that he has written to us. And the apostle
will show that he is eager that the Lord's people display the
evidences of grace in their personal dealings. Firstly, with the Lord,
that we honour and respect him in the things that we do and
the things that we say and the way that we live. also with one
another, and how we interact with one another, and also with
the world. And he's going to warn of sufferings
that are to come, and particularly, although it is not specified,
he is going to warn about a particular imminent fiery trial. I think it's great that that
trial is not specified because it becomes all our trial. That fiery trial that is waiting
over the brow of the hill for you, he'll give you some words
of encouragement about how to deal with it and face it down
when it arises. So Peter has something to say
to us all. He will call on the elders of
the church to take care of Christ's little flock. And he'll call
for believers to live together in peace and humility, recognizing
that all glory and dominion rests with Christ and there's no place
for pride in our dealings one with another. and he will show
us that in the Lord Jesus Christ we have light and life and blessedness,
and that we have the gift of eternal life set before us. I am sure that there is going
to be something here for your soul. I am sure that there is
blessing to be had in considering these things. Here, if you wish
to see Christ, Peter will set him forth for you. If you wish
to know salvation, then the way of salvation will be revealed. If you wish to hear the gospel,
then the gospel will be declared. We will get the opportunity to
taste this free grace, to rest in the gifts and the promises
of God's goodness and mercy, and to have that glimpse of eternal
life set before us. Peter has something for us all
and I trust that we will be enabled in the coming weeks to open these
things and to dwell in them and rejoice upon them. Today I've
got a couple more things that I want to say just to lead us
through this introduction. And I want to say these two things,
these two assumptions that Peter has in this introduction. Two footings, as it were. I was
thinking about this. When I was a young man, I learned
a little bit of karate. Now that's not a challenge to
anyone. Do you know what the most important
thing is in karate? Somebody says how hard you can
punch. No. Or maybe how much you can stretch
out your kick. Well, no, that's not right either.
Or how quickly you can get up off the ground if you fall. No,
that's not the answer either. The most important thing in karate
is where your feet are. Because that's what gives you
your balance. That's what gives you your strength.
That's what gives you your ability to withstand whatever it is that
comes to face you. And Peter has given us two solid
foundations here in his introduction upon which to stand. Because
if we are going to face the troubles of this world, we need to have
that foundation and we need to have a sure footing. The first
one of these sure footed things is this, that salvation is the
work of the triune God. Salvation is the work of the
triune God. Now I don't know if I could search
this book from beginning to end and find a clearer statement
about salvation being the work of the triune God than in this
second verse of 1 Peter 1. I just don't think it... What
other words could be used? to make it more clear, more emphatic
that salvation is all the gift of God and the triune God laboring
together, working together, joining together in order to make a full
statement of the salvation that has been achieved and accomplished
and won for the people of His choice. Now, salvation is characterized
here by Peter as grace and peace. And we've seen that already in
some of the writings of the apostles, how grace and peace, two wonderful
attributes that sinners possess who have come to Christ. Grace
and peace. If you are saved, then you have
God's grace and you have God's peace. And if you've no grace
in your life, And if you've no peace in your life, then it is
because you're not saved and you're still in your sins. In
Jonah, in the Old Testament, chapter two, verse nine, we read
these words, salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is a work
of God, Jehovah. And here, the apostle Peter,
Unpacking this revelation shows us how God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Interestingly, he makes it God
the Father, God the Spirit, and God the Son, which shows us that
there is no priority within the Godhead. God the Father has ordained salvation
for particular individuals. That's what he says, elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father. And that is no less than
the appointment of certain sinners to salvation at God's good will
and pleasure. This is the purpose of God. call a people, to gather a people,
to bestow upon that people His grace and His peace, to reconcile
that people to Himself, to bestow upon that people a forgiveness
for their sins. It is God's choice, it is God's
purpose, the good will of God for the salvation of sinners.
