Heavenly Hope For Earthly Exiles

Well this morning as we are going to continue in our study of one Peter, we get to look at the passage from where that song came. And so I want to invite you to take your Bibles and turn to one Peter chapter one, and we're going to be reading starting in verse three, all the way down to verse 12, verse Peter chapter one, verse three. Peter writes, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again. Here it is to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

And this you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And though you have not seen him, you love him and though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy in expressible and full of glory obtaining as the outcome of your faith, as salvation of your souls as to this salvation. The prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven things into which angels long to look.

Father, we are so privileged to be here on this earth at this time. We are a part of the revelation of your plan of salvation, where we have the privilege of looking back at the cross rather than looking forward at some mystery that we couldn't figure out and that we have experienced something that the angels will never experience. Lord may that just awe us. May we be filled with wonder and praise and worship that our hearts would rejoice even as we walk our way through these verses this morning at our great salvation. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, ever since God set his chosen people apart from the rest of the world, they have lived as exiles on this earth. In the Old Testament, God promised to provide the nation of Israel a place to settle Canaan, the promised land. In Genesis 17, eight, God said to Abraham, I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. That tiny piece of real estate in the Middle East that we know as Israel was referred to as their inheritance, and God intended for that inheritance to be divided up amongst the 12 tribes of Israel. He said that in numbers 26 verse 53, among these, the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names. In fact, God spoke to Moses, these words in numbers 34 verse one, command the sons of Israel and say to them, when you enter the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as an inheritance, even the land of Canaan according to its borders.

Well, as you know, while they were wandering in the wilderness those 40 years, Moses disobeyed the command of the Lord and the Lord was angered by that. And so he said, Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 4 21, now the Lord was angry with me on your account and swore that I would not cross the Jordan and that I would not enter the good land, which a Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. And then Deuteronomy 31, 7, Moses called Joshua since he couldn't go into the promised land and he said to him, in the sight of all Israel, be strong and courageous, for you shall go with his people into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them and you shall give it to them as an inheritance. Joshua 11, verse 23 recounts the divvying up of the land by Joshua. So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses and Joshua gave it it for inheritance to Israel according to the divisions by their tribes. Thus, the land had rest from war.

God always intended the land of Canaan to be a place of rest for his people, but as you know, the Israelites deferred that rest by fearing the Canaanites and rebelling against the Lord, which resulted in them having to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. Once they finally settled in the land, they forfeited that rest by disobeying the Lord which resulted in them being ripped out of the land and having to live in exile for 70 years. And granted, these were consequences of their disobedience, but while they wandered through the wilderness and suffered through exile in foreign lands, they were sustained by the hope of someday enjoying again their promised inheritance. I say all that because here in this text that looking at today in one Peter chapter one, verse four, Paul used the same Greek word for inheritance that was used in the tugen, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. He used that word for Canaan to describe the inheritance that we have as Christians, verse four, to obtain an inheritance.

His point was simply this, that just like Israel received an earthly inheritance, we who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God, the Father by the sanctifying work of the spirit to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood, have also been given an inheritance, not an earthly inheritance, but a heavenly inheritance. And even as God's elect exiles like the Israelites who often find ourselves wrestling with what it feels like to be the special object of God's affections, yet seemingly abandoned by God to wander and suffer in some out of the way place, what should console us and sustain us during our sojourn here on this earth is reflecting on and rejoicing and resting in our great salvation and specifically our inheritance in Christ. One commentator said it this way, this is such an inheritance that the very thoughts and hopes of it are able to sweeten the greatest griefs and afflictions.

A few Christians have experienced greater grief and greater afflictions than those Peter was writing to in this letter. These faithful saints were being brutally mistreated. They were even being killed for their commitment to Christ. And so Peter's letter was mainly intended to provide hope for these persecuted believers. And in these opening lines, he reminded them of all that they had to be thankful for as a result of their salvation in Christ. And he called on them to praise God for it and to rejoice in it. And the reason why I read verses three all the way down to verse 12, just to settle your hearts, we're not going to try to get through all those verses this morning, but the reason why I read them together is because in the Greek, this is one long sentence which indicates that this should be viewed. These verses should be viewed as one grammatical unit, one a flow of thought here, but saying that it naturally breaks up into three divisions, which is helpful for us as we work our way through it.

