1 Peter 1:3-5 A Living Hope, An Unbreakable Guarantee

A Friend has asked if I can get my sermons into audio format for easier listening. Here is a beginning. I sadly have no audio of the first sermon in this series. I may record in the future simply for completeness.02 – 1 Peter 1:3-5 A Living Hope, An Unbreakable Guarantee CPC May 18th, 2025Preface: Last week as we began 1st Peter, we saw that God in His sovereign grace Knew us and set us apart to be his Holy people. Because of this, this fallen world, in a spiritual sense, is not our Home.We now belong to a community of faith that has been chosen, set apart as holy, sprinkled clean by the blood of Christ, and forgiven in Christ Jesus. Now, we live a new life of obedience to Jesus. We have grace and peace with God.We are exiled from a dead and broken world, we have fled the city of Destruction and are now living as the body of Christ, brothers and sisters who are chosen sojourners.The next three sermons are one very long Greek sentence from verse 3 to verse 12. It is a shout of praise. Praise God! “Blessed be your name!” Peter, having told us of our great Blessing, switches to Blessing, to praising God for the great mercy shown us.Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. – 1 Peter 1:3-5In Other words: Praise God! He has shown mercy to sinners by taking us from being dead and making us alive again because we are united to Jesus Christ. Jesus, our LIVING Hope. And now we have a Guaranteed Inheritance kept by the very power of God who you know and trust, and know that one day…what we know in the church will be fully revealed to the world and finished When Jesus returns.Let’s unpack these verses first by thinking about how very different things are when they are guaranteed vs. uncertain things that could be spoiled.Imagine you are going on an international vacation such as the Swiss Alps, Ireland, or Japan. With this you need to ask, “where are we staying?” “What shall we eat?” “Are we welcome?” “Do we have a Visa?” “Do we have the Funds?” “What if we lose our passports?” “What if we lose our plan ticket?” “What if the plane crashes?” “What if one of us gets separated?” “What if that separated person doesn’t speak the language?”We have a hoped for vacation, but is it guaranteed? We ask the same thing of any future hope…because things we simply hope for can be dashed…The Future is uncertain for us. So you can have an uncertainty about your destination and your getting there alright. This world is not our home but will we make it home?So too have you ever had an inheritance? Wills, are often tricky things. Funds need to be dispersed. Assets liquidated. You are trusting the personal representative who is the Executor on the will…That is even before, in some instances, you get into past grievances, petty squabbles, and sinful greed coming in to make a mess of that inheritance. …Some families have such a poor relationship or shaky assets the pessimists say, I’ll believe it when I see the money actually in the bank account. I’ll believe it when the promised family heirlooms actually get delivered to my front door. [Note: I am thankful the only experience Anna and I have had was well managed and peaceful] But this is not always the case.Inheritances can be so messy, unfair, and uncertain that the lack of an inheritance forms the entire PLOT for a very famous Book. This of course, is Pride and Prejudice. Pride and Prejudice’s main driver initially is all because they have no brothers and no direct inheritance. Their financial future depends on marriage to get wealth. Their mother, Mrs. Bennet, is obsessed with marrying them off well to avoid poverty. The girls’ lack of fortune affects how they are viewed in the marriage market. No inheritance. No future. No prospects.And now for us Peter has just told you, “you are Exiles, without a home here on earth”…We say we are headed to heaven and it’s a wonderful place but we confess its often fuzzy and we can easily ask but is it really? Is it a certain future? Should we as some Christians do be constantly anxious about our future hope? How can being an exile a sojourner be good news? Surely, we’ll just end up in a spiritual ditch somewhere. We need Verses 3-5. We need this big beautiful sentence from verses 3-12. This morning3 Beautiful Guarantees of security that cause us to Praise God!#1 – The Unchanging Mercy of our God: A Trinitarian Guarantee V. 3#2 Our Inheritance Secure in “Our Lord Jesus Christ: A Resurrection Guarantee: v. 3b-4#3 Our Salvation: A Divinely Guarded Guarantee v. 5.So First the unchanging Mercy of our God: A trinitarian Guarantee v. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living Hope…We have a Merciful Heavenly Father. We, as sinners, rebelled. The wages of sin are death. And so we are fallen in Adam. We will die. Death is our enemy. And the only thing we deserve is Justice. What is undeserved is the Mercy of God. What is undeserved is God being our Father who in mercy gave us Hope again when we were in darkness and despair.And his plan in grace was to send the Holy Spirit into our rebel hearts, into our rocky, hardened, dead hearts and to make us alive again. “He has caused us to be born again.” The bible is quite clear that this is not because we are somehow special. That God did a bunch of spiritual fitness tests and said. Wow have you seen Paul, or James, or John? They have all the spiritual markers for a heart transplant. Bump them to the top of the list, they are Saint