Begotten again unto a lively hope (Quality: Good)

[0:00] As part of verse 3, begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

[0:19] But as you will observe, this phrase is part of a sentence that commences with verse 3 and continues through verses 4 and 5.

[0:33] 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 the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

[1:35] In the setting of these words we read how Peter was writing among other places to the Lord's people at Aisle and Bithynia.

[1:55] And I often think of that in connection with the 16th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles at the time when engagements are made. You read there where Paul is said to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit suffered him not.

[2:12] And he was forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Aisle. The Lord clearly had a people there. For Peter was writing to the strangers, and of course that means strangers to the worldlings' pleasures, at those places.

[2:31] But it was the Lord's will that the Apostle at that time should go to Philippi. And they are described, and does this description apply to you and me, elect, chosen by God.

[2:49] We hear much and read much these days concerning the possible general election in May. How eagerly those candidates will listen to the voice of the returning officer as to whether they are elected to Parliament, and at most it would be for five years.

[3:14] How much more concerned should you annoy me whether we are elected by God. God's election took place in eternity past, but the results of that election are declared in this life.

[3:32] And the Apostle elsewhere writes, seek to make your calling and election sure. In your experience of it, already sure in God's eternal purposes, we want it sure in our experience.

[3:48] And he describes them as elect through the sanctification, making holy and setting apart of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

[4:07] And he writes, notice the small print, grace and peace, grace unto you and peace be, multiply. Not added, multiply.

[4:21] You can add something where nothing exists. But you can only multiply something if there is at least a little there already.

[4:34] You can multiply naught by 100 million and you'll still have nothing. Nothing at all. Be multiplied. But then coming to this first part of this sentence, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[4:58] When God blesses man, he gives him something. You read how God blessed Abraham with men's servants, maid's servants, gold, silver and so on, but also with that faith in God.

[5:16] But when man blesses God, man can give God nothing except that which he has first given them, a thankful heart of praise.

[5:30] And how thankful we should be not only for our providential mercies, which sooner or later will be taken from us, but for God.

[5:45] As we read in John, God so loved the world, his people from amongst all nations, not all mankind, God so loved the world that he gave, free and unburied, his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

[6:17] For younger friends, I explain that grace means God's free, unmerited, favour through Jesus Christ. There are things we deserve and earn.

[6:32] The scriptures speak of them. The wages, the wages earned and deserved. The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.

[6:47] God be thanked for his unspeakable gift.

[7:01] The gift of his only begotten Son. Was there ever love like that? We who are parents or grandparents would give our lives to save our child's life, so would thousands in the world.

[7:20] But would we give our child's life to save an enemy's life? No, you say, you can't expect us to do that.

[7:30] We read in Romans, while we were yet enemies, Christ died for us. Was there? Well, might the poet say, God only knows the love of God.

[7:46] Oh, that it now were shed abroad in this poor stony heart. So how we should bless and praise God for spiritual blessings.

[8:01] Our Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy, undeserved, abundant mercy, especially that spiritual mercy upon his people in the forgiveness of their sins through Christ's atoning sacrifice.

[8:34] But coming now more especially for the moment to the latter part of this third verse, begotten us again. Here we have the new birth set forth, of which the Lord spoke to Nicodemus in the third chapter of John.

[8:56] Ye must be born again. Many things are desirable, desirable that all the Lord's people follow him in love in his ordinances.

[9:11] But some things are essential, and the new birth is one of those. Someone once said to George Whitefield, the great preacher of the 18th century, why do you so often preach from that text, ye must be born again?

[9:30] He said, it is because ye must be born again. How do we know the newborn baby is alive?

[9:40] I mean, before the days of stethoscopes and ultrasonic scans and things that are now available. Was it not by that newborn babe's feeble infant cry of distress, of distress?

[10:01] None of us naturally remember being born, but it must be a traumatic experience for the babe as well as for the mother. And so the babe cries.

[10:15] But how is a cry made? You hear my voice at this present time because air has been breathed in and then breathed out over the vocal cords.

[10:31] If no air was breathed in, no sound could be made. The Holy Spirit breathes into the soul and that soul becomes a living soul.

[10:45] As we read concerning Adam, God took dust of the earth and breathed into it and Adam became a living soul. and when that Holy Spirit's breath of life is breathing into the soul, then we cry at distress over indwelling sin.

[11:11] We touched a little upon it this morning concerning it as that great stone which the Lord's people so often have to say, who shall roll away the stone and that great sins that dwell within in thought and word and deed need this abundant mercy born again hath begotten us again returning to that again in a moment in another way unto a lively hope.

