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Verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Which, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again unto a livelihood by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, And that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.
That the trial of your fate, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, ye love.
In whom, though now ye see him not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, Who prophesied of the Greece that should come unto you?
Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them, did signify, when it testified beforehand, the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, under whom it was revealed that not under themselves found to us, they'd administer the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
Which things the angels desire to look into. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not passing yourselves according to the former lust and your ignorance, but as he which has called you is holy.
So be holy.
In all manner of conversation, because it is written.
Be ye holy, for I am holy.
And if He call on the Father, who, without respect to persons, judges according to every man's work past the time of your sojourning here in fear, For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by condition from your Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ.
As of a lamb without Fleming and without support, Who verily was Bourdain before the found east of the world?
But was manifest in these last times for you who by him to believe in God, that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory. That's your faith and hope might be in God, seeing if purified your souls, and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as a flower of grass. The grass Withers, and the flower that all falls away, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.
And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.
A couple of comments for the epistle are helpful. In the Epistle of Peter we have the government of God in connection with the House of God. In the first epistle, its connection with the House of God. In the second epistle it's in connection with the world. And so it tells us in the first epistle, time has come, the judgment must begin at the House of God. And then in the second epistle we have the judgment of God falling upon this world.
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It's destroyed by fire, and there's a new heavens and a new where is it? And so here we have this government of God that is His ways with us of having taken a place of profession, and we have his dealings. We have to remember that God our Father is holy. We need to remember too that He deals with us without respect of persons, the cost by which we have been redeemed. Perhaps just a little common in connection with the government of God.
Just as in a household, a father seeks to maintain a certain order in his household. If it isn't, why he may have to use some form of discipline in order to maintain that order? Because he loves his family and he desires that they should go on in a way that they could be blessed and happy in the family life. Well, God our Father has that care in connection with the family. We call upon the Father who without respect of persons, judges according to every man's work.
I just mentioned these things, brethren, because in Peter's epistle we don't have the truth of the church as the body of Christ. Now that is brought out in Paul's ministry, and it's very precious in its place. But I believe this other side of things is good for us to bear in mind, for we cannot escape this government of God, nor can we fail to receive the blessing as we walk in a way that is pleasing to Him. There's joy unspeakable and full of glory in the path of obedience.
And so obedience brings true joy and happiness to the heart of God and to us too. And this is what is brought before us. And so he contrasts it with the children of Israel called out of the land of Egypt with its slavery, going through the wilderness and God's dealings with them as he brought them to that promised land, and shows us that now it's a comparative thing to the position that we're in. This world has become a wilderness.
Although they were not traveling to a better place in this world, not looking for our rest here as we sang, but rather an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us. Well, I just make these comments because I believe that if we see the character of the Epistle, we can receive a great blessing for our souls in understanding these ways of God with us and with His people. Another thing we might mention in connections with the first existence is that.
Fear continually in every chapter reminds us of the sufferings of Christ, the cross of Christ. There are the glories to follow, but He brings out those sufferings. He was there and saw that cross, and he never forgot it. So He reminds us of the sufferings of Christ. And I suppose that judgment in the House of God is based upon that if we think about.
What grace suffers?
Our sins than we are to go on holy as our chapter says.
Remind, reminding our souls of what he paid to put away our sins. And then in the second epistle, in the second epistle.
He brings before us what He saw when he was with the Lord on the Holy Mountain. The majesty and the government of the world is brought before us in connection.
His Majesty, he who is God over all things, blessed forever, shall be set up in the determinate council of God to cleanse the world and to bring in even the eternal state. And I thought of this first verse we read. How remarkable that a fisherman could write language like this. And the whole of the chapter, the whole of the epistle.
And Peter himself gives us the key. In the second epistle. He says Holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Now here was one of those holy men of God, Peter himself, and speaking these things to us by the Holy Ghost.
And we ought to go back and speak a little more about the stranger. We remarked on it yesterday. And to see that Peter is writing to his own brethren in the flesh, Israelites.
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The dispersion. And if we go back and think of that people, they had been chosen by God.
And.
Cultured and brought into the land in Joshua never possessed the whole thing. It was promised to them. They got a part of it, and God brought in the kings and the glory of Solomon's reign. And then there was declension, turning away from God, turning to idolatry. And in the days of Zedekiah, the Jews, that is, those of the line of David, were carried away captive even as before that.
The 10 tribes had been carried away captive and dispersed.
