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Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout quarters Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bathinia.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
To an inheritance incorruptible and undefined, and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith in the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Wherein you greatly rejoice, though thou, for season, if need be, year in evidence, through manifold temptation.
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold, that perisheth nor be tried with fire, might be found under praise, and honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love, in whom, though now you see Him not yet believing, he rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your soul.
Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, Who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching want, or what manner of time? The Spirit of Christ, which was in them, that signify, when it testified beforehand, the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
Under whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into.
Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind to be sober. Hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you with the revelation of Jesus Christ.
As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to former lusts and your ignorance.
But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.
Because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father, who without respective persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time, if you're so journeying here in fear.
For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your being conversation received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, Who the early was foreordained before the foundation of the world? What 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 your faith and hope might be in God?
Seeing you purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit onto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.
Being born again, not a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.
For all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man is the flower grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endure forever.
This is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.
This epistle was written to certain Jews who were scattered in these provinces that are mentioned.
Remnant of Israel.
And Peter himself being a Jew.
He understood the position of the Jewish people.
And also the character of their worship.
And all the things that related to their economy.
But he contrasts here.
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The marvelous blessings and grace, a word which he loves to use. Grace.
With all that went before, which was of a temporary character.
Here we find that which is permanent, unchangeable.
And cannot decay or fade away. And we have the most of the elements of the Christian faith in this portion that we have here brought before us. We have the precious blood, we have the resurrection, we have the blessed hope.
The coming Kingdom.
All these things that are so precious to our souls are brought together here, and although we don't have the the rapture and that line of things that Paul brings before us, still we have the heavenly things.
And the heavenly calling and the heavenly blessings in anticipation of them here that Peter is given to bring before these Jewish people who had professed to believe in the Lord Jesus.
And although it is written to them, it's for us as well.
So that we can benefit by these very, very practical things that have to do with the Christian faith. Think of the precious blood, for instance. Everything depends on that precious blood and the resurrection, all these marvelous truths that our souls rest upon.
We need to meditate on these things and realize the marvelous grace that's been brought to us.
When the Lord Jesus became man.
And die that you and I might be brought into blessing far beyond anything Israel has ever known.
Might be well the coldest 3 apostles.
Or three writers who addressed themselves to the Jews in different characters. Now Paul wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews in which he visualizes the believers really as as God's people, and the warning there is against apostasy, giving up of the truth, and also to guide them outside the camp.
Outside the whole religious system, James writes to the 12 tribes scattered abroad and he's got a mixed company, got a mixture, believers and unbelievers. He says, brethren, when he's speaking to those who are of a nation, that of the 12 tribes, we do not have the same distinctness as we have in Hebrews now, as our brother has pointed out, we have in Peter.
The third address to the Jews, but now it's addressed to those who are scattered abroad Abroad.
And who are really believers? He doesn't just differentiate us. James does. And I believe it was helpful to the notice that Peter, it gives us God's governmental dealings in relation to God's people. What we mean by governmental dealings. Whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap.
The Peter says we go over to the third chapter.
The.
10th verse. But he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Now God will hold against us in government, but he forgives us in grace. And so at the end of this book we find that judgment comes upon the House of God. Now in his second epistle.
He is government of God, goes beyond the Church and takes in the world.
And consequently an engine burning fire. I just mentioned this to show how practical Peter is in exhorting us to war in accordance with these truths that God has so graciously revealed to us.
I noticed an expression in this chapter.
In verse 11.
The sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
I believe suffering is mentioned in every chapter in this official.
And it seems that the thought of suffering is connected with the word strangers.
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They were scattered abroad.
And it was difficult for them. They had difficult times, they were suffering.
They were feeling their their rigors of the wilderness journey. They were suffering.
Well, the Lord Jesus has pointed to in the second chapter in connection with that, and of course what we have here in chapter one is the sufferings of Christ.
And so there to be encouraged by this that Christ suffered when he was here walking through this sea. But the glory is to follow. We have another word linked with that word strangers. You have a couplets strangers and pilgrims even as you have suffering and glory and I believe suffering is connected with stranger hood and the Pilgrim characters connected with the glory looking on unto the to the.
Now this is what the Lord had before him. For the joy that was set before him. He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God.
Looking forward to the glory, I believe his chief joy was the glory that was before him. Now I know that the other two that he was going to have a bride, the church that's before him as well. But I believe the chief glory was that he was going to sit down and caught his right hand, knowing that he had glorified God in suffering down here. And so we have the word stranger.
Brought before us in verse one and and further on in the epistle. That word stranger is something I believe that God wants us to feel. He wants us to feel our strangerhood down here in this world.
Now everything is being set before us to get us to forget this, that we're strangers here in this sea.
