The Father’s Cause In Salvation

Transcript

GR 1923
07/05/2015
The Father’s Cause in Salvation
I Peter 1:3-5
Gil Rugh

We are going to the book of I Peter in your Bibles, I Peter and the first chapter. Peter has opened up his letter written to Jewish believers scattered in regions that would be Asia Minor in and our modern day Turkey which is where these areas are located. They are the elect sojourners of the diaspora. They are scattered outside their homeland. Jews going through trials and difficulty and explains something of God’s electing work. We talked a little bit about that, “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood,” in verse 2. We noted that all three members of the triune God are mentioned here as involved in our salvation.

He starts out with this emphasis on the gracious work of God, His sovereign work in our salvation and that’s where it begins. It gives comfort and security in knowing that God is sovereign. We belong to Him because remember, this is a letter written to believers going through trials, going through times of difficulty, suffering and that will come out as we move through the letter. We have looked at some of those indications throughout the letter. He concluded that introduction with “May grace and peace by yours in the fullest measure.” God’s grace which had not only brought them His salvation but which sustains and provides for them every day. He is our sufficiency. He is our provision. His peace can stand guard at our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. He wants them to enjoy this grace and peace in the fullest measure in the midst of trials and difficulties.

We are going to come in now to the area that will focus on other comfort that is theirs in their trials. We are going to talk about our hope, our inheritance. You know going through trials, difficulties, sufferings can be costly. Some of these would lose their means of providing for themselves, their families and undergo suffering of various kinds. It is a costly thing. It can become discouraging particularly when it seems unrelenting, it goes on.

He writes to encourage them and what encourages us, knowing that God is sovereign. We belong to Him. He has chosen us for Himself and He has promised us a secure and sure inheritance. We have a hope beyond this life. Whatever it costs to be faithful to the Lord it is nothing compared to what He has promised to those who love Him.

A reminder that God’s purposes are being accomplished even in our sufferings, even in our trials. They are part of God’s purpose for us. I’ve never said He intended us to live a trial free life. We have been blessed in our country. You can’t help but watch the news and think how privileged we are to live in a country that by God’s grace does not have the chaos and disorder and suffering that so many go through in so many part of the world. We are free to live as believers. We gather together tonight. We are not afraid of people breaking in and causing us suffering, leading us away to arrest or any of those kinds of things. If the Lord doesn’t come in the near future that may be on the horizon but whatever comes God is sovereign and under control.

In verse 2 he talked about the work of the sovereign God, the triune God on our behalf to bring about our salvation. Now we are going to have a long sentence and the Greek sentence runs from verse 3 through verse 12. In the English Bible they have broken that down into several sentences like verse 6 begins a new sentence in our English Bible and verse 10 is a new sentence in our English Bible but in Greek as Peter wrote it, it is one long sentence and he is talking about the unfolding of that work of the triune God in our salvation.

In verses 3 through 5 he will focus on the work of the Father. In verses 6-9 the central figure will be God the Son and then in verses 10-12 the ministry of the Spirit. So what he said in concise statement in verse 2 will be unfolded and elaborated for the encouragement of the believers. And he starts out in verse 3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Blessed, praise, it’s a word we are familiar with in English. We get the English word ‘eulogy’ from this. We go to a funeral and they say the eulogy will be given by so and so. It brings the idea of speaking well of someone; so giving praise. So when you talk of God you are giving God praise, blessing God, giving Him honor, declaring His worthiness for being praised, honoring Him. In writing to people who are going through suffering you emphasize the sovereignty of God in their salvation. We start all that out by praising Him. Good thing in the suffering, why? So we are going to praise God. I draw my attention to what, what He has done for me, His grace that we sang about, that work in my life, bringing me His salvation, forgiving my sin, giving me His peace, sustaining me day by day. What a great way to begin his letter in talking about believers going through, talking to believers going through suffering. Get your eyes on the Lord, what He has done. Give Him praise. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” You know one of the sure helps and cures for discouragement to get our eyes on the Lord again. How can I be discouraged? How can I be down when I am thinking about the great things God has done for me, the great things God has prepared for me? I belong to Him. It is well with my soul. So “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ;” seen here in the context of His relationship to Christ as our Savior. He is the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the God of Christ because of His incarnation. He was truly humanity. And I think the Scripture indicates He has always been the Father and there are interrelationships within the trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and three persons eternally existing as one God. We don’t fully comprehend it but we don’t fully comprehend God but we don’t fully comprehend what is entailed. This is the relationship as man. The Father is the God of Jesus Christ who has always been in the relationship of the Father. Since Christ is the One who secured the redemption by His death on the cross the Father is talked about here in the relationship to the Son and the Spirit will be seen in that as well because the focal point of God’s plan of redemption is in the Son. He’s the One who came to earth, He’s the One who died on the cross, and He’s the One who paid the price for our sins. All three members of the godhead are involved in our salvation but the Son is the focal point in that salvation.

