Born Again

Amen. Amen. Amen. Y'all can be seated. Um, yes. Good morning, church.

District church. Hey, thank you, Ethan. That was so good. Thank you. Um, we are a church. We are a church that treasures Jesus and we want to help others follow him.

That's our mission. That's why we exist. And the way that we do that is by opening up God's word to learn. also opening up our lives to love. That's the way we operate as a church. And therefore, we invite everyone every week to treasure Jesus.

Whether we're singing songs, whether we're praying, whether we're opening God's word, whether we're studying, meditating on it day and night, getting into it, pulling it apart, we want to make sure that what we are getting from it is the ability to treasure Jesus and help others follow him. That's why we do this. And so I want you to go and grab your Bibles and open them up to First Peter. We're in a new series, First Peter. We uh covered the first two verses last week, which was really just author and audience kind of diving in a little bit into the introduction of it. And and we're going to work through this book slow.

So if you feel like at any point you think I'm going to to speed up and cover larger chunks of it, we might get there. Uh but it's probably not going to be the case. And so today we're covering all the way up to verse five. All right. So we're going to be doing verses three through five this morning. And uh what we saw last week in opening it up.

I mean again Peter just he launches into just theological declaration. All right. He he he doesn't hold any punches um in a lot of ways when he just introduces himself and also his audience into into whom he's writing this letter to. I mean, it alone could be studied for months and months and months, which is why again, we're going to be walking through this very slowly. But just to kind of give you a a snapshot of what last week looked like, if you haven't had a chance to go back and listen to it, the book of First Peter, we saw that before Peter ever tells us how to live, he tells us who we are, who we are, which is important. We are God's chosen people, elect according to the knowledge of the father, sanctified by the spirit and set apart for obedience to Jesus Christ.

And though scattered and suffering as they were elect exiles, these believers were not forgotten or accidental. They were part of God's sovereign plan. Peter reminded them and us today that our identity is not shaped by culture and it's not shaped by circumstance. But it's shaped by the saving work of the triune God. And that's all that that's what we were walking through and looking at last week. That we are exiles in this world, but we belong fully to Christ.

And he finishes it off with grace and peace are ours in abundance. In abundance. And that's what we need to know because we need to be reminded that as we continue walking through our culture and our circumstances and our lives, we need to remember who we are so that we don't get caught up in what everyone else tries to tell us we are. We need to know who we are and even more importantly who's we are. And so we're going to keep looking at this as we dive into verse three today. And I'm going to go ahead and read it for us.

these these three verses that again are just pregnant with truth. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his great mercy. He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. So, because there's a lot in these three verses, I want to go to the Lord in prayer again to help us understand what he's talking about here. Father, we come to you once again because we can't pray enough for your spirit to fill us, for your spirit to guide us, for your spirit to help us understand what we need to know from these verses so that we grow closer to Jesus and are conformed more like his image. Father, would you do that for us in this time as we unpack this word?

Would you encourage our souls so that we spring forth this same type of doxology that we see here with Peter that him knowing what he's about to write, he bursts forth in in this praise to you, blessing your name for what you are accomplishing in us. And I really hope that that's that's what happens for us as well as we leave this place today. that because of you and because of your word communicated to us, it overwhelms us with praise for you, worship for you, honor to you, and you alone. Help us this morning. We need it, Lord. It's in your name we pray.

Amen. Amen. So, this is the first thing I want you to see here. We're just going to take it kind of literally, almost word for word as we walk through this verse by verse. I want you to see what is going on in this that makes Peter burst out in verse three with this exclamation point of bless God. And that's the first point.

Bless God. If you were to look at that in its original language, it means what it means. Bless him, praise him, give honor and glory to him. Again, knowing what he's about to write, Peter's already filled with praise and worship for God. he can't help himself but to go from theology to doxology right out of the gate which is an important it's an important point to make because if your study of God's word and your understanding of God's word if it never leads you to praise and worship of God then it just proves that probably your study and understanding is wrong or it's off or it's not the way that that he's actually wanting you to know his word. If it leads to you in whatever way thinking less about God and more about you, then you're not studying it the correct way.