And instead of looking forward up to the glory, we're looking for glory down here, a great display. And I believe the ruin of the church has been back looking for display and glory here, looking for for rainy glory before the time. Well, that's ahead. The glory. Time is to come. Suffering time is now. Reigning time is coming.
So when he addresses them as as strangers, I believe.
He's bringing before them their real character, and that's what we need to feel to our the real character we have here as strangers and that we're in a wilderness and it's a place of suffering. And if we're going to please the Lord, it's going to mean suffering. If we have the glory before us, and that's what we're thinking about, it's going to mean suffering here.
Kept his strangership, did he not? He walked in separation. But what lost his strangest ship? Have he ever really had that character? When he went down and and mixed in with Sodom, he may have vexed his righteous soul, he may have had some conscience there, but he lost the strangership. And once we lose the strangership, we lose what is involved in the Pilgrim. A stranger is one that's away from home.
Pilgrim is one of those journeying home. So we need both of those characters. That's why I remember years ago when we used to be a father among us, John James Penfield. And he was quoting that verse at first, Peter 211 like this. He said we're pilgrims and strangers. And his wife said to him, but that isn't what it says. It says strangers and pilgrims. He told us himself, you know, he said the strangest ship comes first.
And then we'll be Pilgrim in our character. We'll be looking on the subway.
Consciousness of our.
Of our portion and position.
In the heavens with Christ.
Would naturally make us a stranger here, would it not That is, if we're in the enjoyment of that and then our object is in the heavens, it's Christ And so this is what makes us a stranger It isn't that we try to be a stranger, that we try to put ourselves in a position where we're.
Trying to conform to certain ordinances or something.
But it's the object of the heart and the one who is in the heavens, as Peter brings before us so much here, that gives us a sense of strangership and being a Pilgrim here. Now the word government was used.
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And I wonder if we are all clear as to the difference between God's judicial dealings with the soul, That is the question of the destiny of the soul and the question of His government. I mentioned it because it's in this chapter.
There is a great deal of difference in the two.
That is, we find that we've been born of God, of incorruptible seed. We get that in the.
In the 3rd 23rd verse of our chapter.
Now this has to do with the work of God in the soul and once one has been born of God, there are destiny is secure. They're trusting in that precious blood that's mentioned in the earlier verse, the 19 first.
Believing.
Having eternal life, simply believing.
But then the government of God comes in, but it's really connected with the Father.
You get that in the 17th verse if you call on the Father. So when you think of the government.
You think of the father with his children.
Now when it's judgment.
I don't think judgment is spoken of in connection with God exactly. It's really the Son of Man who's going to carry out the judgment.
We find in the 5th chapter of John's Gospel that all judgments committed to the Son.
But the governmental dealings of God with his children down here.
Has to do between our souls and the Father. We must remember that if you call on the Father.
So that's the daily exercise of our soul. We pass through this world as pilgrims.
There's always that which needs to be corrected. There's that which exercises us. And the father sees to it that the government goes on in the among his children. We'll come to that later in the chapter, but I thought I'd mention it because that word government is brought out and with some it might just bring a cloud over this chapter thinking that.
We have to.
To the mark, or we won't be saved. But that's not true. One is saved through the precious blood of Christ.
One is saved through that work that the Spirit of God has done in.
We're born again of incorruptible sea and this cannot be changed. We belong to God.
Be a very, very difficult and irksome thing, would it not, for us to try to become strangers and try to act like strangers? As we have been reminded, it is really because our affections are elsewhere that we are. We are creatures here.
You know if a man is far from home and far from loved ones in a foreign land.
He may find several things very, very different. He will find the language different. He will find the full difference. He will find the customs and the appearance of the people around him difference. But these are not the real things that make that man a stranger. He can get used to the food, he can learn the language, he can adopt the customs. But if his heart is.
Always a stranger. Anyone who has experienced it knows very well that you don't need anyone to tap you on the shoulder once in a while and say don't forget you're only a stranger here. I tell you he's well aware of it because his affections are elsewhere and there is a danger of our becoming accustomed to.
That which exists around us.
Perhaps adopting the language of the world, I hope not. Perhaps adopting the food of this world, I hope not. Perhaps the customs and the appearance of this world. But if that is so, it's because our affection are absurd, as they ought to be. And the stranger in reality is one.
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Whose affections are elsewhere?
On the 12Th of Luke gives us the motive, does he not? He says.
For me a treasure is there will your heart be also and will immediately follows is coming. He says before us the we find if we have our treasure in heaven, what will we want? We want to be up there with the treasure. And so he brings in his coming there and that's the 12Th of Lucas very beautifully put there.
We can sit and talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. We can sit and talk about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that word treasure.
By the Spirit of God, it touches our heart.
Is he our treasure?
I am afraid very often.
We're doing a lot of talking about the Lord.
And those who hear us or see us.
Don't they are not made to realize that He is our treasure? Is He really our treasure? Does He really mean something to us?