Look at just a couple of references, Matthew chapter 27, the Gospel of Matthew and the 27th chapter and in verse 46 Christ on the cross “Eli, Eli Lama Sabachthani” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” There calling Him, My God, My God. I think this is tied to His humanity. He’s fully human and as a human being, as a human man, God is His Father in this hour of His bearing sins of humanity. God has forsaken Him.

Turn over to John chapter 20, John chapter 20, verse 17 after His resurrection and the appearance at the tomb and Mary and she clings to Him and in verse 17: “Jesus said to her, ‘stop clinging to Me for I have not yet ascended to the Father but go to My brethren and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, my God and your God,’” that relationship between the incarnate Son of God and the Father. He’s My God just as He is your God.

One more passage. There are a number but Romans 15, just to take it out of the Gospels, Romans chapter 15 and look at verse 6. Verse 5: “Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And I said one more verse but just turn the page over and you will be at I Corinthians, chapter1, verse 3: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” And the same in chapter 11, verse 31 of I Corinthians; Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, verse 17. “He’s the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Like I say, He has always been the Father, the Son has always been the Son. That relationship has been there yet Jesus Christ Himself had no beginning. He was dealt in eternity as the Son with the Father. In that relationship there is an indication of an order within the triune God but we are limited in our ability to understand the depths of that relationship.

Come back to John chapter 1. This in no way detracts from the deity of Christ. In John 1 you are familiar with: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The Word was God. He was in the beginning. He was in the beginning and was the One who brought all things into existence. Verse 3: “All things came into being through Him; apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”

So we don’t want to misunderstand and reduce Christ because as God as His Father that He at some time had a beginning, no He didn’t. There is a relationship conveyed with the terminology of the Father and the Son but that does not indicate in any way that the Son had a beginning. He was in the beginning with the Father and that’s basically as far back as we can go. You know we in our minds think what did God do forever? There was never a time when God was not. There was never a time when all three persons of the trinity did not exist. We began Genesis 1 in the beginning.

We are told some things that God did before the creation but the functioning of the triune God and all that went on, what we are told about, are things that pertain like in Ephesians 1, “To our salvation” and what God planned before the creation for us but we cannot go back beyond that. The Father has been the Father, the Son has been the Son and the Spirit has been the Spirit.

When you get to the beginning the Word already was. He was with the Father and when we open up Genesis 1 what do we read? When God created the heavens and the earth the Spirit of God moved or hovered over the face of the deep. The Spirit is there actively involved as well.

Colossians chapter 2, verse 9 even in the incarnation Jesus became fully man but He did not cease being fully God. “In Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.” So He is fully God and fully man, one person, two natures. There we are into another area. It is impossible for us to fully grasp. We know it’s true and we don’t have to understand everything and never will. That is another thing that stretches my mind. I sit at my desk and look out the window and daydream. How could it be that in ten trillion years I still will not have exhausted the knowledge of God? Even as slow as I am how do I measure eternity? We will never get bored because we are finite beings and we serve an infinite God and we will dwell in the presence of an infinite God so we will never exhaust growing and knowing and learning. Then I said I have to come back to reality and study here what I have. So He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You don’t solve the problem by denying the deity or denying the humanity both of which has happened in the history of the church and characterizes some groups today like Jehovah Witnesses who deny the full deity of Christ. Both are true, He is fully deity, He is fully humanity.

Come back to I Peter chapter 1 and I love the way Jesus put it in that verse we read: “I go to My Father and your Father, My God and your God.” How blessed we have been in our salvation. We are moving into the section where we will talk about we have become co-heirs with Christ, to share in what He accomplished and provided in His redemption. We will never be elevated to deity, we couldn’t be because we are created beings but we share in all the blessings God has provided through His Son.