It's always going to point us and direct us to the worship and praise of God. I mean, again, that's why I think so much going back to to John the Baptist and and as he's doing this phenomenal ministry where crowds are coming out of the city into the wilderness to be able to go hear what he has to say as well as be baptized by him. And as Jesus shows up on the scene, you see the word of God show up and the attention shift to where now it literally goes on to say that the disciples of John are leaving him to start following Jesus. And if anyone has a famous ministry, that's the last thing you want to happen is people to leave your ministry to go somewhere else. And John says this is this means that what I am doing is the most fruitful thing possible because he is the one that must increase and I must decrease. If it if it leads to more of us, then that's not the point.

It's more of him. Again, that's why the Westminster Catechism begins this way, asking this question, what's the chief end of man? And you've heard me talk about this over the last few weeks. The answer to that chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That's why we're here to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Not glorify man and enjoy ourselves forever, but to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

So if the Bible is the revelation of the nature and character of God and his plans for the redemption of mankind, understanding it rightly should lead us to glorify God and gratefully enjoy him forever. That's the point of why we study it. If reading the Bible for you is a painstaking problem, then you don't know the suffering servant who is the central subject of the scriptures. If you are only seeing it as God's list of rules rather than God's plan of redemption, then you are reading it wrong and will never go from pain to praise to praise. So, in other words, be more like Peter and less like Judas. In Matthew 26, when the disciples are gathered around that final supper, Jesus kind of lets them in on a little secret that's about to happen.

He says, "One of you, 12, is going to betray me." And it says, beginning with each of them, they go around the table asking the question, "Is it I, Lord?" until it comes to Judas. He asks a different question. He says, "Is it I, Rabbi?" Why was his answer different or his question different?

Because the other 11 saw Jesus as Lord and God of their life. Judas only saw him as a trending Tik Tok influencer he could make some money off of. When you study God's word to see Jesus as Lord, it leads to praise and worship. You can't help yourself but bless God. Let's keep going. Second thing I want you to see here is that we need to bless the right God.

We need to make sure that we the right God. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, context matters. This is first century Roman Empire. Yes, they're in Jerusalem at the beginning of the Gospels and in the beginning of Acts. But by the time Peter is writing this letter, which is estimated to be between AD60 and 68 because 60 is when he makes himself to Rome, which they refer to as Babylon.

68 is when it's agreed upon that that's when uh Peter was killed. And because later as you'll see in in chapter five he refers to himself writing this from the point of Babylon which is again in their language that would be Rome for them. So if this if this was written sometime between 60 and 68 this is 30 years after resurrection. There's a lot of time that has transpired. And so as the word of God has continued to spread from Jerusalem and into Judea and Samaria and into Asia Minor and as their day would say the ends of the earth, as it continued to spread, this isn't just within Jewish context and culture. So when he says, "Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ," if it was just in Jerusalem, they might think, "Well, yeah, this is we're monotheistic.

We believe in one God." But no, no, no. This is spread throughout Roman culture. And also since they are elect exiles in all of these other regions, he has to make sure that when he tells them, "Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ," we're talking about a very specific God. Not the pantheon, not all of the different gods that are within your temples that in all of these cities they are worshiping. He wants to make sure you know which God he's talking about.

He's talking about the one and only true God who is distinctly the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This separates them from the pantheism of Roman mythology. This separates God from any generic God of world religions that is impersonal and unknowable. And I think this is one of the reasons why when Paul gets to Athens and he's kind of just learning about the city and he sees that he comes to a temple to an unknown god, he then goes up on the Aropagus and he says, "Let me tell you who it is. Let me let me make it known to you who the one true God is so that you can go back to that temple and cross off unknown and put known. It's also important that Peter names God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ because this is the very reason why they sought to kill Jesus.

John 5:18 puts it this way. This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him. Because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. So this declaration of Peter is an explicit statement about the Lord whom they serve. Everyone else in the Roman Empire is decreed to declare Caesar as Lord. And here Peter is saying, "Not you.

Not you, Christian. We don't declare anyone else with that title except Jesus alone. Caesar is not Lord. Jesus is. The Lord Jesus that we serve and worship is equal with God the Father and therefore is God himself." Again, you got to remember within that context, this is the imperial cult, which means they which means that in the Roman culture, they would deify their emperors.

And Peter is saying, "Not on our watch. We don't worship the emperors. We worship the one true God and the one true savior, Jesus Christ." All of that is packed into that first statement and stamped with an exclamation mark. So often times when we read the scriptures, don't just fly through statements like that, man. Sit in them and really think about what is being written and communicated so that it bursts out in doxology rather than just a throwaway statement.