If you had an ounce of gold, in a certain sense that would be a treasure, and perhaps you'd be telling everybody about it. But there would be a certain light in your countenance too, certain actions that would show that you really valued that ounce of gold. But what about the Lord Jesus Christ? We have him.
In our hearts we have him as our treasurer up there in the glory.
And I believe we need to be exercised about how much the Lord Jesus really means to us. The apostle Paul said. For to me to live is Christ.
For to me, to live is Christ.
And the enemy of our souls and the flesh in US and the world around us would try to put all kinds of substitutes in place of Christ.
For to me to live is what? Oh, that's a searching thing, isn't it? For to me, to live is what is it really now?
That's where we can judge ourselves at the end of that sentence or to me to live is may the Lord give me the grace to say he is Christ and to really mean it in my heart. Well, how does Christ become precious to us, living with him, talking with him, being in his presence. That's how you learn to know him better.
How do you learn to know your friends? Being with them?
And the more you are with your friends, the more you want to be with them. Well, if we are with the Lord Jesus, we learn to know him better. And we want more of Christ. We want to know Him more and better. It's not that we don't know him. Of course we know him if we're saved. But the thought is to know Him better. That's what Paul had before him. Is Christ really our treasure?
You never knew that he was elected according to the foreknowledge of God, that he.
He he knew that there was a Canaan and that God was leading him to Canaan and finally they came to Canaan. But we find in their whole history.
Even salvation or any part of it was still a question in their minds, except God did deliver them from time to time in their circumstances.
So we see the tremendous contrast with the portion of the Christian here to that of Israel as a nation or of an individual Jew even because I believe we do have much that is individual here for the believer as well. And so that.
The believer is elect.
But Israel didn't know anything about the foreknowledge of God.
Here we have that which God knew all about and purpose.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God. Now this was true of the Jew to whom he's writing, those who are saved. They were elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
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Now he brings the Father in here, and that's Christianity.
Christianity was not known. The Father was not known in the Old Testament.
But He brings the Father in here, and He also brings in the Spirit. Now it is true that there were certain ones like.
Samson and and Jeptha and many others who the Spirit of God came upon them and they were used mightily in deliverance for Israel. But that's not what we have here. We have one who is.
It says elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
Through sanctification of the Spirit that is being set apart for God by the Spirit. What tremendous truth we have here.
Unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Now we find that the Lord Jesus Himself.
All was obeyed always.
Now that's the kind of a life that's given the believer. The old man never obeys, but he does have a new life that loves to obey.
But it's all based upon that precious blood and the sprinkling of that blood that has set us apart for God.
And it's the precious blood in that alone that brings us into blessing.
The blood of Jesus Christ and Peter makes much of it later in this chapter.
Three things are very, very interesting compared, as you say, with the position that the Jew had previously known. He had known God only as Jehovah. That was his relationship, but now it says through.
Foreknowledge of God the Father. He had also known, had He not a separation.
But it was a separation formed by the boundaries of the Law, so that Israel was a separated people, but by no means could it be said of them sanctification of the Spirit. And also there was an obedience that the Jew was aware of the obedience and joined by the Law. And this he knew something about, although he didn't have the nature that delighted in it.
But to me it's a very, very beautiful contrast. As you have been remarking in all those three areas, they had no job as Jehovah now.
Foreknowledge of God the Father, they had known a separation by the law that separated them from the other nations of the earth. Now sanctification of the Spirit they have known also, and obedience again through the law.
But do nothing of the obedience of Christ, and the new position with the whole darkness, the whole Trinity in it, is such a beautiful contrast in this country.
Say that in Isaiah, in Isaiah 45, Israel was looked at as the elect nation, their elect as a nation. But what makes this so precious with us is that this election here and that with God's sovereignty and eternity that this applies to each individual that you and I realize the marvelous fact that.
That our names were named back in eternity.
When we did four no, we read in the also in Romans 8. So here is a contrast Peter justice all the way through. He contrasts the Jewish position in the Old Testament with what they had is a better thing in Christianity elect now election here.
According to the foreknowledge of God, the Father carries us back into eternity. Now when it comes to the sanctification of the Spirit, that brings us into time, when the Christ that shed his blood and the Spirit was given, and the Spirit separated us to bring us to the leaning upon the blood of Christ. Now with Israel, obedience and the blood went together in this way when Moses enjoined obedience on all the people.
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He sprinkled not only the book with the blood, but he sprinkled the people with the blood. What did that mean?
That man, if you don't obey your subject of death, but Peter brings in this marvelous.
Fact that the obedience of Christ and the strengthening of the God of Jesus Christ, which instead of bringing in death to us, shows the brothers already remarked the foundation on which our salvation rests. At the same time, I believe it's a marvelous fact that God chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world.
I know sometimes this thought of foreknowledge.