You note also back in I Peter chapter 1, verse 3. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He is the Lord. You know we sometimes get this title, He is the Lord Jesus Christ and we roll it off. I think you know He is Lord. He is the Master. We owe our obedience to Him. We are His slaves, the doulos, the slaves of Christ. What a privilege, what an honor. We have a Master who always does what is best for us, who requires of us only that which is for our good. Keep that in mind. He is the Lord Jesus Christ going through suffering. I belong to the sovereign God. I serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything is under control; the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And now we move to what He has done for us, the God and Father. “According to His great mercy has caused to be born again.” “He has caused us to be born again.” God planned and ordained our salvation in eternity past and it has been brought to pass in time, born again. We spent time recently talking this subject, born again and the different passages that emphasize the necessity of being born again.

Down in verse 23 he will mention it again. “You have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable through the living, enduring Word of God.” We have been to John 3 where Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again.” Not making a distinction here between words born from above, born again, same point.

We are in Peter just go back to James just before I Peter, James chapter 1. We are not going to look at all the references because we have done that recently in other studies, James chapter 1, verse 18: “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the Word of truth.” Very similar to what we have in I Peter 1:23, “You have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable for the living and enduring Word of God.” James 1:18 “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the Word of truth.” It is the same thing.

You see in these passages God is sovereign in the work of salvation as brought out not only when we talk about the doctrine of election but it is talked about in passages like this. It is “God the Father who according to His mercy (great mercy) has caused us to be born again.” That is His work. He brings about the new birth. It is according to His will.

Back up to John chapter 1 if you will, the Gospel of John chapter 1, verse 12: “As many as received Him to them He gave the right to become children of God even to those who believe in His name who were born not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man but of God.” This is not a human process. This is not a human activity. Ultimately it is not a human decision.

I didn’t have anything to say about my conception at birth. I might have chosen more well-to-do parents who would have flown me around in private jets. I had no choice, no decision. We are responsible, we respond in faith, we are born again by faith but you will note it is by the will of God, John 1:13. “We are not born of the will of man, we are born of the will of God.” The ultimate source of our salvation is God. So it is not just a discussion about the word ‘election’ for debating on the word ‘foreknowledge’ we keep getting this emphasis. We move to the next verse and it is “according to His great mercy He has caused us to be born again.”

Mercy, what is mercy? By definition it is something undeserved. You can’t deserve mercy. If you deserve it, it is not mercy; same as grace in that sense. Mercy carries more of the idea of the wretched condition of the person that moves God to pity, compassion to act on their behalf. Grace is the unmerited favor. Mercy also undeserved but to those expressing more their pitiful miserable condition but it is still undeserved, unearned. I contributed nothing, I can add nothing, I can bring nothing. Here’s my part. God You have done Your part I am going to do my part. No, it wouldn’t be mercy

Back up to Ephesians chapter 2. These are basic truths that you have been through many times but we remind ourselves of them. Ephesians chapter 2, “Dead in our trespasses and sins” as the chapter opens up. “We walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.” We are no different than others in the world. We had our father, the devil. We served him, we did his will. “The spirit now working in the sons of disobedience among them we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. We were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.” And we talked earlier today. You know we are no different. We don’t come to tell these wretched, vile, hell-deserving sinners that as terrible as you are God will do something. I was never as bad as you are. Paul again reminding and then where do we come in verse 4? “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead…” We were cut off from Him, we were separated from Him but He acted in mercy.

One other passage on this, Titus, the book of Titus moving back toward Peter but not quite there. The large book of Hebrews will be a little bit after, just after Titus and Philemon here, Titus chapter 3 and the same thing, reminding the believers. You know you get the idea God wants to be careful we don’t forget where we came from. Not so we are always bemoaning, oh I am so terrible but to be reminded. Otherwise we get self-righteous. We can’t understand how people can be so sinful, do such evil, vile things and we are told verse 2: “Malign no one, be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs.” That is where Peter is going; would become heirs of a glorious inheritance. You note the three members of the triune God mentioned here. “The kindness of God our Savior” in verse 4. “The renewing of the Holy Spirit” at the end of verse 5. “Poured out richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” And what are the words associated with this? Kindness, verse 4, love, verse 4, mercy in verse 5, grace in verse 7. It’s all God pouring out upon us what we do not deserve.

