Our lesson this morning is in
1 Peter 1. Our subject is the living hope. Last week, we looked at the new
birth here in 1 Peter 1.3. Begotten again, he tells us. Born again. And as we looked
at it, saw where there's actually involved in this new birth, there's
two births that are prominent. The first is a natural generation
born of our father Adam. And through the new birth, we
come to see that, to perceive that, to understand what that
means. What does that birth in Adam mean? Well, it means we
inherit the fall. We inherit the sin of our father
Adam. Paul said this to both Jews and
Gentiles. He said, I have before proved
that both Jews and Gentiles were all under sin. And being under
sin, there's none righteous. It's ridiculous for a man to
talk about his works and the things that he does, his decisions
and all those things, and refer to them as a righteousness. There's
none righteous. That's not hard to understand,
is it? You know, biblical doctrine is not hard to perceive, but
biblical doctrine with preconceived notions is hard to perceive. The election's not hard to perceive. God chose a people. Anybody can
understand that. It's just that we've heard all
of our life something contrary to that. And then when we see
that, it looks like it's complicated. It's not complicated. And neither is this birth. There's
none righteous because we're all under sin. There's none that
understand it. We're born with the nature of
sin. There's none that seeketh after God. Our will is in bondage
to our nature. And there's none good, no, not
one. Actually, the scripture sums
all of these things up into these two representatives. He tells
us, in Adam, all die. All die. But there's another
federal head, the last Adam. We learn about that over in 1
Corinthians 15. He said, since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection from the dead. For as in Adam
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. It is inevitable
that through the fall of Adam that his curse, his condemnation,
and his sin be passed upon all men. That's inevitable. There's no stopping that. There's
no evolving into something that that doesn't any longer have
a meaning. It's inevitable. He's the federal
head and representative of man in general. And it's also inevitable
that all who are represented in Christ shall be made heirs
together with him. in Christ shall all be made alive. They're all going to be born
again because they're in Christ. They were chosen in him and blessed
with that blessing before the world began. There's no possibility
that that man that the Father gave to Christ and for whom Christ
redeemed and accomplished his redemption, there's no possibility
that that man is not going to be called to faith in Christ
and be regenerated. Christ is called in the Scripture,
the firstborn from the dead. And he is the head, Colossians
1.18, of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.
So our spiritual birth is an act of God's sovereign mercy
and grace. The agency of that birth is the
Holy Spirit. We're saved, Paul said, by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. The means
of this birth is the preaching of the gospel. Paul said, I have
begotten you through the gospel. That's the means. And then the
last thing we talked about last week is the reason for regeneration. Look here in our text in 1 Peter
1 through 8. The reason for regeneration is
to enable dead sinners to believe. We are begotten again unto a
lively hope. There's a reason for this birth.
The reason for this birth is to enable chosen sinners to hear
the Gospel, to believe the Gospel, to submit themselves to Christ
and embrace Him. To be born again is to be enabled
of God to hear what others do not hear. To be born again is to be enabled
of God to see what others do not see. Our Lord said to His
disciples, I'm going to preach this morning and expound to you
some things from a parable in the book of Matthew. In Matthew
chapter 13, our Lord gives seven parables in that chapter. You
might recall that as we went through our studies in Matthew.
But there's seven parables given there. And concerning the hearing
and understanding of those parables, our Lord said to his disciples,
it's given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. And there may be some here this
morning as I go through this parable, you're going to sit
there and say, well, how does he get that out of that? You
know, where is he coming from with this? How does he, where
did he get his information, you know? And that's your opinion
and all those things that people say. But our Lord said to his
disciples, it's given unto you to understand. It's given unto
you to know what it is I'm teaching in these parables. And then he
said, after he told them that, he said, blessed are your eyes
for they see. They perceive. The eyes of faith
perceives these things. It understands these things.
Now let's look together here at 1 Peter 1, 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. Chosen sinners are begotten again
unto a living hope. I don't know if all of you had
a religious past or not. Maybe you grew up outside of
religion. My wife didn't have a big religious
past. For the most part, she didn't
attend church, didn't go, and the Lord spared her from some
of those things. But I grew up in it. I mean,
from the time that I just couldn't hardly walk. Daddy dragged me
around to this meeting and that meeting and so on. And in religion,
we were always being told to examine our works and examine
our decisions and examine our commitments and all of these
things, to examine our experiences and to examine our wills and
our faith. But my friend, don't you hear
me? Christ is the Savior, not faith. Christ is the Savior, not your
decision. We were not chosen in faith and
then given to Christ. We were chosen in Christ and
then given faith. Isn't that what Scripture teaches?