Is just presented this way. This foreknowledge tells us that God knew who would believe on him. But that isn't the point at all. It's a matter of persons here for knowing those persons.
Perhaps we might think of a quarry man going down into the quarry.
And he puts a mark on certain stones there before they're ever cut out, and he knows those stones.
And so because he knows that stone there, he knows there's a stone there, and he knows it as belonging to him, so he puts a mark on it.
After that, the quarrymen go down there and they cut that stone out, and then they bring it up and put it into place. But all of this other knowing it and the putting a mark on it comes before then the work of grace comes afterward.
To choose those who the people say would turn out well. He did not have a choice. God did not have a choice, and he had to choose certain persons because they were going to turn out all right. I've often used this simple homely illustration. If I go to a supermarket and I want to pick out some fruit, I say there's some Peaches on the counter. My choice is influence. I'm not going to take the bad ones.
I'm going to pick those that are almost right, perhaps.
But when God went to choose, the whole thing was decayed. It wasn't one good one there and yet in sovereign grace he chose and so God stopped. God's grace and His love are sovereign and that they are not acted upon by any influence God chose. And I believe that's important to see that now we have grace here and and peace be multiplied.
Peter makes much of this grace, in fact.
He speaks of God is the God of all grace in his last epistle.
It's rather interesting to notice in the life of Peter.
The changes that take place.
If you trace Peter in the Gospel of Luke, you would see a number of changes that take place while the Lord was here and Peter was walking with the Lord.
Those 3 1/2 years.
But then we see the tremendous change in the day of Pentecost when Peter can stand up and speak to the Jewish people and say him, have you crucified?
Completely separates himself from the nation, and he takes that position altogether wholly with the Lord. Not like before. He identified himself with the crowd before, but there's a change takes place. But now we find in these two epistles, even in his own ministry.
Like John the Baptist, you know.
John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ, but when he he stood and looked at Jesus as he walked and explained, Behold the Lamb of God his disciples, and turn and follow Jesus.
So with Peter here in his second epistle, he doesn't say Peter an apostle, he says Simon.
Uh, Peter, a servant and an apostle.
It shows that even in his own ministry there is that growth and always taking a lower and a lower place and exalting the Lord Himself.
More and more in this ministry and and then on the subject of grace. As you read his ministry, you find that he speaks more and more of grace.
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Until he ends with God, the God of all grace. But here we have that which is usually accompanies.
An epistle at least.
Oftentimes companies of pistol, usually to the assembly.
Grace.
Unto you, and peace be multiplied. Probably is more individual here, however.
But peace multiplied. One could never have peace unless it was through the blood of Christ.
But Peter wants it to be multiplied and so.
He tells us later how it's multiplied. It's through the knowledge.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's not through anything that's developed within us, it's through an object.
That enables that peace to be multiplied in our souls. Grace too, because what we need in the path of faith is great.
Every believer has a new life.
But enabled to be unable to walk in that new life, there has to be grace.
And so Peter speaks of this here. Grace unto you with the Jew. It is a question of all the Lord has spoken. We will do, but not here. It's great if we've been called to the obedience of Jesus Christ. He never moved without a word from the Father, and that's why we have this book.
This is the path we're to walk in, and it takes grace and we receive grace on our knees.
All I'm saying to take the place of a child of God and then refuse to be obedient. Now sometimes this happens. There are certain things in the Word of God that we don't want to obey.
But this tells us that we've been set apart.
To obedience on the same principle as the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ did always those things that pleased the Father.
That was that divine life in him.
We come to the third person that speaks of being begotten again.
That is, we have a new life, a divine life imparted to us by God Himself.
And that new life that is imparted to us.
Is as much desires of being obedient in us as it was in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Were set apart to the same principle of obedience as the Lord Jesus was.
And the Lord Jesus always obeyed.
How about us?
We have a new light, a new nature that wants to obey God.
And we need to ask the Lord for this grace we've been hearing about.
That we might be obedient.
Surely this must be why this comes in afterward, because usually you find.
Grace brought in before.
Any exhortation or any truth like this or anything that brings before his responsibility.
His grace afterward. God knows we need grace and these days to be obedient.
And let us look at the Lord Jesus Christ and his obedience.
Make any difference what he had to face, he was obedient.
We need to ask God for grace that we might be obedient to. Very happy and very easy as it comes to obey someone who understands you perfectly and loves you thoroughly. Very, very difficult to be obedient to someone who doesn't understand June is just trying to get as much as they can out of you thing under that circumstance.
But just think of what we have been Speaking of. Obedience to our will.
That comes from one who is perfect in understanding and perfect in love, as we get in Romans 12, that He may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And I don't speak for myself, but I can only say I'm sure.
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That anyone who has ever walked in that path of obedience.
Would surely subscribe to the truth of that it's good and acceptable and perfect.