There is still the diaspora come down today, over there in Israel today, but coming on down in the history, a little remnant had been brought back out of Babylon.
Be prepared to receive their Messiah. He was presented to them.
He rejected. They rejected him. Now let's read in Psalm 69.
What the feelings of the Lord are in connection with that?
We get much of the sufferings of Christ from the hands of men in the 69th Psalm and how he felt that.
Verse six of Psalm 69. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake.
Let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, oh God of Israel, he says, God of Israel, because for thy sake I have borne reproach, shame, I covered my face. Now notice this verse. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children.
For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me.
And yesterday we referred to what Cleopas said.
To Christ in resurrection, before he knew who he was talking to, he said, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem now? That's what he had become to his own brother, that is in the flesh.
But he came in and revealed himself to Cleopas and.
Those faithful and they learned to know him, who he was as a Savior.
And the truth of Christianity.
So then coming down into the book of Acts, we have the gospel, and it went forth to Israel, as we noticed in Acts 2.
It went to them first.
There were still those there who heard the gospel of Jews.
Of Israelites and they believe, and they were added into a new thing.
But then they have to be learned, had to learn and to be taught that like the Lord, they were to suffer strangership down here. This was not their home. This was not their inheritance. It was polluted. Israel had lost the inheritance as to attest under the law completely. Now Peter takes it on by the Spirit of God and brings it on and tells us about the inheritance and even the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
He's going to come and take up his people, earthly people, again after this dispensation. And then I believe these books will be precious to the Jews. But what he's writing to here is Christian Jews who were scattered. And I believe the purpose of scattering, as we get it in Acts 8, was to disperse the gospel, to do bring it into other regions as it did in the history of this book.
And is still doing in the remotest regions of the world when I was in.
Brazil a few years ago, I learned it came out in the news that they had discovered.
A tribe in the Amazon basin they didn't know existed. Well, I suppose there are still those who haven't heard. But the range of the gospel is not just to the Jews, to whosoever. So we have to learn that our inheritance is not here on earth too. It's reserved and kept up there for us. So we are to learn what strangership is down here.
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Then about.
The house I need your name.
He writes about the assembly.
He relates about the remembrance of the name of the Lord.
He never uses the common terms.
Of worldwide Christendom today.
Always speaks in precious home in the name of the Lord Jesus, and speaks also of the joy when they go down to the river to baptize those who become the member of the assembly in the city of Jerusalem last year. Man knows the heart, Jesus Christ.
Disciples.
Of the whole Jewish type, so the Lord Jesus and to the glory and the joy, right in the midst of all the patriots. Peter himself, Peter himself in Acts 15 says we believe that we shall be saved even as they so the Jews have to come into the blessing in this age the same way.
As the Gentiles, so we can see where we fit in this chapter 2 The love of God would reach out and get all of us Gentiles as well as the Jews. His heart is large. He he sends the word to all and wants to bring all into blessing. But when we get this blessing, then we find we're strangers down here and that our hope is in the glory.
Now that you had a hope beforehand, as our verse says.
Hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. The Jew in the old dispensation had a hope. His hope was in dawn, but it wasn't this living hope. Now, through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, the Jew has a living hope. But we Gentiles have the same hope brought into the same place. But you have to get his blessing the same way as a Gentile today.
He calls an abundant mercy here because we know that God thrown across that nation, not my people. And now in his abundant mercy, just as the Lord Jesus in resurrection said that repentance and remission of sin should be preached among all Christians beginning at Jerusalem, just think of that wonderful mercy that God extended, that the first message of grace and pardon through that redemptive work of Calvary was to go out to that nation.
And that they would begotten, be begotten to a new thing, it says, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible, fully corrupted that lamb when they entered it. And then it says, undefiled, the land was defiled under the inhabitants, and then they followed in their ways. And then it says, Fadeth not away. They lost it, they were carried into captivity. Oh brethren, what a wonderful place we have been brought into.
This especially written to those believing Jews, but it's for us too, because.
This portion is ours and all that we would enjoy it. Too often we get taken up for this world as though our hope is here.
But we need to never, never forget that we don't really belong here. We're called from above and heavenly men by birth, what a blessed portion is ours. And then he tells us too, that it's something that can't be lost. And there's a double reservation here, tells us in the fifth verse, we're kept by the power of God. And then it says in the end of the fourth verse, reserved in heaven for you. He might have a reserved seat on the plane, but that's no assurance you're going to be there to fill that seat.