Religion has it backwards. Faith was not appointed as our
federal head. Faith was not appointed as our
covenant surety Christ was. Faith didn't live a perfect life
for you, Christ did. Faith didn't satisfy the justice
of God, Christ did. Faith didn't raise from the dead,
Christ did. We're begotten again unto a lively
hope. Paul says this in Ephesians chapter
2, he said, God who is rich in mercy, Now he says this after
he establishes the fact that we're dead in trespasses and
sin. Tells us what that death is. We walked according to the
course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air. He establishes the spirit who now worketh in the children
of disobedience. We were all children of wrath
even as others. Lived our lives in the lust of
the flesh. He establishes that. And then
he said, but God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And he
did all of that, Paul said, that in the ages to come He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace, in his kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus, for by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should fault where his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus, unto that good works is talking about the work
of faith. That's his subject. That work
of love in your heart. You're created in Christ Jesus
unto these good works. The new birth is given to enable
dead sinners to believe in, to believe on, and to embrace the
Lord Jesus Christ. Religion would make the new birth
an evidence of faith, but the Word of God declares just the
opposite. Faith is the result of the new
birth. We're chosen to salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. So hear
what Peter's saying here. I'm trying to go slow as we go
through these because in these introductions, in these epistles,
these were well-established doctrines in these churches. And so these
apostles, when they opened their letter, they just stated these
things and went on. He hath begotten us again unto
a lively hope. What does that mean? That means
all those born of God are left hoping in Christ. That's what
that means. That's what He does. He takes
away everything else and shuts us up to Christ. That's what
this whole thing of the new birth is about. He washes us from all
those ignorant things that we heard in religion, all those
twisted things that our nature heard and then went off the deep
end with. He washes us from those things
and establishes us in the truth. Regeneration reveals to chosen
sinners what I have not seen. nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man, what does it reveal? The things which God
hath prepared for them that love him." It reveals that their election
was in a person. In a person. Election's not a
lottery left to chance and luck. Election was in a person. And
that person in whom we were elected existed before the world did.
That person in whom we were elected made the world. All spiritual blessings, Paul
tells us, are given according as he hath chosen us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. There's no other way to
be blessed of God except in Christ. You know, people One fellow won
the lottery here not too long ago, and they were talking to
him, and he said, I just feel blessed of God. Well, you're
not blessed of God no matter what you have or what you won
or anything else outside of Christ. To be blessed of God, you must
be blessed in Christ. Then you can be a pulper and
a king at the same time. No other way to be blessed of
God except in Christ. God does not stoop to use such
things as are available to Him in time. I've heard that so many
times. You know, well, there wasn't
any of this and there wasn't any of that and we didn't have
this and all that. God doesn't stoop. These things
in time doesn't cause God to panic and use some other means
other than what He's already ordained and chosen. He declares the end from the
beginning, and he rules all that's in between. Secondly, regeneration
reveals to chosen sinners that God has appointed for them a
representative. God did this. We didn't do that.
We didn't look around and find somebody to represent us. God
the Father chose Christ to represent us, to be our representative,
to be our head, before the foundation of the world. Chose him to be
a high priest taken from among men to represent us in things
pertaining to God. Chose him to be a surety of the
everlasting covenant. What's a surety? He's the one
who makes these things. That covenant, David said, with
his dying breath was ordered in all things and sure. He said,
this is all my salvation and all my desire. What made it sure? Christ the surety. We haven't
kept a single, not one single stipulation of that covenant
is man able to keep. Christ kept it all. He's the
covenant surety. God appointed Him for us to be
a substitute, one chosen to die in our stead, one to bear our
sins and His own body on the tree. We're justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. And man has neither the worth
nor the ability to satisfy God. He doesn't have either one. Christ
has both. He has both. Two things are required of God
in the salvation of a sinner. Do you know what they are? A
perfect, unblemished, unspotted righteousness. That's what God
requires from you, Russell, and you can't do it. You can't make
one. You can't work one out. No possibility
of you doing that. But God requires a perfect, unspotted,
unblemished righteousness, and God demands full restitution
for all your sins. If you didn't sin anymore between
now and the time you died, you sinned enough to spend eternity
in hell already. Not only does God require perfect
righteousness, but he demands full restitution for all your
sins. We can't do either one. We can't climb out of the pit
we're in. We can't make ourselves acceptable
to God. We can't please God. The only
way you're going to please God is by faith in Christ. Listen to what Christ said. They
were still confused. Christ was about to go to the
cross and they were all confused and didn't know what He was talking
about. They were so upside down in religion that they just couldn't
fathom what it was He was telling them. And they said, we don't
know where you're going and how can we know the way? He said,
I am the way. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. Now listen to
what he says, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. You see what I'm saying? This
new birth, we're begotten again unto a living hope. And this
living hope is talking about Christ. Christ, the ascended Christ,
the victorious Christ, the seated Christ, the reigning Christ. That's our hope. That's what
regeneration does. Regeneration is not given to
cause men to speak in tongues and to heal folks and all that
kind of weird stuff that religion talks about. Regeneration is to enable dead
sinners to believe on Christ. That's what it's for. That's
why it's given. And this book and the gospel
it records, It tells us that God hath given to us the eternal
life, and this life is in His Son, and he that hath the Son
hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
Christ is the gospel, and apart from Him there is no good news.