And so what got Peter so riled up to bless this one true God? Let's find out. Number three, God is merciful. It says according to his great mercy. Now grace is a term that we are more familiar with. Mercy is a bit different.

Grace is the way that we always define that is grace is getting what you don't deserve. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve. That's kind of how we differentiate those two things. Mercy is another distinctly Christian term. All right. Peter's already saying this God that we serve is distinct from all the others.

Also, this God operates in a way that is distinct from all others. Justice. Well, lots of religions have different ways of justice. Karma, balance, law, power. Well, the gods must be appeased in order to have power, detachment, enlightenment through escape, moral effort, self-improvement for higher achievement. But where is mercy in regards to other religions?

Christianity says something radically different than these things. God does not merely tolerate sinners. God moves toward sinners in mercy at divine personal cost. Biblically, mercy is not just compassion. That's what we tend to think about how we serve the poor with a mercy type of ministry. It's deeper than that.

It's covenant love in action to rescue the guilty according to his great mercy. We see it attached to what he does. He causes us to be born again, which man has that been a hot statement for a long time. He causes us to be born again. That's not generic kindness. That's redemptive mercy.

In most religions, you climb up to God. You work your way up to him. You appease God. You prove yourself to God. That's what most religions believe. In Christianity, God comes down to you.

God absorbs the penalty himself. God shows mercy to the undeserving. Mercy in Christianity is not sentimental. It is crucifformed. Meaning it flows from the cross. So while other belief systems may use the word mercy, Christianity alone says mercy is God's nature revealed fully in Jesus Christ toward people who deserve judgment.

Judgment. That's why Peter can begin not with fear but with praise. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. because according to his great mercy, the only reason why I'm able to bless him and praise him is because of his mercy extended to me. Mercy isn't just something God does. God is merciful.

But it's also not at the expense of his justice. Don't hear me wrong on that. God is just as well. He he his justice or he just doesn't give the penalty to the only one deserving of it. He doesn't give it to us who are deserving of the penalty. Instead, he gives it to the one who's undeserving of the penalty.

He gives it to Jesus at the cross when Jesus willingly lays his life down in your place of judgment, receiving your penalty and your punishment so that instead of receiving death, you can be born again to a new life. That's why he's talking about born again language that we'll get to here in just a moment. Mercy is the means by which we are able to go from death to life and be born again. If God was all justice and no mercy, then the verse would have read, "According to his great justice, he has put us to death due to our sin and rebellion." That's the way it would read if God was not also merciful. because that's what we deserve.

But blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's not what he did. That's not what he did. So why is Peter blessing God? Because according to his great mercy which was withheld the death we deserve and instead he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So let's talk about born again here for a moment.

Jesus was a phenomenal teacher and preacher because what he taught the disciples they are now teaching and preaching to others. A great congregant or member of the church is one who hears preaching but doesn't let it end with you but instead moves through you and becomes teaching and preaching to those around you to those around you. That's why again in the very beginning I say we are not spectators of this. We are participants in this. Read the word in such a way that you teach the word. Hear the word in such a way that you receive it and then proclaim it to others.

Peter here is teaching what he has been taught from Jesus himself that he heard when Jesus shared with someone else. Look at John 3:es 3-8. He says this, Jesus is in a conversation with a Pharisee named Nicodemus, just to kind of give you a bit of a context for it. And Nicodemus is asking some good questions and Jesus answered him, saying, "Truly, truly, I say to you that unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Well, Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

Side note here, Nicodemus would be a uh trust the science kind of person. Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.

What I want you to see here is a couple of things going on. There are two types of births that Jesus is talking about. He's talking about those who are born of the water. And he's not necessarily referencing baptism in regards to that. He's talking about the flesh because he explains himself right after it. He says you must be born of water and the spirit.

If you're not born of water and the spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. What he's referencing there is you first got to be human and then born again spiritually. So born the first time, which is why he then says in verse six, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Human is human. You're born of the flesh. And that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

That's a different thing that is happening. So he tells him, I'm not talking about you physically jumping back into your mother's womb. That's not what we're talking about here. We're not trusting that kind of physical science. I'm talking about something that happens to you spiritually where you are dead and brought back to life. Do not marvel that I said to you then you must be born again.

And then he then here dives into the work of the spirit. The wind, an illustration of the spirit's work, blows where it wishes. Now, think about that in regards to the he causes us to be born again. The spirit does what the spirit wishes. And you hear it sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it goes. We're human.