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Seat might be reserved for you, but you might be hindered getting there. But brethren, how wonderful there's a place reserved for us. Every seat in heaven is going to be filled. 4 and 20 seats, and on the seats 4 and 20 elders, every believer will come to the full enjoyment of his portion and as a worshipping priest around the throne, praising him, and every seat will be filled. There's no question it's been reserved for us and we're kept for it. These things ought to fill our hearts with joy.
And truly separate us from the world.
Going noticing an axe to Peter, speaking to the Jews, says Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But Paul in Romans 10 and 13 says exactly the same words Going to the Gentiles, the Romans, whosoever shall call in the name of the Lord shall be saved. The same message going out to everyone.
For all the blessing is in resurrection.
To our living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So our blessing is found in resurrection.
Now since Peter is writing to the Jews, some of these statements have special meaning for Jews, especially through here. This third verse begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of the Lord from among the dead, because they had really forfeited everything by rejecting and crucifying their Messiah. But then, how wonderful this death.
Is the basis and the resurrection for a new blessing into which to be brought. The same is true of the second chapter when in verse 10 it says which in time past we're not a people Now if you apply that especially to the Jews and you better already refer to the Old Testament statement, the judgment that was pronounced upon them low my, not my people that is especially.
A special meeting meaning to a Jew they were because of the government of God.
No longer recognized as a people, but now, since they had come to the Lord Jesus, they were again part of the people of God in a new way, no longer because of their descent from Abraham, but because of their personal faith in the Lord Jesus. And us Gentiles, it's certainly true of us. We never ever were part of an earthly people. We were without hope, without God in the world.
And we too have been brought in to be part of the people of God. But there are some of these statements that have special meaning for the nation of Israel that had rejected their Messiah. And now, since He has come forth triumphantly from the dead, there is a New Hope, but it is no longer connected with the earth. And let me say, this world is not a wilderness because of all the sickness and the sorrows and the grief.
That we might have to face the wilderness. The world is a wilderness because he is not here.
I believe that's a good point to get a hold of. This world is a wilderness because he is not here. He has no place here, and that's why it is a wilderness to us. That's why it is a barren land.
The Lord appeared to both Peter and Paul in a special way.
Thank you, young leader.
The Lord after the resurrection, it says in Luke's Gospel, appeared unto Simon.
That's all that's said about it. We're not told anything about what went on there.
But surely Peter must have been greatly impressed by the fact.
That the Lord Jesus Christ had risen from the dead.
It was something special to Peter.
And surely This is why the Spirit of God brings it in here, because there is something special about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is very important that this must be connected with the Gospel.
And we find when the disciples or whoever went out preaching the gospel as recorded in the book of Acts, that they put emphasis upon the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in more than one case that became a subject of controversy because it's so important, because by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, God raising him from the dead.
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We read you. We read that he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
In death, the Lord Jesus Christ had glorified God. He had taken care of the sin questions, He had taken away all the offensive sin in the eyes of God, and he had answered to all God's holy claims against sins. And it was such a wonderful work that God must raise him from the dead. It was God selling his seal of approval.
Upon the work that the Lord Jesus Christ had done in going into death, taking the judgment for our sins, and God must raise him from the dead. It's God's seal of approval on that work. God has accepted that work by raising the Lord Jesus from the dead, showing it that he accepts it. And that's why the resurrection was opposed, because as soon as you speak of resurrection, it shows that God.
Recognize the value of that work of Christ and raised him from the dead and that's like was opposed and you'll find today that the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is opposed. It was opposed in the very beginning. The story went around that the disciples had come and robbed the tomb and carried his body away someplace. The devil wanted that fact hidden that the Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.
Then we come to the apostle Paul. He saw the Lord in glory. The Lord revealed himself unto him, and the voice comes from heaven.
Saul, Saul, why persecute us? Thou me?
Well, Saul as a good Pharisee, as a good Jew, recognizing that whenever a voice came from heaven, it was God's voice. He knew that this was God's voice.
But he was surprised in ears when he asked, Lord who act out, he says, I am Jesus whom thou persecutors. Saul of Tarsus got the vision there of a resurrected Christ, and even up there in the glory. And that has been the important point in Paul's gospel too, because he speaks of it when he writes to the Romans, and he speaks of it too when he writes to the Ephesians. Raised from the dead by the mighty power of God.