Lord Jesus in the gospel of John speaks of in the world he shall have tribulation, but in me peace. Now when you think of the pathway of the Lord himself.
We often sing at him uncheered by human smile, led only to the cross or words of that effect. We think of him being pushed to the brow of the hill to be cast over that because of the gracious words he uttered and all the other things that happened to the Lord and that.
But he was never disturbed. He was never disturbed because he always glorified the Father in it. Now we're called upon. If we're strangers scattered abroad, we are faced with difficulties, we are faced with exercises of soul. And how do we face them?
Yeah, we've already been reminded that we faced them and taught me with the Lord Jesus that peace that he said He was giving and leaving with us. That will be what will characterize us in our difficulties. Now, peace with God is another thing, and that rests on the finished work of Christ on the blood.
But peace in the pathway rests upon communion, walking with the Lord and walking in the same path that He walked in. So I believe that Peter brings that in here. The grace is needed, but peace was needed too in their circumstances as they went on to a hostile world. I thought perhaps that I want to be corrected if they thought it's not right.
I thought perhaps the Lord Himself may have been referring to this in the 20th of John, where he says to them, Peace be unto you.
And shows them his hand and his hands and his side. He had made that double promise in the 14th chapter. Peace finally with you. My peace I give unto you. So I look upon that Pearson side as being the basis of peace with God. I know my guilt is gone because from that fierce inside their clothes, that precious.
But he showed them his half. What does that have to do with peace?
Well, I just think of it like this Hebrews one says the heavens are the worker by hand. There is the evidence of a majesty and the wisdom of A and a power that is ought to be utterly beyond us, but that his cycles had also seen those hands.
Stretched out in deeds of kindness and thoughtfulness and love. To touch a poor leper that he might be flat to touch blind eyes that they might be over to break the lows. That the hungry might be fed. To be laid in thoughtful and tender love upon my heads up the little children. To reach out and rescue Peter when he began to sink. Oh, how actively.
Those hands had been displayed.
Caring for those disciples now he's about to leave that he shows them those hands and they see the nail mark and the last sight they've had of the Lord Jesus was with those very hands uplifted. I quite picture them still uplifted as he disappeared behind that cloud. No beloved, what peace it would give to us if.
Amid the problems and difficulties of life looked up at you, there is a real man up there in the glory.
Who has been all the way through this journey and right now His hands are uplifted for us in an understanding and faithful and sympathetic love. Is there some thought there in those hands that would give us this kind of peace to be popped off? Is the person He is our peace?
And even though we may be in such a state that we're tired and depressed.
Just the thought of his person alone is sufficient. Everything rests in Christ. We have no blessings except in Christ.
He is our peace. We can see so in this third verse.
The contrast with Israel, they had had an earthly hope as a nation.
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And through sin they had to file the land, and as a nation they had lost it. Now Peter is writing to believers among the Jews, and he says he has begotten us again.
Unto a living hope the nation lost what they were called to, because they failed in obedience. Now Peter brings in that which rests upon grace. So he says that blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Which according it was a fondant mercy of the godness again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I believe that this verse find what our brother London said earlier, gives us compressed in this verse the full outline of Christianity.
There's the relationship of the Father that's based on the person of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have the resurrection.
Lord Jesus Christ, these are connected with Christianity and so we pray to the Father. We do not put them at a distance. So it's blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, but he's also our Father through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Third verse Brothers, 13.
We know that this was written by divine inspiration, and yet can we not sense the soul of this beloved servant of God coming out in this language? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul uses the very same words in Ephesians one and I. I feel humbled when I read it because I am sure that we often sit and.
Read these wonderful things that listen to.
Outline of our heritage. I wonder if we ever feel like bursting out as Peter did. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's not really expounding something there. He's just enjoying on this page what it meant to his own soul.
I feel quite searched as I read it. Do I feel like this when I read it? Even as Peter felt when he wrote? This gives him his full title, doesn't it? Name and title.
Which is important, isn't it? And especially as Christianity has the privilege of giving God, that is, when we address him in prayer, giving him his full name and title.
It's proper, is it not?
According to his abundant mercy.
Leaders is one who has realized this personally, has he not?
He has realized personally that God is the God of mercy because.
If you trace this pathway in the Acts, you'll see that even the gates of the prison were open for him, perhaps more than once.
And all these various things that came into his life.
And even the time when he denied that he ever knew the Lord, and yet he was the one that was going to be more faithful than the others, he was never going to deny him. But when he learns his own condition and weakness, then he realizes the marvelous mercy of God personally.
And he uses it here. I'm sure it's inspiration, but he uses it here. And I believe those who wrote in the New Testament were conscious of what they were writing. They were experiencing it in measure at least.
Really, mercy was to him. It has to do, does it not? Greatly with our circumstances here, as well as the fact that it's mercy that saved us.