We we we we don't know the work of the spirit. We can study it. We can we can put it in spreadsheets and we can kind of look at and look back on the work of the spirit, but I can't tell the spirit what he's going to do tomorrow or today. The spirit of God does what the spirit of God wants to do. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. So for those who want to see the kingdom of God, Jesus is saying that they must be born again.

Specifically, this work of being born again is the work of the spirit of God as he wishes. As he wishes. That's what John 3 is talking about. Now, let's go a little bit a layer deeper into this. John 1 12-13, John says this. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Think about the born again language there. You're born of the spirit. You're born into the family of God. Therefore, you're now considered children of God. Verse 13 says, "Who were born not of the blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man." Again, that's going back to the same language of born of the water or the flesh that is the flesh.

That is not going to allow you to be born again in the spirit of God, but of God of God. So your bloodline doesn't matter. your will, your intellectual ascent, your knowledge, your works, your plans for tomorrow. None of that matters when it comes to the work God is doing in redeeming you and pulling you out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of the beloved son. He has caused us to be born again. Let me click on that another time.

Let's go a little bit deeper. Let me tie this point up with a bow for you back to the context in first Peter later in the chapter down in verses 23 and 25. This is what Peter says. Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. For all flesh, so remember the flesh language, all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls.

But the word of the Lord remains forever. And what is the word of the Lord? This word is the good news that was preached to you. The way in which you are born again is by hearing, reading, receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ through the word of God, the Bible and the spirit of God, taking your death and placing it on Jesus and then taking his resurrection and placing it on you so that you are brought to life, born again and now children of God and heirs of his kingdom. And Peter says, "Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Because he knows what he's about to teach them does not come from him and does not come from them, does not come from any of their efforts.

It is all attributed to the God of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Don't believe me? Let me show you. He's caused us to be born again. Mercy is what allows God to cause us to be born again because he withholds what we deserve. Penalty, death, eternal punishment.

And then simultaneously, grace comes at the same time and God lavishes us with everything we don't deserve. If God has withheld from us what we deserve and given us what we do not deserve, then mercy must become the defining tone of our lives with others. Think about this for a moment. I want to take a moment and and and get a little bit of application for us here. Remember, if the goal of godliness is closeness to Christ and conformity to Christ is not just love for him, but it's also likeness to him. Then we cannot if God is merciful and has moved towards us when we don't deserve it.

We cannot be harsh with people when God has been merciful with us. We cannot demand perfection from others when Christ covered our imperfection. We cannot hold grudges when God has canceled our debt. The cross doesn't just save us from sin. It reshapes our spirit. As God dealt with you as a sinner, so you should deal with others who are sinners.

A Christian who truly understands mercy will be slower to anger, quicker to forgive, more gentle with sinners, more patient with weakness, more humble in disagreement. Again, remember, look at our cultural landscape right now. And and I always, you know, always joke about those old those old bracelets, the WWJD, like what would Jesus do bracelets. Again, I think it was it was a fad with a lot of people who didn't know Jesus wearing them because everyone else was wearing them. But it's a good question. When I'm in a disagreement with someone, Jesus, how would you disagree with this person in a loving way that's pursuing them, that's meeting them where they are, that's trying to understand them?

that understands that even though they are deserving of a penalty and a punishment and a death, it's not my job to give it to them, it's my job to grant or to give to them the gospel, the good news that I also received myself from a God who was merciful to me. When mercy forms us, we stop asking what do they deserve and we start asking how did God treat me when I didn't deserve grace? John Owen once said, "When the soul is filled with a sense of the love of Christ, it cannot but overflow in love to others." Charles Spurgeon also added to that, "If you have no mercy for others, then you've not understood God's mercy to you." So the question is not simply, do you believe in mercy? The question is, has mercy made you merciful?

If God is merciful and we are followers of him, children of him, Christians which are little Christ, then are we merciful? So Peter begins with who God is, a God of great mercy. And then he tells us what that mercy does. It causes us to be born again. But Peter doesn't stop there. God does not merely save us from judgment, but he saves us to something glorious.

Look again at verse three. He's caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And then as verse four also says to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading. So he saves us to two things, to a living hope and to an inheritance. And so this is number five. I want you to see this living hope and inheritance.

If mercy explains the why and the how we were saved. Why being according to his great mercy. How being because he caused us to be born again. Peter now explains what we were saved into. What we were saved into. A living hope in our hearts.