Material…No. Instead it was all of the Mercy of God. An excellent example of this is Lydia in the book of Acts. When Paul & Friends preached to the women by the riverside, “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” The Lord acted. The Lord caused. Because it depends on the Lord’s Mercy. So the First Guarantee, the Father has acted in mercy and the Lord is not arbitrary he will not change his mind, get distracted, and stop what he has begun.Our Second trinitarian guarantee is that we have been Born Again to a Living Hope by the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:5 says, "He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit."Praise God that our being made spiritually alive is not because of works done by us. Not because our hearts had all the markers for a good heart transplant but because God in his OWN mercy sends the spirit to Wash. To cleanse. To regenerate that is to “re-alive” to “re-birth” to “renew.” Your heart, soul, strength, and mind, your whole being made a new creature. What Peter will soon call the Living Temple of the Holy Spirit.You must be born again. And everyone born of God is kept. Guarded and guaranteed by the Spirit living inside of them.Does your sin which once held your heart now grieve you? Does the Holy Spirit testify to you of the truth of God’s word? Does the Spirit assure you Of the loveliness of Christ? Of the Mercies of the Father, of his love to you, of the removal of the guilt of your sin, of the assurance of forgiveness, and the assurance of your being a Son and Daughter in Christ Jesus.Then you have been born again. Being born again does not mean you are perfect, it does not mean you are without doubts, and it does not mean you do not have all the struggles of Paul in Romans 7 – I do not do what I ought and I do what I ought not to do…But it does mean we have the Spirit of Christ in our hearts Crying Abba, Father.Believer – Take time in prayer in the coming week to ask the Holy Spirit in prayer to comfort and assure your heart of the mercy of the Father to you. Do not let satan accuse of your sin and failures. Ask in prayer for the work of the Spirit to Assure you. You are a beloved Daughter. You are a Beloved Son.With those assurances said there is a Third, A third guarantee the Holy Spirit assures us of.We are born again: To A Living Hope through the Resurrection of Jesus ChristWhat does it mean to “Hope?” I hope the Atlanta Braves win the world series is a far different statement than saying, Ihave a Living Hope that is Secure Because Jesus is alive and seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. And what is more, our inheritance is secured by his Resurrection.The gospel is not just “Jesus died for my sins” no, we confess our salvation in the full “humiliation and exaltation” of Jesus on our behalf. Most certainly his death was key, even primary but it is not the whole picture.Peter draws our attention to Christ’s suffering and glory throughout, Christ’s humility and exaltation…To paraphrase WSC Questions 27-29…Jesus came to secure our salvation in humility by being born, not as a king but humbly in a stable. Even though he was sinless, he was made subject to all the laws of God keeping them perfectly on our behalf. Even though Jesus himself was sinless and righteous. He lived in our sinful, fallen, and broken world and suffered all the indignities and humiliations of this world.Because he chose to represent us in our sin. Because he volunteered to rescue condemned sinners. He suffered the wrath of God, died a cursed death on the cross: was buried. And was dead 3 days. The second person of the trinity dead, buried, and all thought soon to see corruption…But as we read in Psalm 16, Jesus’ prayer “you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life in your presence there is fullness of Joy at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore!Jesus Is Alive! Death was conquered. He ascended up into heaven, And sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and will come again to judge the world at the last day! And you are if you are in Christ, united to the resurrected and living savior. It is Finished! He is Alive and Ascended and He is Enthroned on High.Christ himself as our Resurrected and Living Hope. And HE is our guarantee. We don’t just hope a human could die and be resurrected to heaven. Jesus has already done it and gone ahead of us. Heb. 6:19 Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf… and 9:24 Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands... but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.Or the way Paul says it, in 1 Cor. 15: 17-23 if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.Do you belong to Jesus? Believer in Jesus. God the Father has Set his Mercy on You. The Holy Spirit has made you alive to a Living Hope. And your Living Hope Jesus has already done it. It is not just a future Hope…you have eternal life now!