He was so overwhelmed by this vision that he got that every time he went preaching the gospel, he was preaching the resurrection. We thank God for these revelations to us, what we have about all of this, because we need that to understand that the life we have is resurrection life. It's the power of God, and we not only have life, but we have the Holy Spirit who is the power of that life. That's why it's a living openness.
At the grave side, that tomb of Jesus, those dear women with hearts heavy, but their affections still going out to him, to angels. Why seek ye him that liveth among the dead? And that's the victory cry of a Christian, isn't it? A man is in glory, He died, but he lived, and he ever lives for us. And that's the living hope. And I was thinking that resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead is abases of everything.
And you know you have it in the Old Testament throughout the one beautiful place that you find it is in Exodus chapter 12. And of course these things are hidden, but they come out once we have the New Testament and we have Christ. And you get the mystery brought out. But in verse two of chapter 12, this month shall be unto you the beginning you speak, the redemption, the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.
What is that month? Well, 13th chapter, verse four, it's Amen. It means first fruits. And so you begin to get it right there, the first fruits. And so we go to 1St Corinthians in chapter 15, the resurrection chapter, and in verse 21 we find this so practically brought out 1St 20 but now is Christ risen from the dead.
Become the first fruits of them that's left were sent by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as an animal die, Even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order cries the first fruits the month Amen. Afterwards they that are Christ at his coming. Well, that's why we have this blessed hope. It's a living hope. It's by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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And Peter was begotten that way and we have been begotten that way. It's a new life and the life we have is the life of Christ. And our brother mentioned this is an ignorance fisherman. That's true. But you know in Luke 24 we read the Lord opened their understanding that they may understand the scriptures.
Then the Holy Spirit indwelt themselves.
And they remembered the word of the Lord. And so Peter can write as beautifully as Paul why it's the Holy Spirit of God that moves him and gives him an understanding. And brethren, we have the same. Isn't it wonderful? The Holy Spirit of God is what makes these meetings precious to us and what gives us thoughts in a language that the world doesn't even know, doesn't even know the things of which we speak, nor can they.
From among the dead is important.
Because in the Old Testament we do not have that truth revealed. This is part of Christianity. That's why in Hebrews 6, the things that we should leave or go beyond is the resurrection of the dead. We have more than death. We have the resurrection from among the dead, and we will be raised in the same way in which the Lord Jesus was raised.
But I think what we have to see in this epistle, brethren, is we have to look at it like in the view of the apostles.
Let's remember that in John's Gospel, when Nathaniel came to understand who that person was, he says Thou art the Son of God, the King of Israel.
And the Lord opened the eyes to his disciples. They saw him to be the Messiah. They saw him to be the King. But now he's crucified. His earthly people have rejected him.
And we see how depressed the disciples are underway to Emmaus.
They had hoped that Kingdom to be set up. They again expressed that in Acts chapter. One will tell at this time. While the time has not come, but we see how depressed they are. And I believe that we will read this new and living hope in view of the disappointment that the disciples said they saw in Christ the Messiah. But he was crucified. But what a revelation it was to them that he was alive.
That He was living and He had given them a preview of the Kingdom. All was not lost. Just before He went to the cross, He gave them that view on the mountain, those 3 disciples, so that they would not think that all was lost. It wasn't. And the resurrection is to prove that it isn't all lost. I think that, and it helps us that this living hope begotten to a living hope by the resurrection is especially of significance.
In view of the fact of what the disciples saw when they walked He on earth with the Lord, what they saw in Him, and all their hopes shattered, so to speak, but what a change the resurrection brought in beautiful, but not only was the Kingdom not lost, that was all still coming, but at the present time they had something far more blessed. They had heavenly things, and that is especially also brought out in Hebrews.
You know, so that even the earthly hopes for Israel are not all gone, but they have something more precious now. They have the heavenly things, that which is preserved for them in heaven, but it's all because the one that they thought had been taken away from them in such a violent way. He's not dead, he's living. He's risen. It has a great impact upon Pagan people to have this brought before them.
That that sacrifice that we have is for sacrifice for our sin arose again from the dead. When I was in Africa, we were there for 10 years. We were in a tribe that had never heard the name of Jesus.
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And when I was speaking to them about the death of the Lord Jesus, that He was God's sacrifice for our sin, I spoke to them of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, because this would be a very important thing there amongst them. I would ask them the question, when you sacrifice a goat and you sacrifice that goat to your idol, and perhaps sprinkle some of the blood on the idol and perhaps on the sick person.