Together we see verses three through five are a unit versus six through nine are a unit and verses 10 through 12 our unit. And so we're going to Lord willing tackle this passage looking at those three sections one at a time. Now essentially what Peter was doing in this one long sentence in the Greek, he was just pouring out his heart and praise as he contemplated the work of salvation that God had accomplished in his life and also in the lives of those to whom he was writing, including us. And his goal was to help us stand firm and remain steadfast amid the suffering and the persecution of this life by reminding us that life won't always be this way, this earth is not our home.

And so the key to coping with the temporal burdens of this life is remembering the eternal blessings in the life to come. And so this morning I want us to look at verses three through five and I want us to see three blessings that every Christian enjoys and or will enjoy that should give us hope while enduring life or experiencing death. And my prayer today is that God, through his spirit, through Peter would take his hand to your chin and gently lift it towards heaven. So you can see that whatever you're going through right now here on this earth is nothing compared to what you've got waiting for you in heaven. So let's look at these three blessings, three blessings of salvation. First of all, we see an irresistible rebirth. This is the first blessing of salvation and irresistible rebirth. Look at verse three. He begins by saying, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That word blessed is a common expression that was used both in the old and New Testaments to give praise to God for who he is and what he had accomplished. And so Peter here is praising God the Father, as the author of our salvation. This is how Paul began a number of his letters same exact way. Two Corinthians one, three, blessed to be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians one, three, blessed to be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word blessed is the word eulogy in the Greek, which sounds like what English word eulogy. We've all been to a funeral or a memorial service where there's a eulogy and what is the purpose of the eulogy? The eulogy is to say all sorts of nice things about that person, right? It's basically singing an opportunity to sing their praise.

And so that's what we're doing. Whenever we bless God, we are singing his praise, we're declaring that he's worthy to be praised for sovereignly, ordaining, and orchestrating our salvation. And ultimately that is the reason why God saved us so that he would get praise that he would be given the glory for our salvation. That's exactly what Paul said three times in Ephesians chapter one, verse six, to the praise of the glory of his grace, verse 12, so that we were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory. In verse 14 talks about how we've been given a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory. Our salvation is not about us, it's about God, and he deserves all the glory for it. And so he says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter emphasized Christ's deity, and you remember that Jesus was the first one to call God his father, and it freaked everybody out because they understood what he was saying, that he was making himself what equal to God, and that's why they picked up stones and tried to kill him for blasphemy. And so Peter's affirming that guess what? God is Jesus's father. He is God's son, they're equal, but he also emphasizes humanity in calling him Jesus. That was his human name. But notice he says, be the God and Father blessed to be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he personalized the intimate relationship that we as believers have with God the Father, through our connection with his son, Jesus Christ.

And notice he called Jesus by his three names, if you will. He didn't just call 'em Lord. He didn't just call 'em Jesus. He didn't just call him Messiah. He called him the Lord Jesus Christ, implying that he is not only the master, he's not only a man, he's also the Messiah all in one. And then the following phrase is why I chose to title this first section, irresistible Rebirth. And those of you that have studied reformed theology already know where I'm going with this because it says, blessed to be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again.

Peter explained what motivated God the Father to save us. It wasn't based on who we are or what we have done. It was actually in spite of who we are and in spite of what we've done, all of us deserve to die and go to hell because of our sinful rebellion against God. If you were here during our study of the book of Romans, that was the point that Paul made at the very beginning of the letter. In chapters 1, 2, 3, even all the way into chapter six, he talked about how we have rebelled against the Lord and not given him honor and thanks and worshiped ourselves instead of worshiping the Lord and because of that we deserve his wrath. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and the wages of that sin is death. But God in his great mercy looked down on our helpless, hopeless condition and had pity on us and chose to spare us from his wrath.