I mean how could I think that I could bring my works, one who is disobedient, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending my life in malice and envy? And I think I can do something to contribute to my salvation? What can we contribute our salvation to? The kindness of God our Savior, His love, His mercy, His grace. It’s like you just begin to pile up words. How do you express it? You know kindness, love, mercy, grace. That’s when we tell people you are a sinner. Yes, you are a sinner by nature, by practice but I tell you God is a God of kindness, love, mercy, and grace. The very evidence of that; you are there telling them about the salvation that they can have freely as a gift that will wash them. It is the washing of regeneration. It has nothing to do with baptism. Incidentally while we are here, He tells you what the washing is. It is regeneration, being made new. You are born again. “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, a new creation. Old things have passed away, new things have come” we have seen in II Corinthians chapter 5:17.

Come back to Peter, going toward the back of your Bible again. Back to I Peter. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His great mercy, (great mercy) has caused us to be born again.” But that is not the end of it. “Born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” “To a living hope.” And that refers to ultimately the hope in the ultimate culmination of the salvation God has provided for us. That’s the living hope in I Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 9 references to the living and true God and from a living God comes a living hope that is a true hope, a sure hope as we will see down in verse 13: “Therefore prepare your minds for action. Keep sober. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” We have a living hope. We anticipate the coming of Christ when we were gathered into His presence. The sufferings of this life, what? They will seem like nothing, they are over. They will be gone. They will be just a faint memory. I mean it will be the realization of all that God has promised me for endless ages. That is what Peter says, “Fix your hope completely on this.” So we have been born again to a living hope. We who were hopeless have a living hope.

Back up to Ephesians 2 again. I could have told you to stay here. Ephesians chapter 2 and we just read we lived in this realm of sin, serving the devil as the chapter opens up in Ephesians 2 and then verse 4: “God was rich in mercy and by His grace we were saved.” You have that in verses 8 and 9. “By grace you have been saved through faith, not of yourselves. The gift of God and not as a result of works.” So there is no room of boasting, thinking I am better than someone else. What do you mean I was better than someone else? I was just as vile, just as sinful and just as lost. I was saved by grace as a result of God showing this miserable, pitiful sinner mercy.

“We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works” and God has ordained those that He saved will live a transformed life which ties to what we have been talking about in our earlier studies on Sunday, like we were in I Corinthians chapter 6. Certain persons will not inherit the kingdom. Why? Because God ordained those who were truly born again will live now new lives. It doesn’t mean we never sin but we live new lives.

And then you come down and you are reminded in verse 11: “They formerly, you the Gentiles in the flesh.” You were in a hopeless state. Verse 12: “You were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers of the covenant of promise having no hope without God in the world.”

You know after we have been believers a long time we can tend to forget that is why the Scripture constantly reminds us. There was a time when I had no hope. I was without God in the world. I didn’t even know how miserable and lost I was. No hope. So He has taken those, verse 13, “who had no hope, without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

Remember God had chosen the nation Israel and the Jews. That doesn’t mean every Jew was saved but they were the nation that had the covenants. They Messiah came to Israel. What happened when the non-Jewish woman came and asked Christ for help for her family? He said, “I didn’t come but to the lost of the house of Israel. I just can’t give the bread for God’s chosen nation to a dog like you.” I mean that was a pretty abrupt, brutal way to tell someone that comes to the Savior and asks for help. She doesn’t turn away, she agrees. Your evaluation of me is correct and I am undeserved. I am here for mercy and she gets it. That’s where we Gentiles were.

Be thankful every day that God has extended His saving grace to Gentiles. It’s not there in the Old Testament. When Israel was sent in to the land of Canaan it wasn’t to do missionary work. It was to execute every man, woman and child. I mean how blessed we are that God has opened the door to salvation for the Gentiles. That’s what He is telling them here.