Have you ever seen that goat come back to life again? Why, No, no, we've never seen that. Has any of your sacrifices, whether they're chickens or goats, ever come back to life again? No. Well, it was a wonderful way to impress upon them the superiority of God's sacrifice. And you see, in all of the Pagan religions, they may have some person that they venerate and worship.
But that person dead is still in the grave. He hasn't risen from the dead. And you can bring that in in all of these places. And sometimes the pagans are so violent that they will oppose it, even in spite of bringing before them the fact that our sacrifice rose again from the dead.
They have to see who He is. He is God, He's the source itself of life, and until they see that by faith, they can't take it in. But God gives them the faith and the word of God is how they receive it, isn't it? What a wonderful truth. He is life. No man taketh my life from the I take. Lay it down myself. I have power to lay it down, but I have power to take it again. This commandment I've received from my Father, always obedient, but He had that power in him, his life.
That's what we're talking about, brethren. In Him is life, and that's our life. It's eternal, no beginning and no end. It's God, and until they see that, they'll never believe.
Jesus was the beginning of a new order of things entirely. Israel were a sample of man in the flesh and they were given everything as it shows us in Isaiah. It says what more could have been done in my vineyard that I have not done in it?
Wherefore when I look that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes. There was no fruit for God at all from the first man. And so we find when the Lord Jesus went into death. It's a picture to us of the end of the first man. So we might say in connection with the work of Christ, there were three things. The blood of Christ puts our sins away. The death of Christ is the end of all that we were as children of Adam, and the cross is what separates us from the world.
But here is particularly the resurrection. The Lord Jesus lay in the tomb on the Sabbath day, and that was the day they thought so much of and put such emphasis on. The Sabbath was God's pledge of rest on the earth. And the very fact the true Messiah lay in the grave on the Sabbath was to show them that there was no Sabbath for them at all through any works of their own. We know that through the works of their own they hope to obtain a rest, but they didn't, because they didn't keep God's holy law.
So the Lord Jesus is the end of the law for faith. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. And we see in him a new position entirely in resurrection. And while this particularly has to do with God's dealings with the nation of Israel, we see also that as Gentiles, we begin at the place where, so to speak, they ended. If I can put it in that way, Israel being a sample of man in the flesh, everything broke down and failed and saw.
Death of Christ, we see the end of it all. And that's why the Gentile is not looked upon as being the subject of covenants, because the covenant with Israel was a, shall I say, a conditional thing. If they could keep God's holy law, they could get the blessing, but they forfeited every right in that way. So God says now there's no, yeah and nay in Christianity. All the promises of God, in him are yay, and in him Amen.
To the glory of God by us. So the Jew is brought in through the resurrection of Christ into this new position. The Gentile was never put under the law, never put under that test, so to speak. And we too are brought in through this work of Christ. And so he brings particularly Israel. It's written to the dispersed, but it has to do with us, President. And I feel it's very important that we should realize that what we have in this epistle has its application to us.
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This is where we begin. We begin with a risen Christ. We begin with seeing Him up there and our hopes up there.
But we also have to go through in our experiences very much in this world where we learn what kind of a world it is.
And that our home is not here, and that God is going to deal with this in such a way as to remind us constantly that He wants us to walk here for His glory, and that He would have us realize that we can't find our rest here in this world. But oh, how blessed it is. We were saying that all is reserved for us. And we find in the Epistle to the Ephesians, where he came and preached priests. To them which were afar off that was a Gentile, and to them that were nigh.
And through him were both brought nigh through the blood of Christ. So both are brought into the one common blessing. And even though it's particularly to the dispersed of Israel, he takes it up because they would understand what they had to experience in the wilderness. And we as Gentiles have to learn to experience it in a spiritual way, what they had experienced in a natural way. But let's not lose sight of that risen Savior. Let's not lose sight of the glorious future that's ahead of us.
Realize that all His ways with us are to draw our hearts to Himself, either to woo us by His love, or to wean us by the trials of the wilderness. Saw that we set our mind upon things above, and where Christ is.
In Matthew 16, where you have the first mention of the church, the very, very important truth that we're talking about, the resurrection is brought before us.
The Lord asks, who do men say that I the Son of Man AM? And they said, some say, thou art John the Baptist or Elias or Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And he says, But whom say ye that I am? And he answering Peter answering said, Simon answering said, And it's only in Matthew that we get the confession in this way. And the other gospels we get the confession, the Christ of God. But in Matthew he says, thou art the Christ.