In other words, he didn't give us what we deserved. It's a simple definition of mercy, and in chapter two, he says this in verse 10, he said, you had not received mercy, but now you've received mercy Again. You may remember from our study of Romans, Romans chapter nine 15, God said to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy and I'll have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has what mercy. Ephesians chapter two, verse three, we were by nature children of wrath even as the rest, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, made us alive. Titus chapter three, verse five, God saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, Titus uses, well, I should say Paul used the word in that verse that Peter was describing.

It's the word regeneration. Peter used the word or the term to describe our salvation as being born Again, they're synonymous terms, and I think it's possible that Peter was privy to Jesus' private conversation with Nicodemus that midnight meeting about how Nicodemus had to be born again. Remember that John chapter three, verse three, Jesus said, truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he's old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can't he?

So Nicodemus thought Jesus was talking on a physical level and Jesus was, no, I'm talking about a spiritual rebirth here. Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit of spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again. So Jesus was describing the doctrine of regeneration. Peter was affirming that you say, what's regeneration? Regeneration is the act of the Holy Spirit whereby means of the word of God. He brings those who are spiritually dead back to life.

One of the foundational passages from which we get that definition is Ephesians chapter two verse one. It says, in you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formally walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the He of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience among them, we too all formally lived in the lust of our flesh, indulge in the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest. In other words, we wanted absolutely nothing to do with God, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Why? So that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

The point being, none of us are born into the family of God. That's a misunderstanding, a misconception that a lot of people have in this world. Oh, we're all God's children. If you live on this earth, you're one of God's children. That is not true. We are not born into the family of God. We are all enemies of God and belong to the family of Satan. We're born children of the devil. One John talks about that and we are the objects of God's wrath. That's the bad news. The good news is that God and his mercy grants us a second birth and adopts us as his children so we can enjoy all the rites and the privilege of being a co-heir with Christ. Romans chapter eight talks about that Galatians chapter four, and because of the language that Peter used here that God caused us to be born again, I chose to label this first blessing, irresistible rebirth because I think verse three is the basis for what is known in reformed theology as irresistible grace. If you're familiar with the tulip, right? Total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints.

For those of you that may not be familiar with that irresistible grace or efficacious grace, in other words, God's grace is effective. It accomplishes its purposes. It's probably a better term than irresistible grace because there's a lot of misunderstanding surrounding what irresistible grace means. I'll talk about in a moment. So I prefer efficacious grace, which simply summarizes what the Bible teaches about the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit who regenerates us and makes us willing to repent and believe He causes us to be saved. John one 12, but as many has received him, to them, he gave the right to become children of God. In other words, you weren't children of God before you had to become a child of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born. Here's the born again language, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Ephesians one, five, God predestined us to adoption his sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the kind intention of his will, not our will, Romans nine 16. So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy James one 18, in the exercise of his will, God brought us forth by the word of truth.

So we say that God's grace is irresistible or efficacious because it always brings forth its desired result. In other words, if God has chosen you for salvation, you're going to get saved no matter what. Now, this doesn't mean that God drags people kicking and screaming into heaven their will. It also doesn't mean that we cannot resist God's grace. Even true Christians can quench the spirit and grieve the spirit. Is that not true? What it does mean though is that God sets our wills free from bondage to sin so that we willingly come to Christ until a person is regenerated or born again, as Peter says here, they naturally resist the gospel and don't want anything to do with Christ, but if they're one of God's elect, God by his sovereign grace will inevitably and irresistibly draw them to Christ. So the bottom line is regeneration must occur before repentance and faith. In other words, we must be born again. We must be regenerated. God must breathe life back into us. We were dead and our trespasses and sins. You can't do anything as a dead man. A dead man can do nothing. And so he must bring us back to life and then grant us a willingness to repent and believe.

I'm sure you're aware that the late RC Sproul was probably the greatest champion of reformed theology in modern times. He was a gift from God to the church, and I love reading his books and listening to him so eloquently and sometimes over my head ways describing the truth of God's word. But listen to what he had to say here about irresistible grace. He said this, when God created you, he brought you into existence. You didn't help him. It was his sovereign work that brought you to life biologically likewise, it is his work and his alone that brings you into a state of rebirth and of renewed creation. Hence, we call this irresistible grace. It's grace that works. It's grace that brings about what God wants it to bring about. If indeed we are dead in sins and trespasses, if indeed our wills are held captive by the lust of our flesh and we need to be liberated from our flesh and order to be saved, then in the final analysis, salvation must be something that God does in us and for us, not something that we in any way do for ourselves.