So the revelation of regeneration is the revelation of a person.
Now turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. What I'm teaching
you right now is the most important thing, if God will enable you
to know. It's the most important thing
for you to know in this world. Salvation is 1 Corinthians 1. And what I want you to see is
that salvation is not in the church, it's not in the water,
it's not in the bread and the wine, it's not in your decisions
and wills. Salvation is in a person, the
Lord Jesus Christ. But you say the Scriptures talk
about a sanctification, the Scriptures talk about a redemption, the
Scriptures talk about wisdom, the Scriptures talk about faith
and all these things. Listen to this, 1 Corinthians
1, verse 30. But of Him, that is, of God, are ye in Christ Jesus, are you
listening, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Christ has made those things. Does God require wisdom? Well,
sure He does. Christ came in this world to
give us an understanding that we might know Him that's true,
but we have no wisdom apart from Christ. The Bible doesn't say that He
was made of God to help us be wise, though He does, but rather
it says He's made unto us wisdom. Wisdom concerning the character
and will of God and wisdom as to how God can be just and justify
guilty sinners. And Paul said concerning the
gospel he preached, he said, we speak the wisdom of God in
a mystery. This wisdom of Christ, we speak
this in a mystery. This world don't get it. They
don't perceive it. They don't understand it. Even
the hidden wisdom. which God ordained before the
world unto our glory. Believers have the mind of Christ,
the mind of Christ. Here's the wisdom of God. We're
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. He made unto us sanctification. Here's the wisdom of God. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness, to everyone that believes. Here's the wisdom of God. He
was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. He made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. And then consider this. Every
thought we think, every affection we experience, every deed we
do is tainted with sin. Is it not? We are all, Isaiah said, as an
unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Man at his
best state, altogether vanity. If we say we have no sin, and
we do from time to time, men do say that, we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say we have not sin, we
make God a liar and his word's not in us. The sinner has only
one alternative. If we confess our sins, Christ
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. We live daily the lives of helpless
sinners. That's how we live. Don't get
above that. Don't climb up on a plateau somewhere
and look down on men. We live every day of our life,
the believer does, with the mind of Christ as helpless, hopeless
sinners. We're nothing apart from Christ. Without Christ, Paul said, we
have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. There's
no godliness, no true holiness apart from Christ. We were chosen
in him that we should be holy and without blame before him.
in love. And we stand before God in Christ
in perfect love, loving Him and loved by Him. Christ prayed in
His high priestly prayer. Now listen to this, John 17,
23. He said, I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect
in one. Perfect in one. And that the
world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them
as thou hast loved me. O righteous Father, he said,
the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these
have known that thou hast sent me. Listen to what he says down in
verse 26 of John 17. I've declared unto them thy name,
and I will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved
me may be in them, and I in them. The man who is begotten again
is begotten again unto a living hope, a hope which rests in the
resurrected Christ, the victorious Christ, Were He not victorious,
God would not have raised Him from the dead. But He is victorious. And to walk in Him is to walk
in perfect harmony with God and His redeemed. If we walk in the
light as He is the light, we have fellowship one with another.
That's the only way we can have fellowship. We're going to get
crosswise real quick in this life if it weren't for the grace
of God in Christ. It don't take long before somebody
rubs the other one wrong, does it? But if we walk in the light,
as He is the light, we have fellowship, one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. And this living hope, 1 Peter
1, verse 4, is to an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, 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
at the last day. Can you see how all these things
are tying together here that Peter said in his introduction?
Especially in verse 3. He just lays it out. Here it
is, step by step. Its regeneration is unto a living
hope. This living hope is the hope
of faith. This is what faith's all about.
And we're kept by the power of God through this faith unto salvation,
which is ready to be revealed at the last time. It's incorruptible
because it's sealed in the God-man. It's undefiled because in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And it fadeth
not away. This living hope is in the eternal
Son of God. He never changes. I am the Lord,
he said, I change not. And it's reserved in heaven for
you. Paul tells us that our spiritual
quickening in Christ perceives that we were put to death in
Him, raised from the dead in Him, and seated with Him in glory. Our salvation has already been
accomplished and reserved in heaven for us. How long will
our salvation be sure? As long as the surety sits on
the throne.