Now that's the Old Testament confession. That's what he was to the Jews. He was the Christ, the Messiah of Israel.
And at that point in the Gospel of Matthew, they rejected him as the Christ. And then he goes on to say the Son of the living God. And that brings before us what we've been talking about. Christ in resurrection is the Son of the living God. Romans 14 says he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead.
And so it's the principle of resurrection that establishes beyond all doubt that he is the Son of God. He was declared it by the spirit of holiness and by resurrection from the dead. And if we could for a moment turn back to Leviticus 23, we see this. I was thinking what our brother Bauman was bringing before us in First Corinthians 15. Christ the first fruits afterward, they that are Christ in his at his coming.
And Leviticus 23, we have the seven feasts of Jehovah and the 1St 4 divided in four and three. The last three feasts are all on the in the seventh month. And they all have to do with Israel, the blowing of trumpets, their future regathering, the Day of Atonement, they're brought to repentance, and then the Feast of Tabernacles when they'll be brought into the blessings of the Kingdom. But the first four, the first one is the Passover.
And then the feast of unleavened bread, that holy life, which is to be the portion of all those that come under the value of his death. But then I'm thinking of the 3rd and the 4th feast. The third feast is mentioned in verse 10 and it speaks of the resurrection of Christ.
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you become into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits. Christ the first fruits. Bring up the sheep of the first fruits of your harvest under the priest.
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And you shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted, for you notice on the Morrow after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. So that was done on the first day of the week. It must have been hard for a Jewish mind to understand this. All their feasts were connected with the Sabbath, the 7th day. Now here's the feast connected with the day after the Sabbath, the day on which Christ rose from the dead. Then if we go down to verse 15.
Where you have the feast of Pentecost and it's called the feast of Weeks because they counted 7 weeks from the waving of the sheaf of first fruits plus a day and that brought them to 50 days, which is the meaning of Pentecost.
Verse 15 You shall count unto you from the Morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that he brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be complete. That's 49 days. Even unto the Morrow after the 7th Sabbath. There's your 50 days Pentecost. And that's that again was on the first day of the week, shuggy #50 days. And ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. He shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of 210th deals.
My brother Hale has been bringing before us that Peter, though addressed to the Jews. That would be the first wave. Loaf on the day of Pentecost also applies to us Gentiles. That's the second wave. Love. Acts 10 When the House of Cornelius was brought into the one body and baptized by the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit embraces Jew and Gentile, for by 1 Spirit were ye all baptized into one body.
Whether you be Jews, Acts 2 or Gentiles, Acts 10. And so we have the baptism of the Spirit embracing those two companies, which is really all men on the face of the earth. And you get this here. But notice what it says, verse 17. He shall bring out of your habitations two wave loads of 210th deals. They shall be a fine flower. They shall be bacon with leaven, because the Church has sin in it.
Not upon it, but so there was leaven there. Notice it says they are the first fruits unto the Lord. And as brother Bowman was reading that in first Corinthians 15, how precious that the church is called the first fruits, as well as the Lord Jesus, we are identified with Him in resurrection.
His life is our life, and it's not just that he gives life, but resurrection, as has been brought out, puts us onto new ground, thoroughly and completely separates us from the world, and identifies us with a new position. He has become the beginning, the first born from the dead. He's the beginning of a new creation in resurrection, and that's where we begin. And that's why Peter talks about a living hope.
And in the second chapter, verse four, to whom coming is unto a living stone, verse five, ye also as living stones. We have his life. He's the living stone. We are the living stones. We have Christ in resurrection as our life. And so it's a living hope. It's all living. It's all in connection with resurrection. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, Christ in resurrection.
Beyond sin, beyond death, beyond judgment, beyond the law, a new creation in risen life with Christ. That's the, that's Christianity. And it's so beautiful to see it in the tapes. It's, it's supported by Old Testament Scripture as well as new, and it's so beautiful to see that from the word of God.
James points out something about first fruits. James chapter one and verse 18.
Of His own will He got the US with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruit of His creatures. There we have the being born again connected with the first fruits, and we're spoken of there as a kind of first fruits.