So He is the moving force. He is the initiator. We don't
speak about salvation in the context of man's initiative. We speak about it as God's initiative. For it is God who has acted in
this way. It is God who has done these
things. And here Peter tells us it is the work of God the
Father. And next he says, the Holy Spirit
is involved in this also. For the Holy Spirit has sanctified
or set apart that people whom the Father had foreordained and
that they will be as individuals the certain and sure recipients
of God's grace and peace. Now we understand the work of
God the Holy Spirit as preserving that people both in the eternal
councils of God's covenant throughout the whole of the Adam world time
age and to the experience of grace
in our lives as he quickens and opens our hearts and converts
us under the preaching of the gospel. This great work of regeneration
falls to God the Holy Spirit. It is he who takes the gospel
when it is preached and applies it to the hearts of individuals. Yet we see here that God the
Father and God the Spirit are engaged together in this work
of salvation. Thirdly, Peter draws our attention
to notice that here in the obedience and death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the effectual means of grace and peace with God is accomplished. That's why we talk about amazing
grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I'm puzzled, I'm confused at
why anybody wants to think that man has any involvement in salvation. Our hymns, our prayers, recognised. Even the next verse, I'm not
going to go into it, but the Apostle writes at the beginning
of verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Why? Because we have to thank God
for salvation. It's not me. It's not you. It's not us. It's not the church.
It is God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
who have worked together, who have engaged together, joined
together to accomplish the salvation of a people. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he
came into this world, died on the cross in order to be the
sacrifice, the substitute, in order to shed his blood that
we might go free. Romans 5 verse 19 says, for as
by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, that's speaking
about Adam, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. This obedience that the Lord
Jesus Christ had was his obedience unto death for the ransom and
redemption of his people. A little bit later in Peter chapter
one here, verse 18, we're going to read these words. For as much
as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver
and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without
blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you. This is the work of the Triune
God and this is what we place our foot upon. It gives us strength,
it gives us foundation, it gives us hold. in this world to know
that the salvation that we have is God's gift, a free gift, and
he gives it to his people. And it's a beautiful representation
of God's covenant purpose of grace and peace for sinners.
Salvation coming to sinners at the hand of the triune God as
they agree together for the deliverance of chosen sinners. And that's
the second place that we've got to put our foot. We put our foot
on the fact that this great work is the work of the triune God
and we put our foot on this fact also. that a people are elect,
have been chosen by God to receive all of these blessings. Peter
believed in God's elective purpose in salvation. He says you're
elect according to the foreknowledge of God, right at the very beginning. The apostle doesn't try to explain
it, he doesn't try to justify it, he certainly doesn't try
to apologise for it. Because this is the testimony
of the Word of God, that there is an election of grace, that
there are people who have been chosen from before the foundation
of the world, that God has foreordained certain individuals to receive
the sanctification of the Spirit and the application, the sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. And notice that the election
of these sinners is based upon the foreknowledge or the foreordination
of God. Now it is true that God knows
all things before they occur. But the knowledge that flows
from ordination is the knowledge that comes from the plan and
purpose of God. He has ordered it to be so. It's
a sovereign work of grace. And that's why we call this work
Sovereign Grace. We could equally call it Sovereign
Peace. We could equally call it Sovereign
Salvation. It's God's. He is the King. He is the first cause. and it flows from his will and
his purpose. He has a settled purpose to save
a people whom he loves, whom he loved before time, and he
forgives that people, and he justifies that people upon the
merits of the blood and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter
preached election, and he preached it by apostolic authority. He preached it by divine inspiration
and he preached it upfront. He began with God's elective
purpose and he showed how all the blessings of grace and peace
flow from the work of the triune God. And we preach election. We preach
election because we understand that not a single blessing comes
to us except from the hand of our Redeemer, flowing to us from
God's electing love. The scriptures say, God hath
chosen you to salvation. They say again, he hath chosen
us that we should be holy. And again, the God of our fathers
hath chosen thee that thou shouldst know his will. We preach election as the blessed
choice of our sovereign God to save a people for himself. We
preach grace and peace, the heart of salvation for sinners. as
that alone work of the triune God is seen in the eternal covenant
of peace as being the ground of our standing and our eternal
security. Peter preached sovereign grace
and we delight to follow his apostolic pattern. Brothers and sisters, we may
well be strangers and pilgrims here upon this earth. We may well be scattered amongst
the nations, like these blessed souls to whom the apostle wrote. We may be tried and tested, even
persecuted for righteousness' sake, as they were. But we are
strengthened in the faith, We are strengthened in our hearts,
we are comforted in our resolve to honour and serve our Saviour,
Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us, because
we know that our salvation is the completed work of the triune
God, and that that election of grace has extended to us in the
preaching of the gospel, whereby we are saved. Let this be our
standing. Let this be the ground upon which
our footing is secured. The Apostle writes to these brethren
who have been scattered abroad. We are scattered strangers, but
there is a word of grace. There is a gospel message for
each of us today. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to our hearts and encourage us as we anticipate consideration
of these great truths in the weeks that lie ahead. Amen.