But he does bring in salvation in three different ways in this epistle, as we will notice later.
So that it's the mercy of God that he's so taken up with.
Grace too, of course, and here it's the abundant mercy.
Which hath begotten us again unto a living hope.
Now he takes up that subject of new birth later.
But it's really the thought of it isn't simply being born again, it's born anew. It's from an entirely new starting point. That's really what new birth in Scripture means. It doesn't simply mean again as as it's used.
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At times, but it means really to be born anew. That is a complete new start.
And I believe this is important to notice. There may be some here who have grown up.
In a Christian home, but have never been born anew.
They know the language of Christianity, but they have never had that experience.
Of knowing that they are now a child of God through faith in Christ Jesus as trusting in that precious blood.
Being born anew.
But Peter addresses these as having had this.
Experience and blessing hath begotten us again unto a living.
Our lively hope.
But as by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, that is, that completes the work.
You get that in the last verse or two of Romans 4.
Delivered for our transgressions.
Perhaps a better rate. Read it Romans the 4th chapter.
Delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.
So we have the whole picture in that verse, do we not? In a way that brings in the resurrection, which is very important to see in connection with salvation.
It's Christ who has gone on high and we don't have the Spirit mentioned as coming down.
Indwelling the believer until Christ has gone on high.
He's up there and he's the one who sent the Spirit down to indwell the believer. It's brought in here because of that word dead. There is such a condition today of the unbelievers dead in trespasses and sin.
But here it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Raised from among the dead. Now this was different than in Judaism. In Judaism they only knew a general resurrection at the last day, as Mary said.
Resurrection of the last day. But here is something else. This is a resurrection from among the dead.
And now being associated with the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the kind of a resurrection.
That we anticipate should we die and.
Our spirit go to be with Christ. There would be a resurrection.
But would all the dead be raised at that resurrection? No, just those who belong to Christ. They that are Christ that is coming.
They're the ones that will be raised, those who've been associated with the Lord Jesus Christ through faith in him. They're the ones who are going to be raised from among the dead. It's an out from among the dead resurrection. I believe that's the way the apostle Paul used it, uses it in Philippians. That's a special resurrection. And this was a new thing to these Israelites, surely.
And out from among the dead. Resurrection. What's he talking about?
While we understand it, at least in a measure, the Lord has given us to see it. Why, it's a wonderful thing that there's going to be that kind of a resurrection up from among the dead, and all those who've died in their sins will be left, left behind, and they won't come forth until at the judgment seat, that is, when the Lord sits on the great white throne of judgment.
And the dead, small and great, we read of in Revelation, come, and they stand before that throne, and they're judged there.
And they're cast into the lake of fire. That's the resurrection of the unjust, but the resurrection up from among the dead, that's the resurrection of the just. So there are two resurrections, the resurrection of the just and the resurrection of the unjust, but separated by approximately 1000 years or a little more.
We praise God, belong to that first resurrection, and we are in the same category. We might use that expression as the Lord Jesus Christ because we are associated with Him. He arose from among the dead and will be raised from among the dead too.
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In connection with the resurrection, it was God's glory. God's glory was at stake if Christ remained in the grave. Why? Because on the cross, Christ fully did the work that met all of God's holy claims.
If God had allowed Christ to remain in the grave would be saying the work of the cross was not complete, but when he raised him from the dead, he was saying the work of the cross was complete. So I mentioned this to show that the resurrection forms no part of the atonement. It's God's guarantee that the atonement was fully done on the cross, and so he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
Can I call attention to one of the four? We could go back to Romans 4.
Where's the brother referred to elected Notice something in connection with Romans five. I've enjoyed this. It shows what a marvelous plan God has unfolded to us in that 25th verse. He was delivered to our offenses and was raised again for or on account of our justification. That is the word. There is not a virtue of the of it, but because of it.
Now in the 5th chapter in the in the ninth verse.
Much more than being now justified by his blood means in virtue of his blood, that's what actually justifies us. The resurrection is God's acknowledgement of the work of Christ. And by God doing that, he said he's showing that our sins are gone and gone forever. And I believe that's a marvelous thing to get hold of that. The resurrection of Christ is God giving us a receipt telling us the debt was paid.
And paid fully. I like to think too, that we can even go back to Romans 3 and read being justified freely by His grace through the redemption, that it is Christ Jesus as much as to say, if we go all the way back to the origin of the whole thing, we'll find it was the grace that was in the heart of God toward us.
With all the grace of God's own hearts that never justify a guilty Sinner, it took this precious blood.
Resurrection brings in a new character of life, and that's connected with the hope mentioned in the verse.
It's the very life that we see in Christ, not now as a man down here.
But one who is seated in the heavenlies of God's right hand.
And so Peter, Speaking of heavenly things.
Our thoughts are usually connected with Earth.
Histories and so on. But here we have heavenly things that he's bringing before us.