It is true that all these things Peter is telling them now, the Jews, the ones he came to his own, didn't expect or understand, but they should have, because the Lord had told them. He didn't lead them to believe the Kingdom would be set up now. He told them plainly what was going to happen, but they weren't able to take it in. And so when he speaks up to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fate is not away, reserved in heaven.
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That's the new home, because apart from Christ and being there in our Father's house, there is no inheritance. It's all in connection with Him. And yet He told them all about what was to happen. Even though after He was crucified, was in the tomb, they were so depressed. And even after He arose and had appeared unto them the first time, they were still in doubt. Because that's man's heart, isn't it? And the mind of man. But I'd just like to mention in.
Many times, but in Mark's Gospel and chapter 10, and you can find it over and over again. Here's a good example verse 32 and at the end Mark 1032 And he took again the 12 and began to tell them what things should happen unto him, saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered under the chief priests.
And under the Scribe. And they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, and they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him. And the third day he shall rise again. Now he told them that many times. But you see, they weren't able to take this in, because he was the one that was raising those from the dead before their very eyes.
He was the one that when they came to take him, disappeared through their myths, for his time was not yet come. And so they couldn't understand this, but it took Pentecost that we're Speaking of to give them the Spirit of God indwelling when he opened their understanding. And all the things that he said, such as I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive you under myself that where I am.
You may be also. That's what we're getting here now. That's what we're getting here. And they can now take it in and Peter is able to tell it out because now his understanding is open. But all these things were told them. It's beautiful, isn't it? All these things were told them by him.
But it's just that His word came back to them and was made good, and their understanding open. And brethren, it's no different with us. We take the same word and the Spirit of God opens our understanding. And now we can enjoy these precious truths that are beyond the the mind of man, beyond the mind of man.
In resurrection we have this inheritance that we cannot lose.
And thinking of that inheritance, we greatly rejoice. But then there is something more in each verse. Whom having not seen ye love, in whom, though now you see him not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. So it's not only the inheritance, but it's the person we're going to be brought to and brought to now.
And we'll know him and see Him face to face. And contemplating that blessed 10 we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Israel had that inheritance in Canaan, and yet we find in Exodus 19 the Lord bare them on eagle's wings and brought them to himself.
And, beloved, we have been brought to himself, to the Person of Christ.
The one that died for us and rode the gate.
Beautiful to see how Peter learns the Kingdom truth.
He doesn't lose sight. I don't believe how the Lord's promise.
That he gives to the 12 apostles in Luke 22. Ye shall sit upon 12 Thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
James held that to the rights to the 12 tribes scattered abroad. Paul mentions our 12 tribes instantly serving God day and night. Hope to come. He had that hope likewise.
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But Peter has learned now.
Of that better inheritance, the heavenly, the living hope that we are brought into through resurrection.
In the first chapter of Acts, Peter performs the work given to him there by the Spirit of God, speaking to his brethren, saying that.
Are those that accompanied with the Lord.
From the baptism of John till he was taken up, there had to be one appointed to fulfill to fill the office that Judas had fallen from.
So that there would be those 12 apostles to sit upon those 12 Thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel in the coming Kingdom. But then he goes on and says they must be chosen to be a witness with us of the resurrection. Now that's what we have today to bear witness to the resurrection of Christ from the dead. It's perhaps the most important truth that you and I are set here for.
To be a witness of this resurrection which brings us Gentiles saved by grace through faith into that living hope and that inheritance too, that's reserved and kept for us. And we will enjoy the heavenly side of the Kingdom. But there will be Jews taken up and blessed on the earth under Christ in the 1000 years as well. Peter seems to hold all these things in view here in this chapter to me.
Just as all those precious promises in verse 3-4 and five are so true. And we enjoy them now in four tastes. We will enjoy them fully when he comes for us. Six and seven is in the meanwhile. And there is a meanwhile, brethren, this is the place of his rejection. And Peter feels it here as he's writing. And these Jews scattered were feeling it. And you know Peter writes later in the 4th chapter.
About this so he assures them that it's coming, but he says in verse 12, beloved, it's nice whenever Paul or Peter speaks about trials and tribulations, he reminds them their beloved, beloved, think not strange. Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice in as much as your partakers of Christ suffering.
That when his glory shall be revealed, he may be glad also with exceeding joy, if he be reproached for the name of Christ. Happy are ye? This is a little different than they expected, but this is what naturally follows from walking with the Lord Jesus in this scene. It naturally follows. Now the Lord had warned Peter about it and everything that's coming out. Peter had been warned. And so if you just look for one verse, maybe 2IN mark.