This is subjective. This is in us and also an inheritance in heaven. This is objective. This is out there outside of us. Mercy flows to being born again. Born again flows to being to a living hope.

And living hope flows into an inheritance that we'll receive. When Peter says we've been born again to a living hope, he's talking about something that now lives inside you. Again, this is not when we think of hope, we think like someone going on DraftKings and hoping that they're going to win some money. Not guaranteed. We tend to think of hope in regards to that language. Well, I just hope it works out.

That's not the living hope that he's referencing here. This is not wishful thinking. This is not positive self-t talk. This is not denial of reality. This is hope that was created by resurrection power. Our hope is living because Jesus is living.

The tomb is empty. And if the tomb is empty, anything's possible with this hope. Therefore, despair does not get the final word. This hope does not rise and fall with the new cycle of the economy or our emotions. It is not rooted in circumstances. It is rooted in Christ, in Jesus.

Living hope is the inward confidence we have in the spirit of Christ that dwells inside of us that no suffering, no sin and no death can ultimately undo what God has done for us in Jesus Christ in him. This means the Christian life is not driven by fear of the future. It's not driven by fear of the future. If anything, Christians should be the most calm people you ever meet. Doesn't matter what happens politically. Doesn't matter what happens in your neighborhood.

Doesn't matter who gets elected here and there. We know who's ruling and reigning. We know who's the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. And we know the resurrection power that he possesses because he died in our place and three days later conquered death, conquered sin, conquered evil. Sure, we grieve, but not as those without hope. We suffer, but not as those without hope.

We age, but not as those without hope. I mean, you got wrinkles. That's okay. There will be a day where you don't. Hope's not just something we are waiting for. It's something that we are living from right now.

Right now. And when you have your eyes off of Jesus, hope fades. Hope fades. circumstances rise. The circumstances are always there. When you take your eyes off Jesus, the hope in your circumstances, fade.

Anxiety wells up. Stress wells up. Turn with me to Romans 8. I'm not going to unpack this. I'm just going to read this because I want it to strengthen your confidence in the work of Jesus Christ and the hope that he provides for you as children of his. Just let this word encourage you starting in verse one.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I mean, can we just say amen that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemns sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. For those who live according to the flesh, well, they set their minds on the things of the flesh.

But those who live according to the spirit, we set our minds on the things of the spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh, it's hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. But those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If, in fact, the spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry out, "Aba, Father." The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellowairs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. man, when we are in the flesh, when we're trusting in the flesh, when we're walking in the flesh, when we're not in Christ and we're not trusting in Christ, all you have is death knocking on your door and your life is moving towards that. And so even if someone who's not a believer in Christ has done a phenomenal job in working hard in their flesh to make a successful life for themselves in what the world would declare as successful spiritually and emotionally they are wasting away. Wasting away. Still dying on the inside. But for those who walk by the spirit of God because he's caused us to be born again into this spirit that has blown into our lives and has brought us into his kingdom of the beloved son and has made us children of him.

We then also get to have the spirit of Christ in us spiritually and emotionally breathing life into us regardless of our circumstances. And so if things around you are falling apart, the spirit of Christ in you is saying it's not that bad. In all honesty, it's not that bad. This world's going to fall apart. It's going to waste away. Things are going to be difficult because there's still the collateral damage of sin.

There's sin all around you. There's people all around you. People are messy because sin is messy. And so that's just going to be a reality. Whether you're causing the sin yourself because you're being dumb and you're walking out of step with the spirit of God and therefore you bring consequences on your life or you're just walking in the collateral damage of sin because everyone else around you is sinning and creating havoc around you. Regardless, he's saying, "Hey, don't worry about it.

Don't worry about it. Jesus has already taken care of all of that and don't expect it now. He's given you a living hope that is breathing life into you every single day to just remind you it's okay. It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay, church.

It's going to be okay. Whatever you're walking through, it's going to be okay. And then he says, "There's an inheritance coming for you." The dumb thing we see throughout the scriptures, not that the scriptures are dumb, but there are dumb things in the scriptures, is we see people who want that inheritance now. Prodigal son, give it to me now. Jacob and Esau, give it to me now for a bowl of soup.

That's the dumbest exchange ever. The Christian stands between these two realities. A living hope within and a guaranteed inheritance ahead. We got to remember everything on earth fades. Bodies fail. Wealth disappears.