And resurrection, which of course would suggest something entirely new.
And that's what we have here.
That's that's what the hope is about.
Not better circumstances in this world.
No.
It's something entirely new, just like the life is new, and we learn later in the chapter that the character of it is incorruptible, unfading.
Can never change.
It all is of the character that God himself intended it to be.
Permanent character and as we learn elsewhere that.
It's the very same joy that he enjoys, that he wants us to enjoy.
And that a tremendous thought.
That he could have said to us, well, now we're going to, we're going to give you a portion somewhere and you'll be happy forever. No, that's not the heart of God.
He's going to have us with himself. He's going to have us like Christ.
He's going to have us before him because he wants us there.
So we have that blessed hope, the person of Christ. It isn't the hope, simply that there's an inheritance on high. That's all very true.
But that's not the central thing, it's the person. And so we got here in the 4th.
1St we have incorruptible, they have undefiled and faded not away. Might have the forcing reserved. Now these three things were the very things that failed in connection with Israel, because God told them that you've been you've defiled my inheritance. They defiled this inheritance. They brought in idolatry and all kinds of iniquity that they borrowed from the heathen.
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Inheritance they got was corrupted and it was defiled and it certainly faded away constantly. In the book of Judges you have one invasion after another, God wanting them and so on all the way through until Nebuchadnezzar comes and takes away the nation as such and the inheritance fades away and.
Now we find that our inheritance is reserved and it is incorruptible. It's undefiled. That is, it partakes the very character of God himself, God's holiness. If God has the people around himself, He must have them in keeping with His own nature. So in Ephesians one that they should be holy and without blame before Him in love brings out three things in connection with God's nature there.
And so we see that this is brought in here. In principle, the inheritance is incorruptible and it's undefiled and the fate is not away and it's reserved.
In verse 18, it speaks of something that is corruptible.
For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
And incorruptible Christ has been paid.
And show everything connected with that that has been paid for is incorruptible, including the inheritance. It's incorruptible. How wonderful to be on the ground of grace redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why it's sure in heaven, because it's been redeemed the price the precious blood of Christ has been paid for.
And it can't fade away. It can't be defiled. It's there's no chance that we'll get there. And they'll say, well, I can't find your reservation. We sometimes have that experience when we go to a place where we've made a reservation in a motel and they said, I can't find the reservation.
That won't be the case. When we get to glory, we'll find that it's all true. It's all on solid ground.
Speaking what an important thing we anticipate a moment verse 23 there we have an incorruptible nature brought in. Now you and I need an incorruptible nature to enjoy an incorruptible inheritance. I might put it this way. I need two things to really enjoy heaven. First of all, my conscience has to be.
Clear before God, that's through the precious blood of Christ. But if I go to heaven with a corruptible nature.
Why? I look for the nearest exit Because there's nothing there that will appeal to me. I won't want anything that's there. But now I have an interruptible nature and I love everything in the place. And our our loins will not be girded there. We can let our affections go out to everything that's there. Isn't that marvelous? What an anticipation.
Of quote two, brethren, that it is preserved for you, not by you.
Look at Israel, why did they forfeit everything? Because it depended on their faithfulness, but here it is preserved for us, God Himself. The Lord Jesus has wanted for us, and God Himself will preserve it for us. And we have that in the next verse, that we are preserved for the inheritance. How beautiful to see that difference.
Our brother spoke confirmed reservations.
It makes you think of Revelation 5, where John describes what he is seeing there. I saw 4 and 20 seats, and on the seats 4 and 20 elders. We become accustomed to reading it, but when we stop and think, that's very remarkable, is it not, If you enter the room and saw 24 people seated there?
You wouldn't come back out and say I saw 24 chairs in there.
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And 24 people sitting on them. You certainly wouldn't mention a seat before you mentioned the people, but John says 4 and 20 feet and on the seats 4 and 20 elders. It's all ready, it's all reserved. And the number is repeated. In other words, nobody is looking around for a seat and can't find one. And there are no vacant seat either. The number corresponds perfectly.
Oh, what a wonderful a sure to Sir, we have.
Blessed and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Now the flesh, we have the flesh.
An evil principle in us, but it's the dwelling place of sin. But it won't be in this new order of things.
So that everything there will be of a character that cannot be defiled, and it is reserved and preserved for us. But then in the next verse we find that we are preserved.
It says.
Are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
Now the believer is kept. It's true. We are kept in many ways physically as we pass through this world.
Were kept on the highways, were kept in our circumstances every day. But I believe this verse goes further than that and it has to do with.
A moral things it has to do with the.
The subject that we've just had before us in connection with the.
Second verse.
Being set apart by the Spirit unto obedience.
Sprinkling of the blood of Christ, the consciousness in our souls that we have been bought with that precious blood.
And also as we look at the Lord Jesus and we think of his constant obedience to the Father.