#2 The Nature of our Living Hope – The Resurrected and Glorified Jesus and our Inheritance (v. 3b-4)[3b] through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [4] to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled , and unfading, kept in heaven for youRemembered how messy I said inheritances can be? Remember in Pride and Prejudice this uncertainty results in some rather silly talk, thinking, and actions throughout (Go watch it! Sunday afternoon homework).I believe living with security changes us. The security and nature of our inheritance Changes us as believers… Think again of 1 Cor. 15 this time in v. 42. This passage is one I don’t think I ever heard until maybe college…And I blame it on being so far into 1 Corinthians…No one gets to chapter 15…But chapter 15 ties our future Hope to the nature of the Resurrected Jesus’ body.1. Cor. 15:42-58: So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable [our bodies due to sin die. We perish]; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, [that is to say Adam is dust. If you are still in your sin in Adam death still has power over you] and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. Mystery and Victory 50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.Did you catch the hope of the resurrection being secure in Jesus. Jesus’ resurrection makes us now here on earth. Steadfast. Immovable. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. Because if you are in Jesus it is not vain. It is secure. Peter says, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled , and unfading, kept in heaven for youWhat Good News. And what a great contrast. Apart from Christ we perish, because the sting of sin is death. Death is real, suffering is real but praise God; by God’s mercy, we have the Spirit In Christ we are ultimately Imperishable (incorruptible) – like Jesus. Because on the last day we will be resurrected. Death is real, suffering, But John 10 “Though we die yet we will liveSecond, Peter says our inheritance is Undefiled…Incorruptibly morally pure – like Jesus. We often feel defiled: We sin. We live in a world where we constantly battle the feeling that even just watching a movie can make us feel defiled. But we have a Living Hope. He is Our Spotless lamb. Seated at the right hand of the Father who is Holy, Holy, Holy. He is undefiled, with the Seal of approval of the Father:Third our inheritance is Unfading – we suffer the years of life, times change, memories fade, human glory fades, but Jesus unlike us is unfading. He is faithful. He is the founder and perfector of our faith, he is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.Imperishable, undefiled, unfading inheritance guaranteed by our Living Hope the resurrected Lord Jesus. Therefore Do not Fear. Do not be Anxious about tomorrow. Do not fear whether you will receive the inheritance of Heaven or if even now the Father loves you.Christians do not fear Death. We grieve Death. We grieve death but we do not grieve as those without hope.You may feel I know Jesus is all those wonderful things. But I am so weak. I am so prone to wander. Perhaps my inheritance awaits me in heaven but maybe I’ll lose my way. Prone to wander lord I feel it prone to leave the God I love.#3 Our Salvation is: A Divinely Gifted & Guarded Guarantee v. 5.who by God’s power are being guarded through faith [Which Eph. 2:8 says is a divine Gift] being guarded through the divine gift of Faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.Theologian Dan Doriani in his 1 Peter commentary reminds us that an inheritance is “a gift based on a relationship not a wage for a performance.” (pg xx).God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit do not promise us an inheritance a home in heaven only to be powerless to guard it and powerless to bring us all the way home. The truth of this and many verses like it is captured well by the Westminster confession of faith in chapter 17 which is called “of the Perseverance of the Saints.” Or what we call God’s powerful Preserving of the believer.Chapter 15 paraphrased says, Everyone God has accepted because of Jesus His Beloved, is effectually called, and sanctified by His Spirit, and can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but they shall certainly persevere to the end, and be eternally saved. Our perseverance depends not on us, but upon the unchangeable love of God the Father; upon the righteousness and intercession of Jesus Christ, the abiding of the Spirit within them, the certainty of these things arising from the nature of the promises made by God in the Covenant of Grace.What difference does this make for you this Monday? You are safe and Secure. This means less spiritual desperations during the week and Greater Freedom Now. Stand firm in the faith. We do not under trials and temptations act as if we are spiritually insecure and go to a car title shop and pawn our car title in order to get by for the month… no we are kept and secure.You are secure: Do not fear naming, confession, and seeing the extent of your ongoing struggle with sin. Christ’s work and your inheritance is undefiled. You are still Gods chosen son and daughter in Christ.You are secure: Do not turn to a quick spiritual fixes and highs when your reward is in heaven and the ordinary weekly worship and fellowship of believers is enough.You are secure: Do not bargain with the world to make your moral and spiritual stances acceptable. They flow from Christ and his Spirit powered into your heart and known by his word.You are secure Go to God in prayer and ask him to reassure your heart that he holds you. He sustains you. He loves you and has a home waiting for you and has now placed you in the family of God.You are kept by the power of Gods. Praise be to God. Take the time to inventory these things. It is so difficult to remember when we are so very busy and we never stop having data and news inputs from our phones. You are secure praise God for it This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com