God's grace is so powerful that it has the capacity to overcome our natural resistance to it, to Holy Spirit changes the inclination and disposition of our wills so that whereas we were previously unwilling to embrace Christ, now we're willing God melts the hardness of our hearts when he makes us new creatures. The Holy Spirit resurrects us from spiritual death so that we come to Christ because we want to come to Christ. The reason we want to come to Christ is because God has already done a work of grace in our souls, and without that work, we would never have any desire to come to Christ.

I think it's a very accurate explanation of the teaching of scripture. Now, if you're interested in learning more about man's free will, right? Because that's the sticking point always when it comes to this discussion. I talked quite a bit about that in the series that we did on Romans nine called Unconditional Election, and you can go online and look up those messages and listen some more about that, but I think that's enough for now on this text. Notice what he goes on to say. He says, who according to his great mercy, he's caused us to be born again to a living hope, a living hope. Now, the biblical term for hope is not the same term that we use for hope. When we say we use the word hope, we say things like, I hope the weather is nice tomorrow because we've got this or that plant, or I hope everything goes well at this, whatever. It's a hope. So it's more of a hope, so hope. Whereas biblical hope is an eager expectation, a confident assurance that God's promises will come true. In this case, what Peter was saying is that because we've been born again, we have the confidence that our sin is forgiven and we have the assurance that we are going to go to heaven when we die.

The writer of Hebrews likens this hope to an anchor. He says in Hebrews six, verse 18, have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope seven four, this hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope, both sure and steadfast, and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us having become a high priest forever. In other words, our anchor is not just off there somewhere or off there somewhere. Our anchor is in heaven. Our anchor is behind the veil, the holy of Holies where Jesus went. He's the great high priest, and the fact that he's in heaven as the high priest is a reminder that guess where He's not. He's not still in the tomb, he's still not in the gray. And the reason we can be so sure of all of this is because God raised Jesus from the dead, which proved he accepted his work for us.

And that's why Peter goes on to say to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, the basis our salvation and the foundation of our living hope is Christ's resurrection. All of God's promises regarding our salvation are confirmed by the fact that Jesus rose from the grave, which proved that God was satisfied with his sacrifice and that his wrath was appeased and that he had conquered death in hell. In fact, look at, you're right there in chapter one of one Peter. Look at verse 18, knowing that you're not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your fet way of life, inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb on blemish and spotless of blood of Christ, for he was fore known before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through him, our believers are in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. So based on Christ's resurrection, we can know for sure that we also will experience life after death. John 1125, Jesus said, I'm the resurrection, the life he who believes in me will live even if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

So the fact that Jesus rose the fact that Jesus reigns in heaven right now at the right hand of the Father and that Jesus will return is the guarantee of our resurrection. And I have to wonder if as Peter was dictating this portion of his letter that he was thinking back about his experience with the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. I mentioned this briefly in the introduction and when we looked at the life of Peter, did kind of an autobiography or a biographical study I should say of Peter, but the resurrection of Jesus Christ was really the turning point in Peter's life because when Jesus died on the cross, all of Peter's hopes died with him and all he was left with were the echoes of his denials just replaying over and over in his head. But Jesus didn't stay dead. And on Easter morning when Peter heard that the tomb was empty, he ran to see for himself, he wanted to see it with his own eyes, and sure enough, he bolted into the empty tomb and saw and he walked away in wonder.