10 Again, just before where were we reading Mark 10 and verse 28, Peter said to the Lord, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, verily I say unto you, there is no man that has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lions, for my sake in the gospel, but he shall receive.
An hundredfold now.
In this time, houses and brethren, sisters, mothers and children and lands with persecutions and the world to come, eternal life. He warned him. And brethren, that's what we have. We have all the promises of God in Christ. They're ours now to enjoy. And when we come together like this, we enjoy them. We ought to enjoy them always. With persecution, brethren, there is a reproach of Christ.
Not, not to us.
We could go on and not do many things that the world does and say we just don't feel it's good to do those things. There may not be a reproach, but if you go on in the light because you belong to Christ, there'll be a reproach. It's the reproach of Christ. And this is the only time and the only place brethren will ever have for all eternity to have that privilege. If Paul speaks of in Philippians 121.
It is given unto you not only to believe in the name of Christ, but also it's a privilege to suffer for His sake. And this is the only time when He comes and we expect Him today, it's forever over. You'll never be able to be identified with that Blessed One here in His rejection and reproach. Never again.
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Much of our difficulty is because we don't want God's timing. We like our own timings. And that was the problem with the disciples. Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?
God is going to fulfill all His promises, but I think we all have difficulty in our lives of accepting God's timing and we have the glorious end and the future ahead of us. We have a present joy, but just to accept in our lives that He may allow these trials and difficulties, persecution and everything that we have to endure. Constantly reminding us that our arrest is not here and our longing is to find our rest here and that the timing is that we have to wait for our rest.
There remain up there for a rest for the people of God.
And so we may not always understand God's ways. Brethren, I believe when it says here in the seventh verse, the trial of your faith being much more precious than a goal that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. It isn't a trial of faith if we understand. It's a trial of faith when we don't understand, when God passes us through something and we don't understand, but we look up and trust Him just the same.
Then that glorifies him. We understand this with our children. There may be some problem and we say, I can't explain it to you right now, but you just hold my hand and everything will be all right. If that child has that confidence to do that, aren't you pleased? Doesn't it give a joy to your heart that that child trusts you, even though it's not explained just at that time why it's happening? And brethren, there's a day coming when we will understand.
Everything that we've had to pass through, whether it's persecution, like some, we're sitting here in pleasant circumstances, are in prison and suffering for Christ sake in other lands. They might say, well, why is America enjoying such liberty and not ourselves? There may be some who have faced particular physical trials, why should it happen to me? And so on. All these things we're going to understand, but what is it that glorifies God?
What renders the brightest testimony to the world? To see a Christian who can't understand why, but rejoices in the midst of his persecution and trial because he sees that God is perfect in all his ways. It says in the Psalms there's a similar thought there As for God, his way is perfect. And then he says he makes my feet like Hinds feet.
That I might be upon my high places.
Well, you know the little hind when it comes to a difficulty, you don't have to remove the hedge or you don't have to remove the gate by it just can spring up and go over it. And that's what the Lord is teaching us. And I believe rather than it's very important for us. And it says it's going to be found on the praise and honor and glory as we read about Joseph and how he was sold by his brethren, how he was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife and put into prison.
How he was forgotten by the Butler. He must have often said why? But all that's going to be found on the praise and honor and glory in the coming day. What a time it will be for Joseph when many a believer goes up to him and says, Joseph, your life was a blessing to me. I saw how God sustained you in all your trials and how in the end you got the blessing he intended for you. And what a cheer has been to us. What praise and glory it will bring to him.
So I just want to say to any who are going through difficulties and trials right now, something you can't understand, trust in the Lord, count upon Him. There's a glory awaiting you that will far exceed anything in your highest expectations and to count upon God.
To have a smile, to have a triumph of faith in that glorifies him. Perhaps even more than preaching the gospel or doing somewhat by seeing like a noble service. One has sometimes said that the more our service puts us in the public eye, the more danger there is to do it for the eye of men.
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Quietly endure persecutions or to go on quietly in home life seeking to bring up a family for the Lord amid all the difficulties, I believe that we may be surprised in that day of manifestation that there will be more praise and honor and glory brought to the Lord by some of these hidden things. So let's not be discouraged if we understand that it's not a trial of faith, but if we say, I don't understand it, but I know God's way is perfect and He gives me grace to rise above it that glorifies Him.
338 expresses some of those thoughts.