The Spirit of God impresses upon us, on our souls, these very things, and by this we are preserved as we go on through this world.
Not only in our circumstances.
But we are preserved, as it says.
Kept by the power of God through faith, through faith. And then he mentioned salvation, but it's the last aspect of salvation. He asked to say about other salvation here, but this is the last aspect of it. This is the day that's coming when everything will be complete and we're going to be preserved until that day.
When the Lord Jesus comes and takes us home.
Later on, he speaks of a salvation that we have now and also the salvation passing through this world.
But here he takes us on to the end and he shows us that we are being preserved. The inheritance is preserved for us. We are being preserved or kept for it.
And through faith, by the power of God, through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
This is really the Father ready to be revealed. I'd like to ask a question. I know we occasionally hear the suggestion that the Lord Jesus is now preparing.
Heaven for us. And that when that preparation is finished, then He'll come and call home. I'm sure we realize that such is not the case. I believe the moment he entered that glory as a man.
All was ready for our presence there. Is that something of the thought here, ready to be revealed?
That is that the Lord Jesus had entered that home as man and nothing further needs to be done. It is long-suffering and wait is that the Son is ready to be revealed.
Fully particularly to the to the rapture when the the Lord will come. In fact, in Philippians I enjoyed the thought. I'm sure we all have in Philippians. We are waiting for the Savior from heaven, the Savior. Well, I've already been saved with their salvation in that chapter because he's going to change my body of humiliation and passionate like under his own body of glory.
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In Philippians 3, he comes as the savior.
He's going to change the body and so that that will be revealed, that will be fully brought out. Perhaps this may even go beyond. I'd like to know if there's anything further on it that it would also carry on to the to the time when the Lord will come out of heaven with his flaming, with the flaming fire with his holy angels and the Saints of God are going to be revealed to the world in that new body.
And Christ is going to be admired in that. So I believe it has a far reaching effect.
There isn't that, yeah.
I think is very applicant.
I suppose the word revealed.
Is a display or an opening up?
And uncovering it's something like.
On a stage, the curtain is drawn and the stage is all set, and then the curtain is raised and there it all is. Well, that's the way it is in the glory. It's all there. Everything is there just like God wants it, and the Lord Jesus Christ the center of that whole scene of glory, and it's all going to be unveiled to us in that day.
Oh, what a what a thrill that will be for us to see that we just have no idea what it's going to be like. We have such a very limited idea of these things that pertain to glory as the Apostle Peter. Speaking of it, glory, what is it?
Well, it's a display of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and we can't imagine what that's going to be like. We can read from Scripture and get some thought that the Spirit of God gives us, but how little we enter into it.
The Book of Revelation, of course, we have the word revealed, bringing something out in some translations. I refer particularly to the the Latin Vulgate, which is used by the Roman Catholic Church.
The book is called The Apocalypse. You look up the word Apocalypse and it means the rolling back of the veil. In fact, the Revelation does it. The veil is rolled back and we're able to look in and see how God is going to bring the glories of Christ to the attention of the whole world. Powers open up in this verse.
The power of God we know to be.
Kept by the power of God through faith.
Is found in the Spirit of God, who dwells in every believer.
Now God is the source of all the blessing, but the Spirit is the power of that life.
And so it's the operation of the Spirit of God in the believer.
Who occupies us with Christ and the inheritance?
Unless, of course, our wills go to work, then he will have to occupy us with our ways until they are corrected.
But it's the power of God here through faith. That is, it's the Spirit of God in operation.
In the believer continually.
He dwells within us. It is a solemn thought. He dwells there, and that is the operation of the Spirit, is the power of God, but it's through faith, and so it's the exercise of soul.
In our case, as we are occupied with Christ and his obedience.
And all the work that has been accomplished for us.
Would now keep us in the path.
Were kept by the power of God.
Before that day and the blessing of that day is found in and with Christ kept here I see in the margin has guarded.
The Spirit of God, we might say, guarding us. You get a bad conscience about something, Who's giving you the bad conscience? The Spirit of God is at work to convict. Grieve not the Spirit of God. We're by your shield unto the day of redemption. The Spirit of God can be grieved and he makes us feel it, and we should be sensitive to that. And I believe if we're living in communion with the Lord, judging ourselves.
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We will feel this, and the Spirit of God is that powerful.
To keep us, to guard us, although God doesn't want us to go into bypass and strange paths and wrong paths, and the Spirit of God is there to guard us. Remember, we have the Spirit of God dwelling in our hearts and wherever we go, whatever step we take, the Holy Spirit is there.
And he'll tell us he'll be guarding us to keep us from keep our feet from going the wrong direction. Well, we need to realize this, that we have the Spirit of God in our hearts and that we're enjoying not to grieve the Spirit of God whereby we're sealed unto the day of redemption.