And then at some point after that, Jesus appeared to Peter before any of the other disciples gave him a special one-on-one appearance. We know that from one Corinthians chapter 15 and hope was instantly restored in Peter's heart and life as you know, he was there when Jesus ascended back to heaven. And then just a few weeks later, he was empowered by the Holy Spirit and Jesus had promised to send the Holy Spirit to empower them to be his witnesses, and that just launched Peter's ministry on the day of Pentecost. And so it was all about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So he knew of what he spoke here, of what he wrote, and so that's the first blessing, the irresistible rebirth, but there's a second blessing here. He goes on to describe, and that's an indestructible inheritance, an indestructible inheritance. Look at verse four. He said, we have been caused, or God caused us by his mercy to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away reserved in heaven for you.

Again, like I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon, this is the same word inheritance here that was used in the SubT to refer to Israel's inheritance of the promised land. And so Peter was using this word to describe all that we as members of God's family will enjoy in our eternal home in heaven where it heirs with Christ and will receive full possession of our inheritance whenever Christ returns or calls us home. We're familiar with famous wealthy families where their kids inherit the family fortune, right? Some people work for their wealth, other people just have it handed to 'em when their parents die, right? They get all their wealth. Well, the inheritance that we are going to receive as God's children is unlike any earthly inheritance we have ever heard about or will ever hear about.

Some of you might think, well man, I wish I was a Walton. I get some of that Walmart stock in my portfolio, man, that'd be sweet. I'd have it made in the shade. Well, listen, you don't even know that doesn't even come close. You can add up all the wealthiest fortunes in the world and they don't even begin to compare with the extraordinary inheritance that we will receive when we get to heaven. In fact, it's so extraordinary. There are no words to describe it. Paul one Corinthians two, nine says, things which I has seen and ear has not heard and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him. There's no words to describe what God has in store for us. And so here, Peter, rather than trying to explain what our inheritance in heaven will be like, it's like he resorted to explain it and what it won't be like. In other words, it was easier to explain what is not like then to try to figure out how to explain what it is like. And he used three words to describe our heaven inheritance notice, he says to obtain inheritance which is imperishable. In other words, it can never be destroyed.

It's death proof. And not only is it imperishable, but notice it's undefiled. It can't ever be corrupted. It's sin proof. And then lastly, he says, it will not fade away. It won't ever be diminished. In other words, it's time proof. So our heavenly inheritance, whatever it is, is untouched by death. It's unstained by evil and it's unimpaired by time. In other words, it's unlike anything we have ever known here on this earth. None of these things are true of any earthly inheritance that you may have received or might receive in the future. Earthly inheritances are uncertain because they're subject to change. They're subject to loss. They could get burned up, they could get stolen. They could be contested by relatives or legal authorities. Their values could fluctuate based on the economy, based on the stock market, but our heavenly inheritance is impervious to any of these things. It's permanent and it's unchanging and it's kept totally secure in the vault of heaven until we get there. Notice he says here to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away reserved in heaven for you.

You're familiar with the scene in the movie where the star, whatever the star character shows up to the bank and he wants to see what's in his safe deposit box, right? That's been sitting there for years. And so he has this key and he goes in and he hands the key and the information, the code or whatever the, what do you call that thing, the combination, and he opens the thing and he sees what's in there. Well, what Peter says here is that our inheritance is reserved in heaven for us, it's being guarded and protected. Get this in a sinless timeless realm.

There's no time in heaven. There's no sin in heaven. And so Peter, if you remember, heard Jesus talk about how the treasure we lay up in heaven is not affected by the ravages of sin and time. Matthew six 19, Chris just preached a great message on just a couple of weeks ago. Matthew six 19, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and seal, but store up for yourselves treasured in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves in operate in or steel, we don't know anything like that experience here on this earth.

All we know about is moth balls. Do we even use moth balls anymore? So the kids are like, what's a moth ball? What's rustoleum locks on our doors, guns in our nightstand or on our person right now? That's the world in which we live. One common ator said it this way, heaven is the securest place in all the universe, so our inheritance is completely 100% safe and secure. Now, perhaps Peter, because of his own experience anticipated someone saying, that's great, but what if I don't make it to heaven to enjoy it? What if my faith fails? What if the persecution becomes so severe that my commitment to Christ cracks or I cave to the pressure? What if I fall away from the Lord? Like so many, well-known pastors and musicians have been doing in recent days, young people, I hope you're watchful and mindful of those things. Those are very instructive. Go to school on those, learn from those, but I think Peter could relate. You remember in Luke 22 verse 31, Jesus said, Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your what? Faith may not fail.