[12:00] Notice the small print. It doesn't say unto a living hope but a lively hope. Our children or grandchildren may be living when they're seriously still breathing yes, there's still life there but no happy time no strength to walk hardly strength to speak living but far far from lively mother may call for the doctor and the doctor may come and see how the child is and the mother may say well this morning for the first time for a week he had a good breakfast the doctor can say straight away he's on the men he's on the men do you soon be better before he had seen the child where there is that health there will be that happy time

[13:04] I have I have preached I don't think it was here from that words of Joab to Abner when he treacherously was about to kill him art thou in health my brother an infinite mercy to have spiritual health known by the hunger and thirst for righteousness for liveliness in running in his ways constrained by love but it is especially referring here to hope and to a lively hope there are three great and essential graces of which the apostle writes in the first epistle to the Corinthians faith hope and charity which is love the greatest of these is charity which we cannot dwell upon now hope and faith are essential in this life but will not be needed in heaven a person does not hope for that which they already have faith will be swallowed up inside and love will still remain but while we are in this life hope is essential spiritually is it not essential even in natural things when we may be ill is there not a hope that one day we shall become a batter in hell or that pain will be assuaged and so on if there were no hope we would sink in despair but especially in spiritual things when we are longing for our sins to be forgiven is not hope also given if there were no hope that those sins could be put away we should give up praying we couldn't continue if there was no hope

[15:31] I read from Romans in that connection concerning Abraham he had been given that promise at the age of 75 that in his seed his descendants should all nations of the earth be blessed that was of course concerning the coming of Christ who against hope as it were when a hundred years old and naturally could no longer become a father Sarah ninety years old and naturally speaking could no longer become a mother hope was as it were against him and yet against hope he believed in hope believing that God who had promised would be able to before he staggered not I like that word how often we become as it were staggered some event takes place in our life someone says something and we are brought up to a sudden hole we are staggered by it but he staggered not at the promise through unbelief strong in faith fully persuaded that what

[16:52] God had promised he was able to perform now it was not written for his sake alone but for us also if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who here we have redemption was delivered for our offenses was raised again for our justification let us be quite clear redemption speaks of the payment of a debt even even when I was young the trade of pawnbrokers flourished a person could take some valuable article to the pawnbroker it would advance a sum of money keeping that article as his surety when that person could pay the debt they could then buy back that which otherwise would be forfeited that was redemption

[18:05] Christ by his sufferings redeemed his people but he rose from the dead for their justification a person in a court of law who has a great debt they cannot pay may have someone mercifully stand up and say I will pay the debt that man has incurred are they immediately free to go no they are not they are not until the judge says because the debt is paid the law has no hold upon you you are free to go that is justification justification makes known and manifest the redemption has taken place the

[19:13] Lord's people are redeemed by his sufferings and death they are justified in his resurrection therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ goes on to speak of those various steps tribulation worketh patience patience experience experience hope hope and hope maketh not ashamed but then considering our text goes on unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead we then read in the sixth chapter of this ordinance of baptism and what it sets for we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as

[20:25] Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father even so we also should walk in newness of life the hymn writer puts it like this view the right r-i-t-e the ordinance with understanding Jesus grave before you lies be interred at his commanding after his example rise the sprinkling of water on an infant's head does not in any way set forth this train buried with Christ as he was laid in the sacrament raised again that we should walk in newness of life and again that burying with him sets forth being free free from sin what you may say free from sin when I feel it constantly in my thoughts and words and days

[21:48] John puts it like this in his epism the new man of God cannot sin because he is born of God and Paul goes on to write time did not permit us to read from the all the seventh chapter but as the poet puts it in every believer two armies are same the new man of grace and the old man of sin and it is the old man of sin the old nature that continues in sin the new man of grace cannot sin because he is born of God and that figure is used I understand the Romans would chain the dead body of the victim to the person that killed them and the living person would carry about that corrupting body from which they could by no means free themselves and the apostle expresses it oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death but there was no union between the living and the dead though the living could not free himself from the dead and so then he uses that that with the mind

[23:27] I myself serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin there is therefore because of that now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit we read in John 8 of that woman who was taken in the adultery in the very act and the Lord said after he had been writing on the ground let him that is without sin cast the first stone and notice the small print they went out from the eldest to the youngest yes the eldest felt the condemnation of the Lord's words before or more than the youngest and

[24:31] I'm sure older friends will agree with me that the older we get the more we feel our sinners they went out from the eldest to the youngest the Lord raised himself doth no man condemn thee one word makes gives the key as it were to the law no man Lord Lord no man can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost no man Lord neither do I condemn thee go and sin no more no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus begotten us again unto a lively home in the 6 of Hebrews we read of hope being as an anchor cast within the veil which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast and which entereth into that within the veil the veil of the temple was rent when

[25:51] Christ cried it is finished from top to bottom had two strong men pulled that veil in opposite directions it would have rent from bottom to top and been the work of men but it was from heaven down to earth and the way as it were into the holiest was made by the sufferings death and blood of Jesus Christ is your hope fixed there your hope for eternity within the veil what an anchor it is to the soul sure and steadfast sure and steadfast but this thought you might see a ship it has an anchor chain so strong that anchor may be cast where it cannot drag but that does not stop the ship being tossed in the gale the ship will still be tossed in the gale though the anchor is sure and steadfast and so it is with your hope and mine what a mercy not to have a dead hope begotten us again unto a lively hope and this is by the resurrection of