Nations rise and fall. Relationships break. But this inheritance, it cannot decay. It cannot be corrupted. And it cannot diminish with time. Peter piles up those three words to make one point.

What God has for his children cannot be touched by sin, time, or death. It's kept in heaven. Not because God is far away, but because it is safe with him. It's safe with him. And so we stand between these two realities. A living hope within and a guaranteed inheritance ahead.

Hope strengthens us for today. Inheritance secures us for tomorrow. So what we need to stop thinking about, and I know this is hard, we need to stop thinking about the the inheritance for tomorrow and just focus on the hope he's given us for today. Whether we try to or not, you're going to eat food today and then need to eat again tomorrow. For whatever reason, sometimes we try to eat as if we're not going to eat tomorrow. But you cannot eat enough to store up for six months.

He gives you just enough for today and tells you not to worry about tomorrow. Same thing here. Living hope is what you've been saved to and it is a daily filling of your spirit. Again, I think one of the most miraculous things in the scriptures is that you get when you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you get him in his fullness. And yet the scriptures also command of you to ask for the spirit of God to fill you every single day. Every single day.

We need to take it at his word and not just leave it in the past. Guarded and kept. It's the last thing here. Peter does or closes this opening doxology by reminding us that everything he's just described, mercy, new birth, living hope, eternal inheritance, is not fragile. It's guarded. It's kept.

It's preserved by God himself. He says that um we are those who by God's power, by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In other words, the same God who planned our salvation, the same God who purchased our salvation is the same God who now protects our salvation. And I think this is one of the reasons why Peter just wells up and blesses the Lord. Again, he even as a teaser for next week says, "In this we rejoice." So this is a sermon from Peter that is sandwiched by praise to God.

Thank you for everything you are doing and everything we are not. Thank you Jesus. This means the truths of first Peter 1 3-5 are not dependent on our emotional strength or our spiritual consistency or our ability to hold it all together. When faith feels weak, God's power is not. When circumstances shake us, God does not. He keeps our inheritance secure in heaven and he keeps our hearts secure on earth.

We need to know that. We need to believe that. We need to be reminded of that. And that's exactly what Peter's doing here because as we will begin looking at next week, he doesn't shy away from the fact that they're going to go through some awful suffering and various trials. And so we need to be reminded of the living hope that we have. And if they take everything from you on this earth, don't worry.

You've got an inheritance coming. You've got an inheritance coming. Everything we have proclaimed today produces rejoicing and worship in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That joy did not come cheaply. It came through sacrifice. Our living hope was born through a dying savior.

Our inheritance was secured by shed blood. Our salvation is guarded because Jesus was first given over. We need to understand that Spurgeon once said, "Christ did not die to make us merely safe, but to make us joyful in God." Joyful in God. Like little children who are so proud about what their father has accomplished. And that joy flows from remembering what it cost him so that it could be given to us.

communion as we come to this time. It brings all of this into focus. It brings it all into focus as a remembrance of what he's accomplished. At this table, we remember that mercy was purchased by a broken body and a poured out blood. So, his mercy wasn't just, "Hey, I love you and I want to serve you. His mercy was, I'm actually coming.

Whatever you owe, I'm going to take it. And it's not just I'm clearing your debt of money or student loans or anything along those lines. He's saying, "No, no, no, no, no, no. You owe a debt that is eternal. That if it's not taken care of, when you get to judgment on that day, your inheritance of the debt you owe will be an eternity of paying it off in eternal punishment in hell. And so when Jesus comes and says, "I'm going to take what you owe," we need to know what he's removing from us.

And that's why we remind ourselves every single week of the body broken and the blood shed, his death for our bornagain life, his suffering for our living hope, his sacrifice for our eternal inheritance. So as we come, we do not come with despair. We come with rejoicing. Come blessing the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ whose great mercy caused us to be born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And next week when Peter says, "In this you rejoice," we will see that Christian joy is not rooted in easy circumstances, but it's rooted in unshakable salvation secured by an unbreakable savior. And so let's stand together.

Let's stand together. And if you believe Jesus Christ came to earth and because we were deserving of death, he came and he said, "I will substitute myself. I will take their death. I will take their punishment. I will take their penalty and I will eradicate it from their lives by placing it on myself and having the wrath of God poured out on me. And he then dies so that you could be born again, so that you can live.

Thank you, Jesus. May we remember that. And if you believe that to be true, I invite you to come down, grab the elements, bring them back to your seats, and at the end of the song, we will partake together.