Peter wanted us to know that God not only keeps our inheritance for us, but at the same time he keeps us for our inheritance. He guards our inheritance and guards us so we can enjoy it. As one commentator said, so practically God plans the party and makes sure we make it to the party, and that's the third blessing here in verse five that we have as Christians, we have an invincible guardian. We have an invincible guardian. Look at verse five, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. So both our inheritance and we as the heirs are being protected and being preserved by God's power. That word protected there or shielded you might have in your translation. It is a military term described which described how soldiers would guard someone.

And the fact that Peter used the present tense here emphasized the continual nature of this protection. It's happening all the time. It's 24 7, 365 days a year. It's like we're in protective custody. God's protective custody. No better protective custody to be in than God's. You understand that expression, right? We know of people or we watch movies about people that have sensitive information and whatever, and so they have to be placed in protective custody because somebody wants to get them. There's hostile enemies that are trying to kill them, and so they have to be placed in protective custody. We live in a hostile world, but guess what? We live in protective custody and no one can penetrate God's defense system, if you will, or perhaps you'd rather see yourself having a personal bodyguard. God is your personal bodyguard or maybe surrounded by secret service everywhere you go, like the President constantly being watched and protected.

Or maybe you just like a simple image of a sheep whose every move is being watched by a perfectly attentive, all powerful shepherd to make sure that you make it safely home. One Peter chapter two, verse 25, for you are continually straying like sheep, but now you've returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. So we are constantly being monitored by the most sophisticated surveillance system in the universe, the omniscience right, and the omnipresence and the omnipotence of God, the three omnis that God is all knowing. He's all powerful and he's everywhere. You can't get a more sophisticated surveillance system than that, and God is carefully watching over us to make sure nothing or no one ever harms us or destroys us, and the fact that it is the power of God here. Notice he emphasized that protected by the power of God an omnipotent God and all powerful God cannot and will not be overthrown or overpowered by anyone or anything.

That's why Paul could say in Romans chapter eight, verse 31, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect, who will separate us from the love of Christ, will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us For I'm convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present, nor things that come nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in others, we are completely safe in the arms of God, in the midst of our pain, in the midst of our suffering. No matter how chronic or acute it may be, no disorder, no disease, no defect, not even death can hinder or remove God's hand of protection in our lives.

This is where we draw our doctrine of eternal security once saved, always saved or the preservation of the saints. I say it like that. I think that's better than the perseverance of the saints. It's actually the perseverance of the saint is actually the preservation of the saints. And as part of God's preserving grace in our lives, he grants us the faith to persevere through the trials and tribulations of life that threatened to pull us away from him. Notice what he says there, who are protected by the power of God through faith, we're ultimately kept safe and secure in Christ by the faith and strength that he provides for us.

In other words, no one who is truly saved can ever lose their salvation. Now, granted, if someone walks away from Christ permanently, that's proof that they were never truly saved. Verse John two 19, they went out from us because they were never one of us. Some of those well-known believers or professing believers who have experienced some deconstruction of their faith, Hey, the jury's out as long as they have breath, as long as Jesus hasn't returned, they could still repent and come back and prove themselves to be genuine believers. Again. Peter's point here I think is simple. He wanted us to know that we can be absolutely confident that God will see us through until the day we make it to heaven.

Philippians one, six, he who began a good work in us will carry it to what completion will bring it to pass one Thessalonians chapter five, verse 24, faithful as he calls you, and he also will bring it to pass Jude 24. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blame us with great joy to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ. Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, authority before all time and now and forever, amen. Faith is a gift of God's grace by which we receive and rest in Christ for salvation, and we need to understand this as well. And this is what Peter's saying, that God preserves our faith until our earthly pilgrimage is finally complete and our faith becomes sight.