Come over to I Thessalonians chapter 4. Here he puts into the context of the death of loved ones and he says in verse 13: “We do not want you to be uninformed brethren about those who are asleep so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.” Ever think of how miserable the condition of the lost really is? They have no hope. They have nothing and when suffering and trial comes and they face death, you know what? It is the end of everything they have hoped for because their hopes are limited to this transitory life. The reality of it is they will leave everything behind. They came into this world. They will go out the same way. They take nothing with them. The old joke. How much did he leave? He left everything. Everyone knows it’s true. They lived their lives not facing reality. Don’t grieve as those who have no hope.

What do you say to someone who is not saved who has just had a loved who died and wasn’t saved? I want you to know you will never see them again. They are gone to an eternal hell, their ultimate destiny and you have no hope of seeing them again so I hope you enjoyed your time together. You say, “Well don’t put it that way” and there is no need to. Nothing I can do for that dead person. All I can do is turn their attention. You know the Bible has something to say about life after death and you can have hope beyond the grave and to share with them the truth. There are people living their lives with no hope.

Come back to I Peter chapter 1. “Been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” His resurrection what – is the guarantee of our resurrection. We won’t go to those passages, Romans chapter 4, verse 25: “He was delivered up for our offences, He was raised because of our justification, the work of redemption was done.”

I Corinthians 15 verses 12 to 20, Because Christ was raised from the dead that guarantees we will be raised with glorified bodies to enter in and enjoy everything that God has promised and in whom through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead in verse 4 then, carries us to what we are going to get, what God has promised to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable. It is undefiled. It will not fade away. It is reserved in heaven for you. It is a sure inheritance.

You know when God talks about our salvation we often think about it in the present tense and in the past tense so we sometimes say, “you know we’ve been saved from the penalty of sin, we are being saved from the power of sin, and we shall be saved from the presence of sin.” There are the different perspectives on our salvation. When I trusted Christ I was cleansed from my sin, the penalty for my sin was paid and I experience the on-going power and the provision of God for me to live for Him as you do as a believer day by day. So we can walk in the good works that He foreordained that we would by the power of the Spirit. But Peter is talking about here “Focus your attention on what is yet before you. That is what helps enable you to keep going in the present when things are the worst. I have something beyond this time. That’s why Jesus said, “Don’t fear those who can kill the body but can’t kill the soul. Fear him who after he has killed the body can destroy both body and soul in Hades.”

So we are looking to the future dimension of our salvation. He’s caused us “to be born again according to His grace mercy to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ,” these different prepositions carrying us to verse 4, “an inheritance.” To an inheritance and then he is going to describe the inheritance. Our inheritance is that hope down in verse 13 again that will be brought to us at the revelation of Christ when we enter into that final phase of our salvation. Our salvation is sure in all its aspects but it is not yet complete in all its aspects. These that Peter is writing to are going through suffering, pain, difficulty. That is not pleasant. Some of you may be going through trials. It’s not pleasant. Some of us wonder what the future will be if Christ does not come. There may be suffering, there may be trials. God never said we would be treated fairly by the world but we have a hope beyond this life. Peter will come back to this theme.

Come over to II Peter in his second letter. He reminds them God has promised something, verse 11 of II Peter 3, coming judgment on this world. “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness looking for and hastening the coming day of God? But according to His promise we are looking for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” Part of our hope, our inheritance, what is sure and secure for us is all there. So it is a constant reminder that God gives us in His Word is, don’t become focused here. In the worst of your trials keep your focus on what God has promised.

Back in I Peter chapter 1, it is an inheritance which is for those who have been born again. Paul writes about it in Romans chapter 8. He says that, “I don’t think that the sufferings of this present life are worthy (verse 18) to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” This is what we are looking toward. All creation anticipates the culmination of what God has accomplished in Christ for us.

Verse 23: “We ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body,” when our body is glorified. “For in hope we have been saved but hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he already has seen? But if we hope for what we do not see with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.” It is a repeated emphasis. It permeates Scripture. That reminder, if we are going to live faithfully for the Lord, difficulties will come. We have been blessed to live in a country and in a government situation where our sufferings have been minimal and we cringe at the thought we might have to suffer but we need to be reminded we don’t live with our eyes focused here. Our attention is not on having a comfortable life. We are blessed to enjoy comfortable lives but our focus is not on our comfortable lives. Our focus is on our hope. And if the comfortable life is removed from us, our hope won’t be removed. That’s why difficulties and trials can help. They help sharpen our focus.