[27:24] Jesus Christ from the dead his resurrection conquered spiritual death for his people we touched upon it this morning how the apostle in the 15th of the first epistle to the Corinthians spoke of how essential it was if Christ be not risen our faith is vain we are yet in our sins a lively home by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and this is too an inheritance heaven is not wages for good works it is an inheritance that judgment day he will say to those on the right hand come ye blessed of my father inherit the kingdom he will go on to speak of what they had done that showed their love to the brethren and evidence they had passed from death unto life but they obtained heaven through their sonship if children then ours joint ours with

[28:53] Jesus Christ if so be we suffer with him we shall be glorified again we suffer with a person in proportion to our love to that person

[30:10] Truly cannot do life are incorruptible not capable of becoming corrupt the word of this pulpit may be uncorrupted but let it stand in the weather for a few years we soon find it was corruptible but this is not capable of becoming corrupt incorruptible and undefiled nothing will enter that defileth or maketh alive but they whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life and that fadeth not away no doubt the apostle was acquainted with the mirages that one gets in the hot countries the weary thirsty traveler in the desert may see a mirage in the sky of an oasis with the water and the palms hastens towards it and it fades away a reflection in the atmosphere of something perhaps a hundred or more miles away it fades away it has no substance but this inheritance fadeth not away and it is reserved in heaven in my business days

[31:54] I often attended meetings and in front of me would be a a brass thing with my name on and my particular responsibilities and why I was there and that seat was reserved for me other seats were reserved for other people but we read in heaven his people will have as it were their thrones reserved in heaven there's near a vacant throne nor air can be reserved in the seventh of revelation we read of that 144,000 from all the tribes except the tribe of Dan Joseph is spoken of in the two half tribes thus making 144 but

[32:55] John said after this I saw a number which no man can number of every kindred tribe and town will you and I be there we sometimes sing in that hymn oh may I find my name recorded in some humble place beneath my Lord the Lamb reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God this keeping refers to being kept from final falling I have been troubled when I've heard some who in reply to the question how are they they've replied they are kept was David kept from adultery was Peter kept from denying his Lord and Master are those who say they are kept then boasting that they have no sins and never fall surely not surely not to understand this right

[34:12] I refer you to Deuteronomy in the 22nd chapter when thou buildest a new house thou shalt build a battlement to thy roof the roof of the houses in the east were flat thou shalt build a battlement to thy house that no man fall from thence David was literally on the roof of his house when he saw Bathsheba washing herself she should have had more modesty than to be washing where she could have been himself but David fell he fell on the roof but he did not fall from the roof to destruction kept by the battlements of salvation from final falling Jude in that somewhat mysterious epistle that Jude was of course

[35:18] Judas one of the twelve not Iscariot he speaks there unto him that is able to keep you from falling falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy with exceeding joy able to keep his people from falling kept not by themselves I remember warning one young person years ago the path she was in and what she was likely to bring upon herself she pertly replied I know what I'm doing I can take care of myself she sadly found she couldn't has suffered from it ever since oh may we feel our need of keeping we might say almost the first step to being kept is to feel our need of keeping

[36:39] I remember walking years ago from the car park at Heinz some 50 yards to the chapel one winter's evening and almost slipping over on the path and immediately that word dropped in and I had to speak from it instead of what I had thought on hold up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not if you are walking or have to proceed upon an icy path wet black ice if you like and you can't get much slipperier than that I can tell you where you can proceed without any danger of falling at all if you are on your knees if you are on your knees you won't fall and you can proceed though it may be slow and painful Satan trembles when he sees the strong saint on his knees though the weakest saint upon his knees kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time the Lord has his hidden ones to this very day for that which is revealed by implication was previously hidden as we have in the first verse of the 53rd of

[38:15] Isaiah who has believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed the work of salvation made known there all the time but hidden by unbelief but revealed by faith through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed unto in the last times remember the late Mr.

[38:51] Leslie Hyde preaching on one occasion some 50 years ago from that verse in Job and now where is my home where is my home is it built as the poet said my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus' name and in denim selection there is a refrain on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand in those twin psalms psalms 42 and 43 the psalmist there speaks of his felt cast down condition but though cast down he was not in despair and in each of those two psalms we have that verse slightly different wording but very very similar why art thou cast down

[40:11] O my son the answer is our weak faith our weak faith that's why we get cast down why art thou cast down O my son hope and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for in here you see his hope springing up I shall though mine feel cast down now though I go mourning because of the approach of the enemy and so on I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God his abundant mercy which hath begotten us again unto a lively home by the resurrection of

[41:14] Jesus Christ from the dead Amen Hymn 242 tune 723 242 good hope through grace the saints possess the fruit of Jesus righteousness and by his spirit given faith eyes the promise firm and sure and hope expects forevermore to dwell with Christ in heaven 242 we'll sing the first three verses June 723 prayer Amen

[42:17] Amen. Amen.

[43:17] Amen. Amen.

[44:17] Amen. Amen.

[45:17] Amen. Amen.

[45:43] And Lord, do grant us that good hope through grace, through thy free unmerited favour in Jesus Christ.

[45:55] Forgive anything amiss in our speaking or in our hearing. Be with us as we go our various ways. And may thy word bring forth fruit in our lives.

[46:09] And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father, the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us.

[46:23] Amen.