You say, when is that going to happen? Well, Peter says, ultimately that's going to happen in the last time a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Interesting. He refers to our salvation in the future tense. You say, well, I thought we were already saved. Well, we are in one sense, right? We have been saved from the penalty of sin and the power of sin, but we still deal with the presence of sin, right? And so someday we're going to experience the salvation, I should say, from the presence of sin at the return of Christ, when our bodies will be instantly changed and we'll be glorified and we'll be forever free from sin, suffering, and death. I think that's what Peter had in view here when he talked about the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

We long for that day, we look forward to that day when we don't ever have to deal with sin ever again. It'll be gone forever along with its consequences, right? Tears, grief, suffering, death. How would Peter have us respond this morning? How would God want us to respond to what we've looked at this morning? Well, I think the very next verse tells us in this irresistible grace, in this indestructible inheritance, in this invincible guardian, we are to greatly rejoice. And so as we reflect on these blessings that every Christian enjoys or will and joy, it should cause us to respond with great joy, especially when we feel like a lonely outcast in this world. When we feel like that redheaded stepchild, remember we're talking about that, or we feel like we don't have the strength to take another step in this earthly journey. God, I can't do it. I can't go any further. I'm done. Get me out of here. Now.

Peter was calling us to rejoice and to rest in Gods saving work and to keep our hope fixed on our inheritance in heaven. And I would remind you that that inheritance is not merely kept by the Lord. It actually is the Lord himself. I don't know what you're looking forward to about heaven, but I hope it's not your mansion because that's not what heaven's going to be all about. In fact, the book of Revelation says, describes heaven and says there's no temple. Why? Because Jesus is there. You don't need a temple. There's no son. You don't need a son. Why? Because Jesus is there. You don't need anything else in heaven but Jesus.

And I think it's interesting when you go back to the Old Testament, and we began this morning talking about the inheritance, right? That the nation of Israel received from the Lord the portion of the land of Israel according to their tribe. But when it came to the tribe of Levi, Aaron was the father of the Levite tribe. The Lord said to Aaron, this is numbers 1820. You shall have no inheritance in their land, nor any portion among them. And if I was there, I'd be like, Hey, wait a minute. That doesn't sound fair. Everybody else is getting their piece of the pie. I don't get inheritance. My tribe, our tribe doesn't, descendants don't get a piece of the land, some property, some real estate.

Then the Lord said this, you shall have no inheritance nor any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance. Well, at that point, Aaron was probably like, well, that's cool. Yeah, forget about it. I don't need the stuff. I get you. The psalmist picked up that theme. Psalmist talked about the Lord being his portion, his inheritance. And then I love how the prophet Jeremiah said it in Lamentations chapter three, verse 24. This is the prophet Jeremiah. Talk about somebody who had a hard life. Talk about somebody who got put through the ringer. The people didn't want to hear anything he had to say. They were violent, they were aggressive. They would beat him up and throw him down in a pit. Shut up preacher. We don't want to hear what you have to tell us. And yet, he would keep coming back and being faithful to speak the word of God to these stubborn, stiff neck people. And then he asked, had to watch the judgment of God come to fruition. What he had prophesied would happen that Babylon would come and destroy Judah and destroy Jerusalem and burn down the temple. And he was left to watch all that. And that's when he wrote the book of Lamentations. He was lamenting, he was mourning.

And in the heart of that book, as he was sitting there seeing everything that he had loved and fought for, destroyed, literally going up in smoke, he said, this Lamentations 3 24, the Lord is my portion, says my soul, and therefore I have hope in him. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you are ultimately what our heart longs for. It's not all the stuff of this world and not even the stuff that perhaps we are curious about, that we'll experience in heaven, but based on what we see in your word, all that stuff, not just on earth, but in heaven even is going to pale in comparison to the fact that we're in your presence. And so, Lord, I pray as we wait for that day and long for that day in this increasingly hostile place that you've called us to live as your aliens, as your ambassadors, that we would keep our eyes fixed on heaven, that our hope would be there like that anchor behind the veil, that no matter how we get blown and tossed around here on this earth, that we know that we're secure, that we're connected. We have an eternal connection with you that can't be broken. And so Lord, give us joy. Help us to rejoice greatly as Peter Riggs ordered us to do here. We ask this in Christ's name, amen.