My hope as an old man is I will be with the Lord so if those trials come I just want you to be encouraged. Remember I told you about them. My brother-in-law many years ago had cancer and he said, “Just remember, Gil, I will be in glory enjoying all that God has promised and you will be down struggling through.” And I think of him often, sometimes with a little irritation but I am glad for him. He beat me there.

Come to I Peter chapter 1. We are looking to obtain an inheritance. It is our living hope. This has all been done by God and this inheritance is sure. It is imperishable, undefiled, will not fade away. It is reserved in heaven for you. I mean it is just settled.

Come back to Matthew chapter 6, Jesus talked about this. Matthew chapter 6, verse 19: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal.” All kind of things can affect the treasure you get on this side. “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, thieves do not break in and steal.” And a reminder, “Where your treasure is there your heart will be also.”

So no matter how much we as believers have in this life, we never want to lose focus. Our true treasure is in heaven. That’s the treasure I will have in millions of billions of years throughout eternity. Whatever treasure, how much I have now, I don’t want to forget it is transitory, here today, gone tomorrow. It doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy all the good things God has given us but we don’t want our heart to become attached to that.

So Peter is just rehearsing what Christ had taught back in I Peter chapter 1 and these terms what, imperishable, undefiled, will not fade away. It is reserved in heaven for you. Does it get any more secure than that?

We have a crisis in Greece and people are concerned. They’ve got their money in the banks and the banks don’t have any money and you can’t get your money out of the bank but our treasure is reserved in heaven. So it is secure, imperishable, undefiled, will not fade away, reserved in heaven.

So the treasure is secured, the next verse says, “And so are we.” I just summarized that. “It is reserved in heaven for you.” Okay but what if I don’t make it? It is for you who are protected by the power of God. Well, it doesn’t get any better than that. Men can kill the body but they can’t kill souls. I am protected by God, “To you who are protected by the power of God.” Is there any greater power than God’s power? “Through faith,” because through faith that is the human side that has brought me into this relationship with God. It is faith in His Son and salvation that has been provided in Him and as we have emphasized often that faith began at a point in time but it doesn’t end. You can’t think of saving faith as something that well, I believed then and now that’s done, I am on with my life. That is the beginning of a life of faith and it is sustained by the grace of God. So it is “for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time.” This is the time when Christ will come. Down to the end of verse 13: “The grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

So we were saved by faith, we walk by faith. I have never seen that hope as we saw Paul write to the Romans. People say, “Oh, you have a pie in the sky approach to life.” Well, I have a hope in the sky approach to life. I mean at least I can say to them, “Be honest. In 100 years whatever treasures you have amassed, whatever hopes you have for your life will be gone and you will be a rotted corpse in the grave. So you think your hope is something because you’ve placed everything in what you can see and touch but don’t think you will escape death. It will come knocking at your door. You will die. Everything you have done and everything you have accomplished will be left here. You may lay out an intricate will and leave millions but you will leave it all. So what kind of hope do you have? You have a hope that is sure to ultimately fail. I have a hope in the promises of God which are sure and God has guaranteed that what He has promised is safe and reserved for me in heaven. He has guaranteed His power will protect and keep me to assure that I will enter into that hope and to the inheritance that He has promised. Now how does it get any better than that? Your hope is clearly in something that will evaporate. My hope is settled in the promises of God who cannot fail.” And that is to shape and control how we live, strengthen and encourage us and that is where it will go.

Picking up with verse 6: “In this you greatly rejoice even though now for a while, a little while, you have been distressed by various trials.” Keep your eyes on the hope.

Let’s pray together. Thank You God you have been so gracious. We who have been described so clearly in the Scripture with our wretched, hopeless condition but You are a God who showed us mercy, showed us grace, showed us kindness, showed us love. You caused us to be born again. We give You praise that Your promises are sure. You have promised us an inheritance glorious beyond what we are capable of comprehending and comfort us and encourage us with reminders of all You have prepared for us. Lord how blessed we are. May we keep these truths before us. Keep our hope fixed on what You have promised that we might be faithful through whatever trials and difficulties and hardships that You might see necessary to bring into our lives, may we be faithful. Use us in the week before us Lord to bring this message of hope, forgiveness and life to those we come in contact with, we pray in Christ’s name, amen.